19 Comments

The comical performance that the US puts on every four years is predictable, boring and insulting to anyone with a few brain cells. In other words, the king is naked, but we have to pay attention to the performance and applaud his costume. Take away the gun and the dollar from the American ruling class and the US is left with what it really is: a backward and ignorant country.

Expand full comment

As noted, ideas are no longer discussed nor policy proposals debated. Of course, the main question can't be asked because the condition isn't admitted: The Empire's declining. So, it's not seen as a problem needing to be solved.

Expand full comment

Great post. Thought Richard Wolff's notion that big tech might weigh in and try to halt the China bashing and possibly even finance a peace movement was interesting. All their consumer products are produced in China. There's no where else in the world that can compete with China's factories. Intel, among others, is getting crushed by losing the China market. China was spending more on chips annually than oil--imagine that. Now all that dough is going to go to domestic suppliers. Crazy stuff.

Expand full comment

I tuned in to this earlier - well, to be precise I had it on while I was involved in some 'housekeeping' - very wide ranging discussion - and Nima allows his guests to speak - The Empire is in decline and the Hegelian reversal was clear today in the UN vote on Cuba embargo - only two opposed to lifting it - US and Israel [Moldova abstained; Venezuela and Afghanistan could not vote - no dues paid as US has confiscated their Dollar/gold assets]. The US is now The Other - and its allies are being slowly devoured to keep its show on the road. A learning experience if sometimes a confirmatory one ....

Hudson's comment on The 'Barbarians' becoming more 'civilized' than the Romans reminds me of The previous Empire referring to my ancestors as 'Savages' - so now I'm either a Barbarian Savage or a Savage Barbarian ... Malthus, Darwin, colonialism, Lebensraum, third reich, exceptionalism, the elect, the 'indispensable nation', Zionist exceptionalism, up to today -

We, in the West, have never been 'civilized'. Might be time to begin the process.

Expand full comment

As with all their discussions, there were many nuggets littering the podcast. IMO, Wolff's Hegelian Moment needs further development, although many don't understand how dialectical reasoning works or who Hegel was.

Expand full comment

"although many don't understand..." Sadly true.

Expand full comment

Your comment, which I agree with, reminded me of this quote: A journalist inquired of Mahatma Gandhi, “What do you think of Western civilization?” He retorted, “I think it would be a good idea.” Gandhi was right. Western civilization is no more than a euphemism for the British and sister Empires to murder and plunder the weak.

Expand full comment

This was a totally, wonderful, outstanding session with Wolff and Hudson that I just watched. As Morris Berman pointed out in his 2008 book "Dark Ages America: The Finial Stages of Empire" , that on the way down, empires do things that accelerate the decline. There were many examples of that in the video exchange.

Changing gears ---

"If the press had done its job, the disaster could have been diverted." I was shocked to hear this two days ago.

How could I have been shocked? I have been spending 2 to 3 hours a day, for the past 3 years, reading about the health mafia. The quotation is from Naomi Wolf who this week published "The Pfizer papers : Pfizer's crimes against humanity" based on the work of over 3,250 volunteers who worked through hundreds of thousand of pages or Pfizer internal documents that showed that Pfizer and FDA knew that the vaccines did not prevent transmission and did not prevent death. This means that Big Pharma, the media, the government conspired against the people to deliver profits.

Enormous anger arises when people realize that their bodies are a resource extracted for profit. The description by Hudson and Wolf on global power rearrangement disappeared under the narrative of good vs evil , demonstrates that Political Theology is a key to understanding global change. Humans are sacrificed to maintain the narrative of wars and health policy.

If the press pointed out that there were alternative, off the shelf treatments for that flu variant and that remdesivir followed by a ventilator murdered people and the hospitals were rewarded with extra cash for doing it, the outrage would have led to prosecution of those who used a bioweapon to enact this disaster.

The so called, left leaning Democratic party, has enacted militarism and totalitarian health policies. There may be important changes if Bobbie Kennedy is able to carry out what he promises. If Trump wins and if he wants to go down in history, he could follow the advice of Hudson, Wolff.

Expand full comment

I've not put my oar in on Covid because there were many previous examples of profit being valued over people's health that's been ongoing for 100+ years now. That it was a premeditated felonious scam was clear when both Russian and Chinese vaccines were barred from use in the West along with the emphasis on trying to smear China as the point-of-origin as if that really mattered. The facts now point to Covid-19 as a form of Bioweapon made to destroy the West's elderly populations and thus reduce government social costs while making massive profits for Pharma. Now that Wolf's book and its evidence is out, it can be cited in support of the above hypothesis. Yet, it will join the other five books I have on the previous health scams that are still ongoing--"Silent Spring" only stopped DDT application in USA, not globally. And no one's gone to prison yet for the use of Agent Orange and other organo- phosphates despite all the evidence dealing with that crime against humanity. And did the Agent Orange revelations produce political change within the Outlaw US Empire?

Thanks for the FYI about Wolf's book just published two weeks ago. Here's the link to the Global Research synopsis that millions must read, https://www.globalresearch.ca/pfizer-papers-crimes-humanity/5871364

Expand full comment

That is an excellent synopsis. I saw it earlier published on a substack. In fact, this is the introduction to the book!

Maybe, just maybe, the scope of the deployment, the number of adverse events it caused, the censorship of the government ($1B allocated under Biden to counter misinformation), the number of talented doctors, researchers, attorneys, etc. energized by this work, the thrust of Big Pharma to roll out more mRNA drugs, including for animals including livestock, and reports coming in from other countries, maybe, just maybe there will be counter action against Big Pharma and its entire empire to bring about needed change.

Expand full comment

Hopefully, that massive joint effort will result in a vast number of class action lawsuits against many actors. How many thousands of wrongful death lawsuits will there be? And then there's Europe. Fortunately, the Russian and Chinese health and pharma sectors aren't profit driven and are mandated to improve health and care, not sales. IMO, Pfitzer, et al need to be named illicit drug purveyors as dangerous to human health and health sovereignty as opium and heroin syndicates. Points 51, 57, and especially points 93-100 of the BRICS Kazan Declaration that deal with healthcare and the WHO.

Expand full comment

Great comment. Will this be an important issue in the elections?

Expand full comment

Trump has promised RFKjr a "prominent position" in his admin if he wins, so that's a possible influencer.

Expand full comment

The gem of Hudson’s humour how the Americans isolated Russia to find out they were isolated as well.

Who doesn’t intensely hate in this election I think will be the winner.

Trust humour to carry the understanding well.

Expand full comment

The 2024 US election is the Most Important Election in Human History ... until the next US Election, which will then be the Most Important Election in Human History.

Really, instead of elections, the USA should select its political rulers through trial by combat in which all presidential, congressional, gubernatorial, and state legislative wannabes fight to the death in nude jello wrestling matches.

This grandiose event will be staged in a huge imitation Roman Coliseum, televised worldwide on pay-per-view, and hosted in that mecca of American culture, Las Vegas. Political sports betting on this event will be highly encouraged--with all revenue going to the American military-corporate complex, Wall Street, US corporations, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos.

American Idiocracy reigns supreme.

Expand full comment

I seem to recall a similar suggestion made late last century.

Expand full comment

I wonder to what the conflicts of interests are between Silicon Valley (as represented by JD Vance) and Wall Street (as represented by DJT).

As mentioned here on occasion, I never underestimate Wall Street. I know those London Bankers are out there but I have not figured out where they fit in the scope of things. Michael Hudson to figure this one out.

Gold got pounded (all pun intended) yesterday. There is a political weathervane in that.

Expand full comment

What IMO is indicative in the rise of Gold and Silver prices is the weakness of the Neoliberals to hold the price down as they have for the last several decades--their ability to manipulate is waning. The supply of gold and silver has yet to become finite as more is extracted, which also impacts the market. What happens on Nov. 6-7 on the exchanges will be curious regardless who wins.

Expand full comment

I was going to watch that, but since it's mostly about the elections and their impact on various affairs foreign and domestic, I think I can safely skip it. I couldn't care less about US politics.

Expand full comment