2019/12/27 05:30:01
Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of the issues of the day.
The ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’ will have two new open threads each week.
The Saker stated moderation policy will apply eg ‘no caps’, no obscenity … etc to all post.
The Cafe is now open for business … come on in and have a good time.
Saker Webmaster
Dear friends and ‘others’ of Saker’s cafe,
Other than the regime, the circus, the one trick pony show, the money disappearing stuns, the gold fleeing magic, the bot-spike-market, the monthly fake whatever statistics, the oily unglued, the untold wars, the silencing of gagged human voice, the latest weaponry firework testing show and tell, the letter of mother of all history, and not least, the rise of skywalker space force etc…
In your sane personal world, what ‘triggered’ ‘fascinated’ ‘intrigued’ you the most in the year of 2019? A picture? A song? An incident? An experience? A woowoo? A S.HO like me? HA :D
Mine was definitely the flowering discovery of ancient civilisation all over the earth!
(special mention to G. Hancock’s “Before Americas’ and Dark Journalist X-series)
→ This is the visual, feast your eyes! (Thanks AAA for compilation)
→ Archaeology 2019 – Year of Discoveries
→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_x5OxG4B74
Coming very close is the admission from particular 3 letter agency, all space photos are artist impression only and graphic rendition purpose only. And the Kory’s kids are a serious joke! As if theory as ‘truth’ incorporated to the regular ‘academic education’ is not evil enough! That’s after they ‘got’ the trillions (of make-believe-toilet-paper-grade-all-powerful ‘money’) hey?!
***If we knew our past, we would know better if we are ‘human’, to begin with,
***and thus we can better answer, ‘Why did I come to earth this time? Still around in 2019?’
and then perhaps, take courage, and a whole lots of wisdom, in the inner sanctum of peace that surpasses and overrides all the instinctual-hormonal-animal-body,
and to try to answer →
*** ‘Do I want to come back here, to earth… as ‘human’?’ (their image of ‘human’ aka be their b*tch)
BOOM! Now you are thinking… where ‘they’ have concealed from you :)
Please kindly share your ‘itch’ :)
Last chance to get all the loving-attention here in the cafe! :D
May you have a miraculous lucky 20.20 coming ahead! → take courage ←
May your god(s) not lie to you, like their god(s) lie to them. Choose truth above god(s).
P/s super special thanks again to Saker and the mods. You all have been through a hell lot of ‘trouble waters’, literally! Ya’ll are true brave souls! Be safe there, you, your family and your cultural group. Retreating to back the silent vacuum of no-ego and no-narrative…. Goodnight all and have a good dream!
P/s Babuška dear – Eternal Story is MAYA, point of no return, point to nowhere, point of non-existence. But if you go there, IF you take courage (like the skywalkers – check out Tom Luongo), and IF you come back, IF you EVER-ever come back, I will know. You are free to ask for ‘me’ again. ‘I’ may meet you ‘there’ :) Not every body has a soul, dear. Know thy SELF – the ‘Original Seed Self’ and face the bare-ass blanketing darkness (that’s eating you, the soul-spirit-entity, constantly anyway – if you do have a soul or have any soul-fragment left after these many rounds of merry-go-round-reincarnation). The only way to have (mor) freewill, is to abandon all the god(s). Come back soon, dear? If you EVER-ever go…
Crowded House – Don’t Dream It’s Over Live (HQ)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I52eefwAKDE
“We live in a nightmare of falsehoods, and there are few who are sufficiently awake and aware to see things as they are. Our first duty is to clear away illusions and recover a sense of reality.” Nikolai Berdyaev
The vast majority of what most of us are concerned with is nothing more than illusion, tangling up the individual to the point that his spiritual world falls into neglect. The things of this world of course, need our attention, but if we listen intently we’ll find a voice within us crying out for attention. If we can switch off from the things of this world, we will begin to awaken this deeper reality within ourselves. Once our sense of reality is recovered, we begin to open up and trust life to reveal the way for each of us as individuals. Fear, stress, anxiety begin to fade, and we gain a sense of calm, of connectedness to life, of peace and so on.
“to dilute the poison” Carl Jung
Just on Corey’s kids and the whole environment of the ‘blue chicken cult’ which is closely allied to Falun Gong – what mostly surprised me was the massive resistance and the outing of this specific group. Weird this whole thing and I only followed tangentially, through info from some friends involved in the take-down. This whole mess reminds me strongly of another such grouping, one that we are not to discuss here and we should not even discuss this one here – there are of course ties between the two. Here is just the latest on Corey Goode and Wilcock – https://twitter.com/mysticinthemoon/status/1210357018810298368
What also, in this all really surprised me, is how people can be led to a place where they don’t really want to be – just because someone whispers sweet nothings into their ears and promises them a respite from the connection to life, even if it is sometimes hard.
I guess .. my expectation is that people are less gullible by now, and if I see in general such gullibility, something in my head just does not understand it. I do not know why folks are not more equipped to deal with false information. We hear that there is awakening going on. I don’t see it. Perhaps one by one people figure out that something is really wrong, but mass awakening to me looks like mass delusion at this time and everybody cries ‘woke’.
?, regarding your general aversion to anything to do with god, God, gods and such esoteric matters – my feeling always was it is generally better to have some such Power in one’s life. It makes for better people, better able to withstand craziness, just stronger and generally much more able to distinguish between a good moral standard, and the morass. The opposite is also true – it makes for a opportunity to pit people against one another on the religious front.
Religion should be a force for good. A good religion will work to make their followers more God-like, in however humble a way. People who fall into the trap of “aversion” fall into the hands of the negative force, for no true agent of Good ( let’s avoid the word “God”, in the event that it’s a loaded word for some…), no true Master, or leader harps on negativity. He sees peoples faults, but overlooks them. He works to strengthen the good in all, he uplifts, all by his presence. Criticism, pointing out faults, etc. is an old trap of the negative force. One either builds or destroys.
To play the devils advocate with religion is wisest left to the worlds great artists. They are able to go to hell and back, either through life circumstances or by conscious choice, and afterwards relay the underworld to humanity, but remain unscathed in doing so, and in either instance, they manage to portray hell.
Others go there and back and remain silent but you can read it in their eyes, or see the transnational effect for the good in their lives, having cleared away the dross and scum of falsehood and found themselves.
Hieronymus Bosch, Dante, for example, many others, have shown the world the existence of purgatory and hell, and what is more, are capable of portraying the divine which is hardly possible without ‘going there’. . .
Never forget, banality is evil, and established and perpetrated knowingly by forces opposing the good, or divine, who will subvert and use the same to attempt to establish still greater evil on earth.
The battle for this is happening now. I don’t see that this entirely precludes an awakening.
@Anonymous on December 28, 2019 · at 10:46 am EST/EDT
you read my post correctly :) Unfortunately my ‘sequel’ did not meet the standard so the whole discussion is left hanging, and frozen. God’s will be it. I am trying to show ppl, esp the west, perhaps we are more than mere human.
Furthermore, to say I am human, therefore after the death of the body, I am still human, is of particular doctrine and religion. And add on it, if the religion preaches, one life only, therefore it must also require, one god only, of course one would in desperate need of a saviour. In the east, if one subscribe to reincarnation, then one know one can come back and work on their ‘salvation’ or Buddha-hood or enlightenment or the final released, therefore there is no need of saviour, far more to be in desperate need of ONE saviour, under one religion. That’s my point.
And if one subscribe to reincarnation, there is no guarantee one will come back as ‘human’. Is that bad? No, because all thing in nature is equal and play its part. It is only in the western paradigm of particular scribe that preach man-god as the highest pinnacle of creation. That’s another of my point.
Then I go off to the extreme end of these kind of topics, of soulless, death, and hell, but only in the hinting the hidden. Yet you read deeper than all here. Anyhow, I just want to thank you and encourage you, for ‘coming back’ from ‘there’. You will not be able to read what I did not make clear unless you yourself has been there. Hope you find more goodies, not of this world, not bound to the human body, mind or soul, and peace, love and free will to you, that is formless, soundless and no one can possess. As the Sufi said, ‘I am GOD’. Happy new year!
Happy new year to all :)
p/s super thank you Saker and mods again for the hard and diligent work :)
Your lovely positive comments reminded me of the young Fathers’ speech at Easter in the movie “chocolat”. Did you see it? He said pretty much what you did – and what we do know, I believe, deep inside. We just forget.
Thank you Pamela, I have not seen the film, and write directly from my own experience.
I cannot comment therefore on this or the forgetting, but the onslaught, how can it be said, the avalanche of the forces of darkness, they try to submerge human consciousness working so powerfully from day to day . . .
So, naturally there is a great awakening going on, it does not depend on people experiencing it, but this will be heavily subverted for the purposes of evil.
Well, I did actually write my first response to Dimitar, Anonymous – however I think they apply to what you wrote also. Sorry Dimitar, – I dont know what I did that caused it to post in another spot.
Still, I think you and anonymous are saying much the same thing. And for both they remind me of these words, which I copied – of the Easter Sermon from the movie Chocolat, by the young priest trying to turn around a dark move towards censoring and unkindness a town tyrant had brought. Here they are:
“I’m not sure what the theme of my homily ought to be today. Do I want to speak of he miracle of our Lords divine transformation? Not really. I dont want to talk about His Divinity. I’d rather talk of His humanity. I mean, how He lived his life here on earth. His kindness. His tolerance. Listen, here’s what I think. I think we can’t go around measuring our goodness by what we DON’T do. By what we deny ourselves, What we resist and who we exclude. I think we’ve got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create and who we include”.
Wise words about how we get nearer Divinity by trying to be more that sort of soul – to embrace kindness, those who have “fallen by the way”, those who try and maybe fall, but did at least try. Our Anglo Empire world has become so bitterly judgemental, so willing to think the worse of others, use bitter and nasty words, destroy lives. And we can see the result of this everywhere. And why should we be surprised? Do we really think you can drink poison on a daily basis, and have healthy body too?
Li Hongzhi founder of Falun Gong
https://falunaz.net/li-hongzhi/?utm_campaign=1067850208&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsM77x_Pa5gIVRKsYCh0B1gtqEAAYASAAEgIZC_D_BwE&utm_content=374098
Ethan Gutmann – born 1958 in Dielsdorf Kanton Zurich Switzerland – an
American “investigative” writer, human rights defender, China watcher,
author. His interpreter an Israeli “colleague” who speaks Chinese.
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18977963
Ethan Gutmann: The China Conundrum
https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2010/11/30/china-conundrum/
Basically the Nietzsche-question: would I want that God is or not? Nietzsche said “No”, for the sake of freedom,
Jung had “expected or non expected, God will be there” above his entrance in Küssnacht.
Old Father Winter
Old Father Winter,
Bundle on his back;
Slowly shakes his head,
Taking up the slack.
Rime on his moustache,
Cankers on his toes –
Leaves a trail of dread,
Everywhere he goes.
Old Father Winter;
At last your work’s begun!
You’ve slept away the year –
Now here comes the fun.
Your hunger, now awakened,
Stalks the weary earth;
Consuming all before you,
For everything you’re worth.
Old Father Winter,
With tricks beyond compare!
What once was full of hope,
Is now beyond repair.
Until the turning of the sun,
You stand so straight and tall.
Then all at once the charm is gone;
You bow the knee and fall.
Old Father Winter;
There is a price to pay.
Rushing headlong in your pride –
Your cloak has turned to grey.
Your raiment once resplendent white,
Has one more task in stead;
To wake the sleeping earth,
And slake the thirsty dead!
Old Father Winter;
That one of countless years,
Turns his back and walks away,
Then slowly disappears…
The earth it stirs, the birds they sing;
The trees they yawn, and stretch their limbs!
The child is born and wonders, then –
How love was lost and found again?
Image; http://www.valenis.net/gallery5.php#image-6
On 24 December, the first rail connection involving the BRI, or New Silk Road, left Xi’an China with a final destination being Poland. The 9500 km trip is expected to take 10 days, and passes through Kazahkstan, Russia, and Ukraine before arriving at Poland.
Xi’an China was the origin and terminus of the ancient Silk Road. This win-win global trade is bound to cause many sleepless nights for the neo-con cult of the Five Eyes regimes.
Polish brand company hairbrush sold in UK I spotted……made in China of course.
Most of modern London was “made” in China. Their financial center depends deeply on Chinese investment and RMB transactions. And a good portion of the rest of 21st Century London is built on stolen Russian assets from the criminal and non-criminal oligarchs laundering and investing trillions.
Dont tell those Russians, they might try to get some of those assets back and upset the financial apple cart.
I want to continue on an interesting discussion that we had on the former cafe thread, initiated by much appreciated commentator Auslander about North stream 2. It is the intention of the Saker to refresh the Cafe every 3 days or so, and I am not going to copy/paste this discussion, but I want to add something as someone living in Germany.
*I don’t believe Merkel will fold*. Don’t forget that she is originally a hardcore Stasi officer. Don’t underestimate the harsh regime that she undertook in her party to eliminate any possible contender. When she falls, the party is as good as dead with the AfD as takeover wit panic in German politics as a result (which will happen anyway, but that is another discussion).
What the USA want is pure piracy. In the energy consumption of Germany, Russian gas is only responsible for some 10%. Add to that, USA ‘freedom molecules’ (which infant invented this?) need a logistic investment that they simply don’t have. Can they build that? Hell no. As an example, they have only 1 (one) operational icebreaker, the Polar One, I have posted already twice about it and I am not going to repeat it, and that ship should already have been decommissioned years ago. Btw, my sincere admiration for the US servicemen that keep this old lady afloat under harsh conditions, with a ship following with spare parts.
Half of the their aircrafts carriers are in the docks, awaiting maintenance.Their best aircraft still, the F22 Raptor needs 60 hours of maintenance against one hour of operation. The F35 won’t be better. Stealth won’t work in absurd conditions as ‘sand’ and ‘rain’ and there go your dollars. What do you mean with ‘dominance’?
It is my intuation that tells me that something else it at stake. I agree completely with Auslander the the Empire won’t fizzle a finger whether people will freeze here to death. It’s all about money. Funny that people who already are filthy rich care about this so much. It’s all about the petrodollar, I guess.
This is the whole structure on which the Empire is build. And they are scared as hell that ‘energy’ is traded without their submission. They feel the goasts are gnawing.
Don’t be too happy to wish for the Empire to crash. When they hit the wall, we all do. Be careful what you wish for.
Interesting and scary times ahead, I guess.
Cheers, Christmas is over but happy times with your family, Rob
December 27, 2019, a very important global security event has begun in the Gulf of Oman. Russian, Chinese and Iran naval vessels are exercising for four days.
This is a message to the local regimes of the Middle East and the CENTCOM and Israeli psychopaths who think they own the skies, the seas, the choke points of the narrows and straits, and the future.
It is an exercise ostensibly aimed at terrorism, but it messages to the owners, managers, suppliers and financiers of ISIS and AQ terrorism.
Predictably, the US has already reacted with words aimed at Iran. A warning from the waning Hegemon.
Meaningless when the military men look at what they face: China willing to fly its flag in their face, Russia, loaded with missiles against which the US cannot defend, and Iran, equipped to wage a devastating asymmetrical war that would burn every base the US has in the ME, and torch much of Israel.
We can only hope!
Mighty Superpower Russia … at the mercy of Nigerian (!…) technology…
Russian «Взгляд» reports on 27 December 2019:
“Nord Stream 2 will be completed by ship from Nigeria”
… and even that not before the end of 2020, the Russian minister of energy Aleksandr Novak now humbly admits…
https://vz.ru/economy/2019/12/27/1015968.html
Anonymous
I find your comment …”Mighty Superpower Russia … at the mercy of Nigerian (!…) technology”…very curious to put it rather mildly.
My thoughts as to… WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE GOING FORWARD
As the wounded Hegemon staggers around and threatens to bludgeon even its most traditional and loyal [read sycophantic] allies for no logical reason with all manner of sanctions and dire consequences, Bloomberg reported on Dec 18 that some US officials have already conceded defeat on the inevitability of Nord Stream 2.
http://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-18/u-s-concedes-defeat-on-nord-stream-2-pipeline-officials-say
To quote from this article…
“Senior U.S. administration officials, who asked not to be identified discussing the administration’s take on the project, said sanctions that passed Congress on Tuesday as part of a defense bill are too late to have any effect. The U.S. instead will try to impose costs on other Russian energy projects, one of the officials added.”
also…
“It has been a commercial project, but with a huge geopolitical dimension attached to that,” Peter Beyer, who is German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s trans-Atlantic policy coordinator, told Bloomberg Television in an interview in Berlin on Wednesday. “I’m expecting that the sanctions if Donald Trump is going to sign that bill, will not have a big effect on that project.”
Also German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass has come out with a very strong condemnation of the US move and I would be surprised if he changed his stance now…in a recent statement he said…
“We think this is unacceptable because it is ultimately a move to influence autonomous decisions that are made in Europe.”
and…”European energy policy is decided in Europe, not in the US,”
The $11-billion project was well ahead of the originally planned schedule and almost complete with only 160 kilometers of the 1224 km pipeline to lay. But that was until the Hegemon decided to try lobbing a huge great spanner into the works.
The upshot looks to be that this absurd move by Drumpf and the moronic Senate will only delay the inevitable but in the meantime burn a whole lot more diplomatic capital with Germany and other EU countries. So in spite of this mindless behavior and the resultant delay in getting replacement vessels to the site and up and running, the completion could well happen before the end of 2020 anyway.
Furthermore, given this astonishing illegal and childish behavior it is difficult to imagine the EU buying more expensive US LNG when there will be many other alternative countries to deal with that conduct business in a reliable and honorable manner. Indeed there is a very sound case under the circumstances for EU to halt all US LPG imports. The fact of the matter is that the EU is already a glut market for of gas supply anyway.
The US share of this market amounted to 26% in November 2019. But apparently the US LPG producers fancy themselves to be supplying more than 50% of the EU gas market by 2025…indeed they have already formally announced this goal. Now, given this latest sanctions debacle, there is now a sound case to suggest that this share should soon be a great big 0%.
All the while Russia has proven for decades that it is an extremely reliable gas supplier and even during the height of the cold war consistently honored its obligations. Currently, Russia accounts for over 40% of EU gas imported. Norway is a close second with Algeria and Qatar the next most significant suppliers. Domestic supply is mainly limited to the Dutch gas deposits but this supply is likely to phase out completely by the end of the next decade. Even by 2022, they plan to cut production by two-thirds.
As I understand it NS2 will basically double the existing supply from Russia with an increase in capacity of 55 billion cubic meters…interestingly and coincidentally that is the exact amount that Holland currently contributes.
Gas is widely forecast to increase its already critical role in supplying the EU with energy and not the least of reasons being that this will help them to meet their climate protection targets. Germany the main industrial powerhouse intends to axe its coal plants completely by 2038. Also, it has already begun the process of phasing out nuclear energy as an option as well.
So there we have it. It will be 55 billion cubic meters more GAS IN THE PIPELINE and every single unit no matter how you care to measure it will be significantly cheaper than importing from the US in the form of expensive LNG. And all of this is without taking into account the disastrous environmental consequences of the production of the US product.
This whole situation is a complete no brainer. I am pretty certain most of Germany and even maybe Merkel herself will be able to get their heads around this one. Not so sure about Warshington though.
Go NS2!!
Col
Some other links you might find interesting as background…
https://www.dw.com/en/could-eu-energy-security-be-guaranteed-without-nord-stream-2/a-47430427
https://www.dw.com/en/us-senate-approves-nord-stream-2-russia-germany-pipeline-sanctions/a-51711980
https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/how-us-sanctions-could-hit-russias-nord-stream-2-gas-project/
@ Col
Sorry, but the gist of your dispatch evokes the memory of a scene from one old “Mad Magazine” satire of a trendy Hollywood 1970’s “masterpiece”. In it, the oriental-worshipping hippie protagonist, upon being badly beaten up by a gang of thugs, proclaims “it is those who inflict pain that shall suffer from pangs of conscience”… whereas (in the “What Me Worry?” version) the thugs joyfully retort “Gee, I feel great! … Me too!… So do I! …”
Hundreds and hundreds of millions of $$$ lost… An entire year (or eternity? – the way of South Stream) of sales’ profits gone…
Sergey Viktorovich & Maria Vladimirnova publicly cry “Uncle!” … whereas Germans – can only talk…
Yes, it hurts, when The Big Boss says “No”.
Col…’the farmer from NZ’ – you’re dealing with a troll, with someone who just cherry picked a very long and very detailed article by picking one piece of data and quoting it incorrectly. The article quoted explains the availability of other pipe laying barges, their competencies, the small footprint of this technology available across the world and lists alternatives. The final paragraph is epic.!
That is why the question of completing the JV-2 is not at all the same as “will we complete it or not”. We will finish it. The question is different: will we draw conclusions from its completion by ourselves – and will we raise technological “champions” in the future at home, not in Switzerland?
And how is Russia really reacting? This may give a little insight:
“In general, there is a whole pipe-laying business, which even Gazprom needs from time to time. That is why today there are actually only two specialized “champion” companies all over the world: Allseas Group (Switzerland) and Saipem (Italy), while the rest, even oil and gas giants, perform rather “in the lead roles”. Well, thanks to anti-Russian sanctions from the U.S., such a unique company may suddenly appear in Russia as well – after all, SP-2 is really quite achievable – and now we are talking only about the choice of the most economically correct and fastest completion scheme.”
Russia seemingly has found a gap in the marketplace, and is talking about filling it. What becomes clear is that if they take that gap in the marketplace, they will be free of the interference from now onward and those ‘champion’, highly specialized companies who kneel under sanctions will lose their competitive advantage.
I’m going to ask the moderators for a little leeway as I post the full article (mainly electronic translation but I’ve fixed here and there) without the trollish spin. It is long, but I think it will get people to understand in reality the situation. Also, where other pipe laying barges just got ‘sold’ and left the job and appeared in other places under new names, and such types of tricks to slow down this project. Taking note of this, one can almost reason that this one was planned (by the type of people that bear cookies to the maidan).
It truly is a very thoughtful article and I would recommend that we read it to understand the pieces at play, as well as putting that ‘Nigeria’ comment in the correct context.
“Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that the Nord Stream – 2 gas pipeline will be launched by the end of 2020. He also outlined what kind of vessel could bring the construction of Russia’s most important gas project to completion. Why did our country find itself critically dependent on foreign equipment in this matter – and what is needed to overcome it?
The departure of the main contractor of the Nord Stream – 2 gas pipeline (SP-2), the Swiss company Allseas Group, once again raised the question of how much the Russian economy depends on foreign technologies. In fact, it was the Allseas Group’s actions, which stopped laying the JV-2 pipeline right after the US defense budget was published, that made it clear to Gazprom that the gas pipeline would have to be completed by itself.
Now the main question is: Is it possible to quickly complete JV-2 and how ready is Russia for new technological challenges?
“Hidden Champions”
The term “hidden champions” in relation to technology companies dates back to the mid 1980s. This conventional name began to describe the phenomenon of small, highly specialized companies that control in their segment from 50% to 95% not only of the national, but also the world market.
This phenomenon appeared at the junction of two trends. On the one hand, such companies have become the brainchild of globalizing the world market. Transport, national, customs and permit barriers were significantly reduced, and the business of even the smallest company was able to effectively spread throughout the world. On the other hand, the world of technology and business has become extremely specialized – often some technological process is just too insignificant even in a large country. For example, among the “hidden champions” suddenly there are companies that control 90% of the world production of theater curtains, 75% of the market of wheels for hospital gurneys, 60% of world sales of “price boards” for gas stations. This feature defines another point: such small companies rarely become the subject of antimonopoly proceedings – indeed, few people would think to dismember a company that controls the world production of marmalade in the form of bears. But for a second, there is one.
Of course, a significant part of such companies are technological, innovative enterprises. After all, to protect the construction of the wheel for hospital gurney can only be a patent, and with the form of a teddy bear made of jelly is not good at all, but the laying of some pipeline is accompanied by such a volume of “know-how” that just learn all the names of technological processes can not be in one month.
The innovation of the “hidden champions” is not an empty sound. While ordinary companies spend only about 3% of their revenues on R&D, and large global companies rise to the level of 3.6%, the highly specialized “hidden champions” invest the lion’s share of their profits in R&D – about 6% of gross income. Another point that characterizes the “hidden champions” is their focus on human capital. Relatively high costs of these companies are, first of all, their high staff remuneration. It is the reliance on expensive and skilled labor that determines the essence of such companies, which is to constantly seek opportunities to improve quality and productivity.
The average service life of an employee in a company – “champion” – 21 years, almost all working life spent at one place of work, often with an increase from an intern to a top manager. By comparison, in a typical large company, people work an average of six years, and this period is constantly decreasing. Staff turnover in “hidden champions” is five times lower and salaries are one and a half to two times higher than the average in their industry. It is clear that such a company is not run by office clerks or financiers, but by competent engineers and skilled workers, who work literally “in the field”.
This company is Allseas Group – along with Italian Saipem, a subsidiary of Italian energy company Eni, it is one of the “hidden champions” in the offshore pipeline laying industry. So, anyway, with the departure of the Swiss, Gazprom lost the competences that had been created not just for years but for decades.
So, what, a dead end?
The largest ship of the Swiss company, which until recently was laying the SP-2, is called Pionieering Spirit. Its length is almost 500 m and it is capable of laying pipes at depths of up to 4 km. The performance of the “Pionieering Spirit” is also impressive: in one day the ship can lay about 5 km of pipes on the bottom. It is believed that no other ship in the world today can do such work faster than it can.
Of course, in theory the Swiss can be replaced by the Russian pipe-laying barge “Fortuna”, owned by the Russian company MRTS. The barge came to the German port of Mukran back in October 2019, from where the pipes for JV-2 are being shipped. Fortune also has experience of laying JV-2: in the past it was laying a 13-kilometer offshore section of the gas pipeline in Russia until the Pionieering Spirit came on top of the pipe.
First of all, “Fortune” is exactly a barge, even if it’s a sea barge. As a result, it requires the constant presence of tugboats to work. Secondly, to lay pipes “Fortune” can not be fast, at a rate of about 1 km per day – it must be set up every time the tugboats over the right point. In addition, Fortune has limitations on the laying depth and accuracy of its own positioning. Installation depth is easier: the barge is able to work out the Danish section in the area where the sea depth does not exceed 100 m, which is a large part of the remaining route. In addition, the laying depth can be increased up to 200 m, which is also solvable. The second point, however, was that the positioning accuracy of the pipes was directly specified in an environmental regulation issued by Denmark. As a result, Fortune must either be converted to more precise positioning requirements or changes must be made to the Danish environmental permit. Obviously, the first process is time and money consuming, and the second process can be tied up in agreements.
However, apart from Fortune, Gazprom has another option – to overtake from the Far East also the MRTS self-propelled pipelayer Akademik Chersky. To use this vessel for the completion of the offshore pipeline, one only needs to install and upgrade the welding stations – the precise positioning system at Chersky is available and meets the Danish permit requirements. “In maidenhood” this vessel was called Jascon 18 and was commissioned by the Nigerian company STG as a multipurpose pipe-laying and construction vessel for offshore operations in Nigeria.
In August 2015, the U.S. added the Yuzhno-Kirinskoye field to its sanctions list, after which there was also a “small catastrophe”: Gazprom’s project partner, the U.S. company Shell, simply took off and sailed away with all the specialized ships – in the same way as the Swiss Allseas Group did in December 2019, disrupting the construction of the JV-2. And in May 2016, Gazprom confirmed rumors about the purchase of the Jascon 18, which was renamed “Academician Chersky”. Six months later, he started working on the Sakhalin shelf, completely replacing the retired American vessels.
That “Academician Chersky” can help Russia with the completion of “Nord Stream – 2”, confirmed on Friday and Energy Minister Alexander Novak. “By the end of 2020 Nord Stream – 2 will be launched. One of the options is a ship, which is now in the Far East. But it will take some time for additional training,” said the minister, reports TASS.
Of course, there’s nothing to compare these ships with Pioneering Spirit of the Swiss – “The pioneering spirit” entered into operation in August 2016 and absorbed all the latest achievements of engineering thought. But there’s no need to sprinkle the head with ashes in the “lapotniki, we can’t” style: until 2016, the Allseas Group used the decommissioned dry cargo ship Trentwood, built in the early 1970s, to lay offshore pipelines, which they converted into the world’s largest pipe-laying vessel. In 1997 the new pipe-laying vessel was named Solitaire, and in 1998 it laid its first pipe under the Europipe II project by Norwegian company Statoil. The Europipe II pipeline was laid in much more difficult conditions of the Norwegian and North Seas – and this was done with a crane of only 900 tons.
Given the fact that the deepest section of the JV-2 has already passed with the help of the Swiss Gazprom, the task of completing the pipeline now looks more like an economic one (“when and for what money”) than a technological one (“will we be able at all”). However, the question asked in the first part generally concerned the approach to raising “Russian champions”.
Do we need champions?
It should be understood that the question of the SP-2 completion will be solved exactly in the logic of economic feasibility, because any pipelayer is a large, highly specialized vessel, which will inevitably stand idle after the pipeline construction if it does not provide a decent front of work. That’s why a pipe-laying vessel is usually not bought, but tried to negotiate with a company that specializes in such works. Gazprom bought Cherskoye and delivered it to the Yuzhno-Kirinskoye field only when the “rooster” of Shell’s departure finally bites the Russian company.
This was the logic: after all, a ship is not just a piece of iron, but port and coastal infrastructure, supply, crew, specialists.
In general, there is a whole pipe-laying business, which even Gazprom needs from time to time. That is why today there are actually only two specialized “champion” companies all over the world: Allseas Group (Switzerland) and Saipem (Italy), while the rest, even oil and gas giants, perform rather “in the lead roles”. Well, thanks to anti-Russian sanctions from the U.S., such a unique company may suddenly appear in Russia as well – after all, SP-2 is really quite achievable and achievable – and now we are talking only about the choice of the most economically correct and fastest completion scheme.
And here the simple question arises: should Russia consciously raise “champions” at home – or wait for another “rooster”? Here’s an interesting fact: German economist, Professor German Simon, who introduced the concept of “hidden champion” in the early 1990s, in his monograph collected a list of 2734 companies that fall under this definition. More than half of these companies are located in Germany, only 13% in the USA and only 7% in China.
In Russia, according to Simon, only 14 companies are “champions”, a percentage of the world total. Although we are on this parameter at the level of Norway, Finland or Brazil. The problem is different – our “champions” mainly come from the USSR. There are not many purely Russian companies among them: for example, this is Volga-Dnepr, which controls about 60% of the world market of oversized air charter services, although it uses Soviet An-124 aircraft. These are mainly IT companies, such as Kaspersky Lab with more than half of the antivirus market or Yandex, which accounts for 63% of the Russian national Internet search market.
With our population size, this number of technology companies looks frankly low. When we count the number of “champions” per million employed population, we get a telling picture: three German-speaking countries, namely Germany, Austria and Switzerland, have actually the same number of “hidden champions” per million employed – from 16 to 14. But even the USA has only 1.2 companies per million. China and Russia have 0.1 companies per million employed people. As they say, feel the difference.
That is why the question of completing the JV-2 is not at all the same as “will we complete it or not”. We will finish it. The question is different: will we draw conclusions from its completion by ourselves – and will we raise technological “champions” in the future at home, not in Switzerland?”
Thank you, very instructive article
amarynth
Thanks so much for your clarification and your excellent detailed information.
I am totally fascinated by this whole NS2 issue because the subject is so much bigger than just gas supply.
This is also about a floundering hegemonic empire that is fast approaching disintegration. 2019 saw the bully being challenged and slapped around the face on a number of occasions. This is a continuation as more nations become emboldened by examples of fortitude and determination such as in the case of Syria and Venezuela
The difference here is that this time rather than involving nations that are already outside the Hegemon’s influence, this time it involves a client compliant vassal state that until recently seemed only too willing to continually surrender its sovereignty to the empire.
This is an important test case and the result will reveal much about the speed and the way the empire is likely to unravel. Sadly, there is only one certainty in all of this and that is that this inevitable process will be a dangerous and potentially very destructive process for the entire globe.
Fascinating albeit scary times
Col
The author in this link describes this astonishing feckless behavior by the bully…
“In its shameless profiteering, Washington is acting aggressively towards Russia and Europe while flouting its own supposed economic principles and relying on brute force to win its arguments. America’s imperialist agenda towards Europe and Russia is how world wars are instigated.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/washingtons-unmasked-imperialism-towards-europe-and-russia
What could be occurring are signs of desperation of an over indebted oil industry. The price of a bbl of oil has been rising recently and as less hydrocarbons are exported the cost can only be recouped domestically.
But as the cost of domestic consumption rises, it puts a strain on economic spending and that in turn increases the chances that these highly indebted oil field company’s will default on their debts while the tolerance for refinancing these company’s has reached its limit just as the U.S. debt snowball has been shoved downhill.
Some of these congressmen probably cant stomach an infinite increasing of QE to all sectors of the economy and still sleep at night knowing they also are going to be questioned by the people soon about addressing the massive unsustainable public debt bomb.
If you were a congressman in the know, it might be a wise time to simply step away from politics after throwing a couple impeachment knives for good measure.
I’ve Never Loved a Pretty Girl
I’ve never seen a pretty girl,
But once in my short life.
Her face was fair and framed with curls,
Alas, she was a captain’s wife.
I used to roam the Wild King’s Blue,
Now the breach it has begun.
And if everything they say is true,
I fear we are at last, undone.
I’ve never kissed a pretty girl,
But once in my short life.
The ocean bore me such a pearl,
Then filled my days with endless strife.
I do not fear no cutlass blade,
I do not fear the rout.
But I cannot forget that sweet fair maid;
My heart it still cries out!
I’ve never loved a pretty girl,
But once in my short life.
That flame it burnt this tender churl,
For she was someone else’s wife.
Now, the cannon balls fly past my head,
And Death’s dark face comes into view;
And my companions one by one are shred,
Life was worth living just to love you.
I’ve never seen a pretty girl,
But once in my short life.
Her cheeks were fair and framed with curls,
Alas, she was a captain’s wife.
I used to roam the Wild King’s Blue,
But now the breach it is begun;
And if everything they say is true,
I fear we are undone…
There are so many beautiful women especially in Russia. Why on earth do you have to take a fancy to someone else’s wife? That’s just asking for cannon balls, no?
When we are able to logically explain the mystery of love, Simon, we’ll be onto something.
It can be easily explained, it is not so easily digested.
ok I could rant and rave and speculate and prognosticate but it is so obvious that Montenegro is the back
Door to Serbia and that these church confiscations constitute a red flag event.
Draw your own conclusions. more will be revealed.
ioan, thank-you – the Orthodox calendar is now up for download on the right hand side of the Saker Blog. I do love it and I’ve loved it from the beginning – I love your treatment of the light.
May the light shine for all of us in the new year.
Indeed, it’s a masterwork.
It was my great pleasure to do that, for the time being I just put aside the artistic preoccupations.
This summary of a podcast is a stunner: absolutely a stunner as to how fact free this coup is, how deep and toxic is the hatred of Putin (e. g. Fiona Hill), how rabid is the “discourse,” how unbelieveably often the bebunked lies are brought out and thrown on the table, how deep up to their eyeballs this enabling “press” is.
It really to my mind is a disheartening read by a respected academic who do
does know something about Russia and what Putin is trying to do:
https://www.unz.com/scohen/how-impeachment-is-escalating-the-new-us-russian-cold-war/#comments
Its been a known for quite a long time that gvt is the life blood of satan. So nothing should surprise anyone as to just how low gvt can go.
Pictures with a song … a soothing music break
Tilly Heni HENNA – Mély kút
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WSNWhVRM1M
From Michael Hudson’s “J is for Junk Economics.”
Quantitative Easing
Quantitative Easing (QE): Central bank support for bank credit creation to drive down interest rates and re-inflate real estate and stock market prices. In the wake of the 2008 crash the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank (ECB) promoted new bank lending and arbitrage speculation as
an alternative to writing down debts. The hope was that new bank lending would re-inflate the bubble. The European Central Bank’s QE (“as much as it takes,” said its president, Mario Draghi) lent money and purchased bonds to bail out banks and bondholders for their bad loans and investments. But it did not create money to revive businesses or indebted homeowners and
consumers. Focusing only on subsidizing bank balance sheets, its aim was to save the financial sector and the One Percent behind it, not the economy. So QE had little effect in coping with the underlying problem, which was debt deflation. In fact, Eurozone governments imposed austerity, sacrificing national economies by giving priority to creditor claims.
In the United States, the Federal Reserve accepted mortgages and other bank loans at full face
value as reserve deposits, enabling banks to meet their capital ratios and create new electronic credit. But the $4.2 trillion U.S. Federal Reserve creation of bank reserves did not increase commodityprices or wages as the Quantity Theory of Money implied it would. Banks engaged mainly in speculation. They bought foreign bonds and currencies, and lent to hedge funds and for corporate share buybacks, mergers and acquisitions. None of this financed new investment. The U.S. andEuropean economies remained debt-wracked and suffered deepening debt deflation.
Without QE the banks would have had to sell their loans in “the market” at falling prices, at rising
interest rates – further lowering the price of collateral-backed bank loans, forcing yet further sell-
offs. So in the name of saving “the market,” the Fed and ECB overruled it in the aftermath of the 2008
junk mortgage crash.
Apart from banks, other sectors of the financial markets suffered along with the rest of the economy – above pension funds and insurance companies. Money managers urged an end to the Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing policy to hold down interest rates. One argument was that higher interest rates are necessary to support workers in their role as consumers as well as pension plan savers. It was almost as if labor obtains its spending money mainly from bonds and stocks. “In the first place,” a fund manager opined in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, “the Fed’s policy of zero or near-zero interest rates means negligible returns on savings. Consumers thus have less to spend and those nearing retirement need to save more.” 1
This depicts workers/consumers as rentiers, not debtors. The trick is to get indebted voters to
think of themselves as savers, benefiting from higher interest rates rather than suffering as debtors. “In human terms, the Fed’s policy means emergency room nurses in Texas work longer hours to make up for low yields on CDs, dairy farmers in Iowa forgo equipment purchases to save more for retirement, charities for the homeless in Manhattan reduce services as foundations cut grants, and local governments from Albany to Sacramento close libraries to fund pension plan deficits.” 1
The higher retirement savings required by nurses, farmers and charities – for whom widows and
orphans are stand-ins – are a result of how the economy has been financialized. Debt service and
compulsory savings are owed by these nurses on their home mortgages and education debts, by farmers on their equipment and mortgage debts, and by local governments on their borrowings.
Higher interest rates make these charges heavier. What is needed to alleviate their financial squeeze is debt relief (see Clean Slates), along with a shift of Social Security and pensions, health care and education back to the public sector, to be financed out of progressive taxes on rentier income and wealth as well as public money creation.
Quantitative Easing thus was a policy to save only the banks and bondholders, not the economy at
large. The effect since 2008 has been to sharply increase the power of the One Percent over the rest of the economy. In the United States, 95% of the population has seen its real income and net worth decline during 2008-2016, despite the soaring stock and bond markets. And while real estate hedge funds such as Blackstone have made a killing by buying up foreclosed properties, home ownership rates have fallen back from 69% to 63.5%. The decline has been especially sharp for blacks, who were the major victims of junk-mortgage loans, and for individuals under 35 years old, who cannot afford to buy homes as long as they remain saddled with student debts and other obligations in theface of a falling-wage economy. The “easing” in Quantitative Easing has thus been only for the top of the economic pyramid.
—————————————————————————–
Quantity Theory (Tautology) of Money (MV = PT): The myth that monetary and credit expansion
inflates consumer and commodity prices. Most bank lending inflates asset prices, because most loans
are spent on real estate, stocks, bonds and packaged bank loans. Credit creation to finance the 2001–
2008 real estate bubble siphoned off a rising swath of income from homebuyers to pay their mortgage debt, leaving less income available to spend on goods and services.
82-year old Madeleine Albright at a book signing venue shouting at people and calling them “disgusting Serbs”. Seems the passage of time has not mellowed anti-Serb feelings in the old woman. Twitter video footage below:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1210561389665964033
Calendar!!
Ioan, you have outdone yourself this time (again).
What a beautiful piece of of artwork.
Thank you.
Kent
… an Australian music break …
Didgeridoos with electric guitars combine well with a band named Outback.
This track named Baka is from their album named Baka.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsFP3Klqab0
Thank you Paul, It was really good, I had to acknowledge though that first I was a bit sceptical. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wIbylO24gE This one is more relaxing if you (or anybody) want to check it up.
A Christmas tale from the Twilight Zone …
with a sprinkling of Irish intrigue …
and involving a card gifted bottle of vintage Cherry Brandy …
The Twilight Zone Radio Show – Episode 5 – Night of the Meek AUDIO BOOK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q13d9EwF8KA&list=PLCTXtL146_rmmpFCeM8ko8umSF6y7YLEs&index=4
(Cheers to all in The Saker’s Cafe)
Vesti News: Putin Commits to New Nuclear Weapons Development – Russian Missiles Now Superior
to US!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETsWarUcpgE
60 Minutes: Russia Has Accomplished What USSR Couldn’t and Overtaken US Military Tech!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bg93qbKKlM
BBC News: Russia deploys Avangard hypersonic missile system
Russia’s first regiment of Avangard hypersonic missiles has been put into service, the defence
ministry says.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50927648
For anyone interested in “getting into the weeds” of this biden/ukraine goat _uck, this link provides link to OAN three part reports.
As a disclaimer, I tend to get very frustrated in falling into a position of defending trump and even worse guiliani, as both are as dirty as one could expect coming from NYC politics.
However, the biden looting exercise, coupled with all of the other scam artists from the soros, kerry family, pelosi family, romney, et al, it really becomes beyond sickening. This of course is covered up and enabled by the dimocract machine and the press.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/12/28/oan-three-part-investigative-report-on-ukraine-corruption-and-biden-family-rudy-giuliani-and-chanel-rion-travel-to-ukraine/
Be forewarned, this site conservative treehouse is rabidly pro-trump. OAN is a conservative news site which is challenging fox but it does seem to have some reports that are worth reviewing.
re: Taras: I understand your position on Trump; however, two years ago he tipped off Russia right around this time of year about a terrorist plot against St. Petersburg.( There are those in the drug/prostitution/gambling gangs who feel that a clear line needs be drawn between them and the terrorist types)
The Democrats would not have warned Putin …also the move against Nordstream2 took place rather late in the game to be effective and only when the neocon cabal has Trump distracted and up against a wall. As for what is happening in Montenegro, that is part of the long term strategy to bring down Serbia i.e. Russia but mostly no one cares in Looneylandia.
https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/28/eu-warns-serbia-to-cancel-free-trade-pact-with-russia-if-it-wants-to-join-bloc
If you can’t get the head,,,,go for the heart. Sad.
Taras, Teranam13, Here is something that was ‘the thing’ when I lived in the US – enough years to count, enough years to figure some things … enjoy a little humor break.
Nothing has changed, excepting the issues given to the pop to chew on. No change, Trump or no Trump, no matter how we as people want to squeeze something good out of a bad bad place. Believe me, I want to do that too. The US is in faction war .. the bushies against the zionies against the … whatever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtlDVi_1JMg
Thanks, Teranam13, Amarynth
Richard Pryor was a classic, he was a little better behaved in that clip.
Teranam, I tend at times to try trump some benefit of doubt, but just some, as I recognize he is surrounded by rabid zionists, e.g. kushner being one of the worst (kushner’s latest= anti-zionism is anti-semitism, sic).
Catherine Austin Fitts has a tweet today where she says: “Some would say that their impeachment is working”
and linked to this Vanity Fair article.
“Jared Treats Mick Like the Help”: It’s Jared’s White House Now (Trump’s Just Living in It)
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/12/with-impeachment-imminent-jared-kushner-white-house-takeover-finally-complete
https://twitter.com/TheSolariReport/status/1211416453330681859
And then previously, just a day or so ago, another one where she says: “Looks like the impeachment squeeze is working – Netanyahu thanks Trump after landslide primary win” and links to this article:
Netanyahu thanks Trump after landslide primary win
https://nypost.com/2019/12/27/netanyahu-thanks-trump-after-landslide-primary-win/?utm_source=twitter_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons
“https://twitter.com/TheSolariReport/status/1210759093859713025
She seems to be clearly thinking that Kushner in the White House is a real problem and that the impeachment at least partially has much to do with just that … rabid zionism .. and the influence in the White House.
With CAF one has to sometimes read between the lines but with these two tweets she seems to be linking zionism to the impeachment process on a deeper level.
How about this:
https://irishsavant.blogspot.com/2019/12/pope-reacts-to-news-that-anti-christ.html
I note that the Pope has now deemed it a serious sin to be environmentally unfriendly. He assures us that the Bible says so. Surprised, I checked it out and sure enough there are several references such as ‘Verily I say unto thee, he that doth not reduce CO2 emissions by 10% annually shall perish in the fires of Hell’. So that’s clear enough then. But what about all the other non-Catholic stuff he comes out with?
The pope may have decided to remain silent on the theme of pedophilia, but in his Christmas speech alluded to “mistaken ideas” and in the past has made reference to limiting freedoms of speech. Expect more in 2020.
It must be in the bible somewhere surely :
“Thou shalt not disobey the Lord (me) with free speech, nor initiate conversations contrary to my or my subjects belief and comfort zones.”
This time of the year we are used to seeing just a mess of press talking about things like the 10 best of this during the past year, or the 8 most notable moments or the 13 worst dressed moments .. and so on. People take some time to sing Auld Lang Sine and to chill and to simply be friendly.
This year it is totally different. There is just mayhem and craziness. This weekend (and I don’t know who is who in this zoo) we had U.S. Strikes On Iraqi Forces and I’ve not yet even looked at what happened. Moonofalabama took the time to tell. https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/12/after-us-strike-on-iraqi-forces-its-troops-will-again-have-to-leave.html#more
Bolivia has just expelled some Mexican and Spanish ambassadorial staff – https://sputniknews.com/latam/201912301077902991-bolivia-expels-mexican-ambassador-and-two-spanish-diplomats-/
The OPCW leaks are all over. Somebody should ask the question – What about making war on another country under a false pretext? What about that, Mr Trump, Britain and France? Why should we wish you a happy new year?
Anyways – its a brutal circus out there.
Paul has started us off with some didgeridoo (how do you even spell that :-) and here is my favorite therapy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRBCzUPDUVA
and, just because I like Xavier Rudd, here is a gentle and melodious song. From an older album, Spirit Bird, which is really gentle all round but not short of energy. A little hippy’ish and new age’ish but totally sweet and that is what our house will sound with today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E1bNmyPWww
Flat out, I do not trust the simplicity of emotions expressed by persons from British Commonwealth (that is Empire, Folks!) areas of the world that cannot overcome their need to consider themselves “better”….than that “bad, bad place”…America.
Emotion and the needs of the Little Englander Ego cloud judgment…….and most transparently so.
I consider the President of Russia more wise in his discernment:
“The final days of 2019 have seen dramatic steps towards reversing the era of British imperial division of the world into warring blocs. Yesterday, Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke by phone. The official purpose of the call, initiated by President Putin, was to thank the U.S. President for information shared by the intelligence services which has once again prevented a planned terrorist attack, this time in St. Petersburg during New Year celebrations. But, as TASS reported, “The two leaders also discussed a range of issues of mutual interest.” This follows Putin’s issuing an invitation to Trump to attend the May 9, 2020 celebration in Moscow of the 75th anniversary of the joint victory over Nazi Germany.”
Further along in today’s LPAC Lead, the Third Major World Power, China, and its part in the Four Power Agreement those Commonwealth Residents cannot countenance:
“At the same time, Trump and Xi Jinping are moving to resolve the massive imbalance of trade though the “phase one” trade agreement. While the Congress and the neocons within Trump’s cabinet continue escalating their McCarthyite attacks on China and Chinese-Americans within the U.S., Trump himself has fiercely asserted his commitment to sovereignty, not only for the U.S. against the “globalizers,” but also for China and all other nations. The U.S. President has refused to attack China over Hong Kong or China’s counter-terrorism operations in Xinjiang, insisting that these are sovereign Chinese concerns.
It is precisely because Trump’s actions threaten the imperial age of geopolitics—to return to the Westphalian policy of sovereign nation-states cooperating on the basis of the common aims of mankind—that MI6, the Obama intelligence team, and the corrupt Congress are desperately attempting to drive him from office by any means they can.”
Unfortunately the emotional needs of the Little Englander Ego can blind one to the Way Out of Empire.
Could it be that deep, deep down, there is a clinging nostalgia for it, disguising an actual distaste for that Way Out????
https://larouchepac.com/20201230/whither-world-2020s