2018/01/06 01:00:02
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Pakistan’s State Bank Green Lights Yuan-Based Trade With China
https://sputniknews.com/asia/201801031060493758-pakistan-state-bank-yuan-trade-china/
“The central bank of Pakistan has given permission for the Chinese yuan to be used for investment and bilateral trade deals, which will eventually replace the dollar in Pakistan-China trade.
The increase in trade and investment with China under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) makes it easier for Pakistan to see that CNY-denominated trade with China will increase significantly and will provide with long term benefits for both the countries.
“SBP has already put in place the required regulatory framework which facilitates use of CNY in trade and investment transactions,” the press release of the central bank stated.”
And right on cue, israel’s minions go to work…
US Will Withhold Aid Funding From Pakistan – US Ambassador
https://sputniknews.com/us/201801021060482146-us-withholding-funding-pakistan-us/
US Suspends Security Assistance to Pakistan – State Department
https://sputniknews.com/world/201801041060523540-us-suspends-security-assistance-pakistan/
US Suspending Aid to Pakistan Benefits China and Russia
http://stephenlendman.org/2018/01/us-suspending-aid-pakistan-benefits-china-russia/
“Asif hinted at a foreign policy shift toward China and Russia, saying “China lives next to us and we have a common wall. Russia can also be our good friend.”
Islamabad must correct and improve its geopolitical relations, he stressed. His country suffers enormously from US aggression in Afghanistan.
“There is no end in sight,” Asif said. “We are looking for peace and harmonization in the region” – unattainable with America’s hostile presence.”
China and Russia work to stabilize and strengthen Pakistan, while israeloamerica use Pakistan as a base for their destabilisation of central Asian nations, while reinforcing the worst elements within Pakistan.
What a choice, eh.
They are trying to find more ways to break Pakistan, including trying to scare Chinese:
Withholding Aid From Pakistan Isn’t Enough
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-01-07/withholding-aid-from-pakistan-isn-t-enough
here is what happening in Pakistan:
Efforts to bring girl students back to school bear fruit in Sindh’s two districts
https://www.dawn.com/news/1379236
Pakistan is home to the most frenetic education reforms in the world
https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21733978-reformers-are-trying-make-up-generations-neglect-pakistan-home-most-frenetic
Oh, Most importantly, Trump is playing “pushing them to the edge and threw them a bone” game. Here is the proof:
Pakistan cautions US about consequences of anti-Taliban offensive
https://www.dawn.com/news/1381550/pakistan-cautions-us-about-consequences-of-anti-taliban-offensive
“Pakistan is believed to have told US interlocutors that a major military offensive against the Taliban from both sides of the Afghan border, if ending in failure, will have negative consequences for the entire region.
Diplomatic sources, who spoke to Dawn, believe that the key element in the new US strategy for Afghanistan is to launch a two-pronged military offensive that inflicts a military defeat on the Taliban and forces them to join the Afghan reconciliation process on Kabul’s conditions.
Pakistanis do not disagree with the basic thrust of the American argument but they have one major worry: What if it fails?””
I want to say how Pakistan get out of this.
J
I strongly suspect that any pindo campaign against the Taliban is like their campaign against isis, smoke and mirrors designed to further destabilisation. The Israeloamericans need Afghanistan to be a failed state, so they can use it as a hub to destabilize the rest of central Asia. Any policies they pursue will be with that goal in mind.
I agree VT, it is perfect location to counter China, Iran and Russia, ad well as stir up central Asia. I think right now they are just messing with Pakistan’s mind, and trying to get Pakistan into deeper trouble that they will eventually no longer able to get out, and only to submit themselves to American control.
I would hope CIR are working with Pakistan in the back and help them get out of this trap.
Actually a few days ago, some one on presstv commented: thank you Pakistan for refusing to be the landing ground to attack Iran. Which give me a different aspect of this events: Not only the Yuan issue, closeness to china, but also Iran and central Asia at stake. I bet you notice Pakistan as well as several central Asian states were all put on human right violation list a few days ago. And the parade of US officials went to Pakistan last year. It could very well be the aim was not only Afghanistan, but also Iran and central Asia.
Pakistan may be the one country standing up stopping some very big disaster from happening for the whole region. I hope they get all the help they need from CIR.
How do you think of my analysis?
It appears Pakistan is standing up now.
Pakistan May Block Supply Path US Troops Use to Reach Afghanistan
https://sputniknews.com/asia/201801081060584358-pakistan-us-afghanistan/
“Pakistani authorities are considering the option of blocking supplies of US troops deployed in Afghanistan through its territory amid the diplomatic tensions between Islamabad and Washington, media reported Monday.
Pakistani The Nation media outlet reported, citing senior officials from the nation’s foreign ministry, that Islamabad was discussing the move, however the decision has not been made yet.
The newspaper added that the move could be used in response to the diplomatic steps taken by the United States.”
If this happens I think it could kill israeloamerican control over Afghanistan, control over the chaos, I mean. I don’t think the counties to the north of Afghanistan still provide the israeloamericans access like before.
Two questions I have are how deep is israeloamerican influence within Pakistan and India now.
Two options, block the route is the best.
Pakistanis are excited that they are finally getting rid of US. Indians are excited that US is doing its bid putting down Pakistan.
So you know the answer to your own question…
Important point to notice is that in trying to use Afghanistan as a launch-pad to destabilise both Russia and China, the US is creating a quagmire for itself since the Taliban is not under its control, unlike ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
But I don’t think the US is that stupid. Mattis is very likely trying to gain the loyalty of the Taliban as well. If they can do this, then watch out Russia and China including CPEC. It depends on whether Pakistan will cooperate.
Pakistan is unlikely to cooperate after Trump’s tweets and announced stoppage of military aid. But Trump can do an about turn and butter up the Pakistani elites, especially the military. Then its up to Russia and China to counter. After all the war or rather geo-strategic competition in Afghanistan is an existential issue for both of them as it involves their vital national security.
Lol. Here it begins, let’s see what trump is going tweet about next:
Pakistan to hike toll tax on NATO containers by 100pc, charge aeronautical fee
http://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/422490-Pakistan-hike-Toll-tax-NATO-containers-100pc-charge-aeronautical-fee
Natural Gas Prices in New York City Nearly Triple in 1 Day as Cold Grips US
https://sputniknews.com/us/201801061060546591-usa-cold-winter-gas-price/
Cold snap increases the need for gas so naturally the capitalist class takes advantage of this to tighten the screws on their victims and charge them more, knowing the victims have little no recourse against this exploitation.
This is the “make america great again” freakshow making america “great” again.
I’ve heard that “the cure for high prices is high prices”. Of course supply is a factor. If supply is not a factor then it it may be “gouging”. In a hurricane disaster where gas stations can quickly run out of supply, high prices are a form of “rationing” on a temporary basis. “Anti-gouging laws” can create shortages causing unintended harm.
There is no perfect formula for how things should be managed in an emergency situation but government’s role gets political fast at everyone’s expense. The “market” does have a role.
As far as “MAGA”, I’m not sure when “America” was “great” but I suspect it was pre- Federal Reserve. We still had monopolies but the currency had “value”. If we survive the Empire’s demise, maybe humans can become great. ALWAYS follow the money. I’m not against social “safety nets” but when “government” supplies them by taxing the productive and deficit spending (another tax on the productive) it becomes a means to buy voting blocks in a “democracy”. Safety nets should be decentralized with tax benefits to those who provide it.
I don’t have links in English, but I can tell you Clinton is in trouble. Her foundation will be investigated. There was also a fire in her house. Please tell us more, you who are Americans.
It is theorized that her pantsuit was cause of fire.
https://www.daybydaycartoon.com/2018/01/04/?post_type=comic
Check out Tracy Beanz on you tube, she did a good synopsis of all the new investigations.
Some may know the term “psychological set”
this looks like one…
The CDC Will Start Preparing Americans For Nuclear War
False flags anybody?
oops!
url:
https://www.cdc.gov/cdcgrandrounds/archives/2018/January2018.htm
“Join us for this session of Grand Rounds to learn what public health programs have done on a federal, state, and local level to prepare for a nuclear detonation. Learn how planning and preparation efforts for a nuclear detonation are similar and different from other emergency response planning efforts.”
Could you say more about psychological set and / or recommend places to read further? Many thanks
I think what is meant in this instance is a pattern of thought and consequent behaviour, undertaken because of familiarity and an inability to see other options as remotely viable. People think, until they know better, in tried and tested, well worn tracks for reasons of safety–its what they know–and it generally takes a real crisis to force new thinking. It can also be experienced as very painful and threatening to think in new ways which keeps a lot from attempting it until forced to make a decision, even in a crisis. Even then, many cannot make the leap for a variety of reasons which are not at all well understood.
I believe it to be a deeply personal process that cannot be imposed on another person without doing great damage to the potential of that person. It doesn’t seem to have much to do with rational thought either, except on a superficial level, so rational arguments are rendered pointless, while at the same time the rational arguments must be considered. Both are required, not an either/or situation as in a straightforward choice.
There is that old saying that necessity is the mother of invention. We seem, collectively, to have blurred the distinction between ‘necessity’ and ‘choice’ in the same way that the distinction between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ has also been grossly distorted since the onset of mass media advertising.
We don’t all need to think or behave in one approved, ‘correct’ way. It ain’t ever gonna happen so the attempts to make it happen are short sighted and essentially futile.
J, just continuing our conversation on China. I am by no means for democracy as practiced now by the US and other Western countries. Democracy of the US type – i.e. popular representative government elected by increasingly no-holds-barred competition is not for all countries. However, I believe China is practising a form of democracy that is suitable for her at this stage of her development in modern times. The US form of democracy depends on how sensible, responsible and self-restrained the population is. US society seems to be is losing these qualities and China’s society seems increasingly to be gaining and practising these qualities.
I believe that China will move beyond Confucianism which had failed her many times in the past, especially failing to arrest China’s turning inward into itself while providing a basis for authoritarianism and repression. Also Confucianism failed to arrest corruption and seem increasingly unable to produce enough leaders of sufficient integrity to lead China forward consistently.
Xi may had cracked down on corruption and especially on corrupt leaders right up to the inner sanctum of power. But from where and how is he going to get the leaders of the degree of integrity that China needs?
This will finally decide the future of China and Confucianism itself.
And how is he going to move China towards a self-disciplined society, one that does not need a very expensive and increasingly anomalous system of authoritarian control in order to be stable i.e. somewhat like what the US was about 50 years ago?
Simon,
Xi is using the tight ideology of Communism, Communist Party Discipline (of thought and behavior). Of course, this is proven historical failure system.
Look for instance at the latest from him, exhorting the military to excellence by accepting rigorous training coupled with the willingness to suffer and die as the model for national defense (coupled with best practices in high tech weapons).
Yet, he is totally afraid to put his troops into Syria to clean up the mess there (get bloodied, but finish off the US-Israel machinations to keep Syria on its knees and to wrestle Russia into a frozen conflict away from victory for Eurasia.)
Ideology is a bane on mankind.
Unless the Chinese avoid the mistakes of ideological straightjacket thinking, Xi will lead them to troubles Communism automatically produces.
A growing China (and it is still only partially developed) must be flexible internally. It must allow individuals and small organizations in all sectors of the economy and society to have the space and energy to grow with fresh ideas, agile adjustments and rapid transformations. Communist ideology crushes these mechanisms.
Xi has given birth to Cain and Abel. The deadly ideology of rigid Communist Line is a mortal threat to OBOR and BRI (his genius mission to help the world using Chinese wealth and innovations).
The young minds and talents of China have to be willing to take and hold the economic controls away from the Communist ideologues. The last 40 years the technocrats allowed freedom enough for China to develop.
The CCP’s space in China should only be the social stability space, police, justice system, central banking. The beast of ideology cannot control the beast of corruption unless a broad legal system and Rule of Law develops independent of ideology.
The difficult balance is made almost impossible if it is required that One Man decides All things. China was there before. The Soviet Union was there. Cuba, Venezuela, etc were there. It never results in the intended goal.
Mayn would ask : why is the communist system corrupt ? well, it is enough for a communist higher member to show his identity and the prosecution is over, that’s the way how it worked back then and how it works now in China.
Is fake question, no? Example would be…”why did you hit your wife?”
question assumes un or non established claim as fact.
is false logic…and I am sorry – a silly form of rhetoric…
I am not sure it happen quite as you said. It more likely the punishment for party member are different and way too Lenient. Unless you upset some one important, or being made out as a example for something. I guess they could give you some token punishment that does not suit the crime committed.
There is a case in Heilongjiang right now illustrate such problem. On WeiBo, the comments are not very forgiving:
Cadres in ‘China’s Davos’ told to apologise to ski resort for ‘improper intervention’
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2126896/cadres-chinas-davos-told-apologise-ski-resort-improper
J, this is a case in point made by Larchmonter445. China must have rule of law. Chinese citizens and especially business enterprises cannot always depend on intervention by government, provincial or otherwise, for justice. What if they don’t intervene? Therefore China must have rule by an impartial system of law that upholds universally accepted values (e.g. UN declaration of human rights). Justice should be and must be completely blind. It is to such rule of law that ordinary Chinese citizens can resort to for protection and restitution if ill-treated by whatever powers that-be that are established by the CCP. Such a system will be far cheaper, consistent and fairer than any system of authoritarian control or justice by executive fiat (as in the case of the Sun Mountain Ski resort).
Right now China’s talented minds are being tilled overseas including in the USA. Those opportunities will soon be severely restricted. For China to successfully train her young minds at home she would have to emulate to a certain extent the freedoms enjoyed in the US. The caveat is: I wonder how Russia did this with an authoritarian system; also how Hitler did it without the US-like academic freedoms.
I am not sure which years news you are reading. The best talent goes to best Chinese universities. The ones who do not as qualified, goes to school abroad. The competition for talents and jobs is very strong. It is much easier abroad.
There is much talk of going to foreign university no long has advantage over the people stay home because acceptance is much easier abroad.
Chinese know China is going to be the best in most if not all field, while there are many reason going abroad and stay there, there are equally as many reason to stay.
Chinese universities are top notch and getting better. It is easy to find out on google.
By the way, Confucianism will adapt and evolve. No one can take Confucianism out of China or a Chinese.
Hahaha! I am Chinese and Confucianism had largely been taken out of me. In its place is Augustinian-Lutheran-Calvinistic Christianity.
I also have a lot of Chinese-educated friends steeped in Confucian traditions. In many cases, they generally exhibited the sort of bi-polar behaviour veering from extreme friendliness to extreme hostility so typical of Chinese history since Yuan Shi Kai and especially since Mao. Hopefully with continued outside influence from especially Christian civilisations (becoming very rare nowadays), China will stop veering between extremes. I also hope Xi will limit his own authoritarian policies. Otherwise when the pendulum swings back, there could be instability.
J, read this: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-11/19/c_136762810.htm
A student team from Nanyang University Singapore, consisting of your “reject” or “not the best” students from China beat the student team from China (consisting of students from the elite Tsinghua University) in a world super computing competition held in Denver, USA. The team from China recently won the world championship before being beaten by the team from Singapore which consisted of “rejects” from China.
This show what a little bit more of freedom, even by the standards of slightly less authoritarian Singapore, can do to enhance young “average” minds.
That is pretty rich to claim “This show what a little bit more of freedom, even by the standards of slightly less authoritarian Singapore, can do to enhance young “average” minds.” from this events.
They all from mainland. There is no indication of how many years has they being study in Singapore. They only conclusion you can come out of it is Chinese “authoritarian” education are exceptional. This is also the first time Singapore win.
Of course, the authoritarian Chinese system could have not produced the world fastest super computer, best infrastructure, lead in AI, 3d printing, and etc. They are all gifted by your Christian overlord…
By the way, here is raking of colleges, Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University is not your run of mill university.:
http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20170616154410816
J, but the students in the world beating Nanyang U winning team were all “rejects” I.e. second or even third rate students from mainland China. During my student days in the seventies, Nanyang U was regarded as a low-class U. I know because I applied for and was offered admission to University of Singapore the then premier university of SEA. Nanyang was not even on my radar. But my mother did not like and sent me to a Western university instead. This shows how far and fast Singapore has advanced even with a little bit of extra freedom. BTW Singapore is still known as that “Disneyland with the death penalty”. That’s how authoritarian they still are!
J,
We have a saying that is pertinent regards largely unconscious cultural influences: “You can take the child out of Glasgow (tough Scottish city) but you can’t take Glasgow out of the child.”
I have found that to be true, so would agree with you regards Confucianism as a cultural underpinning that is able to be flexible and adapt to different situations. What prevents that flexibility and adaptability is an over-reliance on fixed ideas, a lack of imagination that has room for different perspectives—-rather than an adherence to any particular, formative cultural influence.
Absolutely OM.
Chinese excels most of time because the traditional ideals of encouraging middle of line thinking, discouraging extremism. It enable Chinese to look at all aspects and reach the goal of better outcomes for all who involved.
There are many different school of thoughts in China, and Chinese culture are not shy of adapt any worthy ideas. When we did not adapt, we lose, then we purge and renew…
Much as you are saying, I am sure the west are doing the same to adapt as well. The high tech industry are well aware of the challenge, only US Southern Christians on breitbart.com seems still living in yester-world.
From Europe:
China’s innovation, not investments, should worry Europe
https://euobserver.com/opinion/140331
From US:
Feldmann: Why innovation matters
http://www.roanoke.com/opinion/commentary/feldmann-why-innovation-matters/article_ed1a6940-be03-53dd-95c0-8b3227ebe969.html
“The Dec. 7 Roanoke Times business section ran a short article titled “Patents: China dominates Western economies.” The article shared a report from the U.N.’s World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) which revealed that China’s 1.3 million patents filed in 2016 topped the combined filings of the U.S., Japan, Korea and Europe. China alone accounted for nearly 42 percent of the 3.1 million patents filed worldwide in 2016. This report should be a wakeup call to all Americans who want to see continued economic prosperity for our country.”
From China:
China Focus: Quality, innovation strength for future growth
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-01/02/c_136867602.htm
The ideas of good person and good life are universal and not religion depended.
Religions were created to control the masses, and a handicap to a healthy mind. I fail to see their superiority.
J, I quote you: “When we did not adapt, we lose, then we purge and renew”. Its the top down “purging” ala Chiang, Mao and Deng that one need to beware. Who is going to decide what and more importantly, who to “purge” I.e get rid of? A Chinese-educated friend of mine put it this way: Mao need to purge i.e get rid of the weak so that China can be strong. But who is to decide who is strong and who is weak? And who/what gave Mao the right to get rid of those he considered weak? That’s why China veered from one crisis to another. That’s why China needs the uncompromising rule of impartial law in order to stabilise for the long term. An authoritarian system will only result in another perhaps even more bloody upheaval given time.
I don’t want to understate the Chinese creativity and innovations, but I would like to call for caution regarding patent filings as a measure for innovation.
Firstly, patent filings are applications that wait for approval. It would be of course possible to file thousands of patent applications without a shred of innovation and none would/should get approved. If patents are used as a measure of innovation, only granted patents shall be counted.
Secondly, I know a thing or two about Chinese patents as I have repeatedly searched patent literature in certain domains. About half of the patents I came across were copy-cat from other work and won’t withstand a litigation process. Many of these non-patents were filed by individuals, maybe seeking an advantage for job hirings or so.
Thirdly, patents filed with the Chinese patent authority are not necessarily Chinese patents. It is usual that a company file patent applications for one-and-the-same innovation in all countries they seek protection. As China is such a big economy, many companies seek protection there as well. Of course, this applies vice-versa to Chinese companies seeking protection in other regions of the world.
In my opinion, a useful measure for innovation shall count only granted patent families (a patent family is the original patent plus its siblings in various countries) and attribute these to the country of origin of the inventors.
Marcel Leutenegger. I agree with you. China did not come up with anything really original since the Song Dynasty. Correct me if I am wrong. Everything achieved by China since Mao is innovation based on ideas that originated in the West. The Internet including internet businesses, quantum computing, supercomputers, modern infrastructure including high-speed trains (originally from Japan) etc have been innovated from knowledge and ideas first derived by the West. Even Communism was imported from the West. I am not a big fan of the West, but my mind tends to be objective.
One Chinese-educated friend of mine recently charged that the West thinks that they are superior in everything. There is some basis to this charge. But the Chinese are not much different. So my retort is that the downfall of China in recent history is that they think that they are so superior that they have nothing more to learn from anyone or from anywhere. So much so that tiny England (population 15 million) was able to trample down Qing China (population 300 million) into the dust of history. This is a tendency that all Chinese have to guard against only because it’s so human and so cultural.
As for Chinese patents being copy-cats, I am not surprised. I have long observed this tendency with dismay. Authoritarianism produces conformity and retard originality. It is freedom that can more likely produce originality, although I have a caveat: Stalinist Russia and Hitlerian Germany were very original and innovative. I can’t explain this paradox.
But China appears now to have opted for creativity and innovation under authoritarianism. If this is so, under what I see as present modern conditions, China will likely remain at least a step behind the West in originality. I have already pointed out the paradox that second/third rate students from China studying in Singapore, beat first rate students from China studying in Qinghua (China’s premier university) in a world super-computing competition. It was remarkable that the winning edge was because the Singapore students from Mainland China were a little bit more original in their solutions.
As for the patents, I agree with you. It’s the quality of the patents that counts not quantity. And the quality of China’s economy will soon be put to the test by Trump’s Section 301 tariffs. As will China’s Navy and Air-force. As for China’s land forces i.e. army, it was put to the critical test in the Korean War and passed. I don’t think the US will want to test China’s army again in Korea or anywhere else near China.
BTW, classical Chinese thinking is neither moderate or middle-line. E.g. Yin Yang are not middle lines of thinking. They are thinking in contrast or even extremes. In fact classic Chinese thinking before Qin Shi Huang burnt the science books and before Han Dynasty introduced Confucian order (read as conformity), Chinese thinking was dynamic and varied, not necessarily “moderate”or “middle-line”. The contrasts observed by the Chinese in the real world led China to invent binary numbers of which the Yin Yang symbol is but one of many applications
Simon Chow, I think that Chinese people are creative and inventive like people from other nations. And they are seeking patent protection like everybody else. Copy-cat patent filings are a world-wide issue – to my experience in China more than in Europe. Let me just repeat that if patents shall serve as a measure for innovation, simply counting patent filings is a bad idea.
OK. But the issue I raised is originality, not just innovation.
@one minion, Confucianism is conformity and a form of uniformity itself. Its main objectives are order and stability, not original ideas that in the context of established thinking, amounts to nonconformity and rejection of old ideas in a particular field. Confucianism will generally treat new ideas that goes against its grain as anathema.
Yeah. I agree with your points.
Larchmonter445, I was living in a Western country (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) during my university days and after that worked in that country for a number of years. I was very, very impressed by the zero-corruption that the citizens self-practiced with no specialised anti-corruption enforcement agency other than the normal very efficient and clean police force. No doubt, Xi who was in the US during about the same time, also noticed this.
My conclusion is that it was the Bible-based Christian values taught from childhood that engendered this together with a widespread reverence (and in many cases like me, a healthy fear) of the Christian God. In those days people left their houses’ doors opened when they went out. To even close the door was impolite as that implied that their fellow citizens were potential thieves.
That of course changed as Bible-based Christian values were eroded with the advent of the sexual revolution followed by liberal values and apostasy.
Bible-based Christianity is now spreading like wild-fire in China. I am sure this will have a similar effect on China and the Chinese, if not already begun to have such effects.
I think a few month speeding Christianity taking advantage of poor people, who is living in a constant conflict as result of invasion your Christian mother land, got into your head.
IMHO, only foolish, helpless, insecure people want to handicap themselves with a foreign religion in desperation….
In past 2000 years, Christianity brought nothing but conflicts. The brief few hundred years when Christian countries was doing better while Chinese was in state of purge, their better technicality brought the rest of world immense misery. Yes, their homeland was much better then their colonies after the enslave natives, and robbed their resource.
Chinese on the other hand, treat others as equal, and trade with them as equal. Therefor bring opportunities to others as well as own.
Here is how religion in China work: At morning the mother decide she does not want to cook, so she take kids to church having breakfast. At afternoon, she take her kids to Buddhist, or Taoist temple for blessing.
Chinese will undoubtedly adapt any element of foreign philosophy as long as it worthy.
We can also say our (non) god is much better then your god… The prove is in the history book, today, and future…
One can play same game to no end… We can talk our self into over sized “exceptional ego” as any one…
J, you are referring to the present apostatised US that is also my very deep disappointment. In my younger days they were different. And I am not sure that even now the Chinese are secure about themselves. Otherwise why should they have such an authoritarian system? And if Chinese culture is so adaptable, why did they get left so far behind that even tiny England (population 15 million) can trample Qin China (population 300 million) down? And Communism is also a Western philosophy. Has China really adapted Communism? Its too soon to say especially after Bo Xi Lai’s attempted coup using the armed police under his control. Xi has now placed the armed police under the CMC I.e. under his direct control. But can he control the forces that are reacting against repression? As I have pointed out, how can Xi transform China into a self I disciplined society that can dispense with authoritarian rule?
It wasn’t Christianity that brought conflicts. Wars were happening, including many genocides well before Jesus Christ. The Warring States period and the Qin unification of China followed by the Han extermination of the Barbarians were some of the most bloody periods in Chinese history. The Mongol conquests were arguably the most bloody period of the pre-modern world and it was not motivated by Christianity. It is the depravity of mankind that led to wars ever since the fall of Adam. When Christianity came along, it was merely thrown into the mix. But man may propose, God disposed. I debated this issue during my university days with the communists who were against the unfair system. I argued that it is man who produced the system according to his heart. The system he produced just reflect his heart including the evil therein. To change the system, the human heart needs to be changed first and the evil therein controlled. But communism cannot transform the human heart as can be seen from Stalin’s and Mao’s excesses and Deng’s Tiannamen Square massacre. The Bible claims that only Jesus Christ can change and transform the human heart. I have found this to be true.
I am not interested in anything religious. You are wasting your time and I am over with this topic.
J, sorry. Jesus Christ is so much a part of me that He will always come into my discussion of any serious human issue.
J, hahaha. China never traded with others as equals in the past. China has the tributary system. Those who traded with China must do so as vassals by kow-towing at the Dragon Throne and pay tributes. In the present situation China will always keep up the fiction that other nations are ‘equal’. But Yang Jye Jie had already put the South East Asian nations on notice in 2011 when in the presence of then Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton, he told all the ASEAN nations that China is a big country and others are small and that’s just a fact. No Asian country trading with China will ever forget that “fact” especially with China’s aircraft carriers prowling the high seas – reminiscent of Admiral Zheng He’s days!
J, you cannot put the whole world of Christianity into one whole. If the evangelical Zionist Christians engage in wrong doings across the world, there are also other christian denominations opposed to their oppression. It’s like saying that all the Muslims are terrorists because the Wahhabi Takfiris engage in acts of terrorism. And you cannot criticize Christianity for wrong doings of Christians just like you cannot criticize Islam for wrong doings of Muslims.
Simon Chow, nations rise and fall, they go through phases. Saying that the Chinese haven’t changed is wrong. The media shows the profit that the Chinese reap in every deal that they make and portray it as taking advantage of the other party. They never show the benefits that the other party received. The Chinese made mistakes in the past, every nation does. Not learning from their mistakes is a crime. The Chinese surely have learned their lesson. Not to become a hermit country, not to stagnate and not to let other powers seize their weakness.
The Chinese have every right to put on notice the South East Asian nations which serve as vassals and satellite states to the Empire and harbor the Empire’s bases on their lands knowing that the Empire is there to provoke and ‘contain’ China. The Chinese have the right to flex their naval muscle if the hegemon doesn’t cease to provoke them and btw, Admiral Zheng He’s navy never ‘prowled’ the seas with the intention of total dominion.
Thanks AbuBaker al-Anonymousi for your input to the discussion. The French has saying: “The more things changed, the more they remain the same”.
I can understand this paradox when I remember that humans are capable by themselves of outward ‘change’. But inward change is evidently beyond them.
Mao was reported to have said to Nixon during the cultural revolution that he did not manage to change anything about the Chinese and they were only waiting for him to meet Marx (as Deng would put it) before they revert to original form.
Hahaha! Mao was so right. Today we see China reverting to original form and to diplomatically promote the fiction that they are treating all other nations as ‘equal’.
We Chinese seems to understand the word ‘equal’ differently, not even in the sense as George Orwell diplomatically put it in his book “Animal Farm” where some animals are “more equal” than others.
Not even Trump was treated as ‘equal’ during his recent visit to Beijing. He was treated with what came straight out of China’s imperial play-book on how to successfully handle potentially violent “barbarians”. Mao and Zhou did the same with Nixon and Kissinger, as did China’s ancient emperors with the various barbarians of their days!
I would hasten to say that only imperial Russia was treated as equal by the Qing dynasty (e.g. Treaty of Nerchinsk was negotiated as between equals – something never done before) for reasons unknown.
Simon Chow, you are entitled to you view, but I would like to direct you attention towards the The Essential Saker part I which has an appendix titled ‘Q&A with a Chinese friend, by Mr. unknown and the saker’.
Thanks for the heads-up AbuBaker al-Anonymousi.
Larchmonter445. I mean I agree with most of your points although I have some reservations with your points about Xi sending troops into Syria. This is because, after the war is won by Russia, China is needed to win the peace with her financial, economic and diplomatic ability. This requires amity with all sides and an absence of baggage from a bloody war from which survivors are still smarting, assigning blame and thinking of revenge. This role i.e. winning the peace, will be largely forfeited if China participated in the killings.
…dollars dollars dollars everywhere, and none to buy… say it ain’t so!
“…The countdown has begun. If dollar begins losing ground as indispensable to global trade, it will lead to a complete breakdown in the US’ purchasing power and the consequent surge of the underlying monetary inflation in the US economy for decades (that has been lying suppressed) will make the budget deficit no longer manageable and such heavy military spending no longer sustainable – leave alone Trump’s ‘America First’….”
Well, that’s like, his opinion, man… Me? I wonder how people that are already in serious moral and legal and financial trouble, and wildly unprepared to face reality, will behave…does this involve pitchforks? Just askin’
(and my opinion too, we’re screwed.)
http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2018/01/06/why-businessman-trump-is-upset-with-pakistan/
It obviously involves pitchforks…a glance at the back pages of regional papers shows the ugly truth, murder or all sorts. Innocent kids living in cardboard and tents… What could go wrong?
Because the forces of History and People evolve at “glacial” (and pitiless) resolve, and due to the short lives and limited span of attentions – not to mention the obfuscations of the Powerful who “write” the “official truths” most people, especially Americans (a state of mind as well as a so-called “nationality” (where is the American natio anyway? …there is one…but it’s “secret”) Because of these things most Americans do not know who they are, what they are a member of…and also many genuine nations (such as the Slavic natio, and the Chinese) do not understand what, or who, the American are…dupes and cons all wound up in deceptions…Because of that, Comrades, I propose a rather painful lesson…
Here’s Melville: (not Moby Dick…that’s the distraction of the official canon)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ9J1aZsw-Q (audio book “The Confidence Man”
(The Man is not with god, rather otherwise)
almost 11 hours…elucidation takes time…and it hurts, a little.
enjoy? Well….maybe…
Paul Eisen – Deir Yassin From RemembranceTo Resistance
http://rense.com/general75/deryass.htm
Testimonies From the Censored Deir Yassin Massacre: “They Piled Bodies and Burned Them”
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.801307
Israel Shamir Columns – The Unz Review
https://www.unz.com/ishamir/2001/03/
Thank you!
I knew the things, but this reveals worse than I knew.
The American Zionist lobby is no longer well coordinated, increasingly so, as the truths about the Project can no longer be the fairytales…
When the lie is the method, sooner or later, violence becomes Policy…but I muddle the quotation… Anyway the famous lobby is disintegrating. Not peacefully though. It must be very difficult for the individuals to realize the facts… And generally, ultimately, Zionism is anti-Jewish… That’s going to be a tough truth to wrestle with.
It is also the classical orthodox view… well golly!
“Zionism is anti-Jewish”
can you further carry out?
Of course it is. The orthodox never supported Israel as a modern state. This is open and public information, though zionist types try to obscure it. They have been under great pressure to abandon this view…but everyone knows how stubborn any orthodox man can be.
I put this in a search engine: “orthodx jews and israel”
You try it, Comrade. I got http://www.nkusa.org/AboutUs/Zionism/opposition.cfm ‘jes fer starters… Helzbellz, Einstein hisself was un-zionist, sorta http://www.newdemocracyworld.org/old/Einstein.htm
Really this fact/facts doesn’t need much new evidence – it is quite public. Anybody can read the several arguments, but one really ought to study Talmud first…and that takes years. Far too much for me… I can however spot solid arguments…and the orthodox Jews have my vote. The refrain in the Law is over and over again about Justice and not stealing…how anybody can screw that into stealing the country from the people that own it, and murdering them, even by torture, is simply not possible within the Law…and the orthodox saw that immediately. Of course. So did, it seems, Uncle Albert.
Honestly, while zionism has enlisted may Jews, it also betrays them (this has now become obvious to the world)> So zionism has had, and has, Jewish energies feeding the ideology and the unpleasant results. But it also has inputs from dark intelligence agencies…I am partial to the view that British operations lie deep in the History of zionism, modern Palestine, and Israel…it is the tired old divide and rule,perhaps hijacked by it’s own infernal fires and other intelops. But overall, it is fed by geopolitical tensions…look at map, Comrade…and imagine 100 years ago, how to place dagger at the heart of things…zionism is ultimately an intelop gone wild.
Millions of men and women are hijacked by this situation – they have legalisms, and deeds, and debts, and kids, and they are all of them fed into the cynical maw of a vast intelop as “fodder units” (a term attributed to Bush the 41, I hear). Bravo!
It evil far beyond the slaughterhouse. It’s MacBeth…
Listen to the play, hear the children murdered…I am serious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljZrf_0_CcQ (it is BBC from the 1960’s, very fine reading)
It’s Christmas in the East; best wishes to those who are in that tradition; and really everyone as well. The lead article now is a sermon of Saint Gregory Palamas. I really enjoyed, received joy, from the story of Jesus being born poor. I did not enjoy the bulk of the sermon, which bogs down in an arcane quagmire, that could only benefit a priesthood and keep the poor classes bewildered.
There is a great mystery in nature which we cannot hope to understand. It would be like trying to teach an ant to understand Shakespeare. However, we have a saving grace in our capacity to love, which is available to all: rich and poor, intelligent and dull. The poor Jesus represents love for all. As Saint John the Beloved noted in his own time: the Church abandoned its first love. Much more now.
Oh, there’s plenty of love talk around: romantic, sentimental, mental and downright fake and dangerous. The Church turned the poor Jesus into the rich Christ the King and anointed High Priest; like the very ones that crucified him. Much of it had to do with pursuing knowledge and abandoning love.
The Ojai Fire was a shock to almost everyone around here. Had a strong north wind been blowing, the whole town of Ojai could have been destroyed. There’s a World Fire brewing, and if the winds are strong, much of the earth could go down with fire, and other means. Our future is “blowing in the wind.”
I lost and I gained by the fire, and I suspect the same will be true on a world-wide scale. Love will protect me as she always has; like she protected Jesus, although he paid a heavy price. Whether the great church and state institutions will be protected, I can’t say. Perhaps their gods of knowledge and power will come to their aid, but that’s not something I would count on.
Saint Paul said: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12. Love, and love only can defeat such empires. Knowledge and power are useless against such enemies.
Jesus defeated them once, but when the Church defaulted, they came back a hundred times stronger. The Love Army is now taking over where Jesus left off. It has given us ten new commandments of love by which to stop the war on Russia, and war as such. I practice them as well as I can, and I talk about them in case anyone wants to use them to augment their own practice.
Once again the world seems gripped by madness, doubling down and going all in with materialism, consumerism and greed. It’s not just currencies from the darkest crypts, and a cancerous gold rush to strangle the earth with a web of steel rails, the push for malevolent technologies and a global money system that will crush the life out of any independence and sovereignty but a general degradation and hopelessness.
I have been blessed with a middle way of the best between the old and the new. I live on three acres of land, off the grid, in the quiet country three miles from town. Here at the club, I have electricity, running water, internet, showers, sauna, pool, jacuzzi, exercise rooms, free classes to restore my health and really wonderful people. I am poor and yet I am rich.
The world needs such a middle way. It’s available for the asking and practicing. I attest to that in my own case. You have your own middle way. “In medio stat virtus.” In the middle stands virtue, truth, strength, justice, love and other virtues. “Arma virumque cano.” I, Virgil, sing of arms and a man. It’s a nice sentiment but it no longer works, if it ever did.
I sing of “Amor virumque cano.” I sing of love and the man. The world needs men of love, not war. Henry V said that those who were not at Agincourt, would curse themselves and “hold their manhoods cheap.” Now we fight a much bigger war against “spirits of the air.” That takes real love; nothing less will do.
Christmas in the East and West brought us such a man, which we celebrate. But if we do not what he said, what good are we? The whole of Jesus is summed up in the word Love. Don’t believe me. Look it up yourself. Marry Christmas, or more precisely Jesusmas, and we’ll be fine. “Time will tell who has won and who has fell, and who’s been left behind, when you go your way and I go mine.”
Love, Dennis
Our future is “blowing in the wind.”
John 3
8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or not to forget, being born again of water and spirit it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
not to forget, being born again of water = to me the inner Space = soul
I think this is your most coherent, chivalrous, noble paen to love you’ve yet uttered. Well done!
With the rains coming, Dennis, remember to trench around your motor home. If you are hidden among trees, the hillside most likely will hold. You will see all the new possibilities much more clearly in the Spring.
Water is fine and all that but it needs a template and direction because first fire ran rampant, now water then earth….The winds of change blow steady ,though, at least until next hurricane season. Ruach was the Aramaic word for wind as well as spirit. No fanning the flames of Fire and Fury: we can hope but rather the flames of
spirit. Water as a metaphor …water at the well…the meeting of Eliezar and Rebecca etc. Earth? we shall see soon enough this metaphor in action. When holy spirit moves….the earth shifts in response?
what cycle now slows the earth?
https://www.livescience.com/60989-slow-earth-rotation-triggers-earthquakes.html
Strange though isn’t it—first Hillary’s home has a fire, then the home of an accuser of Roy Moore now at Trump Tower? Just saying…
be well.
For everybody who despaired of Trump ever draining the swamp : this may still be wishful thinking, but it seems pretty tightly reasoned and squares with events well :
http://82.221.129.208/tweetstorm2.gif
Posted @ Jim Stone’s site
http://82.221.129.208/.zl8.html
The Israel Lobby – A Danger To The World. Banned Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RUnCq9aPuI
John Pilger – Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror – Real Stories
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJZxir00xjA
I understand a few words in Russian, but I sure understood what’s being said at url below – especially in the video – which describes a classical media intelligence operation in Finland.
As I have pointed out these things are known as “psychological sets” and they are a necessary precursor to action. Action. As such they are also “tells” as they inform as to intent… (tells is a term from poker)
Check the video… obvious what going on and where it ends
https://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=2966919&cid=5#
For The Saker:
Have you heard anything about Tom Feeley from Informationclearinghouse.info? He hasn’t posted anything for a while.
Some ladies at the club were laughing over Trump’s calling himself a political genius, super intelligent and successful, etc. I agree with him; if you look back in the archives, you’ll see I have long recognized these qualities in him. However, it’s definitely not something I would want for myself. Love forbid! I’d rather be a simple lover, like Jesus, speaking honestly what he thought, and practicing what he preached. Got to run; I hear it’s going to rain tomorrow, and need go cover things up.
Love, Dennis
He’s been successful ok, screwing his own workers rights over in several lawsuits.
U.S. Jewish Group Urge Fresh Myanmar Sanctions Over Rohingya Violence
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.833281
American plan for a South Asian “Kosovo” in Rohingyland
https://orientalreview.org/2015/06/09/american-plan-for-a-south-asian-kosovo-in-rohingyaland-ii/
Soros and Hydrocarbons: What’s Really Behind the Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201709051057098493-myanmar-rohingya-energy-china-soros/
It seems not only the Jewish-Zionist want a hand in Mynmar, the Christian Zionist are doing their god’s work there too. If you do no believe me, read the supremacy of the Christian god above and they want a regime change!
Golly! Old Bill has given everybody a wonderful clender of events for the glorious New Year
he summs up with…this: May you re-discover what the poor in 18th century France discovered, that rich people’s heads …
Well he does go on a bit, so?
https://williamblum.org/aer/read/154 Pitchforks…listen to the old men and women, and to Shakespeare too.
(Bill shocks me, some. Rather stronger than expeced
“Is that a pistol in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?”
He loves you darling, don’t ask, succumb.
Guns and sex forever, riding into the sunset …
Guns are instruments designed to kill and conflated with the power of sex. They are constructed with all the knowledge, precision and skill science has given the manufacturer.
What’s not to like ? Not much apparently, having read some of the article on guns, and the power they lend. “Happiness is a warm gun.” Lennon’s very own conflation of gun’s n’sex.
Science is the life philosophy of modernity. And then there’s Christianity and the ideals of the human spirit, next door, so to speak. rubbing shoulders even, in convivial, mutual acceptance.
But who feels the schism and fills the yawning gap between science and philosophy ? That is the problem, you cannot fill it, not with all the gadgets and toys money can buy. Not with all the suffering, the isolation and spiritual poverty of the world. The more you stuff into it, the wider it gets.
‘Philosophy’ means love of wisdom, and maybe, just maybe, it’s time to find the way back again, to close the schism. Who will dare to do that ?
The assertion that “Guns are instruments designed to kill and conflated with the power of sex. ” does seem aligned with what the canon of beliefs in some “liberal” groups.
However the claim is unsupported.
I myself have kept and trained with weapons over much of my life-time. I never did notice any connection, let alone “conflation (!) between my gun and my wife – or ladies in general.
And I had not noticed, either, that guns are designed to kill. Rather otherwise, in my experience. I have observed that guns are designed and used for, primarily, defensive offers. These are situations wherein the “use”, often-times, does not involve even holding the gun – it is generally enough that the would-be attacker believes that there might be a gun. Of course cops and robbers do wave these gadgets about, and sometimes murder people – but the vast examples show that guns prevent great injustice, and murder, quite often.
At my present age I see no need to have one, and do not.
I am delighted, however, that my neighbors mostly do. I do not expect them to shoot me, kill me, or rape me.
Frankly I reason based on experience and observation that the mooted claim is incorrect and illogical.
Sorry, dude….
You have to do it every day and every day is the time.
Eschew the lie.
Thank you for this post; it made me think.
When the lines are blurred between
(1) things that make one feel powerful, immortal and endless (union with the other and complete presence in the moment) and
(2) the capacity to do (and the immediacy) of gun violence
we seem to get psychic confusion.
I think of examples such as the “pornography” of modern day action films, the extreme “hypnotic effects” of the killing and body counts of immersive video games, the perverse “attraction” most have to other people’s suffering as seen in slowed down traffic to witness a car crash….
What seems to be missing is a sense of empathy, the ability to respond to others’ suffering and pain with compassion rather than
(a) shock and entrancement on initial sporadic exposure
(b) and, then, on longer persistent experience of violence, becoming heartless, deadened, callous,
(c) or – worse – starting to enjoy it and need the “fix” of watching others suffer.
Perhaps there is something here that can be undone / done differently by making finer distinctions. What is the difference between the power over life and livelihood versus the power of physical union?
Maybe the answer lies in more awareness of one’s own pain and suffering? Not many can fully face their own disappointments in self.
Given this, how many people can and want to face the full pain and suffering of others with full presence of being? And hence face their own role, however indirectly related, in contributing?
Brutalized, bullied people want to brutalize and bully others in turn.
@SusieQ
Your enlightened comment goes very far in answering the question I posed. Compassion and bravery are not seen enough as vital in leading to the same goal.
Trump Demands Full Retraction, Apology Over ‘Fire& Fury’ Book on White House
https://sputniknews.com/us/201801041060519872-trump-fire-and-fury-book-demand-apology/
“Mr. Trump hereby demands that you immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination of the book, the article, or any excerpts or summaries of either of them, to any person or entity, and that you issue a full and complete retraction and apology to my client as to all statements made about him in the book and article that lack competent evidentiary support,” Harder said, adding that the published excerpts from the book give false and baseless statements about Trump.”
So what is netanyahoo’s quisling in chief so upset about? Bannon kissing and telling? Or maybe this:
A Foreign Leader – Netanyahu – Set Trump’s Agenda in Middle East, Michael Wolff Bombshell Book Says
https://www.globalresearch.ca/a-foreign-leader-netanyahu-set-trumps-agenda-in-middle-east-michael-wolff-bombshell-book-says/5625080
“The vision of the Middle East here is the neoconservative one supported by Israeli rightwingers: Let Jordan absorb Palestinian population areas in the West Bank, or encourage Palestinians to leave Palestine; let Palestinians vote in Jordan.”
Is the zio-gay media talking about the netanyahoo/adelson foreign influence angle? Or just playing up the bannon-trump divorce?
Does anyone know what variables will determine whether and to what degree Pakistan is likely to follow through with its threat to bar the US military access to Afghanistan via its territory? This would indeed be a game changer. But how likely is it? Due to the function of bribery in the conducting of much business in Pakistan I am assuming that it is not likely at all, because of all the under the table money that would be lost by Pakistan military officials. But that may neither be fair nor correct. Does anyone have a better read on this?
If you remember Saudi tried very hard to get Pakistan on board on the war against Yemen and Pakistan refused. Pakistan owns a lot to Saudi, it was very hard decision for the PM and military. They wanted to implement CPEC, and would not miss the opportunity.
US is much more threatening, and right at the other side of borders creating chaos. $1.1 billion is about 10%of their reserve right now.
However, US can run away any time leave Pakistan to suffer the consequences of their invasion. Even so, US can still cause a lot of trouble to Pakistan even in total defeat.
I do believe Pakistan leadership are very capable. So I think it is likely there will not be dramatic break-off causing lose of face as long as trump not pushing too hard for it. But this is also a great opportunity for them to amend their relationship with Afghanistan people damaged by providing logistics to US.
So we will wait and see what they will do, and who will be on top, the crude deal maker, or collective eastern wisdom. I assume Pakistan consults with regional neighbors as the outcome affect all..
The NATO uses routes through Pakistani soil to supply it’s troops in Afghanistan. Any stupid decision by the Americans will cut this route off . This would be a nightmare for the NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan and the Talibs wont shy away from taking this opportunity.
Trump’s outbursts are hollow and I doubt that they will take any decision which will compromise their geopolitics in central Asia.
And btw, the Pakistani establishment is corrupt to the core.
AaA,
There is more than meet the eye.
US think it do not need the land route for supply with the small amount of troop in the Afghanistan(for some reason I have hard time find those articles again).
I think Mattis has a few tricks in his sleeves. Trump did not blur out without its military bosses’ nod.
Will Pakistan Close NATO’s Supply Routes into Afghanistan? Mattis Plays Down Possibility
http://www.defenseone.com/politics/2018/01/will-pakistan-close-natos-supply-routes-afghanistan-mattis-plays-down-possibility/145006/
Pakistan is not without means as well:
Pakistan court bails anti-US cleric days after aid freeze
Sufi Mohammad, 90, architect of violent movement for enforcement of Sharia law, released from jail due to to ill health
https://www.timesofisrael.com/pakistan-court-bails-anti-us-cleric-days-after-aid-freeze/
Pakistan gives over a million Afghan refugees 30 days to leave country
https://www.trtworld.com/asia/pakistan-gives-over-a-million-afghan-refugees-30-days-to-leave-country-13892
Trump is messing with Pakistan’s brain and now give it a leash and ask Pakistan to put it on herself:
US conveys ‘concrete’ steps for Pakistan: Pentagon
https://www.geo.tv/latest/175954-us-conveys-concrete-steps-for-pakistan-pentagon
IMHO, Pakistan public wants a total break. Lets see what the government is made of.
Free money feeds corruption. It benefits elite more than the people.
Loans have to be returned, there they have to be accounted for.
Her is a article on Globaltimes.
US repays Pakistani cooperation with enmity
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1083858.shtml
“Pakistan was a relatively safe and stable country before the US launched the Afghan war in 2001. Then Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf decided to join hands with the US in the war on terror under huge pressure and clamped down on the Pakistan-funded Afghan Taliban. It should be noted that neither the Taliban nor Al Qaeda hurt Pakistan’s interests, so overthrowing the Taliban regime was purely a move to cater to the US, for which Islamabad sacrificed a lot.
As many in Pakistan have sympathy with the Taliban, the fight against them has precipitated a severe social division. That was how the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, came into being. Furthermore, the Afghan Taliban and terrorists crossed the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, plunging Pakistan in a decade-long turmoil. Pakistan witnessed frequent terror attacks on its land and US troops caused mass casualties among civilians, added to deaths of those directly involved and property losses.
The turmoil deterred foreign investors, triggered capital outflow and wasted development opportunities. It is estimated the war on terror has caused losses of hundreds of billions of dollars to Pakistan, a figure far beyond the US aid worth $33 billion.
In fact, the so-called US security aid to Pakistan is what the US should pay. The US military used Pakistani bases; the US air force occupied its airspace; the US ground transport vehicles passed over its territory, all of which damaged its infrastructure. The cancelled assistance, estimated at $250 million, cannot even cover the road tolls and the maintenance fees of the highways. In addition, the participation of Pakistani soldiers in the fighting has greatly reduced US casualties. ”
…
“The US war on terror will not necessarily succeed with Pakistan’s cooperation, but will definitely founder without it. That the White House froze security aid to Pakistan has fully exposed its arrogance and selfishness. Its image in the international community has been tarnished. ”
Quite obviously, that “international community” do not include India…
Have you heard the news that’s goin’ ’round here?
The man in charge has got to go
‘Cause he dances ’round the problem, boy
And the problem is the man in charge you know
Now, the young knows what I’m talking ’bout
It’s a con in the old man’s game
The man in charge, he don’t know what he’s doing
He don’t know the world has changed
Power seems to be so far up
The man on the street ain’t got a clue
The high top cat’s running your life
Thinks the problem is me and you
Born in a time that has gone by
The old tell the young what to do
Have you heard the news that’s goin’ ’round here?
The problem is the man in charge of you
The problem is the man in charge of you
Power seems to be so far up
The man on the street ain’t got a clue
The high top cat’s running your life
Thinks the problem is me and you
Have you heard the news that’s goin’ ’round here?
The man in charge has to go
The man in charge has got to go
Man in charge has to go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC9feonEx5A
Enjoy
Kent
1964 a change is coming … (I was 22)
the waves of time are goin’ up and down
and up again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zDeBIA-vQ8
“of a man who will die singing”
http://www.30days30songs.com/162
Gladio? Gladio who?
Well, it seems that some birth documents on Gladio, which is from the text clearly begun in 1943 – ie not after the “nazi surrender” – are now public….get yer copies… Get it? Gladio was begun by nazis…and was/is a nazi project.
” HEADQUARTERS
COUNTER INTELLIGENCE CORPS (CIC)
ALLIED FORCE HEADQUARTERS
APO 512 (Caserta, Italy) ” https://cryptome.org/cic/taranto/cic-1945-taranto-pow-camp.html
I imagine Saker his own self might want to read this stuff…
Operation Gladio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio
Operation Gladio: CIA Network of “Stay Behind” Secret Armies
https://www.globalresearch.ca/operation-gladio-cia-network-of-stay-behind-secret-armies/9556
Some of the fellows might want to get their own copy… of what?
Well, Psycwar for 21st cent… here’s review: https://www.psywar.org/bookreviews/macdonald
“… book begins with a compact and informative history of both psychological operations and military deception techniques and looks at how imagery can be faked, manipulated and misrepresented to further these operations. For example, Macdonald shows by example how a miscaptioned photograph can alter its perception, how staged photographs can lie or how their meaning changed by not what they show but what the photographer chooses to miss out. The book also examines how the digital age means that altered images are now much easier to produce and to distribute, how terrorists use the internet to spread their visual propaganda and how western democracy is an easy target for the visual forger….”
let’s repeat that last line… “…how western democracy is an easy target for the visual forger….”
https://athens.indymedia.org/media/old/propaganda_and_information_warfare_in_the_twenty-first_century__altered_images_and_deception_operations.pdf
Geewhiz, duhya suppose the NYT editors have their own copies?
On the front lines of the class war USA
corruption and incompetence knows no national border or social system:
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article193151499.html
but there is an organizing campaign for renter’s rights ( they have none) in Sacramento.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article180474116.html
and the best from the local Sacramento News and Review alternative newspaper
https://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/happy-new-year-mdash-youre-evicted/content?oid=25627897
I have read that paper, The SN&R, for many years. It is colonized…but it was pretty fair at one time. I have had material published, and mutilated, by this organ.
Take it for what it is…nothing more, or less…it’s capitalism run into the woods, and I use it nowadays to line the birdcage.
Renters in California have, in fact, considerable legal protections. Especially when one considers the absolutely helpless condition in most other state of the “union”.
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/overview-landlord-tenant-laws-california.html
The most important information of the day: One of my informants says that underlying all the strum und drang of US foreign policy statements even those about Iran is a plan to undermine the Russian spring elections.
Hmmm? In that case the pressure is on. Advanced technology launched from an illegal US base in Syria? How about taking that to the security council? Certainly it is within the preview of its purpose to examine the violation of sovereign rights of Syria as well as complicity in an attack on Russian forces legally within the borders of Syria.
https://www.rt.com/news/415276-syria-russian-military-repelled-attacks/
They say they’re going to run Oprah for el presidente of the banana republic.
Kitty Kelly’s biography establishes, claims (not refuted by slander or libel actions) that Oprah actually admitted selling herself as a sexual commodity… did some whoring. In this she may take her place with many other ladies, and who would criticize her anyway? Is it not very fine that they propose to run a whore for president?
Kitty Kelly also makes a fair case that Nancy Raygun did whatever it took down at the studio. That also went un-refuted in any legal action. Kitty K is pretty specific about both ladies, and the evidence for the claims.
Me? I am actually rather sympathetic abut this. People do things when they’re young… But it sure seems appropriate that they’d propose to put a whore in the job.
Ya couldn’t have made this stuff up…
It must really be the end of a era in History…
It is claimed that O actually acted as a pimp more recently http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/08/oprahs-has-a-history-with-harvey-weinstein-photos/
“… An aspiring actress says Harvey Weinstein used Oprah Winfrey and Naomi Campbell to dupe her into thinking he would help her with her career — only to use her for sex.
British actress Kadian Noble said Tuesday she was head-over-heels impressed when she first met Weinstein at an event in London because he was hanging out with model Campbell and had megastar Oprah “swinging off his arm.”
“I thought, obviously, this man has something amazing in store for me,” she said during a teary-eyed press conference in Manhattan to discuss the sex trafficking lawsuit she filed a day earlier against Weinstein in Manhattan federal court….”
I think I’m going to be sick…
Just another house in the sun?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLh73RPvfgI
Enjoy
Kent
Yann Tiersen – “Porz Goret”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z3jCiCrsx0
Enjoy
Kent
Putin: Have They Published “A World Map” and “Marked all the U.S. Military Bases on It” Yet
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2018/01/08/putin-have-they-published-a-world-map-and-marked-all-the-u-s-military-bases-on-it-yet/
The hidden story behind all of the manipulated doings and false-flag non-event events in the middle east pumped out day by a fully complicit media, is the arrival of major challenge to “the State” in all it’s incarnations. Made to believe by all of these false storylines that nation states and the people who live in them are battling each other over some fundamental difference or other – we have lost sight of the real battle – that of citizen versus state! No real division of interests exists, in other words, between the regimes in charge of those various capitals where figurehead leaders wag their fingers at other puppet princes in other satrapies of the one and only power which really matters. All of them believe in the State – as the supreme and heaven-mandated entity with the right to reign over it’s citizens, instead of being reined in by them!
from TOPRAK VE TURNA: Self Governance & the middle eastern map