I read my comment, I hope it is not angry. So it seems, but no I am on the opposite spectrum, really.
Mr Crooke was very good and I like many conversations he has, but this until 13 minutes approximately. Trump does not know about CIA in Ukraine? Or he cannot withdraw them? Does not know about 1000 drones? Does not know about Kursk helicopter? He contradicts all of this before he claims it. Rubio is part of the group of 8 that sees information from presidential findings, so why trump the actual president does not? This is idiocy to continually believe or make excuses for trump, he is emotional, boxed in by his own intelligence, his own staff, the opposition. Why do they all do this? Johnson, Napolitano, McGovern and continue the list with all these celebrities please, I have no time for it. Trump is part of the act, Mr Beletic clearly provides the evidence written by US empires own strategists that now are appointed by trump to work in his government today.
Mr Wolff, well I thank you for the recommendation again, he is a wonderful person, and also Dr Hudson. Sean Foo I will watch, so thank you very much. I hope your holiday was a beautiful day.
Your comment was good, not angry. Trump as president gets a special briefing that no other government person gets. When he writes his confessions on his social media platform, he tells the world he doesn’t know what many know. The Wolff/Diesen chat is excellent, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWpHc_6Pqmc
Thank you very much, I will watch with interest. Mr Diesen I believe in a presidential forum asked a question, although I cannot remember where or when.
The link is not related but I believe it is interesting for you. Clearly our future, the future of our children is generally secure with Igor Vasilyevich and others from the Time of Heroes program. He is 30. They are the replacements. When President Putin and others a little younger finish, we have them. Therefore returning to my previous comment, I am very happy. The SVO made them, the dear ones we need.
There’s a wisdom at work that is absent in too many places. Long ago I read Hesse’s “Journey to the East” about the same time I was taking an elective course in Comparative Religions as a High School Sophomore and the two combined to have an affect on me that continues today that was also amplified by further exposure to Asian thought on many things via martial arts training and historical studies. Russian culture contains a meritocratic aspect, but it isn’t allowed to rule the roost. Rather, the view is every person must be given the same opportunity to excel and from there society is built. Yes, miss out, but no system is perfect, while it appears both Russia and China are well aware that some miss out and strive to eliminate that problem. So, when Putin announced his leadership initiatives and explained their meritocratic basis, I was very happily surprised. Money, not merit, rule here, and the outcomes of the declining Outlaw US Empire versus a rejuvenated Russia are easy to predict because of that fact.
Overdue 34 years actually. There is no reason to talk about negative things but it is also an adequate way to compare things, in fact Time of Heroes, which we both believe is not only important but a success in the very early stage. My opinion is that the guys from this program will be without the bad habits of really many that congregate in the top part of our society. Many bad things have been forgiven but never forgotten by many, ordinary people like me. Of course I understand everything and how can a president be for so long without almost allowing some of these things. Well the new guys I am sure will be very different morally and the fascination with everything western will never call their attention as the elders and successors of the unruly times before have been, well many of them.
So to merz, this new hitler, the guys when they get on top can have the Porsche automobile, yes I also like some of their peaceful engineering and innovation, but do not try to be acceptable to them, and they won't because we are who we are. That's it.
The moral trajectory of governance set by Putin—everything is being done to benefit all, not the few—IMO must continue to be the foundation of Russian political-economy—a hybrid form of Social-Capitalism similar to China’s. I see Russia as a functional democracy in all the ways the USA never was—your participatory society exemplified by all the volunteer organizations and the begging for feedback by government are the main markers. Further proof will be provided by the actions taken between now and 2030. Here we’re a wreck turning into a ruin.
I believe Diesen posed that question at the Valdai Discussion Club meeting with President Putin earlier this year. But I could be mis-remembering (again) :))
I am also confident that the succession planning for Putin's exit are well enough established as the forge of struggle since 1990 has produced some fine sharp minds. It is almost as if a geopolitical clairvoyance has been melded with an eastern patience and diplomacy. These are exemplars for the future for humanity.
That is my recollection that he asked a question to Putin. He was one of the few or maybe the only westerner at that meeting. He asked a very long question.
Right on Natalya. This Trump desperately desires the Nobel Peace Prize to equalise his hated Obummer. Equally this Trump desperately sets a fall back defence for the day he faces a tribunal for crimes against humanity. His faux sincerity about the Ukraine dead reeks of duplicity when he directly finances and supplies weapons there and particularly his crimes in Gaza, Syria and elsewhere.
He is the core of the rot and needs a penicillin term in prison along with his cabinet.
It is not discussed but we know about General and colonels of Security assistance group and USSpacecom now in Ukraine. America is fighting us with Ukrainian hands. Everything is theater and acting. Trump is guilty, they all are, and that is why there are problems everywhere, all the time, and always have been. But they will never be punished, they control the majority of corporations, media, entertainment, and so generally control the past, present and future. Therefore when they are finally defeated they will distract everyone with something different, and the citizens will chase the new ball, obediently.
You can forgive his naivety in 2016 but if he hasn't learned from those mistakes then he's either incompetent or complicit regarding the nefarious activities of US Murder Inc.
Trump just wants to get as rich as possible while he's in office. I believe all his actions must be viewed from that perspective. Too simplistic, will say those who still believe the gangster in charge cares about his nation and his people.
Yes, the hopes of his first presidency foundered on the tomahawks in Syria, and didn't improve from there, and the assassination of General Soleimani unforgivable. So far he's par for the course, all bluster and no substance. Perhaps he's going Biden's way, and will be displaced by Vance.
I agree, I don't see him having the capacity to move the needle, but he's probably got all his marbles whereas Trump is just a babbling fool that fools take for 5D chess player; in his heyday I guess he believed in the aphorism, there's a sucker born every minute.
I guess that Reagan's voodoo economics has finally reached it's end game. De-regulation has brought us neoliberalism and the rise of monopolies and when you have have monopolies everything turns to shit for their is no competition to make anything good.
I'm trying to think of one thing amerika does that's exceptional, the one thing I can think of is that it believes it's own propaganda that it is exceptional.
Buckle up everyone for it's going to get much worse before it gets better
It definitely was well worth the time. When will the European and amerikan people wake up and see how, by whom and the level of the ways we get ripped off. Maybe then the Constitution could be used in manner we were always taught, "of by for the people" until then the corruption/oligarchs kakistocracy races on
Canadians are often envied abroad for our “universal” healthcare system; yet, in a significant way, we still come second to big industry's big-profit interests.
Notably, a late-2019 Angus Reid study found that over the previous year almost a quarter of Canadians decided against filling a prescription or having one renewed due to medication unaffordability. Resultantly, many low-income outpatients who cannot afford to fill their prescriptions end up back in the hospital system as a result, therefore costing far more for provincial and federal government health ministries than if the medication had been covered.
It's very expensive and morally wrong when an elected government will promise the people much-needed universal albeit-generic-brand medication coverage only to have the pharmaceutical industry typically react with successful threats to abandon their Canada-based R&D, etcetera, if the government goes ahead with the ‘pharmacare’ plan. While such universal medication coverage would negatively affect the industry’s superfluously plentiful profits, the profits would nonetheless remain great, just not as great.
Clearly, a truly universal healthcare system needs to be supported by a pharmacare plan. Instead, we continue to be the world’s sole nation that has universal healthcare (theoretically, anyway) but no similar blanket coverage of prescribed medication, however necessary. Ergo, in order for the industry to continue raking in huge profits, Canadians and their health, as both individual consumers and a taxpaying collective, must lose out big time.
I fear that our system will eventually include actual crucial treatments that, at least in a timely thus beneficial manner, are universally in-accessible, except for those with the money to access privately at for-big-profit prices.
Here in amerika we have health insurance, not healthcare. A woman just had her 3rd child and it cost her family $43,000 out of pocket. My daughter has a condition called TMJ that insurance won't cover at all. My brother needed to wait 6 months to have a colonoscopy and the stories go on and on. That the CEO of united healthcare got killed isn't any longer surprising especially when the insurance companies 1st and 2nd actions are to deny deny.
I can understand greedy corpocratically-inclined Americans supporting Trump’s soulless — hell, completely un-Christlike — bill. But there are so many voters and elected Republicans who claim to be Christian yet defend, or at least are noticeably quiet about, the bill despite its ultimate cutting of access to health services and food aid/supports for the poorest Americans.
After all, Jesus, as God incarnate, was about non-violence, genuine compassion, love, charity and non-wealth. His teachings and practices epitomize so much of the primary component of socialism — do not hoard gratuitous wealth in the midst of great poverty. Yet, they are not practiced by a significant number of ‘Christians’, likely including many who idolize callous politicians standing for very little or nothing Jesus taught and represents.
They all should consider that the Biblical Jesus would not have rolled his eyes and sighed: ‘Oh, well. I’m against what the politician stands for, but what can you do when you dislike even more what his political competition stands for?’
Sadly, some of the best humanitarians I, as a big fan of Christ’s unmistakable miracles and fundamental message, have met or heard about were/are atheists or agnostics who, quite ironically, would make better examples of many of Christ’s teachings/practices than too many ‘Christians’. Conversely, some of the worst human(e) beings I’ve met or heard about are the most devout believers/preachers of fundamental Biblical theology.
My wife and I discussed the budget bill along your lines last night. I try to explain but she remains at a loss regarding this very fundamental moral failure despite its not being original.
That’s the hypocrisy of both parties, they claim they’re for the people yet never do anything for them. The R’s are anti ambition but killing babies in Gaza is ok. Hunter got 80k a month from Burisma, Trumps kids grifted $100 mils from the ME trip. America is so so very very far from being a govt. of, by, for the people it’s not even close
You will always be perplexed because of how you look at the situation particularly in the US, go back and watch the Glenn Diesen and Richard Woolff discussion for enlightenment particularly the last 5 minutes for a true perspective on where US capitalism is and where it has come from.
It does very well at colour revolutions in other nations. That is not a thing to be proud of but there is a small circle that delights in this and then weaves a propaganda myth for the masses to swallow. The term DOGE has absolute parallel in 1500's Venice. Same mindset, same warmongering, same government troublemaking that resulted almost in the sacking of Venice if were not for a turncoat Pope...
Thanks for the history lesson, the uneducated amerikan(me in this case) never learned this during my education(or lack thereof). In my mind the rhyming of history happens for a reason, the lack of the people being properly educated in the things that matter
His facial expressions and utterances look like someone who's been programmed; where Obama was Mr Smooth with his quips like, "you'll never see it coming", Bessent is wooden.
We know how thorough Putin is, especially after Medvedev as Gazprom chairman was conned (buried in the small-print) by Shell Oil a few years after taking up the office of President in 2000 on a major oil-deal. With the western vultures inside the country running amok cutting deals with the oligarchs for prized Russian energy/mineral/metal assets Putin had to balance much needed investment and the country's interests/future while accepting realities on the ground.
With the initial offer of 25% +1 share from Shell the contract was eventually signed giving Gazprom 51% and thereby a controlling interest.
Similar contracts were then doled out to the other major energy companies including Exxon (who were basically considered The American Government) much to the chagrin of Dick Cheney the then CEO of Haliburton who commented later that he was particularly displeased with the new vigour, confidence of VVP. The rest's history, little by little until now , we made it Ma, top of the world.
As former Secretary of Defence under H W Bush and now Vice President (SHADOW PRESIDENT) to Bubba Bush in 2008 the outgoing Cheney strong-armed Joe Biden (much like Bubba Bush strong-armed Obama over the Bankers-bailout) Vice-Nominee to Obama for the Funds to back Georgia & Ukraine's NATO entry at the Bucharest Summit.
On a scale of 1- 10, 10 being Absolute Power, Nuland was a 3, a bit player compared to Cheney's 8.
Finally regarding Trump's understanding of Russia/China/BRICS. If my trusted mule/pony delivered a Golden Envelope from VVP care of the Kremlin then even half-a-brain wouldn't need Sherlock Homes to read between the red-lines.
Be that as It may, folks should remember that Trumplethinskin has several audiences/interest groups that he must pay lip-service to, so conflicted, while VVP/Xi have just one.
Lots of important actions not being covered by BigLie Media I hope to get to soon. Global Times has the best coverage of the biggest event—ASEAN-China-GCC Summit and its associated events. Start here, https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202505/1334885.shtml
Bundles of thanks! It appears he just started his substack and for the moment it's free. Sadly, he's disabled comments. Todd seems to see American violence as something recent when it's been a feature from the outset of its settlement, which hurts his point about Protestantism being "restrictive" when religion fueled the genocide of the natives, poor whites and blacks. Todd also fails to see the basic democratic components of the peasant Russian soviet or community council that was the basic form of governance. Furthermore, because of the above shortcomings in his knowledge, Todd fails to see that nihilism has been present since settlement started since it was a grim violent process; here's his definition: "Nihilism is born from a moral vacuum. It is an aspiration to destroy things, to destroy individuals and even to destroy reality." The savage New Englanders calling the natives they murdered and stole land from is an example of that and the perpetuation of the myth of settlement has merely enlarged it. So, Trump bombs Yemen indiscriminately killing hundreds of innocents yet has the temerity to call Putin "CRAZY!" when Russia retaliates for a 1000+ drone and missile assault by destroying military targets that harm less than two dozen people. Using Todd's definition, Trump is a nihilist of a very high degree who shouldn't command any power whatsoever.
I'll stop my comment/critique there. While I'm being rather critical of Todd, I should also applaud him for trying to do what's very hard--to explain contemporary events through an historical lens as few have the historical breadth and depth to do it properly.
Yes, it is recent, I had discovered it by accident…..well, as is the case with these things. I have read a Google translation of his last books, which is on the internet. My problem is the framework — anthropology framework around the family structure. Well, ok, I agree there are differences, but to assume that those differences can be traced back as definitive into the past and not acknowledge changes that Western modernity unleashed on all of us….. Anyway, this would be a long debate. Although, I think that his diagnosis of societies at the present is very astute.
As for the violence of Western societies, one could go back to the Athenian Empire and its wiping out of the people of Melos, as Thucydides described it. The question is if it is inherently Western, or is it inherent to the structure of Empires per se? I do not know.
We do live in changing times. Did we learn anything?
From my observations, the peoples of the Global South—and that includes Russia and China—are the ones that have learned and are busy promoting peace and human solidarity while the collective West still pursues divide and rule. IMO, the moral destruction of the West began prior to WW1, was accelerated by it, was further traumatized by the Depression, went even further off the deep end with WW2 punctuated by the atomic crimes in Japan, and maintained by the Cold War that’s again being punctuated by a Genocide and the lust for even more war against Russia and China. And we have Trump and the EU/Nazis representing the West’s nadir and complete lack of any moral grounding. My question: When will the West hit bottom? The Law triumphed over Trump as I’d predicted, although it took time for the process to work. How much more it will prevail is unclear.
Giant-grocer corporations here in Canada have been raking-in record profits, year after year, while a record number of people have to choose between which necessities of life they can afford. To say it’s morally unjust is an understatement.
There still are many Canadians who hold the erroneous notion that they live and buy in a nation with truly competitive and therefore consumer-fair markets. But in reality, big corporations are able to get unaccountably even bigger, defying the very spirit of government oversight rules established to ensure healthy competition by limiting concentrated ownership — especially in regard to corporations selling and profiteering from the necessities of life, notably food.
Those rules, however, are largely un-enforced by the government.
I feel that the heavily corporatized mainstream news-media, which is virtually all of it, has been editorially emasculated thus negligent when it comes to regularly investigating and exposing such societally consequential oversight-rule breaking.
Problematically, elected officials are getting indebted thus beholden to huge corporate entities, largely due to the latter's generous political monetary donations.
Meanwhile, a very large and growing populace are increasingly too overworked, tired, worried and even rightfully angry about food and housing unaffordability thus insecurity for themselves or their family — largely due to insufficient income — to criticize or boycott Big Business/Industry for the societal damage it needlessly causes/allows, particularly when not immediately observable. And I doubt that this effect is totally accidental, as it greatly benefits the interests of insatiable corporate greed.
Still, there must be a point at which corporate greed thus practice will end up hurting big business’s own monetary interests. Or is the unlimited-profit objective/nature somehow irresistible? It brings to mind the allegorical fox stung by the instinct-abiding scorpion while ferrying it across the river, leaving both to drown.
It was a frog and the scorpion. Industrial Trusts back in the 1890-1910 period were aware their becoming too big was bad for Capitalism. Then came WW1 and that mindset flew away and was replaced by Financial Capitalism which saw no restraints on its size. The Depression provided the working class with rights and benefits it never had before. I can’t speak to the Canadian experience but that was true here in the Empire. The entire Establishment goal since 1945 is the destruction of the New Deal. I don’t know Canada’s specific situation, but I get the sense that it’s as bad there as here. Defeating regulatory capture is mandatory if people are going to have a decent future.
I read my comment, I hope it is not angry. So it seems, but no I am on the opposite spectrum, really.
Mr Crooke was very good and I like many conversations he has, but this until 13 minutes approximately. Trump does not know about CIA in Ukraine? Or he cannot withdraw them? Does not know about 1000 drones? Does not know about Kursk helicopter? He contradicts all of this before he claims it. Rubio is part of the group of 8 that sees information from presidential findings, so why trump the actual president does not? This is idiocy to continually believe or make excuses for trump, he is emotional, boxed in by his own intelligence, his own staff, the opposition. Why do they all do this? Johnson, Napolitano, McGovern and continue the list with all these celebrities please, I have no time for it. Trump is part of the act, Mr Beletic clearly provides the evidence written by US empires own strategists that now are appointed by trump to work in his government today.
Mr Wolff, well I thank you for the recommendation again, he is a wonderful person, and also Dr Hudson. Sean Foo I will watch, so thank you very much. I hope your holiday was a beautiful day.
Your comment was good, not angry. Trump as president gets a special briefing that no other government person gets. When he writes his confessions on his social media platform, he tells the world he doesn’t know what many know. The Wolff/Diesen chat is excellent, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWpHc_6Pqmc
Thank you very much, I will watch with interest. Mr Diesen I believe in a presidential forum asked a question, although I cannot remember where or when.
https://xn--b1aachba0csne6n.xn--p1ai/news/tpost/8g2ggn3bf1-geroi-rossii-kavaler-ordena-muzhestva-uc
The link is not related but I believe it is interesting for you. Clearly our future, the future of our children is generally secure with Igor Vasilyevich and others from the Time of Heroes program. He is 30. They are the replacements. When President Putin and others a little younger finish, we have them. Therefore returning to my previous comment, I am very happy. The SVO made them, the dear ones we need.
There’s a wisdom at work that is absent in too many places. Long ago I read Hesse’s “Journey to the East” about the same time I was taking an elective course in Comparative Religions as a High School Sophomore and the two combined to have an affect on me that continues today that was also amplified by further exposure to Asian thought on many things via martial arts training and historical studies. Russian culture contains a meritocratic aspect, but it isn’t allowed to rule the roost. Rather, the view is every person must be given the same opportunity to excel and from there society is built. Yes, miss out, but no system is perfect, while it appears both Russia and China are well aware that some miss out and strive to eliminate that problem. So, when Putin announced his leadership initiatives and explained their meritocratic basis, I was very happily surprised. Money, not merit, rule here, and the outcomes of the declining Outlaw US Empire versus a rejuvenated Russia are easy to predict because of that fact.
Overdue 34 years actually. There is no reason to talk about negative things but it is also an adequate way to compare things, in fact Time of Heroes, which we both believe is not only important but a success in the very early stage. My opinion is that the guys from this program will be without the bad habits of really many that congregate in the top part of our society. Many bad things have been forgiven but never forgotten by many, ordinary people like me. Of course I understand everything and how can a president be for so long without almost allowing some of these things. Well the new guys I am sure will be very different morally and the fascination with everything western will never call their attention as the elders and successors of the unruly times before have been, well many of them.
So to merz, this new hitler, the guys when they get on top can have the Porsche automobile, yes I also like some of their peaceful engineering and innovation, but do not try to be acceptable to them, and they won't because we are who we are. That's it.
The moral trajectory of governance set by Putin—everything is being done to benefit all, not the few—IMO must continue to be the foundation of Russian political-economy—a hybrid form of Social-Capitalism similar to China’s. I see Russia as a functional democracy in all the ways the USA never was—your participatory society exemplified by all the volunteer organizations and the begging for feedback by government are the main markers. Further proof will be provided by the actions taken between now and 2030. Here we’re a wreck turning into a ruin.
Certainly yours seems a very strange approach for productive, peaceful and happy development. Well there is so much to discuss.
But I will finish with this. We have 2 weeks and then we must stop fighting!
It is not funny but really there is some type of joking :)
I believe Diesen posed that question at the Valdai Discussion Club meeting with President Putin earlier this year. But I could be mis-remembering (again) :))
I am also confident that the succession planning for Putin's exit are well enough established as the forge of struggle since 1990 has produced some fine sharp minds. It is almost as if a geopolitical clairvoyance has been melded with an eastern patience and diplomacy. These are exemplars for the future for humanity.
That is my recollection that he asked a question to Putin. He was one of the few or maybe the only westerner at that meeting. He asked a very long question.
Right on Natalya. This Trump desperately desires the Nobel Peace Prize to equalise his hated Obummer. Equally this Trump desperately sets a fall back defence for the day he faces a tribunal for crimes against humanity. His faux sincerity about the Ukraine dead reeks of duplicity when he directly finances and supplies weapons there and particularly his crimes in Gaza, Syria and elsewhere.
He is the core of the rot and needs a penicillin term in prison along with his cabinet.
Trump’s hypocrisy re: Yemen is straospheric.
Agree.
It is not discussed but we know about General and colonels of Security assistance group and USSpacecom now in Ukraine. America is fighting us with Ukrainian hands. Everything is theater and acting. Trump is guilty, they all are, and that is why there are problems everywhere, all the time, and always have been. But they will never be punished, they control the majority of corporations, media, entertainment, and so generally control the past, present and future. Therefore when they are finally defeated they will distract everyone with something different, and the citizens will chase the new ball, obediently.
Well you are wise, know all of this anyway :)
Trump's grace period is over!
You can forgive his naivety in 2016 but if he hasn't learned from those mistakes then he's either incompetent or complicit regarding the nefarious activities of US Murder Inc.
Trump just wants to get as rich as possible while he's in office. I believe all his actions must be viewed from that perspective. Too simplistic, will say those who still believe the gangster in charge cares about his nation and his people.
Trump’s the Grifter in Chief.
Yes, the hopes of his first presidency foundered on the tomahawks in Syria, and didn't improve from there, and the assassination of General Soleimani unforgivable. So far he's par for the course, all bluster and no substance. Perhaps he's going Biden's way, and will be displaced by Vance.
I don’t see Vance as any wonder boy; I liken him to Dan Quayle, GHW Bush’s VP. The Eastern meritocratic systems will bury the West. Check this out, https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202505/1334972.shtml
I agree, I don't see him having the capacity to move the needle, but he's probably got all his marbles whereas Trump is just a babbling fool that fools take for 5D chess player; in his heyday I guess he believed in the aphorism, there's a sucker born every minute.
I guess that Reagan's voodoo economics has finally reached it's end game. De-regulation has brought us neoliberalism and the rise of monopolies and when you have have monopolies everything turns to shit for their is no competition to make anything good.
I'm trying to think of one thing amerika does that's exceptional, the one thing I can think of is that it believes it's own propaganda that it is exceptional.
Buckle up everyone for it's going to get much worse before it gets better
I just finished watching the Wolff/Diesen chat and it was well worth the time invested, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWpHc_6Pqmc
Glen refers to American propaganda as one long Coke ad, soooo succinct and funny too. Pulls in the gullible all the time.
It definitely was well worth the time. When will the European and amerikan people wake up and see how, by whom and the level of the ways we get ripped off. Maybe then the Constitution could be used in manner we were always taught, "of by for the people" until then the corruption/oligarchs kakistocracy races on
Canadians are often envied abroad for our “universal” healthcare system; yet, in a significant way, we still come second to big industry's big-profit interests.
Notably, a late-2019 Angus Reid study found that over the previous year almost a quarter of Canadians decided against filling a prescription or having one renewed due to medication unaffordability. Resultantly, many low-income outpatients who cannot afford to fill their prescriptions end up back in the hospital system as a result, therefore costing far more for provincial and federal government health ministries than if the medication had been covered.
It's very expensive and morally wrong when an elected government will promise the people much-needed universal albeit-generic-brand medication coverage only to have the pharmaceutical industry typically react with successful threats to abandon their Canada-based R&D, etcetera, if the government goes ahead with the ‘pharmacare’ plan. While such universal medication coverage would negatively affect the industry’s superfluously plentiful profits, the profits would nonetheless remain great, just not as great.
Clearly, a truly universal healthcare system needs to be supported by a pharmacare plan. Instead, we continue to be the world’s sole nation that has universal healthcare (theoretically, anyway) but no similar blanket coverage of prescribed medication, however necessary. Ergo, in order for the industry to continue raking in huge profits, Canadians and their health, as both individual consumers and a taxpaying collective, must lose out big time.
I fear that our system will eventually include actual crucial treatments that, at least in a timely thus beneficial manner, are universally in-accessible, except for those with the money to access privately at for-big-profit prices.
Here in amerika we have health insurance, not healthcare. A woman just had her 3rd child and it cost her family $43,000 out of pocket. My daughter has a condition called TMJ that insurance won't cover at all. My brother needed to wait 6 months to have a colonoscopy and the stories go on and on. That the CEO of united healthcare got killed isn't any longer surprising especially when the insurance companies 1st and 2nd actions are to deny deny.
Capitalism is just another failed ism
I can understand greedy corpocratically-inclined Americans supporting Trump’s soulless — hell, completely un-Christlike — bill. But there are so many voters and elected Republicans who claim to be Christian yet defend, or at least are noticeably quiet about, the bill despite its ultimate cutting of access to health services and food aid/supports for the poorest Americans.
After all, Jesus, as God incarnate, was about non-violence, genuine compassion, love, charity and non-wealth. His teachings and practices epitomize so much of the primary component of socialism — do not hoard gratuitous wealth in the midst of great poverty. Yet, they are not practiced by a significant number of ‘Christians’, likely including many who idolize callous politicians standing for very little or nothing Jesus taught and represents.
They all should consider that the Biblical Jesus would not have rolled his eyes and sighed: ‘Oh, well. I’m against what the politician stands for, but what can you do when you dislike even more what his political competition stands for?’
Sadly, some of the best humanitarians I, as a big fan of Christ’s unmistakable miracles and fundamental message, have met or heard about were/are atheists or agnostics who, quite ironically, would make better examples of many of Christ’s teachings/practices than too many ‘Christians’. Conversely, some of the worst human(e) beings I’ve met or heard about are the most devout believers/preachers of fundamental Biblical theology.
My wife and I discussed the budget bill along your lines last night. I try to explain but she remains at a loss regarding this very fundamental moral failure despite its not being original.
That’s the hypocrisy of both parties, they claim they’re for the people yet never do anything for them. The R’s are anti ambition but killing babies in Gaza is ok. Hunter got 80k a month from Burisma, Trumps kids grifted $100 mils from the ME trip. America is so so very very far from being a govt. of, by, for the people it’s not even close
Melaleuca at MoA is going off on a similar point of argument.
You will always be perplexed because of how you look at the situation particularly in the US, go back and watch the Glenn Diesen and Richard Woolff discussion for enlightenment particularly the last 5 minutes for a true perspective on where US capitalism is and where it has come from.
It does very well at colour revolutions in other nations. That is not a thing to be proud of but there is a small circle that delights in this and then weaves a propaganda myth for the masses to swallow. The term DOGE has absolute parallel in 1500's Venice. Same mindset, same warmongering, same government troublemaking that resulted almost in the sacking of Venice if were not for a turncoat Pope...
I don't think the use of "doge" is accidental. There's the presence of the occult in the west's leadership class.
Thanks for the history lesson, the uneducated amerikan(me in this case) never learned this during my education(or lack thereof). In my mind the rhyming of history happens for a reason, the lack of the people being properly educated in the things that matter
Every time I see Scott Bessent, I feel like I'm back in the 1960s. This guy and those around him don't seem real. It's kind of unsettling.
He looks like a character from the Thunderbirds. Excepting his homosexuality of course.
His facial expressions and utterances look like someone who's been programmed; where Obama was Mr Smooth with his quips like, "you'll never see it coming", Bessent is wooden.
We know how thorough Putin is, especially after Medvedev as Gazprom chairman was conned (buried in the small-print) by Shell Oil a few years after taking up the office of President in 2000 on a major oil-deal. With the western vultures inside the country running amok cutting deals with the oligarchs for prized Russian energy/mineral/metal assets Putin had to balance much needed investment and the country's interests/future while accepting realities on the ground.
With the initial offer of 25% +1 share from Shell the contract was eventually signed giving Gazprom 51% and thereby a controlling interest.
Similar contracts were then doled out to the other major energy companies including Exxon (who were basically considered The American Government) much to the chagrin of Dick Cheney the then CEO of Haliburton who commented later that he was particularly displeased with the new vigour, confidence of VVP. The rest's history, little by little until now , we made it Ma, top of the world.
As former Secretary of Defence under H W Bush and now Vice President (SHADOW PRESIDENT) to Bubba Bush in 2008 the outgoing Cheney strong-armed Joe Biden (much like Bubba Bush strong-armed Obama over the Bankers-bailout) Vice-Nominee to Obama for the Funds to back Georgia & Ukraine's NATO entry at the Bucharest Summit.
On a scale of 1- 10, 10 being Absolute Power, Nuland was a 3, a bit player compared to Cheney's 8.
Finally regarding Trump's understanding of Russia/China/BRICS. If my trusted mule/pony delivered a Golden Envelope from VVP care of the Kremlin then even half-a-brain wouldn't need Sherlock Homes to read between the red-lines.
Be that as It may, folks should remember that Trumplethinskin has several audiences/interest groups that he must pay lip-service to, so conflicted, while VVP/Xi have just one.
Lots of important actions not being covered by BigLie Media I hope to get to soon. Global Times has the best coverage of the biggest event—ASEAN-China-GCC Summit and its associated events. Start here, https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202505/1334885.shtml
Thank you, Karl. Here is another (and let’s be clear, a strange) link: https://emmanueltodd.substack.com/p/diverging-populisms
Bundles of thanks! It appears he just started his substack and for the moment it's free. Sadly, he's disabled comments. Todd seems to see American violence as something recent when it's been a feature from the outset of its settlement, which hurts his point about Protestantism being "restrictive" when religion fueled the genocide of the natives, poor whites and blacks. Todd also fails to see the basic democratic components of the peasant Russian soviet or community council that was the basic form of governance. Furthermore, because of the above shortcomings in his knowledge, Todd fails to see that nihilism has been present since settlement started since it was a grim violent process; here's his definition: "Nihilism is born from a moral vacuum. It is an aspiration to destroy things, to destroy individuals and even to destroy reality." The savage New Englanders calling the natives they murdered and stole land from is an example of that and the perpetuation of the myth of settlement has merely enlarged it. So, Trump bombs Yemen indiscriminately killing hundreds of innocents yet has the temerity to call Putin "CRAZY!" when Russia retaliates for a 1000+ drone and missile assault by destroying military targets that harm less than two dozen people. Using Todd's definition, Trump is a nihilist of a very high degree who shouldn't command any power whatsoever.
I'll stop my comment/critique there. While I'm being rather critical of Todd, I should also applaud him for trying to do what's very hard--to explain contemporary events through an historical lens as few have the historical breadth and depth to do it properly.
Thank you! Reading now. It seems like a deja vu — a lot of links I already read. Interesting.
Here is another lecture by Todd — the link is from Alastair Crooke’s latest post: https://emmanueltodd.substack.com/p/bons-baisers-de-russie. Hopefully, this is a translation: https://emmanueltodd-substack-com.translate.goog/p/bons-baisers-de-russie?_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp.
Thanks. I just discovered another top-notch substack I just added to my recommended list. Here’s the link to it and the current article I’m reading, https://meaninginhistory.substack.com/p/warning-signs
Yes, that is the question!
Yes, it is recent, I had discovered it by accident…..well, as is the case with these things. I have read a Google translation of his last books, which is on the internet. My problem is the framework — anthropology framework around the family structure. Well, ok, I agree there are differences, but to assume that those differences can be traced back as definitive into the past and not acknowledge changes that Western modernity unleashed on all of us….. Anyway, this would be a long debate. Although, I think that his diagnosis of societies at the present is very astute.
As for the violence of Western societies, one could go back to the Athenian Empire and its wiping out of the people of Melos, as Thucydides described it. The question is if it is inherently Western, or is it inherent to the structure of Empires per se? I do not know.
We do live in changing times. Did we learn anything?
From my observations, the peoples of the Global South—and that includes Russia and China—are the ones that have learned and are busy promoting peace and human solidarity while the collective West still pursues divide and rule. IMO, the moral destruction of the West began prior to WW1, was accelerated by it, was further traumatized by the Depression, went even further off the deep end with WW2 punctuated by the atomic crimes in Japan, and maintained by the Cold War that’s again being punctuated by a Genocide and the lust for even more war against Russia and China. And we have Trump and the EU/Nazis representing the West’s nadir and complete lack of any moral grounding. My question: When will the West hit bottom? The Law triumphed over Trump as I’d predicted, although it took time for the process to work. How much more it will prevail is unclear.
Giant-grocer corporations here in Canada have been raking-in record profits, year after year, while a record number of people have to choose between which necessities of life they can afford. To say it’s morally unjust is an understatement.
There still are many Canadians who hold the erroneous notion that they live and buy in a nation with truly competitive and therefore consumer-fair markets. But in reality, big corporations are able to get unaccountably even bigger, defying the very spirit of government oversight rules established to ensure healthy competition by limiting concentrated ownership — especially in regard to corporations selling and profiteering from the necessities of life, notably food.
Those rules, however, are largely un-enforced by the government.
I feel that the heavily corporatized mainstream news-media, which is virtually all of it, has been editorially emasculated thus negligent when it comes to regularly investigating and exposing such societally consequential oversight-rule breaking.
Problematically, elected officials are getting indebted thus beholden to huge corporate entities, largely due to the latter's generous political monetary donations.
Meanwhile, a very large and growing populace are increasingly too overworked, tired, worried and even rightfully angry about food and housing unaffordability thus insecurity for themselves or their family — largely due to insufficient income — to criticize or boycott Big Business/Industry for the societal damage it needlessly causes/allows, particularly when not immediately observable. And I doubt that this effect is totally accidental, as it greatly benefits the interests of insatiable corporate greed.
Still, there must be a point at which corporate greed thus practice will end up hurting big business’s own monetary interests. Or is the unlimited-profit objective/nature somehow irresistible? It brings to mind the allegorical fox stung by the instinct-abiding scorpion while ferrying it across the river, leaving both to drown.
It was a frog and the scorpion. Industrial Trusts back in the 1890-1910 period were aware their becoming too big was bad for Capitalism. Then came WW1 and that mindset flew away and was replaced by Financial Capitalism which saw no restraints on its size. The Depression provided the working class with rights and benefits it never had before. I can’t speak to the Canadian experience but that was true here in the Empire. The entire Establishment goal since 1945 is the destruction of the New Deal. I don’t know Canada’s specific situation, but I get the sense that it’s as bad there as here. Defeating regulatory capture is mandatory if people are going to have a decent future.