By Thorsten J. Pattberg Framing means talking the people into something that doesn‘t even exist. It is the last and ultimate manipulative strategy used by any author to describe everything he wished had happened in a way that bequeaths his own brilliant legacy and fits an imaginary plot. We say last manipulative strategy because at this point, as a versatile writer, all other techniques ought to have been exhausted. Take the Western genre. Old Joe,
By Peter Koenig for the Saker Blog Once upon a time there was an organization called North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO for short. It was founded in 1949, and today consists of a group of 30 countries from Europe and North America. NATO supposedly exists to protect the people and territories of its members. Of the 30 member countries, 28 are in Europe and only two, the US and
By Cynthia Chung for the Saker Blog What say of it? what say CONSCIENCE grim, That spectre in my path? – Chamberlayne’s Pharonnida There has always been a fascination with “horror” since time immemorial, such that much of what functions to thrill us today is not much different from the sort of folk tales told hundreds if not thousands of years ago. Looking back at these chapters during the ancient
by Batko Milacic – Independent analyst – for The Saker Blog Judging by the latest statements coming from European politicians, Ukraine has fewer and fewer allies in Europe. European politicians do not support corruption and crime, and the absence of any successful economic reforms in Ukraine. That is why Ukraine as a country is often mentioned in the European media – in a negative sense. Recently, The United States and
By Francis Lee for the Saker Blog According to the economics textbooks, the market mechanism is the most effective method of ensuring technical and allocative efficiencies in a capitalist economy. Technical efficiencies being the method whereby goods and services are produced at the lowest costs and allocative efficiencies being a situation where the distribution of goods is such that there will be no surpluses or shortages of commodities produced. This
by Amarynth for the Saker Blog There has been a slight pause in these sitreps. This writing became overshadowed with current events, fully covered in the Saker Blog by other writers. Because of length, we will upgrade this one today from sitrep to guest analysis. A shortlisting of four major events since the Sitrep paused: 1.Meng Wanzhou’s triumphant return to China and a win against the Long Arm of the
By Zamir Awan for the Saker Blog While praising Pakistan and admiring Pakistan’s achievements on the status of implementations of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) recommendations, FATF President Dr. Marcus Pleyer said that Pakistan will remain on the grey list till the next session. There were no considerations of pushing Pakistan to the black list, as Pakistan is cooperating satisfactorily. Pakistan has full-filled most of the requirements and has
By Thorsten J. Pattberg for the Saker Blog Ghosting seems a new, painful form of rejection to me, and part of something apocalyptic. It all started when the teens of generation Z, or “zoomers” as we call them, born between 1990 and 2010, started to use the sad word “ghosted” for their break-up from Tyrone or Daisy. For no apparent reason whatsoever, Tyrone and Daisy stopped texting them, or unfriended them
by Amir Nour for the Saker Blog Malek Bennabi, Modern Man and Covid-19 By: Amir NOUR[1] “What surprises me most about Man is that he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future;
Russian president, in Sochi, lays down the law in favor of conservatism – says the woke West is in decline By Pepe Escobar, posted with permission and first posted at Asia Times The plenary session is the traditional highlight of the annual, must-follow Valdai Club discussions – one of Eurasia’s premier intellectual gatherings. Vladimir Putin is a frequent keynote speaker. In Sochi this year, as I related in a previous
Asia’s powerbrokers dropped an Afghan bombshell in Moscow today: ‘the country’s reconstruction must be paid for by its military occupiers of 20 years.’ By Pepe Escobar posted with permission and cross posted with The Cradle Facing high expectations, a five-man band Taliban finally played in Moscow. Yet the star of the show, predictably, was the Mick Jagger of geopolitics: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Right from the start, Lavrov set
By Ramin Mazaheri posted with permission and cross-posted with PressTV Last weekend, after more than one and half years away, the Yellow Vests hit the streets again for what they are calling “Season 2”. You’re going to laugh and say, “But Season 2 of television programs are always worse!” Sure, for TV shows which turn out to be lousy. I find it hard to imagine that the Yellow Vests are
by Pepe Escobar, posted with permission and first posted at Asia Times The annual Valdai Club meeting has always been positioned as absolutely essential when it comes to understanding the non-stop movement of geopolitical tectonic plates across Eurasia. The ongoing 18th meeting in Sochi once again lives up to expectations. The overall theme is Global Shake-Up in the 21st Century: The Individual, Values, and the State. It expands on the
By Ramin Mazaheri for the Saker Blog (Author’s note: This is my first article after a 5-month sabbatical. 2019 Yellow Vests, 2020 corona/US election – I needed a break. However, I’m glad to see everything has been fixed in my absence!) This year the Iranian Foreign Ministry announced a startling figure: 1.5 million Iranians who were born in Iran now reside in the United States. That denotes that there has
The old Silk Roads played a major role in connecting the world through trade, and the new version can too by Pepe Escobar, posted with permission and first posted at Asia Times Forget about the incessant drumming of Cold War 2.0 against China. Forget about think-tank simpletons projecting their wishful thinking on the perpetual “end of China’s rise.” Forget even about a few sound minds in Brussels – yes, they
By Thorsten J. Pattberg for the Saker Blog This is Part 3 of a series: “This concise text will introduce to our distinguished readers the most deadly ways to subvert, to demoralize, to lobotomize and finally to liquidize someone‘s brains… until they are reduced to nothing more than another helpless Schizo Fran or Mona Loser ready for suicide or the local madhouse. “ The most ruthless emotional abuse of all
By Larry Romanoff for the Saker Blog Foreword, Prologue, Introduction: This is Part 1 of 6 and will form a complete ebook that will be available for download with part six. Foreword From: James Bacque Date: Saturday, Jan 5, 2019 9:13 PM Dear Larry Thanks for the information–as you guessed I have encountered much of it myself already. I wish you good luck . . . Be as moderate as
Reviewed by Francis Lee for the Saker Blog Mr Mullan’s book first saw the light of day in 2017 which was a far-sighted anticipation of the path-dependency of the global economy prior to the present debacle 2020/2021. The book covered a wide range of insights in the history of capitalism, particularly contributions from Mr Joseph Alois Schumpeter, as well as the Marxist theory of the tendency of the rate of
By Michael Hudson and posted with special permission : How the World Bank and neoliberalism has hurt central Asia . In the mid-1980s, Soviet officials saw a need to open up their economy in hope of achieving Western-style innovation and productivity. That was the decade in which Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were sponsoring the neoliberal pro-financial policies that have polarised the U.S., British and other economies and loaded them
About 20 days ago, Pepe Escobar let us know that part 2 of his Forever Wars series is now available for purchase and download as an e-book. I sat down to read it in order to write a book review for The Saker Blog. It is now 20 days later and I am still in awe, comparing the historical with the recent. It is as if the same bells
