Dear friends,
Today I have a few questions for you:
First, a long time ago I did Q&A with readers: you post questions in the comment section and I reply to them by recording an audio. Question 1: would that be of interest to you? Would you us want to do that again? (please don’t post questions quite yet, I will make a special post of that occasion if a majority wants us to do this).
Second, if we do that, Question 2: could you recommend a good audio file hosting website with either no ads or minimal ads (I also encourage you all to use some kind of ad blocker anyway). I don’t want to use YouTube anymore and, besides, YT wants a video of some kind, I just want to find a place to upload an audio file and keep it there.
Next, I have tried to record phone calls with my Huawei P30 cellphone (currently running EMUI 10) but nothing works, at least not properly. There are hardware solutions, like this one, but they are not cheap and they seem to be very old (the PR200 is at least 5 year old). All I want to record is the audio (on both sides, questions and replies) of a person I would be interviewing, not the video. And I have given up on Android software solutions (the HUAWEI CallRecording_EMUI_10 apk from ictfix.net does not work on my phone). Question 3: could you recommend some kind of modern and better priced hardware (probably Bluetooth based) solution?
Finally, as some of you might know, once I year a pretend that the blog is as “serious” as Time Magazine and I chose a person of the year. Question 4: this time, I want to ask you, whom would you recommend I nominate (and, please, this is tongue-in-cheek silliness, so let’s not be too serious about this!)?
That’s it from me for today.
Thanks for your replies.
Andrei
As to Question # 4:
Julian Assange
YES! You are 100% correct.
I don’t think anybody can come up with a better suggestion (but I will still wait, maybe we can nominate more than one person).
But yes, absolutely yes, what is being done to Assange is an ABOMINATION which must be denounced.
Thank you for your excellent suggestion!
Andrei
You asked for “tongue-in-cheek silliness” but surely Julian Assange is the exact opposite i.e., a serious contender, at least from ‘our side’?
I had missed that “tongue in cheek” comment in my quick reading.
But in retrospect, when one lives in a world of Bidens, Macrons, Johnsons, etc., one can see how few real candidates actually exist for a “man of the year.” One can see how difficult it would be to come up with a candidate for “man of the year.”
But Julian Assange is such a candidate.
And he towers over the putative “leaders” of the Western World.
England has returned to 18th Century despotism. Assange is in the same boat as John Wilkes who established the rights to publish Proceedings in Parliament for the public to have verbatim record of what went on in the legislature 1771.
Assange stands in contrast to Snowden.
Russia has granted Snowden protection and a home whereas Britain like Sweden has betrayed the Right to Report as a Journalist and sought to certify who may be a journalist.
Russia must look at US and UK with puzzlement. No sooner has Russia cast off the Communist straitjacket than the West puts it on.
Lenin was able to get to London, so was Karl Marx, so was Peter the Painter – but today a journalist cannot do what the old Sunday times Insight Team; or the Observer; or World in Action; or Julian Pettifer; or John Pilger. did
Seconded! Nobody else comes close.
I agree. It seems like he has been all but forgotten in the numerous crises hitting hard recently. Important to remember that the global elite who have imprisoned and tortured him are at the root of the other crises as well. We are all being imprisoned and tortured now, but he was the first and most important among us.
+1
The ‘powers that be’ want Julian Assange to pay for what he has done in exposing the evil and associated hypocrisy of those ‘powers that be’. Of course, one longs for justice, but how often is this found in a Court of Law? I was told long ago, courts deliver verdicts, not justice, in line with man-made laws.
Words express thoughts and can be truthful and honest, or lying and deceitful. Honesty is NOT a quality naturally associated with politicians, or those connected with courts, a pillar of privilege. A barrister is a TRAINED liar, spending years in perfecting that skill, splitting hairs with academic sophistry.
Who controls? Power and Wealth go hand-in-hand. and pass down from generation to generation. Wealth buys Power. Who controls Wealth controls Power and dictates the issues of War and Peace.
Julian Assange challenged this, revealing some of the evil and hypocrisy of war. He could not be allowed to go unpunished. Consider Julian’s friend, Craig Murray.
That is the system of which we are part and of which we have no control. Hence ‘the hypocrisy of democracy’. Wealth controls. Questions:who owns The Wealth? Who are the Oligarchs of history?
what they are doing to Julian Assange is very cruel. According to his wife, he is depressed, ill, he lives an unbearable winter, and journalists should talk about him. Few people are talking about Assange, whose crime was to denounce the barbaric crimes of the empire. Western media is silent about Assange, people are afraid to talk about Assange!!!
I would nominate Biden for the Man Of The Year. His policies have weakened the US, both at home, and in the world. And while he has shown the US population just how bad even a non-tweeting President can be. More importantly he has shown the Russian people what a treasure they have in a leader like Putin. So all in all,he has effected the world enormously this year.
Actually, I was thinking about nominating “persons unknown inside the “Biden” Administration for, at least so far, having started a real negotiation with Russia (I am 99% sure now that this is all for very real) but, alas, I am afraid that if there are any sane people in the “Biden” admin, they are being out-shouted by the crazies.
Also, if Biden does like Trump and does not start a war during his presidency, I will have to nominate him “JUST” for that, as I consider avoiding war by far the single most important thing any US president can do.
Let’s see what others have to say.
Thank you!
Andrei
I believe it would be the person or persons in the shadows pulling Biden’s strings. His Deep State minder(s). Who might that be in your worst imaginations? George Soros? Even he may be a mere front. Could be Satan himself if you believe in the supernatural.
Andrei
The thing about recording devices is ,if they work they work.
I have been using all kinds of them them since the 60’s.
My recording studio is recording on Mac G4 computers that are all but 20 years old and they still work great with the compatible interfaces which are equally as old.So to buy a device such as you have linked above, from Amazon which is compatible with a 5 year old phone seems a good deal given that the internal recording on the phone is unreliable.Basically if you take care of the gear and don’t yank the connectors it should last as long as the phone or even longer and being bluetooth it will work if you change the phone too. The price is ok given that it will supply you with audio files that you should be able to edit on a tablet or desktop with basic audio editing software.Its useful to be able to edit some parts of conversations like noisy bits etc.
I hope this helps and God bless.
Hi TJT
Thanks for your suggestion, but I am not touching any Mac/Apple hardware or software under any circumstances :-)
Also
If I wanted to use a computer, it would be a Linux based one anyway.
Cheers
Andrei
I read on RT that Peskov said putin and biden may have another summit before the end of the year. It could mean big stuff are being negociated behind the scenes. I am not hopeful but I think there is still the chance to find a compromised agreement.
1) It would very interesting
2) rumble dailymotion and odysee
4) Assange and collectively the Taliban they achieved the unthinkable in Afghanistan.
I wanted to reply under the saker s reply to uncle Bob. Currently the fourth comment.
I am sorry.
Yes, it appears that Biden wants to talk to Putin again.
Yet another sign that “stuff” is happening imho
amities
I wouldn’t get my hopes up. Whatever they agree to will not likely get past the War Party, and even if it does, the US can not be counted on to keep the agreement. For me, I think this is all on the part of the US to stall for time – for what reason I am not sure, but I have the feeling it concerns events in Ukraine.
Julian Assange definitely gets my vote. He is a hero and for that, he will likely die in US custody for no other crime than to expose the truth.
Sorry Andrei,You missread me .I was not suggesting to use a Mac only to show that a well built machine will give many years of service and this learning applied to a machine you might want to purchase.
I have many vintage machines, not computers, that still do as good or better a job than a modern machine and the old stuff if well maintained will out live us.
TJT
Q1) Q&A would be very interesting.
Q2) Aternatives to YouTube include:
*Bitchute
*DTube
*Daily Motion
*MetaCafe
*Youku (Chinese equivalent to YouTube)
Q3) For simplicity you can make your “video” using PowerPoint, or the LibreOffice equivalent Impress. A classmate did this for a video assignment that had to be uploaded to YouTube. It goes like this:
*Pre-make slides #1 & #2 with the question and answer typed out.
*Click on the “Add audio” option, and record yourself reading out the question.
*While you continue reading and moving towards the answer, click on the next slide (or push “Page down” key) and continue reading/speaking your answer.
*End your slideshow for each question, or make one large PowerPoint for the entire Q&A if you like.
Q4) Person of the year candidates include:
*Virginia Guiffre, for exposing Ghislane Maxwell’s pure evil
*Evo Morales and/or Luis Arce, for overturning Uncle Scam’s “colour revolution” in Bolivia
*Victor Orbat, for defending Hungary’s conservative principles
*Kyle Rittenhouse, for defending innocent people AND himself against criminals
*Julian Assange, for defending freedom of expression to his death
*Joint Russian-Chinese task force that brought Meng Wanzhou home safely
*Bashar al-Assad, for continuing the good fight against ISIS
1) thank you
2) these are all video hosting services (right?)
3) yes, that is what I did in the past, but I simply don’t have the time to do such conversions anymore (I ain’t getting younger while my workload only goes up with every passing month…)
4) thanks for the list!
cheers
Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, maybe?
What about using Soundcloud?
I was unable to view any bitchute video in Yaroslavl this fall (it was blocked by Russian censor). I suggest at least two video hosting sites as the situation is going to get worse before it gets better. Not all internet providers were censoring bitchute. It was available on a mobile phone through another network (sorry, do not have the name of the mobile network at hand).
I have used Audacity, running on Linux for recording audio. You may want to look and see if this is a solution for you.
https://ask.metafilter.com/55528/How-to-clean-up-phone-audio-using-Audacity
There is also a version of Audacity for Android.
You can also connect the 3.5 mm earpiece jack to input to your PC, then massage the data on Linux using Audacity or other tool.
The person of the year candidates all make for an impressive list. I would add the Putin, Lavrov and Shoigu team for “speaking softly despite having a big stick”. The US empire’s clashes around the world proved mostly ineffective due to their well coordinated efforts. They kept conversations going (even with the Taliban) despite huge differences.
#4 Andrei Martyanov/Pepe Escobar
#1 Yes, we’d love it. I say we, my whole household and extended family are fans.
duly noted, thank you!
Andrei Martyanov, I’ll second that. His books, his blog and now his YouTube channel are all musts in these troubled times.
it would be wonderful to see them together, it would be valuable, it would be very helpful, an inspiration and encouragement!
Julian Assange THe case for his major – and largely unsung – contribution is really beyond argument.
it’s sad what’s happening to Assange. It’s amazing that the Biden Democracy Summit was a fiasco, it only had 2,000 views. Nobody in the world wanted to watch the meeting of lying democracy on youtube. Another defeat for US President Mumm-Ra of the ThunderCats! LOL
The voice recording should be about the power politics going on with India, China, U.S., and Russia, and the NATO / Ukraine imbroglio.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202112/1241568.shtml
Cant wait.
Dear Saker,
Q1: Whichever modality simplifies your life and enhances your work. In an age of audiovisual overstimulation I prefer the quietness of reading, but maybe more prefer to listen nowadays??
Q4: The Technocratic bureaucrats, marching in goose-step, come hell or high water.
Regarding question #4
My fist thought was President Putin.
He deserve the title for being the sole Leader of Sanity in a world tethering on the brink of world war, for more than 10 years.
But I agree with Mike from Jersey.
Julian Assange deserves the Title for publishing the truth, when all Western MSM turned propaganda outlets for a totalitarian Fascist aggression, instead of doing their job of exposing the lies and war crimes
BTW great idea Saker.
Audio without captions or transcripts would be very difficult if not impossible for deaf people like me to understand what is being said.
I agree, Assange should be the one, but call him person of the decade too.
Dear Nathan
Thanks for posting this. I have some speech to text apps on my Android phone. I can also check in the Linux repositories.
Can’t make promises to succeed, but I can promise that I will try.
Kind regards
Andrei
Dear Saker,
As to audio, similar problem here — for this reason, I usually avoid them.
And I agree about Assange.
Thanks for the good job. I wish you continued success!
Actually, as English is my second language, my problem is understanding spoken English…
Q & A session- definitely a good idea.
However, I suggest a different format to what was tried the last time- i.e. answering each question separately.This leads to a lot of overlap and repetition in the answers. A better format might be to collect the questions, work out the areas to be covered and then speak on them. This would give a better flow and be more efficient.
recommendation for Man of the Year- Zelensky, for doggedly sticking to the Empire knowing full well that it is a lost cause and possible damage to ones country and person. Such principled dedication to the Empire should not go unsung. Runner up, for the same reasons, is That Man Down Under, the PM of Australia.
Additional topics/areas I would like to see covered- the role and status of key countries that could affect the downfall of the Empire significantly if they were to openly side with the multilateralists- Japan, Korea, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt,Saudi, are the ones I have in mind. No doubt there are other, smaller/weaker countries that could also have big impact such as those in the Balkans or the MENA area
Hi Andrei
I prefer reading rather than video or audio. It’s simpler, quicker, easier, and I can speed read if it’s boring or too long winded.
I like your adjustments. Well done!
Patrick
Add an upvote for the reading. ^+1.
My hearing is, well I’m day to day functionally deaf, but fool most people…. (Or fool myself that I fool people)
I can’t [wont] listen to an audio, but will read.
Also, A transcript is much more useful for archiving or copy paste or linking.
There must be a method somewhere whereby you can turn speech to sound. I think this is a standard feature in the latter versions of Windows. Not sure about it in Linux systems. Either Saker or yourselves can use this feature to post the transcript on this site..
Would be good to hear from knowledgeable people on this.
Adding another vote for reading.
Another man of year candidate: Vladimir Putin for his patience dealing with the constant barrage of propaganda from the US & allies.
I lot of musicians like the Zoom H2 and later stand-alone solid-state recorders. You can record to a memory card and either slip it into your computer’s reader or connect via USB cable.
I have an H2 (I am a guitarist) – but how do I record a phone call with it??
Honorable Saker, for #4, I would like to recommend the magnificent leader of the Ukrainian republic, Zalensky (hope I spelled it right). Why? I feel he has brought the fresh air of democracy to that country. The enthusiasm of democracy is worthy of filming it for a Disney motion picture.
Question 1. Yes, please.
Question 2,3. Skip, skip.
Question 4. Oh, the random guy who tried nailing his Bolshevik Bits to Red Square. He was definitely showing the western world what Russians think it is doing to itself in so many ways.
Saker, for just audio you can use soundcloud (free to a set data limit) or I believe podomatic. You can use odysee or bitchute for audio only as well. Just upload a picture also. Fdroid might have an app for recording on a Huawei not sure though.
Question 4. Herd Immunity (recoverd people)
Yes – I also recommend Soundcloud. No commercial interruptions and free to use. I have used it myself for music and interviews.
okay, I will check that out
thank you!
I will try out soundcloud again (tried it a long time ago)
thanks for the idea
#4 Assange. he modeled what each of us needs to draw from deep within ourselves: unwavering, courageous pursuit of truth. He’s dying for it.
also, Putin, Xi, & Evo Morales who continues to support and encourage true revolution, following Che Guevarra’s example.
I nominate Sergei Lavrov because he maintains his composure in the presence of idiots and nazis; comports himself with dignity; commands respect; and despite his “partners”, keeps focused on reasonable solutions to present and future problems. Hat’s off to Mr. Lavrov! John from Cali
Dear Saker; I hope you can go ahead with the recording as I think it would make it easier for you to expediently reply to questions and comments. Writing is laborious. My own rather longish comments are often too late to engage the attention that accrues to earlier comments because I’m rarely satisfied with anything I’ve written in less than a day. Going over the spelling and grammar and such takes time to. Speaking is so much more direct and allows you to employ forms of emphasis that are not easily duplicated in our present text formats. I, for one, miss italics. Regarding those with hearing impediments hopefully there’s a technical fix. Still, the main point is that audio, as distinct from video, is expedient for you and I trust that everybody on this site wants to hear more from you anyway. An audio technique would make it possible for you to communicate more fully with your guests without undue burdens on your time and energies.
Kevin, I offered you a free/gratuitous tip some time back.
Paragraphs, mate, paragraphs.
I see your enormous wall-of-text comments and …. Sometimes I try to give you a read, but more often now, I scroll on by.
If people are not engaging with your comments, maybe others here share my aversion…..
Why not try inserting a paragraph (or 17) into your ginormous wall-o-text.
Can’t hurt, I reckon it’ll help.
Kevin, I too hope that there is a technical solution for those who have difficulties with ‘hearing’. In my case, it is more about language… It is harder to understand spoken English than written English.
re Question 3
On my Samsung/Android phone I’ve used an app called Cube ACR. I’ve only recorded a dozen or so calls but it’s worked well. It costs $10 USD per year.
Just a few thoughts on hardware that might help you.
You can get a number of devices that let you take notes verbally to a digital recorder, while walking around, and then that record is loaded to your computer. I know Sony makes one.
I think, but I am not sure, that this can then be changed to text in your computer. So you can have text plus audio.
Do you really think a video of your answers and discussion of points is necessary?
Perhaps a simple audio file would do what you want. For some youtubes I have seen there is no video, but only an audio component. I noticed a few writers have an audio file you can listen to or read the essay, on the same page. I believe Kaitland Johnson does this for each of her essays on her blog.
Thanks and good luck.
Question 4:
Brandon
Or the reporter who misheard the chant for proving that Americans do indeed understand irony.
Yes.
I second that.
Belarus has enacted legislation to counter sanctions embargoed to its individuals, private companies and govt. Institutions.
Ergo is it possible to sue those countries that make sanctions based on spurious claims in international courts.
Dear Saker;
I would recommend a USB headset (maybe a wireless dongle) with mic and a soft phone.
The headset would minimize feedback. A dongle, I’d bet, are a bit more reliable than Bluetooth. But if Bluetooth, version 5 is *much* better than 4. Range with 5 is quite good. House-hold type range with a real laptop.
Maybe dedicate a Raspberry Pi 400 to the task and that way it won’t get mucked up by daily use for other things. It depends upon how confident you are. The 400s are about $100 plus power supply, memory etc.
I council against Audio recordings or Video which a lot of commentators have switched to. This is probably because a lot of their audience don’t like or can’t read properly ! I used to subscribe to Dmitry Orlov ( years) but gave him away when he switched to including many Video presentations. Regardless of how good -nothing beats written & you have a very educated audience.
Person of the Year – Julian Assange.
Oh, and I nominate Jens Soltzenberg for man-o-war of the year. Stir it up for years with outrageous statements and claims,, and then head for cover in a cushy central bank job.
And yet always seems to moderate his position when Biden does too! Uncanny.
Jens Soltenberg repeated this year what he had also said earlier, thet “NATO has prevented the use of atomic weapons in Europe after the war”.
Of course, he left out the possibility that such nuclear weapons can have been used elsewhere.
And probably willingly left out that deleted uraniom now radiate in Serbia casing so many cancers and miscarrages.
The new Norwegian Natonal anthem runs as follows:
.
“Aus Stolzen Berg stieg unser Gott
Der is ein Wehr und Waffen
Er birget uns aus aller Sorg
Und weiss ons wohl zu schaffen!”
,
He has now applied to become head of the investement fund that aintaines the Soveleign wealth of Norway (funds from selling oil and natural gas). The hymn will be duly recorded and sung at his investiture.
Hi
Man of the year would be Tarik the guy who recently posted an article on your site
Andrei My Orthodox Brother,
Question#1 Absolutely
Questions#2&3…I am sorry. I am more lost with that kind of stuff than you are.
Question#4 Kyle Rittenhouse
PS: Andrei My Friend I read your blog daily. I consciously avoid reading anything written in Time and have done so for years. So to some Time is important but to me the Vineyard if the Saker is more important.
Thanks, Andrei, for your excellent service keeping us informed and sane.
I prefer the silence of reading. Sometimes, I need to re-read to unravel intricate arguments, astoundingly good arguments, and even absurd arguments. Sometimes, I keep copies good writing. I use the Find function on text to locate phrases or topics. And I agree with the commenter who noted that you have a highly-educated audience, which I presume, means that they would prefer text presentations?
All of which is to say that if audio only is implemented, I should miss some of your informed opinion and updates.
However, you ought to decide what is best use of your daily allotment of time and what is best for the purposes you have in mind, and I am fine with that.
Thanks again.
You could ask Bonnie Faulkner of Guns ‘n Butter for advice
Dear Saker,
there are not much solutions for EMUI10. i found two on famous xda-developer site you can try for free.
take a look: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=83653079&postcount=389
and https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/genuine-call-recorder-for-emui-10-10-1-or-11.4170695/
choose the right emui version!
wish you good luck!
item 4 – Ebrahim Raisi
Hi, Andrei. Reading is slow, more brain-friendly, more digestive & takes longer to get erased.
I personally think that a war in Ukraine is extremely unlikely, Russia has not any real strategic interests in that country, very different scenario would be if the Empire attempts again to mess up with Belarus. I personally believe that a war is more likely between US an China in the Taiwan strait and/or in the South Chinese Sea. I would like that our great military analyst Andrei says something about it and the possible outcomes that would incur
Hello Saker,
#3 Some Xiaomi old phone like my REDMI 4X have the phone call recording implemented in the system (it has been removed now for new models). It work perfectly well.
Best regards from France
How dare you be so out of date as to specify a ‘man’ of the year? Obviously the award should go to the gender fluid LBQTFENCOKF collective of crazies, one of whose tentacles goes up the backside of the the ‘Biden’ construct to operate it’s vocal cords and tell the world that it has had its butt wiped.
On your call for suggestions for Man (or Woman) of the Year: If you really are tongue-in-cheek, how can you go past Kamala Harris? She is a woman of color and a mere slip on a banana peel away from the Oval Office.
Tucker Carlson, Simply for being the one sane voice of reason in an otherwise putrid swamp. We might not always agree with him on everything – but that’s okay. The pressure on him not to become another zombie like the rest of them must be quite intense.
As per the audio, this seems like a fairly straightforward and inexpensive solution.
You can change out the mixer to go bluetooth.
https://youtu.be/oQojpUsJ6Us
Hello Andrei,
if You Are serious about recording, I would reccomend to use a PC instead of any phone – You can connect much better quality microphone and editing of recorded track would be much more convinient. As for Man of the Year – as a serious contender it would be Julian Assange – man of character and personal integrity, example of what journalist should be. With “tongue-in-cheek silliness” it must be Annalena Baerbock, beautiful example of EU politician of our times (and also meritorious employee of Gazprom thanks to Her tedious work for the best gas prices on European market…)
1) no, I prefer reading
4) the Taliban (as a whole or some representative), for having kicked out the former empire and created a working gov. despite best efforts to hinder that from others. I see this as the most optimistic event of 2021.
Regards
Hola, perdón por escribir en español…. gracias traductor
Yo haría 2 premios ,zona A y B
Mis candidatos serían.
Zona A
1-Joe Biden, premio especial ” tu sigue así campeón, a ver dónde llegas”
2-Ciudadano occidental desconocido, premio especial “por sufrir a Joe y otros mamporreros” y lo que nos espera en un futuro cercano
Zona B
1-premio compartido Putin y Xi jinping, ( que envidia os tengo )
2-Ciudadano NO occidental desconocido, por mantener al frente a los 2 anteriores,
Gracias Andrei
Jorge
Tongue firmly in cheek, Greta Thornburg, William Gates, George Soros, and of course, the divil himself, GOF Fauci…..
On recording, out of my depth, my kid says the OBS program is what he uses.
Cheers, M
Thanks so much for asking —
1. I can read quickly, so I prefer reading to listening. (I usually save my listening for people like Myaskovsky.) But I appreciate the fact that writing takes longer, unless you script your videos word for word, so I’m happy to live with whatever solution better facilitates your getting your thoughts out.
2. Lots of good suggestions, and I’m especially fond of the suggestion of Lavrov — wow, there’s still a diplomat on the planet! — but I just have to go with Assange.
Q4: Ursula van der Leyen of course, who else? She must be a Russian agent in disguise. There is no other explanation possible: First as German defense minister she did single handedly almost as much damage to a German army as Stalin (ok, or as Hitler, as he ordered the attack on the Soviet Union), this time by leaving a bureaucratic mess with only 4 fighter jets in working order and no helicopter working (and no ammunition and spares left). Now she is doing the same with the European Union.
Julian Assange
https://reel2bits.org/
reel2bits is an open source project that lets you upload your music, podcasts or other sounds, organize it into albums, and follow other users to see what they share. It’s huge! Each reel2bits instance is a part of a bigger network called the Fediverse
………….And
the nominees for best comedic impression of a world leader are
Joe Biden for “Clueless, the Empire Version”
Boris Johnson for “Gilbert and Sullivan’s – I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-Conservative”
Emmanuel Macron for “Some Like It Hot for Teacher”
Volodymyr Zelensky for “The Little NATO Drummer Boy”
and the loser is…………………everyone
Q#4 Couldn’t think of anyone more suitable person than Julian Assange for that title.
To Question 4: Aleksandr Lukashenko. Consolidated his power despite heavy Western attempts to get rid of him (including a CIA plot to kill him). By the end of the year, he’s not only safely in power but also front man in pushing back against Western provocation (border crisis, Russian nukes etc.).
Finally, as some of you might know, once I year a pretend that the blog is as “serious” as Time Magazine and I chose a person of the year. Question 4: this time, I want to ask you, whom would you recommend I nominate
The Taliban fighters–who for the past 20 years have fought the mighty American Empire, its allies, and the “most powerful military in human history” not only to a standstill but compelled the Americans and its coalition crime partners to beat a hasty retreat from Afghanistan in a humiliating defeat that rivals the Fall of Saigon.
The Taliban defeat of the American Axis in Afghanistan is history written in fire.
I agree with the Assange nomination.
I dislike audio files. Often I find a need to refer back to what I’ve already read to clarify my thoughts. Old & slow… that’s me!
Dear Saker,
Q4: Of course Assange but fear many of the mass public take little interest due to MSN brainwashing. Therefore I suggest Craig Murray for his stance against the establishment. Whilst voicing support for Assange, he faced the vindictive ‘overlords’ with strong character and remains a vocal and influential ‘new’ voice that he potential to be heard amongst the sleeping masses.
If a sarcastic winner, how about the British MSN for demonstrating 100% compliance to report Gov. scripts with uncanny similarity and lack of journalist approach. Amazing that not one MSN journalist has been able to question the strange narratives… and one gov funded stenographer still thinks it is trusted and fair!
As for Question 4, of course Julian Assagne. and please let me extend this interesting proposal a step in the opposite direction, namely the non-man of the year (asshole, traitor, juanguaido of 2021) Alexei Navalny. Thanks for the word
On your call for nominations for Man (Or Woman of the Year): Take 2 – If you are not really tongue-in-cheek, but looking for a game-changer, please consider Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Dear Andrei Raevsky,
Viewing the West as a monolith is to bind together those who believe in the restoration of Western civilization with those who are hell bent in destroying it.
What we need is a confrontation of two visions, not between West and Eurasia, but human development and anti-development. Between open-eyed dreams that stimulate our most human desires and manufactured fear and depression.
In a time of sticks, we need more carrots.
If you try Librem Mini, with Linux already installed from purchase, you’ll find a delight using it. I’ve installed Yandex as default search engine; Telegram works beautifully. It has all the features one may need. And I don’t have to touch any US software.
i found recording a call is tricky as the phone needs primary access to the speaker during the call. its also hard to confirm the recoding is working during the call. If you can live with using the speaker during the call you can use an old phone or recorder instead.
other then that theres soundtap or similar for a laptop which is simple and solid. just what i found, i might be wrong.
“what is being done to Assange is an ABOMINATION”
Yes, absolutely, but nevertheless I don’t agree with this choice as man of this(!) year.
He did a tremendous job with wikileaks, for sure, and he deserves all the recognition for this. But that’s history now and at present he is just a victim of the system that is leading a merciless war against humanity.
You don’t honor the martyrs right in the middle of the war.
I would suggest Alain Soral.
You know him Andrei and you already mentioned him a couple of times in your writings (in a positive manner which only very few people worldwide dare to do!)
He too accomplished incredible political/societal achievements with his association Egalité & Réconciliation by enlightening millions (!) in France which to my opinion is the main battleground in Europe nowadays.
He deserves it and you (with your courage & intellect equal to his) are the right man to give him this honor.
Thanks for all and kind regards,
Lucas
That’s easy – Julian Assange
#4.Julian Assange. Incalculable importance for those in low places by revealing the arsenal of tools used by Deep State. Even more important was the revelation of how, where, and against who the tools were being deployed against.
#1 I’m willing to give it a listen. As for topics, maybe shared opinions of life after current world order fades. Gracefully, I hope.
I choose to skip Q.1 and Q.2. My choice for Q.3 is Cardinal Pell – the man who proved his innocence and was then ‘imprisoned’ in an apartment in Rome. He did not get his responsibility back.
Q1:
Yes please
Q2:
check https://cloud.mail.ru/home
there one of the globally dreaded analytical group hosts their weekly Q&A without problems for years. works nice on mobiles, too. seems simple and safe
Luis Elizondo, the former counter-intelligence officer who is whistleblowing big time about the USG’s UFO coverup.
Question 1: I wasn’t around at the time, so I have no recollection of this. Still, it might be interesting. I doubt that an audio reply will be more informative than a text one, but it will be better at conveying emotions. Whether the emotions are something you wish to convey or not is up to you.
Question 2: Sorry, no idea. However, I can recommend that you upload the audio file onto multiple different file hosts (i.e. hosting services that are not dedicated to audio files). Zippyshare and pixeldrain are some of the best I’ve seen, as they do not have lengthy wait times or insidious CAPTCHA. Yes, an audio file on a normal filehost likely won’t just “play” out of the box in the browser most of the time (one would have to download first, then play it locally in some kind of audio player), but that is OK for some, and definitely more than OK as a backup.
Question 3: Well, you are right, nothing straightforward can be done about your P30. It might be possible to unlock its bootloader, then either root it or install a 3rd-party firmware (preferably an unofficial port of LineageOS; sadly, an official one does not exist), at which point it would likely be possible to force Android to record phone calls via Axet’s Call Recorder (you need a Magisk module for it to work). Don’t have any experience with dedicated hardware recorders, sorry. You might consider using non-phone-call solutions, i.e. some kind of audio chat that runs on PC; much more options for recording there, and quality might be better; all you need is a decent microphone with good range and no built-in noise suppression – you can buy such a mic anywhere for $15 or less.
Question 4: um…sorry, can’t come up with anything. Not even as a joke.
Questions #1 –> #3 : I like reading you. Not interested in podcast, wouldn’t listen to it. Then, this is the voice of just one ; your realm, your readers, your choice.
Question #4 : Kamala Harris. Just so she doesn’t feel lost and alone, for someone remembers her.
Assange nightmare is a revolting and depressing, full blown picture of today’s West. It remembers me of what West used to say about Sakharov in the 80’s, but XXIst wokenist style : on coke and meth and without an ounce of decency left. Everything the West does today, feels like a rebranded caricatural USSR.
Hence, West has actually become a decadent, unashamed, incompetent, cheap, pulp comic book version of its own old Cold War propaganda. To the point, where Brunner’s 1971 “Zanzibar” novel, mind blowing and deeply foreseeing at the time, seems timid compared to our reality.
So, if you want a decadent, unashamed, incompetent, cheap, pulp comic book person of the year, Kamala Harris seems hell of a serious contender.
Dear Andrei,
Another idea: there are those in Zone B following your work for whom English is not their first language. For them, the possibility of saving your articles for study, translation of difficult words / phrases / slang will greatly help with their understanding, and with that, build up their courage to send comments of their own. I am often impressed at the depth and power of a ‘foreign’ language-speaker: they come at an issue from refreshing new directions. And that adds value to this site, great as it already is.
I prefer reading, I prefer reading, I prefer reading……. Period.
Person of the year? Julian Assange. Needs to be done. Somebody above mentioned Sergei Lavrow. Would also be a good choice. A real Gentleman in these troubled times.
Man of the year : without a doubt, Joe Biden. I cannot think of anyone else who could do a better job of driving the US into the ground, a senile, doddering, incoherent fool operated by a crew of handlers who seem to be low-level political hacks without even this touch of evil genius which made Cheney and Rumsfeld look definitely threatening.
@Grouïk on December 17, 2021 · at 3:58 am EST/EDT
So glad to know that someone else read and remembers “Stand on Zanzibar” by John Brunner. Have you also read the modern prophet William Gibson?
For the first question, my answer is “probably yes”, for the audio, really I don’t know.
But, for the person of the year, I would say Biden (sarcasm), let us list all the achievements this year:
– Winning an election, supposed by a landslide, only by a tiny (and very very doubtful) amount
– Calling openly Putin “a killer”, Putin wishes him good health, and then he stumbles three times on the staircase of the helicopter.
– Flying to Geneve to meet the “killer” and demonstrating worldwide how powerless he is.
– Forgetting the names of his collaborators and keeping everyone worrying about what he could say every speech
– Afghanistan, with the Kabul airport moment probably worse than the Saigon moment.
– Imposing vaccine mandates, rejected by half US states, rejected also by courts, it seems that nobody cares what he is saying.
– Domestic immigration crisis, economic crisis with temporary (?) inflation, political crisis as also his party seems to leave the sinking boat, social crisis due to the woke/critical race theory issues all over the country.
– Awarded for the bronze face medal during the G20 with Macron: after stealing the submarine deal with Australia, he met Macron saying “oh, sorry, men, really, sorry…we didn’t realize, but we are friends, right?”
– Again awarded with that medal negotiating with Iran: “we are ready to return to the agreement that we tore up, but you have to do the first step and you should know that we could tear up it again if we wish”.
– A meeting for the democracy where many democracies are not invited because they don’t like to the US.
– The list could continue…
If you had thought that nobody could make you laugh more than Trump… here we are.
Joking of course, to ease the tension.
Yes, Putin is our man for ignoring, forgiving and laughing off the most outragous and insulting provocations. He is a man who understands his august responsibility to keep the outbreak of war firmly under his heel… he has a grip on that serpent! A deeply religous man who reflects in every way the holy pursuit of good should be thanked by everyone on earth-
“…Question 4: this time, I want to ask you, whom would you recommend I nominate…”
Angela Merkel.
She has arrived to the end of her career, and during all these years, despite all the pressures from different quarters to toughen up with Russia, she mantained her position of a necessary West-Russia dialogue, even in the most difficult times. She kept a cordial relationship with Putin, who she saw for the first time in 2001, when Putin delivered a speech in perfect German at the Bundestag, and la Merkel commented “do not trust this KGB guy.”
She met him in 2005 for the first time, and ever since they have gone back and forth, la Merkel traveling to Russia several times, Putin always welcoming her graciously with a bouquet of flowers. German investment in Russia has grown exponentially under her chancellorship, the highest for the past ten years, a key aspect of Russian assymetrical strategy to navigate through Western sanctions, which la Merkel has resisted to a point. She’s been accused of being “Putin’s pawn” by many, a baseless slander that did not stick, but it reveals the depth of her relationship with Russia, and her “office romance” with “cold, calculating” Putin, who covered her shoulders with a shawl during a meeting in St. Petersburg.
I know Saker qualified this question as “tongue-in-cheek silliness,” and that many others who may or may not deserve the “Person of the Year” title have been nominated (Assange, Biden, Zelensky, among others), however, I strongly believe nobody deserves that title as much as Angela Merkel, who following The Godfather’s counsel, kept her friends close, and her enemies even closer.
Lone Wolf
I have some audio engineering experience.
I’d recommend something like a Samson C01 USB mic run into a computer.
Sound editing is pretty much point and click at this point. If you have use a Mac
GarageBand is free and works well. I’m sure there are similar things for Windows.
If you want a dedicated recorder Zooms are great. You will still need to dump on to
a computer and edit it. The Zoom gives you more freedom.
As for distribution, there are plenty of podcast hosting options. That’s probably the
easiest way.
Seems video can manipulate too many senses at once. Mostly just read but as a cold war sonar person submariner, love audio too. Increases the chances of catching you off guard if live. Not likely off guard eh?
By the way gave up being smart enough to post here a long time ago. The general level of intelligent discussion is unsurpassed in my net experience. Getting rid of anonymous seems good too. Can’t help on audi technical side and quit doing my impersonation of a Victor accelerating, turning and changing depth a long time ago. Too bad quite an earful. Still use a flip phone and have to go to a friends for internet. By choice not budget. Sonar man’s reward, bad hearing. I digress. I
Mattias Desmet gave an interview about Mass Formation and his ideas about peaceful solutions give him a unique and useful perspective.
Keep up the good work I always visit when I need a dose of hope. Every chance I get! Cautiously pessimistic indeed. It makes me feel like a diesel boat in the Black sea. Lots of friends around, sitting in the mud waiting for a juicy target.
dear saker i hate audio and video, and i woul be glad ifthe audio is als aviable as text.