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Open Thread 58
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moscow-teahouse

The “House of the White Crane” teahouse is in contention with Cafe Receptor for the SWPLiest establishment in Moscow.

Anyhow, apologies for the lack of posting.

But in between my new job, finding/acquiring the ten or so documents needed for paperwork for said job, some new contract work, and the end of my refurbishment/moving into and furnishing a new apartment happening all at once, I hardly have a spare minute.

* HAIL PUTLER! He personally submitted a bill to soften Article 282, Russia’s hate speech law. Good to see my blog is being read and acted upon at the very highest levels.

* US sanctions on Russian corporations aimed to constrain a rising civilian aircraft competitor

* Based Italian shitlord physicist Alessandro Strumia gets suspended for common sense wisdom on women, IQ distributions, and relative success in science. James Thompson has details. The talk that got him canned here [PDF].

* U.S. would destroy banned Russian warheads if necessary: NATO envoy. Apparently a misquote.

* James Thompson: Something Rotten in the State of Sweden: Gottfredson Dis-Invited

poll-china-usa-hegemon-2018

* Big new PEW poll [PDF]: Russia is the only (polled) major country where a good majority would prefer China become the hegemonic power over the US.

poll-germany-afd

* AfD has become the most popular party in f.GDR, and second after CDU nationwide. Ossies Are East Europeans.

* Turkish inflation rate approaches 25% this September.

* MT: Russia to adopt something that sounds like Chinese social credit. No escape from coming age of digital totalitarianism?

* There’s a cool Tolkienist discussion on the previous thread. See esp. Daniel Chieh’s comment.

 
• Category: Miscellaneous • Tags: Germany, Open Thread, SJWs 
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  1. AfD has become the most popular party in f.GDR, and second after CDU nationwide

    If you factor out the CSU, the scale of the CDU’s problems becomes even clearer: a recent poll has AfD at 18,5%, and the CDU only at 20%. Merkel’s destroying her party (which would be a good thing, the CDU ought to die painfully).
    The elections in Bavaria on October 14 will be very important. If the CSU enters a coalition with the Greens, I think they’ll suffer really extreme losses and permanently lose many voters. And without the CSU getting top results in Bavaria, we’re reaching a situation where the Christian Democrats will become unable of winning elections at the federal level, with the entire political system becoming unstable.
    Merkel might well be dethroned after the elections in Bavaria and Hesse (end of October), but her replacement will probably be almost equally horrible. The bad thing from a nationalist perspective is that Merkel’s government is continually creating facts that will be very hard to reverse…every year another 200 000 new “refugees”, legal initiatives to allow even rejected asylum seekers to stay permanently (because the economy needs “skilled workers”), and soon the signing of the UN global compact for migration. I used to believe that one shouldn’t attribute to malice what could be explained by incompetence, but it’s hard not to regard all of this as a deliberate programme for permanent mass immigration.

  2. Mitleser says:

    Speaking of AfD, the second party of AfD founder Bernd Lucke is falling apart.
    The AfD really dodged a bullet by voting him out three years ago.

  3. Is Tunisia an outlier or would other Arab countries show similar results?

    • Replies: @Talha
  4. Tesla has decided to sell off its loaner fleet and is now getting customers to pay in full without actually delivering cars. Musk embracing the Eddie Lampert school of management.

    Musk has also claimed they’re having trouble making deliveries because…America has run out of trailers. So now supposedly Tesla is making its own trailers at Fremont. Who needs fiction?

    I predict Tesla will report a Q3 profit by hook or crook which will result in a ~20% pop in the stock price.

    • Replies: @Polish Perspective
  5. Dan Hayes says:

    “Apparently a misquote”. Ha, ha, ha….

    So Kay Bailey Hutchison is in a race with Nikki Haley for malevolence/incompetence.

  6. Matra says:

    Hungary and Italy: the No Fucks Given capitals of the world.

    Interesting that more Argies, who are supposedly European, prefer Chinese to American rule.

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
    , @reiner Tor
  7. Talha says:
    @Hyperborean

    Tunisia may be an outlier just because they are right next door to Libya and see the effects of US-hegemony-gone-wild first hand.

    Peace.

  8. @Matra

    Latin Americans have a strong streak of anti-Americanism. They in fact refuse to even call us Americans and refer to us as “United Staters”.

    One of my reasons that I despise them and why every single country in Latin America should be reduced to protectorate status.

  9. @Thorfinnsson

    I predict Tesla will report a Q3 profit

    You actually predicted the company going bankrupt, Thor. Let’s not forget – I will certainly make sure you won’t. If this is part of your coping process, I’m all for it. Our bet still has 9 months to go before they go bust. If they don’t go bust you lose ;)

    • Replies: @Sean
    , @Thorfinnsson
  10. Just a nerdy sidenote. I’ve been accepted into the Geforce Now beta; Nvidia’s game streaming service. Streaming services are going to move into the video game space after conquering both music (Spotify) and TV (Netflix). So I was curious about how the experience would be.

    The basic premise is that most gamers don’t need to own expensive hardware. Unless you play twitch-shooters at a serious level – where every extra ms of latency is hyperimportant – , your needs can be covered easily. Hardcore gamers are very vocal, so their numbers tend to be exaggerated. Most gamers’ needs could be covered. Right now the invitation-only beta is free. You still have to own your games. These are still early days so the exact business model is still being figured out.

    Google released their Project Streaming a few days ago, which is their first foray into the same space. Taketwo’s CEO stated in a conference some weeks ago that he sees a large industry-wide adoption 1-3 years down the line. The chess pieces are being put into place.

    For me, I have a super basic celeron-powered laptop which I bought for ~$300 since it covers my basic browsing needs and it does so well enough. I have no home PC right now so this solution is right in my backyard.

    So how is it? Surprisingly good. You need at least 50 mbit/s in order to get [email protected] home. I can stream Witcher 3 at great quality settings on my laptop at 60 fps. The service supports cloud save, too. Installation for the most popular games takes just 10 secs. For the less popular ones you have to re-install them at every time, which is a bit of a PITA if the game is big. Anything over 20 GB tends be annoying in my experience. But the upside is that you don’t store anything locally. I have just 8 GB free on my SDD as I write this, so that is a big bonus for me.

    You can be very portable too. You only need the app and a decent internet connection to access your library. You could play these games on vacation, in a library, at a friend’s house. Unlike bulky and fat gaming laptops, my laptop weights just 1.2 kg so portability is definitely key. I usually have a small wireless mouse with me regardless.

    I’ve tried some online shooters (primarily NS2, a small game which I own) and the experience was totally decent. I tried the more popular CS:GO and I had zero latency/lag issues. The only downside there was 60 fps, but that is limited by my screen. Nvidia has a way to stream at 120 fps but your screen needs to support it. Right now that is a downside given that the only laptops which have such support tend to be gaming laptops, and they are often very expensive in the first place (nullifying the need of the service). However, you can still use this on a basic home PC with just an integrated GPU and a cheap CPU with a simple 144 Hz monitor which you can get for under $200 these days. It’s also very possible that we could get cheaper laptops with 120-144 Hz monitors down the line.

    As stated above, the hardcore gamers will never be satisfied with this, but for most casual gamers out there and even moderately serious ones, I see no reason why this wouldn’t be attractive. Pricing is null right now, but most discussion have ranged in the $10-20 range. If we assume the upper bound and include access to games in the price down the line (just like Netflix), then it would be very attractive for vast swaths of gamers. Especially those like me, who only game occasionally and who don’t have the time to be super serious. Another benefit is that hacking will be much harder to do, especially in online games, where it can be a real plague on PC in certain titles.

    There are still a lot of kinks to iron out. Internet is hardly 50 mbit/s or above in most places (though 5G buildout will certainly help that as data capacity increases). In some countries, data caps can get in the way, though not in Poland and many European countries. Exactly how the distribution of games will be structured is to be established. All the business models are still early-stage. This is why it’s still a beta and why Google is just now dipping their toes. But this is coming. The experience was definitely good enough for most gamers and it is an economical solution, too. I can just buy the latest Metro game when its out on Steam and then stream it for free – as of now – on my crappy laptop at good quality settings on 60 fps instead of splurging on expensive hardware. Even at at temporary cost of $10 or $20 per month, it would be a good deal. You don’t have to lock yourself in for years. What’s not to like?

  11. Talha says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    every single country in Latin America should be reduced to protectorate status.

    We basically tried this (variations on the Monroe Doctrine) and it didn’t work out…now they come to the US and go out with Swedish guys named Thor… :)

    Peace.

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
  12. Seems favourable views of the USA actually increases by a significant amount (usually double-digits) as one gets down the age group.

  13. Anonymous[392] • Disclaimer says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    Tough talk. Who’s going to enforce that “protectorate” status?

    Certainly not white people.

  14. The only thing I would be worried about Russia adopting the social credit system is Russia ending up adopting maozuo. This, coupled with wanting China to be the superpower, would really seal the deal for Russia as a junior partner/satellite state of China and at the same time jeopardize Russian development; the consequences of which I’ve warned probably for the 10th time here.

    Because of that, I actually predict another Sino-Russian split to occur sometime during the late 2020s, especially since Russia is going along the nationalist+SWPL path while China is reverting to purer maozuo, in both its domestic and foreign policy.

    I think China will get more and more maozuo until it becomes an actual maozuo society except with consumerism, some capitalism and freedom of travel, and foreign brands, especially coupled with the upcoming credit bubble + US trade war. This will mean some form of stagnation for most of the 2020s. What happens after Xi will determine not only China’s fate, but the fate of the 21st century for a while.

    Likewise, how Russia handles post-Putin will also highly influence the 21st century.

    • Replies: @Anonymous
    , @Daniel Chieh
  15. Anonymous[276] • Disclaimer says:
    @AquariusAnon

    The US-Russia-China alignment is a function of relative power. If the US wanes and China continues to wax in power, then there will be a realignment pitting Russia closer to the US to balance China. If the US remains preeminent, Russia will remain closer to China.

    This simple model presupposes that all 3 states are fully independent powers. The wildcard is that post-Putin, there will be an internal revolution of sorts and the successors of Putin will be nationalists, liberals, and SWPLs, who will seek economic and security integration with the US and NATO. Brzezinski describes a similar scenario at the end of The Grand Chessboard, whereby the Russian Federation develops into a looser confederation of a European Russia west of the Urals, a Siberian Republic, Far Eastern Republic, etc., with Russia being absorbed by the West. In this case, the US attains global hegemony and we reach the End of History.

  16. @AquariusAnon

    The maozuo are a dying breed. They’ll be gone soon. China’s becoming something, but faithful leftism it isn’t.

    • Replies: @AquariusAnon
  17. U.S. would destroy banned Russian warheads if necessary: NATO envoy. Apparently a misquote.

    The old hag wasn’t misquoted. It was an actual gaffe. She really thought that Russia is like Syria or something, and US can get away with bombing facilities here. A glimpse into Western Establishment mindset and how they view Russia.

    Reposting this from another thread: Russian LNG sales to European Union topped sales from the US so far in 2018.

    • Replies: @Niccolo Salo
  18. @Anonymous

    Reaching the End of History is not possible at this point. The US has already hit a high point and well onto its path of decline. I give it 2 decades tops and the US will be a great power one-by-one closing down its foreign military bases, ending the vassalage status of its current “allies”, and perhaps we’ll even see the “localization” of foreign branches of US companies. This will be similar to the fall of the British Empire, but even then, America will still be influential, just not throwing its weight around anymore.

    I can see nationalists and SWPLs alike get alarmed, for different reasons, once China’s influence in Russia really gets felt on the ground level that affects the everyday life of Russians: For example, some combination of the following:

    - Finding themselves working at Chinese companies with Chinese coworkers and bosses.
    - Overwhelming tide of Chinese tourists reaching Thailand levels of societal disruption.
    - Finding “military cooperation” leading to quasi PLA bases on Russian soil in all but name.
    - Adopting Chinese maozuo totalitarian system of govt, such as the social credit system.

    This can spur a strategic alliance between nationalists and SWPLs, and effectively creating a Russia that will end up allying with whoever is anti-China, even if Russia itself doesn’t become explicitly anti-China.

    However, what I just listed is assuming that China continues with its hamfisted domestic/foreign policy, which is a possibility but not 100%.

    I still think that while being a Maozuo vassal is the most blackpilled scenario, the likeliest scenario for Russia is probably what its existence was in the 19th century. Not exactly the most developed country in the world, but very influential with a functional economy steady climbing up to current day Southern European levels, geopolitically independent avoiding being a vassal, fully European and Moscow to attract a large Western Europe white expat population.

    On the eternal Ukrainian situation, I’d say eventually stuff will settle at current UK/Irish relations levels, with LDNR similar to Northern Ireland: Under de facto Russian control but with minor but occasionally fatally violent constant skirmishes between svidomists and loyalists for decades to come. Again, this is assuming the post-Soviet elite of Russia reverts to the nationalist-SWPL divide that it always was in the Tsarist days, which Russia is indeed looking to trend that way.

  19. @Daniel Chieh

    I’m not exactly talking about actual faithful leftism when I mean maozuo, I’m talking about the mixture of a really un-subtle atheist technocratic dictatorship domestically with un-subtle, in-your-face ways of throwing its weight around internationally.

    And regarding leftism, I’m sure a huge chunk of the rural migrant workers in urban China, and also factory workers, would be potentially on-board. They look, act, and feel out of place in the tier 1 and the more prosperous tier-2/3 cities in China, which are essentially first world, yet they are the ones working 14 hours a day doing the manual labor, while the city-dwellers themselves working mostly cushy office jobs. Likewise, a lot of the white collar natives of the city resent the masses of rural migrant. This situation is pretty acute and obvious in Shanghai. Not sure about other Chinese cities though.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
  20. neutral says:

    Clearly Japan is the most cucked nation on the planet. Remember that Japan fought BOTH China and USA (but China did not firebomb Japan though), so one cannot put this down to past nationalist resentments. Some of the more polite alt light types mention how Japan resists immigration, I have always said this was nonsense, the recent news out of Japan is that the door to mass immigration is opening, being such loyal puppets to the hard left regime of the USA means it can only end that way.

    Also notable is how Poland is close to Japan, by being such a loyal ar$e lickers Poland has pretty much written its suicide note.

  21. g2k says:

    Chinese style social credit seems like an unpleasant countermeasure, at least in Russia and China’s case, against the phenomena of high iq, successful individuals trnding to favor neoliberalism.txt and atlanticism over their own societies. Is there any way of stopping that without using such intrusive, objectionable means?

  22. Nznz says: • Website

    What is wrong with the social credit system unless it falls into the wrong hands and gets hijacked by the liberals, isn’t censorship like nuclear weapons, in that it is useful as long as it is used carefully and it remains under your hands? Maybe the sexual revolution and post 50s degeneracy would not have happened if the US had a social credit system in place.

  23. @Polish Perspective

    I was thinking of buying a new gaming rig in half a years time (handing siwn my current one to a relative). That ideas just been canceled.

    Thanks for the savings!

  24. @Matra

    I predict China will also be a bad hegemon. So no need to give fucks or rats’ asses.

  25. @Polish Perspective

    OTOH, this also means hardcore gamers will be the last bastion of resistance to GloboHomoBezosization of the entire world!

  26. Question – what about mod support? I find some games (e.g. almost any Bethesda blockbuster) basically unplayable without being souped up by a ton of mods.

  27. @Anonymous

    who will seek economic and security integration with the US and NATO

    LOL. LMAO. ROFL. Top kek.

  28. @Thorfinnsson

    “Latin Americans have a strong streak of anti-Americanism. They in fact refuse to even call us Americans and refer to us as “United Staters”.

    One of my reasons that I despise them and why every single country in Latin America should be reduced to protectorate status.

    Anatoly, who is this faggot?

  29. @Felix Keverich

    One must remember that “Based Trump’s” attacks on the EU are in large part to push US corporations onto Europeans (such as in energy deals, particularly LNG but other sectors as well) who are already suffering by way of US sanctions directed against Russia and Iran that harm European companies as US companies have zero exposure.

    • Agree: Spisarevski
    • Replies: @Mitleser
    , @Felix Keverich
  30. DFH says:

    Britain’s leading Muslim organisation has launched a scheme to train women for leadership positions in mosques and community bodies.

    Twenty women have embarked on the six-month intensive programme run by the Muslim Council of Britain, aimed at equipping them for leadership positions. As well as one-to-one mentoring, the women will visit “best-practice mosques” and be given media and public speaking training.

    The MCB said: “This lack of diversity is unacceptable and it is essential for the management boards of mosques and third sector organisations in general to reflect the communities that they serve in order to function effectively.”

    Thoughts, Talha?

    • Replies: @Hyperborean
    , @Talha
  31. Mitleser says:
    @Niccolo Salo

    And yet majorities in many European countries want America to remain the world’s leading power.
    So stupid.
    At least an American president pushing US corporations onto Europeans is something that can be respected because it is job to make America wealthier and more powerful.

    • Replies: @Niccolo Salo
  32. Hillarious stuff from the Ukraine: there has been no hot water in Kiev’s apartments for more than 6 months! Hohols pray for hot water.

    AP, if you’re out there, this is your turn to tell us that the Ukraine is really “doing well”.

  33. @Niccolo Salo

    It doesn’t seem to be working, at least with regards to LNG.

  34. @Mitleser

    “At least an American president pushing US corporations onto Europeans is something that can be respected because it is job to make America wealthier and more powerful.”

    Yes, because in an era of unrivalled US power Americans are wealthier than ever (never mind that wages flatlined almost half a century ago) and US corporations aren’t engaged in social engineering that benefits only the few.

    We should all be thrilled as fuck that US corporations are working hand in glove to influence foreign elections “because it makes Americans wealthier and more powerful”.

    https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-elections/facebook-expands-fake-election-news-fight-but-falsehoods-still-rampant-idUKKCN1LZ2XY

    • Replies: @Mitleser
  35. Sean says:
    @Polish Perspective

    The country wins. Like the electric railways in Argentina

  36. Sean says:

    The switch of Oceania’s allegiance from Eastasia to Eurasia and the subsequent rewriting of history (“Oceania was at war with Eastasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia).

    Yes it has, although it did not realise it until someone with Trump’s ability to cut though the bulll came along. Korea, Vietnam, and the war for wealth.

    It has been East Asia all along.

  37. @Felix Keverich

    AP, if you’re out there, this is your turn to tell us that the Ukraine is really “doing well”.

    AP is a third-generation immigrant who wouldn’t set foot in that shithole even if you paid him.

    Professional tip: the only people who view Ukraine positively are doing so because they hate Russia and they think this is a way to stick it to Russia. That’s literally the only reason why ‘Ukraine’ exists.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
  38. Mitleser says:
    @Niccolo Salo

    Don’t hate the Americans.
    Hate their collaborateurs in Europe.

    Fortunately, Based Trump makes it harder for them to defend their transatlanticism.

    • Replies: @Niccolo Salo
  39. Epigon says:
    @Felix Keverich

    asking folks to come to Ukraine’s holiest site, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra,

    This actually warrants a bullet.

    There is no difference between Ottomans occupying Hagia Sophia and Ukrainians occupying churches and monasteries built by Russians, Russian Orthodox Church, Russian Emperors and funds, donations from across the Russian Empire.

    Do they teach those episodes during their lectures on Russian occupation and imperialism?

    • Replies: @AP
  40. @Polish Perspective

    They are going bankrupt (unless acquired).

    Not prior to the Q3 earnings call however.

    • Replies: @Sean
  41. AfD has become the most popular party in f.GDR, and second after CDU nationwide. Ossies Are East Europeans.

    So yes, I’m pretty skeptical of the Jaymannian notion that there are deep-grained HBD differences that massively predispose East Germans to far right politics.

    I dont know. Maybe there is something to the HBD theory of political differences in Germany.

    Compare this:

    To this:

    • Replies: @Epigon
    , @Niccolo Salo
  42. @Talha

    Worked out fine in the heyday of “Dollar Diplomacy”. The policy was voluntarily abandoned by the criminal Roosevelt Administration in favor of the “Good Neighbor Policy”. FDR for instance refused to apply much pressure to Mexico in response to their expropriation of foreign oil interests because he considered it more important to get Mexico to…denounce Germany.

    US foreign policy from FDR onwards has been a never ending disaster of sacrificing American economic interests for alleged “security” interests. Trump has finally started to change this, but I’m skeptical of how far this will go. At least he did actually revise NAFTA, something both Obama and Hillary promised they would do in 2008 debates but they were simply lying through their teeth (surprise).

    • Replies: @LondonBob
  43. Epigon says:
    @Frederic Bastiat

    Drang nach Osten was a thing, yes. Since Charlemagne, Limes Sorabicus and wars against Wends=Vandals.
    East Bavaria, lowland Austria and everything across Elbe was inhabited by Slavs. Jomsvikings – Slavic. Fearsome Danes who terrorised England and Francia got their lands repeatedly ravaged by Slavic pirates and raiders.

    But no need to go that far. German assimilation of Pommeranians, Silesians, Sorbians (Serby) is plain obvious as late as 19th century, just by looking at surnames and toponyms.

    • Replies: @Niccolo Salo
  44. LondonBob says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    Trump is accelerating de-dollarisation and helping run up unsustainable deficits, ably assisted by Congress. If the US adopted more of a Swiss non-interventionist posture then I would think the USD could maintain its reserve status almost indefinitely, especially as the rule of law is far more established in the US than it is in China. I actually think Trump knows this but the neocon borg is pushing him in to dumb stuff.

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
  45. @Niccolo Salo

    He’s a cool dude. Watch and learn.

  46. Sean says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    Maximizing shareholder value has gone too far. Telsa going bankrupt will not happen, it would cause a crisis of confidence in the system’s ability to create and innovate.

  47. Mr. Hack says:
    @anonymous coward

    Professional tip: the only people who view Ukraine positively are doing so because they hate Russia and they think this is a way to stick it to Russia. That’s literally the only reason why â€Ukraine’ exists.

    Your dislike of AP is ruining your ability to think coherently. AP is on record stating that he greatly admires Russian culture (especially its literature and music), thinks that Moscow is the greatest city in the world (has lived there for several years), has by all accounts a great marriage being married to a Russian woman. The fact that he successfully refutes so much of what you post here is no reason to write such dribble about Ukraine.

    • Replies: @anonymous coward
  48. Mr. Hack says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    Costa Rica is already a US protectorate (de jure). Lovely country and the ‘Ticos’ are a lovely people. Why all of the angst all of the time Herr Thor?…

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
  49. @Mitleser

    “Don’t hate the Americans.
    Hate their collaborateurs in Europe.”

    The USA continues to occupy European soil by way of NATO. Without this occupation these collaborators wouldn’t be able to exist as for one, the CIA’s dominance of German mainstream media would collapse, and it’s already hanging by a thread thanks to Merkel’s catastrophic blunder.

    “Fortunately, Based Trump makes it harder for them to defend their transatlanticism.”

    We saw this before when Dubya was in power and you’d read all the same thinkpieces that are out there now: “Europe needs to chart its own path in a world with a unilateral USA”. They’re simply waiting him out.

    In the meantime the USA continually increases sanctions on Russia and Iran, damaging European business interests, and are now working to create a new trading bloc between North America and the EU to ‘counter China and Russia’. The USA is feeling its strength and is rushing as quickly as possible to make the EU a non-voting state of the United States of America.

    • Replies: @DFH
    , @German_reader
  50. @Frederic Bastiat

    Instead of deferring to HBD (most of whose proponents are retards when they try to apply it to politics and history) why not use Occam’s Razor and note that this was the former DDR, hermetically sealed off from two generations of western liberalism?

  51. @Epigon

    There were Wends still quite distinct near Hamburg as late as the second half of the 18th century. Chemnitz, which is the most recent focal point of the demonstrations, was the centre of the Sorbs.

  52. DFH says:
    @Niccolo Salo

    The USA continues to occupy European soil by way of NATO. Without this occupation these collaborators wouldn’t be able to exist as for one, the CIA’s dominance of German mainstream media would collapse, and it’s already hanging by a thread thanks to Merkel’s catastrophic blunder.

    Where is the evidence that European domestic elites would be any different in their degree of poz without the political influence of the US? It’s not like non-NATO Sweden or Ireland are dramatically different. Only concrete incident I can think of is the US telling the West German government to admit Turkish Gastarbeiter for strategic reasons.

    • Replies: @Niccolo Salo
  53. Talha says:
    @DFH

    This is fine actually – I have been in plenty of mosques where there are women’s committees or sisters that sit on the board of directors. Not a big deal and should be encouraged since the voice and concerns of half the community should be heard. In fact, in Britain the situation is horrible at some mosques – women get terrible facilities and terrible accommodations, and have no way to voice concerns. Not right to treat the mothers of the believers in that manner.

    I am not keen on letting women run the show though nor on women imams* (unless in women-only institutions or prayer halls) then that’s fine. My mother (God bless her) is very much against women getting too high on the totem pole in mosque leadership since they tend toward taking things in a liberal direction – this is a source of tension between her and one of my female cousins who has been trying to run for mosque leadership (I believe president) in their locale.

    Peace.

    *For the record, there is nothing prohibiting a woman leading prayer (except in the school I follow), if men pray behind her it’s actually their prayer that gets invalidated.

  54. @DFH

    “Where is the evidence that European domestic elites would be any different in their degree of poz without the political influence of the US? It’s not like non-NATO Sweden or Ireland are dramatically different. Only concrete incident I can think of is the US telling the West German government to admit Turkish Gastarbeiter for strategic reasons.”

    1. The former communist bloc, in particular the V4, which, having taken a look at western liberal democracy by way of a brief flirtation with it, is more and more rejecting what is on offer. This is in large part due to it having planted less roots in these countries.

    2. The CIA’s domination of German media. Axel Springer Media Group, Germany’s largest, has Atlanticism written into its corporate charter. Add this total domination of German media by pro-US types combined with the “De-Nazification” efforts conducted in that country by the occupation regime and it’s not difficult to understand why Atlanticism has had such a powerful grasp on the politics of that country on one side of the political spectrum during the Cold War, and then both after that. But even despite all those efforts Germans are breaking their programming as best exemplifed by the Intel Chief’s rejection of German media reports which reported “far right gangs targeting migrants for beatings in Chemnitz’.

    Social media plays a significant role here as a way around the Atlanticism that has a stranglehold on much of Europe’s established media which is why the USA bent Zuckerberg over a barrel this past year and has extracted from him use of his company (as well as Google and Twitter and others) to ‘fact check’ media around the world, particularly Europe, to allow the USA to meddle in them thus ensuring continued US hegemony.

    • Replies: @Frederic Bastiat
  55. @Mr. Hack

    It’s a common phenomenon. E.g., notice how the nuttiest sinophobes are usually those who have Chinese relatives or have to deal with Chinese business and culture regularly.

    • Replies: @AP
  56. @Niccolo Salo

    I agree with you, European nationalists need to recognize that the US isn’t a friend, and more importantly, that Trump and many of his voters with their braindead jingoism aren’t good for genuine European interests either.
    Unfortunately I still see a lot of blind America-worship even in somewhat “alternative” right-wing circles in Germany, often also connected to fervent support for Israel. The mental conditioning goes very deep and won’t be easily reversed.
    And the Americans of course are already cultivating future collabos, e.g. Trump’s homo ambassador to Germany Grenell (former aide to John Bolton) is very friendly with the CDU’s chief homo Jens Spahn, whom some people even view as a possible successor to Merkel.

    • Replies: @iffen
  57. @LondonBob

    De-Dollarisation will be a positive for American agriculture and industry as it will increase our price competitiveness. The reserve status is much less of a benefit than people think.

    US current account deficit peaked as a share of GDP in the Bush era, and Trump is the first President since Reagan to actually try to do something about it.

    CPI is at 2.7% and 10 year yield at 3.2%. Not exactly suggestive of “unsustainable” fiscal deficits (which people have been crowing about my entire life), though certainly it is imprudent to run such a large fiscal deficit this late in an expansion.

  58. iffen says:
    @German_reader

    with their braindead jingoism

    Ouch!

    • Replies: @German_reader
  59. @Mr. Hack

    Costa Rica is indeed a nice country, at least by Latin American standards.

    I’ll give you a recent example–the NAFTA renegotiation.

    This did indeed improve the terms of the agreement to our benefit (subject to ratification by Congress).

    But why were there any negotiations at all?

    Given the difference in power between America and our neighbors, there is no reason to negotiate whatsoever. The only option available for Canada and Mexico should be submission.

    The US uses its overwhelming power all the time for “security” objectives like keeping Syria from reconquering Idlib.

    Who gives a shit who controls Idlib? It’s completely irrelevant to us. Meanwhile our actual neighbors have laws which keep our trade goods out. Why is Canada allowed to protect its dairy market from American competition? It makes no sense whatsoever. Canada should simply be told that unless it ceases protecting its dairy sector that in 48 hours Ottawa and Toronto will be reduced to rubble and “freedom fighters” will appear in Quebec.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
  60. @iffen

    It’s true for a lot of Trump adherents, sorry (at least judging from what they write on Twitter and similar sites). Many seem to be basically unreconstructed Bush II supporters who have learned very little. If Trump does something truly idiotic like starting a war with Iran, I’m convinced many of them will support it.

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
    , @iffen
  61. @German_reader

    It will split us.

    https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/10/03/bolton-world-court-allowed-iran-forum-propaganda/

    Note the first comment on this article:

    Make my day • 19 hours ago
    Beware the Iron Mustache, he likes invading Country’s that have not attacked America. He is a globalist RINO

  62. From the UK Telegraph, young lawyer Brett Kavanaugh portrayed as Deep State psychopath, involved in the 1990s in terrorising witnessness and helping the USA FBI suppress and distort evidence, on the violent gunshot death of Hillary Clinton law partner Vince Foster, dodgily portrayed as ‘suicide’ … Scary stuff

    ‘My sinister battle with Brett Kavanaugh over the truth’, by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

    • Replies: @for-the-record
  63. Mr. Hack says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    You would risk such aggressive behavior over cow’s milk? It would be better to establish US plants in Costa Rica and produce a healthier substitute for cow’s milk out of the great abundance of coconuts that lie on the country’s beaches, unused. Higher in calcium and tastes better too (at least the silk brand). It’s a good thing that you’re not heading to Washington anytime soon. :-)

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
  64. Mr. Hack says:

    Don’t make me laugh regarding your summation of Russian input into Ukraine! :-)

    Don’t mix-up the old Ukrainian ethnonym ‘Ruthenian’ for ‘Russian’ you dolt!

    • Replies: @anonymous coward
  65. @Niccolo Salo

    2. The CIA’s domination of German media. [...]

    I dont think the CIA needs to be directly involved in this. The economic interests (access to US markets, the dollar trade, and maybe also savings in military expenditures thanks to NATO, among others) of the transatlanticist faction in Germany is incentive enough to pull the strings for a pro-transatlanticist media coverage. I would not call it pro-US per se either. My impression is that German (and generally European) powers are more aligned with the interests behind the liberal spectrum of US politics. But if vital interests are concerned, like energy security, the majority of them seems to be willing to stand their ground, as can be seen with Nord Stream II.

  66. iffen says:
    @German_reader

    Two considerations are the severity of the threat that Russia poses to the US and whether that threat is greatly enhanced by the US withdrawing from NATO and Europe.

    If our security is not greatly endangered by leaving Europe then I am in favor of leaving. If Europeans don’t consider Russia or any other country enough of a security threat that requires them to maintain an adequate defense then I am not going to worry about it for them (you).

    RE: Iran and collective security agreements.

    “In for a penny, in for a pound.”

    • Replies: @German_reader
  67. @Mr. Hack

    Huh? This is about where Canadians source their dairy, not whether or not coconut is a good substitute for dairy.

    Let’s say Canada had a protected coconut sector instead (no doubt a Canadian coconut sector would need a great deal of protection). There would be no reason to permit that either.

    Likewise, why is Canada even allowed to manufacture cars? The GM Oshawa assembly plants should be in Michigan.

    What exactly is the risk here? What’s Canada going to do about it?

    The basic point is that American power should be used to advance American interests…rather than Israeli and Saudi ones.

    I don’t drink milk but I do consume butter, cream, and cheese.

    • Replies: @Talha
    , @Mr. Hack
  68. @Mr. Hack

    There’s no such thing as an ‘old Ukrainian ethnonym’. The Ukrainian identity was invented post-1917, there is literally nothing in the world that is ‘old Ukrainian’.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
  69. Pericles says:
    @Polish Perspective

    50 Mbps is at least 10x the bandwidth of a normal Netflix stream, so we might hear renewed cries for net neutrality (“someone else please pay!”).

    I wonder to what extent games can be multiplexed onto a cloud computer somewhere. Only running one game per machine still results in some savings (since it can be used 24×7 rather than just the paltry hours of a weak human), but clearly one would prefer to do more. The savings might not be great if you the player are basically renting by the hour a GPU-equipped dedicated server with a high-bandwidth connection somewhere in the world.

  70. @iffen

    Two considerations are the severity of the threat that Russia poses to the US and whether that threat

    I don’t see how Russia could be a serious, let alone existential threat to the US (apart from their nuclear weapons in the event of a war…but that should mean one shouldn’t escalate tensions over not very important countries like Syria)…what they’re going to do to you? Hack your elections?
    Of course the Europeans ought to spend more for their defense, to ensure credible deterrence against Russia.

  71. Talha says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    The basic point is that American power should be used to advance American interests…rather than Israeli and Saudi ones.

    I agree here, but which “American” interests exactly? For instance, think about the fact that Saudi spends almost as much on her military as Russia – pretty darn incredible. Most of that goes to US MIC that sells them some older equipment and what not.

    Now that’s a hell of a lot of money. It may not benefit you or me at the end (probably goes against the long term interests of the average American honestly), but it is surely lining up the pockets of certain arms manufacturers.

    So, I’m always begging the question when I see the term “American interests”…

    Peace.

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
    , @Mitleser
  72. Mr. Hack says:
    @anonymous coward

    Your views are tainted with Russian chauvinism:

    Ukrainian peasants still referred to their country as Ukraine (a name associated with the Zaporizhian Sich, with the Hetmanate and with their struggle against Poles, Russians, Turks and Crimean Tatars) and to themselves and their language as Ruthenians/Ruthenian.[54][55][need quotation to verify] With the publication of Ivan Kotliarevsky’s Eneyida (Aeneid) in 1798, which established the modern Ukrainian language, and with the subsequent Romantic revival of national traditions and culture, the ethnonym Ukrainians and the notion of a Ukrainian language came into more prominence at the beginning of the 19th century and gradually replaced the words “Rusyns” and “Ruthenian(s)”. In areas outside the control of the Russian/Soviet state until the mid-20th century (Western Ukraine), Ukrainians were known by their pre-existing names for much longer.[53][54][55][57] The appellation Ukrainians initially came into common usage in Central Ukraine[58][59] and did not take hold in Galicia and Bukovyna until the latter part of the 19th century, in Transcarpathia until the 1930s, and in the Prešov Region until the late 1940s.[60][61][62]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainians

    • Replies: @anonymous coward
    , @Epigon
  73. @Talha

    I’ve defined an obvious one–export markets.

    Prior to FDR, American foreign policy in fact did explicitly seek to open export markets.

    US defense spending is higher than needed (especially if you consider what we get for it) but at 3.5% of GDP is not really breaking the bank. It also probably has a re-distributive benefit to white, prole Americans.

  74. Mitleser says:
    @Talha

    It may not benefit you or me at the end (probably goes against the long term interests of the average American honestly)

    • Replies: @Talha
    , @LondonBob
  75. @Brabantian

    Scary stuff

    Pretty amazing article.

  76. Education spending is far more harmful and unproductive than defense spending.

    Foreign aid is a bottomless pit and directly harms our current account balance.

    Infrastructure investment is needed but is always vulnerable to white elephant misdirection.

  77. Talha says:
    @Mitleser

    Very interesting, thanks! It is hopeful that some at the Pentagon are at least thinking of other options.

    Peace.

  78. Mr. Hack says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    The basic point is that American power should be used to advance American interests…

    Of course, and it’s in Canada’s best interests to advance Canada’s interests. And a good old fashioned trade war between two countries can be mediated without one country going to war to annex the other, don’t you think?

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
  79. LondonBob says:
    @Mitleser

    A global US is for Israel’s benefit, it does not matter what the Pentagon think and they have not got their way so far.

  80. @Mr. Hack

    I’m opposed to Canada’s existence, so I would regard a US-Canadian war as favorable. Perhaps even ideal.

    • Replies: @Talha
    , @Mr. Hack
  81. @AquariusAnon

    That’s not maozuo, though. That’s the technocracy, in this case, increasingly literal with AI advisors and behavior prediction algorithms. In a fashion, rather transhumanistic and cool. The maozuo are the ones that have ideas like “children are the property of the state” and “Mao did nothing wrong ever except he didn’t kill enough capitalists”, which pretty much has been purged or kicked into the boonies by the Party these days. Some live in academia, always an asylum for crazies.

    And regarding leftism, I’m sure a huge chunk of the rural migrant workers in urban China, and also factory workers, would be potentially on-board.

    Fortunately, not a democracy. And yes, a real problem. But they’re nowhere educated enough to embrace the more interesting and more crazy maozuo notions. Fairly easily appeased by baiju and other cheap distraction mechanisms at the moment, anyway, though that’s obviously not a long time solution.

    That will probably be the work of generations. I don’t think there’s any other realistic modern-day solution except technocracy in that case.

    • Replies: @AquariusAnon
  82. Mr. Hack says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    Grow a little mustache, add some long frontal bangs to your hairdoo, and start preaching about America’s need to keep its markets open and don’t forget about America’s need for

    Liebenstraum!

    • Replies: @Hyperborean
  83. @Mr. Hack

    Grow a little mustache, add some long frontal bangs to your hairdoo, and start preaching about America’s need to keep its markets open and don’t forget about America’s need for

    Liebenstraum!

    America needs liebestraum? I thought the whole country was based on love dreams!?

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
  84. Mr. Hack says:
    @Hyperborean

    Hey, don’t ask me…it’s Thorfinnsson who’s advocating a US/Canadian anschluss. He’s already living the American dream (love dreams) from his personal accounts, I was just offering him the standard line that’s been used in the past to fuel such auspicious plans. :-)

  85. I stole it from a Steve Sailer thread, but it’s probably interesting for people around here, too.

    Based Israeli Jew Martin van Creveld on the solution (spoiler: it’s White Sharia) to the #metoo crisis:

    As “me too” has shown all too clearly, women are either too weak to resist men or else too stupid to understand what has been done to them until decades and decades after the event. Or both. To help these miserable creatures to cope, I propose the following measures:

    1. Lest they be harassed, which might result in deep psychological trauma and disable them for life, women should be prohibited from leaving the home.* This system was often used in Islamic and Hindu societies; today the Taliban provide a good example of how to do it. If walls are not enough, how about chains? And, to prevent them from doing what Ms. Ford did, perhaps muzzles—of the kind already worn by some Arab women—as well.

    2. If they leave the home nevertheless, and to prevent them from being stared at (which might also result in deep psychological trauma and disable them for life), women should wear a full niqab with just a slit for the eyes. Again, watch the Taliban.

    3. Unless they are close relatives: husband, wives, mothers, fathers, mothers, brothers, sons, daughters, women and men should be prohibited from being together in the same room, car, and other secluded places. As is already the case among some orthodox Jews. Even so, to be on the safe side, they should always be chaperoned. Including at least one camera and one sound recorder in every bedroom and under every mattress.

    4. Women should be prohibited from using the same public facilities and sidewalks as men. To see how it is done, you’re welcome to visit Jerusalem and some other Israeli cities.

    5. Co-education should be prohibited, as in fact it used to be in most countries during most of human history.

    6. Male physicians should be prohibited from treating female patients, and the other way around. Ditto psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, etc.

    7. Male teachers should be prohibited from teaching female students, and the other way around. Ditto coaches, baby sitters, and the like.

    8. Lest they will be distracted, men and women should be prohibited from worshipping together. This has long been the case in Islamic countries and also among Jews.

    9. Lest they visit places where they may be harassed, women should be forbidden to drive, as was the case until recently in Saudi Arabia.

    10. Lest bosses or colleagues or handsome and virile subordinates try to make a pass at them, women should be prohibited from working outside the home.

    11. Lest their sensitive souls be hurt, women should be prohibited from attending certain kinds of shows, reading certain kinds of literature, watching certain kinds of movies, etc. To make sure the ban is observed, it should be extended to men as well. In the end, all people of both sexes will be allowed to see will be Bambi.

    12. To make all these prohibitions stick, there is no alternative but to deprive women of the right to vote. If that means, as it probably does, that men too will lose the vote and the bells will ring the death of democracy, then perhaps that is a price worth paying.

    LOL

    https://www.martin-van-creveld.com/some-solutions/

    • Replies: @German_reader
    , @Talha
  86. @reiner Tor

    Others have similar proposals (and are more serious about it):

    Anyway, it’s hard not to get the impression that large parts of Western societies have gone collectively insane.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
  87. Talha says:
    @reiner Tor

    Israeli Jew Martin van Creveld

    The man might be an Israeli, but he is probably one of the most knowledgeable men on the planet with regards to military history and strategy. Much respect to his expertise in that field of knowledge.

    Peace.

    • Replies: @iffen
    , @utu
  88. Dmitry says:
    @German_reader

    How is it any improvement though?

    It’s a result of some childish perspectival shift, where because journalists and newspapers in America talk about how terrible sexual harassment is for a year or two – then suddenly it seems an important issue to some gullible people.

    In reality, sexual harrassment and assault, probably actual level now is lower than in any time of history. And this, in the countries which allows people more, not less, freedom to manage themselves.

    While in societies where there is less responsibility given to people (such as religious ones), there is far higher levels of sexual harrassment, exploitation and assault, and even “immorality” (“immorality” in religious sense will be often be higher in those societies, than in developed countries).

  89. @Dmitry

    it seems an important issue

    It’s important enough to break careers of several important men. And it’s growing in its importance.

    Otherwise, it wouldn’t be an important issue.

  90. @Dmitry

    Sure, I agree with all of your points. But unfortunately that isn’t the point of view dominating Western media.

  91. iffen says:
    @Talha

    Israeli Jew Martin van Creveld

    The man might be an Israeli, but he is probably one of the most knowledgeable men on the planet with regards to military history and strategy.

    He’s definitely a credit to his race.

  92. Foreign bagholders BTFO once again

    China going to zero

    Eurobaggies going nowhere

    #MAGA

    • Replies: @Anonymous
  93. AP says:
    @Epigon

    There is no difference between Ottomans occupying Hagia Sophia and Ukrainians occupying churches and monasteries built by Russians, Russian Orthodox Church, Russian Emperors and funds

    Most of the Pecherska Lavra was built before the Russians came, including by Mazepa, who was anti-Russian.

    • Replies: @anonymous coward
  94. AP says:
    @anonymous coward

    Provide one example of something I have written that disparaged Russian culture or Russian people.

    And if you confuse Sovok for Russian, you are the Russophobe.

  95. AP says:
    @Felix Keverich

    It’s about 30% of residential buildings in Kiev, none of my relatives had this problem so I didn’t hear about it until you brought it up.

    https://112.international/article/kyiv-with-no-hot-water-who-is-responsible-and-how-to-cope-with-bathing-29324.html

    At least this time you merely exaggerate, rather than post fairytales. You are making progress.

    From RT:

    https://www.rt.com/news/russia-city-utilities-hot-water-indoor-plumbing-251/

    One-fifth of Russian city apartments have no hot water, one-tenth no plumbing or heating

    Is Russia “doing well?”

    BTW did you know that even in Moscow having no hot water for a few weeks in summer is normal?

    • Replies: @Felix Keverich
    , @Dmitry
  96. @Daniel Chieh

    Yeah it makes sense. But this is done at the expense of hurting traditional Chinese culture domestically, its image abroad, and also eliminated a Chechen-style solution for the Uyghurs and Tibets. If anything, Chechnya showed us that the Deng Xiaoping One Country Two Systems model actually does work if implemented properly.

    Its failing in Hong Kong not because of 1C2S, but because of an inept, incompetent govt that’s trained by the Brits to only follow directions. So here’s the problem with Hong Kong:

    1. Technocratic dictatorship is unable to run a city-state that has established itself as a lasseiz faire entrepot. That model works for Mainland China itself, but definitely not Hong Kong. The current social environment in Hong Kong is a great example of this.

    2. The civil service themselves are extremely incompetent at running the show themselves. They only know how to follow directions.

    3. Buying off the tycoons to run the show, which was the initial Chinese plan, created a crony capitalist environment that’s unable to address the needs and grievances of the proles; and the tycoons smartly redirected that hatred onto the Mainland govt, and of course, an atheist technocracy knows no subtlety to deal with issues like that.

    Daniel, I wonder what are your thoughts on Hong Kong?

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
  97. @Felix Keverich

    Hillarious stuff from the Ukraine: there has been no hot water in Kiev’s apartments for more than 6 months! Hohols pray for hot water.

    Slight overstatement, but more true than not. A girl I was staying with back in July told me that hot water had been turned off in early May and would be turned on again in late September*. So four months. These things are something like a summer tradition by now, along with turned off streetlights.

    * I have a dim recollection of her saying that it involved 3,500 apartment buildings in Kiev this time around, but I might misremember.

    • Replies: @Felix Keverich
  98. @AP

    It’s about 30% of residential buildings in Kiev

    No biggie. Sounds like a fairly common situation. For an African country.

    BTW did you know that even in Moscow having no hot water for a few weeks in summer is normal?

    It’s 10 days. Not 6 months, dude! What is happening in the Ukraine?

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    , @AP
  99. @Swedish Family

    Personally, I enjoy taking showers, and being denied this, by my government, for months, would drive me to Maidan. So why are the locals tolerating this? Do they have no dignity left? Too dim and too downtrodden to rise up against their betters? – same reason niggers in Africa do not rise up.

    • Replies: @AP
  100. Anonymous[549] • Disclaimer says:
    @Niccolo Salo

    He is an edge lord who made a low quality post.

  101. @Niccolo Salo

    You should introduce him to Cornelio for maximum Med Mindset Acceleration.

  102. Dmitry says:
    @Felix Keverich

    I guess they’re surviving with the electric heater as backup ? – put that into a water container

  103. Dmitry says:
    @AP

    Russia “doing well?”

    Situation in Russia in all kinds of different areas, is not exactly “great”.

    But if there’s some kinds of unacceptable situations that people passively accept in Russia, then it’s usually the same happening, worse, in Ukraine.

  104. Anonymous[276] • Disclaimer says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    Isn’t asset price inflation bad for the real economy? Stock and real estate prices going up may be good for Wall St. and some boomers’ portfolios, but doesn’t it make the economy more expensive for everyone else? Fertility rates in the US are at historic lows. Asset price inflation seems to eat away at the seed corn of the economy.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/birth-rates-home-prices-value-increase-us-cities-2018-6

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
  105. @Anonymous

    You have to define asset price inflation. In this case stocks are tracking the growth in earnings and dividends quite well, so we’re not seeing a delusional expansion in valuations as was the case in the Dot Com bubble. Nor are there obvious areas where tons of investment is going into shit as was the case with the housing bubble.

    Birth rates are cratering globally and I agree that expensive real estate is not good. The US is actually a lot better in this department than many other countries, but there’s definitely a problem in prosperous coastal metropolitan areas. $3,000 a month to rent a prewar one bedroom apartment in a total shithole like San Francisco is obviously not good.

    Stocks being more expensive don’t make the economy more expensive at all for anyone other than investors.

    In any case we’re getting late in the economic cycle–all good times must come to an end. But it has been a nice ride since 2009.

    • Replies: @Anonymous
    , @Anonymous
  106. Anonymous[278] • Disclaimer says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    Ahhh a Wallstreet shill. Your mom must have filled your trust fund with a nice bit of stock.

    It doesn’t matter that the stock market is tracking earnings or dividends if the underlying economy is a bubble and will crash soon.

    Every investment will look like shit when the fundamentals of our economy crash. There is plenty of bad money right now such as Tesla, legacy retailers, healthcare, etc etc that will not survive the new reality.

    Of course our stock market makes everything more expensive for Americans. You are just too much of a dullard to see it. The Fed has artificially kept interest rates low just to support Walstreet which hurts the savings rate for every day Americans and contributes to the housing bubble.

    China’s economy is not as financialized as ours, so their stock market crashing will not hurt them as much as ours. Also, China blew a lot if money on things like infrastructure which was wasteful, but at least was better than blowing trillions in Afganistan.

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
  107. @Dmitry

    Unfortunately, there is no requirement for witchhunts to make sense.

  108. @AquariusAnon

    Eh. I don’t really see how the Chechen model is a good thing; basically bribing low-function militants not to kill you. The problem with feeding the tiger is that eventually the tiger gets hungrier.But more importantly, I’m not sure if appeasing world opinion is the most important thing: I get it has its value. But ultimately its less important than solving internal problems. Japan, an example that you’re fond of, puts a lot of effort into keeping up appearances and this has led them down blind alleys both economically and materially. The thing about playing the games by the rules other people have set is that they’re not usually honest brokers and I think the Chinese are rightfully suspicious.

    Sure, they could and should be more subtle and understanding about it. But at its heart, its the correct understanding of the world. The “rule-based order” is rules to affirm the status quo.

    As for Hong Kong’s population with “slave mentality” problems, well, not much to say about it. HK will gradually become irrelevant because many of the services and capabilities that were special to HK are becoming available elsewhere in China.

    Still isn’t making me like the firewall any better. Clumsy and dumb.

    • Replies: @AquariusAnon
  109. @Anonymous

    If you start following this blog and me regularly, you will discover that I am in fact a Tesla bear. I have a very large amount of money short on Tesla

    Instead of stating that the stock market being (allegedly) expensive makes things more expensive for Americans, why don’t you give an actual example?

    You sound like a doomerist loser, which I foolishly flirted with in the past decade.

    Do you have any money?

    • Replies: @Anonymous
  110. Anonymous[276] • Disclaimer says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    The US has been making up for low birth rates in large part through immigration, no?

    Stock and other financial asset price inflation does affect wealth distribution, no? Most Americans have missed the boat on the recent and ongoing bull market. Mainstream economics tends to downplay distribution effects, but it doesn’t seem implausible to me that this sort of wealth inequality distorts the real economy and corrupts investors and makes them lazy.

    https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/01/22/why-most-americans-missed-the-boat-on-the-bull-mar.aspx

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
  111. utu says:
    @Talha

    “We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force…. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under.“. – van Creveld in September 2003 interview in Elsevier, a Dutch weekly

    Very Israeli way of motivating Europeans to support Israel unconditionally.

    • Agree: Talha
    • Replies: @Talha
    , @Pericles
  112. NYT finally comments on just how dumb art has gotten thanks to social policing. But of course, it won’t stop.

    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/03/magazine/morality-social-justice-art-entertainment.html?

    A disagreement over one piece of culture points to where our discourse has arrived when it comes to talking about all culture — at a roiling impasse. The conversations are exasperated, the verdicts swift, conclusive and seemingly absolute. The goal is to protect and condemn work, not for its quality, per se, but for its values. Is this art or artist, this character, this joke bad for women, gays, trans people, nonwhites? Are the casts diverse enough? Is this museum show inclusive of enough different kinds of artists? Does the race of the curators correspond with the subject of the show or collection? Increasingly, these questions stand in for a discussion of the art itself.

    Of course, all of the correct ritual submission is made.

    As an artist, of course, the response I want to make to such self-appointed commissars is “fuck you and the horse you rode in on, oh, and your little dog too.” But in practice, it has to be “publish elsewhere other than the US with an assumed name.”

    • Replies: @anonymous
  113. AP says:
    @Felix Keverich

    It’s about 30% of residential buildings in Kiev

    No biggie. Sounds like a fairly common situation. For an African country.

    30% of Kiev doesn’t have hot water for 6 months.

    According to RT, a Russian news source, 20% of urban Russia overall doesn’t have hot water at all.

    A little better than “Africa?”

  114. AP says:
    @Felix Keverich

    Do the 20% of urban Russians who have no hot water at all rise up? Sure, it’s a;little better than 30% of Kiev, but Kiev’s problem is at least temporary.

    RT:

    https://www.rt.com/news/russia-city-utilities-hot-water-indoor-plumbing-251/

    One-fifth of Russian city apartments have no hot water, one-tenth no plumbing or heating

    • Replies: @Felix Keverich
    , @Gerard2
  115. Talha says:
    @utu

    Though I have to admit, many European countries are more nuanced about Israel than the US.
    and criticize them quite a bit.

    Peace.

  116. anonymous[190] • Disclaimer says:
    @Daniel Chieh

    stop larping as a chinaman

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
  117. Anonymous[392] • Disclaimer says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    I do follow Anatoly and I remember you are a Tesla bear, but that was not the point at all. And I did explain how the supporting the stock market hurts average Americans.

    In America the entire economy is positioned to defend the stock market. If the stock market is at risk of going down, we pour gasoline into our economy to prevent a crash. We do this by printing more money and keeping interest rates artificially low.

    This hurts the average American in a lot of ways. Low interests rates penalizes savers who otherwise could get a nice yield on just saving money in a bank. Now they have to sink money into the stock market casino which is a rigged game.

    The average American also is hurt because these low interest rates create asset bubbles like we currently have in the real estate market.

    Also, supporting the stock market artificially gives an advantage to big business because they can draw upon near limitless amounts of debt to undercut smaller businesses.

    Oh, and I have more money than you do!

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
  118. @Daniel Chieh

    The firewall is by far the single largest reason that puts a dent to the quality of life in China, now that pollution has largely been solved. The internet in China also for some reason significantly slows down during the night.

    Another problem with quality of life in China as I said, are the masses upon masses of rural migrant workers and visitors in the coastal tier 1 cities, which are very much first world. They are highly incongruent at best, and at worst give these first world cities an unnecessarily chaotic vibe. They contribute most of the crime, littering, and traffic accidents (although mostly as victims in the latter). The hukou system should be strengthened even more imo, with travel restrictions restored.

    I don’t see any city in the Mainland taking over Hong Kong’s functions, unless Shanghai somehow tears down the Great Firewall and has transparent rule of law; technocracy will eventually solve the latter question but not the former.

    And btw, comparing Ukraine to Africa is like those Taiwanese svidomists who think Mainland China has Venezuela crime rates and can’t even afford to eat tea eggs. That’s Rusdomy at this point.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
  119. China is definitely increasingly acting like the Global Times in terms of international relations. This doesn’t bode well for its friends, and gives more ammo to its foes. Attempting “peng ci” in Sweden or the reporting slapping the guy in the face in London, and then the embassies coming out to “defend” them by saying how “muh 1.4 billion Chinese feelings hurt” takes cringe to a whole new level.

    China should really focus on its branding, which right now is completely abysmal to the point of cringe and far from suitable for international consumption. Another example is the 100% Chinese advertisements during the world cup. Isn’t the world cup a chance to advertise your companies to the rest of the world?

    I’m not sure if China truly doesn’t understand how to win over foreigners, wants to go back to being a semi-hermit kingdom, or using in-your-face type of sharp power to become a malevolent superpower intentionally Duke of Qin-style.

    If the latter, Russia should form a formal alliance with Japan, which imo at this point should unilaterally kick out every single US soldier, terminate the US-Japanese alliance treaty, triple the military size and spending, build 100 nukes, extend its auto industry protectionism to all other industries related to technology, and remove all non-East Asian gasterbeiters.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
  120. @AquariusAnon

    If the latter, Russia should form a formal alliance with Japan, which imo at this point should unilaterally kick out every single US soldier, terminate the US-Japanese alliance treaty, triple the military size and spending, build 100 nukes, extend its auto industry protectionism to all other industries related to technology, and remove all non-East Asian gasterbeiters.

    And then pig-unicorns will fly across the sky upon a purple bridge of toothpaste! :D

  121. @Daniel Chieh

    Well given what your average Chinese person in America is like, an artsy, politically based Chinese guy with a white wife is very rare.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
  122. Mikhail says: • Website

    A reasoned Georgian, who is noticeably different from the JRL homepage promoted likes of Michael McFaul, Michael Morrell and Stephen Hadley:

    https://www.rt.com/shows/worlds-apart-oksana-boyko/439961-georgia-russia-geography-destiny/

    Among other things, some pointed shots at the Kiev regime.

  123. @Mr. Hack

    Your views are tainted with Russian chauvinism

    Lol. Okay. You can also call me a racist and a white male rape culture perpetrator too.

  124. Epigon says:
    @Mr. Hack

    and to themselves and their language as Ruthenians/Ruthenian.

    For the sake of argument, write this in original Old Ukrainian, both in Cyrillic and Latin script.
    It always amuses me to which lengths people go.

    For example, something translated as “Ruthenian Voivodeship?!” is actually in contemporary sources called: Palatinatus Russiae in Latin, WojewĂłdztwo Ruskie in Polish and Đ ŃŃьке воєводŃтво in “Ukrainian”.

    The Muscoy argument is ridiculous, because Shakespeare, Elizabeth I and other “Muscovy” contemporaries clearly call it – Russia.

    Seeing how Old Russian slowly becomes Old East Slavic, and how the nonsensical and ahistorical notion of “Kievan” ” Rus’ ” takes hold in Western historiography, it is only a matter of time before Kievians, Suzdalians, Novgorodians, Polotskians, Chernigovians spring into reality of Medieval Russian history.
    I really like the interpretation of “Kievan Rus’” history when Vladimir-Suzdal somehow conquered and sacked the capital, Kiev.

    Moreover, MaloRus and BelaRus are adaptations of Greek names by intellectual elite of these lands in Late Middle Ages. As a distinction, not some later “Russian Imperialism”. I guess Malopolska and Velikopolska were also some Polish imperialism schemes, LOL.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    , @AP
  125. @AP

    Most of the Pecherska Lavra was built before the Russians came

    Really? The Russians came to Kiev 882. When was the Lavra built?

    • Replies: @Epigon
    , @AP
  126. Epigon says:
    @anonymous coward

    The Russians came to Kiev 882.

    No, no. The Đ ŃŃŃŚ/Rusi/RhĂ´s came to Đ ŃŃŃкая земля/Đ ŃąĚŃŃŚŃкаѧ землѧ.
    None of that has anything to do with Russians/Rusi/Rossiya, who are descendants of TataroUgroFinnic Muscovite imposters ruled by fake, wrong Rurikids in Muscoy, falsely known as Russia

    Observe the clear difference:
    Russian Đ ŃŃŃŚ (RusĘą), Belarusian Đ ŃŃŃŚ (Rus’), Ukrainian Đ ŃŃŃŚ (Rus’)

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
  127. @AP

    RT article sounds like bullshit to me. Definitely uncommon in large cities. A situation like this in a major city would create international headlines: New York Times and Washington Post would be all over this!

    Not kidding, New York Times provides ongoing coverage of Moscow’s growing landfills!

    https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/world/europe/as-moscow-landfills-near-limits-recyclers-do-whatever-it-takes.html

    https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/22/movies/review-in-something-better-to-come-growing-up-in-a-garbage-dump.html

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/05/world/europe/russia-landfills-gases.html

    but Kiev’s problem is at least temporary.

    Do the locals all think that it’s temporary? Is that why they are not rebelling? They are hoping for this problem to just fix itself somehow?

    • Replies: @AP
  128. Mr. Hack says:
    @Epigon

    So why is Russian Đ ŃŃŃŚ (RusĘą), known as Russia (Đ ĐľŃŃия) today, and for several centuries known as the Grand Duchy of Mocow (Musocovy)? Why all of the name changes? It couldn’t possibly be that a new nationality was slowly forming in the north country?

  129. Mr. Hack says:
    @Epigon

    You appear as a well read person. Read James Halpern’s review of Hrushevsky History of Ukraine-Rus (I’d make some quotions, but it’s not possible):

    Winter 2000 – CIUS Press Winter 2000 – CIUS Press

    Halpern is bona-fide heavyweight historian and is no ‘Svidomite’.

  130. AP says:
    @anonymous coward

    Really? The Russians came to Kiev 882. When was the Lavra built?

    LOL, you think the Scandinavian raiders who sold Slavs as slaves to Arabs and who gave their name to those Slavs were Russians in the modern sense?

    • Replies: @anonymous coward
  131. AP says:
    @Felix Keverich

    RT article sounds like bullshit to me.

    So you accuse RT of engaging in anti-Russian propaganda?

    Definitely uncommon in large cities.

    Well yes, according to RT 20% of urban Russian apartments don’t have hot water. 80% do.

    Just as in Kiev, for 6 months 30% of apartments didn’t have hot water, but 70% do.

    A situation like this in a major city would create international headlines: New York Times and Washington Post would be all over this!

    Or they think that 20% is too low so they don’t mention it.

    Do the locals all think that it’s temporary? Is that why they are not rebelling?

    It’s only 30% of the city, presumably in the poorer districts rather than central ones.

    Also, hot water will be back by the end of the week:

    https://frontnews.eu/news/en/37824/Hot-water-in-Kiev-will-appear-before-the-end-of-this-week

  132. AP says:
    @Epigon

    “and to themselves and their language as Ruthenians/Ruthenian.”

    For the sake of argument, write this in original Old Ukrainian, both in Cyrillic and Latin script.

    It was common in the 18th and as early as the 17th century for playwrights in Ukraine to write humerous entracts (intermedia) or scenes between acts, in the local vernacular language (the main works were written in Latin or Polish).

    Here is simple, vernacular Little Russian from such a source, in 1619 (the play itself was in Polish):

    http://www.everyday.in.ua/?p=12327

    Климко: Đ©Đľ Ń‚Ń‹ Ń‚ŃŃ‚ŃŠ, побратиме, Ńобі порабляеŃŃŚ?
    Кажи мені, ŃŹĐş живеŃŃŚ, Ń‚Đ° якъ ŃŃŹ маеŃŃŚ?

    Стецько: ĐŻ Ń‚ŃŃ‚ не роблю ничого. ĐžŃŃŚ Đ¸Đ´Ń Đ´Đľ Đ´ĐľĐĽŃ Ńвого
    Та и Đ·ŃŠ тоіеми горŃками, якъ Đ·ŃŠ Ńвоими ŃŃŃідами.

    Original text, in Latin script:

    About 40 of these intermedia exist, mostly from the early 18th century. The playwright Mitrophan Dovhalevsky used to include them in his works.

    For example, something translated as “Ruthenian Voivodeship?!” is actually in contemporary sources called: Palatinatus Russiae in Latin, WojewĂłdztwo Ruskie in Polish and Đ ŃŃьке воєводŃтво in “Ukrainian”.

    Some people believe in magic dirt. Others believe in magic words. You think that because both Ukrainians and Russians got their names from the Scandinavian Rus who ruled them, that they must be the same people with the same language. It’s a magic word. You probably also think the Swiss Romansch, people of Rome, Rum Turks (Greek-speaking), and Romanians are the same people. You probably think that Filipinos are descended from the Spanish king after whom they are named.

    The Muscoy argument is ridiculous, because Shakespeare, Elizabeth I and other “Muscovy” contemporaries clearly call it – Russia.

    The Muscovy argument comes from Rus people who lived in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They considered themselves to be Rus but considered the people of Muscovy to be not-Rus. They called them Muscovites and placed them in the same category as other non-Rus Orthodox people such as Moldovans and Bulgarians. For example, the Volhynian Chronicles of the late 15th century described the wars between Commonwealth forces led by prince Ostrozsky against the Moscow tsar as a war of Rus warriors against Muscovites. Rus was never used to refer to the Muscovite prince or his state.

    The people of Russia, conversely, called themselves Rus people but called the Orthodox of the Commonwealth Lithuanians or Poles. Muscovite sources in the early 17th century refer to Muscovites as Russkie Liudi but to Rus from Lithuania or Poland as inozemtsi, Poles or Lithuanians. So the Karamzin chronographer refers to “Lithuanian foreigner Ivan Storovsky.”

    So both sides showed common sense and recognized that they were different peoples. You lack that common sense. You believe in magic names and fairytales.

    • Replies: @Mikhail
  133. @AP

    It’s only 30% of the city, presumably in the poorer districts rather than central ones.

    Does that make it ok? I still don’t understand why hot water is only provided for 6 months of the year? And it’s not just residential apartments, that are affected, but also “schools, hospitals, and kindergartens”. It’s a fucking Africa.

    • Replies: @AP
  134. @Anonymous

    Is there any particular reason wealth needs to be equally distributed?

    Americans could choose to not miss the boat by getting brokerage accounts and investing.

    But they don’t because most people are losers.

    • Replies: @Anonymous
  135. @AquariusAnon

    The internet in China also for some reason significantly slows down during the night.

    Typical totalitarian kakocracy.

    The hukou system should be strengthened even more imo, with travel restrictions restored.

    Social credit will do this, I think. This will have the upside of not excluding qualified people from the rural areas, some which I met.

    I don’t see any city in the Mainland taking over Hong Kong’s functions, unless Shanghai somehow tears down the Great Firewall and has transparent rule of law; technocracy will eventually solve the latter question but not the former.

    I think other cities in will eventually have special zones without firewalls. Who knows, maybe it’ll even be hooked into social credit.

  136. @Anonymous

    You’re overrating the power of the Fed. The market has a lot to say about interest rates.

    The average American does not save jack shit. I know because I employ proles. Every last Dollar is spent on frivolous consumption, and they’re all indebted so they can have more pickup trucks and trailers.

    Even if the average American did save, there is no law compelling you to put your money in savings accounts. You can buy stocks instead and enjoy a good return.

    Small businesses are losers.

    • Replies: @Anonymous
  137. @AP

    LOL, you think the Scandinavian raiders who sold Slavs as slaves to Arabs and who gave their name to those Slavs were Russians in the modern sense?

    I have no idea what you mean by “Russians in the modern sense” (Russians with tattoos and iphones, I guess?) but there is a clear, obvious and unbroken lineage from those guys in 882 to modern Moscow. It shows in language, custom, politics and even the name itself. There is no continuity between modern “Ukraine” and anything that existed before 1917.

    Also, they weren’t raiders and slavers, as evidenced by the mixing of language, names and blood lines between Scandinavians and Slavs of the time. (The mixing stopped after the two groups converted to Christianity and went their separate ways.)

    • Replies: @AP
  138. AP says:
    @Felix Keverich

    It’s only 30% of the city, presumably in the poorer districts rather than central ones.

    Does that make it ok? I still don’t understand why hot water is only provided for 6 months of the year?

    It happened this year, because the city didn’t pay the gas bill.

    The fact that 20% of Russian urban flats never have hot water, according to RT, seems to be a constant problem. Is is the fact the 10% of Russian urban flats don’t even have any plumbing.

    https://www.rt.com/news/russia-city-utilities-hot-water-indoor-plumbing-251/

    Image of Russian flat form RT:

    From article:

    Urban areas still have better amenities than the country as a whole. Russia’s Federal Statistics Service reported last year that more than a third of all Russians have no hot water and more than a fifth have no running water at all in their homes. The same study showed that less than 1 percent of all water flowing out of Russian taps and faucets complies with international safety standards.

    Russia is a fucking Africa?

    • Replies: @Felix Keverich
  139. AP says:
    @anonymous coward

    It shows in language

    Vikings spoke Slavic?

    There is no continuity between modern “Ukraine” and anything that existed before 1917.

    Because names are magic.

    Tell us how the Filipino people are the heirs of King Phillip of Spain. And about the ancient Romanian Emperor Augustus.

    Also, they weren’t raiders and slavers, as evidenced by the mixing of language, names and blood lines between Scandinavians and Slavs of the time.

    Well, since African Americans are 18% European and speak a European language, there must not have been raiding or slaving going on.

    • Replies: @Talha
  140. Talha says:
    @AP

    Found a good article for you guys on this explicating the “Normanist” and “Anti-Normanist” schools of thought (and their evidences) on the origins of the Rus people :

    https://www2.stetson.edu/~psteeves/classes/pritsak.html

    The subject is somewhat of interest to me due to the Abbasid Empire and its presence/influence along the Volga trade route.

    Peace.

    • Replies: @AP
  141. @AP

    It happened this year, because the city didn’t pay the gas bill.

    In other words it’s a government mismanagement issue. Maidanist regime is failing at providing basic public services in its capital city. So why do the people put up with this?

  142. Gerard2 says:
    @AP

    Do the 20% of urban Russians who have no hot water at all rise up? Sure, it’s a;little better than 30% of Kiev, but Kiev’s problem is at least temporary.

    RT:

    https://www.rt.com/news/russia-city-utilities-hot-water-indoor-plumbing-251/

    hahahahahahahahaahah!!!!

    getting eyestrain like the mentally retarded attention-whore c*nt that you are…….you trawled through for hours and hours to get an article from 5 YEARS AGO!!!
    That’s due to infrastructure replacement….not just lack of any money and incompetance as it is with the Kiev regime you thick POS….AND FOR 6 MONTHS!!

    [MORE]

    Any difficulty with hot water comes with the usual logistical hardships of having one of the least densely populated country in the world with by far the biggest area

    Kiev is the richest and most populated city in Ukraine you thick dipshit……..this is way beyond a catastrophe. 6 MONTHS! Approaching winter as well. If I recall from that same study in 2013 the best rated areas of hot water/energy supply were still in Moscow and Moscow region….here we are talking about a colossal amount of people ( 30% ) in Ukraine’s capital city and main place of business and biggest city. Beyond a parody…and in 2018

    Then there is not just the hot water problems in Ukraine….but gas supply problems, crime, health ( Mr Diphtheria and Mrs TB making strong comebacks along with measle, which this pitiful state has got 28000 out of 41000 new reigstered cases in Europe this year), much worse rubbish disposal problems than in Russia and million other areas of incompetence

    In Russia there would be millions dead you thick POS if there was this level of people without hot water ( number without gas supply was always greater) due to the extreme cold…even Moscow and Kazan will get colder than -20C at stages during the year…..Ukropia has not such excuses whatsoever

    The worst areas of water/energy supply are in Kavkaz area ( much gas is stolen so the official number is irrelevant) and in parts of Siberia

    but Kiev’s problem is at least temporary

    …hahahaha! An actual adult typed this retarded crap?

    Talking of comedy, and the retardness of comparing Russia and Ukraine….when the actual comparison should be of Ukraine with the likes of Nigeria and Angola and Namibia ( sadly Ukraine not anywhere near to Botswana of Kenya, nevermind South Africa levels)
    ….I can go from knowing Russia and Ukraine and from what I see there and who I know and what I know ….a sack of sh*t fantasist as yourself goes from a million hours on Wikipedia and some failed nutjob Banderatard blog in North America ….but to further proof your retardness anyway, I remeber the World Economic Forum releasing rankings of Competitive Index in 2012- both Russia and Ukraine about the 70th position mark

    ….Russia now 35th in the Index and coincidentally also in 35th place for Infrastructure ( a miracle with all the challenges in size, ethnic issues, weather and so on), at the same level of Norway

    Ukraine on the other hand has gone from about 70th position 6 years ago……to 81st. An utter shithole…with it literally not a joke that any non-completely shit mark or even good mark in the sea of atrocious scores……is entirely down to it’s great Soviet heritage you sick twat

    Even for a mentally sick attention-whore like yourself….this is a knew low when confronted with an indefensible as the hot water issue in Kiev

    • Replies: @AP
  143. AP says:
    @Talha

    Genetic research seems to confirm the Normanist theory.

    http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~mozhayski/genealogy/teksty/ydna.html

    Thanks to this, i.e. Rurikid project, we can now say that Rurik was a historical person who was born on the Roslagen seashore (slightly north of Stockholm, Sweden). However, he was of Finno-Ugrian descent (haplogroup N1c1 (earlier described as N3a)). Although all of well matching N1c1 Rurikid princes are descended from Yaroslav Mudry (978 – 1054), it seems that his ancestors including Rurik (b. ab. 820 – 876) himself, also belonged to this haplogroup. A group of Swedes, whose ancestors lived in or close to Uppsala, and whose genetic haplotypes are very close to these of the Rurikids, seems to be confirming the theory that Rurik, in fact, originated from Sweden.

    ::::::::::::::::::

    My paternal line (petty nobles descended from druzhyna) had a longstanding family legend of being of Scandinavian/Varangian origin. Despite being from Galicia, DNA relatives were clustered mostly in Pskov and Novgorod in Slavic lands, but also heavily in Sweden and Norway.

    • Replies: @Talha
    , @Mikhail
  144. Mitleser says:


    :D

  145. AP says:
    @Gerard2

    5 YEARS AGO!!!

    RT article stating that 20% of urban Russians have no hot water in their flats was from 2013.

    So Russia was Africa in 2013 but it is not Africa today, according to the logic of Felix Keverich.

    .you trawled through for hours and hours

    It showed up on the first page for the google search – hot water Russia apartments.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=russia+hot+water+apartments&oq=russia+hot+water+apartments&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60.4238j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

    For a normal person it takes 30 seconds. Maybe for you it would take hours and hours :-)

    In Russia there would be millions dead you thick POS if there was this level of people without hot water

    So millions of Russians were dying prior to the mid 20th century because they weren’t getting hot water inside their apartments?

    You are very funny when you are triggered.

  146. Pericles says:
    @utu

    The World’s Friendliest Rogue Nuclear Power.

  147. @AquariusAnon

    I have some Mongol blood, I guess.

  148. @AP

    I join Felix in considering those claims to be extremely dubious.

    So far as the people who work there are concerned, RT needs to hit KPIs more than it needs to promote Russia in a positive light. Clickbait is great for that.

    • Replies: @AP
    , @Anatoly Karlin
  149. Talha says:
    @AP

    Cool, thanks for that info! I figured we’d get a better idea on things as the genetic traces start to get analyzed.

    Peace.

  150. AP says:
    @Anatoly Karlin

    I’ve been careful to attribute this to RT.

    That having been said, the article tests attributes its clams to the Russian government itself:

    “Tens of millions of Russians living in urban areas are struggling with a lack of basic utilities – 1 in 5 city dwellings have no hot water, and 1 in 10 no indoor sanitation. More than 70 percent of the country’s utilities network is worn out.

    A comprehensive report by the Russian Union of Engineers (RUE) studied the 164 biggest cities in the country, and came to the conclusion that while new amenities are being introduced, old ones are not being replaced sufficiently quickly. The information was published on the same date as a separate report from the Emergencies Ministry, saying 60 percent of Russians are living at high personal risk, largely due to man-made factors.

    Poor housing utilities top the list of Russians’ concerns, ahead of inflation, low living standards and corruption, according to a national survey conducted last month, showing that 58 percent of all citizens were worried about the problem.

    The RUE findings showed that nearly a fifth of homes in cities have no hot water, and 12 percent no central heating – a necessity through Russia’s harsh winters. Nonetheless, the figures are still better than those from five years ago – albeit by no more than 2 percent.

    Urban areas still have better amenities than the country as a whole. Russia’s Federal Statistics Service reported last year that more than a third of all Russians have no hot water and more than a fifth have no running water at all in their homes. The same study showed that less than 1 percent of all water flowing out of Russian taps and faucets complies with international safety standards.”

    ::::::::::::

    It may indeed be a lot of exaggeration – people say they need things to be fixed so that fixing is approved and the people who complain pocket some of the funds to be used for fixing those things.

    But it’s a similar situation in Ukraine and how the situation there is presented by people like Felix. It’s funny how Russia’s own government propaganda source can be used to make the same case about Russia.

    Personally, none of the people I know in Moscow have trouble with hot water. Of course, none of the ones I know in Kiev have such trouble either.

    • Replies: @Anatoly Karlin
  151. Mikhail says: • Website
    @AP

    For example, the Volhynian Chronicles of the late 15th century described the wars between Commonwealth forces led by prince Ostrozsky against the Moscow tsar as a war of Rus warriors against Muscovites. Rus was never used to refer to the Muscovite prince or his state.

    The people of Russia, conversely, called themselves Rus people but called the Orthodox of the Commonwealth Lithuanians or Poles. Muscovite sources in the early 17th century refer to Muscovites as Russkie Liudi but to Rus from Lithuania or Poland as inozemtsi, Poles or Lithuanians. So the Karamzin chronographer refers to “Lithuanian foreigner Ivan Storovsky.”

    So both sides showed common sense and recognized that they were different peoples. You lack that common sense. You believe in magic names and fairytales.

    Still cranking the same BS. Certainly Oleg from Novgoord and Bogolyubsky from Kiev weren’t the only ones who traveled back and forth between the territories of modern day Ukraine and Russia. Fairy tales don’t successfully refute the reason why Rus history encompasses Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in a way that doesn’t apply to Poland and Lithuania.

    Ukrainian nationalists see the Cossacks as a kind of Ukrainian symbol. I’ve yet to come across a Catholic or Greek Catholic Cossack. Most of the Cossacks on the territory of the former Ukrainian SSR tend to be among the most pro-Russian of elements on that territory.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    , @AP
  152. Mikhail says: • Website
    @AP

    My paternal line (petty nobles descended from druzhyna) had a longstanding family legend of being of Scandinavian/Varangian origin. Despite being from Galicia, DNA relatives were clustered mostly in Pskov and Novgorod in Slavic lands, but also heavily in Sweden and Norway.

    Plays well into the numerous examples bonding many in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus – noting that Sweden and Norway don’t have near the same linguistic and religious characteristics evident in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus – to go along with the historical angle.

  153. @AP

    The USSR overbuilt housing in places such as the Far North and deep Siberia, which massively depopulated after its collapse.

    This created huge problems (see The Siberian Curse by Gaddy and Hill).

    I suspect this has a lot to do with it. Hard, very expensive to maintain services in a 20% occupied building in Verkhoyansk or whatever.

  154. @Mikhail

    I should do some research on my own at some point, but what is the genetic heritage of Cossacks? A lot of their fighting methodology was very Mongolian per Napoleonic reports.

    • Replies: @Mikhail
    , @AP
  155. Mikhail says: • Website
    @Daniel Chieh

    I should do some research on my own at some point, but what is the genetic heritage of Cossacks? A lot of their fighting methodology was very Mongolian per Napoleonic reports.

    Perhaps having to do with their reliance on horses and swords, relative to what some others were militarily doing (infantry marches with guns and cannons in the background).

    The Cossacks are somewhat analogous to the North American cowboys. Both groups don’t comprise an actual ethnic group. Most (not all) of the Cossacks appear to have Russian and/or Ukrainian roots.

    The Cossacks were freed serfs, who for the most part resided in rural areas, with an emphasis on rural life.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
  156. @Anatoly Karlin

    It should not be hard to provide hot water in Kiev though. The regime’s apparent inability to do so is positively African!

    • Replies: @Anatoly Karlin
  157. @Felix Keverich

    I agree with that, that is extreme.

    I recall there being a scandal in the late 1990s when there was no hot water for a couple of months or something in some major Ukrainian city like Dnepropetrovsk (I forget the details).

    Having a significant chunk of Kiev cut off for a longer period in the late 2010s would be a bigger scandal, one might think.

    • Replies: @AP
  158. Slavs Smart & Stronk! -

    An EU central bank is buying gold for the first time since 1998. Poland’s central bank added to its gold reserves in August, buying more than seven tons of gold, which followed its purchase of two tons in July.

    https://news.goldcore.com/us/gold-blog/poland-and-australia-buys-gold-as-global-property-bubble-bursts-this-weeks-golden-nuggets/

    The real ‘deep background’ of Brexit, is that the London banks are arranging to be out of the way when the euro currency & EU banks blow up, which may happen shortly

    Warsaw seems to see the handwriting on the wall, and is acting … following Russia’s lead in stockpiling gold, tho Poland wouldn’t want to admit it

    Gold is important post-crash, as the big big thing is that the world will of necessity re-set what is the prime global currency for settling international trade … World trade may once again be settled in gold as it was pre-1914, or possibly in the IMF’s SDRs (Special Drawing Rights) currency

    It is little known or appreciated, but the IMF already has ‘nuclear powers’ to simply print SDRs to bail out the global economy and banks in a crash

    The new trading currency regime will not be so much ‘political’ antipathy to the US dollar, as the fact that the old ‘system’ doesn’t work anymore, and it has become clear, as economist Robert Triffin pointed out half a century ago, having one nation’s currency as the ‘reserve / trading’ currency is inherently unstable … the Chinese yuan / renminbi wouldn’t work, aside from China actually having lots of bad debt etc problems as well … we already have a partly ‘multi-polar’ system with the euro, renminbi etc but it is all clumsy and still tied to the old framework … Jeffrey Snider of Alhambra, sage of the ‘eurodollar’, is the unsung smart guy on all this

    For the global economic re-set after the upcoming crash, the other major thing will be a lot of the world’s $250 trillion in debt being written off and vapourising (along with banks collapsing, savings disappearing, and asset values plunging)

    But no need to panic, we will all still be here muddling along, and still bitching about things on the interwebz (we hope)

  159. @Mikhail

    Thank you. Do you have any books to recommend?

    • Replies: @Mikhail
  160. Anonymous[276] • Disclaimer says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    I don’t believe wealth should be equally distributed. I think wealth concentration does affect the real economy though. Just as centrally planned command economies concentrate wealth and capital investment decision making (in the government), private sector wealth concentration probably does distort the real economy. We had a much healthier, dynamic, and innovative economy in the postwar period until the 70s when we had a broad middle class and less wealth concentration.

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
  161. @Anonymous

    Postwar economy was robust, but so was the pre-Depression economy which was as unequal as the economy today is. US economy also didn’t really deteriorate dramatically until this century–the same time China joined the WTO.

    Pareto Principle dictates that the norm is extreme inequality, which Picketty’s research also shows (going back seven centuries). Mid-20th century was a historical anomaly that is not likely to be repeated any time soon.

    • Replies: @Anonymous
    , @AquariusAnon
  162. Mikhail says: • Website
    @Daniel Chieh

    This is the only book exclusively on the Cossacks in my home library:

    https://www.google.com/search?q=philip+longworth+cossacks&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1

    As I offhand recall, it covers the basics well enough, with some quibble points.

  163. AP says:
    @Mikhail

    Ukrainian nationalists see the Cossacks as a kind of Ukrainian symbol. I’ve yet to come across a Catholic or Greek Catholic Cossack

    No, but one of the most famous Cossack leaders, who burned Moscow’s suburbs and impaled many of its inhabitants, was a Galician:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Konashevych-Sahaidachny

    This was from before Galicia had accepted Rome.

    The reason why Cossacks play a central role in Ukrainian mythology is because the first Ukrainian nationalists were from central and eastern Ukraine, and most of them were descendants of Cossack officers.

    Typical example, Panteleimon Kulish who helped standardize the modern Ukrainian literary language:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panteleimon_Kulish

    Gogol, Petliura, etc. all had a similar background.

    • Replies: @Mikhail
  164. AP says:
    @Anatoly Karlin

    Apparently it was some kind of conflict between municipal authorities and the gas company, with the former refusing to pay the bill so parts of he city were shut off. It’s supposed to be back at the end of this week.

  165. AP says:
    @Daniel Chieh

    Cossacks were a lifestyle, rather like “cowboys.” There were Ukrainian and Russian Cossacks.

  166. Mikhail says: • Website
    @AP

    With Gogol very much identifying with Russia (especially in his later years after having lived for a period in the West) while being against Poland, despite his having a Polish background.

    The chap you describe as one of the most famous of Russian Cossacks gets no mention in Subtelny’s 650 page book on Ukrainian history. Suspect the same in the aforementioned Longworth book.

    Meantime, it’s generally well accepted (Subtelny included) that Mazepa and Vyhovsky were defeated in large part because the people on the territory that they sought to represent didn’t welcome their (M & V’s) respective turn against Russia. For that matter, Petliura also had his popularity issues, thereby explaining his willingness to sell out all of Galicia in exchange for Polish support.

    • Replies: @AP
  167. Anonymous[276] • Disclaimer says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    The pre-Depression era peak, which was similar to today’s level, was in 1928, right before the crash and the Depression. I wouldn’t say it was robust. It wasn’t robust by definition, since it was quickly followed by the crash and the Depression.

    Wage stagnation and the decoupling of productivity growth from income growth goes back to the early 70s, long before China entry into the WTO.

    I don’t think the Pareto Principle and data going back seven centuries are relevant in today’s political and social context. You can’t win elections, maintain power, fend off revolutions, etc., by appealing to standards from the Middle Ages.

  168. AP says:
    @Mikhail

    The chap you describe as one of the most famous of Russian Cossacks gets no mention in Subtelny’s 650 page book on Ukrainian history

    You meant to say Ukrainian. There is a lot about him in Subtelny’s book. Page 115:

    https://books.google.com/books?id=l5uiWHgRphQC&pg=PA115&dq=sahaidachny+subtelny&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj2mP6eufDdAhVnTd8KHWqMC5AQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=sahaidachny%20subtelny&f=false

    Quote from Subtelny: “Historians generally agree that, prior to Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny was the most outstanding Cossack leader.”

    • Replies: @Mikhail
    , @Mikhail
  169. Mikhail says: • Website
    @AP

    Subtelny makes no mention of Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny in the index of his book – much unlike Vyhovsky, Mazepa, Khmelnytsky and the two famous Skoropadskys.

    I see the page 115 Subtelny reference to Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny. Longworth notes with details Sahaidachny’s role against the Turks, but says nothing of his opposition to Russia. Well aware that Cossack history includes some Cossacks who fought for Poland against Russia. In terms of evidence, there’s nothing valid suggesting that they ever reflected the majority of Cossacks on that score. As time passed, the Cossacks’ dissatisfaction with Poland and more favorable attitude towards Russia increased.

    Subtelny’s support for Sahaidachny is ironic. Sahaidachny is seen as pragmatic for recognizing Polish power and working with it. On the other hand, svidos demean Nevsky for recognizing the limits of his power base and the realistic need to accommodate the Mongols. At the same time, Nevsky made it a point to look out for the foolhardy Rus princes who would instigate an unwinnable fight with the Mongols. Nevsky’s brilliance was his balancing pragmatism, as his domain gradually gained strength to eventually become a major power as the strongest and most independent of post-Mongol subjugated Rus territory.

    • Replies: @AP
  170. Mikhail says: • Website
    @AP

    Quote from Subtelny: “Historians generally agree that, prior to Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny was the most outstanding Cossack leader.”

    Perhaps among Ukrainian Cossacks as opposed to Cossacks in general. It’s obvious why pro-Polish sources would especially feel that way. Subtelny leabns in that direction, as evidenced by a propaganda forum he participated in some years back – saying that Poland and Ukraine should be united against Russia. The very attitude that has greatly contributed to the current situation in the former Ukrainian SSR.

  171. Anonymous[392] • Disclaimer says:
    @Thorfinnsson

    The market and the fed are one in the same. The private sector would not be able to exist without controlling the fed directly.

    As far as savings rate goes, how is this a surprise when you penalize savings and force people to out their money in a rigged casino.

    The point being that people should not have to risk their money in the stock market when they could get a nice yield of 6% or so from their savings account. This was the case not too long ago.

  172. @Anatoly Karlin

    Of relevance: https://dailystormer.name/russia-cannibal-killing-proves-rt-needs-to-hire-me-as-propaganda-consultant/

    You gotta hand it to RT. This is the state-sponsored propaganda. And they take it upon themselves to fill the “Russia” section of their page with stories about cannibals and fires and horrific road accidents.

    Imagine Radio Free Europe putting up stories of drug-fueled trailer park stabbing sprees or Aztec gang ritual killings on its international coverage of America page.

    Solid, solid stuff guys.

    It’s almost like RT is taking the Stormer approach to clicks, trying to generate outrage and get people to ironically like Russia because it seems so crazy and 19th-century Lovecraftian horroresque.

    • Replies: @Mikhail
  173. Anyone know any interesting books about Germans in the Russian Empire or other parts of Eastern Europe?

    • Replies: @iffen
    , @Toronto Russian
  174. iffen says:
    @Hyperborean

    There are hundreds of books about Germans in the Russian Empire in the late 30′s and early 40′s.

    • LOL: reiner Tor
  175. @Hyperborean

    Anyone know any interesting books about Germans in the Russian Empire or other parts of Eastern Europe?

    If you want short funny stories, check Pushkin’s The Undertaker (about German craftsmen) and The Queen of Spades (a German officer). A novel – Oblomov by Goncharov. I don’t know about non-fiction, but there must be a lot of biographies. The names of notable Germans in Russian service are collected in this Livejournal post: https://reich-erwacht.livejournal.com/163680.html

  176. iffen says:

    Israel’s LGBTQ community fights back after Netanyahu reneges on a promise

    The more that I read about Israel, the more I search for a gg grandmother with a funny sounding name.

  177. AP says:
    @Mikhail

    Subtelny makes no mention of Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny in the index of his book

    Index page 724:

    https://books.google.com/books?id=l5uiWHgRphQC&pg=PA724&dq=subtelny+index+sahaidachny&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiAqtOapvLdAhVL7YMKHYr5Cz0Q6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=subtelny%20index%20sahaidachny&f=false

    Reading is hard for you?

    Longworth notes with details Sahaidachny’s role against the Turks, but says nothing of his opposition to Russia.

    In which case Longworth is a poor source. Although, you may have failed to read it as you failed to read the stuff in Subtelny.

    Sahaidachny and his troops treated the Muscovites with such brutality that he was rebuked by representatives of the Patriarch in Constantinople.

    Article about him:

    https://day.kyiv.ua/en/article/ukraina-incognita/person-who-changed-ukrainian-history

    • Replies: @Mikhail
  178. Article about the impact of Syrian refugees on Turkey’s demographics:

    https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/09/turkey-dramatic-demographic-changes-loom.html

    lol, almost makes me feel sorry for Turks. What a mess. And it’s largely due to Erdogan’s idiotic policies.

  179. Mikhail says: • Website
    @AP

    Reading for comprehension isn’t a weak point for me. Making inaccurate wise ass remarks is your strong suit.

    Subtelny’s 1988 edition goes up to page 666, with no mention of Sahaidachny in the index – just like I said. The 1988 page 115 edition does note what you quoted.

    Based on what I seem to recall, I can see why some commemoration of him in (if I’m not mistaken) Crimea was appropriately transferred elsewhere – outside of Russia, upon Crimea’s reunification with Russia.

    My point concerning the degree of overall Cossack support for Poland against Russia hasn’t been refuted. Poles had a minority of “registered Cossacks” among those under Polish subjugation.

    The Day interprets history with a good deal of anti-Russian BS.

  180. Mikhail says: • Website
    @Anatoly Karlin

    They’ve hired some good people like Nebojsa Malic, whose head and mind are in the right place.

    Jim Dore is an improvement over the late Ed Shultz, who went from liberal critic of Putin at MSNBC, to being Putin friendly upon Shultz’s getting hired by RT. (At last notice, RT has used Dore on a part time basis.)

    As is true of some other networks, RT seems to have a bit of a mannequin factor concerning some of its hires.

    Especially by the standards of today’s 24/7 TV news networks, the RT half hour one on one hosted shows of Sophie Shevardnadze and Oksana Boyko are top shelf.

    Regarding some other aspects of RT:

    https://www.eurasiareview.com/29122014-with-room-for-improvement-rt-gives-time-to-diverse-views-analysis/

    For the purpose of providing constructively critical pro-Russian sources, it’s inappropriately counter-productive to seek unpaid analytical input to such well deserving folks, while having paid tens of thousands to Liz Wahl among some others.

  181. India is eyeing the Russian T-14 Armata platform to replace its aging fleet of T-72 battle tanks.

    https://globaldefencewatch.com/is-india-eyeing-the-t-14-armata-main-battle-tank/

  182. @Thorfinnsson

    I’d say that the US starting the trade war, and China making it 100 times worse than it should’ve been, is a sign that the next economic crash is coming soon.

    China is gonna have its inevitable credit bubble burst, that will temporarily dash all hope of Karlin’s Sinotriumph; the technocratic kakocracy will get even more heavy handed.

    The US will also have an economic crash so big that will be the real, tangible beginning of the downgrade of America from superpower to Great Power, on top of being on the dangerous brink of civil war domestically.

    The 2020s will be a relatively dark decade for sure. This system is definitely unsustainable. The policy towards Russia is a failure that’s just digging the hole deeper, no need to repeat the woes of the EU here, and the fact that guys have to resort to game to get laid, is a sign of a reset coming soon.

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