Moveable Feast Cafe 2021/01/09 … Open Thread

To many damned trees in this forest. Will he, (they) cross the Rubicon?, and if so, will it be for the better? (or worse).
I honestly do not know.
In my own personal experience during crisis of any kind, I’ve always waited until the very last moment to react because most of the initial “intellectual” alternatives fizzled out by themselves, and VERY few of the original options were left.
Served us well for many years.

Pamela mentioned the other day “The Art of War” in another thread.

I’ve posted before, sometime way back (or so it seems) my publication of this book.
Since then quite a few new “faces” have arrived here, and some, for various reasons have left, I repeat this now.

I’ve had to re-code the original flash container to html5 in order to keep it alive, since Adobe no longer support these formats, and all browsers eventually do not support, or allow flash-based contents by design.

This version has an inn-build search engine (top right).

Lots and lots of wisdom, and very helpful also in ones personal life/struggles I believe.

Here: http://fotovision.no/PublicationsNew/ArtofWar/

Regards
Kent

I have said before that Trump is an enigma, and from my own legitimate experience, no links to videos, articles or comments here or anywhere. Am I respected in any ways whatsoever for having voiced a different opinion from the popular MSM opinion ? Well, who knows, by some sometimes perhaps …

Global lockdown is the great train robbery of all time at the expense of suffering and death, now follow the money for crying out loud!!!

Hoping no comments doesn’t mean no interest no read nothing to see here move along please. Think about it :

Cot Death in the Nanny State https://craigwright.net/blog/economics/cot-death-in-the-nanny-state/

An edit of a poem for Bro 93, one he liked back when… Amarynth, anyone, have you seen or heard of the absent fellow, by chance?

The Mercy Seat

The hunting horns
are sounding high,
The dogs have
been unleashed.
That swarm will
soon be upon me,
If I don’t move
like lightning greased!

I pawned my razor,
but not my gun;
There’s a victory
in every defeat.
I don’t remember
much of that night,
Except a scalding,
blinding heat.

There’s a river
and a crossing,
Just a few short
miles ahead,
I’m looking for
that mercy seat,
And a place to lay
my weary head.

The hunting horns
are sounding high,
The dogs have
been unleashed.
Will I find that
hallowed gate,
Will I
be released?

From another angle. Other than what MSM and the Democratic party are ranting.
https://brandnewtube.com/watch/this-is-what-really-happened-behind-the-scenes-on-capitol-hill-on-jan-6-2021-msm-is-not-covering-t_6TcdjFXaddqD9uU.html

FYI

How will Biden’s strategy on South Asia differ from Trump’s?,i/> 10 January 2021

while US president-elect Biden’s foreign policy will be very different from that of President Donald Trump, ‘his administration’s likely South Asia policy will be an anomaly — a rare example of considerable continuity with Trump’.[3]

‘Biden has vowed to bring back US global leadership, value international diplomacy, restore US alliances and promote democracy and human rights abroad. He intends to undo the dramatic — and in his view deleterious — changes that the Trump administration made to US foreign policy … to engineer a full-scale foreign policy reset’. But South Asia will be a rare case of continuity, says Kugelman.

Biden will back the rapidly growing US–India partnership ‘that enjoyed much forward movement during the Trump years’. The two core shared interests that drive the partnership remain combating terrorism and countering China. That will include keeping the ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) in play but tweaking the language around them. Biden, like Trump, also strongly supports withdrawal from Afghanistan. Thus, a workable relationship with Pakistan that revolves around securing Islamabad’s assistance in the peace process in Afghanistan has initial priority and that requires nuance in managing the diplomacy around China’s growing footprint across the subcontinent, including its relationship with Pakistan.

Biden’s emphasis on democracy and the promotion of human rights, Kugelman points out, means that South Asian states, including India as well as those often overlooked by the US, could end up on Washington’s radar for the wrong reasons.

Climate change, a top Biden international priority and also a major threat to South Asia, however, offers an opportunity for less tense US engagement with South Asia and also the wider region including China.

These are not policies dominated by singular, muscular, if doomed, pushback against China but signal a necessary return to international cooperation on the global economy, the global commons as well as global security and the recognition that no single power, not China, not India, not Europe not even the US will have things entirely their own way.” [abbreviations mine]

https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2021/01/10/how-will-bidens-strategy-on-south-asia-differ-from-trumps/

Regards

re: the US deep state’s foreign policy under Biden, so far we’ve covered South & East Asia

Now an update for 2021 for the Caucasus & central Asian ‘Stans who, btw, are critical to the EAEU & China’s BRI

Note 1 https://eurasianet.org/ is essentially a Western jaundiced site with the usual blinkers (Ive stripped the links)
Note 2 I offer this in the context regime change / false flags / color revolutions of Belarus Aug; Armenia-Azerbaijan Nov-Dec; Kyrgyzstan January 2021 & Russian Elections September 2021

– 2020 was a historic year in the Caucasus, as Azerbaijan successfully took back most of the territory it lost to Armenia in the ’90s. It was an epochal event, ushering in a new political and geopolitical order in the region. In 2021, we’ll begin to see how this new order forms;

– By far the murkiest prospects for 2021 belong to Armenia. The coming year will be pivotal politically: It will be a miracle if PM Nikol Pashinyan holds his post following the loss to Azerbaijan … If Pashinyan goes, will the values of the 2018 Velvet Revolution he led … remain? Expect 2021 to be full of political turmoil;

– These are uncertain times, too, for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. As a result of the war, the territory they hold is much smaller than before, and the Azeris much closer. For now, Russian peacekeepers are maintaining security, but will Armenians continue to see life in N-K as a long-term prospect? Or will they see their days numbered and have one eye on the door? Ultimately people will be voting with their feet and their drams, and in 2021 we should get an idea of how viable N-K will remain;

– Azerbaijan is riding high after its victory. Now, it faces a daunting task to reconstruct and repopulate the NK territories. It will have to do that with a state budget already under strain from persistently low oil prices and with state institutions rife with corruption [sic]. But military victory has gained President Ilham Aliyev political capital that won’t run out any time soon;

– Triumphalism is rampant, and Baku is showing ever fewer signs of accommodating anything other than its strongest nationalist impulses. But it also claims to want to welcome the Armenians of N-K as Azeri citizens. So will it take any steps in 2021 to make them feel at home?;

– Georgia has been overshadowed by the dramatic events to its south, but things here, too, are at a crossroads. Following contested elections, all opposition parties are boycotting parliament, leaving Georgia with its first single-party rule since Soviet days. Faith in the country’s political class had been low before and it’s not clear how it’s going to extract itself from this dead end;

– The scheduled January 10 vote to pick a new president in Kyrgyzstan came out of the blue, following a spurt of civil unrest in October. The anticipated runaway winner is Sadyr Japarov, who had until that trouble erupted been cooling his heels in prison on kidnapping charges;

– That will only be the aperitif, institutionally speaking. Kyrgyz voters are also being asked to decide … to cast a preference on whether they wish to live under a presidential or a parliamentary system. Should the former prevail, a reversion to strongman rule, reminiscent of the days of the deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, is widely anticipated;

– And yet another vote is slated for later in the year, when the country attempts once again to select a new parliament (the outcome of October’s vote having been cancelled). If Japarov has his way, that legislature may prove the meekest Kyrgyzstan has had in its post-independence history;

– In the slow race of pointless parliaments, Kazakhstan is always a strong candidate. In a confounding bit of scheduling, the vote is also taking place on January 10. Even the milquetoast opposition All-National Social Democratic Party has said its sitting this one out. A bland all-pro-government legislature is assured;

– When President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took over in 2019 from his longtime friend, Nursultan Nazarbayev, some naïve souls may have anticipated mild political reform. Any such plans, granted that they ever existed, have been scotched for the foreseeable future by COVID-19;

– The National Bank recently forecast the economy might have shrunk as much as 2.7% in 2020. Their prediction is that the economy will revert to growth by the second quarter. Financial regulators attribute this to implementation of the government’s cash cannon approach to squelching the crisis. A more prosaic explanation is that energy analysts expect oil prices to return to health by the mid-2021;

– Public discourse will be laser-focused on the economy in Uzbekistan too. The impact of COVID-19 has been intense, although Uzbekistan is at least expecting to close 2020 with gentle economic growth of 1.5%, way down from 5.5% the year before;

– These difficulties come as the country still appears conflicted about its general direction. There was a time when officials were predicting that 2021 would be the year that Uzbekistan would be admitted to the World Trade Organization. But with Tashkent gaining observer status at the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, EAEU, in December, there will be much discussion about which bloc holds more promise;

– The unanticipated economic slump has favored short-term solutions. This year will see the opening of a Russian Interior Ministry representative office in Uzbekistan intended to ease bureaucratic headaches for Uzbek migrant laborers. Accession to the EAEU would make many of those difficulties largely melt away altogether;

– Inside the country, the emphasis is on reducing the state’s presence in the economy. This year will, accordingly, be marked by the privatization of major government-held assets, such as the Fergana Azot and Dehkanabad potash plants, the Coca-Cola Ichimligi Uzbekiston bottling company, as well as several holiday resorts and hotels. All being well, economic growth could revert to the official forecast of at least 5%;

– The year will end with a presidential election that will see President Shavkat Mirziyoyev easily reconfirmed to office. For all the Uzbeki talk of reform, political competition is off the agenda;

– At least Tajikistan usually doesn’t pretend very hard it is reforming or opening up to the world. President Emomali Rahmon ended 2020 with a likely bogus boast of having defeated COVID-19. Even if this were true, the success has only been achieved by sealing off the country, as many others have done. By rights, 2021 should be a year of reconstruction, but the country has no clear foundations on which to build that resurgence;

– Rahmon’s determination to claim victory over COVID likely stems from his wish to see Russia reopen to Tajik laborers, whose remittances are so crucial to the economy. That is bound to happen, but probably not for a few months;

– And this happens as Tajikistan is dragged further down by loans. The finance minister revealed in November that the government intends to rack up another $562 million in international debt in 2021. Unsurprisingly, Tajikistan is in a line of countries pleading for deferral on repayment of existing loans;

– This could all become somebody else’s problem. Some believe that 2021 could see Rahmon hand over power to his son, Rustam Emomali, who now serves both as chairman of the upper house of parliament and mayor of the capital, Dushanbe;

– While Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan will get a new batch of lawmakers, Turkmenistan is to add a whole new branch of the legislature in 2021. Members to a consultative body called the Khalk Maslahaty, or People’s Council, essentially a Senate, will be elected at the end of March;

– This has nothing to do with increasing public representation, of course. 2020 was even worse than usual for basic liberties, eg people have faced severe intimidation for trying to document food shortages;

– The creation of a Senate seems, rather, to be a clunky maneuver ahead of some putative future succession mechanism once President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov decides he wants to hand over power to a close relative or simply drops dead, as his predecessor did;

– The president routinely anoints every new year with a slogan, and the one chosen for this year is: “Turkmenistan, the Land of Peace and Trust.” … which is usually a certain guarantee that the government intends to impose austerity and that the population should grin and bear it;

– Russia raises stakes in Azeri helicopter shoot-down case. Azerbaijan said that its shooting down of a Russian helicopter was an accident. But now Russia reportedly wants the case to be investigated as murder. The more serious charges suggest an intention by Moscow to play hardball;

– Following war, Armenia and Azerbaijan reckon with unexploded ordnance. The war lasted 44 days. Cleaning up the explosives left behind will take years;

– Caspian faces “catastrophic drop in water levels” this century. As the globe warms and sea levels rise, the lands abutting the Caspian Sea are facing the opposite problem;

– Tajikistan pleads for credit repayment relief. Dushanbe has already received positive feedback from China, but the reprieve will likely last no more than a few months

Regards

The cold in Spain is due to global warming! This usual propaganda in the corporate (totalitarian) press appear in El Pais after record low temperatures appear in Spain. Then they explain it as an Arctic blast, while in reality it seem to be an Alpine weather system. Then they explain it as a snow storm. Both terms are used as a way of explaining away that a low temperature record was set. Such weather systems have repeated themselves many times since the temperature record started worldwide at around year 1850. It cannot be caused by a global warming as a physical phenomena based on CO2 theory because then everything would only get warmer, that is a one-sided sword.
https://elpais.com/espana/2021-01-10/espana-sera-escandinavia-durante-cuatro-dias.html

In fact an all time low temperature record was set in Aragon Spain by minus 34.1 Celsius. The day after it was exceeded by another low temperature record of minus 35.8 Celsius.
https://www.euronews.com/2021/01/07/spain-records-coldest-ever-temperature-at-35-8-c

In memory of an earlier color revolution in which the actors remain the same as this one and with a nod to Pepe Escobar:

5. The Three Harpies

Have you noticed the harpies three?
There’s “the Hill”, Samantha, and Miss Vicky,
For them no outrage is too much,
Murder and mayhem’s their sweetest cup!
Pass the cookies, laugh with glee
Let’s kiss the butts of the harpies three!

Kiev, Odess, the Donbas, and Crimee,
There’s still a lot to pillage
For these fulsome harpies three.
They sent their best snipers,
Their sappers, and their keys,
Cause it’s murder and it’s mayhem
Give joy to the three harpies!

Is there no part of earth
Deserving to be free
From these joyous, glorious maidens
We call the harpies three?
Is there no pure and holy place
Free from their liberty?

They promised Europe and rainbows,
Warm houses and good coffee
But we got rape and murder
The whispering of sweet nothings
From the girls we call harpies!

Harpies, harpies, how could you go so wrong!
A time for you is coming
When you’ll burn where you belong.
You’re lucky you love fire
It fills you so with glee
There’s such a perfect place for you
The girls we call harpies!

Brother Blue Iconoclast

The UK column latest video covers the US election debacle, covid issues in the UK and more :

https://21stcenturywire.com/2021/01/08/ukc-news-dc-protests-rock-america-uks-faux-nhs-crisis-vaccine-debacle/

The first half hour covers the election, then at ca. 36mins a video showing police forcing their way into a house late at night having received a tip that the home owners had a visitor. In fact it was their daughter who had just been discharged from hospital. Unbelievably, the couple are now being charged with police assault ! I note the police have been asking for more powers to enforce covid rules.

At 50mins there is a discussion on bed occupancy in the NHS – showing headlines going back to 2012 – every year a crisis is reported re not enough bed capacity. ( The dismantling of the NHS started 40 years ago – Thatcher’s government wrote a paper declaring they would have to do it ” by stealth ” as the people would never stand for it. John Pilger made a film about this, ‘ The Dirty War on the NHS ‘. It was banned from television on the run up to the UK election. )

They then show a NHS chart showing that bed occupancy in December 2020 is lower than in 2019 – hmmm. As an aside, the NHS has less beds now than it had when it was set up just after the war, so no surprise there would be capacity problems – less beds available to service a much larger population.

Video can be understood at 1.5 speed.

Does anyone know anything about flight MH370?
Were there any reasons (apart from accident or pilot error) for it to be downed?