Youtube comments of John Roberts (@view1st).

  1. The European Union has shot itself in the foot regarding its energy policy. No doubt the USA has had a hand in persuading European governments to buy their gas at fluctuating spot prices rather than at a single, stable and guaranteed price set in advance by Russian energy provider Gazprom. I'm also given to wondering just how much of this energy crisis is due to real shortages and supply problems and how much of it is actually contrived through the deliberate creation of artificial scarcity.
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  2. Judging by the comments, this guy must really have touched a raw nerve among those from the USA. It seems they have a problem, shared by many within their empire, that their politico-economic system is not the only one possible. There are alternatives and those alternatives may be demonstrably superior in some respects.
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  3. Who said German's don't have a sense of humour. 😆
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  4. Let's hope it all goes well for relations between Russia and Kazakhstan and that both their economies thrive. Trade between Kazakhstan and Russia and Kazakhstan and the rest of the world will be good for everyone, leading to a welcome prosperity for all.
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  5. The Nobel Prize may be good when it comes to science but has become something of a joke when it strays into politics. I know that politics is a subject which is controversial even at the best of times but giving the Peace Prize to recipients who are, to put it mildly, clearly undeserving of it does nothing to enhance the reputation of the Nobel Institute and, indeed, reflects badly on the Nobel Prize committee and calls into question their moral judgement.
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  6. Straight to the facts, no adverts, no delays. Just the way I like it. If only all videos were like this. — Keep up the good work of informing the general public and countering state propaganda.
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  7. I'm glad Pakistan is not taking this lying down and hope that the will of the people prevails. The people behind this attempted coup should be punished for treason if that is what it is.
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  8. Hopefully, sooner or later we'll see a sea change in strategic thinking on the part of the European Union as they realise that the USA cannot keep up with the growing economic power of China and the energy resources of Russia. The ease by which these resources can be accessed by Europe, together with their relative cheapness, will almost always be preferable to countries like Germany over energy from elsewhere.
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  9. It's not the "European identity" that Poland is threatening as much as the European Union's.
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  10. Our sun may also be unusual even when compared to other suns of the same type in regards to it being so relatively benign.
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  11. Vietnam I'm sure doesn't want to be placed in the invidious position of having to choose sides between the USA and China, but if it comes to it I'm pretty certain they will choose their Asian neighbours over some country half a world away. The USA should start cooperating more and competing less.
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  12. It's a shame what's happening in Pakistan. Imran Khan seemed to be a politician who genuinely cared about his country and its people and under whose leadership the country appeared to have gained a greater degree of stability and prosperity. Now it will be sold out to the USA and used to antagonise both India and China, while serving as a base for continuing US clandestine operations in Afghanistan.
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  13. Thank you for the update Lena. ❤
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  14. They are working for the USA, not Europe.
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  15. My bet is on the run-around. Saudi Arabia is an artificial state wholly dependent on the USA. Only China and Russia militarily defending and economically supporting Arabia from the USA would be able to prise this prize from America's grasp and neither are currently able or willing to do that. It's thus a long game that will likely not pan out anytime soon.
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  16.  @kelp4est  Pretending to retire from the army while still remaining secretly in its employ is a way of creating plausible deniability. Because a captured mercenary is ostensibly no longer a serving member of their country's regular armed forces their government can deny overt involvement and say they were acting on their own.
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  17. The sooner this terrible war ends the better. Too many lives have already been lost and Zelensky prolonging the conflict will not change things one iota. A Ukrainian defeat is inevitable and surely all sane minds can see this.
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  18. Could the French actions be due to the fear that once NATO becomes irrelevant (as the events unfolding in Ukraine show it is) then the EU – NATO's political-economic counterpart – will also become irrelevant, or at least have its legitimacy questioned. That as France is so invested in the EU project, its failure will be France's failure?
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  19. And Israel, a de facto member of NATO (or is it de jure; hasn't Israel recently been admitted as an honorary member? Couldn't be sure).
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  20. The USA wants to recreate the conditions of the first cold war but seems to not understand that the economics, politics and military capabilities its two main rivals have changed radically since then. The world has become a lot more economically integrated since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and both the Russian Federation and People's Republic of China are now major drivers of that integration. With BRICS+ the world is becoming much more politically integrated too and these trends towards multipolarity will only continue in the future. The world does not want unipolarity and the sooner the policy elites in the USA realise this and change the foreign policy of their country accordingly the better. Free trade between all countries is what the world wants. It certainly doesn't want one country dictating to everyone else who they can and cannot trade with and under what conditions.
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  21. 02:10 Spot on! The world's countries should replace the IMF and the World Bank as soon as possible and create one or more independent financial entities to replace them under the umbrella of the BRICS/SCO that serve the needs of the Global South better. No more usury. No more structural adjustment programmes.
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  22. Keep speaking truth to power, Escobar.
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  23. But an epileptic's brain might be different from a brain that has not suffered from epilepsy. Also, if the person was actually having an epileptic fit during the heart attack his brain scan may be behaving differently to that of someone who has a heart attack not brought about by epilepsy.
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  24. Kudos to Claire. That ad hominem attack was uncalled for and out of order. Unfortunately, it's an all too common tactic these days.
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  25. How long can this go on for, because it seems to me that neither the European Union nor the USA want any settlement of this problem, at least not in the near term. The Europeans would rather it be used as an excuse to problematize the relationship between themselves (European Union) and the Russian Federation that solve the issue decisively and normalise relations between them.
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  26. The Philippines and China can settle the dispute between themselves. They don't need the help of the USA.
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  27. A simple analysis of the skull (and hair) involving carbon dating, etc. should suffice in assigning this person to their rightful time and place in history. Less than 2000 years old?… Not Middle Easten? …Doesn't come from the Levant (modern day Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Syria)? Then it's NOT Mary Magdalene.
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  28. I bet you've just made that up. I'm pretty sure that's what they call an urban legend. Buried 6 feet underground in a coffin/casket (possibly even lead lined), inside a vault - the typical way I'm given to understand most Americans are buried - I'm pretty sure that even after a century anything radioactive would still remain safely underground. Besides, I would have thought that rain water percolates downwards through soil rather than upwards, keeping contaminants in the ground unless groundwater makes it to a water source such as stream or well.
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  29. And I would add, the Americans.
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  30.  @jesperburns  But you CAN'T domesticate zebras. Tame them, yes, but domesticate , no. The two are not the same. Don't you think that if the zebra could have been domesticated it would have been in much the same way that, say, goats, cows, oxen and horses had been in Europe? And maybe they didn't need to as they had camels and horses they'd got from elsewhere according to this video.
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  31. If this happened in the United States they would have declared war in Saudi Arabia saying that MBS did it.
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  32. And the United States would too
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  33. When faced with pressure from Uncle Sam and John Bull (the biggest money launderers on the planet) threatening to reveal the corruption in Switzerland of its leaders as well as closing down its secret accounts that it gets a lot of its revenue from and sanctioning it I think they just caved. They did the same after WW2.
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  34. Countries should enter into negotiations in good faith and with realistic expectations as to what is achievable, as well as being in a position to give substantial concessions where possible and expedient. They should certainly not treat other major powers as less than there equals.
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  35. It seems the USA has perfected a form of imperialism even more successful than that of its predecessor, namely indirect neo-colonialism where it rules through proxies rather than directly through governor-generals. This gives the colonised the illusion that their free and makes it a whole lot harder to rid themselves of the neo-imperialist yoke because it would involve both civil war and cultural revolution to overthrow their own comprador class. In effect, they would be fighting to free themselves from a deeply ingrained culture of self-subjugation implanted centuries earlier. How does one even begin to fight culture? Just look at the Indians and Latin Americans to see how deeply westernised and western-oriented they are. Can you wipe out 500 of Catholicism? Can you rid yourselves of speaking Portuguese, English and Spanish? Rid yourselves of European architecture and Western clothes?
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  36. As I've said before and will say again, this war needs to end and soon. It is so sad that a people who are so alike should be fighting each other.
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  37. I wonder what India feels about all of this. If the USA can engineer a coup in neighbouring Bangladesh they must be wondering what the USA might be planning for them. I do hope that India will not succumb to the same pressure.
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  38. If you want criticism go to the mainstream media, it's just a click away. These guys are stating facts. Facts, not lies. If you don't like their take on the facts you are welcome to go elsewhere.
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  39. Justin sénéchal​ "do you even know how many people in their own country the CCP has killed?" Games of 'government A has killed more people than government B ergo government A is better' are childish and futile. "Corruption in that party is just as bad (if not worse) than american politicians." And so is 'two wrongs make a right, lesser of two evils'. Another childish and fallacious form of reasoning "As much as his criticism on the american politicians are obvious and true, they are hypocrites too." All people with power are hypocrites, it goes without saying, but to use it as if it were some sort of knock-down argument is a non-starter. "There are also plenty of Chinese who deeply hate the CCP and what they stand for." I'm sure there are. So…? "The CCP destroys people's homes to build condos that the population cant even afford" The environment gets destroyed and polluted under both corporatist/capitalist Democrats and Republicans (so-called democracy) for the profit of the few, in addition to building homes that poor people can't afford. Is that supposed to be better? "Their economy isn't improving at all right now either." That remains to be seen. Furthermore, to point out the poor performance of an economy that is reliant on a global economy that is in recession/depression due in no small part to the poor performance of other countries, and one country in particular, is a bit rich.
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  40. The USA has already implicitly admitted Taiwan belongs to China, it did this when it recognised China in the first place back in 1979.
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  41. As part of an agreement between the British and the Americans agreed at Yalta I do believe. The Americans wanted the Russians to invade China. Strangely, having agreed to such a deal they then firebombed the German city of Dresden and dropped two atomic bombs on Japan at least in part to deter and intimidate the Russians.
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  42. It disgusts me that my country can stoop so low in its obeisance to the United States that it can engage in what to me at least seem to be blatantly illegal acts. Acts that furthermore completely undermine confidence and trust in the system.
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  43. Something Seems Off​ Both China and the USA engage in human rights violations but on balance I'd have to say that, as the USA tends to engage in the most egregious of them outside its own borders while China tends to keep them within its own borders, it is the USA that is probably the worse offender as it commits its violations on an international scale whereas China commits them on a national scale. That said, I think comparing one country's violations to another is a pointless and invidious exercise in distraction.
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  44. Interesting analysis. Let's face facts: Russia has superiority in both quantity and quality over Ukraine with regards their airforce.
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  45. 2020's Golden Dome = 1980's Star Wars. Pump-priming, grift and arms race.
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  46. The are owned by the Chosen People and their readership is the Chosen People and their fellow travellers.
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  47. Hopefully, this war will be at an end by this time next year if not sooner and Alexander can go back to talking about more mundane things. The sooner this carnage ends the better.
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  48. But you forget... the United States is exceptional and can therefore bend the laws of physics, just like Neo in the Matrix.
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  49. Like Britain before it the USA wants to keep Germany from getting too powerful and too independent. Germany could be a major hub in China's Belt and Road Initiative and become the most powerful economic power in central and western Europe as a result but in the eyes of many that would give them too much leverage in the affairs of the European Union as well as increasing the political influence of both Russia and China at the expense of the USA. It would be a nightmare for the Anglosphere.
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  50.  @willrobinson9767  And it's poisonous.
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  51. It always has been pushing for a diplomatic and peaceful end to the conflict. It's the USA and its client states in Europe who have been engaging in brinkmanship and, indeed, still are.
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  52.  @jesperburns  : then why in the hundreds, if not thousands, of years of human-zebra contact has there ever been a society that has done so. Also, even if what you say is true, there is still the issue of the zebra's anatomy making it unsuitable for many of the things humans would need of such an animal. Selective breeding over many generations may have changed this but it still wasn't done, even though the horse and the cow/ox were bred for desirable traits. Why?
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  53. "Soviet oppression." Is that when they Russians and their satellites had an unprecedented raising of their living standards, no more famines, life expectancy, literacy...?
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  54. The rentier class need to be controlled whenever and wherever they arise and rent seeking kept to the barest minimum. It is the productive forces of the economy (manufacturing) that needs to be promoted because it is the ability to actually make things that keeps an economy healthy and a country strong.
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  55. Interesting discussion. Enlightening.
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  56. Why do people keep referring to the Yemenis as Houthis? They are Yemenis. It's like referring to the Afghans as Taliban rather than what they are, Afghans. Also, the USA, both directly and through its proxies in the Gulf (mainly Saudi Arabia), have already been waging war on Yemen and through deliberately engineered famine caused by their blockades have caused more than a million deaths in the country.
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  57. The sooner the Ukrainian government comes to the negotiating table and engages in some serious negotiations the sooner all this unpleasantness will be over. And when all the smoke clears the rouble and the yuan will be stronger and we'll all be one step closer to that tripolar world that the world sorely needs right now.
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  58. Did anyone think differently, that NATO would fight over Ukraine?
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  59. Those murdered should be have their murderers brought to justice and made to pay according to the law. Better late justice than no justice.
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  60. iXmovie I'd also say the same thing happened to the whole of eastern Europe more broadly. Eastern Europe has been turned into western Europe's cheap resource base and dumping ground. Even Greece and Cyprus are not safe from German and EU pillage.
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  61. The US government has been taken over by second rate, ideologically‐driven incompetents whose only skills are in corruption.
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  62. With a single party ruling Japan these last 85 years I don't think your can call it a full democracy. Another thing is the regime didn't happen; the same people who ruled Japan pre-war were pretty much the same people post‐war. You know why? Because your oh‐so-democratic USA didn't want Japanese communists and socialists to use democracy to get to power put most of the pre-war leadership back in power.
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  63. It's the neoliberal way of life we are fed up with. Austerity, unemployment, inflation, stagnation of wages, homelessness, soaring rents and evictions.... we're fed up with it all!
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  64. Firstly, the sanctions aren't as severe as propaganda would have you believe. There are loopholes and getarounds that allow countries to continue trading with Russia. Secondly, sanctions aren't necessarily designed to bite but may be largely symbolic, a case of being seen to do something rather actually doing it. Also, their primary ostensible target – governments, businesses – might not in fact be the real target; ordinary people are. The rich and powerful won't be effected by sanctions and certainly not as much as ordinary people. Iraq under Saddam is a good example.
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  65. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) needs to be reformed or replaced, as should the United Nations (UN). Both serve the interests of western capital more than they serve those of the Global South, to the detriment of everyone else.
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  66. @JsJvd I’m sure the same thing was said about the Japanese, Chinese, Koreans and Vietnamese… until they kicked western arse.
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  67. Because no one really cares and no one is in a position to change things. Also, it allows them to show how freedom loving they are such that the same people that criticise them will be the same people to take up arms against the likes of Hitler or Stalin should there 'freedoms' to criticise be threatened.
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  68. There was a second resolution tabled by Brazil, virtually identical to the Russian resolution, that the USA has also vetoed, showing that the USA does not want peace.
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  69. A most interesting development seems to have taken place. Subtle but significant symbolism.
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  70. Hae-Jung Kim​ So, the USA effectively invading Korea, dividing it in two, installing an essentially fascist government (and certainly a brutal dictatorship), banning elections when the USA's favourite candidate wasn't likely to win, causing directly or indirectly millions of Korean deaths of those who opposed the dictatorship and in the subsequent war to reunify the country, and supporting the mixture of authoritarian government alternating with military junta ever since… you call that stopping China. I don't think its China you should be worried about. And whose this 'we'? Do you speak for all those murdered by the USA and US-backed South Korean dictatorships?
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  71. Britain living vicariously through the United States since world war 2.
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  72.  @lyazidbenomar1280  They are Caucasians and live in Europe and are therefore Europeans. It's not like they're oriental Asians or black Africans.
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  73. The IMF and World Bank come to mind (i.e. the international financial system).
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  74. I wonder if any of this has been orchestrated in advance as part of a wider reset of the West's economic and political architecture.
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  75. And never assume that any amount of evidence and rational debate will dissipate a firmly established paradigm until those who hold the theory die off.
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  76. Fiat money remember, dependent on the US dollar. If and when it goes, the Euro and Sterling will go with it. Each European country will then have to go back to their own non-fiat currencies backed by gold, silver and internal resources. When that happens I doubt any of them will be in a position to dictate to anyone.
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  77. The Russians and Chinese should work together to create their own SWIFT banking system and extend it as quickly as possible to the rest of the world; to internationalize it. — The Chinese should move to break the stranglehold of the United States dollar as soon as possible and create an internationally accepted replacement (not necessarily the Chinese Yuan). — The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative should be continued unabated and wherever possible it should be enhanced by the Russians attempting to do the same whenever and wherever possible (eg. Central Asia). In fact, the Chinese should strongly encourage the ability of countries in Latin America like Brazil and Argentina to develop their economies such that they can achieve genuine independence from the United States and western Europe. — China and Russia should seek to undermine key Western corporate controlled institutions in general so as to create a more multipolar world.
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  78. Special forces, in my opinion. Special forces doing extra special things.
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  79. But hasn't the European Union always been a federalist project, dedicated to creating a centralised state of technocrats controlled by multinationals?
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  80. It's basically been infiltrated by the intelligence community and those who serve capitalism and the corporations (the real middle class). Like most charities that operate in the West it has just become another capitalist business that is run for profit and as a vehicle for tax evasion.
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  81. ​ @tameralzoubi6664  And aid was only given after the USA had entered the war and at no time before. As long as they thought that Germany would smash Soviet communism they were quite happy to provide Germany with aid. Same with D Day: only when the Soviet Union looked as if it was going to take the whole of Europe did the USA commit to an invasion of France.
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  82. He obviously doesn't want to lose his job so he is bending in the wind. McCarthyism is still strong in American universities.
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  83. And your wages?
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  84. 👍💯✔
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  85. ​@ace9840 Capitalists. Especially of the neo-liberal variety.
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  86. And the Bank of International Settlements owns them all.
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  87. Can't really do that with Russia and China and I imagine India too. And sooner or later Argentina and Brazil may join them.
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  88. I remember when a certain female left to become the wife of an ISIS paramilitary was stripped of her citizenship. No such actions here though.
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  89. And for control over their energy.
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  90. Of course China can survive sanctions. What do you think it did during the cold war if not survive sanctions. The right question to ask is can the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union survive the sanctions they've imposed on themselves. Cutting off your own oil and gas supplies, refusing to pay for much needed raw materials you've contracted for, and stealing money of the country that provides those raw materials is not a good idea.
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  91. Are Britain and the USA (becoming increasingly) out of step with the rest of the European Union, especially France and Germany? Is there a rift growing between the Anglo-Americans and the Franco‐Germans or are the differences within the EU relatively minor?
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  92. A US empire inflicted wound. The EU is an organisation created by the USA to control Europe and its agents of influence are doing just that: damaging European interests where they conflict with the geopolitical interests of their master.
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  93. Japan is still an occupied country. Key parts of its government are under the control of the USA. The same for South Korea.
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  94. It doesn't have to make sense to you. It makes sense to the elite. That's all that matters.
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  95. It's a classic case of cold war politics overruling common sense economics.
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  96. Perhaps China will eventually be able to bring some form of stability to Myanmar through its Belt and Road Initiative, especially as its economy thrives vis‐à‐vis that of the USA. As Asia becomes more integrated economically the hope will be that some of the prosperity that may come as a result will bring improvements in the lives of ordinary people in Myanmar such as to bring about raised living standards and political stability. The USA will then no longer be able to feed on the discontent caused by lack of socio-economic development.
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  97. They'll just say "blame Russia; Putin did it."
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  98. The European Union. 😂
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  99. If it does fail it will bring a whole lot of the rest of the world down with it. Unfortunately.
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  100. India.
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  101.  @alhassangangu4357  Put simply, it's an arms race and the USA this time around is losing. An arms race with Russia or China on their own it may just be able to handle but not between Russia and China combined, especially as its so deep in debt and is possibly on the verge of hyperinflation or something similar. The USA simply can't afford another cold war, however, the neocons who apparently control the deep state don't seem to have realised this.
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  102. The armchair warriors of the USA, the ones who can't shake off their cold war mindset, want to take down both but to successfully engage China they must first neutralise Russia, otherwise they are like Germany in world wars 1 and 2, fighting a two front war. The worst nightmare for them is some sort of Eurasian union with the coming together of Russia, India, China, France and Germany.
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  103.  @Gudo-kv6ot  Indian non‐alignment (neutrality) has served the country well since independence and the Indians would be stupid to throw their lot in now with the USA; it would be against their long term interests.
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  104. I think they would decide that their nuclear arsenal is obsolescent (indeed, that mutual assured destruction was itself an obsolescent concept) and either come up with even more dangerous weapons (like using the technology as a weapon rather than as an anti-weapon) or finding some way to resolve their differences, perhaps by both sides simultaneously developing this technology and thus creating a stalemate like existed in cold war 1. This stalemate would exist at least until one side developed new and more advanced technology, in which case the arms race continues all over again until one side either goes bankrupt or decides to go to war.
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  105. Iran... and oil. Oh, and as you say, China and Russia. Slowly but surely the power of the two most powerful countries in the world are undermining the power monopoly the USA has in the Middle East (west Asia) and creating a system more conducive to respecting the economic and political interests of countries, opposing unipolarity in favour of the interdependence of states with no one country excessively dominating the rest.
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  106.  @КГБ-л3п  Because many in western Europe and North America are so ignorant of other countries and their cultures, a state of affairs the powers that be are quite happy to maintain.
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  107. ​​​ @doujinflip  Why would a country of over a billion people need tourists from other countries? China is a manufacturing economy, not a service economy and it's the countries with service economies that need tourists.
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  108. What I fear is the effect of a dollar default on the British pound.
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  109. ​ @ukrainted_states_of_amerael  The Soviet Union also had nukes but decided to reform itself peacefully without resorting to their use. And if it could so can the USA.
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  110. All theatre. Australia can’t act militarily in an independent manner without the permission and wherewithal of the USA and the USA doesn’t appear to want a hot war just yet. Of course, the Australian military, together with its intelligence apparatus, can invigilate it’s own government and subvert it on behalf of the the USA and its own plutocrats like the Murdoch’s, but, otherwise, it’s China has little to fear.
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  111. It's so refreshing to turn on a video that's got no commercials and gets straight into things with no intro.
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  112.  @randacnam7321  So you honestly think the Chinese government are just building all this high speed transport infrastructure for the sake of it?
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  113. An interesting development indeed.
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  114. A plausible deniability false flag designed to up-the-ante a little perhaps? The 'mildness' of the symptoms (no one died?) may indicate that it was intended for shock value more than anything. Possibly, it was used to test the efficacy and viability of the use of biochemical agents or as a dry run.
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  115.  @hasan_z  it wasn't the politicians that sold you out of was the CEO's and their shareholders: they are the ones who relocated their businesses elsewhere.
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  116. But not as outrageous as the employment statistics of the USA.
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  117. I would have thought that any military attack on the city of Lviv (known to the Russians as Lvov and the Poles as Lwów) is purely because of its strategic value. I cannot see how the Russians would attack it merely out of malice or spite, unlike the racist and nationalist fascist elements within the Ukrainian army who would, I imagine, have an ideological component to their attacks on areas containing ethnic Russians.
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  118. To destroy the system you must be part of the the system. Remember Gorbachev, Yeltsin?
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  119. The USA and the IMF.
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  120. Is that why China is beating 'The West' ? In the hierarchy of civilisations does Europe and North America come below Asia but above Africa and Latin America?
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  121. It's neither population size nor density that is the problem because we already have all the resources to feed, clothe, house and give adequate healthcare and a decent standard of living to everyone alive on Earth right now. So it's not population size per se that is the problem (the very phrase overpopulation is misleading — overpopulated relative to what? Certainly not land area as you could fit the entire population of planet Earth into the US state of Texas). No, it must be something else but that something else (who controls the world's resources and how they are distributed) is generally left out of discussions on the subject because it would involve seriously questioning the status quo and the powers that be.
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  122. Are Belarus engaging in active hostilities with Ukraine? If not then why are they being lumped together with Russia.
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  123. 04:21 If Poland is doing so well how come there are so many Polish economic migrants. Germany wants to turn — has turned — Poland into a quasi-colony, propping up the German economy. Germany is as successful as it currently is because of its domination of the EU. Same for France, though here again Germany has the upper hand because of its economy.
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  124. ​ @stanpennycook5414  US nukes. Can't be used without America's permission.
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  125. Nah, not going to happen. Like the ancient Romans, historians will still be singing their praises 2000 years from now, describing the proto-fascist Romans as the height of civilisation and sophistication, the peoples languishing under their jackboot as barbarians who should be grateful for being forcefully romanised, and lamenting the demise of Roman tyranny, with its decadence, endemic corruption, hyperinflation and crazy cult of Jesus at the hands of said barbarians as something to be saddened by.
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  126. I suspect it was a secret plot by the Americans to weaken them long term by playing on their fears of overpopulation, fears that were so prevalent during the 1970's and 80's and the Chinese fell for it hook, line and sinker. Anthropogenic climate change is now the new fear.
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  127. The Netherlands will become dependent on the USA and those countries under its influence for food. In effect, as you say, its to bring about food and energy shortages in Europe and the wider world for the benefit of a small group of people and to make sure no one country in the European Union can resist effectively. Saving the planet and stopping Russia are just pretexts. It makes you question the whole of the global warming/climate change/green/overpopulation agenda. ▪︎ In my opinion all of what's happening is at least in part because the rentier elites in western Europe and the USA know the game's up, that the bubble of all bubbles is about to burst, and are, as a result, planning for the consequences: US default, hyperinflation, the loss of the dollar as the world's reserve currency, widespread political dissent (especially against the ideology of neoliberalism), and the accompanying potential for civil unrest. The elites who control corporate monopoly capitalism have anticipated this and are now seemingly implementing plans that have been drawn up long ago in response. It is coordinated using bodies such as the EU, NATO, WTO, UN.
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  128. And now eastern Europe is practically a colony of western Europe, subject to EU, IMF/BIS, United States and NATO control. And much of eastern Europe was a quasi‐colony of its western half anyway from at least the Enlightenment and industrial revolutions onward (from the point of view of the core countries of western Europe – France, Germany, Austria and Britain).
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  129. Or just acting.
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  130. The West is basically the USA and that's it. Britain and Germany are more or less subordinated to the US in terms of their foreign policy (the French maybe less so) and no European politician or political party is allowed to be independent of the neocon‐dominated elite that sets American policies towards Russia and China.
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  131. Something Seems Off I honestly do not know. And without access to unbiased information I think it's anyone's guess. It's also akin to comparing apples and oranges because the two countries have very different cultures with different values and expectations as to how governments should behave and divergent political and economics systems that make meaningful comparisons difficult. And behind your question lies a whole lot of biases and presuppositions such that even if we were, for argument's sake, to draw the conclusion that one country was in fact in some way 'superior' or 'more advanced' than the other, what then? Where would such a conclusion lead us? To a just war? Why this obsession with proving one's superiority? And its converse, 'proving' others inferiority?
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  132. It's the culmination of neo-liberalism's 'triumph' - the effective destruction of the powerbase of the working class by the outsourcing of jobs, especially in heavy industry and manufacturing, the destruction of the public sector and the ethos that went with it, and the widespread automation of industry and the consequent decline in trade unionism with its ability to force capital to engaged in collective bargaining and thus ameliorate the plight of the poor and working class. In effect what we have is the neutralisation of workers and of organised labour as a class. And none of this has been accidental but a deliberate strategy systematically implemented over the last 30 years.
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  133. Excellent video! Tells us how it really is instead of how the corporate MSM would have us believe it to be. Real life versus fake reality.
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  134. The USA as currently constituted is institutionally incapable of being anything other than imperialist/colonialist. The same applies to a lesser extent to western Europe, namely Britain and France, which built their wealth and prosperity by leeching off the rest of the world, especially through their empires. Now that Britain cannot do this (at least to the extent it peviously did) and France is having increasing difficulties doing this in Africa they are finding their economies, and by extension their societies, are declining. The economy of the USA will also suffer if it stops being able to exploit the resources of other countries. Anglo-American capitalism is innately predatory, even more so in its present incarnation of corporate financialized neoliberalism. That's why China and Russia must do everything they can to help the Brics+ countries develop their economies so that they can be independent of the West and gain true economic sovereignty.
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  135. Australia is a Third World country with a First World living standard.
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  136. Ultimate Street Yacht Battle The world is NOT overpopulated! That is a lie. That is a myth. Peddled by cynical rich people and eugenicists with an agenda. In terms of both inhabitable land and food and other resources the Earth has more than enough to support the current population. Indeed, there's a surplus of most resources, the real problem being not enough people having adequate access to them.
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  137. Interesting to see [5:00] the reactions of members of the public to allied prisoners of war. Presumably they had lost loved ones or experienced privation as a result of the war and wanted a small measure of revenge. I think we would see the same reaction to German prisoners of war in 1945 too. War is awful.
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  138. What a fiery speech, George!
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  139. The USA is a country that seems at the political level in some regards to have lost its way, at least with regards China and Russia. It does not seem to have grasped how rapidly the world is changing and as a result it appears increasingly unable to deal with the reality of Asia's rise, Europe's increasing ambivalence to its dominance, Latin America's desire to be free from its hegemony and the eventual economic development of Africa and the Middle East, nor even of its own domestic economic and social problems.
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  140. Monarchies are Mafia and monarchs are Mafia dons. They're basically criminals heading organised criminal syndicates who, through sheer longevity and their ability to control the meta-narrative through control of the media, schools and the church, pacify the people they rule. This history programme is itself an example of this. Countries (i.e. nation states as we understand them today) barely existed back in the middle ages, nations were just areas of land under the control of a given mafia family, so doing what was "good for the country" only makes sense if it means doing what's good for a given ruling family.
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  141. I also think that North Stream 2 will come online sooner rather than later. Germany has a need for gas and Russia is nearby with ample supplies and can provide it comparatively cheaply, much cheaper than the USA using LNG tankers.
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  142. ​ @britthoward4776  Are they the same Kurds who were being gassed with the full support of the USA and the European Union, using weapons and chemicals supplied by them? And is that the Iraq that was illegally invaded and its still occupied by the USA (incorporated into the US empire), even though they've been asked to leave? You're reply to @ikechukwuogbu9306 is also a fallacy known as ignoratio elenchi.
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  143. In would seem that the foreign policy of the USA is largely determined by the dynamic existing between its military‐industrial complex and its corporations and banks so I ask: how would the loss of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency and the subsequent decline in its purchasing power effect the country's ability, as well as its willingness, to destabilise other countries? They say that a crash/depression is right around the corner though I don't know how true that is and if it occurred what effect it would have on the US-China-Russia dynamic.
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  144. Capitalism has a cycle of overproduction followed by slump, boom followed by bust. Recessions and depressions interspersed with high levels of employment and productivity. Some way of breaking out of the cycle must be invented.
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  145. The USA gave them no choice, assuming all this as been planned, or at least anticipated.
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  146.  @fightback397  and none of them could predict or stop 3 high rise steel framed skyscrapers collapsing at free fall speed into their own footprint nor, apparently, the rise of al‐Quaeda.
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  147. It's ironic that the man who coined the term 'orientalism' could credibly be described as an orientalist himself as he was thoroughly westernised and operating from within the very heart of the western academic institutions guilty of spreading orientalism in the first place, embodying thereby the paradox of the man who seemingly strives to emulate western societies while deriding the paradigms that sustain them.
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  148.  @terrymcvicker7064  How can a country invade itself? Did Vietnam also invade itself? What gives the white man the right to split countries in two and separate entire families?
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  149. Literal-mindedness. Many continental Europeans suffer from it.
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  150. Like the Bible, if it gets anything right it's by sheer chance.
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  151. Pascal, Glenn this is one of the best podcasts I've heard on the subject.
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  152.  @fspa6663  The British media is basically owned and run by the same people who own and run the media in the USA, as is the political class. Together they form a rentier-comprador elite beholden to Anglo-American financial interests, the sort that have seen the rapid and catastrophic decline in the industrial manufacturing base of both countries, leading to the dire economic predicament that we, but not them, now find ourselves in.
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  153. The Chinese probably don't want the USA to collapse so calamitously. They probably want to be able to keep trading with the USA during a transition to a new type of international trading system whilst avoiding as much as possible a situation where there is civil unrest in the USA that could lead to a Weimar Germany type scenario. Sort of letting the USA down gently and easing it into a new economic and financial world order dominated by the Chinese rather than doing so abruptly. They probably also want to see a central bank digital currency introduced globally via the United Nations as per the plans of the Word Economic Forum, International Bank of Settlements, and various other bodies.
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  154. To be honest Finland was always a de facto member of the NATO alliance even if not formally, thus its current actions are merely formalising the status quo, albeit in a deliberately provocative way.
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  155. Fixed. Like the Nobel Prize.
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  156. They will do what Russia has done: ally themselves more closely with China.
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  157.  @honeybear9376  I wonder how susceptible India is to having its own religion, Hinduism, weaponised and used against it the way Islam was weaponised and used against its neighbour Pakistan. Indeed, I often wonder whether the right wing Hindu nationalist party with fascist leanings currently in power owes its existence at least in part to the USA or is an entirely indigenous phenomenon.
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  158.  @troutstalker4744  Yes. Coal and natural gas are both fossil fuels, though I have read somewhere that neither actually come from primitive trees the died in the Cambrian but from other geological processes and are not finite but self-renewing, though I do not know how valid the theory is.
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  159.  @9064peterpan  The BBC is what happens when you let the CIA's Cointelpro infiltrate their sleeper cells and agents of influence into the institutions of the British state. It's what happens when a country's elite prostitute themselves and turn into a South American style comprador class just to stay relevant in the modern world. The traitor's dilemma: collaborate or be crushed.
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  160. It would seem that, working together, the Chinese and Russians can force the USA into an arms race that it will find itself increasingly difficult to keep up with (assuming the USA doesn't change its ongoing support for the military).
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  161. … And don't forget to keep your room clean.
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  162.  @kangriad7564  What do to mean by that?
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  163. Myanmar.
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  164. ​ @shadeaquaticbreeder2914  Houthi, I'm given to understand, refers to the majority ethnic group of Yemen. It's like using the word English when referring to the actions of the United Kingdom.
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  165. Because the USA's global intelligence‐security apparatus controls most of the world's media, even extending to countries that are generally thought of as being independentl like China and Russia, countries that play along to get along.
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  166.  @maggielarkin9314  Makes a refreshing change: people migrating to Ireland rather than from it. ;-)
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  167. The official reasons are not the deciding ones behind the withholding of EU funds. The much more likely principal reason is that Hungary is not going along with the agenda of the EU – read the agenda of the USA – on issues such as Ukraine and immigration. This action is a shot across the bows for the Hungarian electorate: get rid of Orban are else.
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  168. And you know, that's not a joke or satire: the USA would do that.
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  169. It's not primarily about Russia and China; they are secondary. The primary goal is to force Europe to become dependent on the USA.
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  170. I hope not. Despite their differences I hope India, China and Russia become closer in their economic, political and military cooperation and together create a Eurasia that can progressively raise the standard of living and bring prosperity to all of its people. In time, this prosperity could be extended to the Americas.
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  171. And that's why the USA through its lackeys in Europe are busy weakening the continent – they don't want competition.
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  172. It's more than likely that the USA has something to do with it as well because it doesn't want France to have influence or alternative sources of wealth and wants itself to be the greatest influence in the region. It is also a good thing in my opinion that Africa comes out from under the jackboot of France and gains as much independence from western Europe as possible.
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  173. The vegetation is so lush. I bet you get a lot of rain there. Seems a nice, quiet, peaceful place and I'm sure the people who live there are nice too.
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  174. They are still an occupied country with government and a military still under the influence of the USA. Same with Japan and South Korea.
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  175. Should Israel be engaged in a war that it looks like it's going to lose wouldn't the USA intervene in its favour? As Israel currently has a free hand with regards the cleansing of the Palestinians and has been vigorously thinning out their population I don't see how the situation could be described as a strategic defeat. Israel is basically carrying out a long term strategy of the USA (of which it is just a proxy) and that is control over West Asia's oil. Either now or sometime further down the line the oil, gas and access (canal or otherwise) will be under the control of the USA through its Israeli and/or Palestinian proxies.
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  176. The USA. That and Britain's economic system.
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  177. I'm sure — and certainly hoping — that a more sensible leadership will prevail.
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  178. ​ @ms-jl6dl a work of fiction. Try reading Karl Marx or Freidrich Engels.
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  179. Zelensky is a puppet, nothing more. And puppets don't make decisions, their puppet masters do.
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  180. It seems a reasonable analysis but I fear it will be longer than a decade.
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  181. It would seem that China is pursuing the same economic policy as the United States: making everyone dependent on it in some way. And it seems to be succeeding.
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  182. The unaccountable deep state of the US government is more damaging to the nation's interests that either China or Russia. This is what happens when you put profits before people, the needs of a plutocracy before the needs of the rest of society, and when you allow bank managers and the CEO's of corporations whose main profits are from war to run the country instead of a more diverse range of people.
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  183. At the moment westerners don't really care. They are indifferent to the concerns of non‐western peoples unless it hurts their bottom line: profits. Two hundred years or more of having their heads filled with the idea of western cultural superiority has made them both complacent and hubristic towards others. I feel things are slowly changing though in this regard and that slowly, as western power wains and eastern power waxes and parity is reached between East and West, a more respectful relationship will develop.
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  184. For "The West" read several countries (notably Great Britain and the United States of America, together with France and a few other supporting actors), aka the US empire. And for the Taliban read the people of Afghanistan, aka the Afghan resistance movement who are fighting a war akin to the war fought by the allies against fascism. Afghans, whether 'fundamentalist' or not, whether 'terrorist' or not, still have a right to defend their nation, country, territory and ethnic group from invasion and conquest by predatory capitalism and fascist corporatism.
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  185. Simple: they bend (read break) the rules.
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  186.  @giberaro5217  As an Englishman who has worked with Polish women, I can attest personally to their being, on average, better looking than native English women. The same goes for Ukrainian women. They seem to be better educated too.
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  187. Is Alex sitting on bubble wrap? 😂
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  188. Why is the West still running with the idea that Russia isn't winning, that Ukraine is thrashing the Russians, and that Russian tanks are being destroyed left, right and centre. Stop with it already. Just stop! Surely more effective propaganda can be used.
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  189. The aim is not to win but to drain Russia's resources, pump‐prime the US military‐industrial complex, divert the attention of the EU and keep NATO together. The world is in a pre‐dollar collapse phase and this is one of the consequences of the USA getting increasingly desperate.
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  190. In fairness they only fought to get back the land that Russia had taken from them in the winter war and once that was achieved they ceased their military operations. Their actions could thus be interpreted as being opportunistic rather than showing a heartfelt ideological support for fascism.
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  191. Imran Khan may be the best prime minister Pakistan has ever had. I'm actually slightly surprised that he's managed to stay in office as long as he as. The Americans must have taken their eye off the ball for a while on this one.
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  192. There seems to be a crisis is cosmology with competing hypotheses, none of which have yet given us definite answers and all of which seem to be reliant on presuppositions that look like astrophysicists are clutching at straws, postulating on the basis of 'for-want-of-a-better-alternative'.
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  193.  @PapaShuffler  Capitalism doesn't care. Under capitalism everything is a commodity to be bought and sold for profit. The air, the land, plants, animals, humans... all exist simply to serve the needs of the one percent. Society is a feudal pyramid with the billionaires at the top and everyone else below them a slave. No doubt, they have every intention of 'optimising' the rest humanity in keeping with their self‐serving plans.
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  194. Common ownership to Keir Starmer means... public private partnerships.
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  195. It's because the USA doesn't like the name South China Sea as to them it seems to imply that China has a central role to play in the region, while they don't like the name Asia‐Pacific because China being an Asian country, again, it seems to imply China has a central role to play in the area. Indo‐Pacific, on the other hand, not only flatters India but also implicitly repudiates any implied centrality of China in the region.
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  196.  @robichard  You must be one of those middle class Latin Americans educated during the fascist junta period who have been taught to hate anything left wing. That or a cyber warfare troll.
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  197. Greece should default. Their position is economically untenable and what they are being asked to do by the Troika is fundamentally immoral. Logic says they should. Reason says they should. Commonsense says they should. Syriza is making unreciprocated concessions left, right and centre and selling off the family heirlooms and Greek heritage for next to nothing in return. It seems Syriza is not really a socialist party at all but just another social democrat party making that fatal compromise with capital that social democrat parties do all the time. GREXIT NOW!
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  198. If the accusation is true I would find that Britain serving as a US proxy to bait Russia to be deeply disturbing. The idea that the British government would allow itself to be used in such a way, putting the nation and its people directly in the firing line, is to me quite shocking. A sober assessment of the United Kingdom's military capabilities vis-a-vis the Russian Federation will make one draw the conclusion that the country is a paper tiger and thus one would hope that the British government would be under no illusion as to the dire consequences of a military confrontation between us. This brinkmanship by Britain must stop immediately. If the USA wants to play a game of chicken with Russia then let it do so on its own; Britain should play no part.
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  199. Especially if it succeeds in Syria as a well.
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  200. They are the uber wealthy who want to instate neo‐feudalism.
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  201. It would be more realistic of them to talk about the disproportionate influence that the USA exercises over Europe, an influence that it uses ruthlessly in the pursuit of its perceived geostrategic interests increasingly to the detriment not only of the European Union but also of the rest of the world more generally.
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  202. Dolemite: half-truth, half-lie is what they're good at.
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  203.  @japutaruko8052  And as they try they'll use up even more of their taxes in weapons development at the cost of their civilian infrastructure.
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  204. ​​​​ @stevezodiacXL5  a.) The European Union was always and to this day remains, like NATO, an organisation dominated by the USA. In or out is therefore irrelevant: we'd still be under the the thumb of the USA, if not directly then indirectly through its proxies, Germany and France. — b.) In actual fact we have withdrawn from the European Union in name only. In reality, to all practical purposes we are still within it and bound by its rules, albeit by and large on an informal basis. That is, we are still de facto members but now with no formal voting rights, the simple reason being that the European Union is too powerful to ignore on issues like immigration and trade.
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  205. The right hate Foucault and the alt-right even more, along with the post-modernist period in which he worked. I wonder why?
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  206.  @Jonmad17  I take issue with the idea that Muslim cultures are "more violent". And the idea, even if true, that it's down to polygamy…? Wtf!
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  207.  @parallax9281  Yes. And in this case I think it's a case of China being mightier than the USA in its own back yard. Maybe everywhere else (except Russia) the USA'S might may reign supreme but not here, I'm afraid. All the USA can do is bluff and bluster.
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  208. The Aussies it would seem are as under the thumb of the USA as we Brits. I wonder if its any different in New Zealand.
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  209. @HK-zf7op A large chunk of Poland was part of Russia until 1919, as were the Baltic states. When Russia invaded Poland in 1939 it was taking back territory it had formerly held. Likewise, after the war Russia kept parts of the territory it had occupied and compensated Poland by giving it formerly German territory.
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  210. The cold war is what I call the United States-led war of global hegemony. So really we are into US-led WOGH 2.
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  211. Trudeau does seem like a US puppet at times, too eager to please Uncle Sam. May be this is why.
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  212. Yugoslavia was in the way of NATO and EU expansion, as well as being a stable socialist/communist country that represented a successful example of how a multicultural society could be. Remember, NATO and the EU are the military and political‐economic arms respectively of the military‐industrial complex of the United States, the so‐called deep state, and it's these two organisations that, amongst others, the USA uses to influence Europe and seek global hegemony.
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  213. The USA has been using the same military Keynesianism that was pioneered by the Germans in the 1930's to get them out of the Great Depression. It works for a while but becomes less effective over time. Instead of investing in social and public infrastructure like the Chinese, a policy that would benefit the whole country long term, the USA invests in military infrastructure instead, which provides little real benefit to the general population over the longer term.
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  214. But China and possibly Russia, and even India, will eventually be able to manufacture everything that both North America and Europe currently do and probably a lot cheaper and of a similar or higher quality. The USA and Europe will not be able to play the better technology card for very much longer.
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  215. For as long as the USA exists in its present form as a country whose political economy relies on its military‐industrial complex for its growth, a complex built on never‐ending war and neo‐imperialism.
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  216. It's been effected by the very processes he's talking about.
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  217. Greece doesn't really have its own government but rather a government of foreign creditors (the so-called troika). They do not a answer to the Greek people and are callously indifferent to their suffering. What has happened to the Greeks is what happened in the Americas from the 1970's onwards under the neo-liberal Washington Consensus imposed by the USA through its proxies the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Same with Cyprus. And the other PIIGS - Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain
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  218. A country whose government has been put there by a coup d'état orchestrated by a foreign country, that gives away its most valuable assets to foreign governments, locks up and intimidates the opposition, bans political parties and purges its civil society of anyone who disagrees (including a sizable part of its own population) is not an example of democracy. Besides that, you should stop fetishizing democracy as if its something to kill and die for, especially as your social and economic system, capitalism/corporatism, is fundamentally incompatible with any notion of genuine popular self‐government (if there was any semblance of the electorate having real agency we would not be in the predicament we are in because it would be against the interests of the majority. The fact that the government can work against the economic interests and material wellbeing of the majority of its citizens gives the lie to such nonsense).
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  219. Good luck George!
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  220. A classic rentier economy.
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  221. The United States and its closest allies are actually bringing democracy and human rights into disrepute. Whether this is deliberate, predictive programming designed to prepare westerners themselves for authoritarianism or dictatorship or not I don't know but it's socially corrosive to civil society and the hypocrisy surrounding the issues of democracy and human rights undermines any claims to moral superiority the West might once have had. ☆ สหรัฐอเมริกาและพันธมิตรที่ใกล้ชิดที่สุดกำลังนำประชาธิปไตยและสิทธิมนุษยชนไปสู่ความเสื่อมเสียชื่อเสียง ไม่ว่าจะเป็นการจงใจ โปรแกรมคาดการณ์ ซึ่งออกแบบมาเพื่อเตรียมชาวตะวันตกให้พร้อมสำหรับเผด็จการหรือเผด็จการหรือไม่ ฉันไม่รู้ แต่มันกัดกร่อนสังคมต่อภาคประชาสังคม และความหน้าซื่อใจคดที่เกี่ยวกับประเด็นประชาธิปไตยและสิทธิมนุษยชนบ่อนทำลายการอ้างสิทธิ์เหนือกว่าทางศีลธรรมที่ชาติตะวันตกอาจคิด เคยมี.
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  222. GDP and GNP are not very good indicators of the health of a society. Perhaps that is the very reason why they are used; to use any other metric would show the USA and the UK to be less 'advanced' than they really are.
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  223. It's a boycott and who knows how long it will last.
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  224. These aren't failures. These are fully intended consequences.
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  225.  @1233-f7h  And put their members on watch lists and make sure their bank accounts are clean and have no illicit sources of money.
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  226. ​ @Marty-o5o  Purchasing Power Parity is how they measure such things.
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  227. The USA has not failed in the Middle East. To the contrary, I'm willing to bet that it has largely succeeded in its primary goals.
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  228.  @superuli8162  "The Russians are only half as corrupt." Sounds a little chauvinist to me.
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  229. And in clear violation of the Non‐Proliferation Treaty that clearly commits all signatories to work toward the elimination of all nuclear weapons.
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  230.  @cdcdrr  The Libyan state did what states do and anything Libya under president Gaddafi did is far and away eclipsed by the USA, Britain and France. The USA does those things you mention in spades.
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  231. They've showed us in no uncertain terms just how compromised and partisan they are.
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  232.  @FangsOfTheNidhogg  I think many US women would love just to be housewives and not be forced to have 1 or more jobs along with their husbands. Women don't know how easy they had it back then.
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  233. It seems that Earth and our solar system are currently in a rather benign region of the galaxy and maybe even the universe.
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  234. But what if those very same algorithms set the price and other material conditions in the first place based upon stochastic and heuristic mathematical models of human behaviour and complex game theory built on, not just millions, but billions of data points collected on a single individual over their lifetime up to the point where such algorithms can predict with the utmost accuracy that person's likely choices? If such algorithms/mathematical formulae create the initial starting conditions for a person's wants and desires, conditions tailored especially to that person's unique profile which they will then base not only their present but their future decision making on, even the very reasoning processes that they use to make those decisions in the first place, what will that do for our idea of free will? We will be trapped in an eternal echo chamber where every prior decision we've ever made, however minor and seemingly insignificant, will increasingly narrow down our future choices until we have none, our fate sealed and utterly deterministic.
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  235. Without drastic measures being taken such as placing severe restrictions on the use of contraception and abortion and even introducing some form of compulsory pregnancy on a segment of the population I don't see how the long term decline in European fertility can be reversed.
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  236.  @gazlives  Would you say the same about the native Americans just because it took 250 years to reduce their population from millions to what they number today? Or the Aborigine...? The Maori...? South Pacific islanders...? How fast would Hitler's policy of cleansing Europe of its Jews and gypsies had to have been to qualify as genocide? If you don't like the term genocide how about ethnic cleansing, a term used to stoke up support for Bill Clinton's war against Serbia/Yugoslavia? Is it a war crime, crime against humanity? Apparently it was back then so what's the difference now?
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  237. Crazy, though that was nothing compared to thy Plaza Accords.
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  238. Seems ironic. Seems paradoxical. Seems divisive. The wordy McCarthyism comes to mind.
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  239. The European Union is the political-economic equivalent of NATO, carrying out the US empire's bidding, along with that of Germany and France (delegated power to control Europe on behalf of the USA) together with the Bank of International Settlements and corporate capitalism of the Western European banking centres.
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  240. Military, security and intelligence is what is keeping the US economy afloat. The USA economy has basically been corporatized, a state in which private corporations depend on the public purse to keep themselves in business and where the most profitable areas are also the least productive from the ordinary consumer's point of view (though not from the point of view of that small slice of the population that is the wealthiest).
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  241.  @settekwan2708  Modern Russian weaponry (torpedoes, anti‐air) has effectively made the weapons of the USA obsolete, along with its strategy for 'defending' Asia by denying the USA both the air and sea superiority it would need to defeat either of them, weaponry the Russians I'm sure would be willing to lend the Chinese. The USA's fleet of aircraft carriers would be like Polish cavalry charging German tanks, showy but useless.
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  242.  @spencerallison3196  China isn't attacking anyone, ergo it doesn't need a particularly large or especially powerful navy. It's navy is defensive. That said I think China's navy is powerful enough to repel any attack from the USA in its own waters, which is what matters. Also, China and Russia have anti‐ship and anti‐aircraft missiles that negate any numerical superiority in naval assets the USA could field.
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  243. The Taliban should really be called the Afghan resistance movement and now the government of Afghanistan. I for one would appreciated it if people would just use the word Afghanistan rather than the Taliban when referring to the country and the actions of its government. Not to do so is like referring to the Vietnamese government as the Vietcong every time you refer to their actions rather than referring to them as the actions of Vietnam (the country, its government and its people).
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  244. Perhaps they should see themselves as liberated women whose purpose is to serve capitalism having had the privilege of being forced to go to school where they learn how to be good workers who put capitalist production before human reproduction.
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  245. The USA, by this WaPo article has given tacit permission for the controlled media of the the American empire to start changing their tune.
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  246. Nationalise, Nationalise, Nationalise. Embark on a crash programme of infrastructure building. Introduce price controls. Build public housing or requisition unused existing housing.
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  247. I think Russia's inferiority complex goes back much further, back to the 17th century during the time of Peter the Great when Russia discovered 'the West' at a time when Western Europe was becoming the global power that it remains to this day. The same goes for China, India and Japan which, despite their economic successes, still have an admiration for certain aspects of western European culture. You must also take into account the cultural soft power that the West has by virtue of being the inventors and pioneers of modern mass media and propaganda with which they spread their values and the military and other coercive methods that they still use to maintain their ongoing neo-imperial and neo-colonial relationships with the so‐called Global South. Inferiors have a habit of admiring their superiors and wanting to be like them to some degree even as they despise them in other ways.
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  248. It helped for sure but still wasn't decisive. The Russians would still have won even without it.
    8
  249. It is irrelevant where the Jews as a collective came from, or which country the Zionists originally intended as their national homeland. These questions are moot historical talking points. The irrefutable fact is that an ethnostate state – one that considers itself exclusively Jewish– exists presently on the land that was the national homeland of a pre-existing people, the Palestinians, and is currently in an existential struggle with them. The question is therefore one of how can there be a peaceful resolution of this most vexing of problems, one that involves an equitable and just compromise between the two groups such that they can live together without conflict. Thus far I see no resolution other than the utter extirpation of the indigenous people, either by genocide or by expulsion, unless there is some form of outside intervention, as the Israelis seem too intransigent and the Palestinians too weak.
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  250. That's because NATO is not truly a representative organisation comprising the various nations of the European continent and has no genuine concern about the real threats facing Europe such as terrorism, religious extremism and radical ethno‐nationalism. Rather, it is an arm of the US government, an extension if you will of its military‐industrial complex. Indeed, the USA is behind much of the instability on Europe's periphery as the debacle in Kazakhstan as shown. You only have to look at Yugoslavia and Libya, as well as Afghanistan, to see how NATO is an offensive and not a defensive organisation.
    8
  251. But they won't call it that. They will call it a recession.
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  252. The sinister organisations behind this are probably trying to provoke a Tiananmen-style event and won't stop until they've succeeded.
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  253.  @chubascomohd2688  Not in the USA. In the USA the military‐industrial complex reigns supreme whoever is in power. In the United Kingdom it's the City of London.
    7
  254. And an economic alliance (implicitly military) with China and Russia should be signed to help them properly develop their economies independently of western institutions.
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  255. Keep Germany down, keep the United States in, and keep the Russians out.
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  256. The aim of the USA is to split Europe from Asia (keeping Europe as a continent full of satellite states) while creating the conditions for a new cold war. Keeping Russia, China, Germany and France apart is and always has been the primary strategic goal of the Atlanticist Anglo-American alliance. MacKinder's Heartland versus the Rimland. A policy of preventing the integration of Europe and Asia such that they become one economic trading bloc, Eurasia, is what the USA and its satellite the United Kingdom pursue.
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  257. Hopefully, with time our technology will gradually improve enough and become sensitive enough for us to be able to detect and observe smaller planets with a mass equal to that of the Earth with even greater accuracy and precision than presently.
    7
  258. Who has the superior technology is the main question to ask here. I'm no expert but I would guess the Russians are at least as good as the Americans in this field. And if they strike first...?
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  259. And they were/are very probably in violation, in spirit if not in letter, of the non-proliferation treaty, as well as other treaties (now defunct) between the USA and the RF.
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  260. I think it's finally sinking in at the White House that the alliance between China and Russia will place them at a serious disadvantage in the longer term. I think that this realisation will ultimately weaken the neocons, either making them less ideological and more pragmatic to the extent that they recognise the tripolar world we are almost in, or by them making a mistep which will show in no uncertain terms the limitations of US military and economic power and so discredit them that other political groupings will be able to remove them from influence.
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  261. It may have escaped colonialism (something related to but different from imperialism) but it hasn't, unfortunately, escaped neo-colonialism. When it escapes the clutches of the IMF/World Bank and the US dollar (without becoming, in doing so, dependent on China and its Yuan) then we'll see. Perhaps it would be better to describe it as being a semi-sovereign country.
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  262.  @dylandylantoriyama5370  A threat to the USA in its ongoing attempt at maintaining its global hegemony more like (and thus, by extension, a threat to the British elite who see themselves in the USA).
    7
  263. But that's assuming they didn't also have alternative aims, like disconnecting Russia from Europe and disrupting trade.
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  264. Bill and Mallinder Gates do. And India, along with Africa, is their testing ground.
    7
  265. Turn it into another Panama perhaps. If a canal does get built though I think it will be a boon to not just the Chinese and Nicaraguan economies but to the global economy as well, including ultimately that of the USA itself.
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  266. ​ @befeleme  China's not really 'free market' as the state plays a central role in the regulation of the economy. Maybe it can be called free market capitalism for small businesses, capitalist entrepreneurs and start ups, but certainly not for corporations like Jack Ma's Alibaba. Indeed, I don't think there has ever existed such a thing as a free market anywhere at any time in history, except in the ideology of liberals and the empty rhetoric of neo-liberals; markets have always been regulated in some way or another by the powers that be.
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  267. ​ @thesmogo  I personally prefer the term the American empire.
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  268.  @msjujuz266  Western people make much ado about the abolishment of slavery yet indentured labour was everywhere. All they did was redefine slavery out of existence.
    7
  269.  @epicgamerzfail4575  They have all been beaten already – China, the USA, Russia, India – by the Davos/Bilderberg/WEF, the true rulers of the world.
    7
  270. Is China sending warships in the strait between Cuba and the USA? No. Then why is the USA sending warships into the Strait of Taiwan? — China's maritime disputes between its neighbours over territorial waters in the South China Sea are just that, disputes, and not provocations. They flare up from time to time but they are nothing that cannot be resolved by negotiation and diplomacy. The same goes for the land border dispute between India and China over the Line of Control (LAC) which also does not require the interference of the USA.
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  271. Don't bet on it. They'll just replace the US dollar with the Chinese Yuan or some United Nations‐issued currency equivalent such as a digital cryptocurrency. We will still have a central bank of some sort, just not one controlled by the government of a single country.
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  272. They are the Jerry Springer of radio. Sensationalism is their stock-in-trade. Anyone who goes on their show should know that. It's not meant for real debate.
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  273. Please keep producing these anti‐PragerU videos Hakim, they are necessary in my opinion. While my sympathies tend toward socialism rather than communism I would prefer the latter to capitalism (and certainly fascism) any day of the week if it can reduce absolute poverty and serve as a springboard for further economic and social development.
    7
  274. Great show, Lena, great guest. ❤🎉
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  275.  @puffnstuff12  So Russia won't allow the USA to base nuclear missiles in Ukraine 5 minutes flight time to Moscow... but it will allow the USA to base nuclear missiles with 3 minutes flight time to Moscow in Finland. Is this the USA's answer to Russia developing hypersonic missiles that it cannot counter? Perhaps Russia should put some of those hypersonic missiles in Cuba and Mexico, 1 minute flight time from Washington DC.
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  276. I don't think the Japanese would really go to war with China. If the USA tried to get the Japanese to fight China then I think that would be the deal breaker as far as the US-Japan alliance is concerned.
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  277. And male circumcision too. Male circumcision is also genital mutilation.
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  278. The United States has shut down western diplomacy the same way as it has shut down the dispute resolution mechanism of the World Trade Organisation. It isn't that Europe doesn't want to engage with Russia and China but that it's being obstructed in its attempts to do so by the USA. A rules-based international order is fine with Russia and China as long as those rules are arrived at by consensus and based on the principles of fairness and equality between states. It's the USA's self-perception of itself as being exceptional, along with an innate sense of moral and cultural superiority over non-western peoples, that is getting in the way of progress. The peculiar and irrational hatred of communism and socialism may also have something to do with it as well.
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  279. To steal from your own workers is disgusting. Don't they make enough money already? These people should go to jail but instead they'll just fine the company. And when you consider also the tax scams these same companies use to avoid paying taxes, then it really does make you angry.
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  280. He's not really resigned. He's merely been reassigned to a new post within the US administration by the Israeli government.
    6
  281.  @tabinekoman  If capitalism is so great, why did Britain and France fall so quickly to German fascism?
    6
  282. Not even if you were starving, had no home, needed money for medicine, etc.? Who would be doing the mocking and why? Misguided people lied to and kept ignorant by an education system and media controlled by the rich (the real welfare abusers) that's who. No point in blaming yourself for being poor when it's not your fault.
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  283. Non-interference doesn't necessarily mean not helping countries that are in crisis. What it can mean - what it should mean - is helping those countries undergoing crisis in a way that doesn't exacerbate the crisis and gives meaningful humanitarian aid impartially to all who need it. The idea that the way to help a country is by invading, sanctioning or bombing it when more peaceful and sensible ways exist to resolve a crisis - which there are almost always are - makes no sense and is immoral.
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  284. The IMF needs serious reform. Either that or a Chinese-Russian alternative that gives much fairer terms to developing countries. The IMF is just an extension of the treasury of the United States.
    6
  285. I'd say it goes deeper than that. Taiwan/Republic of China has been a part of China since at least the Ming dynasty where Cuba was never a part of the USA. The people on both sides of the straits are culturally and ethnically Han Chinese. It's more akin to Texas compared to the Union.
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  286. Japan is still an de facto occupied country and its military are to a not insignificant degree still subject to the influence of the USA, as is its foreign policy.
    6
  287. Money speaks where the conscience is silent.
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  288. Seems like the Chinese can't win however they play it.
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  289. They should just emulate the legislation of the USA, that way the West cannot say anything without being seen as hypocritical.
    6
  290. Don't get your hopes up. Like many countries they may just go through the motions and remain unwilling or unable to enforce the law.
    6
  291. He'll be calling them Russians next (which wouldn't be untrue as that is what they are). However, if they did they would be implicitly recognising Russia's legitimacy – protecting its own people in what historically until very recently was a part of Russia.
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  292. Kazakhstan still needs to trade with other countries and if those foreign-owned businesses sabotage the country's trade I'm sure that they will quickly find themselves in trouble with the authorities and kicked out of the country.
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  293. The answer to George Galloway's question is no. Because the game is rigged.
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  294. How much of Ukraine will be left after Russia's 'special military operation'? Will Russia be forced to honour the contracts and loans taken on by Zelensky if they take the whole country or will they just declare force majeure and renege on those contracts and declare any loans odious debt?
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  295.  @黑土唐  吻鹅？这个中国比喻是什么意思？
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  296. A wise choice given the circumstances.
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  297. They want combat experience and to gain military intelligence. That and prolonging this needless conflict.
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  298. That's capitalism – private profit whatever the cost. Corporatism/late stage capitalism even more so. Let's face it, we're in a race to the bottom, the result of capitalism's insistence on competition to the last man standing. There can be only one. And for the USA that's them.
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  299.  @JL-fh4qw  It's called a PARADIGM And it takes a PARADIGM SHIFT to change. See T. S. Kuhn.
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  300. It's not just about trade but about sovereignty. The Chinese are of the opinion that if Russia falls they will be next. The military‐industrial complex of the USA is rapacious and the corporations behind it want nothing less than total control of the Earth, its people and resources. China as an independent country with control over its own people and resources is anathema to them, even more so as it serves as an example to others.
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  301.  @Lordskipper1910  I think he means that denigrating a country that invests heavily in infrastructure that then leads to stupendous economic growth and a year‐on‐year increase in the standard of living is a bit, shall we say, petty and smacks of jealousy, especially coming from a country that is not investing nearly as much.
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  302. Gas lighting is, I think, the term for it.
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  303. They were already as good as members of NATO already. Formal membership would just be making it official. So nothing new there.
    6
  304. But, even then... it could be rigged.
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  305.  @walid7885  The security apparatus of the USA is what has infiltrated the mass media of Europe and much of the world. And they've been doing it since at least the 1950's.
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  306. You did occupy Iraq. And you're still occupying Iraq.
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  307. Enzo Dina The United States is the real culprit. They are behind the global rise of religious fundamentalism, not Russia. Whether it be in Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, Pakistan or, indeed, even at home in America, with their proxies in the Middle East they goaded the Soviet Union into invading Afghanistan in an attempt to prop up a progressive, secular government that was being destroyed by foreign-sponsored Jihadist mercenaries.
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  308.  @ptd8726  And then we could accuse them of stealing Chinese technology.
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  309. What events specifically are you referring to? And where exactly is Europe, specifically Germany, going to get its energy from? Especially as the Germans seem hellbent on undermining their own domestic supplies of energy (eg. shutting down their nuclear power plants) ostensibly due to ecological concerns but I think that there some other reason that we aren't being told.
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  310.  @73elephants  The USA decided for us. Same for France. European colonialism was competition and we all know the USA doesn't like competition. Just look at Suez.
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  311. Better still if the people of each nation live according to their own social norms while happily borrowing what is good from the cultures of others.
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  312. ​​ @patc2515  You sound as if you are borrowing a concept that originates in religion. Religion, may I remind you, has no part to play in science. And no one has yet been able to discover a soul, much less study it. For instance, is what you call a soul an emergent property of biochemical and neurophysical activities of the brain – essentially a byproduct of brain activity – or a holistic entity that exists prior to the brain and/or independently of it You seem to be referring to metaphysical concepts that lie in the intellectual pursuits of theology and philosophy rather than the tangible world of the physical sciences.
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  313. The USA wants for Asia what happened to Europe in the two world wars. They want Asians to fight each and leave their countries in ruins while the USA gets rich by selling weapons and coming in at the last minute to 'save' them. Don't let yourselves be divided the way the countries of the Middle East currently are. Don't fall into that trap.
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  314. Never had one to begin with.
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  315. This is why I stopped paying my TV licence and stopped watching British TV. So much propaganda, advertising and crap programmes.
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  316. The USA determines policy vis-a-vis Russia and China and if there is no policy by the foreign office it's because there's no policy in the USA. If there is paralysis or indecision in the USA it will be reflected in Britain. Bad decisions by the Americans will simply be duplicated by Britain. A client state has to follow orders after all.
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  317. Or: We never left!
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  318. Shortly after NATO has been officially disbanded. Without NATO the raison d'être of the USA having a military presence in Germany disappears. As time goes on I see Germany pursuing policies that will diverge increasingly from those of the USA with regards its relationship with Russia. I think it's inevitable. Germany has been under the wing of the United States long enough and I think that maybe now it is mature enough to stand on its own two feet. Germany can act as the bridge between Russia and Western Europe.
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  319. It's a setup. He's the fall guy.
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  320. They could ask China to help with their development by giving technical aid and financial assistance. Perhaps China will be less predatory than the West and once they have the basic infrastructure and services in place they could then go on to develop themselves independently, especially if such infrastructure projects were simultaneously implemented in neighbouring countries.
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  321. Like with the Soviet Union during the era of Stalin, the figures for those who supposedly died due to communism keeps going on up; it's now in the tens of millions according to some sources. The propaganda of the US empire keeps inflating the figures even after the demise of the Soviet Union when to do so serves little purpose from a propaganda viewpoint and, indeed, can be easily refuted thus undermining the credibility of such claims.
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  322. Permanent low-to-medium intensity wide spectrum conflict is what I think the USA and its closest allies might be aiming for.
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  323.  @rogerbrownreacts8528  using worthless monopoly money which it conjures out of thin air.
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  324.  @doujinflip  From at least the time of the Ming dynasty they have. Why do you think Japan had to give up Formosa (the former name of Taiwan) to China at the end of the Asia‐Pacific war with the USA if Taiwan hadn't originally belonged to it?
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  325.  @Pridetoons  Another fun fact: 1% of Americans own more than 50% of all wealth. I don't know what the stats for the world as a whole are but I would bet that the figures would be similar.
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  326. And Putin! Don't forget Putin. He supports Trump who, totally unlike Biden, steals US elections.
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  327. And you know, that's not a joke or satire: it's just the sort of thing the USA would do.
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  328. But how much of India's GDP will used to alleviate poverty effectively? With all those trillions they should be able to give a guaranteed minimum income to every Indian and provide basic housing, education, clean water and healthcare for everyone. India has had since 1948 to have a standard of living at least equal to that of China yet has had comparatively lacklustre performance. India's leaders appear incompetent in comparison to their Chinese counterparts. I hope things will change and every Indian will have greater opportunities in the future.
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  329. I wonder if this is designed to bring Russia into a new arms race or at least put pressure on them by forcing them to become involved, a sort of Afghanistan 2.0.
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  330. They pull the same trick when discussing Cuba, Venezuela, etc. They do not see the elephant in the room.
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  331.  @sirvidia  Ah, when it's the Chinese you call it "eradicating a culture" but when the USA and the West do it it's called by the much nicer sounding cultural assimilation or integration. Even indigenous peoples like First Nations Indians, Native Americans, Maori and Aborigines are expected to conform to western cultural diktats (think America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand's forced removal of children from their parents and their violent deculturaton in state schools). Westerners, Americans in particular, think non-westerners should adapt to the majority white Christian, English speaking European culture when they come the their countries , yet think immigrants and minorities in places like China should be at perfect liberty to form virtually separate countries. In the West right now the issue of non-white, non-western immigration is high on the agenda because of fears, stoked by the media, of foreigners not assimilating (think what irrational fear and hatred words like 'sharia law', 'female circumcision', 'polygamy', 'honour killings', 'arranged (child) marriage' evokes in westerners).
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  332. Does the USA really want another president with senile dementia ?
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  333. And England in places like Ireland and Scotland.
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  334. The Dutch would agree. Their farmers anyway are in uproar about the proposed ban on fertiliser use. Deliberate shortages of foodstuffs, especially grains, as well oil, gas and fertiliser (and their precursor products) are being created by certain western institutions and governments/governmental agencies. Parastatals like agribusiness and pharmaceuticals conglomerates and quangos like the World Economic Forum (WEF), together with certain private 'philanthropic' organisations may be to blame.
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  335. Great show, great host, great guest! The subject matter is an interesting area of study and holds promise. Keep up the good work, someday you might win the Nobel prize.
    6
  336. Because it's not about that. It's about liberalism/neoliberalism.
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  337.  Dickle Wiley&D  Tell that to the Iraqis when they were being sanctioned. 2 Million dead. Tell that to the Venezuelans. Yeah, embargoes and sanctions don't have any effect in your opinion. GFO.
    6
  338. What Ukraine needs is peace and no more war.
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  339. I'm sure the Russians will find out the story, if they haven't already. They have a sophisticated intelligence service that will help them.
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  340. The question is how long will China put up with dollar depreciation and subsidising a country that, on the surface at least, seems to be incredibly hostile to it, and how will effect international trade with the rest of the developed world when the decision is finally made to transition to a new international reserve currency. Will China let down the USA gently, perhaps by using the SDR's of the IMF to create a new international currency, or will it abruptly substitute its own?
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  341. Capitalism. And being a country on the periphery of world power.
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  342. They first came for Cuba but I did nothing because I was not from there. Then they came for Nicaragua but I did nothing for I was not from there either. They also came one by one for Iran, for Iraq, for Yugoslavia, for Libya, for Yemen, for Syria, for Sudan, for Ethiopia, for Egypt, for.... I still did nothing for I was not from any of those places. Then they came for me. But there was no one left to speak out for me.
    6
  343. ... The deep state.
    6
  344. ​ @Savagetechie  But corporations are their constituents!
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  345. They should ban male genital mutilation (MGM) aka circumcision as well. I'm sure their will be lots of loopholes in these proposed laws that will allow for circumvention, as well as the fact that they can simply move to a different state. It probably won't be an absolute ban.
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  346.  Dickle Wiley&D  Sanctions were also used against Zimbabwe too. It's hyperinflation didn't come out of nowhere. Then there's the after-effects of imperialism and the effects of ongoing neo-colonialism.
    6
  347. ​ @dpb-236  How does a country attempting to reunify itself after being artificially divided by outside powers get to be called an invasion? Did the USA invade itself during its civil war, or did it just invade the South?
    6
  348. The province of Alberta? has just banned convoys and even gatherings to cheer them on. The government is definitely scared.
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  349. Sending weapons will only prolong the conflict and cause greater civilian casualties. It is also pointless. A symbolic gesture at best.
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  350. How great has been the role of the United States in the coup d'état in Niger? I don't think it would be too far a stretch to say that the USA would like to weaken the influence of France in country and Africa more generally in as much as France's national interests diverge from those of the USA.
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  351.  @David-bh7hs  Quod erat demonstrandum?
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  352. There is no left wing in the USA. Actually, come to think of it, there is no left wing anywhere any more. The Cold War that was launched by the rich elites of the USA and western Europe - an open-ended class war on anything standing in the way of capital and, despite what some would would have you believe, still very much ongoing - has effectively destroyed anything that could have been called the organised left. It has taken them the better part of a century to accomplish but it has succeeded in reducing the so-called left to little more than a motley collection of supposedly 'progressive' organisations, rump unions and independent activists working on disparate projects and on an an ad hoc basis - easily infiltrated, divided and co-opted - and all (it seems to me) to be working more or less within existing paradigms. In effect, fascism has won and what we are seeing is the right's mopping-up operations against a 'left' that's not merely demoralised but comprehensively defeated. Francis Fukuyama, Aldus Huxley and George Orwell's dystopian futures may already be upon us.
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  353. That's the saddest thing about China and Russia, neither of them offer anything substantively different from what the USA offers, economically speaking. The economies and political leadership of both countries came into being and were made possible by US neo-liberalism.
    5
  354. Whose interests? 1. Those with genuine grievances. 2. Foreign governments. 3. Individuals and groups with their own agendas.
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  355. The world has been in a depression since 2008, barring perhaps the Chinese. The system is in crisis and I think it might get a lot worse before it gets any better.
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  356. Agreed, but it's quintessentially capitalist, so what can you expect.
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  357. The USA is going to go bankrupt. In fact it is already bankrupt and has been since the 1970's and it's just a matter of time before China or the international banking system gets rid of the dollar as the world's reserve currency. When that happens the government of the USA will suffer from a fiscal crisis unless some contingency plan has been planned in advance (and one which will probably require the cooperation of China and the rest of the world for its successful implementation).
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  358. I think they might be. Same for Canada and Australia.
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  359. Actually Eurasia – Europe AND Asia: a truly multi-polar world. But Rimland wants to stop unity within Heartland.
    5
  360. It irritates me the degree to which the Romans used abbreviations in their inscriptions. How would people know what they were referring to if they were not already familiar with the terminology? It's so lazy.
    5
  361. Is Nigel Farage unfamiliar with the Cuban missile crisis? One country did threaten another another, and not just once either.
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  362. Is this the same social credit score they excoriate the Chinese for?
    5
  363. The people who are in charge either don't know or don't care. Or they are simply being calculating.
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  364.  @ZincFold  And if it wasn't for Russia we'd all be speaking German.
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  365. What's wrong with renting?
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  366. marksuave25 Why? You didn't assimilate the native American culture.
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  367. I think they are trying to split them and play one off against the other like they did during the era of the Sino-Soviet split, but this time it's not really working because they now have a common interest in defending themselves against United States hegemony and fostering bilateral trade relations with each other.
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  368. More sensible leaders will prevail. Eventually.
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  369. 1:07 Putin is like Peter the Great but whereas Peter looked to the West, Putin looks to the East. What we may be seeing are far reaching economic, political and sociocultural changes in Russia every bit as momentous as those in the 17th century.
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  370. They both live in the past because the present is so unappealing.
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  371. That's an ignorant comment. What you call socialism was already a thing in Europe (at least in its western part) from at least the latter part of the 19th century and had nothing to do with the USA. It was a response to the horrors of that oh-so-wonderful capitalism that Americans are so enamoured of and it's somewhat ironic that the USA has to turn to socialism (actually, social democracy, which barely warrants the term socialism) to save the capitalist system from itself due both to the Great Depression caused by capitalism and the European civil war known as world war 2, also caused in part by capitalism. The same goes for Roosevelt's New Deal and the reforms of the 1960's.
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  372.  @luishernandezblonde  I would say it's economic and political mainly, with the USA playing a major part – allowing or instigating, enabling.
    5
  373. Taiwan (Republic of China) already belongs to the People's Republic China the way that Hawaii belongs to the USA or the northern part of Ireland belongs to England, or French Polynesia belongs to France and US Micronesia belongs to the USA. What the people there want is entirely irrelevant.
    5
  374. And the Euro too unless the IMF extends it a line of credit or it starts its own QE.
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  375. ​ @mm8u9y7i  The USA was absolutely clobbered in the Battle of the Bulge... but Germany was still defeated (by Russia! ).
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  376. Fascism is capitalism in a crisis; it's when capitalists can't get all their own way and is usually caused by one or other of the crises inherently engendered by it – cyclical recession and depression, constant class warfare at home and abroad, severe inequality, declining rates of profit, ecological damage and competition from rivals, etc.
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  377. Nuclear bombs need to be dropped on the West and then there will be no more population problems. And no more western institutions to peddle the overpopulation myth western media to propagate it.
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  378. I think in the short term India will continue to source most of its energy by importing oil and gas from the Middle East by tanker or otherwise obtain it domestically rather than become too dependent on the Russians or Chinese for their energy needs, at least not until they are sure that playing off the USA against China and Russia is no longer a viable strategy.
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  379. I wish amateur historians would stop using the word Nazi in their documentaries. It's such a childish insult. They were Germans. The Germans invaded France, not the Nazis. You don't use similar rhetoric when referring to the British or the Americans. Nor do you refer to the Soviets as commies. It irritates me because it's just a hate word that clouds our understanding of important world events.
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  380. It says there are 2 replies but I can't see them for some reason.
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  381. One word: Eurasia. Europe AND Asia. Together this supercontinent, if united, has the potential to put everyone else including the USA in the shade. And whoever dominates Eurasia – China, Russia, France, Germany, or a combination – will have the power to dominate the world. The current global hegemon sees this, rightly, as a threat and wants to stop it. Britain did exactly the same thing and its prodigal son seems intent on following in its footsteps.
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  382. Britian's quasi-democracy has been captured by the security apparatus of the USA that has infiltrated both media and government. Britain's political class has become a comprador class just like those in Latin America and Africa whereby the needs of a foreign power and it's paranoid military-industrial complex are given precedence over its own people as long as the wealthy elite can stay in power.
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  383. The Chinese had also discovered this means of controlling the masses with Confucianism which, curiously, is an entirely secular philosophy rather than a theology. It's interesting to note the radically different ways in which the Chinese state solved the problem of citizen allegiance during the existential crisis their society went through in its formative years. I think it's one of the major contributory factors as to why Chinese civilisation has endured up to our own times.
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  384. ​​it was militarily weak and couldn't resist Anglo-American and Franco-Geman corporatism. Russia and China on the other hand.... Not your fault though: not every country can be as big and powerful as others.
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  385. It's not up to the USA to go around the world dictating what the economy, political system, society, culture and religion of other countries should be and if it insists on doing so then countries more powerful than itself might just decide to give it a dose of its own medicine and forcefully impose their vision of what capitalist utopia should look like upon the United States. Live and let live. The world is big enough for all of us.
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  386. Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada will quickly follow, then Germany and France, followed by the European Union. The United Nations will then follow. You will know nothing except (what we tell) you and you will be happy. As Klaus Schwabb of the World Economic Forum might say.
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  387.  @sophiazhu8656  Democracy? Studies have shown that most of (all of?) what is called the West doesn't have democracy, but an aristocratic/plutocratic oligarchy, where the electorate have virtually no effect on public or foreign policy (they only think they do).
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  388. These laws were, firstly, to deligitimize Germany and Japan, secondly, to deligitimize the Soviet Union and, thirdly, to use as a legal instrument by the western powers to use against other countries (eg. Iraq in its invasion of Kuwait, or against Yugoslavia and Rwanda). It was never intended to be used against the start itself.
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  389. Agreed, fighting for an economic system that is inherently iniquitous and divisive is indeed strange given the alternatives.
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  390. North Korea a hostile nation? 8000 miles from Uncle Sam's shores, surrounded by Uncle Sam's warships and bases that threaten to wipe it off the map and very nearly did within living memory and that divided the nation in two. Why would North Korea threaten its neighbours anyway? Does South Korea threaten its neighbours? Does Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia? The USA is the one threatening not just its neighbours (Latin America) but the whole world. It's now a we speak even threatening China and Russia, the two biggest nuclear and conventionally armed countries in the world (if India falls outside its orbit it will probably be sanctioned too). Sanctions kill. They kill indiscriminately. They kill the innocent. They kill men, women, children, the elderly, babies. Sanctions are murder. Sanctions are mass murder. Sanctions are an act of war. You sanction North Korea which has never militarily threatened the USA or its lackeys in western Europe (indeed, is incapable of doing so) and threaten them with nuclear annihilation and expect them not to be hostile? And when they defend themselves against a nuclear armed superpower, the only country to have actually used nuclear weapons against civilians, you accuse them of threatening their neighbours. What you've by just said is a perverse inversion of reality.
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  391.  @truckerfromreno  But this time with all the paper safeguards in place to stop electoral fraud.
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  392. Perhaps Christian iconclasts vandalised it during the time of the Eastern Roman empire when polytheism was outlawed.
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  393.  @joshbeck9761  The western media can't seem to make up it's mind about that issue though. Is China communist, capitalist, state capitalist, or state communist? On the one hand the peoples of countries like the United States want to portray the Chinese as out-and-out (state) capitalists as a way of showing that communism is a complete failure and what they call American/western liberal capitalism is thereby vindicated. Yet, on the the other hand, when they need a bogey man to secure funding for their bloated military-industrial-political complex they revert to calling them communist again. So what is it - are the Chinese communist, capitalist, or a peculiar and (so far) unique hybrid of the two… and does it really matter? It cannot be denied that the Chinese economic and political system, for all its faults, is successful and shows no sign of being less successful for the foreseeable future, despite the gainsayers of the West.
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  394. For eastern Europe membership of the European Union means accepting a neo- or quasi-colonial relationship with Western Europe. Western Europe (the real 'West') sees the East primarily as a source of cheap labour and a market for western goods and for the extraction of strategic resources like oil, gas and uranium or its usefulness as a transit corridor for pipelines and access to other places.
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  395.  @BillBeeby  Supposed to be. The operative word being "supposed".
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  396. He's a man faced with some hard choices.
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  397. India needs to remain neutral and the champion of the non‐aligned movement, developing at its own pace and keeping itself out of unnecessary foreign entanglements.
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  398. And the members of the Project for the New American Century did too.
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  399. It always irritates me when people attack politicians, dictators and absolute monarchs but think its perfectly acceptable for the CEO's of corporations and banks to have virtually absolute power over their workers that the aforementioned can only dream about and an unfair advantage in their ability to use the law to keep it that way. Under capitalism politicians mainly carry out the will of the CEO's and not the electorate yet the politicians are the ones who get blamed when things go South while the real culprits, the people who actually control the economy, get off scot free.
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  400.  @questworldmatrix  They don't have their own gold so they have to steal other people's.
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  401. They will call you Cassandra, more likely. The prophet who only prophesied doom.
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  402.  @tohellorbarbados7119  From what I'm given to understand the Finns, once they'd took back the territory they had lost to Russia, became more or less neutral until the end of the war. That is, they only gave as much support to the Germans as was necessary. They never went all in and became full on National Socialist.
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  403. ​ @DJs021  Strange to tell but the United Kingdom had similar levels of poverty back in the 18th and 19th centuries yet still managed to become a 'super power'. So it's not impossible.
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  404. Like Britain, Australia is part of the 5‐eyes and thus highly integrated into its deep state structures and if this pseudo‐pandemic is something that's been planned by elements of the deep state (the way that 9/11 and the JFK/BK assassinations almost certainly were) then I think the actions of the Australian government are entirely explicable in terms of the country's state apparatus having being compromised by American deep state assets and agents of influence (like Rupert Murdoch).
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  405. Conversely, how western countries keep telling us how brave and successful they are when fighting countries that either have third rate militaries crippled by years or decades of sanctions (like Iraq) or no militaries at all (like Afghanistan).
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  406. ​ @m.l.5284 Don't the workers make up the bulk of a nation's economy? A strong economy is made strong by the workers – the ones actually generating the wealth through the sweat of their brow – and not by the managers and rentiers.
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  407. ​​ @m.l.5284  I don't know, but does it matter where it's from? Is it not true? Do the 99% need the 1% for society to function and civilisation to progress and prosper? Or do the 1% need the 99% who make their wealth for them, who till their fields, who wait upon them, who build their palaces, and work in their gold mines?
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  408. Agreed. His plan – or rather the plan of those who put him in power – is far different from what is the official policies of the Labour Party (aka the Crypto-conservative Party).
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  409.  @torrokasparov2210  Exactly as planned by the USA. Europe is to be prevented from being able to pursue its own independent foreign policy, especially where this involves deepening ties with Russia. To achieve this it may be necessary for Germany to be semi-deindustrialised and the European Union weakened or broken up in an attempt to make countries come to rely on the USA for such vital commodities as gas, oil, fertiliser and even food. Looked at logically the policies that are currently being pursued do not serve the interests of the European people but they do serve the policy agenda of the USA.
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  410. As I am given to understand it the proposed bill is based upon a Russian law that was itself based on a law passed in the United States (the Magnitsky Act I do believe).
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  411. What is born dies. What has a beginning has an end. There is no other (intelligent) life in the universe sufficiently close to us that we can be aware of its existence, communicate with it, or travel and meet it. If there were we would have noticed by now. Distances are too far, space too hostile, habitable planets too rare, odds of life arising too great.
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  412. Thanks! Great convo! 👍
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  413. India has stuck to a commendable policy of neutrality since independence and so far it is has served it well, so until proven otherwise it is a policy that I think India should continue with.
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  414. Madness! Pure madness!
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  415.  @obsidianjane4413  And that's exactly why some people are suggesting they should be sent to Ukraine (an act of war if you ask my opinion). They want to get rid of obsolete stock and probably make the USA happy by buying more weapons from the them. It's certainly not about helping the Ukrainians in any meaningful way because if they wanted that they could just encourage them to sit down and negotiate à la Minsk 1 & 2.
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  416. ​ @IHMadeThis they're probably a bot activated by an algorithm.
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  417. But that is what the Australian corporate ruling class wants. They want to provoke China to justify their own aggression by portraying them as being the aggressor.
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  418. The USA is in the same boat the United Kingdom was in circa 1820: unable to compete with China, unable to sell things to China.
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  419. ​ @Coastpsych_fi99  The poor are still poor whether deserving or not. Palestinians are still starving, deservedly or not.
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  420. Populism and populist are words the Establishment and orthodoxy use to attack the Great Unwashed and defend their elitism from valid criticism.
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  421. @Armament Armed Arm The native Americans probably. Maybe another trail of tears for the indigenous peoples is in the offing as their reservations are needed for the whites.
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  422. Truth be told we've been in a depression/semi-depression far worse than that of the 1930's since 2008 but nobody's talking about it. This is what happens every 70 years or so under capitalism, an even more so now that fiat currencies and fractional reserve banking are involved.
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  423. And the fact that the regime in Kiev is literally (neo-) fascist makes it even more incredible.
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  424. Correction. It isn't the European Union that's waging a new cold war but the USA. The EU, consisting as it does of a comprador class, is merely carrying out their orders. An EU that truly represented Europe in a broad sense would not be doing this.
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  425. Will the introduction of central bank digital currencies in any way mitigate any great depression that may be coming or allow the USA to somehow wiggle its way out of disaster, as by creating a dollar area in the EU/Latin America similar to the sterling area that Britain created in the interwar years and persuading other countries to keep on using the dollar?
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  426. We didn't give Poland to Stalin because it was not ours to give in the first place. Stalin invaded Poland initially in 1939 after Britain and France (which had secretly helped Hitler rise to power) refused to enter into an alliance that might have put a break on German expansionism, forcing Stalin to seek to create a buffer zone. Then he invaded Poland again during a war that Britain and France had no small part in causing in which Russia, to get to Germany, had to pass through. In both cases Russia was acting in its own best interests. Then consider the USA went and created a totally unnecessary cold war by threatening Russia with NATO and a re-armed Germany to the point of Stalin having to create yet another buffer zone in the form of the Warsaw Pact. And after a series of colour revolutions orchestrated by the West that saw the rapid expansion of NATO and the EU (both American dominated institutions hostile to Russia) throughout Eastern Europe and moving the American empire, an empire that had spent the last 75 years trying to destroy it, right up to its borders, created a hostile fascist state right next door that once more posed an existential threat to the country. Perhaps you'd have been better off under Hitler. I'm sure under his version of corporatism you Poles would have had plenty of opportunities to serve as gasterbeiter. Western Europe (capitalism's imperial core) exploits eastern Europe for the benefit of its parasitical, rentier, debt-ridden economic system, cheap Polish labour being just one of many advantages of being Western.
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  427. This base will allow the Chinese to work more closely with the Russians, cementing their alliance and gaining valuable experience while doing so.
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  428. Sea of Japan controlled by the American empire (that pretends it's not an empire) with Japan aacting as vassal state.
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  429. LET'S BE CLEAR! The USA has NOT withdrawn its forces as it still has thousands of mercenaries (euphemistically referred to as private contractors), paramilitary death squads and intelligence assets who remain in the country, as well as special forces who will operate in the country, not to mention drones.
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  430. Europe's still buying oil and gas from Russia, just not directly in most cases.
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  431. I think you may be overestimating Britain's influence on India, cultural or otherwise. If any English-speaking country has any influence on India it is the USA, and that, I think, it built purely around geopolitical considerations based on pragmatism and expediency.
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  432. In never stood a chance, though. And they knew it. It was just posturing.
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  433. He shouldn't be given the Vatican's past record, e.g. supporting Mussolini in return for diplomatic recognition .
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  434. There is no such thing as humanitarian bombing. Neither is there such thing as humanitarian sanctions. And certainly not when carried out by people who are, directly or indirectly, responsible for much of the mayhem occurring in the first place. The best way to end internal conflicts is to try and get all sides to sit round a table and talk. Foreigners coming in from outside and causing more death and destruction isn't the answer. There are almost always better alternatives with war or sanctions being usually the least effective. Besides, what gives the West the right to intervene in the affairs of states that don't directly affect them or threaten them militarily whilst hypocritically denying those same countries the same right to interfere in theirs. The arguments of people who advocate intervention on humanitarian grounds usually take the form: Stalin is killing millions of his own people so let's try to save them by nuking Moscow. For most people, when you put it this way, the sheer absurdity of humanitarian intervention that will inevitably involve mass killing (which the intervention is supposed to stop) AND could backfire in a big way (by causing an even greater war) becomes apparent. And yet, THAT is exactly the argument advocates of humanitarian intervention propose. Apparently, when the target country is weak and can't fight back it seems to make perfect sense to interventionists. But it shouldn't because, weak or strong, whether applied to Stalin's Russia or Assad's Syria, the logic is still the same: you'll end up killing far more people and destabilising the region even further by intervening than by not intervening.
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  435. Forgive him, his values are those of the top 0.001% who genuinely believe their billions in wealth and the millions of miles of the planet and its resources they claim to own have been earned through hard, honest work and that they are thus rightfully entitled to them. Even if everyone else is left landless, penniless and starving.
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  436. Seems like the UK and USA are destined for 3rd world status if their respective governments don't come up with a plan soon. ...Or a revolution!
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  437. Hopefully, bring about a better world.
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  438. Cronyism definitely but not Marxism.
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  439. Neo-liberal/neo-classical economics is an ideology masquerading as a science.
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  440. Sounds like someone putting on a posh accent and not quite succeeding in pulling it off.
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  441. 25:00 That's what the USA might want: turmoil in Europe. It's worked in the Middle East, might possibly work in Africa. Latin America is divided.
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  442. ​ @markorsrpska7230  The euphemism SMO is necessary because war is supposedly outlawed. So by not calling it war but something else they can get around activating the UN charter which sees war as the ultimate crime.
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  443.  @thehturt5480  Ignorance doesn't necessarily mean stupidity. It could just mean that someone lacks knowledge on a subject such that they cannot make a properly qualified decision about it.
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  444. Fundamentalist Christians, along with white nationalists, are being promoted in the USA by the deep state for the same reason they promoted Islam in places like the Middle East, Indonesia, Pakistan, Hinduism in India and Buddhism in Myanmar. Religion encourages reactionary, right wing, authoritarianism - perfect for rulers with the mindset of fascists.
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  445. What Scott doesn't seem to realise is that Israel is basically a colony of the USA, so it's actions tend to be those that favour US geostrategic interests. In other words, it's the USA that's behind much of what's going on. Also, the European Union is an American creation. Like NATO it was designed to influence Europeans and it's worked.
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  446. Capitalists seek profit. At any cost. No other concerns matter.
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  447.  @M.R.C.R.  Crypto and digital currencies, non‐SWIFT payment systems, non‐fiat currencies backed by gold, silver and other commodities in high demand, together with highly advanced transport and telecommunications infrastructure (eg. internet, high speed rail) and with strong economies backed by plenty of indigenous resources, large pools of skilled and educated labour and firmly centred around industrial manufacturing rather than providing services or cash crops, (i.e. diversified economies) will soon completely neutralise any advantages that North America and Western Europe have.
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  448. It's called in CIA parlance 'resource nationalism' - a country's government using its resources in the interests of its own economic development rather than that of foreign investors. Nationalising oil and gas is especially sinful to western corporations and as the Middle East is a hydrocarbon-rich region and the West is highly dependent upon it, naturally, Iran is a target for regime change.
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  449.  @kuiperbond8460  Agreed. And the Russian government can no more expect the European Union to deliver peace than it can expect Zelensky. Neither are really in charge.
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  450. The government of the Russian Federation officially subscribes to the orthodox interpretation of the events of 11th September 2001 and as this channel is pro‐Russian and also does not want to be demonetized, banned or censored by the US‐controlled You Tube it will put out talking points that tend to favour the status quo on certain issues. That's my opinion anyway.
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  451. The members of the European Union are responsible for any hardship that comes there way by refusing to limit the powers, or exercise proper oversight, of the various institutions of the European Union.
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  452. Subject. You are a subject of the Crown in Parliament. You are a subject of His Majesty, The King.
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  453.  @nonfictionone  Nothing. Let things take their course.
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  454. Interesting fella was that Lenin.
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  455. The trade relationship between China and Australia has NOT broken down as they are still doing business with each other. The title is misleading.
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  456.  @ramatgan1  only the USA has that privilege. Unfortunately.
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  457. It's not socialism that's destroyed the Argentinian economy but 5 centuries of colonialism and a century of US influence. Look at the Chinese to see how a country can prosper by assiduously prioritising the needs of its own people over westerners.
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  458. @Occam's Hammer Unfortunately, the USA and its NATO-EU lackeys would overthrow it with Astroturf colour revolutions á la Arab Spring or Maidan.
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  459. I recall reading that as well. The denouement was a surprise twist, mildly jarring.
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  460. I'd like to see the Russian Federation using the same court to try and prosecute US, French and British troops using the excuse that war crimes were committed by their soldiers on the soil of a signatory nation of the ICC convention. A fortiori, Britain and France would be even less able to argue their way out of things because they are themselves signatories to the ICC convention, unlike Russia and the USA. But just like with Syria vis‐à‐vis alleged chemical weapons use by Bashar al-Assad against civilians and the downing of commercial airline flight MH-17 over Ukraine we would see a complete travesty of legal procedure and suborned UN officials sabotaging their own organisations on behalf of NATO and the EU.
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  461. But what is populism exactly and why is it bad?
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  462. Truth be told in never rant went away.
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  463. Only closer economic relations between Russia, China and Germany and a greater independence of the European Union can undermine this vassalage. And that's exactly what Britain and the USA don't want!
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  464. The Russian Federation may be considered a 'western' nation in so far as it is a fully developed country located in Europe that shares a common cultural heritage with the rest of the continent. Also, one isolated example doesn't refute the main point that the United Nations is biased towards certain western European countries and the USA in particular.
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  465. No one mentions the elephant in the room: neo-imperialism and the role of the West, not least the USA, in dictating just what Egypt can and cannot produce and controlling the worlds financial institutions and its major currencies.
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  466. I think Saudi Arabia might be the real objective. Saudi Arabia is the key to the USA dollar's dominance after all. It may also be designed to re-assert its dominance over Europe and possibly get it to do something that will weaken it and strengthen the USA à la the two major wars. fought in Europe in the 20th century.
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  467. Hopefully the Russian army will refrain from more generalised attacks on civilian infrastructure, doing so only when tactically or strategically necessary, as it is bad for their public image and damages infrastructure that the civilian population – Ukrainian and Russian alike – need. In this particular case I'm given to understand that the reason behind this action was because the civilian tram and train system were being used by the Ukrainian military. I am also assuming it's a reprisal as well as a show of power designed to demoralise.
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  468. The USA reminds me of the Ottoman empire during the late nineteenth century, the so-called sick man of Europe. Its demise was long anticipated but it held on into the twentieth century, much longer than anyone expected. Likewise, it's impossible to predict with any great degree of certainty when, or how, or even if, the USA will collapse in any meaningful way soon.
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  469. And our coal is going to waste while we import gas from other countries. Like Germany, the British government is weakening Britain and making us vulnerable to economic blackmail by the USA and the EU.
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  470. @Rift Don’t believe the whitewashing of history that followed world war 2 (that Britain wanted peace and that it was the Germans who wanted war). The truth is that Germany had set itself on rearmament and economic great power competition, reasserting itself on the world stage in defiance of the British and French and this went against the geopolitical interests of Britain, not least its prime position in Europe after the previous defeat of Germany in world war 1. The British empire was just playing for time as it wasn’t quite ready for war. Make no mistake, war would have broken out sooner or later as British industry couldn’t compete with an assertive and powerful Germany. Indeed, the main reason for world war 1 is that the German economy was growing faster and becoming bigger than Britain’s and it was set to overtake them. The same position, incidentally, that the USA now finds itself in vis-à-vis China. The war on communism by the USA these last 50 years (Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia) was just an attempt by the United States to stop Asia from developing in ways prejudicial to it’s interests; in effect, a continuation of imperialism and colonialism cloaked in the rhetoric of democracy, freedom and human rights.
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  471. Try using the button at top right (three parallel bars). Then select the 'Newest first'. This shows all the latest replies and not just the most liked.
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  472. Does that go for the Palestinians as well?
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  473. Let's hope so.
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  474. Timothy McLean, your insouciant attitude to bacteria/viruses is frightening given the epidemics and pandemics that have occurred throughout human history. Assuming that biology is pretty much the same throughout the universe, exopathogens could presumably cross the species barrier just like they do on Earth and it's certainly not something whose impossibility should be taken for granted.
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  475. Russian phototonic radar that renders stealth fighter bombers perfectly visible; hypersonic missiles that are impossible to counter; China's new stealth bomber.... Yeah, the USA will certainly need to be at the rate China and Russia are developing. Next they will be telling us the technology was stolen from them.
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  476.  @Carbuncle0168  You're in denial.
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  477. Actually, the law is modelled on US legislation. So it seems strange that the United States would be against another country adopting a law that the USA itself uses.
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  478. Their dislike is often exaggerated. They have more in common than propaganda would have you believe. Most of the animosity comes from western‐backed regimes; remove them and things begin to look a lot better.
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  479. He needs to exercise.
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  480.  @cruellworrld  It was made illegal because certain businessmen in the USA wanted it that way. You see, being a natural product cannabis couldn't be patented and as it was a widespread and easily available form of effective and safe pain relief it competed against the far more dangerous synthetic forms of pain relief then being marketed by the pharmaceutical industry. As its fibres could also be used to make a strong and durable textile it also competed with the cotton and wool industries. Most of all though, it competed with tobacco as a favourite narcotic. So for all of these reasons various corporate interests lobbied to get it banned. Now, however, certain states in the USA want it legalised so they can increase their tax revenue from its sale and so the government (read big corp, big pharma and big agro) can have control, just like they have already with tobacco, alcohol and grain. It will be corporations and the US government that have the most to gain by its re-legalisation rather than the lone hippy growing weed in his garden.
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  481.  @bipolarbear9917  Just do some proper research on the internet (or even here on YouTube) and you'll hopefully get a fuller picture of what the situation is in places like Hong Kong and Xinjiang. One question I would like to ask you is why you would take such an interest in the lives and political system of a country so far away? Shouldn't you care more about your own country and its obsolescent infrastructure, rising inflation, unemployment and homelessness, as well as its constant wars with more and more taxes from the lower classes going to fund those wars while the upper classes pay less and less?
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  482.  @bipolarbear9917  You may live in China and even be married to a Chinese wife but you still have a preconceived notion of what Chinese society should be like. China is not a western country and the idea that it's a hell hole just because it doesn't conform to a westerners notion of what constitutes a good society borders on cultural chauvinism. The Chinese have the government they want, a government that is a product of their unique history and world view and if it was unpopular the Chinese I'm sure would make their voices heard.
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  483. Only when done by capitalists and fascists is meritocracy good. When done by communists and socialists meritocracy is bad. Just ask an American.
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  484. My prediction is that the EU will become even more authoritarian and will basically serve a troika made up of the USA, France and Germany (with the latter two tending to defer to the USA unless it loses its influence).
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  485. Went do you say overpopulated? The entire population of planet Earth could fit comfortably into the state of Texas and there would be enough food to feed them thrice over. It's not population that's the problem but access to resources.
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  486. China, Russia, Vietnam, Cuba and other countries that have, at one time or another, experimented with the types of socioeconomic system that fall under the broad term of socialism would like to disagree. Using various metrics their economies, and more importantly the overall well-being of their societies, usually improved in the years immediately following the introduction of socialist policies and, conversely, it can be argued deteriorated upon the discontinuation of such policies. Socialism is not monolithic either and every country that has introduced elements of socialism into its society has usually done so pragmatically, according to the specific needs of time and place rather than the one size fits all approach of neoliberalism.
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  487. Afghan traitors and collaborators you mean.
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  488. He's not in charge; the USA is.
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  489. The British people won't be given a choice, either tweedledee or tweedledum.
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  490.  @milkhit2714  But Sweden and Finland were already members of NATO in everything but name so it won't make that much of a difference.
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  491. It wasn't him, it was the hawks within the military-industrial complex who gave him no choice. US presidents are figureheads who do whatever faction in the Whitehouse and MIC have the upper hand.
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  492. Same in Afghanistan and in Nicaragua in the 1980's.
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  493. Submarines do not crash. They sink. Cars, planes and helicopters crash. Submarines and ships do not. If a ship collides with something, eg. another ship, then it crashes. Otherwise... it sinks.
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  494. @Furiosa Would you say the same thing in the early 20th century when teliophilic homosexuality was both criminalised and perceived as a mental illness and where people of colour were openly discriminated against as mandated by law? Or the 18th and 19th centuries where human beings were property (chattel and indentured labour slavery)? Or the late 20th century where raping your wife (in Britain) was entirely legal? Are what about your much praised democracy – before female suffrage in the 20th century and universal male suffrage in the 19th? Were these human rights then or did they only become human rights when the West said so? Could the Muslim world have argued that because polygyny wasn't allowed in the USA that therefore it was oppressive and should be sanctioned?
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  495. 11:33 No, countries should not borrow more and at interest from the the cartel of private banks operated by the BIS. They should set up their own banks in a like manner to China, banks that work in the interests of their own national economies. The EU is drowning in debt issued by private banks and in need to stop. A debt jubilee should be declared and certain debts declared odious and repudiated. — 16:40 the USA wants to save itself by using the EU as a continent of vassals under German dominance.
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  496.  @lutherblissett9070  The USA has always been hostile to unions. In all periods of American history, irrespective of which party has been in power. And that's a fact.
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  497. Looks like this sorry saga will go on for at least another year.
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  498. 1:19 "Pretty big demands". Like peace in Europe and putting a stop to US militarism.
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  499. ​ @KyouTGD  Fear of the working poor more like.
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  500. I'm given to understand that it's the name given to a First Nations/Native American tribe living in Canada during the 19th century.
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  501. But when! When will China replace the dollar with the Yuan? Will it happen in our lifetimes? Will the Chinese simply use the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights to create a new international crypto-currency which ends up as a modified form of the status quo with the United States still powerful?
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  502. Ah, Alexander isn't blurred at the beginning. How nice. Interesting show as usual.👍
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  503. How can 5 unelected members take away your reproductive rights? For the same reason that those same 5 unelected members can give you those rights in the first place. ▪︎▪︎▪︎ Instead of relying on the judiciary (Supreme Court) — what Noam Chomsky called 'judicial activism' — use the legislature (Congress). Referendum or constitutional amendment. That is what is needed. ▪︎▪︎▪︎ Are Americans so divided that women can no longer expect to have rights over their own bodies defended?
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  504. That's an interesting take on things. It might even be true up to a point.
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  505. I doubt this will get much coverage in the MSM.
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  506. The apparent underestimation of the Chinese by the Americans smacks of some kind of superiority complex borne of cultural chauvinism that finds itself incapable of treating them as intellectual equals capable of great feats of technological development and this is strange given even a cursory glance at Chinese history as a leader in technological advances. Just because they fell behind in the development of guns – a technology that they themselves invented – doesn't mean they can't develop them now. The idea that the Chinese, and Asians more generally, can't be leaders in technology or other fields and thus can only develop by copying the West is absurd.
    4
  507. Hasn't Oxbridge (and the Ivy League in the USA) always been like that, finishing schools for the privately educated?
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  508. Some form of socialism is and will continued to be needed for as long as there are avaricious capitalists, driven purely by profit and an insatiable desire for infinite growth, ruthlessly exploiting people and the environment in ways which are profoundly alienating, often grossly iniquitous and that may even have the potential to threaten the long term survival of the human race.
    4
  509. Plaza Accords 1 & 2.
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  510. You won't be allowed airtime if you're anything else.
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  511. The US hypocrisy over alleged interference in its own elections is breathtaking (and those allegations are based on lies).
    4
  512. And that's especially true of Japan.
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  513. ​ @yaoliang1580  A comprador class made up of collaborators.
    4
  514. I'm surprised they haven't tried renaming the South China Sea yet.
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  515. She's just following the EU's playbook. They do exactly the same thing. What can you expect from a remainer and staunch supporter of the EU.
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  516. But only after it had become a threat to Russia. You've left that bit out. Let us not forget that Ukraine had been a part of Russia for three hundred years prior to the unconstitutional breaking up of the Soviet Union and a large part of its population were and are ethnic Russians.
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  517. I see the hand of the USA in this somewhere.
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  518. A never-to-be-repeated accident of history. And the French revolution didn't destroy a system of oppression — the monarchy — it merely replaced it with a new form of oppression — the republic. The nobility of French feudalism was replaced by the haute bourgeoisie of capitalism. Also, you mustn't forget the counter-revolution of 1815 when the monarchy was briefly restored by the victors of Waterloo, or that none other than Bonaparte betrayed the republican values of the French revolution by declaring himself an emperor.
    4
  519. What if the state nationalises certain strategic sectors of the economy and no longer runs then strictly for profit but instead implements policies designed specifically to alleviate the worse kinds of poverty and builds up a mixed economy that is more robust, like China did/ does?
    4
  520. Shawn Gunnison: all good and well, but it's what international law as agreed on by the international community as represented by the United Nations post world war 2 that matters here. De facto the Golan Heights are under Israeli occupation (as in military occupation having been seized in war) but de jure the international community considers them as still belonging to Syria regardless. That is the long and the short of it and is not up for dispute. One of the reasons for the failure of the League of Nations was because it could not enforce the law and as a result we had the lawlessness of Germany, Italy and Japan. Without law there is lawlessness and when a group of countries start tearing up the rule book then it spoils it for everyone; the world degenerates into a jungle of 'might makes right'. Israel could easily negotiate peace with all its neighbours if it wanted, but neither it, nor more tellingly, its protector the USA, want this. They find the current political instability in the Middle East serves their purposes much better.
    4
  521. My understanding is that Greece is currently being run by a troika of EU-IMF-World Bank bureaucrats imposed by the globalist banksters after the Greek banking crisis deliberately caused by them and has long ago ceased to represent the the Greek electorate, neither properly reflecting public opinion nor caring much about the lives of the Greeks affected by the austerity measures they demanded.
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  522. Only out on paper. In reality we're still in.
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  523. The EU bends and breaks its own rules as it sees fit so I'm sure they'll find some way to get round this. Accommodating China's growing power is unavoidable, we're just waiting for Germany to get on board then everything will be fine (where Germany goes France will follow).
    4
  524. ​ @buddyluv584  And it was the UK that handed over Czechoslovakia at Munich.
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  525. A fortiori, the very same could be said of the United States. If only the USA would stop poking the Russian bear and the Chinese dragon it might be able to fix some of its own domestic problems.
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  526. If Germany has a plan its one that's heavily influenced by the USA.
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  527. Three generations. From the 1840's to the 1960's. From then on nothing but decline, slow at first but speeding up as time went by. The country is now living on borrowed time as the rentier form of bankster capitalism known as neoliberalism is unsustainable long term, especially when faced with the dynamic growth of Asia and the economic colossus that is China.
    4
  528. The WEF/Davos.
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  529. In a nutshell. The USA and Great Britain have their priorities wrong (Australia too)
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  530. They can blame the country's problems on foreign sanctions. Remove those sanctions and the government may find itself weakened. External threats always create political solidarity among a people but the absence of such threats can lead to an unpopular government not having anyone else to blame for perceived failures but themselves.
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  531. Since 1917 actually. More than a century. By now it's institutionalised in academia, the military and civil society in general. Political discourse at all levels is never entirely free of it.
    4
  532. Europe is part of Asia, a subcontinent in fact, so when it collaborates with Asia it is to everyone's benefit.
    4
  533. What's the latest news? Last I heard was that he was missing. I then heard he was okay but in hiding.
    4
  534.  @shayaan2354  That's sad to hear. I know about him only from having seen him once or twice on The Duran show.
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  535. The way things are going it would seem that Anglo-American neo‐liberal capitalism is a failed experiment.
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  536. Permafrost refers to a subsurface layer of soil that remains permanently below freezing all year round even though the uppermost surface seasonally melts due to direct exposure from the sun.
    4
  537. That's howJudaism, Christianity and Islam started. And when people started questioning and then dissenting they called it blasphemy or heresy and made it punishable under law. That's what the Spanish inquisition was all about.
    4
  538. Right you are but, unfortunately, nothing is ever that simple, especially when you have virtually the whole of the Establishment and the mass media they control against you.
    4
  539. The 'Royal We'. The Queen of England does it all the time.
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  540. From the point of view of the USA, Germany must be cut down to size and reminded that it only has as much sovereignty as does not conflict with the interests of USA vis‐à‐vis Russia and the EU.
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  541. 35% is still a large number of people, more than a third of the population, and certainly big enough to decisively influence any vote on the subject. Hopefully the Finnish government will not join NATO but will remain steadfastly neutral and if the Finnish government does eventually decide to join NATO it will allow Finns should certainly to vote in a referendum on the issue; politicians are not to be trusted.
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  542. And don't forget the personal financial interests of certain members of the political class in the USA.
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  543.  @oddvardmyrnes9040  Probably a spam bot created by the 5 eyes, activated by certain trigger words or subjects. Best to ignore them. You can usually spot them by their completely out of context content.
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  544. It was a false flag to begin with.
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  545.  @SonjaHamburg  One word: communism. Actually two: communist revolution. The dual threat of both revolution and communism is probably by far the main reason for the social improvements we've seen in the conditions of the working class over the last century and a half.
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  546. A peace treaty would probably involve the Syrians asking Israel to give them back the Golan Heights and Israel very probably would not agree to that as they see it as a territory of great strategic value and vital to the security of Israel.
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  547. At least since the false flag of 2001, if not since JFK.
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  548. Shush now! You'll give the CIA ideas.
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  549. You must be joking! It's the 'Austrian' school of economics (neo-classical/neo-liberal/Washington Consensus/Chicago School; Hayek, Friedman, etc. ) that's got the USA and the European Union into this mess in the first place. This is the West using rentierism to suck the rest of the world dry, but the rest of the world aren't having it anymore and led by the likes of China and Russia are rebelling and slowly going their own way.
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  550. I think Singapore has more to gain in the long run by pursuing a policy of benevolent neutrality towards China than by siding outright with the USA. Its close proximity, cultural and ethnic ties and an economy based on being a seaport open to all weigh heavily in favour of the city state maintaining good bilateral relations with China. Anything else would be economic madness as I don't think that any other South East Asian country, with the possible exception of Japan, is likely to be that keen to damage their economies for the sake of continued western hegemony.
    4
  551. NATO was always about the USA and not about Europe. Like the European Union, it was pushed on Europeans by the USA as a means of controlling the continent and dominating it politically through proxies, playing one European country against another. Like in all empires, underlings aren't allowed to be militarily superior, or even equal, to the hegemon that exercises suzereinty over them.
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  552. If Taiwan plays its cards right its GDP will rise in tandem with China's.
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  553. Even in April 1945 the war against Russia didn't end as the USA and Britain continued to use Ukrainians to fight the Soviet Union up until the early 1950's, causing thousands of deaths.
    4
  554. ​​ @flyingfishnet  The entire population of the world (approximately 8 billions) could fit comfortably in the state of Texas. And could be easily fed too. It's not resources per se that put limits on population, but access to resources by the majority of the world's population. We live in a world of artificial scarcity where resources are monopolised. That's not to say that we shouldn't do anything to mitigate the damage we, as a species, might be doing to the climate and ecology of the planet. Of course we should, but what I'm trying to say is population growth is not the main issue here. Also, population decline comes with its own problems, not least extinction!
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  555. They do the same with their coverage of Russia. It's laughable and sad at the same time.
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  556.  @elmacho2789  Submoon sounds okay.
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  557. Is there a Muslim Arab Palestinian equivalent that can be visited?
    4
  558. Real journalism.
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  559. And its corporate deep state more relevant every day.
    4
  560. Do most stars have planets around them are or they mostly without planets? And are most of the planets that surround stars rocky or gaseous (gas giants)? Would it make much sense to try and reach the nearest stars to our own solar system if they are unlikely to have planetary bodies orbiting them (making up a solar system) with at least one of those bodies having Earth‐like characteristics?
    4
  561. More then that. The eight hundred million figure is taken after 1981 and doesn't take into account those brought out of poverty after 1949, when China was properly communist.
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  562. I'm given to understand that it's linked to the British and/or the US governments and has been used as a means of media influence. It's physical location and its legal status are largely irrelevant to the discussion as the intelligence services that are – allegedly – behind organisations like Bellingcat routinely use the law as a cover for their nefarious activities.
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  563.  @rashmigupta9  it's not lying to them because they seem to genuinely believe in what they say.
    4
  564. They are not just medieval. They are still used today as anyone of the fascists who served at Guantanamo, Abu Graib, the prisons is the Gulf countries and the black sites run by Israel, Britain, France and the USA.
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  565. ​ @jamesflames6987  I would like to see the United States try breaking out of jail US military personnel captured by Russia and held in a Russian prison while being tried under the Rome statute on behalf of the International Criminal Court for war crimes, the Dutch being unable to do so themselves.
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  566.  @karamzing  He's probably the CIA's pointman in Finland.
    4
  567.  @janoycresva5532  Ask the Aborigine of Australia, the Native American and First Nations of North America and the Maori of New Zealand, as well as various other parts of the British (more properly, English) empire. Cultural as well as physical.
    4
  568.  @boarbot7829  Actually, most of the 'Irish' were absentee English landlords. The same landlords who were responsible for the enclosures of the commons in England, Scotland and Ireland (probably Wales too).
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  569. In my opinion an excellent analysis Mr Diesen.
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  570. The same goes for French Polynesia and US Micronesia. Claiming islands just because they colonised them in the 19th century.
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  571. All these protests may actually be part of a plan, a plan to create social unrest throughout Europe so as to justify state repression. The global elite (such as those who meet at Davos, for example) may now be implementing a series of pre‐planned colour revolutions in Europe and across the world. The people are being weaponised against the state and against themselves, the ultimate goal being a a West that is more like the USA and more amenable to the globalists agenda.
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  572. Pinker commits the 'naturalistic fallacy' of trying to derive an 'ought' from an 'is'.
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  573. There is no alternative. Like in the USA there is a only a choice between two factions of the one‐party state, the brown shirts and the black shirts, the banks and the corporations.
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  574. And their less liable to get bogged down. They also have a lower profile.
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  575.  @KateeAngel  GDP is basically an ideologically value-laden term .
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  576. The United States has allowed itself to become over‐reliant on force at the expense of long term investment in diplomacy and mutually beneficial trade. Unlike China it refuses to use strategic investments in ways that are not perceived by the recipient country as being unfairly exploitative or of being neo‐colonialist in character, such as by making demands which impinge on issues of political and economic sovereignty.
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  577. The Taiwanese know that the USA cannot help them given the current technological developments in Chinese military capability. Near its coast China would win in any naval engagement with the US navy.
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  578. The quality of the art and sculptures at that time are far superior to what came later. I suppose the one hundred years on either side of the Republic and the Empire marked the zenith of ancient Roman art.
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  579. Like with Russia — not a hot war but a cold war. Especially regarding the European Union and countries like Japan and South Korea. The USA wants to partially disconnect their economies and keep Eurasia disunited.
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  580.  @elcomesselink1793  Also, the Netherlands uses a system of proportional representation when electing parties which in some respects is fairer than a first‐past‐the‐post system. This forces the parties to form coalitions and engage in negotiations rather than have a winner‐takes‐all where one party or politician can just ride roughshod over the opposition.
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  581. I'm sure the Chinese have a Belt and Road solution for that.
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  582. The Scottish Nationalist party can then rule Scotland on Russia's behalf.
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  583. IQ is no standard by which to organise society. Indeed, having high intelligence is correlated with psychopathy. Psychopaths (serial murderers, for example) often have very high IQ's. In fact, certain countries of the world may be in the state there in because they have an unusually high number of these high-IQ people in positions of power. Putting logic and the ability to solve puzzles ahead of EQ (emotional quotient) tends to lead to individuals having less sympathy and less empathy (students of economics, for example). I catch the faint smell of eugenics in what you. say.
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  584. Money laudering is all it is.
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  585. Together with France.
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  586. ​ @vumba1331  Fascist state run by Bolsheviks (communists)? Isn't that a contradiction, communist fascists?
    4
  587. Wilful deafness.
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  588. In so far as many of the comments are so repetitive in their reference to a supposed Jewish conspiracy ruling the world and influencing events, one strongly suspects that this video has attracted a large number of the right-wing and its fringe. Either that or their is some kind is trolling at work.
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  589. In principle? So what about in practice?
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  590. +ATHAMN I'm not disputing the fact that sexual intercourse before a certain age may be both physically and emotionally damaging. I believe that what you say based on your own personal experience is indeed true and can, furthermore, be backed up by plenty of examples. But even here, at best we can only make generalisations and exceptions to the rule will abound; not every child who has sex will die or be traumatised, many will not. Does this make your point invalid? No, I don't believe it does. But neither do I believe it justifies 'humanitarian intervention' either. Also, I think you're missing the point I was trying to make. My issue is with a society with one culture coming in and imposing - whether by naked force or some other form of (more or less coercive) persuasion - its ways upon another society whose culture differs from its own. I have nothing against a culture or society, of its own accord and without outside interference changing itself from within. What I object to is when someone from outside does so.
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  591. VoOdosniping +TheCrazyKid1381 They are both equally responsible for the antelope's death.
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  592. The question basically boils down to: who wants peace between Iran and the West more, the Russian Federation or the United States of America? Who loses by Iran having nuclear power and who gains?
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  593. "This is keynesian economics is major reason for economic collapse and subsequent austerity world wide. If you look at the real news channel, they tackle many facets and symptoms of keynesian economic, laissez faire capitalism." Keynesianism is quite opposite to laissez faire. Keynesian economics is premised upon the government, operating in a mixed economy of both public and private corporations, stimulating the economy by picking up the slack caused by lack of consumer demand, especially where the demand for goods and services provided by small to mid-sized private businesses is lacking. It calls for reliance on government regulation of the economy to achieve this only where there are market failures. Laissez-faire, on the other hand, believes that the economy should be entirely in private hands with no regulation whatsoever.
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  594. Raquel Ortega Lopez: There is a saying, "what goes around comes around". Hopefully, by the time the Chinese/Indians get to the point of unquestioned dominance the world will have advanced to the point where their economic systems do not need to be as destructive as the West's, that a different form of (political) economy will have evolved, less predatory than the present.
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  595. But that's exactly what the US military-industrial complex is: the Keynesian economic system of demand-side pump priming of the economy by spending taxpayer's dollars on military (weapons and wars). And you've had this system for the better part of 60 years. Keynesian economics has been the the tool the West - and not least the USA - has been using as its economic model. The only difference between genuine Keynesianism and Friedmanism/Hayekism is that Keynes advocated deficit financing as a temporary measure and that the government should spend taxpayer money on things that would directly stimulate the civilian economy thus benefiting everyone in society, whereas Hayek, et al want to use it exclusively to benefit the rich by abandoning the rest of society.
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  596. In my neck of the woods (Rotherham, Yorkshire) we've always had a tendency to pronounce the words 'thick' and 'mother' as 'fick' and 'muvver' when speaking rapidly or colloquially. That and the use of more quaint words from a bygone era such as thee and thou (prounounced thi, tha).
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  597. A probable reason for this disaster is airlines preferring to use a route that's cheaper (because shorter) than one that will take longer and be more expensive.
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  598. Ah, the old bait and switch. I notice how you switch from a geographic term (western) to a religious one (Islamic). Why not eastern versus western, then we can include the entirety of Asia and its 4 millennia history. Instead, by switching to a religious term you limit it to just those parts of Asia that just happen to be Muslim (I presume you have the Middle or Near East in mind, together with Pakistan and Bangladesh, instead of the whole continental landmass from the Urals in the West, to Japan in the East, India to the South and Russia - a 'western', white Caucasian nation - to the North. Even then you limit it to a particular form of Islam that is grossly over-simplified to the point of grotesque caricature and that appears only at certain times in history and only in certain places rather than existing continuously everywhere.
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  599. Herbert West, it may be government trolls causing racial conflict to divide people.
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  600. An accurate description of the British economy at 17:00 - sad but true.
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  601. I assume that most people during that era didn't live like this. What the narrator is talking about specifically are slums (North American term: ghettos). That is, urban areas of overcrowded and decrepit housing with poor sanitation, often very old buildings situated in undesirable locations such as those effected by heavy pollution or prone to flooding, etc. and mostly in the cities and larger towns where most of the heavy industry was located.
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  602. And unfortunately it's what the present economic system is. In a word rentierism.
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  603. People move. That's just a fact of life. It's called migration. And Africans have been doing it since the human race began way back in prehistory.
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  604. Is that the money stolen from Canadian truckers?
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  605. Who granted them immunity from prosecution? If they commit war crimes then they should be punished.
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  606. The crisis in Sri Lanka may have been engineered deliberately at least in part by the USA. They may want to create the conditions in which an anti‐Chinese faction come to power who oppose the Belt and Road or otherwise create tensions between India and Sri Lanka.
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  607. shronemor Only one planet with sentient life per universe, I'm afraid.
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  608. But what if China DOES accept that (generally speaking, nuances aside), like foot-binding, concubinage were once accepted there?
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  609. ​ @gavasiarobinssson5108  And when capitalists do the same, is that freeloading? And what's wrong with being lazy, that is, not wanting to be a slave?
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  610. @lukasbauer8783 & @sylviam6535 So true!
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  611.  Cristiano dos Santos Gomes  Would you say the same about ISIS from Saudi Arabia fighting in Syria or Libya?
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  612. China and India will both rise in their own way and at their own pace, the latter almost in spite of itself. Meanwhile, large parts of Western Europe and North America will experience concurrent crises that are political (democracy), social (demographic) and economic (depression) in nature.
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  613. ​ nwo2696  a fan? A policeman?
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  614. Bail outs, then bail ins, then confiscation of gold and silver and whatever other assets the bankers can lay their grubby little hands on.
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  615. Since when has the West cared about the welfare of Africans? The attitude of the West is that the rest of the world is there to be exploited, including its people. Whether Nigerians suffer hardship or death is irrelevant to the rulers of the world.
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  616. A no‐fly zone is an absolute no‐brainer. For one the Russian Federation has complete air superiority along its border; and for two it can deploy a wide variety of anti‐aircraft systems that can detect and shoot down any NATO aircraft long before they even enter Russian or Ukrainian airspace.
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  617. It's only a problem if you desire to control the whole world and another country stands in your way by remaining independent and able to resist your domination.
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  618. What's the difference between Nordic and Scandinavian? Is one a geographical term and the other cultural?
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  619. Theology is the attempt to justify the irrational (that is the supernatural). Ideology is something similar, but it tries to justify an idealised political system rather than a religion, while philosophy is a secular attempt to justify the status quo or reimagine it in an idealised way.
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  620. It did in the first cold war. Not saying it can do it a second time but you never know how the Great Game ends until its over.
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  621. A big army armed with sticks and stones fighting an army armed with nukes is not really a fair fight.
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  622. If he's a Christian fundamentalist then he'll probably think that's fine and dandy. He thinks he'll be one of those 'raptured'.
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  623. A banker, stockbroker or head of the CIA.
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  624. I think he means the former.
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  625. Not just these countries but the whole world. A new paradigm is needed that encompasses the political, economic, social and cultural. One that everyone can buy in to because it promises a world better than this one, a world that is more egalitarian and philanthropic.
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  626.  @jimwavect  Seems to be working reasonably well in China.
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  627. ​ @Spielkalb-von-Sparta  The 'God of the Gaps' form of reasoning.
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  628. Same here. My sympathies to you. Expect your energy bills to go up by as much as 50%. Mine did. Just the standing charge alone is exorbitant before you even consider the usage charge. Also your rent will very probably go up too.
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  629. No such thing as a "mild" recession.
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  630. So right you are. Like with Hitler you have to draw the line somewhere.
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  631. I fear it's already too late for that. Ethiopia may already be a lost cause. All we need now is Turkey or Saudi Arabia to start sending their proxies to do the USA's bidding.
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  632.  @johnrob3895  Ay, and colour revolutions too. Oh, and not forgetting coups d'état. And Arab springs. European summers will be next (such as a CIA‐orchestrated Yellow Vests, George Soros and National Endowment for Democracy‐funded groups cause the EU to have an Arab Spring moment all of their own. Completely spontaneously, you understand. Brought to you in technicolor by the same people who assassinated JFK and bombed the World Trade Centre.
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  633.  @sandraforeman620  damn this rabbits.
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  634. I saw what you did there. 😉
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  635. Or... The End of History, part 2.
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  636. Are they deliberately trying to cause hyper-inflation? Is this the another Great Depression.
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  637. ​ @Alaryk111  they have industrial policies but only in so far as the United States and their own capitalist corporations and banks will allow. Solely for profit capitalism tends not to go in for long term planning, nor the needs of the planet or its people.
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  638.  Forever L  They don't want to see any economic integration with China that would lessen Europe's dependence on the USA or undercut trade between them and Europe. The Americans also are wary of China gaining political influence within Europe, especially where it reduces their own.
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  639. It's run out of options. The USA likewise. They have both come to an impasse. Now its action or inaction and how long the latter can be pursued is anybody's guess.
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  640. Sounds plausible.
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  641. Why would the United States of America pick a war with the People's Republic of China knowing that it would in all likelihood lose, both militarily and economically? Do they think Japan, Korea, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines will fight China on their behalf and leave South East Asia in ruins for the USA to just sweep down like a vulture like happened in Europe in world wars 1 & 2? I think not. I think that the countries of Asia are far too sensible and far too integrated into a Chinese-led regional and global economy to do that. And make no mistake the maritime power of the USA has been completely negated by the development of supersonic and hypersonic anti-ship missiles and modern submarines such that its navy would be comprehensively destroyed if it tried to blockade China. Thank you Brian for the work you do on your channel. Advocating for peace is often a thankless task, but luckily we have people like you who do it regardless. Maybe all this talk of war is just a distraction from the depression/recession in the West; fear-mongering to keep people in line and justify ever greater funding for the military‐industrial complex. Maybe nothing will come of it.
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  642. It's the rest of Asia and increasingly Latin America that China will do business with. Europe will be a comparatively minor partner in all of this. And once Germany and France together with Russia, Japan and Korea combine their economies an almighty Eurasia will emerge that will be all powerful, leaving the USA way behind. Britain might not even be a in the game by then. The goal of China is to create a global trade network based upon itself and is planning and acting accordingly. China plans in decades and centuries whereas the USA plans in years and Britain doesn't plan at all.
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  643.  @Larkinchance  Factoids is what the media peddle nowadays.
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  644. If the Chinese government can force its people not to have children, I'm sure it can just as easily force them to have children. Or find some technological solution to the problem – robots, automation, transhumanism, artificial wombs, etc.
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  645. ​ @wojtek9675  China. Russia. Cuba.
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  646. It's a popular movement. Simple as.
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  647.  @roselior7021  Before European colonialism/imperialism China and India were the two most developed countries in the world. After colonialism/imperialism they were the two poorest. Can that be a coincidence?
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  648. ​ @garyddlewis3067  A fortiori you could have said that about the Warsaw Pact, a genuinely defensive organisation designed to protect the Soviet Union from yet another invasion coming from the West (which warmonger Churchill of Britain certainly wanted).
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  649. ​ @garyyoung3179 and the USA isn't‽
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  650. 16:44 The ICJ did not explicitly say that Israel was committing genocide. Rather it said that their was sufficient prima facie evidence to suggest genocide was being committed but with the implication that the matter needed further investigation to confirm with the allegations were true. In other words the I.C.J. was stalling.
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  651.  @tannakaobi1  brothels/prostitution also spread disease, so seeking to limit them may have been a primitive form of disease control (albeit unwitting, as presumably they did not know about how diseases are spread). Prostitution may also be disruptive to married life and potentially damaging to the life chances of any children born as a result of prostitution.
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  652. The effects of depopulation will take decades to have an effect and most of Europe and the USA are also effected by below replacement fertility rates. It therefore won't just be China and Russia that are effected. The impact will be felt everywhere and every country will have to find its own way of dealing with the problem.
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  653. I thought it was created by anti-communist Anglo-Americans to justify the wars against Japan, Korea and Vietnam and belittle communist China and Russia.
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  654. If only we'd had a Putin to come to Milosevich's aid, who knows what the future would be like — no NATO expansion, no EU expansion, no Maastricht treaty....
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  655.  @davidcameron-may9268  … most of those cereals containing unhealthy amounts of sugar, salt and artificial ingredients leading to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, etc. [I would add].
    3
  656. It also happened to Hawaii, the Americas and Mexico.
    3
  657. Now let's consider the reason behind the collapse of the oil price – not market forces but geopolitics: a result of an agreement by the USA and Saudi Arabia to deliberately suppress the price of oil to damage the economy of the Soviet Union. It was one of the myriad reasons for the ultimate demise of the Soviet Union, humanities last great hope against neoliberal fascist corporatism and a return to feudalism. I suppose now we'll have to rely on China, but I'm not holding my breath.
    3
  658. What are 'our' values? And whose this 'our'?
    3
  659. Japanese politics never changes. The system is specifically designed to preventing that.
    3
  660. That's what the USA wants. It wants nationalism because nationalism is right wing. Nationalism supports authoritarianism. Nationalism is divisive. All the things that the USA wants.
    3
  661. Cognitive dissonance is what they suffer from. And it does seem to lead to a kind of mass psychosis as they tie themselves in knots trying to justify two opposing ideas held within the same mind.
    3
  662. Great Britain during the industrial revolution. Ditto the USA. Ditto France, Germany....
    3
  663. A few months I'd imagine, just long enough to dissect them completely. If the cadaver (or more often part of it) are intended to be used as a teaching aid then they can be preserved and used indefinitely, as anyone who has seen human body parts and embryos in jars of formaldehyde/alcohol will attest.
    3
  664. They don't, but the military‐industrial complex does.
    3
  665. And his age and health probably count against him too. And getting a job during an economic recession only compounds the problem.
    3
  666. Silly man, that's exactly how all banks work: interest must always be paid before principal; compound interest, well, compounds – why else do you think its called compound interest? Perhaps you should get a loan from the International Monetary Fund, maybe they'll give you better terms. 😂
    3
  667. Who is Gonzalo Lira?
    3
  668.  @sukikahlon1  The United States wants western Europe to become like Eastern Europe, second world, though third world will be fine if it makes the USA (fhe corporations that control it) more prosperous and to continue their dominance.
    3
  669. No use complaining, You Tube is a corporation and part of the military‐industrial complex of the USA that operates according to facist-corporatist neo-liberal principles and ideology.
    3
  670.  @inkbold8511  I'm sure only a little pressure would be needed to persuade the Thais to deport or extradite him. Like he himself has said, unfortunately Thailand is caught between a rock and a hard place in that being seen as too militant in standing up for the interests of the Thai people runs the risk of alienating western support, while being seen as being too weak in defending their interests runs the far greater risk of alienating them. It's a dilemma that increasingly not only does the Global South have to face but traditional allies like Germany, Britain and France are also having to face as well under both presidents Trump and Biden. It's like walking on a tightrope, one false move and your on the Grim Reapers bucket list.
    3
  671.  @rod9829  But Taiwan is already recognised by the international community as belonging to China so your example is not germane (unless you meant that it might fall to the US empire like South Korea and Japan have).
    3
  672. Even if it means these 'allies' face the destruction of their own economies and industries. With allies like these who needs client states.
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  673. Espérons que les contraintes économiques imposées aux États-Unis (par exemple la dédollarisation) les empêcheront d’escalader la situation à ce point.
    3
  674. The sanctions will only harm ordinary people. People just like you. Vulnerable people like the young, the old and the ill.
    3
  675.  @ArthurRTK  A misunderstanding. It was translated as "kiss goose" for some reason. Thank you for the elucidation.
    3
  676. If we look at the sanctions as being designed to damage Europe and cause division within the continent and its estrangement from the East rather than damage the Russian Federation then we can see that buying or not buying Russian oil or gas is not really the primary issue, at best it is secondary. The USA wants Europe to remain under its thumb and to not out-compete it economically and damaging European economies is a way of doing this.
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  677. Being awarded anything by western institutions is a red flag for a start. "Independent" is debased coinage, as a label it means absolutely nothing as all media use that term to describe themselves. It's who is behind the newspaper, it's proprietors, that ultimately determine the editorial line and if Novaya Gazeta is secretly controlled by or is under the influence of some shady western organisation then I can understand the Russian government's actions. That said, an attack on the press and the shutting down of newspapers is not to be encouraged. Censorship is generally bad as it closes down thought and debate.
    3
  678. You've given yourself away by using the phrase CCP (it's CPC).
    3
  679.  @carstenhansen5757  I suppose it all boils down to one's definition of freedom, rights and liberty.
    3
  680.  @tama3331  Is his successor better?
    3
  681.  @LDwestwood1986  The word I think you are looking for is disingenuous ; not lying exactly, just not telling the whole truth.
    3
  682. It all boils down to competition – when it's good it stimulates development and innovation; when it's bad it leads to the destruction of domestic industries that can't compete. Capitalism sees competition as inherently good and certainly inevitable but it isn't. It's all contingent. Regarding Argentina sending it's gold to London: they were probably ordered to by the USA/bankers, to hold them economically hostage and deter them from doing anything western capital doesn't like, as well as being used to back up/refinance the US dollar and reflate its economy when it's reincarnated as a CBCD post-crash/depression.
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  683. Israel is basically an extension of the USA the same way that Canada is (and possibly Japan, Britain).
    3
  684. You're making the erroneous assumption that your country was a genuine democracy where people could actually effect changes through the ballot box. We only have to look at what happened to Kennedy and the laws passed after 9/11, as well as the attacks on those who are against Israel's actions in Palestine to see the real state of affairs.
    3
  685. @Manuel Rizzo You seem to forget: the Romans invaded the lands of the Germanic peoples, as well as the area that would later became known to us in the West as the Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantium.
    3
  686. Death by anoxia through inhaling nitrogen gas or some other inert gas would be far better from what I gather. The person just loses consciousness like going to sleep and it is, I am given to understand, pretty or totally painless. Also as a means of euthanasia. Apropos, torture is officially legal no matter what the constitution and other laws say and has been since 9/11 when various emergency laws were passed with little scrutiny or judicial oversight that effectively neuter any protections citizens are supposed to have. Even before then torture, or cruel/inhumane treatment that is tantamount to torture, was, and remains, fairly common in prisons and similar institutions and especially when used by the intelligence services where it is pretty much routine (Israel and the United States being the biggest culprits).
    3
  687. They keep saying oil is running out and yet it never does. They seem to either find new oil fields to exploit or technical innovations that allow them to extract oil by different means (eg. fracking).
    3
  688. Recession... or depression? Natural... or manufactured?
    3
  689. It would seem like democracy is flawed in both countries.
    3
  690.  @hanchiman  Uncle Sam is playing John Bull and Down Under for fools. Such barefaced hypocrisy and toadying don't generally go down well with domestic audiences but neither country's leaders seem to know or care.
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  691. ​ @worfsonofmogh1154  You're either lying or misinformed. Being charitable, I'll go for the latter. Saying that Pol Pot and the Kmer Rouge gained power as a direct result of an unprovoked bombing campaign by the USA on Cambodia is not the same as saying he supports genocide, no more than saying that Hitler's rise to power in Germany was due in part to the harsh conditions of the Versaille Treaty and the blockade of Germany to force it to pay reparations.
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  692. Tiny island but presumably strategically important in some geopolitical or military sense.
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  693. He's a former ambassador of the USA so quite naturally he will consciously or unconsciously support his country, right or wrong.
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  694. How close to war do generals get? I would have thought that as a higher-up he wouldn't see much battle.
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  695. Seems to be a nice, clean area he's walking around. And sunny.
    3
  696. Propaganda.
    3
  697.  @thucduyen9592  It irks me no end that the same people who deride political tyranny are the same people who are fully supportive of economic tyranny, which is exactly what capitalism is and amounts to the same thing in the end. Under capitalism only the propertied class have any real say in the way things are done any everyone else is just a prole, the modern equivalent of a middle ages peasant.
    3
  698. Well said! And I would add the the cold war was also about the deterrence of state planning by the former colonies of western Europe as a means of achieving national economic development. Just look at the vitriole directed against China and Russia and their planned economies and the praise for a 'free market' that never existed. The West didn't — and still doesn't — want other countries developing and outcompeting them and up until now the rest of the world was assigned the task of merely providing the basic raw materials and initial unskilled labour for the West to then add value by turning those raw materials into manufactured goods. Unfortunately for the West this state of affairs may all change as first China, then Russia, and then India and Latin America break away from this one-sided and unfair system and develop their national economies.
    3
  699. How is revealing unclassified information and open‐source material to the general public aiding America's enemies given that both Russia and China would already have had access to such information and thus full knowledge of America's clandestine activities? Even where the information was classified if what it reveals is blatant criminality on the part of those in power then under whistle-blower rules Julian Assange and his Wikileaks are doing the USA and the world a favour. If one's caught stealing elections Joe Biden style shouldn't Americans be told, don't they have a right to know? Should high crimes and misdemeanours (such as 9/11) be kept secret in the name of national security? If so, whose security? Certainly not that of the citizenry.
    3
  700. "Recaptured"? I thought the Russians had voluntarily withdrawn after Russia had achieved its strategic objectives and as a goodwill gestures ahead of negotiations. Talk about spin!
    3
  701. Capitalism. And it's various forms, corporatism/fascism and state capitalism.
    3
  702. ​ @etow8034  "Sexually assimilated them." I read it as sexually assaulted them. 😆
    3
  703. They've planned for it.
    3
  704. And the Norwegians, Finns and Danes
    3
  705. What's the difference between a civilizational state and a nation state?
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  706. If neither side (Kiev, Donetsk/Lugansk) defeats the other, either because they can't or aren't allowed by their respective supporters (the USA in the case of Ukraine, Russia in the case of Donetsk and Lugansk), how will this pan out? How long can this stalemate be maintained before the government in Kiev capitulates and begins to implement in good faith the Minsk Accords? Is it simply a matter of convincing the USA that it is pointless to continue or will the government in Kiev have to be overthrown in an internal coup?
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  707.  @gareths9574  Ukraine never had a deterrent to give up in the first place as the nuclear weapons were all Russian. It's like saying that Britain could use Trident if we were to go to war with the USA.
    3
  708.  @doogus8728  they practice what is called benevolent neutrality. Officially they are neutral but in reality they support the US and its organisation NATO. They have always been opposed to Russia, the Soviet Union, communism and have whenever possible supported the EU and the United States.
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  709.  @bgoodfella7413  Often the label conservative is used to cover up a whole multitude of sins. It's like the go‐to word for anyone on the right of the political spectrum wanting to appear moderate no matter how far or hard right they may be. I'm sure the mob that gatecrashed the Congress building considered themselves conservative, as do Christian fundamentalists and alt‐right militia.
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  710. I wonder who can that be.
    3
  711. "Over-capacity" used to be known as 'comparative advantage' back in the day and was something that Adam Smith and David Ricardo said countries should use to their advantage in commercial dealings with other countries. The United Kingdom certainly did so with opium.
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  712. Because you're waging war against them and causing hardship. And, like Indians and Mexicans, you need their skills and labour because you can't make much without them.
    3
  713.  @richardscathouse  The ruling class of America secretly want immigration, both legal and illegal, to keep wages low, reduce labour shortages and stave off demographic collapse.
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  714. Only if the United States insists on making them so. Disband NATO and remove US troops from Europe and they will be no need for buffer states on Russia's borders (unless Germany or France become warlike).
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  715. And which side are the Eastern Europeans still running to? Eastern Europe is now supposed to be a capitalist paradise and yet we are still seeing mass emigration to the west. Maybe Eastern European capitalism is not real capitalism. Maybe they need to be more like 'real' capitalist countries such as Haiti or the Philippines.
    3
  716. Denotation, not connotation.
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  717. His 'double think' – accepting contradiction without realising it is contradiction.
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  718.  @rushshukla4636  — It's actually designed to decouple the world, especially Europe, from Russia and to decouple the world as much as possible from China and to make as much of the world economically dependent on the USA and its client states as possible for food, resources and other necessities. Basically the United States wants a re‐run off the cold war when these two giants were effectively cut off from the international system of the West led by them. This time around, however, it might not go quite according to plan.
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  719. China owes the money to itself and prints its own money so it can never go bankrupt. It's currency is also backed by gold and a vast manufacturing economy that makes and trades in real commodities. The USA owes money to usurious moneylenders who also print its money so it can go bankrupt. The currency of the USA is backed by an empty promise and a rentier economy based on intangible financial services.
    3
  720. He's an academic who works for the MICIMATT, helping to devise policies that the USA can then use to destabilise and exploit other countries. That's why he has a title; his reward for services to the state.
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  721. The best lack all conviction and the worst are filled with passionate intensity.
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  722. And too cold.
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  723. The USA been preparing for war with everybody since at least 1948, especially China since 1949 and Russia (the USSR as it was known back then) since 1917. Nothing new here. Preparing for war is what all armies do but especially when they're imperialist, militarist or expansionist. And let's face it, as a crypto-fascist country the USA is, like National Socialist Germany, a war mongering country whose economic system, predatory capitalism, heavily relies on the expropriation and exploitation of other country's primary and secondary resources.
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  724. China is pulling way ahead of Japan and will soon be pulling Japan into her orbit. Like the destruction of Iraq by default allowed Iran to dominate the Middle East, so the hobbling of the Japanese economy by the Plaza Accords has led by default to China becoming dominant in the region. Maybe the Americans thought it would be better to have just one super economy in Asia rather than two, especially as Japan and China might work together.
    3
  725.  @skelly33333  They merely changed the modalities of oppression. Oppression of minorities and people of colour is still ongoing. Also, the civil rights movement was effectively destroyed and co‐opted by the 1980's. Indeed, the Black Lives Matter movement may even have arose precisely because mainstream black politicians are unable to effect meaningful change.
    3
  726. I wonder how many loopholes it will have and which countries will 'creatively' interpret it in a way that still allows them to get Russian oil. You know, the way the USA is still getting Russian oil. How much is for show and how much is real.
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  727. You forget... she's elected by the people that matter, the Bilderburgs.
    3
  728. ... and run a second time from Dunkirk. Britain should be neutral in any war in Europe. If France wants to come to the aid of Poland then let them, but not Britain, not this time around.
    3
  729.  @thucduyen9592  That's because neoclassical economics (neo‐liberalism) is an ideology masquerading as a scientific discipline.
    3
  730.  @hathawayrose2183  Because the British elite have been integrated into the American elite and form a comprador class of rentiers living off the backs of the rest of us and relying on Uncle Sam for protection. Like their Latin American, African and Asia counterparts, they couldn't give a damn about the suffering of their own people or the long term welfare of the country's economy. We saw this with Thatcher and then Blair.
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  731. If there's one thing you should have taken away from this video is that NOT only should your children not be exposed to the mass media (and not just TV), you should NOT be sending your children to school either.
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  732. Didn't you watch the video?
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  733. It's basically what the British employed during the empire, applying it to others, of course, not itself. At home it was protectionist.
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  734. But what is behind the scam — government or big business? And is it a criminal conspiracy that we are seeing here or just the workings of a market system, where the collective pursuit of a common goal (profit) makes it look like collusion is going on when really it's just random people or groups all making the same decisions simultaneously, as is the case when there is a run on the bank or a bear/bull market?
    3
  735. Like… that's a bad thing?
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  736.  @shiblabingham3026  Yes, but tackling poverty might mean having to create a world where rich, privileged people aren't so rich and privileged. And the rich and privileged (read powerful) will resist that.
    3
  737. Maybe the Russians and Chinese can stop this by sending in mercenaries to help the African militaries and giving the governments of the region economic aid and development to counter the sanctions and bullying of the West. By creating a viable and sustainable alternative economic model to that of the neo-liberalism of the IMF Russia and China may be able to create a BRICS for Africa.
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  738. We are dealing with politicians and Eurocrats who are bought.
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  739. The Congress of the USA is as the Senate was in ancient Rome just before the demise of the Republic: an aristocratic body officially in charge but with real power residing elsewhere. Which illustrious 5‐star general‐turned‐politician will be America's Ceasar? Time only knows.
    3
  740. A reserve army of labour. Keeps wages down.
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  741. ​ @dherman0001 barter is not capitalism, no more than it's feudalism.
    3
  742. 1:04:23 Pascal hits the nail right on the head with the way he explained the attitudes of westerners to the rest of the world.
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  743. Actually, the dungeon was probably used initially and for the most part as a storage area, just like the basements of most modern houses and large buildings are today.
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  744. And even more so the United States and its protégé Britain. Indiscriminate carpet bombing and drone strikes for them though rather than rockets.
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  745. The Republic of China during a takeover would become synonymous with the People's Republic of China with the USA seeing them both as one and the same and thus destroying the ROC's economy would be seen as entirely legitimate, it being tantamount to destroying part of China's economy. It would be like Austria vis-a-vis Germany in the war of 1939-1945 or South Vietnam during the US-Vietnam war.
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  746. Israel (and its enabler, the USA) with a false flag, one preceeded by decades of persecution.
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  747. 0:39 Or incendiaries legal under the laws of war?
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  748. The Duran is pro‐Russia and pro‐China so is, almost by definition, anti‐neoconservative in so far as the neocons are supremacists who want to destroy both countries.
    3
  749. Forgiven... but not forgotten!
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  750. The effect will be most felt in Europe I imagine. The USA will most likely find a way around this. Indeed, the actions of the US government in provoking the Chinese into making these moves might be really aimed at damaging Europe and making it more dependent on the USA à la natural gas.
    3
  751. The Greek debt crisis was deliberately engineered. Nothing accidental about it; nothing to do with Greek laziness or greed.
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  752. What ethnic group do the Swiss apply the name to?
    3
  753. guleiro: forgive me, but I am under the impression that the European Union's so-called parliament has no real power and is just a fig leaf, rubber stamping anything put before it.
    3
  754. Agree. Same with the French as well. Indeed, the former empires of the West simply went from imperialism into neo-imperialism; from colonialism to neo-colonialism. Just the same wine in a different bottle.
    3
  755.  @maryanchabursky9148  Guantanamo.
    3
  756. Too much money and power concentrated in too few hands, in my opinion.
    3
  757. It's all about delaying the inevitable for as long as possible, in the meantime isolating Russia and its allies from the rest of Europe as much as possible and causing as much division within the EU if all else fails.
    3
  758. ​ @annat.869  I think it is more an economic issue than cultural: the American form of finance capitalism and military keynesianism is insatiable in its desire to appropriate the productive resources of the world and to keep the military‐industrial complex, the core of the American economy, functioning.
    3
  759. A most interesting discussion today, guys and one that is potentially very worrying. The USA really does seem to have a dysfunctional political system at the moment and the political infighting seems to be paralysing its ability to function cohesively regarding foreign policy. The question is whether the neocons are about to meet their götterdämmerung moment and, if so, what will replace them?
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  760. And other cool stuff. It would be interesting.
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  761. So that's why the USA has to coup them, to stop them getting all pally with the Chinese.
    3
  762. The Sudetenland was an integral part of Germany, so Germany was basically taking back or reuniting the country, like happened in 1989 with East German and West German reunification. And the Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia) (and Poland) had ethnic German minorities. Taiwan was historically part of China and both countries make clear that they are Chinese, with the Taiwanese claiming they have a right to rule China and China claiming they have have a right to rule Taiwan. To the Chinese, Taiwan is a renegade province in need of liberation and that China will not be whole until it is united with the mainland. The USA and much of the rest of the world also acknowledge, either explicitly or implicitly, that the Republic of Taiwan is not an independent country de jure but that the People's Republic of China is. They do not officially recognise Taiwan.
    3
  763.  @mystictraveler8642  The ICC cannot act without backing. If the major countries of the world aren't able or willing to compel the USA and its minions by political, economic or military means to obey international law (as defined by these self‐same countries) then the USA will remain unpunished, undeterred and a continued threat to peace.
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  764. Rape within marriage was legal in Britain until recently.
    3
  765. He's a mouthpiece of British intelligence and an agent of influence. Probably works for the Americans and Israelis too.
    3
  766. ​ @Screaming-Trees  "When everything you believe is a lie then we will have succeeded." — Director of the CIA
    3
  767.  @GyeongmiBaeb  Culture also plays a big role as well.
    3
  768. But I bet you don't mind one bit when it comes to exploiting them and their resources to make yourself and your country rich.
    3
  769. But you cannot separate the two. It's called political economy – the study of politics and economics and how they interact.
    3
  770.  @stevecarol686  I wonder if her parents have ever seen this film and if they did I wonder what feelings it would evoke in them... shame, indifference, sorrow?
    3
  771. I think among modern armies only the Japanese of the Asia‐Pacific war between Japan and the USA of 1941-1945 routinely fought to the last man, the soldiers of other armies fighting stubbornly but eventually surrendering when they ran out of ammunition, food, or suffered heavy casualties, especially officers.
    3
  772. But (cynically?) encouraged by the West.
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  773. Mistakes do happen. The idea sounds quite good.
    3
  774. We are being isolated from each other by the USA and its most loyal clients.
    3
  775. I agree. That and to consolidate ownership of the means of production and distribution in the hands of a few corporations and banks.
    3
  776.  @scooterstudios123  And who was doing the blockading and why?
    3
  777. More like they have paramilitaries (aka terrorists) who are ready to sabotage those pipelines of Russia.
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  778. For me they seem to be nothing more than intelligence assets, giving a public face to the CIA, FBI, etc.
    3
  779. Economic decline eventually brings political decline and internal dysfunction as sure as night follows day. And the USA IS in relative economic decline.
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  780. In all honesty you can't really blame them because the message of the mainstream is all pervasive. Again and again, wherever you look – TV, radio, magazines, newspapers – the voice of the status quo is blaring out twenty-four seven.
    3
  781. Our like Gaddafi. With or without the United States tacit support.
    3
  782. But didn't Britain withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights when it formally withdrew from the European Union (even if we are de facto still in that Union)? Surely, like the NPT, it doesn't apply to us. Like the USA, we're special by virtue of being the centre of the Anglosphere and as long as we cosy up to Uncle Sam we are immune to consequences.
    3
  783. Cooperation tends to be better than conflict in the long run.
    3
  784. ​​​ @arthurmoore9488  The price cap has been a total failure and the sanctions against Russia are designed primarily to benefit the USA at the expense of Europe. The USA wants to recreate the conditions of the first cold war by isolating Europe from Russia and in particular disrupting relations between Germany and Russia. The USA wants to make the EU as dependent on itself as possible.
    3
  785. It was a planned withdrawal. The idea that the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was precipitous and unplanned is what the US wants everyone to believe. Don't fall for it.
    3
  786. In purchasing power parity they are already the world's number one economy and set to overtake the USA in per capita terms as well (and by certain metrics already have).
    3
  787. The Labour Party (or is that, the Labor Party) twinned with the Democrat Party of the USA and the Labor Party of Israel.
    3
  788. Your optimism may be premature, Lasha.
    3
  789. Or someone else will. Yeah, the state.
    3
  790. The problem is with so-called representative democracy itself in that it doesn't represent the will of the majority, at least not on issues relating to private wealth and where it directly impinges on those who own most of the productive assets of the nation. Let's understand that modern parliamentary democracy is less than two hundred years old and evolved in an era of mass proletarianisation of the workforce and the trades union movement that grew out of it. First the middle, and then the lower, classes were able to slowly enter politics and effect decision making. Today, however, most manual jobs have been outsourced or automated/mechanised out of existence and the golden age of trades unionism and working class politics is long gone. Parties of the left have to cater to a much diminished constituency base which has itself undergone gentrification/embourgeoisiement; it's no longer a constituency of cloth cap and clogs wearing proles demanding a living wage as so much office and shop workers fighting over their perks.
    3
  791.  @kingwinter2024  A Guaranteed Minimum Income set at an adequate level combined by free or subsidised housing and utilities. A whole restructuring of the capitalist system to meet genuine human needs instead of the artificial ones that revolve around consumption and production.
    3
  792. And it's all by design. But say that and you're a 'conspiracy theorist'.
    3
  793. A token display of firepower on the part of the Americans perhaps but nothing that would be too serious because they would almost certainly lose from a purely military viewpoint. And from a political and economic viewpoint it would be disastrous, both for the USA and the world economy.
    3
  794. The EU is like NATO: when you disagree with either you're basically disagreeing with the United States. Thus, the EU always was, and remains, an organisation which the USA uses to advance its agenda in Europe, hence the ministers of the EU carrying out policies that are inimical to the economic wellbeing of the various states in Europe.
    3
  795. It was a pure theatre of the absurd and used only for its symbolism. It was moreover – and more sinisterly, in my opinion – designed to undermine public confidence in, and especially non-European governmental support for, the court itself and cause division within Europe. Remember that this court could, theoretically and under certain circumstances, prosecute US military personnel for war crimes or crimes against humanity and the USA certainly doesn't want that. Undermining it therefore is something the Americans I imagine, would want to do and by issuing this arrest warrant for the president of Russia they have simultaneously achieved these goals (showing how politically biased it is and showing how impotent it is).
    3
  796.  @erinoldcoot3381  Don't blame yourself, because that's what they want you to believe, that it's your fault and ONLY your fault. NO IT'S NOT! It's mostly the fault of the system: capitalism is built on inequality; it's baked into the system. It needs reform, at least to ameliorate its excesses.
    3
  797. Since the time of tsar Peter the Great Russia has looked to western Europe as its inspiration and before then I would say it looked inward rather than eastwards. The West (principally western Europe) was rising at that time (industrial, cultural and technological revolutions) and Asia was declining (as a total of world GDP). Only now with the apparent rise of an Asia led by China does Russia increasingly look towards the east, balancing its outlook between East and West.
    3
  798. Maybe like Turkey: has a foot in both camps, East and West.
    3
  799. Does that include pre-Christian paganism?
    3
  800.  @SkyCloudSilence  Shim — she/him. Use the correct pronouns. 😏😏😒😜
    3
  801. It certainly looks that way.
    3
  802. The Enlightenment of, if I'm not mistaken, the 18th century (as measured by the Catholic Gregorian calendar). Rationalism and secular humanism were its gifts to humanity. That and a thing called the Reformation that by brought into question the authority and legitimacy of the Roman Catholic Church..
    3
  803. Did the Azov battalion or other paramilitary groups (NATO/Islamist mercenaries) do this? Is it even real or staged? And why would they do these things, were they civilians trying to flee conscription or ethnic Russians/pro‐Russian Ukrainians? Where's the blood, the bullet wounds? These are the questions that first come into my head when I hear these stories having been told so many lies by the western propaganda system.
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  804. It would appear that these repeated crises can go on indefinitely seeing as capitalism has repeatedly shown how adaptable it is to changing circumstances no matter how bad it might be for humans or the environment. European feudalism lasted a thousand years and the Greco-Roman slave economies that preceded it for at least five hundred despite both having in retrospect their shortcomings. So what makes you think that capitalism is going to end any time soon (assuming the era of the global corporation we seem to be in now can still be defined as capitalism rather than, say, neo-feudalism).
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  805. Does this person not know that Hong Kong's economy is integrated into that of China and that to say that it's not doing well while the Chinese economy as a whole is, is, well, a bit disingenuous.
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  806. The danger is that policy makers will begin to believe their own propaganda, with negative long-term consequences.
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  807. They’ll be claiming Russia and China interfered in Britain’s elections next and got Boris Johnson elected for another term.
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  808. Don't expect any conflict of interest scandal any time soon, that's only reserved for MP's who fund Palestinian charities — antisemitic and supportive of terrorism. No accountability you see. And egregious double standards too.
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  809. Kamala waltzing to the Whitehouse? 😂 I don't think so. Its MAGA all the way. Suck it up, baby! 🤑
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  810.  @Jleigh225  It's not just capitalism though, it's a particularly pernicious form called neoliberalism. It seeks to turn the clock back to the time of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, the England of the 1840's and the dreaded work house.
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  811. ​​ @Myturn00000  "Racial communism". Is that even a thing? Is it like cultural Marxism?
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  812.  @sirvidia  True. The point I'm trying to get across is that the United States and a few other countries are using fundamentalism - Islamic, Christian, Buddhist and Hindu - as a means of sowing discord and encouraging secessionist movements within countries. The Chinese are cognizant of this and also of the fact that the USA has been specifically targeting its Uighur ethnic minority (like it did Tibetans previously) for radicalisation and infiltration by fundamentalist jihadists, the same kind that were used in Libya to overthrow the government of Muammar Qaddafi and in Afghanistan to overthrow the government of Najibullah. Whilst not wanting to condone the genuine abuses of Uighurs by the Chinese, I understand the motivations behind it. It poses a moral dilemma.
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  813.  @cosubo8509  the EU is an economic bloc, not a military one. As much as some people might like to see an EU army it doesn't have one yet (and hopefully never will). Mind you something like a Russian attack on Finland just might serve as the pretext to create one, thus all this could be seem as a provocation to create the conditions for such an event.
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  814. Sorry to burst your bubble but the free market doesn't exist, never has done and never will. And there's nothing inherently good about private for-profit entities, nor competition for its own sake.
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  815.  @williampomplun6750  Marxist‽ I think you'll find this is all due entirely to capitalism, and an especially corrupt kind at that.
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  816. *Richard Plumb: * What is an 'evil uncle' ?
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  817. And capitalism is dystopia?
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  818. They don't like it when someone does to them that they do to so many other countries, eg. Latin America.
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  819. Like lust.
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  820.  @obsidianjane4413  The Minsk Agreements were signed and ratified by the government of Ukraine, Germany and France servings as guarantors I do believe. But they were never implemented even though they gave Kyiv a way out and would have allowed it to keep the Donbass as an autonomous administrative region within Ukraine. As I'm of the firm belief that Zilensky is not in charge and never was I have come to the conclusion that the real reason for a rejection of those agreements lies in geostrategic imperatives originating in Washington and not Kiev.
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  821.  @kevint1910  So you're saying that it's us, the Europeans, who are to blame for the USA getting into these wars... not your country's very own military‐industrial complex or homegrown lobbyists for American corporations? I'm not saying that European governments don't lobby the USA, but for war...? No, I don't agree with that because no ordinary citizen in their right mind wants war, either in Europe or the USA.
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  822. Wait until China takes over from the USA in GDP per capita. Then we'll be seeing a downgrading of GDP as a measure of one‐upmanship. Some other metric will be used, one that just happens to show the USA in a good light.
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  823. They do the same with China, accusing it of stealing everything, as if the Chinese are incapable of making anything themselves.
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  824. Or engage in gerrymandering.
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  825.  @elon6784  Well it seems to be holding up tolerably well as far as dispassionate observers can tell in spite of everything. And its neighbour China even more so. Likewise Cuba. Besides, a country that was virtually obliterated by war and then embargoed and sanctioned for decades can hardly be deemed a failure solely because of what socioeconomic system it practices when most of its problems are due to outside forces beyond its control.
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  826. ​ @robyenney951  ​They also replaced chattel slavery with other forms of slavery disguised as freedom in addition to creating the modern system of wage slavery that we know today. So to say that they got rid of a type of slavery that they themselves had created while merely replacing it with another, more sophisticated form of slavery is a bit disingenuous.
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  827. What are the differences, can you enumerate them?
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  828. ​ @nelumkalachuchi1154  After being tricked by the USA into doing so. Saddam Hussein was encouraged to believe that the USA had given him the green light like it had done with his invasion of Iran previously but, of course, they just wanted a pretext to take him out and destabilise West Asia. He was getting too big for his boots and beginning to act independently, forgetting that he was just a puppet, nothing more. Besides, Kuwait did once belong to what is now Iraq so, like Garibaldi, his invasion could be seen as a case of irredentism.
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  829. In all likelihood the USA knew from the very start that Ukraine could never win in a war against the Russian Federation and thus this was never the expected outcome. In my opinion the intention was to drain both countries of resources and manpower and eventually leave Ukraine a failed state and an economic burden on Russia. In addition, I think it was also intended to divide Europe not only against Russia but also against itself. Now it's on to China, but here I doubt they will have much success because the Chinese know what's coming and neither they nor the people of Taiwan want any part of it.
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  830. The victor won the right to write the history books though.
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  831. What is referred to as 'The West' is in fact not as monolithic an entity as it's so often made out to be. Instead it is a diverse and dynamic grouping of individual countries with often conflicting interests that may appear to have solidarity on the face of things but in reality is often deeply divided. We must not mistake the Europe that is under the hegemony of the USA for the Europe that can say "no" when it really matters.
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  832. It WAS originally a German name pronounced in the German way, BUT it has since been anglicized and is now pronounced according to American English.
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  833. What are you going to do about it?
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  834. a) He's senile. b) He's misinformed. c) He's a politician.
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  835. Kicking out the IMF and not following their neo‐liberal economic nostrums would be my advice.
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  836. We'll all be in the same boat as you before long.
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  837. I hope India and China are paying close attention to how the USA treats their neighbour Pakistan.
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  838. Britain did its best to stop Eurasian integration (France, Germany, Russia, Turkey) and 4 wars — Napolionic, Crimean, Great War/WorldWar 1, World War 2 — in which millions died was the result. The USA seems to want to do the same.
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  839. It's been planned. Much of the weapons are obsolete or obsolescent or they're just getting rid of old stock that's coming to the end of its service life. They are also planning to buy new weapons from the USA, replacing not only their own stock but the major part of their own weapons industry, thus making Europe increasingly dependent on United States to a hitherto unprecedented degree. The same goes for Europe's energy industry, made to a high degree dependent upon the USA.
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  840. People more competent than you to judge have already decided otherwise – the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
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  841.  @haydarazzouz4496  The way India treats the Dalits/scheduled castes is abominable. That said the government of India has tried to alleviate the worst aspects of the prejudice they face but the Hindu fundamentalists are now trying to reverse that.
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  842. ​ @Karyabs Or Netanyahu. 🫥
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  843. He might be a mercenary (Wagner group?) or an ex-prisoner promised a pardon in return for military service. I suppose they don't care about age much in such circumstances as both groups are deemed the most easily expendable and aren't really expected to be of the best quality.
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  844. And a very corrupt politician!
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  845. Or... capitalism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.
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  846.  @lovealways2609  The USA wants it like that. It wants to promote a demographic crisis in Ukraine to add to the general destruction and use of sanctions aimed at making the rebuilding of infrastructure as hard as possible. The USA wants a weakened and divided Europe.
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  847. Neo-liberalism is a failed economic system. It was only ever designed to serve the wealthy and the banking sector.
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  848. A hundred years of first slow, then rapid, decline.
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  849. Why is the Lira falling? Is there an attack on on the currency or is it just due to economic reasons?
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  850. I wish.
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  851. In a formal democracy that doesn't matter. Only appearance matters.
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  852. Building up gold and silver reserves to back up their currencies and to prepare for the introduction of a Central Bank Digital Currency system (CBDC), possibly a central ledger similar to the Special Drawing Right system of the International Monetary Fund.
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  853.  @leorkoubi4626  Perhaps you are forgetting that the great intercontinental railroad system the USA had before then that was systematically degraded to make way for the interstate highway system, a transportation system built after lots of lobbying by and for the benefit of the automobile and oil industries.
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  854. But Russia doesn't need containing because it's already within its recognised borders.
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  855. Heavily subsidised by Western capitalism using resources taken from the rest of the world, including the Baltic countries themselves (one being the brain drain caused by economic migrants from the region).
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  856. Cash may soon be a thing of the past as central bank digital currencies are introduced and everything will be bought with cards or implanted microchips. Every transaction you make, every item you buy will be logged and at a moments notice your money can be reduced or stopped when your social credit score gets too low or you offend this in high places.
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  857. It's been turned into the British equivalent of the Democrat Party of the USA. It's been 'liberalised' – and not in a good way. There was a reason the Liberal Party never won another general election after 1914(?) and that was because it didn't and never did represent the interests of the working class. The Labour Party has become another Liberal Party (Liberal Democrat) and we don't need two such parties as one is more than enough.
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  858. It's just numbers on a computer screen. Like someone playing video games, it's just virtual money to them, money that seems to have no connection to the real world.
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  859.  @uus292  The whole of the Soviet Union was suffering food shortages and famine and not just Ukraine. Other areas of Europe were also suffering from the effects of war and various revolutions, civil wars and other kinds of civil disturbance that occurred in the wake of world war one. Indeed, while the famine in Ukraine wasn't deliberate (that has been debunked if you care to look) famine or near famine in defeated Germany under a British blockade was.
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  860. I fail to see any real connection to biology or genetics regarding the socio-economic-political system known as communism. And laws of nature, what are they?
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  861. So true. It's all a farce. How long the pretence will last is anybody's guess. Capitalism creates oligarchy/plutocracy based on private ownership and concentration of wealth and that wealth - and the power that goes with it - has become super concentrated in the hands of a few.
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  862. goldsilverandiamonds So said a multi billionaire who inherited all his money from his parents (who only got it in the first place because one of their ancestors happened to be the king's whore) and who never did a hard day's work in his life. A man who was racist, academically mediocre and helped to cause, not one, but two world wars and who supported fascism. What would such a man know of socialism? Or of the hardship that created the need for it? Ironically, the elites created by a grossly unequal system of 'socialism for the rich' are the real 'socialists' here. Unfortunately, it's a socialism they're not too keen on sharing.
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  863. A guaranteed basic income is desirable but it must be in addition to, and NOT as a replacement of existing systems of welfare and social security for the poor and needy, which must be strengthened.
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  864. This form of financial wheeler-dealing is immoral and destructive. It should be outlawed and the first step is boycott with countries simply refusing to recognise their legality.
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  865. Where are the non-westerners, the "South East Asian men" in this programme? Where is their voice in all this moralising? All I see here are a group of politically correct westerners discussing amongst themselves the backwardness (in their eyes) of countries that they see as in need of some kind of moral development, in addition to an all-too-clear conviction that western morals are universal and that any westerner who thinks otherwise and doesn't live up to them should be punished.
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  866. If democracy is kufr, then why are so many people in the Muslim world striving for it? And if this is your excuse as to why a Muslim government should deny its people the freedom of choice in who rules them - because of your interpretation ( and it is only your interpretation ) of holy scripture - then it's a very poor reason indeed, imo. Autocracy and oligarchy only benefit the rich few and in modern, that is to say progressive politics, governments exist to serve the people and not just the elites. I can see why your interpretation is so strongly advocated in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia: because it fosters loyalty to the royal family who otherwise would have no support.
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  867. +voicubogdan84 Why do you say that? It would be playing straight into the hands of those who are behind these demonstrations.
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  868. 😏🎯👌✅👍✔ Hypocrite and faulty logic are two words that come to mind when listening to him speak on this issue.
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  869. If they conclude a deal the USA will have no excuse to invade and Israel will be shouting in the wind. I think the USA has enough on its plate already. Like with Syria over its chemical weapons, Russia, by pushing Washington down the diplomatic track, has saved America from what might have been a disaster and hopefully opened the way for eventual normalisation of relations with Iran. Obama should be grateful.
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  870. +EmceeDoctorB Actually, the British practised a deliberate policy of de-industrialisation of India, designing trade tariffs that destroyed India's own textile trade, for instance.
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  871. WHAT are the criteria that the Iranians must meet before their nuclear activities are considered legitimate and are they reasonable and fair? And WHO gets to set them and decide if they've been met - the international community, Israel, USA? - and is this reasonable and fair?
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  872. Is Gaza's gas deposits a factor in Israel's actions? Undoubtedly! …And that of the United States too.
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  873. I'm guessing that if one of his organs (like his stomach or large intestine) had been ruptured then death might very well have been due to the rapid onset of acute septicaemia (blood poisoning) caused by all the bacteria in those organs. Either that or he died of internal bleeding (which I assume is the more likely of the two). Whatever the cause of death, it was a sad ending and a horrible tragedy. The world lost a great entertainer. May his soul rest in peace.
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  874. Belial Devil, it's the threat of a good example they don't like.
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  875. Does NATO have the right to swallow them up? Buffer states act to reduce the likelihood of war whereas absorption into NATO is likely to increase it. And besides, being a buffer state doesn't automatically mean loss of sovereignty or freedom, think Finland during the cold war or Poland between the wars.
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  876. Then why did the USA/EU organise a coup d'ètat in Ukraine specifically to put pro-NATO and pro-EU candidates in power and why does NATO continue to exist so long after the demise of the Soviet Union and Russian communism?
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  877. Global climate change may be occurring but whether it's anthropogenic is debatable and even if it is there is precious little we can do about it because, for one reason, the alleged causative agents - CO2, fossil fuels - have been building up since at least the 19th century and thus by now will have built up to levels that will take at least as long to dissipate... time that we don't have; and secondly, economic development - which is what globalisation theory says is the path to increased standards of living for the world's people - requires that countries make increased use of fossil fuels as an unavoidable part of their modernisation... so more countries pumping out more CO2 and using more fossil fuels. Then there is the greed and power factors to take into account: western oil and gas companies aren't going to let alternative technologies be developed if it means their profits will be reduced, and powerful western countries don't want other countries to be energy independent if it means reducing their leverage over them.
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  878. Perhaps the introduction of a land tax for property speculation and a 'Tobin' tax for stock market speculation might dampen peoples enthusiasm for unproductive speculation and incentivise them to invest in manufacturing and production.
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  879.  @gustofzephyr947  One word: colonialism. Colonialism = plunder and exploitation. Countries that suffered it have still not recovered and won't if the neo-colonising West continues getting its way.
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  880.    I think you meant, the Israelis .
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  881.  @richardjohnson1757  along with the mentally challenged and entirely innocent.
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  882. Titou1384, the answer is simple. The USA should do what Korea wants and sign a peace treaty. That and removing their bases and letting the Koreas sort things out themselves. There, problem sorted.
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  883. Two things have to happen: - First, outside interference in the form of financial, political and military support for Ukrainian ultra-nationalists by the USA and EU must stop. Second, an interim ceasefire agreement brokered by the UN or OSCE that leads to a final settlement acceptable to all sides (possibly policed by UN or OSCE peace-keepers) should be arranged ASAP to bring this madness to and end. Getting everyone to sit round a table and discuss things in a calm and rational manner, free from outside interference, would be a good way of allowing the separatists and the nationalists to perhaps reach some sort of a compromise that respects both the wishes of ethnic Russians (separatists) whilst keeping the country united (nationalists) and at the same time isolates the extremists on both sides. But I guess the easiest and most obvious solution is actually the hardest and last option for people to consider. Maybe it's mere coincidence, but since the West 'won' the Cold War there seems to have been more instability in Europe than in all the last 65 years put together.
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  884. Democratic communism. Has anyone tried that yet?
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  885. " What will they say next? We own the moon? " No, they'll say "we own the Canadian Arctic ". And Harper will say "Yes sir, you sure do ".
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  886. China has lifted 1 billon people out of absolute poverty since 1949. I wonder how many people have been lifted out of poverty by profit‐driven laissez-faire capitalism.
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  887. And how much will her food bill be when the Dutch government has closed down most of the Netherlands' dairy farms?
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  888.  @weissblau  Unless their is a crisis so severe that it forces the USA to withdraw its de facto suzereinty over Germany. This might possibly occur if there were to be a crash of the US dollar or its loss as the world reserve currency, another Great Depression, some military debacle overseas, or civil war/unrest/coup at home. If that were to happen it would probably mean the USA relinquishing its control or hegemony over Europe in general and probably the world as well. Like the United Kingdom, the costs of empire become too burdensome.
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  889. India is non-aligned/neutral so Modi is doing business with everyone, Chinese, Americans, the EU, whoever. He's not cutting off his nose to spite his face by alienating China just because the USA wants him to.
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  890. "Illegality" is the best way of describing it. The criminality and corruption that exists in the USA is now being exported to Europe.
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  891. The fact that possessing or making AP should tell you a lot too.
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  892. I think the United States is betting on being able to control Europe and use them as a captive market, destroying the EU's domestic economies in the process.
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  893. Western Europe. Eastern Europe, with the exception of Russia, was basically a colony of the western part (eg. the Austro-Hungarian empire).
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  894. The US intelligence services together with their local accomplices have been all too successful in destroying the left in Europe these last 80 years.
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  895. Don't worry, the USA is currently hard at work destabilising the region. We'll be seeing wars in the region soon enough and I'm sure those wars will deplete the population somewhat. Though I think it will be beneficial for the elites of the USA as they will find plenty of opportunities to exploit the new immigrants from Africa just as they do with Mexicans and Eastern Europeans and the brain drain will help keep the USA on top while keeping a potential competitor weak, especially now as its being helped by China.
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  896. "No frost." What does that metaphor mean? I've never heard it before. •●•●•●•●• "Без инея". Что означает эта метафора? Я никогда раньше ее не слышал.
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  897. Israel serves the corporate and banking interests of the USA (its elites). Their interests coincide because Israel serves as an extension of the USA in west Asia, its aircraft carrier if you will. In fact, its almost like its the 51st state and that to attack Israel is tantamount to an attack on the USA á la Pearl Harbour, Hawaii (a country far away from the continental USA and one that was invaded and forcibly annexed).
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  898. Trump is not in charge. No president of the USA is, nor has been since at least the 1960's; the foreign policy establishment assiduously catering to the needs of the corporations and military-security state are. It's they who set the agenda. The foreign policy of the United States has shown remarkable consistency during the last 50 years and isn't likely to change any time soon.
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  899. 10:00 Absurd! He's probably doing it merely for the publicity. It's hypocritical too because whatever he accuses the Russian Federation of is, a fortiori, something that the USA, France and the client state of the USA, Britain, do even more. The Permanent Five ignore the General Assembly already as it is so ignoring the Security Council would make perfect sense, taking it to its logical extreme (like they did with the Second Iraq War and the war in Yugoslavia).
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  900.  @Commievn  Could the United States rescue itself by using the the Special Drawing Rights of the International Monetary Fund as a back up currency if it got the European Union and others to agree? Similar to getting Saudi Arabia to agree to only trade oil and gas in US dollars, or western Europe to accept the US dollar as the sole international reserve currency for international trade over the hypothetical international currency the Bancor proposed my John Maynard Keynes? In other words, could the USA postpone or avoid bankruptcy and the collapse of the dollar by going over to a global currency?
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  901.  @mikeoglen6848  Look, are they forcing there way in? The answer is no, they are not. For the most part they're coming in to fill labour shortages caused by declining birth rates and to keep labour costs down. The West is suffering from what economists call a 'mature' economy (read geriatric) and inviting in these 'guest workers' is the way they deal with the problem; bringing in fresh blood, so to speak. We westerners only have ourselves to blame.
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  902.  @Thorsted67  Looks like universal basic income will be coming to a job centre near you.
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  903.  @bonk1600  It was never about ideologies or human rights (capitalism versus communism, democracy versus dictatorship). It was about resources. To wit, non-western resources, the same resources that made western Europe and its offshoots, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, so wealthy in the first place. The whole of the cold war was basically a fight to stop the third and second worlds from wresting control of their resources back from the first world and using them for their own development and to gain genuine independence and autonomy from western domination (in effect bringing to an end several centuries of European imperialism and colonialism). Control of gas and oil from the Middle East and other mineral resources from Asia (eg. Afghanistan) is a classic case of this. In my opinion the United States of America is fighting a rearguard action to prevent what the independence movements of the immediate postwar period fought for and that stalled during the 1960's and 70's when the US began its rollback of the initial gains achieved under nationalist leaders like Abdul Nasser of Egypt and Mosaddegh of Iran (as well as similar gains made by the women's movement, civil rights and labour movements back home). Unfortunately, both a resurgent Russia and China, are, with increasing success, hindering the USA and western worrier Europe in their hegemony of both the third world and it looks increasingly likely that strategically important parts of the non-western world may finally get to control their own resources and attain a level of economic development that finally frees them from vassalage to western capitalism/corporatism.
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  904. By modern I presume you mean western capitalist, a system that is essentially all about private property.
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  905.  @nocturnalowl5867  The point I was trying to get across was: 1. Their is no such thing as civilised versus uncivilised. 2. It's nobody's business but China's.
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  906. Understandable when you consider a fair proportion of the elite are eugenicists fully committed to reducing the human population of planet Earth. Nuclear bunkers are for them, the chosen few, not the rest of us. As far as they are concerned we can go to hell.
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  907. Like the Russians in the Great Patriotic War the Chinese would learn. Besides, you'd be up against quantity over quality both in men and material, just like the Germans.
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  908. I'll tell that to the Chinese as they overtake the USA and its client states in the EU in both per capita as well as purchasing parity terms.
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  909. The 'West' is just a cover word for the rapacious economic imperialism of western European and north American capital, especially the core capitalist states vis‐à‐vis the periphery. Nothing much has changed since the 19th century regarding capitalism's insatiable need to seek out new and higher rates of profit by whatever means necessary.
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  910. To people in the USA and Canada a 'fortnight' is a period of 2 weeks.
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  911. A dirty bomb would be no more dirty than depleted uranium or anti-personel mines, things the West has used.
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  912.  @smartchip  It could be that too. (Radioactive material spread over a large area by a conventional (non-nuclear) explosive).
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  913.  @omaramoodi3057  Before the Russian invasion the USA through its proxies Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were training, funding, arming and infiltrating Islamic fundamentalists, aka the Muhajideen/Taliban, into Afghanistan and having them commit acts of terrorism and insurgency. These terrorists/mercenaries proceeded to attack soft targets — schools, hospitals, clinics, police stations, power plants — on the orders of the USA to politically destabilise and economically destroy Afghan civil society and it wasn't long before the secular and moderately prosperous Afghan government was on the verge of collapse.
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  914. ​​ @handsfortoothpicks  On paper. In fact China is number one.
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  915. ​ @wojtek9675  A political fight within the Chinese government between the Maoists and Dengists. After the failure of the Great Leap Forwards (a misconceived attempt to catch up with the West and Russia) Mao was sidelined. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was his (successful) attempt to get back into power. It had nothing to do with communism per se; it was a power struggle, pure and simple.
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  916. For a country whose elite suffer from delusions of grandeur such lessons are hard to learn. I feel my country is like Italy under Mussolini, a country about to get itself into a whole lot of trouble and all because it refuses to acknowledge reality and thinks it can play with the big boys. Britain cannot punch above its weight on this one I fear.
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  917. I thought it was the USA through institutions like the IMF that was doing that and every time a leader comes to power that tries to make their country better they get overthrown. Ask yourself, who overthrew Khan, China or the USA?
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  918. So he's basically just one more corrupt politician on the take and his posturing mere opportunism.
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  919. This is all by design. The USA wants to corral Europe and the corporations of both continents want captive markets whose customers don't have alternatives.
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  920. How did your grandparents feel about the great depression?
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  921. Are you getting any help from your government to cope with the increases? If you're well off you don't need it but if not....
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  922.  Simon Whittaker  Though I'd say it could be argued that India's historic claim to rightful possession of Kashmir is more disputable.
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  923. What has communism got to do with anything? This is a cultural thing that has existed in China and in most places and periods from the year dot. Indeed Europe is probably an outlier in this respect and love marriages/individualism relatively recent historical developments.
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  924. I don't see the problem with copying. All societies everywhere do it. Like children, it's how societies progress, by learning from each other. Typical of the capitalist mindset that they want to monopolise every new invention or innovation and keep it for themselves, creating artificial scarcity with patents where there would otherwise be abundance.
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  925. The United States as well due to it frequently not allowing Israel to soften its stance or engage in compromise with the Palestinians even when the Israelis want to and realise it would be in their interests. In short the United States wants a permanent state of tension in West Asia and Israel is the main method to achieve this even if it goes against the wishes of many Israelis who would like to make some sort of piece with their neighbours.
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  926. ​ @sutlers2day he was crossing the road to his car and another car was coming down the road; maybe he didn't want to get hit.
    2
  927. ​ @rosesprog1722  And this American executioner was never punished for any of this, showing by this sadism and needless cruelty that victors justice was often no better than that of those they killed. ▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎ All these people venting their hatred for people and events that occurred before most of them were even born should ask themselves: What happened to the camp commandant of Guantanamo Bay? Or Abu Graib? What happened to the general in charge of cities like Fallujha?
    2
  928.  @loveblindhate9318  Russia is, was and always will be part of Europe; it's only the Americans and their British allies who want disunity in Europe because it furthers their interests. Sometimes it looks like a replay of the events that led to world war one are in the offing, this time with Russia playing the role of Germany and the USA playing the role of Great Britain.
    2
  929. I see a 78 day NATO bombing scenario on the horizon. Only this time around Russia will use its anti-aircraft missiles to shoot them down.
    2
  930. That would make for a better security environment for Europe, I believe. The Russians would not feel as threatened and as a result the rest of Europe would not feel the need to spend as much of their budgets on arms spending, freeing them to spend on socially useful things instead.
    2
  931.  N Silva  Donald Trump is the Boris Yeltsin of the United States. Or maybe the Mikhail Gorbachev. Either way, just as neither of those were good for Russia, so Donald Trump is proving to be not all that good for the USA.
    2
  932. I'm surprised to tell you the truth why we aren't seeing hyperinflation yet. For how long all this quantitative easing can be used to delay what for every other economy that's ever existed in the past has always been a disaster I don't know. Maybe the United States Federal Reserve have found a magic trick they aren't telling us about that will allow them to do what no other economy in history has been able to do. It's worrying to say the least.
    2
  933. And he of all people should know that.
    2
  934. I suppose it depends on what you count as dinosaur. Smaller dinosaurs may have survived for longer because they ate less (possibly also because they were herbivorous or omnivorous and able to eat a more varied diet) and had less mass and surface area, making them better able to survive in the colder climate caused by dust particles blotting out the sun.
    2
  935. All oil and gas are paid for in US dollars. Seems to me the Chinese are helping to fund and grow the US military. See what I did there?
    2
  936. NATO is outdated. There is nothing that NATO can do that the EU can't, security wise (not that I support an EU army).
    2
  937. If it's a capitalist "democracy" it almost certainly will because under such a set up capital dominates and as private capital tends toward corporitization and corporations/corporate economies tend toward globalization, they appropriate more and more of the public commons and concentrate more and more wealth in private hands, leaving less and less for everyone else, which tends to make them unpopular and thus the capitalists are against democracy, those without wealth and property exercising their power against those with.
    2
  938. "Western elites" are constrained by their subservience to Washington. Their hands are tied.
    2
  939. Let's hope so.
    2
  940.  @AvesPasseri-Jinysvet  Did your country support Israel, the invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq; support Mubarak, Al-Sisi; act like entitled brats...? Could be a whole host of reasons.
    2
  941.  @johnbowen2956  And the Mossad torturers/ interrogators? When doing the same to the Palestinians I'm sure they can justify their actions.
    2
  942. A few, choice hits with air-fuel bombs (MOAB's – Massive Ordinance Arial Bombs) might be able neutralise the static entrenched positions of the Ukrainians... if the Russians can get air superiority or are prepared for quite heavy losses to their air force. Perhaps a MOAB can be fitted to a cruise missile, negating the need to use more vulnerable aircraft.
    2
  943. ... Seen... but not been able to afford.
    2
  944. I'm guessing that Chinese society/culture has inculcated the idea into its citizenry that it's best to let the authorities and/or immediate family deal with situations like this. Basically a 'I shouldn't get involved because this person is a stranger and it could make things worse for me' sort of attitude.
    2
  945. That's like the Germans saying Polish Jews had their own state: it was the Warsaw Ghetto.
    2
  946. ​ @fullfildreamz  Is that why it turned Russia from a mediaeval nation of peasants riven by famines to a modern industrial superpower in just 40 years? And what about China?
    2
  947. ​ @NateWhitehorse because your couldn't. The Red Army was already in Berlin while the USA and its satellite Britain were still stuck in France. Truth be told, it was the Soviet Union that ended Germany rather than the USA.
    2
  948.  @jamesmedina2062  And I'd say to most Russians and even many non-Russians too.
    2
  949. If the practice is sufficiently widespread and there is no genuinely popular desire amongst a majority of the population to end it then, in my opinion, it should be legalised. Africans banning a widespread cultural practice merely to appease some self-rightious white people in the West (where its male equivalent is unashamedly practiced) is absurd and smacks of cultural imperialism.
    2
  950. Copium is a helluva drug! 😂
    2
  951.  @jascforfun7576  Pseudo‐alliance?
    2
  952. It had been taken to the vet and was recovering.
    2
  953. Do they also remind you of the secret protocol to the Rambouillet 'Peace' Accords that were presented to Yugoslavia on the eve of the NATO bombing campaign?
    2
  954. In a debt based economy there has to be expansion or everything collapses. You can have infinite debt but you cannot have infinite growth (money, trade, etc. ) to match that debt and, unfortunately, that is where the US economy finds itself right now, the inflection point when debt exponentially rises faster than the capital to pay that debt.
    2
  955. Why would they want to imitate a failed/failing socioeconomic system as American liberal democracy!
    2
  956. RIP Miss Dugin. Condolences Mr Dugin.
    2
  957. A European army brings to mind the Warsaw Pact invading certain countries when they went against the will of the Soviet Union.
    2
  958. It's neither medication nor a vaccine as properly understood that is being forced upon vast numbers of the world's people. Rather, it's gene therapy that's being used (at least the western variants of these drugs). That's another probable reason that western governments don't want to use Russian or Chinese drugs because they are real vaccines that use traditional methods of virus suppression rather than the mRNA method that is being used — virtually without proper medical trials having been conducted first — by western pharmaceutical companies that are alleged to be linked to various hidden-in-plain-sight EU-UN/US deep state agendas.
    2
  959. Another alzeimers/dementia president‽
    2
  960.  @nonfictionone  Of course. But those laws should be practical and reflect the social and economic needs of a country (i.e. the need for skilled labour and the need to replenish itself).
    2
  961.  daniiel mlinarics  look up Fallujah. Also the USA in the Levant (Israel). Look up Gaza.
    2
  962. Rentier capitalism.
    2
  963. British — ostensibly applies to all people native to the British Isles (Scots, English, Welsh, Northern Irish) but in reality applies to the English. In fact, the English of ultimately foreign parentage located in the South of the country.
    2
  964.  @march3254  Poland will no doubt like such a proposition.
    2
  965. What is western civilization? Where and when does it begin and end? The concept is meaningless. It's like trying to impose boundaries on infinity, to mould all the varying historical experiences of a multitude of peoples, societies and cultures over many centuries into just one totalizing whole.
    2
  966. Exactly as the USA and the UK want it. They want Poland to be another Ukraine. World War 2 redux.
    2
  967.  @phuckpootube6231  The Chinese set the exchange rate of their currency vis‐a‐vis the dollar often with the tacit understanding of the USA.
    2
  968. @Wiegraf Lol. Yugoslavia ring a bell?
    2
  969. The fault of the USA and the eurocrats in Brussels of you ask my opinion. By expanding an economically hostile EU and a militarily hostile NATO into territory that is close to Russia's borders despite repeated warnings not to do so they have created this crisis within Europe.
    2
  970.  @varanaut1308  I'll tell that to the Chinese.
    2
  971. The UN is only a good as its members.
    2
  972. It threatened the interests of the rich ownership class who make up the greatest beneficiaries of capitalism and whose ideology forms the foundational bedrock upon which capitalism rests.
    2
  973. I think Alexander is referring to Asia and Europe en bloc when he uses the word 'Eurasia', the implication being that they are basically one continent with the two parts remaining geographically distinct but with the major countries in the region still sharing similar and sometimes overlapping geopolitical interests, peace and prosperity being chief among them. I don't think he's trying to erase Russia at all. Russia straddles both continents and can therefore, under certain circumstances, be referred to legitimately as Eurasian. This is not meant as an insult to Russians, merely a statement of geographical fact.
    2
  974.  @lsfornells  Yes, you are correct.
    2
  975. Realistically (from a purely military viewpoint) you are almost certainly correct. However, from a geopolitical and economic viewpoint what the impact will be in the short to medium term for China if it does so (boycotts, embargo, political isolation, increased tensions, arms race, loss of trade, etc.) is anybody's guess and I think that it is considerations like these that are, more than anything else, currently serving to put a brake on China's more belligerent intentions in places like the South China sea. However, this state of affairs will last only for as long as China is weaker or on a par with the USA and it's allies in the military and economic fields; the moment China has a decided advantage in both I suspect very few countries will be willing to sacrifice their economic and political relations with Asia's - and the world's - premier superpower.
    2
  976.  @DanaDikaiosyne  Good question, in my opinion.
    2
  977. ​ @sebastianm.5630  Does anyone know why?
    2
  978.  @kevinp401  Among European royalty too.
    2
  979. The Taliban are Afghans and Afghans have every right to rule over their own country, no?
    2
  980. He's an apologist for the 'unipolar moment' of 1989. That moment has now ended.
    2
  981. Everyone will be living in "fusion centers".
    2
  982. That's the time it takes for light to reach us, not the actual age of the light particles (photons) which, of course, are timeless/ageless (they do not experience the passage of time, for them there is only the present).
    2
  983. Maybe they 'planned' their children in the full expectation they would be healthy. That is, these children were not the result of an 'accident'. Have you ever thought of that?
    2
  984. India.
    2
  985. ​​ @Pylypczak  Things scuba dive divers wear on their feet. I presume it's a metonym referring to ex-spcial ops navy divers.
    2
  986. ​​ @carlosjosejimenezbermudez9255  But neo-classical economics (the economics of neoliberalism, which is the kind overwhelmingly taught in universities) is not even a social science anymore. It's an extreme right wing ideology pretending to be a science, one promoted by the likes of von Mises and Friedman, men promoted by the American deep state to serve as the apologists for neoliberalism (corporatism, rentier capitalism). Unlike classical economics which genuinely did aspire to being a social science that accurately described how real economies work, neo-classical economics is nothing more than abstract theorising devoid of empirical proofs. Apparently, the CIA looked at Karl Marx, Adam Smith, Ricardo, etc. and didn't like what they said about capitalism and where it was headed so they replaced it with something akin to Lysenkoism that was much more palatable.
    2
  987. ​​​ @geoffgjof  Ask yourself, why are there more people on welfare? Could it because there are no jobs?
    2
  988. ​ @sandcastledx China seems to be doing okay. And the Soviet Union did too for most of its history.
    2
  989. The US political economy is dysfunctional and everyone suffers as a result.
    2
  990. Well so far it seems to be working. I see no substantial pushback yet from Europe, the Americas or Asia and any alternatives that might be offered by way of the BRICS+ seem to be in their infancy, if gathering pace. This state of affairs looks as if it will last at least another decade or two, if not longer. It seems China is in no rush to remove the USA from the top spot just yet.
    2
  991. He's a fan of the Duran.
    2
  992. The United States government would like a word.
    2
  993. By being seen to be doing something bold and decisive the Russian government has won a great moral victory in the eyes of its own people, so far without a shot being fired. And that is what is important.
    2
  994. How many people will die of malnutrition and starvation or otherwise live lives of misery due to these reforms?
    2
  995.  @meganh9460 : So, no different than the western International Monetary Fund and World Bank then. Regarding China's international lending and the West's, I wonder which is more likely to write off odious debt that cannot be repaid and less likely to impose harmful 'structural adjustment' on indebted countries.
    2
  996. If you think that's bad just think about the austerity imposed on Greece by Germany.
    2
  997. Those lamp posts hardly give out any light.
    2
  998. More like a resumption of the Cold War – the global hegemony war of transnational capital and finance, led by the USA. The aim, like in the first Cold War, is to destroy Russia and China as independent sovereign states or at least as states that are not controlled by, or actively resist, the transnational capital and finance located in western Europe and North America. Nukes weren't used in the first cold war, – which lasted 50 years, 2-3 generations – and are just as unlikely to be used now. Of course there can always be accidents and incidents.
    2
  999.  @jasonj4865  Or in places where there is oil and gas?
    2
  1000. It's the USA that's pushing this so don't expect anyone or any institution in Europe or the European Union to act as a break on this. Like Ukraine, the strategic planners of the US deep state are making the decisions, not the politicians, diplomats, etc.
    2
  1001. More like they are discussing plans to finalise Europe and the USA's move towards a global Central Bank Digital Currency in a way that doesn't collapse the US dollar and allows the USA to continue to dominated the West. Perhaps they are also discussing how to suppress gold and silver in the event of a crash. The USA may even be discussing whether it can secure a loan from the Asian Economic Development Bank.
    2
  1002. Sanctions by whom and why?
    2
  1003. It already is officially a part of China according to the United Nations.
    2
  1004. ​ @ThomasDanielsen1000  How can you use the phrase "unprovoked invasions" with a straight face given the recent history of NATO, Britain and the USA?
    2
  1005. Is this because you've been injected with a gain-of-function 'vaccine' developed at least in part by the United States military that actually may make you MORE likely to develop cold/flu, including variants of COVID? Of course, you could be particularly prone to catching the cold as you frequently seem to be suffering from its symptoms in your videos.
    2
  1006. Plausible. The deep state has a voracious appetite for plunder and so wishes to turn Ukraine into a centre for money laundering, drug smuggling, people trafficking and gun running, the quintessential tools the US kleptocracy needs to keep it from falling apart under the weight of its own corruption, that and using it as a base to destabilise the region.
    2
  1007. Much of the GDP of the US is due to money laundering and tax evasion schemes inflating the figures, as well as by counting as high value a fiat currency of an essentially bankrupt state which would have been reduced to junk bond status long ago if wasn't for the system being so corrupt and rigged, resting precariously upon a phantom economy mainly made up of the FIRE and military‐industrial sectors rather than productive manufacturing and the building of infrastructure.
    2
  1008. Part of the divide and conquer strategy of the United States and its million-and-one think tanks. Sowing the seeds of the Union's breakup and social dissension leading to corporatist authoritarianism.
    2
  1009. Well said. Thanks to pressure from the USA both the European Union and Great Britain are cutting off their nose to spite their face. The actions of the USA are very likely to exacerbate an already worsening economic situation.
    2
  1010. Or the United States itself.
    2
  1011. What is an 'objective' law?
    2
  1012. And he was right. Every word.
    2
  1013. The way we had Poland's back in 1939. Or Czechoslovakia's in 1938. Lol.
    2
  1014. To keep the Middle East divided and to control the flow of oil, gas and transit corridors while being able to intimidate countries of the region by having a military presence there is the permanent policy goal of the United States.
    2
  1015. Or co-opted and if that fails marginalised.
    2
  1016. He's right on some things and not on others.
    2
  1017. More to play China off against Russia than to tame it, I'd say. And I think they're trying to do the same again but are being less successful this time around.
    2
  1018. If these people were French I suppose they would have been called something akin to collaborators or traitors by the Gaullists when Vichy France fell for choosing the wrong side.
    2
  1019. Along with the breakup of the union with Scotland and Wales becoming independent. That and the abolishment of the monarchy and the corporation of the City of London.
    2
  1020. Be under no illusions, the Five Eyes and the EU won't let anyone use this without being able to intercept and read the 'encrypted' data.
    2
  1021. They are both right wing [expletive]! What can you expect.
    2
  1022. The Treaty of Westphalia all over again… and the British (read English) aren't invited but the French and Germans are. How galling.
    2
  1023.  @PipinKratky821  It could indeed. There seems to be a growing consensus even among western commentators that the combined economies of Asia, a Chinese led South‐East in particular, are going to dominate the world by the end of this century and if that's the case then I think it's safe to assume that the international financial system will not remain unchanged. My guess is that in the not too distant future Asian currencies, particularly China's, will gain considerably more purchasing power vis‐a‐vis the US dollar, European Union euro and British pounds sterling.
    2
  1024.  @willengel2458  They pulled a Yeltsin.
    2
  1025.  @MrThhg  more mass murder (a war crime) of innocent civilians by the USA and its client states in the first week of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than Russia in 30 years. And that's just in the first week! And now we have the famines in Yemen and Afghanistan, DELIBERATELY being caused by the actions of the United States government. When the USA and its lackeys in western Europe point the finger at others, 6½ billion fingers are pointing back.
    2
  1026. Soon the government of the USA might run out of things to sanction and if that happens it will have to re‐learn the art of negotiation. Sanctions can only take you so far.
    2
  1027. Probably because art connoisseurs from the middle class say it is.
    2
  1028. They want to reduce the wages of the average American to the same level as the Global South, only then will US industry be competitive.
    2
  1029. Stormer is an intelligence asset and someone parachuted in from the top. From at least Tony Blair onwards the Labour Party has become Americanised and like the USA's own political parties and trade/labour unions docile and infiltrated from top to bottom by agents of influence and subversives. The Labour Party is now the British version of the Democrat Party of the United States — Tory-lite. Same for our media, eg. The Guardian, The Daily Mirror. What we are presented with as a democratic choice are the two fronts of the deep state (two and one-half if you include the Liberal Democrats): the Brown Shirts (labour, social democrat, socialist) and the Black Shirts (conservative, Christian democrat, liberal).
    2
  1030. Well you could have fooled me. Several advertisements appeared while I was watching. I stopped watching each time it happened and restarted the video at the approximate point just before the advert appeared. On principle I tend to switch off watching a video the moment an advert appears and just read the comments. As a result I seldom get to watch videos in their entirety, at least now without interruption. A pity really. Even only more people would voluntarily demonetise their videos or only have adverts at the end or less intrusive advertising.
    2
  1031. This is all for show... P.R., optics.
    2
  1032. The USA is essentially rudderless and led by lobby groups affiliated with the military‐industrial complex with which they have a symbiotic relationship. In other words, there are too many insider groups that, although they have a coherent plan on their own, when all the different plans of these groups are taken together the system as a whole becomes incoherent and no one group can carry out a national plan that benefits the nation as whole.
    2
  1033.  @Hyrodeniamandibulata  To the rest of the world. Plus its own internal market. The USA is not irreplaceable.
    2
  1034. "The gold goes back to Europe. " Or maybe not.
    2
  1035. Probably by mutual agreement. The elites protecting their arses at everyone else's expense. Typical behaviour for such people. The joke would be in us.
    2
  1036. It is a work of fiction.
    2
  1037. Yes, making the country you're trying to 'save' from itself a nuclear wasteland is a really good idea. I'm sure the South Koreans would – like the Japanese – be eternally grateful.
    2
  1038. Why is the Turkish lira losing its value in the first place?
    2
  1039. What rich and powerful man hasn't! It goes with the job, just ask an Italian.
    2
  1040. A jumper that does not have a seam at the shoulder, as I recall.
    2
  1041. There needs to be an effective replacement first; a party that can absorb the rump of labour and incorporate it into a new party.
    2
  1042. That's probably what the evil empire wants. It wants Europe to be as separate from Russia and Asia as possible and basically sanction and embargo them like it did during the cold war. All for the benefit of the United States, of course. It wants Europe and Asia to remain as disconnected as possible. A united and economically developed Eurasia would be a nightmare and a united Afro‐Eurasia even worse.
    2
  1043. Liberation... or conquest? Did the Solomon islanders ask to be liberated? Did they ask the Japanese to occupy them, or the USA to provoke Japan into a war that would involve them? Did they ask to be be colonised and have their indigenous culture forever alerted by contact with Europeans and their offspring in the first place?
    2
  1044.  @Zoloder  Crufts, the canine equivalent, did the same. Like the Olympics and football, I wish the powers that be wouldn't force what in my opinion should be neutral and apolitical organisations to partake in their squabbling. It's so petty.
    2
  1045.  @ericyuan9718  If/when China's currency is backed by gold and/or replaces the US dollar as the de facto international reserve currency then, yes, it will be able to repay its debts (which are largely owed to itself anyway), meanwhile the currency of the USA will become effectively worthless. Also, all the infrastructure that China is building around the world will ultimately start bringing in returns on investment, both directly and indirectly.
    2
  1046. "Spasticity" = plasticity?
    2
  1047. Absolutely spot on! 🫡
    2
  1048. Biden isn't a leader though, he's just a figurehead at best. He's far too mentally challenged with dementia to be in effective control. No, someone else is in real control of US policy, maybe a single individual like Harris, maybe a group of people, I don't know. Perhaps that's why the USA seems so adrift right now because the country is being run by a committee.
    2
  1049. It's only a crime when the USA says it is. And only to the extent that the USA says it is. So say the NATO agents of influence embedded in the national media of each country of the European Union.
    2
  1050. Or, how can it conduct an independent foreign policy not subordinated to US interests.
    2
  1051. No use if your aircraft carriers can't get close enough to be used and your airbases in the region have been destroyed.
    2
  1052.  @StuffandThings_  NATO war games say otherwise. On its border regions Russia is almost always likely to win. The same goes for China in the South China Sea.
    2
  1053. Starlink may have been shut down by the Americans themselves.
    2
  1054. a) Is it communist? b) Is it Chinese communism, NOT European or even Marxist communism?
    2
  1055.  @pfroudzdo  to keep its military-industrial economy functioning. The USA appears to have given up on having a non-military industrial base so it needs constant war and conflict to keep itself going.
    2
  1056. Does this mean that Russia can not request an enquiry later on?
    2
  1057. Yugoslavia has disappeared down the memory hole. It didn't happen.
    2
  1058. These three titans need to progressively integrate their economies so they can grow into a single trading block that will push the USA out of Europe and become Eurasia, the heartland.
    2
  1059. This is what happens when countries don't practice import substitution and self‐sufficiency like they did prior to globalisation in the 19th century when the world was forced to open up their economies to the West and lost their economic independence and with it their sovereignty.
    2
  1060.  @James-Campbell  Low intensity conflict is the term they give it. The USA and Britain want to draw out this whole sorry saga for as long as possible. Resources being wasted on war are resources not being used for development and are a drain on the economy, something that the British and Americans would find useful.
    2
  1061. The Americans or British will spirit him away unless they too want to get rid of him.
    2
  1062. The cold war, is it really over or has it simply turned from phase 1 (mainly aimed at the USSR and the Warsaw Pact) to phase 2 (mainly the PRC, but also a resurgent Russian Federation)? I certainly don't think it has ever really ended for the Global South who are attacked whenever they try to build polities and economies independent of European and North American capital.
    2
  1063. The Russian Federation should make a formal diplomatic complaint to the Federal Republic of Germany over her remarks. And then she should be sacked.
    2
  1064. Like most German engineering, it’s over-engineered.
    2
  1065. They did the same for the shooting down by a BUK missile of a civilian commercial aircraft over Ukraine: not allowing Russia to carry out a proper forensic investigation by refusing to fully cooperate with them.
    2
  1066. Britain seems to have taken on the same role as Colombia in relation to the United States.
    2
  1067. They probably didn't expect a member of NATO to attack them, that's why! They are at war with Ukraine and yet NATO countries like Britain seem to be involved. Why‽ Does Britain want to go to war with Russia?
    2
  1068.  dictatorofneptune  Another big reason is tax evasion and lack of/lax regulations and no/weak unions.
    2
  1069. Only if the EU breaks away from the influence of the USA and the Anglo-American axis and develops a life of its own under the dominating influence of a French‐German‐Russian axis.
    2
  1070. The Jews have repeatedly refused to make peace with Hitler and the Third Empire. See what I did there?
    2
  1071. I would have thought the USA would have had enough foresight to understand that doing business with India would not stop India in turn continuing to do business with China and Russia. They should have realised that selling technology to India would not stop other countries from doing the same.
    2
  1072. And what are your conclusions?
    2
  1073.  @Memovox  Realistically, could he have been anything else? The Japanese must live with the legacy bequeathed to them by their predecessors decades before any of them were born. The same for the Germans and the British.
    2
  1074.  @rwjazz1299  And why is that? Russia and Germany are on the same continent so why should they not do more trade with each other and develop closer economic and political relations? Germany is a natural commercial hub for central and western Europe.
    2
  1075. These sanctions were thought up in the USA and are designed to cause as much disruption to European Union-Russian Federation relations as possible. The USA wants economic and political disruption within and between the states of Europe. It wants to weaken the EU as an economic competitor and political rival and reassert US dominance, especially with regards Germany and France by preventing them formulating and implementing any foreign policy independent of the United States.
    2
  1076. Mercenaries, military and civil intelligence operatives, special forces, military trainers, stay behind saboteur units.... Yes, Europe really isn't helping. NOT!
    2
  1077. The USA. At this point in time the West is basically the USA.
    2
  1078. Sounds like these are mainly economic migrants rather than people escaping persecution and doing so because of economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the USA and its client states in the European Union.
    2
  1079. Yes, that's exactly what they expect.
    2
  1080.  @jameslum8822  Some sort of security guarantee will have to be given to Saudi Arabia by China and/or Russia. Just in case the USA tries any funny business. And if there are alternative suppliers of gas and oil Saudi Arabia's might decline in importance.
    2
  1081. The real question is how much real power a sitting president in the USA has in comparison to the influence their cabinet/advisors have.
    2
  1082. 100% corporate propaganda. Nothing left wing about capitalism.
    2
  1083. Fail. Fail again. Fail better.
    2
  1084. I don't know anything about currencies and how they work but it sounds plausible. I wonder if the USA is trying to save the the dollar by creating a dollar area like Britain created a sterling area in the 1930's based on a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Chinese I think are trying something similar in China and may extend it to the rest of Asia. Maybe both the USA and China have already agreed, presumably with Russia and India, on a world central bank digital currency.
    2
  1085. Where is your sympathy for the darker‐skinned kids eviscerated by NATO, EU, western bombs?
    2
  1086. It's not ours, it's the USA's.
    2
  1087. Blitzkrieg, Russian style!
    2
  1088. I believe there were 3 pipelines in total and two of them were sabotaged, though I don't know if irreparably. That leaves 1 pipeline remaining, although I think it's off-line. If I'm correct it looks as if the USA (or whoever did it) are holding out the tantalising possibility that gas to Europe can be turned on again at a moments notice, albeit not in as large a quantity as before. I wonder why. Was the sabotage of the third pipeline not possible, not desirable, or not necessary?
    2
  1089.  @veritasliberabitvos454  This will have been the fourth time for Britain I think.
    2
  1090. More likely that America wanted them to, together with the tax-avoiding City of London.
    2
  1091. You forgot to put the word radical in quotation marks: "radical". 😉
    2
  1092. India is notable in being one of the 'chosen ones', the handful of countries outside western Europe and North America that are routinely given a free pass by western media, the others being Japan and Israel.
    2
  1093. Fuller is a fool if he equates socialism and communism with fascism. No doubt he wants to blacken the name of socialism and communism while giving a free pass to capitalism which I'm sure he believes is a different and better system that represents the norm that all human societies would default to if only they were given the choice. It supports the status quo.
    2
  1094. Oh stop it with the holodomor crap and learn some history. The whole of Russia and the Soviet Union was undergoing food shortages and famine, not just Ukraine (which was a part of the Soviet Union). This was caused by war and climate and the actions of outside countries amongst other things and not the evil machinations of the communists. Also, the holodomor is a creation of Nazis and neo‐Nazis working for the CIA so every time you talk such crap you're actually simply regurgitating decades old propaganda.
    2
  1095. The USA alone. I doubt very much that any of the other English speaking countries have any influence whatsoever regarding Japan's foreign policy vis‐à‐vis China and Russia. It is the USA that exercises suzereinty over Japan, no one else.
    2
  1096. What would they fight over? What would the USA be fighting for... or against? China isn't threatening to invade or attack the USA. And neither is Russia.
    2
  1097. Theatrics. I doubt they have the ability or desire to really go against China or Russia. If there is some kind of military confrontation it will probably be semi-accidental, limited and of short duration.
    2
  1098. That's why it might be important in the future for Australia to 'dilute' their population with more Chinese and other people from the part of the world where they live. Make themselves ethnically interdependent, as it were, with their neighbours.
    2
  1099. And the USA... does it need do bury Smith, Ricardo, Keynes, Hiyak, Freidman, etc.?
    2
  1100. Also spending too much money on the military‐industrial complex.
    2
  1101. World war? No! USA‐China war? Maybe... but unlikely. — China will pick off US allies and potential allies by coopting them economically and politically. The One Belt, One Road Initiative and the Shangai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and similar organisations will slowly encompass more and more countries both big and small and make it extremely difficult for the USA to, in effect, fight the whole world and certainly the greater part of it, a part that is already avital part of the global economy. That's why the USA is currently gearing up to using full‐spectrum information war and proxy war (propaganda, terrorism, sabotage) along with military intimidation (eg. South China Sea) because direct country‐to‐country conflict is not militarily advisable right now. — There is also Russian‐Chinese cooperation to consider, a cooperation that is de facto fast becoming, if it isn't already, a strategic alliance that will in time, I think, decisively preclude any realistic direct military intervention in East/ South East Asia, especially if they can get India to join them as well. Indeed, I'm sure Russia is very eager to play its role in European affairs as are France and Germany and if they can overcome historic animosities and current political realities these countries taken together could combine to form a Eurasian block.
    2
  1102. Insane how incredibly wasteful capitalism is and the consumer lifestyle it creates.
    2
  1103. That sounds plausible. What makes me indignant is that the allies continued to bomb cities long after there was any military value in doing so, which resulted in needless loss of life. Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Dresden being just the more we'll known ones.
    2
  1104. Turkey's decision won't go down well with the USA (unless he's just posturing – you never know with Erdoğan – or it's been pre-agreed with the USA).
    2
  1105.  @Kingdom-cg6bm  Only when you're advancing and gaining territory. When you're retreating, or even when the front line is static, then the need for a system of effective air defence in‐depth is at its greatest.
    2
  1106. The same attitude shown towards black slaves working on cotton plantations and Chinese indentured labourers on the railroads.
    2
  1107. It's a non‐starter and they know it. It's just for propaganda purposes. I suppose the European Union could en bloc boycott the General Assembly but I highly doubt the USA, France and its protégé Britian would be willing to leave their seats on the Security Council empty. The last time that happened (USSR under Kruschev) it didn't end well: the Korean war broke out and there was no one to veto it. The rest is history.
    2
  1108. Just wondering how effective camouflage is in an urban environment. What's the best colour‐pattern combo for urban warfare?
    2
  1109. ​ @jamesmoriarty3593  the concept of the nation state was entirely alien to most people at that time, including the loose agglomeration of peoples we now refer to as Celts. These were tribal peoples whose loyalty was to their tribe/clan, not to nation. Patriotism/nationalism as we know it didn't exist back then and the notion of an entity called Great Britain, much less an obligation to defend it, was absent.
    2
  1110. ​ @ralphbernhard1757 that's not an issue with brevity but of lying.
    2
  1111. I disagree with you on whether China will surpass the United States. The fact that the USA is planning wars with China and Russia and sanctioning them is a sign of weakness, not of strength. In my opinion, China is well on its way to reclaiming the economic and political superpower status it had before the 19th century. Russia also has made a comeback and is challenging US hegemony on the European continent. I don't know about India but it too historically had been one of the two major economies of the world for most of the last thousand years or so and there is every likelihood that it will regain its prominence as a major world economy in the future.
    2
  1112. The British did something similar in 1939: emboldening the country to oppose a more militarily powerful Germany, thereby kick-starting a terrible war that might not have happened (at least not in that year) were it not for an outside country's interference. The USA wants Ukraine to be a basket case, totally wrecked economically, bankrupt financially, and with Russia drained of billions to repair its infrastructure and heal its broken society.
    2
  1113. Eric Blair (George Orwell) saw the future.
    2
  1114. Like NATO the EU serves the interests of the USA and those countries most closely aligned with it, eg. the UK. It pursues an Atlanticist agenda, one that is pro-Anglo-American in terms of economic, political and military policies, instead of one that is continentalist.
    2
  1115. Probably because, like the German Waffen SS and their death squads at the end of world war 2, they were guilty of committing war crimes and massacres and could thus expect no mercy from their enemies.
    2
  1116. I think they already are accepting Chinese Yuan as payment for some of their oil trade.
    2
  1117.  @Carbuncle0168  And I sincerely hope that it does, leaving aside the substantive meanings of words like freedom and democracy. However, have you considered the option of 1 country, 2 systems that Hong Kong uses? Taiwan under such a system would preserve substantial autonomy while realising the goal of reunification with the homeland.
    2
  1118.  @kesscarlton8759  The shareholders and corporates who control them.
    2
  1119.  @micksherman7709  War is inherently cruel so all those military 'heroes' who participate in it are by definition also cruel.
    2
  1120.  @micksherman7709  I think you are creating a strawman out of what I said. All I'm saying is that all societies live by a moral code and in the twenty-first century in Europe and the Americas that moral code (morality, ethics, moral philosophy, etc.) is pretty much universally understood and paid lip service to. And whether you like it or not people judge other people by their adherence or deviation from that common morality. Soldiers, however heroic, shouldn't get a free pass when they commit acts of obscene — and in my opinion, inherently cruel — violence just because it's state sanctioned.
    2
  1121.  @micksherman7709  What I'm saying is that anyone who knowingly and willingly becomes part of an organisation whose principal purpose is causing mass death and destruction, inflicting physical and emotional suffering on their fellow humans, sentient creatures like themselves, is, by simple virtue of being part of a such an organisation, cruel. It is not their personal feelings and inclinations that matter, but rather what they do that makes them cruel. And war is in my personal opinion cruel because it causes wanton suffering to others. A person doesn't have to be cruel themselves or to have a natural predisposition to cruelty, merely indifferent to or in other ways supportive of such cruelty.
    2
  1122.  @micksherman7709  Risking one's own life in the process of taking another's does not detract from the innate cruelty of the act. The cruelty lies in the act itself and not necessarily in the one who engages in it and a person who commits an act that they know with absolute certainty is going to cause physical pain or mental suffering to other sentient beings is, intentionality aside, still being cruel. Cruelty is as much an act as it is a feeling, indeed even more so. Just because you personally have no ill‐will towards someone as you snuff out there life, and just because you snuff out their life as painlessly as possible, does not free you from the charge of cruelty because it is the nature of war to be cruel and of logical necessity those who engage in it. Less cruel depending on circumstance perhaps but still cruel. And what is the purpose of the military? At bedrock it's all about raw, naked, in your face power. The power to impose by sheer brute force one's will upon others. Pomp, pageantry and propaganda aside, war and the military are all about killing people. You can dress it up as justified and righteous defence of an idea, a cause, a nation... but a pig with lipstick on is still a pig by any other name.
    2
  1123.  @micksherman7709  On that we can both agree. They are both necessary evils.
    2
  1124. Decline of the West? Russia seems to be doing okay.
    2
  1125. That's the excuse, the real reason was to test the USA's new wonder weapon and scare off the Soviets (Russians). (It's still a false equivalence though.)
    2
  1126.  @bipolarbear9917  Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters Mostly rioters led and organised by groups linked to western intelligence agencies such as the National Endowment for Democracy – a known CIA front. Whatever genuine, spontaneous movement there was to begin with was quickly hijacked by these nefarious groups with the agenda of politically destabilising Hong Kong. ▪︎ Surveillance and censorship Not really very different from what we have in the West. Maybe more obvious and less hedged with formal legal restraints but no less ubiquitous. The USA and its allies in NATO (5 eyes, 8 eyes) mop up all information, economic, political and military. Just look at what Edward Snowden (now living in exile) has to say about the subject. ▪︎ Imprisonment and disappearing of human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and political dissidents Again, compared to the allies of the USA in places like Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, China is a pretty good place to be a different. Stay within the limits of acceptable dissent and you can pretty much say what you like. However, all countries have their limits (just look at Chelsea/Bradley Manning and Julian Assange) and no government in its right mind will tolerate groups sponsored by foreign countries and that engage in destabilisation operations within the country under the guise of human rights. ▪︎ Uyghurs in Xinjiang The problems in the Chinese province of Xinjiang - in no small way exacerbated by the United States sponsoring terrorists in the region to destabilise it - is complicated and certainly doesn't amount either to genocide or mass incarceration of its people. Rather, the people almost always portrayed as political prisoners held in concentration camps are actually for the most part radicalised Muslims who pose a threat to the country. The same kind of Muslim we find in Syria and elsewhere and who go by the name of al-Qaeda and are called terrorists, though, for some reason, here they are called freedom fighters. — And as for "authoritarian repression" have you not seen the neo‐McCarthyism and rabid fear and hate‐mongering in the USA and western Europe?
    2
  1127.  @Steril707  The Chinese have the equivalent of YouTube and other forums where they can talk about a whole range of topics, you just have to be able to read Chinese to be able to understand what they are saying. There may be more censorship and intervention but I still am given to understand that that can talk quite freely on any subject they chose _within the limits of acceptableness laid down by the Chinese state at any one time.
    2
  1128. She's not in charge of Britain's foreign policy, the USA is. And Israel. Britain hasn't had a truly independent foreign policy since 1945.
    2
  1129. ​ @nathansowa9499  Well put, in my opinion.
    2
  1130. @burdizzoid  Non-imperialistic nationalism (or, more properly, state sovereignty) is not the same as American Exceptionalism whereby the USA (and western Europe) has the right to its own culture, who it allows into the country, and how it uses its national resources free from the interference of others (i.e. absolute and unqualified sovereignty within its national territory but others do not. Just some examples of your kind of "patriotic nationalism" are: Telling Iran it cannot have The Bomb but the USA can; That Europe cannot import Russian oil and gas while the USA can still do so on the sly; That China has no right to exercise full sovereignty over its national territories of Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan but the USA can exercise de facto semi-sovereignty over the national territories of countries like Syria and Kosovo; That Muslims and Hindus (fundamentalists) must interpret their religions in ways that don't offend the sensibilities of secular liberals while Christian fundamentalists are free to go around banning abortion; Telling the world that it cannot have socialism or communism but only Anglo-American corporatism and killing millions to stop it.
    2
  1131. And the corporations and banks aren't even British but American.
    2
  1132. Random mutation favoured by the environment. Reproduction is unaffected or effected in a positive way by the mutation (or its deleterious effects are slow to show?). In other words, it behaves the way it does because it can. There is no goal, no purpose.
    2
  1133. Their actions were motivated by practicality pragmatism and expediency, not altruism and its they appear in hindsight as benevolent that is due to pure chance.
    2
  1134. And at least one of those has always belonged to China since at least the 17th century and is currently recognised in international law as Chinese. As for the other, I'm presuming its khanates have always recognised Chinese suzereinty under the tribute system in place for hundreds of years even if the Chinese didn't formally rule them.
    2
  1135. All political systems go through phases of growth, success and then eventual decline. Some countries, like China, have seen this process many times and yet still managed to maintain their integrity as states. Others, once their decline as reached as certain point implode and become history. I wonder what will be the fate of the USA.
    2
  1136. The burden of what, the US empire?
    2
  1137. Only temporarily. Sooner or later Germany is going to want a better deal. (I wonder if we'll be seeing Victoria Newland giving out food in Germany when it's chancellor makes the economically right but politically wrong decision á la Yanukovich).
    2
  1138.  @felixsu375  With both the euro and the dollar fiat currencies they probably can by simply printing more currency and if it causes hyperinflation so what. The USA doesn't care and as it seems to be happening anyway I figure those at the Federal Reserve see it as inevitable and have nothing to lose while Davos‐Bilderberg will use it as a way of demolishing the present global financial architecture and replacing it with something more to their liking, eg. a single universal digital currency.
    2
  1139. The (collective) West should really be called the empire of the United States, more truthfully, the empire of capitalism.
    2
  1140. It's good for suppressing internal opposition. The best equipment goes to the border guards on the Chinese-Indian border and they aren't expected to fight a sustained major war with China.
    2
  1141. Isn't that what the USA used in Iraq?
    2
  1142. Congratulations, you've just added a new word to the English Language.
    2
  1143. Britain did the same in 1939 with Poland. Stop negotiating with the Germans, we've got your back. And they did. The rest is history. It would seem Ukraine has gone down the same path.
    2
  1144. ​​ @Freddie19008  The political parties Syriza and Podemos come to mind. Not very encouraging.
    2
  1145. The West (US imperium) has a hypersonic missile gap and now it has an artillery shell gap as well. The gaps are growing.
    2
  1146. Probably too late.
    2
  1147. Japan?
    2
  1148. ​ @opetelkaaluemaan  Money is never yours ever as it's owned by the government, which in turn is owned by the proprietors of the private banks that make up the Federal Reserve.
    2
  1149. Can't they artificially deflate their own currency, as by altering interest rates, etc.?
    2
  1150. Thatcherism is certainly not needed in the USA. Indeed, the economic policies of Margaret Thatcher are merely the same as those of Ronald Reagan (Reaganism) — neoliberal, supply-side *MMT/monetarism, the same policies that have seen the complete financialisation of the economy and the decline of industrial manufacturing. He's basically calling for more of what both we and they already have and have had for the last 30 years. *MMT = Modern Monetary Theory
    2
  1151. He's a member of the comprador class, a traitor and collaborator. Latin America is full of them.
    2
  1152.  @jumeisa8423  Sad but true.
    2
  1153. His brain has been addled by taking too much cocaine.
    2
  1154.  @kalicom2937  Basically, the so-called Brexiteers are globalists. I say this because for the majority neo-liberalism is their ideology and this is an ideology which commits its adherents to a belief in free markets and laissez fair economic policies. The trouble with British neo-liberals, like neo-liberals everywhere, is they don't like being bound by rules (like those that prohibit money laundering or tax evasion) and as a result are chafing at the proverbial bit when it comes to the European Union trying to enact laws to curb their out-of-control greed. Don't get me wrong, the rest of the European Union are as corrupt as the British but they at least want to put some limits on the uncontrolled greed and lawlessness that is now so rampant that it threatens to undermine the whole system. The British and the Americans with their overweening sense of entitlement want to be to be able to live at everyone else's expense and the rest of Europe is, naturally, increasingly unwilling to let them get away with their free-loading.
    2
  1155.  @microcontrolledbot  But that's not how it actually works in the real world. It was probably the case in the 17th-19th centuries but today, not so much. If anything the modern application of intellectual property rights actually hinders innovation as it tends to be corporations or private businesses (shareholders) rather than individuals that take out patents and then make it expensive for others to use or develop new technology as the patent holders try to recoup their costs and also make a profit. The pharmaceutical industry is a classic example, using IP to effectively block the introduction or use of new cheap, generic drugs. Another area of misuse is in the music industry. For example, somone like Michael Jackson or Elton John make millions and their record companies make millions more, but bootlegging their songs isn't going to bankrupt or impoverish these artists one bit, nor culturally impoversh the world. Rather, by extending the copyright to absurd lengths of time (lifetime + 70 years) they are really benefitting the music corporations and family members/artists estate that made absolutely no contribution to the original work of art and are just using it as unearned increment (rent seeking).
    2
  1156. Wishing everyone a prosperous New Year. 🍻🎉🥳🎈
    2
  1157. Economics (at least as currently practiced in the majority of western economics departments since the 1980's) is basically a pseudo‐science, especially neoliberal/neoclassical economics. The economics of Mises, Friedman, et al of the so‐called Washington Consensus or Chicago School is basically pure quackery and serves the same role as theology does in religion, that is, as a formal apologia of 'free market' or laissez-faire capitalism (or corporatism). It's what has damaged the economies of scores of countries, including the country where it originated, the USA.
    2
  1158. Have your wages increased accordingly?
    2
  1159. Ever heard of the electoral college system of the USA?
    2
  1160. It certainly seems to me that the USA sanctioning everyone has had as at least one of its aims the retardation of the economies of the European Union. These sanctions are definitely responsible for increasing the recent relative decline in competitiveness of countries like Germany vis‐à‐vis the USA, for instance. It is apparent to me that the USA does not want economically strong and independent allies but weak vassal states held captive by and dependent on itself.
    2
  1161. Libertarians come across as selfish narcissists.
    2
  1162. A democracy with only two parties, both of which are basically hard right and capitalist.
    2
  1163. That will also make them less dependent on foreign oil and gas for their economic needs and thus less vulnerable to blockade.
    2
  1164. I share your concerns. I think we all do, all those who want peace and not war.
    2
  1165.  @tjsbbi  What if China and later India joined in and then later still Latin America, Africa and the Middle East? Would that also be naive? The ball may roll slowly at first but once a‐rolling, boy does it pick up speed! Time will tell.
    2
  1166. @Gm Gm We have the great British working class who made up the bulk of our armed forces to thank for that.
    2
  1167. Yes, clarification on the issue would be appreciated.
    2
  1168. The Taliban actually ended opium production when they took over their country. In doing so they cut off a major source of funding for US intelligence and money laundering (which props up the banking system). One of the reasons they were invaded in the first place and one of the reasons they are as they are.
    2
  1169. Perhaps we need a radical paradigm shift in our scientific theories. Something as radical as going from hunting and foraging to settled agriculture, or from using stone tools to using copper.
    2
  1170.  @gareths9574  The nuclear arsenal that Ukraine had was a leftover from the days of the Soviet Union. It was essentially Russian and the ability to use them was held by Russia.
    2
  1171. They work for the USA so, yes, they do want to go against Germany's best interests where its interests diverge from those of the USA. The USA wants nothing less than another cold war and a halt to globalisation wherever and whenever it involves countries actually choosing for themselves who they do business with and conduct foreign policy independently of the USA.
    2
  1172. Whereas Britain and France between them already did control much of the world. Controlling the world versus wanting to control the world. Which is worse?
    2
  1173. Not going to happen I'm afraid; America's backyard and all that.
    2
  1174. The markets for gold and silver are controlled and both should be higher in value were it not for them being kept artificially low so they won't be more valuable than the US dollar.
    2
  1175.  @MrFarmax  It's not the West in general so much as certain countries in the West, such as Britain and the USA, together with France, who are causing much of the problems with immigration by either causing war (Iraq) or helping others cause war (Saudi Arabia in Yemen). Certain countries just can't seem to break the imperialism habit.
    2
  1176. What was the USA doing in China after the war in the Pacific had ended?
    2
  1177.  @afshinshahzamani2297  Rulers dictate the rules, both moral and legal, under which the vast majority of us live. Why should we all be condemned for what society does in our name when society is largely a social construct resulting from the accumulated political decisions of an elite.
    2
  1178. Because it's pseudoscience, not real science.
    2
  1179. Just a pretext!
    2
  1180.  @doogus8728  Yes, just like Japan is not part of NATO, but.... Or Israel, but....
    2
  1181. It's a cold war. Nothing more or less. A cold war. The USA wants to reunite the West against Russia and China just as it did the first time around. This time though the rest of the West will not be such willing members of a pro-US, anti-Russia/anti-China alliance so much as coerced or semi-coerced members of such a alliance, in much the same way as the colonies of Britain (such as Australia and Canada) had to join Britain against Germany whether they wanted to or not.
    2
  1182. Maybe they were not giving you the correct dose or administering it in the correct way. Perhaps a different painkiller or one administered differently would have been more effective.
    2
  1183. But loves corporatism and the monopoly profits that goes with it. Unfortunately.
    2
  1184. We Brits have been successfully stopping Franco-German and Russo-German collaboration for 150 years, since at least the time of Napoleon. Now it seems the USA is carrying on where we left off. Anything that looks like pan-Eurasianism or European autarky/mercantilism is anathema to the USA.
    2
  1185. The USA got to be 'first world' by exploiting the Global South ('third world'). Most the of western Europe did the same.
    2
  1186. Write off or write down the debt? Create a new form of currency based on special drawing rights or something like the 'bancor' envisaged by the economist John M. Keynes?
    2
  1187. 1. It would fail. 2. It would make them increase their abilities much sooner and would certainly do nothing to stop their economic growth. 3. Their allies the Russians would probably sell them advanced aircraft and anti‐aircraft weapons that are at least as good, if not better, that those of the USA. 4.. It would probably crash the the economy of the USA and not got down too well with the rest of South-East Asia either.
    2
  1188. For "the West" I think you should say the American empire of rentier corporatism.
    2
  1189.  @NotANameist  To destroy paramilitary groups like the Azov Battalion as well as key military infrastructure.
    2
  1190. Unfortunately, their assets tend to be held abroad by powers extremely hostile to such attempts at recompense.
    2
  1191. And now the credit is running or out. I wonder what ponzi scheme they're going to come up with next.
    2
  1192. Λυπάμαι, αλλά το Google Translate δεν φαίνεται να μπορεί να το μεταφράσει στα αγγλικά στο τέλος μου. Θα μπορούσατε να το μεταφράσετε στα αγγλικά από τα ελληνικά στο τέλος σας παρακαλώ.
    2
  1193. I disagree. This policy of non-alignment seems to have worked for India.
    2
  1194. A negotiated settlement of the dispute would be preferable to both parties but I don't see Britain doing this unless the Argentinians convince them that they can deploy overwhelming force using modern weapons which the British military have no effective means of countering. Perhaps the Russians or Chinese can help the Argentinians in this regard by providing them with the proper weapons the way the USA and Britain do with Israel.
    2
  1195.  @maxmadison5488  Not really necessary as they could just provide Argentina and other littoral states in South America with the right amount of long range anti-ship and anti-aircraft weapon systems to deter the British (and possibly the USA's) navy, but I think that neither the Chinese nor the Russians want to go down this route.
    2
  1196. What production will they pull out of China? China is the industrial powerhouse of the world while the USA is basically a service economy.
    2
  1197. It would seem so.
    2
  1198. 1970's.
    2
  1199.  @daddy_1453  You forget that Russia had been culturally at least as much a part of 'the West' as anybody else since the late 18th century and it was only during the latter half of the 20th century when things changed.
    2
  1200. Tantalising but positive confirmation is needed before we can break out the champagne. If some form of microbial life still exists on Mars it most likely will be restricted to certain areas of the planet such as the poles or the equator and in most cases be buried quite deep in the equivalent of Martian geothermal vents, as on Earth. I suppose we'll never know for sure until a more comprehensive survey can be done on a much larger scale involving probes taking random core samples from the different types of rock that exist there and analysing them in minute detail and combining that by placing remote sensing devices under the Martian soil, together with satellites placed in geostationary orbit, that monitor specific areas continuously for signs of microbial life or other activity that might provide further, circumstantial evidence where direct evidence is lacking.
    2
  1201. Tiny countries trying to stay relevant by punching far above their weight and showing their loyalty to the US deep state.
    2
  1202. What part of the USA, red state or blue, conservative or progressive? The population of the USA tend to divided in their viewpoints on Republican versus Democrat, North‐South lines.
    2
  1203. Мое сердце со всеми мужчинами с обеих сторон и их семьями, которые погибли или были ранены в этой ужасной войне. Я надеюсь, что все это скоро закончится и мир снова вернется на землю.
    2
  1204. I thought only men could become druids. Though maybe a (high) priestess or shaman or some such.
    2
  1205. Welcome to Tinder. :-D
    2
  1206. I trust Chat GP3 as much as I trust Wikipaedia. Useful, but only when corroborated by other, more trusted, sources (i.e. human).
    2
  1207. So basically he died of a heart attack (cardiovascular collapse) and she died of complications arising from Hantavirus infection (cardiopulmonary collapse). Still, they'd both had a good innings. May they both rest in peace.
    2
  1208. The island of Taiwan is recognised by the international community as represented by the UN and the EU as being an integral part of the People's Republic China. Even its people identify as Chinese, albeit with a different government to those on the mainland. Under international law I don't think the PRC taking back by force what most people consider its own territory and overthrowing the government of the Republic of China would constitute a jus ad bellum, a legitimate reason for foreign intervention. And it's not like anyone can do anything about it given the massive military, political and economic power that present-day China wields. A fortiori the Republic of Ukraine vis‐à‐vis the Russian Federation, of which it was a part for most of its history until recently.
    2
  1209. Their barefaced gaslighting is what irritates me the most. Them telling me that black is white over and over again to the point where I begin to question my own sanity and am sorely tempted to agree with them just to get them off my back is galling.
    2
  1210.  @flyingdutchman9729  The aim was to enrich the banks and corporations that fund the military-industrial complex in the vicious and ultimately self‐destructive death spiral that is Anglo-American rentier capitalism (neoliberalism).
    2
  1211.  @bobthebear1246  Fifty? You're being far too generous. I would cap it at no more than five times the salary or wage of the lowest paid worker, eight at most.
    2
  1212. Welcome New Year 2024! May it be more prosperous than the last.
    2
  1213. The casts contain the bones of those who were unfortunate enough to be buried. The soft tissue decomposed but not before leaving behind an imprint on the surrounding material which set like concrete around them.
    2
  1214. Can the USA go back to the system it had before the creation of the Federal Reserve and the Bank of International Settlements?
    2
  1215. Even if possible that would be perceived as threatening the hegemony of the United States and would provoke attack. The USA wants other countries to be semi-developed at best, dependent, and under its thumb. Just look at the examples of Germany and Japan and the USA's reaction to them. Economies that look as if they are going to outcompete those of the USA are sabotaged and even de-industrialised (Great Britain under Thatcher). What we are seeing currently happening within the EU is the USA attempting to do exactly to western Europe what the it did to its colonies during the course of the 18th and 19th centuries.
    2
  1216. Germany down! Russia out! The USA hegemon in... forever!
    2
  1217. The European Union will last as long as the United States wants it to. And China.
    2
  1218. ​ @leonardmccannon3136  Being a shill for empire pays the bills. And that's all that counts. Information warfare in the USA is growing industry that has a great future and the operators of this channel know it. If you can't deal with reality create your own through manipulating public perception. Reality, like everything else under capitalism, is a commodity that can be bought and sold like any other. This channel proves it.
    2
  1219. I'm sure you could say the same about the French not being neighbours with the USA.
    2
  1220. I'm sure that the United Kingdom is ripe for a colour revolution if anyone like Jeremy Corbyn gets elected, especially if he says the pandemic is a fraud and the lockdowns aren't needed.
    2
  1221. I don't know. Yugoslavia, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan...?
    2
  1222. Whoever did it it's in the interests of the USA and on their behalf.
    2
  1223.  @Nous98  The Chinese are playing the West at their own game and seem to have become quite successful at it. Indeed, they may even be winning. The Japanese set the precedent but were made to pay the price for competing successfully with the West by being goaded into war by the Americans. Let's hope that this time around the West will be too weak and divided to prevent the rise of Asia.
    2
  1224. India keeps nibbling the borders, jealously guarding against the slightest encroachment on territory it claims – rightly or wrongly – belongs to it based on vague, non-existent or disputed boundaries left over from the time of the Raj.
    2
  1225. China also has corruption and incompetence and it only gets worse over time, as even a cursory glance at Chinese history shows. At the beginning of a dynasty most of the corruption is small in scale and does not negatively impact the functioning of the state too much but by the end of the dynasty corruption has become so ubiquitous and severe that it gradually threatens the very survival of the state. The end of the Qing dynasty and Guomindang republic are stark examples of this. An oligarchy of capitalist plutocrats (which is what we have now) driven by the inexorable logic of capitalism to concentrate all the wealth in their own hands – and thus all the power – is not and will never be a very nice system for the majority no matter how indoctrinated they may be into thinking that it is.
    2
  1226. Unlucky? I would say she was very lucky. She served three different navies, Russia's, Japan's, Great Britain's.
    2
  1227. The Olympics are to sport what the Eurovision song contest is to music.
    2
  1228. Seems you're not alone in this regard. Oh well, we'll just have to keep trying. At least the comment section seems to be still working. I'm sure the glitch will be ironed out eventually.
    2
  1229. They are arrogant enough to believe that the whole world owes them a living and their interests are the only interests that matter. To the USA the continent of Europe is merely an adjunct and a part of its sphere of influence — the Monroe Doctrine since 1945 extended to include not only the Americas but Europe as well, Russia alone among the Europeans refusing to recognise US suzereinty and vassal status.
    2
  1230. The French will have to ask the USA's permission for an intervention. And that will come with a quid pro quo. As for a regional war, the USA would not necessarily mind such a thing as political instability and the economic turmoil that goes with it may be seen as in their interests in the medium term vis‐à‐vis Russia and China.
    2
  1231. ​ @PhuaTeckHoe  Typical short-termism.
    2
  1232. The division of Europe for another fifty years.
    2
  1233. Especially regarding Ukraine.
    2
  1234.  @sabrinnur3499  I think the majority of the Ukrainian army are poorly trained, poorly led, have outdated equipment and are demoralised. Though an army's morale is intangible its absence can be felt nonetheless on the battlefield.
    2
  1235. I'd advise you strongly to take a D‐dimer test to see if you have any microclots in your bloodstream. I've read where (some of) these 'vaccines' can cause diffuse or systemic inflammation of the walls of blood vessels (vasculitis/phlebitis/endarteritis) and inflammation of the muscles of the heart (pericarditis/endocarditis) because of autoimmune reactions.
    2
  1236. Could it be a deliberate leak; that this was a deliberate set up designed to embarrass the Germans and alarm the Russians?
    2
  1237. Or he's unwittingly or otherwise carrying out a plan of some sort. 😉
    2
  1238. ​ @ninakore  'Post truth' is a term probably coined by people who dislike the broad group of philosophical theories that fall under the umbrella term of post modernism and specifically the related concept of relativism.
    2
  1239. StrongKid: they offered to, despite having no extradition treaty with the United States, but it was rejected outright.
    2
  1240. Enzo Dina True. I wonder if pipelines, minerals, strategic location and opium had anything to do with it. Mmmm….
    2
  1241. It's made up of the countries of the entire world. Don't you think that a body that ostensibly represents the whole of humanity should have some say in how the world is run?
    2
  1242. They're not rebels, they are the government of Yemen. Who, after all, all they rebelling against, a Juan Guido-style government in exile in the USA? Houthi, by the way, is the name for the majority of the people that make up Yemen.
    2
  1243. What are the chances of this gaining ground? I'm given to understand that France, together with Germany, are the backbone of the European Union and it couldn't exist without them.
    2
  1244. I hope he is OK.
    2
  1245. Aren't the French Foreign Legion mercenaries? So why are they attached to the French army? And are they considered French troops or mercenaries?
    2
  1246. Funny how much of the economy of the United States is dependent on the immigration of foreigners. I wonder what would happen long-term if that immigration were to slow or stop.
    2
  1247. If it was Israel the IAEA personnel would already have been massacred and the western press would be silent or falling over themselves to explain it away.
    2
  1248. Their thinking is better a Hillary Clinton than a Bernie Sanders, but a Hitler (or a Zelensky) if that option isn't available.
    2
  1249. Or extreme right and fascist. Little difference between the two really.
    2
  1250. 8.19 Not necessarily cannibalism. There is a form of body disposal called excarnation where the corpse is left out in the open to be eaten by scavengers. Tibetans are known to do this, as are the Jains? of India who even place their dead in special structures made for this purpose. In at least the Tibetan case the practice is accompanied by the body being cut up (dismembered, disenbowelled and the bones broken to expose the marrow). These cut marks could be signs of this rather than of cannibalism.
    2
  1251. As early as mid‐1942, after they had attacked the Soviet Union. Failure to rapidly capture Moscow and inflict a decisive defeat upon the Russians, knocking them out of the war before the Americans could fully mobilise, meant a protracted war on two fronts against overwhelming odds that Germany just could not hope win.
    2
  1252. And capitalists like to talk about queuing in the old Soviet Union. The hypocrisy. 😂
    2
  1253. Africaans, a derivative of Dutch. The Netherlands is where these white settlers originally came from. They were originally called Boers and nowadays are known as Africaaners.
    2
  1254.  @rapinjohn1  : North Americans don't do irony very well and as sarcasm mostly relies on irony for its effect (using words to mean the opposite or something different to what they usually mean) it's use often goes over their heads. That said, in print, and unlike in words where such nuances can be conveyed by expression, tone or gesture, irony, sarcasm and the like can be hard to spot sometimes.
    2
  1255.  @cybervigilante  To be fair, don't think most country's airforces are making purchases of this plane entirely of their own volition. I think they are being, shall we say, 'pressured' into it. That said, I can understand why the USA might not want its rivals establishing a foothold in such a sensitive, not to mention lucrative, market.
    2
  1256. Politicians, yes, but it’s the heads of the corporations and banks and their top shareholders who are most to blame and it’s they who control the politicians in the first place. If you’re going to blame anyone blame the capitalist 1%.
    2
  1257.  @ScottStruzik  It's probably fully supported by the United States because they can move their own and NATO troops around Europe in relative safety and with speed during a crisis. Ditto for any pan-European army the European Union might create in the future. It's also good for the capitalists and the neo-liberals (private companies and corporations building infrastructure at public expense, globalisation and the free movement of goods and immigrants). And, of course, in so far as any of these networks connect with Africa or Asia, it will allow western armies to move into these places with greater ease as well. But enough of my pessimism and cynicism! It's quite an achievement and a testament to the skill of the engineers that designed and built it.
    2
  1258. ... And also due to the fact that Russian advances in hypersonic missiles and electronic warfare technologies have made them obsolescent.
    2
  1259. And then accused the mainlanders of having no culture.
    2
  1260. What changes have occurred that have made it worse, in your opinion?
    2
  1261.  @solamano7239  Had two major continent-wide wars that allowed the USA to become top dog and overseas empires to slip from our grasp.
    2
  1262. And to prevent a run on the banks. You can't have a run on the banks if there are no banks to run to. It's so easy to close a digital account.
    2
  1263.  @roymarshall_  So why don't we. We don't need billionaires.
    2
  1264. Who benefits? Look at his policies and see whether they oppose western interests in some way, primarily those of the United States.
    2
  1265. He also seems to think that replenishing your own population with that of others will continue indefinitely and that you can just live if the brain drain this entails. It's a lazy and complacent attitude typical of those who come from a rentier economy who want something for nothing.
    2
  1266. It's as damn near to being a crime as you can get.
    2
  1267. And their usage rate?
    2
  1268. Love being a wage slave do ya! People work to live, not live to work. It's only socialisation and compulsion that make people work for spend their lives slaving so others can get rich on pain of immiseration if they don't.
    2
  1269. The USA needs a 'Suez moment'.
    2
  1270. China will continue on its path and will surpass the United States in its own good time and if this means the dollar loses its status as the world's reserve currency or the United States defaults on its debts and becomes bankrupt then that is what will happen regardless. And if that happens the USA will either take active and vigorous steps to emulate the Chinese model of growth (moving away from service industries into manufacturing, implementing extensive central state planning that prioritises long term gains over short term profits, and begins a programme of heavy investment in infrastructure projects in such fields as transport, communication, education, healthcare and housing) or... it will fall further behind and become a third world country. It can, perhaps, delay this by forcing parts of the world (eg. Europe, Latin America) to continue propping up its economy, but ultimately the economies of Asia will overtake it and begin using their economic, military and political power to force it into a position of dependency, creating a comprador elite that serves the interests of the East at the expense of its own people, like exists now in such places as Latin America.
    2
  1271. The BRICS members should emphasise the nature of the organisation – to facilitate trade between nations – and that it's not like the UN or the SCO where countries compete for influence.
    2
  1272.  @seebauong9593  and the native American indians rights to their land be damned (along with the first nations indians of Canada when America demands Canada's resources too)
    2
  1273. realpolitik is entirely indifferent to ideological constructs like communism, fascism and capitalism. It's all about business, national security, and securing access to resources. Ethics, morality, political principles are at best given second-order status.
    2
  1274. ​ @gmw3083 probably getting rid of the units that were involved in the false flag event.
    2
  1275. The Iranian people were on the verge of choosing the communists over the Shah and that's why the Ayatollah was allowed in. Religious fundamentalists are cut from the same cloth as fascists, both opposed to communism and socialism which, along with nationalism, were and remain the greatest threat to the status quo.
    2
  1276. An interesting development. It certainly makes sense to use some of these aircraft if they are old and nearing the end of their service life.
    2
  1277. This isn't about getting rid of imperialism, but about the USA pushing out France the way it pushed out Britain.
    2
  1278. Saying that UAP's are moving at speeds or in ways that technology was not capable of at that time is not particularly convincing as the testing of secret aircraft prototypes or deliberate spoofing of radars by the military as they test anti-radar technologies could be the reasons and we would not know what such technologies were capable of because they would probably be technologically far ahead of their time and classified. The US government might even have been testing people's reactions to such things or using then to heighten fear and tension and encourage hysteria.
    2
  1279. More like the USA shot Europe in the head.
    2
  1280. Don't write off the USA too soon!
    2
  1281. Under capitalism it is. Economic recessions and depressions are integral to the way the system functions, inevitably leading to collapse and, often, war.
    2
  1282. Also a canal and gas/oil pipelines.
    2
  1283. If the EU breaks up it will more likely be due to politics rather than economics.
    2
  1284. The systems you mentioned are not mutually exclusive and elements of each can be used in combination with the others. It's not black and white.
    2
  1285. It was designed that way. It's only real purpose, beyond being a way of maintaining western cultural hegemony, is as a discussion forum for non-western nations to let off steam and as a gravy train for the bureaucrats and charity-aid agency complex.
    2
  1286. @Mohammed A The question of whether democracy is good or dictatorship is bad is never really discussed. It's just taken for granted that it they are. It's as if other cultures and societies and the value systems that they hold must all be the same. (And isn't it funny how democracy, liberty, freedom are always defined in ways that support the predatory capitalist‐corporatist system of Europe and North America, Anglo-American neoliberalism in particular.
    2
  1287.  @anthonymakley1530  Poetic justice.
    2
  1288. Safety netting or a higher guard rail might have prevented this.
    2
  1289. In all fairness many of these commentators are government trolls or bots and even when they are not are heavily influenced by a lifetime of state propaganda by the media and indoctrination by schools and church. That and they being often of the self-made, I'm-alright-Jack sort who show an insouciant contempt for the less well off. Like Hakim has said, if communism and socialism are so bad why do the NATO states go to such lengths to censor the internet, troll and shadow ban social media platforms, especially considering that the left has, if the capitalist media are to be believed, been decisively defeated during the cold war 1.0 when history ended with the triumph of (neo-) liberal corporatism.
    2
  1290. And should it? How one country treats its citizens should generally be a matter best left up to individual governments unless it effects in a direct and adverse way neighbouring countries or has a destabilising effect on the wider international community. Of course, genocide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and other gross offences against international law should be condemned and punished wherever possible, but a country cracking down on internal dissent where that dissent threatens internal stability and is being orchestrated by outside forces is another matter.
    2
  1291. А затем США воспользуются этим, чтобы показать, насколько Россия «империалистична».
    2
  1292. The film on its own terms is good but I dislike how the issue is framed in terms of modernity versus backwardness, as if Tibetan culture is inherently inferior (indeed, all non-capitalist, non-industrialised, non-urban societies), implying an underlying belief in the idea of social progress and historicism (the idea of history being teleological in nature, that their exists some end state, modernity, to which all societies are heading). This, in my opinion, leads to a negative value judgement from the very beginning.
    2
  1293. They are not. Simple as. The title is clickbait and misleading. Propaganda basically.
    2
  1294. ​ @iRelevant.47.system.boycott And I would add systemic racism and sexism, in addition to the inequality inherent to capitalism.
    2
  1295. The USA is a car-centric society because it was made that way in from the 1950's onwards. A quite deliberate and conscious choice was made by urban planners to destroy other forms of public transport in favour of the automobile.
    2
  1296. They still do this today.
    2
  1297. ​ @belladonna6624  I tend to agree and would add that admitting to it in everything but name (by allowing Seymour Hersch to report leaks) is also deliberate (not that they could hide such things).
    2
  1298. ​ @fars8229  The bombing of Yugoslavia and destruction of its government was both deliberate and illegal under international law. What NATO did was commit a war crime. The USA wanted to break up Yugoslavia and to this end it sponsored terrorists and mercenaries to achieve it, using bombing to help them. Charges of genocide were bunk and even if true would still not have been an acceptable excuse.
    2
  1299. It would seem that wars occur in a regular cycle and we are due for another. In Europe a century is about the most we can go between wars.
    2
  1300. The US dollar, a fiat currency that Europe and the rest of the world must use is a form of tribute to the USA, as are those IMF bank loan repayments. As for serfdom, being a wage slave in a high-inflation service economy where your wages don't meet the cost of living certainly feels like being a serf.
    2
  1301. Hopefully the civilian population in the immediate area will have already left or been evacuated, but leaving behind civilian infrastructure that, unfortunately, will have been damaged or destroyed.
    2
  1302.  @mydancinglife730  Call out the army. That's what the English typically do.
    2
  1303. Black, white, shades of grey. Rainbows do not exist.
    2
  1304. 4 centuries is a long time, you'd expect a country to be invaded at least once during that time. Now if Russia had been invaded 4-5 times in one century it would be worth talking about, but 4-5 in as many centuries not so much.
    2
  1305. The British elite want to curry favour with their US overlords as well as to massage their own egos by harking back to better times when Britain had an empire all of its own. Either way, to line their own pockets and gain power and influence by exploiting others.
    2
  1306. Homologous, not homogeneous.
    2
  1307. They can't win because they are not directly at war themselves. They are fighting by proxy, mainly in providing logistical support (weapons, ammunition, supplies), intelligence and trainers/mercenaries, as well as by sanctions. None seriously want to escalate. It's the USA that's pushing Europe into a death spiral of self-destruction.
    2
  1308. In a word: it's rigged.
    2
  1309. Regime change has never been popular that is why it has been the go-to for the USA (and France, Britain) as it's the only way for them achieve their objectives by overriding the wishes of the majority. Just ask the natives.
    2
  1310. Michelle, my belle. Bon en bon.
    2
  1311. How can you separate the two?
    2
  1312. Would your say the same thing about Hitler, Stalin or Mao, objects of western vilification or is it only dead white (especially Anglo-American) males from the 'civilised' West that get a free pass when committing genocide and slavery?
    2
  1313. They are gaslighting us. They'll be telling us that up is down and left is right next.
    2
  1314. Maybe the USA wants these tiny states on the border with Russia to provoke the Russians.
    2
  1315. They're retiring?
    2
  1316. Europe/European Union will certainly experience difficulties.
    2
  1317. Weren't the original colonists of what become known as South Africa Dutch Boers? Surely it's to the Netherlands most white South Africans look.
    2
  1318. Americanised through and through.
    2
  1319. A rentier economy built on financial services is in no real position to take on a country whose non-rentier economy is based on manufacturing. One economy produces fiat, the other produces gold. Which one do you think is better?
    2
  1320. How can you learn from the past if you don't dwell on it (i.e. use history)?
    2
  1321. France should work to strengthen and stabilise the institutions of the EU and use it, together with Germany, to keep Europe peacefully united.
    2
  1322. What you're talking about is capitalism, corporatism, fascism, not communism or socialism. Please get your facts in order.
    2
  1323. The Generation Game... now that brings back a few fond memories.
    2
  1324. You are right. In the same way non-western countries apparently appear to be unable to break the same psychological conditioning.
    2
  1325. Russia invaded Ukraine after constant provocation by the USA (NATO enlargement) and the actions of the illegitimate government (installed by coup) in Kiev.
    2
  1326. ​ @shinji1264  "Communism" with peculiarly capitalist Chinese characteristics.
    2
  1327. If the Chinese want to they can easily – and do – have access to western media and internet. To say otherwise is pure ignorance.
    2
  1328. Probably because they are all appointed by the bankers in collaboration with the American deep state.
    2
  1329. Communism and socialism both belong to an era long gone in the West (certainly fast vanishing) – that of heavily industrialised societies with genuine proletariats made up of an industrial working class with common interests that could be mobilised and coopted – ironically – by the (petty) bourgeoisie in their own fight with the haute bourgeoisie/aristocracy. In post-industrial societies increasingly dependent on outsourcing, insourcing (i.e. mass immigration), automation, AI, and with a workforce made up of atomised individuals seeking self-actualization through individualism this is no longer the case.
    2
  1330. They've made trillions for the banks. It's not their money, you see, it's the banks. That's why the current system is so bad because even the corporations are in hock to the banks. Yet unlike the corporations the banks create nothing but live, like parasites, at the expense of everyone else, sucking the lifeblood out of the economy.
    2
  1331. Whatever were they thinking!
    2
  1332. Come on everyone, this story is made to NOT be believed. It's gaslighting 101. A deliberate insult to the intelligence of Russians. Of course, like the 9/11 triple towers and the JFK et al assassinations many people will believe it and set themselves against this who don't. — 13:30 Correct!
    2
  1333. Another reason is... sheer brute force. Unlike polytheism Christianity was imposed on Rome's subjects, with the closing down of pagan temples and the deliberate taking over or desecration of pagan places of worship and destruction or defacement of their statues. An entire way of life, millennia old, was proscribed by simple edict of a single tyrant emperor. Christianity, both in its Orthodox and Catholic forms, was the perfect religion for the tyranny that Rome devolved into.
    2
  1334. ​ @eomguel9017  Un-British. Heard Rishi Sunak lately? He came as close to calling anti-genocide/pro-Palestine protesters un-British as you can get. Which is weird seens as he's considered by many British as basically being a foreigner.
    2
  1335.  @jonathanharper9991  They never did. That's because the system is built around the pursuit of profit and until things change the problem will remain.
    2
  1336.  @fun_ghoul  Eventually, yes, by certain metrics and looked at from within the capitalist paradigm, but for most of the time that capitalism has existed the benefits for the ordinary person were haphazard and limited. Only from the 1850's onward was there any significant rise in living standards, life expectancy and general overall improvements to the conditions of ordinary people.
    2
  1337. But that's the whole idea.
    2
  1338. And Africa's slaves, I would add. Britain is a country that for a while was allowed through empire to live way beyond its means but now it looks like it might have to finally pay its way in the world, however, being a country of relatively few resources it might only be able to.
    2
  1339. ​@metalmythology6282the population doesn't drop, it grows old. Birth rates decline. But that takes decades.
    2
  1340. Rome was on the up and up in AD 79, the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum were still living in the afterglow of the golden age of Augustus. It's no wonder then they these towns/cities were so prosperous as slaves and loot from conquered territories were flooding in. Despite Caligula and Nero, the Roman empire would continue to prosper until the time of Marcus Aurelias marked the beginning of the Crisis of the Third Century.
    2
  1341. China and Russia need to step up their game and actively start undermining the financial grip that the United States and a few other countries in western Europe have over the rest of humanity.
    2
  1342. ​ @robertbarga3694 Sheee! Don't give them ideas.
    2
  1343. Capitalist, corporatist, fascist but not communist or communistic. Please get your facts straight. Saying that the erosion of freedom is due to communism and socialism rather than the real culprit, capitalism, is doing truth a disservice. These things are being done by the right, not the left; by liberals, neo-liberals and conservatives.
    2
  1344. And sumptuary laws putting a cap on the number of wealthy politicians, preventing them from monopolising politics.
    2
  1345. Britain did something similar regarding Japanese automobiles: made in kit form in Japan and assembled in Britain.
    2
  1346. We'll put! The EU is too close for comfort already.
    2
  1347. ​ @blumpus8150  Or being attacked from the very beginning by capitalists who even created a new ideology and political-economy – fascism – specifically to combat it; an ideology that killed, and continues to kill, millions.
    2
  1348. The USA wants Europe to burn.
    2
  1349. But the USA is not just any nation. It is the shining beacon on a hill. It is exceptional. First among equals, out of the many the one.
    2
  1350. The link between politicians and private donors both in the United States and elsewhere needs to be broken. A good way to start would be to impose a cap on private donations and then have the state make up the shortfall for funding party election campaigns in proportion to their share of the popular vote with only parties that get, say, 5% or less being allowed to be fully funded from private donations (the list of donors, of course, being available to the public). The introduction of some form of proportional representation to make it virtually impossible for a single party to dominate should also be considered.
    2
  1351.  @evolassunglasses4673  Anyone who has themselves a below‐replacement level of reproduction has no right to go lecturing the world on the perceived over‐fecundity of others. If a society is too selfish and short‐sighted to not see the disastrous consequences in the longer term of its failure to reproduce itself then it, together with its way of life, probably deserve to go extinct.
    2
  1352.  @nonfictionone  It doesn't, but all living creatures evolved to survive and reproduce and left to their own devices will do exactly that.
    2
  1353.  @nonfictionone  All sorts of reasons. For one, there will be more older people in the population and fewer younger people to look after them. For another, as most pension systems are dependent on the contributions of the previous generation, fewer people will mean that eventually the system will become unsustainable and there won't be enough money to go around. Fewer people also means that there will be fewer employees leading to domestic wages rising vis-a-vis competitors and so to keep competitive businesses will either automate or import labour, both of which will have an effect on employment levels and wages. Ultimately, of course, you'll die out and succumb to replacement by another culture or people. Thus you have to have a ratio of live births to deaths that stay at a level where there are at least as many people being born as die.
    2
  1354. It's like a US Federal Army soldier comparing a native American warrior to a US Confederate Army soldier.
    2
  1355. EEZ – are they violating international law?
    2
  1356. The stick is riddled with wood rot and is more brittle than it looks. Good for bludgeoning soft things but if it strikes something hard it it is liable to break.
    2
  1357. At the moment it would appear hardline neocons are controlling the government of the United States and directing its foreign policy and these neocons seem to think that it's still 1989 and not 2022 and that Boris Yeltsin is still in charge and not Vladimir Putin. They're trapped in the past.
    2
  1358. ​ @elifarnsworth8762  The past is foreign country.
    2
  1359. I think it might be floundering.
    2
  1360. You mean the province that is recognised by most countries as being part of the People's Republic of China?
    2
  1361. Does anyone remember what happened the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1991? Maybe the Russians can use the same excuse the the USA used back then.
    2
  1362. The Chinese had an assembly line system at least one thousand, five hundred years before Ford. The West was pretty slow in this innovation! How do you think they made the terracotta statues in the tomb of China's first emperor? Or the crossbow (a revolutionary new weapon back then) that allowed him to be so successful. Both were made by standardised parts assembled in sequence by different groups dedicated to just a single part of the manufactory process, the only difference being that they didn't have conveyer belts and were not industrialised.
    2
  1363. India has traditionally pursued a foreign policy of non-alignment in international relations and maintained a strict neutrality in disputes between others. It wants to maintain good relations with all of its neighbours and therefore I don't see this changing much in the foreseeable future. It is a policy that has worked for India.
    2
  1364. 1. It was the United States that reneged on fulfilling the terms of the peace agreement, not Vietnam. 2. Afghanistan was brutally attacked and several millions of its people killed during the occupation due to the false flag of 9/11 (like the false flag that got the USA involved in Vietnam). And its people are starving due to continue US sanctions and freezing of Afghanistan's assets. 3. Killing Iran's army chief (a country that has not attacked the USA, nor is at war with) while on a peace mission in an extrajudicial killing worthy of a mafia mobster just to sabotage that peace deal is not something to brag about. 4. Turning a country into a vassal state of the USA is not liberation and, in the case of the Philippines after a false flag, certainly isn't.
    2
  1365. If it's fiat it can be seized and given to queen Elizabeth as a gift. If its gold it can be handed over to Uncle Sam 'for safe keeping'.
    2
  1366. That wasn't an execution. Murder and arson, but not an execution.
    2
  1367. China's style of economics is NOT neo-liberal. Neo-liberal = neo-classical. It is the same kind of economics as practiced by the USA and the European Union. Professor Hudson is definitely not arguing in favour of that, quite the opposite. Maybe in can be described as old fashioned liberal economic theory, post-liberal theory or possibly quasi-liberal theory, but certainly not neo-liberal theory. That is what professor Hudson is arguing against.
    2
  1368. Neo‐liberalism is global and recognises no limit on its reach. For neo‐liberals China and Russia are impediments to their total domination of the world and only the threat of military defeat are keeping them in check.
    2
  1369. The Chinese would like a word.
    2
  1370. The word ‘dungeon‘ is misunderstood. A dungeon was simply a castle’s keep, the main fortified building that usually occupied the central space within the castle’s curtain wall and was the last refuge during a siege should enemies manage to break in. It was not the name for a prison cell nor a prison, but rather the name given to the whole building. Only when castles and their keeps (dungeons) fell into disuse as a lord’s primary home or a military headquarters and were put to other uses (including in many cases as prisons) did the word come to be used in the way it is today. Of course, castles did have places where prisoners could and were held (they were, after all, buildings designed to intimidate the local population and as a centre of military rule) and dissidents/political prisoners of conscience would be kept in the most secure place in the castle complex and that was, of course, the castle’s keep/dungeon.
    2
  1371. The stark fact is that the entire American economy is driven by war and rent extraction. As an essentially bankrupt rentier economy whose fiat currency is based on fractional reserve banking the USA needs constant GDP growth to pay for its ever-growing debt that it owes the private banking cartel known as the Federal Reserve. However, because the debt compounds each year it becomes impossible to pay off leading the American government to print more money than is actually needed in the real economy leading to inflation.
    2
  1372. So, how many false flags and provocations by the USA will the Russians (and Chinese) tolerate? Do you think it can keep on attacking a major superpower with impunity?
    2
  1373.  @CH-bn7qb  It's more than one person's word against another, the Russians have evidence. Indeed, the Americans have practically admitted to it.
    2
  1374.  @CH-bn7qb  Listen to a speech that Biden made recently saying that the Americans would stop the North Stream pipelines one way or another. The British navy is basically working as a proxy/patsy for the USA. It would never have done this without the USA's green light.
    2
  1375. ​ @Timrath I think he meant discard.
    2
  1376. I take it you don't like muskrats.
    2
  1377. In areas taken by the Russians I suppose they'll be incorporated into the regular armed forces or disarmed and sent back into civilian life.
    2
  1378. European Union.
    2
  1379. Are you saying that China will annex Siberia? I am given to understand that there is an understanding between the two countries that Siberia is irrevocably Russian though China is more than welcome to engage in the commercial exploitation of the region subject to Russian approval.
    2
  1380. It is the mercenaries and special forces of the United States and its NATO allies who are more likely to be put on trial if captured by the Russians. I assume though that the Russians and Americans have already made agreements in secret as to what happens in such cases. Presumably the POW's will be discreetly repatriated after being interrogated and the public will be none the wiser.
    2
  1381. In a bog? 🤔🤨🫤
    2
  1382. Good question. NATO has outlived its usefulness and it is high time that it be disbanded like its counterpart the Warsaw Pact. The peace of Europe cannot be guaranteed by an organisation that insists on continously expanding into areas where it does not belong. In fact by doing so and provoking Russia it is actually threatening the peace of Europe and contributing to the continent's overall insecurity.
    2
  1383. The USA and its poodles in the EU have already sent troops to fight against Russia in Ukraine, effectively pitting the Russian Federation against the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. To all practical purposes the USA is at war with the Russian Federation, albeit undeclared. Furthermore, this isn't a war by proxy like it's portrayed in Western media, but a war where Western special forces and intelligence agencies are fighting Russian troops directly. They tend to be portrayed as mercenaries working for themselves but in fact many of them are active members of their respective armed forces using the merest fig leaf of deniability.
    2
  1384.  @andrew30m  So can NATO and the USA.
    2
  1385.  @andrew30m  NATO (the USA and its client states) has expanded right up to the Russian Federation's borders thereby threatening it. Military personnel from NATO countries are also known to be working in Ukraine aiding the Ukrainian military and missiles from the USA and other NATO countries have indeed been deployed in Ukraine and used against the armed forces of the Russian Federation.
    2
  1386. Blaming Hamas is like blaming native Americans like Geronimo of the Apache for resisting US settlers stealing their lands.
    2
  1387.  @mystictraveler8642  Really! Since when are Russia, China or India willing to arrest, try and convict United States military personnel or in any way sanction or blockade the USA, Israel or Saudi Arabia? Since when are those with the military might to take on the USA willing to risk conventional war, nuclear war, or even just western sanctions and embargoes to stop the USA and the international institutions under its control (European Union, NATO, United Nations, Bank of International Settlements)? The answer: none. And why would they, they rely on a look-the-other-way attitude when they commit similar crimes.
    2
  1388. Seeing is believing. The world will believe it when it sees it. Not until.
    2
  1389. ​​​​ @michaeldavid6832 the human race... constantly. The only thing we learn from the past (history), is that we learn nothing from the past. History rhyming and repeating and all that; first time as tragedy, second time as farce.
    2
  1390. Sounds just what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians, the only difference being that one is condemned and portrayed as morally censurable while the other is more or less openly condoned and the atrocities largely hidden from view.
    2
  1391. Can you elucidate further?
    2
  1392. Has anyone thought of asking what that howitzer is firing at? I hope it's not innocent civilians in the Donbass.
    2
  1393. But ask yourself how much of that, if it is real, is due to having taken out bank loans at usurious interest from the predatory lending institutions of the US‐controlled IMF and World Bank? Those loans will come due soon and how will you ever be able to pay them back, with an economy in ruins? Debt bondage is form of modern day slavery that should be outlawed.
    2
  1394. Do you mean a in a false flag, or something else?
    2
  1395. "They" weren't thinking anything, the deep state is the one that did the thinking for them.
    2
  1396. Waters hasn't sold a single record, his records company has. Musicians are owned, just like the rest of us, with most of the profits going to the record label/studio. The ideas for the songs and music come from his genius but, unfortunately, the distribution, marketing, etc. are done by massive conglomerates like Sony. A sad fact but true.
    2
  1397. It would still be capitalist/corporatist with all the attendant problems.
    2
  1398. ​ @Kalimdor199Menegroth do you think slave owners should be compensated for the abolishing of chattel slavery? Do you think reparations should be paid by Haiti to France for freeing itself from French colonialism?
    2
  1399. Ordinary people demanding free speech and trying to escape from the oppressive yoke of church and state is what gave him that (in so far as he has it to any meaningful degree. I mean, his words are hardly causing to a revolution now are they).
    2
  1400. If BRICS+ is what it claims to be, an economic grouping facilitating trade and economic development between its members and nothing more, then there exists no reason why Turkey cannot have a foot in both camps. BRICS+ appears to be inclusivist whereas the EU is exclusivist, wanting to impose either/or choices on governments. I think the core BRICS countries on the other hand are happy to let any country join once security issues are settled: no sanctions, boycotts or (proxy) wars between members; trade and commerce between states as free as possible; and definitely no sabotage of another's infrastructure.
    2
  1401. What makes you think you'll ever get close enough for them to even need to deploy their infantry against you. Missiles and drones and autonomous AI will be what the next war is likely to be fought with.
    2
  1402. Who's his replacement? Kamala Harris? Donald Trump?
    2
  1403. The last great empire is in fear that this just might be the beginning of the end.
    2
  1404. @Gisli Brynjolfsson Now, now, mustn't be homophobic now must we. Mustn't offend Karen.
    2
  1405. Blame the victim. Capitalists are good at that and none more so than the Americans.
    2
  1406. Britain relies on the USA for its continued political relevance in the world. The country's political elite live vicariously through the USA and the country's financial institutions, riddled as they are with corruption and facilitators of money laundering and tax evasion, require the influence of the neocons in the USA and the economic policies of globalised neoliberalism for their continued success.
    2
  1407. To them politics is a profession, not a calling.
    2
  1408. It's akin to the British and Americans being more concerned about an outbreak of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp thqn the gas chambers exterminating the inmates! Also, these polio vaccines might just turn out to be bioweapons in disguise. A discreet way of disposing of the Palestinians with added advantage of complete deniability. And how could anyone object?
    2
  1409. For a capitalist, investing in new forms of energy is not as worthwhile as investing in known forms of energy. Also, the amounts of funding necessary for the relevant R & D are way too much for the private sector. And then there's the vested interests of the already established corporations who, contrary to what we hear about capitalism, don't like competition.
    2
  1410. It just goes to show how economically interconnected we all are and that sanctioning a major producer of the world's goods is ultimately counterproductive because indirectly their products are in everything, whether in the form of raw materials, material parts, or finished goods. As Russia and China are indisputably major producers, the former especially in raw materials and the latter especially in finished goods, it is stupid to sanction them unless one has a viable alternative to these country's exports.
    2
  1411. Rules... can be bent. Rules... can be broken. Rules are made by rulers, to be followed by the ruled.
    2
  1412.  @pauloemmi6216  The USA's actions in Ukraine have achieved their purpose: stop cheap Russian gas; create dependency on the USA's own gas; create instability in Europe; create a pretext for the continuation of NATO and the erosion of civil liberties; and whatever else the corporate‐military institutions have in store for us.
    2
  1413. And to think that there are literally millions, if not billions, of suns in our solar system alone without even considering the vastly greater number in the universe as a whole, and each with their own heliosphere.
    2
  1414.  @BooDamnHoo  It's in a bind. Whatever option it choses it will have negative repercussions. It can kick the proverbial down the road but that won't make the problems the USA faces go away.
    2
  1415. The reasons sound plausible.
    2
  1416. The Nobel committee have been nobbled by US (or their own) intelligence services.
    2
  1417. That's basically what China has done. Indeed, all the countries that are counted as successful did something similar during their rise.
    2
  1418. The EU has always been a project of the USA in collaboration with the comprador sellouts of Europe, both acting on behalf of the rentier elites of the West. The EU is a monster that keeps on growing, just like the police-security state of the USA.
    2
  1419. Sounds like the 'Haiti option' might be being considered for the native reservation of Gaza and the Stolen Territories. For those who don't know Haiti is that god-forsaken country in the Caribbean that's been invaded umpteen times by the USA and is currently under its umpteenth de facto occupation by so‐called peace keepers of the United Nations carrying out the agenda of the USA.
    2
  1420. Finland can't seriously attack Russia so it must do so symbolically. Hence, such pettiness.
    2
  1421. Does the British deep state, so intimately linked to its US counterpart, even need official permission. Did the conspirators of 9/11, the JFK assassination, or the incident that got the USA involved in the Vietnam war need permission? No! The deep state is above the law.
    2
  1422. I think you're confusing the left with liberals. Liberals, however, aren't left. Not really.
    2
  1423.  @informationretrieval5896  But is that left wing?
    2
  1424.  @informationretrieval5896  I tend to agree.
    2
  1425. As well as prevent tax evasion and monitor capital flight. Laudable goals in their own right if used properly.
    2
  1426. I think the countries of the global south need to be given more support by China and Russia. Like during the cold war when China and Russia would support countries like Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba, they need to do so again.
    2
  1427. No one!
    2
  1428. You've been watching too much Star Trek.
    2
  1429. Pull in more NATO involvement? NATO should not be involved in the first place as Ukraine is not a member and thus the organisation has no business being their there.
    2
  1430. They'll help it by brokering a peace deal that leaves the island of Taiwan firmly under the control of the PRC and Asia at peace with itself, free of outside interference.
    2
  1431. Don't be silly. Even if the USA could do such a thing it wouldn't because it would make no military sense as it can't invade the Chinese mainland and therefore attacking China would be pointless, unless out of pure spite and to send a message. But as the Chinese can retaliate in kind against the continental USA even this would be counterproductive and ultimately futile.
    2
  1432. True... only it's not Russian, it's German.
    2
  1433. If you are paid more you can pay more. This is especially so if there is progressive taxation whereby the rich pay their fair share.
    2
  1434. Poor man. He's been working too hard and needs take a rest.
    2
  1435. Black shirt fascists arguing with brown shirt fascists, each side supported by their various media, brown shirt fascis media and black shirt fascist media.
    2
  1436. Perhaps they should have spoken to you. I'm sure you'd be completely unbiased.
    2
  1437. Throughout most of history and into our own time relationships are mostly about utility, even if Hollywood would have you believe the opposite.
    2
  1438. Read your Keynes.
    2
  1439.  @justintime470  The government of the United States today reminds me of that of Japan in the 1930's after a military coup destroyed Japan's experiment with democracy. It seems to be made up almost entirely of warmongers, fanatical, as the Japanese were, in their beliefs and equally deluded as to their nation's strengths whilst remaining ignorant of its weaknesses.
    2
  1440.  @nihleigleca6702  Not to mention the tentacles of its intelligence network and systematic infiltration of academia through think tanks and student opposition groups (from which Guido comes from).
    2
  1441. Or a second (post-) industrial revolution.
    2
  1442. Either they don't apply in this particular case or have been waived.
    2
  1443. Doing America's bidding by making sure that Great Britain can never mount a military challenge, nor an economic one, to the USA or Europe and would no longer be politically sovereign but dependent on others. The USA's policy since world war 2.
    2
  1444. ​ @GameShorts484  What are 'weights'?
    2
  1445.  @rosomak8244  It would seem it is in the interests of neither Britain or the USA to ever allow meaningful political or economic integration between the eastern and western parts of Eurasia.
    2
  1446. ​ @einarabelc5  Stop it with the alt-right meme.
    2
  1447. "Initiate another conflict." What conflict did they initiate the first time?
    2
  1448. You assume there exists some kind of effective political or social mechanism by which the majority can effect change, or even know and would be able to disseminate a coherent idea what that change would look like.
    2
  1449. 13:24‐14:45 💯 👍👍🏻👍🏼👍🏽👍🏾👍🏿
    2
  1450. Those who have lived under a capitalist or fascist dictator country? Latin America springs to mind.
    2
  1451. Committing suicide... or being murdered. Either way, at the behest of Uncle Sam.
    2
  1452. Ваше терпение и снисходительность начинают окупаться, поэтому было бы неразумно менять политику сейчас.
    2
  1453.  @kristinheartknaan  A tiny group of essentially fascist multi‐billionaires who have captured certain state institutions.
    2
  1454. What's a "valley girl"?
    2
  1455. @Smiling Cloud Agreed. After all, what is this film advocating but for yet more tradition, albeit a different one, one that it is implied is superior simply because it's of recent invention.
    2
  1456. Centre-left? Neoliberalism is not centrist, it's hard right. Traditional Conservatism may be described as centrist, but not Neo-Conservativism in my opinion.
    2
  1457. We need massive anti‐war protests like they had towards the end of the Vietnam war era. But even bigger.
    2
  1458.  @pastryshack551  People often being found dead of starvation in Japan, a country considered by westerners as being the richest and most developed of Asian countries? Where did you get that information?
    2
  1459. It seems to me to be as much about weakening Europe as it does Russia.
    2
  1460. Only up until when the USA recognised the PRC as the sole government of all China in its bid to sow division between China and the Soviet Union. After that, no. (It would also have been a stupid idea, triggering an immediate invasion by the PRC, one which I think the Americans would neither want nor have be able to have stopped, unlike a Chinese invasion of the ROC).
    2
  1461. The US government was dangerously provocative towards Cuba and by extension the Soviet Union. And it took the world almost to nuclear war. Just goes to show how capitalism is such a success that it needs constant subversion and the threat of nuclear war to keep it going.
    2
  1462. Or more precisely, will it descend into monarchy or a 1 party state? Or will part of the USA dissolve like the western Roman empire while the other part survives for another thousand years like the eastern Roman empire (Byzantium)? Maybe barbarians (Latinos, Mexicans) will conquer it like the Vandals and Visigoths did Rome.
    2
  1463. I'm beginning to think this energy crisis is deliberate and the scarcity is artificial.
    2
  1464. The USA and Great Britain both need to get rid of the rentier capitalism they now have and return to the manufacturing-based capitalism that made them wealthy in the first place. An economy based around manufacturing, especially one that prioritises the home market over exports, would create real rather than fictitious wealth, far greater levels of employment, and if successful allow eventually for greater self-sufficiency and economic independence.
    2
  1465. And the USA wants Europe to pay for it.
    2
  1466. Stop it with the worship of the 'free market'. No such thing has ever existed. As for comparative advantage, well China is doing just that: producing and selling things cheaper than its rival because it is able to do so. Economic theory is good in principle, but economic facts trump theory every time.
    2
  1467.  @alexrandrerx3809  I should have said that what they say is an interpretation of the facts and I think that is all reality can be, an interpretation. Two people can look at a situation and quite easily draw diametrically opposite conclusions because it is not so such the facts themselves but their interpretation that is what makes someone appear for or against something. And, yes, I concur that to me too they consistently seem to interpret events in a manner that could be seen as pro‐Russian or pro‐Putin. Whether that means they are paid agents of the Kremlin or naive fellow travellers I can only guess. Maybe both, probably neither because interpretation of facts can only be taken so far and must ultimately conform to some underlying reality and in this case 'the West' (or whatever you want to call it) that is, the USA/NATO are the ones doing the expanding and not Russia and no matter how you spin things that is the incontrovertible fact of the matter. If you're going to talk honestly about politics or world affairs you have to 'speak truth to power' and describe situations as they are and if one side is consistently in the wrong (in repeatedly flouting international law, for instance) then you have to point this out. That is what The Duran is doing, in my honest opinion.
    2
  1468. Sweet? Do you mean fresh water?
    2
  1469. ​ @mikeshafer5366  Russia/the Soviet Union was already winning the war and that's the real reason the USA was only too happy to open up a second front: the Americans didn't want Stalin to take almost the whole of continental Europe. And the Americans opening up a second front had absolutely nothing to do with any principled opposition to fascism either.
    2
  1470. Relax. The USA military‐industrial complex got what it wanted, a war. The Bilderberg‐Davos crowd have got what they wanted, a Great Reset. And the bankers have got what they wanted, a digital currency is on its way. Oh, and the USA got its cold war redux.
    2
  1471. Stop making sense, the IMF don't like it.
    2
  1472. I think that only certain types of asbestos are harmful and if used with the proper attention to safety all types can be used with minimal risk of causing asbestosis. Asbestos was phased out in much of Europe because cheaper and/or safer alternatives were available (and probably also because capitalists had found ways to make greater profits by introducing alternatives).
    2
  1473. Probably thought she was in Japan.
    2
  1474. Like the nuclear missile gap of the 1950's, only this time it's real. The USA must learn to balance its budget so more money is spent on its civilian economy and less on its military.
    2
  1475.  @jjh8299  But is it a real pull out or are the Americans just going to keep mercenaries and Muslim militias from Saudi Arabia there who can play the role of Al-Quada bogeyman?
    2
  1476. Cripto136: you do not condemn modern atrocities committed by the USA the way you condemn the Holocaust, Nazism, communism, Stalinism, Maoism, etc. Also, all the things you mention are condemned long after they happened, when nothing can be done and no one can be punished; no genuine restitution or reparations - native Americans still live second class lives on reservations, blacks are still ghettoized, Hispanics discriminated against; the people who oversaw genocide and slavery (your founding fathers, for instance) are still lionised, as are the politicians, generals and soldiers who all played a part in the less savoury parts of US history. Yet Germany and Japan are expected to be uniquely sorry for their country's behaviour as if the Americans, British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italians and Dutch behaved somehow differently and be forever apologising for wars that, if we are being honest, were at least in part forced on them by others, and wars at that, that happened more than a generation ago.
    2
  1477. China should step up to the plate and create a pan‐Asian banking system analogous to, and as a replacement for, the likes of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and even the Bank of International Settlements itself, financial institutions of the West that are dominated by the USA .
    2
  1478.  @servantofmary  Muslim, Christian or Jewish? Shia, Sunni Islamic, Catholic, Orthodox Christian, Ultra-Orthodox or Reform Jew? Are would you like the Hindu pantheon, God in the plural?
    2
  1479. Are they having any appreciable effect on the policy decisions of the French government? If the problems the country faces are caused by external factors beyond the French government's control – like hyperinflation caused by excess money printing by the US government – then I doubt there is anything much that can be done to remedy the situation. However, if the problems are due to France sanctioning Russia then there is something that can — and should — be done and in this case protests by the French people may have some, albeit limited, effect.
    2
  1480. Maybe they are in their own way.
    2
  1481. Neoliberalism (neoconservativism is just another name for it, imo) is basically a revived form of fascism, the fascism that appeared in Europe in the 1920"s as as response to the appearance of militant socialism and communism. Call it crypto-fascism a form of fascism that 'liberal democracies' will not call it by its real name. Techno/neo-feudalism.
    2
  1482. ​ @thepeter3116  Turkey in such a scenario will very probably practice 'benevolent neutrality', staying out of any direct confrontation with Russia while helping its NATO allies logistically and through intelligence sharing.
    2
  1483. ​ @brandtbollers3183  Also in violation of the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) if strictly interpreted.
    2
  1484.  @yu-jd5jg : More like 2000-2800 years of continuous history from the point of view of dispassionate historians, assuming an identifiable Chinese ethnicity sharing certain common cultural characteristics. China as a state really begins when the first emperor unified through war with his rivals an area roughly encompassing the modern state and imposed a form of governance on the entire country that was to last, in various iterations, up until the Qing (Manchu) dynasty. That, together with the dynasties that immediately preceded the so-called warring states period leading up to unification, can be said to be the true period from which the people of China derive a common ethno-national history.
    2
  1485.  @jovannysarabia6995  Money means nothing when you can print IOU's out of thin air and make others buy them.
    2
  1486. Almost as if she was just a surrogate.
    2
  1487. China is playing the USA at its own cold war game... and is clearly winning. When will the rulers of the USA learn: cooperation is better than conflict. Weapons sales may prop up the economy, but war will surely destroy it if those weapons are ever used against the wrong enemy.
    2
  1488. Will the Germans be shutting down their tank factories and buying American tanks instead?
    2
  1489. Perhaps the reason there exists – at least according to Mr Mercouris – a certain uncharacteristic indecisiveness on the part of the United States towards the Israel-Palestine issue is because stategists within the so-called deep state are the ones actually calling the shots and that the political parties that hold formal power have effectively been sidelined and thus no longer have much say in the way things are done in quite the same way as they did before, and also that these elements desire things to remain just as they are (an overall policy of instability and tension in the Middle East, i.e. no peace between Israel and its neighbours).
    2
  1490.  @johnadambautista232  It was probably because of that very fact, you being half‐Japanese, that you might have had more than your fair share of negative experiences. From what I've read the Japanese have a somewhat negative and ambivalent attitude to other Japanese who are of mixed race or who are returning expatriates who are fully Japanese but who have lived abroad for any length of time. It's like they see you as impure or in some way contaminated by exposure to foreign ways.
    2
  1491. Possibly the Iranian government would then come under increasing pressure to engage in political and economic reforms that they would find themselves unable to resist. They would no longer be able to blame sanctions on their perceived mishandling of the economy.
    2
  1492. Talking about alleged anthropogenic climate change without mentioning certain country's ongoing use of weather modification technologies and deliberate attempts to alter the weather is also a bit pointless.
    2
  1493.  @zulubeatz1  A 'revolution' paid for by the USA led by neo‐fascists and ultra‐nationalists and that serves its strategic geopolitical interests.
    2
  1494.  @sheezle3  Not necessarily. The USA might create a preference area the way Britain did in the interwar years and it and Europe might then trade with a basket of currencies and/or the euro but with the dollar still the foremost currency. It might even hold Europe's gold reserves the way that it holds Germany's and the way that France holds some of Africa's. Britain already sold its gold reserves so is now completely vulnerable to economic blackmail because it has nothing to fall back on. Maybe that gold was bought by the USA and is intended to be used to back up a planned dollar-eurozone digital central bank currency area.
    2
  1495. Was the area you were walking in once a colonnaded courtyard? A temple? Or palace? A model of how the area looked in its heyday would have been nice.
    2
  1496. A conspiracy theory. 😂😮
    2
  1497. You make me laugh. Exactly how do you propose we go about boycotting ourselves? China makes goods for western firms; boycott China and you boycott those firms.
    2
  1498. The Russian Federation is fighting a war more akin to a civil war and doesn't want to destroy too much infrastructure or inflict excessive civilian casualties as I assume it intends to reintegrate these regions and their people when it's done.
    2
  1499. They'll do the same, I imagine: pay lip service and still do their own thing more or less. It's all a charade anyway.
    2
  1500. Neither did the British, French, Dutch, Spanish or the United States. Apart from when they got an all too brief taste of their own medicine in the 1940's, they got off scot free.
    2
  1501. Talking about on what subject? Please be more specific.
    2
  1502. The CIA are permanently in control of the White House, as are the Zionists; there are no term limits for them.
    2
  1503. I wonder if the Russians are capable of developing jamming and electronic countermeasures technology that can neutralise the USA's nuclear weapons the way - allegedly - they have developed them to the point where they can neutralise warships, aircraft and missiles. If it were possible then not just Russia but the whole world would have a defence against US nuclear blackmail. Indeed, even the very concept of nuclear war could become obsolete.
    2
  1504. Franco‐German axis versus Anglo-American.
    2
  1505. He'll probably be sent back to Chile.
    2
  1506. Good points you raise in my opinion. Only war or similar catastrophe leading to social restructuring will change things. Something like happened to Germany or Japan. Or Turkey after the fall of the Ottomans.
    2
  1507. How does exporting inflation to other people's countries make the dollar mighty? You should stop and ask yourself why the US dollar is in this situation because it certainly isn't something to be proud of. The US economy is in crisis, countries don't want dollars and this is why the Federal Reserve is having to give the holders and purchasers of dollar bonds a higher return, one that is unsustainable in the long term.
    2
  1508. The foreign policy establishment of the United States certainly seems to have become increasingly dysfunctional since 1989 when it became drunk on hubris after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It needs to sober up and fast.
    2
  1509. US censorship is like its secondary sanctions on countries it opposes – not only can you not say X on an American platform but you also cannot say it on a foreign platform operating within the USA or even merely a platform that is merely distantly associated with it in some form or another either, at least not if you want to continue doing business in the USA. Faced with this, the EU and the wider world comply. The EU has also been assigned a intelligence gathering role (especially the so‐called 5 Eyes but Germany and France too) by the American security state, one charged with policing Europe on behalf of America's vast and ever growing intelligence apparatus, so there's that reason too for Europe to comply with American demands.
    2
  1510. Britain has no genuine independent nuclear weapons, they are all de facto under the control of the USA and the technology, from the missiles themselves, through to the launch systems (submarines), as well as the navigation systems (satellites) are under the control of the USA, directly or indirectly, as is most of the military and dual‐use technology on which they rely. I'm also under the impression that France's nuclear weapons have been placed under NATO (i.e. US) control as well, or at least operate within the NATO command structure, though I'm not sure. To wit, neither Britain or France are in a position to act independently of the USA. And, indeed, why would they? A scenario where either country would feel the necessity of unilaterally using nuclear weapons is all but inconceivable.
    2
  1511. They were themselves hardliners.
    2
  1512. Then don't do them if you're not capable. Fire off 2 nuclear missiles instead. Send a signal to the USA the way it sent a signal to the Soviet Union in 1945: hands off Taiwan, it's ours! When others complain use the excuse that an invasion would cost the lives of hundreds of thousands, that the Taiwanese will not surrender and are fanatical, willing to fight to the last man, woman and child to defend their god-emperor (Mammon). That's what the good old USA did.
    2
  1513. Thanks for the update, Alex! 👍
    2
  1514. ​ @nurainiarsad7395  You still want to impose 'western' values, only by sly and crafty underhand means. You still tacitly support western cultural imperialism and therefore can be seen as a 'fellow traveller' of western imperialism who will stand aside and let others do the dirty work of cultural subversion for you.
    2
  1515. The land territory is, I think, not really disputed, rather it's the waters off the coast that are disputed. AFAIK, the littoral or maritime borders between the two countries have always been disputed and have not been settled.
    2
  1516. The Japanese were willing to surrender thereby rendering the need for an invasion of the Japanese archipelago unnecessary. The USA knew this but still dropped two atomic bombs. Mind you, these were the same people who knew about the impending attack on Pearl Harbour and did nothing having provoked Japan in the first place.
    2
  1517. But what is NATO protecting Europe from? The Warsaw Pact is no more.
    2
  1518. A train is a railroad locomotive.
    2
  1519. Why China? Why not look to your own recent past? I'm sure you'll be able to draw parallels between then and now.
    2
  1520. Capitalism is just feudalism updated, just as feudalism was Graeco-Roman slave-based economies updated.
    2
  1521.  @Beamshipcaptain  Great Britain too. It would seem that this 'blame the individual for the failings of the system' attitude is particularly prevalent in the English speaking world.
    2
  1522. In Britain need to get back to coal. We have centuries worth of coal under our feet. To hell with the naysayers of the green movement. Maybe nuclear power as well where it makes economic sense, supplemented by hydroelectric, wind and wave. North Sea oil if possible too.
    2
  1523. ​ @bamzoclub9894 And that's why they use it. There are far better ways of measuring wealth and, more importantly, how that wealth, along with the political, economic and social power wealth brings, is distributed within a society but western media and government seem rather reluctant to use them.
    2
  1524. Hectares (ha) and cubic metres (cc) also.
    2
  1525.  @blewis1733  They mightn't have known with absolute certainty, but they certainly could have predicted with more than a fair degree of certainty what it would probably lead to.
    2
  1526. The United States might actually prefer this new Saudi oil production policy, indeed may even be behind it though pretending otherwise.
    2
  1527. I agree. I absolutely hate this apparent Americanisation of British English.
    2
  1528. The aquifers in the area are being depleted at a faster rate than they are being replenished, the rivers aren't giving enough water to meet the areas needs, and there is drought.
    2
  1529. Capitalism wants profit. And only profit. Nothing more.
    2
  1530.  @BoleDaPole  Honest people don't dodge taxes. Nor do people of principle or conscience. And people (the reasonably well off) who earn enough money to live comfortably on also don't generally try to dodge their fair share of taxes, especially when they realise that those taxes are being used for socially useful or necessary things like public welfare, things that directly or indirectly benefit the majority of the nation's people. The very rich, on the other hand....
    2
  1531.  @UFO_computers  Britain is a member of the Bank of International Settlements and as such has a currency that is under the control of a collection of private banks, subject to its rules and regulations. Like the Federal Reserve in the USA that also falls under the control of the BIS and is itself made up of a collection of private banks that forms a very exclusive club.
    2
  1532.  @aaronwilkinson8963  Latin America & Middle East 1970's onwards. Eastern Europe 1990's onwards. East Asia 2000's onwards. The debt bondage of late stage rentier capitalism.
    2
  1533. Managed democracy.
    2
  1534. The USA appears to want to do to the PRC what it did to the USSR from 1946 to 1989 — economically and politically isolate and militarily intimidate it so as to weaken it; subject it to embargo and subversion so as to politically destabilise it; slander it in an attempt to undermine its leadership, demoralise its people and delegitimise its political and social system. Unfortunately for the warmongers and neo‐imperialists in the USA, this time around the new cold war the USA is attempting to start with China is getting off to a rocky start to say the least. Unlike with the Soviet Union, China has many friends and they are reluctant to play ball with the USA and get on board with their agenda.
    2
  1535. ​ @stantorren4400  that's cold. Like... really cold.
    2
  1536. Estonian nationalists like those in Ukraine. Their resentment of history (the unfortunate domination of the country by the Russian empire and then the Soviet Union) has made them hostile to Russia and the Russians, especially their leadership. I think I understand their way of thinking and can sympathise with them to a certain degree but I nevertheless think they are overreacting. The fact that the leadership of Estonia are a comprador class put in power by the USA and its offshoot the EU also puts things into a little more context.
    2
  1537. One word: Christianity.
    2
  1538. ​ @hyperboreanforeskin  But they weren't kicked out, for the most part they were ghettoized.
    2
  1539. Does anyone know if any of these depleted uranium shells have been used in actual combat. As they are designed as anti-tank rounds have there been any tank-on-tank battles where they have been used?
    2
  1540.  @luisgarciagarcia563  He's a puppet put in power the by the USA. He'll be killed by the USA and its capitalist‐fascist putschists if he goes against them.
    2
  1541. So it looks like China is the engine of world poverty reduction both at home and in the wider world. Just think about that for a moment: a single country responsible for a full 66% in the reduction of poverty.
    2
  1542. Because it competes.
    2
  1543. An American one. They apply the same standards to their concept of free speech that they apply to their democracy – two slightly differing versions of the same idea.
    2
  1544. Imperialism and colonialism cannot realistically be compared to a border skirmish. As for Tibet, it had been a vassal of China at least since the 16th century.
    2
  1545. It's been a semi‐client state of the USA since the umpteenth European civil war ended in 1945 and that might have been a good thing for some other Europeans (France, Britain) in the medium term as Germany as shown a tendency to dominate Europe economically and politically if left to its own devices. However, with the power of the USA in apparent decline things may change if or when Germany regains full and genuine sovereignty and throws of the shackles imposed on it by the victors.
    2
  1546. So why is China so successful? And Russia? They both use a lot of state planning and operate businesses that are wholly or partly owned or run by the government.
    2
  1547.  @ChiRedWhiteBlue  Spanish, French and German are the languages to look out for. 1. Spanish (and possibly Portuguese) because of the growth of Latin America in the future. 2. French because of its widespread use in francophone Africa, another place of future growth. 3. German because it's currently the powerhouse of Europe and likely to become even more powerful as time goes by (along with France as the two main drivers of the EU).
    2
  1548. The video maker has a typical capitalist mindset: profit; the enrichment of the capitalist ownership class.
    2
  1549. Perhaps, but like he says in the film he didn't actually like what he did in retrospect and, though poorer, enjoys life much more now.
    2
  1550. Blame the the USA and western Europe.
    2
  1551.  @marekokragy3341  《 Why did Russia incorporate Poland into the Russian empire? To create a buffer zone between it and the Austro‐Hungarian empire. 》 《 Why did Russia invade Poland in 1939? To create a buffer zone between it and Germany. 》 《 Why did Russia set up the Warsaw Pact? To create a buffer zone between it and NATO (US empire). 》
    2
  1552. What happened to his other party the 'Respect' party?
    2
  1553.  @Mr.Artude  It's a term that far right/alt‐right groups use as a subtle 'dog whistle' to attack the Muslim community in places like Rotherham by implying that what are young and below legal age but still adult (teenage) prostitutes that are forced into prostitution rackets that just happen to be run by people of colour are children and thus increase the enmity against such groups (in the case of Rotherham it being Muslims of Asian extraction). It fits in with their overall anti‐immigrant ideology. You see, as hate speech against Homosexuals and transexuals has been made more or less taboo (being as these sexualities are now officially supported and protected by the state) the far right don't get as much traction outside their traditional audience as they once did by attacking homosexuals and transsexuals and such homophobic/transphobic hate speech might even leave these far right/alt‐right groups open to prosecution. Going after pedosexuals/paedophilia on the other hand is still fair game. Grooming is another word for seduction but its used by the mainstream media almost exclusively in the context of paedophilia to delegitimise it, thus by using this word these far right/alt‐right groups hope to conjure up in (white) people's minds sweet little innocent white children being horribly raped, brutalised and violated by evil, swarthy blackamoor brutes, unassimilable Muslim savages who just don't fit into the wonderful (white) Anglo-Saxon world or (white) Western Christendom of the alt‐right. Both left and right, extreme or not, can get behind this message.
    2
  1554.  @ManicChampion  The Christian Bible and Jewish Torah say similar things, as I'm sure other religious texts do. But the fact is, most people, the vast majority, do not live by a literal interpretation of these holy books.
    2
  1555. Now do a programme about the nuclear threat posed by the USA to give a fair and balanced analysis of the issue.
    2
  1556. It's been like that for millenia. And it seems to have worked well because China's still around. The Anglo‐American system on the other hand... a few decades, a century or two?
    2
  1557. And Russia.
    2
  1558. Who did he sell it to and why? ☆ What were his justifications at the time? ☆ How much did he sell. ☆ Did he get a fair price for it?
    2
  1559. Russia is and was part of the West, being a European country, but more than a century's worth of cold war propaganda has tried to change people's perceptions. As far as I'm concerned the Russian Federation is and always has been European and will remain a major player in the continent's affairs long after the United Kingdom has faded into irrelevance.
    2
  1560. Which god... the Romans had many.
    2
  1561. And the capitalists who back them.
    2
  1562. 12:22 The "western posture" Alexander M. is the American position. Europe just plays along.
    2
  1563. What will happen to the Euro and the Pound if there is a US dollar default? Will they be able to carry on as alternatives to the dollar, or will they default too?
    2
  1564. ​ @keenanhomemovies6517  Which is then used to police and control it.
    2
  1565. Actually, Caligula (or maybe was it Nero, or maybe was it both) were quite popular with the ordinary plebs and its more a case of their enemies blackening their reputation and attributing all sorts of horrible things to them (not that they were particularly moral by the standards imposed on us by the state).
    2
  1566. I'd much prefer that France has a centre left government than a one that is hard right myself. — Je préférerais de loin que la France ait un gouvernement de centre gauche plutôt qu'un gouvernement d'extrême droite moi-même.
    2
  1567. He was already out of power so I don't think it will be that great a loss from a political point of view.
    2
  1568. Human rights have been weaponised by the USA and the EU and the whole issue surrounding their application completely politicised.
    2
  1569.  @schwarzer0se463  Yeah, politics. Only they're not German they're US.
    2
  1570.  @deaddoll1361  I disagree with that in part. It was set up primarily as the economic and political equivalent to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and to support its two main members, Germany and France (and the USA) allowing them dominate the rest. It was also set up as a cartel to compete against former European colonies and to exclude Russia/Soviet Union.
    2
  1571. Moat. :D
    2
  1572. The USA wants the EU to decouple from Russia and China and it's using its agents of influence in the EU to achieve this. It wants a world of European satellites cut off, Warsaw Pact style, from the rest of Eurasia.
    2
  1573. The European Union was never really democratic because it never was intended to be. Ditto the United Nations.
    2
  1574. Money means nothing when you can print it. One million, one billion... one gazillion. Doesn't matter. Using the usual metrics to measure these things is pointless as they are meaningless.
    2
  1575. Capitalist capitulation. If China had not capitulated to capitalism under Deng Xioping there would probably none of this.
    2
  1576.  @dylreesYT  Some say that Tiananmen was a botched attempt at a colour revolution in China by the USA riding on the back of genuine protests, though even if it was one hundred percent genuine and spontaneous no government could allow its capital city to be held by naive students wanting what amounted to revolution. And massacre, what massacre? Where are the photos and other documentary evidence that proves their was a massacre. From what I can gather, most of the violence and deaths (are their even trustworthy sources for a massacre as properly understood?) occurred outside Tiananmen Square, not within it, so a massacre, if it happened at all, almost certainly did not occur in the square itself (maybe a 'Beijing massacre ' would be more accurate, but it's a moot point). Apropos, most westerners tend to naively think that the protests were against the Chinese communist party or Chinese communism when, in fact, most of the discontent could be said, students aside, to have been aimed at the reforms of Dong Xioping - that is to say, capitalist reforms. So, here we have, ironically, the kind of protests which the Western media would have normally not given much coverage to and would have been quickly consigned to the memory hole getting a hollowed place in the cannon of anti-communist folklore, effectively turning a pro-communist protest against Deng Zioping - who was dismantling communism Gorbachev/Yeltsin style) into an anti-communist one, pro-capitalist one.
    2
  1577. Or slowly, almost imperceptibly, take over the old one. Ideally no one nation should be able to exercise as much control over the UN as the USA – and to a lesser degree Britain and France – currently does. It needs serious reform to give a voice to more countries.
    2
  1578. Don't worry, propaganda and simply not giving them a vote will suffice.
    2
  1579. Unfortunately, it's the very same psychopaths and sociopaths who have attained powerful positions within society who get to decide who is one. The fields of #psychology and #psychiatry are, like the field of #economics, sociopolitical in nature.
    2
  1580. The United States will be the one fomenting dissidents in Europe to further its aims of weakening both Europe and Asia and preventing their economic integration to form Eurasia. Destroying i(f it can't control) the European Union, together with deindustrialising and militarily weakening western Europe's core countries and then causing, ultimately, civil wars, dictorships and perpetual political instability á la Middle East.
    2
  1581. It's as if they don't they know that they are not the only ones who speak Russian and that others can call them out for their misinterpretation.
    2
  1582. The West accuses others of what it is actually doing, or plans to do. When lying it's best to get your lie in first. A lie has travelled half way round the world while the truth is still getting its boots on. Same with the accusations leveled at Russia regarding the possible use of chemical/biological weapons.
    2
  1583.  @rcmrcm3370  I didn't know that. What kind of sanctions did FDR employ against China.
    2
  1584. The cold war in reverse, this time with China as the winner. It's like China is using judo, showing that the apparent strengths of the United States can actually be weaknesses if not used properly.
    2
  1585.  @boeman6702  it's like the American Dream, the naive belief that simple hard work and perseverance will bring success. In other countries they call it the (Christian) work ethic but it's the same nonsense that blames the individual for problems that are societal or to do with the economy.
    2
  1586. And didn't it (or the USA) then call a no confidence vote leading to Russia's expulsion from the UNHRC, while other countries with far worse violations (like United Kingdom, USA, France) are still on it?
    2
  1587. Council Tax should be abolished. Bedroom tax also.
    2
  1588. Tariq BOSS Unfortunately, we English also tend to be cast as villains too.
    2
  1589. Your impersonation of Trudeau reminds me of the late singer Michael Jackson. 😂
    2
  1590. It's a threat to its military‐industrial complex. The USA needs its vast complex of bases and the economic activity they generate for its continued prosperity. To wit, the USA is a war economy the cannot survive peace. The USA military-security complex is the only thing that's keeping the USA from being completely deindustrilised. Take a look at what Michael Hudson, an economist, has to say.
    2
  1591. These are propaganda channels run either by delusional fanatics or run/paid for by the military and intelligence services.
    2
  1592. ​ @eltecnico9541  They may have no choice in the matter as the USA and China compete and push them out.
    2
  1593. Sounds like he's a possible traitor, an Irish Quisling. The Irish fought the English for their independence and now they want to hand it over to the EU (an institution heavily influenced by the USA, a country that shows with every passing day that it's quite willing to sacrifice Europe's economic prosperity and political stability for its own self-interests).
    2
  1594. This US war against Russia is making it increasingly likely that, in cooperation with China, they will very soon create an alternative to the US dollar, British pound and the euro of the EU, a system of currency exchange that they will then use in amongst themselves and the rest of the world (BRICS, ASEAN, SCO, EAEU, etc.). When that happens the currencies of western Europe will not be worth the paper they are printed on, their continued acceptance as currency being at the sole discretion of countries whose industrial economies are backed by productive manufacturing, limitless raw materials, bountiful oil and gas... and good old fashioned gold and silver. The USA, on the other hand, plans to lock Europe into a dollar‐denominated currency area, possibly using digital currency, that will favour itself and subsidise its reindustrialisation while keeping Europe as a captive market, semi‐deindustrialised, largely reliant on the USA for energy and food, and turned into a second world, eastern Europe.
    2
  1595. Biden reminds me of the Soviet Union under the 2 or 3 leaders before Gorbachev.
    2
  1596.  @dnickaroo3574  Isn't Galicia part of Ukraine?
    2
  1597. That's why their so interested in bringing out central bank digital currencies: to stop you having control over the money in your pocket.
    2
  1598. How long can an animal engage in what we would call incest (inbreeding) before either: a) the population dies out due to the accumulation of deleterious genes or, b) the population increases in size to a level sufficient to render the deleterious effects caused by inbreeding moot. Perhaps these birds can get away with it for longer than other species because they have genes that make them more resistant to the deleterious effects of inbreeding, but even so, their continued existence seems precarious at best and will remain so unless they can breed to a size where inbreeding is not a problem.
    2
  1599.  @jimness5902  And is that potash on Native American lands? Will its extraction cause environmental damage that will negatively impact those Native Americans?
    2
  1600.  @valerieblackthorn13  But the USA and its clients can.... Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Pakistan on and so forth. Attacking countries on the other side of the world that pose no threat to the USA is okay but if a country threatened by a hostile military alliance takes action to defend its borders – that's "trying to do everything".
    2
  1601.  @keithkelleher584  The only punishment for misdeeds is one's conscience. And if one's conscience is untroubled... well.... [Spoiler: you have to be alive to have one. No life after death means no guilty conscience, no regrets, and no remorse.]
    2
  1602.  @fernandoferraz3527  "Lenibism" - is that a conflation of lesbianism and Leninism?
    2
  1603. What did she die of?
    2
  1604. ​ @PamelaValemont  And the people that kill them will themselves conveniently meet with a fatal accident.
    2
  1605. Humanity's ability to use technology for evil purposes is saddening.
    2
  1606. Populations are, or soon will be, in decline worldwide with most European countries and certain countries in Asia having below-replacement levels of fertility. Consumption-driven economies that are also resource-wasteful remain a big problem, as is the prevailing idea of infinite economic growth in a system that relies on debt creation.
    2
  1607. I've heard this argument a lot in the western press lately vis‐à‐vis Ukraine and Russia regarding the former joining NATO. It would seem, however, that when applied to official enemies there exists a double standard.
    2
  1608. Did Russia exist back then?
    2
  1609. Special forces, intelligence assets and mercenaries.
    2
  1610. Consulates, along with diplomatic missions and embassies, are considered sovereign territory according to the Vienna Convention. I think the personnel inside them (some of them anyway) may also be considered soverign citizens with diplomatic immunity.
    2
  1611. @Colonel Panic The American deep state, from which most of the globalists come and in whom they rely for their enforcement.
    2
  1612. Agreed, along with sanctions, tariffs and outright attacks on other country's products and investments (eg. Huawei and 5G, Nordstream, etc.).
    2
  1613.  @slave2damachine  So? The United Kingdom is also in Europe but it acts as if it might well as be located in North America. Just because a country is geographically located in Europe does not necessarily imply it shares the prevailing sociopolitical or sociocultural values of the core European states. 'In Europe but not of Europe' is a phrase that comes to mind here. Russia is, or professes to be, a Eurasian power, connecting East with West and not merely just another continental European power and what I would say is that most western Europeans view the East warily, seeing it as radically different socioculturally speaking from the West and its political values not necessarily compatible with those of western Europe's.
    2
  1614. Not philosophy. Ideology.
    2
  1615. The words 'tens of thousands' would probably have been a better way of phrasing it.
    2
  1616. Currently, it seems the Eurasian elites of Russia and China (India and potentially am independent Latin America elite too) are rapidly emerging as competitors to the Anglo-American and Franco‐German elites and threaten to subordinate them if they cannot co-opt them.
    2
  1617. In het verleden konden ze het imperialisme gebruiken om de concurrentie onder controle te houden, maar nu is dit steeds meer geen optie.
    2
  1618. What they did to Greece was abhorrent. Hypocrites.
    2
  1619. Outside of China and Russia, maybe India, or seems that it can. Even the aforementioned tend to generally stay within the geopolitical 'Overton window' set by the West and largely crafted in the USA and by the banking class.
    2
  1620.  @jefflith2974  They have not really left. 'Stay‐behinds' have been left to continue causing trouble. Also the US military is still in Afghanistan engaging in military operations (drone strike murders, special forces death squad murders, aerial bombing murders, sanctions‐embargo murders and landmine murders through its use of de facto landmines known as cluster bombs). So, no... the United States hasn't actually left Afghanistan, not really. And neither has its little poodle, 'Great' Britain.
    2
  1621. I think the point at which the USA could effect in a militarily significant way the People's Republic of China are long gone. It's missile systems alone would keep US naval forces well away from the Chinese mainland and prevent the use by the USA of their aircraft carriers and other warships. Even US submarines will soon find themselves vulnerable as the anti-submarine warfare capabilities of China improve.
    2
  1622. It's surreal to see a city functioning normally and people casually going about their business when there's a war going on nearby. It's almost as if it's not happening.
    2
  1623. It was and remains an American organisation. It was never anything different.
    2
  1624. Oxford Dictionary of English – a shabby or sleazy bar or similar establishment.
    2
  1625. He's making these comments to please his WEF masters. They are the ones who really control him. He's also probably trying to please the Americans.
    2
  1626. A country whose government was installed by and is controlled by a foreign government is not sovereign.
    2
  1627. Exactly! Not to mention most of the products that Americans denigrate as garbage that are made by Chinese factories on behalf of American corporations and made to US specifications. The government of the United States (its mainstream media at least) is disingenuous and very hypocritical.
    2
  1628. Then you are like a Jew or a Russian voting for Hitler, or a barnyard animal voting for the pigs in George Orwell's (Eric Blair)Animal Farm.
    2
  1629. The politicians in the Congress are sitting on the horns of a dilemma and whether they raise interest rates and cause hyperinflation or do nothing and have the dollar lose its value entirely and become worthless, at the end of the day the Federal Reserve Bank of America is fast approaching a fiscal cliff at the bottom of which lies an economic catastrophe of unprecedented proportions.
    2
  1630. That's nothing. Just wait outside an English pub at closing time and see people pissing in public.
    2
  1631. ​​ @thalentekhuluse2829  But the world is de-dollarizing fast. The group of countries known as the BRICS (and the G20) are beginning to conduct bilateral trade using their own currencies and thereby removing any need to use the dollar of the United States in trade between themselves. From there it's only one short step to using a single currency (or basket of currencies) for global trade and sidestep the dollar entirely. The USA is living beyond its means and on borrowed time; its day off reckoning is not far off.
    2
  1632. He did indeed. The Roman Catholic Church would not allow him to get a divorce so he broke with it, leading to more than a century of religious strife whose reverberations still echo to this day (eg. Ireland).
    2
  1633. In the version of the story I heard as a boy it was a gingerbread man and a fox. The moral of the story was that bad things come to those who are naughty (Mr Ginger being a nasty prankster running from those he'd angered).
    2
  1634. Nothing has happened yet. No coup, no mercenaries attacking regular troops. Nothing. Just words... hot air. ■ Еще ничего не произошло. Никакого переворота, никаких наемников, атакующих регулярные войска. Ничего. Одни слова... болтовня.
    2
  1635. A fan of the Two Ronnies I see. 😃
    2
  1636. Out of curiosity, do you believe what Alexander said about Germany politics being very provincial with German politicians knowing a lot about local politics but not so much about politics outside of Germany?
    2
  1637. They are a comprador class. They are as every bit obsequious as their counterparts in the Middle East and Latin America.
    2
  1638. Check out channel The New Atlas. Its host just did a video about this.
    2
  1639. Don't bet on it. The European Union is very popular in France because of the economic and political power it gives them vis-a-vis the rest of Europe and the USA. France, as a founding member, has tremendous influence over other member states and allows them to act more effectively as a counterweight to Germany.
    2
  1640. Is she a single mum? Is being a mum not work to you? Perhaps she should hire a nanny or an au pair or something so she can go to work. Pay someone to look after her children (who can, no doubt, pay someone else to look after their children to the point that no one is looking after their own children because there all busy working and other people are looking after them). Envious/jealous much? It isn't so much the people who play the system who should be blamed, but the system itself and the people who force people to play the system (and no more so than those who earn the most money but pay the least taxes yet are always misdirecting peoples anger at the weakest, poorest and most vulnerable in society).
    2
  1641. It seems that the mainstream media of the USA and Canada are the most ontrolled of all the western media.
    2
  1642.  @robertrichard6107  Churchill even wanted to continue the war by invading Russia but the USA wouldn't agree. Here's a country that almost single‐handedly caused world war 2 by giving a completely useless guarantee to Poland thus emboldening them not to negotiate with the Germans leading to war; whose country was forced to ignominously run with its tail between its legs after just six weeks after embroilling the French in their misadventure; destroyed much of his country's manufacturing and that of Europe and sent it bankrupt; whose country was only saved because of the Russians and the Americans... wanting to continue a war that had killed 20 million people in the Soviet Union alone and millions on the rest of the continent. What's more he wanted to use nukes. What an ungrateful SOB.
    2
  1643. Say that to a Native American. They'll say the same thing about the English/ Americans.
    2
  1644.  @innocentbystander8038  Wrong! In both the top politicians of the time in the USA were very eager to get the country involved in the war in Europe. In the second world war one of the reasons Theodore Roosevelt embargoed Japan's oil was to provoke them into attacking Pearl Harbour so they could use it as a pretext to fight Germany (which had an alliance with Japan committing them to helping each other if either were attacked). An undeclared US war against German submarines operating in the Atlantic ocean on a mission to sink British shipping was another way in which the USA hoped to provoke Germany.
    2
  1645. I think it's basically a made up story designed to serve as a pretext for a clamp down or to strengthen the position of the pseudo-left as a viable alternative to the right. Whatever, some agenda is being served.
    2
  1646. Indian farmers need to win.
    2
  1647.  @rogbrogb5341  Unfortunately yes. And what's more successive Indian governments don't seem to care and have let the problem fester, hence the recent mass farmers protests; India's farmers and peasants have had enough.
    2
  1648. We should all be relieved that this sad, sorry debacle is now at an end.
    2
  1649. Whoever did it that could not have succeeded without the active cooperation of certain elements within the United States security apparatus.
    2
  1650.  @saltynutsman1  agree, but it's a bit difficult when the intelligence apparatus of the USA has a monopoly on news sources.
    2
  1651. Because China practices true sovereignty. And what's wrong with not allowing your currency to be freely traded? It stops currency manipulation by speculators and capital flight.
    2
  1652. The current economic system may need to radically change first before any further progress can be made. Our current economic system seems to be built on an assumption that infinite growth using current technology is possible and that such growth can occur while remaining indifferent to the negative consequences (externalities); an economic system that leads to extreme concentration of wealth, power and knowledge while creating artificial scarcity and inbuilt obsolescence (unnecessary waste). Such a system may not, in the long run, be sustainable.
    2
  1653.  @aclark9869  Substandard? Like what black South Africans and People of Colour suffered under apartheid. Or the same people during segregation/Jim Crow era. 'Separate but equal' in theory but seldom in practice.
    2
  1654. Stop counting. It's pointless. Money as conventionally understood becomes meaningless when it's all fiat and created out of nothing by the world's central bankers.
    2
  1655. Abused by western Europeans – Anglo-Americans, Franco-Germans.
    2
  1656. Yeah, just like during the 'genocide' that never happened that was used to justify the bombing of Serbia, illegal under international law.
    2
  1657.  @dongraham8236  looting from whom though? A culture/ society that ceased to exist hundreds or even thousands of years ago surely has no claim on the material possessions of its dead members that have survived the passage of time merely by chance.
    2
  1658. 那是正确的！只有战争才能做到这一点。
    2
  1659. Do two wrongs make a right?
    2
  1660.  @TorianTammas  Don't underestimate them. The Germans did that and look where it got them.
    2
  1661.  @bogdansakhnyuk586  The USA having the effrontery to attack Russians on Russia's very doorstep through use of fascist and Islamicist proxies constitutes, I think, a very, very legitimate form of self‐defence on the part of the Russians. Even more so when you consider they may have been on the verge of committing a genocide (a real one this time, not the pretend ones that were supposedly committed by the Serbs in Kosovo, or that supposedly took place in Libya).
    2
  1662.  @djocharablaikan8601  Ethnic cleansing and localised massacres sure but I don't think it was genocide. UN investigators went in expecting to find mass graves but found nothing and went away empty handed. In other words the pretext for NATO bombing Yugoslavia was just that, a pretext. Like babies thrown out of incubators in Kuwait and WMD's, yellow cake and big tube guns in Iraq, sarin gas attacks in Syria and Viagra‐fuelled rape squads in Libya... all lies of the MSM.
    2
  1663. Was Mars ever like Earth in terms of temperature and air pressure? Or of having a breathable atmosphere with liquid water?
    2
  1664. As Noam Chomsky has alluded to in several of his books, the so‐called cold war was not against communism but against 'resource nationalism' – the countries of the world becoming sovereign and using their resources for their own development instead of they of the West. The rulers of the west grew strong on the backs of the weak and they don't want the rest of the world to ever get to thy point where they can reverse this.
    2
  1665. While the USA still has its military-industrial complex to threaten the world with.
    2
  1666. As long as the Russians don't decisively deal with the Americans in Syria the region is likely to remain a thorn in the side of Russia, a drain on its resources and a block on economic development in the region. Russia should remember that the reason the USA won the first round of the cold war was because it destroyed their will to fight and their economy through decades long attrition — embargo, blockade, sanctions, arms race, propaganda war, terrorism, guerrilla war and the ever present threat of nuclear war. The USA doesn't have to win, it just bleeds Russia dry and slowly subvert it, seducing with false promises of a better life. Russia can't afford to pay that game twice. It needs to act now.
    2
  1667. They want to make it into propaganda. They may also want them to be killed because dead men tell to tales.
    2
  1668.  @DailyBeatings  For the PNAC planners it seems to have worked very well. Fascist corporatism is coming along in leaps and bounds and the lockdowns, plandemic fearmongering, and simultaneous introduction of long‐planned crackdowns and restrictions on civil liberties.
    2
  1669. Does Japan have a left? Does America?
    2
  1670. The USA appoints the British prime minister, not the electorate and it shows in the piss poor quality of our leadership; as piss poor as the United States. Same goes for Canada and Australia. People chosen for their loyalty and unwavering, fanatical devotion to neofascist bankster liberalism and the corporate empire.
    2
  1671. The deep state in the USA has spent 70 years perfecting the MICIMATT complex (Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think Tank) and at this stage it has compromised the formal institutions of state power and reduced democracy to mere formalism where appearance is more important that substance.
    2
  1672.  @roti1122.youtube  Perhaps this was in their calculations. Hurting the allies of Russia and China, even if indirectly and in a manner that's not quite predictable, is something they may want. That and the usual callous indifference to the needs of the Global South on the part of the West.
    2
  1673. For the term "the West" use "the American empire", it's more accurate imo. And Kalinigrad is not an EXCLAVE of Russia; it is an ENCLAVE . The country that surrounds it is the exclave.
    2
  1674. All planned probably. I've just been listening to Pepe Escobar and he spoke of a thing called the Israel-Middle East Economic Corridor (IMEC) and its implications for the region. The USA and its client state want to undercut China and Russia in the pipeline-transit corridor competition.
    2
  1675. Reminds me of Wales and Scotland in the British Isles. Despite being a part of a political union, the United Kingdom, for a very long time they still retain a strong sense of local nationalism.
    2
  1676. People should stop blaming other countries for the rot within their own. This is all home grown and blame should be placed squarely where it belongs. Anything else is just distraction.
    2
  1677. Because unlike China and (formerly?) Russia you don't have a centrally planned autarkic economy designed specifically to cater to the needs of its people and the country's national development and systematically and comprehensively implemented by an efficient bureaucracy dedicated to the national welfare and serving the needs of the population as a whole rather than the needs of the private sector and property owning class. Caste and tribalism also compound India's problems. Neoliberal capitalism and the so‐called free market and being a third world country still beholden to western institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the Bill and Mellinda Gates Foundation don't help either. India has free market chaos in contrast to China which has state capitalist/communist order; India is happy-go-lucky, China grimly determined to succeed, willing and capable of making all the necessary sacrifices and long term investments necessary to achieve that goal. China is a true sovereign state, able to act independently and determined to change the global status quo whereas India is content to just go with the flow all rely on the West to make the rules.
    2
  1678. As if the USA would go the far!
    2
  1679. The USA essentially has a war economy and was built on the callous genocide of indigenous natives. It should therefore come as no surprise that it seeks war and doesn't much care for the consequences to other people.
    2
  1680. There's also a possible pipeline that Israel might want to build too.
    2
  1681. Just goes to show that the IMF is completely controlled by the USA and a political tool.
    2
  1682. I don't think closing down sea routes simply to further US interests at the expense of everyone else would go down well with the rest of Asia.
    2
  1683. @ForrestSCS Greed is not wanting what is needed, like water or food, but wanting more than what is needed. To wit, wanting as much as can be got. With greed enough is never enough, it wants its slice of the pie and everyone else's too. So a system built solely on greed - capitalism/corporatism - will try to arrogate everything to itself to the point where there is nothing left for anyone else. It is insatiable and voraciously devours everything in its path without caring about the consequences. An example of this is the underlying premise of capitalism/corporatism that you can have infinite economic growth using finite resources. By analogy, it's like a banker printing an infinite amount of money even though you only have a finite amount of things to buy with it, the result being hyperinflation.
    1
  1684. I wonder why westerners think they have the right to make everyone like themselves and portray their way of life the only way worth living.
    1
  1685. Your Waifu Sucks A 'problem' because westerners say it is. Non-western peoples are always to be judged by standards not necessarily their own (though no doubt held by a non-western country's westernised elite and middle class).
    1
  1686. It goes up even higher if you replace ghosts with angels, and higher still if you use God, Jesus, the Devil or the Virgin Mary. I don't know the number for UFO's or green men.
    1
  1687. The UN can only stop individual wars when they are being fought by nations that are militarily weak vis-à-vis the Permanent 5 of the Security Council (and even then the Council's members have to be united and one or more of the Council 's members have to have an overriding interest in doing so). Otherwise, it's left to the General Assembly (everyone yet no one) which then acts in a half-hearted and often inconsistent manner, delivering mixed results. As for war in general the answer is no because the UN wasn't created to stop war but to act as policeman and coordinator for the ongoing process of globalisation by the West.
    1
  1688. What the climatologists don't seem to factor into their statements concerning anthropogenic climate change is the possibility of whether and to what degree certain governments may indeed be engaging in deliberate attempts to modify the climate, either locally or on a global scale. This is probably because such data is not available due to its secretive nature. As such, climatologists - whether in the cooling or warming camps - may not be factoring a possible secondary cause of climate change into their models, attributing the changes entirely to fossil fuel usage in industrialised countries. If such deliberate human-induced climate change is occurring (and I'm not saying it is) then discussions of how such change can be ameliorated is compromised by lack of knowledge about (or even admittance of the possibility of), such activities taking place as well as the ability to stop, such activities. For myself, I am of the opinion that climate change is occurring but am not quite convinced yet as to its principal cause being primarily anthropogenic, or whether we can do anything serious about it within our lifetimes.
    1
  1689. Blackforest98, nautical miles, not statute miles.
    1
  1690. What now - Iran deal or no deal? Israel 1, Iran 0, or vice versa? American-Israeli relations - better, worse, same?
    1
  1691. Does any of this have a practical application?
    1
  1692. I think if you remove anyone who has reached puberty from the definition of child, by the end of the nineteenth century I'd say most of these 'children' were in fact young adults of 12-15. Even those younger tended to be in the upper age range of 10-11. Psychologically speaking, I assume people 'grew up' faster then and became mature earlier so it might not have been as as bad, from their perspective, as it is from our own. That said, the working conditions I imagine were still bad, even for full grown adults and I think it is a good thing overall that young adults and children in Europe no longer have to do such work unless they want to. Perhaps one day automation will make future generations pity us the way we pity them.
    1
  1693. +Brian Alsup And what's a QUEER and how does it differ from being GAY?
    1
  1694. KC T What's so wrong with being a 'copycat'? Don't all people learn from others and from what's gone before?
    1
  1695. Just goes to show how interdependent the world economic system really is and how blunt an instrument sanctions are when used against other, developed economies.
    1
  1696. What nonsense! Of course Ukrainians are Europeans. Ukraine is located in Europe, as is Russia. Besides, the 'Slav' is more of an invention of nineteenth century nationalists as it is an empirical description. That's not to deny the obvious cultural affiliations and common cultural traditions of the various ethnicities living in eastern Europe but the people you refer to as Slavs are as fully European culturally as anyone else. Bear in mind that the word 'Slav' may carry very different connotations depending on whether it's being used by a western European or an eastern European, and can be used as an insult, as when be used by Hitler as a racial slur suggesting backwardness and barbarism, as well as a badge of pride.
    1
  1697. "Forcing a baby to marry is on par with a country forcing it's culture on another country." I think that statement is a illogical. Please tell me how an action performed in culture A constitutes forcing culture B to perform the same action. And the 'straw man' argument is where you attribute to your opponent things they didn't actually say/imply thus distorting and exaggerating what they actually did say. I don't see how I have straw manned my opponent. Please explain where/how I've (unintentionally) done so. And how am I trying to have it 'both ways'?
    1
  1698. Another front opened up by the USA against Iran, this time by outright invasion by proxies after the usual subversion techniques had failed. Getting Saudi Arabia involved so directly and overtly in the chaos of the region might be a way of weakening it and giving a pretext for further US military intervention, whilst widening the chaos so much that Russia and Europe are both drawn into the conflict with Europe having to choose sides or Russia forced to work against its own best interests.
    1
  1699. Teenagers are not children, They are adolescents (i.e. young adults).
    1
  1700. #Asexual, actually.
    1
  1701. If it's clearly forced (as by a pimp or brothel owner) then I agree, but I think it's more complicated than that if it's not due to outright human coercion but rather to underlying economic or social circumstances or individual choices. In such a case I think there would be a need to take such things into account.
    1
  1702. Cringe babies With all due respect I think it is you who may not be getting the point. You are thinking more with your heart than your head and allowing your emotions to cloud your judgement more than it should. Morality is largely emotion-driven and takes little heed of real life. While I believe forced prostitution to be wrong, prostitution that is undertaken entirely of one's own volition and that is directly beneficial to oneself (as by ensuring survival) cannot be altogether bad, in my opinion. Not even when harmful to the individual long term or frowned upon by the wider society.
    1
  1703. Has it ever occurred to you that Greece's debt is a debt so large that it simply cannot be repaid as a matter of mathematical logic irrespective of how much people may want to? To wit, you cannot get blood from a stone (though the troika are trying pretty damn hard). And that the initial loans given to Greece were given fraudulently in the first place in the certain knowledge that Greece was, under EU rules, ineligible for such loans, that they could never be paid back, and that Greece was almost certain to default? The simple matter is that the banks cheated and lied and broke the law. Under such circumstances - fraud - contracts can be annulled, as also by 'acts of God'.
    1
  1704. +Shah Ismail Whatever they should have done then, the moment for doing it has long since past. We are no longer there, we've moved on and are here, in the present, and everybody - banks, Greece and the EU - must deal with present realities and their consequences. That means, at the very minimum, the realisation by its creditors that Greece cannot currently pay back the loan in full and at interest without being given another loan to pay off the first loan, which it is all too evident the EU/Troika are not willing to lend unless Greece declares bankruptcy and sells itself, lock, stock and barrel, to its creditors - which no self-respecting nation should be willing to do. Sorry, but I think you are applying too much hindsight to the situation -coulda, shoulda, mighta are not helpful here, in my opinion. In retrospect it's all to easy for critics to say what should have been done, much harder for them to propose practical solutions that are both workable and fair. It's just a start but if the debt owed by Greece is to be repaid at all then I think it wise that a debt moratorium be imposed until the country is in better shape and in its economy is up and running again. Interim, the austerity measures which are stifling the economies of the EU should be removed or modified to take account of reality.
    1
  1705. +24jh42 Why can't they have a higher minimum wage, the Greeks are still in charge of their own country aren't they? If the Greek government wants to increase the minimum wage it's up to them (provided they can find the money from somewhere).
    1
  1706. Warren1814 I'd say it's more to do with the legacy of imperialism and colonialism and the fact that The West is perceived as having generally higher standards of economic development. That and how westerners are portrayed in Hollywood and western Cold War propaganda.
    1
  1707. Why is it a problem and what would solving it do?
    1
  1708. Can the North Koreans sink a US aircraft carrier? I don't know but I'm betting the Chinese certainly can.
    1
  1709. +voicubogdan84 An authentic protest movement doesn't need outside help because democracy begins at home. Foreigners cannot bring democracy to China, only the Chinese can do that. Thus the worth of a Chinese democracy that has been bought with American dollars is dubious at best.
    1
  1710. Fredrick M, free will is an illusion but one that both the religious and secular believe in, including the most militant of atheists and empiricist of scientists.
    1
  1711.  @Ral9284 : but then the free market would no longer be free. In other words, by stopping "that [those] kind[s] of people" you would, indeed, be doing just that: stopping the free market.
    1
  1712. alex foerster, don't you mean anti- family planning?
    1
  1713. Do all mathematicians write on brown wrapping paper. Don't they have graph paper or foolscap?
    1
  1714. Mami Burger Neither.
    1
  1715. Capitalism in long term decline you say? How long, like will it happen in my lifetime, or like the decline of feudalism, will it take a thousand years? And what will/is replacing it, neo-fascism?
    1
  1716. The protests in Hong Kong will either dissipate naturally or be broken up by the police. Either way, I don't think they'll make the Chinese government budge one inch. The way in which the city was to be governed was decided at its hand over and if the Chinese government have decided that the arrangement isn't working then they'll change it whether those within or without Hong Kong like it or not. I think that economic autonomy rather than than political autonomy was the thought uppermost in the minds of the Chinese leadership when they created Hong Kong's political system. China cares more about the growth of the economy than the growth of democracy.
    1
  1717. Agreed. And what goes for the USA and Canada goes for Europe, Australia and New Zealand too, the countries that comprise the West. Now, through means of the United Nations, an institution dominated by the West, no doubt there will be a push for the adoption of similar legislation by all other nations. It makes me wonder whether this is a very sly way of putting pressure on Russia and non-western countries with more conservative values.
    1
  1718. +TheUnspokenAlias You know what they say about women being attracted to men of wealth and power… your bride might quite like the idea. ;-)
    1
  1719. That facile slogan could be used to justify anything. Government is the problem... not fascism. Government is the problem... not communism. The monarch is the problem... not monarchy. The tyrant is the problem... not tyranny.
    1
  1720. I'm surprised at how much Scotland has influenced England, invading several times and even at times playing a quite major role in political events South of the border. The poor Irish and Welsh though, they always seem to get the worst of it whereas the Scots give as good as they take.
    1
  1721. lgcoytv, when I read it I had to do a double-take; I read US as United States and thought, wow, how percipient, this guy really knows who calls the shots. But then I realised that a) the US shadow government is part of the British Establishment and so is not very likely to want to overthrow it; and b) the USA would never support even the lukewarm socialism of the Labour Party. Only when I spotted the incongruity did I realise you meant US as in, we the people.
    1
  1722. Anonymous Asians tend to live in hierarchical societies and thus grade nations according to the perception of how 'developed' they are in comparison to themselves. As the whole idea of development is a construct of the West (who naturally put themselves at the top) then they tend to grade people according to what countries they come from with people of darker colour being seen as coming from 'less developed' countries (and thus more likely to be poorer and therefore not a particularly 'good catch' from a potential spouse's point of view) and those of lighter skin colour coming from 'more developed' countries (and thus richer, etc.). Also, western imperialism and colonialism and ongoing western hegemonic domination of the world may also have something to do with it (success, power and dominance, together with better living standards being seen as attractive).
    1
  1723. Number Five I'd say it's a combination of the two. :-D
    1
  1724. Number Five I don't dispute what you say about non-westerners having their own motivations for preferring light skin over dark but I would argue that, in addition, the cultural influence of western Europe and North America (through globalisation) has also had an impact on non-westerners perceptions. That is to say, it could be argued that the influence of what is called "The West" has helped strengthen the existing societal prejudice.
    1
  1725. Number Five Forgive me, but you basically seem to be agreeing with my original position, that it is a combination of the two: that the influence of the West, combined with a widely held prejudice, contributes to a tendency within Asian societies to favour lighter shades of skin tone. The wealth of the average white tourist, combined with their naturally pale skin feeds, into a bias that already exists.
    1
  1726. Long story short, a bunch of zionazis (Zionist sympathising, neo-fascist, ultra-conservatives) led a deep state coup on 9/11 against the formal government of the USA on behalf of the military-industrial complex and the financial-corporate elite.
    1
  1727. So what you're saying is that you would rather have a fascist tyranny in which the one percent rule and the other ninety-nine percent don't get any say than an imperfect democracy where forty-nine percent can be outvoted by the other other fifty-one percent? And you can't just have 'economic fascism' because fascism involves the takeover of the state by big business so you would end up with political fascism as well.
    1
  1728. Al-Qaeda linked rebels have made strong advances […] I think you mean western paramilitary and special forces, mercenaries and terrorist cells linked to western intelligence agencies. Precious few of these so-called rebels come from within Syria itself. And Al-Qaeda, if it still exists á la 9/11, is, was and continues to be, a western intelligence asset. […] and rebel groups Do you mean western mercenaries and proxies? … with strong financial backing from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. And the United States and western Europe. Together with training facilities, safe havens and everything else it needs to keep it in the field slowly degrading the Syrian army in a prolonged war of attrition. Face it you guys, this is a war by and for the USA and its western allies on behalf of western economic interests. It's NOT an authentic civil war but a semi-conventional guerrilla war fuelled by the nation states of the West, not least the military-industrial complex and multinationals/banks of the USA.
    1
  1729. The reason for the split, if indeed it is a split, is simply because the interests of Germany and Europe are not the same as the USA and sometimes differ substantially from each other. In most cases a compromise is worked out which resolves or ameliorates any crisis long before it becomes serious. This is what will probably happen with regards the differences between Germany and the US.
    1
  1730. +wathe nube Harry Houdini Cause of death: Diffuse peritonitis (inflammation of the peritoneum or stomach lining) caused by infection, with ruptured appendix (appendicitis) as contributory cause. ... After being punched in the stomach by one Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead. Source: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/houdini.asp Harry Houdini's wife: Wilhelmina Beatrice 'Bess' Rahner Arthur Conan Doyle's wives: 1. Jean Leckie 2. Louisa Hawkins
    1
  1731. Red or yellow - it doesn't matter. Both sides are monarchist and capitalist and thus none is really for the poor. And the USA will be there, keeping Thailand safe for western corporations.
    1
  1732. +leninstreet Crimea had been part of Russia for 3 centuries prior to the break up of the Soviet Union and was predominantly inhabited by people whose ethnicity was Russian so, in effect, Russia was merely taking back its own territory which had only ended up as Ukrainian - itself a newly created country that in its present form has never existed historically - because of internal boundary changes made when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union.
    1
  1733. +leninstreet "So Russia has the right to create buffer states then. The peoples of those countries have no say in what they want because Russia apparently has the right to buffer states." I'm not saying Russia has a right to create buffer states or to override the right to self-determination by indigenous people, I'm merely acknowledging the fact that powerful states tend to surround themselves with smaller, weaker, states as a protection against equally powerful states with whom they might otherwise fight. They do this as an obvious way of reducing tensions and avoiding war, the tacit understanding being that in return for recognition the buffer state remains neutral. Hence, its not a good idea for another country to persuade the buffer state to join them in a hostile military alliance… which is exactly what NATO is and exactly what the USA is doing.
    1
  1734. No, where a group of countries conspire to form a hostile alliance against another group of countries those countries can be expected to create a similar counter-alliance, which is what the Warsaw Pact was. Anyone who knows their history will have understood the reason behind the creation of the Warsaw Pact: a defensive alliance designed to repel an invasion by NATO, led by a country that had supported fascism and was dedicated to the destruction of the Soviet Union, an alliance that included Germany no less, the very country that had killed 20 million Russians and nearly destroyed it. But that is in the past and the Warsaw Pact is long gone. What we are faced with now is a hostile NATO led by a hostile, aggressive, imperialist and expansionist USA which, not content at having absorbed the eastern European states Russia had set up for its own protection, now wants to expand both its own and its proxy NATO army right to the borders of the Russian Federation itself. To the Russians this is 1939 all over again when, after the annexation of Poland, it shared a common border with a country hellbent on its destruction. Only now its worse, much worse; not just a few countries but the whole of western Europe. As I've already said, buffer states exist to separate powerful countries - or alliances! - that might otherwise go to war. The USA removes them at its -and the rest of Europe's - peril.
    1
  1735. Marxism, Keynesianism, Friedmanism. They've all been tried. What's next?
    1
  1736. 1. You must not confuse the different types of circumcision; some are more severe than others. 2. The cultures of the people who practice female circumcision put a different emphasis on a woman's role within society and the need/desire for sexual pleasure and is not the same as our own. 3. With proper healthcare the procedure could be made much safer and the mortality rate/medical complications reduced. 4. This is their culture, their society, viewed from their own unique perspective. It is not ours and it is not up to us to impose our own illusion/delusion of social progress upon them.
    1
  1737. Only by democratising the analysis and decision making process to involve the majority of the population, and then only by adequately equipping the population through proper socialisation and education to make informed decisions for themselves and be the position to make best use of the knowledge that such a democratising process creates, can the problems we face, both collectively and as individuals, and the solutions we need for the resolution of those problems, be truly capable of a being changed for the better. Otherwise it will be the same elites making the decisions for us under the guise of democracy. Involving people in making the decisions that effect their lives and have them create their own solutions is the best method.
    1
  1738. Because the markets are rigged, is the simple answer.
    1
  1739. #Gazzasore The US Federal Reserve does not want gold or silver to appear more attractive to investors than the US Dollar. It is therefore trying its best to keep the price of gold and silver down and stop it reaching parity with the Dollar. (Paper gold/silver, not physical, which it has little control over other than by resorting to outright theft and fraud)
    1
  1740. What can the American public do? What Hugo Chavez did in Venezuela.
    1
  1741. Unfortunately, that's not how capitalism works (and certainly not corporatism). The taxpayer is the one expected to foot the bill every time. Also, geoengineering is the big elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about; bring up the subject and it's like you're a conspiracy theorist or 9/11 truther.
    1
  1742. Its own… plus those of NATO.
    1
  1743. +Nick MG That's it in a nutshell: states collapse because their rulers become set in their ways. Change threatens their wealth and power and comes to be seen as a threat that must be stopped, ultimately leading to stagnation and collapse.
    1
  1744. Nationalism or patriotism? Justified pride or arrogance?
    1
  1745. The state. Its leaders. Power.
    1
  1746. Turkey obviously doesn't want the Kurds in Turkey linking up with the Kurds in Iraq because they don't want to encourage Kurdish unity or give it any legitimacy to the Kurdish sstruggle for a state of their own. If Turkey helps them too much the Kurds in Turkey might just join up with the Kurds in Iraq and cause problems for Turkey later on. So, bearing this in mind, I think the position Turkey taken so far is reasonable and one I support. Arming and giving logistical support to non-Kurdish fighters is the best and safest option.
    1
  1747.  @edwardyang8254  Not entirely wasted. As western propaganda aimed at a western audience (including westernised foreign students at Oxbridge) it's quite good.
    1
  1748. That's what the agenda of the neo-liberalism: to undo the postwar consensus between labour and capital and take us back to the system of laissez-faire that existed before.
    1
  1749. It would seem that all Israeli politicians are extremists regarding the question of an independent Palestinian state. Even the suggestion that the Palestinians exist as a people within Israel with as much right to exist there as Jewish Israelis is to them problematic and controversial.
    1
  1750. "Everybody is hurting and the remedy involves justice for everyone regardless of race." I think we can all agree with that. :-)
    1
  1751.  @Synthminator  Can we say Julian Assange ? Bradley/Chelsea Manning ?
    1
  1752.  @Longtack55  I wonder if these Hindu fundamentalists and nationalists, of which Mohdi is one, are in some way being supported by the USA and its intelligence community.
    1
  1753. I think that these protests will peter out soon; the protesters have gotten wind of whose behind their protests and cottoned on to what's afoot.
    1
  1754. The meanings of the phrases "to cotton on" or "to cotton on to" and "to peter out" and "afoot". Chambers Dictionary peter /pēˈtər/ [ intransitive verb ] to dwindle away to nothing, be dissipated or exhausted ( with the word 'out' ). [ Origin unknown, orig US mining slang ] cotton /kotˈn/ cotton on (slang) (sometimes with to) to catch on. Oxford Dictionary peter /ˈpiːtə / verb [no object] decrease or fade gradually before coming to an end. Example: the storm had petered out. – ORIGIN early 19th century, of unknown origin. cotton /ˈkɒt(ə)n / verb [no object] informal ( cotton on ) begin to understand. Example: He cottoned on to what I was trying to say. afoot /əˈfʊt / adverb & adjective 1. In preparation or progress; happening or beginning to happen. [ as predicative adjective ] plans are afoot for a festival. 2. Chiefly North American: on foot. [ as adverb ] they were forced to go afoot.
    1
  1755. Synonyms peter [ Verb ] [ In the phrase ] "(to) peter out" dwindle, taper off, fade, wane, evaporate, ebb, diminish, fail, cease, stop, die away, come to an end, come to nothing [ colloquial usage] fizzle out "Cotton on" To (begin to) understand [ colloquial usage] cotton on (to), get, get it, click, twig, tumble to, latch onto, get the hang of, rumble, suss out, get the message, get the picture, get wise, get your head/mind round, know the ropes, the penny drops afoot [ Adverb ] about, around, circulating, current, going on, going about, in the air, in the wind, brewing [ Formal Usage ] abroad [ Colloquial Usage ] in the pipeline
    1
  1756. First, let's get all the western countries and their allies that are supplying the jihadists with weapons, training, funding and safe havens to stop doing so. Without these the war cannot continue and peace negotiations must inevitably follow. That done, using the UN as peace broker and the proper forum for dialogue, have the warring parties sit down and negotiate a ceasefire. A road map to peace can then be drawn up, the implementation of which being overseen by the Security Council of the UN with any breaches being met with appropriate sanctions. There, sorted! No need to bomb.
    1
  1757. I agree. It is commonsense. Are at least it should be.
    1
  1758. Implication on the post-modernist movement...?
    1
  1759. An atom is the smallest part of a chemical element that can exist but it is a molecule that is the smallest amount of substance (made up of atoms) that can take part in a chemical reaction.
    1
  1760.  @GiRR007  And cybernetic brain implants too.
    1
  1761.  @weissblau  I am shocked by the serious geopolitical miscalculation that the British government is making. Such blatant provocation of a far superior military power (Russia) while at the same time damaging the economic power of a major economy (Germany) goes against both our own long-term interests and those of other European countries, in my opinion.
    1
  1762. Both of these terms may have been invented by the psychiatric profession to dehumanise and deligitimise people while keeping themselves in a job. There's been a veritable explosion of labels invented over the last 50 years by the US psychiatric profession that it's become something of an industry.
    1
  1763. All no doubt planned as part of the secret strategy of the USA. For them discord in Europe is preferable to unity if it involves the Russian Federation displacing the USA as the chief hegemon on the continent. The two main rivals currently challenging the supremacy of the USA are Russia and China and the prize that they are fighting for control over is Europe.
    1
  1764. The same could also have been said about the Soviet Union pre-1991 and now the Russian Federation. Anything that stands in the way of western and North American capital accumulation is a threat.
    1
  1765. Everyone get a grip. Stop blaming these poor, desperate people and instead place the blame where it really lies, with the people who are causing them to flee war and famine: the politicians, generals and the heads of the banks and corporations, especially those tied to the war industry.
    1
  1766. Basically crypto-fascists and Nazi sympathisers/fellow travellers who went underground for three decades from the 1940's to the 1970's, coming out of hiding in the 1980's.
    1
  1767. Khan should do what Erdoğan in Turkey did: purge the government and especially the army (assuming its politically possible).
    1
  1768. All talk and nothing but talk. Until the Chinese (or whoever) are able and willing to do something about it the status quo will remain indefinitely. And anyway the dollar losing its reserve currency status will no more reduce the power of the US to coerce that it did Russia and China during the cold war; no more then it did France or Britain.
    1
  1769. What makes me afraid is that all the major players — China, Russia, India, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France, Japan — are all happy to go along with it. There is no pushback. None. There appears to be no communism, fascism, syndicalism, anarchism, or any other kind of viable ideological or philosophical alternative to the status quo like there was back in the 19th and 20th centuries.
    1
  1770. They'll get it, either through Israel or through a collaborationist Palestinian Authority. At the very least they'll stop the Chinese and Russians and their allies from getting it.
    1
  1771. ​​ @UrsaMinor983 China, Russia, the UN can take over. Also, international maritime trade is not threatened by anyone (unless the USA starts creating fake pirates the way it creates fake Islamists and uses them to cause mayhem on the high seas).
    1
  1772. @richodude2 As do the British, including over the issue Hong Kong.
    1
  1773. This is propaganda from a British state broadcaster working, as always, in the service of the Anglo-American elite.
    1
  1774. ​ @indigo0977  "Historical fiction" is an oxymoron – a contradiction of terms.
    1
  1775. Interesting discovery. Just saying though, 500 years in my book isn't ancient. To be ancient something must be at least a thousand.
    1
  1776. Could be a new hypersonic vehicle the Russians are testing.
    1
  1777. This Australian neo-fascist — sorry, centre-right conservative moderate (centre-left liberal?) — will be telling us that Russian dictators are closing down the West's pipelines and embargoing it's oil and gas next (even though it's the West, at the behest of the USA, who are doing it to themselves).
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  1778. Apart from window dressing, these laws will simply be used by the USA to clamp down on any domestic or European corporation that doesn’t do exactly what the USA wants them to. For those that do they need not worry, it will be business as usual. These laws will be weaponised as a means of attacking foreign governments or European governments that do business with them, countries that the USA (and its lackey the European Union) don’t like, such as Iran or Cuba. Businesses and corporations that operate in these countries will be accused of money laundering or tax evasion.
    1
  1779. He's a puppet. Put the blame where it really lies with the puppet master, the USA.
    1
  1780. You could be waiting a long time. Despite a relative decline in global status the currency of the United Kingdom, pound sterling (GBP, £), is still strong and an international currency of high repute even though the country has a weak industrial base. So if that's anything to go by the USA could be the same.
    1
  1781. Can't they dig huge ditches to channel the lava away from the houses? Or a massive mound wall?
    1
  1782. India is an integral part of Asia. If the Russian Federation is turning towards China then it will also be turning towards India too. India and China constitute the two biggest populations in the world with limitless potential and with vast mineral resources so I don't see any of them wanting to alienate either of the others. They are, after all, not the USA.
    1
  1783. Amoral doesn't mean immoral and the Chinese are as moral as any other nationality. Indeed, I would argue that it's practically impossible not to be moral because all societies and the communities within them have moral codes of some sort. Moral codes do differ though.
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  1784. Because their entire leadership is made up of people put in power by the USA's regime change apparatus. They were chosen precisely because they were hostile to Russia: political dissidents, disaffected youth, fake astroturf human rights organisations financed by the likes of USAID and NED, etc. Even Nazis and neo-Nazis. Basically anyone who was hostile to the Russian Federation, the Soviet Union and communism.
    1
  1785. A project to keep Europe divided started by the British and still going strong more than a century later.
    1
  1786. Keep preaching. If it stops unnecessary in can't be bad.
    1
  1787. Mercenaries paid for by the usual suspects.
    1
  1788. I wonder if the figure of 800 million people brought out of absolute poverty by China would be mentioned so often if they had done this under the communism of Mao Tse Tung rather than Deng Xiaoping and his market reforms reforms of the 1980's. I wonder if westerners would be singing China's praises as much if it reverted back to a hard form of communism and then began to export it to Asia and beyond, like in the cold war.
    1
  1789.  @WiseandVegan  Stop spamming!
    1
  1790.  @woodforthetrees3496  The Greeks were basically forced to take out loans, helped by their corrupted collaborator class, by the EU and the Americans. In effect, forced into debt bondage.
    1
  1791.  @itheuserfirst3186  well put!
    1
  1792. The UK said the same thing back in the 1840's and 1860's, only this time around the West won't be able to send gun boats up the Yangtze and force opium on the Chinese, nor send ships into Tokyo bay and force a third Plaza Accord on the Japanese. Gunboat diplomacy won't work this time around to correct the trade inbalance and the UK and the USA will go bankrupt paying for Chinese and Japanese products that they can't produce themselves due to de-skilling, de-industrialisation and pricing themselves out of world markets.
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  1793. And when will it be available? Never.
    1
  1794. No, the EU sanctioned Europe. The European Union is like NATO, both are controlled by the USA.
    1
  1795. Fully agree with the first paragraph, not so much with what followed. :-D
    1
  1796. Basically it's: if the USA wants to compete with China it must become China. The USA basically wants to create a NAFTA for the EU, a system that helps the corporations in the USA at the expense of both Mexican and American workers.
    1
  1797. The US dollar's about to crash, a Great Depression 2.0 is about to plunge the country and its minions in Europe into hyperinflation and stagflation causing widespread unemployment, malnutrition and political instability á la Germany, Italy and Spain during the 1920's and 30's. This may lead to outright fascism as those countries turn left and civil war, coups and militarism take over.
    1
  1798.  @vladsnape6408  God the good, the mighty, the merciful! 😒😆🤔
    1
  1799. ​​ @xenusceptic  Yes, Quaddafi was murdered by a lynch mob organised by Clinton and Obama. A rich, prosperous polity was destroyed by paramilitaries (mercenaries) and the military forces of NATO.
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  1800. ​​ @John-yr4uh  Ironic, no, that a prison which held the Dutch resistance held up as heroes fighting fascism should be used to imprison a person fighting US-Ukrainian fascism?
    1
  1801. Are you sure they are Russian soldiers? They look more like conscripts from a Donbass militia unit.
    1
  1802. One can only hope. It would be their just desserts for inflicting such death and destruction on the rest of us.
    1
  1803. He's a propagandist. But a man's got to earn his bread somehow I suppose.
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  1804. I'd have used the term benevolent neutrality. From benevolent neutrality to bellicose support of the empire.
    1
  1805. The West is basically the USA and its UK protégé where the major monopolistic corporations and rentier banks are based.
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  1806. So the Kurds not exist because the international community do not recognise a land called Kurdistan? — Yani Kürtler, uluslararası toplumun Kürdistan denen bir toprağı tanımaması nedeniyle mi var olmuyorlar? — אז הכורדים לא קיימים כי הקהילה הבינלאומית לא מכירה בארץ בשם כורדיסטן?
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  1807. The simple answer: you can't. The not‐so‐simple answer: with sophistry you can. Just look at organised religion of what sophistry can do to the human mind (a good place to start would be fundamentalist Christians who deny evolution and their counterparts in Islam and Judaism.
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  1808. Agreed. 'Whataboutism' is the go-to insult of choice when you point out inconvenient truths.
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  1809. It didn't. It just wasn't as badly decomposed as you'd expect (but still partly decomposed).
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  1810. Israel serves the corporate and banking interests of the USA (its elites). Their interests coincide because Israel serves as an extension of the USA in west Asia, its aircraft carrier if you will. In fact, its almost like its the 51st state and that to attack Israel is tantamount to an attack on the USA á la Pearl Harbour, Hawaii (a country far away from the continental USA and one that was invaded and forcibly annexed).
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  1811. The economists and The Economist are all neoliberal, but then I'm given to understand that is the only kind of economic theory available, There Is No Alternative (TINA) as Margaret Thatcher would say. Whatever happened to Keynesianism? Are there no alternative economic theories out their – Marxism perhaps?
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  1812. And antepenultimate means 'last but two' or 'third last'.
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  1813. The USA has been on the brink of war with the IRI since 1979 at least. So... what's new? Even longer with Russia.
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  1814. The English did the same when they invented the term 'British'. It allows the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish to feel part of a Union that is in fact dominated by the English.
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  1815. What about male genital mutilation (MGM)? Should the Chinese lead a crusade against it? How would you like it if Asia, led by China, demanded that UN agencies be created to end it and attack a religious rite of Jews and Muslims, as well as a secular rite of North Americans?
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  1816. It's the Great Reset War.
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  1817. He is talking about a US department store chain in Russia.
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  1818. It serves the interests of the American deep state.
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  1819. It worked out fine. Hong Kong, like Macao, is still a booming and prosperous metropolis, integrated economically, politically and culturally with the rest of China, just like Tibet and Xinjiang. 😝
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  1820.  @theoracle9873  'Progress', like 'development', are social-cultural constructs and relative. The idea that all countries, cultures, people must go through various phases with each phase generally better than the previous one and those that have reached the most advanced phase are the most civilised and thus to be emulated is something that seems to have appeared in the West and then spread to the rest of the world and it appears to me to be a subtle ideological or intellectual trap that certain Western countries deploy against other cultures that puts those cultures on the defensive vis-a-vis the West. When you subscribe to such beliefs the West has already half won the battle against you because you begin to see yourselves as the West sees you, as inferior, thus tacitly reaffirming Western cultural and moral superiority.
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  1821.  @nocturnalowl5867  "Shouldn't" is a value judgement. The naturalistic fallacy — deriving an is from an ought.
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  1822.  @theoracle9873  Is having an industrial revolution, modern science modern medicine, modern weaponry, modern technology, modernity itself? Is having a GDP/GNP, Gini coefficient, life expectancy, infant mortality, standard of living/quality of life equal to those found in western Europe? To fight the West you must become like the West, but in so doing you become westernised... which defeats the whole point of defending your culture from the West in the first place.
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  1823.  @nocturnalowl5867  While this particular father used excessive violence with regards his daughter (rightly condemned by both Chinese and foreigners – Serbs – alike), nonetheless, lesser, more acceptable forms of corporeal violence may be widespread and more or less accepted in China.
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  1824. With 'Made in the USA' (deep state) stamped on it.
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  1825. I find the phrase "selling out to China" interesting. Is taking production orders from Chinese companies or the Chinese government (i.e. conducting normal commercial transactions), or allowing Chinese nationals/companies to own and operate German companies, selling out? Truly, would you use the same phrase when talking about, say, US-German commercial transactions?
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  1826. Neither the mainland Chinese nor the island Chinese have any desire to be used as pawns in the USA's strategy of maintaining its unipolar hegemony in Asia and the Pacific. Rather, both sides want a negotiated and peaceful resolution to the problem.
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  1827. But it's the "free market" that decides what fast food workers are worth in the first place. And I can't see it working for "both sides of the table" because the whole point of the free market is to NOT put constraints on capital; that's why is called free, free as in unregulated and those on the other side of the table are the bosses who have every intention to pay themselves as much money as they can from the company's profits while paying their workers as little as they can get away with.
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  1828. Not Europe, the European Union (EU). An essentially undemocratic institution controlled by globalists and authoritarians and heavily influenced by the USA and its bankers.
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  1829. What about the atrocities of the Urgun and Stern gangs? Perhaps you would call the deaths of camp guards 'atrocities' when they were committed by the inmates of Sobibor as they made their break for freedom.
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  1830.  @MJMilano7  Only after embargoing it for 30 years and using it as a way of driving a wedge between the Soviet Union and China, forcing China to seek help to develop its economy from the USA and its European proteges. Even now it continues to embargo sanction) the Russian Federation despite it no longer being communist or socialist.
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  1831. Margaret Thatcher got to where she did because of the infiltration of the Conservative party and political establishment by agents of influence working for the USA. The same with the Labour Party from Tony Blair onwards. One of the USA's earliest and most successful colour revolutions occurred in Britain in 1979.
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  1832. Arthur Harris, bomber of civilians.
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  1833. So telling the truth is something that should not happen? He's merely pointing out that the king has no clothes. According to you freedom to criticise is something that we should only have in theory (so we can look superior to the communists and fascists) but should never try to exercise in practice. It is irrelevant whether or not a person can or cannot say certain things in another country, one can (at least for now) say these things in your country and can point out wrongdoing and wickedness when it happens.
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  1834. Switzerland is used as the bolthole of the multi-billionaires who run the military‐industrial complexes of the West. They can survive the nuclear or conventional war they cause in their Swiss bunkers, but for the rest of us....
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  1835. But it's not just them. It's right across the board censorship and shadow banning, flagging, demonetization and reporting to authorities. Other, supposedly free, internet sites will also end up the same way.
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  1836. The Israelis have already attacked Iran in various ways and the Russians did jack****. Irans's hands are tied by Russia's unwillingness to allow Iran to escalate. The same applies to Syria.
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  1837. As a working class English man this certainly wasn't taught I'm school when I was a boy.
    1
  1838. It originates in the USA as a direct result of the Democratic Party's abandoning of the working class, focusing instead on inconsequential social issues instead of issues about labour or class.
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  1839. In short, usury.
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  1840.  @sirtruth3931  Miscegenation? The inhabitants of the British Isles are a polyglot nation made up not only of Anglo-Saxons (themselves a mix of two peoples) but Vikings (Danes), Jutes, Gales (Irish), Welsh, Scots and Normans as well. There has never been a pure, thoroughbred race of British or English people.
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  1841.  @sirtruth3931  All humans genomically speaking are African as far as I'm aware. And the genome of the typical African shows more variation than any other group. Unless it's out of date, the theory I grew up with is that the first humans migrated out of Africa to the Middle East (west Asia) and then spread everywhere else (though the Chinese might disagree). As for miscegenation in the USA I still think that most groups stick to their own, with Hispanics sticking with Hispanics, blacks with blacks, Asians with other Asians, and whites of European descent other whites. What the USA is seeing, in my opinion, is not so much miscegenation but one group (whites) being outbred by non-whites.
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  1842. I was given to understand that it was Austria's invasion of Serbia in revenge for the assassination of the King of the Austro‐Hungarian empire that triggered the first world war.
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  1843. C.P.C. — Communist Party of China. Americans keep spelling it wrong, testament to the poor standards of their education system and media. It's like calling the United States of America (USA) the United American States (UAS).
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  1844. And what does that 'growth' mean in real terms? A growth in millionaires? A growth in foreign capital that is then used to further the exploitation of the country's resources for the benefit of foreigners and a comprador class? What does the Gini coefficient or other social indicators of a healthy and fair society say? GDP and GNP are ways that capitalists measure success, but like an IQ or EQ test, they fall far short of ideal when applied to the real world.
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  1845.  @NBrioDaZueraRules  Agreed. You support the USA and its empire and you're described as successful. If you don't you're described as a failure. It reminds me of the the western media's use of the term 'second world', a term has fallen out of use since the collapse of communism, as it no longer serves a propaganda function (to denigrate the communist economies of the Warsaw Pact countries). Since the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union the economies of eastern and central Europe are now described routinely as booming in any context comparing the two... but just not to the same degree as their western European counterparts.
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  1846. The former two but not the latter. Ghengis Khan and Kublai Khan conquered both countries. It was only later that the Chinese (Ming) and the Russians liberated themselves.
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  1847. We need to explain to the American people that the USA will be hurt badly if it invades Cuba. China has a divine mission to protect the people of Cuba from the tyrannical grip of corporatism and the evil dictatorship of the CCP (Christian Capitalist Party) which is hellbent on world domination and practices wolf warrior diplomacy, hated by all its neighbours. See how silly your narrative is when you just change a few names for the purposes of parody?
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  1848. The USA simply does not want a powerful and independent Germany and neither does Britain. Both work to prevent unity in Europe, especially if it involves Russia. Eurasian economic integration is the Anglosphere's worst nightmare. Britain's elite are throughly Atlanticist and do not want France, Germany and Russia coming together to form a political and economical bloc.
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  1849. How long has it been since Mars had large bodies of surface water (rivers, seas, lakes)? At the same time what were the surface conditions of the Earth?
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  1850. Jews emigrating to Israel in protest at Russia defending itself from the USA, emigrating to a country that routinely bombs its neighbours and claims its defending itself from the Arabs and Muslims in its midst.
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  1851. 0:20 All Russian oil... or just the oil that hasn't been sold by the Indians? These sanctions could be seen as sanctions not only on Russia but on India as well. It's as if Europe is hellbent on alienating China, India and Russia, 3 of the biggest markets and producers of commodities, and all behalf of the United States.
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  1852. Stalemate, what stalemate? The Russians are winning. Clearly.
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  1853. The Japanese invading New Guinea (an unfree colony) in a war and posing an immediate threat to Australia is different from the Chinese being invited in by a sovereign state to protect them from political destabilisation, create better business opportunities and built needed infrastructure that they can't build on there own. Totally different. One was a real threat and the other is merely a potential threat – and then only if you believe the USA and Australia have a right to threaten Chinese maritime sea lanes but China has no right to take measures to protect those sea lanes in the event of a blockade.
    1
  1854. ... Run by the Germans and the French... on behalf of the USA.
    1
  1855. He isn't.
    1
  1856. Could this hypothetical planet be the result of the effects of dark matter?
    1
  1857. I think you you mean modern (i.e. 17th‐19th century) chattel slavery as practised by the USA, Britain, Belgium and France as all classic forms of slavery are considered as chattel slavery with the modern, most recent form as practicedby by Europeans being generally much worse than what had gone before.
    1
  1858. What needs to be done?
    1
  1859. The USA is sooooo arrogant! It's as if they think that only the USA exists. If the USA was a person they would be diagnosed with narcissism.
    1
  1860. Quite frankly, I don't think they'll appreciate your efforts.
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  1861. Dismantling the EU... or transforming it into a federal dictatorship controlled from Brussels and working hand-in-glove with the United States to further its control of Europe's resources.
    1
  1862. It's time China and Russia worked together with other countries to prise Germany and France away from the Anglo bloc and create their own Euro bloc. Britain can join at a later date if it agrees to put the interests of Europe before those of the United States.
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  1863. Taiwan ( known properly as the Republic of CHINA ) is acknowledged as being Chinese, not Taiwanese (which would be a separate ethnicity) by the international community as represented by the UN General Assembly. And there is a reason for that. Can you guess what it is?
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  1864. Sounds like Mr Mercouris is coming down with a cold. Could it be the 'vaccine' shots he's had?
    1
  1865. All this brinkmanship by the USA in its attempt to recreate the freeze in relations that existed between European states during the cold war (establishment of american global hegemony) may lead to a major war, if only by accident.
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  1866. And all of it will go to developing counterparts to Russia's hypersonic missiles, which the USA is desperate to emulate.
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  1867. @Ruben Lier Last time I looked Turks were white. Muslim, but still white.
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  1868. Nothing! Absolutely nothing! Certainly nothing discernible to the average person. And absolutely nothing that they will bother about.
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  1869. I think the USA is counting on Europe joining them in embargoing China by threatening them with secondary sanctions if they refuse. Basically, cold war redux.
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  1870. And consider that all these alphabet soup terrorist organisations were created directly or indirectly by the USA for the express purpose of destabilising West Asia.
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  1871. ​ @redwolflancer3051 and if it was your son or daughter being tortured?
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  1872. Perhap China could encourage the indigenous development of a sovereign 'information space' as an integral part of its Belt and Road Initiative among participating nations and provide them with the means (technology, financing, technical advice, logistics, etc.) by which they can achieve this in the medium term. This would be especially useful I think from China's point of view as a strategic policy goal for countries in Asia that are most vulnerable to this kind of subversion like Thailand is. Individual nations should have the right to exercise sovereignty over their own domestic information space, much in the way countries already have regarding the right of sovereignty over their airspace, territorial waters and borders.
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  1873. Probably a means of killing off the youngest and brightest of Ukrainian society and leaving it depleted of an educated workforce when the Russians finally win. The lack of an educated civilian population after the war will have a serious negative effect on the region's economic recovery, one of the consequences that would benefit the United States.
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  1874. Yea, let's install a puppet government loyal to the USA and western corporations and put them in charge instead. Oh, and let's not forget the obligatory US bases to protect Myanmar, like in Europe, from the baddies, China and Russia. And India too if it gets too uppity.
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  1875. American sanctions. Britain along with the EU are under the thumb of the USA.
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  1876. If that's the case, at least they are no longer being fired at civilians.
    1
  1877.  @caseyspaos448  And that's why philosophy is not science. And never will be.
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  1878. To the Anglosphere any close relationship between India and China in Asia is like that between Germany and Russia in Europe with both being seen by the Atlantisists as a threat.
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  1879. ONE party, TWO factions! And that party is capitalist-corporatist. It cares only for society or the human beings within it only if the plutocracy created by it can make a profit or, through threat of revolution, are forced to make concessions. All modern parliamentary/congressional political systems are like this, especially if they use the first-past-the-post system of elections rather than proportional representation, which is what Britain and the United States have. So-called parliamentary/liberal democracy is like a plane on auto-pilot, unable to deal with major change or engage in major reform unless the economic elite decide it's in their interests and this is even more apparent if needed reform is constrained by (being a part of) the disfunctional, decaying, kleptocratic US empire whose elite hate real democracy with a vengeance.
    1
  1880. The Americans seem so desperate to wean Europe of Russian resources and capture the EU's energy market for themselves.
    1
  1881. When the USA was attacking Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq did Europeans boycott or sanction them? When the USA attacked Yugoslavia to allow for it to spread NATO and the EU to eastern Europe, did they? When they couped Ukraine, precipitating civil war? No! Then why should we Europeans boycott or sanction the Russian Federation when they are re‐incorporating a former part of their territory when it is being used by a foreign power to threaten their very existence? — Europe using Russian gas, oil and other natural resources makes perfect economic sense, using the USA's less so.
    1
  1882.  @ArthursGardener  Will it have been destroyed by an impact with a rocky object by then? The Oort Cloud must contain billions of asteroids/meteors/rocky objects and the chances of hitting one of them in 30,000 years must be quite high.
    1
  1883. Perhaps he was one of the organisers of the 'stay behind' terrorist network in eastern Europe created by the USA or was useful in counter-insurgency work. Or he was simply a spy or informer. At the very least, a useful asset in some way.
    1
  1884. Or don't want to understand it.
    1
  1885. Is there such a thing as a 'centre-right' neoliberal? That's like saying there's such a thing as a centre-right Hitlerite fascist or a centre-left Stalinist communist.
    1
  1886.  @OMR6468  the US dollar is a fiat currency backed up by nothing. When hyperinflation through excessive money printing forces other countries to dump it, what then? How strong will your military be then? How content will be your people when a loaf of bread costs a whole day's wage.
    1
  1887. And?
    1
  1888. Oh how I wish this ugly spat between slavic kindred peoples would end. Surely Zelensky's government knows it has been comprehensively defeated militarily speaking; surely a negotiated settlement which recognises, de jure, the partition of Ukraine – Donbass, Crimea, (its coast?) – and commits the remaining part of Ukraine to a policy of strict neutrality vis-a-vis NATO/EU (which implicitly means de‐nazification, lustration of its government) would be the best option right now. Yes, it's a steep price to pay, but it's that are more losses in terms of human lives and infrastructure. It reminds me of Hitler's last stand in Berlin in 1945 – fighting on despite the inevitability of defeat. Such a waste.
    1
  1889.  @edtrx3475  I think the 11th century was the time of the first crusades and that these were not against Muslims but against polytheists, followers of the old religion.
    1
  1890. Do you think he'll end up like one of his predecessors, executed?
    1
  1891. Stealth fighters to Ukraine to stealthily infiltrate Russian airspace and bomb the Kremlin/assassinate Putin. Biden denies everything.
    1
  1892. In other words, a propagandist for capitalism.
    1
  1893. Maybe there can only exist, by some as yet unknown law of the universe, only ONE planet with sentient life on it at ONE time in the universe and that planet, obviously, is us.
    1
  1894. Do a video on: What if the United States of America used a tactical nuclear bomb on Iran (say, against a hardened nuclear weapons facility), or its extension Israel used one against a country taking back lost territory such as Syria, or successfully resisting attack, such as Lebanon. Or against the indigenous people of Palestine if they ever got into a position where they could threaten zionist supremacy.
    1
  1895. Our maybe they just went bankrupt fighting the cold war with the USA. And having 'won' the first round it would seem the USA is now going bankrupt fighting a second cold war with China. The strategy of bankrupting the USSR by outspending then might have worked but the USA now seems to be bankrupting only itself in its attempts to repeat the strategy with the PRC.
    1
  1896. Voting machines... def rigged.
    1
  1897. For its resources, stupid.
    1
  1898.  @MrGuy-xx7ss  And now the Chinese will move in.
    1
  1899. Do you think the USA wants to deliberately implicate India by using militant or terrorist groups affiliated with it to sour relations between the two countries? India's government supporting the destabilisation of Pakistan could backfire.
    1
  1900.  @ajokhio2909  You said that the suicide bomber was a member of the BLA, a terrorist organisation with links to India. In your opinion was India directly involved in this, or was it the USA using the BLA to frame India and antagonise Pakistan so that there cannot be any rapprochement or thaw between Pakistan and India that might have occurred if Imran Khan hadn't been deposed (and might still occur if he regains power). In other words, do you think this is just the usual, run‐of‐the‐mill terrorism that happens all the time between Pakistan and India, or is something created by outside meddling? After all, the timing of this event seems not a little suspicious. — @A Jokhio آپ نے کہا کہ خودکش حملہ آور BLA کا رکن تھا، ایک دہشت گرد تنظیم جس کا بھارت سے تعلق ہے۔ آپ کی رائے میں بھارت اس میں براہ راست ملوث تھا یا امریکہ نے بھارت کو فریم کرنے اور پاکستان کو دشمنی میں ڈالنے کے لیے BLAکا استعمال کیا تاکہ پاکستان اور بھارت کے درمیان کوئی ایسا میل جول یا پگھلاؤ نہ ہو جو عمران خان کو معزول نہ کیا گیا ہوتا۔ اور پھر بھی ہو سکتا ہے اگر وہ دوبارہ اقتدار حاصل کر لے)۔ دوسرے لفظوں میں، کیا آپ کو لگتا ہے کہ یہ صرف ایک معمول کی دہشت گردی ہے جو پاکستان اور ہندوستان کے درمیان ہر وقت ہوتی رہتی ہے، یا کچھ باہر کی مداخلت سے پیدا ہوتا ہے؟ سب کے بعد، اس واقعہ کا وقت تھوڑا سا مشکوک نہیں لگتا ہے.
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  1901.  @robertprice9052  Ever heard of depressions, recessions, lockdowns? Outsourcing? Immigration?
    1
  1902.  @Aikidoman06  Not wishing to belittle your sacrifices and work ethic, but don't forget though that you, or at least your children, lived through the golden age of capitalism from the 1950's to the 1970's, a period of unprecedented peace and prosperity for the USA and Europe when jobs were easy to come by. That helped I'm sure.
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  1903. Psychiatrists are trained to label people and it sounds like you may have been OVER-diagnosed. 😒🤔😏🤨
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  1904. I heard that too though I don't know whether the amount quoted includes the budgets for the civilian intelligence agencies and civilian military-related research and development or whether those are considered separately.
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  1905. A factory is a dictatorship. An office is a dictorship. Any place where you are not the one in overall charge making the decisions and giving out the orders, creating the conditions under which others live and work, you're in a dictorship. So you're wrong! Practically everybody alive today and indeed everyone whose ever lived under capitalism, monarchism, slave-based economies and feudalism (like mostly everyone from the last 3000 years) have experience dictorship. The fact that they don't perceive it as dictorship doesn't make it less so.
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  1906. Nuke em.
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  1907.  @GpOg-j3v  I think you've got things back to front.
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  1908. What's an embargo and how does it differ from sanctions?
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  1909. Yes, maybe you're right and it is all just a deception, a smokescreen. The economy of the United States as well as that of the European Union is in deep trouble with a financial crash and period of high or hyperinflation predicted as increasingly likely. Like the false flag attacks on the world trade centre all this Ukraine malarkey, together with the pseudo‐pandemic, could be – very probably is – just a way of paralysing the public mind with fear in preparation for a globally coordinated descent into authoritarianism that no one will notice because it will be world-wide.
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  1910. The arrogance of the Americans is truly mind-blowing. And that Europe seems to be going along with them is also mind-boggling.
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  1911. But doesn't that apply everywhere?
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  1912. ​ @philfortner1805  It can still strong-arm other countries then... just not China. As long as China remains unwilling or unable to pull the plug on the economy of the USA then the rest of the world will just have to suffer the depredations of the empire.
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  1913. The USA is going to try and separate Europe, western Europe in particular, and as much as the rest of world from having normal economic relationships with Russia and China and create a block of anti‐Sino‐Russian countries in a new cold war and if it succeeds who knows how long this new US‐imposed Iron Curtain will last. The USA seems to be trying to create a continental blockade of the eastern part Asia that will benefit itself to the long-term detriment of both Eurasia and the rest of the world. More or less it's continuing with the strategy that Britain had been pursuing for the last century. It could very well lead to a EU that is heavily centralised and militarised under pro‐US, pro‐corporatist German and French leadership. I for one hope that if this is the correct interpretation of what is happening that it wil fail long before it succeeds
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  1914.  @pattysherwood7091  perhaps it's due to a changing climate or environment allowing the ticks to spread over a wider geographic area.
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  1915. Probably behind 9/11 too.
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  1916. Thanks for the video. Apropos, the architecture there seems Stalinesque, brutalist, minimalist, austere and ugly. It's almost never a good idea to use bare concrete for aesthetic effect; it's just too stark. And boring to look at.
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  1917. @Please enter a name It is certainly hypocrisy of the highest order but, still, as others have also pointed out, two wrongs don’t make a right. Practicing an eye for an eye ends up with everybody being blind, or in this case, widespread lawlessness.
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  1918. 'Global South' and 'Developing countries' are themselves terms invented by the West and used to slyly denigrate the non-European world.
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  1919. A democracy where only one party holds office and where the country is still occupied isn't really a democracy. Just as the Okinawans.
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  1920.  @comingviking  Yes, but the Russians then run the risk of depending too much on the Chinese and being held hostage to fortune. Better to have a foot in both camps and not put all your eggs in one basket.
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  1921. Will the collapse of the US dollar be enough? And how long before the USA recovers to pre‐collapse levels? Will it be able to get the world to help it, as by using the IMF's special drawing rights as a new global currency, replacing or supplementing the individual currencies of the European Union?
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  1922.  @1mattattaker  👋🏽
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  1923. The EU is essentially a neo-liberal project and rose as neoliberalism rose and will fall as neoliberalism fall.
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  1924. Canada will be invaded soon.
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  1925. Dollarisation should never have occurred in the first place. John Maynard Keynes advised against it and recommended something he called the 'Bancor' as an international medium of exchange and that international lending institutions – and banks in general – should be geared towards the financing of the productive economy. His advice was, of course, never taken and the rest, as they say, is history.
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  1926. The United States has been planning to break up or otherwise subordinate Russia since at least the time of the Russian revolution in 1917 and certainly since the end of world war two. The USA became an empire in that time and like all empires views all other empires as rivals to be contained and if possible vanquished.
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  1927. Saudi actions in manipulating oil prices helped bring down the Soviet Union. They tried the same tactic about 5 years ago but it didn't work the second time around.
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  1928. They're all tied in to the military-industrial-political complex of the USA and are thus an integral part of the country's wealth generation, job creation and technological dominance. You see, the economy of the USA since 1945 has been based around an essentially Keynesian conception of economics based on using fiat currency (money created out of thin air, deficit financing) to stimulate what is at its core a centrally planned war economy of a kind first pioneered by the Germans and Japanese in the 1930's. However, for some reason they insist - erroneously - on calling this American form of corporatism a free market, capitalist economy even though such an economy was proven to have been such a total failure that it needed bailing out (the New Deal), state regulation and world war to save it from itself and has never been quite the same since. The USA has had it good these last fifty years, however, it now faces stiff competition from China and renewed competition from Russia - often referred to as state capitalist but pretty much variants of the US model - that appear to be increasingly more successful, possibly because their economies have a solid foundation built on manufacturing which the USA has neglected in favour of services, banking and war).
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  1929.  @jenm1  Can you provide examples of what you consider are lies about world war 2?
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  1930.  @jenm1  what university is that?
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  1931. Maybe he'll get the Gaddafi treatment. And Hillary will cry.
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  1932.  PaleBlueDot  Religion of peace — is that capitalist democracy?
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  1933. ​​​ @a.salmon8193 Our elites are so closely linked to the elites in the USA, our military and intelligence community so closely linked to their US counterparts, and the financial system and political economy so closely intertwined with that of the USA that what is happening over there is happening over here. The USA is basically suffering an economic depression every bit at bad as that of the 1930's and as a result people are bringing in to question the status quo and ominous signs of political instability are begining to creep into view. Basically a replay of the 1930's where fascist and capitalist reactionaries are becoming increasingly uneasy about the widespread disenchantment by ordinary people with the system and are reacting with increasing repression as the normal safety valves, balances and checks prove, like they did back then, inadequate. The far-reaching reforms that are necessary to deal with the crises effecting the economy and society are not permissible under current political arrangements.
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  1934. If there were Russian atrocities I'm pretty sure the western media would have discovered them by now. As there is a glaring absence of such stories though I would assume that either the Russians are not committing atrocities to any appreciable degree, or for whatever reason western media aren't talking about them. I tend to go with the former rather than the latter.
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  1935. And trafficked by the state-within-a-state that orchestrated 9/11 and the JFK/BK/MLK/MX assassinations. After all, if you're going to have your own private army, intelligence organisation and a global media propaganda system at your command to effect regime change both at home and abroad Donald Rumsfeld and pals need vast amounts of money, as much or more so than the official state can provide, to finance it.
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  1936. Infiltration by the USA's intelligence operatives, media amalgamation so there are fewer voices, and capture of the political system through the use of compromised politicians and fake 'astroturf' parties and organisations funded by multi-billionaires with dubious aims.
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  1937. @Chris Eco I think the Bolivian president’s plane was forcibly grounded mainly to send a symbolic message to the governments of Latin America and to humiliate the Bolivian president, the Julian Assange excuse being merely contrived as an easily seen through excuse.
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  1938. You mean all the collaborators and traitors.
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  1939. The USA versus Germany (in Europe) and Japan (in Asia). The British, Dutch, Italian, Belgian German, Spanish and Portuguese empires. The empire of the USA.
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  1940. China and Russia should step in and finance some secular army to deal with them.
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  1941. @JoleFin Your logic is twisted and makes no sense.
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  1942. @M Cheatle So you think having a ‘middle class’ changes things? Why is this middle class of which you speak so important to people like you, do you think it will somehow rise up and overthrow its own government or in some way make China more capitalist or corporatist that it already is? Japan has a middle class but has it stopped Japan from being a one party state? And what is this obsession with creating obscenely rich billionaires, as if it were a good thing that 0.001% of the planet’s population own 99.999% of all the world’s wealth?
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  1943. ​ @aaronl7045  Are you saying that the area was empty before Israel was created, that no people lived there? Would you say the same of native peoples in the USA and Canada – that there was no continent called America and no USA therefore the indigenous people in the Americas cannot call themselves American?
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  1944. Even fewer children than now probably.
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  1945. The best advice.
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  1946.  @gerrycastlemanwarde5933  But independence would go against the wishes of the billionaires club.
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  1947. It is not CCP (Chinese Communist Party). It is CPC (Communist Party of China). A Chinese person would know that. The fact that you used the typical spelling of western — expecially US — media outlets casts suspicions upon your authenticity, in my personal opinion.
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  1948. More likely it was a change in global weather/climate that did that with the Sea Peoples being more of a consequence than a cause.
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  1949. Emboldened by China and Russia. Also by Iran and Syria and North Korea. Their resistance to empire serves as an example to others.
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  1950. ​ @plebbedgaming7056 the USA thinks it can do a replay of the cold war where Saudi Arabia deliberately over-produced oil to damage the economy of the Soviet Union while 'Star Wars' forced them to engage in a costly arms race. I think they're trying it again with the USA's proposed Golden Dome defence project.
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  1951. Don't forget the selling off of public housing, a right wing idea.
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  1952. "Do the neocons want to close the West behind an iron curtain?" Yes, they do.
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  1953. "Main polluters in China." ... Manufacturing cheap products for western corporations.
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  1954. ​ @Rjsjrjsjrjsj  Well, isn't it? Is not the Bretton Woods system established in 1947 beginning to break down with the trend towards de-dollarisation – countries transacting business in their own currencies instead of the US dollar?
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  1955.  @jericoatayde5603  Pity they can't fight the neo-fascist liberal insurgency of capitalism that keeps so many of them in abject poverty as well.
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  1956.  @wei270  Insurgency is the name western propaganda gives to anyone who rebels against capitalists and their pernicious economic system.
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  1957. It's the customer's money and they put their money in a bank in the first place to keep it safe and in the expectation that they will be be able to withdraw their money when needed. Keeping customer's money safe and allowing deposits and withdrawals at will is the whole raison d'être of a bank and customers don't expect their money to be confiscated just because the bank becomes insolvent. Customers aren't shareholders and don't expect to lose their money in the same way shareholders do because of bad decisions made by bankers who won't be the ones suffering when things go wrong.
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  1958.  @ThuyNguyen-gc4rx  what's it taste like?
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  1959. I think he's just a shill for the MICIMATT/MIC who's also extraordinarily mercenary and venal, unprincipled as well as proudly ignorant, chauvinistic and xenophobic. Probably a religious fundamentalist too.
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  1960. Israel will be like Cuba if the USA goes bankrupt.
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  1961. It has has much right to its independence as Libya, Iraq, Iran, Yugoslavia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Elsted Salvador, Sudan, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Palestine and all the other places the USA and its protégés in Europe and elsewhere have attacked, are attacking, or plan to attack.
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  1962. As I've said before: who cares about the middle class! What is this obsession with them?
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  1963. If only the Germans had continued to attack military targets, especially airfields, instead of wasting resources attacking cities they could very possibly have degraded the British airforce to the point where the German airforce would have had air superiority, making an invasion much more viable.
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  1964.  @biulaimh3097  Wow! You sound like the character Scrooge in the novel by Charles Dickens entitled Oliver Twist. LOL.
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  1965. I'm sure that Russia wouldn't care much for civilians in such a situation, considering them 'collateral damage' and their deaths unavoidable. Also, the Ukrainians would be guilty of committing a war crime by using civilians essentially as hostages. Just look at Berlin in 1945.
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  1966. I think you're referring to Latin America for the former and New Guinea/Papua New Guinea for the latter. Africa was not known for either. So tongue-in-cheek you are.
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  1967. Hezbollah will be contained by Iran that in turn will be contained by Russia and China. None of these three countries want the conflict to escalate but instead seek stability and a modus vivendi, even at the cost of Palestinian genocide and forced removal.
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  1968. The USA is certainly moving toward financial collapse and looks like it will take most of the European Union down with it. Maybe the introduction of central bank digital currencies (CBDC's) and the planned bail-ins (confiscation of funds held by the general public in their private bank accounts) might buy a little more time for the ponzi scheme that is the financialised US economy, but it's demise is still inevitable.
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  1969. ​ @viktoreisfeld9470 Reduction of the human race is exactly what the Bilderberg/Davos/WEF want. Large populations + failing capitalist/corporatist system = situation ripe for revolution.
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  1970.  @Julie-sx4wk  And the German settlers of 1940 moving in to newly occupied Poland, displacing Polish jews?
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  1971. They're bankers working for the same people who caused all these problems, the Americans. As eastern Europeans they are also traitors who are fully on board with the subservience of Europe to the USA.
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  1972. Why is ISIS attacking Russia? It's not, the USA is. So the question should really be why is the USA attacking the Russian Federation?
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  1973. ​ @Pythoner And both used genocide and slavery.
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  1974. In world war 2 the Germans made very swift progress and it looked for a time as if they might win. But then....
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  1975. The experiments designed to detect the presence of life on Mars were ambiguous and tantalisingly tentative such that they have unfortunately left the question of life on Mars still open. The only solution therefore is for us to go back and perform the experiments again but this time better and more accurately. A dedicated lander specifically designed to detect life should be sent and likely test sites identified and systematically studied. Only then can we know and, if microbial is found, can we begin to make predictions about the possible existence of life elswhere in the universe.
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  1976. It's probably a result of paranoia and paranoia is a mental illness that cannot be reasoned with and often makes people — countries — do apparently irrational things.
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  1977. And you certainly won't be marrying royalty.
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  1978.  @rgthomson100  Get lost, Thomson! This isn't communism. The British government, its aristocracy and its monarchy are right wing.
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  1979. Last erupted in 1946?
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  1980. Yes, but it's not really hidden. It's the political domination of Europe and the maintenence of the military‐industrial complex that sustains the economy of the USA.
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  1981. He has no moral compass.
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  1982.  @eugenetswong  In their culture it might. Perhaps it's a case of you imposing your cultural standards upon another culture that may not share the norms prevailing in your society. This is the thing that probably irks non‐westerners a lot: cultural insensitivity and the invincible conviction held by westerners that they are right and everyone must share their values; that such values are, or at least should be, universal.
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  1983. Whose invaded and occupied its neighbours in the last 50 years? Empirical observation will tell you.
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  1984. The West uses technology from the East, microchips and such from Japan and the Republic of China, for example.
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  1985. Perhaps you could compare China to its next door neighbour India.
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  1986. China and India share a common border imposed on them by the British, a border that is somewhat vague and at times disputed. Furthermore, it is for India and China to sort out their border disputes not the USA. What common border does the USA, six thousand miles away, share with China? None. As for building up its military, one, it has every right to do so within its own borders and, two, when faced with the existential threat that is the corporatist USA, continually goading it over issues like North Korea and Taiwan – a country that, incidentally, it formally recognises as belonging to China anyway – and which, as with India, it has no business meddling in. As for the West, I think what you really mean is the empire of monopoly capitalism made up of half a dozen or so corporations and banks located in the core imperialist countries that is hell bent on taking over the last remaining opposition to their dominance.
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  1987. Intrigued. How does magnetism effect volcanism.
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  1988. Quite a good historical account it would seem, but I do wish people wouldn't talk about the putative founder of Christianity as if he was a real historical figure. Why use him as a yardstick when someone we know to have existed for sure, someone like Rome's Julius Caesar or Greece's Alexander of Macedon, could have been used instead?
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  1989. Ashamed of you use them. FIFY.
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  1990. Will the Greeks pay a second time?
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  1991. ... The best way to destroy that prosperity (if they can't control it).
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  1992. China and Russia would still want a de facto or de jure right of veto. At the very least they would want it to be like BRICS+, an organisation relying entirely on voluntary and consensual action. Only in things that don't effect them directly might they be amendable to a more forceful or coercive approach (sanctions, boycotts, embargoes, etc.).
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  1993. Also to reign in the CIA and Israel.
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  1994. There is nothing in the notion of multipolarity that doesn't allow for the USA to still remain one of the top two or three countries and continue pretty much as it is now, especially in its traditional domain of Latin America. All multipolarity would do is create two or three similar centres of power that are as much likely – more likely in fact ‐ to maintain the capitalist/corporatist status quo than change it, despite their differences.
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  1995. It will destract people so that they will no longer protest the judicial reforms he's brought in.
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  1996. Not stupid, rigged. I'm given to understand that Kamala Harris wasn't elected by the US electorate (at least not directly) and was instead foisted on them by the DNC/Democratic Party leadership. This subterfuge had to occur because otherwise she would have been unlikely to have gotten the post due to her low popularity rating within the Democratic Party itself, as well as among its core supporters. Thus, if the POTUS is relieved by his VP while in office due to being non compos mentis it will be good to remember that she is a VP who has been effectively appointed to the position rather than elected.
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  1997. I wonder how the Americans would have reacted. A clue would be Fallujah in Iraq.
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  1998. The fake Afghan resistance movement with a genuine resistance movement.
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  1999. What can one expect from a client kingdom.
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  2000. That's partly the reason why the USA is failing economically. It stopped teaching economics as a real science (classical economics that included political economy) and started treating it like it was an ideology, a system of apologetics for neoliberalism. Instead of guiding the American economy by allowing economists to prescribe policies based on sound empirical analysis they just used it to justify neoliberalism.
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  2001. Unfortunately for them, however, is that they can't realistically use their military on China and Russia, the ones who are primarily behind the drive to de-dollarize.
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  2002. Their wealth insulates them from overthrow. Only if they experience widespread economic failure will we see the conditions for political instability and even then they have very docile and heavily surveilled populations that are more likely to support authoritarian right wing governments promising to protect them from extremists (i.e. a resurgent left). Russia and China also aren't actively trying, as far as I know, to overthrow their governments (as opposed to allegedly influencing their elections).
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  2003. The Islamic terrorists of which you speak are largely funded by the UK, USA and Israel for the express purpose of destabilising West Asia and North Africa. Whether it's al-Quaida, Boko Harum, al-Shabab, ISIL, ISIS, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, and yes, even Hamas... the aforementioned states can usually be found somewhere in the mix, together with their collaborators, the Gulf States, traitors to their own people, the Arabs and Muslims.
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  2004. Certain monopolies when state owned and operated for the greater good of society tend to be better in terms of social wellbeing and are thus preferable to their privately owned, for-profit counterparts. I think the best system though is the one that manages to combine both private and public in a harmonious way. The private sector can cater to the wants of society while the state can cater to its needs.
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  2005. The Republic of China will stop an invasion by concluding a two-systems one-country agreement with the People's Republic of China and de jure recognising the sovereignty over both nations of the one China.
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  2006. The sanctions and threats of sanctions by its minions are all a United States-inspired bluff, testing the waters, a gamble. And it's failed. China sails on.
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  2007. What gets me is that, in a country that prides itself in being progressive and anti- racist, that this debate took place at all and was given respectability. Imagine if they had had a debate on whether African, Asian and other people of colour were or were not racially inferior and the National Front and Nazi party were the hosts as well as comprising both the majority of the panellists and the audience. How obvious would its chauvanism, racism, ethnocentrism have been. Yet here we have it, albeit disguised as a wolf-whistling academic 'debate'. It's like something straight out of the 18th century when people debated whether Blacks were one-quarter white or not.
    1
  2008. I'm sure the French and Russian nobility thought the same thing just before they were overthrown. No doubt all those French and Russian revolutionaries were just envious and jealous of all the hard-earned wealth the aristocracy had accumulated over the centuries through their inalienable right of inheritance.
    1
  2009. The United States and its corporations know that to maintain control and economic advantage over the European Union the European states must become more authoritarian than they already are so as to overcome the lack of popularity that such policies will engender. A country's elites prioritising the interests of international predatory capitalism over the interests of their own people does not garner much support among the masses and thus requires large doses of oppression, as any Latin American will attest.
    1
  2010.  @broskibear9666  Creativity, individualism and ambition are qualities that are independent of the economic or political system one lives under. Rather, these qualities I would argue are all inherent in the human race, being an essential part of who and what we are as humans beings. They have always existed and always will so to say that socialism (however defined) has destroyed these qualities in my opinion is patently absurd and makes no sense.
    1
  2011.  @broskibear9666  Please enumerate the exact ways that socialism, however defined, stifles those traits and why those traits are so important in the first place, more important than other traits just as desirable or more so?
    1
  2012.  @michaels4255  Do you mean trade unions fighting for the interests of their members, the working class, against the depredations of multi-millionaire capitalists; workers wanting to safeguard their jobs and standards of living in the steel, mining (coal), shipbuilding, automobile and other manufacturing industries against closures and cuts in pay by the parasitic rentier and banking class in The City who wanted a higher rate of profit than what industrial capitalism at the time could provide?
    1
  2013. Could be! Apropos, the USA might say that its unfair for Canada to have a large chunk of Antarctica to itself under international treaty, especially if, and as, Antarctica warms up, the snow melts and Antarctica’s waters become ice free all year round. That’s almost certainly because of the resources there.
    1
  2014. Unfortunately, you've lost the ability to make your own crap and prevented Europe from being able to take up the slack by deindustrialising it strategic areas so they couldn't outcompete the USA.
    1
  2015.  @zd1322  : No.
    1
  2016. No room for complacency! We have to do something now because tomorrow might be too late. These things work out over decades so, no, we can't wait until 50 years in the future to do something. A pro-fertility, pro-natalist approach must be adopted NOW! To hell with women's rights, men's rights: the future of the human race is at stake; it is an existential decision that cannot be left to selfish individual choice (individualism) because what's good for the individual is NOT, in this case at least, good for society. Not good at all! I'd have thought this would have been apparent to Asian societies like Japan, Korea and China but, strangely, these group-orientated, statist countries that you would expect to be most active in promoting healthy population growth/stabilisation are, paradoxically, the ones with the fastest declining populations. If the Chinese can force women not to have children then they should be able to force them to have children. Coercion was used by the Chinese in their anti-family campaigns and so they can just as easily use coercion to promote population growth. If men and women don't want children they should be made to have them, mutatis mutandis/ceteris paribus.
    1
  2017. Who bought them and... can we buy them back; rebuild those reserves?
    1
  2018. All planned. From 9/11 on down.
    1
  2019. By the late 21st century they will have redefined democracy until it's almost the exact opposite of what it meant in the early 20th century.
    1
  2020. Let's hope so.
    1
  2021. Interesting to hear the view of someone who sees what occurred in the EuroMaidan movement as something other than a coup. I mean it might not technically be a coup d'état but from what I've seen on alternative media it certainly was.
    1
  2022. A ponzi scheme. And like all ponzi schemes it must come to an end. It has only gone on for as long as it has because of China's forbearance in the face of the ongoing economic mismanagement and fiscal irresponsibility of the government of the United States (which, incidentally, happens to owe the biggest debt to China, which is its biggest creditor).
    1
  2023. They (meaning the US military and leadership) know this perfectly well. Their feigned ignorance is pure pretense.
    1
  2024. All I heard was the United States of America wants a (proxy) war with China.
    1
  2025. Is Michael suggesting that the current system is more or less based on the personality of Putin? What happens when he's gone?
    1
  2026. It's a cultural thing I gather. People aren't generally expected to interfere in other people's business lest there be negative consequences.
    1
  2027. Cultural imperialism. And now they support infanticide (abortion).
    1
  2028. The invasion by William of Orange that ended the Protectorate established by Oliver Cromwell and reestablished a monarchy (the Hanovarians) was an extremely successful invasion. So successful in fact that the British historians even to this day pretend that it didn't happen and was the best thing that ever. Also, the political, economic and ongoing cultural takeover of Britain by the USA also seems to be a pretty successful invasion, albeit by covert and insidious means.
    1
  2029.  @Deejaybor  or it was flung to the side before the fuse had had time to burn down.
    1
  2030. It's the German state broadcaster and thus broadcasts the German government's point of view, which goes without saying is closely aligned with that of the USA. Remember, Germany is still a de facto occupied country with its foreign policy largely decided in Washington.
    1
  2031. Is male circumcision right?
    1
  2032. I hate Mondays but generally love weekends.
    1
  2033. Because we bomb them...?
    1
  2034. The left, both in Great Britain and the United States of America, have historically met with calumny and repression from an Establishment that largely controls the mass media and academia and sees almost anything that comes from the left as threatening their class interests, thus the majority of people tend not to hear of the progress made by left wing movements or of their successes. So what at first glance appears to be a movement that seems to offer up no real solutions for society's problems in fact is one that has plenty of solutions but lacks the real political power necessary to implement most of them.
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  2035. Authoritarian, by whose standards? And what is objectively wrong about authoritarianism, it's all relative. You shouldn't set yourself up as the world's moral arbiter, especially when your own country is so very far from the moral standards it holds others to.
    1
  2036. Year 1 Before Common Era (B.C.E.), followed by year 1 Common Era (C.E.). There is no zero in the Gregorian (reformed Julian) calendar. BCE then goes back as far a you want it to. So 1 CE, 2 CE, etc. 1 BCE, 2 BCE, etc. BCE is like adding a minus to the date (i.e. -1 BCE) as you are counting backwards from the first year of the Common Era. To wit, Before Common Era has no start date, no beginning, other than the creation of time itself.
    1
  2037.  @jhurley12  Yes, if course you do, now that I have told you what (I think) it means.
    1
  2038. 'Thatcherisation' of the Netherlands – privatisation of everything; selling off to global corporations.
    1
  2039.  @Chevron_  1. Bodies can float, especially when they become bloated. 2. The bacteria in the body that cause decomposition are not affected because they are anaerobic and don't need free oxygen to survive. There exist also bacteria in the environment/water that also break down tissue. 3. Aquatic animals such as fish will likely eat the corpse. 4. Water is a very good solvent.
    1
  2040. The United Kingdom is being led off a cliff by their plutocratic comprador elite and its addiction to kissing the arse of Uncle Sam.
    1
  2041. The famines were caused by a combination of bad harvests, bad logistics and mismanagement/incompetence combined with perverse incentives (the need to fulfil quotas and the need to lie about fulfilling said quotas when they weren't met leading to the central government being misled as to actual grain production). The moment both the governments in China and Russia learnt the true extent of the famines they did everything to reverse course. This was one of the reasons why Mao was sidelined and led him to organise the so‐called Cultural Revolution in response: so he could get back power. Stalin did the same in the Soviet Union. His purges were all about a power struggle going on at the time within the party; competing ideas as to how to manage the country.
    1
  2042. Unfortunately I fear they are not being addressed.
    1
  2043. Christianity (a radical Jewish sect) probably originates in modern day Jordan or Syria and not Judaea/Palastinae.
    1
  2044. Or maybe they were covering their tracks by eliminating units that had taken part in a false flag.
    1
  2045.  @malcolmabram2957  That seems like a form of sophistry or paralogism, a contradiction in terms. You would be better describing yourself as a Semite rather than as a Jew, as Semitic rather than Jewish.
    1
  2046.  @malcolmabram2957  If the divine is not of this world then it should have no say in how it is run.
    1
  2047. When George uses the phrase "the West" he's really talking about the US empire and the global predatory corporate capitalism; the neo‐liberal rentier empire of Anglo-American financialised capitalism that produces nothing of value but nstead parasitises everyone else that does.
    1
  2048.  @r.9650  It's why we British created Pakistan as one of our last acts of colonialism, to cause friction between India and China.
    1
  2049. So just let the millionaire capitalists and billionaire corporatists tell you what to do then? You know, like "We'll just continue to destroy the planet simply because its profitable to do so. We profit now, your children can pay later." Well I'm sorry but your grandchildren's future is not a loan that can be repaid later; once you push the Earth's biosphere beyond a certain limit there's no going back.
    1
  2050. And it only works for approximately 20 seconds. 1 thunderflash grenade would probably do the trick just as well with the added benefit of concussing the would-be robber.
    1
  2051. Syrian Observatory... is that you?
    1
  2052.  @danielavila5081  The Rothschilds banking cartel already own the moon. They bought it for one trillion dollars of monopoly money that they printed out of thin air.
    1
  2053.  @TrangleC  I guess that's what happens when you have your country opened by force and must then adapt to alien ways just to survive the foreign intrusion.
    1
  2054. ​ @grayace4556  Ever thought that they are doing it deliberately just for the publicity it draws? For the fake controversy it causes? All the while you're 'debating' on #YouTube they're making tonnes of money.
    1
  2055. Are these vocational colleges part of the state school system or are they privately run as well?
    1
  2056. And exactly what do you expect people to do when you throw them out of work and ghettoise them? Have they failed the capitalist system... or has the capitalist system failed them? I would say the latter. And it's not just immigrants; native French people are also suffering from the effects of de-industrialisation and globalisation too, both consequences of the boom-bust cycle of the capitalist mode of production and its inbuilt tendency towards a declining rate of profit leading to things such as outsourcing and automation in a bid to reduce costs and keep profits stable. You blame the victims of the system for the failures of the system instead of seeing France's social malaise as a natural consequence of the French economy's inability to deliver prosperity for all its citizens, as well as the wider (white. Catholic) society's unwillingness to deliver on the promise of equality, social acceptance and egalitarianism for all.
    1
  2057. Is Zelensky not a dictator? Banning all political parties but one's own sounds like a one-party state to me.
    1
  2058. It's socialism with Chinese characteristics. Like German National socialism was communism with fascist characteristics, but still 'socialism'. These isms are whatever governments want them to be. It's basically capitalism/ corporatism but they have to keep calling it communism until the older generation die off then. Only then will they be honest about it.
    1
  2059. Now all the Russians have to do is shut down the other 500 biolabs located all over the world, including in its ally China.
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  2060. If you ask me I think it's the USA that's behind most of this. The USA wants western Europe to break with Russia, in effect recreating the cold war. Having Britain destroy its relations with Russia is a good way of doing this. The USA wants to weaken Britain as well as Germany and use the EU to carry out its cold war 2.0 policies
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  2061. Says the bot. 😆
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  2062. Are you the Mona Lisa?
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  2063. It might very well have been the case that the US submarine was caught laying geophones (underwater microphones) or other sensors on the ocean floor or trying was to install eavesdropping equipment in Chinese submarine telecommunication cables.
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  2064.  @ljt3084  And all thanks to the US stooge, prime minister Margaret Thatcher who began the process of closing down all our coal mines just so she could destroy trades/labour unionism in the country. No doubt if it was done now instead of back then they would use the green agenda (anthropogenic climate change) as the cover for shutting down a strategically vital industry, as they are currently doing in Germany under the pretext of creating 'green' energy by getting rid of power plants that use fossil fuels. I often wonder if there was/is a more sinister agenda behind making European countries vulnerable to energy blackmail by creating artificial scarcity.
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  2065. Have psychologists examine anyone applying for a position of power within government or corporations and bar anyone who scores too highly on a psycopathology index. That and not allowing anyone with property or other wealth too far above the average to vote or form political parties and keep the participation of property owners in politics to an absolute minimum.
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  2066. A salient fact to bear in mind though: the USA has succeeded in causing deep divisions within Europe; pitted the EU against Russia, China and increasingly against itself; stopped any closer integration between Russia and Germany, and set the stage for increased political instability and economic dislocation across the globe. The USA is deliberately creating in the West the same conditions of widespread alienation and poverty that it has fostered in the Global South, conditions that will enable it to launch EuroMaidans all over Europe, forcing economic dependency upon the countries of Europe like it did the countries of Latin America. Extending the lifespan of its own parasitical bankster economic system of techno-military crypto-fascism of the 10% for as long as possible is all that matters to the neolibs.
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  2067. Gaslighting at its finest. That's what the West is doing.
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  2068. ​ @iExploder  Like all religionists he wanted your soul (the ability to think outside the paradigm/Overton window). That was his price. "I am the way... only through me...." and all that.
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  2069. ​​ @SLD-bz9so some people can't mention other countries without bringing up democracy.
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  2070.  @darksensai1184  Ever heard of the IMF (International Monetary Fund)/World Bank?
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  2071.  @lemarcoX  in the United States of America that's exactly what they did.
    1
  2072. As elections are now essentially meaningless beyond theatre and the American electorate have absolutely no say on any issue at the federal level, a coup d'état at this point is not needed. The POTUS already has the powers of a dictator at his disposal and has had them since at least September 2001 and the two parties have no disagreements when it comes to the military‐intelligence‐security‐police apparatus.
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  2073.  @masterpwn3r  And do you realise that the vast majority of the resources used to generate all that GDP comes from elsewhere (clue: the global South and the global East)?
    1
  2074. Launching several relay stations and positioning them at Lagrange points might be an option in the future to speed up and enable better communication between Earth and future exploratory satellites like Voyagers 1 & 2.
    1
  2075. Yes, among many others.
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  2076.  @maureenstevens6824  And the oligarchs would never have existed if it wasn't for the USA putting them there.
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  2077.  @khiem1939  more effective? Especially if combined with static (non‐jumping) and jumping mines.
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  2078. Really‽ 🤣🤔
    1
  2079. I always thought it was. I'm surprised anyone thinks otherwise.
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  2080.  @Anonymous-qw  Sanctions, embargo, boycotts, war, subversion....
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  2081.  signalreturn563  The United States created Al Qaeda with the help of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, not Afghanistan, so to say the Afghans will not continue to support something that wasn't there's to support in the first place is ahistorical and goes against reality.
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  2082.  @ddobry21  If the government of the United States can take an American woman's right to abortion off her, they can certainly take an American man's right to own a gun of him.
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  2083.  @jamesstreet228  It was a war... against the Afghan people. Moreover, it was a war against an idea; the idea that other peoples should have the same rights as westerners and that poor people should have an equal standard of living as the rich.
    1
  2084.  @drbuckley1  The Euro, the Yuan, or a basket of weighted currencies (the IMF's Special Drawing Rights), or something like what the economist J.M. Keynes advocated for just after world war two.
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  2085. ​ @andyharpist2938  ​The real blame lies in the economic theories and ideology of neoliberalism. If the Chinese are to blame it's because they have been forced into the straitjacket of Western neoliberalism. Ditto Russia. Remember, the West spent the better part of a century trying to destroy Russian and Chinese communism and convert them to capitalism. Now the West is complaining that capitalist Russia and China are using capitalism to beat them. — Den verkliga skulden ligger i nyliberalismens ekonomiska teorier och ideologi. Om kineserna är skyldiga är det för att de har tvingats in i den västerländska nyliberalismens tvångströja. Dito Ryssland. Kom ihåg att väst tillbringade större delen av ett sekel med att försöka förstöra rysk och kinesisk kommunism och omvandla dem till kapitalism. Nu klagar väst på att det kapitalistiska Ryssland och Kina använder kapitalismen för att slå dem. —
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  2086. Maybe the French didn't want a war in 1940. Maybe they would just have preferred to have remained neutral considering what had happened on their soil just 21 years earlier, well within living memory. From what I've read in certain history books the French of the interwar period were quite pacifist and anti‐war, quite disposed towards fascism, and their army was in a fairly demoralised state at the beginning of the German invasion, factors contributing to the rapid German victory.
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  2087. False flag. Probably carried out by Israelis and/or pro-Israeli Americans. What followed certainly seems to have been in Israel's medium term strategic interests (seen from a certain – zionist – point of view).
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  2088. Agreed. And the sooner it ends the better.
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  2089. I wonder if he was a homosexual teleiophile/androphilic male he'd be treated the same way.
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  2090. Be quiet! The media of the US empire wants you to think that these are spontaneous, grassroots movements originating in the irrepressible love of the free market (freedom) of (neo-) liberal capitalism that resides in every beating heart of every human being that's ever lived.
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  2091. Are the Chinese preventing you sailing in the South China Sea? Are they stopping you fishing or exploiting the maritime resources within your recognised territorial waters (as opposed to disputed territory)?
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  2092. Europe's oil and gas industries have been closed down or reduced to inadequate numbers by the USA and its agents of influence (the climate change crowd).
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  2093. ​ @SiliconCurtain  You can't just say "rubbish" and not argue your case. Your channel, for instance, definitely looks like propaganda to me (or what you would politely call 'misinformation' or 'disinformation'). I'm not saying your lying but you are being tendentious.
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  2094. Russia did enter into peace negotiations. However, the German ex-Chancellor Merkel herself has admitted that the EU's so‐called peace negotiations were just a sham, designed merely to buy time for Ukraine to build up its military.
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  2095. This video assumes the world, and certainly Europe and South America, will still be under the thumb of the USA.
    1
  2096.  @andrewsarchus6036  Okay smart ass, which is it? 😏🤨
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  2097. The mindset of a capitalist wage slave. She'd have made a good plantation housemaid back in the day.
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  2098. Your comment does not make any sense. Is it clickbait?
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  2099. Testing Japan's defences.
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  2100. Bullshit! Afghanistan was in no way responsible for 9/11 and its people, who suffered the most and are still suffering terribly from the actions of the USA, certainly didn't do 9/11. The attack on the triple towers was an inside job that was conducted by elements within the US military-security establishment itself, almost certainly with the collusion of elements of from within the military-security establishment of Israel. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Osama Bin Laden were just the fall guys. Plans were afoot long before 9/11 to attack Afghanistan. Another thing is that you don't just go in an demand, without a shred of evidence, that a country just hand over another country's nationals, especially if it doesn't have an extradition treaty with you. If there was a country that actually warranted an attack it was Saudi Arabia (if you believe the official story that the hijackers being Saudis working for Bin Laden, a man known to be dying of kidney failure and who was long dead before he was allegedly killed by the USA in Pakistan and who always denied the charges against him). You also aren't supposed to just bomb other countries without the approval of the UN Security Council. The United States its also not the sole superpower as events in Ukraine and with China vis-a-vis Taiwan are showing. Tibet, by the way, is an integral part of China, as is Taiwan. The USA is a genocidal monster and saying that this is how its always been is not an excuse. If such an excuse wasn't good enough for the Germans and Japanese back then it certainly isn't an legitimate excuse now.
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  2101. The Bank of International Settlements might be behind this. The bank of banks is after all an organisation with literally unlimited capital because it controls all the other banks and can have those national banks print money on its behalf. Alternatively, the same type of people who made a killing in real estate, insurance and the stock market after the false flag of nine-eleven might be behind this. They're 'in the known', as they say.
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  2102.  @---fq2kd  and NATO, several thousand (not officially admitted to, of course).
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  2103. ​​​ @traviscutler9912 he can't because their isn't one. Apparently, blaming the USA for what is by all accounts something it should be blamed for is redefined as supporting genocide. A bit like saying that anyone who blames the USA for the cold war and the wars in Yugoslavia and Ukraine due to NATO expansionism are communists/Putinists/war crimes apologists.
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  2104. India's GDP is not a reliable indicator of economic and political stability, much less social progress. It's only because capitalists and corporatists in the West love GDP because it allows them to portray themselves as progressive (and westerners are obsessed with the idea of progress). India's lack of a single, powerful centre with an overarching moral-ideological underpinning that its people can buy in to and that can systematically plan and implement a national economic plan the way the Chinese and Russians do will seriously hinder India. If India rises it will be in spite of itself.
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  2105. But it's not in a civil war, it's under attack and invasion by neighbours and their military/paramilitary forces, acting by and large as proxies for the United States and its western European client states which will presumably benefit from this new source of (cheap?) energy while remaining dependent on the USA and its west Asian puppet states. It will without a doubt also effect Russia by creating an alternative to their energy, all the while increasing the USA's stranglehold on the world's sources of energy.
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  2106. It's a balancing act for the countries you mentioned as they have a foot in both camps and alienating either too much would have negative consequences.
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  2107. That's where you're heading.
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  2108.  @madthunbs3703  It'll be children soon.
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  2109. The reason things never change is because of conservatives like Starkey who want to keep things exactly as they are.
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  2110.  @SmartRobot-wc2fb  You forgot _Italy_. ;-)
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  2111.  @yavormoskov  I don't think it's akin to selling exactly. I think it's called bridewealth or something whereby the parents are compensated for the loss of their daughter's labour, etc.
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  2112. The Russians should have got a marine drone to infiltrate the area where the sabotage took place and film whoever did it. When they deny it the Russians can say "look, here's the evidence." and use it at the UN.
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  2113. After world wars Ⅰ & Ⅱ that's exactly what Germany did. Likewise France after its defeat by Germany in 1940.
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  2114. When does a recession become a depression and when does a depression become a global depression?
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  2115. ​ @Michael-ex8lk says the European whose subcontinent is losing the socio-economic war to a Russo-Chinese-led Eurasia.
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  2116. John Roberts | Джон Робертс ☆ Germany needs to start doing what's best for Germany and not follow the orders of the USA. ▪︎ ▪︎▪︎▪︎ Германии нужно начать делать то, что лучше для Германии, а не следовать приказам США.
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  2117. Akathisia can be caused by certain types of drugs though. I've done a quick search and it says that anti-depressants/anti-pyschotics are a chief cause, though I am given to understand that long-term use of painkillers (which I think is what Mr Peterson may have been addicted to) can also cause it. ~•~ So it doesn't exactly let Mr Peterson off the hook even though he may have initially been prescribed benzodiasepine or similar drugs legally and for entirely legitimate reasons.
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  2118.  @paulao7022  sounds like science fiction to me. But if they have it I'm sure they've also developed countermeasures that can fool observers too.
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  2119. Does that apply to male circumcision too?
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  2120. ​ @pedrorequio5515 another country to exploit.
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  2121. According to British TV and print media all Asians either hate the Chinese, hate the Japanese, or both. 80‐odd years after world war two ended the mass media of Britain are still bringing up Japan's apparent need to atone for what it did in the 1930's and 40's and their equally apparent refusal to do so to the satisfaction of the English speaking world is always alluded to, often with some seemingly obligatory reference to the a rape of Nanking. It's a way, I suppose, of justifying that war by implying how nasty the Japanese were and how they thus deserved to be fire bombed and nuked by the USA, it being done for the benefit of Asians like the Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos and for which the Chinese in particular should be eternally grateful (but to the great chagrin of Uncle Sam and John Bull aren't, or only grudgingly so) and why US troops are still stationed in Japan so long after the war has ended — obviously to protect Asia from itself, which it can't do without a generous helping hand from the white man. To be honest I find it both irksome and subtly racist. Something similar occurs with Germany, only in their case the portrayal is one of being suitably repentant.
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  2122. That would be the plan of the United States. Also in that plan: destroy all peer competitors. That includes Europe.
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  2123. As I see it Europe is finally sloughing off the political, economic and military architecture set up in the immediate post war period by the USA, a period when it was in unquestioned ascendancy. After 80 years and four generations the USA'S relative power is in visible decline and that is forcing the countries of Europe hitherto under US influence to stand on their own two feet whether they like it or not. It's a trend that will probably continue but how long before the core states of Europe act with true independence without reference to the USA is anybody's guess. Maybe by the middle of the next century but then western Europe will likely be kow‐towing to China.
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  2124. The West is undergoing a new cold war and this time around is is the one that is losing. Like the the Soviet Union before it, the West, the USA in particular, can't compete with the productivity and rising living standards of China. They still have a long way to go but like the countries of western Europe during their rise it is only a matter of time. The West is also slowly losing the propaganda war because the Chinese model is delivering success while the western model is only delivering stagnation.
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  2125. "Insurmountable advantage"? In its near abroad the Russians would easily vanquish the USA and NATO in quick time. If Russia invaded Ukraine it would be like the German Blitzkrieg in Poland and France in 1939 and 1941, or the taking of Singapore and Malaya by the Japanese in 1942, with defeat in this case probably being achieved in a matter of days rather than weeks. Quite simply, a successful defence of Ukraine by NATO is militarily next to impossible. And no one is seriously contemplating it. Western propaganda on the issue is pure bravado.
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  2126. Wouldn't matter, the People's Republic of China can and sooner or later will make the microchips that the Republic of China currently make, so it would be pointless. That and the fact that it would potentially be seen as an act of war by the Chinese on both sides of the strait and thus would have undesirable consequences for the USA.
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  2127. Reminds me of the Economist magazine's 'China is on the verge of collapse' articles that it regularly trots out. When the Chinese decide to buy out the Economist I wonder if they'll change their tune.
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  2128. Perhaps the USA should apologise for goading Japan into war and Britain and the other western powers for encouraging Japan by serving as the role model of what a 'modern' country should be. You want Japan to become westernised, well to do that you have to have an empire with colonies and do what empires do: conquer and enslave other countries. That's how the so‐called West got to be so powerful in Asia and elswhere. Ever heard of the Opium Wars. Perhaps the United Kingdom and the USA should be forever apologising for imposing themselves so violently on China, Korea and Japan, all of whom suffered under European and American colonialism.
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  2129. All so esoteric. And pretty much pointless too as 99% of people driving motor vehicles or using machinery that runs off oil (whether diesel or petrol/gasoline) neither know nor care about such things and are not in any real position to do anything about it even if they did. It's basically the bureaucrats and technocrats in Brussels who create these rules and always in close consultation with the automobile manufacturers and oil industry. We either all go electric or similar or otherwise we're just we're just arguing over things that will only change by crisis or fiat.
    1
  2130. Welcome 2024!
    1
  2131. ShizukuSeiji: Since when is disposing of your enemies (who are, after all, trying to overthrew and probably kill you) by imprisoning, exiling or killing them first irrational? It's self-preservation I'd have thought. Of course, if Stalin was by legitimate psychiatric criteria paranoid then some of his fears/actions could be described as such but, given his position, not necessarily.
    1
  2132. Welfare systems are necessary to act as safety nets, otherwise we'd see the same instability and poverty in Europe that these refuges are fleeing.
    1
  2133. Is that why China and Russia were then and still are now feared by the United States imperium (especially its underlings in western Europe) — because they deliver such bad conditions for their citizenry that the West feels committed to their liberation through neo-imperialism and neo-colonialism.
    1
  2134. The question is how to get the neocons out of government. It took a de facto coup (which occurred either on 9/11 or with the assassination of JFK) to install them so it could take a coup to get them out.
    1
  2135. But it's okay to mock paganism. Mock, condemn... and persecute to the point of extinction.
    1
  2136. But why as it doesn't appear to be any different to any of the other videos he's recently made. Nothing really new or controversial here in my opinion.
    1
  2137. I'm sure Asians can protect their waters from pirates without the help of the USA.
    1
  2138. The Bank of International Settlements want it, along with the neocons of the US deep state.
    1
  2139. I very much doubt that a corrupt multi-billionaire like Trump is trying to create anything beyond a slush fund for himself and his benefactors for when he leaves office. I think you are a little naive.
    1
  2140. Thermite or thermate. The sort used to bring drown two of the three high-rise steel buildings in New York on 11th September 2001.
    1
  2141. Fortunately, I'm sure that Russia and China will ultimately be able to neutralise even that technology.
    1
  2142. A tripolar world where the USA, the PRC and the RF each respect each others spheres of influence and legitimate interests is what is needed.
    1
  2143. The famine in Russia that you allude to was caused by various factors — weather, war, civil war, invasion — not by the supposed evils of either Stalin the man or communism, the economic, political and philosophical system. Indeed communism was designed to prevent such famines (which were regular occurrences) and seems to have succeeded until the 1990's when it collapsed under relentless pressure from capitalism and proto-, neo-, quasi-, and full on fascism.
    1
  2144.  @CyrusJanssen  And the military of the United States is THE biggest polluter.
    1
  2145. Not about the money. Face-saving.
    1
  2146.  @geoffgriffiths3381  But like oil and gas, it's not necessarily about who makes it but who controls it that counts.
    1
  2147. Will a digital currency still allow the United States to dominate the European Union and the world, or will it be just one powerful currency among two or three others? Will Europe Union and the USA create a single currency like the euro and create a dollar-preference area?
    1
  2148. On 9/11 a coup took place within the government of the United States that effectively neutralised its legitimate power centres and replaced them with a cabal of coup plotters who had no idea how to control a country as complex as the USA. They thought they could run it like they run the CIA, compartmentalised and by committee. Unfortunately for them (and even more unfortunately for the people of the USA) they can't.
    1
  2149. Old news. Tactical retreat; not retreat, not defeat.
    1
  2150. You mean promoting 'representative' (i.e. indirect) democracy. Most tribal societies have forms of direct democracy that puts the western type to shame. Most, if not all, Western so‐called democracies are merely formal democracies in that they have the form but not the content of democracy, the nominally elected being several times removed from the electorate and generally under no direct influence by, or accountability to, them.
    1
  2151. Western leaders are not really elected by their peoples without first being vetted and pre-selected by the US government. So the same corruption and iniquity that afflicts the government of the USA also afflicts Europe as well.
    1
  2152. This treaty might make the DPRK more prosperous. Then again it seems to imply that the North will not try to reunify with the South by military means because it's 'not in Russia's interests'. It makes one wonder whether Russia's cosying up to Korea is just propaganda, public relations, window dressing for the benefit of the USA.
    1
  2153. ​ @Effective_tool_of_Satan Sheffield in England.
    1
  2154. As mentioned by Alexander this serves as a basis for further discussions.
    1
  2155. What is Europe?
    1
  2156. No NATO country has been attacked militarily by Russia therefore NATO cannot reciprocate. NATO, aka the vassals of the US empire, is not officially involved here.
    1
  2157. Like the German media in the 1939-1945 war, don't expect truth from Crux.
    1
  2158. He needs to get himself a better valet.
    1
  2159. Disagree on your second paragraph because trade restrictions protect an economy from unfair or disadvantageous trade with others. If, for example, country 'A' produces food cheaper than country 'B' and sends that country's farmers bankrupt, not protecting your farming with trade restrictions is economic suicide and tantamount to a betrayal of your country.
    1
  2160. Ukraine joining NATO has been explicitly ruled out. As for North/Nord Stream 2, I think this will only be a temporary hiccup; too much of an investment, both political and financial, was made in its construction for it to stay suspended for long, as well as the economics behind it are still a pressing long term issue for Germany that the import of LNG from the USA cannot adequately cover.
    1
  2161.  @restonthewind  I don't think anyone in the NATO alliance is seriously considering expanding into Ukraine. And why would they? It would be giving the pretext Russia needs, the causus belli, that would lead to a war that would almost certainly end in military defeat for Ukraine and the consequent undermining of the primacy and legitimacy of both the USA and NATO. In fact I think the USA has ruled it out, bluff and bluster aside, not least because it's not very popular with most Europeans. The USA may arm and train Ukraine's military all it likes but its still not a member of, nor ever likely going to be a member of, NATO.
    1
  2162. The whole of whole of the Donbass I would imagine, at the very least.
    1
  2163. Will the USA protect him like it protects other collaborators like Karzai of Afghanistan, or the ex-president of Yemen?
    1
  2164.  @drx1xym154  Real, but in what way?
    1
  2165. I think the terms you want are revanchism (ирредентизм) or irredentism (ирредентизм). ○●○●○●○●○●○●○ Note: I don't think that Russia wants either of those.
    1
  2166. Probably a United States agent of influence. The forty billon plus dollars bill is no doubt designed to finance just such a person like him.
    1
  2167.  @jckrulesisthebest110  But they achieved their goal, that of keeping the USA away from China's borders and establishing a buffer zone.
    1
  2168. Actually, I think it's an improvement. It's less distracting.
    1
  2169. Instability is an emergent property of all nation states. For a nation to rise another must fall and strength is built on keeping others weak.
    1
  2170. 1000th like! 🙋‍♂️
    1
  2171.  @julieannmyers8714  Libertarianism is capitalist anarchism on steroids. It's also an ideology that comes from the USA and has little appeal to most other countries. It may even be an ideology promoted, like Christian fundamentalism, because its adherents are so extreme in their support of the free market, consumerism and go‐it‐alone individualism, all the things neocons love.
    1
  2172.  @citizenworld8094  Hundreds of years of English colonialism has made the Irish unable to think for themselves and so they need the EU to do the thinking for them. Irish sovereignty requires independence from EU institutions if it requires Ireland to be nothing but a puppet of the neoconservatives and neoliberals of Brussels, Washington and London.
    1
  2173. It's a way of making the USA and the West look superior to the rest and to make capitalism look superior to communism.
    1
  2174. "None of that was America's fault." So what do you call the USA literally blowing up German pipeline infrastructure?
    1
  2175. But isn't that the very reason why western corporations go to China in the first place, because of the lack of safety standards and the cheap labour? Your argument, rather than showing up how bad China is, actually merely serves to show how bad capitalism is.
    1
  2176. Would you be any different?
    1
  2177. Whatever the words used they all implicitly recognise the Peoples Republic of China de facto as having a legitimate vested interest in the island, an interest that no other country has, and one that supercedes the claims of any other.
    1
  2178.  @ShuCarolina  Recognising the Peoples Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China while simultaneously de-recognising the Republic of China certainly strongly IMPLIES that the former has jurisdiction over the latter. Not actual control of the island I grant you, but certainly that it comes under the PRC's jurisdiction. Only by employing such mealy-mouthed weasel words could the Americans get the Chinese to normalise diplomatic relations. Do you really think that if the USA and others had explicitly continued to maintain that Taiwan be the sole legitimate government of continental China and not the PRC that they would have gotten the government in Beijing to agree to anything?
    1
  2179.  @ShuCarolina  Look, for geopolitical reasons as well as due to the domestic politics in the country at that time the USA couldn't just explicitly state that the ROC/Taiwan was a part of the PRC. But... as I've already stated it was very strongly implied. Logical necessity compels you to draw that inference; it is axiomatic, a corollary. To wit: — | THE GOVERNMENT OF THE USA MEANT IT TO BE INTERPRETED THAT WAY BY THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA. | — And it t does not have to be explicitly stated because it can be inferred by anyone with a reasonable understanding of logic and basic English Language comprehension. The fact that the communiqué can be interpreted in other ways, or was meant (certainly by the Americans and Taiwanese) to be interpreted in other ways, does not mean that that is the way mainland Chinese interpret it. And were meant to interpret it. Though the wording was purposely ambiguous it must be taken in context. That context was meant to clearly imply to the PRC that... in return for the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries the USA would recognise China's claims on Taiwan.
    1
  2180.  @ShuCarolina  Basically, the United States wanted to have its cake and eat it. It wanted to reestablish diplomatic ties with the People's Republic whilst at the same time still wanting to maintain its hegemony over Taiwan (and by extension China) by continuing to recognise the government in Taipei. The only way it could do that to China's satisfaction was with a strategy of 'strategic ambiguity', appearing to tell China one thing and Taiwan the complete opposite, hence the double speak. So it does, in my opinion, strongly imply (to the Chinese) that Taiwan is a part of China, a part of China that is de facto independent but notwithstanding still falls squarely within the sphere of influence, if not outright control, of the PRC; that it's in effect disputed territory who's final status is yet to be decided. To the Taiwanese, of course, it implies that the United States recognises its de facto independence but not its de jure independence. Anyone who cannot see that to all practical purposes the United States recognises Taiwan as a territory belonging to the Peoples Republic of China is to me being wilfully blind.
    1
  2181.  @ShuCarolina  Isn't that "vague attitude" the same as saying that the United States is being ambiguous, using language that can be, and is intended to be, interpreted by China as meaning that the USA might chose to defend the island of Taiwan by military or other means (such as by sanctions or embargo) but, then again, might not depending on circumstances... that it doesn't leave out the military option? If so then I would say that is a clear case of strategic ambiguity on the part of the USA: it is not being explicitly specific in its official position on what its intentions are regarding the Taiwan question. — And I am not meaning to imply that Chinese diplomats are either incompetent or naive, or that they or anyone else were fooled into just what it was they were agreeing to. Like you said, the wording allows China to say one thing and the USA and its allies to say another.
    1
  2182. Said that about the Koreans and Japanese too. They were so bad at making things that when it looked like they might overtake the USA it sabotaged their economies. And I'm sure that the Chinese would have said pretty much the same thing about the West in the 18th century. Curb your racism and xenophobia. Misrepresenting entire peoples and cultures might be comforting, but in the long term it breeds complacency and a misplaced sense of superiority. As the Chinese will tell you, that's not a good thing.
    1
  2183. CPC – Communist Party of China. Calling it the CCP is incorrect.
    1
  2184.  @gk1781  but that was a false flag committed by your fellow Americans and the Israelis. Should the rest of the world be punished for atrocities committed by your own side against their own people?
    1
  2185. Want a mullet by any chance was it? 😂🤮🥺
    1
  2186. Ah, so like in European wars 1 & 2 we are going to bite off more then we can chew by picking a fight with someone bigger than ourselves and then beg the USA to save us when we lose? Then we blame the other guy for starting the war that we'd kick-started.
    1
  2187. I'm sure the Chinese can access YouTube if they want by using a VPN. Also, they have their own YouTube so – being insular like Americans – they probably don't feel the need to.
    1
  2188. NATO, like the EU, is about US control of Europe more than it is about anything else. Its military efficacy against a competent, peer military power is secondary to its ability to put down potential resistance to capitalism and corporatism, much the same way the Warsaw Pact did in eastern Europe.
    1
  2189. Let's hope so. The USA should stop trying so hard to dominate the world. This world would be a much better place if the win‐lose attitude of the USA'S leaders were to be replaced with the win‐win attitude of China's. The zero‐sum games the neoliberals play is becoming prohibitively costly for ordinary Americans and the world; it is taking us to the brink.
    1
  2190. That's because it can be used by its proxies against the USA's enemies, such as Iran in Yemen.
    1
  2191. Qualified free will.
    1
  2192. How would they react? Simple. They wouldn't. Beyond words and token gestures they are as supportive of an impotent UN has the USA, France and Britain are. They no more want to empower the UN than the Americans do because it could be used against them also. Only if they could wrestle control of the UN apparatus from the USA and coopt it would they change their tune. The UN is just a political football that the superpowers kick around to score points of each other and nothing more.
    1
  2193. The Americans are asking for the impossible. It will only be matter of time now before they demand Europe economically decouples from China and Russia even more; that they sanction themselves and make themselves dependent on the USA.
    1
  2194. It's almost a if someone wants to cause disunity in the European Union while encouraging it to become more and more authoritarian.
    1
  2195. Why? WHY! Why is the government of the United Kingdom doing this – what is in it for Britain, economically, politically? I suspect this might be a crafty way of creating an EU army or a pan-European slush fund for the military‐industrial complex of the USA, the EU, or both.
    1
  2196. Is that why both Russia and China sold out in the 1980's and 90's, both becoming capitalist.
    1
  2197. They might be doing this to force governments to be dependent on the USA and the IMF/BIS at a later date or to precipitate a wider, global crisis. Also, If there is an economic crisis that looks like moderately left wing governments — read radical or hard left to neo‐liberals — are going to win elections like Podemos or Syriza those countries will be over a proverbial barrel with regards energy because they will have depleted their strategic reserves and therefore will be in no place but to obey those who are behind the Great Reset (European Union, IMF, BIS, UN corporations, etc.), just like Greece with the troika. Another reason might be manipulation of the stock market to steal money for the deep state and its crooks like they did with Enron, Libya, Iraq, 9/11, etc.
    1
  2198. They ganged up on Russia in 1917 and in 1990 they descended like a pack of wolves so it should come as no real surprise. The western part of Europe is predatory and imperialist and Russia has always stood in the way of its expansion and exploitation so has always been seen as an obstacle to be overcome.
    1
  2199. That question is akin to asking why countries don't just stop buying oil and gas from the Middle East or Venezuela; or why they don't stop buying gold from South Africa.
    1
  2200. ... a wonderful job... of carrying out the USA's/ bankers plan.
    1
  2201. It reminds me of Ukraine, another country that was cobbled together from areas previously controlled by its neighbours and with very little of it having had an existence as an independent state.
    1
  2202. The wishes of the Ukrainian people evidently do not matter otherwise the USA and the EU would not have couped the Ukrainian government chosen democratically through elections, in addition to reneging on their subsequent commitments to ending the civil war between the central government and the breakaway republics of Lugansk and Donetsk.
    1
  2203.  @honestjohn6418  Basically, they've become like the USA. Understandable really considering they've been infiltrated by the deep state of the USA and its various think tanks and groups since at least the time of Thatcher, along with most of the elite institutions, the armed forces and the City/banks. That's why Britain is suffering from the same political, economic and social malaise as the states, because they have become a collaborationist comprador class beholden to the pernicious ideology of American free market laissez-faire corporatism, just like any third world Latin American colony of the US-controlled IMF.
    1
  2204. ​ @wandregalbjornson1452  But what's driving the homelessness? In China it's largely people from the countryside without residency permits coming to the big cities in search of a better life but not being allowed to work, rent, etc. rather than them not being able to afford a home. In the United States and elsewhere it's precisely the opposite, with the homeless not being able to a afford a home or pay rent because of them not having a job (jobs brings sent to China?) or being evicted because they can't afford to pay rent/mortgages (rentier economy based on usury). There are also people with drug and mental health problems which are big issues in the USA and Canada to a degree that they aren't in China. The problem of homelessness in both countries have a solution but particularly in the USA and Canada, those solution are not ones that the political class are willing to hear. The economy of the USA puts the profits of Wall Street above providing decent living conditions for a sizeable part of its population.
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  2205. That's the only realistic position a skeptic can take.
    1
  2206. Yes, a more apt title.
    1
  2207. ​​ @interovic  It's not the first time. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, plus scores of countries where we relocated non-indigenous peoples, altering the ethnic composition and demographics of entire nations and socially destabilised them.
    1
  2208. Or... how about a leader trying to reunify his country after it was annexed by two other countries? FYI both sides were engaging in provocations because both sides wanted reunification. If you don't support the annexation of Ukrainian territory by Russia you shouldn't support the annexation of Korea by the Soviet Union and the USA either.
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  2209. I think the same way. Netanyahu spent most of his life in the USA being beyond for power before being sent to Israel.
    1
  2210. It's a case of turning the theorizing and turning it into practical applications. Even then such applications need to be commercialized to make it worthwhile for a company to bring them market.
    1
  2211. Then the American satraps of the European Union and the IMF will step in while the USA gets back on its feet and creates some new currency system for Europe and the West that remains dominated by the USA.
    1
  2212. ​ @Memovox  You're wasting your time. You're probably talking to a cyber warfare troll or chatbot (propbot/propaganda bot – an automated program) created by western intelligence agencies, routinely deployed on YouTube channels in response to comments or videos on certain subjects or when certain trigger words are used. I've noticed such – often counterfactual – comments a lot since the genocide of the Palestinians and the war in Ukraine began.
    1
  2213. Which Bible? And 'Islamism' is a creation of the USA, just as fascism is a creation of capitalism, both designed to counter threats to the political system of the capitalist countries of western Europe and the North America, the imperial core of the West.
    1
  2214. That's why Asia will begin to overtake Europe and the USA. The dilemma the west faces is that western investment will lead to an increase in the ability of Asia to outcompete it, emulating the success of China and reverse-engineering western technology, developing its own industries and pursuing economic policies that are good for Asia but detrimental to the West. Refusal to invest, on the other hand, will eventually lead to a decline in profits and stagnation for western companies as their own manufacturing has moved abroad and their income stream rests on the manufacturing capabilites of others.
    1
  2215. The Romans expanded so quickly (at least in Europe) largely because of inferior opponents. To the Germanic and Celtic peoples war was something they did not do for its own sake. Nor did they have a political system that incentivised ambitious leaders to continually expand their territory; territory was usually gained opportunistically rather than by systematic conquest. When faced with their equals or guerilla warfare (like against the Carthaginians or Zealots/Maccabees the Romans tended to fare less well, especially in the later years of the Roman empire, as for example against the Huns. They were not unlike the West until recently where less economically and militarily developed countries who were relatively peaceful came up against an expansionist Europe at the height of its powers.
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  2216. ... Since the propagandists got hold of it.
    1
  2217. That's because they represent the deep state of the USA (the billionaires club of its military‐intelligence‐industrial complex) and have subordinated any semblance of popular democracy NATO and the EU ever had since its subversion by the neoliberals in the 1980's to the will of the markets (the financiers of the rentier class and war profiteering CEO's of the of corporations).
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  2218. You're dealing with a nation of monotheists who believe the world was made in 7 days and men come from dust and women from ribs. If you can believe in such nonsense you can believe anything.
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  2219. Sweden already is in NATO so it not being allowed to join officially is purely symbolic.
    1
  2220. What practical application do these 'Catalan numbers' have, is any?
    1
  2221. And despite the hype neither China nor Russia, much less BRICS, seem to be in any hurry to change things. Or even want to.
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  2222. ​ @miroslavdusin4325  ​ More like they are not with the empire of the United States of America.
    1
  2223. Only 50%‽ You'll need it to be cut a whole lot more. Sounds like you're still wanting to be able to dominate the world but on the cheap.
    1
  2224. The EU is simply the political‐economic counterpart to NATO with the only real difference being that the USA more or less controls NATO directly while with the EU it is more of a heavy and indirect influence exercised by more sophisticated means.
    1
  2225.  @YTSparty  Owners of patents are stealing from the people, from the rest of humanity.
    1
  2226. The deep state of the USA are probably planning to destabilise India like they destabilised the Middle East and Latin America and are now trying to destabilise Europe. They want India in their pocket.
    1
  2227. The left? What left! After MI5/6 infiltrator Keir Starmer finished the purging of the Labour Party that the fake socialist Tony Blair started, there is precious little of the left left.
    1
  2228. By the time NATO supplies anti‐ship missiles it will be all but over. They won't make any difference to the outcome of this war whatsoever beyond making it last that little bit longer. Maybe the aim is to draw the Russians into annexing coastal regions and serve as a pretext for Finland joining NATO.
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  2229. Yet it's said by an arch capitalist working for the likes of the eugenisist Bill Gates.
    1
  2230. Glad to hear you're not in the slightest bit racist or cultural chauvinist and that you support the States being taken over by the Hispanics and the Chinese, or a combination of the two. Nice to know that the Great White Replacement theory that some people have been talking about is not just a conspiracy theory after all. Keep being so welcoming and demographically speaking you'll be majority Catholic/Confucian atheist, speak Latin American Spanish, and have a population with predominantly brown skin: Blacks, Native Americans, Indians, Hispanics, Chinese and other Asians. In sure the Chinese and the Latinos (the latter with their apparent love of fascist dictatorships ready to step in to defend American capitalism) will absolutely love the freedoms of the USA.
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  2231.  @tobias9859  What does ATAACMS stand for? And Reuters has always been a propaganda outlet; it was set up as such.
    1
  2232. More likely a slush fund for the deep state or a money laundering scheme for politicians and CEO's.
    1
  2233. And I'm cynically sceptical of my pessimism.
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  2234. That's probably why the USA couped the Ukrainian government. Also probably why Biden is supporting the war; just like Bush he has investments there. With Bush it was oil, with Biden it's gas (oh, and grain, bioweapons, etc.)
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  2235. United States infiltration and destabilisation.
    1
  2236. Like the EU and the UN, NATO is an institution created to serve the interests of the United States. It was created so that the USA has a stranglehold on Europe.
    1
  2237. ​ @Lee_303  They seem to want a cold war 2.0 believing that, if the first one could bring down the Soviet Union, the second one can bring down the Russian Federation.
    1
  2238. ​ @davehallett810  Anglo-American capital located in the USA and Britain in no small way caused the wars against Germany and Japan in the first place, as well as the war against Russia by proxy. The idea that the corporations of London and New York, the two biggest empires on Earth, both genocidal, racist, anti-disabilist, war-mongering, slavery practicing, paraphilia-phobic and anti-semitic/anti-catholic, are the heroic saviours of the world and its people is to any genuinely dispassionate observer simply untrue. At the heart of the matter is that the German, Japanese and Russian systems of industrial capital were successfully competing and beginning to undermine the parasitical, piratical and predatory system of extractive rentier capitalism of the British and the Americans and as a consequence had to be destroyed.
    1
  2239. ​​ @d.flipot4049 the 'person' you're responding to is probably a bot operated by You Tube on before of the security complex.
    1
  2240. I fear the Americans will promote Hindu fundamentalism in India not unlike their promotion of Islamic fundamentalism in neighbouring Pakistan. And much like those terrorist and paramilitary groups sponsored by the USA, Britain and France there and in the Middle East and elsewhere they will be used as proxies to destabilise the subcontinent and increasingly force the secular government of India to compromise or attempt to coopt those groups at the risk being overthrown if it doesn't. Either way, India would become more authoritarian and militantly nationalist, something the Americans and their 'international community' would no doubt take advantage of under the guise of standing up for universal human rights.
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  2241. It's a pity they did not discover plastination or the type of embalming used on a certain little girl in Italy (whose name I can't recall). Mummification just leaves hard skin and bones.
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  2242. It will be sabotaged if the Anglo-Americans have anything to do with it, just like the did with the peace overtures by Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Peace is the last thing the USA wants.
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  2243. The expansion of NATO is economic more than anything else. The USA uses it to prop up its military‐industrial complex and the wider economy more generally. Then there's the huge amount of graft (corruption) that lubricates the system that NATO, along with the EU, provides. The military power it provides is simply a bonus.
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  2244. If it weakens Europe vis‐à‐vis the USA then the American policy wonks are all for it, especially if it means Europe remaining under Uncle Sams control.
    1
  2245. What does its formal designation (1i/2017 U1) stand for?
    1
  2246. Finbarr Connolly: How does that work? There 12 months in a year corresponding to the letters A-L and the letter 'U' is the 21st.
    1
  2247. But, equally, considering the seemingly impossible odds of life appearing on our own planet to begin with and going on the, so far, complete absence of any easily detectable life in our observable universe to think life exists may also be "utterly ridiculous".
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  2248. I'd say that neoliberalism IS fascism – neo-fascism. It's just that the fascists (neoliberals/neoconservatives) who have monopoly control over public perception creation (or a monopoly over cultural production) aren't calling it that, no more than they're calling the depression we're on the verge of a depression.
    1
  2249.  @hakjie1112  What the EU is proposing is absurd, cynical, probably unworkable and selfish. Furthermore these plans are almost guaranteed to cause major economic and political crises right across Europe and even further afield. It's madness what they are proposing. This stupidity and culpability on the part of the European Union's leaders must stop now... or risk being stopped later by large scale protests and maybe even civil unrest, which no one in their right minds wants.
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  2250. Will there be a second election? — Va fi alte alegeri?
    1
  2251.  @jordif7310  Typical!
    1
  2252. For its access to the sea.
    1
  2253. Is it true that the tank column was actually leaving the square?
    1
  2254. Ukraine is not master of its own house; the USA is. Zelensky is a puppet and the USA wants to prolong this war for as long as possible and reassert its hegemony over Europe in preparation for what lies ahead.
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  2255. Don't need a coup, just an election that's not rigged against Trump.
    1
  2256. Or fascism where the 'socialist' aspects (remember national *socialism*) are prioritised over the capitalist aspects. Still fascism/corporatism. Call it State Fascism with Chinese/Asian characteristics (or State Capitalist if you don't like the idea that fascism – not communism, not socialism – has triumphed; that a melding of Keynesianism and Hayekianism/Mises-ism – not Marxist communism – is the end of history, at least for the next 500 years.
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  2257. True, but the EU is not averse to breaking its own rules when it suits it.
    1
  2258. It's military‐industrial corporatism and the failed ideology of neo‐liberalism, problems associated with late stage/advanced capitalism, that are causing these problems and not socialism, communism or Marxism. Get your facts straight or you'll be in no position to rectify the wrongs inflicted on you by the system of Austrian economics imposed on you since Reagan.
    1
  2259. Even the CIA need funding and if the USA dollar becomes essentially worthless around the world then they will be hard pressed to do anything. In fact they will probably end up spending most of their money just spying on their own people and suppressing political movements in an attempt to stop the USA taking a left turn.
    1
  2260. Commiserations ❤🍻
    1
  2261. Link? Citation?
    1
  2262. If outer clothing in the middle ages tended to be predominantly made of wool wouldn't it have got sodden when it rained and be both uncomfortable and pretty useless as an insulator? Did they treat the wool to make it more waterproof or press it to make it more like felt?
    1
  2263. As communists they should not give a flying figleaf whether they are stealing the technology or not. As communists they should subscribe to the idea that technology is and should always be a public good and one that should firmly belong in the hands of public institutions for use by everyone. Private monopolies of thoughts and ideas should be anathema to all communists and socialists.
    1
  2264. The GDP of the USA is far more manipulated/distorted than China's. It's basically a service economy that counts such things as stock buy-backs and issuing non-performing loans to real estate companies as part of its GDP.
    1
  2265. At issue is the fact that the USA (which is what we really mean when we say 'the West') wants things the Chinese have, it doesn't, and has nothing much to the Chinese want in exchange. Pretty much like Britain at the beginning of the 19th century. It wanted Chinese wares but the Chinese only wanted silver in exchange. Britain was going bankrupt because of the outflow of silver and decided it would be better if it went down the imperial route and forced it at gunpoint to accept whatever Britain was willing to offer (initially opium). This time around I don't think sending gunboats up the Yantze is going to cut it. The USA/The West either competes with China on its own terms or goes into decline and becomes an economic backwater in comparison.
    1
  2266. As a matter of urgency China and the BRICS need to develop an alternative version of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. They need to free the Global South from their debt bondage. India, Brazil and Argentina would benefit greatly if they could rid themselves of these US-led western institutions that impose such onerous conditionalities upon them, preventing them from successfully developing their economies.
    1
  2267. These parties are throughly infiltrated and compromised. Nothing can be expected of them.
    1
  2268. A generalised decrease in the value of crypto doesn't mean a crash necessarily. Crypto is still legal in most of the rest of the world and thus can still be used as an investment of sorts and for speculation (gambling by any other name). Just remember though that for the most part crypto currencies are notional, their value existing in the virtual world of the internet.
    1
  2269. ​​ @thinktankindi1972  Why should a country that calls itself communist play by the rules of capitalists, especially as the latter seem to be losing? Communism/socialism never works; fails every time wherever it's tried...? Capitalism and corporatism is our salvation? Gimme a break!
    1
  2270. They probably will be, at least the more extreme members.
    1
  2271. It's all a transparent attempt by the USA to isolate Europe and especially Germanynfrom Russia and China, damage the economies of Europe to the USA's advantage, whilst giving the USA complete control over Europe's energy resources.
    1
  2272. Pepe, it's too early to say we are seeing a second wave of decolonisation in Africa. I think it is premature to make such a prognosis.
    1
  2273. How much of the population of the USA will be from Europe in the future?
    1
  2274. The lawless deep state doesn't care much for rules. Rules apply only to others, not themselves.
    1
  2275.  @valenrn8657  Not correct. They are in fact, to all practical purposes American, not British. They are made by the USA, guarded by the USA, operated by the USA (from bases that are nominally British but are in fact US‐controlled), depend on US technology, submarines and satellites for their operation. ... And cannot be targeted, much less fired, without the say‐so of the USA. To cut a long story short, Britain's 'independent' nuclear deterrent is nothing of the sort except on paper.
    1
  2276. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men NOT BEING ABLE TO DO ANYTHING. As in, they have no effective choice in choosing political candidates for office, have meaningful influence determining government policies, and no real access to a media or education system that is not biased in favour of or controlled by corporations.
    1
  2277. It also wants to dislocate Europe's economic relations with Asia. Destroying trust in European financial institutions is one way of doing this.
    1
  2278. ​ @_Melian_Dialogue_  That's because human rights have been weaponised by the USA.
    1
  2279. Invading and occupying other countries and then suppressing revolts against your rule IS the very essence of "keeping countries down". And modernity – for whom?
    1
  2280. Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. And even if he did win the presidency he would be a lame duck as no one in the Establishment would let him carry out his policies sans a severe economic crisis such as hyperinflation. At best he would be allowed to recapitulate Roosevelt's New Deal and make the barest minimum of reforms to keep the system ticking over.
    1
  2281. Scotland and the Scots didn't exist back then. Up North, like everywhere else, were just Celtic tribes with no concept of either the nation or the state.
    1
  2282. Rather than democracy coming to eastern and central Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall a series of US‐backed colour revolutions occurred in which a think tank trained and funded comprador class came to power. In the case of Poland it was led by a certain shipyard worker from Gdánsk, a man chosen to be Washington's point man Warsaw.
    1
  2283. He's been deeply indoctrinated.
    1
  2284. But she wasn't fighting against her country, quite the opposite. As Britain has effectively declared war on Bashar al Assad's Syria then she's actually doing her patriotic duty in helping the (US) empire. The paramilitary group ISIS is but a generic term and Muslim-bashing propaganda meme for the various special forces, intelligence operatives, mercenaries and regular troops of certain countries, not least, those belonging to Britain. A creation of an unholy alliance between Saudi Arabia (a US client state) and the USA and its allies, it was sent to destroy Syria (just like it did in Libya), thus, she's actually fighting for her country, or rather, it's pro-American rulers. The fact that our war on Syria is undeclared, is supposed to be humanitarian, and uses the same false flag terrorist organisations we are so fond of denouncing to achieve its goal of subordinating Syria to Anglo-American corporate and banking interests, doesn't make her actions warrant removal of subjectship (one can never be a citizen in a monarchy). In fact, she should be praised, just like the SAS/SBS/MI5/MI6 doing the same thing in Syria and around world.
    1
  2285. You support le Pen?
    1
  2286. ​ @Mabibol  "Sociological and political stage." Sounds too much like a teleological explanation or an explanation based on historicism – that history has a purpose or that we go through stages with each stage better than the one before it. In other words, the peculiar idea originating in western Europe of something called 'progress' exemplified in the division by the West of the rest of the world into developed, developing and underdeveloped countries, something which seems to me to be nothing more than an updated (yet despite this universally accepted) form of racism whereby it is postulated there exists in the real world a hierarchy of countries (in previous eras, races) that are compared to one another with one group (usually implicitly) representing the best, the most civilised, the most virtuous, by virtue of ostensibly objective, empirical and neutral criteria (such as GDP, Gini coefficient, human development index, human rights, democracy, etc.). A certain book by the title of The End Of History And Last Man by one Francis Fukuyama exemplifies this kind of thinking. The events of the 20th century along with post modernism should have put an end to such ideas, ideas which, furthermore, easily lend themselves to a misguided sense of moral superiority and cultural chauvinism. Dialectical/historical materialism is a case in point, the idea that you can deduce 'laws' from historical events and then assume that your society is the pinnacle of progress and that if you just implement x policies society can be improved.
    1
  2287. But which god... the Romans had so many.
    1
  2288. Though the atmosphere of Venus is very active it may nevertheless be possible that at certain altitudes and latitudes a more or less stable pressure-temperature gradient exists that allows for a microbiome to not only survive but to thrive.
    1
  2289. Their patents were running out so the manufacturers had to effectively ban their use worldwide and force people to replace them with new – and patented – gases.
    1
  2290. I find your Soviet era communist references bizarre given the politics of the USA.
    1
  2291. The fifty percent are slowly clawing their way back, led by China and India.
    1
  2292. Wasn’t it Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney (probably two of the conspirators behind the fake flag of 9/11) who said that the US empire is involved in a multi-generational war that could last a century or longer?
    1
  2293. Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, et al now billionaires. Israel safe. Middle East destabilised. Russia's borders threatened. Opium flowing freely into black projects and propping up insolvent western banks. Creeping corporate coup d'etat begun in the 1960's, coming out of the closet in the 1980's, consolidating in the 1990's, now almost complete. Military-corporate-security state virtually in de facto control under Joe Biden. Democracy a sham. Such quaint notions as human rights, habeas corpus and the like legislated out of existence by things like the PATRIOT act. FEMA camps, like gulags and concentration laager, at the ready. Twenty-four seven surveillance. Lockdowns, curfews. False flags rehearsed and perfected (Murray Building bombing, Triple Towers, Boston marathon bombing). Etc., etc., etc.
    1
  2294. The USA doesn't want Iran to exist. Israel is just the proxy of the USA, not unlike Ukraine.
    1
  2295. Ukraine is a money laundering and gun running operation on a vast scale. It is used to finance the deep state which needs parallel streams of income matching those of the official state.
    1
  2296. Is that the person who keeps predicting the end of China, a nation with at least 2,500 of history as an organised polity?
    1
  2297. Western Europe to be precise. After all, Russia is and always has been an integral part of the wider West, cold war constructs aside.
    1
  2298. Because she was, shall we say, rather well made (fat, chubby)?
    1
  2299. Some serious intimidation is in the pipeline for Iran and Syria, but outright war...?
    1
  2300. Correct. However, with regards independence India's agricultural sector is heavily dominated by foreign corporations. Originally limited to bt cotton I'm given to understand that it might now be extended to allowing the growing of GMO crops for food as well.
    1
  2301. So cruel.... 😆
    1
  2302. US infiltrators.
    1
  2303. 🎶 First they ignore you, Then they laugh at you Then they fight, Then you win. 🎶
    1
  2304. Think you know. Most of what you (think you) know is propaganda.
    1
  2305. Abe Lincoln disagrees.
    1
  2306. Don't forget the USA wants France out of Africa too. Like Britain, France is a rival to the geopolitical interests of the United States.
    1
  2307. Let's hope that the Germans come to their senses before it's too late and don't allow the interests of the USA (who are the main culprits behind all of this, in my opinion) to sabotage their economy. The USA wants Europe to be under its control and not form political or economic associations with others. Keep the Russians out, the Germans down, and the USA in is still mainstream in the political thinking in Washington DC.
    1
  2308. But did the Americans have anything to do with it? Was it as spontaneous as it has been portrayed?
    1
  2309. Nah, once the USA has gotten the EU under its thumb energy wise and has turned it into a collection of second world satraps the way the USA itself is being second-worldized it will continue its trade with China using the EU to pay for those goods by a central bank digital currency tied to the US dollar.
    1
  2310. Crimea was not Obama's to give in the first place and it is arrogant to assume otherwise. But just out of curiosity, what could Obama have done to stop the Russian Federation taking back territory that has historically been a part of itself for three hundred years bar the last thirty?
    1
  2311. A possible solution to the Cyprus problem is for it to become its own state, much like Luxembourg or Monaco. Unified and independent with equal rights for both Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Multic-confessional like Lebanon with fairness rules regarding the ethnic composition of the government.
    1
  2312. The Turks are probably being put up to this by certain countries that don't want Sweden and Finland to join NATO but can't say it out loud so they use Erdoğan as their errand boy and fall guy who'll take the rap for this. The Finns and Swedes may even be secretly relieved that someone is stopping them committing geostrategic suicide.
    1
  2313. That's what the Americans want. The Russians would be helping the the USA cut Russia off from Europe. In effect Russia would be ceding the initiative to the USA by playing by their rules, they would be fighting on a battlefield of the Americans choosing, putting themselves at a decided disadvantage. That said, of course, the Russians ultimately may have no choice but to retaliate in kind because these are deliberate provocations designed to force the Russia's to do just that and such provocations cannot go unchallenged indefinitely.
    1
  2314.  @sz5263  Actually it's known as the Gregorian calendar after Pope Gregory the 13th reformed the the previous calendar known as the Julian calendar in 1582 because it had become out of step with the seasons. It's not actually Christian being based on the aforementioned calendar introduced in 46 CE. It's only the traditional dating that's Christian — before Christian era or B.C. and after Christian era or A.D. (standing for anno domini) — and this nowadays tends to get replaced with BCE standing for before common era and CE (or, rarely ACE) for after common era.
    1
  2315. Britain and the USA are both heading for default on their international debt obligations, the USA on its way to losing its place as the world's reserve currency (and the British pound will likely suffer too), and with their heavily financialised economies and diminished manufacturing capacities they will most likely be the OECD countries that will suffer the most during the economic depression and high inflation that's been predicted as due any time now. During this period I expect we will be seeing a considerable erosion of what most people in both countries consider traditional civil liberties. When capitalism and the private property rights of the wealthy begin to be questioned by enough people the rich and powerful look towards the state for protection. And we all know where that tends to lead us.
    1
  2316. It serves its founders and will continue to exist as long as its founders exist; that's China, France, Britain, Russia and the United States. Every other member is just a co-voter of one or more of the aforementioned, supporting them out of self-interest or necessity.
    1
  2317. @fun_ghoul  Irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that China as a nation-state co-founded the UN and will certainly not wish to see its demise anytime soon, especially as it can reasonably be expected to dominate the institution in the fullness of time or if can't, founding something that will be very similar in form and function.
    1
  2318. And why should he have?
    1
  2319. Actually I think if such an unlikely thing were to occur China and Russia would probably be the ones launching a cold war. They would be the reactionaries.
    1
  2320. Hypocrites don't care about how hypocritical they are. Entitled 'Karens' like Britain think that merely by virtue of being white Caucasian and western European they are culturally superior and masters of the universe. Is not a king entitled to order his subjects around?
    1
  2321. This time less religious.
    1
  2322. Yes, but unless China is willing and able to hammer the final nail in the USA'S coffin (and that of its lackeys in Western Europe) the evil that is Western corporate neo‐fascism will continue indefinitely.
    1
  2323.  @antoniorsoftware  The West is intent on reducing the population of Africa.
    1
  2324. The Christian religion is such a fraud.
    1
  2325. What is meant: Won't allow the invasion of the remaining part of Gaza, not the part already invaded. Also, it won't allow the complete obliteration of Gaza, only its near obliteration. Like stopping the Indian Wars after most of them have been exterminated – too little, too late.
    1
  2326. The USA is like Germany in world war one: who to attack first. For Germany it was France or Russia, for the USA it's China or Russia.
    1
  2327. A psychotic break with reality or a desperate cry for help. Sounds like she may be suffering from some kind of mental illness which may explain her marital problems.
    1
  2328. Relatively (i.e. time does not exist).
    1
  2329. Do you honestly expect others to render themselves vulnerable for a country that is mere months away from defeat?
    1
  2330. Do two wrongs make a right? Law is ultimately, like money, based in trust and when that trust is broken it is very hard to get it back. And also if a state begins breaking its own laws what does that say about it; it has in essence become lawless.
    1
  2331. If you see Christian fundamentalism in the USA in the same way you see Islamic fundamentalism, as something deliberately fostered by those at the top to divide people and to serve as the fanatical foot soldiers of elite corporate power, then you will see that the phenomenon is something that exists to preserve the status quo and serves an ulterior and quite secular purpose: to preserve Western global hegemony over both the domestic (USA, LatAm) and foreign populations (Middle East).
    1
  2332. Racism and bigotry are culturally defined and historically contingent. For instance, until recently racism (by whites against blacks) would be de rigueur in, say, the deep South of the USA and certainly during the heyday of legal chattel slavery. Similarly, antisemitism in Europe up to the post‐world war 2 era.
    1
  2333. Maybe some faction is trying to embarrass Johnson and lay the groundwork for a possible attempt to replace him by creating a scandal. That or he did know in advance but is pretending otherwise. It could very well be that he is working with a group within the White House who wish to use Britain to do things that are too risky for America to be seen doing itself.
    1
  2334. Europe is being Latin Americanised by the rentier capitalism of the USA.
    1
  2335. You mean like the terrorists known as the Stay Behind Network that were attacking Russia up until the 1950's supported by the USA and Great Britain. And insurgency by whom – neofascists? Is that who you want to support? No, an insurgency will only make things worse, and that wouldn't be good for either Russians or Ukrainians now would it?
    1
  2336. I would hope, despite the heinous crime she may have committed, that she has not been killed and that both her and (especially) her daughter are safe. Her innocence or guilt are for a court of law to determine. She may be being protected by the security services in a safe house and her death a cover story. Then again, if she is dead it may be that those same security services may be the one's that killed her. It is such a sad saga from beginning to end. Incidentally, does anyone know how her father, Alexander Dugin, is doing? I heard that he'd suffered a heart attack after witnessing the incident.
    1
  2337. Because it's going to the shadow economy and shadow banking system and not being invested prudently in the formal economy.
    1
  2338. So is this an attempt to destabilise the region?
    1
  2339. It's my opinion that the multiple crises increasingly besetting western Europe have their origins in the politically dysfunctional leadership of the USA. Because the governments of Europe are economically and politically compromised they are not able to respond to new circumstances, nor make political decisions that go against the USA.
    1
  2340. Whose national security?
    1
  2341. To negotiate (read demand) the opening of another base in the Philippines no doubt.
    1
  2342. I'm thinking along the same lines. The USA is drawing down its old munitions stocks so that it then can claim a 'munitions gap' (like the missile gap) and tell its people that it has to get a gizzillion artillery shells or it won't be able to defend itself against Iran and North Korea.
    1
  2343. If the AfD desire to see Germany conduct a foreign policy independent of the USA, or for Germany to no longer be under the thumb of the USA, then it is inevitable that they will be, by hook or by crook, prevented from exercising any real power, irrespective of whether they are extreme right wing/neo-fascist or not. • • • Wenn die AfD wünscht, dass Deutschland eine von den USA unabhängige Außenpolitik betreibt oder dass Deutschland nicht mehr unter der Fuchtel der USA steht, dann ist es unvermeidlich, dass sie auf Biegen und Brechen daran gehindert wird, wirkliche Macht auszuüben , unabhängig davon, ob sie rechtsextrem/neofaschistisch sind oder nicht.
    1
  2344. Two words: the Tories and neoliberalism.
    1
  2345. And most aren't even children but young adults above 11 (that have reached menarche).
    1
  2346. More like it had a ritual significance, like being used by priests in some form of divination; an occult object. Are they typically found close to temples dedicated to Mithras or some other deity closely associated with the Roman military?
    1
  2347. It's always interesting to know of new discoveries. We humans are so curious and inventive.
    1
  2348. Like with Turkey, membership of the European Union for Ukraine is the bait that the elite dangle in front of Zelensky to get him to do what they want him to do, even if it goes against his own country's interests.
    1
  2349.  @vasiliantonov7484  who can be considered 'white', in my opinion.
    1
  2350. And that's why the Russian Federation cannot allow that to happen. China also knows that if the Russian Federation falls it will be next, so China also cannot allow that to happen. I think that by continuing in its attempts to weaken Russia the USA will only accelerate its own economic decline and attempting to weaken both Russia and China at the same time will be something that will prove next to impossible, especially in the straitened economic circumstances that US economy now finds itself in. The USA would be better expending precious resources on maintaining its own political stability before trying to prevent countries half a world away from maintaining theirs.
    1
  2351. Soon they'll be branding you a conspiracy theorist for suggesting that US elections are anything but the fairest in the free world.
    1
  2352. Are things in the United States as a whole really getting worse, or is the problem pretty much as it's always been but now more obvious because of the way the homeless are choosing to live (in tents on sidewalks rather than in their cars, trailers and in 'hoverville' shanties — out of sight, out of mind)? What can be done and what is being done at county, state and national levels?
    1
  2353. There society became backward and was overtaken by more modern societies.
    1
  2354.  @HolyApplebutter  Or committed suicide?
    1
  2355. I'm worried what will happen when Putin is gone. Will his successor be up the task of carrying on his legacy of a strong, decisive leader or will he be another Yeltsin.
    1
  2356. The USA is straying into really dangerous territory if it's resorting to blowing up the oil and gas pipelines of its rivals, Russia and China. I would like to assume that it is Ukraine that has done this in an attempt to frame the USA but I am not sure that it is.
    1
  2357. What were these art works and were they originally Finnish? Refusing to return museum artefacts after they have been generously loaned to you is both a gross violation of trust and extremely petty.
    1
  2358. She's far too old for the position she holds and even more so if she's an alcoholic. Same goes for Biden. There should be both age limits and mental competency tests for holders of public office with those suffering from senile dementia, Alzeimers, etc. being barred from the most senior positions.
    1
  2359. ​​​ @tomtube1012  That's why China is in the crosshairs. It's already knocked the USA off the number one spot but because of statistical chicanery the USA appears to still be the world's largest economy. It's economic stats, like its unemployment and inflation stats, are a lie.
    1
  2360. It would have been faster were it not for the USA demanding that the USA and not China should be behind Britain's internet.
    1
  2361. Unfortunately, the USA and its supra-national adjuncts the EU and the UN are determined to invigilate and censor every platform on behalf of panopticon America. The various components of the transglobal *MICIMATT-Corporate complex (who dominate the EU and NATO and will no doubt in time, if they don't already, come to dominate the SCO, BRICS, etc.) want to have total control over every facet of human existence. MICIMATT – Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think Tank (complex).
    1
  2362. But would they do that short of war?
    1
  2363.  @dennisreed6345  Tell that to the Chinese and Russians. It was under centrally planned economies and collectivism that they rose from backward countries to the modern countries they are today, scaring the ×××× out of the elites in the West. Similarly, the Asian tigers led by Japan who had to be broken by the Plaza Accords because their form of state capitalism was outperforming US capitalism.
    1
  2364. ​ @中森明菜-n1b  do you condemn Hamas? /s
    1
  2365. Last time I looked it was the Israelis who were genociding the Palestinians. And as for the phrase 'from the river to the sea' is referred to what the users Israelis want, not what the Palestinians want. The phrase refers to the borders that the zionists of Israel wants.
    1
  2366. But where's the communism and socialism to combat it this time around?
    1
  2367. Not post modern ( post modernism ). Post modernism is against colonialism, imperialism, etc. and critiques it (one of the reasons it's attacked).
    1
  2368. I wonder what Mars was like then. While the Earth might have been completely uninhabitable to humans it might have been different on Mars if you were able to live there (as, say, by being a fish).
    1
  2369. Such a strategy helped destroy the Soviet Union and bring to an end communism in that country. The greatest rival to the USA – political, military, economic and idelogical – was thus brought low by this method and the working classes in all countries suffered, and continue to suffer, as a result.
    1
  2370. ​​ @mrspiderpig5832 is that the WTO that the USA has stymied by refusing to appoint a representative?
    1
  2371. I can understand a capitalist wanting to sell arms and make a killing on the oil and gas futures markets and wanting to destroy its competitors when it can't beat them in fair competition. There is nothing wrong with that ( yes there is! ) but it's clouding their judgement. Their insatiable greed and short-sightedness is leading the world to the brink.
    1
  2372. I'll drink to that!
    1
  2373. What's the difference between a depression and a recession?
    1
  2374. Because it's probably one of the several thousands of such groups funded by the military‐security apparatus outgrew USA.
    1
  2375. You mean the way the asked Iran to play by the rules. How's that working? Playing by the rules, as unfair and rigged as they are, is still no guarantee that the USA will reciprocate in kind. The USA only plays by rules when those rules suit it, usually having itself written the rules, otherwise it only plays by rules when it is forced.
    1
  2376. ​ @JupiterWisdom1111  It needs all to fight against the West in general. Singling out France while not dealing with the rest of the colonialist imperialists will get you nowhere.
    1
  2377. Do the hosts actually believe in what they are saying or are they just playing devil's advocate for their audience. Gerald reads out the official UN definition of genocide accepted by the world's nations (including Israel itself) and that the International Criminal Court has decided that Israel's actions fall under the definition of genocide and these two guys talk about protesters with posters condemning (the) genocide as equivalent to those actually in the process – as we speak – of actually committing one‽
    1
  2378. @Krawurxus What a strange thing to say.
    1
  2379.  @pfroudzdo  That sounds very plausible. Russia needs to keep the United States at at a minimum distance from its borders, especially regarding its nuclear weapons.
    1
  2380. You're a bit late to the party, the false flag has already occurred.
    1
  2381. It seems like it's you whose acting like you're entitled.
    1
  2382.  @tonyplatt1983  Time is what ultimately beat the Russians in Afghanistan. The same goes for the USA in Vietnam (and Afghanistan). Besides, the people who did the false flag of nine‐eleven and their associates had made their killing in Afghanistan and elsewhere and it was now time to move on to greener pastures.
    1
  2383.  @miketaylor5212  And why should they? The Taliban are also Afghans and people tend to prefer being ruled by their own rather than by foreigners.
    1
  2384.  @---fq2kd  И Ельцин.
    1
  2385. Common sense really.
    1
  2386. This happens when you take too many Covid shots.
    1
  2387. Many faults? What if the main fault is that capitalism is destroying and enslaving the human race? Is that a fault that we should put up with? Are there really no alternatives that are better? Death of the human race or death of capitalism, would you rather humanity die just so you can have mindless consumerism and artificial scarcity? ○ What about 'impure' socialism (i.e. real world socialism)?
    1
  2388. Strictly speaking.... Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) considers itself Chinese. That should tell you enough.
    1
  2389. ​ @BRAINSPLATTER16  Sounds like... wage slavery (what we have now).
    1
  2390. Western media reminds me of the newspapers of the Great War, filled with outrageous lies and distortions.
    1
  2391. The Japanese government should mandate all local councils conduct a survey of properties at risk in their area and take suitable remedial measures. Surely people know that building on a hillside of made up of unconsolidated earth can have problems when it rains heavily or there is an earthquake. My heartfelt condolences and best wishes go out to those who are effected.
    1
  2392. Does that apply to German swastikas and other NDSAP motifs? To your eyes that Union flag may represent all that is good, but to the people you conquer and oppress it's like a German swastika, and not only to foreigners and immigrants, but to ethnic Germans themselves (those who are not on board with fascism).
    1
  2393. They don't want to antagonise the inhabitants of Ukraine because in my opinion they are planning to take most of it over and incorporate it into the Russian Federation, de facto or de jure.
    1
  2394. Isn't it a bit moot if the tank turret is blown off? I mean it's not as if the tank, any tank, will be much good after a direct hit from a modern anti-tank weapon.
    1
  2395. So he's actually Chinese-American (Republic of China = Chinese).
    1
  2396. I heard his account was reinstated.
    1
  2397. ​ @sergeykish Korea invaded itself?
    1
  2398. ​ @sergeykish ... and the USA the other half.
    1
  2399. ​ @sergeykish  Korea invading itself sounds preposterous on the face of it but westerners think it's okay to draw lines on maps, create new (puppet) states that serve their interests and then talk about how borders are sacrosanct and how wrong it is to violate them. Hypocrisy of the highest order.
    1
  2400. What about Trump?
    1
  2401. He serves the bankers. And the bankers don't care about the rest of us.
    1
  2402. ​​ @iRelevant.47.system.boycott  Don't be so sure of that. It could be nothing more than just another organisation created by the globalists, an eastern version of the European Union.
    1
  2403. What are ICANN and IANA?
    1
  2404. Presidents of the USA do not necessarily have full control over setting the agenda in cases like this. Other state actors often have a bigger say.
    1
  2405. You mean like the market forces that outsource their own country's manufacturing to other countries, creating mass unemployment in their wake.
    1
  2406. "Westards." 😆
    1
  2407. Let’s face it, Joseph Biden is not the real head of the United States, he’s but a figurehead. Which leaves open the question: who IS the real head of the US government right now? Is it Kamala Harris?
    1
  2408. But countries are already trading with each other in their own local currencies, something that will only increase over time. And as this trend gathers pace we will see more and more countries using local currencies to transact business in, which will make the relative share of US dollars decline over time. Of course, other countries will still use dollars when doing business with the United States itself and it will still be a, or the, major preferred currency of exchange until an alternative becomes more desirable. The aim isn't to replace the United States dollar as the international reserve currency in the short term but rather to supplement it with local currencies to better facilitate international trade.
    1
  2409. This is not aimed at China but Europe and elsewhere. The USA will probably get its strategic materials domestically, from non-Chinese sources, or from China, either openly or through third parties like India. Europe should not follow the USA and should not sanction thee PRC.
    1
  2410. ​ @ujwal8240  But it is due to western influence. Without the West it probably would not exist or would have taken on a uniquely indigenous form. Before contact with the West this was not an issue. The modern concept of human rights and women's rights are something that comes almost exclusively from the West and is often weaponised and turned into a full-on assault on the culture of others, an example being Islam and its role in resisting western neo-imperialism. It's often derided as out-of-date and the societies that are predominantly Muslim being in some way backward and in need of development. What may start of as genuine concern and a desire to help ends up as being just another form of imperialism, this time cultural rather than economic.
    1
  2411. ​ @lazeenah the way we all do?
    1
  2412.  @carlabroderick5508  The USA you mean. Its empire in Europe would be in ruins á la world wars 1 and 2 while the economy of the USA would be doing fine. And the plutocrats in the USA would be able to execute Operation Reset exactly as planned.
    1
  2413. When the Saudis start refusing US dollars rather than merely selling oil in other currencies is what I'm waiting for.
    1
  2414. How many generations must pass before an immigrant group can claim residency rights? And how big does an immigrant demographic have to be vis‐à‐vis the locals before they can expect respect of their culture by the host culture?
    1
  2415.  @loveblindhate9318  The 15th century was not the dark ages but the high middle ages.
    1
  2416.  @loveblindhate9318  The 16th‐17th centuries are considered by most western historians as the beginnings of the early modern period and the one or two centuries immediately preceding it as the late – or high – middle ages. The dark ages were, at least in Europe, from the fall of the Roman empire in the 5th century to around the circa 7th century and certainly no later than the 10th. I think you are referring to the period western historians call the medieval period (10‐11th century to 15‐16th century) which is also known as the middle ages.
    1
  2417. Neo-facists or techno-feudalists.
    1
  2418. Europe under the domination of the United States controlled NATO and European Union is practically in an semi-declared war against the Russian Federation.
    1
  2419.  @artus198  Yes, we completely agree on that.
    1
  2420.  @seanzibonanzi64  And Africa is the first cradle of all human civilisation.
    1
  2421. The Green Party of Germany is probably a fake party created by U.S. intelligence designed to cause divisions in the German political system and act as a break on moves by Germany's political class of attaining too much sovereignty over its own foreign policy. Sabotaging Germany's economy by shutting off cheap gas from Ukraine and Russia whilst simultaneously shutting down or limiting alternatives (like nuclear power) un the name of saving the planet is a great way of doing this as it makes Germany dependent on the USA and its allies.
    1
  2422. Starmer is an American-Israeli shill. That and probably a WEF/Davos shill as well.
    1
  2423. They don't care. They threw Greece under the bus during the debt crisis they created and they'll do it again if it suits them.
    1
  2424. The Russians are using attrition rather than annihilation as their strategy. It's all just a question of time.
    1
  2425. I've been thinking the same. 😆
    1
  2426. The pressure is too high and the temperature too hot to terraform.
    1
  2427. Turkey? Isn't turkey within the western camp?
    1
  2428. Legalisation backed by strict regulation, good evidence‐backed education and pragmatic implementation is what is probably needed.
    1
  2429. The German government should do everything within its power to facilitate the speedy repair of both pipelines and the resumption of gas flows to their country and contribute as much funding and technical assistance as is necessary in a joint German-Russian reconstruction project and thereby send the strongest message that they do not support this outrageous act of sabotage. The Germans should not allow their politicians to sacrifice their nation's industry and the wellbeing of their citizens on the alter of American geopolitics.
    1
  2430. Britain earning brownie points from the USA.
    1
  2431. How much of the foreign and domestic policy of the USA crafted by the permanent government of the deep state as opposed to being crafted by political parties/ leaders? Makes one wonder.
    1
  2432. Or China...?
    1
  2433. If you ask me the only reason Turkey became hostile to Syria and invaded and occupied part of it in the first place was primarily because the United States wanted it. That and the US-sponsored Kurds doing things to provoke and antagonise Turkey (again, probably because the USA wanted Turkey to go into Syria) .
    1
  2434. Hopefully, yes. Perhaps France needs another Dien Ben Phu moment but this time delivered by black sub-Saharan Africans. And maybe we can have a reprise of the Vietnam war where yet again the USA loses, but this time for good.
    1
  2435. Would the United States have expanded NATO?
    1
  2436. But we have moved on from the bronze age.
    1
  2437. Maybe a Gorbachev-like figure will emerge in US politics who will engage in that country's equivalent of Glasnost and Perestroika, opening up the United States to the world (the East) the way that Russia opened up to the West, albeit without all the social dislocation that Russia experienced. A more moderate economic and political system on both sides of the Atlantic (and the Pacific too) might then emerge, one which can combine with other world powers in tackling global problems like hunger and homelessness.
    1
  2438. What will the consequences be if the USA doesn't come to the negotiating table, doesn't agree on anything substantive? What options do the Russians have short of some sort of military action to discourage the USA from further attempts to subvert the countries that border Russia?
    1
  2439. Thanks
    1
  2440. It's the de facto defeat of the USA in the Korean war that set the country on its path of imperialism, ultimately leading to the disastrous wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan. The US elite never got over it. The sooner the USA gets back to the largely non-inteventionist foreign policy it practiced prior to world war 1 and largely stays out of European affairs the better.
    1
  2441. ​ @dr.vsrevolutionwillnotbepe405  chattel slavery was replaced by wage slavery, which was pioneered by Britain during its industrial revolution. So to say the British ended slavery is a bit disingenuous. Much better to say they ended – for entirely cynical economic reasons and then only on their terms – just one kind of slavery while creating or maintaining many others (eg. peonage, share-cropping, indentured labour, debt bondage, penal servitude with labour).
    1
  2442. Your comment makes no sense. The people of south west Asia (Middle East) or also predominantly 'white' (Caucasian).
    1
  2443. Probably they meant that there is not enough gas to be sold at prices the EU can afford or is willing to pay, though there is also probably not enough gas (or oil) for export from the USA overall. I think the USA wants to make Europe overly dependent on it for energy needs while cutting out the Russian Federation and its allies. Apropos, what appears to be a systematic closing down of Europe's own means of domestic energy generation (gas- and oil‐driven power stations, nuclear power stations) under the rationale of global anthropogenic climate change may be part of a cynical plan to weaken Europe and even the rest of the world. Alternative energy sources like hydroelectric, solar, hydrogen , battery and wind power are not yet developed enough to take up the slack and probably won't be for at least another decade.
    1
  2444. Religions, like organisms, evolve. Or go extinct. Simple as. [And this is the case even if your don't subscribe to the scientific theory evolution.]
    1
  2445. You're assuming without question the idea of progress and that it is inevitable and universal and involves constant technological development, seeing it as both possible and desirable. There may, however, be constraints on development, or development may go through long periods of stagnation lasting centuries or millenia.
    1
  2446.  @miguelarribas9990  It worked only because the United States became the biggest kid on the block and defanged the most warlike states in western Europe, Britain, France and Germany, while Russia did the same in the East. The cost is being a puppet of the USA.
    1
  2447. Eastern Europeans tend to be very pro-EU because as members of 'Second World' Europe and thus relatively underdeveloped their economies and comprador elites are dependent on the more developed 'First World' Europe for their standard of living. As a result western Europe (dominated by the USA) has established something akin to a quasi-colonial relationship with its eastern half. The media and education systems are very pro-EU and pro-NATO, staunchly anti-communist and generally right wing, and all, of course, under the thumb of western financial institutions such as the IMF and the watchful gaze of the deep state of the USA.
    1
  2448. Fatwas can be reversed as circumstances change. It's not like it's written in stone. The declaration of no nuclear weapons development by Iran was for purposes of political expediency, nothing more; politics trumps theology every time. If Iran can develop nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them effectively to the West before it's destroyed, conquered or otherwise seriously degraded in the manner of Iraq and Libya then, rest assured, it will. The calculation of the Iranian leadership is one of can we get away with it, do we have enough time before we're stopped by preemptive nuclear, conventional or unconventional attack.
    1
  2449.  @richardscathouse  Better more, North Stream. But that would put them into conflict with Germany and a slew of other countries. Too risky, IMO.
    1
  2450. Anyone willing to bet that there will be a SECOND referendum and that, if there is, the remainers will win by a comfortable margin. It won't be the first time that such a thing has happened.
    1
  2451. Bank of International Settlements.
    1
  2452. The teenager was invented in the 1950’s and came of age in the 1960’s, so this really was a time of transition. Before then, and certainly before the 1940’s, what we refer to as teenagers were more or less just adults and little different from anyone else. Even today in much of the world the teenager barely exists with young people being exposed to life’s hardships from childhood and never going through an artificially prolonged adolescence.
    1
  2453. His brain has been adled by too much drug taking.
    1
  2454.  @feverdreams3677  Aren't these problems though brought about as much by industrialisation, something that all countries both capitalist and socialist have to inevitably go through as a stage of their development, as by capitalism? Can the current economic system be uniquely blamed for pollution and destruction of the environment? Though capitalism may exacerbate the problems and do little to provide solutions would socialism, also reliant presumably on industrialisation, be much better? How and why?
    1
  2455. Asia‐Pacific. China and Taiwan are in the Pacific ocean, not the Indian ocean. The phrase Indo‐Pacific is being used by US government sources to imply that India should have primary influence in the region and not China. It's calculated to get the Indians to support the geostrategic aims of the United States by suggesting that the Chinese are encroaching on India's backyard.
    1
  2456. ​ @Leonard-td5rn it's called infanticide – getting rid of unwanted babies, typically because they're physically handicapped. Today we call it abortion and declare it to be an inviolable human right. So, does the the West practice child sacrifice? I bet you'd say no. A better example would be the Aztecs and the Inca; now they did practice human sacrifice, as well as infanticide.
    1
  2457. I'm told that scientists conducted tests a little while back into the idea of human free will and found that we actually don't have it (or at least not as much or in the way that we'd like to think we have). And yet everyone, including the scientists themselves, trained though they were in the scientific method, continue to believe in free will despite the evidence to the contrary, the human brain simply unwilling to believe in anything that would suggest a world that, under certain circumstances, is wholly or partly deterministic.
    1
  2458. Lindsey Graham is a minor player in the US political system. His actions would only mean something if and when used in conjunction with consensual support of other members of Congress. As for the sponsorship of the bill by Lindsey Graham, probably he's merely being used as a front for the Zionists and or the war faction of the Pentagon/MIC.
    1
  2459. In a pseudo-democracy like Britain you don't need charisma or charm, no more than they need it in China.
    1
  2460. Zelensky is a puppet; he's not in charge. A committee of arch neocons who apparently don't want to negotiate.
    1
  2461. Make no mistake about our, the People's Republic of China does indeed consider the island of Taiwan as Chinese territory, as does practically the entire international community.
    1
  2462. The EU commission will simply ignore the rules or rewrite them. It will not have been the first time such a thing has happened. Like with EU accounting, they'll just get 'creative' with the rules.
    1
  2463. Yes, I tend to agree. Outstanding in my very humble opinion.
    1
  2464. A "willingness to work" (which must be qualified by the words "for capitalists") based on fear of starvation if you don't is not and never has been a morally good argument, nor one that is empirically true. You are dressing up an economic necessity (the 'need' to work) in the language of morality.
    1
  2465. But where will this communism come from? All the major countries, including China, Russia and India, all appear to be corporate-capitalist in character. I'm sure the fledgling bourgeoisie in Russia would fight tooth and nail to stop it returning, and the Chinese don't appear too keen on its return either. Such countries are more likely to form an alliance against a communist power than side with it. At best we will have two kinds of capitalist, neoliberal and non-neoliberal, arguing over who will get the bigger slice of the pie.
    1
  2466. I thought so too. 🍻🏰🤎
    1
  2467. Chinese and Russians seem to have done okay. Cubans too.
    1
  2468.  @shauncameron8390  Isn't that the same USA that's been embargoing Cuba these last 60 years or so? And why would Cuba need USAID in the first place if it wasn't under sanctions?
    1
  2469. Why are you using underscores? It looks stupid and makes it hard to read your writing. Stop it! Do you really think that censors, human or AI, can't tell what you're saying? Do you really think they're that stupid that they can be fooled so easily? It's like spelling the word "shit" as "S@_t". I know what it means, a potential censor knows what it means, and I'm quite sure an AI algorithm can detect it.
    1
  2470. Presumably it will be the Russians themselves that will be the ones operating the air defence system until the Iranians are fully trained in its use. Indeed, the technology may be too much of a security risk to allow otherwise (don't want the technology falling into the hands of the Israelis).
    1
  2471.  lesia gutierrez  the Holodamor is German propaganda belonging to the National Socialist period being regurgitated by the United States. It's been debunked. Of course, if you are a supporter of the neo-National Socialist government in Kiev, the one that's collaborating Stepan Bandeira-like with the crypto-fascist USA, then I suppose you are inclined to believe it. However, research will refute the idea that the Holodamor was something done deliberately by the Russians with the intention of exterminating ethnic Ukrainians living in Ukraine.
    1
  2472. Perhaps the inhabitants were atheist. The absence of places of worship and places of power is curious. Perhaps they haven't recognised temples or state buildings when they've seen them. It perhaps also gives weight to the theory that organised religion largely grew out of the need for leaders to harness its power to serve political ends.
    1
  2473. Alex Miletic: I bet the Denisovans and Neanderthals would have said the same to the 'invasion' of continental Europe by Homo Sapiens, of which you, I presume, are one.
    1
  2474. As regards the story of a soldier belonging to the German regular army being captured, I think (if it's true) that it might be some sort of psyop by the Germans themselves to either embarass their own government and paving the way for a change in policy, or to make it so that the Russians will be less likely to cooperate with the Germans.
    1
  2475. Agreed, but in all fairness ECOWAS is an African institution, albeit one that seems to be under the influence of certain western countries.
    1
  2476. All states follow the same basic principles in their exercise of power and no state is going to interfere in another state's exercise of such power lest its own such exercise of power is also brought into question. So don't expect India, China, Russia, or anyone else to do anything beyond token criticism.
    1
  2477. Unfortunately, the US biolabs are located all over the world, producing bioweapons and presumably testing them on the local population in defiance of the biological and chemical weapons conventions. Of course, Russia will be very circumspect in what it reveals to the world's public and will almost certainly not be too explicit in its accusations.
    1
  2478. His take on Stalin 'disappearing' classical economics (value theory and labour theory) is interesting. I wonder what Trotsky's and Lenin's take on Marxist theory were.
    1
  2479.  @lukasmurch6976  but then wouldn't 'big electric' step in and take their place?
    1
  2480. What side is China backing? Simple: itself.
    1
  2481. So basically what your saying is by far and away the vast majority of the 7 billion people who live on this planet are inferior to the 1 billion that you belong to. But you're not being racist or xenophobic, chauvinistic or ethnocentric when you point this out, merely truthful and empirical. So, what eugenic policies should the superior peoples of planet Earth adopt whereby they can best facilitate the rest of humanities progress?
    1
  2482. Okay, here's your 50 cents (or should they be pence?).
    1
  2483. I agree. And I wish you success in dealing with your bank. It's your money and you should have easy access to it.
    1
  2484. To be fair Turkey stands at the crossroads between Europe and Asia and any leader of that country would have to vacillate and play a duplicitous game. As for Saudi Arabia, they are mere puppets of the USA unless Russia and/or China show a willingness to actively undermine the USA's influence.
    1
  2485. Culture might be used as a (highly debatable) reason why a given nation is not as 'advanced' as another, but not race. Race is meaningless from a genetic (anthropological) point of view.
    1
  2486. During the civil war or revolution that the USA might well eventually have then I'm sure other countries will interfere.
    1
  2487. The Americans and/or Bilderbergs/Davos.
    1
  2488. They were used by western intelligence agencies as fronts to bring down the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact and when they had served their purpose they were abandoned. Genuine opposition is quickly infiltrated, subverted and, if it survives at all, becomes controlled opposition.
    1
  2489. But what of China and Russia, the BRICS? Aren't they capitalist?
    1
  2490. Hopefully you're right!
    1
  2491. The man in blue is to politics what #KenethHam is to religion – a delusional fundamentalist of the first order.
    1
  2492. From reading another's post I am given to understand that approximately 20,000 French people had been killed in allied Air raids that month. Maybe these women had lost friends and relatives and wanted revenge. It's hard to be grateful to those who've just killed your entire family, liberators or not. Raw emotions come to the fore in such circumstances.
    1
  2493.  @camaro67-l1g  you mean the USA changed the rules (by means of a coup d'état).
    1
  2494. mRNA 'vaccines' / gene therapies comes to mind.
    1
  2495. The West pushing neo-Malthusianism really screwed China. They bought into the overpopulation b.s. hook, line and sinker. India seems to have fallen for it as well. In fact... the whole world. Bill and Melinda Gates are overjoyed.
    1
  2496. He's the elected leader of his union, carrying out the mandate given to him by its members.
    1
  2497. One of the reasons for the invasion of Afghanistan – an invasion that has killed directly or indirectly upwards of a million people and displaced many more – was because the Afghans banned the production of opium, cutting off a source of funding for the CIA and its mercenary armies.
    1
  2498.  @wizard-of-other-oz  ☹ 😝
    1
  2499. ​ @weepingcamel1 not so much boycott but blockade. If Europe doesn't want to trade with China that's fine by the Chinese, they'll just trade with the rest of Asia, but if certain countries want to actively shut down voluntary trade through war that's another matter entirely.
    1
  2500. The European Union, like NATO, is ultimately an institution created and controlled by the USA. Like the United Nations, also created by the USA, it serves American interests by either actively supporting its foreign policy goals, or passively standing aside while being ignored.
    1
  2501. And female circumcision... for religious reasons?
    1
  2502. For the purpose of mockery, stemming from the desire on the part of some to censor the letter 'Z' (painted on some Russian tanks) .
    1
  2503. China: hold my beer! Russia: hold my beer!
    1
  2504. The USA is applying the same playbook in Europe that it applied in the Middle East and Latin America. The deep state of the USA wants to cause chaos in Europe and Asia and reduce the economies of both through war, corruption and bankruptcy to a status similar to what they had in the aftermath of world wars 1 & 2 with the USA coming out on top.
    1
  2505. Those loans, if they ever materialise, are either money-laundering/slush fund schemes, or they are tied-aid designed to flow right back into the EU's coffers.
    1
  2506. Is this brinkmanship designed to test how far Russia and China will tolerate the USA asserting its geopolitical interests over west Asia at their expense?
    1
  2507. The problem there is if the US dollar becomes worthless then nobody will want to be left with money they can't spend. What's more, if the dollar crashes and there is high or even hyper-inflation, the USA is itself likely to become a dictorship. It's almost there already with a Congress and military‐industrial complex that ignores the needs of its citizens and only 2 factions of what is in effect a single party, with semi-rigged elections.
    1
  2508. With indifference I should imagine. Now China, that's another story.
    1
  2509.  @johnnyrvf  Though their interests may coincide to a degree I think that China will be more circumspect than Russia because I don't think it will be under as much pressure by the USA to conform as the latter, at least not initially, by virtue of its extensive trade with the US and the degree of interdependency that exists between them. That is, it will be much harder for the United States to disconnect from China as quickly or in the same manner as the way in which it has done with Russia; China's got a lot more power, both hard and soft, vis-a-vis the United States versus Russia, in my opinion.
    1
  2510. Maybe they can convert the bridge into a high speed railway line or tramway.
    1
  2511. What happens when it needs to buy foreign goods and resources and its dollar is not accepted?
    1
  2512. Without Russian support he was doomed. The Russians in retrospect gave too little, too late, always half-heartedly and ultimately realised their mistake and called it quits. Like in Libya, they either were caught napping or were never fully committed in the first place (presumably because of the more immediate distraction of Ukraineright in their doorstep). Let's be honest with ourselves: Russia is not going to save the world. Russia is not some white knight on a horse who will save the pretty maiden from being ravished by the wolves.
    1
  2513. Chinese coolies. Railroads.
    1
  2514. Yes, but they can be used by the USA and/or the European Union to break up the United Kingdom when it becomes expedient. Ditto for their Welsh and Irish counterparts. Think Yugoslavia.
    1
  2515. I think this business with Yemen and between the Palestinians and the Israelis is all theatre, pre- planned like the destruction of the North Stream pipelines and other acts by planners at the Pentagon to cause worldwide food and fuel shortages and increases in commodity prices, as well as political instability and economic depression (better for the bankers and the IMF).
    1
  2516. They are both a response to the failure of capitalism with one, communism, trying to find a radical alternative to it and the other, fascism, just doubling down and acting as a counter-revolutionary force hellbent on perpetuating the status quo.
    1
  2517. China and Russia should do as much as they can to keep Pakistan stable, if necessary warning Pakistan's generals against attempting a coup and perhaps doing what they did in Turkey by forewarning Erdogan leading him to purge the army and civil service. They should also work to incentivise India to put aside the differences between the two countries and show their whole‐hearted support for constitutionalism and adherence to the rule of law within Pakistan such that they wouldn't take kindly to a junta on their doorstep.
    1
  2518. I thought I was the only one to think that the wallpaper wasn't the best, aesthetically speaking. I agree, a new, brighter wallpaper is needed.
    1
  2519. Could go both ways.
    1
  2520. Unfortunately, as they create digital money out of thin air it's not a problem for them. The problem is that this currency, despite being essentially worthless, can still buy mens lives.
    1
  2521. Because it's profitable. That is how evil capitalism and its offshoot fascism are.
    1
  2522. The eurocracy are clearly determined to force the issue over whether drivers go over to electric powered vehicles.
    1
  2523. Americans. Like the one ring in the Lord Of The Rings it was designed to lock in the countries of Europe and destroy their sovereignty. How can you be sovereign if you can't even issue your own currency! It also props up the US dollar as the Euro is linked to it and is not allowed to compete with it.
    1
  2524. English: Ratify. Chinese: 批准. Hindi: पुष्टि करना).
    1
  2525. The USA certainly does. And almost succeeded at the turn of the century. What do you think NATO is for? There's no Warsaw Pact anymore yet it keeps on expanding.
    1
  2526. Or they could take the their Jews back (many of them come from Russia). They even had a Jewish SSR under president Stalin I do believe. They could have one again.
    1
  2527.  @shepherdsknoll8  Why would you expect a self-proclaimed communist government to even need such things as property rights, intellectual property rights and the like? In the Chinese communist party's conception of things its people already own the means of production and distribution through their affiliation with the state working on their behalf for the public good of the majority rather than the private good of a minority.
    1
  2528. Perhaps it's not racism as such so much as cultural chauvinism – the conviction that one's own culture is morally or in some other way superior to another.
    1
  2529. All the ex‐Soviet/Warsaw Pact countries of eastern and central Europe were infiltrated by the intelligence assets of NATO and the USA and when the Berlin Wall fell those assets through their fake NGO's and western‐backed political parties and politicians orchestrated in effect a rapid series of what today would be called colour revolutions, putting into power pro‐NATO and pro‐EU governments (i.e. the military and political arms respectively of the USA), thus cementing the hegemony of the United States over the continent.
    1
  2530. A nation state defending its borders from foreign aggression (and colour revolutions, hybrid warfare, paramilitary invasions ARE all forms of aggression) orchestrated from thousands of miles away is entirely legitimate.
    1
  2531. But then you would only have warmongers and war — like Germany and Japan had in recent history. Look what happened to them.
    1
  2532. Doesn't matter how fancy they are, if they can be sunk by just 1 or 2 missiles or torpedoes, or disabled by jamming. Also, nuclear submarines can also go for years without refueling.
    1
  2533. It's a neologism created by the Christian right in the United States of America in an attempt to conflate Judaism (more correctly, Zionism) with Christianity and thereby imply that, like with the term Greco-Roman, that it's a integral part of the Western world's heritage and that as such westerners should defend it and Israel wholeheartedly. In short, it's an attempt to garner support for the imperialism of the United States through its proxy Israel and to garner influence for the Israel lobby in the United States by linking Judaism and (fundamentalist) Christianity together in opposition to Islam, the Islam of the Palestinians and of the Arab countries bordering Israel in particular. It's a fallacy. Don't fall for it. Judaism and Christianity are two wholly separate religions.
    1
  2534. Parasitic rentierism such as banking are choking the economy. When you have to pay one fictitious unit of currency in interest for every unit of currency representing real value in the economy your debt becomes unsustainable and your currency worthless. Then comes inflation and hyperinflation.
    1
  2535.  @philsterthephilster  And if the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and northern Ireland breaks up, then 'Great' Britain will be great no more.
    1
  2536. Tell that to all those people who have polluted water supplies caused by fracking (Flint, Michigan) or oil pipelines built across Native American reservations.
    1
  2537. Neye atıfta bulunuyorsun?
    1
  2538. I wonder if the Germans will mutiny. Or defect. Or desert.
    1
  2539.  @HarrySmith-hr2iv  But that debt would be repudiated during a war. And I don't think anyone believes for a moment that the USA can repay, or has any intention of repaying, that debt.
    1
  2540. But sanctions were entirely unnecessary. The JCPOA was proof of that.. The success of diplomacy over sabre-rattling led to a mutually agreed upon modus vivendi which, if it hadn't been sabotaged by the pro-Israel faction, would have allowed both Iran and the United States to have had somewhat normalised relations and have settled any outstanding issues.
    1
  2541. Who will they pay when Ukraine defaults, the USA?
    1
  2542. All this is just a distraction for what's happening behind the scenes. Late stage capitalism is transitioning into global corporatism.
    1
  2543. I don't think the Russians are using cluster munitions because as far as I'm aware they are banned under a weapons convention of which I think Russia is a signatory (though I could be wrong). They also don't need to use them as more conventional munitions can do the job just as well.
    1
  2544.  @jackneuman5108  Whether Russia is or is not a signatory is irrelevant for the simple reason that cluster munitions aren't being used by Russia in Ukraine. □ And I don't think Russia is suffering from ammunition shortages either as artillery has so far played a key role in Russian military strategy and has proven very effective in destroying Ukrainian tanks and inflicting massive casualties on Ukraine's army. □ I also don't think that the Russians are using cluster bombs because they simply aren't needed no matter how effective they much be under certain circumstances and Russia doesn't want to use them anyway for reasons of public relations (a moral/propaganda victory over the USA and Ukraine).
    1
  2545. Cite your source and we'll see whether it can be trusted or not. And even if the Russians are using cluster munitions it would be entirely understandable given their use by the Ukrainians.
    1
  2546. Perhaps world war two could serve as an example. The USA's military production totally outpaced that of the Germans and the Japanese.
    1
  2547. Putin did it. Biden to declare war on the Russian Federation. /s
    1
  2548. The aforementioned institutions are all one and the same.
    1
  2549. That will probably change as technology improves and we gain a more accurate picture of what's actually out there with regards to rocky planets. I think it's just a question of time.
    1
  2550. Perhaps not coincidentally that's also about the same length of time that the average dynasty in monarchical systems lasts.
    1
  2551. It was common in the 18th century in Britain, especially by the navy.
    1
  2552. It reminds me of the ancient Roman Republic and the peculiar way in which its government institutions incentivised the state to become ever more militaristic to the point that it became a tyranny and over time its economy collapsed because of its continuous war mongering and expansion of its empire to a size that it could not adequately defend.
    1
  2553. The Soviet Union tried that, turning swords into ploughshares, and the USA shat on it. Now we have Ukraine.
    1
  2554. The flaw in that argument is that the Japanese Self-Defence force IS and always WAS a standing military. Don't be fooled by its apparently innocuous name. The post-war US government also put back in power the very people who were most responsible for committing war crimes against US POW's.
    1
  2555. To prop up the real estate market, banks and hedge funds; engage in tax evasion; launder money, and make sure the money is not used to fund any organisation or government that threatens US hegemony. To wit, to further western interests.
    1
  2556. If you hold a gun to their head and threaten them with sanctions, coups and whatnot they just might.
    1
  2557. They are thinking long term.
    1
  2558. They have no choice. Colonies of an empire invariably take on aspects of the core culture of the imperium. The IMF, United Nations, European Union, as well as the multitude of private and public organisations are directly or indirectly controlled or otherwise under the influence, of the US deep state and thus have global reach, are pervasive and, together with the domination of the world's mass media, academia and think tanks by the Anglosphere, dominate public discourse.
    1
  2559. "Always took the wrong side"...‽ Beating Russia in the Russo‐Japanese war was, I would argue, hardly a case of taking the wrong side. Au contraire, it put Japan on a par with the major European powers of the day and earned it immense respect and prestige. Neither was the Meiji restoration that preceded it in so far as it forestalled Japan from becoming a vassal state of the Europeans or the USA in the way that its much bigger neighbour did. Japan's war in the Asia‐Pacific region with the USA and the European colonial powers of Britain, France and the Netherlands was also a legitimate war to protect Japanese economic interests from attack by the West. After all, if you aspire to be a successful modern country you need an empire and colonies to exploit and parasitise. That is how the West became successful and if you're going to emulate the West then, naturally, you should get yourself an empire.
    1
  2560. Apparently it would seem not, at least if they fall under the shadow of the USA.
    1
  2561. A civil war? Ah! A few 'riots', the name given routinely to any disturbance in Britain involving more than a dozen people, isn't going to lead anywhere except a reduction in whatever civil liberties we have left. Why, these riots may even have been created by agents provocateurs and egged on by a certain political party and a certain news station, both of which suspiciously appeared recently on the British political scene seemingly out of nowhere, popularising just this sort of right wing nuttery and barely disguised crypto-fascism, routinely used as an excuse for curtailing civil rights (in so far as they exist where political threats to the status quo are concerned).
    1
  2562.  @SuanLuang  They are doing exactly what the USA does in Latin America and did in Vietnam and Iraq: deliberately attack soft – that is civilian – targets, a crime under international law.
    1
  2563. It's a combination of carrot and stick. It's a case of getting the balance right.
    1
  2564. The USA will find itself increasingly unable, even by proxy or by attacking third countries, of dominating the world outside its near abroad such that by the end of this century China and Russia will be the dominant powers with France and Germany playing second fiddle.
    1
  2565. ​ @T15L94 Actually they didn't. There was no Babylonian captivity either. You must learn to tell historical fact from mythological fiction.
    1
  2566. ​ @FWAKWAKKA  And his sidekick too.
    1
  2567. History is imbued with ideological, and philosophical undercurrents (implicit biases)that effect how world events are presented and cannot be separated from the sociocultural context of the country in which it is taught. It thus reflects a given culture's prejudices. What historians present as value-neutral incontrovertible historical facts are just intellectual constructs serving an ulterior agenda. The fact that no one is aware of it or wants to admit it does not make it less so. To wit, history is a weapon wielded by the state for its own purposes to indoctrinate those being taught a certain world view that furthers its goals.
    1
  2568.  @uwekonnigsstaddt524  When will neoliberals and their pernicious ideology finally be discredited?
    1
  2569. The Russians don't want to over-extend themselves. For this reason they may very well chose not to help the junta in Niger.
    1
  2570. ​ @lynb2039 what is?
    1
  2571. They went underground and bided their time, secretly plotting to overthrow the increasingly liberal trend in US society that peaked with the election of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Communism and socialism, together with the labour, civil rights and feminist movements — movements that gave a voice to the working class — were making too many inroads into American society for the conservatives, religious and big business to stomach.
    1
  2572. 1. It can be confiscated. 2. You can't eat it.
    1
  2573. Unscrewed _ Up I would hardly say having enough children to make up for likely losses due to child mortality is dumb. If the likelihood of having at least 1 of your children dying before reaching adulthood is high then it makes sense to, at the very least, have at least 2 and even more so if, having survived to adulthood, they still have a good chance of dying young. When you also factor in such things as the need for manual labour (farming, etc.) and the need to have someone to take care of infants and the elderly, having quite a large family makes sense.
    1
  2574. Aren't the two opposites? It's like communist-fascist except where capitalism is a watered down version of fascism and socialism is a watered down version of communism. I'm not saying that a hybrid of the two isn't possible (indeed is likely, syncretism is universal in the world of ideas, thinkers are always borrowing from each other) but I think an entirely different approach or system needs to come into being. Apropos was there ever such a thing as capitalist-feudalism in the early modern period, say the 16th-17th centuries? Some say feudalism (neo-feudalism) is an idea that's becoming very fashionable with the elites these days.
    1
  2575. 1. Who are the Houthis? 2. Why are they rebels – who or what are they rebelling against?
    1
  2576.  @CitrusMoon  couldn't agree more.
    1
  2577. You sound like a Wikipedia article. Marcos stole billions from his country and left it in the pitiful condition it's in now. The Philippines is still recovering from his malfeasance.
    1
  2578. ​ @mukkaar education would be the death of their culture. Just as 'westernisation' involves the denigration and destruction and reconstruction in the West's image of non-western societies. Just ask the Indians/Native Americans/First Nations people. Westernisation was then and still is now equated with civilisation and it still is considered perfectly normal for westerners to think of themselves as representing the final stage in humanity's evolution. Asia, led by the Chinese, is about to give the West a rude awakening though.
    1
  2579. Some would say depression, though that word appears to be taboo.
    1
  2580. So has the United States. Your point?
    1
  2581. The titular presidents of the USA are not really in charge. Foreign policy stays basically the same whoever sits in the White House. It would be naive to believe differently.
    1
  2582.  @doktormcnasty  But what would you criticise them for in the first place?
    1
  2583. I didn't see any fighting, fierce or otherwise. This is clickbait!
    1
  2584. India is still basically a non-aligned and neutral country. It keeps all sides happy but does not commit and it will take more than petty border disputes between India and China for there to be anything that will change that in the foreseeable future, in my opinion.
    1
  2585. ​ @LoanwordEggcorn  Is that why the USA is in economic decline... because of its the centrally planned (by capitalist corporations) military‐industrial complex?
    1
  2586. At this late stage in Britain's history it is little more than a client state and protege of the United States on the one hand and an impotent vassal of the European Union on the other.
    1
  2587. Propaganda. Of a fairly crude kind. Okay when used on Europeans in the 19th and early 20th centuries but not so much today. Audiences are a little more sophisticated these days. Well, a least some of us are.
    1
  2588. ​ @visualcycles have you ever heard of Japan?
    1
  2589. Are you referring to Mikhail Gorbachev, the former president of the Soviet Union?
    1
  2590. Neoliberalism (for the majority) doesn't work. Full stop. It ends up wrecking the economy.
    1
  2591. 14:59 Biden isn't in charge and doesn't make the decisions. His personal feelings are irrelevant. Those who are in charge have alienated their peer rivals, the Chinese and Russians due entirely to ideology and imperial hubris. The United States is like the late Roman empire in that it has lost its ability to negotiate with its potential enemies.
    1
  2592. Thailand is still a basically pro‐western country living in the shadow of western cultural hegemony and military‐economic supremacy. Indeed, it's comprador elites, including its monarchy, heavily rely on the USA and the West more generally to keep themselves in power.
    1
  2593. And that's why it's going for broke in the Middle East right now – 7 countries in 5 years – with Syria being the penultimate country destroyed and Iran being the last in the list.
    1
  2594. Is she Taiwanese or from Hong Kong?
    1
  2595. World war 2 and post war reconstruction both relied on central planning. Or do you believe Europe's reconstruction spontaneously occurred in a random fashion? Why did the Soviet Union grow so much in the interwar period while the rest of the world's economies were in a depression? And why do you think China's economy is so successful today? What was Roosevelt's New Deal if not central planning? And the military‐industrial complex of the USA, surely that counts as central planning.
    1
  2596. Ukraine might not want to nuke itself but the United States has no such qualms. And with the current Ukrainian government not really in charge (and probably sufficiently fanatical that, like the German government in the last stages of the 1939-1945 war, the Ukrainians apply a scorched earth to their own country) who knows.
    1
  2597. Or get Trump re‐elected.
    1
  2598. The Spanish and Portuguese engaged in a genocide all of their own. That's why they had to bring in so many non-indigenous people (black Africans) to their colonies. The indigenous populations of the Americas collapsed whenever Europeans arrived.
    1
  2599. I am deeply suspicious as to why he sold our gold. Was he/the government threatened in some way because it didn't seem like a straightforward business decision. Was the government conned?
    1
  2600.  @micksherman7709  You are not being logical. Cruelty is cruelty and if cruelty is an inherent characteristic of war then there is no getting around the fact that those who engage in it are engaged in cruelty, hence cruel. Attempting to extenuate by placing cruelty on a spectrum or making distinctions between personal cruelty and impersonal cruelty, between intentional cruelty and incidental cruelty does not change that.
    1
  2601.  @micksherman7709  Well you could say that the whole concept of morality, of moral philosophy, is an abstraction and yet where would we be without it? If morality says you should not be cruel then you can choose to ignore it but you can't say that morality and the standards it sets don't exist, nor can you stop others applying it to your actions and judging you accordingly.
    1
  2602.  @micksherman7709  Interesting.
    1
  2603. It should read 'sensors that can detect humans', otherwise it seems to imply that either humans or human – as in cybernetic – components are being to do the sensing. The former would seem ridiculous (unless we're talking remote controlled), while the latter seems more like science fiction. That aside it seems superfluous to mention that it has sensors capable of detecting humans as it wouldn't be an effective weapon otherwise.
    1
  2604. Until somone like a Stalin comes along and wipes out in a serious of purges and show trials the Latin American equivalent of the Kulaks, modernising and industrialising the country and its armed forces at the same time and to a level commensurate with the West, these things will never end.
    1
  2605. And then was defeated. Just like France.
    1
  2606. Its neoliberal take on things is also a flaw.
    1
  2607. I have news for you: - TAIWAN (THE REPUBLIC OF TAIWAN CHINA) IS CHINESE So ask yourself, should secessionists in your country develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and use them against the rest of your country, helped by your neighbours (who, I'm sure, will be only too happy to see your country broken into pieces)?
    1
  2608. But that's just the way the International Monetary Fund (aka the US government) likes it.
    1
  2609. 1. The Russian Federation is not demanding a return to the pre‐1990 status quo for NATO, it is merely demanding no further expansion eastwards and in particular no attempt to bring Ukraine, Belarus or any other country bordering the Russian Federation into NATO. 2. The nuclear weapons of the USA do not need to be based in Europe to be effective therefore there is no need to station them so close to the borders of the Russian Federation. To do so is a provocation. 3. The expansion of NATO is unnecessary as the Warsaw Pact no longer exists and the Russian Federation is not a threat. However, as an anti‐Russian military alliance led by the USA, a non‐European country, the continued existence of NATO is an ongoing threat to the Russian Federation and creates unnecessary tension between the countries of Europe by threatening the peace and security of the whole continent.
    1
  2610. In contradiction to its name the European Union is not actual European at all but a creation of the United States. Likewise, the United Nations is not a creation of the world's nations but, again, the USA and, to a mush lesser extent, western Europe.
    1
  2611. Fat chance. 🔸️🔹️🔸️🔹️🔸️ History may repeat, History may rhyme, But Britain, alas, Has run out of time. ⌛🕰⌛
    1
  2612. Seems to me that the USA wants to decouple itself from China while destroying the competitiveness and manufacturing of Europe and prevent the development of the Global South.
    1
  2613. The Americans who are behind this aren't. Being psychopaths and warmongers they fall on a spectrum of callously indifferent to sadistically gleeful. Like all the other peoples whose lives they have snuffed out and societies they have they have attacked, the fascistic USA cares nothing about people, the environment, or the planet.
    1
  2614. Ukraine is just a vast money laundering, gun running, drug smuggling and people trafficking scam, in addition to being a gold mine for arms manufacturers, banks and corporations. That and the ushering in of a new cold war that leaves Europe divided and the USA's dollar hegemony intact.
    1
  2615. ​ @wassafshahzad8618 the capitalists and their corporations (who get to decide what everybody else wants) want you. And they want you because you lower wages, you reduce costs. To a capitalist everything is about profit and the rest of society be damned. Whether it's pollution or immigration... capitalists don't care UNLESS and UNTIL it starts hurting their profits. Otherwise, they only do so under compulsion (communism, socialism).
    1
  2616. 2.1 – is that 2 children or 3?
    1
  2617. Is Lazarus an historical figure, someone who really lived?
    1
  2618. MMT is neoliberalism, dummy.
    1
  2619. All planned by the US and European elites in their eugenics project for the New NATO‐EU Century.
    1
  2620. Embalming. Though modern embalming usually doesn't preserve a corpse for that long, under the right circumstances (eg. cold, no air, no moisture) it can. The better the embalming method used and the more effective the coffin is at keeping out light, moisture, air and saprophagous insects (as well, it would seem, mould) the higher the chances that a corpse will decay more slowly.
    1
  2621. Empires expand, that's just what they do. And that expansion is driven by its own logic.
    1
  2622. ​ @theaconite1400  I think you explained it well enough. 👍🫡
    1
  2623. Another fake party created by US intelligence agencies just like in Germany. Sorry Greens, you're already too late: Margaret Thatcher – herself liable to have been a US agent of influence (think Macron and the WEF) – destroyed Britain's coal industry long ago. Oh, you want to shut down our nuclear power plants as well? Isn't it coincidental, that's just the sort of thing the USA would want and this just plays right into their hands. And the raison d'être for such a party's existence is the pretext that CO² is causing anthropogenic climate change rather it being a possible cover for deliberate geo-engineering.
    1
  2624. But there was a second resolution tabled by Brazil that did condemn HAMAS (though being in every other respect identical to the one tabled previously by the Russians) that also called for a peaceful resolution to the war between Palestine and Israel and it too was rejected by the USA. Face it, the USA doesn't want peace.
    1
  2625. Maybe this time it would be a defeat so strategic that it would be too great to accept. Perhaps the USA by such a defeat would lose any standing it had among its allies and client states. It might be like the loss of the Middle East to the Turkish Ottoman empire that led to the downfall of the Ottoman's themselves.
    1
  2626. I think another month or two and the war in Ukraine will be over and peace can return once more. Six months tops.
    1
  2627. Legalised corruption & legalised tax evasion.
    1
  2628. Turkey wants a foot in both camps. It wants to be in a position to play both sides against each other.
    1
  2629. Yes, agreed, but let's not forget that the USA was a rising power in world affairs even before the two wars of the twentieth century. The USA would very probably have risen to be a – not the – global hegemon anyway, given time.
    1
  2630. According to the in-vogue meme Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Hawaii, Panama and Mexico want a word.
    1
  2631. The United States do did everything it could to get Japan to attack them, embargoing them and giving help to China. Like Iraq and now Iran, the USA goaded them into war.
    1
  2632. One word: neo-liberalism.
    1
  2633. Some embalmed corpses can stay in a remarkable state of preservation for decades in the right conditions. It has even been known in the non‐embalmed. I read a book once which which told of people excavating a long sealed crypt in old Spitalfields Church in London dating back to the 17th or 18th centuries and which held the remains of many and finding the perfectly preserved corpse of a 2 year old boy, a well as the less well preserved corpse of a lady apparently submerged in her own body liquor (or it might have been a preservative like alcohol).
    1
  2634. But it's not just quantity that matters. Quality is just a important, if not more so in these situations.
    1
  2635. Is it the same for natural gas and coal or just oil?
    1
  2636. Lots of preconceptions as to what marriage should be and unspoken assumptions about what is acceptable in the modern world. And what's with the coy language: boy and girl instead of man and woman?
    1
  2637. Something similar to the Swiss system of initiative and referenda should be introduced, along with a proportional representation system for at least the lower chamber of Parliament (preferably one the doesn't create the need for coalition governments).
    1
  2638. ​​​ @niqqaa And what wages are you willing to pay: subsistence, the bare minimum? Oh, I suppose it's what you can afford, the market rate, so they should just be grateful that a fascist dictator – a capitalist boss – deigns to employ them. And if they don't like working for you they can always work for some other fascist boss; if they don't like working on the sugar plantation there's always work on the cotton plantation.... Get real! In a depression the mantra "Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps. I did and it worked for me. " becomes a sick joke. Hope is a good breakfast but a poor supper.
    1
  2639.  @ikeybertso  'Whataboutism' is the usual insult.
    1
  2640. ​ @Historia.Magistra.Vitae.  State power... working on behalf of corporate (private capitalist) power.
    1
  2641. Once the Chinese (or those with global influence) decide to use the Yuan (or whatever currency can serve as a substitute) as the new reserve currency. And not until! Trading in one's own currency is not the same as creating a new reserve currency. Also, the Chinese and Russians, Indians and Brazilians and all the rest are quite happy to go along with sanctions, especially if they come from the United Nations – eg. on Saddam Husseins' Iraq in Gulf War 1, on North Korea, on Muammar Quaddafi 's Libya, on Slobodan Milosovic's Yugoslavia, on Iran, on Syria and the Palestinians.
    1
  2642. I think his meaning was for Ukraine to resolve the conflict by negotiating a peace treaty with Russia instead of continuing with a war it cannot win.
    1
  2643. What in your opinion would be reasonable?
    1
  2644. When either Russia or China defend their interests or territory they are described as being aggressive or provocative or some such. When it's the US empire or one of its constituent parts that acts in the same way — often, unlike China and Russia, for no really legitimate reason — it's described as self‐defence and in the best interests of world peace (spreading democracy and human rights, defending women from misogyny and patriarchy, protecting children from abuse, etc. ).
    1
  2645. Are... you could just experiment with some form of socialism or communism.
    1
  2646. No!
    1
  2647. Do you want the human race to commit suicide just because of our supposed negative impact on the environment? You come across to me as a sort of traitor to your own species. As people live increasingly in cities there will be more than enough free land for other animals to exist. Indeed the areas outside the cities might even become nature reserves or some such.
    1
  2648. The EU, like NATO and the UN, are assets of the USA.
    1
  2649. My take on what he's saying is that MBridge won't be upsetting the American domination of the West any time soon. And it's effects in Asia vis‐à‐vis Europe will be more gradual.
    1
  2650. And they are rigged.
    1
  2651. Syria and Ukraine aren't war experiences? A 75 year cold war isn't war experience? Fighting ragtag armies in Afghanistan is not the same as fighting a modern industrialised state that is your peer.
    1
  2652. Like in Ukraine, they'd rather have other country's nationals getting killed on their behalf.
    1
  2653. So where is the Roman empire?
    1
  2654. Probably a combination of the two. Drug users tend to neglect themselves and the drugs they take often suppress appetite. They also probably lack money to buy food as well. All in all a very sad situation to be in.
    1
  2655.  @Darkwintre  Who, Bercow or Corbyn?
    1
  2656. Non sequitur. Suffering is tyranny.
    1
  2657. Their enthusiasm for the revolution is waning. The Iranian government cannot, or will not, make the reforms that many people would like to see.
    1
  2658. And the EU is its political wing. NATO was set up to stop the USSR from wresting militarily or by political subversion the USA's control of its newly acquired imperium in western Europe. Meanwhile, the European Union was set up to as a means of imposing the economic and political policies of the United States upon the continent and creating a captive market for its goods while simultaneously excluding and waging a sanctions war against the Soviet Union. The two institutions mutually reinforce each other and primarily serve U.S. interests and that's why the E.U. project is bad because as US political and economic power declines relative to the economies of its rivals the USA will weaponise the EU and use it against the peoples of Europe, exactly as it is currently doing with the United Nations (think pandemic treaty and lockdowns).
    1
  2659. The USA deliberately provokes the Russian Federation in the full knowledge of what's likely to happen... and that persuades you that you're being threatened by Russia... so you need to have on your soil the very entity that provoked Russia in the first place...? Sound logic you have there. But remember this: Ukraine being supported by the USA did not deter Russia one bit from fighting to protect its very existence against an enemy vowed to its destruction encroaching on its borders, an enemy that has tried to militarily destroy it twice (once directly in 1917 and the second time by fascist proxy) and very nearly succeeded within living memory (1990's), an enemy with which it's been at war with for the better part of a century. When faced with an existential threat do you think they'll be deterred by the USA? Sweden is not faced by a Russia hell bent on its destruction; Russia, on the other hand, is. The USA is like the cancerous capitalist system it espouses, a country that wants to expand forever, everywhere, without bound and that never stops wanting total global hegemony. Such an insatiable lust for growth, a symptom of the capitalist disease, is fast bringing humankind to the brink of nuclear annihilation.
    1
  2660. No, not really. It was designed like its predecessor the League of Nations to allow the western countries, not least the victors of the war fought between the years of 1939-1945 — the USA pre-eminent amongst them — to continue their domination of the rest of the world by replacing colonialism with neo-colonialism and imperialism with neo-imperialism. Its conception is entirely Eurocentric with the General Assembly merely serving as a rubber stamp. Maybe China/Asia will gradually make it more representative of the values and desires of the so‐called Global South but for now it either actively serves the interests of western countries or is unable to go against them, to the detriment of the non-west.
    1
  2661.  @mwtrolle  Is that why the USA has Guantanamo and only God knows how many similar places around the world. And routinely kills civilians and engages in reprisals against civilians like it did at Falluhja, engaging in indiscriminate killing to terrorise the civilian population into not supporting partisans (terrorists, insurgents) in defiance of Geneva and Hague conventions.
    1
  2662. 17:45 "Seized the capital..."? How about liberated? — 15:22 No mention of the USA freezing Afghanistan's assets, leaving the country unable to pay for food imports and leading to widespread malnutrition? — Context is necessary to gain a proper understanding. Without it you'll be left ill-educated.
    1
  2663. Client states more like. And not even necessarily reliable client states.
    1
  2664. To make the European Union even more subordinate to the USA than it already is and to stop France and Germany becoming too friendly with Russia and China.
    1
  2665. @CNN is Fake News So, during the years the USA did have slavery did they not grow from that? And what about the hidden forms of slavery, like share cropping, which continued after the war, as well as prison labour such as chain gangs made up disproportionately of blacks?
    1
  2666. Unless they can turn to China and Russia and free themselves from the USA. BRICS+, the SCO, etc. might be a way to do this.
    1
  2667. Nah, he supports the state of Israel, or more correctly, it's policies of extermination and expulsion of the natives á la Hitler's Germany.
    1
  2668. It's a government wholly under the influence of international finance whose current primary enforcer is the USA.
    1
  2669. The deep state in the USA and Europe, in collusion with big agro and big pharma, are doing this.
    1
  2670. Australia an island...? I always that it was a continent, albeit the smallest of the continents.
    1
  2671. The USA wants another cold war, if not another world war. It wants an isolate Europe even more than it wants an isolated Russia and China. Can it have a repeat of the 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 wars – a double whammy to knock out the competition a second time?
    1
  2672. Would that be "growth" based on misleading data by any chance?
    1
  2673. And those countries it exports to... aren't they import-dependent? Would you be so complacent if, say, export-dependent Saudi Arabia were to cut off your oil supplies? There's a reason China exports to other countries: those countries want or need China's exports.
    1
  2674. The West = the United States' imperium.
    1
  2675. They'll want to protect themselves from the US empire.
    1
  2676.  @TheLordexilius  Stop it with your BS. "It wasn't the fault of the military"‽ Then whose fault was it. You went in like Nazis and killed several millions, physically and mentally injured millions more, and made millions homeless or into refugees. And for what? To enrich a few traitorous politicians who did a false flag.
    1
  2677. ​ @msjademarvel1542  Or any of the other paraphilias (to use a term coined by psychiatrists to control people à la Foucault) natural too, or is it only the currently politically correct ones approved by the state?
    1
  2678. Maybe something like this needs to happen I'm Australia? I think that their government is also going down the authoritarian path.
    1
  2679. Well said.
    1
  2680. The Anglo-American form of capitalism is rentier capitalism that is parasitical and predatory in that it seeks to make profits off the backs of others with as little productive investment and labour on its part as possible. It is a service economy, not an industrial, manufacturing economy and one that, having eaten itself alive by destroying its own productive assets, now only survives by plundering the assets of others and indebting them in the same way as it has indebted its own. Essentially the USA and Britain are banker's economies that are attempting to live off interest-bearing loans and rent. To wit, a loan shark economy.
    1
  2681. He wouldn't... would he???
    1
  2682. Does anyone know the motives of his killer — Is it one of those Japanese nationalists who crop up from time to time?
    1
  2683. The same goes for fascism. Words like neo-Liberal and neo-Conservative, or hard right are used instead of the word that should be used, (neo-) fascist.
    1
  2684. All this yapping about the end of US and western imperialism and neo-colonialism.... All I'll say is I'll see believe it when I see it.
    1
  2685. They are puppets. Have been since the 'colour revolutions' of 1989 when NATO, EU and the IMF/World Bank/BIS moved in.
    1
  2686. Clearly you are not paying attention to reality.
    1
  2687. And how much of the gold has been stolen or bought with the money from other countries (Libya, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria) or maybe is on loan (like perhaps Germany's or the gold held by France on behalf of Africa). And let's not forget the gold give-away by the United Kingdom.
    1
  2688.  @gokuss15  The School of the Americas and the Washington Consensus agree with this statement 100%. You have clearly shown you are fascist death squad/torturer material. A post in the army awaits you.
    1
  2689. That's probably because the USA demands that Europe does not use Chinese or Russian technology. Think Huwai. Think Cold War. Think sanctions.
    1
  2690. They might even kill them themselves and blame it on the Russians.
    1
  2691. And don't forget the bioweapons used by the United States on the world dressed up as vaccines against the common cold.
    1
  2692. Maybe it's a combination of the two.
    1
  2693. Just call it what it is: A DEPRESSION And like the first, let's put the blame where it truly belongs: BANKERS Oh, and let's not pretend it's accidental or a law of nature: IT ISNT
    1
  2694. Better late than never, as they say.
    1
  2695. Who's culture, theirs or ours? Look in the mirror. Each culture has its bad side. Not that I'm trying to justify anything one way or the other.
    1
  2696. In a word: destabilisation. Or 'low-intensity conflict' in military jargon.
    1
  2697. Its demise is too slow for my liking and I'm dubious that whatever replaces it may not be that much better.
    1
  2698. A hypothetical question that cannot be proven or disproven either way is not really answerable in the absence of evidence.
    1
  2699. Unless I'm mistaken "Me and Alexander" IS the proper English form while "Alexander and I" is an affectation because 'I' is the objective case and 'me' is the subjective case and in English the normal order is object > verb > subject.
    1
  2700. Britain is basically the Saudi Arabia of the West, completely under the thumb of the USA; what the USA does Britain will try to emulate, thinking of itself as still a major player on the European scene and the world stage instead of the medium (and possibly declining) one that it really is. British brexit has hit Britain's influence within Europe hard and will probably hit our economy harder.
    1
  2701. "Germanics" – whoever they are – would presumably already have been in Germany and so wouldn't have needed to come from elswhere. It would have made more sense if you had said that it was Scandinavians – marauders, pirates, bandits, colonisers – who entered France (Normandy) and Germany who caused the problem.
    1
  2702. The USA facilitates and encourages this behaviour, if not outright orders it. One word from the USA's financial apparatus and the entire EU would fall into line, along with its mass media, politicians, academia and the think tanks and astroturf pressure groups that make up so‐called civil society in western countries.
    1
  2703. What arrogance! As if legitimacy is something the USA could grant in the first place. Like, come on, 1 billion+ people belonging to a civilisation thousands of years old have to ask the permission of the United States' government before they're accepted by the rest of the world.
    1
  2704. Made for and by western companies to specifications set by western companies and then sold by the same companies to western consumers at inflated prices. Like iPhones made by US companies operating in China and made by highly exploited Chinese labour.
    1
  2705. ​​ @dinnerwithfranklin  While the vast majority are getting poorer and poorer. Is that a system better than communism?
    1
  2706. How can they be universal if they only appeared once, in one particular place, after thousands upon thousands of years of prior non-existence, being contested outside the West and increasingly within the West itself? Does China have these values… Russia?
    1
  2707. I second that! 👍
    1
  2708. Maybe because ancient Egyptian art was highly stylised and not particularly representative of the ethnicities of the time or of reality in general.
    1
  2709. Yes, protectionism should be the order of the day. Each country should build up its own industries and infrastructure and concentrate on growing its domestic economy to suit the needs of the majority of its people. Just like countries did prior to the 15th century before the western Europeans, later followed by their North America offshoots, forced everyone into doing business with them, on their unfair terms, and undermining the markets of everyone else. I wonder how long the West would last if everyone else were to use their domestic resources first and foremost for their own economic development instead of that of the West.
    1
  2710.  @Mamahuevo173  free to live under globalist corporate totalitarianism.
    1
  2711. That's why elitists hate populists so much.
    1
  2712. The D-word is taboo.
    1
  2713. Nuclear bombs need to be dropped on the West and then there will be no more population problem. And no more western institutions to peddle the overpopulation myth, nor western media to propagate it.
    1
  2714. The USA has been essentially bankrupt since the 1960's. The abandonment of the gold standard in favour of the petrodollar was implicit recognition of this. And rather than acknowledge this and take the necessary measures to get back to bring solvent they have made things worse by printing dollars like there's no tomorrow and carrying on as if the rest of the world owes them a living. It took the USA barely thirty years to go from the world's wealthiest country to the world's most indebted. That's what war against your own working class/proletariat (anti-communism/anti-socialism) does to you. The economy of the USA is a war economy (like that of 1930's Germany) which is ultimately unsustainable. It has run out of the low hanging fruit of weaker countries to exploit and now must face off with the big boys (Russia, China) who can fight back.
    1
  2715.  @coloradopeoplesnews7676  It's late stage capitalism transitioning into… God knows what.
    1
  2716. Exactly like the terms NATO presented to Yugoslavia knowing full well that they would be rejected.
    1
  2717. ​ @christinerussell113 That's strange because the Chinese seem to be doing just fineright now. In fact, they're running rings around the self-proclaimed leader of the 'free' world. And under communism both Russia and China were turned from undeveloped feudal backwaters to powerful and fully developed superpowers within two generations, so much so that the USA had to waste both blood and treasure in trying to do everything in its power to destroy, as a certain Noam Chomsky put it, the threat of a good example. So much so that they bankrupted themselves in the 1960's to stop the growth of what is condescendingly referred to as the 'Global South'.
    1
  2718. Millions of tonnes of what? ❔️
    1
  2719. Paypal cannot be trusted. Better to use less well known means of sending money.
    1
  2720. Another reason why Putin is not officially declaring war on Ukraine is because it's technically illegal to do so under international law. One of the things that the USA and Britain are often accused of doing is breaking international law with their attacks on Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan and if Russia can be portrayed as doing the same then not only will western media accuse Russia of hypocrisy and have a field day but maybe they could also (from a theoretical/technical point of view) under the rules of the United Nations use it as a potential casus belli to cover a NATO/US/EU intervention.
    1
  2721. Sorry to hear of your sad story Graham. You came out of it as a survivor. As a hardworking American whose fate was effected unfairly by corrupt politicians in a corrupt system, I'm glad you came out of the tunnel stronger, saw through the bullshit and are now working as a activist for change.
    1
  2722. The English speaking world all practise neoliberalism, a crony capitalism that parasitizes the real economy and replaces it with a fake, ersatz economy based on rent seeking. That is what the United Kingdom is now suffering from: 4 decades of rentierism, aka Thatcherism.
    1
  2723. With the exception of Spain during the Middle Ages, I'd have to ask from which countries have the Jews been repeatedly expelled and could good old fashioned love- thy-neighbour Christian anti-semitism be to blame?
    1
  2724. The reason they use subversion is because they can't use democratic means to achieve their aims. Their economic and social polices – neo-imperialist extractive corporatism – are simply too unpopular. Who, after all, wants to be a neo-colony of western monopoly capitalism? The Americans keep insisting that neoliberal capitalism is so efficient and so natural to the human condition yet wherever its been tried it's lead to abject failure and left devastated and pillaged communities in its wake. Coups and colour revolutions are therefore the only way they can achieve control. Anglo-Americans simply don't know how to work in a win-win way; western Europeans in general. Their mindset is win-lose, not win-win; conflict not cooperation.
    1
  2725. I'm sure that the Americans know that it's not literally a memorial to John McCain. What it is though is that it's a symbol of America's historic role in Vietnam and thus is a press opportunity. □ I think that all this apparent crassness on the part of the US foreign policy establishment is quite deliberate, quite calculated, and part of some psy‐op to undermine relations between the USA and various Asian countries. It might be part of the attempt by the US to disentangle itself from China by alienating certain countries and creating a situation where no politician in the the USA can call for peace or de‐escalation, much like the Mccarthy era.
    1
  2726. Too many ads, gentlemen! Too many ads!
    1
  2727. Those countries you mentioned are just second-order players in a system of trade still dominated by China. You can't get around the problem by simply changing suppliers, that's even assuming those countries can supply you with the commodities you want, at the prices you can afford.
    1
  2728. I don't think the Chinese would care. Taiwan is an issue of national sovereignty for the People's Republic of China. The same with the two Koreas, Vietnam during the 1950's and Germany before 1989.
    1
  2729. Neither has the West truly come to terms with its imperialism (and continued) neo-imperialism, colonialism (and continued) neo-colonialism, chattel and other forms of slavery, war-mongering and genocide (just look at present-day Israel). Truth be told, the Japanese were no more brutal than any other empire in history and neither were they uniquely savage or brutal. Why then must they forever be apologising to the American empire and its satraps ìn Asia for doing exactly doing what the USA has done and continues to do? The Japanese commit one Nanjing massacre 80 years ago and no one is allowed to forget; the USA (along with France and Britain) commits massacres on far larger scales – Rwanda, Congo, Libya, Sudan, Israel, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Indonesia – almost daily and most westerners are either ignorant of it, deny it, or justify it.
    1
  2730. Israel is the USA's conflict by because Israel is a settler-colony of the USA. The same goes for Canada.
    1
  2731.  @TwistyThreeFifty  From what I can gather Covid-19/SARS‐CoV‐2 has never been isolated/purified and clinicians are using a computer‐generated model of the virus that is based on extrapolation of a known virus that presumably has been isolated/purified. Furthermore, the rRT‐PCR method used to test for Covid-19 viral particles is flawed when used as a method for diagnosing infection with corona virus because it gives too many false positives.
    1
  2732. As always!
    1
  2733. The road to dictorship set in motion by the various assassinations of the 1960's has now reached its end. That road began with an assassination and will likely end in one.
    1
  2734.  @kalicom2937  Do the two have to be mutually exclusive? Can't a country be both nationalist and globalist? - In the case of Great Britain for example, as an island, out of necessity trade with the rest of the world entails almost by default a globalist outlook. However, at the same time there still remains a strong desire to retain national sovereignty and control of the nation's borders.
    1
  2735. Are there any channels where one can still watch RT, or has it been closed down completely everywhere in Europe. Apparently my RT channel feed on YouTube has been discontinued.
    1
  2736.  @ivanfreely6366  Thanks.
    1
  2737. Let's hope that no supernovae or other dangerous astronomical events occur within range of Earth within the next 100,000 years. I think human life will have become extinct long before then anyway through other means (or at least have devolved to a much more primitive technological state, i.e. caveman stage) but it would be unfortunate for other forms of life on our planet if such an event were to occur. At least a creature like an octopus or a dolphin could evolve intelligence and fill the ecological niche left by humans but if all life becomes extinct... that would be so, so sad.
    1
  2738.  @achalpratap338  What does Bharat/Bharatvarsha mean in English?
    1
  2739. Is the appointment of all these neo-fascist warmongers a pschop designed like the Star Wars programme to convince the Chinese and Russians that the leadership of the USA is insane and liable to do hitherto unthinkable things and cross hitherto sacrosanct red lines if they don't at least meet the USA halfway (as by letting them genocide the Palestinians and allow the the creation of what amount to a second Puerto Rico in the Middle East)?
    1
  2740. …And control of energy sources (oil and gas).
    1
  2741. First part seems about right. Second part... 🤷‍♀️
    1
  2742. Or gaslighting.
    1
  2743. The more I see how the USA conducts its foreign policy the more I tend to agree. The behaviour of the EU leadership makes me suspect that they are US intelligence assets as they are so completely under the thumb of the USA and so enthralled by the neoliberalism it espouses, putting the economic interests of that country in front of both that of their own as well as that of Europe as a whole. In Germany I suspect certain politicians, and maybe even entire political parties such as the Green Party, are US controlled.
    1
  2744. The Jews and the Arabs got along fine for the most part until the Zionists of the late 1940's showed up and began to ethnically cleanse the indigenous Arabs in their single-minded desire to create an exclusively Jewish ethnostate on the territory of an already existing people, the Palestinians, who, may I remind you, did not consent to share their land with someone else, much less an apartheid, segregationist ethnostate that was hellbent on expelling them.
    1
  2745. The Americans have now put themselves in the dangerous position of believing their own propaganda because of the plethora of military‐industrial complex-sponsored think tanks like this; verily a growth industry.
    1
  2746.  @merbst  Also known as… corporatism (or fascism, as some would call it).
    1
  2747.  @transsylvanian9100  & @randomserb Does that mean social democracy is a sham? What about democratic socialism, is that a sham also?
    1
  2748. What's that?
    1
  2749. I suppose you're the kind of person who describes the cutting off of japan's oil and rubber supplies by the USA and its allies as unprovoked as well. The USA goaded the Russian Federation into war, just like it goaded Japan into war in 1941.
    1
  2750. ​ @TheHookahSmokingCaterpillar  no, the Iraqis told them to leave too but were just ignored.
    1
  2751. I assume he's still being held prisoner in Ukraine. Hopefully he will be released soon.
    1
  2752.  @microcontrolledbot  I don't understand this obsession with stealing technology. Instead of seeing ideas and technology as being stolen, why don't you see it as being shared. Surely sharing things with your fellow humans is better than hoarding and monopolising them (and aren't monopolies generally considered bad, even by capitalists?). I also find it strange that you behave as if Chinese 'theft' of American technology (in fact a product created solely for profit and the benefit of some fascist multinational corporation run by a corrupt elite that has no loyalty to the nation state, nor any particular concern for your wellbeing and that, by the logic inherent in the capitalist mode of production, always underpays - hence steals from - its employees) that they're stealing from you personally. I'm amazed how your emotional attachment to the concepts of private property, property rights, and ownership of both material and immaterial things extends to you feeling vicariously threatened/indignant when the Chinese undercut the profits, not of you personally, but of an elite property owning class whose actions, at the very best, will only benefit you yourself incidentally and marginally.
    1
  2753. Unless it leads to a shooting war then unfortunately the Russians can't do much about it other than launching a Europe-wide embargo of their own, which I am sure the EU would have already factored into their calculations. Also, the countries of the EU are hypocritical because they would only break their embargo by trading with third parties that would simply trade Russian goods through middlemen.
    1
  2754.  @davidrichards1741  It essentially bankrupted the USA and forced it to come off the gold standard and adopt a fiat system based on the petrodollar, an implicit admission that a permanent war economy is unsustainable. It's strange but the USA effectively went bankrupt a full twenty years before the Soviet Union and yet Reaganite neo-liberalism is portrayed as being its salvation.
    1
  2755. France and Britain are basically trying to retain their power and influence in Africa under the very watchful eye of the United States of America, going as far as that country will allow in exploiting the African continent and together preventing the outside powers like Russia and China out-competing them, as well as suppressing indigenous nationalism. In as much as the USA is unable to prevent Britain and France from acting independently, or can get those two countries (along with the rest of Europe through NATO and the EU) to go along with its own plans, Africa will be carved up into spheres of influence and both of the traditional opressers and enslavers of Africans will continue as before. Only if Russia or China, in selfish pursuit of their own interests, somehow create an opportunity for an independent African movement to arise will things change.
    1
  2756. GB seems to be mirroring the USA in the ineptitude of its leaders.
    1
  2757. Watching this video is akin to listening to a radio broadcast by Joseph Goebbels in 1944.
    1
  2758. What are the differences between M1 and M3?
    1
  2759.  Ayenbite of Inwyt  And controlled by the United States political-security apparatus that shadows every western leader and in the case of Britain uses its own intelligence services against it.
    1
  2760. So, if they don't support separatism in Ukraine how come the USA supports a coup which is almost designed to encourage separatism in that country? They say one thing and do the opposite; they're hypocrites.
    1
  2761. Why would they kill someone who has no real political power? Did he exercise such influence on the Russian leadership, was his pen so mighty, that it affected Putin's decision to go to war with Ukraine and that by killing him they would be exacting a righteous vengeance on behalf of the Ukrainian people, or that, somehow, it will have such an effect on Putin himself that it will effect the outcome of the war? Though I myself found Dugin to be borderline fascist with his hardcore nationalism and strident deriding of perceived western decadence, still, attempting to kill him is, in my opinion, going too far. Murdering people with no real power is not only pointless but counterproductive and comes across as cowardly. Incidentally, it's got me wondering whether the United States is in some way behind this.
    1
  2762. The needs or wants of the United States intelligence community/deep state are behind 'big tech' doing this so the idea that lawsuits and the like are going to have any significant effect in stopping spying or censorship, etc. in the long term are misplaced, in my opinion. Indeed, what's happening with big tech censorship by silicon valley is just one part of a much bigger and more comprehensive breakdown of the things we most typically associate with western democracy, effecting things like freedom of speech, the press, association, etc. and human rights more generally. I think it really began after 9/11 when a pretext was created by dark forces within the military-industrial-congressional complex but probably planned well in advance. Furthermore - and what's really worrying to me - is that these things will not just be confined to the USA but will be become worldwide, especially among the so-called 5 eyes and NATO, with Russia and China either actively or passively colluding. The US economy (or at least its currency) is going to crash sooner rather then later (though how far the show can go on is anybody's guess) and a new reserve currency is going to come to the fore with possibly grave consequences in the short term for the political stability of the USA and those countries whose economies are linked to it. It's inevitable, the powers that be know this, and they have contingency planned for it (fusion centres, homeland security, generalised surveillance, the PATRIOT act and similar legislation) in advance of the now very real possibility of an economic crash and subsequent dislocation of the global economy in the manner of the Great Depression of the 1930's.
    1
  2763. Intelligence agency guy, predecessor probably killed by the same mRNA bio-weapon they used in the clotshot masquerading as a vaccine. But like 9/11 and JFK, Israel versus Hamas, we'll never know until it's no longer important.
    1
  2764. Too little, too late. And they know it. That's why they are sending them.
    1
  2765.  @betrousaltaweel  Considering that the group known as Al-Qaeda is basically at this point in time a proxy for the USA and its ally Saudi Arabia, as well as a propaganda meme used to justify US interventions around the globe and prop up the 9/11 official government conspiracy narrative, I would say the question you ask is both moot and rhetorical. It is the USA and its allies who are enabling this so-called Al-Qaeda to do what its doing by supplying them with weapons, training, intelligence and safe havens to launch attacks from and generally protecting them from being effectively dealt with. The USA, Israel, Britain and others are the ones providing Al-Qaida and its offshoots with both material and political support so it's not really 'terrorists' who are attacking other countries, it's countries that are attacking other countries (i.e. it's the USA's 'war on - read of - terror'). In answer to the question though I would emphatically say, no, terrorists should be dealt with. But they should be dealt with by the domestic authorities of the countries being attacked through international efforts coordinated by the United Nations in accordance with international law, something consistently thwarted by the United States. To reiterate my original post: countries that are being attacked, invaded, occupied, sanctioned and their peoples daily subject to the war crimes and other indignities of a foreign occupation on pretexts we know are false (Iraq had nuclear weapons, Afghanistan was in some way responsible for 9/11, the Syrian government is gassing its own people, etc.) should be resisted and such resistance is entirely legitimate.
    1
  2766. He's using irony. He doesn't believe in the official narrative.
    1
  2767. Not just now, since forever.
    1
  2768. ​​ @geofflepper3207 Also, the petro-monarchies will have less revenue and less money for social spending, as well other oil exporting countries. Great for the white man, less so for the non-whites of the 'Global South'.
    1
  2769. "Therefore America requires regime change." Unfortunately for the USA, Ukraine is turning out to be a failure in this regard. The only question is what, if anything, the USA can salvage from their debacle in Ukraine.
    1
  2770.  @ivanwalker3391  It is the countries with the least domestic resources that are the most vociferous in their support of neo‐imperialism and neo‐colonialism.
    1
  2771. And what are traditional Christian values? Persecution of heretics, blasphemers and non‐Christians, systemic misogyny, suppression of women's rights, support of patriarchy, holy wars and inquisitions, support of racism, classism, casteism, royalty, aristocracy, the status quo and justification of slavery, imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, fascism, as well as opposition to innovation, learning and science.... That's what I think of when I hear people speak of traditional Christian values.
    1
  2772. Not weird at all. Ben is comparing like with like. In the context of the video he is comparing China, an Asian country, with other Asian countries in terms of wages paid to workers. This is to confute the argument that companies go to China because of low wage costs rather than the real reason which is that they can produce virtually any product of the same quality as its American equivalent and in far greater quantities with the added advantage being that they can sell it at a much lower price.
    1
  2773. When Israelis do the same in the USA they are allowed to get away with it. I guess that makes them best buddies.
    1
  2774. ​ @QuantumNinja1.9  I'm given to understand that the reason English is used as a lingua franca precisely because it is neutral.
    1
  2775. GDP, even when it's not fake, is not that good of an indicator of an economy's performance and even less so as a measure of a society's health. Its chosen because it appears to be empirical and makes the USA and its minions in Europe look better than they really are compared to the rest of the world. Even then they have to massage the data.
    1
  2776. Does the ad blocker also have ads? Is it free?
    1
  2777. Does Rumble have no adverts?
    1
  2778.  @aclairemont3448  Probably from watching too many crime documentaries. Lol.
    1
  2779.  @audenisarat8179  Could be.
    1
  2780.  @evolutionx777  UBI is just another way the capitalist/corporatist class bribe the other classes into supporting the system. It works in the same way as the minimum wage, paid holidays, welfare, etc. in pacifying the working poor and unemployed and coopting any organisations that represent them like unions into supporting the status quo.
    1
  2781. Vietnam syndrome. The USA is simply going to spend more and more on the war, sucking more and more money into the maw of the military‐industrial complex, decreases in living standards, and when this leads to protests like it did during the Vietnam era, we'll see the same response to protests as we did back then.
    1
  2782. Because the enormity of it all is too great to accept. The cognitive dissonance is too much. That and the sudden realisation that they can't do jack sh*t about any of it.
    1
  2783. After having its government overthrown by fascists with the help of the USA that then proceeded to threaten the Russian Federation.
    1
  2784. It's a sad war for sure. Two great and proud people, so alike in so many ways, divided by outside forces using them as pawns against each other. Hope this war between brother slavs will be mercifully short and with as few casualties as possible and that they can be reconciled. Also that the malign influence of the USA in making Europe go against its best interests is ended too. We should all be allowed to live in peace and not have to worry about world war 3.
    1
  2785. 3-5 statute miles.
    1
  2786. Is he looking for a wife?
    1
  2787. To be honest, the Spanish and Portuguese first, then the English and their successors. The Germans were quite late. But still....
    1
  2788.  @ВикторВетерков  What do Russian banks use for collateral then, in case of a borrower defaulting? ☆ ☆ ☆ Что тогда российские банки берут в залог в случае дефолта заемщика?
    1
  2789. ​ @gabrielx4639 I didn't know Gypsies/Roma were allowed to date outside their culture. I was always under the impression that they pretty much kept themselves to themselves, like Jews.
    1
  2790. AlphaOmega Where the subsurface water breaks the surface or is in aquifers just below the surface, that is where they are most likely to drill
    1
  2791. Pity they didn't kill them all.
    1
  2792. The bird is then suicided.
    1
  2793. ​ @goodyeoman4534  There were no deliberate famines in China and Russia. The idea that the governments of China and Russia would deliberately and purposefully kill millions of their own people is absurd.
    1
  2794. Britain –London to be more precise – is a major centre of money laundering, fraud and foreign flight capital as well as being a refuge for miscreants and terrorists from other countries (Russian oligarchs and political opponents of other countries come to mind). It's also a rentier economy that maintains a parasitical relationship within the global economy, constantly seeking rent and other forms of unearned profit. Because the Russian Federation is now probably one of the few places that has not been fully exploited by this Anglo-American form of capitalism (banksterism, corporatism) the British rentier class naturally as it as an enemy and an obstacle to their control over Russia's assets, whether that be land, labour, minerals, whatever. Like in the USA, the ruling class of Britain abhors autarky and mercantilism. Resistance to the whims of western finance and corporations, such as countries engaging in protectionism, stopping capital flight or industrial development that redirects resources and capital away from the Global North to use in their own economic development is something that cannot be tolerated. That's also why they don't like China. Countries that will not submit to western capital must be subverted or destroyed. This is the western, and in particular the Anglo-American model, of economics.
    1
  2795. It's complicated….
    1
  2796.  @fred6319  Let's not forget the anthropogenic climate change lobby blaming everything on CO² and fossil fuels (while never mentioning the possible use of deliberate climate modification by the military). Oil, gas and even nuclear are all supposed to be given up for one reason or another for technology that is as, or more expensive than, existing technology and hasn't even been fully developed yet.
    1
  2797. And economics. Namely, capitalists (especially of the liberal/neo-liberal kind).
    1
  2798. No, the USA expelled the French through its proxies. It wants to dominate Africa in the same way as it dominates the Middle East. Africans can't do anything against the West without the USA's say-so.
    1
  2799. Iran and Syria will stop them.
    1
  2800. Do you think this is planned? I presume Europe's governments knew they could continue to get their energy through third parties and all this is just designed to cause artificial scarcities and price/inflation increases. As for majority voting, countries that disagree should be able to implement or not implement rules at their discretion.
    1
  2801. The People's Republic of China should accelerate its introduction of a gold‐backed Yuan and a return to an international gold standard and in doing so force the USA to live within its means. The Russian Federation and PRC should thus work together in devising a joint comprehensive plan to deal with the USA in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The USA and its corporate banking sector, corporations and military‐industrial‐congressional complex want never‐ending war, underdevelopment, brain drain and debt bondage. This is immoral and not in the long term interests of anybody other than the blood thirsty and rapacious neocons and their plan for world domination.
    1
  2802. The USA cannot realistically defend Taiwan from China. It could, I suppose, in the event of military attack by China launch an economic embargo, together with its protégés and client states (aka allies) but how successful this would be in the long-term is debatable.
    1
  2803.  @milkhit2714  China and Russia are, even as we speak, joining forces with what white westerners like to disparaging call the 'global South' in creating a pan-eurasian bloc that will eventually include India, the Middle East (where a good deal of the West's energy resources come from) and the Americas. When that happens it will be western Europe and North America versus the rest of the world. Spoiler: the rest of the world has most of the resources.
    1
  2804. It's a vast money laundering operation, gun running, drug and people smuggling racket, just like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Vietnam were, all for the corrupt families of the American oligarchy and the security state who use it to fund their private armies and state-within-a-state that came into its own after the false flag attacks orchestrated by the likes of Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearl, etc.
    1
  2805. She's a puppet of the USA.
    1
  2806.  @BobbyHiII  I can just imagine someone in a time not too distant from now when the USA is majority brown country saying the same thing: "the last thing America needs is more white people".😄
    1
  2807. Same with sanctions, embargo, blockade and boycott.
    1
  2808. The Chinese are not going to save the world. They are fully corporatist at this stage – albeit in a somewhat different and apparently more successful form to that of the USA – but they still want globalisation and the USA is going to be a part of that.
    1
  2809. Where do they get the B grade actors for all this stock footage? 🙂
    1
  2810. Both I should imagine. I'm sure the emotions were real but also that the Germans exploited them for propaganda purposes.
    1
  2811. And which sounds better (or more authentic)?
    1
  2812.  @gideonnewmark4628  And the USA with NATO likewise.
    1
  2813. The USA is stealing other people's gold and silver and other assets left, right and centre to build up its own reserves prior to the economic reset. Cryptocurrencies will be next.
    1
  2814. Car 22404 ignoratio elenchi:- A logical fallacy which consists in apparently refuting an opponent while actually disproving something not asserted. It is entirely irrelevant one others did before us. When discussing our high crimes and misdemeanours we have to take full responsibility for what we (meaning western Europeans) did. It's not an Arab crime; it's not a (black-on-black) African crime; it's our crime, a crime committed by us and not somone else. The crimes of others are for them to take responsibility for, not us. But, likewise, our crimes are for us to take responsibility for, not others. Two wrongs never make a right and saying just because 'x' did it that some how makes it okay or lessens our culpability/exonerates us is plain wrong, at least in this case. Your apparently logical moral reasoning is wrong (fallacious).
    1
  2815.  @lonelypeopleruglydeformedc8139  Taiwan is a part of China already, recognised by almost the entire international community as such. How then can a country invade itself? When the confederate states seceded from the Union did the federal government of Abraham Lincoln invade them, or did he simply take them back? Were they independent countries or renegade states?
    1
  2816.  @havenhemmings3574  I don't know, but since when has the United States, or any of the major military powers in Europe, ever cared about such things. Such laws of war are to hang the leaders of defeated countries on anyway (think Tojo, think Saddam).
    1
  2817.  @lonelypeopleruglydeformedc8139  Then why does their constitution say they are the rulers of continental China?
    1
  2818.  @johnklink6038  Then you'd trigger a war that Taiwan, for all its bluster, is very likely to lose with all the loss of life that entails. At the end they would have suffered for nothing. South Vietnam was an independent country too, but it was still reunified despite the 'best intentions' of you in know who.
    1
  2819. Gonzalo Lira is yesterday's news. And irrelevant.
    1
  2820. Bill and Melinda Gates certainly think the world is overpopulated. As do the Rockerfellas.
    1
  2821. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. If the USA (its elite) have decided on war then nothing Russia does will prevent it.
    1
  2822.  @ethanstump  Creative destruction. Destroy and start over.
    1
  2823.  @LvanderM  Muammar Qaddafi of Libya tried to change his country for the better and look what happened to him. Slobadon Milosevich of Yugoslavia tried, look what happened to him. Russia did the same and look what's happened to them. China is another country that's trying to better itself and like Russia, it gets subject to obloquy.
    1
  2824. It will probably simply be revalued and re-issued under a new name. Like Argentina it will still have a currency backed by the gold stolen from such places as Libya and Venezuela. The USA may even invade Venezuela and some other place like the Congo, Syria or South Africa to outright steal there gold mines, oil and gas wells and other resources, as well as have Israel steal the resources of the Palestinians on their behalf. Like the crisis of the late roman Republic, it might even lead to a glorious globe-spanning empire as an American Augustus Ceasar invades other countries to enrich his own. I'm sure the Chinese don't intend for the USA to collapse entirely.
    1
  2825. A missile that he's never likely to ever possess... except when it becomes totally obsolete. The Russians and Chinese are as complicit as the USA and its minions in Europe of keeping the North Koreans poor and freezing the Korean conflict indefinitely.
    1
  2826. 1 solitary warship, an obsolete one at that, is hardly a threat. A symbolic gesture, yes, but a threat?
    1
  2827. They'll bankrupt Europe as well by the looks of things. Meanwhile Russia and China will go from strength to strength.
    1
  2828.  @EternalModerate  Not when all parties are capitalist-corporatist and no real electoral choice is possible in their pro-US, pro-war economic and foreign policies.
    1
  2829.  @williamnunn8847  Which side of the Brexit line do you stand?
    1
  2830. What relevance does an event that happened so long ago have to do with the present? Your logic is flawed.
    1
  2831. Is it in English?
    1
  2832. Keynesian pump priming is what I think it's called. I'm given to understand that the Germans did something similar in the 1930's and it worked... for a while. It seems though that such an economic policy is unsustainable over the longer term unless certain conditions remain stable, which isn't likely to be the case for long.
    1
  2833. Communism failed you say? Russia went from being a semi-feudal autarchy to a modern superpower in the space of 40 years; China in the space of 30. Millions were lifted out of poverty and levels of literacy and health increased enormously. If anything it is capitalism that is failing. As for democracy, did we really ever have it? After all, capitalism (the concentration of wealth and power into the hands of a plutocracy) is fundamentally at odds with democracy (wealth and power distributed among the many).
    1
  2834. Пожалуйста, прекратите спамить. Спасибо.
    1
  2835. Or each other.
    1
  2836. It would be a remarkable discovery given the extremely hostile environment both on the surface of Venus and in its atmosphere, but if there were microbes detected it would prove conclusively that extremophiles can exist on other planets and not just on our own. One intriguing question would be how it got there — panspermia (brought from Earth by meteorite impacts, perhaps?) or indigenous (abiogenesis?).
    1
  2837. Britain does generally what Uncle Sam wants. If the American deep state, together with the Davos/Bilderberg crowd, the heads of the major pharmaceutical and agribusiness giants and the military‐corporate system want it, it happens.
    1
  2838. Ukraine needs a counter-coup to undo the one that the USA perpetrated. It then needs Russia and China to invest heavily in it and make it a success and use it as an example of how superior their models of political economy are over those of the United States and Great Britain (i.e. the two leading advocates of the neo-liberal order that has been and continues to be such a disaster for humanity).
    1
  2839.  @georgealmaraz658  And a billionaire who's wealth mostly comes from the embezzlement of his own people.
    1
  2840. Capitalism is unreformable. Like the feudalism that preceded it, a revolution in the underlying economic base of society will have to occur before we begin to see its demise. In the West it took scientific, theologico-ideological and technological revolutions to occur before industrial revolutions could take place leading to the subsequent cultural and social revolutions which followed. It will take the same sequence of events in the next great transformation. As for your idea that capitalism is the best, you are either misguided or someone who clearly benefits from a system of iniquity that simultaneously creates super-abundance and artificial scarcity (empty houses, homeless people; abundance of food, people malnourished and starving) and that creates an ever more rarefied class of plutocrats who own everything that should by moral right be the patrimony of the whole human race.
    1
  2841. ... It's a subcontinent. FIFY
    1
  2842. Are you seriously suggesting every man should have repeated periods of abstinence each lasting 64 days, leaving approximately 45 days in which to make babies, or 8 days per month, twice per week? Good luck persuading the average man. Mind you, I read somewhere once that the average married twosome had sex only twice a week for about 30-45 minutes.
    1
  2843. Are men who bugger women gay? Is there 'situational homosexuality' the way that psychiatry says their exists 'situational paedophilia?
    1
  2844. With regards the universally held idea that smallpox originated in Europe and then spread like wildfire through the native population, decimating it, I have heard a theory that smallpox in fact was already present in at least some of the native population of the Americas, albeit in a considerably less virulent form with many people contracting it during childhood. In fact it was this prior contact with the disease that granted them a degree of immunity such that the European version had to evolve to become super virulent just to survive (Europeans being somewhat resistant to this, their own version of smallpox). Don't know how true the theory is though.
    1
  2845.  @overcorpse  Because it was the cold war and back then neither the USA nor the Soviet Union wanted to upset the status quo. In effect, the post war settlement was that Russia got the east (Warsaw Pact) and the USA got the west (NATO) and during that time neither side sought to upset the balance of power too much by encroaching on the others sphere of influence; borders were fixed, spheres of influence clearly demarcated. In the specific case of Finland the settlement between them and the Soviet Union at the end of world war 2 was that they would be allowed to keep their political and economic system but militarily they would stay neutral, which was a much better deal than what the rest of Europe got. This was called finlandization and Helsinki knew precisely where it stood vis‐à‐vis Moscow. And it worked! Staying neutral, even if that neutrality was decidedly pro‐EU, pro‐US (benevolent neutrality) has given the wonderful people of Finland the highest standard of living in the world. But now they want to change all that just because of some deliberately contrived provocation on Russia's border. For what! They are about to do the one thing that makes Russia more nervous, more defensive, and increases the likelihood of war further down the line.
    1
  2846. @Olaf Sigurson I know. That's why the USA created it, to insult the Finns and goad them. Fortunately, they were sensible enough not to rise to the insult. What will the they get by joining NATO that they don't have already? If Russia ever decided to invade Finland I'm sure that it wouldn't take them long to subdue the country even with a NATO presence. It's just another flashpoint. Also, because the Russians are fully aware of their disastrous performance in the initial stages of the winter war in 1939 they will very probably go out of their way not to repeat them a second time around.
    1
  2847. Plausible.
    1
  2848. I'm sure culturally and geographically speaking an average Russian considers themself at least partly European, if mainly that part that is Slavic/Orthodox. The European Enlightenment and Renaissance have both had an influence on Russia since at least the time of Tsars Peter and Catherine the Great.
    1
  2849.  @NathanHaaren  And isn't Christianity just a cheap knock off of Judaism? And Judaism just a knock off of …?
    1
  2850. I suspect that one or both of those parties have been compromised because they keep advocating policies that are not in the economic interests of Germany.
    1
  2851. Purely symbolic. They will be basically recognising a bantustan/Indian reservation. It will still be controlled by either Israel or thy United States, probably by a corrupt and collaborationist government not unlike the Palestinian Authority they breve now. Their oil and gas will still end up in the hands of the West.
    1
  2852. Bilateral treaties between countries obliging mutual assistance (though not necessarily of the military kind) in case of attack could be a partial solution, whilst international organisations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) could serve as an alternative venue for the resolution of disputes, cutting out the need for the United Nations to get involved except a an observer.
    1
  2853. It's not Judeo-Christian, its simply Christian. Judeo-Christian is a term invented by Christian fundamentalist evangelicals in the USA roundabout the 1950's as a way of linking the two, entirely separate religions in the minds of their adherents. It is an entirely political construct which has precious little to do with the genuine historical development of either religion.
    1
  2854. Could be true. I think the USA (or the global elite) wants some kind of a war.
    1
  2855. Meme pareidolia. Pareidolic Meme.
    1
  2856. Hopefully, Russia's actions will put a stop to his buying up of Ukraine's arable land and contaminating eastern Europe's food supplies with GMO seeds, as well as freeing Ukrainian farmers from subservience to US agribusiness corporations.
    1
  2857. An excellent summary of the situation, if I may say so. Russia wants concrete guarantees that are legally both under international law and, more importantly, under the laws of the United States itself (not that it means much these days). I'm not too hopeful the Russians will be successful in their aims though as the continued existence of NATO - a major pillar of US hegemony in my opinion - depends on expansion. It's a case of expand or die unless it can transform into something bigger like a Global Treaty Organisation or something of that sort, maybe combining with the Quad.
    1
  2858. Gas prices are going through the roof where I live.
    1
  2859.  @michaelkatz275  I'd rather stay at home and have my government do the same. Britain has no business in Ukraine and shouldn't allow itself to be used as a pawn in America's great game.
    1
  2860.  @michaelkatz275  You mean the man who tried to avert a war between the British empire and the wannabe nascent German empire; you know, the one that thought it could tell the Germans that the rules made by the then global hegemon Britain were set in stone and that, while we, together with France, could divide Europe up anyway we liked the Germans weren't allowed to. This time around there are nuclear weapons that can wipe out entire societies, if not humanity itself. Is all you can come up with a Neville Chamberlain (and using a whitewashed version of history at that, one that portrays Britain as some kind of pacifist saint bending over backwards to prevent war). Do you really want a war for the sake of the sick system of fascistic Anglo-American capitalism and United States domination of the entire planet?
    1
  2861. ​ @jhnyjoejoe69 that works be most Americans. /s 😂
    1
  2862. As Britain is no longer a member of the European Union does the European Court of Human Rights have any jurisdiction in this matter?
    1
  2863.  @GoDaddioTV  I see a good opportunity for Chinese here. They are good at building ports.
    1
  2864. Ever heard of Persians, ancient Egyptians? Greeks... a motley collection of city-states always fighting each other and only if interest because of the influence they had on the elites of the city-state of ancient Rome.
    1
  2865. The inner voice, talking to itself.
    1
  2866. A sun that is unusual in composition doesn't mean its artificial though only that it's different from the ones we're used to seeing or that our scientific knowledge on the subject is incomplete.
    1
  2867. He's living up to his name: malicious.
    1
  2868. They are reflexively scared of being accused of peddling 'conspiracy theories' and of being 'cancelled' as a result. Unfortunately, they have to be careful of what they say to the point of self-censorship and sensitising their audiences to what is, and is not, permissible speech.
    1
  2869. The Cuban missile crisis 2.0?
    1
  2870. If democracy means being responsive to the will of the people and the people as a whole hold revanchist or irredentist feelings then greater democracy would be counterproductive, so what do you mean by a proper democracy? Is the EU a proper democracy?
    1
  2871. Probably the same as those neoliberal economists brought up on a diet of Mises, Hayek and Friedman.
    1
  2872.  @PeriorMan  isn't the Gulag Archipelago a work of fiction and not a work of non-fiction?
    1
  2873. The so‐called green parties are all fake parties created to serve nefarious ends.
    1
  2874. ​ @David_Lloyd-Jones  Recently, from what I've heard, China has just begun a serious attempt at solving issues surrounding the South China Sea and undermine the USA by entering into renewed dialogue with its neighbours.
    1
  2875.  @oliknowles7645  Their own, perhaps?
    1
  2876. Private corporations full stop.
    1
  2877. ​ @not_want4203 capitalist society.
    1
  2878. The Mexicans also made sacrifices too you know, probably greater than yours because that's why they are coming over the border as lower wages for you living in the first world equal even lower wages — or no jobs at all — for them. That said, these so‐called free trade agreements are basically about screwing the working class by cutting costs and putting down wages while increasing profits for the corporations.
    1
  2879. You obviously do not know what communism is, otherwise you would not be making such an asinine comment.
    1
  2880. @rubies200  Ecosocialism is capitalist corporations engaging in 'greenwashing', pretending to care about climate change while actually co-opting organisations that originally did care and turning them into just another means of making money, furthering their ends and neutralising any real threat to the status quo.
    1
  2881. @rubies200  And you... a rightist? Being a rightist sounds much closer to being a fascist than a leftist sounds to being a communist.
    1
  2882.  @rubies200  There isn't a point I need to prove, you've done that for me already [that you're misguided]. I bet you also believe in the horseshoe theory so beloved of the hard right: that communism and fascism end up being just the same as each other and that there is no real difference between the two?
    1
  2883. "He could not say war because it is not." But it is. War ✖️ 'Unwise and illegal thing'. ✔️
    1
  2884. Looks like you have no sympathy for working people just trying to earn a decent living when they go on strike to protest about being replaced by machinery or having their wages reduced.
    1
  2885. There isn't a left wing in the USA. In the USA you have only two corporate parties (themselves corporations in everything but name).
    1
  2886. What's the weather like down there in Georgia?
    1
  2887. NATO is made up of independent sovereign states and the USA needs them all to be on its side and to consent to its proposed actions. That is, it operates by consensus and if there is none (and there certainly is none here) the USA cannot hope to use the organisation in the event of Russia resorting to military intervention in Ukraine.
    1
  2888. The same way Christian countries did from the 3rd century onwards. The way a certain Jewish country in the Middle East is doing.
    1
  2889. More jobs for the British and greater energy security.
    1
  2890. They did the same under US agent of influence Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative party in the 1980's and 90's. Neo-Conservatives applying Neo-Liberal nostrums.
    1
  2891. The USA is using the same military Keynesianism that the Germans used prior to world war two with the military‐industrial complex taking over everything. Using the stolen resources of Palestine the USA wants to monopolise the Palestine's maritime gas reserves and turning Israel into another Saudi Arabia, simultaneously creating a captive market in Europe by forcing it to get its gas and oil from client states of the USA.
    1
  2892. And all for attacking its Third World neighbours with their second and third rate armies. I wonder how good it would be against a peer power.
    1
  2893. And when the Germans occupied...? — And now that NATO and the EU occupy...?
    1
  2894. Is the USA behind any of this or is it completely spontaneous?
    1
  2895. What is your alternative hypothesis, that the moon was a rogue planet the was captured by the Earth's gravitational field?
    1
  2896. But can't the USA just continue to print money or maybe just abolish the Federal Reserve and renationalise the currency?
    1
  2897.  @texanwokey8366  As did the Spanish. Heard of burning at the stake or garroting for witchcraft and religious non-conformism (polytheism). As well as those tortured to death by the Inquisition for being different. The Spanish and Portuguese both sacrificed to their gods.
    1
  2898. The Australians are doing the same with their own quarantine camps, only they aren't evening bothering to build anything, they're just housing people in tents.
    1
  2899.  @marcelobravo3074  Also dependent on the Western lending institutions.
    1
  2900. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter because Hong Kong is now an integral part of China (as it always was until Britain forcibly annexed it) so they can do whatever they want within their own country.
    1
  2901. If Chinese made products are "garbage" it's because the US multinational companies that use Chinese companies and labour for products sold in the USA (undercutting American labour) want them to be. They are the ones that set the quality specifications for US imports from China.
    1
  2902. Stop it with the damn adverts, Alexander! It's ridiculous.
    1
  2903. That's still 2 camps.
    1
  2904. Infiltration by foreign NGO's inciting violence had a lot to do with it too.
    1
  2905. The political and economic reforms she ushered in have placed Britain in such a weakened position that if the Argentinians were to invade today Britain would be hard put to stop them without putting a strain on the military and the economy.
    1
  2906. It would be descending to the low level of the US government, as well as probably being counterproductive: the US government would simply use it as an excuse to interfere more.
    1
  2907. An institution created by the West to advance the interests of capital.
    1
  2908. If she is unpopular in her own country how did she manage to get where she is. Who voted for her or was she simply appointed without consultation?
    1
  2909.  @the_mowron  Probably because of the stuff they have to put up with from ungrateful customers. Are the frequenters of motels good tippers?
    1
  2910. Lenin inherited the Russian empire. He did not add to it.
    1
  2911. I didn't know the money was never paid, nor that it was a lease and not free-hold. Why was the lease fee never paid or demanded?
    1
  2912. How does an empire "grow up" and still remain an empire?
    1
  2913. What's the name of your democratic representative? When was the last time you had personal contact with your democratic representative and told them what you wanted them to do on an issue that was effecting you directly? Did they do it? Was the choice a free one or a false choice given to you from a set of choices already agreed on by government? Do you know how your representative votes on given issues, that is, their voting record? How effective is your democracy in ending want and poverty?
    1
  2914. But it can't. And it won't. We'll see.
    1
  2915. Don't forget the British navy and airforce; distance alone would have meant nothing without Britain having had a world-class navy second to none back in the 1930's and 40's. If you were to compare the British navy today to back then, in a rerun of history things might be very different.
    1
  2916. Korea is part of the empire of the USA. It can no more be seen to lose Korea than it could the 'jewel in the crown' Japan. You should know by now that the Asiatic peoples can't be left to govern themselves because, like the American and African Negro, they are incapable and just like children need the benevolent guiding hand of the white man to keep them reverting to barbarism.
    1
  2917. ​ @gordo3582  Can't wait.
    1
  2918. WEF/Bilderberg/Davos, etc. Multi-billionaires through Agenda 2030 deciding to reduce the global population.
    1
  2919. Socialism is just capitalism with a conscience, balances and checks. A compromise, not a knock‐out win. Unfortunately it's still capitalism. Another thing is that so‐called socialism, the type that exists in the West as the sole template which the rest of the world follows, like so‐called western democracy, exists solely due to historical developments occurring as a product of the capitalist‐corporatist mode of production (industrialism, scientism) and cannot exist outside of it (industrial and science based society). Socialism, therefore, is not and never can be truly anti‐capitalist (anti‐industrial revolution) so poses no real threat to the existing state of affairs. It builds upon rather than smashes the existing political economy. It's evolutionary not revolutionary.
    1
  2920. That's probably because he's been selected by the troika rather than the Greek electorate. I'm curious. You describe yourself as a Greek Canadian American. Does that mean you have citizenship of three countries?
    1
  2921. I'm glad she's only answering the phone (and making the tea), out of harms way. I'd hate to see such a young and attractive woman with her future ahead of her be killed in this war. Women who enter the army should be put in clerical positions and other support roles and as far away from combat as possible. Leave the fighting to men. My views may be old fashioned but I don't care. — Я радий, що вона тільки відповідає на телефонні дзвінки (і заварює чай), щоб уникнути шкоди. Мені не хотілося б бачити, як у цій війні вбивають таку молоду та привабливу жінку, у якої попереду її майбутнє. Жінок, які вступають в армію, слід поставити на канцелярські посади та інші допоміжні ролі та якомога далі від бою. Залиште боротьбу чоловікам. Мої погляди можуть бути старомодними, але мені байдуже.
    1
  2922. Don't confuse social Darwinism with the real thing, scientific Darwinism. That would be like confusing pseudo-scientific neo-classical economics (an ideology masquerading as a social science) with the real social science of classical economics.
    1
  2923. The Chinese-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) it can be argued is such an organisation, albeit one that is much less bombastic in comparison to NATO. It concerns itself with security issues effecting Asia.
    1
  2924. According to Francis Fukuyama we have. He says we have finally come to the end of history. He also says that the USA is the most perfect civilisation to ever exist, that its socioeconomic system is the most perfect, and that every event to occur, from the big bang up until the present, was merely a lead up to this point in time and that neoliberalism (aka neo‐fascism with a liberal twist) is what the universe was working towards for the past 13 billion years. Communism, he says, is an abject failure; an evil ideology that wants to take over the world, kills billions, and always, always fails wherever it's tried. He says that only capitalism works and that no other system is possible.
    1
  2925. Blame that on capitalism.
    1
  2926. That's why they undermine a democracy anyway they can.
    1
  2927. Didn't the Americans and NATO bomb them back to the 19th century?
    1
  2928.  @wyodragon4325  That may be true, but don't forget that these countries can be as warlike and blood thirsty as anyone else.
    1
  2929.  @ImBigFloppa  Are you saying the Russians don't have an anti-tank weapon system that can destroy an American tank, or that their own tanks lack the ability in one-on-one with the Abrams to destroy it?
    1
  2930.  @Hathur  The Germans said the same in 1941.
    1
  2931. They are so hypocritical that I would not be at all surprised if they did.
    1
  2932. Maybe what you call the middle class is/was just a temporary phenomenon thrown up by capitalism on the way to whatever end goal there may be.
    1
  2933. And give the Falkland islands to Argentina, perhaps on a lease-back basis (the Argentinians ceded the island's, leasing them back to us for a set period). Also, give the Chagos island's back to their original inhabitants, perhaps as a self-governing United Nations trust territory or crown colony within the British Commonwealth.
    1
  2934. The days of Saudi Arabia are numbered. Whether overthrown by the USA itself because it starts becoming a little too independent à la Iraq under Saddam Hussein (or simply as part of a wider plan of destabilisation and/or assertion of direct US control), or by internal revolt or foreign, non-western intervention.
    1
  2935. A new 'Great Game' is on in Africa between China and the USA and it will take 3 decades or more to play out, barring some sort of calamity in the USA in the meantime.
    1
  2936. As does Israel. Britian. France. Spain. Italy. Why, even Germany I'm sure would be able to if it this time around.
    1
  2937.  @bjarke7886  All societies have morals and ethical standards and I think most, if not all, have certain traits in common. That said, the idea of rights as expressed by the United Nations and the European Union are essentially western European in origin and after a century or more of western cultural hegemony may now be under challenge.
    1
  2938.  @jessebraun4131  Not under capitalism it ain't! Why do you find the haves in the USA and Europe are so against egalitarianism when advocated by the have-nots? They think it's a communist idea. They may say that 'all men are created equal' but when it comes to sharing out resources equitably they're pretty much determined to keep some men as more equal than others (they deserve their inherited wealth, you know, 'cause they worked hard for it, blah, blah, blah).
    1
  2939. I'd say feminism – however it is defined – is a product of the socio-economic conditions prevailing at any given time. Political economy and the social stratification it engenders its what ultimately determines the kind of society people live in.
    1
  2940. And where even at the height of empire the majority of the population were mired in poverty with many forced into the workhouse. Only in the post war period when the empire was fast disappearing did levels of absolute poverty fall to all time lows and now they are on the rise again.
    1
  2941. The USA adopted the same Keynesian pump priming of their economy that the Germans used in the 1930's. And we all know where that led.
    1
  2942.  @thinkingaloud5379  What role did the electoral college play in Biden's victory?
    1
  2943.  @tinatang1  If only one could go back into the past and show the presidents of the USA what would happen if they created the Federal Reserve, the CIA and the FBI, got involved in world wars 1 & 2, the Korean war, etc. maybe the world would be a better place. Come to think of it, if we could go back into the past and do this with all the world's leaders....
    1
  2944. It was designed to trap Europe in a political system created to advance corporate interests. It has been made has hard as possible for countries to fully extricate themselves from.
    1
  2945. The primary purpose is to maintain, and if possible expand, the domination of Anglo-American capitalism (the neo-liberal rentier variety).
    1
  2946.  @brettdemauna9332  If it's true, or it just might be NATO that did it and not Ukraine.
    1
  2947.  @brettdemauna9332  From the very beginning. United States interference goes back as far as 1946 in fact when US‐directed terrorists (those who had fought on the German side) continued operations inside Ukraine up until the 1950's. I don't know which news sources you use but mine are telling me:- 1. Mercenaries from NATO countries are operating in Ukraine, some of whom have been captured. — 2. Regular soldiers of NATO countries (special forces to be exact) are operating in Ukraine, some of whom have be been captured or are surrounded in Mariupol. — 3. NATO countries are providing weapons, training, logistical and intelligence support to Ukraine. — 4. The Ukrainian government is not in charge of the country, the USA is. Its pathetic president, Zilensky, is merely a puppet, a Quisling, of the US government.
    1
  2948. NATO expansion actually.
    1
  2949. They are already attacking, it's just secret and behind the scenes using special forces, paramilitaries, terrorists, guerrillas and death squads. The overt presence is there just to deter the Chinese and (especially) the Russians the way that NATO did in Europe and SEATO did in Asia, allowing the USA to wreak havoc everywhere else knowing that there was precious little the Soviet Union could (or was willing) to do. Ultimately, Russia's inaction led its undoing, it being fatally weakened from within because they had adopted a 'siege mentality' from the Cuban missile crisis onwards, being content to hide behind the Iron Curtain, thinking they could win with words and moral suasion what only wars can win. In the end, like the city of Rome and the Great Wall of China, the gates were opened by traitors from within who had grown impatient with the promise of a better life under communism that never came.
    1
  2950. Your take on things is too subjective and needs more nuance.
    1
  2951. He's the host and a good host is supposed to let guests speak their minds freely. The role of the host is not to stand in moral judgement of their guests but to have them answer pertinent questions and let the viewer decide.
    1
  2952. Archeology and museums might not even be a thing in the future.
    1
  2953. It's a game of upping (or downing) the ante: the Democrats will threaten the Republicans with corruption charges in proportion to them threatening to bring corruption charges. You go after Biden, we'll go after Trump. It's a game of chicken: who'll go the furthest. I think that it's theatre for the most part. They have a modus vivendi where they'll make a backroom deal and no one gets seriously punished (except the small fry), or if they do they'll either get a pardon or won't serve the full term of their sentence.
    1
  2954. What alternative do we/they have?
    1
  2955. Yea, we don't want the USA to be like China now do we, with a government that actually comprehensively plans and systematically implements social and economic policies that benefit its people. No, we want a 'free' market of rent-seeking, profit-seeking corporations that love to pay taxes, hate government bailouts, tax breaks and the like.
    1
  2956.  @dengxiaopinggaming5500  And China too.
    1
  2957.  @shauncameron8390  If the Chinese after the reforms are so capitalist why does the USA fear them so much? And the outsourcing of jobs is EXACTLY what we would expect in a capitalist society. You like capitalism so much, well, here you are with no jobs. That's what happens when you having a job relies on the decisions of a private multimillionaire class looking after their class interests and not yours — do you see the Chinese exporting their jobs for profit? As for your democracy, surely you can just vote to bring those jobs back, no? By the way, the Chinese only made great strides under under Deng, Hu and Xi have because they have built upon the firm foundations of what went before under Mao.
    1
  2958. But then Russia will take everything. Russia will have won whether or not a formal peace agreement has been reached.
    1
  2959. But that's exactly what the USA does: give food stamps (tax breaks) to millionaires.
    1
  2960. More like a military-intelligence cabal working behind the scenes in lockstep with those parts of the U.S. economy that has most to gain from a hugely bloated military.
    1
  2961. Whereas in the 1980's it was the USA playing off China against Russia, today it's both playing off each other against the USA. — Sino‐Russian cooperation can only grow in the climate of obstructionism coming from the USA.
    1
  2962. ​ @stevenfallinge7149  Because they were collaborators and traitors, as was the puppet government.
    1
  2963. ​ @hungrymusicwolf  Capitalism is the best form of government... as is teeters on the edge of another Great Depression, not to mention all of the other, countless cyclical recessions that went before. And democracy did not bring about capitalism either because capitalism is by its nature undemocratic, as you are now seeing with the plutocratic oligarchy driving the USA and its minions into bankruptcy and war after war. Democracy was in fact an attempt to rein in the excesses and tyranny of capitalist oligarchy. Social and technological advances also occurred in spite of these things you call capitalism and democracy and when they did occur because of capitalism it was as a result of the system's need for war to further its expansion.
    1
  2964. The European Union was always a project of the USA and its fellow travellers in Europe. It was not just a way of rebuilding western Europe after the war of 1939-1945, but also of stopping communism and socialism making inroads into post-war western Europe.
    1
  2965.  @augustus331  Who did you support in Yugoslavia? ... In Libya? ... In Syria? ... In Sudan? ... In Afghanistan? ... In Iraq? ... In Iran? ... In Lebanon? ... In Palestine? ... In Panama? ... In all the places the USA and its client states and protégés?
    1
  2966. Both are... equally terrifying?
    1
  2967. That would be descending to their level. And the Russians, I'm sure, don't want to do that.
    1
  2968. It was never about communism versus capitalism. It was about an expanding US empire fighting for domination of the European continent and restoring the pre-war status quo of western economic domination but now with the USA as its undisputed head, displacing Britain and France.
    1
  2969. Did Vietnam want to remain divided for no other reason than some white guys on the other side of the planet decided that they should?
    1
  2970.  @babblo1389  are they as good as Turkish drones; how do they compare?
    1
  2971. It would be an interesting development and could potentially alleviate some of the problems associated with conventional loans.
    1
  2972. Ever heard of the WEF (World Economic Forum) and its various 'agendas'?
    1
  2973. Says the chatbot! 😂
    1
  2974. And then... the Americans demanded that the Japanese share the technology with them?
    1
  2975. Probably put forward on the recommendation of US intelligence as a British equivalent of Barack Obama. We had the first woman prime minister (and most people of the real left know where that led) and now folks it's time for Britain to have a 'person of colour', a POC as they say in woke land, as our prime minister. Like his US counterpart a hopey, changey kinda guy, all appearance and no substance: the ideal candidate to advance the cause of neoliberalism under the cloak of inclusiveness. Attack him and you'll be accused of racism. But, hey, look folks, the City of London isn't racist, it's just allowed to be elected (in elections in which there's no real choice between candidates) the City's first POV so we can keep up with the Jones's across the pond. What next, the first transsexual, the first homosexual, the first non- binary? [I better shut now before I'm accused of lacking sufficiently in political correctness.]
    1
  2976. The USA is spreading the risk to the whole world, globalising this systemic 'too big to fail' problem and making it a problem for everyone.
    1
  2977. The Ukrainian government is a puppet of the USA so it can't stop the war against its own people.
    1
  2978. Taxes? What taxes? Under neoliberalism taxes are paid by the poor, not the rich. The rich are allowed to park their money in offshore bank accounts.
    1
  2979. The USA has been pushing Russia into war for the better part of 100 years, ever since the Russian revolution. Push too much and you will eventually get a reaction. This is the fault of the United States. If there had been no Cold War there would not have been the breakup of the Soviet Union and everyone could have been living at peace in stable and prosperous countries instead of countries that have been divided and kept backward by US violence and intimidation aimed at suppressingthe world. Western Europe, this is what it's like to live under empire. Just like all empires, the colonies are exploited by the imperial centre and suffer accordingly. Perhaps now the USA is about to do to western Europe what it's done to the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas: bring instability and chaos; dictatorship and fascist‐corporate tyranny.
    1
  2980. It's what you get when psychopaths and fanatics driven by a religion and ideology impervious to reality are in charge.
    1
  2981. It was the fear of communist revolution combined with electoral gains by socialist parties and increasing union militancy that finally convinced certain members of the propertied class in the USA to give their (very qualified) support for American-style social democratic movements and reforms favouring the working class. Theodore Roosevelt among others was one such person. That's why they threatened him with a putsch in the 30's during the Great Depression. Maybe something like that will happen again; a member of the elite will see that it's better to throw a few loaves of bread at the mob now and stave off calls for root and branch reform than to continue to continue to sprinkle them with just the breadcrumbs.
    1
  2982. Maybe also to coordinate action on the introduction of CBCD's and other fiscal and monetary policies, such as exchange rates.
    1
  2983. As in wanting Russia to dismantle the Warsaw Pact just so that it can be replaced by US-NATO. Or wanting China and the Soviet Union to dismantle communism just so it can be replaced with parasitic Anglo-American rentier capitalism. Launching a 50 year long cold war in which millions died just to prevent the peaceful contestation of capitalism by communism and its voluntary embrace by the global South. That sounds pretty much like wanting to take over the world to me.
    1
  2984. You've expressed it perfectly! 🫡👍
    1
  2985.  @Olivia-bl8ez  So have the costs of living.
    1
  2986.  @WolfHeathen  ever heard of tax evasion?
    1
  2987. The stomach, or the bacterial biome in the stomach, has been implicated in having an effect on our mood and health and has been called a second brain. The heart also.
    1
  2988.  @zurinarctus1329  Probably because he wanted political and economic sovereignty for Libya and Africa and didn't want either Russia or China undermining that. He probably also wanted Libya to have the same currency dominance as the USA has with the Bretton Woods system. In the end he was too ambitious. Economic power not backed up by commensurate military power is very susceptible to being destroyed by countries that have both. Also, only by combining the aforementioned judiciously can you have political power and its political power that is what a country aspires to. Economic power and military power are the means, political power is the end.
    1
  2989. God bless the cannon fodder of the capitalists, wherever they come from and whatever their colour.
    1
  2990.  @eternalobi  And what stage is next?
    1
  2991. He's ill and not feeling well. Cold and flu tend to make you like that, so it's not really his fault. He's had one too many Covid booster shots I think.
    1
  2992. He's an economist. That's what they do. Talk.
    1
  2993.  @justgivemethetruth  Yes, Karl Marx was too honest in his critique of capitalism and Jeffrey Sachs may be in the same mould as he was. Neoliberal economists meanwhile are just ideologues spouting the rentier banksters party line.
    1
  2994. I thought the video said that the Varyag was broken up in situ on the beach where she ran aground. Presumably therefore there would be no wreck to dive because the ship would have been broken up for use as scrap.
    1
  2995. Only when the USA gets a Stalin or a Mao, a Castro or a Ho Chi Minh will the interests of the ordinary working class people of the United States be taken seriously.
    1
  2996. It's more indicative in my opinion of indecision and even paralysis at the top. The Americans seem to be too divided, as if they've run out of politically viable options.
    1
  2997. Wasn't there a law change after Dr Kelly's death concerning autopsies/coroner's reports that now makes it that much easier for the state to pass off suspicious deaths as being due to natural causes?
    1
  2998. He already has developed a strong military and paramilitary to suppress organised labour and political dissent. More to the point, the USA and certain countries in Europe have done most of the organising as he's merely the figurehead.
    1
  2999. Potsdam and Cairo declarations say that it is part of China.
    1
  3000. Potsdam and Cairo declarations say that it is part of China.
    1
  3001. I'm given to understand that the president of the USA cannot commit regular troops without the authorisation by Congress (who won't give it) but that this doesn't apply to reservists (state militia). I don't know for sure though.
    1
  3002.  @sislater6334  In theory, alas. If only it were also true in fact.
    1
  3003. Indeed it was the end of history. Western history. History will in future be written by Asia, China foremost among them.
    1
  3004. Tri‐hegemony (global hegemony shared between the three of them) with maybe India joining some time later as it progresses in the technological, scientific, and economic fields, gaining parity with other three almost in spite of itself.
    1
  3005. Killed off by the Covid 'vaccine'.
    1
  3006.  @melodyyo1  It is the United States, both directly and through NATO and the EU, that is threatening the Russian Federation. It is also threatening and taking hostile actions against Iran and Venezuela amongst others.
    1
  3007.  @dreamUserMe  And Russia/ Soviet Union too. And all because two empire's, the British and French, couldn't tolerate a third.
    1
  3008. The USA wants to corral Europe and make them an economic dependency.
    1
  3009. Jesus was a black man...‽ 😮🫨😵☹️😮😯😲🤫
    1
  3010. From there point of view, not ours. It's all relative,you see.
    1
  3011. In truth though Wikipedia has been taken over by the intelligence services of the USA so isn't likely to give much in the way of ìnformation that is not biased in some way towards the status quo.
    1
  3012.  @rutous9031  Doesn't Russian use honorifics like Mr, Mrs, Miss, Dr., professor, etc?
    1
  3013. Autocracy? The Russian Federation holds regular elections and its president has to obey the legislature just like any other country. Authoritarian is maybe the word you want to use.
    1
  3014. Not western, American. It's the USA that's decoupling Europe (and trying to decouple the world) from Asia and Russia, impoverishing everyone but themselves in the process.
    1
  3015. The USA is disrupting business and interfering with China's intentions regarding the New Silk Road. It is also interfering with normal political relations between countries.
    1
  3016.  @elmersbalm5219  Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well.
    1
  3017. The Chinese need to thwart the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) denominated in US dollars that will allow the United States to have control over people's money even more than they have now.
    1
  3018. ​ @thegraffitiplayground1325  How can the USA be China's number 1 exporter is the Chinese make almost all the consumer goods? The Chinese possess both the raw materials and the manufacturing capacity that the USA lacks.
    1
  3019. Israel attacked the Palestinians and has been doing so for decades. It occupies Palestinian lands. So realistically it is more a case of Palestinians defending themselves from Israeli violence. Also, as the attack on Israel (actually Palestinians attacking an invader) was a false flag makes the implicit premises of your argument an exercise in futility.
    1
  3020. Perhaps the USA wants certain weapons to be captured, studied and reverse engineered. The loss of any advantage they have due to secrecy will then give an excuse for the military‐industrial complex of the USA to spend even more money on even more weapons, research and development. In the case of Europe it will not only make them lose any advantage they may have but in addition their military‐industrial complexes will suffer and they will have to increasingly rely on US R & D and equipment + training. In other words it will make the countries of Europe even more dependent on the USA, destroy or otherwise negatively effect those individual European country's industries, services, research facilities and personnel that are related to the military sector while being a boon to the general economy of the USA and its military economy in particular. Bear in mind that certain countries in Europe rely heavily on their military‐industrial complexes, some to the extent that it's the only thing that keeps them industrialised.
    1
  3021.  @topixfromthetropix1674  Britain would come a close second. Britain and America are like two peas in a pod.
    1
  3022.  @montanamountainmen6104  And what do westerners fight for? Capitalism. Corporatism. Monarchy. Lunatic systems that makes a few hundred super rich, a fee million rich, and billions poor.
    1
  3023.  @408Magenta  Agree with what you say, but as to the question why it is quite easy to answer. Thailand has a monarchy and aristocracy that are naturally deeply conservative, reactionary and thus stand against everything that communism, socialism and, indeed, any revolutionary or radical movement stands for. Monarchy and communism are natural enemies, as are religion and communism (militantly atheist).
    1
  3024.  @dotamaze  So? That is not a morally sound argument for colonialism.
    1
  3025. He's also that most conservative of Conservatives who's smug and self-satisfied to boot.
    1
  3026. Or quite possibly humanity's end game.
    1
  3027.  @furryrupert3739  Because, as the Americans themselves are always saying, they are the exceptional nation. And if you're exceptional, well....
    1
  3028. What is a soul? And what evolutionary processes has it undergone?
    1
  3029. China needs to flood Hong Kong with Chinese from the mainland, like it did with Tibet. That way it can be properly sinified and foreign influences diluted.
    1
  3030. You're pointing at the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. It's so blindingly obvious what you said is true that... well, people are blinded by it. If you don't stop talking sense this minute you might find yourself cancelled. Talk nonsense like the rest.
    1
  3031. The USA doesn't want them to. Simple as.
    1
  3032.  @robertheinkel6225  You mean, the way the military of the USA keeps expanding... all the way to the borders of China and Russia?
    1
  3033. Abiogenesis or panspermia. Or a bit of both. The question of how life got started on planet Earth is for me not a important as the fact that it did and that it evolved over eons from the simplest protolife to become what it is today. Evolution is what I find the most interesting and especially how the different periods of Earth's history allowed for certain types of life to come into being while seeming to preclude others, eg. dinosaurs over mammals.
    1
  3034.  @nsaurabh25  Well, most of Europe has a birth rate below replacement level so perhaps these immigrants should be welcomed, though I think it's nubile females that are needed more than males.
    1
  3035. Wait till you hear about the Ottoman sultans or Chinese emperors.
    1
  3036. I think it will be economics that finally tames the USA.
    1
  3037. Is she a settler/colonist? Where is she going to be housed, on stolen land? — I'm sure the Irish and Scots escaping famine and the highland clearances coming over to the Americas as refugees, exiles and indentured labour would have said the same of the Native Americans, but would that have made their genocide any more legitimate?
    1
  3038. The destruction of Great Britain is anticipated, perhaps even planned, by the deep state of the USA, just as in Latin America. There the systematic destruction of the economies of Latin America under the various generalissimos imposed by the USA was deliberate, not accidental, not due to corruption or incompetence. Deliberate. Ditto for Russia and Eastern Europe in 1989.
    1
  3039. But GDP & GNP aren't the whole story. There are other metrics by which an economy can be measured and some which are not amenable to strict mathematical or statistical analysis. In economics everything is measured in money, but money isn't everything.
    1
  3040. So what happened to the polytheists who were there already? Or was it already even back then a land without a people for a people without a land?
    1
  3041.  Armontek  Rich people ARE the problem! When you are rich you have interests in property to defend and that invariably leads to rich people entering and monopolising politics. They make the laws. They enforce the laws. And the laws don't apply to them. Concentration of wealth leads to concentration of power as sure as night follows day, leading to oligarchy, aristocracy, plutocracy, monarchy and kleptocracy. Also, we see capitalism leads to monopoly. These are the enemies of a fair and egalitarian society, one which allows for social mobility and creates an equitable distribution of wealth.
    1
  3042.  @froglifes6829  you've got it the wrong way around: it was the USA that backstabbed the Taliban.
    1
  3043. Agreed, but strikes in Britain hardly constitute an uprising.
    1
  3044. He should have used the word 'eternal'. Life is temporary but death is forever.
    1
  3045. Germany caused wars, but with the help of France, Britain and the USA.
    1
  3046. Europeans are not as culturally homogeneous as the Chinese and the appearance of a unified 'west" is more of myth created in the aftermath of world wars 1 & 2.
    1
  3047. No, but it might trigger the destruction of Europe's economies to the benefit of the USA. And that's what the USA might want to do via its British proxy.
    1
  3048. Your clown world was perfect in drawing our attention to the use of Ukrainian state propaganda in this instance. I assume Zelensky's spokesman did this to reassure the ultra-nationalists that Zelensky is one of them.
    1
  3049. "Finally loses its marbles"... after decades of provocation and sanctions that have killed untold numbers.
    1
  3050.  @waruwadab506  As well as biological warfare capabilities in violation of the Convention on Biological Weapons, which it regularly tests on civilian populations, AIDS, monkey pox, Ebola virus and Covid‐19 being just some of the diseases rumoured to have been created in such facilities. And even weaponised GMO plants and food crops.
    1
  3051.  @TonyCox1351  What would be the economic and social consequences. The world saw (though many are still in denial) what happened to your so‐called democracy, rule of law, Bill of Rights, Habeas Corpus and Constitution after the false flag of 9/11, as well as the 'attack on American democracy' by an unarmed mob of Trump supporters, protesting the possibly rigged elections. Just think what even a small nuclear bomb would do to your fragile polity if one of your victims successfully retaliated by hitting a city like New York or Washington DC (or any place in the USA) . Your stock market would tank, as would your economy and fiat currency, tipping the USA over the edge into full‐blown and undisguised autarchy (though western propaganda will probably still insist on calling a democracy, gaslighting the world with its Orwellian redefinition of the word).
    1
  3052. But... that would be communism. Putin would then be called a fascist and a communist tyrant by the West. — Joking aside, the Russians are keen to be seen as a country that honours its contractual obligations, quite apart from any legal or political ramifications that such a move would have. Of course, in the areas the Russians intend to keep they could, presumably, buy out foreign landowners (or use eminent domain) and then sell or give the land to its own citizens, or possibly keep it as public land held by the state.
    1
  3053. If the USA even then was planning to take over Ukraine then it makes perfect sense to disarm them of nuclear weapons beforehand. A Ukraine with nuclear weapons is a much a potential deterrent of regime change at the hands of the USA as it is to regime change at the hands of Russia. Just look at Iraq and Libya – they were dissuaded from pursuing their nuclear ambitions and were destroyed because they had nothing with which to deter the USA. Iran faces the same pressure to not build a nuclear bomb less it diminish the USA's hegemony in that oil and gas rich part of west Asia.
    1
  3054. It was the completion of a slow coup that probably began in the closing days of world war 2 when fascism went underground for 3 decades, stepped up a gear towards the end of the 1960's and went into overdrive in the 1990's, culminating in the events of the 11th of September 2001. I say culminating but that event should really be seen as just the end of the main takeover phase of the US government and the beginning of the takeover phase of the European Union.
    1
  3055. Women have no place in war!
    1
  3056. Paganism too.
    1
  3057. Can India help Pakistan maintain its democratic government? Would it want to?
    1
  3058. Are you saying that hispanic Americans aren't as intelligent as European Americans? What's the figure for black Americans?
    1
  3059. ​​ @70AD-user45 it was and remains those 'liberal' elites that sent them to die in the first place and it's the same contradictions inherent to capitalism that gives those elites their power that will send another generation of men to be slaughtered in the future. Further, those elites of which you speak are anything but liberal; they are in fact very, very conservative. They wish to conserve the status quo and their privileged positions within it no matter what the cost to the rest of society and no matter how unsustainable it is the long term.
    1
  3060. Since formally reuniting with the mainland, Hong Kong has had de facto no meaningful border as it had just become merely another administrative district of China. Therefore its current border status is more symbolic than anything else.
    1
  3061.  @mtn1793  A great depression 2.0, only they won't call it that, they'll call it something like the second great recession, the d-word being taboo.
    1
  3062. The USA wants to divide the world into two books blocks, just like it did in cold war 1.0.
    1
  3063.  @yelenaangeleski3354  Not officially. Yet. But the EU commission are almost certainly looking into it. The EU is, after all, a project to federalise the entire European continent and destroy the nation state as we've known it for several centuries. The globalists want to remove all barriers to transnational capital and that involves destroying democracy not only at a local level but at the national level as well. A one world government is what they're after.
    1
  3064.  @yurona5155  Could this thing the "Russian people have been subjected to for at least a decade now" be by any chance the same thing that, when it's the West doing it (as in fighting fascist Germany or communist Korea), is called patriotism and is celebrated constantly in war movies and remembrance parades? If the Russian Federation wasn't faced with so much unrelenting hostility coming from the West (NATO militarism, EU sanctions, US economic and financial warfare) then it might not be in need of this 'nationalism' so much. But just like the Soviet Union, Russia simply cannot afford to not to have such a strong nationalist element to its culture given the threats constantly posed by western cultural subversion and predatory capitalist expansionism.
    1
  3065. Nationalism (the fundamental concept upon which the modern western nation state is based ) has always been premised on an in-group/out-group dichotomy where the out-group tends to draw the proverbial short straw regarding negative stereotypical portrayals. That's just how nationalism works and is designed to foster in-group unity at the expense of out-groups.
    1
  3066. Blame stupid religious laws and beliefs.
    1
  3067. And it very well might considering the USA has become more or less fascist economically and militarily, if not politically and in social policy. France, Britain and – dare I say it – Germany will likely follow suit, especially if there's another Great Depression caused in part by the de-industrialisation of Europe (including its powerhouse, Germany) by the USA's economic war on Russia and the international food, fuel and fertiliser crisis caused by EU-US sanctions. ~ Neoliberalism/neo-conservativism would appear to me to be just rehashed versions of corporatism.
    1
  3068. I think that some of the more sophisticated weaponry initially left being has subsequently been destroyed by air raids and drone strikes and that much of the rest is unusable due to lack of spare parts and proper maintenance (which the Taliban lack). Also, the majority of the weapons left behind tend to be old or obsolete. In other words, a good percentage of the weaponry captured is more or less useless or will become so in a comparatively short space of time and the rest is largely made up of small‐to‐medium arms with a smaller number of heavy weaponry such as tanks, artillery pieces and mortars.
    1
  3069. Could be one of the reasons.
    1
  3070. And don't forget all those US citizens killed in the struggle for workers rights, coloured people's rights and the right of labour to organise and form labour unions. Read the book A True History of the United States.
    1
  3071. Certainly looks that way. The USA seems to be 'locking in' the economy of the European Union (at least its major economies) creating a dollar area like Britain did in the interwar period with sterling.
    1
  3072. Why was Portugal neutral? Why should it not be?
    1
  3073.  @foodparadise5792  so say the libertards.
    1
  3074. Overthrown in a US-orchestrated colour revolution.
    1
  3075. Seems like Pashinyan has been bought by the empire.
    1
  3076.  @unwantednobody6483  And rupees. ✔
    1
  3077. Do you forget so quickly the extreme austerity that was imposed on Greece by the EU, austerity that caused much hardship to the Greek people and continues to cause hardship? Greece has still not fully recovered from it. Or maybe you never knew because your mainstream media didn't tell you. Or maybe you just don't care.
    1
  3078. He's simply a mouthpiece for the USA and the City of London (banks and corporations).
    1
  3079. Is that a silencer/suppressor I saw on one of the men's guns? Or possibly a flash suppressor? If so, why would you want to use one in a general combat situation?
    1
  3080. Military keynesianism.
    1
  3081. Ever thought of having chapters, Alex?
    1
  3082. Meanwhile Biden and son are walking free.
    1
  3083. Merely the continuation of 500 years of western European colonialism and imperialism beginning with the genocides of the Portuguese and Spanish in the 1500's.
    1
  3084. Depleting water sources elsewhere can only ever be a stop-gap measure rather than a long term practical solution. What you suggest will only postpone the inevitable. Maybe it would work if you got your water from the ocean, but that would require desalination on a large scale and even the oceans have their limits.
    1
  3085. ​ @bargainninja6449  The sanctions are mostly fake. In sectors of the US economy that really matter that is. No, sanctions are mainly meant to damage the economies of the European Union and others.
    1
  3086. John has no opinions on the matter. He's dead.
    1
  3087. Not a hot war, but a cold war.
    1
  3088. ​ @ninakore  'Post truth' is a term probably coined by people who dislike the broad group of philosophical theories that fall under the umbrella term of post modernism and specifically the related concept of relativism.
    1
  3089. As I recall the Americans, French, Dutch and British said pretty much the same thing about the Japanese just before Singapore, Malaya and Java, Indochina and the Philippines fell. Don't underestimate your enemy.
    1
  3090. It's through experimentation that a greater understanding of the human body is gained and science progresses. All pioneers in any field start off by trial and error.
    1
  3091. Gaza is a concentration camp and however humanely you treat the prisoners they're still prisoners destined for genocide.
    1
  3092. The idea that in a genuinely laissez-faire system companies would just be allowed to go bust would not necessarily be true. Other companies – banks, for instance – would be quite happy to help, and larger companies wishing to expand by going into partnership with them, making them subsidiaries or affiliates.
    1
  3093. Rent!
    1
  3094. Any attempt by Japan to cosy up to Russia or China will always be sabotaged by the USA. Ditto South Korea. Unless and until the United States loses significant influence in South East Asia it will always be so.
    1
  3095. Allowing? Allowing! No one "allowed" the Russians (Soviets) anything. They were viciously attacked by Germany (and by extension western Europe and the USA which helped fascism to rise with every intention of using it to ward off communist revolution) and fought every inch of the way to Germany, losing literally tens of millions of people along the way. The USA only did D-Day (the seaborne invasion of France) because the Soviet Union was winning the war and looked as if it was going to get everything, much to the chagrin of France and Britain which had helped cause the war and the bankers and corporations in the USA that were financing it and and everything to lose by a Soviet victory, as well as wanting to reconstitute western Europe in terms advantageous to themselves.
    1
  3096.  @elvishprincess321  Aren't Middle Easterners 'white' (i.e. Caucasian/Caucasoid)? They're certainly not Negroid or Mongoloid or Australoid (to use a somewhat quaint and outdated nomenclature). #Cheddarman
    1
  3097.  @heldinahtmlhell Don't forget the before Homo Sapiens it was the Homo Neanderthalensis who inhabited Europe. And 'white' people only became white a few 10's of 1000's of years ago, before that they were darker skinned (cheddar.man).
    1
  3098.  @retroactivehistory  Most of what counts as 'British culture' is an invention of the 18th and 19th centuries. That is, it's largely a cultural construct carefully crafted by the creators of the nation state (which prior to the 15th century didn't really exist in Europe, or anywhere for that matter, China being the possible exception).
    1
  3099. Or replaced by a Russo‐Chinese Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)?
    1
  3100. In truth most of this tribalism was caused by the USA and its allies deliberately sowing discord rather than an innate tendency to factionalism.
    1
  3101. Ben probably supports the so‐called state capitalism of China, seeing it as preferable to that practiced in the USA and (western) Europe, basically falling into the trap of 'the-lesser-of-two-evils-ism'.
    1
  3102. Jesus Christ is — literally — a myth. No such person ever existed. That aside, very real sacrifices of captured enemies did occur at the end of a Roman Triumph where, after being paraded through the streets of Rome, they were ritually garrotted as an offering to the god of war and the patron deities of the city.
    1
  3103. In the USA they'd be shot by white policemen. Accidently, of course.
    1
  3104. Trev C: "Morality doesn't come from religion." Agreed! Religion merely reinforces morality.
    1
  3105. Trev C, so where did the first religion originate? Surely someone, somewhere, at some time in prehistory woke up to the hitherto completely novel idea that is religion and that the idea arose completely spontaneously and not due to prior exposure. Like the Big Bang, everything has a beginning.
    1
  3106. Maybe secular, rational Confucianism (humanism + amoral pragmatism) can.
    1
  3107. What's with the flashing light in the background (reflecting off the picture of the old woman)? It's distracting.
    1
  3108. ​ @hishamalaker491 should they feel shame?
    1
  3109. And we probably will if we can't jump back into bed with the European Union (not that the European Union would be in any better shape than the USA).
    1
  3110. You first NATO/USA!
    1
  3111. Making Europe more authoritarian, mirroring the conditions prevailing in the United States. As the United States becomes increasingly politically dysfunctional, exacerbated by its dire economic crisis, it has every likelihood of becoming a full-blown fascist tyranny in its attempts to hold itself together as a corporation masquerading as a state.
    1
  3112. He's the modern equivalent of Herod 2nd Antipater, the one mentioned in the Bible. A ruthless and calculating ruler, and one totally unashamed of being a Roman collaborator.
    1
  3113. That's like asking whether the USA has anything to do with Russia's actions in Ukraine. Are the increase in fuel and food prices in Europe are in some way related to the EU's sanctions on Russia. The blindingly obvious elephant in the room becomes suddenly invisible. Next you'll be asking whether three steel framed high rise buildings collapsed into their own footprint at free fall speed might have done so after a controlled demolition. /S
    1
  3114. Unfortunately, it would seem we humans cannot live in societies without some sort of 'group think' such as provided by ideology and religion, metaphysical systems of moral reasoning all predicated on first principles that tend to have no real foundation in reality and that commit the naturalistic fallacy of deriving an ought from an is.
    1
  3115. Mark Lorenz: Economic growth for its own sake, especially one based on consumerism and unrelated to meeting real social needs, is pointless and in addition may be ultimately unsustainable if it puts intolerable strain on the environment and its ecosystems.
    1
  3116. Unless your an ethnic Russian or Russian speaking Ukrainian or a communist.
    1
  3117.  @Arya_amsha  Neither does greed.
    1
  3118.  @patriotamerican3069  But they do deserve to be treated like human beings; free men and not slaves. And for that you need a minimum wage that is above subsistence and then some.
    1
  3119. I keep hearing how Japan "is on our side" but are they really? Do you seriously think they are going to go against their own best interests for the war mongering USA and its ever expanding empire, a morally and financially bankrupt country that nuked, firebombed, and still occupies them? When the Japanese looked as if they were going to overtake them economically the USA took measures to severely damage their economy. So much for allies. Japan is Asian and so is China; the USA is not. They are neighbours; the USA is not. Don't mistake being a satrap for genuine loyalty or affection else you are going to be disappointed.
    1
  3120. Can the USA break be broken apart though? A diminished but still united USA is still powerful and can still rise again if not beaten decisively and broken up, either by internal forces or outside pressures. Just look at China as an example.
    1
  3121. If there exists sentient, intelligent life that is sufficiently technologically advanced to be able to explore space then it will almost certainly be curious about us, even if doesn't necessarily want to interact. I am of the idea that intelligence is pretty much the same across species... and that includes aliens.
    1
  3122. Perhaps president Erdogan would be better going to China than Saudi Arabia.
    1
  3123. Hope you're right. Though economic, cultural and political war has already broken out, indeed, has been waged since 1917 (Russian revolution) and intensified after 1946 (cold war). More than a hundred years of hate caused by capitalists and corporatists.
    1
  3124. The UN hasn't a reputation worth its name; it's just a place where superannuated grifters go.
    1
  3125. GB News is probably part of an intelligence operation by MI5/CIA.
    1
  3126. How you can imagine liberal/neo‐liberal globalists pursuing a communist path is beyond me. Fascist, right‐wing, rightist, conservative, Republican, Christian Democrat, etc. but left‐wing they aren't. The fact is Asia and Europe (which is with India but a subcontinent of Asia) are, potentially, drawing closer together to form a single trading block, Eurasia, which if ever realised to any great degree will most likely completely dominate the global economy, eclipsing that of all others combined. And naturally the USA doesn't want that and will do everything in its power to prevent it.
    1
  3127.  @Salta0monte  Perhaps your right. Time will tell.
    1
  3128. Both countries need to keep in mind that Bhutan is a buffer between them and to serve in that role effectively it must remain neutral. Thus both countries should not advance their military or economic interests too far or too aggressively at the expense of the other. Harder to say than to do I know, but still.
    1
  3129.  @Liv1nMohawk  And how else do you get the government to respond to the will of the people? Oh I know, let's use some of that 'democracy' that Canada's so famous for, I'm sure the US‐backed Canadian government will listen. And another thing, who's to say that they weren't agents provocateur and that the threat wasn't exaggerated and misrepresented by that oh‐so‐free press of yours.
    1
  3130. They're almost comical in their amateurism.
    1
  3131. The ones who are most complacent (and therefore so susceptible to propagandising) are the ones who live the most comfortable lives. They simply see no reason to change a system that seems to be working so well. There has to be a crisis before they begin questioning.
    1
  3132. Perhaps Russia could use Wagner to frustrate the French in Niger (not that they want or need to to), just like they did in the cold war when western neo-imperialists led by the USA were hindered by China and Russia who went some way to help in the various liberation struggles of non-western peoples, albeit for their own ulterior geopolitical reasons.
    1
  3133. Orders from the corporatocracy.
    1
  3134. What is adverse possession and when does it apply?
    1
  3135. More pressing questions are whether it is time to rethink capitalism (corporatism, neo-fascism, neo-feudalism), along with continued forms of western capitalist domination (neo-imperialism/neo-colonialism)? Is it time to get rid of the West and all the (Arab) capitalist regimes installed by the West?
    1
  3136. Give away houses for free or at heavily subsidised prices. Or just make renting more socially acceptable and easier.
    1
  3137. I think it was a theory created in the 1950's during the cold war/era of McCarthyism in the USA in an attempt to explain ('other') countries like China and Russia. Basically cold war propaganda which, to be frank, by today's standards would be seen as not a little racist and certainly condescending. Edward Said would probably describe it as falling under the label of 'orientalism'.
    1
  3138. And capitalism — a mass black enslavement, native genocide and (Mexican) land stealing machine? More people have died as a direct or indirect result of capitalism than they ever have under Soviet and Chinese communism, which both saw increases in net population and general standards of living.
    1
  3139. They inspired respect in the West, not terror. It was only terror if your were rich or one of the elite; for those people communism was truly terrifying.
    1
  3140.  @januarysson5633  That would be kind of like Uncle Sam cutting his wrists just to make a point.
    1
  3141. It already has. Hint: GDP/GNP P.P.P. (Purchasing Power Parity). Soon also in P.C. (Per Capita, or nominal) terms. As it can't compete in GDP terms maybe the West might move the goalposts and start measuring success in terms of the Gini coefficient or the Human Development Index (HDI).
    1
  3142. When fighting Nazis it doesn't matter. One bit! Victory at any cost.
    1
  3143. The opium war is still being fought… in Afghanistan.
    1
  3144. The two terms tend to be used interchangeably, the nuance between the two being that the neo-conservatives represent more the political and idelogical aspects and neo-liberals more the economic aspects of the Milton Friedman-Freidrich Hayek school of capitalism.
    1
  3145. They pulled an Australia on Boris.
    1
  3146. Is that Before Elvis? 😮
    1
  3147. Technically correct... but in some other way not correct? What is the 'non-technically correct' part and does it negate the central message of the video? Can you explain?
    1
  3148. Technically correct... but in some other way not correct? What is the 'non-technically correct' part and does it negate the central message of the video? Can you explain?
    1
  3149. They have the mandate of heaven.
    1
  3150. Same with the ex-communist countries of eastern and central Europe. Thought they'd be able to share in the wealth of the core capitalist countries but instead found themselves — literally — exploited as immigrant labour. Now they're just quasi-colonies of western corporations.
    1
  3151. A commercial airliner voluntarily diverting to the nearest airport in accordance with well established international protocols regarding bomb threats to planes is NOT the definition of a hijacking. Sorry, try again.
    1
  3152. Nor for the 1917 Bolshevik revolution whose communist ideology absolutely terrified the monarchies and aristocracies of old Europe and the plutocracy of the United States and whose ghost still haunts the imaginations of the elite.
    1
  3153. I've noticed that too. There seems to be a discrepancy between the number of comments visible and the comments counter on some videos. Take note YouTube.
    1
  3154. The same can be said for Great Britain, the USA's predecessor and role model. Even at the height of empire the country still suffered from widespread poverty, homelessness and drug abuse.
    1
  3155. It's about oil, gas and transit corridors and who controls them. It's also about corruption: gun running, money laundering, people trafficking and drug smuggling. Democracy? Bullcrap. Nation building? Bullcrap. Follow the money. Always.
    1
  3156. I was thinking Indian subcontinent, Persia.
    1
  3157. Not for nothing. Those who had most to gain have profited tremendously from it.
    1
  3158. Keir Starmer is basically doing what Scholz did: debilitate the German economy for the benefit of his masters in Washington DC.
    1
  3159. Compound interest. Non-performing loans. Low and/or declining wages. Rising inflation. Rising un- and under-employment.
    1
  3160.  @dmar1717  It wasn't a riot or an insurrection. It was just some people illegally trespassing on government property, property that, ironically, claims to be the seat of government by the people but doesn't like it when the people actually show up in person to protest an election that they world argue, suffered from certain, ahem, shall we say, shortcomings.
    1
  3161. But CO² (carbon dioxide) and methane are both found in nature with the former being necessary for plant life.
    1
  3162.  Fermati Chebellosei  Ignorant of Swedish politics.
    1
  3163. @Grim FPV a) Is that figure true? 40% sounds like an exaggeration. b) Does Sweden have an indigenous population in decline such that to maintain a healthy demography requires replenishment from outside?
    1
  3164. What would happen? 20 rounds of sanctions by the West, devastating to the EU but otherwise ineffective (and which the USA would be secretly circumventing), much name calling and sabre rattling, then lots of censorship and most western countries turning into de facto fascist, McCarthyite dictorships. Then an attempt by NATO at proxy war using mercenaries and terrorists that would ultimately be defeated, probably in short order à la Ukraine using fascists and neo-fascists fighting in the name of democracy and freedom.
    1
  3165. It will then be like India.
    1
  3166.  @ubantu1215  YouTube isn't banned in China. Rather, the company's business practices are not in compliance with Chinese law so as a result it cannot operate there.
    1
  3167. I think you are confusing MMT (modern monetary theory) with Keynesianism, which are two more or less opposed economic theories such that this word you use, "hyper-Keynesian" does not make sense (at least not to me).
    1
  3168. Tell that to China and Russia. Both countries went from peasant societies to modern superpowers in the space of no more than 40 years.
    1
  3169. And the capitalist discriminates on wealth (or lack thereof).
    1
  3170.  @vallee7966  Ukraine was part of Russia back then so that's like saying he was a Russian being starved by Russians. And there was a famine going on at the time and everyone in the effected regions were starving, not just your grandfather.
    1
  3171. @Chase Merritt We have polygamy already. It's called cheating (adultery) and it's perfectly legal. That and serial monogamy.
    1
  3172. What is Article 49, clause 3?
    1
  3173. I read somewhere where these banks were sent into bankruptcy deliberately to deter banks dealing in crypto currencies by being denied access to certain credit facilities that are allowed to regular banks.
    1
  3174. I second that! 🎊🎈🎆 🎉
    1
  3175. Better still, abolish the patent system altogether or reform it. The idea that it is moral to monopolise ideas and the technology derived from them is a strange one. I'm not against an individual inventor making money from their invention but it should be limited and any royalties should be payable only for a short period of time. The royalties certainly shouldn't be given to corporations who played no role in the invention process other to hire the inventor or buy their invention. Knowledge should be free as a matter of principle.
    1
  3176. If Russia, China, North Korea and India didn't have nukes.... Or If Libya, Syria, Iraq, Iran had possessed nukes.... [ Can you fill in the blank? ]
    1
  3177. The United Kingdom doesn't really have its own nuclear bombs (they are all controlled by the USA) so if such a thing were to happen it would be the USA. No two ways about it. However, such a scenario is so outlandish that it's ludicrous to suggest such a thing. The Ukraine on the other hand....
    1
  3178. It prevents the United States from dominating Korea the way that it does Japan and represents an alternative to capitalism. It also doesn't have a Rothschild bank from which economic rents can be extracted. To cut a long story short, it's not controlled by global capital and finance. It also defeated the USA in the Korean war, just like Vietnam did (merely by surviving) and so acts as a constant reminder of the failure of the foreign policy of the United States.
    1
  3179. ​ @G0ldbl4e  What makes an equation ugly?
    1
  3180. Given eternity... pretty high (if not inevitable).
    1
  3181. It's not what they want, it's what their masters, the ones who pay their wages, want.
    1
  3182.  @farzana6676  In competition with China it's a race to the bottom. You can't win.
    1
  3183. The USA had a brief period as a hyperpower – from 1945 to the Korean war of the 1950's – and it when right to its end head. Like an alcholic it's become drunk on power. Alcohol is a hell of a drug, however, and ultimately will destroy you if you're not careful.
    1
  3184. Europe wants a word with you. 😅
    1
  3185.  @larkatmic  Believing in superstition and irrationalism is the epitome of being illogical. And believing that one gender has a right to enforce inequality and discrimination on the other simply by virtue of their genitalia is also immoral.
    1
  3186. This is all the USA's doing. It is the one that wants to revive the cold war and create divisions between countries.
    1
  3187. The idea that the USSR won because of the aid given to it by the USA is wrong. The Soviets had dismantled their factories and transported them further east, beyond reach of the Germans. Thus they had all the industrial production they needed to win the war. When these factories were up and running they could produce the necessary war material with which to fight the Germans. Of course it helped but it certainly was not necessary for victory.
    1
  3188. (Neo-)Fascist, not communist! Fascists are in control of the Ukrainian government remember.
    1
  3189. The wisest statement so far.
    1
  3190. It always was a propaganda machine. Nothing had changed.
    1
  3191. Agreed to a certain extent but I take issue with it being "relativist" or "postmodernist". If anything I would say it's the opposite in being morally absolutist.
    1
  3192. AUKUS seems like BRICS... and just as united.
    1
  3193. Ukraine is like Afghanistan: just a vast money-laundering operation for the US deep state to fund its secret armies, bribe politicians and generate profits for the banks.
    1
  3194. The question was wrong. It should be: why does the deep state/military‐industrial complex want Facebook brought under even greater control than it already has been?
    1
  3195. Why would it go nuclear? Does the USA have some kind of right to nuke other countries when they challenge its colonialism and imperialism? What moral justification will you use? Stopping Communism? Protecting Asia from Asians? If a country six thousand miles away wants to reunify itself what has it got to do with you? And do you not think that a counter strike would be just as deadly to the corporatist USA?
    1
  3196. And the fact that, at least in Britain, there is no industry to "crank up". Private for-profit banks should be abolished throughout Europe, as should the charging of compound interest. At the very least they should be regular debt 'jubilees' where debts are cancelled. The countries of Europe should each concentrate on maintaining energy and food security by pursuing a policy of economic autarky as well as nationalising strategic industries and services so that they can be used for the public good and for the building up of public infrastructure rather than for private profit.
    1
  3197. The Chinese and think the Russians too are doing, or have already done, this.
    1
  3198. A classic attempt by Christians to malign paganism, a religion that existed for thousands of years before any of the Abrahamic religions.
    1
  3199. So the witnesses not only witnessed the marriage but were the ones who got to consummate it as well?
    1
  3200. Perhaps he is being used to keep the president of Belarus on side. A pro-Russian army is now within Belarus ready to to prevent the president of that country from being overthrown by his domestic opposition/military while at the same time threatening Ukraine with a potential second front.
    1
  3201. Basically, this is cold war Ⅱ only aimed at China rather than Russia. Unfortunately, this time around it's gotten off to a bad start and could very well end with the United States collapsing rather than China.
    1
  3202. Capitalists. That they may help the consumer is largely incidental. That's trickle-down for you. Like in Hitler's Germany or NATO during the cold war, the capitalist only cares about the consumer (working class) when threatened. Communism did this in Hitler's Germany and in western Europe from 1918 up to 1991. But communism is no more and the USA's steady infiltration and subversion of the West over the last 50 years by its alphabet soup of intelligence agencies, astroturf NGO's, combined by corporations control of the mass media, schools and think tanks, along with colour revolutions, coups and supranational organisations like WEF, IMF, UN, EU work very hard to make sure that communism and socialism never make a come back. That's why we see the rise of the right/fascism: the working class have nowhere else to turn. Fake political parties and fake democracy is all the West has. They are portrayed as moderates and centrists guarding democracy from extremism.
    1
  3203. The simplest reason is practical: from a military point of view the USA cannot win any war with China over Taiwan; if China wants to take Taiwan it can. The other is moral: imperialism and colonialism are deemed by most of the world as outdated and evil and the USA interfering in another country's affairs are no different from Hitler's Germany. If it's bad for Germany it's bad for the USA, no?
    1
  3204. The US deep state is laughing all the way to the Bilderberg bank.
    1
  3205. @IAM REAL A mere formality. Like democracy. Like freedom to know the truth. A mere formality.
    1
  3206. He also believes steel and concrete skyscrapers can be demolished by flying planes into them.
    1
  3207. His indignation and rage are borne of sheer frustration at the self-evident truths that his fellow guests seem so (wilfully?) ignorant of, and the utter brazeness of their hypocrisy.
    1
  3208. Western media isn't designed to inform; it's designed to indoctrinate, entertain and distract. Its world view is the world view of the capitalist corporations that own and control it along with the capitalist state The same with the education system. It's naive to think otherwise.
    1
  3209. Russia and Ukraine are at war, therefore this is an act of war by one state against another. Terrorists are non-state actors, often domestic, (though often backed by states) that carry out militant activities.
    1
  3210. Reminds me of the war against Yugoslavia when western Europe (NATO, EU) attacked a country in Eastern Europe.
    1
  3211.  @discordantduck1808  The media and education system are all controlled by the same people who are causing all the hardship. The general populace is kept ignorant and distracted, protesting only about what they're told to protest about and protesting in the manner that their allowed.
    1
  3212. The Guardian is faux left‐wing. It's basically a British attempt at American liberalism, just as the Labour party is. It represents the 'soft right' (social democracy interpreted through a British lens).
    1
  3213. Or rather, the USA funding, training, arming, supplying, protecting, providing intelligence and compiling kill lists for these so-called islamists (actually paramilitary terrorists) through their proxies the Saudis.
    1
  3214. He's the resident hasbara. Every newspaper has one.
    1
  3215. They want Ireland to be another Greece.
    1
  3216. Back then the USA allowed GB to do this as part of a plan to woo Putin and give him legitimacy (apparently, the West is under the delusion that only western countries can confer political legitimacy upon the world's leaders). The opposite is the case today.
    1
  3217. Yes there is. The world.
    1
  3218. Stormer is somebody: he's an MI6 stooge. And MI6 is basically an extension of US intelligence. He's an agent of influence, just like Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair were. Just like certain others in the EU. Every European country has them. Indeed, the EU itself is in large part a creation of the USA. Just like NATO and the UN.
    1
  3219. It does make sense when using a particular form of moral reasoning. I suppose you could look on it the way most people in Europe and the English speaking world look on abortion, the rights of the living taking precedence over the rights of the unborn; human life is valorized with one life being valued more highly than another. Sad but true.
    1
  3220. It's the USA and its corrupt, decaying system of military complex-driven corporatism and rentier-driven bankster capitalism that is to blame, in my opinion. Domination by the USA and the imposition of its dysfunctional neoliberalism on the world is what needs to end. Neoliberalism is dysfunctional and the longer it remains unchallenged the more problems there will be.
    1
  3221. Capitalist corporate bondage me thinks.
    1
  3222. Is this the Keynesianism that got Europe out of the Great Depression in the aftermath of world war 2 (as contrasted with the laissez-faire of the pre-world war 1 and inter-war years?)
    1
  3223. ​​​​ @sharkybrickfilms99120  Korea invaded itself...‽ ~ Get your facts straight: it was the United States of America that invaded Korea together with the usual bunch of western European imperialists under the figleaf of the United Nations. It did this when the brutal caitalist-fascist, pro-Japanese and collaborationist puppet regime of the South fell. Same with Vietnam, another country that was attacked and bombed back to the stone age for having the audacity to invade itself.
    1
  3224. Aren't eastern Europeans supposed to be wary of Russia?
    1
  3225. I read/heard that somewhere too. Just another way in which the deep state keeps the ponzi scheme that is the US economy going a little longer.
    1
  3226. He's being debriefed by his US handlers and allotted the sinecures he's earned for doing his master's bidding.
    1
  3227.  @phillip76  Great Britain?
    1
  3228. And if everyone else is also buying from China...?
    1
  3229.  @escobarlisle6007  Actually, what passes for the left is a just a giant psyop concocted by the American security apparatus, now global in reach as befits its sole super power status, to divide and subvert what remains of the genuine left and at the same time force western electorates to move further and further to the right by only giving them a false choice between the extreme right (corporate media defined as centre right 'conservatives') and the only slightly less extreme traditional hard right (corporate media defined as social democratic 'moderates'). The 'liberal', 'progressive', 'woke' Democrat Party of the USA and its equally compromised counterpart the Labour Party in Great Britain are examples of this. These parties are not supposed to represent the legitimate aspirations of the working classes, advance a genuine left wing agenda, and much less agitate for anti‐capitalist revolution or radical socialist reform.
    1
  3230. I'm given to understand that the phrase has two meanings, one of which is the the one you object to and the other being the older, traditional meaning.
    1
  3231. A depression. A great depression. A depression that, according to the 'free press' of the 'free world' it's not a depression but a recession.
    1
  3232. So polluting the lands of indigenous people and damaging their ecosystem so the rest of (white) Canada – or at least its corporations and those of its neighbour – can have lower priced gasoline to driv your car is okay?
    1
  3233.  @mbolton  if it's not a NATO member why are all the NATO countries openly providing weapons, ammunition, mercenaries, special forces and intelligence assets to fight the Russians as if it were a NATO member?
    1
  3234. Japan no more wants war with its closest neighbours than south Korea wants war with the north. Why would it go to war with one of its biggest trading partners over and island that it recognises as being a part of the PRC?
    1
  3235. Are our political leaders suffering from the this ignorance of their own stupidity as they crash the economy despite being highly educated at the most prestigious universities in the land?
    1
  3236. A democracy is.... And a dictorship, what is that?
    1
  3237. The US military is the biggest polluter and the USA reneges on its UN commitments regarding CO² emissions, climate change, etc. Meanwhile, China is a pioneer of so‐called green technology.
    1
  3238. ... they would be called a conspiracy theorist and accused of spreading disinformation.
    1
  3239. Your thoughts on the anti-abortion stance of the SCOTUS.
    1
  3240. The power vacuum that there must be at the top is what's most alarming. Are decisions being taken by committee, or is there just a handful of people with no proper electoral legitimacy — possibly even one person — who are?
    1
  3241. You seem to value freedom and democracy only when it suits you.
    1
  3242. The USA is using its client state Germany to pursue a fiscally disastrous policy that I'm sure is designed to economically weaken both the EU and Germany and make them more dependent even as the EU arrogates more power itself.
    1
  3243. Unfortunately, she's doing a disservice to her country. The hegemonic interests of the USA are not the interests of Denmark.
    1
  3244. An end to the war and a return to the status quo pre‐Maidan coup.
    1
  3245. Amalgamation or destruction (like matter meeting anti-matter). If the former, a super universe, maybe unstable and of short duration.
    1
  3246. I wonder what Hitler's Germany would say to that.
    1
  3247.  @trevorcrook5753  The invasion had achieved its objectives as far as the military‐industrial complex and conspirators of 9/11 were concerned. — Inter alia: 1. Distraction of the public 2. money laundering for corrupt politicians and the deep state (state‐within‐a‐state) 2. Gun running 3. Money laundering 4. Resource theft 5. Entrenchment and normalising of the security state 6. Undermining of official state institutions and their subversion by the deep state 7. Creation of a de facto paralegal system, essentially unaccountable, running in parallel to the official system to prosecute political opponents 8. Boon for the military‐industrial complex, arms manufacturers and the security apparatus; the economy of the USA in general 9. Boon to Israel 10. Propped up the dollar 11. Secured access to, and monopoly of, certain sources of energy (gas, oil) The list is far from exhaustive and I'm sure you can add your own.
    1
  3248.  @blue387  native Afghans fighting dual citizen collaborators brought in from the USA with no domestic base or popular support among the people.
    1
  3249.  @pugilist102  But the communist party of China ARE the government. So what you're saying is that the Chinese government, a government that represents the people of China, concentrates all the wealth and operates state monopolies. But a government having power and exercising it for the good of the many is what governments do. What do to expect? Or would you rather it be billionaire capitalists concentrating all the wealth in private hands and having private monopolies?
    1
  3250. I don't think they're listening. I don't think they care.
    1
  3251. Or overthrow it from within. But will Russia and China not take action to prevent it?
    1
  3252. Are you referring the Syrians, Iraqis, Yemenis, Yugoslavians, Sudanese, etc., etc., etc. — all victims of the US empire? Perhaps you've forgotten them. Or maybe you didn't even know about them. Such is Orwell's memory hole.
    1
  3253.  @terrybusch5088  Do you even know what the reference to a memory hole even is?
    1
  3254. It's deliberate. It's controlled. It's a takeover by an elite.
    1
  3255. That and pursuing neoliberal economic policies that have laid waste to vast swathes of British industry, effectively deindustrialising the country and making it dependent on the FIRE sector (financial services, insurance and real estate).
    1
  3256. The Americans don't care. Like with oil and from gas from the USA, you can get your products from the USA as well. They might be overpriced and inferior but, who cares, it's helping the US economy, and the US economy is the economy of the free world.
    1
  3257. MacKinder's rimland versus heartland.
    1
  3258. The terms 'Middle East' and 'Near East' are European names for the extensive region that is properly called south-western Asia and which Syria is a part. Perhaps they wanted to avoid using words that may be construed as having negative connotations due to their association with imperialism and colonialism. Near East and Middle East are exonyms.
    1
  3259. Socialism? I'm sorry but I must politely disagree. You must have a pretty skewed idea of what socialism is if you think that is what is causing all the problems we now face. Socialism was comprehensively defeated during the cold war and what we are seeing is capitalism running amok because there no longer exists any counterbalancing system to to keep it in check.
    1
  3260. Don't be fooled, these protests aren't about whether the state of Israel should exterminate or expel the indigenous Palestinians – on that all Israelis are agreed. The protests are about who's going to be in charge: religious fundamentalists, right wing radicals, or religious conservatives.
    1
  3261. The EU, like NATO, is a project of the USA and it is becoming clearer by the day. Whether it was set up that way from the very beginning or has since become captured by American interests is irrelevant. What matters is that it now serves the interests of Wall Street, Washington and the Pentagon, plus the private bankers of the Federal Reserve and Bank of International Settlements. The so‐called neoliberals and their fascistic ideology of rentier neo-feudalism is destroying the nation-state as a sovereign entity and demoting it to just another level of one-world governance ruled from Washington DC.
    1
  3262. Prim‽
    1
  3263.  @reddoggie554  In a corporate or fascist state government and business are indistinguishable, thus to blame 'big government' or some such is to miss the point entirely.
    1
  3264. And the Russians seem to be completely unwilling to stop this continued violation of Syria's sovereignty.
    1
  3265. What if gold is held by foreign powers, eg. Britain, in behalf of the USA? Remember how Britain sold most of its own gold? Who did they sell it to and why?
    1
  3266. Probably a US‐controlled or Bank of International Settlements‐controlled digital currency.
    1
  3267. From a man who played fast and loose with the constitution to turn a voluntary confederation of more or less independent and sovereign states into a unitary federation.
    1
  3268. That sounds just like the kind of thing a certain country would try to pull off.
    1
  3269.  @SK-tr1wo  Agreed, but some countries are more prone than others to attempt coups d'etat on the other side of the world. Of course, I suppose it is within the bounds of possibility that it was a mock coup or false flag carried out by the Russians to justify their intervention, especially as to make a point during heightened tensions between the Russian Federation and the USA.
    1
  3270. I think one of the aims of the USA is to destabilise Europe and cause dissension among the member states of the European Union.
    1
  3271.  @dutchpatriot17  and China?
    1
  3272. I think it will stay a cold war. Cyber and information warfare, plus economic warfare between the USA and its allies on the one hand and China, Russia and their allies on the other.
    1
  3273. Let us remind ourselves that the so-called Pivot to Asia (that saw the hardening of the USA's stance towards the People's Republic of China and was tantamount to a declaration of cold war) was begun under the Obama presidency and not that of Trump. Also, that its the MIC‐Pentagon combo that decides these policies and independently of any sitting president.
    1
  3274. Why – can't "The West" make its own microchips? And isn't Taiwan/Republic of China recognised as a part of the People’s Republic of China anyway?
    1
  3275. But the USA does and it's ultimately about the USA securing energy for itself to enable it to continue the US dollar as, if not the world's reserve currency, then at least a major currency that will continue propping up its militarised economy. To wit, they want to continue to monopolise the energy reserves of the world and certainly secure the lion's share for themselves. Israel is merely a colony or extension of the USA and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they do not formerly incorporate it into the United States of America as the official 51st state of the Union soon.
    1
  3276. "Single finger"...?
    1
  3277. It is an injustice when the means to end social inequality are available but not the will and all because of some people's belief that their hard work and academic qualifications entitle them to better treatment which ultimately leads to a society of haves and have‐nots where the haves justify their social positions though appeals to merit and end up blaming the 'less meritorious' for not doing enough to better themselves.
    1
  3278. ​ @aleph8888  Europe needs NATO as much as it needed the Warsaw Pact.
    1
  3279.  @DeusExMachina50  No it hasn't. It has been under socialist, social democratic and communist governments that the most people have been lifted out of poverty in the 20th century, more than any other century prior. If capitalism — free market or any other — had worked we wouldn't be seeing the appalling levels of global poverty that we do. Eighty years after the UN was set up and things have either gotten worse or stayed the same. If you want to see real poverty reduction and increases in living standards just look what China achieved in its first 30 years (before Deng Xioping) and Russia in 40. Go compare these two countries to India. In fact, even India made some progress under the limited protectionist policies it had before 'free market' liberalisation.
    1
  3280.  @DeusExMachina50  The biggest and apparently the most successful of recent times is China, in my opinion. Most of its industries are still, directly or indirectly, under state supervision Even the USA could be said to be a successful socialist country if one only includes the top percentile of its citizens and, possibly, those who work for the federal government.
    1
  3281. It's a money laundering scheme for Biden and his crime family most probably.
    1
  3282. I don't think that it's necessarily a case of these organisations being compromised regarding their apolitical nature, their impartiality, etc. because, at the end of the day it's the United States government that is seizing these internet domain names and websites and not the organisations themselves. These organisations, together with the basic architecture (physical infrastructure) of the internet, it's central core if you will, as I'm given to understand it are located within the territory of the USA itself and therefore fall under its legal jurisdiction. Whether the United States should have done what it has done and acted in the way that it has acted is another debate entirely but ICANN is not realistically in a position to refuse. I dare say that the SWIFT system used for country-to-country financial transactions is also in the exact same position in that neither organisation can stop the United States from taking these unilateral actions. That said, what the United States government has done is, in my opinion, deplorable and has completely undermined confidence in the country as a safe repository of the main transit nodes of the internet/world wide web and as Alexander Mercouris has rightly pointed out will only serve to encourage China and Russia and other countries to set up their own ICANN and create their own internet architecture/infrastructure independently of the USA, though how fast that can be achieved is anyone's guess as neither of the two ostensible adversaries of the USA seem to be in much of a hurry to do anything that really challenges America beyond their immediate interests. Great show as always, guys. Keep it up.
    1
  3283. The tables have turned - Nemesis has finally caught up with Hubris.
    1
  3284. Sounds like a good idea.
    1
  3285.  @josephnormyle28  Wasn't he the one dismissed by the Queen of England?
    1
  3286. So more than 50 years of cold war propaganda have just passed you by? Have you been lobo if under a rock or something!
    1
  3287. There should be a mass walkout of the stadium he does and a 6 week boycott of any club or grounds that pull such a stunt.
    1
  3288. They are unhappy that all the electric cars are Chinese. Be wary all you libertarians and neoliberals, free markets, like free competition, only works if you can compete.
    1
  3289. I rather like your lounge.
    1
  3290. And nobody listens.
    1
  3291. Can the USA force the countries of the European Union to do the same? After all, they sanctioned the Russians and have frozen (stolen) their assets at the behest of the USA so maybe they will delist Chinese companies from European stocks exchanges as well.
    1
  3292. 1.They are not needed? 2. It is not politically expedient? 3. Can not do it right now?
    1
  3293. Maybe these sanctions were never primarily designed to crush the Russian economy, rhetoric aside, but more to crash the economies of the European Union and even the United States itself, in so doing creating the crisis needed to usher in the Great Reset and shore up US hegemony in the West.
    1
  3294. ​ @anastasiya256 but eliminating poverty and inequality is what the Americans don't want. They believe in 'meritocracy' where the most successful predators succeed and everyone else can go to hell. This is to them 'fair' and the natural order of things.
    1
  3295.  @saltyshackles5227  What's the difference in performance or firepower between a smoothbore and a rifled tank gun? And aren't low velocity tank guns inferior at armour penetration compared to high velocity?
    1
  3296. Your assuming people (the electorate/citizenry) have real power or ever had real power, forgetting that representative democracy was an invention of the middle class (the bourgeoisie in Marxist terms) and was for their benefit when they had power. It also incidentally benefited the lower - or as I like to call them, loser - class. Now that the middle class is dwindling so is representative democracy; the less power the middle class has, the less democracy there shall be. Only the pantomime remains.
    1
  3297. We can but hope.
    1
  3298. Exactly as planned by the USA. Ditto Germany.
    1
  3299. Strange how it took you 3 billion years of evolution to discover your Allah and only then after the Jews and the Christians from which he appears to be a plagiarism.
    1
  3300. I'm noticing big blank spaces between comments. Is anyone else noticing this?
    1
  3301. Don't forget that they may also have been carrying out, wittingly or unwittingly, the insidiously nefarious policies of the US military‐industrial complex/ bankers/WEF/Bilderberg-Davos, etc. since 1979 when Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan (as well as Pinochet, et al throughout Latin America and Asia) came to power. Who were behind their rise and the demise of their predecessors? Which groups helped cause the recession and stagflation of the 1970's and the rise of neoliberalism and neoconservativism?
    1
  3302. I doubt the USA can sanction India, Russia and China effectively for very long. All that wealth, all those commodities, all those investment opportunities that the rest of the world wants and needs. The USA might be powerful but even it has limits to how much it can do. Living beyond your means is great, until your creditors come a-calling.
    1
  3303. The USA is being as 'friendly' with Russia as Hitler's Germany was with the Soviet Union when it signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.
    1
  3304. Because it seems to be aimed at a North American audience.
    1
  3305. Two wars it played no small part in causing. Britain was no victim in either war but one of the two main instigators.
    1
  3306. The USA isn't capitalist so much as rentier-corporatist, it's military‐industrial war economy fueled by unrepayable debt backed only by a fiat currency known as the dollar.
    1
  3307. But there was no location. And there was no time. Neither existed prior to the expansion of the universe and even if they did it would not matter because what came before and what came after are unconnected. Just watch the video again.
    1
  3308. When so‐called communists come to power (always in coalitions) their policies tend to be social democratic. Anything else will trigger a coup or sanctions. 'Liberal' democracy is a way of entrenching the dictorship of the bourgeoisie.
    1
  3309. Is this the mealy mouthed politician who kick-started the civil war, suspended habeas corpus, imposed censorship and stopped the states from exercising any right to secede from the union?
    1
  3310. British politicians are as self-aware as their American counterparts. Understandable given the amount of infiltration and influence peddling by the USA of the UK. The same goes for our media.
    1
  3311. Sounds like he was the chosen candidate of the deep state.
    1
  3312. Do you mean the left and nationalists winning free and fair democratic elections which the capitalists had to rig or ban because they kept losing?
    1
  3313. Until it's not. Then fascism is good. Until it's not.
    1
  3314. It's what happens when the USA and its corporatist monopoly over western media and academia weaponises language and concepts such as human rights, freedom and democracy and uses them as a battering ram against other people's societies and cultures, especially their political economy. You end up throwing the baby out with the bath water because the distinction between valid constructive criticisms of a culture that are genuine and spontaneous and that arise organically from within a given culture's own society and malevolent criticism coming from outside forces with an ulterior and sinister agenda can no longer be made so to protect society from being made vulnerable to subversion governments have to crack down on both.
    1
  3315. I'm sure the Russians are very interested in bringing this war to an end. The end will come but it cannot be rushed.
    1
  3316. Well so far he has.
    1
  3317. Probably taken her to a refuse/ garbage dump.
    1
  3318. The corporate elite of the USA demands it, therefore the satraps in Europe and elswhere must obey. The ponzi scheme that is the United States financial system is about to collapse and the slow motion recession-that's-really-a-depression we're in currently is about to get a lot worse.
    1
  3319. I think the USA might implode first long before then.
    1
  3320. Yes for now, but unlike the British and Poles the Japanese are ready to go over to the other side at the drop of a hat when the time comes, after all they are an Asian country at the end of the day alongside Russia (Eurasian), India and China and supporting a country located in the western hemisphere of the Americas against the major countries in their own eastern hemisphere of Asia is not in their long term interests.
    1
  3321. What arrogance! The idea that a country such as China must make itself subservient to the West (i.e. the USA) is both ludicrous and racist. The West didn't build up China. Indeed, the West has done everything within its power to prevent the rise of China as well as most of the rest of the world outside of western Europe and North America. And that includes Eastern Europe. How did the West get to be so powerful in the first place? It certainly wasn't through peaceful trade and shrewd use of comparative advantage.
    1
  3322. And the wealth of the West was originally due to western imperialism, colonialism and capitalist exploitation of the rest of the world... including China.
    1
  3323. Yugoslavia and the 75 war against the Soviet Union, hot from 1941 to 1954.
    1
  3324. More like the European Union was designed to serve the interests of both Germany and the United States, France being and afterthought.
    1
  3325.  @Mark_Chandler  Owed to themselves. That they can literally write off. A state bank can never go bankrupt in the way a private bank can.
    1
  3326. Source?
    1
  3327. You forget that Japan is still a semi-colony of the USA and was not allowed too develop strong economic and political ties with Russia or China. Enemies of the USA automatically become enemies of its client states.
    1
  3328.  @beepboopbeepp  They'd soon find their government overthrown if they did, that's why.
    1
  3329. No, they have ads that you pay in precious life-seconds watching, seconds you'll never get back. And someone, somewhere, gets money from those ads.
    1
  3330.  @tbrcc636  False analogy much‽
    1
  3331. ​ @bruceh9780 and all propped up by the United States. It's almost as if the United States doesn't like democracy and that late stage western crypto-fascism known as neoliberal capitalism cannot function properly with it.
    1
  3332. ​​ @RationalAUS explain what "radical" means. Radical as in telling the white man to f... off‽
    1
  3333. I don't think we should have exited the European Union myself. We're a shell of our former selves and don't have any significant manufacturing or industrial base to fall back besides services and tourism.
    1
  3334. It's cultural. India and China are completely unalike.
    1
  3335. All political systems in the West have been subverted by the MICIMATT of the USA and now European politics and political parties are increasingly modelled on the lines of that one country – two factions of a single fascist/corporatist party in the service of miltitary-Keynesian bankster rentierism. Under this system political parties and civil society are to become nothing more than controlled opposition, heavily surveilled, censored and deeply indoctrinated, operating within the narrow confines of a fascistic Weltanschauung dedicated to bringing about nothing less than a world of total corporate domination; mass media, schools and church serve merely as organs of state propaganda and a means by which humans can be turned into domesticated wage slaves (homo economicus) in which alternatives are literally inconceivable.
    1
  3336. The simple answer to the question posed: China is a rival and rivals impose constraints upon rival hegemons. The USA, as the rival hegemon does not like constraints imposed upon it.
    1
  3337. YouTube is filled with propbots and cyber warfare trolls, probably with the full consent and cooperation of YouTube's owners. Indeed, all western media is fully integrated into the propaganda and information warfare complex of the USA, especially now we're having a 'great reset' and this little war is just a trial run (together with the common cold, aka coronavirus, pseudo‐pandemic) to test whether the Pentagon's total information warfare system, integrated with its total surveillance and intelligence system and secret police are ready. They've had plenty of false flags to prepare for this – JFK, BK, 9/11, Boston marathon, Murray building/McVeigh, corona. Compulsory injection by gene warfare agents with spike proteins going by the name of 'vaccines' and 'therapies' (or involuntary infection by variants designed specifically to allow the already infected to infect others).... — Maybe this is how the military‐industrial‐corporate complex plan to dominate the late 21st century and ultimately bring Russia and China to heel – by use of bioweapons deployed against everybody, ostensibly created by big pharma and big aggro but actually created by the USA in its multitude of biolabs located, like its secret prisons, all over the world. Oral 'vaccines' and 'gene therapies' in our food and water and even the air we breath delivered courtesy of Bill Gates and friends with his philanthropic eugenics foundation. The Chinese and Russians, the ones many people look to to resist Bilderberg‐Davos‐WEF control, will probably actively collude and, like with the shamdemic, go along with the Great Reset. Or else they will only wake up to what is happening when it's too late. Like with the Co²/climate change and overpopulation scams which they are fully behind. [ Sorry for the rant. I got out of the proverbial bed the wrong side this morning. LOL ]
    1
  3338. I see it as the United States continuing the policy of Great Britain: stopping any kind of close cooperation or rapprochement between Germany and Russia. Imperial Britain's attempts to stop greater cooperation between these two states inter alia led to two terrible wars in the 20th century and may yet lead to another major war as the USA goes down the same path with the added bonus that China is now also threatening to pull Europe away from the USA.
    1
  3339. And the British – the USA's partner in crime – aristocracy, that still owns the country despite it being the 21st century.
    1
  3340. Agreed, but then it's not so much Europe sanctioning itself as the United States of America. The Eurocrats in Brussels are for the most part under the thumb of the USA. Weakening Europe/EU serves their political, economic and military interests.
    1
  3341. This is western propaganda propagated by the US government. In effect, cultural subversion or cultural imperialism. It's basically saying the West, led of course by the USA – the country that bombed and invaded Afghanistan, killed only God knows how many hundreds of thousands or millions of people, caused famine and widespread food insecurity and is still witholding food and refusing to give back Afghanistan's own money – is morally and culturally superior. We lost the war but look how morally superior we are; our hearts were in the right place and only the implementation was questionable.
    1
  3342. Can good faith negotiations deter the hegemonic USA from encroaching further on the Russian Federation?
    1
  3343. One does not need religion to behave morally. Indeed, Confucianism is nothing if not a highly refined philosophy of moral conduct.
    1
  3344. How is being a materialist opposed to holding to the concept of change based upon random genetic mutation selected for by the environment?
    1
  3345. It was the perfect money-laundering centre, a model for Eastern Europe of the kind of vassal state the USA wants.
    1
  3346. Isn't that is just another way of saying the central government of the People's Republic of China, of which Hong Kong is a part, makes the law? Such an observation is trite because there is nothing unusual in that, nothing at all.
    1
  3347. ​​ @Robespierre-II it's also a way of protecting their culture. See what schooling did to the indigenous peoples of the USA and Canada, Australia and New Zealand. When you compel a gypsy to go to school you're essentially subverting their own culture and replacing it with your own. It's like a form of cultural imperialism.
    1
  3348. We are holograms in a holographic universe playing to itself aboard an abandoned starship called the USS Enterprise.
    1
  3349. The USA is intending to destroy China/Russia like it did in the cold war. A long drawn out attritional war of economic sabotage, cultural subversion, terrorism and insurgency. It took about 75 years to destroy communism as a political, economic and ideological system practiced in places like Russia and China — about 3 or 4 generations — and the military-corporate leadership in the United States think they can have a repeat, despite the change in circumstances, this time destroying the state capitalism as practiced first and foremost by China with Russia as the secondary target.
    1
  3350.  @77Bardem  🌹🙋‍♂️
    1
  3351. True. When you live in a world of illusion crafted by the corporate media you lose your hold on reality. The USA is fast becoming a nation where, in the words of one of its CIA directors, "Everything the American public believe in will be false".
    1
  3352. That's probably what it will do – willingly or otherwise.
    1
  3353.  @eddycarpenter8989  Isn't capitalism lovely? Like French feudalism before the revolution.
    1
  3354. Let's hope that India's political leadership is wise enough to continue to maintain the stable non-aligned status it has adhered to since its independence.
    1
  3355. A dairy cow has to be kept pregnant and then the calf is usually killed/aborted. Imagine being pregnant for most of your adult life and then having any babies you have killed. Imagine constantly lactating... swollen, painful, blistered udders.
    1
  3356. That will be China then. 😮
    1
  3357. Completely irrelevant! Poisoning the world's oceans is not okay just because those protesting aren't saints. Poison is poison.
    1
  3358. Not civil war but authoritarian 'democracy' that is little better than an elected dictorship. To wit, a reversion to the historical norm. Think Latin America. That's if the economic decline and political stagnation are not halted.
    1
  3359. I think they are synonyms with little to distinguish between them.
    1
  3360. Spot on!
    1
  3361. @ Χρήστος Μαντόπουλος Especially as the capitalist USA is always talking about competition being good because it leads to innovation and efficiency, which are somehow in and of themselves supposed to be inherently beneficial to society in the long run.
    1
  3362. Simple. They won't.
    1
  3363. Would that be an actual quote from a book written by none other than the Jews themselves? As I recall the Bible is derived in part from the Jewish Torah and was originally written by, and for, Jews (albeit more than a little hetrodox).
    1
  3364. Let's see if China and Russia can protect Pakistan the way they have protected Turkey by pre‐empting the USA's attempts at regime change by leaking its plans to Erdoğan.
    1
  3365. Cheney-Stokes breathing for Uncle Sam.
    1
  3366. ​​​ @OrwellsHousecat  Terrorism is not an ideology. Terrorism is a method. — And what you seem to be saying goes against common sense: addressing legitimate grievances is the best way – the only way – to right wrongs and prevent dissatisfaction turning into violence.
    1
  3367. Biden's not in charge. The Deep State is.
    1
  3368.  @JusRozYo  The same for China. The USA provocatively sails warships of China's coast and its China that's accused of sabre‐rattling.
    1
  3369. Ignorant comment!
    1
  3370. If only the USA had not tried (so hard) to destroy the Soviet Union and China and prevent nationalist movements in the global South it could have invested in its own people and be a better country.
    1
  3371.  @thrillereighties8241  Only, you can't attack Russia and China with impunity. They, however, can attack you – economically as well as militarily.
    1
  3372.  @laman012  If the United States is hell bent on war because it needs constant war to sustain its military-based economy then there is nothing any country can do to stop it; sooner or later the United States will provoke a war that it will not win.
    1
  3373.  @SubtleHawk  Chinese aggression? You have a weird definition of aggression if you think China exercising its rightful sovereignty over its own territorial waters (strait of Taiwan, coral reefs) and over its own territory (the island of Taiwan) is aggression. Maritime disputes between neighbours is also not that uncommon, especially when exploitable resources like natural gas, oil and fish stocks involved.
    1
  3374. By the "lower classes" I presume you a referring to the 99% who aren't billionaires and multi-millionaires; those upper classes who own more than 50% of the rest of the world combined.
    1
  3375. It looks to me like western leaders all read from the same script. Literally. Almost verbatim they repeat each other, paraphrasing the same talking points that come from the White House. Almost like they were... puppets.
    1
  3376. He's probably lying. Or at least misinformed. From the reports I've seen elsewhere on YouTube there was no real fighting because the Russians came to an agreement with the Ukrainians not to fight each other but for the Ukrainians and Russians to jointly keep the nuclear reactor safe. Any fighting that did take place would have been by paramilitaries doing some sort of a provocation for propaganda purposes or to steal nuclear material. I mean, why would anyone in their right might attack a nuclear power station. The Russians certainly don't want to damage the power station because it's a critical part of the energy infrastructure that they are at pains to avoid destroying. And I can't see the Ukrainian regular military personnel charged with guarding it doing it themselves.
    1
  3377. I do. And the comparative lack of ghost stories from graveyards, execution grounds and prisons, the places where you’d expect the most hauntings.
    1
  3378. It is transforming.
    1
  3379.  @fun_ghoul  Really‽
    1
  3380.  @fun_ghoul  And good bye to you too.
    1
  3381. High inflation, hyperinflation is what Europe and North America are headed for. Great Depression 2.0. Even a possible collapse of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency.
    1
  3382. Because it's not really a democracy, at least for the majority who have been economically disenfranchised by (neo-) liberalism.
    1
  3383. A classic trope of westerners is that the Chinese – Asians in general – are quite unable to innovate or invent things. This is a truly strange belief to hold seeing as it flies in the face of historical fact given all the inventions that have come out of China in the last 2½ millennia.
    1
  3384. European Whites enslaved by other non‐European whites, not by blacks or Asians.
    1
  3385. @Benjamin Eby Once upon a time, cats were seen as witches familiars and were badly treated, all due to the influence of Christianity. So much for that side of our Christian heritage.
    1
  3386. A parasitical American rentier economy built upon infinite growth in the stock market and financed by infinite printing of fiat currency.... What could go wrong!
    1
  3387. Until China decides to pull the plug.
    1
  3388.  @zzzzzsleeping  Hateful much‽
    1
  3389. But Ukraine isn't a democracy. The USA and its EU‐NATO puppets engineered a coup d'état in Ukraine remember.
    1
  3390. Science is often counterintuitive, none more so than physics.
    1
  3391. When the USA finally gets itself the fascist dictator it seems to be heading towards then that might happen. Just enough reform (like the New Deal) to stop the country turning left.
    1
  3392. So religion, a belief in the supernatural and the irrational, is something to base an entire society's ethical and cultural values on, the lack of which leads to its ultimate downfall? Pointing out that there is no one, overriding 'objective' truth out there is not the knock-down argument you think it is, especially when applied to the realm of metaphysics (which is what theology, philosophy and ideology ultimately are: abstract ideas that have no basis in fact other than 'social facts' that are, indeed, mere social constructs).
    1
  3393. You're assuming that democracy is a universal norm that everyone should aspire to. Just like Americans believe the same of the thing they call capitalism. Maybe it's because you're a member of the Anglosphere to whom such beliefs come naturally or, if you're a Germany, feel compelled to be an Anglophile, forever praising them while beating yourself up about a war and a political system that threatened the Anglosphere and was destroyed by them. Implicitly, your post hints at an intolerance of other people's viewpoints and negation of their cultures where these are opposed to those of the West.
    1
  3394. It is corporatocracy that is bringing recession and depression to Europe, along with food and energy scarcity.
    1
  3395. The United States knows this well. Just ask the Iranians.
    1
  3396. The United States knows this well. Just ask the Iranians.
    1
  3397. Human beings like stability and traditionalism embodies that, as does conservativism. That said I think that there should be a cut-off point of between 40 and 60 for people to hold positions of political power. At the very least a quota system should be introduced to dilute significantly the number of old people who are involved in politics ranging from politicians to members of the judiciary, legislature, executive, armed forces and police.
    1
  3398. ​ @kyriss12  What the Germans, Italians and Japanese were doing is what the British, French, Americans, Belgians, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese had done in the previous century with the exception that, apparently, back then it was okay,
    1
  3399. That man is a libertarian extremist. He shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the US economy.
    1
  3400. 5:00 – 5:46 That's exactly why they do this! It's a simple, yet effective, propaganda technique. They say the camera never lies, but we know that's not true.
    1
  3401. When, where... sources.
    1
  3402. Face it, MMT, along with neo-classical economics and neo-liberalism, are all ideological justifications for a plutocratic elite of robber barons siphoning off wealth for themselves and impoverishing everyone else. It's the ideology of the wealthy and the privileged; of the 1% or 5%. MMT is more akin to theology and secularised Christian apologetics (theodicy) than science, except in substitutes the invisible hand of the market for God.
    1
  3403. America ‘rescuing’ Taiwan from China is like America ‘rescuing’ South Vietnam from North Vietnam, or South Korea from North Korea. The notion of a country being ‘rescued’ from itself (from unification after separation forced upon it by imperialist powers) is on the face of it absurd yet is the sort of thing many gullible people will, unfortunately, fall for. Like the idea that China is provoking the USA when it’s the latter that’s sailing gunboats off China’s coast; or that it’s Russia that’s being aggressive when it’s the USA that’s fuelling the conflict in Ukraine and has NATO encroaching on the former’s borders. Perhaps the USA will invade Canada and claim it’s to protect the USA and Canada from Russian activities that are within its legitimate sphere of interest in Antarctica.
    1
  3404. ​ @Myturn00000 China will invest with its Belt and Road Initiative.
    1
  3405. Spoiler alert: it already has. That fact is old news, albeit not very well known by the general population of the West, apparently.
    1
  3406. These 'riots' may have been orchestrated by certain intelligence agencies to justify the subsequent actions that will be taken by Keir Starmer (himself a known intelligence asset). They may also serve as a distraction.
    1
  3407. And depressions...? How many depressions in those 245 years?
    1
  3408. The quote might have been made up.
    1
  3409. The quote might have been made up.
    1
  3410. Part of the Great Reset, otherwise known as the global takeover by western corporations and the banks that fund them.
    1
  3411. Neoliberalism (rentier capitalism) is leading to the West to eat its own. Indeed the West, with the United States being an integral part, appears to be fracturing with the Americans seemingly intent on going their own way and treating western Europe the way western Europe treats eastern Europe (as inferior junior partners). Western Europe may soon find its privileged position within the USA's hierarchy of nations to no longer exist, the USA treating them in exactly the same way they treat all other (non‐western, non‐white, non‐Christian) countries. In fact, the USA may actively seek the breakup of the European Union and the weakening, even balkanisation, of the continent similar to what it's done in the Middle East.
    1
  3412. But orange...eugh! Too bright, too gaudy.
    1
  3413. Evidence please. Mercenaries are not the same as regular troops (though the special forces and intelligence assets of certain NATO countries are known to be involved no direct combat role has been revealed officially to my knowkedge).
    1
  3414. To be spent propping up the academia-think tank-mass media part of the MICIMATT complex, no less.
    1
  3415.  @nilswestman4013  if they are from the USA or Canada very probably. A very puritanical lot the Anglo-Saxons, so judgemental and obsessed with controlling other people's sex lives.
    1
  3416.  @danmcn61  So does that mean she wasn't his full niece but his ½ or ¼ niece?
    1
  3417.  @joshuachalvarro1182  The pharaohs of ancient Egypt liked this comment.
    1
  3418. 🌼 R.I P. 🌼
    1
  3419. The neocons and neolibs who've been in charge of the US administration since Reagan need to be removed from their positions of influence and someone with the wisdom and popularity of a Roosevelt needs to come along and implement a more intelligent foreign and domestic policy, including better fiscal management and an emphasis on rebuilding the country's infrastructure and making crucial reforms to the military‐industrial‐congressional complex to make them less of a drain on the USA budget.
    1
  3420. Did billionaires create society, culture too? 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♂️ As a certain somebody would say: That is not an argument!
    1
  3421.  @olympusthedarkone83  The legacy media is the main stream, isn't it?
    1
  3422. I’ve just read that the U.S. Congress has now banned gain-of-function research in the USA by public research laboratories, but it's a pity they haven’t banned gain-of-research by the US military and intelligence agencies (who , naturally, will ignore with impunity, however explicit, any ban on their activities) and those who, knowingly or unknowingly, do the dirty work of the US military such as – ta da!–China, whose alleged gain-of-function research was at the behest of, or in collaboration with, the U.S. government, or so I’m told.
    1
  3423. Wires that learn/AI sounds oncreasingly dangerous to me. It may form the basis of an autonomous 'intelligent' robot that may be used for nefarious purposes or become dysfunctional and pose a danger to humans or humanity itself.
    1
  3424. They are going for a Great Depression 2.0 first. Then war.
    1
  3425. The US empire. Let's call it by its name. At the very least let's call it hegemony.
    1
  3426. Yeah, worked well with Japan in 1941.
    1
  3427.  @CMVBrielman  What was meant is that the sanctions on Japan are the very reason it attacked Pearl Harbour. So unless what you're saying is that the USA deliberately provoking Japan into attacking them so that it could use that as a pretext to enter into a war not only with Japan but with Germany as well (they were allies) then no, from that perspective it didn't work out very well. If there had been no sanctions on Japan the war in the Pacific might not have taken place and lives may have been saved. History would undoubtedly have been different. Of course, on the other hand, from the perspective of a nascent military‐industrial complex and a country with a messianic complex hellbent on global hegemony that believed its time as an empire had finally come it did indeed work out very well; from the perspective of warmongers. This time around, however, we have nuclear bombs to consider as well as nuclear winter so provoking Russia and China is not that good an idea.
    1
  3428. He's carrying out the US terror states standard game plan: attack soft targets – hospitals, clinics, schools, government offices, police stations, public transport, civil society buildings like trade/labour union headquarters — to disrupt civil society and destroy civilian infrastructure. In a word, terrorism. They perfected it in Latin America.
    1
  3429. His top diplomat Lavrov should definitely be nominated for the Nobel Prize, in my opinion.
    1
  3430.  @kipo1456  Agreed.
    1
  3431. And that is exactly what the USA is trying to do. But China is not falling for it.
    1
  3432. I wish I could say I share your optimism but I'm afraid that the neocons may be too firmly ensconced in the US security‐intelligence apparatus. Maybe the armed forces or some other element of the United States polity who aren't as supportive of the neo‐liberals agenda could sabotage their apparent drive to war by refusing to go along with them but I wouldn't bet on it because these neocons and their proto‐neocon predecessors have been in power behind the scenes since at least the 1960's and not just since 9/11 or Ronald Reagan.
    1
  3433. Are you sure it was a result of SARS-Cov2/Covid-19 and not an adverse reaction to the 'vaccines'? Or was it just the common cold? I've read that the corona virus hasn't even been isolated and thus tests for it are actually detecting another, similar virus. The PCR test is also not a reliable method of detection.
    1
  3434. I also think that. Maybe, though, the USA might have actually lost control of the situation.
    1
  3435. I would imagine that the Finns are not as susceptible to a colour revolution as the Ukrainians were. They may not be as keen on neutrality as they once were but I don't think the majority of the Finnish population want to alienate or antagonise the Russian Federation to the point that they could go to war.
    1
  3436.  michael payne  Ask yourself: ① Where do you get these figures from, and are they reliable? ② Was Stalin (or Stalinism) personally responsible for all those deaths you ascribe to him as opposed to, say, war, climate, or lack of infrastructure?
    1
  3437. They are what are commonly referred to in political studies parlance as compradors – members of the political elite who collaborate with the elites of foreign countries to further their own country's economic exploitation.
    1
  3438. What do you mean by a "proactive foreign policy"? Proactive in what way?
    1
  3439. As an aside what do you think of the relations between Russian and western Europe will be after all this is over? How do you see the new cold war panning out – another 75 years and then collapse, or the collapse of the USA and its system of client states in Europe?
    1
  3440. A return to religion (belief in the supernatural) is not what is needed if that is what Putin is implying. Supernaturalism/irrationalism is not a proper foundation for a modern society to be based on. Religion is a way of maintaining the status quo, shut down independent thought, and encourage conformity. Things that Russian rulers, of course, approve of.
    1
  3441. How many of those likes and dislikes are authentic though?
    1
  3442. That was the official rationale they gave at the time but we now know that the far more likely reason is that they had a new wonder weapon that they wanted to test, a weapon that would send the clearest possible signal to Russia not to even think about invading Japan or any part of Europe west of Germany and Austria.
    1
  3443. Will it matter all that much if he loses? The two parties are just factions of the same corporate state anyway. Policy will still remain essentially unchanged whichever party wins. And Trump's chances of a second term it would seem have been dashed, at least for the time being, by the Democrats lawfare.
    1
  3444. That's what empires do: use their client states as fall guys. Britain did it in both major wars fought in Europe and in India against the Japanese.
    1
  3445. US intelligence basically sets the media agenda of the West. And they don't care how barefaced the lie. Gaslighting it would seem is a perfectly good psychological warfare technique to be used on western audiences. Like with 9/11 and the Kennedy assassination, western audiences will believe anything.
    1
  3446. The political economies of China and Asia in the next 100 years will probably have a big impact on much of the rest of the world in the coming decades and Richard Wolff's ideas on communism/socialism may not be possible. If, under the logic of capitalism, China becomes corporatist and begins exploiting the West the way the West has exploited China then there's no reason to suppose it will continue to espouse or materially support the ideology it ostensively professes today elsewhere. Just look at how the USA is trying to stop economic development in the rest of the world to see how China and Asia might do the same to the USA. Instead of transitioning from socialism to communism China may instead transition to corporatism. Indeed, it may be said that state capitalism/market socialism already is a form of corporatism.
    1
  3447. Source?
    1
  3448. Actually, the City of London might actually support the de jure withdrawal of Britain from the European Union (whilst still remaining beholden to the EU where it counts, i.e. trade). As the most corrupt and biggest money-launderers and financial hucksters on the planet, with the greatest number of offshore tax havens for purposes of tax evasion and the funding of drugs and other illicit activities, the City would be quite happy to avoid having oversight imposed on it from Brussels. It wants lax - ideally, no - oversight or enquiry into its shady dealings and if it can get that from the European Union then fine, but otherwise it's quite happy to cut the EU loose, even at the expense of the long-term future of Great Britain as both a unified and an economically prosperous country.
    1
  3449. There is a difference. Russia is defending itself from complete encirclement by the USA while in Iraq the USA wanted to steal Iraqi oil (and encircle Russia and Iran).
    1
  3450. They are money grubbers and they don't care. Neither does You Tube. Just have to look at Alex swanning around Europe at your expense.
    1
  3451. Democracy is — was — just an historical aberration; a temporary phase peculiar to western Europe resulting from a unique combination of political and social movements happening at the time. It was very useful as an ideological tool and for the purposes of propaganda during the cold war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact and in the wars between the allies and the axis, but something that was never fully realised in practice. We are seeing it being reversed before our eyes.
    1
  3452. It's not communism they're turning into but corporatism.
    1
  3453. Did you honestly think it would do anything else! This whole Ukraine affair has just been one big money laundering scheme, as was Afghanistan before it and probably Yugoslavia too.
    1
  3454. Reality will catch up with them.
    1
  3455. That's certainly going to be demoralising. I pity the families they left behind. The sooner this war ends between these two slavic nations the better.
    1
  3456. The USA is sabotaging Europe and that includes Britain. The rulers of Britain are the servants of the USA and like the Germans (and it looks like the French, Australians and Canadians too) they are quite willing to carry out the destructive agenda of the Americans.
    1
  3457. The Russians learned their lessons in Libya and Iraq regarding no‐fly zones.
    1
  3458. Perhaps it doesn't want to become too involved in something it then cannot easily extricate itself from. In other words, it wants to keep its options open for as long as possible before committing itself to something that may be irrevocable. The consistently negative attitude of the USA and the EU towards China's BRI may also be having a dampening effect on India's enthusiasm for the project.
    1
  3459. Isn't there any opposition to it with the Canadian parliament?
    1
  3460. Who needs to buy when you can rent? And who needs to rent anything you can get it for free, paid for by taxes that everyone pays?
    1
  3461. Is corruption reversible?
    1
  3462. Carrying out the WEF's agenda? Practicing lock-downs?
    1
  3463. Well put! Let's face it, he's in an advanced stage of dementia. No one in their right mind, and no self-respecting nation, allows a such a man to become president. But, obviously, he's not the president, someone else is and it is they that are making executive decisions for him, and for the whole nation. It's almost certainly a committee or inner circle and it would appear to me that whoever they are they are not up to the task, maybe because they are not wholly united or maybe because they lack the necessary political acumen. Maybe they're just incompetent or too inexperienced. Who knows. Trump would be better than what the USA has now but the Democrats are determined to not let him get another term as president so the United States is stuck with the status quo until a real contender for president emerges.
    1
  3464. It was you Americans who supplied Germany. And not only during the run up to Germany's declarationof war on the USA, but even as late as 1942 and only after the Japanese had entered the war did it fully cease.
    1
  3465. I'm surprised neither of them seem to be aware of this. I mean, can they be so naive? ❖ The Muslim Brotherhood like all the other Islamic fundamentalist movements are supported by the West as a means of destabilisation and as a means of putting pressure on civilian governments; if any of these countries interfere in the plans of western corporations they get couped or suddenly find their streets filled with demonstrators demanding their heads. If all else fails, the terrorists and paramilitaries (al-Shebab, Boko Haram, etc.) appear on the scene like they did in Libya and Syria.
    1
  3466.  @rawnukles  welcome to the European Union. Lol.
    1
  3467. Possibly to counter the build up by NATO or for a major offensive against Ukraine. Or both.
    1
  3468. China and Russia must get together with other countries and start blocking access to raw materials like oil and minerals. On their own they can do little. As Lenin (or somebody else) said, your can't have a revolution in just one country.
    1
  3469. annoloki Agreed. The more I look at Israel the more I see it as an enclave of the USA, in effect, a state of the USA co-equal with Washington DC, maybe even one and the same.
    1
  3470. They are not even our nuclear weapons in the first place; they belong to the USA. 💯%. They serve only to make the British Isles a target in case of a nuclear war and for prestige purposes, allowing us an undeserved seat on the Security Council we might not otherwise have. The USA wants to make sure that if it goes down Europe will go down with it as well (as will all the other countries where the USA has stationed, overtly or covertly, its stockpile of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction).
    1
  3471. Don't women in the USA have breast milk? Why is it such a big deal?
    1
  3472.  @danintheoutback1  A multilateral world, which is what the Chinese and Russians say they want, could still lead to a trilateral hegemony where the USA, China and Russia dominate the world together, dividing it into spheres of influence. Thus, rather than getting rid of US domination you could end up still being under their thumb if China assigns Australia/New Zealand to the US sphere of influence. The only real difference is that under such an arrangement Australia will not be (as) hostile to Chinese interests.
    1
  3473.  @nonfictionone  Yes, if a given population has a good mix of age cohorts (old versus young) and an appropriate rate of replacement (deaths to live births being at least at replacement level). Does the country or continent you have in mind have that?
    1
  3474.  @nonfictionone  Let us hope you are right.
    1
  3475. The economy of the United States of America is basically made up of the FIRE sector (financial and insurance services and real estate) and the military‐industrial-congressional complex.
    1
  3476. US President Biden (who is rumoured to have stole the presidential election) next to Saudi Arabia's King (who doesn't even have rigged elections)...?
    1
  3477. The political system gives voters no choice. They can vote – though not necessarily elect, as France and Hungary have shown – different flavours of capitalism from soft (social democracy) through to hard (fascism), anything else leads to civil strife caused by the owners of property private. The capitalist economic system itself is what is failing because of its innate and irremediable flaws and it's a problem that cannot be fixed short of a cultural revolution and radical transformation of society, something that rarely happens.
    1
  3478. She's a puppet of Bilderberg/Davos and probably the US deep state too. She's a spy and saboteur (aka an agent of influence) placed in the EU to do the bidding of a certain non‐European power and very powerful interest groups. At least that's one way of looking at it.
    1
  3479. It's not mysterious if we know what it is and what is causing it, stupid! Learn how to use words properly.
    1
  3480. ​ @rodneychew9893  😂 😅🫡
    1
  3481. It will have turned into a more authoritarian institution perfectly complementing the authoritarian governments that will by then make up the core member states of the European Union.
    1
  3482. How much is this due to the nefarious activities (weather modification) of certain countries and how much to the effects of ordinary industrial pollution of the kind which we are probably unable to change anyway without a major overhaul of the current socio-economic system? How much of this is manufactured, or at least a crisis that has "not been allowed to go to waste"?
    1
  3483. Sooner or later he must. If he doesn't he will be replaced.
    1
  3484. According to the United Nations the Republic of China (Taiwan) is de jure recognised as being a part of the Peoples Republic of China, implicitly at least. The USA also recognises the ROC as belonging to the PRC, again, implicitly if not explicitly.
    1
  3485. It's probably just a 'sweetheart deal'. The Russians don't really need the ammunition but it's a way of creating goodwill between the two countries and making the USA a bit unsettled.
    1
  3486. These storys are a textbook case of intelligence agency gaslighting. They are designed to confuse and obfuscate, nothing more.
    1
  3487. The trouble with capitalists is that they want to have their cake and eat it. They praise capitalism for what they are indoctrinated to see as good but then are blind to the sociatal problems that embracing capitalist logic entails.
    1
  3488. Climatologist you may be, but are you a member of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), subscribing to the UN's anthropogenic climate change hypothesis? If you aren't then no matter what your credentials or academic experience you're obviously a shill for big oil or a climate change denier. Same goes for not supporting mass vaccination or the idea that there was a global pandemic that necessitated society-wide lockdowns and mandatory mask wearing. Only scientists belonging to the UN-EU-G7-approved 'consensus' are legitimate. The same goes for architects and engineers when discussing office block collapses or ballistic and forensic experts when discussing high profile assassinations.
    1
  3489. Cannon fodder.
    1
  3490. The president of France is already unpopular with a significant proportion of the French electorate (or so it would seem from the recent demonstrations) so any perception among French voters that his policies vis-a-vis China are having a negative effect on the French economy will make him even less popular, especially if he's seen as pandering to the USA at the expense of his own country.
    1
  3491. If Parliament deems it necessary to have a state-controlled TV station then it should fund it out of general taxation. There should be no special, separate tax like now. As it stands the BBC licence fee is an onerous and unnecessary drain on people's budgets that they can ill afford during a recession.
    1
  3492. It still controls Germany and through its control of their media and education system, the minds of the Germans.
    1
  3493. I think what you're referring to is called the steady-state theory, though I am unsure as to this theory's general acceptance within the scientific community (i.e. whether it has been superseded/debunked or remains a work in progress).
    1
  3494. A lot of zionists and Israelis in the comments section today. Par for the course I suppose for the hard right GB News, created and financed by who knows who.
    1
  3495. For about a month. Then it's months of darkness when the sun never rises, months of daylight when the sun never sets... and sub-zero temperatures nearly all year round. That's my understanding of Finland's climate. Perhaps Finn can enlighten me as to whether it is true or not.
    1
  3496. If I was Putin I'd threaten Finland with invasion. Go right up to Sweden's border. And if the Swedes still want to join NATO I would make it quite clear that if it did Sweden would not be allowed any nuclear weapons or nuclear capable launch vehicles (submarines, surface ships and aircraft) on its territory.
    1
  3497. It was a false flag for sure. Probably the planners knew that the USA was running out of time and urgently needed to create the conditions for dictatorship because the country before then was too free for them to advance their agenda of complete corporate domination.
    1
  3498. Despite more than 70 years of propaganda, lies and obfuscation, the terrible truth of the matter is that both presidents Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt did everything they could to get the United States into both world wars. These two presidents did everything they could to help the allies and provoke Germany short of actually declaring overt war. And when they had created the necessary false flag/cassus belli (Lusitania/Pearl Harbour), in just a few months they had turned a largely indifferent country into one of rabid war mongers and revived overnight the Lincolnian tradition of suppressing dissent and trampling the protections enshrined in law and the constitution. A tradition that has only accelerated under Bush Ⅰ (Iraq) andBush Ⅱ (Afghanistan) and before that Clinton (Yugoslavia).
    1
  3499.  @gort4166  they could be Indian. Israeli. USA.
    1
  3500. GDP in minus figures. What's the rate of this shrinkage? If that's the case money printing (Q.E.) looks it will only make things worse.
    1
  3501. Lynsey Graham I think is a little too honest at times. He should just zip it. He embarasses the Establishment with his outspokeness.
    1
  3502. Fascism and communism are diametrically opposed political systems even though they may have certain things in common, as does with capitalism also. You're also judging socialism/communism by the perceived failures – some real but many simply imputed – of the Stalin-Brezhnev and Mao eras while ignoring the successes and forgetting that capitalism also has had more than its fair share of such failures (the era of Thatcher and Reagan) you are doing socialism a disservice. We can learn from previous mistakes as well as creating different and better forms of socialism that are better able to meet the needs of modernity.
    1
  3503. Fascism and communism are diametrically opposed political systems even though they may have certain things in common, as does with capitalism also. You're also judging socialism/communism by the perceived failures – some real but many simply imputed – of the Stalin-Brezhnev and Mao eras while ignoring the successes and forgetting that capitalism also has had more than its fair share of such failures (the era of Thatcher and Reagan) you are doing socialism a disservice. We can learn from previous mistakes as well as creating different and better forms of socialism that are better able to meet the needs of modernity.
    1
  3504. Fascism and communism are diametrically opposed political systems even though they may have certain things in common, as does with capitalism also. You're also judging socialism/communism by the perceived failures – some real but many simply imputed – of the Stalin-Brezhnev and Mao eras while ignoring the successes and forgetting that capitalism also has had more than its fair share of such failures (the era of Thatcher and Reagan) you are doing socialism a disservice. We can learn from previous mistakes as well as creating different and better forms of socialism that are better able to meet the needs of modernity.
    1
  3505. That's assuming Scholz is not himself a US asset.
    1
  3506. The USA could do what the Russians did and just quit. Apparently, they've been continuing to fight a war that ended in 1989 and now, like the Soviet Union, they're finding that they have gone bankrupt. The attempt by western elites to stop social justice movements like communism, socialism, decolonisation, anti-imperialism, civil and political rights for indigenous and colonised peoples is Sisyphean and will never be defeated as long as there exists oppression by inhuman economic, social and political systems like we have now.
    1
  3507. There are so many people apparently justifying the blatant attacks on Venezuela by the USA and its European protégés (and seemingly blind to what's really causing the hardship) that I suspect they are either cyber-warriors working for the USA and its minions, resentful émigrés angry that they can no longer steal and loot Venezuela's riches to the extent they did before Chavez and Maduro, or members of the comprador class that plagues the global South. Either that or they are just taken in by propaganda from the likes of Bloomberg 'news'.
    1
  3508. But they do allow those who possess them to get away with mass murder, theft of land and resources, and genocides as those countries with nuclear weapons are not willing, and those without not able, to stop them. So they don't really need to use them because they can do to weaker countries with what they want anyway just by sticking to conventional weapons. Also, let's not forget mini nukes and nukes used against non‐nuke powers.
    1
  3509. ​​​ @gordanapleckovic7556  I don't see any evidence of the USA moving away from militarism other than mere rhetoric coming from the mouth of Trump and even then highly ambiguous and being who he is words that cannot be taken at face value. If the USA draws down its military commitments it will be due to the exigencies of falling off a fiscal cliff rather than a concerted attempt at economic reform.
    1
  3510. Nationalise the lot of them — gas, coal, nuclear, wind, hydro, oil. Take them in to public hands and let the state (which doesn't need to make a profit) use these utilities for the greater good, the general population. Doing so will lower costs. Same with the banks, nationalise them and put and end to this unconscionable usury. Stop the bail-outs (using our taxes) and the bail-ins (stealing our savings). Too big to fail — poppycock! They've already failed... twice already, each time worse than the last! The corporates are taking us for fools and it's time we made them pay.
    1
  3511. The United Nations is just a talking shop, nothing more. Like all the other Bretton Woods institutions established after yet another European Civil War (WW 2) they serve the interests of those that created them, the countries of the West, the USA being foremost among them.
    1
  3512. Much more complicated and nuanced than that.
    1
  3513. It's capitalists, not socialists (not if they're real socialists anyway), who engage in outsourcing, financialisation, automation and policies that lead to de-industrialisation and mass unemployment. Blame the aristocracy, not the peasants. Blame the king (Macron – la petit roi) and not the sans culottes.
    1
  3514. They can't be that mad, surely!
    1
  3515. 💯% 👍 The USA's reaction, from suprise, through anger, sadness and resentment, to eventual resignation and acceptance ⬇️ 😲🤨☹️🥺🥹😔😌
    1
  3516. Ritter's ideas on making the USA relevant are a non-starter in my opinion given the USA is the one causing most of the problems in the first place. For instance, what if China says nothing short of complete surrender by Taipei (more realistically, the implementation of a two-systems-one-country form of governance á la Hong Kong) is the only thing that's acceptable and that, regarding Ukraine and elsewhere – Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc. – the United States will not stand in the way of China creating a transcontinental transportation and energy corridor that will unite Asia with Europe (á la Mackinder's heartland theory) and allow, ultimately and over the longer term, a Eurasia more or less completely dominated, at least economically, by China with which the USA may not be able to compete?
    1
  3517. A. What is 'the left'? B. What is "the far left"?
    1
  3518. I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you. As the saying goes, dogs bark and the caravan moves on.
    1
  3519.  @miplaylis2054  No! No, no, no. What he means is that some autocracies – ours – are necessary for us to keep plundering the planet and living like parasites of the backs of everyone else.
    1
  3520. I like this guys perfect commandof English and his – to me – posh/refined accent.
    1
  3521. Stop shouting! (You're hurting my eyes) 😵 🙈 🙀 🥺
    1
  3522. ​ @brolohalflemming7042  It still got through, just not as the Community Charge but as the Council Tax. Different name but basically the same principle at work: a tax on everybody.
    1
  3523. The "boomers" as you call them had — and have — no more influence on government than any other generation before or since. It's silly to blame an entire generation, millions of people, for the actions of a few. A "boomer" is merely a person who, through no fault of their own, just happened to be born during the good times of late stage capitalism immediately after the wars in Europe and Asia when the economy of the USA went through an unprecedented and never-to-be-repeated boom caused by the unique conditions prevailing then. For approximately 35 years from 1945 to 1980 the economies of the West experienced rapid growth that allowed them to prosper, but that all disappeared when the corporations and banks (monopolists and rentiers) came to power from 1980 onwards. So you should blame them, the neo-conservatives and neo-liberals and those who put them in power, the lobbyists, for your predicament.
    1
  3524. They expect Russia (or longer term, China) to pick up the tab some time in the future.
    1
  3525.  @DimiosTheGreatGR  No, it's science, stupid! Empirical. Objective. Science. As as a certain (alt) right youtuber would say "facts don't care about your feelings".
    1
  3526. Or gullible. Gullible's Travels.
    1
  3527.  @mensen4488  Then where are the mass graves?
    1
  3528. Sooner or later the USA will have to concede a multipolar world is the only viable option (if they haven't already and are colluding with China to divide the world into two poles like in the cold war with Russia being sidelined and becoming a semi-autonomous constituent of the Chinese pole, serving the same role as the Warsaw Pact did to Russia, as a buffer).
    1
  3529. If the United States hadn't joined Britain in 1941 do you think there would have been a D‐day?
    1
  3530. United States agent of influence. Davos/World Economic Forum/Bilderburg plant.
    1
  3531. Not much discussion of how the United States deliberately provoked Japan by giving military aid to China and sanctioning it. Just like today with its provocations and sanctions of Russia and China.
    1
  3532.  @badreality2  You're forgetting the bit about how the USA first arms your neighbours and then uses them in a proxy war against you.
    1
  3533. ​ @williammerkel1410  And rulers support for religion... that had nothing to the things you have mentioned?
    1
  3534. It's a good job too. Who knows what they'd reveal about their cooperation with the USA's biowarfare programmes.
    1
  3535. Probably still wants the advantage of being a citizen of the USA if things fall through in Thailand.
    1
  3536. She's a US agent of influence. Indeed, the EU is an organisation that serves the interests of the USA.
    1
  3537. She's an agent of the influence working for the USA. Indeed, the EU itself is an organisation set up to serve the interests of the USA as much as it serves the interests of European capitalists.
    1
  3538. And now Nazis have taken over Ukraine, put in power by the USA and the EU. What values is she fighting for? American? European? Christian? Is she fighting for Hunter Biden, Bill Gates and other globalists, neoliberals and corporatists?
    1
  3539. Orientalism in a nutshell.
    1
  3540. China and Russia would like a word.
    1
  3541.  @CH-bn7qb  I'm given to understand that the Russians have sufficient evidence, both primary and circumstantial, to implicate Britain in a court of law. After all, these are very serious allegations on the part of Russia and I'm sure they would not be made unless Russia could back them up.
    1
  3542. My thoughts exactly. The USA should start becoming a team player and acting in good faith, something that neoliberals don't seem to be particularly good at.
    1
  3543. Both Iraq and Syria are illegally occupied as the government of Iraq has told the USA to vacate its territory. As regards the EU, it is just an extension of the MICIMATT complex of the USA, its highest office holders being nothing more than agents of influence working to advance the corporate interests of the USA.
    1
  3544. Sweden and Finland joining NATO sooner or later was always in the pipeline; it was only a matter of time.
    1
  3545. It is because they are a part of the American empire, as well as being - if they are white and western European - 'of the West'. What this means in the case of the former is that, because the core of the United States economy is essentially built around the military and broadly related hi-tech industries that support it, the country needs constant war and conflict to keep it functioning. I think the term for this is ‘military Keynesianism’ and what we are seeing now is the limits of this approach combined with the unavoidable problems inherent to capitalism itself which are exacerbating things. In the case of the latter, it is the ‘West’ (by which I mean the most economically and technologically advanced countries of western Europe and North America that form the core of the global economy) that is merely continuing to do what it's always done - live as a neo-colonial rentier parasite off the exploitation of the rest of the planet and it's people. And we are increasingly seeing the limits to this approach as well.
    1
  3546.  @cortster12  Yeah, tell that to the starving and malnourished in Africa, Asia and the Americas. Tell it to the homeless and those working 2 or 3 jobs just to make ends meet.
    1
  3547. Democratic countries? Ever heard of the security Council and the Permanent Five? You'll be telling me that the European Union is for democratic countries next.
    1
  3548. They are carrying out an agenda. One originating in the dark corridors of power and spread through the tentacles of the NGO's and USAID. That's why it's universal across Europe and infects the UN and the EU, international charities, aid agencies and the mass media, which is controlled by just a few companies all with links to US intelligence and organisations like the World Economic Forum and its ilk. One vast psyop network designed to manage populations.
    1
  3549. Can Karnataka afford to give your state the water? Using up all the ground water from a region's aquifers is not a good idea. Your state may use water‐intensive agriculture or industrial processes which would deplete Karnataka's water resources whereas their use of water is more sustainable.
    1
  3550.  @morningstararun6278  Why do they do this?
    1
  3551. But Ukraine never had nuclear weapons, they were Russia's. So it is a moot point.
    1
  3552. Why should he?
    1
  3553. It looks like a crane to me.
    1
  3554. If you can successfully invade the USA or cause a catastrophic collapse of its population, economy or social infrastructure then you can.
    1
  3555. The USA and its corporate controllers are killing Europe!
    1
  3556. The corporate elite want the world to be divided between a West led by the USA and the rest of the world. The banks and corporations want a captive market and a base of operations. The EU provides them with that.
    1
  3557. I think you're wrong Alex about Zelensky's intentions with regards a Ukrainian offensive. It's not about encouraging dissension in Russia but boosting morale among their troops in Ukraine and being seen to be doing something – anything! – to please the USA. If something can't be done it's still seen as acceptable to be seen to be at least trying to do something, even if you're not actually doing it. Just going through the motions, basically.
    1
  3558.  @johnd6389  rent-seeking (rentierism) is the problem. The real economy of manufacturing has been crowded out by the phantom economy that is the service sector (FIRE — finance, insurance and real estate). And it's all been propped up by 'free' money issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of America and the interest on the loans that banks have given to their customers knowing full well that they cannot pay back those loans (especially mortgages) and that the loans to big business aren't being invested where they should be (in the real economy) but in bonds and stock (buy‐backs).
    1
  3559. You're expecting too much. The major players will not allow something to exist that is outside their control, especially if it has the potential to cause radical or sudden political, social, or economic change. Globally, goverments will collude, like they have done with the so-called pandemic.
    1
  3560. Not "the West" but the United States; it's political and economic systems have become dysfunctional due to neoliberalism with those countries that are most under its influence being effected by its dysfunction. Britain is arguably the most imitative of the US neoliberal model in western Europe and is one of the worst effected.
    1
  3561. ... And become dependent on that of the USA and its minions? Better for countries to trade in their own currencies on terms that are beneficial to themselves and to free themselves from the tyranny of a single currency.
    1
  3562.  @Green_Moon77  okay,I'll just ask North Korea, Iran and Iraq what they think about that.
    1
  3563. I think the Russians are of the opinion that they are basically fighting their own people so their reticence in not using full military force is understandable. That and the fact that they don't want to give NATO ammunition to use against them in the information war.
    1
  3564. What did you expect from a former ambassador?
    1
  3565. When China makes the rules your outdated economics 101 textbooks will have to be rewritten.
    1
  3566.  @captainwin6333  The #MIC /#MICIMATT. The ones who came to power after the Kennedy assassination, if not years before under the Dulles brothers at the very interrupting of the CIA. The rot may have started even earlier with Hoover and the FBI.
    1
  3567. That's why they use the CPI, to understate the true figures. It's a trick that fools no one yet they still use it.
    1
  3568. Doesn't China also possess long range missiles that can potentially take out the missile batteries of the USA, either pre-emptively or post-emptively, irrespective is whether those batteries are located on land or at sea?
    1
  3569. I think the NDB should go out of its way to compete with and replace the IMF and World Bank instead of being content to just complement it.
    1
  3570. The EU wants to permanently alienate Russia on behalf of the USA. Cold war 2.0.
    1
  3571. The threat of a good example. How can the neocons and the neolibs convince the rest of the world of the end of history when China keeps confounding them.
    1
  3572. We can conclude that military spending must increase to 30%.
    1
  3573.  @baruasafi5880  A loss of reserve currency status for the US dollar, together with a bout of high or hyper‐inflation would, I think, be enough to curb the enthusiasm for war and regime change, at least temporarily. After all, you can't go around the world bossing everybody around when you don't have the money to do so. Unfortunately, the bankers of the world and China seem much more likely to bail the country out and give it a free pass.
    1
  3574. The EU was created with not a little help from the USA as the economic and political counterpart to NATO and as a means of furthering its control of the continent. The breakup of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact merely encouraged the USA to expand its influence further. It is now reaching imperial overstretch.
    1
  3575. Unless they've been embalmed and kept on ice prior to burial, then I would imagine they wouldn't. I am given to understand that modern armies have special mortuary units that are responsible for the disposal of the dead and maybe they were employed here.
    1
  3576. International bankers and fascist corporations involved in speculation crashed the global economy. Had nothing to do with Labour, which exists only as a fake, Tory-lite opposition party anyway, no more able to rein in the American deep state and its client states in the EU than anyone else.
    1
  3577.  @joman563  But what would take its place?
    1
  3578. ​ @fightback397  For the crime of disseminating compromising information. It does not matter how he came into possession of the information; the fact of the matter is that he published it. That's my take on this.
    1
  3579. Maybe the Russians. A cyber attack by the Russians on certain western banks located in the City of London and Switzerland as well as a few other choice locations known for their support for money laundering and tax evasion. Maybe if Biden and son (or Hillary and daughter) were locked out of their bank accounts and threatened with having their private wealth effectively confiscated they might think twice about imposing financial sanctions on others.
    1
  3580. I'm sure that a lot of these sanctions are deliberately designed with loopholes in them specifically so that they can be circumvented by certain countries as they see fit. That and turning a blind eye to violations whenever it suits.
    1
  3581. They are under the influence of the USA and any incompetence, corruption or manipulation by them is reflected in their actions.
    1
  3582.  @sylviam6535  Liberals and liberalism are just the left wing faction of corporatism. Virtually identical to the right except for details that, while minor, are nonetheless different enough for people to fight over.
    1
  3583. Because they're Sky News.
    1
  3584. Unfortunately, the Chinese, Indians and Russians aren't up to the job. More's the pity.
    1
  3585.  @mystictraveler8642  Because that's the only way you can bring fascist war criminals of a fascist corporate state to justice. You want to bring the genocide of the Jews to a halt? You liberate Auschwitz. You want to liberate Europe from the German jackboot, you steamroller the Nazis.
    1
  3586. Since when have the elite cared that much for the wellbeing of those they rule?
    1
  3587. The Americans are giving the Chinese an ultimatum that they know they cannot and will not comply with and then they are going to use it as an excuse to decouple – in so far as they can – the European Union and any others it can cajole or coerce into following along. To wit, the USA it seems to me wants nothing less than another cold war in which its satellites in Russia and China are isolated. The difference this time is that, instead of cutting off China and Russia they are cutting off themselves. And not only are they cutting off themselves from Russia and China, they are cutting themselves off from the rest of the world because I don't see the rest of Asia, Africa and Latin America choosing just one bankrupt nation to do serious business with over all others.
    1
  3588.  @stevenpreston5619  Because Great Britain copied the neoliberal nostrums of the USA and has as a result suffered the same disastrous consequences of the complete financialization of its economy and the hollowing out of its industry. This has left it in a position of profound economic and military weakness, forcing it to rely on the political power of the USA to retain any vestige of influence on the world stage and within Europe as it cannot go it alone. And the price paid by a ruling elite who hanker after empire and are feeling lost since its end of being allowed to experience vicariously its former glory through another was complete subservience to the foreign policy of the USA. This dependence will only increase, in my opinion, after withdrawal from our the EU. The country has been sucked dry by the vampiric parasites of rentier capitalism that Smith, Marx and Ricardo amongst others warned us about but which the Chicago school's agent of influence Margaret Thatcher insisted was the only way.
    1
  3589.  @cart172  Like France in Africa. No wonder they want an EU army, they want another NATO but this time under French control that they can use to keep Russia at bay while they make a move on Africa.
    1
  3590.  @cart172  Hope not.
    1
  3591. Hopefully, China will be able to help them in this regard in the next couple of decades, giving them an alternative to US platforms. With any luck, they may even be able to develop their own platforms independently of both China and the USA.
    1
  3592.  @Adamuzi  And what is the constitution? Do you know it, article by article? Can you recite from memory, word for word, the constitution? How relevant are those articles in the 21st century? And when was the first time an article of the constitution was abused, ignored, or simply flat out violated? Every single day the constitution of the USA is violated. And everyday both the Congress of the United States and the Supreme Court of the United States actively or through inaction allow the routine violation of the Constitution. In addition, such violations are nothing new, going back to at least the days of Abraham Lincoln.
    1
  3593.  @pambp5978  A British intelligence asset or a British government agent of influence, perhaps? Engaging in a joint British‐US deep state‐Bilderberg Group psy‐op on a global scale.
    1
  3594. Not communist. Not by a long shot. Try corporatist. You'll be closer to the truth.
    1
  3595. So you support Germans destroying the Warsaw ghetto?
    1
  3596. A choice... not necessarily. Free will may be absent.
    1
  3597. Competition AND cooperation; the two are not mutually exclusive.
    1
  3598. The only way is for the USA to butt out.
    1
  3599. And with nukes?
    1
  3600. A lost group of Romans or Chinese, perhaps.
    1
  3601. ​​​ @patclark2186  The UK doesn't have nuclear weapons. Like Ukraine's weapons were Russian, 'our' weapons are under the control of the USA and if the they demanded we give up those weapons then we'd have no choice but to comply.
    1
  3602. Better a communist 'dictorship' for the majority then a fascist dictorship for the elite.
    1
  3603. Hungary will be strong-armed to at least semi-cooperate in the EU's machinations regarding Ukraine. Orban will be ousted by means fair or foul if he digs his heels in. — Magyarország erős fegyverzetű lesz, hogy legalább félig együttműködjön az EU Ukrajnával kapcsolatos machinációiban. Orbánt tisztességes vagy szabálytalan eszközökkel fogják kiszorítani, ha beleás a sarkába.
    1
  3604. But self-sufficiency in food is exactly what the USA and its agricultural and chemical sectors don't want Afghanistan to have. They want the whole world to be dependent on the USA and its collaborators in the West for food and other products.
    1
  3605. That's an interesting take on things. It would seem to be counterintuitive if true.
    1
  3606. They owe it to the British (English). They are the ones who helped create the League of Nations which in turn created the legal entity known as a protectorate, the protectorate – or mandate – of Palestine, in effect giving this piece of real estate to them to do with what they pleased. And it pleased them to create the embryonic state of Israel.
    1
  3607. And the entering into Poland of the German army in 1939... that wasn't an invasion either, just a "special military operation" to safeguard the life and liberty of ethnic Germans in Polish territory?
    1
  3608. As a substantial part of the economy of the United States seems to depend on military related procurement for growth a drawdown in military spending, which is what the disbanding or reduction in size of NATO would entail, could be a great loss to its overall economy. I therefore don't think the USA could agree to any reduction of NATO. Maybe if the drawdown of NATO was phased and spread over a decade or two, it might be possible, allowing the USA to redirect its economy to one not so dependent on the military , intelligence security sectors.
    1
  3609. ​ @sabinereynaudsf  Why should China remain disunited?
    1
  3610. Political West = European Union + North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. That is, a Europe under the hegemony of the United States of America with the United Kingdom, France and Germany playing the role of junior partners and keeping everyone else in line.
    1
  3611. Is this a caste thing – he asked a person of the wrong caste?
    1
  3612. Must have been SO humiliating for Truss.
    1
  3613. ​ @SelfProclaimedEmperor ●□●□●□●□●□●□● How do you embargo the workshop of the world, the world's biggest industrial economy by far? Especially when you need much of what it makes and which your own economy cannot provide, at least not in sufficient quantities. And other countries, are they going to sacrifice themselves for a bunch of white supremacist imperialists half a world away wanting to hold on to their neocolony in Asia?
    1
  3614. Or force them to become self-reliant, doing exactly what China and Russia are doing in response to US sanctions and thereby removing a potential source of leverage for Russia.
    1
  3615.  @sparky6086  Short squeeze?
    1
  3616.  @MuhammadAli-in1qm  Go home white sock puppet! And stop using the photo of a black Muslim man who fought against western racism, imperialism and colonialism and paid with a prison sentence for it.
    1
  3617.  @monsieurmorin  those nuclear weapons were not Ukraine's. Not really. They were Russian nuclear weapons on territory that was formerly Russian but that overnight became Ukraine. I doubt the Ukrainians could have used them even if they had wanted to.
    1
  3618. ​ @ceasar8679  Because you're bombing and sanctioning them and profiting from their exploitation such that you can afford a better lifestyle and invest in better infrastructure, all the while destroying theirs. It's not hard to understand, it's just how the US and British (predatory rentierism) and to a lesser extent western European economic systems work.
    1
  3619. The people who identify as ethnic Russians located in the Donbass region are fighting the people who identify as ethnic Ukrainians so I would call it a civil war, albeit one in which other countries have decided to take sides. It is also a war between Russia and Ukraine.
    1
  3620. Like with Africa before and after the fall of Gaddafi, there will be a before and after moment with South East Asia. Maybe it will be the Philippines that will have to succumb before missiles are allowed, maybe Indonesia, but however it turns out, just like Libya had to succumb before the rest of Africa fell in line, so the USA will keep pushing until it finds an Asian domino to push over.
    1
  3621. Not boyfriend (he's an adult). Sodomy partner.
    1
  3622. And that's exactly what the USA is trying to prevent. The whole fiasco with Russia over Ukraine, the sanctions and the blowing up of the Nordstream pipelines is but a small part of a much bigger battle by the American deep state to preserve the hegemony of the United States. Part of that strategy is the decoupling of Europe's markets from those of China and Russia and the subsequent disruption of trade with those markets then being captured by the USA. In short the USA wants a return to the cold war.
    1
  3623. Note how there's no criticisms of homosexuality or transsexuality per se. Note how the criticism is framed purely in terms of them offending Christians. In a secular society largely made up of the anti-religious and homo-tolerant this opens up religious people who condemn such behaviour as being homophobic and bigoted, thus further reinforcing the taboo against criticism of sexual deviance and turning it into a debate between progressives and conservatives; modernity versus tradition; bigots versus the enlightened. It's the same with immigration: you can't criticise immigration based on the race of the immigrants; criticism is solely confined to discussions as to whether or not it's legal or illegal immigration, or whether there is too much immigration, etc.
    1
  3624.  @putianren  But what if what he said is the truth, that Xi Jinping really is looking to secure his third term? If it's simply a statement of fact there is nothing particularly biased about that.
    1
  3625. Maybe it's all part of a deliberate and long-term strategy of weakening Europe/European Union and making it more susceptible to political instability.
    1
  3626. It's not a war it's a genocide. Call it what it is. You wouldn't call the Holocaust the German-Jewish war just because some Jews in the Warsaw ghetto rebelled against their ill treatment.
    1
  3627. Au contraire, globalisation may stall for a while but then it will pick up, albeit in an Asia‐centric form with China at its core. What do you think China's Belt and Road project is all about if not globalisation? Globalisation doesn't have to be the parasitical neo‐imperialist version practiced by the likes of Britain and the USA. It can be a better, more inclusive globalisation where genuine economic development begins to occur in place of the pseudo‐development of the IMF.
    1
  3628. Like I keep saying, the corporates in the West want a captive market. As rentiers/monopoly capitalists they don't like genuine competition. They like to live off the unearned increment of other people's labour rather than do the hard graft themselves.
    1
  3629. 1. They don't have to take on China directly. Just look at the Soviet Union as an example of what can be achieved over time by indirect methods. 2. If they are desperate enough, or greedy enough, or stupid enough then, yes, they could very well take us to war. If we consider accidental war, such as a nuclear missile accident, or war caused by an incident getting out of hand and escalating, as by miscalculation, then even more so. 3. The USA doesn't have to go to war with China, there are plenty of other countries that it and western European capital can destroy and parasitise. And there's nothing that China could, or would even want to, to anything to stop. Indeed, China would be just as exploitative.
    1
  3630. Seems that way, unfortunately.
    1
  3631. What's that ruin in the photo? It appears to be in the middle of nowhere so why would anyone build it there (assuming it's real, of course)?
    1
  3632. Good question. I think it also has something to do with self-esteem: states can't have their legitimacy challenged and have to believe unquestioningly in their own moral righteousness.
    1
  3633.  @victorcenac1247  The difference, if you haven't noticed already, is that the current client government was installed by a bloody coup d'état while the previous government wasn't. Also, the current Ukrainian government isn't even in charge, the Americans are.
    1
  3634. Elite hegemony. The Chinese elite are part of the international elite.
    1
  3635.  @chamberpot969  1. Taiwan is really nobody's business but China's. 2. There has been something of a re‐writing and whitewashing of the historical record regarding Neville Chamberlain, one that puts Britain in too good of a moral light vis‐a‐vis Germany, in much the same way that the USA is portrayed as being supposedly isolationist in the run up to world wars 1 & 2.
    1
  3636.  @chamberpot969  "... a track record of ignoring international law." ... subjugation to China and slavery...." — Can you give examples? ¤ "China does not give a practical alternative..." — So bombing, droning, kidnapping, torturing and invading other countries and their citizens for their resources is a practical alternative? As opposed to building much needed infrastructure in foreign countries like roads, railways and ports, schools and hospitals? Endless war is a viable alternative to peace? ¤ And how can a country at one and the same time implicitly recognise a territory as belonging to another country while insisting that the selfsame territory is an independent country with right of secession?
    1
  3637.  @thekraken1173  Turkey?
    1
  3638. What, specifically, do you take issue with?
    1
  3639. Phone camera on a stick, I suppose.
    1
  3640. But he's not poor, so he doesn't care.
    1
  3641.  @oldstyleman3819  Basically, a Saudi Arabia or a Kuwait.
    1
  3642.  @tropics8407  to make us dependent on the USA and the EU.
    1
  3643. There would be no need for politicians because electoral politics would end.
    1
  3644. The United Kingdom is still de facto in the Union even if on paper it is not. And it's my bet that we will formally rejoin at some time in the not too distant future, probably on less favourable terms. And our withdrawal was probably due in part to the influence of the USA.
    1
  3645. It might help the bourses of New York, Frankfurt and Paris. If the USA wants to damage both the United Kingdom and the European Union then persuading its agents of influence in Europe to seize these Russian assets makes perfect sense. It also might make sense if the United Kingdom goes ahead with these sanctions while France and Germany do not. Voila, their arch rival has been smashed.
    1
  3646. If the eurocrats are intent on creating an EU army then Ukraine won't have to join NATO; they'll just join EuroArm (are whatever it will be called). Of course, this EU army will almost certainly be intimately linked to NATO so it will be NATO by the backdoor. Like the EU treaties, they just change a few words and, voila, everything is magically transformed.
    1
  3647. You're asking for a Randian to care about the mass killing of mentally and physically disabled children and adults? An actual high priest of the evangelical church of Ayn Rand?
    1
  3648. The polities of western Europe have been at war with Russia since at least 1917. In the case of Britain, geopolitically motivated since the Crimean war of the 1850's. Rimland versus heartland. Anglo-American Atlanticism against Franco-German Continentalism. Keeping Russia, Germany and France apart.
    1
  3649. "Can two consenting adults agree to murder someone?" If it's between the killer and the killed as, for example, in the case of voluntary euthanasia, then maybe two consenting adults can indeed agree. And in the case of a child also, two or more adults such as parents and doctors, with or without the child's consent.
    1
  3650. ​​ @70newlife  A dictator like Hitler might and a more efficient one like Stalin certainly could. It would all be about disciplining the workforce and lowering their expectations and living standards in the case of the right seizing power, disciplining the workforce and increasing their expectations and standards in the case of the left seizing power. Think Brazil or India versus China or Russia.
    1
  3651. And now the British and Americans again want to make sure, like they did back then, that there is no alliance between Germany and Russia, nor any coming together of the European powers, or Europe with Asia via China's New Silk Road. ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ Und jetzt wollen die Briten und Amerikaner wieder wie damals sicherstellen, dass es kein Bündnis zwischen Deutschland und Russland gibt, kein Zusammenkommen der europäischen Mächte oder Europa mit Asien über Chinas Neue Seidenstraße.
    1
  3652. Are you referring to the famine that effected large parts of the Soviet Union (of which Ukraine was part) in the 1920's?
    1
  3653. It all depends on how well integrated into the mainstream of society new immigrants are and how fast and to what extent they can assimilate to the dominant culture's values. The USA as an example has in recent history (turn of the 19th century) been a culture welcoming of immigrants (at least those from Europe, less so for those coming from elsewhere) so who knows how things will look by the end of this century for them. If we look at history as a guide though, the empire of ancient Rome was also initially able to absorb large scale immigration during its early years but becoming increasingly unable to assimilate newcomers as time went by. Perhaps the USA will be similar. I think the demographics of Black Americans and Hispanic Americans vis-a-vis White/European Americans is changing inexorably in favour of the former, but what the implications of this change are long-term who can say. Can one extrapolate to Ethiopia, I don't know.
    1
  3654. The true patriot prevents their country becoming embroiled in foreign entanglements. Mmm... I wonder which American said that. 🤔
    1
  3655. Source?
    1
  3656. I think – hope – it's all for show, to intimidate the Iranians and Syrians and, indirectly the Russians. Basically the Americans are saying stay out of the Middle East and allow Israel to complete its ethnic cleansing/ genocide of the Palestinians. It's also a way of telling America's 'allies' in the region (read client states) to fall in line.
    1
  3657. Interesting speculation. 🧐🤔🥸
    1
  3658. As an "Almighty Creator" doesn't exist then by default all non-natural disasters must be of human making.
    1
  3659. This is what happens when the agenda for a vast swathe of humanity is being set for them by just one country's elite and all the news is being filtered through that one country's information system.
    1
  3660. Perhaps it's part of Make America Great Again (MAGA) — the re-shoring of US industry to the USA (or at least its subsidiaries located elswhere, eg. Mexico). Making the USA more powerful at the expense of Europe.
    1
  3661. The question is: How will Russia react with regards Nagarno-Karabakh?
    1
  3662. ​ @davidgmaloof  So failed harvests compounded by the lack of proper data is an atrocity. Like, the Chinese government just woke up one day and said let's kill a couple of million of our own people... just because. You know what are real atrocities? Enslaving people and genociding them based on their ethnicity, two policies that were deliberate and not excusable on grounds of bureaucratic incompetence or maladministration.
    1
  3663. Until a crisis occurs, like the election of communists, socialists, republicans, radicals, etc.
    1
  3664. From what I've read Prigozhin will go into exile in Belorussia (where the Russians can keep an close eye on him) and the mercenaries comprising the Wagner Group will sign new contracts with the Russian government, Wagner being disbanded and its members joining new or existing units.
    1
  3665. Throw enough money at the problem and enough scientists (the Chinese have lots of both) and – voila! – problem solved. There's nothing a white person in the West can do that a non-white person in the East can't. It would be complacent hubris to think otherwise.
    1
  3666. But in America's case there appears to be such a thing as lunch on credit.
    1
  3667. Concern for the environment by those who rule us is at best contingent and will always come second to politics (in the service of economics).
    1
  3668. Not the dismantling of the Soviet Union but the dismantling of the Warsaw Pact. I don't think anyone in the Soviet Union thought that it would lead to its breakup.
    1
  3669. The United States wants to divide the world, controlling Europe like it did from the 1940's to the 1980's. It wants to recreate the cold war and force the European Union to trade mainly with itself, the USA and its client states and will probably try to prop up its currency the dollar by introducing an EU-wide CBDC, possibly using the pooled gold reserves of European countries in an attempt to make its soft currency hard.
    1
  3670. Perhaps we're living inside a black hole or something similar and are the only planet that has developed life. There may be life out there in a much bigger universe that exists outside the black hole we are in but we have no way of knowing and never will.
    1
  3671. I wonder if he believed in the existence of a soul and an afterlife. I suppose he was an animist or something similar.
    1
  3672. But Taiwan is already Chinese. Its like asking what if the USA invades the South if it secedes.
    1
  3673. That's why on paper the United States has a bigger economy than China – because they are fiddling the figures. In reality it's probably China's economy that's bigger and the the USA is in second place and falling behind.
    1
  3674. JFK wasn't quite the angel that many people make him out to be. Any good he did over the Cuban missile crisis/Bay of Pigs was almost incidental.
    1
  3675. In China under the emperors no one but the emperor himself was allowed to wear the colour yellow. I think it might also have extended to a ban on only the emperor being allowed to wear a dragon motif too, though I'm not sure. Also, under the Manchu (Qing) all adult ethnic Han Chinese had to shave their hair except for a ponytail. Now imagine most Americans having to wear a mullet hair style – how horrible that would be.
    1
  3676. The idea that communism (or at least the political economy practiced by Russia and China) did not lift millions out of poverty and modernise their countries is demonstrably false by any objective metric.
    1
  3677. Me too.
    1
  3678. NATO was created after world war 2, long after the Soviet Union had given up any pretence beyond rhetoric of wanting to spread revolution worldwide. The Warsaw Pact was then created in response. It was always about the domination of Europe by the USA. The same goes for the European Union, the political‐economic counterpart of NATO. Don't forgot why the Soviet Union was in Europe post 1945.
    1
  3679. This is what you get when two politicians with very limited popular support among the rank and file are shoe-horned into positions for which they are not really suited. Elements of the American deep state are what's really in charge after the recent, disputable election victory of the Democrat party and both the president and vice president are mere figureheads, placeholders.
    1
  3680.  @daniellclary  "Don't fight for their home"? So, what have the Afghans been doing all these years, first against the Russians, and then against the USA?
    1
  3681. One radar... out of how many?
    1
  3682. The needy being the already super-wealthy billionaires.
    1
  3683. Having created Hitler and fascism (capitalism) in the first place. The amount of aid given was a drop in the ocean compared to what the Soviets were producing.
    1
  3684. If you're an elite member of the Bank of International Settlements — thus definitely know what you're doing — the same logic applies. To wit, if you can rig the system in your favour then, yes, what you say is true.
    1
  3685. But it was planned and is being implemented by the very same fascists of whom you speak (rentier monopoly capitalists), so I doubt very much a collapse brought about by them will be in anyone else's interests. The collapse needs to be prevented, financial stability restored and the plans of these wicked people foiled. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any viable labour, socialist or communist movement radical and progressive enough to undo 40+ years of neoliberalism, at least not without provoking the neoliberals into attempting extra-paliamentary means of continuing with their plans.
    1
  3686. Maybe he's being ironic... sarcastic, to avoid the censor.
    1
  3687. Remember, the European Union was set up post war with not a little help from the USA as one of the many ways it sought to control Europe and is still heavily influenced by them, albeit with a Germany that appears a little more assertive than hitherto on strategic issues relating to its economy.
    1
  3688. "Western corporate media has capture[ed] the power to manufacture truth." And I would add, the intelligence agencies of the USA together with their media and tech companies have captured the power to manufacture truth within the West itself. The deep state of the USA has monopolised truth and when we say 'the West' what we are really talking about is the US government and its corporate empire.
    1
  3689. ​ @delbertmcfinklestein8576 corrupt oligarchs put in power by the West. You forgot to mention that.
    1
  3690. Merry Christmas everyone and a happy and prosperous New Year. 🕯🍻🎅🍰🎊🎁🤶🎈🎉🥳
    1
  3691. That was the beginning of in-your-face lawlessness, in my opinion. Before that the USA at least went through the motions of adhering, for the most part, to international law or some semblance of it where Russia's direct geopolitical intersts were concerned and took into consideration the likely response of Russia and its allies to American actions.
    1
  3692. The more aware I become of all the censorship, whitewashing, gaslighting, political correctness, wokeness, etc. that's going on the more convinced I am that the entire media of the West is fully integrated into an information management system that is controlled by the deep state of the USA and its closest allies the five eyes This extends to the internet as well. I say this because the same set of messages are being uniformly given out across all media platforms with hardly any differences between them whatever language they are in. And its a grip I fear will only tighten, its sophistication only increase, along with its pervasiveness. The USA wants to dominate the information space of the world no less that it wants total dominance on land, sea, air and in space and has come as close as you can currently get with the technology that's currently available with regards the information space of its NATO‐EU allies. Let's face it, we're in a the first decade of new cold war instigated almost entirely by the neocons in the USA, Australia and Britain. Instead of the end of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact leading us to a more peaceful world it has instead led to the elites in certain western countries thinking they can maintain the unipolarity moment of the Yeltsin era. However, we've moved on since 1989 and Russia is resurgent thus there is an urgent need for such thinking to be abandoned in favour of one acknowledging the bi‐ or tri‐polarity (China, Russia, India) of the nascent new world order that is emerging.
    1
  3693. Even though Britain is no longer officially part of the EU.
    1
  3694. Recession...? Why not depression? A depression we haven't fully got out of since 2008.
    1
  3695. No! But if there is a conflict it will be the USA's fault, either directly or indirectly.
    1
  3696. So you're saying that the accomplishments of the Chinese, Vietnamese and Russians in bringing their countries out of feudalism and poverty in just one or two generations is a failure? Strange how the populations of both China and Russia grew most during the times of Mao and Stalin, As did their living standards. Meanwhile, the living standards of the Third World dropped during the cold war and the advent of neoliberalism. Are you for real or just a bot sent to infest critical discourse with divisive hate speech? Or one of those CIA-linked, billionaire-funded libertarians with your right wing equivalent of left wing anarchism, another ideology that doesn't work?
    1
  3697. I second that. 🆗️
    1
  3698. Actually, I think many in Finland are secretly happy that Turkey is blocking their accession to NATO, and maybe even some people in the rest of Europe. I'm not so sure about Sweden. Besides, both countries are to all practical purposes already NATO members anyway so it's largely symbolic.
    1
  3699. ​​​ @pickinthatbanjo Sweden and Finland were already, to all practical purposes, part of NATO before they formally joined. Their official membership is more symbolic than anything else. Furthermore, NATO is, was, and always has been an existential threat to Russia. Its primary purpose was to deter Russia from liberating the European continent from the control of the fascists and capitalists, the USA formost among them. You see capitalism, especially of the Anglo-American variety, is predicated on profit for its continued success and when it can no longer make profits it begins to decline, then capitalism is in trouble (look up 'declining rate of profit'). What this means is that capitalist countries cannot and will not stop expanding until they are stopped by force and the fact that NATO still exists despite the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the disappearance of communism and is no longer confined to defence but offence (Libya, Yugoslavia) should be all the proof you need.
    1
  3700. Israel did not exist then. The kingdom of Judea is the name of the region where Herod lived and died.
    1
  3701. @InfiniteMushroom I agree with the first two and a bit paragraphs.
    1
  3702. @InfiniteMushroom Your reply to @Joe k.
    1
  3703. Agreed. Assimilation by mainstream society would be the death knell of the unique Roma subculture. The very things that make them what they are also what sets them apart and invites ostracism and obloquy.
    1
  3704. Yes, but did he use strictly communist theory or some form of non-marxist capitalism theory?
    1
  3705.  @dannywindham3295  Or does it? Is it really the FED that owns the Congress - along with the whole of the 'real' economy, including the military-industrial-security complex, (and not just the US economy but also that of the most of the world)?
    1
  3706. The UN votes to recognise an American-Israeli created bantustan/Indian reservation.
    1
  3707. But there are profound cultural differences relying on different interpretations of the truth the way that Christian apologists interpret the Bible to arrive at their particular version of the truth and in so doing create schisms and sectarianism. Knowledge IS contingent and that is a fact whether or not you are willing to accept it. Science would not be able to advance if it were not the case. The new replaces the old and that is how it's always been.
    1
  3708. It's designed to hurt Europe more than the USA. Indeed, the USA will probably still source its uranium from Russia but through third parties like India.
    1
  3709. Beyond symbolic attacks Iran will – still – do nothing meaningful. The Russians will counsel strongly against it and like with Syria will be extremely reluctant to supply the Iranians with the means to decisively kick out the Americans and defeat Israel. Russia and China acknowledge that, like themselves, the USA has geostrategic interests in west Asia (eg. Saudi Arabia) and has lines that should not be crossed if a major war is to be avoided.
    1
  3710. Last I heard they had found a sunken German cargo ship that was found to contain the Amber Room's amber panelling. I haven't heard anything since.
    1
  3711. ​ @aachoocrony5754 ... and the EU.
    1
  3712. Glad you're back! 🙋‍♂️
    1
  3713. The Ukrainian government is, it seems to me, basically a puppet government in the fullest sense of the word. The hands of its president are tied by the die‐hards in Kiev (neo‐fascists, US‐trained elements in the army capable of removing him) yet he is, in my honest opinion, in a losing position, militarily speaking, so eventually he, or his replacement, must come to the negotiating table. As for sanctions, they aren't really designed to work in the way they are described. They are basically a form of warfare permanently waged on a country which, like all warfare, is designed to kill and maim. They are, rightfully in my opinion, criminal under international law and and act of war. Another thing is the USA might even want the current economic, financial and international system and its institutions to collapse; controlled implosion followed by reconstruction of the (at least western) world's financial architecture under US auspices. In other words a kind of Bretton Woods 2 tying the European Union, Australia and New Zealand willingly our otherwise, to the USA (maybe akin to the continental blockade system that Napoleon Bonaparte tried to use against against Britain during the Napoleonic Wars or the similar system used by the USA during the cold war against the Soviet Union and Pact). Whether such a thing would work and whether China – which I'm assuming is the biggest economy round about now in real terms rather than the nominal terms reported in the media – would go along with it or has the power to modify it in such a way that it thwarts the USA'S continued dominance I have no idea. The use of the IMF's Special Drawing Rights as a – presumably temporary – form of international currency for this purpose (perhaps in the form of digital currencies which I am given to understand allows for more governmental control over ordinary people) might be used for this purpose, but I'm just speculating wildly.
    1
  3714. Certain western countries are having a hard time adjusting to the rise of China and the rest of the world more generally.
    1
  3715.  @chri-k  🤔🤷‍♀️
    1
  3716. Eurasian integration is something the USA and the UK are against and will go to great lengths to prevent, even if it means their own destruction. Neither want a peaceful, prosperous Europe dominated by Russia and Germany.
    1
  3717. As does the Koran, Torah, Baggavad Gita, and other holy books.
    1
  3718. I don't think you can make a useful comparison between the ad hoc casual enslavement of Europeans by opportunistic pirates acting on their own initiative with the industrial‐scale, state‐sponsored slavery of western Europe and North America, a purely commercial, profit‐driven endeavour that depleted Africa of millions.
    1
  3719. ​ @millie2687 no we haven't! The United Kingdom has never had a genuine nuclear arsenal independent of the USA. All 'our' nuclear weapons are US made and controlled. The only conceivable time where the government of the United Kingdom could use those weapons is if and when the USA has already been wiped out and we would probably have already been wiped out ourselves by then because those nukes only serve to make the British Isles a target for Russia and China. Better Britain remain neutral.
    1
  3720. Certainly since the creation of the CIA.
    1
  3721. They have no problem with hereditary monarchy and aristocracy, nor with a virtually unaccountable City of London and corporation/banks, so I don't see why they should.
    1
  3722. Neither in world war 1 or world war 2, nor during the civil war, did democracy in any way, shape or form interfere with the warmongers prosecution of their wars. It didn't then and wouldn't now. The popular will doesn't matter: consent – manufactured or otherwise – can easily be faked as well as being disregarded. Rulers rule and the rest suffer what they must.
    1
  3723. And then they'll accuse the Indians of stealing their jobs.
    1
  3724. 16-18 is when you generally start work. Can you not work if you don't want to?
    1
  3725. For as long as the EU exists. The EU and NATO, together with its military bases are how the USA dominates Europe. As long as France and Germany – the core of the EU – are under the thumb of the USA we can expect no change.
    1
  3726. ​ @Djwyrm  ... And the oldest was in her 70's.
    1
  3727. He couldn't abide by the agreement because the Americans wouldn't let him. If he had tried he'd have been taken out, just like the leader of South Vietnam when he tried to make peace with the North. Or JFK when he tried to thaw the cold war.
    1
  3728. Even Russian propaganda can be true. Just ask the Germans in late 1944.
    1
  3729. You underestimate the power of governments to collude. Covid-19, cold war 1 (1947-1989), cold war 2 (2022-?).
    1
  3730. I would bet that at least half of the anti-Morales replies are computer generated automated responses and online cyber psychops personnel, with a scattering of people from NGO/intel-funded organisations and innocent people who are being lied to.
    1
  3731. ​ @tBar9223  Why did he do that? Was there a fiscal crisis or something?
    1
  3732. The aim was to damage Europe's relations with Russia and make Europe more reliant on the USA. And it has been quite successful so far. It also serves as a distraction and to consolidate a US dominated pan-European corporate security state that has been expanding exponentially since the 1980's.
    1
  3733. Depends on whether they were given permission by you know who. And if they were to act independently whether they would be stopped before they can do anything or have their organisation effectively destroyed if they did do something à la Al‐Quaida.
    1
  3734. If BRICS de-dollarisation occurs we'll see how long the USA can afford to prop up NATO using just I.O.U.'s.
    1
  3735. There are important differences between the two events that your are purposely not seeing.
    1
  3736. Germany is the core economy of Europe and the EU and thus the country exercising the greatest influence on its policies, most notably fiscal. And France tacitly understands this.
    1
  3737. Judeo-Christian is a term invented by Christian fundamentalist evangelicals in the USA around 1950 who believe in what they call 'the end times' (Second Coming of Christ, Armageddon, etc.) and are fully supportive of political Zionism, believing the creation of the state of Israel to be the fulfilment of biblical prophecy. It is purposefully designed to conflate two entirely separate religions which have, in fact, little in common and obfuscates the role the one religion played in persecuting the other.
    1
  3738. Kentucky hasn't legalised sex with first cousins yet! How backward. Britain did that hundreds of years ago. 😮😂
    1
  3739.  @shawnstarr6005  That's because they are just Russians by another name. Same with the Belarusians. Two people otherwise identical except for language.
    1
  3740.  @squamish4244  I read somewhere it was schizophrenia that Van Gogh suffered from.
    1
  3741. We're certainly living in a declining Pax Americana world which may soon turn into a post-Pax Americana world within a decade or two of the Russian Federation's victory over Ukraine. It would seem that the USA's apparent victory over Russia in the 1990's was in fact a short-lived and pyrrhic victory; a battle won, a war lost. I wonder what will happen to Britain when it can no longer piggyback off the USA.
    1
  3742. The West considers itself more advanced in strictly technological terms than everybody else. Would you say then that we in the West still look on those in the Global South as "like cattle"? We've certainly treated them like cattle in the past (chattel slavery, colonial conquest, racism) but… do we STILL think of them in those terms? If the answer is no, if the answer is that we can and have changed our opinions, is it outside the realms of the possible that aliens - because of and not in spite of their more advanced technology - could do the same? I for one do not think an alien intelligence would think of us as cattle for the simple reason that if they know we have technology then by that reason alone they would realise that we too are intelligent and would see in us a kindred spirit.
    1
  3743. The USA won't really care. Indeed, it might even be behind the EU's collapse. The money for Ukraine is mostly money laundering anyway and as for the EU itself, it's just a gravy train for bureaucrats and MICIMATT agents of influence.
    1
  3744.  @Rebel_2891  Gradual? Rapid is more like it.
    1
  3745. As I understand it, it is space that is expanding and not what's contained within it. It is perfectly possible for two objects to move toward each other given that they are moving independently of the expansion of space.
    1
  3746. ​ @CraigKeidel  Fairer...? Fairer is not as fair as fairest. Fairer is relative not absolute. Fairer as in you can go from living in a tent to living in a garden shed while I go from living in an duplex apartment to living in a large detached house; fairer as in you get to live in a house while I get to live in a mansion. Fair as in not if it involves me getting less, though still sufficient, and you getting more.
    1
  3747. Coming from a neoliberal economist of pseudo-scientific neo-classical economics with fascist leanings.
    1
  3748. @John Dowds More like slightly to the left of Franco or some Latin American ruler would be a better comparison.
    1
  3749. The NSA has a monopoly on open source intelligence. Wow! No wonder the Chinese and Russians want to develop their own internet and search engines. And it's not Bezos and co. rather it's the government of the USA. These ostensibly private monopolies are in fact state monopolies in disguise. The likes of Geoff Bezos and Bill Gates merely give the illusion of capitalist free enterprise. Without the state creating it – using public money and public universities – the 'capitalist' internet wouldn't exist.
    1
  3750. Perhaps the United States is thinking of stealing the pensions and gold reserves of Germany.
    1
  3751. Maybe it was all planned as part of the Great Reset.
    1
  3752. Subspecies of hominids? So what were the species? Are we ourselves a species or a subspecies?
    1
  3753. The German economy seems to have already suffered damage that will only get worse if remedial actions are not taken soon. They must reverse course immediately and stop implementing decisions made in Washington that serve the geopolitical interests of the USA much more than they do Germany's.
    1
  3754. They know. They just don't care. It's a price worth paying, as Madeleine Albright might say. All part of the deep state strategy of the USA. The American deep state has plans for Europe and economic depression, de-industrialisation and authoritarianism are part of those plans.
    1
  3755. @THE WHITE DEVIL Why do you say it was stolen?
    1
  3756. You can bet your house that the French are in cahoots with the Americans to destabilise Ethiopia, Eritrea and their neighbours with the only bone of contention being where the interests of the USA and France are at odds.
    1
  3757.  @janpavel1441  Moderately‽ Virtually fascist (corporatist) at this moment in time.
    1
  3758. Bullshit! The Russians were not fighting for communism but for their very survival against an enemy deeply steeped in genocidal theories of racial supremacy, xenophobia and cultural chauvinism, not to mention a pernicious ideology promoting ownership of the global commons by bankers and corporations. Like present day USA and its minions in western Europe they believed in exceptionalism. And look where it got them! Learn from history kid. This is where hubris and greedy rentier capitalism – its purest form being fascism – gets you.
    1
  3759. His theories are quite interesting, maybe even plausible.
    1
  3760.  @jimc.goodfellas  ...And the unelected heads of the corporations, banks and their lobbyists.
    1
  3761. Pure, blind chance. No rhyme or reason to it. The laws of the universe allow us to exist and so we do.
    1
  3762. ​ @РафаэльСаркисянц-ъ2т  Деньги для глубинного государства.
    1
  3763. It was a sovereign state (past tense). The future status of what will exist of ukraine after this conflict is at this moment undecided.
    1
  3764. So you're saying that there's no way that the USA will allow China to 'take back' an island that it already recognises as belonging to China? What you're saying doesn't make sense. Are you suggesting that the USA can just all of a sudden unilaterally decide that the island of Taiwan is no longer Chinese territory having first acknowledged that it is?
    1
  3765. Unnecessary? Don't think so. Illegal? By whose definition and why isn't the institution responsibly for applying the term 'illegal' not punishing anyone? Nothing is illegal if it goes unpunished.
    1
  3766. Capitalism. Eternal expansion without limit, all externalities (problems) deferred indefinitely or dealt with ruthless force.
    1
  3767. Some say Marco Polo never got as far as China because he doesn't mention anything of the country or the court of the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty.
    1
  3768. Divide and conquer is the policy of Rubio. Everything the USA does is designed to create division in Asia and especially between India and China.
    1
  3769. Joe can't last another term, surely.
    1
  3770. It's certainly made them dependent on EU handouts.
    1
  3771. Because imperialist countries Britain and France were being challenged by a rising imperialist Germany.
    1
  3772. Is post-modernism still a thing though, or was it just a flash in the proverbial pan that's now become merely an historical curiosity?
    1
  3773. The USA wants that; Israel is just a convenient means to achieve it.
    1
  3774. The USA won the cold war but lost the peace it would seem. A short but sweet pyrrhic victory gained in Its plutocratic elite's existential struggle against the worldwide aspirations of workers and peasants and capital's existential struggle with labour. In Its attempt to destroy social movements like communism and socialism it may well have succeeded in only destroying itself and paving the way for a renaissance of the left.
    1
  3775. And that's why the USA through the UN and other bodies want it to be taken over by agribusiness funded by corporate banking. They don't like self-sufficiency.
    1
  3776.  @TorianTammas  Not enough pay and good working conditions.
    1
  3777. That's something to think about.
    1
  3778. Like NATO it was the Americans who created the EU. And the UN.
    1
  3779. I'm sure that the Americans will, perhaps after some initial success, ultimately end up failing, like they have apparently in Afghanistan, their successes being more apparent than real. Eventually, all this warmongering and desire to rule the world through corporate monopolies and banks may very well lead to the economic collapse of the USA and its transformation into a dictatorship whose fascistic tyranny is plain to see.
    1
  3780. Why can't it defend itself through peaceful trade and win-win interdependence? The best preventer of war between states is mutually beneficial commerce and trade and the encouraging the prosperity of all and not just a few.
    1
  3781. ​ @phils4634  The reason they are experiencing economic difficulties is because they are copying western neo-liberalism, a set of economic policies which don't work and have been disastrous to the economies of all those countries that have adopted them. That's because neo-liberalism is an ideology created by the rentier parasite elites of Britain and the USA who want to justify the accumulation of the world's wealth by the FIRE sector of those two countries.
    1
  3782. Watch the video from beginning to end. Several times. Then you might get it.
    1
  3783. India/Bharat didn't exist as a unitary state back then so to say these are India's achievements is not quite true. The collective achievement of the diverse peoples of the Indian subcontinent would be a more accurate description.
    1
  3784. You have to destroy the village to save the village. You have to destroy democracy to save democracy. That is the attitude of the USA.
    1
  3785. Would you say the same about the Vietnamese, Afghans and Iraqis? Maybe the French of Vichy didn't want to be 'liberated' knowing what might be in store for them, being seen as traitors and collaborators by the Gaullist government in exile about to take power. I also think they might have lost their livelihoods or loved ones to war or endured austerity and privation that they blamed on the war.
    1
  3786. When you say boys do you really mean young men of 13 upwards (teenagers)?
    1
  3787. When the greater part of your industrial base is geared toward military production rather than manufacturing for civilian needs then you have very little choice in the matter. On their own, tourism, services, banking, the stock market and real estate aren't enough to keep the USA's three hundred million people in the lifestyle to which they are accustomed. The USA needs to wean itself off the military‐industrial complex, otherwise it's going to be unable to compete effectively against China.
    1
  3788.  @ahorsewithnoname643  And in similar vain, they were much closer to death as well and therefore did not hide it away like we do today. In fact it would seem our forebears even just two centuries ago lived much closer to nature and were better attuned to the needs of both body and mind.
    1
  3789. A real man‐made famine but western media would rather talk about the Ukrainian Holodomar, a famine caused by a fatal combination of incompetence, bureaucracy, bad logistics and natural crop failure that gets blamed on Stalin and communism.
    1
  3790. Sour grapes much...!
    1
  3791. TRIPLE TOWERS! 3 towers fell that day. 1 into its own footprint at freefall speed with no impact from any plane.
    1
  3792. I think I read somewhere that the USA are going to withdraw the Abrams tank and replace it because it's too hard to maintain and isn't particularly suited to the terrain (too heavy) in Europe.
    1
  3793. How will the USA react to this action by China?
    1
  3794. You're listening to two hardliners created by the US think tank system. They are apologists of the status quo.
    1
  3795.  @bjbosche  What about non-commercial fusion power? Most of this research and development seems to be directly or indirectly state sponsored using tax payers money so I would argue that there is no good reason why the viable end result should not be also. I think it would be better not to give up this energy source (if it ever gets to the stage where it's economically viable) to the private sector to monopolise and make a profit from, but rather let it be owned and operated by state governments (or the federal government) at cost price and funded by state/national taxes.
    1
  3796. Law is whatever the powerful want it to be. Law ultimately rests on force.
    1
  3797. The USA is amazing.
    1
  3798. Not scared. Distraught. He's just lost his daughter. ¤☆¤ And no one in the public eye is immune to assassination (politically motivated murder).
    1
  3799. Taxing tips! My god, staff in restaurants and bars are already underpaid and often have to hold down two jobs just to make ends meet so taxing them... outrageous! Do they want them to have to hold down three jobs!
    1
  3800. I think to be fair he may have been referring to the idea that, over the longer term, Russia may eventually lose, not TO Ukraine, but to the United States IN Ukraine (i.e. that the war is no longer a US proxy war between Ukraine and Russia but a more direct war between the USA itself and Russia; that the USA is now in it for the long haul, a war of attrition, terrorism, subversion, guerrilla war, insurgency, etc.) I think that what he might be trying to suggest is that this war, far from being over, is actually just beginning and that Russia should realise that what it's involved in now is the beginning of world war 3, a war, albeit undeclared, between the USA and the Russian Federation as well as the Russo‐Chinese axis. In other words, Russia may be interpreting events wrongly and making a grave strategic mistake in so doing.
    1
  3801. It's China basically calling out the USA for its hypocrisy and weaponisation of the term democracy. That said, calling out China for "not being such a great democracy" is a bit of a non-starter as the PRC has never claimed it was a democracy in the first place, at least not by the definition of the US government.
    1
  3802. France will only send troops if it is absolutely certain that it will not trigger war with Russia.
    1
  3803.  @Aurinkohirvi  Seems like someone is manipulating the figures. Anyway, I trust the Finnish people to make the right decision, come what may.
    1
  3804. It wants to but is scared to. It is wavering and if it does not decide soon what it wants – war or peace – the initiative will be lost for good. And for a superpower not acting, even rashly, might just prove to be a strategic blunder of historic proportions.
    1
  3805. Mark Raymond, I think that achievement goes to the CIA of the USA.
    1
  3806. The USA is trying to replicate the conditions of cold war 1.0 with cold war 2.0. It's trying to isolate both Russia and China from the world economy like it did in the cold war. Unfortunately for the USA, China is the biggest economy in the world (fake statistics of the USA aside) and Russia is a major supplier of the world's raw materials. In trying to bring back manufacturing to the USA they think they can just deindustrialise the rest of the world and cut off Asia from trading with Europe and Latin America. Uncle Sam is like King Canute trying to hold back the tide.
    1
  3807. No way is this man going to be re-elected. No way. His party... who knows. The citizens of the USA better prepare for a GOP victory. Another Trump?
    1
  3808. Is that just of the Catholic and Protestant kind or does it also include Orthodoxy of eastern Europe, Russia and Byzantium?
    1
  3809. And Germany would just love to take the crown from the City of London. And when it does even Britain's lead in financial services will be lost.
    1
  3810. The US empire of Anglo-American finance capital. That's what the West is.
    1
  3811. What about the USA's population problem? Too many immigrants to the USA forced out of their own countries by its wars, wars that cause brain drains in the rest of the world which the USA then profits from. The USA should rely on its own white people to replenish its stock and not on the rest of the world.
    1
  3812. Assuming climate change is anthropogenic in origin and if it is whether it is caused by the alleged culprit, carbon, instead of by deliberate geoengineering by certain states.
    1
  3813. Yea, I mean, nobody else lived there right? Like Australia, terra nulla and all that.
    1
  3814. Under compulsion of the rentier bankers who stand to gain the most out of the crash of the industrial economies of the West. The debt bondage and hyperinflation they are causing will allow them to buy stock at cents on the dollar and consolidate their power such that they will end up owning everything.
    1
  3815. Why?
    1
  3816. And are you also told about what happened during the 1960's when you become a neo-colonial client state of the USA after your independence from the Dutch was brutally ended by a colour revolution orchestrated by the Americans? Up to 1 million Indonesians are thought to have been murdered by Indonesian Islamo-fascists.
    1
  3817. You're asking for consistency from CNN?
    1
  3818. The USA is sending itself – has already sent itself – into bankruptcy over its institutional inability to reign in its military‐industrial complex and its attempt to maintain unipolarity. How it will behave when the dollar is no longer the world's reserve currency is anyone's guess, but it may be the only thing that acts as a brake on the USA's warmongering. Also, when that happens I fear the USA will turn into a full blown dictorship or at least an authoritarian semi-dictatorship like Russia and Japan where only one party/candidate gets elected.
    1
  3819. You're in a dilemma, damned if you do and damned if you don't. And that's just the way the system likes it.
    1
  3820. "Who would care about 1 child?" European/United States propaganda.
    1
  3821. ​ @coasterblocks3420  Asian NATO.
    1
  3822. Ironically, the biggest polluter is the military of United States.
    1
  3823. What are you trying to say? ❓ 🤷‍♂️ ❓
    1
  3824. It would seem that these Baltic republics were collectively better off during their time as part of the Soviet Union. They all seem to have suffered social and economic decline since adopting the capitalist 'free market' system of western capitalism.
    1
  3825. No, Russia was.
    1
  3826. It's all part of a plan. It must be. Even Trump and co. can't be this stupid. They must want to crash the dollar and start anew.
    1
  3827. Maybe the Chinese or Russians could invade the United States via Alaska and Canada, especially if global warming eventually makes the Antarctic/Bering Strait more hospitable/crossable.
    1
  3828. ​ @ctrlaltdebug Don't forget the money laundering and fraud/corruption.
    1
  3829. And that's why the West, the USA which controls the aforementioned financial institutions in particular, fears China.
    1
  3830. Nato's secretary general forgot to add "... Unless they're used by us.z
    1
  3831. ​ @ericconnor8419  Explained in a nutshell. ✔️👍
    1
  3832. Excellent video, in my opinion.
    1
  3833. If there is microbial life on Mars it may prove to have useful applications here on Earth, such as in medicine or in the breakdown of pollutants or organic waste.
    1
  3834. United States' Fusion Centres. Aren't they for survivers/refugees?
    1
  3835. ​​ @joelandrum9803 it's now come to light that the person who did the mouse experiment played a bit fast and loose with the scientific method and fudged the data to fit a preconceived notion. That's what I've heard from somewhere or other, can't remember the source. YouTube I think.
    1
  3836. Their economy is a war economy, just like Nazi Germany's. The politicians are also corrupt and many of them have financial interests in the places they subvert. That, plus the usual racism and cultural chauvinism of the West.
    1
  3837. Hopefully, by the closing years of this century the so‐called neocons and their ideology of neo‐liberalism, the driving force behind this evil quest to dominate the planet, will be a distant memory and the USA will have become a more peaceable nation that is far less militarist.
    1
  3838. Yes, the Brown Shirts of capitalism (social democracy) have 'won' the elections – whatever that means – and might make some minor cosmetic changes. The Black Shirts will wait until it's their turn again.
    1
  3839. If you'd listened to what he said we're no longer capitalist but neo- or techno- feudalist. You also sound ignorant, like a bot or troll, making me wonder whether you're enemy a real person.
    1
  3840. Why do certain chemicals decrease the likelihood of being attacked by mosquitoes — how do they work?
    1
  3841. The Anglosphere is made up of parasitic rentiers sucking the world dry with their compound interest banking system, tax evasion, money laundering and stock market gambling. They don't make things, they just live off the interest, rent or royalties of others.
    1
  3842. It might be a way of dealing with the laboratory-engineered Corona virus and the 'vaccines' created by the USA and let loose on the world (i.e. preventative measures against bio-terrorism/bio-warfare). Then again, it could just be China's way of imposing social control and testing its efficacy (perhaps as part of some greater plan already agreed on between the world's elites or in anticipation of a period of global change/unrest/war).
    1
  3843. What does "bussed a table" mean?
    1
  3844. I wonder what they will dicuss. I think this invitation is mainly symbolic and nothing really substantive will come from it. Greater things will have to wait.
    1
  3845. ​​​​​ @mayowankenobi  How can you say that‽ Private property is the bedrock of the economic system known as capitalism, in this case other people's (Native American's) property. Like the Enclosure Acts in England, the Highland Cleareances in Scotland and the absentee landlordism of Ireland, capitalism promotes and sanctifies the privatisation and monopolisation of all resources necessary for human survival by a select few at the expense of everyone else. It deliberately creates artificial scarcity to push up prices, in so doing creating a desert where there was once an oasis. There's enough food to feed the world several times over. Ditto housing. And yet hundreds of millions die of starvation or go hungry and without shelter because of... capitalism.
    1
  3846. And what do the Holy Books of the other major religions have to say? Tis best not to use the collected stories of copper-age primitives living in caves in the Near East 4000 years ago to explain modern day events.
    1
  3847. It's way past time that it happened. Like with NATO and possibly the European Union. Personally, I think the only really logical choice is India. Other less likely candidates are Brazil, Argentina, Japan and Germany with an alternative being to enlarge the Security Council, perhaps making sure that newer members have only a qualified veto power. Who do you think should replace team GB?
    1
  3848.  @neilwalsh3977  Sure, why not. It's time the global South was represented.
    1
  3849. Or 1,500 kilometres a side? (6000 ÷ 4 = 1,500 kilometres or 932 miles approximately). So, a front line that extends 1,500 kilometres?
    1
  3850.  @contempris2383  and the USA will do everything within its powers to sabotage any Russian efforts to do so, with the more than willing help of fascist collaborators in Poland and the Baltic nations.
    1
  3851.  @paulbadman8509  I have always had the impression that the core western countries have always viewed Russia as being somewhat on the periphery, a latecomer to 'western civilization', as well as being Orthodox and thus outside the mainstream of western European Christendom (Catholicism, Protestantism); that they were never quite accepted fully into the gentleman's club, as it were. The same for eastern Europe in general, something that was sort of reified during the cold war between East and West, with the Warsaw Pact being made up of slavs with their mixture of Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim – especially Muslim – religions, multitude of ethnicities (unlike the largely mono-ethnic cultures of western Europe) and the fact that they had never been ruled by the Romans (and therefore were not the direct heirs to the Greco-Roman patrimony, supposedly the birthplace of the West conferring status as a 'western' country) and had been ruled for a time by 'The Other', Mongols and Turks, something that had in some way contaminated their culture, cut them off from the current of western history and made less Western.
    1
  3852.  banditchief  my bet is on Germany, Kept down by Britain and France twice but stll destined for greatness.
    1
  3853.  @raed3620  Your using an entirely erroneous analogy, as well as a fallacious form of reasoning.
    1
  3854.  @raed3620  The PRC is the successor to the ROC and as the latter did claim control over Taiwan (Formosa) so does the current government, its claim being a continuation of the previous government's claim. Taiwan is considered by Beijing as a province and its right of secession is not de jure recognised by the PRC.
    1
  3855.  @raed3620  I never said it had. The Peoples Republic of China recognises the factual existence of the Republic of China as an independent entity but does not recognise its political legitimacy.
    1
  3856.  @raed3620  Almost all the countries of the world recognise, implicitly or otherwise, the Peoples Republic of China as the sole, legitimate de jure government of the whole of China, including Taiwan. They may give de facto recognition to the existence of the Republic of China but officially it is the mainland that represents them both. And your claim that the The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution that lasted at most 2 decades could somehow wipe out 3000 years or more of Chinese culture is ridiculous. By that reckoning Chinese culture would have been destroyed by the Mongols long ago, indeed every time China had a revolution, civil war or foreign invasion – things far more destructive than what the Red Guards ever did. And the written language of China has been merely simplified to make it easier to understand but it's still quintessentially Chinese. All the PRC government has done is introduce spelling reform. It's not like Chinese is now written in the Cyrillic or Latin alphabets; it's still ideographic but slightly more simplified. The Guomindang led by Chiang Kai‐Shek/Jiang Jie Shi lost the civil war to Mao Tse‐tung/Mao Zedong and ever since it has been considered a renegade province.
    1
  3857. It's all for show really. What they do want, however, is for their competitors in Europe to decouple as much as possible and become reliant on the USA and its designated client states for trade. The strategy is a revival of the cold war isolation of China and Russia.
    1
  3858. Everything has a place and everything in its place. Mosquitoes have a place and play a role in the ecosystem just like all other creatures in this world. To eradicate them would mean upsetting that ecosystem and causing a reaction both up and down the food chain that we can only guess at.
    1
  3859. China is pulling a Japan, but unlike the latter the USA can't impose a Plaza Accord on the Chinese. And goes for Russia.
    1
  3860. Are you including the democracies of Latin America in your assessment? Or the Middle East? And do you think sanctions, embargo, blockade, paramilitary insurgency, terrorist attacks, assassinating leaders and coups d'état count as war?
    1
  3861. No they didn't, silly.
    1
  3862. Britain will be jealous.
    1
  3863.  @kushastea3961 : probably YouTubes propaganda bot algorithms at work. The software engineers of the military-industrial complex really need to work more on their AI if they are to create convincing personalities on platforms such as this. ;-)
    1
  3864. If they start sanctioning India then that will be another country they have alienated. But... maybe that is the plan of the Great Reset planners.
    1
  3865. Aren't they already?
    1
  3866. Turkey is a key NATO ally. Would the USA risk alienating Turkey by doing such a thing? It would drive the country straight into the hands of the China-Russia alliance.
    1
  3867. More probes need to be sent to search for microbial life on Mars or fossil evidence that it once existed. Such probes need to search numerous locations to increase the likelihood of finding something. Personally, though I'd like to think that at least microbial life once lived there, I'm pretty certain that Mars was always an abiotic planet and that, even if fossil evidence of life is found, there is still the possibility that it might not have originated on the red planet itself but from elsewhere in the universe.
    1
  3868. I've heard 500,000 Ukrainian men have died in this war. 500,000! Think about that for a minute. That's a world war 1 level of fatalities. Now imagine that for women. After the Great War there was a shortage of men, but at least there were women to reproduce the next generation. But if women suffer this casualty rate in addition to the men then the demographic effects would be devastating.
    1
  3869. His presidency reminds me of the presidency of the Soviet Union just before its breakup, the penultimate or antepenultimate president before the fall.
    1
  3870. Will this had the desired effect by increasing the Yuan‐Dollar exchange rate to a level that is acceptable?
    1
  3871. As well as land and resources being inefficiently utilised because of the profit motive.
    1
  3872. If dark energy/dark matter is a thing then maybe it too has a spectrum just like the electromagnetic spectrum used in radio communication. Maybe it could be used for interstellar communication. Perhaps gravity itself – the curvature of space-time – could be used as a signal or means of communication in conjuction with dark matter (a dark matter laser, for instance). We can't, of course, detect dark matter as yet and maybe never will, but if it actually exists and is not merely a placeholder until a better hypothesis comes along, then it might in theory be able to be used as a means of communication I am assuming all this as an ignorant layman who only has the vaguest idea of what dark matter, dark energy and other things beginning with dark, is/are.
    1
  3873. I personally doubt it's due to incompetence. The negative consequences for Europe and the wider world of these sanctions were so easy to predict that to say that they are anything other than anticipated and desired would be pushing credibility too far.
    1
  3874. ​ @Skinnypole_clara  The increases in population in the USA are due mainly to immigration rather than natural growth and as populations decline worldwide this will be a problem for them as there will be less immigration, even more so if general standards of living continue to increase in the countries of the so‐called Global South due to direct foreign investment by a Chinese-led Asia leading to fewer people wanting to emigrate.
    1
  3875. MMT is not Keynesianism, it's just a name for neo-liberal economics à la Thatcher and Reagan. And we know after 50 years where that's leading us. Also, Keynesianism worked well enough from the late 1940's to the 1970's. It has its problems like any other economic theory but in modified form (eg. China) it can be very successful. As for protectionism, it is good (and often necessary) for an economy when properly applied.
    1
  3876. Sheeple – domesticated people. They can no more be blamed for what they are than real cattle. True wildness (critical thinking) has been selectively bred out of them.
    1
  3877. More like the USA. The USA's military-intelligence apparatus has spent 70 years systematically subverting genuine popular democracy, both at home and in its crypto-colonies, all in the service of a parasitical plutocracy. And Germany, make no mistake about it, is one of the USA's *crypto-colonies. — * I use the phrase 'crypto-colony' because the USA tends to deny (along with Western media in general) that it has colonies, or that European countries like Germany could ever be subject to American neo-colonialism. The idea is dismissed out of hand as ludicrous. Colonialism in the eyes of western media and academia is something that disappeared circa 1970 and, if it still exists at all, it does so as a relic and only in the Global South, a legacy of European – certainly not US – imperialism. Heaven forbid modern Europeans could be colonies or that Israel is a straight-up American colony in the Middle East with its citizens being de facto US citizens á la France and its empire.
    1
  3878. They must think the Russians are stupid.
    1
  3879. The USA seems to be using too much stick and not enough carrot in it's dealings with Russia. And it seems to be tending in the same direction with China too. Perhaps they'll sanction India before long.
    1
  3880.  @ellenorbovay5226  And under French 'democracy' how successful are the French in 'democratically' stopping this?
    1
  3881.  @bobcharles7716  Agreed, no one is forcing these western corporations of the US empire to do business in the Peoples Republic of China.
    1
  3882. ​ @quolpmu1232  And don't you think that a large part of that trade is with and by China? Yes, a large volume of trade goes through that region but most of it is between Asian countries themselves rather than anyone else. So what makes your think that China would want to disrupt is own trade links with the rest of Asia? Your reasoning is incorrect.
    1
  3883. You don't have a genuine, functioning democracy in any meaningful sense of the word; certainly not one accountable to the majority. What you have is a plutocratic oligarchy that gives you a choice between two factions, one representing the FIRE sector and the other the MIC and both under the control of banksters.
    1
  3884. Civilisation is too broad a term when applied to an entire continent. Only countries, societies, can possess civilisation.
    1
  3885. Do you think the fascist-corpratists at YT care?
    1
  3886. Because we created those problems!
    1
  3887. The death of one superpower... and its rebirth as another.
    1
  3888. ​​ @quan-uo5ws  the same thing could be said about the USA: if only it hadn't invaded the sovereign state of Hawaii and then goaded the Japanese into attacking their naval base at Pearl Harbour by cutting off their oil supplies knowing full well what would likely happen (having previously broken the Japanese cipher used for diplomatic communication with their embassies). As for the USA caring about the Chinese, they were ramming opium down their throats and joining in the occupation of the country only 40 years earlier.
    1
  3889. The USA adopted the 1930's German model of economics regarding its economy. It implemented a military-industrial economic policy where military research and development and its spin-offs were the drivers of economic growth and not primarily civilian manufacturing.
    1
  3890.  @UNGOLIATH-x4n  Also, the USA joined when it was clear that Germany had lost the war and that Russia would take most of Europe if the USA didn't intervene by at least occupying France. As capitalists (and many secret fascists) they didn't want communist or socialist governments put in power in the wake of a Soviet victory controlling Europe.
    1
  3891. Of course you won't miss her. You never knew her. You can't miss someone you never knew.
    1
  3892.  @stevej7139  Tell me, how long have you known about Darya Dugina and how familiar are you with her written works or the ideas she espoused prior to her murder? My bet is you didn't even know about Mr Dugin, or that he had a daughter who was politically active, prior to this incident and also that your negative opinions about both of them is informed primarily by western media.
    1
  3893. ​ @urich20  1. The Russian Federation did not kidnap Ukrainian children but evacuated them to safe areas. 2. Israel started this war by ethnically cleansing, persecuting and genociding the Palestinians beginning in 1948. Your accusations that the Palestinians caused this latest bout of anti-Semitic ethnocide against them by the Israeli apartheid state (just one of many) is like blaming the native American Geronimo of causing the war with the government of the United States after two hundred years of genocide. ~ Even if Hamas did strike first they are still in the right because the Israelis are the ones occupying Palestinian land and using disproportionate use of force, not vice versa. Also, we have to take into account that, like the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas may be considered controlled opposition involved in a possible false flag and that, even if not, Israel goes out of its way to constantly provoke the Palestinians and goad the Palestinian resistance into attacking so that they can they use it as justification for their ongoing ethnocide.
    1
  3894. True. Even more visceral when applied to non-whites and non-Christians.
    1
  3895. What, a capitalist sharing! Anathema.
    1
  3896. Dictatorship is just around the corner.
    1
  3897. They are basically copying the USA. The EU's laws are being harmonised with those of the USA.
    1
  3898. Because the Chinese represent an existential threat not only to the economic political and military hegemony of the USA but also a much greater threat in the long term to the social, cultural, moral and ideological hegemony of western Europe as a whole and the Anglosphere in particular.
    1
  3899. The People's Republic of China will continue to constrain the United States of America in the Asia-Pacific region and eventually its influence will become the deciding factor to consider in the region. The USA will continue to retreat. — 中华人民共和国将继续在亚太地区制约美利坚合众国，最终其影响力将成为该地区考虑的*决定性因素。美国将继续撤退。
    1
  3900. It's now what others outside of the USA are going to do to you, it's what the people of the USA itself are going to do to you (assuming 'you' are one of the elite).
    1
  3901. As does Saudi Arabia and the USA.
    1
  3902. Amongst other reasons.
    1
  3903. And add "corporatism" and "plutocracy".
    1
  3904. A properly functioning government (like that of China) controls its own money with a state-owned central bank that issues its own currency in which it is sovereign. If it overspends then it only has to pay itself back. In contrast the EU (along with the individual countries it comprises) has to borrow money at usurious interest from a consortium of privately owned banks headed by the Rothschild family and run for both profit and political power, one that reduces national sovereignty to near zero. The truth is that Europe is already de facto federalised on the monetary/fiscal level by individual countries not being able to control their own money supply and set interest rates. As someone once said, if you control the money it doesn't matter who's in charge; the one who pays the piper plays the tune.
    1
  3905. I think he used that pseudonym only on his previous channel 'The Land Destroyer'. I don't think he uses it anymore or on this channel.
    1
  3906. And now the USA is sanctioning its own satraps in Europe, forcing them into a captive market where they'll buy only US and US-approved energy, food and raw materials.
    1
  3907.  @snslifestyleorg  Yes, that might be a possible optimum. Likewise for India. But what makes you think it would prevent the middle income trap?
    1
  3908. Erdoğan wants to go down in history as having decisively defeated the Kurds and enlarged Turkish territory at the same time, increasing Turkey's influence over the Turkic minorities in Central Asia and putting Turkey clearly on the map as a regional player.
    1
  3909. The declining birthrate in Europe has to to do with the universal use of contraception and abortion, as well as compulsory education (especially for girls) which teaches ideas that go against having large families. That and the nature of the economic system itself.
    1
  3910. But they will.
    1
  3911. "But they sure didn't expect...." Didn't they? Are you sure about that?
    1
  3912. Russia should help Iran acquire the capability to refine its own oil (if it doesn't have that capability already) so it will not rely so much on outside refineries. The same for Venezuela.
    1
  3913. Have you ever heard of the NSA, CIA? Five Eyes, Echelon? Do you think the USA just restricts itself to military espionage and does not do industrial espionage as well? Think again! The USA is, along with China and Russia, the biggest thief of technology and info on the planet.
    1
  3914. A rerun of history.
    1
  3915. Like NATO it's an organisation controlled by the United States in any issue of substance (and for everything else, controlled by WEF, Davos, etc.).
    1
  3916. The capitalist profit motive in a nutshell.
    1
  3917. The two are unrelated and what Germany and the USA are doing is flagrantly illegal.
    1
  3918.  @anonnemo2504  All these things have probably been planned for months or years in advance.
    1
  3919. The blob, evidence of geoengineering?
    1
  3920. ​@@DawnRazor-wy8uv Why should a communist care about private property, especially if it's been acquired by unscrupulous means, unfair exploitation and paying workers less than their labour is worth.
    1
  3921.  @jonathanbailey1597  Not forgetting that imperial Germany followed shortly after in Africa by wiping out the Herero, though it's strange that official narratives keep talking about the holocaust by the Germans when they were fascist but not the holocaust by the same Germans when they were capitalist.
    1
  3922. It is just for show. A photo opportunity. Public relations. Propaganda even. I doubt this was a true summit in the properly understood sense of the word.
    1
  3923. Geronimo I'm sure felt the same way. Your point is?
    1
  3924.  @glep3570  the USA has biowarfare labs all over the world. Think it's not done the same? Corona, Ebola, AIDS.
    1
  3925. They can't use the D word, depression. At least not yet.
    1
  3926. And without the USA and the Soviet Union dividing the Korean peninsula between them South Korea would not have been an United States-occupied country these past 70 years.
    1
  3927.  @shauncameron8390  Agreed. Without the allies occupying Korea and dividing it into two zones Korea could have been one united country. Such is politics.
    1
  3928.  @shauncameron8390  Democracy and capitalism, like democracy and fascism, are essentially incompatible because the interests of capitalists (rich property owners) is fundamentally at odds with those, the vast majority who aren't property owners. And I also don't think China and Russia fear democracy — leaving aside what that means in a country whose means of production and distribution are in the hands of private millionaires who's class interests differ significantly from the class interests of the rest of society — as much as Korea turning into a satellite of the USA and a base for its fascist neo-imperialist war machine.
    1
  3929. The Labour Party, together with the political system, has been Americanised and Britain has been Finlandised.
    1
  3930. Yes, I agree. This war has gone on for too long and needs to end soon. Peace needs to be restored so that Ukrainians can get on with their lives and rebuild their economy.
    1
  3931. Heidenspross, here, here! Ditto Mao's China.
    1
  3932. Yes, the avoidance of unnecessary civilian casualties, especially in the capital Kiev and other major cities, is one of the war aims of the Russian Federation in my opinion: a moral victory as well as military victory.
    1
  3933. Did you have the hairstyle to go with the clothes?
    1
  3934. The USA didn't need to invade Britain to get its gold. It was sold by a traitor.
    1
  3935. You didn't defend or save Europe. You defended your fellow Anglo-Saxons, the British and granted a temporary reprieve to its weakened empire (which you would eventually destroy anyway), all the while building up an even bigger empire of your own, one which included Europe. Uncle Sam is no saint.
    1
  3936. Competition for its own sake is not a good thing. Indeed in studies the converse, cooperation, tends to win out in the end. Also, as societies, we have evolved to the point where we can keep competition to a minimum within a social system that is overall cooperative and that can put a check on unhealthy types of competition.
    1
  3937. It's a case of the USA 'locking in' the EU and trying to prevent it becoming too independent of the financial and corporate institutions of the Anglosphere.
    1
  3938. ​ @loubrok1550 a debt jubilee is needed – cancel ALL debts.
    1
  3939. "We"? Whose this "we" that you speak of? Do you mean the private corporations of the West? They will privatise the land and monopolise any resources to be found there.
    1
  3940. Billion? Don't you mean million?
    1
  3941. Himmler.
    1
  3942. Britain reminds me of Turkey.
    1
  3943. 💥 1.29... inches. 💥
    1
  3944. Not Taliban with Taliban, but Afghans with Afghans. It was never Taliban versus the West, but Afghanistan versus USA.
    1
  3945. I fear you are right. Unfortunately.
    1
  3946. Hasn't your country just voted against giving rights to the indigenous people?
    1
  3947. Israel is ultimately a client state of the USA and while the majority of Israelis would like to have their government normalise relations with its neighbours this isn't going to happen. And the simple reason for this is that the USA doesn't want Israel to have normal relations with its neighbours. Rather, it wants a Middle East that is fragmented and weak, filled with client states, each threatening or being threatened by the others with Israel being the the chief threat to them all. As such Israel serves as a proxy that the USA can use as its principal antagonist in the region, much like Saudi Arabia, its other client state in the region.
    1
  3948. Sometimes I think people forget that Hong Kong is an integral part of China and as such must obey the central government.
    1
  3949. ​ @markaberer are coup d'états and colour change 'revolutions' considered "use if force"?
    1
  3950. Then the Africans will have Chinese financing, Chinese technology, Chinese medicine, Chinese university grants, etc. You'll just have shot yourself in the foot. The countries of Europe and North America need the resources of the African continent far more than Africa needs theirs. Indeed, without the resources of Asia and Africa many, if not most, of those goods we take for granted as being made in the West would have to be made elsewhere (eg. in Africa).
    1
  3951. Oligarchic plutocracy is how I'd describe the elite in the USA, basically an aristocracy (rule by concentrated, inherited wealth). But then I suppose all elites are oligarchic and plutocratic almost by definition, so it's really an unremarkable observation.
    1
  3952. If a country's population is falling, its reproduction rate below replacement level, how do you intend to keep the economy going without importing labour? What is needed is a policy of forced reproduction imposed on citizens at the youth end of the demographic spectrum, enforced culling at the elderly end of the demographic spectrum, and a quite large but short duration influx of immigrants from culturally similar countries as a stop-gap in the meantime.
    1
  3953. And the USA's 'stay behind' units who were engaging in acts of sabotage into the 1950's.
    1
  3954. The right ➡️
    1
  3955. But are they?
    1
  3956. The Thai monarchy's survival, paradoxically, has depended to a large extent over the years on the USA and as long as they don't threaten the Thai monarchy directly (which I don't think they are doing) the monarchy will be unwilling to pushback too hard. One, after all, doesn't bite the hand that feeds them.
    1
  3957. Is that just a knock-off of the world famous Russia Kalishnikov Ak47?
    1
  3958.  @kaptenhiu5623  And then the capitalist class. [spoiler: the Russians under communism, and certainly under Stalin, were never kleptocrats. They didn't have the chance as they were mostly purged before they could accumulate private wealth, which would have not happened anyway. The Yeltsin years (capitalist) is when the oligarchs appeared).
    1
  3959. ​ @submarineautist so, death of your culture through demographic collapse... or lots of 'poor' Germans and a culture that survives. What's it to be?
    1
  3960. ​ @CharlesIsMyName  The family working? Does that include the children working too? Are do we just have the mum and dad work and the children are brought up by... who? And then people like you complain about the state of the nation when those children turn out not in the way you expected.
    1
  3961. The USA wants to apply the same shock therapy to western Europe the way it did to eastern Europe. It wants to reduce Europe to the same level of dependency and inequality as Latin America.
    1
  3962. When the Ottoman empire fell and the USA took over, placing their military bases on Turkish soil, destroyed the Turkish left during the cold war, and imposed on the country corporate fascism – neoliberalism – via the debt bondage of the IMF and World Bank. Ever since then the rulers of Turkey have been nothing more than a westernised compradors class, parasites put in power by western-backed coups á la Latin America.
    1
  3963.  @ljr6723  Do you mean the CIA-created Liberal Democrats?
    1
  3964.  @servantofmary  But isn't the Roman Catholic faith derived from the Jewish faith by way of the Bible (Old Testament = Torah) and thus, as it predates Christianity, shouldn't Judaism be the One Truth?
    1
  3965.  @servantofmary  And what of Orthodoxy?
    1
  3966. As if it didn't happen already under feudalism, capitalism and fascism.
    1
  3967. Argumentum ad hominem is not a valid argument.
    1
  3968. Invasion by Arab mercenaries and NATO special forces cannot by any stretch of the imagination be called a civil war. The same goes for Syria. Get you facts straight.
    1
  3969. The automobile industry would not be able to survive without them, much less compete. This goes for the airline industry and many other industries as well. Every country that's ever developed has done this and every country that wishes to stay developed will continue to do this. It's best if you leave the free market BS to American neoliberal think tanks. The Chinese government isn't listening.
    1
  3970.  @blakebrown534  It does with the Jews of Israel.
    1
  3971. They seem to want to crash the European economies to the extent that they are dependent on the USA, incorporating them into an anti‐Sino‐Russian bloc totally subservient to US interests. Along with Africa – which may end up with the continent destabilised like the Middle East – and Latin America these countries will be used to prop up the US economy, perhaps using a currency that will be tied to the US dollar/banking system (eurodollar, like the sterling area that Britain operated in its colonies in the interwar years). In effect, the USA wants to create a system of captured markets where it can monopolise trade and keep China and Russia (India too) out and maintain trading privileges that favour itself at the expense of its 'colonies'.
    1
  3972. Considering Al‐Shebab is a United States invention along with most of the other alphabet soup of terrorists organisations and the biggest terrorists on the planet are western Europe and North America that might prove a little difficult.
    1
  3973. Did the Chinese government actively participate in this gain of function research knowing what it was for, or were they duped like the Ukrainians might have been.
    1
  3974. ​ @revo1974  The hatred and fear of Soviet communism made the crypto-fascist plutocrats of the USA make a faustian bargain with the communists of China: you give up communism and ally with us against the Russians and we'll make you rich. Together we'll bring down communism and the USA will be number one for ever and you'll be number two. The Chinese agreed and the plutocrats took them at their word. But the Chinese lied. And here we are: a rich and successful China that's still communist (or crypto-fascist with Chinese characteristics, aka capitalist if you prefer.) You only have yourselves blame.
    1
  3975. ​ @JonTan-z3e but Korea and Japan are both client states of the USA so it's okay. Oh wait, in the case of Japan it's actually not okay.
    1
  3976. Are you by any chance 'dog whistling'? 🤔🐕😙
    1
  3977.  @DavyRo  It's what happens when a less powerful fascist clique are imposed on a country by another country that is also fascist. We see this in Latin America whenever a junta comes to power in a US-backed coup d'état. We also saw it in Ukraine during the 1940's under Stepan Bandeira. Usually such a government is unpopular and tends to rule by force rather than by general consent because the policies such governments have to adopt are almost always damaging to the interests of the majority of their own citizens, serving instead the interests of others. Traitorous collaborators is all they are.
    1
  3978. I thick the Chinese and Russians will soon be setting up their own ratings agencies if they haven't done so already.
    1
  3979. That's not very "Christian" of you. (Or if you're an atheist, humanist/humane of you).
    1
  3980. Piece of advice: put punctuation marks inside the underscores, etc. and not outside of them and maybe it might look how you intended it. Eg. Sun. and not _Sun_.
    1
  3981. That's next.
    1
  3982. Actually, they do. China has good relations with all of its neighbours, especially commercial and economic. It is, after all, the world's number 1 economy (the USA being in second place, and maybe even third, when all its massaging of its GDP figures is taken into account).
    1
  3983. If Russia in the form of the Soviet Union can collapse largely due to economic reasons without nuclear war I am sure the United States can too. After all nuclear weapons cost billions or trillions of dollars and when the currency of the USA is no longer the international reserve currency the country will be faced with the dilemma of having to choose between either maintaining its huge number of nukes or maintaining its huge number of overseas military bases (as well as its bloated military budget in general). It probably will not be able to maintain both, at least not over the longer term. In other words it will have to economise and make cutbacks, something that the military‐industrial complex will not like and may lead to dictatorship or authoritarian government as it fights to keeps its privileged position over that of the rest of the (civilian) economy. At any rate it will only diminish the ability of the USA to project military and economic power abroad.
    1
  3984. @Ima June Bug Ever heard of polygamy, concubinage? ;-)
    1
  3985. Or the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire à la ancient Rome.
    1
  3986. As Russia is going after American installed fascists who couped the elected Ukrainian government I say no, I don't think they have forgotten world war 2, quite the opposite.
    1
  3987. Aligned on paper. In the future as China's economic influence in Europe becomes even stronger and counters that of the USA the nations of eastern Europe will find themselves increasingly leaning towards the east and Russia as the natural Eurasian go‐between.
    1
  3988.  @sagaliv8864  It reminds me of how the federal government of the USA usurped the power of the states, resulting in a civil war. This is creeping federalism and the EU makes no secret of it.
    1
  3989. Dragged...? You're making it sound as if the USA is not the primary cause of all these wars; as if it's a helpless bystander that just wants to be left alone and that is forced into this. Call it by its name. The USA wants war and does everything it can to cause it. The USA rejects peace talks when they're offered, preferring war over peace every time.
    1
  3990. Same goes for western leaders, especially those in the USA, the global hegemon wannabe.
    1
  3991. It's certainly an accessory to genocide/war crimes/crimes against humanity, after and during, if not – as I suspect – before the fact (as in, the deep state planned this, like it planned the attacks on Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq, creating fake pretexts/false flags as cover).
    1
  3992. But your idea then leads to the infinite regress problem: who or what created God? And why the singular, why not the plural, Gods? I would assume it would take more than one God to create something as complex as the universe.
    1
  3993. That and properly arming the Global South so it can effectively resist western aggression and enable them build up the necessary internal political and economic structures as to allow them true economic, military and political independence from the West. In a word they need development. Not the fake development offered by the West but real development to put them on par with Russia and China.
    1
  3994.  @lizzy-wx4rx  Masks, my dear, are almost totally ineffective at stopping the spread of what is, to be honest, a common cold or influenza virus. Just a simple online search as to the effectiveness of masking should, if its from an honest source, be enough to dispel most, if not all, of the arguments of the pro‐masking lobby. I'm not saying that wearing certain types of mask cannot reduce your likelihood of catching the disease under certain circumstances but, for the most part, the protection that such mask wearing confers, especially in the long term, is negligible. Indeed, the prolonged wearing of masks may even be as, or more, harmful than the disease.
    1
  3995. @John Chapman In sorry, but dementia is not something that just goes away. If you or your wife have been properly diagnosed with dementia, like Alzheimer's, it can only get progressively worse with cognitive abilities becoming more impaired as time goes by.
    1
  3996. That's why China (in so far as it can be considered socialist or communist) cannot allow the type of parliamentary or liberal quasi-democracy practised in the English-speaking world and neither could the Soviet Union before it. To do so would be like a small family-run business going up against a corporation, votes doled out according to wealth and power, not merit and integrity.
    1
  3997. Britain had several industries that were state controlled up until the 1980's, as well as wholly state-funded schools (not public-private partnerships) and public housing and transport. The neo-fascists (aka neo-conservatives) of Margaret Thatcher changed all that.
    1
  3998. I think you'll find that it's capitalism that does that, US capitalism in particular. Ask yourself, under which system have the top 1%-20% seen their incomes rise more than a thousand fold while the bottom 50% have seen their incomes stagnate?
    1
  3999. Then they'll promise to sell it to Australia and after years of not delivering the Americans will take the contract and take years to deliver.
    1
  4000. Toivon, että maanne pysyy neutraalina eikä provosoi Venäjää liittymällä Natoon, kuten Ukraina teki.
    1
  4001. Tulip mania! 🌷 Wait for the crash!
    1
  4002. The pro-US, pro-fascist/capitalist bullshit is strong in this thread. Destroying democracy to save it. And then only allowing democracy when anti-communist, anti-socialist, anti-detente (pro-(cold) war candidates win.
    1
  4003. I like how you conveniently forget the embargo and sanctions that the country had been subjected to by practically the whole world (China included). I suppose you're one of those people who says the same about Venezuela, Cuba, Syria, etc.
    1
  4004. I'm hoping the USA will come to its senses and kick out the neocons and neolibs before it goes bankrupt and descends into Third World status (or gets its equivalent of Adolf Hitler) in its mad obsession with attaining global hegemony.
    1
  4005. The End of History.... The USA: we won world, you lost! World: no we didn't! Yes you did! No we didn't! Yes.... Ad infinitum.
    1
  4006. Surprised 'she' wasn't mixed race and transgender too.
    1
  4007. Basically, the American strategy is to divide the world along cold war lines with the USA having its own trading bloc centred around Europe. It wants a captive market with a currency area like that of the Sterling Area used by Britain during the interwar years where its colonies were forced to conduct business exclusively in pounds sterling. The USA is practicing mercantilism/protectionism and forcing the nations that make up its imperium dependent upon itself and unable to trade with the wider world (or even amongst themselves) without its permission. It wants to lock down Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Canada and a much as South and Central America as it can and force them into a US dollar preference and free trade area.
    1
  4008. It's very probable that the Pakistanis have no option but to allow these strikes as they are unable to stop them.
    1
  4009. The 'West' at this point is just simply the US hegemon. When we talk about 'the West' we are talking about the corporate and banking interests of the USA and, to a lesser extent, the City of London, home of liberalism and conservatism and of the industrial revolution.
    1
  4010. Ultimately overreach will stop it. The law of diminishing returns will kick in if it hasn't already and it becomes more costly to expand the empire further than not to.
    1
  4011. Those wars were planned well in advance. As was 9/11.
    1
  4012. It forced the USA and its allies back to the 48th parallel, preventing the US from encroaching on Chinese territory whilst simultaneously creating a buffer zone. Perhaps not ideal but better than China doing nothing.
    1
  4013. China says hold my beer.
    1
  4014. Unless it's all for show and behind the scenes they support the USA and Israel for no other reason than they have no other options.
    1
  4015.  @haroondaman7162  Emigres.
    1
  4016. Nor from both.
    1
  4017. That's an interesting take on things, in my opinion. 🤔
    1
  4018. ​ @orterves  Masters of manufacturing consent. I like that so much I'm going to steal it and make it a meme.
    1
  4019. It's the global centralization of power in the hands of a corporate elite (those who exercise control over the monopolistic mega‐corporations and corporate banking institutions that now dominate the planet).
    1
  4020. Probably just two states, the part that is western orientated and the part that is eastern (Russian) orientated. Lugansk and Donetsk (Donbass) are already to all practical purposes independent and though they are likely to remain within Ukraine they will probably retain a high degree of autonomy.
    1
  4021.  @thomasjefferson8939  Stop with the hypocrisy! What about the self‐determination of countries in other parts of the world?
    1
  4022. They accuse others of things that they are guilty of.
    1
  4023. Why? If you are referring to his comment about "gays and women" then he is merely telling the truth. At their core Islamic societies do indeed have values which, on certain issues at least, differ fairly significantly to those of the United States and its emulators in western Europe and thus those societies in general tend take a more conservative and traditional approach on certain issues, homosexuality, pederasty and the proper role of women being amongst them. The same goes to a lesser degree to Confucian societies. Incidentally, by no means is Europe united in its support of the LGBT movement. Catholic and Orthodox countries in particular (like Poland) are also known for their social conservatism and resistance to the 'wokeness' and political correctness now so fashionable in the USA with its divisive culture wars. And it's only to be expected too as the world is not centred around the USA and western Europe, no matter how much those countries would like to think it is. What's more, if we are going to see a more multipolar world emerging from all of this it is only to be expected that there will be a lessening of the cultural influences of the West on everybody else.
    1
  4024. Capitalism is all about competition and social Darwinism.
    1
  4025. I agree. I personally prefer the term 'retconning' but "retrofitting" works just fine.
    1
  4026. There is deliberate geo‐engineering of the climate going on using man‐made global warming/climate change as a cover story. Climate change is indeed man‐made but not in the way its been portrayed in the media. Could it be the the aim is to melt the polar ice caps and allow the USA, Russia and China to carve up the Arctic and Antarctic between them?
    1
  4027. Which is kinda ironic given their name. 🤔
    1
  4028. It just goes to show how controlled they are by the German government under US auspices.
    1
  4029. Last time I heard they'd divorced after Ozzy had had an affair. Have they got back together or was that just a rumour?
    1
  4030.  @highlightning6693  Or the 100 million who died under capitalst/fascist western imperialism. Or the same number who died under feudal monarchy.
    1
  4031. What is the Hamiltonian system?
    1
  4032. So you want to do the very thing that will guarantee you being invaded then? Ukraine holds no lessons for you? — Haluatko siis tehdä juuri sen, mikä takaa, että sinut hyökätään silloin? Ukraina ei tarjoa sinulle oppitunteja?
    1
  4033. How much money did you spend and what level did you reach before quitting?
    1
  4034. The very concept of international law is a product of the West and was always designed to serve the interests of western capitalism.
    1
  4035. The born again Christians and fundamentalists in the USA might actually want that and, indeed, that's what we might be seeing: these fanatics that want the 'Second Coming of Christ' working towards a global nuclear war so that they can be 'raptured'.
    1
  4036. It's one of those dog whistling euphemisms for niggas. Western elites have made it taboo to use race as a method of classifying peoples into superior and inferior so they have took to using vague geographic terms like sub-Saharan, Global South, Third/Second World, etc. The euphemisms change from time to time – like Negro became Black, then African-American and then People of Colour; Chinaman became Chinese – but the intention behind it, even if not admitted to, is to divide the world into a hierarchy of the worthy and the unworthy; the good and the bad; the 'free' world and those they enslave, with 'The West' as the only real civilisation.
    1
  4037. "Chaotic" ? Maybe that's what they want you to believe. Myself, I think it's all been planned in advance.
    1
  4038. There is no such thing as a Judeo-Christian because they are two distinct religions. You either have Jewish values or you have Christian values. The word 'Judeo-Christian' is like the word fascist-communist: an oxymoron. There may be a certain overlap bergen the two, but that notwithstanding they still remain separate and distinct religio-theological belief systems.
    1
  4039. Please define "Stochastic terrorism".
    1
  4040. That is irrelevant. What is important to Biden's backers is that Europe's weapons industry is destroyed so that the weapons industry in the USA prospers and becomes a monopoly. Wiping out the competition in true 'free market' style. Remember, the United States is one big weapons and spy tech factory masquerading as a country.
    1
  4041. Only... she didn't say that. The quote is mis-attributed to her.
    1
  4042. It is space itself that is expanding. The objects within that space are free to move around and not fixed.
    1
  4043. ① It challenges the prerogatives of global capital (western European and North America multinationals that demand laissez-faire, neo‐liberal opening up of markets and the denial of national economic sovereignty to nations that engage in protectionism and economic and social development, aka 'economic nationalism'. ② It challenges the prerogatives of the international banking cartel (again, western European, North American) that relies on the printing of fiat money and creation of unrepayable debt at the expense of the real economy. ③ Linked to ① and ② above it challenges the military-industrial economy of the United States which is built on continual economic growth on a finite planet, militarism, unlimited access to the resources of others and penetration of global markets, as well as challenging the power of the plutocratic elites who mostly benefit from it. To wit, the globalists. ④ And in the longer term it may act as a direct challenge to the several centuries long hegemony of The West™.
    1
  4044. When you seek to have total control over the whole world absolutely everything is your business. Simply by existing nations come under the paranoid eye of the corporate class and literally everything that happens, everything and anything, directly or indirectly, however tangentially, is perceived as having some effect, positive or negative, on their power. And who are the corporate class you may ask? Why, those who own and run the transnational corporations of course, the ones that ultimately own the world and every slave in it.
    1
  4045. NO!
    1
  4046. The guy operating the digger should be more careful and the use of the digger more judicious. I've noticed that some of the skeletons have reddish discolouration. Is that caused by blood or body fluids, or by burns or post mortem changes?
    1
  4047. Not when you know the corporations behind it and their agendas.
    1
  4048. Of the women hanged, how many died instantly by having their necks broken and how many died by strangulation? How long did they take to die from first to last? Are there any photos of the actual hangings 'in progress' or just the 'before' and 'after' photos?
    1
  4049. The USA is a war economy. It will stop when it can no longer finance its wars or when there are no more wars it can fight successfully (i.e. successful from the point of view of the military‐industrial complex in that it generates enough profit for the corporations, money laundering and profit for the banks, gun running for the arms dealers, drug smuggling for the CIA and FBI, insider trading for the elites and people trafficking for the its economy).
    1
  4050. ​ @993Redveg and if he were simply someone who'd has consensual sex with someone legally underage? Would your care then?
    1
  4051. And the people indoctrinated to commit suicide in nuclear war for such ideas as parliamentary 'democracy', liberalism and 'free market' capitalism — all metaphysical ideas held by their adherents with the same degree of uncritical religion‐like devotion?
    1
  4052. He describes the American economy as a rentier economy operating under finance capitalism as opposed to industrial capitalism. The former is predominantly a service economy made up of the FIRE sector – finance, insurance, real estate – while in the latter the economy is predominately made up of the manufacturing sector – industries that actually provide real and tangible goods. One economy makes things that people need and want and the other merely provides intangibles, kind of like a virtual economy that exists only on paper but not in the real world (though unfortunately its collapse has real world consequences).
    1
  4053. It all depends on the personal financial and other circumstances of the woman in question I suppose.
    1
  4054. Or just The Blue Zone.
    1
  4055. Russia is part of Europe.
    1
  4056. I wonder if Russia and China can put pressure on Pakistan to deter its military from overthrowing the country's government. India too (though in India's case they might not be willing or even able given the hostility between the two countries and the relation they have with the USA).
    1
  4057.  @ste9474  I doubt they are mistakes. In my opinion everything has in all likelihood been planned or anticipated months in advance and the negative consequences of NATO/EU actions have either been factored into the economic wargaming as a necessary cost or were deliberately planned so as to cause social unrest in the EU and create a Europe‐wide crisis of governance which can then be exploited by those behind it all to further their agendas.
    1
  4058. They think they can simply poach them from India. Or, without any shame or introspection, China.
    1
  4059.  @alfabravo80  Wasn't that a false flag? Allegedly. Perhaps I've been watching so many conspiracy videos that I'm turning into a conspiracy theorist myself.
    1
  4060.  @secularbeast1751 » isn't the defeat of Germany and Italy and the discrediting of fascism in general more to do with that, especially in eastern Europe where the Soviets made quite sure neo-fascism and crypto-fascism (neo-liberalism) were suppressed (unlike in western Europe where they were reconstituted after the war by the USA to fight the left)?
    1
  4061. If they aren't formally allies then they are certainly strategic partners united by common military security concerns vis‐a‐vis the United States. That means they cooperate in the economic, political and military fields. For instance, diplomatically speaking, China tends to support the Russian Federation in international affairs, eg. at the United Nations, and this tends to be reciprocated. Each know that if the USA succeeds in subjugating one of them the other will be next and thus it is better to present a common front on the issues that matter most.
    1
  4062. If China stops buying US debt it seems the United Kingdom will take up the slack, bankrupting itself in the process and being left with hyper-inflatory worthless dollars that can be sanctioned at any time.
    1
  4063.  @BC-hp3tu  liberalism and liberals are two words that have been hijacked by the CIA and corrupted. The same way the word conspiracy was hijacked and corrupted.
    1
  4064. I would argue that gender is almost entirely socially/culturally constructed (at least three quarters) but reflects an underlying natural tendency based on instinctinctual drives that differ between the biological sexes. It is largely nurture in this case rather than nature that determines the socially and culturally accepted gender roles of the sexes vis-a-vis child care. There are exceptions to the rules and the fact that you could do what you did does not negate that fact and, indeed, may even prove my point. What you did might not have been popular, and may even have been frowned upon in certain quarters, but that fact that you could do it shows us that it was far from taboo. After all, men have been co-parenting both their own and other people's children since the year dot; it's not like it's ever been an exclusively female preserve. Your example isn't very persuasive, I'm afraid. Try harder.
    1
  4065. The intelligence apparatus of the United States has grown into a many‐tentacled Frankenstein's monster since its creation back in the 1940's... it's become a government within a government, especially after the Kennedy killings and even more so since nine‐eleven. It needs to be reined in.
    1
  4066. So sanctions going right back to 1979 don't count then?
    1
  4067.  @Julie-sx4wk  Dispossession of property, exile, systematic abuse, starvation, denial of medical treatment, incarcarceration in ghettos, denial of basic human rights, systematic torture and abuse in Israeli custody....
    1
  4068. Fun fact: at least a billion people died making the empires of Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Belgium.
    1
  4069. Exactly! The United States wants to hurt Europe and others and make them dependent on on itself as much as possible.
    1
  4070. It probably was deliberate.
    1
  4071. He's preparing the ground for a series of colour revolutions, assassinations and coups d'état to get the the continent's resources and make it harder for the Russians and Chinese. Also to sterilise the population and slow its grown under the guise of stopping pandemics and taking possession of Africa's crop land.
    1
  4072. Isn't it weirdly ironic that the USA is using anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism against France to further its own imperialism and colonialism in Africa, all the while feigning wide-eyed ignorance.
    1
  4073. ​ @albertlotanna  China? Russia? Cuba? A better question to ask is when has capitalism ever produced equality, fairness, adequate provision of resources for the majority of a given population? When has capitalism ever not exploited people, paying them less for their labour than what the capitalist takes as profit?
    1
  4074. Justin Mcdaniel, that, in my opinion, is unproven. The evidence for humans being directly behind these extinction events is at best tenuous. Competition for resources with Homo Sapiens may have been a contributory factor in pushing these other hominid groups into more marginal territory over time but, with the possible exception of Homo Neaderthalensis, it is more likely that changes in climate and ecology causing a scarcity of food and an increase in susceptibility to disease and inbreeding were probably more at fault.
    1
  4075. They are all under the malign influence of the United States and as its political system becomes increasingly corrupt and its economy dysfunctional those under its influence to suffer the consequences.
    1
  4076. Who'd like to place bets on whether Turkey will veto Finland joining NATO? Is this just posturing on the part of Erdoğan, is he just wanting to wangle something out of Russia, USA?
    1
  4077. Empire of the USA or corporate-banker empire.
    1
  4078. War on Yugoslavia, war on terror, war on communism, war on socialism, war on Germany (twice), war in Ukraine, war on Libya, war on Syria, the whole of the Middle East.... Yeah, we sure have moved on. NOT!
    1
  4079. What we refer to as The West is basically a group of countries whose senior government officials have been compromised in one way or another by the intelligence service of the USA and its closest allies since at least the 1980's.
    1
  4080. A patience born of necessity.
    1
  4081. The 'remoaners' will find a way to get us back in.
    1
  4082. ✔️ 😆
    1
  4083. All those loans are not only non-repayable (i.e odious debt), but tied to purchasing western goods and services, thus the money given will simply be recycled and will not be used in domestic economy. The Ukrainians will get nothing but debt.
    1
  4084. juandenz2008, for anyone wishing to get a relatively dispassionate look into Japanese society, a book that came out in the 1980's called The Enigma of Japanese Power by a man called, if I remember correctly, Karel Van Wolferen, is a great introduction on certain aspects of that country's culture.
    1
  4085. A second Trump presidency is coming. Maybe he'll sort things out and "Make America Great Again".
    1
  4086. Wait till you see the Germans waving the Israeli flag.
    1
  4087. Wait till you see the German politicians waving the Israeli flag.
    1
  4088. What you say flies in the face of empirical evidence. I suppose you'll tell us next that the fascists in Ukraine are about do what Hitler's Germany could not and will be defeating Russia any day now. Cope. The world is changing and no system is perfect, certainly not capitalism and the military‐industrial complex corporatism it has turned in to in the USA.
    1
  4089. A total inversion of reality and a gross abuse of language.
    1
  4090. Capitalism in general, Anglo-American rentier capitalism in particular. Recessions and depressions, along with fiat currency, are part and parcel of capitalism.
    1
  4091. Blame the wonderful capitalist system the Anglosphere is so enamoured of. In short it's to do with profit: it's easier and cheaper to poach foreign STEM graduates from elsewhere than produce your own.
    1
  4092. Touché.
    1
  4093. The Poles are too enamoured of the European Union to ever want to leave. Same with the Hungarians and Romanians. They want to be part of the West, not the East. Only if the East (Russia and China) can offer something better might they be lured away and I don't see this happening in the foreseeable future. Maybe 50 years from now.
    1
  4094. ​ @cirrus393 it didn't eradicate wage slavery, nor other, disguised forms of slavery like indentured labour, peonage, penal labour, share cropping or bonded labour. The modern, industrial form of chattel slavery is but one form of slavery, one that, ironically, the English themselves played no small part in creating.
    1
  4095. Then it will fall behind militarily, economically and on a sociatal level and end up being vulnerable to the imperialism of, and colonisation by, others.
    1
  4096. I doubt you're really Chinese because I don't think a real Chinese person from China would say such things.
    1
  4097. And the stealing of others resources (Syria, Venezuela) and unfair trade practices against the competition (Russia, China.
    1
  4098. Our fathers and grandfathers fought for banks, corporations and empire.
    1
  4099. With Russia's permission I suppose it's possible. Unlikely in my opinion, but possible.
    1
  4100. A false flag attack is not an attack on oneself by others but an attack on oneself by oneself and the actions of Hamas were likely just such a false flag.
    1
  4101. Pro or anti; for or against?
    1
  4102. The USA is still in occupation of Japan and its troops never left. The same goes for Germany.
    1
  4103. Yet every single Muslim country is beholden to the International Monetary Fund and its like.
    1
  4104. They bring these concepts into disrepute and by doing so cheapen their value. They insidiously redefine words so as to change their meaning, often into the exact opposite of their original meaning and in so doing we end up with words and concepts that are bastardised and serve the interests of the powerful. This in turn effects society at the most basic level, leaving people with the inability to independently understand and make sense of the world. 'Democracy' is just such a word, so debased as to mean a rigged system of elections where the electorate get to choose from factions of the same plutocrat party that represents only the richest and most powerful people in society, the 1% or less that compris an aristocratic elite of inherited wealth. Meanwhile, the original definition of democracy meaning ordinary people getting to choose who represent them is all but forgotten and where it is mentioned it is almost always represented in terms of it being something unworkable and too idealistic.
    1
  4105. Like the accent. Solidly working class.
    1
  4106.  @Ungtartog  Says the man born of the descendants of those who literally dispossessed the Native Americans/ First Nations of their land.
    1
  4107. And what's wrong with wealth distribution? Unless, of course, you're one of those who are happy seeing multi-billionaires (who make up less than 1% of society) not paying their taxes.
    1
  4108.  @alm5512  Maybe it has something to do with you literally killing the planet with your utterly selfish and short-sighted sense of entitlement. And because you're killing the planet you're also diminishing the survival chances of your great grandchildren. But then again, being selfish and entitled I guess you could care less about the future, even when it's that of your own prodigy.
    1
  4109. I hope you're being sarcastic.
    1
  4110. In short, a neo-classical economist. In other words, a neo-liberal. Unfortunately, it's all but impossible to shake off your education and university economics departments are specifically places of indoctrination rather than learning because neo-liberals are very conscious that they are engaged in a culture war and the education system is a key component in their strategy of control. Modern Monetary Theory which is at the heart of neo-liberalism is more of an ideology than a theory and economists are ideologues rather than dispassionate pedagogues.
    1
  4111. 22:27 Sorry Pascal but with regards the USA "dismantling" USAID you are, in my opinion, simply wrong. It's rather quite the opposite: they're merely reorganising USAID to make it even more secretive and more cost-effective.
    1
  4112. Why did the French assassinate the first governor (president?) of Greece? And did the Greeks ever really accept the German monarchy?
    1
  4113. What was the capture/arrest and court martial rates for these deserters? Did most escape the military police/civil authorities?
    1
  4114. The British economy follows the American model so it's only natural that they should be effected by the same problems. Neoliberalism has been a disaster for the vast majority of working people and ultimately for the economy because it privileges the FIRE sector over the STEM sector (industry and manufacturing).
    1
  4115. And when the West was developing... did it care for the feelings of its people or the environment? Were the western European monarchies of Austro‐Hungary and Hohenzollern authoritarian or liberal democracies?
    1
  4116.  @frocco7125  It sounds like something the CIA would invent as a culture war divide and conquer tactic.
    1
  4117. Ankor Wat seems to have been a theocracy, like ancient Egypt, Inca Peru, Axtec Mexico, pre-1950's Tibet and modern-day Saudi Arabia. It seems their architecture, literature and art served only two purposes: religious and monarchical. Architecture, the arts, writing... practically all culture, either glorifying fictitious deities or hereditary tyrants. An entire society bound together by priests and autocrats, each in symbiosis with the other. It seems most societies were like that until at least the European Reformation. With the possible exception of the Chinese, secular societies seem to be rare in history, if not unique to the modern period. Even the Chinese could not escape entirely their need for religious justifications for the status quo.
    1
  4118. Too many adverts that I didn't watch. Could not finish watching.
    1
  4119. Neither. Both.
    1
  4120. Yet it's my experience that a lot of people in the media are keen to downplay the radiological dangers of depleted uranium contamination.
    1
  4121. The Chinese might overcome this problem by cloning themselves en masse or by the artificial insemination of artificial/animal wombs, thereby obviating the need to reproduce by the usual means and in so doing overcome any population bottlenecks and speeding up population growth rates considerably.
    1
  4122. But that would only play into the USA'S hands.
    1
  4123. They will stop the neoliberal version of globalism. The Chinese version (non-neoliberal) will more or less continue.
    1
  4124. ​ @tinkoeftimov9453  Rentier economies. FIFY.
    1
  4125. It is truly amazing how one country, the USA, controlled as it is by 'The Conspiracy', can make the rest of the world do its bidding through its domination of international institutions, media, education and the apparatus of the state and that 'The Conspiracy' is so pervasive and international in scope as to involve China, Russia and India.
    1
  4126. You'll be telling us next that because the Native Americans didn't have a state that was officially recognised by the French and English that it was okay to displace them. 😖
    1
  4127. Cappies.
    1
  4128.  @jamesharris5707  But there is. Communism. (At least if you're a Marxist).
    1
  4129. Doesn't need to as power long ago went from national parliaments to supranational bodies like the UN, EU, IMF, NATO and corporations like the City of London. And in the case of the 5-eyes that power has been ceded to the security apparatus of the United States.
    1
  4130. How many poles, 2, 3? If there are only going to be 2 or 3 poles then that will be just like the 2 or 3 political parties in so‐called western democracies: there will be little to no difference between them. Under such a system no one should expect a Chinese or Russian pole to come to the rescue of the oppressed and exploited in a US or European Union pole. Russia for instance is capitalist-corporatist so will have no qualms in joining the United States in preventing a resurgence of communism. Ditto China .
    1
  4131. It reminds me of the last few years of the Soviet Union before Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
    1
  4132. Six billion of Iran's own money, confiscated in 1979.
    1
  4133. Can one be too empathetic? An empapath who suffers empathopathy?
    1
  4134. Not if it's painted on a Ukrainian flag background.
    1
  4135.  @thisiscarl7622  Because outright lying and the inversion of reality by the corporate system of propaganda and indoctrination is quite normal here. They even have a name for it. It's called gaslighting. Projection and blatant hypocrisy is also ubiquitous.
    1
  4136. Does that international community of yours include China, India, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Serbia/Kosovo (Yugoslavia), Sudan, Libya, Vietnam, North Korea, Laos, Cambodia, Yemen...? No? I guess we'll just have to limit the international community to the European Union and the English speaking world of the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
    1
  4137. ​ @rileygladue3979  Ask a Bengali in the 1940's. Or the Irish in the 1840's. The so‐called Holodomor was not a (deliberate) genocide. This video is, like so many videos sponsored by the propaganda apparatus of the US empire, dangerous nonsense.
    1
  4138. Soooo.... Tell me, why then are we here? As improbable as it may be it nonetheless must have occurred at least once because we're here, we exist. What's your explanation?
    1
  4139. He's a spy. 👀
    1
  4140. What does Dnipro mean?
    1
  4141. The USA may be behind this coup d'état.
    1
  4142.  @jasonrasmussen8265  Fiat currency on the verge of hyperinflation does not a healthy economy make.
    1
  4143. How many Americans and Europeans supported the annexation of Kosovo?
    1
  4144.  @dmitrykarpenko2271  The Americans and the EU (especially Germany). They took it off Serbia when they broke up Yugoslavia and turned it into a de facto US military enclave, the USA's answer to Kaliningrad.
    1
  4145.  @Jay-bf8yp  Well, the fact that people were ignoring her means that they weren't too interested in what she was selling (a girl, Chinese want boys), and that they weren't too keen on breaking the law (I'm sure China has laws against such things and the Chinese are fully aware of this fact). You should be glad no one was interested.
    1
  4146. Would it?
    1
  4147. ​ @rauldelvillar374 western Europe and North America in their entirety.
    1
  4148. German politicians are puppets and have been since the war of 1939-1945. German politicians serve as compradors to the USA. Like Latin Americans they are quite prepared to put the United States before their own country.
    1
  4149. Could not wanting a nuclear war in which hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant Americans die and the USA becomes extensively depopulated, de-industrialised, politically divided and vulnerable to being conquered by Mexico and repopulated by darker skinned Latin Americans be the answer?
    1
  4150. It is because it creates an idea of togetherness, of unity, of shared values and that feels good, even if it does not reflect reality very accurately. On an ideological level it divides us from them, the capitalist from the communists and fascist, the Muslims from the Christians, NATO from the Warsaw Pact, the good from the bad.
    1
  4151. Does that apply to the United States, France. Israel and Britain as well?
    1
  4152. To be honest I think that they will eventually stop demonising China and Russia by pure and simple reason of the success of those countries. The need to adapt in a constantly changing world will force the countries of the West (which I have to say are by and large the English speaking ones as all the others seem to be quite happy working with them) into choosing cooperation over conflict because not adapting to the obvious superiority of the Chinese and Russian models of development will mean they will be left behind and end up having no relevance.
    1
  4153. ​ @GoodCitizen1300 Because it doesn't need to: the island of Taiwan is already acknowledged by the international community as being the sovereign territory of the PRC.
    1
  4154. The US military is far-and-away the biggest polluter and user of fossil fuels on the planet. Also, China is the biggest investor in renewable and 'green' forms of energy. To wit, your comment is based on ignorance or out of date information.
    1
  4155. I think that you are seeing things through the ethnocentric lens of a the USA. If you consider the supporters of the Democrat Party or what are called liberals more generally 'the left' then I think you're mistaken. Both sides are capitalists/corporatists. To describe what passes for the left as a genuine left wing in the USA is like saying Ernst Rohm's Brown Shirts were the left in Germany. They might have been to the left of Hitler but genuinely left... seriously‽
    1
  4156. They want the status quo to continue to be maintained indefinitely.
    1
  4157. More like being a centre of jihadi terrorism in the region (Afghanistan) and agent of tension (India, China).
    1
  4158. A country that supports genocide in Palestine and imposes austerity on its own people, can't defend itself against the USA moving in on what remains of its empire (Diego Garcia), mass immigration, while supporting to the tune of billions war in Ukraine... what else can you call it?
    1
  4159. Originally they were known as whale killers but somehow the words switched on the 20th century. [That's what I've heard, anyway.]
    1
  4160. They are using Bolton to fire a shot across Erdoğan's bow.
    1
  4161. Don't worry everyone, the International Monetary Fund will soon get the problem under control. At the behest of the Bank of International Settlements that is made up of the top banking families, and in combination with the financial-industrial elites of the West that includes the heads of the fascistic corporations and the military-industrial-political-security complex/deep state of the USA, a new global currency will be created. The money in your pocket may even be temporarily abolished in favour of crypto-currencies/virtual money used to pay a basic guaranteed income. I'm sure the Chinese and Russians won't resist. Indeed, they are probably in on the plan.
    1
  4162. All the adverts probably.
    1
  4163. You move right up to their borders, completely surround and sanction them (effectively a blockade) and then you accuse the Russians of being aggressive. You turn reality on its head.
    1
  4164. All part of a plan by US strategic planners to subordinate, divide and impoverish Europe and pave the way for the right wing to gain power across the continent, shoring up neoliberal rentier corporatism and securing Europe for the US empire.
    1
  4165. The Earth might be existing in a black hole or something similar. If that's the case no contact with anything outside the black hole's event horizon would be possible and the only potential life other than our own would either be that that fell into the black hole or was created in or by it. Maybe that's where so‐called dark energy comes from – outside the black hole – creating space- time as it does so, this being seen as an ever expanding universe (as the black hole sucks in exogenous matter.
    1
  4166. No, he's listening to his planners in the deep state. There is method behind the madness of all these apparently crazy ideas. I know leaders can be stupid but not this stupid.
    1
  4167.  @UFO_computers  sovereign immunity. Also, effectively they make the law.
    1
  4168. Leaving aside the idea that it was all a false flag, Hezbollah repeatedly made offers of peace and all were rejected. Israel will get peace only when the USA says so.
    1
  4169. We'll have to keep our eye on this. The more we observe the more we'll learn.
    1
  4170. Permafrost melting may have serious consequences for the planet as frozen clathrates trapped in the ice for millennia are released into the atmosphere, causing unfavourable changes in the climate.
    1
  4171.  Red Eastern Dragon  It will happen when China wants it to happen (in cooperation with the elites of the West ) and not a day sooner. And that could be years from now.
    1
  4172. Basically it's the Anglo-Americans up to their old tricks of stopping a more unified Europe made up of a Germany, France and Russia that have closer relations.
    1
  4173. Not quite. We're in the opening stages of a new cold war that could very easily turn hour hot of the USA loses where the USA is again trying to take on two major powers, only this time one is a manufacturing behemoth and the other is a resource behemoth. Cold war round 2. Let's sit back with the popcorn and see how it goes.
    1
  4174. There is no left. The USA's 80 year war against communism, socialism and left wing nationalism has made the West like Hitler's Germany or Tojo's Japan (or Stalin's Russia). The left has been completely destroyed and I don't think Putin's Russia or Xi's China want to see its return and certainly not in a radical or communist form. Indeed, they would probably carry on where the Americans left off if their was to be a Communist revival. What we have now is the 'left' of the right (in the USA that means hard right wing Democrats versus extreme right wing Republicans (proto‐fascist 19th/20th century liberals versus full on 20th/21st century fascists/corporatists).
    1
  4175. And how much will it all cost? How much more will it add to the war budget and take away from the peace budget? Can it be afforded? And when the next wonder weapon gets invented by the Chinese and the Russians combining the might of their economies and vast resources, what then... will the USA spend even more of its money on weapons to keep up with them until it goes bankrupt à la Soviet Union? How much money printing of a fiat currency can the USA do before hyperinflation sets in? Ask yourself these questions.
    1
  4176. I think it has more to do with the split between East and West that occurred during the period that covers the Renaissance, Enlightenment and Reformation when the western half began to change and overtake the Eastern half in the social, political, economic and military spheres and speeded up even further following the industrial revolution and age of empires. The influence of Orthodoxy and Islam may also have set the East apart from the West.
    1
  4177. I'm thinking mixed race, possibly third generation.
    1
  4178.  @sammydasilva6152  As I assume that the average brown skinned person (negroid) from Africa has black hair and they said that this person had brown hair and despite having North African ancestry had spent considerable time in or around the general vicinity of Germany (most of their life?) then I think it entirely plausible to assume that they were mixed race (caucasoid‐negroid admixture), even more so when you consider that most Italians (Romans) would have had black hair and two black‐haired people tend not to produce brown‐haired children (though I can't be sure as to how reliable such an assumption is). As far as my personal experience goes, a pure blood (sub‐Saharan) African has black hair, while north Africans (Arab admixture) can have either black or brown. Perhaps if they perform a more detailed genetic analysis they could perhaps determine not only the hair colour but also the hair type (straight, curly, wavy, etc.) then we could narrow it down a little further.
    1
  4179. But that's the way the Chinese do things: build infrastructure first – a railway station , say, or a town – and then fill it with people later, as the need arises.
    1
  4180. "Laws and rights" are still values, values which are ultimately derived from moral reason as held by the rulers of any given society at any given time.
    1
  4181.  @Nikoya73  I am sorry but I am having trouble understanding the distinction you are trying to make between a moral value and the legal codification of that moral value. ¤ Is not a law merely the expression of a moral sentiment. Society believes 'X' is morally right or morally wrong and the law reflects that. Society, for instance, may believe that murder is wrong and thus the law says it is wrong; society says that theft is wrong and, again, the law does too. ¤ Is it not society — based on inherent moral concepts of right and wrong — that decides whether or not someone should have or be denied certain rights, together with what those rights should be in the first place?
    1
  4182.  @Nikoya73  Okay. Nice talking to you. 👋
    1
  4183.  @Nikoya73  Okay. Nice talking to you. 👋
    1
  4184. Using Russian neo-fascists to fight straight-up Ukrainian fascists seems a reasonably good strategy. They have the same mindset so know how their enemies think. It may also be useful for Russian society in general in that it might part-neutralise the potential danger that these groups pose to wider civil society by having them dissipate their violence and hate on an approved enemy in another country rather than at home. Combat in Ukraine may even thin their ranks. It is unfortunate though, albeit not too surprising, that these groups may also be used or otherwise tacitly encouraged to terrorise Russian dissidents and other non-conformist groups.
    1
  4185. I'm sure that most citizens of the Republic of China want a peaceful resolution of the issues and if that means formal unification with the People's Republic of China then I'm sure they will resign themselves to it rather than fight a war that they cannot win and that would make no economic sense. Remember, both peoples are Chinese.
    1
  4186. Aren't Romanians Caucasian?
    1
  4187. From the warmongering neocons of the USA it is probably seen as a brilliant strategic manoeuvre, successfully sowing political division within the EU, at least temporarily interrupting vital energy supplies to Europe (damaging the industries of major economic rivals France and especially Germany), and giving a much-needed boost to the USA's own domestic gas production. From a longer term perspective though I would have to say that it will turn out to be unsuccessful in preventing closer relations between Russia and the rest of Europe and forestalling the emergence of a more integrated Eurasia. China's rise to number one pole position is in my opinion inevitable and China will thus still continue its Belt and Road Initiative regardless, pulling both Russia and Germany into its orbit.
    1
  4188. Military or civilian?
    1
  4189. How do you make links (in blue with magnifying glass symbol)?
    1
  4190. Like NATO, it's an Anglo-American Atlanticist project.
    1
  4191. It certainly worked for them in the invasions of Napoleon and Hitler, as well as in the civil war that immediately followed and against the 8-nation counter-revolutionary alliance that tried to thwart it. Also in the birth of the country itself and its freeing from the Mongol yoke. Russia is not the USA, nor Britain. Russia is Russia.
    1
  4192. ​ @romanshatalin7077  Loan sharking is not help.
    1
  4193. And Russia and China are the cure. Hopefully.
    1
  4194. And they're white caucasians too, some of them with blonde hair and blue eyes.
    1
  4195. ​ @ZhenYae  like Trump @justiceofthecross didn't think his comment through before typing. 😅 He thinks the USA can just create whole supply chains, hi-tech factories and a workforce of experienced, highly educated and well trained employees to run them out of thin air. 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♀️
    1
  4196. Starmer's not in charge, the Americans are.
    1
  4197. Or turn to communism or socialism. In the USA the interests of about 5% of the population take priority over the other 95%. The American system of capitalism is shamelessly gamed in favour of the ultra rich and it is no way to run an economy, much less a society. The citizenry of the USA are being cheated of the better quality of life that is possible under some form of state/public control of strategic sectors of the economy that are not just those related to maintaining a war economy. Take China as the example. Look what can be achieved.
    1
  4198. Alex, the EU is under the control of the USA and they are preparing for the US dollar losing in its pole position and thus are creating a continental system that props up the US economy by locking in the West. After all, that's what NATO and the EU were created for in the first place: to separate the east from the west and stop them creating a pan‐Eurasian economic bloc.
    1
  4199. And Agent Orange in Vietnam.
    1
  4200. NATO is the USA. When we talk about the actions of NATO we are really talking about the actions of the USA. NATO wants whatever the USA wants. Ditto the EU. Both are neoliberal institutions founded or co‐founded by the United States to allow that country to dominate Europe. Remember: keep Russia out, keep Germany down, keep the USA in.
    1
  4201. When the USA tells it to. Or it is forced.
    1
  4202. Because it is the better language. 😌
    1
  4203. It is a work of fiction.
    1
  4204. I thought gypsies weren't allowed/didn't date outside their own culture (i.e. were strictly endogomous). I suppose she was an exception
    1
  4205.  @JC-XL  In other words, a 'slush fund'. I wonder if they are going to use that money to buy US weapons and thereby cheat even their own countries.
    1
  4206. Agreed. [Try using commas/ punctuation. It makes your opinion easier to read.]
    1
  4207. The USA could try and persuade the European Union not to trade with China in any major way in much the same way it persuaded them not to trade with Russia during the cold war, denying or limiting Chinese access to valuable transfers of technology and know‐how. It could also attempt to disrupt China's trade routes through Asia and Europe, as by employing terrorists to sabotage pipelines and transportation infrastructure and creating general mayhem has it has in the Near East. The European Union and South America might be persuaded to employ tariff regimes that discriminate unfavourably against countries that trade with China, thereby reducing overall trade. Another way would be to try and cut it off from, or limit its access to, European and North American communication and on‐line trading networks that rely on digital or crypto currencies. Rest assured, whatever options are available I'm sure the planners at the Pentagon are considering them.
    1
  4208. 8 years the Russians waited, 8 years! They asked the United States and the European Union to enter into negotiations in good faith to end the crisis and were continually rebuffed. In my opinion the Russians simply had no other choice but to take matters into their own hands. In passing, they might have to do the same again in Syria.
    1
  4209. This may all be distraction, smoke and mirrors. As far as we know the Russians and/or Chinese are colluding with the USA on some level and have no substantive differences on the issues that they are portrayed to the general public as having.
    1
  4210. I know it's a trite phrase by now but it really is a case of China being 'the lesser of two evils'. Being a 'lesser evil' may have its flaws but, notwithstanding, China is offering a deal that in many cases is a lot better than that offered by the West. A lot better! Never-ending exploitation by the West, or short-term exploitation by China as a necessary and unavoidable step on the long road to self-sufficiency, economic development and political sovereignty over ones own country and its resources. China holds out the prospects of Africa and Asia, Latin America and eastern Europe gaining true independence from the West, decades after they were granted formal independence.
    1
  4211. The Brexit party is basically a fake party, not unlike PODEMOS and SERIZA in Spain and Greece. I would even bet it may have been created by the intelligence services to complicate things. At best its a single-issue extension of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat parties.
    1
  4212. To stay relevant after 1945 the United Kingdom accepted the suzereinty of the USA
    1
  4213. Is that because you're starving them, like in Yemen and Iraq?
    1
  4214. The government of the United States doesn't care as it has already decided what fiscal changes are going to occur in the not too distant future.
    1
  4215. They're all crypto-fascist though. With huge chips on their shoulders and resentment at their Waffen SS regiments not winning that terrible war started by the British, French and Germans.
    1
  4216. It's trying to look good in the eyes of the USA. Britain's elite are very much motivated by the perceptions of their counterparts in the USA and want to curry favour with them, even if it means at times second‐guessing the White House and acting precipitously. In this case Britain's actions may be seen as reckless and ill‐advised but, notwithstanding, pleasing the USA is by now an almost ingrained habit on their part and by doing what the Americans want before they even ask (or even know themselves what they want) they hope to get doubly rewarded.
    1
  4217.  @marekokragy3341  The Russian government tried to form an anti‐fascist alliance with Britain and France but was continually rebuffed. Eventually, they only thing left was to form an alliance with the Germans in the hope that it would prevent war, or at least buy some time. Also, Russia was an economically developing country at that time and was in need of things Germany had. And another thing is that Britain, France and the United States were also cooperating with Germany, as were the Swiss. Britain, France and the USA even had their own fascist movements.
    1
  4218. The alphabet soup of intelligence agencies, the corporate monopolies of the media, church and school and, ultimately, those millions of serfs who know no other way of life, think that it is the natural order of things and who are frightened by and will not benefit from real change. Also, in a globalised world, other capitalists intervening to stop it. The Chinese and Russians, for instance, would (ironically given their history) be the ones to oppose the USA if it ever became the new epicentre of a communist revival.
    1
  4219. Despite these temporary gains for the Ukrainians the war will still be lost. It's inevitable.
    1
  4220. You mean prostitution rings. Call it by its name. The phrase 'grooming gangs' is an alt‐right term.
    1
  4221.  @kennygregg9571  If they are forced into prostitution the word 'grooming' is redundant as the word implies some level of cooperation on the part of the person being groomed. In this case, however, these prostitutes were forced. Think, why aren't prostitution rings involving adults of legal age referred to as 'seduction gangs' or 'grooming gangs'? As I've already said this term is one used, typically but not exclusively, by the far right/alt right purely for its emotional effect and only in the context of children and young adults for the reasons I've already outlined.
    1
  4222.  @ManicChampion  "Something clearly defined in religious texts." I don't understand. Are you suggesting that Muslim religious texts condone prostitution or rape? Or more precisely, that your average British Muslim (I presume it is Muslims you're referring to) actually take seriously the more extreme passages written in their holy books?
    1
  4223.  @ultrademigod  Don't forget to add MGM, male genital mutilation, to the list, practised widely in the West and all but universal in the USA. And acid attacks honour killings aren't restricted either to Muslims or the Middle East.
    1
  4224.  @kennygregg9571  Calling something that you don't agree with as being "lefty" and "Marxist" is also an indication of right wing leanings.
    1
  4225. Who was then assassinated. So much for revolution.
    1
  4226. Than have it confiscated by the state. Bail ins AND bail outs. The governments and banks of the West have already prepped for this and the private banking cartels intend to steal your money.
    1
  4227. Davos and Bilderberg. Multi‐billionaires in positions of undue influence combined with the military‐industrial complex.
    1
  4228. I think they did that a long time ago.
    1
  4229. The neo-fascists of the USA (neolibs, neocons) think that by simply redefining something they can change reality. However, they can only change the perception of reality, not reality itself.
    1
  4230. China is rapidly developing technologically and will soon be on a par with the USA in most areas where its relevant. And once it has reached parity it may even overtake the USA (and Europe) and become technologically superior.
    1
  4231. It took the better part of 75 years to destroy the Soviet Union, can the United States wait that long to repeat its success? And China, a country on the rise... how long will it take?
    1
  4232. Did ancient Roman bathhouses look like that church with its semicircular walls?
    1
  4233. The bankers who are causing all these wars and all this instability should give a tiny fraction of their wealth to house and feed these people. And the USA should donate a few million of its quadrillion dollar military and surveillance budget while they're at it.
    1
  4234.  @harukrentz435  And also accountability from the corporatists who control them.
    1
  4235. Your use of the word CCP for CPC instantly identifies you as either a bot or someone who is working, wittingly or unwittingly, as a mouthpiece of United States propaganda. At least be more subtle.
    1
  4236. Russia, India and China should spearhead a reform of the UN using the members of the General Assembly to gather enough member countries to outvote the western bloc.
    1
  4237. You mean like in the run-up to world war 2? Is history about to repeat itself?
    1
  4238. He's the face of the deep state. The deep state is what does the planning, not Trump.
    1
  4239. Darwin won’t be pleased.
    1
  4240. Actually, it probably has more to do with Germany's flow of Russian gas and oil being interrupted and the effect of EU sanctions on Russia than China flooding Germany with cheap EV's. Rising fuel prices have made German cars uncompetitive.
    1
  4241.  Fun In Ukraine.  Let's hope. I heard that Putin said if Zelensky doesn't come to the negotiating table soon they'll not be anything left to negotiate, Russia will have taken it all.
    1
  4242. The USA would appear to be getting closer and closer to an overt coup d'état with every year that passes and this incident appears to indicate a considerable weakening of the legitimacy and authority of the presidency. I dare say that it could be argued that a coup d'état has already taken place the USA a long time ago (either in 1963 or 2001) but that it was a slow‐motion coup done by elements of the intelligence community but still not accepted as such by American society. The next coup will likely be by the military and could either be in support of the previous coup/s or may even be against it (like the attempted coup in the Soviet Union against Gorbachev by elements wishing to defend the status quo.
    1
  4243. I wonder what kind of reception the BBC reporter narrating this propaganda hit piece would receive if he was himself the target of a politically motivated murder which just so happened to leave him alive but kill his beloved daughter.
    1
  4244. Poland is a puppet of the USA. One of the prizes of winning the cold war.
    1
  4245. It's hard to support capitalism during a depression.
    1
  4246. Tell that to the IMF, World Bank, big agribusiness, big pharma, etc.
    1
  4247. The Russians or EU could be deliberately equivocating.
    1
  4248.  @miltonwring111  And the bankers of their generation supported and financed.
    1
  4249. What you say is self-contradictory. If China, along with Russia, has a near monopoly on so‐called rare earths then, yes, the world does need China. And even with your own rare earths that wouldn't diminish the need but merely increase the supply.
    1
  4250. Agree 💯‰. Unfortunately, I fear it may already be too late.
    1
  4251. War is not just military but also economic and political. Economic sanctions and political ostracism (eg. North Korea, Cuba) can also be considered acts of war.
    1
  4252. The election was somewhat controversial, although you probably would not know that by looking at the media.
    1
  4253. ​ @SlideGD Seemed to work reasonably well enough in the old Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.
    1
  4254. But somewhere, somehow, it did occur! Even if it has occurred only once in the entire history of the universe it still occurred.
    1
  4255. While North Americans don't seem to get irony very well, to be fair written satire, lacking the intonation, body language and context of spoken satire, can be hard to grasp, and that can only increase with people who might not speak English as a first language.
    1
  4256.  @stevenrogers8939  not back then he wasn't.
    1
  4257.  @stevenrogers8939  Who was, and to whom?
    1
  4258.  @stevenrogers8939  Science. Ever heard of it?
    1
  4259. As Alexander said "they [the neocons] have no reverse gear." They are staunch supporters of Israel and the Jewish and Christian Zionist banking families (belonging to such illustrious organisations as the Bank of International Settlements and the Federal Reserve) who are prospering at the expense of everyone else. If the USA fails in any major military way Israel is very likely to fail also, along with the banking families of the West, families who were behind two disastrous wars in Europe. The neocons of the USA care more about Israel and preserving the pro-bankers status quo than their own country.
    1
  4260. The embalmer might not have done their job right. A good embalmer should be able to recreate as lifelike an appearance as possible. That said, death is death and when you die you have pallor mortis. The removal of blood during embalming also doesn't help.
    1
  4261. Russia and China will simply continue their trade with Asia and the rest of the world and ignore Europe until the USA loses its influence there.
    1
  4262. Ah, a meme-mantra much loved by MGTOW's, libertarian-types and crypto-/neo-fascists. It's bullshit of course. If it were true the Roman empire would still be here.
    1
  4263. The West is just the USA. To all practical purposes the EU has no foreign policy of its own.
    1
  4264. I'm sure the Americans want to crash the world's economy because they are doing things that destabilise and reduce confidence in the global financial system.
    1
  4265. The 'Great' War, in fact. Scared the crap out of the capitalists and aristocracy.
    1
  4266. Whatever the figure is, rest assured, the white man will have played a part.
    1
  4267.  @jaymuzquiz2942  The anti‐natalist (depopulation) agenda is more a right wing thing than a left. The left for the most part happen to be fellow travellers and useful idiots.
    1
  4268. The federal republic of the USA: a dozen slave owning, land stealing, genociding, tax dodging oligarchs deciding that private property rights (theirs!) takes precedence over everything – and I mean everything and everyone – else. Or put another way, a starving Palestinian peasant and a malnourished Muslim prole out-voting democratically a food hoarding multi-millionaire US-backed Jewish Israeli landowner representing only 5% of the population and forcing him to give up his sole ownership of thousands of acres of inefficiently used and stolen farmland and share its bountiful produce with the rest of society.
    1
  4269. Because they're hypocrites and gas lighting the Chinese.
    1
  4270. It stood up to the USA and its colony Israel.
    1
  4271. It's capitalism (especially the neoliberal variety) that's causing all of these problems. Don't go blaming communism or the Soviet Union for a failure that is entirely of America's own doing.
    1
  4272. The Brit... Americans don't care.
    1
  4273. What are Executive Orders, when were they first used, and do they have a basis in the US constitution?
    1
  4274. ​​ @Thomas.Wright  A Pact Russia entered into ONLY after it couldn't get an anti-fascist alliance with France, Britain and the USA (understandable given that their elites hated communism and as capitalists tacitly supported Franco, Mussolini and Hitler).
    1
  4275. And what answer did you want them to give?
    1
  4276. China is nominally communist so why would it care about the owners of what amounts to de facto private property if such ownership undermines the state? Let them take a 'haircut'.
    1
  4277. I'm given to understand that the organisation has put on hold further enlargement for the time being. I don't think China in particular wants the organisation to grow too big, too quickly the way that it can be argued NATO and the EU have grown, especially as some of the prospective countries may not share the values that China is hoping to foster.
    1
  4278. Perhaps you're right, but will the average person use these systems? Do they even use them now?
    1
  4279. How does using athletes to spy on other athletes work? Do they share the same changing rooms and eavesdrop on conversations? Do they pick the locks of other athlete's lockers and search them? Surreptitiously take drug swabs from athletes or their clothes?
    1
  4280. Then you've heard wrong. Forced reproduction was a thing (compulsory heterosexuality).
    1
  4281.  @TetsuShima  I counted 23 comments, 2 mine (including this comment), 14 others, 7 yours, but the indicator says 24.
    1
  4282.  @TetsuShima  I count 11 unique commentators, including myself, 7 comments by you (including original post), 24 comments plus your original post in all = 25.
    1
  4283. It's a classic case of a culture that believes in private property meets a culture that doesn't. It will take a paradigm shift for either to understand the other. Read Thomas Kuhn on his paradigm theory and pay special attention to his three main claims: the incommensurability of different paradigms, the theory-ladeness of paradigms, and the indeterminacy of facts.
    1
  4284.  @rashmigupta9  The moment the putschists came into power actually. One of the first things they did, all planned in advance of course with the Americans. Maybe the Bidens got a cut. Who knows.
    1
  4285.  @jgriffin282  Common sense? In what way? We don't need more austerity, tax increases for the poor, cuts in welfare, to tighten our belts – a right wing thing; we need the opposite. And only the left will do that.
    1
  4286. A reflection of some sort.
    1
  4287.  @Ton07ju  — Russian troops conducting military exercises well within Russian borders does not an invasion force make. —
    1
  4288.  @Ton07ju  "Suspicion" is still not an invasion. When they invade you can call it an invasion. Until then.... No doubt the Russians did this to intimidate and deter but they still did it within their own borders.
    1
  4289.  @Ton07ju  Agreed. But what if you were going around threatening your neighbours, recently emancipated slaves and native Americans say, and also threatening to sieze territory that a local native tribe had just reclaimed in a bloodless takeover supported by most of the indigenous inhabitants – who also just happened to be of the same tribe – territory their ancestors had previously gifted to you with certain conditions attached, like respect for the rights of the people already living there and continuing to allow them to make use of the harbours and rivers, which you were flagrantly violating? Now who's threatening whom? (I suppose they are both coming across as threatening from the perspective of the other. That said, to outsiders at least I think most of us will still be able to make a moral judgement as to who is being the most unreasonable).
    1
  4290.  @donaldhysa4836  The comparison is between the native Americans and the European settlers of the USA. I thought the analogy was apt and would be understood. Maybe I was mistaken. Let me explain. The Ukrainians are akin to the European settlers, threatening both the Russians across the border and fellow Russian Ukrainians (neighbours, indians, slaves – people who share the same territory). The native tribe are the Russians taking back the Crimean Penninsular, a territory formally belonging to them and akin to native Americans deciding that they wanted to take back the land on which the colonial settlement of Jonestown was located because the colonists were threatening them.
    1
  4291.  @donaldhysa4836  And neither are the native‐born ethnic Russians who have lived in that part of what is not Ukraine for several generations. Indeed, ethnic Russians and those who identify as ethnic Ukrainians are virtually identical yet a small subset of the latter want to culturally expunge the former.
    1
  4292.  @donaldhysa4836  I'm not using it to justify an invasion because the Russians have not invaded. They are, and remain, on their side of the border. And in what significant way do Ukrainians and Russians differ? The Ukrainian and Russian languages are so similar that they can usually be easily understood by both groups and both groups use both languages interchangeably, switching between them when necessary. Ukrainian is, I'm given to believe, more like a dialect of Russian than a separate language. Also, Ukraine was an integral part of Russia for like 300 years and was never an independent sovereign state. Like Belarus, Ukraine shared the same school system used throughout the Soviet Union so until 1989 both groups would have had the same education. The differences between them are largely artifical or exaggerated.
    1
  4293.  @donaldhysa4836  Well technically, yes, they have invaded the territory of Ukraine but there was a plebiscite held there in which an overwhelming number voted to rejoin the Russian Federation of which they were a part until 1989, the Crimean peninsula being merely an administrative district that just happened to be assigned to the jurisdiction of Ukraine in the 1960's for bureaucratic reasons. And the majority of the population self‐identify as ethnic Russian. So basically the Russians are taking back part of their country. They have not annexed any other part of Ukraine and not Galicia, the only part of Ukraine that can make any claim to not be Russian in character. And when you say the Ukrainians I think you're really talking about some extremists nurtured by the USA and brought to power in a coup d'etat. The fascists in Kiev are the equivalent of ISIS in Libya, Al‐Quaida in Afghanistan and Al‐Shebab in Africa – paramilitary organisations created by and under the control of the USA military‐intelligence apparatus who have seized power and have terrorised the population into compliance. It's as if the Klu Klux Clan had taken over the USA – how popular would that be?
    1
  4294.  @donaldhysa4836  I though I was just opinionated. Have a good day/night. 👋
    1
  4295. I suspect all this lack of trust between countries is all part of a deliberate strategy of tension on the part of the USA in its ongoing attempts to isolate the Russian Federation and sabotage any peaceful settlement of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine or normalisation of political and economic relations between the states of Europe and the Russian Federation. Erdoğan's apparent back-stabbing of Russia may be seen in this light. The USA wants to make it so there is zero trust between Russia and the EU and thus little incentive to cooperate on any matter that goes against the neocons preferred outcome. It wants Russia to think what's the point of negotiations when the other side has no intention of abiding by what's been agreed upon. I think the same strategy might have been applied to Iran as well.
    1
  4296. And even if they did they would still face the same demands from both within and without to police their content in accordance with EU, SCO guidelines and harmonise their laws with the established powers.
    1
  4297. ​ at2t and probably a user of 'comfort women'.
    1
  4298. From my limited experiences with British razor wire the 'blades' aren't particularly sharp and it's only the barbs on either side that are, making it more like barb wire in that it peirces rather than cuts. Of course, razor wire in other countries may be different. [That isn't to say that the blades won't cut into your skin if you press hard enough.]
    1
  4299. Partly true. And for the time being. I trust though the Australians will, like their New Zealand cousins, become more level headed as time goes by.
    1
  4300. Why do you say that?
    1
  4301. I don't think the American people will re-elect Biden. His senility has advanced to such a degree that at this point I think he simply would not be a tenable candidate for president, not even as a figurehead.
    1
  4302. ​@SalalilaIIwell said. A true Filipino patriot.
    1
  4303.  @badrulalam4077  Ethnic cleansing was done by all sides in the NATO war against Yugoslavia, not least by the US‐backed Albanian terrorists/paramilitaries in and around Kosovo. As for the 'genocide' that Serbians were purported to have been committing and that was used to justify NATO's aggression (after the EU's additional protocol, kept secret from the public, that was deliberately designed to be rejected to serve as a pretext) the UN found no credible evidence, either then or now.
    1
  4304. They can also use various forms of coercion or commit to what will amount to an artificial breeding programme consisting of eggs fertilised in vitro and gestated in artificial wombs, (genetically engineered) animal wombs, the wombs of women (or even children who have undergone medical treatment to make them precociously fertile), or some pseudo‐human 'half‐person' consisting of lower torso only containing the reproductive organs. Science fiction for the most part, yes, but, who knows, future technology may be developed that allows this. As the saying goes, where there's a will there's a way. Of course, in keeping with Agenda 2030, etc. they could do nothing and just allow a natural (or as at present, an unnatural) die off of people (mainly the elderly I should imagine) until they've reached what is deemed an optimum demographic.
    1
  4305. Probably a strategy devised in the USA and implemented by traitorous German politicians working for them.
    1
  4306.  @PomaReign  China wants a word.
    1
  4307.  @sashazxtt  Apparently, asking for peace is pushing for war. It's truly amazing what propaganda combined with cognitive dissonance can do. It can have people say that black is white and believe it!
    1
  4308.  @sashazxtt  Isn't autonomy almost the same as separation (secession)? If a central government has virtually no real control over a region then to all practical purposes that region is independent in everything but name. Turning an entire economically important region of Ukraine (the Donbass) into a virtual enclave of another country (Russia) is not something that any country would consider ideal. I suppose the devil is in the details as to how autonomous the region is, but still, making the Donbass a de facto extension of Russia impinges on Ukraine's sovereignty if not its actual territorial integrity.
    1
  4309. Russians and Ukrainians are virtually one and the same people. They have been separate from each other by about 20 years. Before that they were the same country, same nationality. So why would your think that Ukrainians would be so keen to defend the entirely factitious state of Ukraine, a fascist cacocracy run by foreign‐backed kleptocrats lacking all democratic legitimacy?
    1
  4310. Uncle Sam has spoken. Keir Starmer is a compromised American stooge, even more than Israeli one.
    1
  4311. I see what you did there. 😉
    1
  4312. Just fit the tank with anti‐drone countermeasures like electromagnetic burst or jamming. For every measure there is a countermeasure.
    1
  4313. I think they did it for effect.
    1
  4314. It's come to light that there were FBI in the mob inciting and invigilating that crowd that supposedly tried to overthrow the US government and that the security at the White House let them in. So much for an attempt to overthrow the government
    1
  4315.  @mjc1431  Or India.
    1
  4316.  @Xokken333  ...Except when their the ones doing it. 😆
    1
  4317. The Russians were well on their way to defeating Germany single-handedly and they would accept nothing short of unconditional surrender. What the Americans wanted was irrelevant. And the Americans got what they wanted anyway – two client states with governments completely subservient to Washington which were then used to continue the war against the Soviet Union, albeit now serving the American Reich (empire) instead of the Third Reich.
    1
  4318.  @audience7264  Must have took a leaf out of the playbook of the USA. 9/11 comes to mind.
    1
  4319. The plaque has on it the words "we know what we must do". I ask, what if all this climate change is due to natural causes and even if not - natural or anthropogenic - there is literally nothing we can do because the tipping point was already reached some time ago? Also, how do they intend to change the behaviour of capitalists and their fascist corporations, especially in the major countries like the USA, Russia and China - by a democratic vote? Good luck with that. Only if a significant portion of the ruling elite have already decided amongst themselves what's going to happen will change be allowed (democracy, people power being an illusion).
    1
  4320. ​ @sirrathersplendid4825  You mean like the Opium Wars. Trade with us or this is what you'll get. Ditto Japan and Korea.
    1
  4321. What rule or law did they invoke, or what rationale did they give to justify their actions and did they clearly break the law?
    1
  4322. I think the biggest threat comes from the United States of America and its heady mix of neoliberal, neo-conservative and Christian fundamentalisms. Together with its burgeoning military‐industrial-security complex and the unaccountable 'deep state,' the wretched country becomes ever more reckless in its dealings with other countries and ever more corrupt. Combine this with the ponzi scheme known as the US dollar, together with profligate military spending and its self-destructive rentierism that is eating it up from the inside, and you have the perfect recipe for disaster. The USA is a powder keg that is either going to implode or explode.
    1
  4323. Would that be Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or any of at least half a dozen major protestant sects? Yes, they're Christian in the broadest sense of the word but they nonetheless have major doctrinal differences making them a diverse lot.
    1
  4324.  @HarrySmith-hr2iv  And they only landed because they didn't want Russia to take the whole damn lot and turn Europe red. They were quite happy to see Russia bled white until it dawned on them that, rather than lose, they were actually going to win.
    1
  4325. Following. Definitely. The idea that Britain sets the agenda vis-a-vis the United States is simply not tenable in my opinion. If Britain's foreign policy seems muddled it's because the USA's foreign policy seems muddled. Britain has no real initiative of its own so must follow the signals coming from the USA and if those signals are confused so too will be Britain's.
    1
  4326. It's a collection of vassals. A captive market for the USA.
    1
  4327. Then they'll simply create their own insurance companies, with the help of Russia, India and the Brics nations.
    1
  4328. I think I like both though I've never met either.
    1
  4329. @Greg Mccumber : No, that would be a capitalist.
    1
  4330.  @donm3844  thank you for your service, wage slave. If only all, rather the just most, people had your attitude there would be no need for labour unions or worker protections. That get-up-and-go, pull yourself up by your bootstraps attitude is what we capitalists like. Don't blame your slavers masters for being a wage slave, blame yourself for not working hard enough or not making enough sacrifices.
    1
  4331. ​ @hong3170  And to a large extent the mass media and education systems of the West too. A vast propaganda and perception-forming network whose tentacles stretch right around the world, infecting every social institution from academia to media.
    1
  4332. ​ @ashfield1425  The 'free' market has never existed in history. It's a myth. Every western country that ever attained first world status did so by state subsidies, state planning and protectionism. And for the most economically developed, systematically destroying rivals and extracting the surplus value of their labour and raw materials.
    1
  4333. Says the man living under the biggest empire ever. The empire that pretends its not an empire. The plutocratic, oligarchic cacocracy of psychopaths and kleptocrats that claims it's a meritocratic democracy.
    1
  4334. 1945. Definitively, after the neolib coup in the 1970's culminating in the elections of Margaret Thatcher and later Tony Blair, both agents of influence..
    1
  4335.  @gregghanson6095  But that's what politicians are for, to take the blame for the actions of the property owning class, the business owners who collectively as a class make decisions which have a negative effect on everybody else, like the decision to put profit before people or the environment.
    1
  4336. 07:23 - 07:37 👉 💯👈
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  4337. They aren't really conservative. They adopted the term rather craftily as a deception because it was familiar to people and had legitimacy. It was a way of making people think they were something they were not. The same goes for neo-liberals, another term hijacked to serve an insidious agenda. Neither of them or either conservative or liberal but, rather, more akin to extreme reactionaries who hated communism and socialism and everything they stood for. Perhaps fascist or corporatist may be too strong a word but they certainly come from the same stable, ideologically speaking. Obviously, they couldn't call themselves fascist so they lied and pretended they were conservative liberals. In short, they are imposters, wolves in sheep's clothing.
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  4338. A war criminal.
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  4339. ​​ @atomnia The ROC is, according to the United Nations, a part of the PRC. Your comment is thus akin to saying that the United States is threatening dominance over Hawaii or Guam.
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  4340. A bunch of dual-citizen billionaires and their Christian-Zionist backers. And those who are the owners/shareholders of the major corporations and banks.
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  4341. That commandment is taken as only applying to Jews in their treatment of other Jews and not to non-Jews such as Christians or Muslims. All the moral commandments of the Torah and Talmud imply this, at least as originally intended. Extending these commandments to people of other faiths is thus purely discretionary and a modern application.
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  4342. And it must go beyond that because the USSR had all those things but was still destroyed. Overthrowing the USA and its allies or at least creating a group of countries that can draw their fire long enough for South East Asia as a whole, led by a China‐Japan‐India tetrachy, can reach a level of stability, cohesiveness and military‐economic power whereby it can take on the West and reduce it to impotence where it is no longer a threat and it is no longer in a position to force its political norms and sociocultural values on other peoples.
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  4343. I'm increasingly drawn to the whole idea of anthropogenic climate change and the rationale for getting rid of oil, gas, coal and even nuclear is part of a deliberate, well planned and long term strategy of making Europe vulnerable to energy blackmail.
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  4344. I always knew they would. Russia asking too much... Or the USA not giving reasonable concessions?
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  4345. The Taliban? Why don't you refer to them as the Afghan government? That is, after all, what they are (assuming Afghanistan has a government that is analogous to a European government rather than something that is organised in some other way).
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  4346. It would be better if we were to develop our own industries and technologies so such vulnerabilities would be reduced to a minimum. Unfortunately, our rentier economy won't allow that, especially as long as we are under the thumb of the USA.
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  4347.  @bb-ballistics1706  Same with imperialism and colonialism. When we British were doing it it's perfectly fine, the Germans and the Japanese.... Ditto chattel slavery, indentured labour and antisemitism.
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  4348. If Britain's world war 2 experience is to go by the Ukraine will be paying back the lend‐lease loans for the next 60 years.
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  4349. Did you need anti-venom, morphine?
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  4350. The Palestinians are prisoners in a concentration camp/ghetto, they cannot just flee, and it is the Israelis who hold the keys to the prison. Would you say they same to the Jews being held in the Warsaw ghetto or the Bergen-Belsen extermination camp?
    1
  4351. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) has its critics.
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  4352.  @fun_ghoul  Ignoratio elenchi.
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  4353. That's why they may be unlikely to do down it, contrary to what these two are saying. If they do attempt something it will very probably go off like a damp squib and will be pursued half-heartedly at best.
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  4354.  fuckyoutubepolicy staff  Non‐nuclear? What about nuclear? If a country has a right to defend itself then surely that includes possessing the same kind of weapons its adversaries have, at a minimum. Why qualify?
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  4355. ECOWAS was created by the USA and the EU so it naturally serves their interests and not those of Africans.
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  4356. And how do you know for sure or was the Ukrainian military that did that and not western mercenaries?
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  4357. What do you think of BRICS and South Africa's role in this organisation?
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  4358. How long will this decline last and will there be a rise aftr reaching the nadir? And is it a relative decline or absolute?
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  4359. The attempts of the United States to recreate the conditions of the cold war and retain its hegemonic status are having a deleterious effect on its finances and the more it spends on trying to maintain unipolarity the greater is the damage to American society. The USA needs to become a 'normal' country, content to play the role of regional hegemon in its hemisphere but not the role of the hegemon of the world. A hegemonic role like China and Russia, content to stay within their borders and trade with everyone, persuading by example and primarily with soft power instead of using force.
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  4360. Pay for the BBC through general taxes. It doesn't have to be privatised nor kept under the existing system of paying for it through an unpopular licence fee.
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  4361. That was pre-1945 before the US puppet Konrad Adenauer was put in power as Germany's first post war chancellor and its school text books (especially those concerning history and political science) and national curriculum, as well as its mass media, were brought under the control of the USA and made to teach a pro-NATO, pro-EU, pro-cold war meta-narrative supportive of US hegemony.
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  4362. Ghenghis Khan would like a word.
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  4363. Their political philosophy, neoliberalism, is based on parasitical rentierism whose basic premise is not to make an honest living from their own labour but to live off the labour of others, of the rent extracted from the productive forces of the economy. To these people imperialism on a global scale as a means of rent extraction – stealing other nation's resources – is natural. The West has been doing it through the various empires – Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, English – for 500 years and the USA as the latest iteration thinks it can do the same. But the world is changing and they have come rather late to the game.
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  4364.  @rcmrcm3370  What are your sources?
    1
  4365. The USA wants a replay of the cold war. Back then it pretty much managed to isolate the whole of the communist bloc from world trade, especially with western Europe, with the USA having the West all to itself. Things have changed since then, however, and the Chinese and Russians will no longer allow the United States to cut them off from the world again. They have opened up and shown the world what the USA had previously kept from them: that an open world is more prosperous than one that is closed.
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  4366. It is good that these fascists are being killed so that they won't be able to be used elsewhere in Europe like in Serbia the way NATO's ISIS paramilitaries in Syria.
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  4367. I'm sure a black man born in Haiti during the same period would, a fortiori, say the same about capitalism.
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  4368. Why would the Russian Federation enter into this conflict? Unless provoked in Syria or maybe Iran (as in coming to their aid of they are invaded – a highly unlikely scenario) I think the Russians are quite indifferent to the fate of the Palestinians. Point scoring and rhetoric aside, the Russians and Chinese seem to have accepted that the expansion of Israel and consequent dispossession of the Palestinians is inevitable.
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  4369. Do you not know that there other ethnicities besides the Uyghur residing in China? The fact that you talk about the alleged mistreatment of the Uyghur to the exclusion of other ethnic groups merely shows that you are in likelihood an Anglo-American troll. What next... organ harvesting? Technology stealing? Border skirmishes with India? Tibet? These are the tropes of the CIA and they are so 1950's. Propaganda has become so much more sophisticated since then. Try something new... it just might work.
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  4370.  @vorynrosethorn903  While the Armenian genocide WAS a genocide as properly understood, the famine occurring during the 1930's in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine WAS NOT. This is a lie continually repeated by NATO propaganda to blacken, not just the rule of Joseph Stalin, but of communism and socialism more generally. Originally a lie created by the National Socialist government of Germany incidentally as propaganda and then taken up by the empire of the United States and its European client states, not least Great Britain.
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  4371.  @Fr00stee  Holodomor — famine but not genocide!
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  4372.  @Fr00stee  Don't you know that the rest of the Soviet Union was also effected and that Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union and not a separate country and that certain parts of Russia were effected even more badly? Why would the government of the Soviet Union deliberately starve its people anyway, Russians and Ukrainians being virtually one and the same people?
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  4373.  @Durnyful  Western governments aren't really swayed by their electorates either and no more care for what the majority of the people think than the countries labelled by them as autocracies. On anything that really matters the elites get their way, (barring coups d'état and the like).
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  4374. Add to that the heads of big business that lobby and control them. We have to look at the system as a whole and not just see things in isolation. Blaming the politicians while letting off scot-free those who really call the shots is not going to get us anywhere.
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  4375. "Approved by Parliament" and "Presented to Parliament for approval". Aren't they the same thing, or am I missing something?
    1
  4376.  @Yourebeautyfull  Eastern Europe did. Gave it away to the eurocrats in Brussels.
    1
  4377. You must live in a world very different from what I grew up in. From my observations corporate controlled media and academia have never been friendly to communism. Or socialism. Not even, generally speaking, to milquetoast social democracy. As for "genocidal and famine-prone" I think you'll find capitalism is, a fortiori, much more culpable.
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  4378. He's clearly never heard of China and India, nor Egypt.
    1
  4379. Because he's a collaborator, a traitor, who has been put in power by a foreign government and serves its ends. Like Karzai of Afghanistan. Like Petain of Vichy France.
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  4380. Perhaps he's predicting a one world government led jointly by corporatist-not corporatist China and the USA (with maybe Russia tagging along... maybe not). This is what the copists call multipolarity. And just like western democracy, the self-styled 'moderate centrists' (BRICS, _et al_will hold all the power and marginalise the extremists (everyone else). Crypto-corporate USA will control most of the Western hemisphere including the south-west portion of Asia known as the Middle East, while crypto-corporatist China will controlmuch of the rest of Asia. Maybe by then they'll stopped pretending to be communist. Meanwhile, Latin America and Africa will advance but only as long as the subscribe to a 'multipolar' system dominated by and subordinated to – you guessed it – international capital, but with China this time joining the white man's club as a full member.
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  4381. Perhaps the IMF is better. You get a Structural Adjustment Programme that impoverishes your people and destroys local industries... and you also have to pay back the loan (and take out endless loans to pay back the initial loan). Better still, learn to live without loans.
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  4382. Maybe a government in exile is what they want. Like Guido in Venezuela.
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  4383.  @sw36jl  a book entitled The Enigma of Japanese Power published in the 1980's is an interesting read when it comes to some misconceptions about the country.
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  4384.  @ahmadhasif979  Or Hinduism?
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  4385.  @boeman6702  these labels are out if date and should be dispensed with. They imply that every country should be capitalist, globalised, urbanised and undergo an industrial revolution. Societies that don't meet these criteria are considered inferior and less worthy.
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  4386. This so‐called coup is like Ukraine's counter-offensive... a non-starter.
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  4387.  @johnbull1568  Isn't declining and vetoing pretty much the same in this context? What's being claimed is that the UK blocked a legitimate request for an inquiry. Whether it had good reason for doing this; whether they used underhand means to do it or worked within the rules I don't know, but that is what is being claimed,rightly or wrongly, and there's no point in arguing over semantics.
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  4388. With all due respect I think you should create a separate channel for content like this as turning this channel into a kind of history channel detracts, in my opinion, from what I think should be its true purpose, which I've always been given to understand was a venue to give viewers an insight into your particular thoughts on current geopolitical events of the day.
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  4389. Starmer is probably an MI6-CIA intelligence asset and certainly has their backing.
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  4390. What, exactly, is the difference between a democracy, a republic, and a dictatorship? Are the two mutually exclusive and would your be happy living under a dictorship as long as you could buy guns?
    1
  4391. The USA now seems to be in the same position as Britain in the 1820's. Back then Britain wanted porcelain, tea and silk from China but they wanted nothing in return except silver. The British had nothing else the Chinese wanted and were going bankrupt. They solved the problem with classic gun boat diplomacy, the so‐called Opium Wars. The rest is history. This marks the beginning of what the Chinese call their Century of Humiliation. I wonder what démarche the USA will take to cut this proverbial Guardian Knot. The British used the barrel of a gun but this time around I don't think that is an option.
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  4392. The former, yes. But the latter…. On that I'm not as certain.
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  4393. Both Hitler and Stalin did in WW2.
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  4394. Another coup may be in the offing first.
    1
  4395. The only smart people Americans seem to admire are sociopaths and narcissists like Donald Trump and its neocon warmongers.
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  4396. ​ @shawnahall7246 I think that's what compulsory schooling is designed to do and why it was introduced everywhere. Governments don't want free thinkers; they want docile, obedient, skilled workers.
    1
  4397. They are a puppet state. As such they are not supposed to develop economically and compete with the parasitic rentier capitalism of the USA and western Europe. Just look what happens when a non-white country, China, does start to develop: the USA and its client states begin attacking it. Same with Japan. Vanity projects which help the US economy by recycling dollars and propping up its banks and military‐industrial complex is what they are encouragedto do.
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  4398. India just trundles on.
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  4399. So am I to understand that price controls never work and should under no circumstances be tried; that the invisible hand of the market, akin to a law of nature, should just be allowed to play out even to the point where prices have risen to the point where large numbers of the population are starving or chronically malnourished? Sounds just like what a fascist junta would do.
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  4400. ​​ @melgross forgive him, he's probably an American. Americans don't do irony very well, leave that to the British.
    1
  4401. Hopefully. A mercifully short war. Minimum casualties, especially to civilians. Minimum damage to non‐military infrastructure. NATO‐backed fascists expunged. Both those who identify as ethnic Russians as well as those who identify as ethnic Ukrainians now safe to live in peace with each other. A foreign‐instigated civil war finally brought to an end. Another plus is that Russia gets to have more defensible borders and the buffer zone is restored, necessary if your up against NATO and the EU, organisations hell bent on your subordination.
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  4402. The irony and the hypocrisy. It is too much to bear.
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  4403. Is that why China is coming along in leaps and bounds? That was the way in which human societies were structured for tens of thousands of years as hunter-gatherers before the first urban civilisation came into being.
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  4404.  @ihl0700677525  China?
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  4405. Interesting development regarding the indictment of ex-president Trump. As for the situation in Ukraine, still no change: Russia advances, Ukraine retreats. The sooner this little war in Europe ends the better for everyone.
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  4406. I fear you might be right. Unfortunately.
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  4407. No, the Europeans themselves (with the European Union leading the charge) are doing that by sanctioning Russian oil and gas and refusing to pay in rubles as requested by the Russian government. That and politicising the operations of North Stream pipelines 1 and 2.
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  4408.  @Pegaroo_  Paying or not paying in rubles for Russian gas, oil, or whatever other products the Russian Federation wishes to sell is a political and not a financial or economic decision, in my opinion, thus it is European leaders, collectively or individually, who are to blame. To wit, the Russians aren't punishing regular Europeans, European elites are punishing regular Europeans As for reducing or stopping altogether the flow of oil/gas, well that is Russia's prerogative and given all the sanctions that the European Union has heaped upon them I for one wouldn't blame them one bit for using their own resources as a counter-sanction. But like I said, it's not so much a case of Russia not providing these resources as much as the European Union not accepting them or refusing to pay for them.
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  4409.  @wom_Bat  No ruble, no oil. No ruble, no gas. No oil and gas, no heating, no factories operating, no vehicles moving on the roads. And it's their oil and gas so why shouldn't they be paid in their own currency? After all, it's no use being paid in a currency (euros and dollars) you can't use. You want something you have to both agree to the terms, which can change due to circumstance (eg. sanctions, boycotts, embargoes and blockades). Cry me a river.
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  4410.  @wom_Bat  Russia, if I remember correctly, has been barred from using the SWIFT international payments system effectively preventing it from making purchases of goods in western currencies, as well as having its accounts in some European banks frozen. So, while you are correct in saying that the European Union and the Russian Federation agreed to transact in euros/dollars you conveniently omit the pesky little detail that the latter have made it impossible for Russia to do so (the EU has sanctioned itself). As for dollars and euros being the most accepted currencies that may be about to change in the not too distant future as the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China, together members with the BRICS, SCO, etc. are working on an alternative payment system using their own currencies. In your hubris you also underestimate the degree to which the world is interconnected.
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  4411.  @trtyuiop  And the parrot is not dead. It's just resting.
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  4412. The West in its hubris likes to think itself as the whole world and everyone else is insignificant. Another thing is that western history books seem to imply that countries like China, Korea and Japan refusing to trade with the West was somehow bad and therefore it was only right that they should be opened to trade by force, as much for their own good as anyone else's. And little seems to have changed since then.
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  4413.  @dragoncatoverload  And the Chinese had the same policy of non‐interference then as now, something that the USA castigate them for, eg. China not sanctioning Russia and continuing to do business with Venezuela.
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  4414.  @Bombay1618  Christian missionaries were the USAID and National Endowment for Democracy of their day (i.e. fifth columnists).
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  4415. Maybe the USA is pushing the EU (France, Germany) into creating an army of its own and this is the way it's going about it. It appears it wants to concentrate less on Russia and more on China and by having the Europeans waste their precious resources containing an illusory threat from the former it allows the USA to use the bulk of its own resources for 'containing' the latter. In other words, it wants Europe to be the rearguard protecting America's back while it goes after China. It may also be a crafty way of not only maintaining, but actually increasing, its control over Europe via the creation of a pan-European army that is nominally independent but in actual fact is, like the European Union itself, heavily influenced, if not outright controlled, by the USA through agents of influence. It also weakens Europe by having it invest in pountless military spending (especially if it involves buying weapons made in the USA) at the expense of a much more useful domestic economy that meets the civilian needs of Europeans instead of the military needs of the corporate elites of the USA.
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  4416. "[...] we didn't concede an inch more than we had to. " In other words you conceded. 7% is negligible. And probably the only reason that that 7% isn't in foreign hands is because its unprofitable or is owned by the Romanian elite who want it to generate profits for themselves. You're still hard right capitalist, still in the neo-liberal institution known as the European Union and still have a bank controlled by western finance capital, with a political and economic system that was created by the West to serve the interests of Romania's compradors class installed after the fall of the Soviet Union and western investors.
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  4417. But will it ever return though?
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  4418. It has Made In The USA all over it! Just as the breakup of the Ottoman empire which led to this had Made In Great Britain all over it.
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  4419. She's got a good career ahead of her in one of the many think tanks and shady organisations that influence the world.
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  4420. It would seem to imply the use of organic tissue that may be on some level considered 'alive', thus entailing certain moral considerations when scaled up to anything bigger than something that occurs inside a test tube or Petri dish.
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  4421. 1. Italics: use underscores _ ( italics ). 2. Bold: use asterisks * ( bold ). 3. Strikethough: use dashes - ( strikethrough ). Place them before and after the word or phrase. Tip: place the full stop at the end of a sentence BEFORE the underscore/asterisk/dash (abc.*) and NOT after (abc*.).
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  4422. He's not in charge. It's anyone's guess who is.
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  4423. ​ friendlhi  Agreed. Not surprising as it was created by the USA and wasn't a genuine project of European countries.
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  4424. Such a terrible failure? Great education (free), universal healthcare (free), housing for all – no homelessness (free), no endemic malnutrition or starvation with low cost food (healthy diet). Oh, and not to mention a military that the elites of the West feared after it had destroyed the fascism that capitalism had created in response to the very appealing ideology of communism and the liberation of the Russian people (and Eastern Europeans) from monarchy and serfdom. It also provided much needed aid and inspiration to Global South countries throughout the world to such an extent that the wonderful capitalist (corporatist) role model that you presumably admire so much had to resort to fomenting coups and installing military junta which proceeded to kill and imprison millions of its own to impose the capitalist paradise (never a failed experiment, oh no, it's never described as such) that people like you admire so much. Ever visited a favela (slum) lately? Ever encountered a US-trained death squad? Know someone who was disappeared? People talk about Stalin's purges but signally fail to draw the obvious parallels with the purges of the Latin American peoples.
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  4425. The head of the political party that wins the most votes in Britain's first past the post electoral system is, ex officio, the prime minister, subject to approval by Her Majesty The Queen.
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  4426. Even during Roman times when as part of the empire they contributed to the economic life and wellbeing of Europe and of Rome itself?
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  4427. Would your opinions be the same if he were a pedosexual?
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  4428. I wonder if this resistance to the idea of rocks falling from space was theological in origin (i.e. not being accepted by the Christian church, like evolution) or just based on secular ideas of what was possible that were universally held as 'common sense' at the time, rocks falling from heaven being simply considered prima facie absurd just because.
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  4429. The beginning of the end for the Ottomans.
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  4430.  @AUniqueHandleName444  "Markets take care of what the law can't." No they don't. That's a lie.
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  4431. That's why the financial elites of the USA are hellbent on disrupting and monopolising international trade between Europe, the Americas and Asia, a strategy that involves the creation of a BIS/Federal Reserve/EU central bank CBDC to be used in trade between the USA and Europe, as well as the cutting off and corralling of Europe from Asia and from Russia and China in particular à la cold war.
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  4432. The USA wants Europe to pay for an army to threaten and deter Russia, an imaginary threat, while it uses its own money to threaten and deter China, yet another imaginary threat (imaginary that is if you don't threaten them, otherwise the threat of retaliation becomes very real). Basically, the USA wants another cold war, albeit one on a shoestring budget due to straitened circumstances. The aim, I presume, is not so much actual readiness for war but grift, pure and simple. The military‐industrial complex of the USA is the core of its economy and, like cancer, it must grow else the whole thing collapses (a bit like Germany in the 1930's, which used pretty much the same military pump-priming to keep its economy growing. And we all know where that ended don't we?) Like western Europe prior to the Great War (1914-1918) the USA has grown fat off of the grift of its empire and doesn't want either the Russians and Chinese muscling in on the action (à la Germany vis‐à‐vis Britian's empire) or its neo-colonies from gaining genuine independence (à la France vis‐à‐vis Africa).
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  4433.  @Supernautiloid  I beg to differ. Capitalism hasn't been around for all that long, maybe 200-300 years at most starting with the industrial revolution in Britain; so if it's taken this long to become corporatist (starting in the 1920's with Mussolini), I'm assuming that we do not have any precedent and this is the first time it's happened. Saying that capitalism always turns into corporatism implies that we've gone through this at least once before, which I don't believe we have, this being the first. For what it's worth, I'd say all of the major countries of the West became corporatist in the 1940's and '50's and what we mistook for the 'golden age' of capitalism in the immediate post war years up until the 1970's was in fact, merely a period of 'benevolent' corporatism, when corporatism was consolidating. The question of whether corporatism (fascism/neo-fascism?) is good for the majority of people I think revolves around the question of who does the capturing - a strong state capturing and controlling business, or business capturing and controlling the state. In China I think it's the former and that's why it seems to be delivering returns for its people, while in the USA it's the latter and, driven entirely by greed and the profit motive, is actually leading (or will eventually lead) to something akin to feudalism and possibly social collapse.
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  4434. When they try to make their country better they get attacked by western Europe and North America. Just look at Libya, Iraq Iran. Just look at Russia/USSR and China. The selfish plutocrats of the West do not want any other country doing what they did; they climbed the ladder of success and pulled it up behind them, determined not to allow anyone else to do the same. I wish China and Russia, despite no longer being humanity's last great hope, outlive the US empire, making it the last empire, and help to free the world from the evil, selfish and destructive ways of thinking embodied in western capitalism.
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  4435. This journalist was a propagandist for the West (basically western European and especially Anglo-American corporate hegemony) who was killed in demonstrations and riots that are in organised and funded by the same West in the service of the deep state of the USA. Let's not forget that this is propaganda.
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  4436. According to your paralogism then, while not making the already poor poorer it certainly increases the overall number of people who are poor. Wouldn't it be more moral to share the wealth and make poor people richer?
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  4437. Only they aren't deterring anyone. If a war between the superpowers goes nuclear the USA's stockpile of nuclear weapons in Britain will all be meaningless. And let no one be under any illusion, the USA, Russia, etc. – the one's who actually possess nuclear weapons – are the only ones who can make that fateful decision.
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  4438. More brain drain from other countries in a war caused by the USA. And the USA accuses others of stealing their technology while the USA steals people then claims that they're coming to the USA because they love its values.
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  4439. Why has China's economy slumped (allegedly)? Maybe it's because the USA is launching an economic sanctions-based war against it, and getting its minions around the world to join in. Like it does with Cuba and Venezuela, Iran, Iraq, Korea, Syria....
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  4440. They're all being provocative by calling the island Taiwan instead of the Republic of China. This is the island's official name. (Mind you, calling it by its proper name would also probably be even more provocative because it suggests that the ROC is an independent country with its own government.)
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  4441. That's the point of the sanctions. They aren't designed to hurt Russia or China as much as they are designed to hurt Europe, major competitors of the USA.
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  4442. Exactly as European imperialists wanted. Divide and conquer.
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  4443. The West? Talk honestly. You really mean the USA (its rentier state corporatist military‐industrial-financial complex to be precise) and its vassals in Europe (those comprador elites who have their own motivations for supporting this war against Russia).
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  4444. Will it all turn into a damp squib, like the protests in Canada?
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  4445. Spot on! Cogent! 🫡
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  4446. The top members of the party may even be covert agents of influence doing the bidding of US intelligence because their policies are so self-evidently damaging to the German economy in the short and medium term. At least from the perspective of myself, an outsider I can barely conceive of it as being anything otherwise. These are policies so damaging to Germany yet so advantageous to that of the United States I find hard to believe that they are the result of incompetence or bad decisions on the part of Germany's leaders, even more so when one considers the systematic and comprehensive manner in which these policies are being implemented, with neither the general public nor the judicial and legislative branches of government seemingly having any power.
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  4447. If it's declining how come it's so powerful?
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  4448. I like this person's voice.
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  4449. George is just teasing. If he ever started revealing anything genuinely compromising or anything that could constitute a breach of the official secrets act or pose a danger to the armed forces and its like then he would be. Embarrassing a western government is not the same as compromising the security of its rulers or their grip on power.
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  4450.  @Senovitj  yes, why?
    1
  4451.  @puffnstuff12  But it might! Indeed, if precedent is to go by it will.
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  4452.  @ralphcantrell3214  And how many worthless dollars will you print in your efforts to out‐compete China and Russia? And how much inflation will it cause? And how much of your budget are you going to spend on war to the detriment of social welfare? Or you going to get rid of social welfare altogether to pay for your latest trillion dollar star wars death star? And what Chinese and Russian resources are you willing to forego? And when India and other countries like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela join them and China and Russia extend security guarantees under the UN charter (you know, that bit of the UN charter that protects the sovereignty of nations threatened by US invasion), what then?
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  4453.  @ralphcantrell3214  You mean the terrorists paid for, armed, trained and given their marching orders by the Pentagon? The terrorists who all came from Saudi Arabia and the airports where they the supposedly trained with their lax security controlled by firms linked to Israeli intelligence, with companies also linked to Israel doing 'repairs' to the towers several weeks before 9/11? Oh, and both Pakistan and Afghanistan were US puppets doing America's bidding with Pakistan serving as the USA's main base for Islamic fundamentalism in the area? Plus the fact that before or since no steel framed high rise skyscraper has ever collapsed at free‐fall or near free‐fall speed into its own footprint due to office fires weakening its structure.
    1
  4454. Not politicians. Capitalists! Corporate billionaires own the politicians so there's no point in blaming them. Blame your boss instead, because he's the one demanding longer hours and lower wages for workers. He's the one behind the insourcing of Mexicans and the outsourcing to China, third-worldizing working conditions at home.
    1
  4455. № 1 Canada. Or various Muslim fundamentalist groups from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, etc.
    1
  4456. And then hypocritically criticises China when it does something similar (even when it's only protecting China's domestic industry rather than deliberately attempting to damage the industry of another country).
    1
  4457.  @Sentinel82  They don't want it to be legal or accepted. They need it. It's a hate word designed to incite hate and fear and loathing. The pedophile is today what the witch was to the Middle Ages, or the homosexual was (still is?) in more recent times: a scapegoat; someone the state or society can vent their frustration on; pin their greatest fears on; serve as an outlet for taboo emotions normally suppressed.
    1
  4458.  @Noorthia  Does that make it quite unusual for this type of star?
    1
  4459. The Cold War was never really about communism but about stopping the economic development of the East and its competition with the West (not least the USA and Britain). The same for the rest of the non-European world.
    1
  4460. Truth be told, Britain doesn't want a united Europe, especially with Russia and Germany at the helm (possibly France too). Britain was the major instigator in two world wars (three if your consider the Napolionic wars) in its attempts to keep the continental powers from ever uniting or one power dominating the rest.
    1
  4461. The truth be told we're probably still in something akin to the great depression of the 1930's, but one nobody will admit to. Because this depression has peaks and troughs just like a 'normal' economic cycle – such that we can be in or out of a recession at any one time – we can be fooled into thinking everything's okay, however, the overall trend is still economic stagnation (depression or prolonged economic recession).
    1
  4462. Hong Kong was always Chinese, as was to the island of Taiwan (Formosa). Both were taken by imperialist powers (Britain and Japan), while Tibet had been a vassal state of China for several centuries prior to its formal conquest. That's not to say that China is not hegemonic but taking back territory what is generally understood as being parts of your country is not, strictly speaking, colonialism.
    1
  4463.  @鱼人-v8y  It will just use its 'stay behind' network of NATO‐trained terrorists and neo‐fascist paramilitaries, perhaps with some mercenaries thrown into the mix.
    1
  4464. In what way?
    1
  4465.  @thewesternworld9695  I thought China was communist or communist‐capitalist hybrid. And that it pumps out more professionals each year than the whole of the USA and Europe combined. And is the workshop of the world, producing most of the consumer products that the USA and Europe use. And Russia....
    1
  4466. Do you remember 1947?
    1
  4467. The neo-liberal/neo-classical theory of western economics doesn't allow for a true understanding of how a real, properly run economy works. It's an economic theory designed by and for rentiers and as such blindsides economists with an ideology masquerading as scientific truth. It's an apologia for the parasite class, the bankers. China's economy, on the other hand, is largely grounded in reality. That's why China is succeeding where the USA is failing.
    1
  4468. ​ @seekingabsolution1907  They even dislike John Maynard Keynes, and he was a capitalist!
    1
  4469. ​ @MrMarinus18 Ik wou dat dat de houding was in Groot-Brittannië, waar ik woon.
    1
  4470. Nothing to do with socialism. It was economics, pure and simple.
    1
  4471. Everyone manipulates everyone for something.
    1
  4472.  @izoefendi7278  The Athanasian Creed (Holy Trinity) says they are all of one kind — God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
    1
  4473. I hope this will not be used to justify more censorship, especially Europe‐wide and demanded by the European Union.
    1
  4474. Because it might be, relatively speaking? At least regarding a potential NATO‐Russia conflict, but not regarding the current Ukraine‐Russia conflict.
    1
  4475. The only reason Taiwan/ROC has two parties is because the KMT was becoming too assertive and independent (an unfortunate tendency of client states, eg Iraq, Saudi Arabia). Because of this the USA engineered the creation of a rival party which it could control. Hence what we have now, democracy. American style.
    1
  4476. What should they do?
    1
  4477. ​ @kathylarson8876  money laundering at its finest.
    1
  4478. UFO's and the like are either fake or misperception. If we can't find aliens in our own galaxy I very much doubt that they would be gallivanting across our skys.
    1
  4479. The Pentagon and the military-security sector of the military‐industrial complex want it. Trump is merely reflecting their opinions.
    1
  4480. Why is it that I can't help thinking your face would not be out of place in a black and white photo of the Edwardian period?
    1
  4481.  @ClannCholmain  Tell that to Libya and Yugoslavia.
    1
  4482.  @ClannCholmain  On trumped up charges, in a court of the victors where basic legal principles and protections were ignored and where he eventually died in prison after being denied drugs (may even have been poisoned).
    1
  4483. It's not C.C.P. It's C.P.C. – the Communist Party of China. Your misspelling, deliberate or not, immediately flags you as either being a propagandist for the (especially anglophone) West, some extremist religious cultist living in exile in the West, or someone from the Republic of China.
    1
  4484.  @user-gy3wz3gz2y  And would probably be even richer and more developed if it were not for the elites in the most powerful countries having an interest in keeping them poor and underdeveloped.
    1
  4485. Liberal merely means capitalist. It's liberal only to the degree that it allows capitalists to have property rights and privileges those rights over all others. It's the 'haves' tolerating the 'have-nots' up to the point where they start demanding equality or equity, directly challenging private monopolies, whether in land, property or natural resources.
    1
  4486.  @davidprimeau3368  Algorithms are what primarily drive the stock market. Algorithms and other underhand practices And who creates those algorithms, you may ask. Certain western governments working in collusion on behalf of the super rich (who will keep the ponzi scheme going for as long as possible).
    1
  4487. What a silly question. It's really like asking: how can you fight against the legitimate government of a prosperous country called the Peoples Republic of China? Why would Chinese people want to fight their own government? Why would Chinese people want foreigners to fight against their own government? And why would most foreigners even want to fight the government of China anyway, what's it ever done to them? Should we be asking people to fight back against the corporate‐capitalist government of the USA?
    1
  4488. Probably automated trolls (bots) too because the corporatists don't want to pay their workers a living wage. Also, troll bots don't go on strike or question the motives of the elite.
    1
  4489. I'm sure the enemy knows that though and would have multiple strikes. Also the technology may have been developed that bathes an area for a sustained period in intense radiation that can penetrate even the deepest and most protected bunker. A weapon that can simulate a neutron star burst or something similar for even a couple of seconds is what I'm thinking of. Just out of interest, could dark matter, dark energy, dark flow, exotic matter (whatever they are) be weaponised? Could gravity?
    1
  4490. I'm sure that either jointly or separately Russia and China will prove themselves more than capable at suppressing undue interference from the USA in that country and, indeed, that region. Cooperation for mutual benefit between Kazakhstan and its neighbours is a much better proposition than any involving conflict or sanctions.
    1
  4491. Read somewhere that the director of Homeland Security is trying to ban people saying that, accusing them of disinformation.
    1
  4492. What is "traditional morality"... how is it defined? And what time period are you talking about — the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, the Renaissance, the Reformation?
    1
  4493. Growth for the sake of growth makes no sense. Indeed, it's one of the inherent failures of the capitalist system. Capitalism is filled with bubbles caused by unsustainable growth followed by inevitable collapse and stagnation and the problem of a communist system adopting elements of capitalism/corporatism is that begins to suffer from the same problems. Incidentally, what has communism (classical Marxism, neo‐Marxism) got to say about this? Under an orthodox interpretation of Marx (regarding the transition phase away from full capitalism to full communism when an economy is presumably in an ambiguous intermediate stage between the two) how should China proceed. Currently the Chinese government seems to have turned Marxism on its head: it's no longer feudalism turning into communism by way of an undesirable but necessary capitalism, but feudalism turning into capitalism (or late stage capitalism on the cusp of transitioning into who knows what) by means of communism.
    1
  4494.  @deeplorable8988  Why invent the wheel twice? Or fire? Or penicillin? Sharing know-how instead of hoarding it makes the world a better place because humanity as a whole gets to benefit from it. The wheel, fire, penicillin… is the common heritage of us all and we, as societies, are better for that. Capitalism is all about the few enclosing the commons and denying it to the rest of us.
    1
  4495. It's a semi-colony of the USA. ▪︎ 그것은 미국의 반 식민지입니다.
    1
  4496. What about hypersonic bunker busters tipped with uranium or some other dense material, especially something designed to act on the same principle as a HEAT (High Explosive Anti‐Tank) round that projects a small but highly concentrated beam of, say, super hot plasma, that can slice through rock like a hot knife through butter?
    1
  4497.  @EnglishMike  incompetence... or expediency?
    1
  4498. It's what the the US deep state wants.
    1
  4499. A complete reversal of reality.
    1
  4500.  Erik Hatzenbuehler  A regime that comes to power in a coup d'état orchestrated by a foreign government which then proceeds to ban all political parties, causes a civil war, and persecutes its political opponents and ethnicities, is not a democratic government. Not by a long shot. And while Putin's Russia might not be an ideal democracy according to the definition of that shining corporatist utopia on the hill that is the USA, it is nonetheless a more democratic society than what Ukraine is at the moment. Also, what an arrogant assumption it is that democracy should be the sole criterion of political legitimacy.
    1
  4501.  Erik Hatzenbuehler  I don't think most people do call it a revolution (and if they do then they don't really know what a revolution is vis-a-vis an unconstitional seizure of power), and declaring a significant proportion of your own people persona non grata thus triggering a civil war cannot really fit the definition of revolution because revolutions are popular uprisings against oppression, not for oppression. — Oh, and in answer to your question, yes, Russia invaded Ukraine, but that fact under the circumstances is irrelevant as the government of Ukraine was engaging in widespread persecution of ethnic Russians and inviting NATO, an organisation vowed to Russia's destruction, right onto Russia's doorstep. This constituted an existential threat to Russia's security that the country simply could not tolerate, it being tantamount to a declaration of war on the Russian Federation itself.
    1
  4502.  Erik Hatzenbuehler  Maybe by the Stepan Bandera Azov Battalion of neo-fascists and their fellow travellers, but I'm sure the vast majority of Ukrainians, whether ethnic Ukrainian or ethnic Russian, disagree. Remember, Ukraine fought fascism in the Great Patriotic War so I don't think most people actually do support a neo-fascist, ultra-nationalist government of antisemitic xenophobes hellbent on selling off everything to US corporations.
    1
  4503.  Erik Hatzenbuehler  More of a mutiny by soldiers who were fed up with czarist autocracy and didn't want to the post-revolutionary government to continue an unpopular war.
    1
  4504.  @kaisersaltyvonsaltenburg3298  It's what the Americans want. It's what the Bank of International Settlements wants. And its what the International Monetary Fund wants. Therefore, it's what the Egyptian government wants and its comprador elite want. Who cares what the Egyptian people want. It could even serve as a base of operations for the control of continental Africa by the West.
    1
  4505. I wonder if their being captured alive was all intended by their handlers; that they never were supposed to successfully escape.
    1
  4506. But don't let facts get in the way of a good story.
    1
  4507. Maybe a catastrophe for Russia but I don't think it is for China. Indeed China is probably the one country out of all the others that persuaded Putin to give up on Syria. It wants stability and a stake in the reconstruction of Syria and what's left of Palestine. Pipelines, roads, canals... the chance of securing building contracts in Syria and progressing with the Belt and Road Initiative in the greater Middle East are more important that propping up a country in a war it cannot win.
    1
  4508. I'm sure they'll be returned discreetly and nothing more will be said, certainly not in the British media.
    1
  4509. Bombing German cities and civilian population centres that had no strategic value in a bid to goad the Germans into attacking British cities instead of military airfields and therefore take pressure of the airforce, while military expedient and cynically pragmatic is nothing to brag about.
    1
  4510. Wake up! It's capitalism that's causing these crises. Communism has nothing to do with it. And if the system collapses (which is what all ponzi schemes and fiat currencies do) the rich certainly won't be sharing their wealth with the rest of us, you can be sure of that.
    1
  4511. So you're saying Canadian assets are Great Britain's to order around and as Great Britain is a puppet of the USA then it can order its puppet Great Britain to order its puppet Canada to do whatever the USA wants. So I suppose according to your logic Canada is a completely free and independent country fighting to maintain its freedom and democracy from Russia and China (who really are free because they have no foreign monarch to answer to).
    1
  4512. How much gold and silver bullion do the two countries have in their treasuries to prop up their respective currencies? Because a currency that can be readily converted into bullion has much stronger purchasing power than one that cannot. Also, how powerful are their respective economies as a country that has a lot of manufacturing capacity is in a much better position than one that has comparatively little. Remember, the United States dollar is currently a fiat currency backed by nothing and outside of its military‐industrial complex it really only has the FIRE sector (finance, insurance and real estate) to fall back on, all of which rely on a strong dollar being universally accepted globally as a hard currency, which it won't be able to do if the Chinese Yuan replaces it as the preferred global currency.
    1
  4513. It can. And is.
    1
  4514. Their agenda is set by two things: the USA is one and the other is the banks, both of whom are neo‐liberal.
    1
  4515. ​ @Ludovicus-Wyndham  How so?
    1
  4516.  @wolf_3691  What, like the Boer state of South Africa under apartheid/Jim Crow segregation? Surrounded by nations populated by blacks as well as having an overwhelmingly black native population dispossessed of their lands.
    1
  4517. With strong effort on the part of the Russians and with the help of the Chinese I think Ukraine can be rebuilt fairly quickly and China's Belt and Road Initiative restarted. The USA will then have only delayed the economic integration of this part of Eurasia, not stopped it.
    1
  4518. The deep state of the USA has become the victim of its own success – too successful for its own good.
    1
  4519. The USA doesn't want Europe to be an economic competitor so it's using its influence to have certain European politicians have their countries commit economic suicide to forestall this. Greater European independence from Washington or closer cooperation with Asia is something the US policy elite definitely don't want, especially if it means Russia growing stronger.
    1
  4520. Why should the USA put Israel on a leash or rein them in when it's the United States itself that wants to destabilise the region? Israel acts for the most part as a proxy, not independently. The same goes for Saudi Arabia. The USA could stop it all tomorrow with a single phonecall, but it doesn't want to. War is profitable and the USA is all about profit.
    1
  4521. Did things differently and was made to pay the price – twice.
    1
  4522. It looks to me to be highly probable that the main actors in this drama have already worked out a deal between themselves on how to divide Syria into various spheres of influence.
    1
  4523. The media use it as a scare word and means of deligitimation, like they use the word 'Taliban' for the Afghan government or 'Houthis' instead of Yemenis.
    1
  4524. Nice monument and nice buildings.
    1
  4525. The warrant for his arrest I am given to understand was ad hoc and issued without warning. He presumably didn't know that he was going to be arrested or even that he was on a wanted list. I am also given to understand that this was a stopover for refuelling purposes; perhaps his plane was running out of fuel and had no choice but to land in France.
    1
  4526. Don't subscribe to... or shouldn't – in an ideal world – subscribe to?
    1
  4527. Ever since commodore Perry demanded Japan open up its ports to the ships of the USA under threat of attack if they refused.
    1
  4528. I don't think the USA so much 'won' as Russia basically decided it didn't want to play the game by the USA's rules anymore so it started playing by new rules – it's own – and like China, after initial trials and tribulations, began to prosper and seems now to be slowly gaining ground over its rival. Ironically, the USA is 'winning' this war against itself by doing what it did so successfully against the Soviet Union. That is, it's going bankrupt. I suppose this is where the phrase 'going for broke' really comes from. The Keynesian pump-priming of its military‐industrial economy, a system pioneered by the National Socialists of Germany during the 1930's, is finally running out of road. It didn't turn out well for them and it looks like it's not turning out well for the USA either. A war economy ultimately based on fiat currency and deficit spending not only causes inflation but runs out of low hanging fruit to conquer. Like the Roman empire, once it's reached the limits of what it can expand into and new loot is no longer coming in can no longer sustain itself. The USA has met those limits in the form of China, Russia and India: it can no longer conquer with impunity and exploit the resources of the conquered without coming up directly against those aforementioned countries, states at least as powerful as itself. As Karl Marx noted more than a century ago, under capitalism the rate of profit tends to drop as time goes by necessating capital seeking out new returns on investment (i.e. infinite growth). Unfortunately, the USA cannot grow using the existing model, one made worse because the kind of capitalism the USA is using is primarily based on rentierism – parasitizing the capital gains made by others rather than making and using it's own. The rentier eventually runs out of other people's money.
    1
  4529. That's probably exactly why he's on the panel: because he is an agent of influence for British intelligence, guaranteed to further the Establishment's point of view.
    1
  4530. And they're both a species of neo‐fascists, in my opinion. The ideology of the Republicans is that of a people resentful that their pro‐fascist beliefs were marginalised following world war 2 and that they had to spend 35 in the wilderness, plotting and scheming behind the scenes, before they could re-emerge under the leadership of Ronald Reagan, repackaged as faux liberals and pseudo‐conservatives.
    1
  4531. Bail ins, bail outs, seizing and freezing, confiscation of gold and silver....
    1
  4532. Central Bank Digital Currency/Currencies which will involve the creation of a new international payment system and the transition away from the United States dollar as the global reserve currency to a basket of currencies backed by gold.
    1
  4533. Like Thomas Friedman and Freidrich Hayek, he's just a shill shilling for the establishment.
    1
  4534. Everything seems so clean and bright where you are Alex, like all the buildings are brand new. The sun always brings out the colour of things. Unfortunately, when it's this bright it's usually also hot and I hate sunbathing weather, and even more so if its coupled with humidity. Anyway, an interesting talk and here's hoping don't get sunburn.
    1
  4535. Because they have been willing to accept their second class status and also are fewer in number, often returning back to India rather than staying permanently. They are immigrants and from the very beginning are under no illusion as to their status and purpose: cheap, exploitable, expendable labour. Immigrants from France's colonies on the other hand came as a people with every expectation that they would be, as French citizens from the very beginning, rewarded for their hard work by acceptance and accorded the same rights and treatment as every other French citizen. France it would appear has failed to keep its side of the bargain.
    1
  4536. The military-industrial-corporate complex, along with the billionaires who make up Davos, plan decades ahead too.
    1
  4537. To be fair and to give her the benefit of the doubt, and assuming what you say is true, she may not know this, especially if she has been brought up on the island of Taiwan (the Republic of China) or in the USA or Canada.
    1
  4538. Interesting. Don't know how much of what you say is true but I wouldn't put it past certain elements of the military and intelligence apparatus of the USA to do this, those that are literally unaccountable within the regular system of governance and oversight.
    1
  4539.  @HarryWolf  I don't know. Ask the OP.
    1
  4540. Brexit may be looked on in history as the moment when the atlanticists (pro‐USA globalists) won a decisive victory over the continentalists (pro‐European globalists) and the Anglo-American vision of globalisation, unable to win the ideological battle with its rivals, made a clean break with the Franco‐German vision of globalisation.
    1
  4541. Stop using the word "girls" for sexually mature women. It's irritating! They are not teenage girls they are women and the fact that they are between 13 and 19 (their teens) is, or should be, largely irrelevant depending on circumstances. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and waddles like a duck… then basically it's a duck. I'm given to thinking that it is the material conditions, especially economic, that determines the suitability for marriage/reproduction among youth and that these conditions have changed (or may always have been different) in Europe in comparison to the rest of the world, differences that only increased with the advent of the industrial revolution. Incidentally, in this video there appears to be an implicit and subtle bias in favour of (western) European/North American norms, like as if these should constitute a universal moral standard and any traditional norms not in accordance with them are passé.
    1
  4542. Capitalism/corporatism might be able generate great wealth, but only communism/socialism can distribute that wealth equitably. Ideally, the two can be syncretised into an optimal system of wealth creation and wealth distribution. Wealth that goes to the top 10% and leaves everyone else scrambling for the scraps is not a morally defensible position. Where we can feed the world's population several times over yet people still starve because of a fanatical belief in the monopolising by private interests of resources vital to the healthy functioning of entire societies is not good. The world is suffering from a pathological obsession with the ownership of private property and selfish individualism, none more so than those in the West. It needs to end.
    1
  4543. This is partly a propaganda video so they will routinely attack communism and socialism as well as any other official enemy of the US empire and its Anglo-American brand of gangster corporatism, indeed, anything that resists transnational predatory capitalism.
    1
  4544. Like NATO, the EU serves US interests. It was set up that way. Indeed the whole of the post war European and international political-economic system, such as Bretton Woods, was specifically set up to benefit the USA first and foremost. That is now under challenge. Merely by developing and diverting their resources to serve their own needs is a threat.
    1
  4545. (Neo-) liberals control what you call "the West" and they are in no way Marxists. Certainly not in the manner that word is generally understood
    1
  4546. Probably hiding their ‘deaths from other causes’ as COVID-19 deaths to exaggerate the severity of the so-called pandemic and and have the media controlled by Big Pharma use it as an pretext to demand the Indian government take even more drastic action to force it upon a gullible public (as well as hiding deaths from actually taking COVID-19 ‘vaccines’ in the first place, which are now known to be stochastically causing various debilitating ailments in an unusually large number of those vaccinated). Also, India may have a more virulent strain of COVID-19 than that found in Europe and North America.
    1
  4547. He'll never be president again. Full stop.
    1
  4548. A fortiori the countries of the European Union.
    1
  4549. Would you like to fight your brother?
    1
  4550. The seizure is just a giant money laundering operation. Same with Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
    1
  4551. They are white. Only white people are truly human, everyone else is....
    1
  4552. For a corporation everything has a price tag and is owned by someone, even extending to abstract and intangible ideas.
    1
  4553. Incorrect. Faulty logic. If they had died they would not have been resuscitated. The fact that they were resuscitated shows they were not dead (i.e. had not suffered brain (stem) death). Like someone who has been anaesthetised, they have simply gone into a deep sleep or coma. Almost dead, but not dead. No one who has truly died has ever been resuscitated. Ever.
    1
  4554. What did you expect him to wear... a grass skirt with a bone through his nose like a Papua New Guinea savage? 😆
    1
  4555. So you equate Christianity with genocide? That makes sense given its history of crusades, witch hunts, antisemitism, misogyny and the destruction of Europe's rich pagan culture. And don't forget, Russia was Christian too... and that Hitler was an atheist, public rhetoric aside.
    1
  4556. Why China?
    1
  4557. ​ @guymontag2948  If Ukraine is not part of NATO why is it being armed by NATO, its troops trained by NATO, its military equipment, intelligence and logistics supplied by NATO and, last but by no means least, why are NATO military personnel (some disguised as mercenaries) in Ukraine? To say that Ukraine is not in NATO, well, it sure looks like it to me.
    1
  4558. What do you think did he died of – smoke inhalation, burns, cardiac arrest?
    1
  4559. They will send millions... á la world wars 1 and 2. See what happened in both: the USA prospered at everyone else's expense. Further, it got the USA out of the Great Depression that its bankers and speculators had created.
    1
  4560. The EU has always been a project of the USA in collaboration with the comprador sellouts of Europe, both acting on behalf of the rentier elites of the West. The EU is a monster that keeps on growing, just like the police-security state of the USA.
    1
  4561.  @support_mage  It was an inside job. Al-Qaeda, if it carried out any attack at all on that day, it certainly wasn't the one that demolished, at free fall speed, three steel framed high-rise buildings in the space of a few hours by flying airplanes into them, airplanes doing impossible aerial manoeuvres I may add that even experienced pilots can't do. Oil fires don't turn concrete and steel into microscopic dust particles.
    1
  4562. Yes it is wrong.
    1
  4563. ​ @kflashcarr1992  The only problem with that is that international shipping is not under threat. So unless the USA creates pirates on the high seas the way it creates terrorist organisations on land and uses that as an excuse, there is no need to police the high seas with the US navy, the coastguard of littoral countries can do that.
    1
  4564. They are captured by the USA.
    1
  4565. I suspect the real powers behind the throne in the European Union deliberately want to foster the conditions that will make colour revolutions, coups and the like more likely, destabilising the continent and making the assumption to power of authoritarian right wingers like Marine le Pen governments much, much more likely.
    1
  4566. ​ @Pid75  Mexico?
    1
  4567. The West = The United States of America (aka The Global Hegemon and World Policeman).
    1
  4568. More like destroying the livelihoods of everyone outside the one percent and turning everyone into a neo-feudal serf for the FIRE sector of the USA.
    1
  4569. Hypersonic missiles and supersonic missiles would destroy the US navy and airforce. Modern submarines and their torpedoes (especially if they are Russian) would make mincemeat out of any surface ships that got near to the coast, as would modern fighter jets (again, especially if they are Russian). The USA is falling behind in certain areas and has fallen behind in others. Aircraft carriers are obsolete in modern warfare against the kind of modern military that the Russians and (probably the Chinese too) can field. Indeed, the US navy simulated war with China over Taiwan and lost in every scenario. Off the Chinese coast and Russia's border their respective militaries have the upper hand and are virtually guaranteed to win.
    1
  4570.  @danmar007  Define precisely what 'The West' is.
    1
  4571. Rent seeking – the enemy of capitalism. Adam Smith warned against it, as did Karl Marx. Is this the 'late stage capitalism' that some people have talked about?
    1
  4572. He doesn't support Putin, communism or the war against Ukraine so at best he's what's called a liberal, that is, a devil's advocate, who gives token pushback but otherwise more or less supports the mainstream position.
    1
  4573.  @michaelharvey75  Hope is a good breakfast, but a poor supper.
    1
  4574. I thought the idea that you could detect whether people were this or that through brain scans had been debunked or at least found to be deeply flawed. Also, isn't the definition of psychopath/sociopath for the most part culturally determined — do they really exist outside the sociocultural framework of the observer?
    1
  4575. No, China. More moral too.
    1
  4576.  @desiderata8811  They could be as brutal as anybody but, generally, I would say that contemporaneous Chinese society was on the whole less brutal than ancient Roman society and more developed economically. Their most brutal age had been in the previous Chin dynasty, the one that preceded the Han.
    1
  4577. The USA is trying to rebuild the sanctions and embargo regime that existed from 1946 to 1989, basically recreating the cold war in which Russia and China were largely isolated from international trade with the West. Whether it will work now as well as it did then is something that only time will tell but that is the economic policy. Perhaps they will also start a new arms race as well like they did in the 1980's with the Star Wars programme in an attempt to bankrupt Russia and China, paying for it by printing IOU dollars ad infinitum.
    1
  4578. Average Germans are paying the price; the pro-US, pro-EU elites are doing fine.
    1
  4579. Those Covid shots seem to be making him more, not less, susceptible to repeated re-infection.
    1
  4580. Funded by multi-billionaire media moguls scared of China more like.
    1
  4581. The IAEA is controlled by the countries of western Europe and North America, with the USA being the main driver. As Japan is the USA's major ally in the region it is going to get supportfrom the USA. China in contrast is but a minor player, relatively speaking.
    1
  4582.  @ozgurpeynirci  Sounds like the modern West: economies based on the exploitation of others due to a relative lack of resources at home.
    1
  4583.  @kiwikeith7633  They're probably a fake party created by US intelligence.
    1
  4584. I'm sure the Russians want to cause as little damage to civilian infrastructure as possible and to keep civilian casualties to an absolute minimum. Minimising the hardships endured by Ukraine's civilian population is clearly good for public relations and also alienates them less.
    1
  4585. A task it is finding itself increasingly unable to perform.
    1
  4586. Maybe that's the intention. All this politically correct, woke nonsense might be part of some secret plan (aka 'conspiracy theory').
    1
  4587. Would that be a capitalism reliant on chattel and wage slavery and the stealing and exploitation of other nation's resources, together with monopolies and rent extraction?
    1
  4588.  @deraidat6523  those dollars are owed to the Federal Reserve, a private institution run by Zionists, just like the Bank of International Settlements.
    1
  4589. Hopefully with any luck such scenarios as shown will never be necessary. The capability to destroy or at least inflict serious damage on an enemy's fleet should be enough of a deterrent to dissuade either side from serious, sustained naval warfare against each other, such navies being used primarily against second-rate adversaries in easily won battles.
    1
  4590. Considering the Islamic State is just another way of saying US proxies, what you're really saying is that the Kurds were fighting their fellow Muslims, with both sides being used by the USA to destroy Syria and Iraq and destabilise the Middle East.
    1
  4591. What did he do wrong?
    1
  4592. ​ @murrayhill9000  Donald 'I was one of the chief conspirators of 9/11' Cheney.
    1
  4593.  @yuehaohuang5536  That's exactly what banks in the USA do (housing bubble), why should a Chinese bank be any different?
    1
  4594. It seems that Russia and China are becoming more free in comparison to Britain and the USA. It's as if we won the cold war but lost the peace; we've successfully persuaded the Russians and the Chinese to adopt capitalism and the capitalist conception of representative (indirect) democracy while losing it ourselves.
    1
  4595.  @charlesdayon8420  You may be right but from my reading of history in retrospect both Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt (presidents of the United States in world wars 1 and 2 respectively) lied to the American people and did their utmost to get their country into war (with not a little prompting by the British).
    1
  4596.  @paulwalker797  I agree. There are serious systemic problems within Britain's polity, both economic and political, that have gone unaddressed for far too long and which brexit has only made more apparent. What's more, I think these problems will remain unaddressed because our antiquated political system, biased as it is in favour of a rentier economy, is simply unable to bring about the the much needed reforms necessary to make national unity sustainable in its present form. It will only get worse, I fear, after we leave (assuming we really do leave in practice and not just have our politicians pretend we've left) and may even lead to the break up of the 300 year Union.
    1
  4597.  @paulwalker797  : partly correct.
    1
  4598. NATO intervene? I doubt that. I am sure the Russians are more than capable of protecting the nuclear reactor from harm by themselves and whatever conclusions the IAEA's fact finding mission reaches I am pretty confident that there will be a quick resolution soon.
    1
  4599. It would seem then comrade that a return to communism is what is needed. Under communism the average Russian and Ukrainian tended to be better fed and eat a healthier and more varied diet than their western counterparts. And could afford to eat! /$
    1
  4600. Some countries will be in a much better position to survive the coming economic depression than others.
    1
  4601. Well, to be honest it was an unworkable arrangement to begin with and was probably designed as such by the British – dividing, if not conquering, to the last.
    1
  4602. Isn't Canada just an extension of the USA? Canada needs to get rid of its current prime minister and his neoliberal cabinet and replace him with someone who is less of a globalist and more of a nationalist/nativist.
    1
  4603. Is it possible that you are both right?
    1
  4604. "… speaking German right now". You can't use that expression, only we Brits can. It's copyrighted. 🤨
    1
  4605. Russia tried to form an anti-German coalition with France and Great Britain but were continually rebuffed. Indeed Great Britain and France helped create fascism in the first place to destroy communism, which they feared more. This led the Russians in the end to form an alliance with Germany in the hope that Russia wouldn't be attacked and to create a buffer zone.
    1
  4606.  @sheenytan1061  The threat of a good example.
    1
  4607.  @sheenytan1061  The threat of a bad good example.
    1
  4608. Ulterior motives and professed motives. Pretexts and real reasons.
    1
  4609. They seem to want a replay of world wars 1 & 2, a double whammy that brought Europe to its knees and if it happens a third time may very well finish the continent off for good as a competing centre of power. No rivals, no peer competitors... that's what the military‐industrial complex of the USA wants.
    1
  4610. The USA, the European Union has no say. Until and unless the countries of NATO grow a backbone and stand up to the warmongering neocons and libs in the USA then this proxy war the US military‐industrial complex is waging against Russia will go on indefinitely.
    1
  4611. Considering that Ukraine was an integral part of both imperial Russia and its successor the Soviet Union until very recently then it it might be better to see the Ukraine-Russia war as an irredentist/revanchist war on the part of Russia. That is, Russia is reclaiming territory that is historically Russian.
    1
  4612. Why would they do that? I mean, what would be the point?
    1
  4613. Good for some and bad for others.
    1
  4614. Not necessary and/or desirable. Maybe not even possible.
    1
  4615. Not defence. War.
    1
  4616. But he wasn't in charge. So it was really 'The Cabal' (or whatever you want to call them) of the Deep State who were really in charge. A government by a small para-legal, quasi-governmental clique who operate outside the official channels of the state apparatus and are not bound by its laws.
    1
  4617. But now it has new, improved satellite killing weapons. It's a new arms race, and one the USA might just lose.
    1
  4618. Retaliation...?
    1
  4619. The USA wants to stand alone with a European rump as its satraps.
    1
  4620. They don't care! And why should they; why care about something that you have no power over?
    1
  4621. ​ @kuchingkuching  Careful, your jealousy is showing. The whole point of western imperialism and colonialism throughout the centuries up to the very present we live in is, and remains, to seize the wealth of the world's nations to enrich themselves, confiscating the global commons that should by rights belong to all of us for the benefit of just a greedy, selfish few, whether those few be an aristocracy or a plutocracy. It is the very nature of capitalism and the feudalism it grew out of to concentrate all wealth in t their own hands by monopolising resources. Do you think that artificial scarcity caused by capitalism would just go away if the West were to get its dirty hands on Russia's resources?
    1
  4622. If NATO did that then Russia would retaliate.
    1
  4623. Shut up Hasbara troll.
    1
  4624. I think it's already been written. In fact, as I'm given to understand, some capitalists/ fascists were so outraged by it they even wrote a response which they entitled the Little Black Book of Communism.
    1
  4625. Putin is nearing retirement so there is little need for regime change as he will be gone soon (within the next 5 years or less I would reckon). What is more important is who will replace him when he eventually does go.
    1
  4626.  @james6401  — The fascists merely went to the United States of America and laid low for a while (about 25 years) before re‐emerging after the assassination of John Kennedy and his brother, Martin King, Malcolm X, etc. The progressiveness embodied by theose people was a bit too much for them to stomach. —
    1
  4627. What would settling the Kurdish problem mean in reality? The Turks see the area inhabited by the Kurds as an integral part of Turkey and find Kurdish nationalism anathema, seeing it as conducive to separatism and the breakup of Turkey.
    1
  4628. China's banks are private?
    1
  4629. Since the USA through its proxies (WEF, UN etc.) and agents of influence (Von de Leyen) has decided to create an EU army and have full fiscal union. The powers that be want the European Union to be a full-fledged federation with a central authority whose power supercedes that of the individual states. And it does not hide the fact.
    1
  4630. I'd rather the USA be destroyed first so we can all live in peace.
    1
  4631. It's bad for the banks and the one percent.
    1
  4632. But the world is not a game. Reality cannot be made to neatly fit the algorithms of a mathematician using a computer.
    1
  4633. He has got away with it!
    1
  4634. When the USA officially declares bankruptcy will you still consider it number one in this hierarchy of yours?
    1
  4635. He's an intelligence asset, what can you expect! He's not been chosen for his political acumen, popularity or charisma. He be has been chosen – I won't say elected – for his loyalty to the Anglo-American deep state.
    1
  4636. Unfortunately for the Ukrainians it's only temporary and the Russians will soon reverse these tactical victories. It will end soon.
    1
  4637. Social democracy, for what it was, died in the 1980's under Thatcher and Reagan. It was euthanized rather than violently murdered like in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America which is maybe why we didn't notice its passing so much. Besides, what's so good about social democracy when only capitalists — like social democrats — are the only ones who get elected?
    1
  4638. The equivalent of US $30 doesn't seem much. Also, this seems very vulnerable to cyber attack. That said, it is an innovation that is to be welcomed, at least initially, and if it helps the country financially and is a step on the road to gaining fiscal independence from the Bretton Woods institutions controlled by the United States, then all is for the best. If major economies like China, Russia and India get on board with trading in crypto currencies then it might provide a means by which the so-called global South can achieve real economic growth and social development instead of being held back by the debt bondage imposed the IMF and World Bank.
    1
  4639. Maybe they'll build it in the rump state (statelet) of Ukraine after Russia has finished with it. But then the war will be over and Ukraine will neither need, nor be able to afford, such tanks.
    1
  4640. I think the Russians see Ukraine as basically an extension of Russia so fighting Ukrainians is like fighting themselves, almost like a civil war, so they don't want to alienate the majority of Ukraine's citizens any more than they have to, especially as the areas where they live will eventually be absorbed into Russia either_de facto_ or de jure in everything but name (like Belarus) and they'll have to live with each other when all's said and done. They also want as much of Ukraine's infrastructure left intact at the end of the war so that it will reduce the costs of reconstruction.
    1
  4641. ​​​ @ms1594 Do your morals justify wage slavery under capitalism?
    1
  4642. Officially Biden, unofficially Blinken. Together with a sort of regency council acting as the real power behind the president during his, shall we say, incapacity.
    1
  4643. Blueish. Greenish. Yellowish.
    1
  4644.  @zanshikaijin2709  I was joking.
    1
  4645. On paper and in principle, but in practice?
    1
  4646. According the New York Times Russia is losing in Ukraine and the Nazis... I mean Ukrainians... will be in Moscow by years end.
    1
  4647. But what do you say to all the transgendered people who are happy with their lifestyle choices?
    1
  4648. Why should they have defeated them? The Taliban, like ISIS, was created by the USA and served — and still serves — the geopolitical goals of the United States. And what does defeat even look like in the context of the proxy wars and cold wars now being fought? These wars aren't supposed to end definitively anyway but to continue in other places using other proxies indefinitely.
    1
  4649. You seem to forget why Germany was divided. Let me remind you. World war 2 and the US‐led cold war. Also, Germany is a puppet of the USA and its not in control of NATO (or even the EU), the United States is. So it wouldn't have made any sense in Russia asking what Germany wanted. And if the USA had "given up Europe" (is Europe even theirs to give up in the first place?) Germany would undoubtedly be carrying out a foreign policy more in keeping with its own economic interests and national wellbeing, one very different to what it's currently pursuing.
    1
  4650. Says the country with 800 military bases and countless coups to its name, the latest being Syria and Ukraine. 🤨
    1
  4651. Would they have spoken out for him anyway. Communists and socialists are generally atheist and have no particular love of religion. Members of trades, student and labour unions would, I imagine, be totally indifferent. While Jews (and members of other religions) would probably be quite happy that a rival religion or sect was being persecuted (especially in the case of the Jews whose arch enemy and persecutor-in-chief had been for centuries the Catholic Church).
    1
  4652. ​​ @SUHSeungJi Doesn't the USA have gold though, albeit not enough to pay the multi-trillion dollar debt? Can't it back up its fiat currency with gold and turn it into a non-fiat currency, if only to a limited extent?
    1
  4653. Exactly what the US imperium wants.
    1
  4654. It undermines the legal principle that a country's nationals are protected when they travel abroad and that they have basic rights that protects them from arbitrary arrest and seizure.
    1
  4655. I'm sure the Russians have equipment that can jam or shoot down any drone if it poses a real threat to their convoys.
    1
  4656. " [ ... ] 7 and 28 days after birth extermination." □○□ I know that the USA allows – at least in certain states – (almost) full term abortions but I wasn't aware that the USA also allowed for post‐birth euthanasia. Please elucidate further. When have living, healthy babies (as opposed to babies born with such severe mental or physical handicaps that they would not survive much beyond their first year anyway) been killed in the USA, which states?
    1
  4657.  @jiaxiangchen6743  And I would add, appears to be at the beginning of an existential crisis similar to what the late Roman republic went through. It's system of government is riven with corruption and cronyism/clientelism and unable to keep pace with a changing world by making reforms necessary to maintain even the status quo.
    1
  4658. According to Anglo-Americans and Franco‐Germans these were defensive wars fought to protect the free world and western civilisation from godless bolshevism (unlike Hitler's wars which were totally not).
    1
  4659. A significant defeat for the US navy in foreign or even international waters, especially if it can be seen as provocative or offensive, would be more likely to precipitate either a civil war or a coup d'état in the USA rather than an intensification of the conflict. Once you've proven decisively that the USA navy cannot operate with impunity in waters close to China or in the Asia-Pacific in general then any idea of strategically defeating China militarily is moot.
    1
  4660. As an organised, unified polity only about 1,900 to 2000 years (semi-organised for longer, maybe plus 300-500 years) with civil wars, invasions and civil breakdown cutting it down to about half. Culture-wise, certain aspects of what may be called quintessentially Chinese culture can be put to about 3000-3500 years, but 5000 years is pushing it a bit though. This is not to knock Chinese culture or the Chinese but there is no reason to exaggerate China's political and cultural historical longevity.
    1
  4661. After being born and lived all their lives in Britain for two or more generations don't the children of the original immigrants become themselves indigenous? How many generations must pass before they are considered native and have as much right to influence the politics and culture of the nation as anyone else, especially if they become the majority?
    1
  4662.  @JS-ih7lu  Unfortunately, there is always a Yeltsin waiting in the wings to spoil things.
    1
  4663.  @davesy6969  Isn't capitalism – the pursuit of profit – wonderful‽
    1
  4664.  @bogdansakhnyuk586  So, a war by proxy is not a war? The whole of the cold war was a NATO war by proxy and it lasted for the better part of 50 years (arguably still ongoing). And it was a war against Russia (the Soviet Union) and against the economic, political, social and ideological underpinnings of Russian society. It thus represented an existential threat. It now wages covert war against China. War doesn't have to be military; sanctions and embargoes are a form of war and one that definitely was aimed at Russia by NATO (the West).
    1
  4665. ​ @guydreamr  Well Britain, France and the USA seem to be doing pretty well for themselves. 300+ years and still going.
    1
  4666. And if the USA gets hyper-inflation or goes bankrupt the government will probably seize their assets with bail-ins and gold/silver confiscations/forced selling. The government and business could very probably seize the funds from which pensions are paid.
    1
  4667. Would be very demoralising I should imagine.
    1
  4668. Plutocracy cares only for itself. Wealthy people do not struggle to pay their bills like you and me and don't have to worry about being made homeless or going hungry or cold because they don't have enough money or the money that they do have has been devalued because of inflation.
    1
  4669. I always thought it was to allow children to come home from school while it was still sad daylight.
    1
  4670. What if North Korea decided to nuke South Korea?
    1
  4671. I doubt Britain has much more.
    1
  4672. Came here for all the racism and white man's burden schtik. Wasn't dissapointed.
    1
  4673. It's an offer designed to be rejected.
    1
  4674. Pat Pezzi With complicity of elements within the US administration and intelligence community.
    1
  4675. But whose...?
    1
  4676. Go take your hateful propaganda elsewhere! Troll.
    1
  4677. I think you have misidentified the wrong class here. Don't you mean the aristocracy (or I suppose in modern terms the oligarchy)? They are the ones who hold real power, not the bourgeoisie who remain the servant class. The aristocracy/oligarchy have always resorted to behaviour that would be considered criminal when committed by ordinary folk and you don't have to invoke the lumpen proletariat to explain that. Just think about the European knights of the middle ages, they stood at the top of the feudal food chain yet were the very embodiment of organised violence against peasant revolts. I think you are misunderstanding what Marx meant by the phrase 'the Lumpen Proletariat'. In my understanding of the term he was referring to the criminal class – the prison population – as distinct from the general proletariat in having no class consciousness and thus indifferent to class struggle, as a result being basically a lost cause as far as instilling revolutionary spirit in them was concerned. I agree that we are currently ruled by a corrupt elite, but then elites have always been corrupt by the standards of the general population. You can scarcely be a member of an elite without being in some sense corrupt. Nothing in that regard has changed. The only thing that might have changed is that the level of corruption has now become so pervasive, blatant and out of control that it threatens to undermine society.
    1
  4678. It was neither a riot nor an insurrection. It was merely an impromptu unguided tour. And what's odd is that security was strangely lacking on that day. I'm not condoning what these Trump supporters did but to make it out to be an insurrection – an attempt to overthrow the government of the USA – is exaggerating to put it mildly.
    1
  4679. To usher in a central banking digital currency and prop up the US dollar and euro-area.
    1
  4680. Haven't you heard, the USA recently blew up 2 out of 3 of the North Stream pipelines, stopping the flow of cheap gas to Europe. The USA is trying to force European countries to buy its commodities over those of its competitors, even if its prices are far higher than theirs.
    1
  4681. You can't really blame Hitler (or Himmler) for their beliefs as antisemitism was then rife in Europe at that time and, so I'm told, especially virulent in the late Austro-Hungarian and German empires (indeed, as was what we would now call racism, heterosexism and male chauvinism). I'd be more surprised if Hitler, coming from the social class he did, had not been antisemitic.
    1
  4682. It's all in the pipeline.
    1
  4683. It's also probably being covertly sponsored by the governments of Germany and/or the United States (the former being an occupied puppet of the latter); part of their disinformation and psychological operations against any human being or society that offers any resistance to the kleptocratic plutocracy that naturally occurs under capitalism, indeed, seems to be its inevitable conclusion.
    1
  4684. Jordan is like ancient Judea under under Herod, a total puppet state.
    1
  4685. Your sound like an incel-MGTOW.
    1
  4686. China is doing a Europe in reverse.
    1
  4687.  @Cheese_Boi1986  Whose enemy?
    1
  4688.  @KingAgniKai  They were communists so he probably is okay with that. Apparently, only non‐fascist capitalists are worthy victims.
    1
  4689.  @cfl_finn4831  And then came in a cruder, ruder version of the English, the Americans.
    1
  4690.  @user-jh1pe2mu8j  And Britain together with France declaring war on Germany.
    1
  4691.  @cfl_finn4831  The victors get to write history, not the vanquished.
    1
  4692. Deportation is not genocide. Western countries do it all the time to immigrants. And criminals.
    1
  4693.  @randobad  That's assuming aircraft actually did collide with the skyscrapers rather than were made to look as if they did through CGI.
    1
  4694. ​ @yurichtube1162  That is bullshit!
    1
  4695. On the car issue she may be right though. At the end of the day would you rather have a Europe of mass unemployment caused by China making everything or protect your own industries? Laissez-faire is good only if you have a level playing field with more or less equally developed countries and where no one has too great an advantage over others.
    1
  4696. You said it yourself: the Golan Heights are being illegally occupied by Israel. Officially, under international law the Heights are recognised as territory belonging to Syria. Acknowledging that fact is not necessarily a negation of the legitimate security concerns of Israel but merely a recognition of its illegality.
    1
  4697. I don't think he misrepresents it. Indeed, the reference to Afghanistan was casual, done merely in passing, and wasn't gone into in detail.
    1
  4698. It's just a vast money-laundering operation for the deep state to finance its clandestine operations. Politicians are being used as a cover and so they can be blackmailed, making them easier to manipulate.
    1
  4699. Is Linsey Graham that religious nutter who takes gullible people's money in his megachurch? (Maybe I'm confusing him with someone else).
    1
  4700. Taiwan already belongs to China as a de jure province. The USA implicitly, of not explicitly, recognises this, as does most of the international community, the countries of the United Nations. Therefore, legally, Taiwan is an integral part of the territory of China, albeit one that is currently not under its direct control. As for Japan, I really don't think they are a ready to sacrifice themselves as much as Americans and their supporters would like to believe. Ditto the South Koreans.
    1
  4701. And what greater way to show to the voting public that democracy has become purely symbolic. Like the letters SPQR on Roman legion standards, something meaningless.
    1
  4702. They threaten the interests of the USA, Britain and Israel by threatening to discontinue the economic sanctions and military proxy wars against Russia, Iran and China and engage in detente and rapprochement with those countries.
    1
  4703. ​ @awuma  I suppose what you're trying to say is that some cultures, societies, political-economic systems are just inherently better than others. But better at what? How do you evaluate? Have you ever heard of the 'naturalistic fallacy'?
    1
  4704. You'll be looking in vain. The only rallies you'll be seeing will be deep state approved, funded by the likes of George Soros and Bill Gates, and infiltrated from top to bottom by agents provocateurs. Spontaneous rallies that will be suppressed or turned 180° against themselves.
    1
  4705. So you think (as you seem to imply) that a dictorship – the opposite of a democracy – would be more preferable being more protective of individual rights? Did individual rights count in Hitler's Germany? Or Mussolini's Italy? Franco's Spain perhaps...? In a capitalist republic private interests trump those of the collective thereby precluding any meaningful protection of individual rights of those who lack the economic power to exercise them.
    1
  4706.  @tomdasilva2060  Correction - the class war never ended. What is needed is its resolution.
    1
  4707. The United States senate is coming ever closer to its Julius Caesar moment. These senators and representatives are so out of touch with reality.
    1
  4708. Probably because he was stressed and tired.
    1
  4709. Europe, a peninsula of Asia, must integrate economically with it as much as possible so the whole combined (Eurasia) can be the most economically, politically and militarily powerful bloc on the planet. This will take a lot of political will and the building of a lot of infrastructure to accomplish, but it can be done. The USA, of course, will seek to prevent this and that's why it can never be considered a true ally of Europe over the longer term.
    1
  4710.  @johnd6389  Out of curiosity, what is the definition of a depression?
    1
  4711. It's all a symptom of the USA's economic decline and government dysfunction. System entropy, basically. All systems eventually succumb and the USA is not immune. Britain is also suffering from system entropy.
    1
  4712. ​ @EBFilmsMan  Ah, white people from western Europe; where would the rest of the world be without them.
    1
  4713.  @qwertyui5086 : UNFORTUNATELY!
    1
  4714. Russia has presented Britain with a fait accompli that is not going to be reversed and therefore must be accepted. If only Britain's suzerein and ostensible ally the USA had not reneged on its promise not to push NATO eastwards and force Russia's hand by carrying out a coup d'etat in Ukraine. Realpolitik now demands a considerably more nuanced approach to Anglo‐Russian relations than has been seen of late based on a pragmatic understanding of exactly what Britain is capable of (and equally, what it is not capable of) and to resist, however tempting it may be, trying to 'punch above our weight' in a vainglorious attempt to impress others.
    1
  4715. Disagree. His election means nothing. It's the equivalent of a member of the National Front being elected: it sometimes happens and the media make a minor furore about it, but ultimately it is of no consequence. A protest vote in a constituency with a high non-indigenous majority that identifies with Islam is not going to change things.
    1
  4716. "... especially after the loss of East Germany." Western Germany was reunited with its eastern part in 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down and the Federal Republic of Germany absorbed its rival.
    1
  4717. The West has never set the standards with regards moral behaviour. Never. Not even at its height. So don't go expecting it to start doing so now it's relative economic decline vis-a-vis Asia.
    1
  4718.  @CDX7  Russian aggression‽ You mean like defeating fascism that the West had sicked on Russia? The Warsaw Pact was created IN RESPONSE to NATO, not the reverse! The USA only invaded France when it realised that the Russians (anti‐capitalists/anti‐fascists) were going to win and if they didn't act soon a large part of Europe would fall out of the control of the very people who had bankrolled Hitler in the first place, US and British capitalists. Considering that Russia had just survived an invasion by the skin of its teeth, 20 millions dead, by people who were anti‐communist, only to have yet another army amassing on its borders (including a re‐armed and re‐nazified Germany and Japan) who were also anti‐communist I'd say it was a shrewd move by Stalin.
    1
  4719. It shows the renaissance of Russia after the terrible nadir that was the 1990's. Russia has come back from the brink and once more is a major power on the world stage, alongside China, its ally.
    1
  4720.  @Orlunu  A nuclear war though won't just involve a few nuclear bombs, but dozens, or hundreds, and possibly even thousands exploding in the space of a couple of minutes or hours and spread over large parts of planet Earth. Nuclear tests, don't forget, were tested in such a way that they would do minimum damage to the environment and certainly to civilian infrastructure.
    1
  4721.  @Obi_boy  Are conversely allow genocidal wars of annihilation (Yemen, Israel) be carried out with impunity in the full knowlege that another power with the means through conventional warfare to stop such genocide and ethnic cleansing won't intervene to save humanity because of the global hegemon holding the rest of the world to ransom by the threat of total war.
    1
  4722.  @Orlunu  Have you not heard of the phrase 'nuclear winter' ? The potential effects on the weather/climate. Volcanoes have sometimes been known to have deleterious global effects on the climate, even if it's only for a year or two.
    1
  4723.  @Orlunu  The scenario I had in mind was one of all‐out nuclear war, not one that was limited to the exchange of a few nukes, even though the latter scenario is far more likely. More precisely, I meant we include the arsenals of all the major powers — China, Russia, Britain, France (and possibly Pakistan, India and Israel too).
    1
  4724. Socialism was what allowed them to get to first base in the first place. If it wasn't for socialism (or state capitalism/state corporatism?) they would probably have still remained at the same socioeconomic level as India.
    1
  4725. It wasn't a mutiny but a protest. A desperate cry for help.
    1
  4726. Let's start by simply asking the obvious question: who, or what, created the creator? If you can't answer that question satisfactorily then your theory can be dismissed as being in the realm of the metaphysical (theology, philosophy) and not in the realm of hard, falsifiable science.
    1
  4727. Global food crisis – engineered by secret cabal who planned and intended this as part of a larger strategy... or just incidental and caused by war?
    1
  4728. Adopt, foster? Very doable. And who knows, maybe in the future they can make clones using stem cells or use stem cells to create spermatogenic tissue that then produces viable spermatozoa that can in turn be used to impregnate a surrogate or gestate in an artificial womb. Maybe even have reproductive organ transplants or induce an originally male body to produce its own female reproductive system.
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  4729. I wouldn't go as far as saying he was a traitor. Maybe naive, but not really a traitor because he was deceived by the USA. Yeltsin, in the other hand, was in my opinion a traitor.
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  4730. The ding‐dong over the Olympics is pure theatre meant to distract the masses and make up for more concrete actions. After all, what actions of substance can the USA make in regards to its biggest supplier of cheap goods and the biggest market for its exports? Face it, China has America by the balls and if the the USA is to disconnect itself from China it must do so in a very careful and very well planned manner, something that isn't going to happen quickly, if at all. Apropos, Australia is stupid in gratuitously antagonising China with its recent trade policies.
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  4731.  @FoxDeadly  And Bangladesh.
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  4732. 500th! [Numerologically/Kabbalistically speaking, does that have any significance?]
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  4733. Probably a false flag by some secret NATO unit engaging in psychological and propaganda operations with plausible deniability deliberately designed to initially incriminate the Russians whilst allowing a fallback position of incriminating the Ukrainians (presumably blaming it on neo‐Nazis or some such) when it's discovered that it's Ukrainian technology.
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  4734. Like Rome, when the USA cannot attack Asia – where all the money and riches created by economic development are going be – and cannot exploit Africa either, it will stagnate and either collapse or have someone like emperor Constantine revive it's flagging fortunes, if only for a while.
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  4735. But everyone else is doing the same thing. It's a beggar thy neighbour world in which there is competitive devaluation of currencies because if a country allows its currency to become too expensive vis‐a‐vis another country's currency then its exports will become uncompetitive. That and the fact that at the moment there is a massive glut of oil and the oil producing countries do not want the price to go any lower.
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  4736. Dude, don't you think that there more pressing reasons for Russia's president to invade Ukraine than him being simply mad or stupid? I mean, NATO was about to get right up to Russia's borders and faced with such an intolerable provocation what was he to do? Putin's decisions I'm sure were motivated much more by sound geopolitical reasoning and the strategic implications of the USA potentially placing nuclear weapons 5 minutes flight time from Moscow than some desire to go down in history as the president who took back Ukraine. As a Russian you should know full well the history of your country and the invasions it has suffered in the last 2 centuries, as well as the unremitting hostility that the West, and the USA in particular, have directed against Russia throughout the 20th century culminating in the ruinous years of Yeltsin and Gorbachev. Anyway, I wish you all the best in your new life and hope you will one day return or visit to Russia. Putin will not be in power forever and the war between Ukraine and Russia will soon be over judging by the likes of things. Try not to let present conditions skew your judgement too negatively.
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  4737. They may have succeeded in one of their principal aims though: that of dividing Europe with a new iron curtain and sowing the seeds of a new cold war. Preventing greater Eurasian economic and political integration is a permanant and strategic objective of the USA, as is making Europe as dependent as possible.
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  4738.  @latiffabdul  I dare say even Japan and South Korea will join that East-South bloc too eventually. Those two countries are after all Asian and right on the doorstep of China, the principal country in Asia, while the USA and Europe on the other hand are thousands of miles away. It is also very probable that Australia and New Zealand as countries located in Oceania in the Asia-Pacific will eventually be included in that East-South bloc.
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  4739. Western media are all locked into the same propaganda matrix centred around Washington D.C. The USA spent the better part of the cold war systemically infiltrating and subverting western media to the point where they all march in lockstep with the the foreign policy goals of the US government on any given issue (take the issue of Israel vis‐à‐vis Palestine as an example).
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  4740. The Soviet Union threw China under the bus. The spat between Kruschev and Mao was the trigger.
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  4741. What is the total of German war dead, soldiers and civilians? And why are Russian casualties so huge and out of proportion?
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  4742. The Pentagon of the USA have already factored this into their calculations. They are quite happy to see the EU economically damage itself by undermining confidence by foreign investors in the economies of Europe. They want an economic decoupling between the EU and China, Russia.
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  4743. I think it's the one that the Russian Federation is applying, the one which can totally neutralise NATO's planes (and ships).
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  4744. I recall reading somewhere that oil does not in actually come from dead plants but its really made by as-yet-to-be-explained natural processes occurring deep with the Earth's mantle and also that the related idea that we are running out of these so‐called 'fossil' fuels is an erroneous one. I don't know how true these claims are though.
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  4745. The (collective) West is just the hegemony of the United States and its corporate class in alliance with the compradors of the European Union.
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  4746.  @lionsroar9811  I'm wondering when it will become a depression.
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  4747. Working.
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  4748. The USA is trying to damage Europe and create a situation similar to the 1950's where the USA had most of the technology, funds and industry that Europe lacked.
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  4749. Probably a massive intimidation exercise. I wonder what role the Saudis, Quataris Kuwaitis, etc. will play in all of this.
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  4750. I thought they were just repositioning having achieved their primary objectives.
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  4751. Considering that Britain caused the war with Germany in the first place by declaring war on it first and that the USA actually secretly semi-supported Germany and went to war with it in part because the Soviet Union was going to win and take over Europe, I'm not surprised. You shouldn't go round starting fights and then expecting others to finish them for you.
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  4752.  @foxymetroid  It might have started with a readiness exercise and an attempt to pressure the Ukrainians but when that failed, at the last minute, turned into an invasion. Then again, they could have planned it from the beginning.
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  4753. European Governments cannot be held to account when they are not accountable to the public commonwealth but to private moneyed interests.
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  4754. Those who did 9/11 want a slush fund to do another false flag (9/11 2.0, code name dirty bomb). Their slush funds from Afghanistan and Syria are apparently not enough. It's expensive to run your own private state-within-state.
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  4755. The propaganda is the United States: Israel is just a colony doing the USA's bidding (hint: oil pipelines from Qatar, etc., a canal and offshore gas). The USA will then practically control the whole of West Asia through military bases and proxies and a stranglehold over the region's gas and oil.
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  4756. Rubbish!
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  4757. ​​ @djape1977 like Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union. Or the USA's invasion of Vietnam and Afghanistan.
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  4758. I think they meant to say ENDORSE or ENDURE a naval blockade.
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  4759. A basic tenet of neoliberalism is the reduction of social safety nets and welfare.
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  4760. ​ @Chris-fn4df it seems like the Americans are trying to do what the Ottomans did by attempting to cut off trade between East and West, between Europe and Russia/China but are only succeeding in making these countries more powerful.
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  4761. It takes money to maintain an empire so I wonder how long it will take for the USA to realise the implications of this when China and the world stop propping up the dollar. Perhaps China prefers to prop up the dollar until the bankers are in a position to replace the world's national currencies with a single international currency dominated by just a few countries, China amongst them.
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  4762. ​ @djjaysky9071 How? Did she eat an apple from the forbidden tree?😮😅
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  4763. The People's Republic of China has a veto at the United Nations so I don't think the Republic of China (Taiwan) will be able gain representation (unless the veto doesn't apply in this case, or the other members simply ignore China).
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  4764. I think it's you who has a fundamental misunderstanding of capitalism and its inherent tendency towards crisis.
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