My very busy period has mostly come to an end so I should have more material soon.
One of the best blogs on the Ukraine a few years ago was The Austere Insomniac (even if at least one commenter here will beg to differ). Good news! It’s been resurrected: https://insomniacresurrected.com/
Featured
- Bolsonaro is now 90% likely to become Brazil Prez according to latest PredictIt numbers.
* Brian Winter: Who is Mr. Bolsonaro? (h/t Polish Perspective)
- Glenn Greenwald: The Stunning Rise of Brazil’s Far Right and What It Shows About Western Democracies. As in the West, it is centrist collapse that has opened up space for the far right.
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India buys 5 S-400 systems from Russia. US threatens sanctions.
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New IPCC report: World heading for 3C of warming. All the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth… but 3C is pretty much the sweet spot for maximizing the planet’s primary productivity.
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Rod Dreher: Prelude To A New Civil War?
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Psychology Today: “She has her fox’s laugh“. Commenter AP suggests that domesticated Russian foxes should get the same protections that dogs do.
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Bloomberg: Massive Chinese hack of US tech using compromised chips. But what about muh Russian hackers?
* The ADL has finally noticed Ron Unz’s American Pravda.
Russia
- Leonid Bershidsky: 38D Chess? Russia’s clumsy Brit-baiting might be clever plan to cajole Russians to repatriate their offshore money. In that sense, GRU incompetence may not mean that much.
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First victim of British laws on confiscating dodgy wealth? An Azeri woman who spent $20 million at Harrods, who just happens to be the wife of an Azeri banker who fell out with the West-friendly Aliyev regime. It pays to be cynical about these things. The Tories are far too invested in London’s high end real estate market to jeopardize their global clients, however much Putin wants to cajole them into it.
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Emigre Russian tycoon flees MI6 death squads back to Russia.
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Ajay Goyal: Is Moscow the best major city in Europe? This Indian expat thinks yes. (Goyal is an Indian who is well-known in Moscow expat circles).
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WSJ: Melting ice is opening up the Arctic Ocean to shipping. But lack of infrastructure impedes full exploitation. Tropical Hyperborea slightly delayed.
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New KIIS poll: Ukrainian approval of Russia reaches 48%, the highest it has been since 2014 (disapproval: 32%), though far lower than the 80%+ before that. Russian approval of the Ukraine remains at 33%.
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NORTHERN GABON. Measles rages in the Ukraine (33,000 infected this year). But not a problem in Russia or Belorussia. What’s the matter with these Ukrainians?
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Huge ammo dump exploded in the Ukraine. Ukrs predictably blame their God (Putin)… but it’s basically a yearly occurrence in the Ukraine (and in Russia until several years ago). Smoking, drinking, and gunpowder don’t mix well.
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Israel Shamir’s pretty weak defense of Bolshevism. Today’s article on that subject from Mark Weber is stronger.
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Vzglyad: Kiev preparing to topple Alexander Suvorov monument [in Russian]. As I said, these people don’t stop at Lenin monuments. That is why I always say that svidomy is a subset of sovok. Bolshevism in a vyshyvanka.
Geopolitics
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Outgoing warhawk US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley is a “moderate”… according to the NYT
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QZ: British wargaming cyberattacks to black out Moscow if Russia attacks Estonia or “takes control of Libya’s oil reserves”… okay, first one is logical enough, but the second – hilarious thing is, both the US and Russia support the same guy in Libya.
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BLAST FROM THE PAST. So about Jamal Khashoggi… CNN last year: Saudi Arabia’s MBS got classified US info on disloyal royals from Kushner, boasted Trump’s son-in-law was “in his pocket”. I’m sure he’s safe.
World
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Guillaume Durocher: Victory, Italian-Style. This “red-brown” alliance is surprisingly successful… alt left answers for economy, alt right handles foreign policy, the globalists get stumped.
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Marine Le Pen and Caesar Salvini distance themselves from Sloppy Steve.
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Steve Sailer: Nationalism isn’t taboo in Israel, so it’s drawing some of the best thinkers
* Turkish demographer predicts Turkey will have 6 million Syrians by next decade (7.5%+ of the population) (h/t German_reader)
- Greece wants $280 billion in gibsmedats WW2 reparations from Germany.
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PEW: American confidence in Pope Francis plummeting amidst pedophilia scandals
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Audacious Epigone: Support for affirmative action by race
Politics
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Facebook and Twitter have recently deplatformed hundreds of political pages.
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On that note, New Samizdat looks like an interesting project (looks like a sort of Drudge Report for alt media), even if it is funded by RT. Powerful Deus Ex vibes.
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Politico: Trump is literally triggering libs into insanity lol.
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1,015 new cases of female genital mutilation against children in England in last 3 months (!!)
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Greek City Times: Huge Christian cross on Greek coast built to commemorate drowned refugees torn down so as not to offend (presumably surviving) non-Christian refugees
Science & Culture
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Marginal Revolution: Improving But Not Learning by Doing. Technological improvements can happen without increased understanding – “theory” sometimes even slows progress down.
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Boston Dynamic’s Atlas robot does parkour:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LikxFZZO2sk
- Emil Kirkegaard: On the East Asian > White advantage on scholastic tests
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OWN GOAL. Toby Young: “This article in the @guardian correctly points out that polygenic risk scores for medical problems are based on genomic data compiled from predominantly European-descended populations. That means you cannot use these data to calculate polygenic risk scores for medical problems for people of non-European descent and that, in turn, means the beneficiaries of the preventative medical interventions based on these scores will be of European descent. The article quotes a letter Professor David Curtis, a geneticist and psychiatrist at UCL, wrote to the leaders of the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust saying that “UK medical science stands at risk of being accused of being institutionally racist”. What Professor Curtis (and Hannah Devlin, the @Guardian’s science correspondent) neglect to mention is that one reason there isn’t more genomic data on non-European populations is that social science activists campaigned against amassing such data 20 years ago. See bottom of page 531 in this essay by Jeremy Freese.“
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Google shuts down Google+… I suppose the 200 people who use it will not be happy. (Unfortunately, that includes gwern).
Misc
- BBC: ‘Quantum physics really helped me understand my queer identity.’ This is what your TV loicence pays for.
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This new NPC meme is great.
If you don’t get this one, you can’t call yourself a Russia expert.
- Anton Shekhovtsov’s (expert on NEO-NAZISM and RUSSIAN ACTIVE MEASURES) powerful – as in Putler God of the Khokhols – take on Ukraine vs. Hungary conflict.
S-400 is just a small part of the India Russia arms relationship and the US knows it.
The fact is no other country will transfer India the sort of bleeding edge stuff that Russia does.
Nuclear Submarine tech.Russia actually leased a near state of the art Akula 2 N submarine(It is illegal to sell N Submarines) so that the Indian Navy could have first hand operational experience pending commissioning of its on N attack submarines(Almost certainly created with Russian technical hand holding).
Hypersonic Missiles. Brahmos 2 is basically a Indian built variant of the Zircon missile.A similar arrangement exists for Brahmos and Yakhont.
ICBMs(4th gen solid fuel tech),Cruise missiles(turbofan engine),Air to Air missiles(RF Seeker tech)etc are other examples of vast and deep technical cooperation between India and Russia.
Also the fact that the USSR has exercised its veto FIVE times(1948 Kashmir,1961 Goa,1971 War Twice in the UNSC in India’s favour often with the vast majority voting against India)
It is a mutually beneficial arrangement.We get state of the art tech and the Russian arms industry gets economies of scale and cold hard cash.
Since the US has a steller record of sabotaging advanced projects of its close allies IAI Lavi(Israel),Avro Arrow(Canada),TSR 2(Well the labor government did most of the wrecking but still..),MBB Lampardyie(W Germany) it is best to avoid too much entanglement with them.
The Bloomberg hacking story is taken as dubious by security experts due to it having lots of problems:
https://blog.erratasec.com/2018/10/notes-on-bloomberg-supermicro-supply.html
Black support for Affirmative Action seems pretty overwhelming in real life:
https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?fips=26&year=2006&f=0&off=51&elect=0
Interesting AK link above, to the Bloomberg article about Russian exile Sergei Kapchuk, fearing for his life in Britain where he had asylum, moving quietly around Europe in dazed uncertainty, and then getting terrified in Croatia where his UK travel documents were seized because the UK had apparently revoked them
Calling Putin’s man Boris Titov for help, Kapchuk was then rescued by the Russian embassy from arrest in Croatia, Kapchuk agreeing to go back into mother Russia’s arms despite legal charges involving him there
From the Bloomberg article, about Titov, a good vignette about Putin’s Russia:
This leads to an intriguing area of political analysis
It is an under-appreciated aspect of Putin that he has in fact let huge numbers of people out of Russia’s prisons early, with numbers said to be in the hundreds of thousands
Whereas in the USA, e.g., heavy youthful pot smoker Barack Obama never thought of releasing the hundreds of thousands of weed tokers and sellers who languish in the USA’s 2.3 million prisoner gulag (about 25% of all people in jail in the entire world)
In surprisingly rough or even ‘barbaric’ countries, there is quite often an early release of jailed political figures or even extremist ‘terrorists’, sometimes by tinpot dictatorships who yet seek to get some good PR amidst their local rabble-rousers
It takes a real Chad to let bygones be bygones … and now after Donald Trump’s meeting with Kanye West, we have talk of Trump doing something radical re American prisons, per his dialogue with Kanye
Trump could go down in history like ‘Abraham Lincoln ending slavery in the USA’, if he let out of jail a couple of hundred thousand of the blacks and Mexicans in the slammer for non-violent offences … that people that fake progressive black guy Obama left to languish behind bars … would be a brilliant move to embarrass the hell out of the Antifa / SJW shriekers, it might even demolish them 4evah
As an American, I am appalled by the Ukrainian decision to tear down the Suvorov monument.
He is more than just a Russian hero – he is a hero for all of European Christian civilization, just like Charles Martel and John Sobieski.
you’d think so and on the face of it the most likely explanation is simply one faction of banksters taking out a rival but i wonder if it may be a sign the London banking mafia are ready to let UK house prices collapse.
(they needed to keep house prices up while the banks got rid of all their toxic debt from the 2008 crash and one part of that was turning a blind eye to crooks using the high end London property market to launder money).
one of the odd things about “Fight Club” when it came out was how there were all these bright white dudes working low wage jobs
and now c. 20 years later almost all the cultural creativity in the USA is concentrated in a few thousand alt-righters and i wouldn’t be surprised if half of them were working jobs like that (like #skyking)
Fight Club was prophecy.
Next US UN Ambassador
From the leading US foreign policy establishment realist venue:
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/race-replace-nikki-haley-33096?page=0%2C1
The above piece downplays Heather Nauert’s foreign policy shortcomings. Based on Trump’s disappointing performance (from the viewpoint agreeing with much of his foreign policy comments before he became president), don’t be surprised to see the establishment leaning Nauert get the position of US ambassador to the UN.
Rand Paul is the best suggestion in the above linked piece. The article ends with Trump saying that he’s looking at many competent folks to replace Nikki Haley at the UN. If so, there’s no excuse to not consider Jim Jatras and Tulsi Gabbard as previously recommended:
https://www.eurasiareview.com/12042017-latest-bump-in-us-russian-relations-analysis/
At issue is how the views of Paul, Jatras and Gabbard appear to differ a bit with the Trump administration likes of Mike Pompeo and John Bolton. Notwithstanding, it’s politically healthy for a US president to have diverse views within the administration.
An accurately frank overview of Nikki Haley:
http://theduran.com/all-hat-and-no-cattle-nikki-haley-set-to-cash-in-after-disastrous-u-n-stint-video/
Contrary to the above linked video, Ivanka Trump has been quoted as saying that she doesn’t want not to replace Haley as US UN ambassador. That spot has become a rhetorically provocative position, which might not be best suited for her. On the other hand, it could be an improvement to have someone who is perhaps not so ideologically misguided as the last two US UN ambassadors (Samantha Power and Haley). Then again, Ivanka Trump led the charge on the faulty claim that the Syrian government used chemical weapons.
Related:
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/07/29/an-unhealthy-trump-putin-summit-fallout.html
Excerpt –
Cohen & Mearsheimer Outnumbered
Re: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4ZUDja9SnI & https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/10/10/john-mearsheimer-stephen-cohen-take-delusional-neocon-neoliberal-establishment-vital-debate.html
In the above linked panel, Stephen Cohen and John Mearsheimer were outnumbered 3 to 2, in addition to the establishment leaning moderator. These bogus characterizations were presented without any counter:
Russian aggression in Crimea, Donbass, South Ossetia, Abkhazia
Russia poisoning people in the streets of the UK
Russia doesn’t have a monopoly on collateral damage. Many civilians have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of US military activity. Downplaying the likely greater evil of a rebel victory in Syria is a valid talking point that wasn’t addressed at the NYC Upper Westside event.
Crimea’s changed territorial status isn’t less valid than what has happened in Kosovo and northern Cyprus. The overwhelming majority of the Donbass rebels have roots on the territory of the former Ukrainian SSR – of that grouping, most of them are from Donbass. A good deal of the blame for the conflict in the former Ukrainian SSR can be attributed to the political establishments of some Western nations and their favorites in Ukraine.
The Ossetians and Abkhaz prefer Russia over Georgia – a point leading to the observation that Russia isn’t the heavy bad guy as depicted in neocon/neolib and flat out Russia hating circles.
To date, the poisoning of the Skripals remains sketchy. Someone lacking a formal background of such matter (Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat) has come up with evidence of a supposed Russian government act – something that the professional UK government involved investigators didn’t come up with.
Shortly after the coup against Yanukovych, a monument in Ukraine honoring Kutuzov was demolished. Kutuzov had a presence in Ukraine at a time when the ancestors of modern day Ukrainians were (in overall terms) supportive of Russia – whether in the Austrian Empire or Russian Empire.
There is nothing comparable to the S-400 from any other country to begin with, so it’s a very wise purchase for many nations.
Suppressing competition is only logical. What irritates me is that the US has rarely thought to suppress competition in civilian products.
The Avro Arrow was as much sabotaged by the bitter enmity between Western and Eastern Canada as by American pressure.
Moscow sounds like it would be a great place to visit.
I kind of like the idea of Ivanka as UN Ambassador as it gets her out of the White House, and the UN is a total joke (and founded on completely disgusting principles) anyway so why not nominate a joke candidate?
No on Ivanka. I don’t care if it is a joke candidate. First of all we should not be encouraging nepotism or else we will get Jared Kushner as our president.
Second, Trump himself is not a real conservative. So what makes you think Ivanka is and she would not cuck out on SJW stuff. She already has adopted more time off for working women as her feminist issue.
It doesn’t matter how much Russian tech India acquires if its military will have Indians operating the weapon systems.
They are not much better than Saudis at war, and would most likely embarrass themselves if they tried to fight anyone other than Indian type races.
An Indian shop keeper makes no better a warrior than a Saudi date farmer.
What does NPC mean? I’ve seen it several times in the last couple days, but haven’t been able to figure it out.
Non-Player Character. When you play a role-playing video game, they’re the characters that serve no purpose but for you, the Player Character, to interact with. NPCs have no souls, no free will, do not really make a difference in the world, etc. unlike the Player Character.
Anyway. It does seem that Bolso’s popularity increases with the number of protests organized against him, both nationally and overseas. He must be enjoying all this.
points at what adreadline said
The British Indian Army confined its recruiting to certain Martial Races. The rest were rubbish. The Sikhs and the Nepalis were top of the list. Punjabis in general were OK as I recall. I thought this was still the case in the best regiments.
The dollar does seem overrated and has been for a long time. 20% of world GDP, as stated, 40% of world trade (my addition to the debate) and yet 60% of reserves. In terms of trade, the other reserve currencies are in order the Euro, about 40% (often ahead of the dollar – extra EU trade only), the GB Pound at just over 10% and the yen and now renimbi bringing up the rest. Russia used to keep a disproportianately large fraction in GB Pounds.
Government neglect of public vaccination that dates from before the Maidan and was exacerbated after. Dr Komarovskiy began to alarm the public about it in 2010 as per his article:
http://www.komarovskiy.net/blog/kor-uzhe-zdes-zhdem-difteriyu.html
Anti-vaxxer ideas flourished on this substrate, and even though there was no shortage of measles vaccine by 2017, many parents refuse it.
No wonder I didn’t get it. I generally like geeky stuff. Video games are an exception. I never did get video games. BTW, did you know that rhesus monkeys are better at math when they’re in a good mood. I found this article when I was doing a search on math and dopamine. I have a child who’s really into math, and we love doing problems together. (Hard ones, I mean.). We always end up giggling, and it occurred to me that solving challenging problems might trigger some sort of dopamine rush.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141205093831.htm
I didn’t find anything on point. Derb?
But I digress.
Got it. Thanks.
Here’s an excuse to not consider Tulsi Gabbard, her tweet from just 4 hours ago:
https://mobile.twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1051217437251825667?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Another example of the arms industry dictating US policy – Sec Pompeo more concerned with protecting $2B arms deal than the lives of tens of thousands of children/civilians killed in Yemen by the Saudi-US coalition.
Gabbard has got to be the freest spirit in American politics today, in stark contrast to Nikki Haley.
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/359986-tulsi-gabbard-is-no-snowflake
In her twenties, Gabbard was a self-defined social conservative. She was anti-choice and anti-gay marriage……..Gabbard no longer holds those political positions, views that would be untenable in the Democratic Party today.
Not long after being elected to Congress, Gabbard took the opportunity to appear on Fox News and bash her fellow Hawaiian Barack Obama for failing to acknowledge that “Islamic extremists are our enemy.”
After the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, to the dismay of many Democrats, Gabbard took a very public meeting with the president elect at Trump Tower. According to accounts, Gabbard and Trump discussed foreign policy and the president elect’s strategy for taking on ISIS. Her willingness to meet with Trump irked many Democrats and exacerbated an already tense relationship between the Democratic Party and its “rising star.”
Not long after meeting with Trump, Gabbard traveled to Syria to meet with its brutal dictator. To many Democrats, myself included, this was a road too far……the congresswoman has said that her meeting with Assad was an attempt to bring democracy to Syria and end the conflict between the government and opposition forces. However, many Democrats and Republicans saw her trip to Syria as a horrific mistake that lent legitimacy to an illegitimate leader. But Gabbard refused to back down. When Assad was once again accused of using sarin gas on his own people, Gabbard was quick to jump to his defense and question the legitimacy of reports, a mind-boggling decision for someone who appears to want to climb the political ladder.
Gabbard has managed to put together a coalition that is unheard of for Democrats. Never before have we seen a Democrat who has managed to receive praise from Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon at the same time…….She finds solace in the company of both Democrats and Republicans. She is unafraid and undeterred by attacks from her critics and unbowed by external pressure from the media. In this toxic political climate, rife with blind allegiance, Gabbard has made it clear that she is indebted to no one and unwilling to be just another Democrat.
She has been accused of being islamophobic and a socialist in the same breath, something unheard of for a member of a party commonly referred to being full of “snowflakes” in conservative media. Tulsi Gabbard is no snowflake. She is an enigma wrapped in a conundrum and could potentially be the future of the Democratic Party. Get your popcorn ready because it is going to be a bumpy ride.
This means you are dealing with people whose whole life revolves around video games. Take it as a mark of quality or as a warning sign, as you wish.
Prelude to the last civil war was this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleeding_Kansas
Pitched battles, burning of towns, hundreds of dead. Not some broken stones and costumed clowns beating each other with sticks.
Currency reserves in billions. Total value not all are held in US dollars.
China $3,161.5
Japan $1,198.9
Switzerland $785.7
Taiwan $456.7
Hong Kong $437.5
India $397.2
Republic of Korea $385.3
Brazil $359.1
Russian Federation $356.5
Singapore $279.8
The United States had foreign currency reserves of $42.8 billion as of March 2018. The Euro Area had combined foreign currency reserves of $272.7 billion as of March 2018. The UK, which did not make the list, has $112.8 billion in foreign reserves as of March 2018.
In the old days your type of low IQ White was assigned the ‘cannon fodder’ role in various European armies.That arrangement along with the lack of a looser supporting welfare state and legislation like various bastardy laws had the important function of of keeping the European gene pool vital and ensuring unfortunate evolutionary dead ends with limited comprehension capabilities like you did not get to reproduce.
Alas its all over.UK which 100 years ago ruled 1/4 the world’s area and imposed its language and customs throughout the world can today not handle Paki immigrants misbehaving themselves and taking liberties with English white girls in its capital city!Infact they elected a Paki as Mayor of London.
It’d be an improvement for the US to have a coalition government, consisting of the likes of Rand Paul and Tulsi Gabbard in key positions.
Like I said, her drinking the kool aid on the Syrian government using chemical weapons is a turnoff.
Pretty much agree with the rest of your comments.
Perhaps one can trace Gabbard’s free, independent spirit to her highly unusual racial and religious mix: her father is a Samoan catholic, her mother a white American hindu. Gabbard chose her mother’s religion. Plus she is a veteran of the Iraq War.
Btw, it sure looks like this UN job has become reserved for women. The last 3 to hold that position were all women, and even the 2 acting ambassadors in between were women. And it is mostly women who are being mentioned as the next US Ambassador to the UN.
America has some interesting mixes:
In the US, know someone whose mother’s side is 100% Greek Sephardic (via Italy and before Spain), with a 50-50 Baltic German Ashkenazi Jewish and Russian Orthodox Christian blend on the father’s side. Has a constructively critical appreciation of varying views – something very much lacking in terms of what the global establishment props.
i haz ten rat tails what do i get?
Indeed. And it is an advantage.
Something more into your “moral decay and degeneracy/LGBTQ appreciation” files:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/institutionalizing-the-trans-revolution/
TL;DR: Thomas Donelly, a senior national security analyst with the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, announced his transition and is now Giselle Donelly, and there was much rejoicing all over Washington DC.
Thomas
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-10-13-at-8.09.17-AM-e1539436311780.png
Giselle
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-10-13-at-8.10.14-AM.png
Behold the miracle, Ernst Stavro Blofeld turned into elderly cat lady 😉
Yes it is but not for the reasons you stated.
The British East India Company army was overwhelmingly recruited from upper cast Hindus of North India.
Post 1857 mutiny recruitment was from regions/groups that did not mutiny.
The Sikhs,Punjabi’s,Maratha’s and Gurkha’s..
The stated goal of the 1857 mutiny was to restore Mughal rule which was anathema to these group who had spent the better part of 400 years fighting Muslim’s.
The martial race theory was politically convenient nonsense in the age of the gun and now assault rifle temperament and ability to follow complex instructions matter far more than brute strength which is why Muslim’s have never won a modern mechanized war against non Muslim’s not counting guerilla wars like Afghanistan and small skirmishes like Cyprus.
India has followed this British era recruitment policy to effectively make India military coup proof. Warrior castes from the north west including Sikhs make up 80%+ of the Indian army though they represent 3% of the Indian population so do not ethnically identify caste/region wise with the whole Indian population..but yes the north west warrior castes have near European levels of grip strength and a non vegetarian diet so they are physically the strongest Indians available.
Is there some sort of HBD underlying the martial races? Sikhs generally do seem larger than your average puny Indian.
That means the “upper caste Hindus” who mutinied against the British were collaborating with the Muslim Mughals before they began collaborating with the Christian British who replaced them as rulers of India. And after a while they decided that mughal rule had been better for them than british rule.
Correct?
Incorrect.
The mutiny as far as one can tell was a spontaneous rebellion against the EIC rapacious taxation and program of Christian evangelism.
It was always confined to the gangetic plains and had no support from South ,west or north west India.
It was not a failed war of independence as it is now retrospectively portrayed..it had no vision of a British free India like later genuinely nationalist independence movements nor a central coordinated leadership.
Since the “mutiny was to restore Mughal rule” does that not mean that it was to end British rule?
The secret sauce to the Dollar’s success isn’t world trade but rather American capital markets and assets.
Its role in world trade will decline over time.
I agree with Pompeo on this question.
$2bn in exports is more important than the lives of Yemenis.
The one thing I worry about is whether or not we provide services to the Saudis for free on behalf og their war.
It’s a joke job so why not give it to women? Who are no doubt dumb enough to take it seriously.
Five Star’s economic policies are nuts, hope Salvini keeps his distance and nullifies their crazy ideas.
That’s really cynical, one doesn’t even need to have a positive view of Yemenis to think that aiding in their intentional starvation is deeply immoral.
And there’s not even a good reason for it…it’s not like Saudi-Arabia is a genuine friend or ally.
One way or another, this will backfire horribly on the Western countries involved with Saudi-Arabia imo.
I agree, that stuff with basic unconditional income seems crazy given Italy’s debt.
The one thing I worry about is whether or not we provide services to the Saudis for free on behalf og their war.
The one thing I worry about is whether or not we provide services to the Saudis for free on behalf of zog in their war.
There.
Is there some sort of HBD underlying
What sort of fag reads this blog and fails to get an inkling of what HBD means? 🙂
That’s really cynical
Realistic if we accept that they are really fighting Iran.
But that doesn’t even seem to be the case, from what I’ve read Iranian involvement in Yemen is limited and not the primary reason for the conflict.
And the Saudis’ methods would be repellent in any case. There’s a new report by an American scholar that they’ve been intentionally targeting food supplies since 2016 (once they realized they wouldn’t get a quick and easy victory)…basically they want to create a famine.
Even if one accepts that one has to maintain good relations with Saudi-Arabia, there’s no good reason imo to support their Yemen war (which might in the end even increase the risk of the Saudi monarchy being overthrown anyway).
Also, I no longer view journalists as innocent truth seekers. They are combatants on one side or the other.
I have a highly negative view of journalists as well, in general it’s a dishonest profession much worse than prostitution imo. But I don’t see how that means Saudi-Arabia should be able to send its murder teams to other countries.
from what I’ve read Iranian involvement in Yemen is limited and not the primary reason for the conflict.
I will defer to you as I haven’t read very much at all on the subject. (Trying to get at the facts can just be too mentally exhausting sometimes.)
https://img1.southernliving.timeinc.net/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_etr_gallery_desktop_portrait/public/image/2016/09/main/pink-pig-nose-130897009_full.jpg?itok=3Ih3Gohr
This stuff isn’t original, lol. A sociopathic Harry Potter in Yudkowsky’s fanfic (isn’t he a leftist?) refers to other people as NPC.
While I think what Saudi has done (if true and there is little reason to doubt this is outside their operating procedures) is deplorable, I do not think this counts in this case. Embassies and consulates generally fall under special rules of exemption and are considered pseudo foreign territory within the nation they reside. Once you enter a Saudi consulate, it’s (to a degree) as if you walked into Saudi itself:
“U.S. embassies and consulates abroad, as well as foreign embassies and consulates in the United States, have a special status. While the host government is responsible for the security of U.S. diplomats and the area around an embassy, the embassy itself belongs to the country it represents. Representatives of the host country cannot enter an embassy without permission — even to put out a fire — and an attack on an embassy is considered an attack on the country it represents.”
https://www.state.gov/discoverdiplomacy/diplomacy101/places/170537.htm
Agree with you about Saudi vis-a-vis Yemen – it is horrific what they are doing to that country.
Peace.
Re. Unz vs ADL, I think people like Karlin are the most screwed.
It is unclear why Unz writes that crap, but even someone who accepts innate evilness of supremacist clans such as the Jews will have a hard time understanding a person who states “Jews pray to Satan daily”. I mean, who the hell cares about their prayers? They could have worshipped Clefairy, if only they could refrain from taking our money through subterfuge.
But now, anyone who reads about daily prayers to Satan will conclude Unz is unhinged, and his collaborators must be about the same level of insanity. GG, Jew.
Still fuming about my honest question a week later I see
You go gyrl!!!!! Slayyyy queeennn!!!!
What’s so hard to understand about a simple truthful fact?
Christians, for one.
I suggest you get a real job, then you’ll find other things to care about than money.
Still fuming about my honest question a week later I see
Not really, but you have got me thinking about whether I’ve always been a woman these 68 years. I was thinking about coming out, but the commenters here are so hurtful they might laugh at me.
Probably why it’s best to stick to what we know and do well. If you’ve read any of the writings of William Lind, he has been keen to point out that many Muslim entities (non-state actors like Hezbollah) understand and apply fourth generation warfare principles quite well. The Hezbollah-Israeli war in 2006 is a case study in how a well-trained and disciplined force could hold its own without any mechanized divisions and zero air power.
If you are willing to take a good number of casualties and are either used to or can do with significant damage to your infrastructure (think Stalingrad), there are a lot of defensive wars you can win. Offensive wars are no longer necessary nor considered morally justifiable so no need to worry about those.
Peace.
I think the Saudis should just stick to their story. If it works for the Russians, why can’t it work for them?
I think Saudis can come up with anything they want and will face very little repercussions (any more than they did with having 15 out of 19 guys on 9/11 holding Saudi passports). Whether we like it or not, the Saudis are part of the global elite squad – they bought their way in.
Bin Salman: “Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do…know-what-I’m-sayin’?”
Putin: “You gotta…what else you gonna do?”
https://img.maximummedia.ie/joe_ie/eyJkYXRhIjoie1widXJsXCI6XCJodHRwOlxcXC9cXFwvbWVkaWEtam9lLm1heGltdW1tZWRpYS5pZS5zMy5hbWF6b25hd3MuY29tXFxcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcXFwvdXBsb2Fkc1xcXC8yMDE4XFxcLzA2XFxcLzE0MjA0MTQwXFxcL1NjcmVlbi1TaG90LTIwMTgtMDYtMTQtYXQtMjAuNDAuMzcucG5nXCIsXCJ3aWR0aFwiOjc2NyxcImhlaWdodFwiOjQzMSxcImRlZmF1bHRcIjpcImh0dHBzOlxcXC9cXFwvd3d3LmpvZS5pZVxcXC9hc3NldHNcXFwvaW1hZ2VzXFxcL2pvZVxcXC9uby1pbWFnZS5wbmc_dj01XCJ9IiwiaGFzaCI6IjFiZWZkMmFjYTMxMzI0MGU1YTAxNWZiMzJkNjZkYjA0ZThlMjAzOTAifQ==/screen-shot-2018-06-14-at-20-40-37.png
Peace.
Is it?
https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=152888404&postcount=1337
https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=152891112&postcount=1339
https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=152902530&postcount=1342
You are making a virtue out of a necessity.
It’s not like Muslim’s have not tried fighting modern mechanized wars it’s just that the anti intellectual conditions of Muslim countries and many generations of inbreeding have lowered the IQ of the smart fraction of Muslim countries who ultimately are responsible for foreign policy and apex decision making including strategic military decisions by atleast 1 SD relative to their non Muslim neighbours with whom they fight wars.
Take India Pakistan,Armenia and Azerbaijan,Albanians and Serbs in each of these cases the smart fraction of the otherwise genetically similar adversary is 1 SD above the respective Mohammaden country.
This was paradoxically an advantage in per industrial times as low IQ is positively correlated with high birth rates,propensity to seriously believe in religious myths and willingness to die in large numbers which explains the Muslim world’s military success in pre industrialization times.
Unfortunately for Muslim’s in industrialized times a proud brave fool is no match for a relatively intelligent but physically weaker opponent backed by a much more sophisticated industrial base and foreign policy.
Cheers. :clink
Yes, this would be very good.
While I think there are many sympathetic aspects about Trump’s personality, however – he might unfortunately have too much “authoritarian sympathies”, which seems perhaps unusual for a man of his social origin.
In particular, this strange worship of police which you can hear in his speeches (although, from a cynical point of view, this is perhaps good politics for attracting lower middle voters in such a “police state” as America).
Probably, one sympathetic aspect (if the only so far attractive aspect), of a future Kanye/Kim Kardashian tandem presidency, is they seem to have interest in prison reform, etc.
David is always seen as more virtuous than Goliath; Mr. Lind mentions this. Of course this is adaptation by necessity – Muslim countries go not have the best infrastructure nor the capability or countering air power by non-Muslim forces. Like most of the third world (Muslim or not), they buy equipment from
They indeed have – not many though against non-Muslims. They have mostly been against themselves. They made a few good showings in a couple of theaters here and there, but usually get defeated in an offensive war but the question still stands – why is this necessary? You need mechanized divisions to invade someone. If you really only want to keep your territory intact, then the strategy is different. When the other side has complete air superiority massive amounts of mechanized divisions can be a liability.
I’ll agree here – this was already established during the days of European colonization – see the lop-sided casualties at the Battle of the Pyramids for example (so this is not news), but the US is going to eventually leave dirt-poor Afghanistan after having accomplished practically none of its stated goals so I still don’t see the point. Muslims took a bunch of casualties, had no real infrastructure to destroy anyway, killed a bunch of invaders and still hold their territory. So?
Peace.
London is still the best “mega city” (I guess arbitrarily – city with a population over 5 million) in Europe.
The wealthy areas of London are just a paradise (even if the poor areas of London, are a bit apocalyptic).
However, Moscow very quickly improving of course.
Why should there be prison reform in the US, those harsh sentences are needed to keep the criminal segments of the population in check.
If there’s any reform, it should be about the death penalty, it’s bizarre that there are sometimes decades of delay between sentencing and execution. Executions must happen much faster for any deterrent effect.
Releasing many prisoners will lead to a horrible crime wave and eventually another wave of tough anti-crime policies.
It will probably backfire on Western countries in the form of “refugees”.
Which we have no obligation to accept (not like Saudi Arabia is accepting any).
So trying to stop Saudi Arabia’s war to stop immigration is like what Steve Sailer likes to call a “triple bankshot”.
There is no shortage of things we can criticize Saudi Arabia for, but unlike Israel they actually do pay us. Trump got a $400bn arms deal out of them.
I suppose the other big risk is they bribe us into attacking Iran.
Only if they accept German/Bavarian rule.
https://twitter.com/MKarnitschnig/status/1049374450116960257
I’ve always been a woman these 68 years
1950? A good vintage then.
If Western countries have actively supported the destruction and starvation of Yemen, it becomes much harder to reject a moral argument for accepting refugees from there.
Besides, I just object to such a policy in general, it’s deeply immoral.
So what, not everything should be about money.
Apart from moral considerations, I also have my doubts whether it’s wise to sell all those arms to Saudi-Arabia, the present regime might eventually collapse, and who knows what those weapons will be used for then (yes, I know, Arab jihadis would probably be too dumb to utilize all those tanks and fighter jets effectively, but still, not worth the risk imo).
Who is going to stop the Russian horde?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrjjV6nGh0g
The West needs to close the ATV gap!
A lot of people are in prison, not for violent crimes. They are in prison. for all kinds of different things, even just many which would be legal in parts of the EU – like drugs.
Greasy perhaps in prison right now by the IRS. Meanwhile, Thorfinnsson also talks about how he was in prison .
I would like a graph comparing American rates, with the Soviet Union.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Incarceration_rates_worldwide.gif/350px-Incarceration_rates_worldwide.gif
I have been to jail (not prison) for a felony in a major city.
It was 36 hours before I could call someone, and another 12 before I could get bailed out. After getting bailed out it still took four hours before I could get out. They also did need give me my wallet back…or even my shoelaces. So I had to walk seven miles to get home in shoes without shoelaces through some fairly dangerous neighborhoods.
The only food served was white bread, hard boiled eggs, and off-brand kool-aid packets.
Throughout the entire process I was endlessly lied to by officials.
These seems like something that could be reformed, though not in the sense liberals imagine (they simply don’t think criminals should be punished).
Susceptibility to moral arguments is the problem.
We should reject “refugees” because they are not in our self-interest. Pursuing your interests is after all what politics is all about…or should be.
There’s more to life than money, but any government should have as an objective increasing the wealth of its people. And unlike Germany the United States has a negative balance of trade, so lucrative arms exports are very welcome.
You have a reasonable point about Saudi Arabia’s likely future collapse. I see this as grabbing the money while we still can, but I won’t pretend it’s risk-free. Still, the harm caused by those weapons in a post-collapse scenario is likely to be mostly confined to the region.
That’s pretty impressive!
They might be smart enough to sell some of them to Russia, China, Turkey and Pakistan for cold hard cash. And maybe some mercenaries to operate the rest.
Only an idiot or an American would believe anything told about China or Russia in the MSM.
It’s probably part of what makes European societies so nice and good.
It’s also not something you can abolish by fiat. So the result of Hitler disregarding moral imperatives was that his name became synonymous with Satan. Now the name of President Thorfinnsson might become synonymous with Hitler.
Even from a purely utilitarian point of view, you have to be mindful of the fact that the results of Hitler’s policies were the exact opposite of what he aimed for, and it was only partly the result of his having lost the war. The other problem was his extreme amorality, which made it impossible to revive his ideas or political movement, even in modified form.
That’s impossible. At best he’ll be able blame them for collapse.
Russian (incl. Soviet) ATVs are the best. The only thing that is comfier than exploring the end of the world with an apartment on wheels is exploring it on a nuclear icebreaker – and f0r that you also have to go to the Russians.
From their new ATVs, besides the SHERP, the Shaman and the Burlak are also pretty cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfiqbpvOGbE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsPJ3JCElXA
And from the Soviet ATVs, my favorite are the Harkovchanka:
https://i.imgur.com/3hP466M.jpg
and of course the ZIL-167
https://i.imgur.com/4CGYStI.jpg
I agree. This “might is right, moral considerations are unimportant” line is self-defeating. The argument must be that mass immigration and forced multiculturalization is a grave injustice and well beyond anything that could be reasonably justified as a moral obligation.
Not actively aiding the mass starvation of people who haven’t harmed one is a pretty minimal demand and shouldn’t be controversial imo.
“Look at what the cat dragged in.”
Not to mention that their favorite metaphor comes from a mainstream (((Hollywood))) movie made by two transsexuals. Such creativity.
https://i.stack.imgur.com/SSDlE.jpg
Muslims in the Indian sub-continent are largely converts from the bottom of the barrel Dalit Hindu castes. Therefore it is no surprise their IQ is lower than that of upper class Brahmins, when the same would have also been true of their unconverted ancestors. Their lack of human capital meant India’s Muslim rulers preferred imported Iranians and Central Asians for important roles as well as capable Hindus. Even Aurangzeb had plenty of Hindu ministers and generals rather than employing the descendants of local converrts.
The Muslim world’s success in warfare was due to their expertise in steppe-style cavalry warfare and archery than a numbers advantage. That is why the Turkic Mahmud of Ghazni was able to raid northwest India 17 times and remain undefeated despite usually having much smaller armies than his opponents.
Putin: You know about the guy’s (head) they found in Istanbul?
Bin Salman: Yeah, I heard about it.
Putin: They’re making a big deal about it. Its in all the papers. I mean….this isn’t good. You got to tell them to “take care of things…a little better”.
Bin Salman: I’ll tell them.
These are good points, but it invites the obvious question of how far do you go in the opposite direction?
Note that Anglos routinely get accused of hypocrisy. Hasn’t been a problem since Anglos have been winners for a few centuries now.
Other than communists I think we all have limits as it is. If the Saudis were slaughtering Greeks or something I’d favor stopping them.
Let’s not forget Sweden here:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/US_5055th_Range_Squadron_M973_SUSV.jpg
I suppose you two are right as far as arguments go.
I’m deeply offended by the idea that we should give up exports just to help Arabalonian Mohammedans.
But publicly this is perhaps not a good line.
And why the Mamluks and other Turkic Muslim armies were able to hold the line against the Mongol juggernaut. The Mongol invasions were kept to the outer areas or were recovered by the various forms of the Delhi Sultanate and not allowed to go into the interior of India…otherwise you would have had something akin to what happened in China.
Wa salaam.
As someone else has pointed out, putting people away for seemingly minor crimes means that there is much less property crime in the USA. Mail is delivered to front porches and rarely gets stolen, fewer pickpockets, etc. etc.
i think there’s probably truth in the idea of “martial” races but whether that was the actual reason for the British list i don’t know.
i think hunter-gatherers develop killer genes (cos hunters)
farming selects against those genes over time cos they’re not as useful any more so number of generations farming -> less killer genes
with herders in between cos herders = raiding (usually) so those genes are more useful
if correct then “martial” races would be from herder populations or farming populations who’d been farming for the least number of generations
(although probably not as relevant in modern industrial warfare except special forces or other small scale violence like gangsters)
Another valid caption. You can do a lot with that photo.
Peace.
the smart fraction of Muslim countries who ultimately are responsible for foreign policy and apex decision making
It doesn’t help that a significant % of this fraction move to countries like the US. In spite of this, I give Talha credit for not abandoning his religion or his people.
Unlike some people who not only leave their people but become lap and attack dogs for their enemies:
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/democrats-can-defeat-trump-base-only-if-they-ditch-chuck-ncna919841
One hundred years of searching for magic negroes at the expense of working class whites is enough, Howell.
the police use drug possession to lock up gangstas cos it doesn’t require witnesses…
cos witnesses won’t testify against gangstas.
it’s not a good solution but it’s the only option while the US media refuse to tell the truth about the inner-city gang problem.
those arms sales are disguised bribes – it’s why our corrupt political class let the Saudis get away with funding every jihadist group on the planet
My caption comes from a scene in “Casino” where Remo Gaggi asks Frankie Marino about “the head they found in the desert” and how it was in all of the papers. Remo finally tells Frankie to tell Nicky to “take care of things…a little better”.
You’ll remember this scene if you watched and like Casino as much as I do (its my all time favorite movie).
There is also a good scene in “Goodfellas” where Jimmy tells Henry about “you know that thing we took care of upstate?” (the whacking of Billy Batts) and how the land got sold and they had to “get it out of there” before it was discovered by construction crews.
Weapons are different from all other exports, and should only be sold to truly friendly regimes – a category which does not include Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel or Antifa-friendly Kurds.
The export profits lost by ending arms sales to unfriendly regimes would be more than counter-balanced by the profits gained by ending export-stifling sanctions against Russia, Iran, Syria, Cuba etc, thus increasing non-weapons exports, not to mention the tax money saved by ending counter-productive military involvement in the Middle East and foreign aid, especially aid to Israel.
Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey increase the strength of their respective lobbies in the US by bribing the military-industrial complex via arms sales, and the disastrous consequences of the foreign policy undertaken at the behest of the Israeli/Saudi lobby far outweigh the profits from the arms sales to those two countries.
the NPC meme has an impressive triggering ratio
While it is true most S Asian Muslim’s are low caste converts the fact is the Muslim ruling class were Turkic in origin and had upper caste converts.
I am not aware of any Arzal Muslim ie low caste convert founding any ruling dynasty.
The IQ difference among Ashram/Ajlaf Muslim’s and upper caste Hindus (excluding Brahmins as we are for various reasons of a different IQ profile and responsible for 95% + of S Asian intellectual achievements throughout history despite being at best 5% of Indian and 3% of South Asian population) is very real and apparent and can be attributed to decline in IQ via 20-50 generations of inbreeding and an anti intellectual culture Muslim India despite having 25% of world GDP at its peak has no scientific achievements comprehensively dwarfed by tiny Kerala with its school of mathematics at the same time and of course completely eclipsed by Hindu India that preceded it which had the world’s largest higher education system Nalanda,vikramshila,..dozens more which were systematically destroyed by the followers of the proudly illiterate prophet.
Even today Pakistan and Bangladesh have nothing remotely comparable to India’s Iit system.
This is not an isolated instance Armenia produced Artem mikoyan,Boris babian,countless chess headmasters etc. What did Muslim’s of the Caucasus produce? Serbs produced Nikola Tesla and Mikhail milankuvitch what did Bosnian’s and Albanians produce? The base genetics of the population pairs is the same just the religion is different..heck the middle east in per Islamic times was shockingly advanced despite lack of pre industrial inputs fresh water and arable land relative to population. Today despite having massive resources it achieves nothing.What happened? Long term and irreversible IQ retardation in the smart fraction due to inbreeding and a intellectually hostile culture is my best guess.
I believe there is truth to this in our era, there is a current anti-intellectual culture in a good part of the Muslim world. On top of that, cousin marriage has very high rates in certain areas (though not in places like Bosnia or Chechnya)
The anti-illectual culture is not without reason; I’m not sure it is a positive thing to have a hyper-or-high-intellectual culture based on the results Muslims are seeing in the West. Somehow a balance needs to be brought back.
The issue with this as the explanation is that the Muslim world produced plenty of its own pioneers and punched above its weight in the past when it was arguably more traditional and religious than now. The medieval Islamicate world was both a center of intellectual and religious culture – one should read the intro to al-Khwarizmi’s book and how he starts it with a paragraph praising God and sending salutations on the Prophet (pbuh) and his family.
Peace.
SHERP, Russian company, but manufactured in Ukraine:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/sherp-canada-demonstrations-yukon-nwt-1.4195574
Can be bought in Canada for $140,000 CDN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j7n00Xx38o
This would be fun in the Wisconsin wilderness…
No offense, and I do respect Swedish tech in general (to the last I hoped that my government will choose Gripen’s offer for our air force renovation) but this looks like a toy compared to something like a Vityaz. I don’t think it’s in the same league in terms of passability, ruggedness or load capacity.
https://i.imgur.com/CSF26PZ.png
World trade and American capital markets are one in the same. They are part of the same system. If world trade collapses and or the dollar is replaced in favor of something else, Americas economy will collapse.
American capital markets bring no value to America in and of itself. Only in the context of being able to wage war on other countries and to suck value out of other economic systems.
First of all as I stated the middle east has been an advanced part of the world from the bronze age till around 300 years post it’s islamization.
The Islamic golden age therefore is not an outlier but a continuation of various middle eastern civilizations particularly Persian.
It is however under Islam that the middle east went from a leading pole of civilization to a non contender and more or less stayed that way.
It could be that the slow and steady genetic destruction of middle eastern smart fractions took 400 years for it to fall beneath the critical mass required to sustain civilizational progress.
That coupled with the political economy of Islam which is basically that of a grotesquely inefficient welfare state only sustainable by constant external plunder which began faltering when there were no more lands that could be brought under Islam and further plundered.
Baghdad before the Mongols overran it had a divorce rate of 30% an absurd figure for a pee industrial society indicative of the comprehensive rot that had set in.
Martial race theory still applies today. An Indian coder can follow directions and press buttons, but in a real war it is going to come down to blood and guts as it always has.
There is real danger in having your military come from such a small population group or region. When times are bad people start to question why they are fighting and who are they fighting for. Seems really unstable to me.
You pick your poison.
This is the only fool proof way of insulating against a military takeover in India.
India is basically a United States of Europe type of political entity with 18 major linguistic groups with none having a majority or in a position to electorally dominate.
On top of that you have unique civilizational features like the caste system and polytheistic religion which has been in continuous operation since the bronze age.
This can only work in a semi federated democratic setup.
A military coup will balkanize the country and any chief of the army the world’s second largest will have that ambition if he is seen to be heading an army representative of the whole population.
To insure against things getting really bad militarily we have a comprehensive nuclear arsenal..
It’s worked so far.
This is correct, though Egyptian as well as Levantine deserve mention. The Iberian Peninsula could be considered a little different. As far as simply ending it at 300 years after Islam was introduced, then that is way too early. As Prof. George Saliba points out, scientific development (particularly in the field of astronomy and medicine) continued into the Ottoman era – as evidenced by the presence of men like Ali Qushji. Even a famous person like al-Tusi was around in the 12th century.
Possibly…or other civilizations simply pulled ahead.
This was absolutely the path of the Ummayyads which collapsed relatively quickly as outlined in this book:
“Stretching from Morocco to China, the Umayyad caliphate based its expansion and success on the doctrine of jihad–armed struggle to claim the whole earth for God’s rule, a struggle that had brought much material success for a century but suddenly ground to a halt followed by the collapse of the ruling Umayyad dynasty in 750 CE. The End of the Jihad State demonstrates for the first time that the cause of this collapse came not just from internal conflict, as has been claimed, but from a number of external and concurrent factors that exceeded the caliphate’s capacity to respond.”
http://www.sunypress.edu/p-1793-the-end-of-the-jihad-state.aspx
As is also evidenced by the Abbasid Empire actually reaching out and establishing diplomatic relations even with China and Charlemagne. Now, once the steady influx and influence of Turkic and Mongol people into the Islamic world and religion became more prominent, the external-raiding states did become more pronounced because that’s basically what Mongol and Turkic people did irrespective of religion. Which is one of the reasons that the military historian, Prof. David Nicolle, lumped a Muslim like Tamerlane among the great Mongol conquers:
https://www.amazon.com/Mongol-Warlords-Genghis-Tamerlane-warriors/dp/1853141046
Indeed, which is what sometimes happens in high-intellectual societies (which Baghdad May have become) as can be ascertained by divorce rates in the West and collapse of families for instance. Again, another reason to be careful about simply following headlong into that paradigm.
Peace.
Mughal rule had been effectively destroyed more than a century before.
Afghans & Persians were the Islamic enemies of the day before christcucks.
Since 2016, I have spent a few months in London, and approaching 2 years in Moscow. I can unreservedly state that Moscow is far better.
To be sure London is better for boutique shopping and starred Michelin restaurants for people rich enough to care about that but what other advantages does it have?
So what places like Egypt & Turkey had even higher.
Divorce & remarriage were relatively normalized among sedentary Muslim elites.
Men after all like young women
I disagree.
I think keeping the Royal Houses weak is how they prevent a coup.
Regional elites outside the British Liberal ecosystem are the real threat.
This is why the British & Islamic ecosystems have always cooperated in the region.
The people in England who some readers want to replace with the Thorfinsson Dynasty have celebrated a wedding of a minor princess.
https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/comtesszia/62294190/139318/139318_900.jpg
“But muh female hypergamy – even the plain ones only want a billionaire with the looks of Johnny Depp!”
“But men are biologically wired to value youthful beauty above all, a guy with options won’t marry a horse faced 28-year-old no matter what her social status!”
“But some of these little kids were born to their mom at withered and practically menopausal 30-something, so they shouldn’t really exist!”
etc etc.
It’s now a thing that the American Empire is facing some unexpected difficulties in some of its military procurement.
https://gizmodo.com/employees-protest-microsoft-bid-for-huge-military-contr-1829740921
Elections in Bavaria seem to have gone mostly as predicted, though CSU seems to be somewhat stronger than expected.
AfD is somewhat under 11% right now…disappointing, but given the political situation I might not have voted for them myself, but rather for the Freie Wähler, who seem to have gotten above 11%.
Social Democrats have suffered catastrophic losses; big winners (according to the mainstream media) are the Greens who have gotten around 18%.
CSU would be foolish imo if they don’t enter into a coalition with the Freie Wähler.
Anyway, probably not the worst possible result for Bavaria; but it’s depressing how much support there is for the Greens.
Walk around in Hampstead, Primrose Hill, etc. See the houses, and the urban design.
Look at how bourgeois English people live there. English bourgeoisie have one of the most perfect quality of lives in the world. And live in areas which seem like their urban planning was designed by elves. And go to the best schools in the world. Afterwards, they have access to a high salary jobs without leaving their hometown.
On the other hand, fall into the wrong bus, and the area where the poor, uneducated brown people live. Sure it’s a apocalyptic. The thing is, even in these poor, brown areas I have walked through, it doesn’t seem very dangerous, and there are sometimes hipsters mixed up there.
Nightlife and atmosphere in London – there is multiplicity of nice areas (maybe as many as there are bad areas).
Elite culture in London – similar level as Moscow (which is to say, one of the top centers).
If they can afford private (public) schools. State school system in Britain is pretty rotten.
You need to stop looking at everything from the point of view of the privileged.
I have been to jail (not prison) for a felony in a major city.
Is this separate from your O’Hare Airport adventure?
Thank you for the quick response.
Do you have any sources that document the decline in ashraf/aqhlaq IQ? It is not something I have heard of before.
True, Muslim India did not have much of a record in scientific achievement but that is hardly surprising given the huge distance from northwestern Europe where all the advances were occurring. I don’t think I would call the society the rulers created an anti-intellectual one. There was lots of patronage for the arts and culture in general especially poetry, history, literature, architecture, painting. Consider Akbar’s Nauratan who would put the bulk of contemporary state cabinets to shame with their scholarly learning: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/who-were-the-nine-gems-navratnas-of-emperor-akbar-the-great-mughal-emperor.html
Elite Indian Muslims would be trained in religious learning, grammar, rhetoric and philosophy which again would be atypical of anti-intellectuals. Going further back Mahmud of Ghazni used his raids to furnish his courts with luminaries like Al-Biruni, who calculated the radius of the Earth to within 1% accuracy.
The Prophet being illiterate is a Muslim tradition that arose to defend him from charges that the parts of the Quran which showed awareness of Jewish tradition, the Bible and Greek thought were not divine revelation and just items he had read about. He was a successful merchant who led long distance expeditions and even in that era such merchants could read and write. Even if he was illiterate, he could not be described as being proudly illiterate. It was not something he ever boasted about. There are numerous sayings of the Prophet about the importance of seeking knowledge etc.
I am not particularly familiar with the Balkans but a search on Wiki shows a number of notable Bosniaks and Albanians although the lists are rather biased to the arts and literature. The 1998 winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine is a Muslim Albanian, Ferid Murad and an Azeri (Kerim Kerimov) was noted as being a key figure in the Soviet space program.
The IITs are great but I believe they illustrate the misplaced priorities that are in play in subcontinental educational policies. The focus is too much on catering to the elite rather than trying to improve the lot of the bulk of the population who are left to the devil. Even Indian Islam was not immune to this. Syed Ahmad Khan made it clear that lower caste Muslims were not welcome at Aligarh and it was meant for the ashraf and aqhlaq only.
For that reason China with its huge population and average IQ of 100 will dominate Asia in the decades to come. There was a quote in one of the comment threads here (possibly by Lee Kuan Yew or Thorfinnson) that a thousand schools is better than one university which is quite sensible.
You need to stop looking at everything from the point of view of the privileged.
I’m not sure that I would have expected to meet you on the barricades, GR.
Can you explain what this means for Merkel?
It’s a different topic, from discussion of great cities.
If you are cashier in a supermarket, then you can be living better in a small, boring town in a country with high overall living parameters, like Denmark or Sweden.
What would be discussion of great cities, and their opera houses (or their Jay Z concerts, if that is your taste) – many advantages of great cities are (and always were) designed for “privileged”.
We can infer from popularity of private schools in London, that state schools probably have a much lower level of teaching.
But even the brown, uneducated people, living in slightly apocalyptic areas of London, and going to schools with low teaching levels, might not be so poor.
For anecdote. Visiting my hometown, walking in the wrong area, with new Nikes – and once a guy was following me, talking about how expensive the shoes are, that only rich men would buy them, and asking for money.
Meanwhile, in London, I’m looking at the Nike shop, and half of customers, buying boxes of the most expensive Nikes – it’s the English black teenagers.
World trade and American capital markets are not one in the same, even if deeply interwoven. Most trade is conducted in Dollars simply because America has the world’s largest and most liquid capital markets, and US capital markets offer the world’s largest portfolio of high quality assets. This makes the Dollar a good choice for both buyer and seller.
The flow of money in the world far exceeds the exchange of goods, which makes sense since transaction costs are much lower. You can purchase a billion dollars worth of shares on the New York Stock Exchange for five bucks. Purchasing a billion dollars worth of wheat, real estate, oil, etc. will have significantly higher transaction costs.
The idea that the American economy will collapse because the Dollar will lose its leading role is ridiculous. Will corn stop growing in Iowa? Will oil stop flowing in Texas? Will films stop being made in Los Angeles? Will cars stop being made in Michigan?
Don’t be ridiculous.
And American capital markets bring great value to Americans. My employees are very happy with their Vanguard 401(k) plans.
State schools in London have improved significantly and quite a number are competitive with private schools.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5295621/Londons-East-End-Eton-sending-22-pupils-Oxbridge.html
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/secondaryeducation/12115739/Are-state-schools-actually-providing-a-better-education-than-private-schools.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-28003848
There’s nothing particularly good about English “public” schools other than the caliber of the students in them. It’s just a brand name. And since the school places are for sale anyway not like you need to live in Britain if your status anxiety is so bad you think you need to pay some crooks $30,000 per year to brainwash your children to hate your ancestors.
Really difficult to judge tbh. There are those who think Merkel’s position might be strengthened by the CSU being weakened (which is of course pretty perverse if you think about it). On the other hand, the CSU seems to have done somewhat better than in the latest polls (currently it’s about 37,4% compared to 33% in the last poll before election – that’s bad by CSU standards, but still vastly better than anything Merkel’s CDU can hope to achieve anywhere nowadays). It also looks most likely now that the CSU will enter into a coalition with the kind-of-conservative Freie Wähler, so probably not that much will change on the state level in Bavaria. If they entered into a coalition with the Greens (probably Merkel’s preferred option, also strongly promoted by the mainstram media), it would really harm the CSU imo and reduce them to just another part of the CDU in anything but name.
Anyway, Bavaria has always been somewhat of a special case. In 14 days there will be state elections in Hesse, and Merkel’s CDU will probably suffer serious losses there. And unlike with the CSU in Bavaria it will be impossible to explain this with an alleged drift to the right, criticism of Merkel etc.
It’s possible Merkel’s chancellorship might end in the next few months, though one shouldn’t count on it (one should never underestimate how tenaciously she clings to power and how spineless her party is). Question is, what happens then. Personally I’d like to see the CDU implode, that party isn’t worth salvaging imo.
Speaking as a man with options I am growing less interested in looks and more interested in other matters (family background, work ethic, morality, etc.).
28 isn’t optimal but is acceptable. I used to think anything over 21 was awful but now have no problems with mid-20s.
Shifting from R-selection to k-selection I suppose.
When you marinate in Game for too long you forget about k-selection.
How are Polish Perspective and Bliss doing on their Tesla long bets? 🙂
Actually not convinced Bliss even has a brokerage account, so she might not be baggy after all.
I think you are rather overstating the effect of in-breeding on the vigour of Arab society. The Mongol invasion obliterated Baghdad, its ruling class and it’s intellectuals with a death toll that ran into hundreds of thousands. That wiped Islam’s largest center of learning and culture off the map and was far more devastating than the western Crusades. Thereafter the Arab world was dominated by the Mamluks in Egypt and Ottomans in Anatolia and power and wealth moved westwards to Cairo and Istanbul.
Urban planning – the trend under Khan is to spill the minorities over into those bourgeois areas, interspersing the original planning with those ugly concrete slabs. Though I assume that the really rich areas have avoided this due to their political influence.
Schools – what Thorfinnsson said. Though the Brits must be credited for their marketing of Hogwarts, which have captivated the imaginations of foreign SWPLs.
High salary jobs – sure, the UK is still a lot richer than Russia, even adjusted for cost of living. But that’s a feature of the country, not the city as such.
Going into the brown areas is pretty safe, though the seas of niqabs are depressing to look at. Going into the black areas is dangerous.
For Russian parents, it’s not so important to send children just to the academically best schools in England. A lot are in academically mediocre schools. The dividing line of “status anxiety”, is more for children to study abroad.
But you can see schools with the highest academic results of the UK, and highest ratio to admission to Oxford and Cambridge University, are private schools in London. Academic standard will obviously be much higher, and they would pay higher salary to attract the best teachers.
E.g. private schools in London
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_School
Article shows over 99% achieving the highest academic scores:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul%27s_School,_London
the trend under Khan is to spill the minorities over into those bourgeois areas,
Works in America until you run out of whites. It really is whack-a-mole.
Wrong. His mother was a Christian American and he was raised Christian.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferid_Murad
As a communist, Kerim Kerimov must have been an atheist.
Just to elaborate on the school thing, my brother attended a very prestigious Ivy League university. He said attending was the greatest mistake of his life (owing to the student debt he contracted). He was offered a full scholarship to the flagship state university of Illinois and wishes he had done that instead.
I chose not to attend university at all and have no trouble mingling with business and social elites.
For people who do not have a bourgeois background elite schools can be useful, as being rough around the edges and unsophisticated can be quite detrimental.
And of course I won’t deny that they’re useful in gaining useful connections and employment offers, though personally I favor entrepreneurship and simply going to high end bars, clubs, etc. Expensive hobbies (automobile racing for instance) are also a great way to meet excellent people.
Correlation does not prove causation.
“Better” schools show better results simply because they have better students with higher IQs to begin with.
Trust me when I say you do not want to get into a debate with an American about “good schools”.
Countries trade in the dollar for lots of reasons. Liquidity, relatively stable value, history of rule of law, and momentum. But a lot of this is an aberration that will correct itself.
If it were not for America forcibly making the dollar the world reserve currency through middle east oil and its military bases, the dollar would not have near the same liquidity, stability of value, or be as adopted universally as it is today. This process is reversing itself now as we speak.
America has attractive assets, but the value is widely inflated and also subject to American dollar dominance which is ending.
The same financial services that bring back so much value on the world stage, will do harm to America post collapse because they are not good at doing the basics like establishing value and allocating capitol.
America will collapse, but I don’t mean the economy will grind to a halt. It will still hum along because our economy has intrinsic value. It just won’t get the benefit of dollar hedgemony.
Native bourgeoisie of London, are living in areas like in video I’ll place below.*
I’ve been going to London for holidays, quite a lot of times, since I was a child. We usually wanted to stay near that area especially.
Bourgeoisie can move very easily into center of the city from there. At the same time, live in a beautiful environment, which seems like it was built by a race of elves, or computer simulation team from Harry Potter series.
English will send their children, to schools with the highest academic results, and highest ratio of admission to Oxford/Cambridge University.
Finally, black people are not seen so much there, if I remember. Blacks there probably more likely to be family of African oligarchs, rather than the English blacks.
Sure, in England (unlike Denmark, etc), there is some extreme divergence of lifestyle between social class, which disappoints naive tourists that dream of only English gentlemen everywhere. But bourgeois English, have a living standard which matches all their self-image and Harry Potter books.
–
*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLhn99BWIFU
Dollar hegemony was established in 1944, long before the petrodollar and America’s empire of bases. I’m not sure it was forced except to the extent that America refused Keynes’ proposal of the Bancor, and no one was interested in returning to the gold standard.
A sudden elimination of Dollar hegemony (as opposed to gradual decline) would no doubt cause a deep recession and severely dent the market value of American assets.
But the crisis would end as all crises do. It would also be good for American exporters (like me) and aspiring oligarchs (also me).
It would be worst for the existing oligarchy and for ZOG.
I do not consider Dollar hegemony to be a benefit to America, as the strength of a nation ultimately depends on the strength of its production. Being a reserve currency issuer undermines that.
Ferid Murad’s father was an Albanian Muslim. His conversion to Christianity did not erase his ethnicity. Karim Kerimov’s ancestry was also Muslim despite whatever his position was on atheism.
Nothing tops bourgeois American high WASPs.
Go to hell pants. Boat shoes (no socks). 420cm two man sailboats. Gin and blow. “Summering” in seaside houses with no electronics of any kind. Lobster pants. Old Jeep Grand Wagoneers and BMW 2002s. Allen Edmonds and J Press.
The Indian mutineers, muslims allied with upper caste hindus, were seeking to revive muslim Mughal rule and installed a Mughal as their Emperor.
The muslim dynasties that ruled India tended to be Afghan or Turkic. Not Persian (though both afghans and turks were persianized in culture). The Mughal Dynasty was mongol-turkic, tracing their lineage to Genghis Khan.
I am the most knowledgeable on this area, and I think you overestimate how English the upper middle class of London is. Most are still probably white but from or at least mixed with other Europeans. Not that it is desperately important.
Also most nice areas inside London (rather than commuter towns outside) are very close to not as nice areas and so not as segregated as you think.
Did you go long on Tesla or not girl?
It is sweet that you think Westminster has many English people in it.
Fun fact; it is where Rinat Akhmetov’s son went to school.
Dmitry is correct that they do also have extremely good teaching and are just generally very pleasant.
I’ll defer to your first hand experience.
I went to elite schools in America (state schools, but in a community where the median house value costs more than $1m), and it accords with what you say.
As an example here is a photo of my high school:
https://cdn20.patchcdn.com/users/22915293/20180912/081655/styles/T800x600/public/processed_images/lfhs-1526328121-3572-1536797668-9286.jpg
None the less I remain deeply skeptical of education beyond basic literacy and numeracy except as a means of giving children good peers and social mores.
And in fairness, I suppose that really is the point isn’t it?
You must really hate your mother.
Because you are born in America, where there are endless high salary jobs, and also probably with higher appetite for risk.
But for people not from America, then opportunity for normal guy to have a reliable profession, usually requires formal studying.
Personally, I was very mediocre and lazy for years at school, and no teacher thought I was clever. But my parents were angry, and pressed on me, and suddenly I studied a lot from when I was about 17 (until several years later, when I became lazy again).
However, many teenagers will not have parents (or sibling examples) that press on them (shouting at them) at this age – or children themselves might not recognise it. In this case, you will need a whole educational or institutional framework. This is what parents can buy with academically elite schools.
If I have children, then I would place them in the most academically elite school, because I know I am too mild to ever shout at them to study. Moreover, other kinds of jobs (which don’t require academic study) are unreliable, and there is no guarantee a person will be successful.
Even then
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3079588/Ex-public-schoolboy-19-dead-barrister-father-s-2million-London-home-injecting-lethal-cocktail-drugs.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2582327/Westminster-pupil-arrested-posted-sex-photos-girl-16-internet-argument.html
A more sympathetic story
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2663088/PM-sworn-public-schoolboys-Pupils-32-000-year-Westminster-School-accused-hurling-abuse-Cameron-spoke.html
America did not decouple from gold until the 70s. Before then it was not dollar hedgemony since the dollar was based on a tangible asset and money creation was in check.
Also, this was when the cold war was going on and the world was not unipolar as it is today. Even if the powers that be wanted dollar hedgemony back then a lot of things had to happen first.
Remember, Japan threatened Western dominance in the 80s before they were brought into line and they had to wait until the Soviet Union collapsed.
The Petro dollar had to be established as well as bringing China into the fold and establishing its ring of bases.
You only saw significant monetary expansion in the 90’s and the 00’s when all of these things fell into place and this is also when our asset prices went crazy.
The rest of what you say I totally agree with. I stand to gain when the current order comes to a close because I am productive.
Islam is a religion not an ethnicity.
Sure it is. 😉
That reminds me of that picture of a fancy mansion you once posted, claiming it was the house you grew up in. One poster recognized that house and neighborhood and asked you a question about it. That shut you up. Lol.
The trade figures are from SWIFT which has been tracking the rise of the Renimbi. I am not quite sure why the pound is still so comparatively strong s most former African colonies use US dollars. Russia actually traded with the UK in pounds up to the invasion of Georgia.
You gonna answer the question or what honey?
Do you need me to hold your hand and show you how to open a brokerage account?
You still need to yell at your kids. Elite schools don’t force you to study.
Source: went to elite schools, did not study
If your resources allow elite schools are probably worth it simply for the friends your children will make.
This was only the gold exchange standard (only foreign governments could redeem their Dollars for gold), and even under the classical gold standard banks lent money first and found gold second (though gold did act as a real constraint on credit expansion).
As for money expansion…
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MABMM301USA189S
Unfortunately FRED doesn’t show M3 prior to 1960, but as you can see it was expanding before Nixon closed the gold window in 1971.
I’d be happy to answer whatever the question was if you remember it.
Agreed – very solid. The vast majority of human beings that have ever walked the Earth were unlettered until quite recently. He was the bridge between those worlds as he was between the sedentary and nomadic people. There is nothing in Islamic doctrine that encourages illiteracy though it does not hold those in contempt.
The rest of your points are also spot on. Even very sanguinary rulers like Tamerlane were known as patrons of the arts, poetry, etc. His famous grandson Ulugh Beg having founded the (still-standing) observatory in Samarkand:
“While the achievements of his reign were many, he is probably best remembered for his scientific contributions. The madrasa became a major center of learning in the Islamic world, whose influence spread widely and lasted beyond Ulugh Beg’s death, at which time some of the scholars he had supported left Samarkand for capitals such as Istanbul which promised more stability. The first director of his observatory was Qazizadeh Rumi, who had in fact come to Central Asia from Anatolia and was one of Ulugh Beg’s teachers…The tradition of Islamic science upon which Ulugh Beg and his scholars drew had long been valued by the rulers of Inner Asia. For example, the famous Mongol Emperor Khubilai Khan, staffed his new observatory in Beijing (shown on the left) with Muslim scientists.”
https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/cities/uz/samarkand/obser.html
Peace.
The red brick buildings remind me of Boston:
https://www.google.com/search?q=boston+red+brick+buildings&client=safari&biw=1024&bih=627&hl=en-US&tbm=isch&prmd=insv&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiAh_yE9YbeAhWnjVQKHdnBBBcQ_AUIDigB
You should have answered the question by the guy who recognized the house you claimed to have grown up in. Why didn’t you?
Post that picture again.
I’m talking about Nadir Shah & Ahmed Shah u fkn autist.
Stop thinking u can talk down to Brown Pagans & think that you know more about our country than us.
I don’t expect much more from abrahamics who blame any socio-political issue they don’t undersatnd as SATAN.
More cost effective to be a breeder (according to Caplan, anyway – not that I’m one to talk).
I don’t remember this episode either.
Perhaps because I didn’t see it and have no memory of this?
Searching in Google Images now (using address and city) my childhood home does not come up.
This house, however, does:
https://ssl.cdn-redfin.com/photo/68/mbphoto/986/genMid.08758986_3.jpg
This house was a few doors down from me.
Probably I can post back here in 30 years, after I have children, sent them to them most elite British school, and they became strippers and drug dealers.
That’s not the neighborhood you claimed to have grown up in. Far from it.
Your claimed home was a huge mansion. I don’t exactly remember where the guy who recognized it located it. But I think it was an upscale neighborhood around some lake in the Chicago area. Not sure though.
Btw, you have always claimed to be from a rich (aristocratic) family. The picture you posted above is enough to prove you are a liar.
So are you going to repost the question or not?
And are you going to tell us if you went long Tesla or not?
No need to play games girl.
I guess Bliss referred to this:
https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-43/#comment-2356030
As we know, she’s prone to “misremembering” previous comments.
So there’s my high school again and the city hall of the town where I grew up.
I see two questions in response. One from AP (one of my favorite commenters), who asks if the place is on Lake Michigan. The answer is yes.
And another commenter confuses these buildings for private homes, which I guess Bliss did too.
The home I grew up in was nice, but not spectacular. A 4,000 square foot two story Dutch colonial home on a half acre of land.
I own a lot more land today, but it’s not in a high Dollar community and was thus affordable.
Thank you German_reader.
You can visit Cambridge (like Hampstead another center of English bourgeoisie and intelligensia).
British obviously outsourced urban planning of parts of the city, to race of enchanted gnomes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y_NmpxZPjM
My school looked externally more like a horrible prison, and so was the attitude of some of the teachers and students was more like we were in prison. Still, nice days, and we eventually studied quite a lot before exams.
You’ll be happy to discover that most schools in America look like prisons, minus the walls. Which is appropriate given that school is a prison for children. I once had an employee (he got too slow and thus had to be let go, and now works at an auto body shop) who along with his brother every year celebrates the day school starts…because they don’t have to go back. He is now 60 incidentally.
I am not posting a photo as these comms aren’t secure.
Bingo! That’s it.
So it was AP who asked Thorfinsson about this house on Lake Michigan, and got no response ;):
http://data2.finalsite.com/cf82/lakeforestschoolsorg/data/media/fullsize/1652.jpg?v=102516011440
Thorfinnsson has already explained that it’s his former high school…you can run a Google search, which will confirm it.
Do average native London bourgeoisie, even if they become oversensitive from their beautiful houses, care very much by some poor brown people in the next district? I assume (because this is my personal attitude whenever I am in London), that it is usually viewed more like some colorful scenery.
Even when you go into the cinema in Hampstead, they only play intellectual films that will scare away any of neighbouring populations, and the price of organic green tea in the cafes is probably higher than the daily income of those people.
But nothing in London is even close to scary to me.
In our cities, walking to school every morning, navigating our road crossing- more dangerous than driveby shootings of Compton, Inglewood and Harlem combined.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjTaWRgYXIM
Federal Prisons are around 6% of the total prison population in the US. Obama took a shot at minorities, and spent a lot of time and effort to find 1,000 or so to pardon. He was looking for non violent offenders who could argue that they were over sentenced due to mandatory minimums, etc. He had to exclude potential Willie Hortons. You can look it up.
So Trump can’t really do that much. Further, States have been under pressure to reduce populations and have released the ‘low hanging fruit’. There aren’t any casual marijuana smokers rotting in prison.
Why are so many Americans incarcerated? Americans are free to be bad. Our underclass, for example, is armed to the teeth. Of course, everyone has their own ideas, but forget the idea that there are easy solutions.
UK life in market towns and cathedral cities (think Salisbury) can be rather comfortable far from London. Think Salisbury. Few are rich but you will be not be anonymous. Keep your place in teh class system though. There is usually some former grammar school around which the bigger, older houses are clustered. Somewhere above 50,000 people modern culture breaks in. The presence of a “University” doesn’t help.
These days most British boarding schools limit their intake of foreigners to 50% to try and preserve their character. In the late ’60’s, I was the first state school pupil to join the 6th form in the boarding school I attended. I was an experiment. I still have the physical scars and PTSD to prove it. They were taught at a higher level in maths than I had been but I overtook most of them in the two years I was there. Antibullyiing policies are stricter and effective now. They have girls and the most violent Rugby fixture has been banned by the first headmistress. Twenty years ago, the match used to get televised, now its banned. It’s is a small place surrounded by mountains. J K Rowling lived nearby when she started writing Harry Potter novels.
I can compare Cardiff and Saratov both with similar metro areas and a sizable competitor within the province. (Swansea/Balakovo) etc etc. In say 1890, I suspect they were rather equal. Cardiff is now streets ahead in wealth. Saratov has held on to its excellent ballet company but Cardiff’s Welsh National Opera Company now and again gets described as the world’s best. that said, for high culture, they compare. The Welsh dimension in Cardiff means that it has a local TV industry which these days is the base for Dr. Who. Modern media struggles in Saratov. Both have world class research done at their universities but Cardiff is much further ahead. It didn’t have to endure the 1990’s in Russia. Both have long established Muslim communities that are well integrated. (Cardiff had the first mosque in the UK in the 1880’s to serve Lascar sailors). Nowhere is off limits despite the more recent arrivals, such as Lebanese, being concentrated in the areas with the oldest housing.
Living standards and the built environment are far better in Cardiff as is the preservation of heritage. Both as it happens support a Bosch factory making auto-components in diverse economies. I have no intention of moving to Saratov to live. The gap in life in Russia between the capitals and the rest is bigger than in the UK, which is not in itself known for equality between regions.
Russian driving is MUCH better than it used to be.
This was a bit hyperbole.
But let’s say the price of single cinema ticket in central Hampstead, is $19.
Do you think Bosch washing dryer machines are made in Wales (UK)? I remember when my mother wanted to buy a washing dryer machine, she was worrying “Bosch are made in Turkey not in Germany”, so saying it is better to buy Miele, which is actually made in Germany.
Punjabis (including the vast majority of Sikhs) are on average (iirc) taller than your average Indian (I guess that would make them much taller than your average puny Indian?). Gurkhas, on the other hand are … not.
I now type Forest Lake on YouTube and it teaches me that “High School Musical” and “Glee” that I was thought was fiction, is some kind of realistic documentary films 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLBEUo4MCiI
In other words…those who eat meat. Hindu’s mostly vegetarian and they cant seriously be expected to have a strong army, which is not to say that here aren’t plenty of vegetarian Indians who would make strong and great soldiers….just that it would be alot harder to get together
Anyway, the British army recruited Africans and Indians ( in Africa) to serve in WW2 under false promises of land….such is the lying scum they can be
Though the approach was vindicated from a strategic perspective…..it’s unheard of for a country in 4 years to refuse it’s army to fight a war in an area occupied by the enemy only 35km away(France) but fight it 1000 miles away in desert land, empire land, with civilians merely inquisitive spectators, as the British did in North Africa.
With respect to the military, that is an enormous luxury to have. But overall in all fields the British actions in WW2 in science/Intelligence/Navy/Air force/timing must be judged to have been a big success
1) halt immigration to stop increasing the crime problem until it’s fixed
2) instead of letting gangstas get away with beating up the other kids for years while they’re juveniles and having 2-4 of their own kids as a result before they eventually get locked up as an adult target gangstas as soon as they start doing it (around age 12-13 ish) and get them locked up early so they don’t breed.
the black crime rate would be down around the white level in a few generations.
I’m curious. You seem to have a good breadth of knowledge, especially in economics and history. Did you pick up this knowledge mostly by reading on your own? I know that you’ve passed the difficult 66 securities exam. Are there many of your age that have forsaken college education for self study? You might be a good poster boy for advanced intellectual dilettantism? 🙂
What exactly do you mean here?
The upper middle class town where I currently live has high school musicals that easily surpass Glee (which admittedly I haven’t watched, only seen previews) in quality.
Thorfinnson’s childhood area is one of the nicest in the USA.
Ah OK, yes…it’s been a long time since I watched those two movies.
Peace.
I don’t think khan has had much to do with this. For a long time it’s been national policy to pay private landlords to house welfare recipients rather than have the government house them directly in soviet style council estates. Mrs thatcher started off this process by letting sitting tenants buy at a discount, but the current conservative government has accellerated it somewhat by doing things like ending heritable tenure for the remaining purpose built council houses, charging market rents for them and selling them off to developers. They wanted to increase rease labor mobility, but the side effect of it has been to make all areas more mixed.
Compare Saratov and Perm — two cities of roughly equal population, a similar geography and logistics situation.
One is a modern and clean city with urbanist pretensions, the other is a dump that seems to be transplanted from India. (Thankfully, the climate isn’t conducive for feral cows in the streets.)
The difference is strictly cultural. There is a lot of such difference when you compare Russian cities.
P.S. I’ve visited lots of Russian cities, and Saratov is probably the biggest dump of them all.
No washing machines are made in Wales anymore. It was a centre for them but production has moved to Turkey. The televisions went to Slovakia. It is the Bosch automotive division.
Saratov suffers from dust blowing in from the river banks. It makes it look worse than it is. That said, the first time I went there it felt like a different continent, as you say. I have also visited a lot of cities in European Russia and I agree that Saratov is at the bottom end.
However, like Cardiff, in the run up to WW1, it was outstandingly successful on a world scale. Cardiff in coal and metals, Saratov with wheat. Hence the comparison. Saratov has had much more relative decline than Cardiff. modern Cardiff is in fact an island of modern life in a sea of almost post industrialism.
You might be a good poster boy for advanced intellectual dilettantism?
Yes, Thor and Gore Vidal.
Indeed. It was the number 3 city in Russia after Moscow and St. Petersburg sometime around the turn of the last century.
Not far enough.
Ivanka for ambassador to Australia!
Get Saudi puppet Jared Kushner into a different time zone.
Well, somebody has to pick up the torch now that old Gore is gone? With all of the anecdotal knowledge that Thor likes to sprinkle his comments with here for us plebes about life at the top of the mountain, you’d think that he’d be a cinch as the new F. Scott Fitzgerald? Besides, ‘The Great Gatsby’ story needs a face lift, a new modern adaptation, and who better than our guy, Thofinnsson?…
Invoking open thread…
Correspondence addressed to the new US embassy being built in Ankara should be sent to “Malcolm X” street:
https://www.newsweek.com/turkey-malcolm-x-us-embassy-recep-tayyip-erdogan-street-ankara-racism-name-1168886
Peace.
Prices for goods and services etc. are a bit more expensive in London. Companies generally dont distinguish between “nice” areas of london and “grotty” bits. The real differentiatior is London/non london. Look at the price of a pint of ale in wetherspoons for a uk-centric cost of living index. Ever since the end of wwii london was emptying out with heavy premiums going to housing in the home counties and only a select few london neighborhoods remaining prestigious. In the late 90s this process stopped abruptly and any place anywhere near london has become increasingly more expensive. Hampstead indeed gives a bucolic existence right in the middle of the city, but so does everywhere else inside the north circular, with the exception of bits of Tottenham, poplar, wood green, gospel oak etc. Even prts of london that the average boomer would be afraid to go anywhere near are now totally gentrified: brixton, all of hackney, most of tottenham, tower hamlets, clapton, Limehouse, peckham etc.
Things I learned from this article
https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/14174937-74/indiana-county-native-last-living-member-of-the-venona-project-a-soviet
1) The American government under FDR (or as I call him, the Great Satan, the killer of federalist America and creator of Evil Empire America) and Truman was filled with Stalin’s spies. Wait, already knew that.
2) Winston Churchill’s NKVD nickname was “Boar.” Funny!
3) The NKVD referred to San Francisco as “Babylon” and Washington DC as “Carthage.” Perfect!
The article says the NKVD code name for Charles de Gaulle was “RAS”? That’s in the Latin alphabet Anyone know what that might mean in Russian?
You missed out WASP for Ruth Rosenberg. They obviously had a sense of humour.
Utter garbage, show photos of this about Cardiff…absolute drivel. Bristol, I know from friends and visits that is relatively near to Cardiff, but in England…..is significantly higher in standing and quality to the fairly average Cardiff
Moonbase Ivanka
He means you are a creepy tramp who would probably try and sniff every pillow he has touched if given the opportunity….typical Banderite sadist loser cretin
I listed countries who have contributed the most to humanity over the years, as a point of proving how much of a useless failure state Poland was and is. In the process I had Italy on top followed by Russia/Holland, then Britain , then Germany , then France…….but in doing my list I completely forgot to think about the great british eccentric explorers and adventurers over the centuries, such as this superb man:
https://vk.com/grishawphillips?w=wall262707630_552618
https://twitter.com/GrahamWP_UK/status/1051742963162861568
Excellent work
No doubt this will be yet another post pulled by Karlin- a kreakl lover is a Bandera lover
Ok, I apologise to Karlin for this…….completely unnecessary from myself
Mass incarceration is the best approach to our criminal underclass that is available within the U.S. Overton window. The only other alternative within the Overton window, mass release, would be terrible. Our country has a weaker genetic stock than most other civilized places and needs a correspondingly harsh approach to law and order in order to keep us safe.
People tend to conflate “nonviolent offender” with “drug offender” when they cite these stats. The guy who broke into and robbed my home was a “nonviolent offender”, but I’d fully advocate keeping him in prison for the remainder of his useful life. Actually, I’d advocate hanging him, if that were in the Overton window. Home invasion is a terrible crime, violent or not.
Maybe the government could stand to soften up on prosecution of certain drug crimes, but I’m generally OK with where things stand. Worst case, you clean up the streets a bit. Best case, you take out a lot of thieves and assorted lowlifes who can’t be busted on any other charge.
If Trump decided to go soft on law and order and engage in mass pardons, I’d consider it a betrayal of the highest order and would fully support the efforts of Democrats to impeach him. Trump would gain virtually no support for the move but most of his base would abandon him.
I’m afraid I don’t really know much about the group he belonged to. Are the Nation of Islam really considered Muslims in the Muslim world? I know there are various splits, but, offhand, I’d guess they were analogous to Mormons, when Mormons were separatists, or maybe even Christian Scientists or Shakers. I mean, some of their theology seems really out there. UFOs. Jacub, the evil black scientist who created white people.
Obviously Russia (or Holland) has not accomplished more than Britain, Germany or France.
He became a ‘normal’ Muslim later on
On an unrelated point, what is the deal with Graham Phillips (in general)?
Erdogan is not crazier than American officials. They showed the way.
However I am not sure if Malcom X is the best choice if you want to irritate Americans.
They don’t really register, most of the American Muslims who are known to the wider Muslim world are more orthodox types like Hamza Yusuf – a white Californian convert – and Wallace Deen Muhammad, the son of Elijah Muhammad. He took the original Nation Of Islam and made it a regular Sunni organisation while Louis Farrakhan created his own splinter group using the NOI name which is the more widely known one.
You’re a moron. No apologies to anyone.
Nope. They are actually a made-in-America religion like…
Bingo!
Malcolm X (ra) left all that later in life (partly why he was killed) – went on Hajj, broke bread (literally) with White Muslims, sat with some serious ulema*, and ended up rejecting racism – however, it must be stated, he was still not keen on integration as he did not think that was in the best interests of his people. Perhaps his views would have changed today – who knows…
He remains a hero of mine since my teenage years. Incidentally, my wife’s first exposure to “Islam” was in Berkeley in her high school where there were some NOI kids apparently who told her she was the devil because she was White…dorks…
Peace.
*Malcolm was legit, yo!
https://www.gettyimages.dk/detail/news-photo/black-muslim-leader-malcolm-x-meets-with-sheik-abdel-rahman-news-photo/514682588
“In the afternoon on August 15, Malcolm met with Sheikh Akbar Hassan, the rector of al-Azhar University. Sheikh Hassan handed Malcolm a certificate granting him the authority to teach Islam.”
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
I guess everybody does it!
Agreed. But if you read the article I linked to, it mentions that Erdogan met with the daughters of Malcolm X (ra) on his last visit to America so it may have less to do with irritating the US than a genuine desire to honor their father (or maybe both). The man is after all probably the best known Muslim (apart from Muhammad Ali) from America.
Peace.
i wonder how many people his cheka great-grandparents killed
Yes, I am self-taught.
Bypassing college is not common in my generation (I was simply a poor student who hated school), but is growing more common in Generation Zyklon.
This fellow is a good example: https://twitter.com/erikfinman
He has some foolish ideas, but that’s forgivable at age 19.
I don’t need Bliss showing up at my house in the middle of the night begging for it.
I didn’t think they had it in them, but in the very last paragraph, the ADL mentions that ‘Unz comes from a Jewish background’.
I was only half kidding when I stated that somebody with your insight and cynicism might attempt to write an updated version of ‘The Great Gatsby’. After all, Fitzgerald’s great novel depicted the decadence of the rich of the 1920’s. Almost 100 years has passed. It might be a lot of fun, and you might make out like a bandit too?…
Fast Eddie Lampert’s three-card monty routine has come to an end. Sears Holdings has officially filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on Monday in White Plains, New York. A sad end to the fabled Sears Roebuck & Company.
Even President Trump remarked on this:
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1051884831750180864
Sears was the Amazon, Walmart, and Costco of its day combined. Launched as a nationwide catalog retailer in 1892, it quickly become the largest retailer in the world thanks in part to the introduction of Rural Free Delivery by the United States Postal Service in 1896.
Based in Chicago (then, and still today, America’s largest logistics hub), the Sears main warehouse was by far the largest in the world. The old Chicago general post office in turn was the world’s largest post office. Anything could be ordered from the Sears catalog, even complete houses.
After WW1 with the motorization of American society, Sears entered the department store business. It quickly became the largest brick & mortar retailer in the world as well, a position it would hold until being surpassed by Walmart in the early 1990s.
Sears gave to America the credit card, the Craftsman tool brand, DieHard car batteries, Kenmore appliances, Allstate insurance, and the Discover card. Sears built what was then the tallest structure in the world in the 1970s, the Sears Tower (now renamed the Willis Tower). The terms and conditions of the Sears credit card were copied by Bank of America verbatim when Bank of America introduced the first general purpose credit card. The reason you pay no interest on your credit card if you pay your statement balance in full? Because that’s how Sears designed it in 1908.
The decline of Sears mirrored the decline of middle class America. In 1973, when the Sears Tower was built, America’s middle class was at its peak and Sears straddled America like a colossus. Generations of Americans bought their home goods from Sears, and even took family portraits at Sears. That America, and the retailer that catered to it, is gone. Now the largest retailer in America is Walmart, which specializes in catering to America’s poor.
Fast Eddie Lampert was hailed as an investing genius when he put together Sears and K-Mart, but unfortunately his shell game just kept Sears circling the drain for a decade. Capital investment was slashed to zero, treasured brands sold off (Craftsman is now owned by Stanley Black & Decker), and departments were made to fight eachother for resources. The stores came to reek of desperation, despair, and depression.
A sad day.
A sad day.
Yes, but think of all the money the short sellers made over the years.
God, I do love America!
It is sad, I remember Sears fondly also.
There is a spiritual lesson in the rise and fall of Sears. If you had asked someone in the 1970’s if they thought Sears would go away in just 50 years, they’d have said you were crazy. Ask people about Apple now, they might say the same thing…
“It is God’s way that He lowers whatever raises itself in the world.” – reported in Bukhari
Peace.
Gérard here
It was more a type of ” pound for pound” analysis as in Boxing, with Holland promoted because of its small size and Russia for it having a 1000 year disadvantage compared to France,Britain and so on…….with respect given to Italy for its contribution from ancient times,right through to now, but extra weight given to contributions from the Enlightenment and age of Industrialisation
The article says the NKVD code name for Charles de Gaulle was “RAS”? That’s in the Latin alphabet Anyone know what that might mean in Russian?
My guess, given the time period and the evident sense of humor, is that RAS is the Ethiopian title (king or prince). In Italian it can be (or at least was) used jokingly for despotic local leader or local fascist.
I think that’s missing the point to some extent. Sears may be gone, but the systems and attitudes that it has introduced remain with us to this day. Neither mass manufacturing, large department stores, or smartphones are going away now.
Good piece in the Journal about Sears:
https://twitter.com/EddyElfenbein/status/1051906239830069249
If you access it from Twitter you should be able to bypass the paywall.
I also recommend following Eddy Elfenbein in general if you’re interested in business and finance.
Sure…as do political arrangements (and even architecture) that the Roman Republic helped to define…but Rome is gone.
Sears did its part to add the the human story as did Rome during their time under the sun. But it set on them like it inevitably does on any enterprise. Thus is the way of the world.
Peace.
Lol, the fanfic could have been named “What if Harry Potter was a Jew”, as reviewed by Asian physicist. Worth a read.
Worth elaborating – the NPC meme was partially inspired by studies that a number of humans lack inner speech. This often is assumed to be a general lack of thought, and therefore the idea of action/reaction without consideration:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/pristine-inner-experience/201110/not-everyone-conducts-inner-speech
Listen folks, I didn’t read the article, but as a Mom, I can tell you why Sears failed.
First of all, here’s why it didn’t fail: lack of value. Sears carried excellent family essentials that everyone needs, with markably higher quality and barely higher prices than Walmart.
But here’s the problem: You can’t buy groceries at Sears! I never experienced it, but I imagine the old Main Street model worked great for Moms. You could park the car, pick up new shoes for the kids, get groceries, and then get your hair done. Walmart has kind of recreated that.
I’ve avoided buying clothes at Walmart for two reasons. First, being a SAHM, I have time for multiple errands. Second, with numerous children, quality matters more. A well-made winter coat will last through several children, but you don’t care about that if you’re only planning on having one or two or three kids.
It’s sad, but it was inevitable.
No groceries.
Stores too far from customers and anchored to (dying) malls.
The value started to deteriorate as well. Craftsman started mucking around with its famous lifetime warranty policy for instance.
Fast Eddie Lampert’s decision to drastically slash capital spending also meant the stores started to literally fall apart. Sears was nice to go to when I was a kid, but in the past decade the stores have been pathetic.
Then there’s the problem that department stores are inherently more expensive to run than big box stores. Dept. stores operate on a 35% gross margin, big box stores more like 15% (Costco at 8%).
Thus department stores hang onto their older customers, but don’t gain new ones (other than Nordstrom). For instance this lady quoted in the article:
I can vouch for the quality of Sears clothing. I have a Sears brand blue wool cardigan which was made in the 1970s. It’s excellent.
And I sure hope you’re not getting your hair done at Walmart Rosie…
LOL no but they do fine for the kids.
Life without good hair just isn’t worth living.
https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1051857794469679104
This article might be more up your alley. It has a human interest angle.
It was fairly often used before that but only took off into normie consciousness with the study
lol this has been the most amusing and most informative Unz thread in months.
How terrifying. I can’t imagine life without inner speech. It’s like trying to imagine how a goldfish might experience existence.
Aphantasia I can kind of understand. Not thinking in mental pictures. But not a lack of inner speech.
Because they are Londoners. They are part of the Privileged of Britain.
But London is not Britain.
Paywall bypassed: http://archive.is/Hr05m
Good idea. I torrent the Journal and use Twitter when I want to share articles with people. Every morning starts with reading their business section with a nice cup of coffee (dark roast, strong, immersion blended with a tablespoon of salted butter).
And now for a classic country song that references Sears. Coal Miner’s Daughter by the lovely Loretta Lynn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9eHp7JJgq8
Loretta Lynn was born in 1932, so the setting for this song is Depression and Wartime Kentucky coal country.
https://img0.etsystatic.com/000/0/5594150/il_fullxfull.263169810.jpg
My father had a Craftsman toolbox like this when I was a boy. RIP Sears.
interesting – didn’t know
Tom Rogan Washington Examiner BS
Re: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/russias-orthodox-church-puts-imperialist-politics-before-religious-faith
Written by someone who doesn’t seem to know WTF he’s writing about. The Constantinople (Istanbul) based church doesn’t have the same centralizing powers as the Vatican. There’s good reason to believe that some form of payola might be at play between the corrupt nationalist Kiev regime and Constantinople. The majority of national Orthodox churches haven’t supported Constantinople’s decision to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The established Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is loosely affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate didn’t ask for the Kiev regime and/or Constantinople to get involved with its matters. Note that the Washington Examiner appears otherwise prone to support the idea of a separation between church and state. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church that sought autocephaly approval from Constantinople is headed by someone who for decades supported the Moscow Patriarchate’s ties with the Orthodox churches of Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. He changed course after not getting a promotion within the Moscow Patriarchate.
Today in transmania ruining women’s sports:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/37125/transgender-cyclist-celebrates-world-championship-hank-berrien?amp&__twitter_impression=true
Organized feminism useless on this issue, as always.
The SPD lost more support than the CSU and the AfD beat the Greens (+10,2% vs +8,9%) in growth. The CSU may no longer control the state alone, but the right did better in this election than in the last one.
Don’t let they browbeat you that just because the CSU will need a coalition partner, the right lost. The result tells a different tale.
There’s even much better reason to believe that you’re the top nutter for the Kremlin Stooge brigade, Mickey! Your flights of imagination have no bounds when it comes to trying to defend the imperialist dreams of Mother Russia! 🙂
Maybe OT ( but can there be something as OT in open thread?)
I found on the net this translation of one Russian researcher’s memories of living in Soviet Union after war, in the 50′s. He claims that Stalin’s USSR had higher standard of living than United States, what all you Soviet and Russian experts think? The truth that TPTB do not want you to see, or delirious Sovok propaganda?
https://www.russianvoices.org/2017/02/01/remembering-the-ussr-a-personal-account-of-stalins-economy-part-1-of-4/
https://www.russianvoices.org/2017/02/18/remembering-the-ussr-a-personal-account-of-stalins-economy-part-2-of-4/
https://www.russianvoices.org/2017/02/22/ussr-stalins-economy-a-personal-story-part-3-of-5/
https://www.russianvoices.org/2017/03/13/ussr-stalins-economy-personal-story-part-4-5/
Could you go into more detail?
Are the tariffs helping you?
Truth About Khashoggi
Re: https://therealnews.com/stories/duplicitous-khashoggi-picked-the-wrong-prince
A politically left of center Arab describes Jamal Khashoggi as a two faced charlatan, whose views in Arabic differed sharply from what he wrote in The WaPo. From a conservative Western slant, Mark Steyn commented similarly on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show.
Khashoggi’s WaPo persona is indicative of a US mass media propaganda tactic. Utilize foreign nationals (including Russians) who say things which conform to neolib to necon leaning views.
At a recent NYC event, the Nikki Haleyesque Kori Schacke, piously highlighted Russia’s bombing of hospitals in Syria – in a classic example of using human rights as a propaganda tool. Schacke didn’t highlight the atrocities from the anti-Syrian government side and the matter of extensive collateral damage (civilian deaths), resulting from US military actions in Iraq and Syria.
Khashoggi’s apparent death has received considerably more attention than the bloody Saudi war effort in Yemen, which has involved some US support for that Saudi effort.
Svido psychoanalysis:
I wasn’t the first person to state that possibility as being within reason. The Kiev regime is corrupt and nationalist enough to pursue such an act. In turn, it otherwise makes no sense for the Constantinople Church to make such a move – seeing that most national Orthodox churches don’t support it.
As previously stated in full –
Tom Rogan Washington Examiner BS
Re: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/russias-orthodox-church-puts-imperialist-politics-before-religious-faith
Written by someone who doesn’t seem to know WTF he’s writing about. The Constantinople (Istanbul) based church doesn’t have the same centralizing powers as the Vatican. There’s good reason to believe that some form of payola might be at play between the corrupt nationalist Kiev regime and Constantinople. The majority of national Orthodox churches haven’t supported Constantinople’s decision to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The established Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is loosely affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate didn’t ask for the Kiev regime and/or Constantinople to get involved with its matters. Note that the Washington Examiner appears otherwise prone to support the idea of a separation between church and state. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church that sought autocephaly approval from Constantinople is headed by someone who for decades supported the Moscow Patriarchate’s ties with the Orthodox churches of Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. He changed course after not getting a promotion within the Moscow Patriarchate.
Nice retort, retard. (Not.)
Anyways, back to the point.
I’ll make this quick (or not):
a) Poroshenko (the Ukrainian so-called “president”) wants to flex some muscle before he get ousted from power, in the Ukrainian tradition. His play is to try and get some official recognition for Denisenko, a defrocked fraudster and criminal and self-styled “Kiev patriarch”. Poroshenko (rightly) believes that he can hold such a petty criminal by the balls even after he get booted by the next scheduled Ukrainian coup d’etat.
b) The Constantinople Patriarch, the spiritual leader of a few thousand still-uncleansed ethnic Greeks in Istanbul, wants to muck about in the Ukrainian mess. Whether this is delusions of grandeur (“muh Byzantium”) or a genuine desire to fix something in Ukraine (lol, good luck) is hard to say.
c) The Constantinople Patriarch has declared formal independence for the Ukrainian church. Note that the Ukrainian church has been de-facto and de-jure independent for a long time already; nobody really wants that hot potato and Russia has been forced to be the formal titular head of the mess. No doubt the Russian Church would let them go completely if they had a way.
d) The Constantinople Patriarch of course won’t grant any sort of official title to a criminal and fraud like Denisenko. He wants to install his own Greek bishops to put the situation under some sort of semblance of order. (Won’t ever happen, of course. Ukraine is too much of a mess for some fly-by-night Greeks to fix.)
e) Poroshenko is a loser who will continue to drown his problems in the bottle after this harebrained plan of his fails. Sorry, lol.
f) The other Churches will denounce the actions of the Constantinople Patriarch because they don’t give a rat’s ass about “muh Byzantium”.
What the hell do Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Abdali have to do with the events that took place in 1857? They belonged to the previous century. Neither of them had stayed in Delhi anyway. Talk about ignorance of history.
The nominal Mughal Emperor was still in Delhi when the Mutiny took place and the Mughal Empire was formally ended by the British only after the defeat of the rebels. Educate yourself:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Rebellion_of_1857
After the outbreak of the mutiny in Meerut, the rebels very quickly reached Delhi and declared its 81-year-old Mughal ruler, Bahadur Shah Zafar, as Emperor of Hindustan.
Bahadur Shah Zafar was proclaimed the Emperor of the whole of India…… In spite of the significant loss of power that the Mughal dynasty had suffered in the preceding centuries, their name still carried great prestige across northern India.[102] Civilians, nobility and other dignitaries took an oath of allegiance. The emperor issued coins in his name, one of the oldest ways of asserting imperial status.
Even though the rebellion had various causes, most of the rebel sepoys who were able to do so, made their way to Delhi to revive the old Mughal empire that signified national unity for even the Hindus amongst them
The sepoys did not seek to revive small kingdoms in their regions, instead they repeatedly proclaimed a “country-wide rule” of the Mughals and vowed to drive out the British from “India”, as they knew it then.
Of course you weren’t, Mickey. Nobody has ever once hinted that you’re a very creative person. All of your BS theories, like undoubtedly this one is, had to be hatched initially by somebody else. Your pleas for sympathy will only garner support from other Kremlin stooge nut jobs, like anonymous coward. A lot of butt hurt, I understand, but go slower on the unsubstantiated BS, Mickey – it’s a sign of abject failure.
,
Another content-free post from you. Way to go! Ukraine’s reputation as the IQ black hole of Europe must be confirmed.
Next step after “””invalidating””” facts by claiming the facts are Kremlin shills: call upon Putler, your Dark God and mental overlord.
To tell you the truth, the Ecumenical Patriarch commited a lot of blunders in doing it this specific way.
First of all, Russian Orthodox Church recognizes Abkhazia and South Ossetia as dioceses of Georgian Orthodox Church.
It also recognizes Donbass and Crimea as dioceses of Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the canonical one. I think it strictly discouraged any moves towards incorporation in Russian Orthodox Church/Moscow Patriarchate dioceses and takeover of Kiev/Kyiv Metropolity property.
So, when Ecumenical Patriarch MEDDLES in diocese of Autocephalus, recognized canonical church, he tramples the basic principle of Orthodox canon.
He will be opposed by Autocephalus Churches and Patriarchs.
He also intends to open stavropegion in Kiev/Kyiv, of Ecumenical Orthodox Church. Bizarre.
He will accept petitions of appeal of Filaret Denisenko, Makariy Maletych and their followers, in accordance with the canonical prerogatives of the Patriarch of Constantinople to receive such petitions by hierarchs and other clergy from all of the Autocephalous Churches. Thus, the above-mentioned have been canonically reinstated to their hierarchical or priestly rank, and their faithful have been restored to communion with the Church.
This paragraph is problematic on several levels. In writing this, he basically forced the hand of Russian Orthodox Church AND other Autocephalus Churches.
Denisenko was anatemised by ROC, so ROC by definition will break off all contacts. Even better, Russian Orthodox Church and its priests, believers will be banned from Athos, Meteora etc. Serb and other Orthodox Churches will be presented a choice between canon, tradition and biggest Orthodox Church with most power, and USA/NATO, Russian containment, geopolitical, Ecumenical Patriarch option.
He goes even further. The Ecumenical Patriarch is REVOKING the Synodal Letter of the year 1686 and its LEGAL bindings. LOL. Retroactively. And proclaiming the Metropolitan of Kyiv a “canonical dependent of Constantinople”!
Finally, in a bizarre ending, he appeals to all sides involved that “they avoid appropriation of Churches, Monasteries and other properties, as well as every other act of violence and retaliation, so that the peace and love of Christ may prevail.”
LOL
As if historically built and staffed ROC properties, monasteries, churches and cathedrals have not already been invaded and occupied (these acts are what makes other Autocephalus churches unlikely to condone this maneuver) until now, and as if there can be “Christ’s love” and “peace” after he proclaimed an anatemised former ROC priest a hierarch of a future Autocephalus Church.
This whole episode will end badly for Ukraine. Hopefully, it will also end badly for vermin that Greeks and Greek Orthodox clergy have been since Byzantine times and especially during Ottoman period.
Because you yourself are guilty of what you accuse me of (Another content-free post from you), and don’t really appear to have much in the department of reading comprehension, I’ll help you out and show you that my last two comment to Mr, Averko have been solely inspired by content, and not empty blow back, like you’ve been able to post. I’ve been accusing Averko of posting unsubstantiated BS, in claiming that:
Where’s any proof of this? It’s all monotonous sounding, empty phrased BS, and if you too want to jump on this train ride to nowhere, then I suggest that you offer some proof too, as I’m about to leave this ride at the next station…
The streets of Kyiv are filled with Orthodox faithful, very much pleased with the way things are progressing. You can’t ignore the voice of millions of faithful. Ecumenical Patriarch will go down in history as a very wise man:
https://youtu.be/bo_7FE9a-QQ
This isn’t a court of law, no “proofs” are possible here.
That said, Bartholomew is a very suspect man:
a) He was educated in Rome, has lots of ties to the Vatican and other creepy NGO’s.
b) His most important parishes are located in the USA and Canada, attended by descendants of post-WWII CIA-resettled “refugees”. (Read: useful Nazis.)
c) He has a long history of stirring up political shit, which is why the other Orthodox Churches don’t like him.
d) He is completely subjugated by the Turks, a Muslim and NATO country.
“Some form of payola” is a good bet considering the circumstances, though emphasis should be on “some form”, not “payola”. Of course the man isn’t motivated by money. He does what he can considering he’s allowed to exist by the Turks with USA complicity after the Turks genocided his people.
It’s known as the “Triffen Dilemma” in economics. In order to meet the foreign demand for Dollars, the US has to run a chronic deficit on its current account.
See this piece: https://qz.com/1266044/why-does-the-us-run-a-trade-deficit-to-maintain-the-dollars-privileged-position/
The tariffs and trade negotiations, along with the corporate tax reform, will help in time. But for now the trade deficit is actually growing larger owing to strong economic growth and the emerging markets all tanking at the same time.
Our current account deficit, while not good, isn’t as bad as it appears because we earn more on our overseas investments than foreigners earn on their American investments. But it’s still too high.
It would be acceptable to run a current account deficit which is smaller than the typical year’s growth in the national wealth. That way we stop losing our country to foreigners, but foreigners still get the Dollars they need.
Ultimately the Dollar’s role as a reserve currency should be eliminated. It’s not good for America or for foreigners.
So was it the Vatican, or the Turks or NATO or the CIA that forced the EP’s hand to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church? Or maybe all of them worked in tandem to force the Patriarch’s hand, in your alternative universe conspiracy theory? His decision couldn’t have possibly been inspired with the desire to bring some 30,000,ooo Orthodox Christians back into the canonical fold now could it? What a ridiculous notion eh, I’ll put my money on your wacko conspiracy theory any day of the week! 🙂
Superb trolling from the President of the United States this morning:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1052168909665824769
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1052171444082360320
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1052213711295930368
Love this timeline.
Maybe the Indians of India will take her and give her honorary status…?
Peace.
Had a very nice acid trip the other day.
The last time I did that was on a skiing trip in Montana, but walking about the psychedelically illuminated environs in Tverskaya while tripping was almost as good.
https://www.unz.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/cyberpunk-moscow.jpg
As usual, this results in a certain temporary loosening of far right ideological binds. But they will be quickly restored, based as they are on ineluctable iron logic, not feelz and whims.
errr…Blackmail by the US you imbecile. Via Greece, via Turkey , via Greek Orthodox Church in America.
You ever find it odd how of the few South American and Central American countries not to have a FIFA Member arrested by the US , were US allies Colombia and Mexico ?( two of the most violent and corrupt places on Earth) but nearly everyone else was arrested- from Brazil,Argentina, Venezuela, Peru,Paraguay,Uruguay,Chile?
It’s the same principle with Bartholomew you cretin
What desire you twerp? Amusingly Filaret is ex KGB and was more then content with the ROC-MP until he didn’t get promoted/his KGB links were about to be revealed.
Around the same time as now that the west are trying to prevent the extreme embarrassment of Ukraine, for the second time in a decade getting their President ( from on illegal western-made fake revolution) humiliated in an attempt at re-election, with a single digit figure….they are also trying to give Ukraine hope on rebuilding the Bystroye canal, which was supposedly shelved due to Romania. This blackmail is obviously part of the same campaign
Speaking of acid trips and mushy feelz, did AaronB fry his brain?
He hasn’t commented since his trip.
Круговорот перемоги и зрады:
https://twitter.com/TheAviationist/status/1048639974772547584
https://twitter.com/DailyMirror/status/1052233332350697473
https://twitter.com/russian_market/status/1052222797190127619
Once the transhumanists learn how to keep somebody alive indefinitely, hooked up to medical devices (reminiscent of the Frankenstein story), they’ll also be able to concoct a intravenous drip system with just the right amount of LSD to keep you buzzed for eternity. Couple all of this with 3-D glasses offering an unique film excursion into the ever-changing montage of floating fractals and stereophonic earphones alternating between the Grateful Dead and Einaudi, who needs Montana?
You’re becoming a God, Anatoly! 🙂
Tell us more, did you at least speak with the great right wing Rus god, Perun, on your trip?…
China Update
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-16/china-may-have-5-8-trillion-in-hidden-debt-with-titanic-risks
According to Standard & Poor’s, Chinese local governments have accumulated 40 trillion yuan in off balance sheet debt.
Defaults on public bonds are also skyrocketing.
Not looking good.
Will China have its first financial crisis soon?
This is what the Sufis warn about; fanaa without baqaa…
One must be careful on what paths they tread.
Peace.
‘Fun without buckwheat’ is indeed difficult. 🙂
But seriously, what does fanaa without baqaa really mean?
not feelz and whims.
You write this like these are bad things.
Little Rascals reference!!!
The spiritual experience of annihilation where one realizes that one has no reality that exists without the Real giving it existence and sustaining it – as one scholar mentioned; it is to experience what is between the frames of the projection of existence. This is result of one working on erasing their own ego and self to bring it in line with the Divine will such that self-awareness is erased. Someone who stays in this state can go insane – some have.
Baqaa is when the seeker is made oblivious of his realization of annihilation such that he comes back to normative reality, though transformed…having been erased. His ego is now in a state of submission, content with the Divine will and he can now be one who benefits others in creation.
This is a fairly good article on it:
http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195390155/obo-9780195390155-0256.xml
This is the realm of states, experiences and tastes…words can only approximate. And no, I have not been through them as yet.
This is built upon many foundational texts; two key ones being:
“Everything upon it is vanishing/perishing (faan [from the same root as fanaa]) except for the Countenance of your Lord, Owner of Majesty and Honor.” (55:26-27)
“Verily Allah, Most High, has said: ‘Whosoever shows enmity to a wali (friend) of Mine, I have declared war against him. And My servant does not draw near to Me with anything more beloved to Me than the religious duties I have obligated upon him. And My servant continues to draw near to Me with voluntary deeds until I Love him. When I Love him, I become his hearing with which he hears, and his sight with which he sees, and his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask [something] of Me, I would surely give it to him; and were he to seek refuge with Me, I would surely grant him refuge.’ ” – reported in Bukhari
Peace.
I stated fact based observations and presented a very reasonable observation, that included the basis for making such.
As can be expected, you provided no substantive counter.
Bartholomew is viewed with suspicion by literally every Orthodox Church. This is a fact, not a conspiracy theory.
What you did in fact, was to try and throw mud on the EP’s decision to grant the Ukrainian Orthodox Church autocephaly:
Oh for duck’s sake, you were never “far right”. You’re a standard liberal bugman, le edgy edition.
Autocephaly cannot be “granted” to someone like a used car, no more than adulthood can be “granted” to a child.
The only ‘used car’ salesmen at this site are those that are trying to peddle the old, warn out Russophilia, Triunism, Sovokism, Stalinism or whatever brand you try to label and hide it under. It’s all the same and only serves only to promote Russian imperialism. It’s a dead duck – let it be! 🙁
Hope not – everyone is tied to China in some form or another…it will resound worldwide.
Peace.
US government officially aknowledges death of its pilot, the first American casualty of Ukrainian war.
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1052261833367797760
i used to love acid
Brainless comment, really stupid comment for an adult
You’re on this site, the fact remains that “pro-Ukrane” blogs are as underground as Bestiality websites ( there is a link of these two categories, of course, seeing as we are talking about Banderite fucktards)
Oh and bye the way, seeing as you are on your period again, and I had the misfortune to go on to the BBC Russian and Ukraine websites for the first ( and should be only time)
here’s something to alleviate your symptoms:
https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/features-45834059
yet more proof of the moronism in calling “Ukrainian” a separate language from Russia
Stalin- the father of Ukraine…really bizarre to try and insult him, or the Soviet Union ( Soviet legacy the only positive thing Ukraine has going for it, if your not into sex tourism), or Russia
More proof of your brainless intelligence – the scary thing is that I think that you believe it to be true. Is this really what passes for wisdom’ in Russophile circles? I don’t think that Karlin has ever even mentioned this ‘truism’?…(I could be wrong).
No thunderstorms in Moscow forecast for the next ten days.
Poor guy…must have had a ‘bad trip’ and is sleeping it off…Maybe Thorfinnsson can revitalize him with a good thunderstrike? 🙂
I guess, new generation in American highschools already changing rapidly since you were there.
It’s cool to have bio-diesel in your car, and “two-strap” your ruksak nowadays?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSa368X1Z2w
There are some vague similarities between Perun and Thor. I should check if there was some specific reason for similarity in mythologies.
I remember reading somewhere that there indeed are some very real ties that bind the two together.
(Don’t let Thorfinnsson know though, you know about his huge ego. Imagine how inflated it will become once he finds out that he’s not only a direct descendant to a Norse God, but to a Rus one too!). 🙂
Views of hippies, are closer to factually correct viewpoints, than of average population.
Some psychoactive drugs help increase sceptical (in philosophical sense) views, which may be part of motivation, at least unconsciously, why – originally these legal and popular with intelligensia substances, were soon recognized for subversiveness and banned by authorities in the 20th century.
However, it’s partly more reflection that hippies were emerging from more bourgeois, and therefore more intelligent demographics, in the most elite countries (America and West Europe) in the mid-20th century.
So let’s say, hippie like John Lennon, develops a correct viewpoint that countries are illusion. This is correct of course – scientifically. Countries are a very recent programming form, mostly evolved ruling European families dividing up territory, and then losing control of their estates in the 19th. (Although programming for countries, is exploiting real instincts – hardware predispositions – we evolved for loving our family and friends).
Problem of John Lennon, is too much scepticism, without constructive alternative, which is identical as someone who wants to uninstall Windows 10 (because it causes him various frustrations) – but then after you uninstall, what operating system are you going to use? Some Linux shit?
People who believe in “motherland”, etc, are more feelz and whims.
Problem with hippie viewpoint, is more that if you uninstall Windows 10 from your computer, then how are ordinary people going to use the computer? People like my parents are not going to use Linux operating system.
And neither hippies are hardworking enough to developed a better software, and put it through careful testing, rather than just beta-testing their badly design product on us all like a Lenin or Robespierre.
I could imagine, he is teaching a yoga course for pregnant women, in the hills outside New York? I’m actually curious what kind of profession produces his strange views.
I think it is quite a large proportion of the city, which became “prestigious”. Although it’s interesting even poor parts of London, have some very nice houses of the 19th century.
Prestigious parts of London, pushed outwards more into the West of the city – I’ve read – because of prevailing wind was in the West to East direction. As a result, air pollution was spread over the East of the city during industrialization.
I thought there was an irony, that the oligarch building a new copper mine (hated by locals for creating more air pollution) outside Chelyabinsk , is living in a part of West London which developed in the 19th century, partly as response to air pollution.
That has been discussed before on this blog, most of the nationalist commenters here would reply that ethnicity is a phenomenon deeply rooted in human nature and that the roots of most European nations existing today go back in some form to at least the 10th century. Azar Gat’s Nations book is a useful presentation of that position.
Don’t know what you see in John Lennon. Something like Imagine is just naive, sentimental dreck of the worst kind. Above us only sky may be true on a fundamental level, but I don’t get how anybody could regard that as liberating, instead of a cause for nihilistic despair.
Another factor occurred to me after I posted this: the easy marketability of used consumer goods on eBay, Craigslist, consignment sales, etc. None of this was possible before the internets. New items like baby gear, furniture, clothes, sporting goods, etc are probably much more price elastic than they used to be because of that.
Epigon, what do you think of these arguments?
https://risu.org.ua/en/index/expert_thought/interview/72711/
So Moscow itself admitted that western Ukraine was not its territory.
Comment?
Comment? Is he lying according to you?
soy in the baby formula
Whatever it is, it isn’t something that pays well. Hence the endless rambling about “materialism”. His views give him higher social status (in his own mind).
I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that he’s a schoolteacher.
Nationhood-denialism arises from the confusion, usually but not always deliberate, between ethnicity and ethnic consciousness. It is only the latter that is even arguably of recent origin.
iirc he wrote that he works in the “New York business community”.
John Lennon is a famous user of LSD (“acid”).
He started to use LSD shortly before it became illegal in America (I believe). Before this, it has been a legal and fashionable drug with intelligensia (for example, English writer Aldous Huxley).
View of Lennon on countries (whether influenced by LSD), is kind of factually correct viewpoint about these not actually existing entities – in the style of scepticism that Socrates (in writings of Plato) was often challenging his naive youth of Athens with.
Socrates uses analogy of himself as “electric ray”, who stuns the youth into state of paradox about their ordinary beliefs. This is quite similar to a role of drugs like LSD in the mid-20th century California.
Socrates himself, was executed for “corrupting the youth” – kind of like the accusations against distributors of acid in 1970s America (after the authorities begin to persecute the substance).
However, Socrates himself (unlike a less sophisticated Lennon), – although perhaps not Plato who created quite extensive theories using the “Socrates character” – was not reacting to paradox by easy answers (just remove all your programming, and then you will live in some paradise).
This is a good point – it’s what I was saying. You can uninstall Windows 10 on your computer. But then you will still need an operating system. And on which intelligently designed (unlike Lenin or Robespierre who just beta-test their shit) software that can match hardware specifications.
Well, perhaps in the end of this century (genetically engineering) we will start to be able upgrade our hardware specifications.
I think everyone is aware there are group differences – or differences in statistical distributions of certain qualities – between different ethnicities.
Well, he sort of was an enemy of the people, and had provoked his death sentence by mocking the Athenian court system, so I don’t feel much sympathy for him. Don’t have much sympathy for John Lennon either tbh.
Around here maybe, but these comment boards aren’t exactly representative for the sentiments of the “educated”.
He also mocked Athenian patriotism, specifically Pericles’ famous funeral oration, in the not very well-known dialogue the Menexenus (although it is admittedly very funny)
Thanks, I didn’t know that, very interesting. So even more subversive than I had thought.
Your viewpoint of Socrates, is similar to (your hated 🙂 ) compatriot Nietzsche.
Although – Nietzsche himself has taken part in this sceptical training, accepted many sceptical conclusions.
Without “corrupting of youth” by Socrates, there would be no Plato, and therefore no Aristotle. So concretely, he was one of the most successful teachers of human history.
AaronB and I had a discussion a while back on this. He was very go-getter materialist and had a life-changing crisis of sorts (he didn’t give details) a few years back. That coupled with subsequent travel around the world that exposed him to different cultures and religions made a very big impact on him…possibly psychedelics as well.
I don’t know how old all of you are nor do I know how old he is (maybe he is in his mid-forties), but there comes a time when man looks in the mirror and he has more white hair* than the last time he looked.
Peace.
*There is an old saying (I think of the Sufis, though not sure); We write with black on white and time writes with white on black.
I don’t know, I’m not that familiar with Nietzsche’s thought, but didn’t he idolize archaic Greece, that is the time before Athenian democracy, when the aristocrats were totally dominant? I’m dimly aware that he regarded Socrates and Plato as a turn for the worse in Greek thought, but I don’t think he had a favourable view of the Athenian demos.
Anyway, I’m not arguing against a certain skepticism, blind faith in any ideology is certainly dangerous.
The book is called “Twilight Idols”.
He wrote it shortly before he became crazy. It’s criticising Socrates very violently.
Considering we also talk about AaronB – he read this book as well. Sometimes he sounds sophisticated, while other times he is writing like a complete redneck. Often in different sentences, within the same comment.
AaronB never seemed like a “redneck” to me. More like a potential cult leader, with all his strange babbling about spirituality (not something rednecks are known for).
I hope he’s all right though.
It’s time for the hippie/far-right synthesis. Enough with the philistines in their white polos and squares obsessed with their “no fun allowed” shit straight out of Footloose. Let us truly become who we are and recover the trippy traditions of such great White leaders as Yeats or Thin White Duke-era Bowie.
Sounds like the Manson family.
Nobody English rates anywhere in Wales. I have lived in Bristol. i now live near Cardiff. Bristol certainly has an older more historic city city even allowing for the bombing. Cardiff is a rather new city by British standards, post 1880. the centre is the best of pre WW1 cities. It is a lot better laid out than Bristol. It is one of the very few British cities where the inner city is more desired than the suburbs. Both are seaports with large coloured populations. Bristol had riots. Cardiff’s happened before the First World War. More economic equality.
https://goo.gl/images/JrTjmd
The big copper coloured building is amongst other things an Opera House but is not called that to avoid charges of elitism. Cardiff also has a symphony orchestra. Bristol has neither. Both are growing very fast but Bristol is just Bristol. Cardiff has a large metro area comparable in population to Saratov.
A very valid speculation, given the supporting points that have been provided and which you haven’t successfully refuted.
Rehashed svido crock:
At this thread, it has been noted that the ROC-MP recognizes OC property in Abkhazia and South Ossetia as part of the Georgian OC. Likewise, the ROC-MP hasn’t claimed OC property in Crimea from the UOC, that’s loosely affiliated with the ROC-MP. These stances are a far cry from the BS that Tom Rogan spouted.
By his glorious logic, Ecumenical Patriarch has rule over every single national autocephalus Church, except Georgian, which should be under Patriarch of Antioch.
Because all of the autocephalus churches were granted tomes by these two, and didn’t have continuous existence.
The same logic and line of reasoning he demonstrates can be equally used to demand return of Moscow Metropolity to dependence of Constantinople, not to mention the Bulgarian, Serbian and Romanian Orthodox Churches.
Even Orthodox Church in Rus’/Rhos was originally staffed by Greek clerics and its hierarchs selected and appointed by Constantinople.
I am not denying the right of Ukrainians of having a national, autocephalus Church. The point is that the way it is done right now makes it impossible to happen, because all of the Autocephalus churches will never recognize it unanimously.
Autocephaly and Patriarchate rank are difficult to obtain, both politically and canonically.
If you are interested in my perspective, I can point you towards behaviour of both Ecumenical and Russian Patriarch in case of Czechoslovak Orthodox Church (actually started as a daughter Church of Serbian Orthodox Church), whose dioceses were carved up and split by the two (Carpathian Rusyn lands to Russian Orthodox Church, the rest to Ecumenical Patriarch), or the predatory behaviour of Serb Orthodox Church during the Medieval expansion period (anatemised by Constantinople), mirroring the behaviour of Bulgarian and Constantinople Patriarchates earlier.
Welcome to Wasteland:
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/10/16/16/5092626-0-image-a-2_1539702150030.jpg
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/10/16/16/5092628-0-image-a-8_1539702191881.jpg
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/10/16/18/5092682-6282699-image-a-44_1539712602795.jpg
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/10/16/16/5092620-0-image-a-9_1539702203456.jpg
What is this ‘loosening’ about exactly, you have me worried did you become intermittently gay or something
How do you perceive yourself as “far right”?
You don’t fit the bill in either Blut und Boden, ethnonationalist sense; nor reactionary, authoritarian path?
Lots of far right men are sharp dressers and hard partiers.
Like yours truly.
Go-to-hell pants certainly weren’t a leftist invention.
AK is trans-right.
Dammit – if a man can’t LARP on his own blog, what’s the world coming to??!!
Peace.
European far right
Ethnofetishism, authoritarianism, traditionalism, religiousness, moralism, reactionary, collectivism combinations of different kinds
USA far right
Individualism, hedonism, degeneracy, materialism, Machiavellian thought, libertarianism, relativism, technocracy/oligarchy, racism
Yeah, Euros were right to tell Bannon to fuck off.
Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria and All Africa:
“Let us pray to God, Who does all for our good, that He would instruct us all for a solution to these problems. If the schismatic Denisenko (i.e. Filaret) wants to return to the bosom of the Church, then he must turn to where he left from. That which has fallen away must return to where it fell from. God is merciful to those who repent, and the Church forgives and receives in its motherly embrace all who repent.”
Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East:
“The Antiochian Church stands together with the Russian Church, speaking against the Church schism in Ukraine.”
Patriarch Ilya of Georgia:
“His Beatitude disagrees with the initiative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate concerning Ukraine, as he recognizes only the legitimate Church headed by Metropolitan Onuphry.”
Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church:
“The Assembly expresses full solidarity, in co-suffering brotherly love, with the martyred sister Church in Ukraine, exposed to the harshest persecution by the current regime in Kiev.”
Holy Synod of the Polish Orthodox Church:
“We express the clear position of the Polish Orthodox Church, namely that the ecclesiastical life of the canonical Orthodox Church should be based on the principles of dogma and the holy canons of the Orthodox Church. Violation of this principle leads to chaos in the life of the Church. “There are certain schismatic groups in Ukraine which must first repent and return to the canonical Church. Only then can we discuss the issue of providing autocephaly. “We must not be led by the political climate in questions of dogma and the canons.”
Metropolitan Rostislav of Czech Lands and Slovakia:
“A schism, caused by man’s egotism, can be healed only through repentance and returning to the Church,” the primate noted. “The new autocephaly must be the result of a consensus.”
Patriarch Neofit of Bulgaria:
“I have always had a very good relationship with His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. We know that he loves the Ukrainian people and humbly labors for the good of Ukraine and all Orthodox Christians. We will be praying that the Lord grant him health and strength to successfully bear the obedience he was given by the Lord, and which he bears with dignity.”
Metropolitan George of Kitros, Katerini, and Platamon (Church of Greece):
“The Greek Orthodox Church and all other Orthodox Churches of the world recognize only one canonical Church of Ukraine—the Ukrainian Orthodox Church headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.”
Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol (Church of Cyprus):
“First and foremost, this question should be resolved by the Patriarch of Moscow, in whose jurisdiction the Ukrainian Church is located, then—the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and then all the Orthodox Churches under the chairmanship of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,” Met. Anathasios stated. “But first of all, the first word is for the Mother Church of the Ukrainian Church, which is the Moscow Patriarchate. To it belongs the first word in this process. “What relationship does the Ecumenical Church have to the Philaret schism in Ukraine? How can it be overcome? We desire that our brothers who are in schism would return to the Church under the leadership of Metropolitan Onuphry—it is the sole canonical Church in Ukraine, having communion with the Moscow Patriarchate, and with all canonical Orthodox Churches… We pray for this.”
As I have said, the moment USA, Protestants and Uniats jumped on board, the Orthodox across the world recoiled in disgust and adopted a hostile stance.
There is literally no worse choice of both people and splinter groups to recognize. It wouldn’t surprise me if some particularly insightful Ukrainian nationalist intellectual/theologian perceives this turn of events as an actual conspiracy against Ukrainian national church, patriarchate status and autocephaly.
Interesting. When were these statements made? Before or after the EP’s actual actions?
Huh?
Where do you get this from?
Initiating area scans
……
Chaos taint detected
…..
Heretical cult presence confirmed
…..
Uploading pict-captures
…..
Targets marked
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Calculating response
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Extreme prejudice
…..
Deploying 3rd Battle Company, anti-vehicle loadout
Before, since he hasn’t done anything actually, just yet.
It’s a tongue-in-cheek observation, but USAians make poor “far righters” and “right-wingers” in European sense.
Jung wrote of Negroization of American Whites and culture/behaviour, I also see the obvious lack of historical foundation and cultural heritage combined with Freemasonry/Liberalism imprints upon American people.
Just compare Polish, Ukrainian and USA nationalist/rightwing marches.
Thank you for your comments.
Ok, but were the arguments wrong, technically?
The problem is that because Moscow will never agree to this it will never happen; and most Ukrainians, unwilling to be under a Church that as Poroshenko stated prays and stands with a leader who is in a low-grade undeclared war with Ukraine, had gone into schism. So we have tens of millions of Orthodox Christians in schism. And because the current widely recognized Orthodox Church in Ukraine is largely the rump Church of remaining pro-Moscow loyalists (about 20% of Ukraine’s Orthodox support it), it itself will probably never change or ask for autocaphaly.
It has done these things:
) To renew the decision already made that the Ecumenical Patriarchate proceed to the granting of Autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine.
2) To reestablish, at this moment, the Stavropegion of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Kyiv, one of its many Stavropegia in Ukraine that existed there always.
3) To accept and review the petitions of appeal of Filaret Denisenko, Makariy Maletych and their followers, who found themselves in schism not for dogmatic reasons, in accordance with the canonical prerogatives of the Patriarch of Constantinople to receive such petitions by hierarchs and other clergy from all of the Autocephalous Churches. Thus, the above-mentioned have been canonically reinstated to their hierarchical or priestly rank, and their faithful have been restored to communion with the Church.
4) To revoke the legal binding of the Synodal Letter of the year 1686, issued for the circumstances of that time, which granted the right through oikonomia to the Patriarch of Moscow to ordain the Metropolitan of Kyiv, elected by the Clergy-Laity Assembly of his eparchy, who would commemorate the Ecumenical Patriarch as the First hierarch at any celebration, proclaiming and affirming his canonical dependence to the Mother Church of Constantinople.
:::
Which of the statements you posted were made before or after the EP did those things? All of them? Some of them?
It’s a geopolitical tug of war, and has always been that way. There is no clean right and wrong in this case, and the delicate matters in Orthodoxy have therefore always been solved through dialogue and communication between Churches in communion.
That is why I pointed to the impossibility of this turn of events producing favourable results. Denisenko as an anatemised, former metropolitan of Russian Orthodox Church is literally the worst person an Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople can choose to restore to his hieararch post, revoke anatema and promote into a Patriarch or an Autocephalus Metropolitan.
Actually, Metropolitan of Kyiv/Kiev and all Rus-Ukraine can ask for Autocephaly. The point is that in practical terms, Kiev Metropolity is autonomous and autocephalus in all but name already.
I would actually be interested in the precise amount of income they pay to Moscow, it is probably a miniscule percentage. Likewise, how much power does Moscow Patriarch wield on the territory of Metropolity of Kyiv/Kiev? I would suspect 0.
Ukraine can always declare a war and break all economic contacts with Russian Federation.
Both you and I know this war is a farse and a proxy conflict with tragic consequences, mostly for people of Ukraine.
And Poroshenko has minimal political legitimacy – this is campaign PR for him. I don’t buy his Orthodoxy for one second. The Jew and foreigner (Turchinov, Avakov) cabal at heart of Ukrainian politics has nothing in common with Orthodoxy and tradition of Rus’.
In reality, the two other Ukrainian churces are schismatics, and viewed as such by Orthodox Churches around the world. They didn’t improve their case in any way when they usurped and encroached upon the property of Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate.
I am not convinced by your numbers, but in any case, having Denisenko, the erstwhile KGB agent, ROC Metropolitan, enemy of Uniats-as-late-as-1990-turned-Uniat-friend and an anatemised individual at the helm of your quest for recognition of autocephaly and patriarchy will not end well.
Orthodoxy is just like that, orthodox. It took extraordinary people like St. Sava to achieve Autocephaly, and who were held in high esteem by the Orthodox around the world.
USAians? Are you a fucking spic or something?
Steve Bannon is a fellow traveler, but he isn’t hard right.
My personal experience is that American far righters are more racist than Europeans (which is praiseworthy–racism is good and objectively correct) and also more in favor of free markets.
Otherwise we seem to be fairly similar.
If some of the European far righters here disagree I encourage you to make yourselves known. German_reader perhaps?
The statement you quoted and I commented on earlier was from 11th October, 2018.
All of the quotes I posted were made before that, as a reaction to his appointment of 2 Exarchs to Ukraine.
I expect harsher reactions and statements in the following days. We might even see Church of Greece and Church of Cyprus standing out against their Patriarch.
LOL, not a spic, but last time I looked, and thankfully, the American continent(s) had not been united under a single political entity.
European right all reject any notion of non-Europeans having meaningful presence in Europe. Even better, they actually advocate for homogenous, nation states, often desiring expansion at the expense of neighbouring Europeans. There is no point being racist in parts of Europe where there are no Africans, Latinos, Asians, Indians etc.
German_reader is not far right. He is actually a moderate, and would be publicly viewed as a moderate in Germany several decades ago.
I actually laugh at the notion of calling AfD or SD right, not to mention far right. Ironically, nationalism and far right courses should be held in Balkans. Croatia has succeeded splendidly in this area, incorporating what would constitute “far right” in the rest of Europe as part of centrist political options.
Thank you. Please post those.
On this I agree. I don’t wish death on anyone, but it would have been easier had this guy passed away.
Poroshenko is a deacon, has been married his entire life to one woman and has 4 children with her. I strongly suspect he is much more sincere in his beliefs than is Putin whom the Russian Church idolizes.
Not anymore. But this sad condition has entirely to do wit the fact that the recognized Church is under Moscow. Bulgarian-Serb rivalry is much less hot than the Ukrainian-Russian one; what % of Bulgarians would go into schism if their Church were placed under Serbia (or vice versa)?
Consistent poll results indicate this. The point is that the recognized OAC largely represents the remaining 20% who are Moscow loyalists and no longer represents most of the Orthodox in Ukraine. Under such a condition, this Church of Moscow loyalists will never ask for autocephaly, and the majority of the Orthodox in Ukraine would forever stay in schism. It’s a dead end. The EP has started to solve it.
Just wrapped up attending an interesting class a few minutes ago on yearly taxation on trade goods according to the classic rulings in the Hanafi school with my teacher…thought some people might be interested in a quick summary – and since it’s an open thread, here’s a breakdown:
1) Muslim male (on goods he owns): 2.5%
2) Muslim female (on goods she owns): 2.5%
3) Dhimmi male (on goods he owns): 5%
4) Dhimmi female (on goods she owns): 0
Apparently, both Muslims and dhimmis can swear an oath to have already paid if they don’t have documentation.
5) Harbi (this is what a person is called coming from Dar ul-Harb with a temporary allowance to pass through): 10% every time he passes through the border – his oath is refused if he claims he already paid, he needs documentation (an exemption to accept his oath without documentation is accepted if he claims the slave women he has with him are the mothers of his children – otherwise they are taxed as his property at 10% market value)
Thus ends a brief lesson of taxation in the major regions of the Abbasid Empire. 🙂
Peace.
I think you got it right. Imo, American greatest weakness is libertarianism. It is a very corrosive/toxic set of memes that precludes any possibility of constructive group action. Its essence is idolization of power in its incarnations like success or wealth. It is very seductive to young males because it has appearance of simple mathematical forms. Women are more likely to be spared. Sometimes you can run into people who managed to snap out form it. Usually they have difficulty explaining the process of seduction and eventual liberation. I think it requires a more complex intelligence and set of experiences to do it. Arguing with the true believers is futile.
Did they? When?
I can’t imagine talking to yourself like a literal retard, but hey.
Lack of inner speech doesn’t mean lack of inner thoughts, some people simply think without words, or at least not fully in words.
Words are an interface so we can transmit thoughts to one another. I don’t need an interface to understand my own thoughts.
A dumb noob anon question: how big deal is the Orthodox split in reality?
If you asked people on the street in Russia and Ukraine, how many would be aware of it, and of the aware ones, how many would care?
Ted Kaczynski is far right. Varg Vikernes is far right. People who go to confession every week are far right. People who live on a farm with five children are far right.
You are not far right. You are a dumbass larper.
Your ongoing mindset (shared by some others) is indicative of why the Orange Revolution/Euromaidan project is counterproductive to maintaining the borders of the former Ukrainian SSR.
Clearly, there’re plenty of folks in that land mass who don’t go against the established UOC. Their numbers are significant enough to feel that they shouldn’t be suppressed. The majority consensus among the national Orthodox churches is with them.
In a just world, Varg would have been executed for destroying that church
Will add that your cherry picked reference of a particular in a questionable (in terms of accuracy) poll, doesn’t take into consideration those OC congregants in Ukraine, who (if anything) seem to be pretty much on the fence in terms of choosing between either the svido or traditional paths.
Sorry, you got this wrong. I have no clue what he did, but a man named Varg should always be assumed to carry the title “the Destroyer”…so they should have seen that coming a mile away.
And never hire a guy named Varg at a nuclear power plant or as a baby sitter for similar reasons…
Peace.
A good deal here on the UOC situation:
http://orthochristian.com/
Sometimes he sounds sophisticated, while other times he is writing like a complete redneck.
A worthy goal for any conscientious redneck.
However, only 20% of Norwegians say that religion occupies an important place in their life, making Norway one of the most secular countries of the world (only in Estonia, Sweden and Denmark were the percentages of people who considered religion to be important lower), and only about 3% of the population attends church services or other religious meetings more than once a month. Baptism of infants fell from 96.8% in 1960 to 53.6% in 2017, while the proportion of confirmands fell from 93% in 1960 to 57.9% in 2017. The proportion of weddings to be celebrated in the Church of Norway fell from 85.2% in 1960 to 33.2% in 2017.
In 2000, the Church of Norway appointed the first openly partnered gay priest. In 2007, a majority in the general synod voted in favour of accepting people living in same-sex relations into the priesthood. In 2008, the Norwegian Parliament voted to establish same-sex civil marriages, and the bishops allowed prayers for same-sex couples. In 2014 a proposed liturgy for same-sex marriages was rejected by the general synod. This question created much unrest in the Church of Norway and seems to serve as a trigger for conversions to independent congregations and other churches. In 2015, the Church of Norway voted to allow same-sex marriages. The decision was ratified on 11 April 2016. The first same-sex marriage ceremony in the church occurred on 1 February 2017 just after midnight.
There is nothing wrong with burning down and destroying Scandinavian and Anglican churches.
There is nothing Christian in them, either.
Faithful….Enlightened….Ambitious….Brethren….
some people simply think without words, or at least not fully in words.
What would they be using instead of words?
Not everyone speaks Bulgarian to themselves.
I just saw a story about an explosive device killing 10 and injuring more in Crimea. It begs the question who was most likely behind this.
Some other “Ukrainian filmmaker”, who hasn’t been captured yet.
So you’ve never experienced having a hard time putting your thoughts into words?
Or thinking something and then spending some time wording it out? I am not talking about having a vague idea, but about analyzing something, reaching a conclusion and then having to spend time explaining your thought process by putting it into words.
Words are a layer above the thoughts, not the actual thoughts themselves. I can’t believe anybody has trouble understanding this.
You need to have a very slow or simple mind if your thoughts flow at the approximate speed of normal speech and only with a language structure.
To be exact, it disrupts the default mode network of the brain so it creates a sense of wonder and reduces inhibitions. This can be useful, but it can also lead to a sense of significance over insignificant phenomenon:
According to the well-known scientific principle that only the smallest possible entitites exist
Ukraine/the West escalating war against Russia.
A bomb explosion in a Crimean school kills dozens.
I don’t expect Putin to react this time either.
Provocations and terrorist attacks against Russia will intensify in the future.
So you’ve never experienced having a hard time putting your thoughts into words?
Every God damn day.
You need to have a very slow or simple mind
Apparently I am not nearly as frightened by this possibility as you are.
I think that I understand what you are saying. I believe that I think using words; it’s just that my thinking words collapse concepts and ideas. For example, I use words like redneck, Nazi, Bolshevik, white privilege, racism, and anti-anti-white propaganda in my thinking. If I had to write out what each of those words mean to me in my thinking, I would run out of life before I got halfway through the list.
Someone like Dmitry seems to be able to spill his guts with no problem and I wonder if he has anything in reserve in his thinking.
Probably a gas pipe leak.
nor do I know how old he is
He wasn’t of age in the ’60s, otherwise he wouldn’t be all in on guru gobbledygook.
New reports indicate that this was an American style school shooting. The suspect is a teenager. He was found dead in apparent suicide. But not before he killed 18 people with a shotgun and explosive device.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DptZbcpW0AA_Ugz.jpg
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/4524836.html
Tell me your ethnic affiliation so that I can shit on you.
? That’s not my impression at all, in most of Europe (apart from the Balkans and Ukraine) that kind of nationalism is pretty much dead, because the territorial issues are mostly settled (e.g. almost nobody in Germany still thinks about the lost eastern territories) and because there are still strong memories of the catastrophic world wars which to a large extent were caused by such expansionist nationalism.
Even many European right-wingers are in favour of some form of European cooperation and don’t want a return to the internecine strife of the first half of the 20th century. The crucial issues in Western/Northern Europe today are Islam and non-European mass immigration.
Le Pen and Salvini said they’re not interested in working with him for the European elections next year, because he’s not a European.
This is my impression as well – as an outsider. The only other big issue being that most European nations are welfare states that are having declining demographics and older populations. I’m not sure what position right-wing Europeans hold on that.
Peace.
There’s no single position on that, but consensus that indiscriminate mass immigration of low-skilled and often fairly stupid people can’t be a solution, but only makes the problem much worse.
A sad event, especially as this sort of thing should not have happened in the worker’s paradise of Russian controlled Crimea? What could have gone wrong?
Obviously the poor boy just couldn’t take all that Putlerite Russian aggression against poor, poor (literally, lol) Ukraine.
It has happened before, a few years ago in Moscow.
The template for that kind of attack was created in the US with the Columbine shooting 20 years ago, and there have been many school shootings in the US since then (also two major ones in Germany, and some cases in Finland iirc). So I don’t see how you can feel Schadenfreude about this incident, it’s hardly a uniquely Russian failing.
Schadenfreude
German has so many damn good words.
Can someone explain this person to me? One minute, women aren’t human; the next, a tender-hearted tribute to the most lovable matriarch on TV.
https://dailystormer.name/goyim-mocked-with-roseanne-fentanyl-overdose-show-death/
Probably wise. To do otherwise would give their enemies a credible claim of “foreign interference,” though of course I disagree that Bannon is “not European.”
I’m just speculating on the motives behind such a tragedy. Aren’t you? You’re absolutely correct in pointing out the universal nature of such a tragedy – but even still, every tragedy of this sort has its own local color and unique circumstances.
And that makes sense, especially given the numbers of immigrants that end up on welfare themselves. I was pointing out that this issue should be of crucial concern to right-wingers independently of the immigration issue, for example some of the Eastern European countries that don’t have an immigration problem, but still have to deal with demographic decline.
Peace.
I don’t see the point in that tbh, it’s probably just a teenage psycho acting out violently for his own personal reasons. It’s disturbing that such homicidal behaviour seems to have become attractive for a certain kind of disturbed young man over the last 20 years, but I doubt there’s much of a connection with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
If 10 children walk into a room and after 5 minutes, they group 5 children into “Team A” and 5 into “Team B”, according to whichever criteria prefer, with each group stating their “right” (they could use more complicated words like “sovereignty” to confuse themselves, and even write works of “political science” on this topic) to remain in one half of the room.
What is status of “Team A” and “Team B”. Teams are not constitute the room or the children. They do not have observer-independent existence (unlike physical halves of room, or children contained within). They also do not have binding observer-dependent existence, except in those 10 children.
If another child walks suddenly into the room, but has not played this game – “Child 11”? For “Child 11”, neither “Team A” or “Team B” exists. For him, simply viewing his friends behaving in a strange way.
“Team A” and “Team B” are not observer-independent (like objects of science), but neither are having existence of “observer dependent, but intersubjectively binding” – like “sweet”, “blue”, etc.
In addition, unlike “blue”, “sweet” – the teams are rapidly changeable, and easy for us to reprogram arbitrarily. (For example, they could decide to rotate members every 5 minutes).
If you are more scientifically thinking person, you could say these teams exist as certain, real pattern of activity within brains of correctly programmed children (i.e. set of children in room except “Child 11”).
However, pattern activity within brains, relating to team membership, will be different within each child. In this case, corresponding to computer science concept of “multiple realizability”.
In other words, almost perfect analogy to existence-status of some light application software, which is arbitrarily re-programmable, within proviso of operating system capabilities, and at much deeper level, riding on hardware advantages/disadvantages.
Analogy of operating system, would be some various features which also include “Child 11” – such as our readibility to form groups and understand concepts of membership, or ingroup/outgroup. All of these will also include “Child 11”.
Important thing is not size of entities, but assumption of laws between them. Chemistry is a branch of physics. If you are working in fields like thermodynamics, then you will be working at this junction every day. This does not imply that chemical equations are not an objective part of the world.
Of course, there needs to be a debate about how to make family formation easier and more attractive. There also needs to be a debate about values, something’s deeply wrong with a society that fails to reproduce itself.
“Women aren’t human” is a leftist concept. The idea being that simply being human makes us all equal and thus deserving of equal rights. On the right we don’t accept this concept, though there are of course varying ideas on just what rights women (or any group of people) should have.
Those of us opposed to female equality, even Anglin apparently, are not without sympathy and love for women. Or at least certain women.
Roseanne has obviously been bullied because she has sympathy for ordinary Americans (like you), and many of us find this distasteful and disgusting. Even though she’s a comedienne and has been in the public spotlight for years, like a lot of women she has trouble dealing with such viciousness.
The opiod overdose angle is particularly distasteful given the current opiod crisis in working class America.
err…you’ve obvious not even heard of him until last week you cretin…and you’re obviously not even orthodox.
As for Filaret- You could pretty much say this about any Ukrainian in power ever ….inevitably there will be some huge Russian connection like that, inevitably it will be that connection that has put them into the position in the first place of ukrop pseudo-nationalist in power you idiot, also goes to show how unwanted and fake west-ukraine is as part of the already fake nation of “Ukraine”, a paucity of western Ukrainians in positions of power…even often prefering American/Canadian Banderatard appointments in place of western Ukrainians. No western Ukrainian as a serious candidate in the Presidential elections…if the mayor of governer of Lvov went to stand…millions of Ukrainians could get injured from extreme laughter
Thus it’s entirely fake and disingenuous and a diversionary tactic for a lowlife as you to claim to have been against the appointment of a guy you’v never heard of before
hahahaha! What attention-whore moronism. Poroshenko/Valtsman is:
a mass murderer and perhaps the most undemocratic President around today, is certain of going to hell
Involved in human trafficking/prostitution in Moldova a few decades ago and in Ukraine
Son of an also mafioso who spent time in prison for it
Nobody disputes that he got his wealth criminally you prick- liberast, nationalist, russian liberast, normal russian, western sources- nobody disputes
How the f*ck do you know if the obese scumbag Poroshenko is faithful to his wife ,? who cares anyway…he’s an alcoholic you idiot, he’s able to get his 4 children ( and Russian grandchildren) off from fighting in the Donbass …not much in line with the fake church of the Kiev Patriarchate , repeated liar,
the 4 children also means 4 extra money laundering avenues for the typical Kiev regime man
President of Russia involves huge travel in many timezones,many cultures, terrorism response, huge international meetings across the planet ( not shamefully only meeting Trump for the first in a huge hurry after being massively embarrassed from him meeting with Lavrov, as Poroshenko did) very paranoid security that is part of the reason he is always hours late, and a dedication to the country that must make it impossible to live as husband and wife for more than 12-14 years as President- something a failure as Poroshenko won’t to get to even half that time
Doe Goebbels with his 6 children and Ceausescu get extra religious points then you thick POS?
Putin on the other hand is famed for living modestly with his family when he worked in Germany and when worked in the office of Mayor Saint Petersburg- the worst oligarchs and jewish liberasts have confirfomed that, is clearly a religious man from how you see how he is in Church, what Orthodox priests have said over the years
As for the rest of the moronic nonsense about the Church….cut and paste drivel of no merit whatsoever
It’s now claimed that the Saudi journalist killed in Turkey was dismembered alive…and the team of assassins seems to have included high-ranking persons closely connected to Mohammed bin Salman. There’s not even much room for plausibly denying that the crown prince himself ordered this.
Astounding, MbS seems to be not just depraved, but also exceptionally stupid.
A series of events have happened in Russia in the last year and a half like this…Columbine-inspired nutjobs….though mainly using knives and axes
Effects on different people of many psychoactive drugs, however, are interestingly unpredictable.
Effect of THC, for me, for example – usually enhanced scepticism compared to normal consciousness.
If I try to watch a film, I usually do not enjoy it, due to having too much scepticism, and realizing how stupidly constructed the story is, or how incompetent the acting.
So in this case, it is increasing sceptical intelligence, compared to my normal gullible state (although within a sedated state, with inferior short-term memory, etc – i.e. being stupider in other ways).
I do not have any experience with “stronger drugs”, like LSD. But of course (at least larger doses), of drugs like LSD will be highly unpredictable, between users and even the same user in different times (some people will have a very happy experiences, others a very unhappy one – and in large enough doses, can enter a completely other world with as much individual difference as there is between our dreams each night).
Do you mean mind-independent existence? I don’t know what your point is about observer independence. The teams would still exist if no-one was watching the children playing.
And? Neither of those properties even apply to nations
You can think of it like that if you want I guess.
I don’t really see what your argument is tbh. The fact that something is mind-dependent does not make it an illusion.
The template for that kind of attack was created in the US
This should bring a smile to Randal’s spirit.
My impression from twitter is that people are outraged by it. I hope the show tanks.
What percentage do you think attends pagan sacrifices (or whatever they do) regularly?
They were built by people who were against homosexuality, and I expect most of the parishoners who attend them are also. How exactly does burning down churches help Sweden or Swedes?
but I doubt there’s much of a connection with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
I think that you might be discounting how readily some of these individuals, like Dylann Roof, for example, shoehorn themselves into the “big picture.”
How long before the Unz Enquirer blames Mossad?
Mossad would have done it more competently. Apart from the sadism (cutting off fingers while the victim is still alive???), the most remarkable thing about this affair is the stupidity of the perpetrators imo.
Yeah, I wouldn’t infer anything about AaronB’s economic status. Out here on the East Coast AaronBs are a type perhaps a little more understandable than from somewhere in the rural Midwest. Though out here one doesn’t really need to go abroad to come into contact with different cultures and religions– and one may well get a better understanding of Hinduism, say, from a friend in Jersey City than from an ashram in the foothills of the Himalayas.
With respect to GR’s comment: spirituality (not something rednecks are known for) I would emphatically disagree– only I would agree it is not generally the kind of spirituality that AaronB talks about. French rednecks produced, for instance, St. Jean Vianney, and they also made up his flock. If the term is specifically limited to Americans, I would not generalize, as they are a very varied lot.
Well, he seems to be tapping into traditions that are far older than just the 60’s wave. He is reading some very old books.
However, I have seen that with these kinds of things, unless on has found a teacher in that tradition, they may be walking away with an understanding that is not what is; a) understood by most adherents of that tradition and b) not intended by the original work and is lost in translation.
I can’t tell you how many people read the translated works of Mawlana Rumi (ra) and walk away having molded a man who was a master of spirituality (while also being a Hanafi jurist qualified enough to be the mufti of Konya) into some kind of panentheist, perennialist hippy…well, that’s what you get for reading Rumi’s poems as translated by Deepak Chopra…
Peace.
STUNNING AND BRAVE (for real though)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpAHjsxHdmu/?taken-by=laurencheriie
No-one is watching the children, except the children themselves. They are watching each other, and teams precisely existence as observance-agreement between 10 children, while following program (we are “Team A”, we are “Team B”) as a verbal agreement.
Observer-dependent is different to mind-dependent, as there are many mental processes which are independent of an observer (for example and most importantly, consciousness itself, which does not require self-observation of that consciousness to exist).
Both, whether we like or not, applying precisely to nations. We only have to look at Ukraine. And of course, large part of our current unhappiness and debates, related to fragility of this program, and our attempt to fight against this, or “strengthen” stability of these programs in our minds, especially as relates to those people who try not to believe in them, or like “Child 11” were not acculturated into this agreement.
Word “illusion” – according to dictionary, implies a falsity.
Not everything observer-dependent implies falsity. Many are analogous less to an application, than to an operating system everyone has to use (e.g. perception of ingroup/outgroup). Others much deeper (e.g. “blue”, “sweet”).
Others (and this relates particularly to politics), are analogous to a recently (and not universally) installed programs, which being constantly re-written, which relates to most political entities, systems, etc.
Finally, of course, we could describe some pieces of political code people write, as viruses, such as Marxism, which can reboot the system, and erase a lot of useful programs we were using.
Ultimately, there isn’t much more to say than this.
Just amazing.
Words are an interface so we can transmit thoughts to one another. I don’t need an interface to understand my own thoughts.
How very Platonic of you. Congratulations on being the first human to grasp The Forms.
How is a nation that has existed for, at a bare minumum, over a hundred years, despite attempts to destroy it, a demonstration that nations are easily changeable?
Which actual nations aren’t. If you believed that some fictional nation, let us say ‘Wakanda’, really existed somewhere in Africa, this would be false since there are no such people. But this is not the case with actual nations like France.
What a lot of illusions!
The whole thing seems so crazy.
I almost wonder whether the Turks may have known about it in advance because otherwise it is really hard to fathom why it would have been given the go-ahead.
Embassies are watched. And if a murder goes done in one that means that it is obviously a command from the top, especially when it is a strongman system like S.A.
It seems to me that the Saudi King obviously wanted to torture him, not just assassinate him. That’s the reason it wasn’t a staged robbery.
Makes me wonder about all those rumors about Putin – the apartment bombings. The story I heard was extremely fishy, but it is hard to tell what is a lie and what is the truth, especially in a foreign country.
Mossad would have done it more competently.
Aren’t they smart enough to do it in a manner that points the needle toward Arabs?
Mossad is pretty direct tbh.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Iranian_nuclear_scientists
Russia is still living in middle ages, how shameful. As said Mr. Karlin, Russia needs NRA and Second Amendment. When every man, woman and child in Russia will be packing heat, Russians will show Americans how to get the high score. Overcome and surpass!
Without doing any hard work on the subject, I am of the impression that the Saudis are in Yemen in a proxy war with Iran. (GR says not and he is pretty reliable except when he’s not.) I assume that Israel encourages this proxy war against Iran. I don’t know anything about this “journalist,” but suppose he was viewed as some sort of threat that could disrupt the Saudi war effort. What then?
Chop up, feed to dogs in a bugged embassy.
North Koreans?
It’s an example of the arbitrariness of these programs. In 1988 – Soviet Union. In 2018, with enough programming in school, a proportion of the population has managed to confuse themselves believe, their separation from Russia is something “necessary and essential”.
France itself, does not have existence, except as a superficial program people are running.
What word “France” tries to refer to (set of people and some land) is what actually exists in an interesting way. But the app – which we currently use to organize certain behaviours – is only an idea, and one which they are constantly re-writing (in the last few decades, they recoded many aspects so that a large part of sovereignty is now with an EU program, instead of the France one).
Outside the school (sound is gunshots?).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snNlTSkbKwQ
Are you saying that when the last Frenchman dies, there will no longer be a France?
I believe this is incorrect because I think that much of our time is spent fighting ghosts from the past or trying to revive them.
Point, which is not complicated or controversial, but just obvious truth, that countries are more like a mutual program to organize behaviour of certain group of people, not to be confused with actual objects being associated with the program.
Obviously, objects we include under the title “France”, are very real – a group of people, with all their own dispositions of behaviour, a piece of land, various objects on that piece of land, etc.
But the concept “France” (as opposed to real objects we use this word to associate with it), is just analogous to a program, which exists at a very superficial level – and for the latter reason, it can be (for good or bad) very easily reprogrammed (as is happening with “France” in the last few decades, where a large part of sovereignty, as well as control of movement of people – historically most essential concepts of nations – has been transferred to EU).
I have to say that I am warming to this batch dumping from your brain, but I have difficulty sorting some items.
that countries are more like a mutual program to organize behaviour of certain group of people
Good description.
not to be confused with actual objects being associated with the program
What does this mean?
I don’t know, but in CS, curiously enough, I would say that “objects” are less “real”, or at the very least they exist at a significantly higher level of abstraction, than “programs”. Perhaps the analogy could stand to be tweaked a bit.
From what I understand a place called Anglessey and another one nearby called Abasok(phonetic) on the coast of Wales are very popular with the British upper-middle & upper classes
Snowdonia a very popular area. I actually went there- not only hiked up and down the mountain but saw the incredible and nationally important Dinowarig power station- spectacular operation, spectacular views and spectacular construction for the time and for now. I assume numerous Soviet spies went there over the years because of it’s importance and easy to do under the cover of tourism
From my perspective Bristol was better ( although I may just be mixing in the best of Bristol and nearby Bath into one city)
Well, Talha, the Eastern traditions say you achieve spiritual liberation by not clinging to any forms, concepts, or ideas whatsoever.
However, this is deeply threatening to the authorities of any society and deeply terrifying to ordinary respectable people who need an “anchor” to feel secure.
So the message, radically simple in itself, must be disguised as “esoteric” and the pretense must be maintained that it is just another course of striving such as ordinary society is accustomed to.
This is the exoteric hull of religion – with its rigid forms, concepts, and ideas. True religion is no-religion.
Spiritual freedom is both subversive and terrifying to ordinary people, and it may be that I was entirely mistaken in presenting here in so clear and obvious a form something that most people cannot digest, judging by the intense backlash I generated among commenters here and the terror and fury – and baffled incomprehension – they responded to my ideas with.
Of course, obviously you belong largely to the respectable people camp, and I do not imagine you have any sympathy with these ideas. But you provide a good foil 🙂
Ultimately, the world needs baffled ordinary people who cling to concepts for security just as it needs mystics who have pierced the veil of maya – the two depend on each other and could not exist without each other. So I do not wish to “convert” anyone. I merely offer an alternative perspective.
But there I go again 🙂
Hopelessly bourgeois 🙂
All these attempts to demonstrate you have value as a person because you have money reflect the status anxiety of the striving bourgeois.
I would have expected from you the studied insouciance of the aristocrat – he disdains to prove his worth to anyone, and money, of which it is simply assumed he has endless amounts of, is beneath him. His superiority is simply assumed. His status secure, he may even go “slumming” and consort with social outcasts, or dress in rags.
He is beyond the social standards which terrorize and strike fear into the hearts of ordinary people.
So “game” fail 🙂
As for me, I live in poverty and dress in rags and make my own moonshine, of which I drink copious amounts – but not because I am an aristocrat, like you, but because I am simply a poor person with little money.
Now, if my supplies of LSD begin running low I may turn up at your door begging for money, so watch out…
Dmitry is evolving to become a mystic who sees past all forms 🙂 A true Mahayana Buddhist.
But I should not push him. He is in s gentle transitional stage and need a space to grow his own wings.
You have one disciple on this blog already. Can you guess who it is?
Hint to the above: This is a fiction.
edit: Oh wow, you guessed while I was asking you! It’s true, all minds are linked…
It’s nice to know that moonbeams still have a safe home.
Did you have a nice trip?
I think you proved my point.
I do like you for the record, and in fact am in agreement with you on many points.
Hey – you’re back! Awesome – some of us got worried about you. Welcome back!
I have heard something of this nature from a couple of talks I heard by a Hindu guru.
I actually do, perhaps surprisingly. What you are sometimes talking about actually reminds me of the various concepts in our tradition which are in coexistence, tension, cooperation and even competition with each other “Shariah (Sacred Law – ‘exoteric hull’ if you will), Tariqah (Spiritual Path), Haqiqah (Ultimate Reality)”. You are focused on the Haqiqah part of the equation (where there is difficulty in putting it into concepts and words since human language starts to be inadequate and unreliable). The tradition I follow tries to respect and bring the three together.
As Mawlana Rumi (ra) stated; “I am the servant of the Qur’an as long as I have life. I am dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen One.”
Though I may not agree with your conclusions, I don’t feel threatened by them (or surprised, frankly) since we had these debates in like the 9th century and the views of men like Shaykh Junayd (ra), Hasan al-Basri (ra), etc. won the day.
“Remember/mention Allah so much that people say ‘He is insane (majnoon)’.” – reported in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad (ra)
Some crazy is good…
Peace.
Your point was correct and perceptive, and I was not trying to refute it. It was a spiritually deeper point than you may realize.
One of the great sources of suffering for everyone in this world is social status concerns – one of the insights of spirituality is that the social “game” is an illusion, and one may lightheartedly play it without taking it seriously. (It does not necessarily mean you don’t play it)
Even high status people are anxious, competitive, and worried – over an illusion 🙂
Only aristocrats and mystics are carefree and fun loving – because the social game does not exist for them in a serious way.
So while you are wrong that I am trying to give my self more status, you were quite right that I seek to see through status concerns.
It was a perceptive comment.
But perhaps I am being over-serious to your generous reply to me – I just can’t help using everything as a foil to expand upon my ideas goddamit 🙂
Thanks, for the record I like you as well, and there is something sympathetic in your character beneath the outrageous remarks. You are at least half-liberated 🙂
By the way, I hope my characterization (from memory) about your past was accurate – I don’t want to attribute something incorrectly to you.
Peace.
I never left – I am indestructible 🙂 Ultimately, I mean, and as all of us are.
Yes, the things I discuss exist in Islam, especially the Sufi tradition, and it’s obvious you are not threatened by these “formless” ideas as people here who think the external world is absolutely real do. That much is clear.
Eastern traditions perhaps extend these ideas to their most extreme form, and Islam is perhaps a half way house. The Middle People 🙂 In another sense, though, Buddhism is truly the Middle Way.
This tension you mention need not be obliterated but transcended by reconciling opposites. We don’t necessarily abandon social forms, concepts, or ideas, we merely don’t take them quite seriously.
A little crazy is necessary for health. A perfectly sane and serious society is insane, and a victim of a wrong metaphysic.
No worries, yes, you were perfectly correct in your characterization.
Social status isn’t an illusion. There’s a pecking order in life. Some people are on top, most people aren’t.
That doesn’t mean the people on top are without problems, as you correctly pointed out.
I didn’t mean that you deliberately chose a worldview that increases your social status in your own mind, just that it happens to work out that way.
There was a time when I didn’t have a lot of money, and just as luck would have it I had more pro-labor views then. Imagine that.
Outrageous remarks have delighted me my whole life, and I inherited it from my father. 😀
Trying to get LESS liberated if you understand what I mean.
Social status is certainly real, as real as anything in this world. I don’t favor obliterating distinctions – just, one should see it as not quite that serious, while playing the game.
The thing isn’t not to play, but to not get taken in by the game. Play with a smile and a wink – although play you must, and take care the serious people don’t see your wink. If you don’t, society will get its revenge on you and destroy you.
Most extremely high status people I’ve known have this twinkling mischievous quality of treating life as a game – they are all half-liberated, and only fail from being saints by being half-serious 🙂
I don’t doubt that ones actual social status affects ones a view of the whole question – however, its circular, and does not answer the question of which “side” is deceived. Possessing money, even accidentally, may create defensive delusions in one mind about what, ultimately, is fun 🙂
It’s a trite and banal observation that many wealthy people are miserable – because they got taken in by the game. Wealth itself is innocent. But if one forgets the illusion, one cannot enjoy wealth properly.
Anyways, anyways. I prattle.
Good luck 🙂
Who are you – reveal thyself!
There are definitely some miserable wealthy people. Somehow these men put themselves into a personal prison. I don’t really get it (wealth only makes my life better), but it’s common enough I’d call it an archetype. Some kind of performance anxiety, usually paired with spousal dissatisfaction.
Treating life like a game is a real treat. Lately I’ve been telling strangers in bars that I am Chinese. In fact, the most Chinese person who has ever existed. It’s a real hoot.
In Macross Plus, a man of very obvious Jewish extraction declares that he is Chinese(Yang Neumann, probably Chinese Jewish); I always found it amusing, especially as in both his nebbish and nerdish ways, he manages to capture the archetype quite well.
Except I would also say poverty can also be played well or poorly – the grim ascetic who takes himself seriously and thinks he’s earning spiritual points by denying himself misses out on all the exuberant fun of being free from possessions and status anxiety, weightless.
Wealthy or poor, we can play our part well or poorly, we can be free or in mental chains – the thing is to be free.
Some of the wandering ascetics – bums, basically – one meets in India have that twinkle in the eye that lets you know they know the game. But some of them are miserable drudges.
Britain has perhaps the finest tradition of free and eccentric aristocrats – it is as if out of the stodgy soil of the British middle classes, with their dull “shopkeeper” mentality, a magnificent plant has grown up.
Ascetic mystic and wealthy aristocrat unite at their core 🙂
Perhaps the important thing is to not be middle class lol. Although even they play their role in the end.
But it seems we are, more or less, on the same page on this.
I like this and this is what I’ve been taught by my teachers as well:
“Know that the life of this world is merely a game and a diversion and ostentation and a cause of boasting among yourselves and trying to outdo one another in wealth and children – like the example of a rain whose [resulting] plant growth pleases the tillers; then it dries and you see it turned yellow; then it becomes [scattered] debris. And in the Hereafter is severe punishment or forgiveness from Allah and His good pleasure. And what is the life of this world except the enjoyment of delusion?” (57:20)
People get real serious when they play Monopoly, Risk and a host of other games – shouting at each other, getting angry – but eventually the board gets folded up and put away.
However, I think for one to consider it a game on the material level, it is helpful to consider that there is a profound and ultimate purpose on the metaphysical level – thus the actual aim of one’s life, desires and efforts. I haven’t read as much about the Eastern traditions, but do they say there is no purpose even on that level?
Peace.
I agree. The problem is many people see this as nihilistic despair rather than exuberant freedom. You can only enjoy the world when you don’t run after it, grasp it, cling to it, try and posses it.
The rich man who clings to his money is anxious and morose – only the man who takes his money lightly is free from anxiety and can really enjoy it properly.
In the Eastern traditions life is seen as play, as “lila” – it has no goal or purpose, but is the divine dance. A God who created the world for a purpose would be a God in need – and thus not God.
In the Eastern view, seeing a metaphysical purpose in life is half-liberating – it does indeed loosen the ties of this world, but imposes other ties and ensnares one in the net of illusion on another level.
If we are all emanations of the divine – all Brahma – we have never been created nor can we be destroyed, and there is nothing to fear or strive after. We have only to free ourselves of delusion. They are paths of liberation not goal-seeking.
Only then can one truly appreciate the beauty, awe, and wonder of this world – when there is no goal. It is not the cold detachment of the emotionally dead but the ecstatic acceptance of the one who grasps after nothing.
Such is the idea at any rate – I understand it clashes with the Islamic view in important respects, but at the same time, Islamic “submission” is a very good psychological device to create this attitude of total acceptance and non grasping.
Architectural critics are always a bit conservative. This guy compares Cardiff with Bologna.
https://www.iwa.wales/click/2018/10/whatever-happened-to-planning/
In the real world, we tie “Russia” with lot of real objects, which actually exist. What actually exists – this is an area of land, something 146 million humans, lots of plants and animals, some tens of thousands of bears. All real things, under the laws of biology, chemistry and physics.
This is the real world.
But “Russia” itself, just a superficial idea/program being used by, or bewitching, various people currently, and which can be judged on how useful or unuseful it is (obviously I think, it is pretty useful), and which is regularly rewritten in different ways.
If we want to find where is this “Russia”, you would discover its real existence only as certain patterns of brain cells firing inside the brains of people living within a certain time period. However, it cannot be reduced to any specific brain, and can be run differently and on very different brains. In this way very analogous ontological status as software.
–
Maybe more simply. If I give my laptop to John Lennon. I assume he will just want to uninstall a couple of superficial programs. Nothing he proposes (assuming the song “Imagine”), will need to touch the hardware, and probably not even needs to change the operating system.
Now whether I want him to uninstall these superficial programs (like “countries program”, etc), is another question. Maybe we find some of this software useful. Generally in history, when people like Lenin have been allowed to go crazy deleting programs – end result is only more desire to find the system restore.
This is an interesting point. Is the claim here that it is impossible for the Divine (and out of Divine purview and prerogative) to create a universe with a purpose*? We would posit that both are possible and perhaps there may well be realms or universes completely distinct from our own that have been created with no purpose, but as far as this one:
“We created not the heavens, the earth, and all between them, merely in (idle) sport.” (44:38)
Not trying to debate here, merely understand the parameters of the position. Debate on these things is usually not fruitful – it really comes down to what appeals to one…almost as useless as debating what color should be one’s favorite.
Ah – OK – there lies the difference. Thanks for the insights.
Peace.
*Here the Muslim theologians pointed that anything that is ontologically possible falls under the Divine prerogative to bring into existence as opposed to something that is impossible; like a square with three sides.
You have a lot of beautiful women in Wales? Or this is another myth from the BBC? 🙂
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2776037.stm
Native Welsh phenotype is small and dark, with black curly hair (a little like Jews)
Generally in history, when people like Lenin have been allowed to go crazy deleting programs – end result is only more desire to find the system restore.
Lenin was a historical figure. What Lenin “was” is in my brain, your brain and the brains of thousands of others. Whether, and to what degree the brain Lenins align with the historical Lenin is problematic. That said, you can never have a Russia without the historical Lenin. To the extent that a historical Lenin forms a part of the concept of Russia, Russia exists without brains thinking of Lenin.
People want to restore the Golden Age. Whether the restoration resembles the Golden Age is a different question.
You seem to only concern yourself with the betas that failed. What about all the betas that were the precursors to the Alphas at which the Gods are in awe.
Making some good points here.
Peace.
I think that the point might be that some of us have no use for a needy God.
Immediately, I have not heard of any famous intellectuals from Wales (although perhaps they are simply seen as British).
On the other hand, with Scotland, there are two of the most important in history – David Hume and Adam Smith.
What about Taffy? Taffy was a Welshman.
Agreed – a god with needs is not God.
Peace.
Doesn’t seem many famous intellectuals?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Welsh_philosophers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Welsh_computer_scientists
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Welsh_scientists
While in Scotland – David Hume and Adam Smith are the two famous ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Scottish_philosophers
In Ireland it’s George Berkeley.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Irish_philosophers
Well, given our psychic identity you knew what the answer was already.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC44pWqqyaQ
But I am also open-handed, so you get another choice as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTAvDwboFVE
Oh my Lord – I haven’t heard that song for ages – my dad used to play it often!
Peace.
Right, a God who couldn’t do something would be a limited God and not God. In other words, can God cancel out his own limitations. If he can’t, he’s limited. If he does, he’s limited.
It’s a double bind.
But this thorny question I leave to the Western theologians who in my view are too enamored of language.
Bruce Charlton and Mormonism solves the problem by frankly making God a demiuege of limited power and not the Absolute, which is a sort of paganism. Those who find this satisfying – more power to them. I find it merely pushes ultimate questions to the background.
The real difference between the Western and Eastern traditions can be better stated as a differing conception of God.
In the East the universe is seen as an organism, in the West it is based on the mechanical model. In the East the world “grows” organically, in the West it is created like a clock.
The West also reproduced the political order in the divine realm – God rules the world and dictates laws, thus creating order, and he is outside nature. In the East order is the organic and spontaneous order of nature, inherently irregular and not following straight lines, and even though the world is an illusion there is no demarcation between natural and supernatural.
Joseph Needham has a fascinating discussion of this in his book on Chinese science.
When the West lost belief in supernatural, all that was left was the traditional conception of a dead and hostile natural realm that needed to be conquered and was never alive to begin with.
The political-mechanical model was replaced by the automatic-mechanism model – the world of dead nature without a divine law giver, functioning by strict laws and straight lines, but basically lifeless.
Fascinating because the Eastern texts are full of passages saying the world has no purpose, and liberation is seen as partly a liberation from purpose 🙂
You are right it isn’t a matter for debate – in the East the primary experiences would be wonder and awe at the natural world, and the bliss and weightlessness of a life of no purpose – in the West the primary experiences would be of strain and striving towards some future goal that is supposed to be utterly worthwhile, but no one can quite define – or its defined in trivial ways, like transhumanism or colonizing space (what’s do great about either).
We each must choose – sorry if incoherent dashed this off in haste on the subway.
First thing I read in the morning – and it’s your idiotic lunacy. The reward – a mild headache. Not what I wanted.
But you can’t pose the question with any expectation of meaning unless you are equally enamored of language, which puts you in a bit of a bind. 🙂
I am assuming this is just your way of saying you love me, Hyp.
You Scands really have to work on your sweet talk.
So let’s forget about language. Its just a game also.
Zen baby!
Which one? (No, I can guess, I think.)
I like the old Hindi songs; they have a degree of compelling and refreshing power to them while the more recent ones, while they can be very pleasant, rarely do. The one thing that I don’t like about them is the rule which seemed common that everything had to be said once and then repeated once over– Awaara hoon is actually not too bad at that.
Second song is great 🙂
Mary Quant looks archetypally Welsh bot not Minogue or Zeta-Jones. Laura Ashley had a similar appearance. I tend to rate Russian women at the top of the looks table. Germans next. Wales scores with redheads. Ours are blonder than Scots and Irish, my daughter insists on the term Strawberry Blonde. On the whole, British women (and men) need a better diet.
AaronB has returned so I took Otto Weininger from the shelf thinking that he may have something on the Jewish trickster archetype. In the meantime I found a very broad generalization of the English that is related to your thread:
Same here and more innocence and a little more class. Maybe I’m fond of them because they remnd me of good times and fond memories when the only concerns I had were; could my friends come out to play.
Yeah – sometimes annoying. Were you ever into ghazals? My parents used to play those often too.
Peace.
I’ve done a piece on inventions in Wales.
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3749809765251710238#editor/target=post;postID=2054558710471819609;onPublishedMenu=basicsettings;onClosedMenu=basicsettings;postNum=8;src=postname
It’s not quite the same thing as intellectuals. many did their best work outside Wales e.g. Bertrand Russell. My relative Thomas Jones the painter, invented modern landscape painting when living in Naples, making his living as an artist. (He also had remarkable brothers including my direct ancestor who reintroduced sheep farming to Wales still an economic mainstay). The pre Raphelite movement, painters such as Edward Burnes-Jones, was centered in Cardiff around the Marquis of Bute, at the time the world’s richest man and responsible for much of the development of Cardiff as a somewhat planned city. A little later, Augustus John became a landscape painter of note. The poet Shelly wrote much of his work when staying on the estate of another collateral relative descended from the Jones brothers, Emmeline Lewis-LLoyd. Emmeline, my G G G Aunt of some description was one of the first Alpinists and made a number of first ascents in the Swiss Alps. She managed to get a date with Victor Emmanuel the King of Italy (maybe Savoy at the time) out of it.
Another ancestor, John Vaughan, was the founding President of the Royal Society (The club where Boyle invented modern science and Newtown, Hooke and Flamsteed developed some of the fundamental principles). Vaughan’s own contributions were scientifically trivial but he kept the King, with whom he had shared exile in France during Cromwell’s Commonwealth, happy and funding the whole thing.He also sorted out complications when Newtown’s niece took up with the wrong sort of man and spoiled her reputation. Vaughan ended up buried in Westminster Abbey (Think Novodevichy cemetery).
Edward Lloyd when in India, conceived the idea of Indo-Europeans. George Everest organized a geographical survey of India which req uired a new scale of thinking. The mountain is named after him.
Although our last independent Prince, Owain Glyndwr, attempted to found two universities in 1405-7, they were suppressed so most publications were outside the country. John Dee, the man who is said to have first planned the British Empire being another example. I disagree with that view but he is in the frame.
The Welsh scored strongly in religion. A group called the 5th Monarchists contributed much to original Non Conformist Protestant thinking before merging with the Quakers. Charles Wesley was bankrolled by his wife, one of my relatives. Thus the Methodist Church. At least 40% of mormans are recently of Welsh ancestry.
LLoyd George did much to set up the 20th Century for the world, especially in such areas as Keynensian economics and social welfare.
Sorry about all the relatives but there is no point repeating Google. The LLoyds of Lloyds Bank (and a big steel company), Quakers from Mid Wales ought to be in here somewhere but I am not sure about their inventions, innovations and intellectual contributions.
I seldom comment but I do read most of Anatoly’s posts and I have a lot of respect for him. I think that it’s OK if we’re not given any more details about what kind of ‘loosening’ he indulged in while on his acid trip. Or what gender and race his trip partner/s was/were.
A substance-induced and temporary loss of principles, that’s all.
The American pilot, who got killed in Ukrainian Su-27 crash, has been identified as “Lt. Col. Seth “Jethro” Nehring, was with the California Air National Guard’s 194th Fighter Squadron, part of the 144th Fighter Wing based in Fresno.”
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DpxJxC-XUAA_k0P.jpg
“Nehring had been a member of the 144th for more than 20 years. He began his career as an enlisted crew chief before being selected for a pilot slot; he flew the F-16 Viper for more than 15 years and converted to the F-15 Eagle, the Air Force said.”
https://www.foxnews.com/world/air-force-ids-american-pilot-killed-in-ukrainian-fighter-jet-crash
And then he went to exercise in the Ukraine…Here is the face of his Ukrainian co-pilot, who also died:
https://www.ridus.ru/images/2018/10/17/831237/in_article_380b8612be.jpg
If Karlin is so serious about raising Russian IQ, instead of pie in the sky genetic tampering ideas, how about just having a program to let in 2 to 3 million Chinese immigrants into Russia a year to race replace the 10 IQ points lower and drunkard Slavs, and before you know it, within a generation or so Chinese, err I mean Russian kids will have an IQ scores in the high 100s, and Russia will be topping the PISA tests for the next 1000 years, you can start by encouraging Chinese real estate investors to buy property in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, just like what Canada and Australia/NZ used to do. And also allow unlimited chain migration of Chinese.
I read a bit about the S-300/400 air defense family. The description I read was way more detailed than what I write here, but I already forgot most of it. Probably some of my information will be inaccurate, because I’m lazy to open my source again, and I forgot a lot. Anyway, I think it’ll be way more detailed than the level we’re discussing it here.
First, the S-300 is an entirely new system, not a simple replacement for the S-200 (which had no self-defense ability, nor the ability to defend itself or be combined with defense systems against cruise missiles, had much lower range, etc.), and basically consists of two main developments, which are so different that they were designed by two different design bureaus. Their hardware has some similarities, but the original versions already have a lot of hardware comparable to the latest S-400 version, except that the software or radar etc. weren’t yet capable to fully use the original hardware. But the original hardware was already developed with an eye on later capabilities, which were fully realized with the S-400 Triumf (and I think there’s still some room for improvement left there).
The S-300V was developed for the army, and it uses tracked vehicles (higher mobility). It’s capable of being integrated with a Tor mobile point defense system to protect itself. Its range is lower than the other S-300 versions, it was mostly designed for different purposes. I think it also has a naval version (or maybe the naval version is entirely different from both? I’m not so sure, I merely skimmed through those parts), though it’s an earlier version, the later naval versions are based on the other, S-300P version. One of the main points of the S-300V were to defend against ballistic missiles (obviously short or medium range missiles with nuclear warheads).
The other main S-300 version (which is the “real” S-300) is the S-300P. It uses wheeled vehicles, and it was developed for the air defense forces of the air force. It is capable of being integrated with the Pantsir system for point defense (similarly to how the other version uses the Tor). Its 1990s derivative is the S-300PM. The S-300P interestingly has an air version, a.k.a. MiG-31, which is basically an airborne air defense system. Defense against ballistic missiles was not an important point.
The system normally consists of a command vehicle and a 360 degree long range radar, plus many small air defense units, with four (and maybe sometimes six?) platoons (each consisting of three-three launch vehicles, normally I think one is on the move, one is taking up launching position, and the third actually launching or being launch capable) per unit, plus one search radar for low flying targets, and one radar to lead fire.
So the S-300PM had an export version, the S-300PMU, which is less capable, but one big advantage is that instead of the command radar its small units are capable of operating independently, at the price of having shorter range and somewhat worse ability to discover targets.
Then in the early 2000s China bought an improved version called the S-300PMU2, which in some respects was better than the S-300PM. Later on Russia started upgrading its own air defense systems to the PM2 standards, which was the PM modernized with everything which was more modern in the PMU2.
Then with some delays they introduced the S-300PMU3, which was the most modern version, and to add confusion, it wasn’t an export version but a domestic one. It was later renamed the S-400 Triumf for marketing reasons. It resembles the export versions in that the smaller units have greater operational independence from the command unit.
I think the S-500 will be an entirely new development, though obviously elements of that system will still be based on the older designs.
Iran probably received the PMU version (some sources say PMU2), while Syria either got PMU2 or some hybrid system with different elements from different versions. Or possibly PM2 from domestic Russian reserves. It is not that much worse than the S-400, though perhaps it is against stealth targets. Then again, the PM2 might easily be upgraded by changing the radars.
The price was much cheaper for China in the early 2000s than it is now, so Karlin’s complaints about “giving away one billion $ to Syria” don’t seem to be fully justified: production costs are (or would be) probably much lower.
One aspect is that the S-400’s nominal range of 380 km doesn’t mean that it can create a “no-fly zone” bubble that large. Simply that it’s already dangerous flying there, but probably to meaningfully deny the airspace, you’d need to deploy these systems much closer to each other. I also think the longest range missile is not yet in service, so the 380 km limit might be even more theoretical than that.
Definitely.
Yes, this is how it seems to me as well. The Mutazilites (ultra-rationalists) posited this kind of thing in our tradition, but it simply didn’t hold up for long.
And our tradition would agree; in and of itself.
It’s quite interesting – in some aspects, the Islamic tradition seems to fit much better in the Eastern camp, but then certain aspects fit is square in the Western camp.
The one thing I’ve noticed is that in the far Eastern traditions there doesn’t seem to be this kind of longing or loving or pining for the Divine – the desire to fall in love with the Divine and to be loved back. The Divine seems sort of indifferent. Correct me if I’m wrong of course. Like, do those traditions have the practice of writing love poems and odes to the Divine?
Like apart from just liberation, do those traditions talk about ways to become the locus of Divine attention and love? For instance are there statements like:
“My love is a right upon those who love each other for My sake. My love is a right upon those who visit each other for My sake. My love is a right upon those who sit together for My sake. My love is a right upon those who maintain relations for My sake.” – reported in Musnad of Imam Ahmad (ra)
Because I think that is a very strong yearning in a person (once they have taken the position that there is indeed a Creator); now how does one – beyond just acknowledging Its existence – develop an intimate relationship with this Being?
I enjoyed the insights as I’m sure I’ll enjoy more.
Peace.
There actually is quite a bit of this language of love of God or some of the Boddhisatvas in the eastern traditions, but generally it is more pantheistic.
I agree with you the essential thing is relationship and overcoming the sense of seperation from nature and the divine that afflicts modern man.
In the east this sense of connection is created by lifting the veil of ignorance and seeing that your sense of being a separate self is an illusion, that you are not seperate from the universe but are the universe itself, that you are not seperate from God but are God.
There is no goal seeking because you already are everything you could possibly hope to be – you must only realize it. That’s why its “liberation” from ignorance and not the attainment of any goal. There is nothing to prove and nothing to achieve.
Modern man desperately trying to “prove” he has significance because he experiences himself as a detached fragment – he has a basic existential insecurity at the core of his being, very evident in many commenters on this site.
In the West, including Islam, the sense of alienation – separation – seems to be healed by seeking actual union with the divine Being, the All, who is experienced as an “other” you connect to.
But the experience seems to be quite similar if not the same.
Interestingly, in the East you do not achieve this through effort, which only builds ego and the sense of seperation, but by surrender, ceasing to try anymore, no longer trying to dominate events or the universe, and realizing you are one with the flow of life. You never had to set up yourself up against life and try and dominate it because you are not separate from it.
The West often misunderstands Eastern traditions as being about self-effort, which delights the ego of modern man – but this is quite false, although to be fair, certain trends in eastern thought lend themselves to thus error, and certain easterners make the same error.
In Japan the most popular Buddhist sect is not Zen but Pure Land, where you frankly give up on saving yourself and simply repeat the name of Amida, a Buddha, who will then cause you to be reborn in a land where salvation is assured. You rely on him entirely.
OT: Is true that at Valdai Club Putin said he would go to paradise as martyr in case of the nuclear exchange?
Re * Boston Dynamic’s Atlas robot does parkour:
Killer Frisbee theorist William H. Calvin had a theory.
He said all Russians would go to paradise as martyrs. The context was that Russia would only use nuclear weapons defensively.
Thanks. I understand the nuclear exchange context. And I understand the context of martyrdom in Christianity but still I am surprised that he used such a strong symbolism and image. How do people react to it?
Where would the guys on the receiving end go? I assume the hypothetical exchange is with the US – also a relatively religious Christian country…
Peace.
American pilot and the Su that killed him.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DpxIzKBW0AAPnrj.jpg
What I learned about the Ukrainian pilot.
https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/diana_mihailova/78277673/1255504/1255504_900.png
As a Russian, Felix is not in a position to gloat about air crashes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Russian_Defence_Ministry_Tupolev_Tu-154_crash
On 25 December 2016, a Tupolev Tu-154 jetliner of the Russian Defence Ministry crashed into the Black Sea shortly after taking off from Sochi International Airport, Russia, while en route to Khmeimim Air Base, Syria. All 92 passengers and crew on board, including 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble choir of the Russian Armed Forces, were killed. The aircraft had flown from Chkalovsky Airport and had landed at Sochi to refuel.
The list of Asian and MENA countries that have or will have the Russian S-300/400:
China
India
————
Turkey
Iran
Syria
Iraq
Qatar
The countries that have it’s American counterpart, the Patriot:
Japan
South Korea
Taiwan
—————-
Israel
Saudi Arabia
Egypt
Jordan
UAE
The “western” camp can be traced back to Ancient Egypt: one life on Earth, bodily resurrection after death, followed by eternal Heaven or Hell.
The “eastern” camp can be traced back to Ancient India: reincarnation until Self-Realization/Oneness in God.
US-China Trade War Update:
The US is exiting the Universal Postal Union. The UPU provides postal subsidies to poor countries. A great example of the sort of BAD DEAL our previous statesmen were delighted to sign.
As a result of the UPU, it can be cheaper to post a package from China to America then to do so within the USA itself.
https://cargofacts.com/winners-and-losers-of-a-us-exit-from-the-universal-postal-union/
Mnuchin threw China a bone by declining to label them a “currency manipulator”, but that is arguably cosmetic since more than half of all Chinese goods are subject to punitive tariffs.
Buddhists “take refuge” in the Three Jewels, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha:
It’s not the same, but kinda similar in practice. Purists would say that sentimental attachment to these things is unskillful, but whateva.
Psalm 91 speaks of God as “refuge and fortress.”
1He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
2I will say to the LORD, “You are my refuge and fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
https://biblehub.com/bsb/psalms/91.htm
Bad news for the votaries of IQism:
http://nautil.us/issue/65/in-plain-sight/your-iq-matters-less-than-you-think
In studies of children and historical figures, IQ falls short as a measure of success.
The result was a group of 1,528 extremely bright boys and girls who averaged around 11 years old. And to say they were “bright” is a very big understatement. Their average IQ was 151, with 77 claiming IQs between 177 and 200. These children were subjected to all sorts of additional tests and measures, repeatedly so, until they reached middle age. The result was the monumental Genetic Studies of Genius
Now comes the bad news: None of them grew up to become what many people would consider unambiguous exemplars of genius.
Furthermore, many [of them] failed to become highly successful in any intellectual capacity. These comparative failures were far less likely to graduate from college or to attain professional or graduate degrees, and far more likely to enter occupations that required no higher education whatsoever……….Strikingly, the IQs of the successful men did not substantially differ from the IQs of the unsuccessful men. Whatever their differences, intelligence was not a determining factor in those who made it and those who didn’t.
The story goes from bad to worse. Of the many rejects—the children with tested IQs not high enough to make it into the Terman sample [called Termites]—at least two attained higher levels of acclaim than those who had the “test smarts” to become Termites. Luis Alvarez [received] the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physics. No Termite received the Nobel, in physics or otherwise. Oops! William (Bill) Shockley is the second Termite reject who went on to attain the Nobel Prize in Physics……But they are not unique among Nobel laureates. Both James Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA’s structure, and Richard Feynman, who worked on the path integral of quantum mechanics, had scores too low to gain membership in Mensa.
More bad news for the alt-right IQists: Sailer has a recent post about ACT scores declining for all Americans except Asian-Americans. Then there is this:
https://slate.com/technology/2018/09/iq-scores-going-down-research-flynn-effect.html
It starts with a London-based researcher, Edward Dutton, who has documented decades-long declines in average IQs across several Western countries, including France and Germany. “We are becoming stupider,” announces Dutton at the program’s start. “This is happening. It’s not going to go away, and we have to try to think about what we’re going to do about it.”
It’s wrong to hint that scores on tests of memory and abstract thinking have been falling everywhere, and in a simple way. But at least in certain countries—notably in Northern Europe—the IQ drops seem very real. Using data from Finland, for example, where men are almost always drafted into military service, whereupon they’re tested for intelligence, Dutton showed that scores began to slide in 1997, a trend that has continued ever since. Similar trends have been documented using data from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. At some point in the mid-1990s, IQ scores in these countries tipped into decay, losing roughly one-fifth to one-quarter of a point per year. While there isn’t any sign of this effect on U.S. test results (a fact that surely bears on our indifference to the topic), researchers have found hints of something similar in Australia, France, Germany and the Netherlands.
And, to the great disappointment of the racist alt-right haters, Trump yesterday bestowed America’s highest military honor on this african-american veteran of the Vietnam War:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/retired-marine-receives-medal-honor-vietnam-actions-n921531
https://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2018_42/2609306/181018-medal-of-honor-trumpcanley_51d27f185ff516cce894205af709e671.fit-1240w.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=IpkX6aIrSQc
Very, very tangentially related, but since this is an open thread I thought I’d share it with you lot, perhaps German_Reader could translate this gem?
Some interesting discoveries of human-only(so far) neural structures:
https://reliawire.com/rosehip-neurons/
As per the article, I highly suspect that primate brains have the same structures(very dubious anything is truly unique to humans) but likewise, it casts a lot of doubt in mice brains as good mapping to human cognition. Hopefully there will be a followup study soon to find analogous structures in macaques, etc.
I’m probably the wrong person to ask, my proximate milieu consists mainly of visceral Putin haters who think everything he says and does hastens some kind of catastrophe, and their reactions are predictable and boring. Perhaps someone else could chime in on what normies think about it. There were a lot of strong words, apparently, in his presentation, including how Russia is impossible to conquer because its people are willing to die for the motherland.
Except civilization, and language, and art, and love. But other than that, yeah, humans are no different that animals.
(Sarcasm, in case you’re too far gone to perceive reality.)
Modern secular materialism is the most insane and divorced from reality religion in the history of humanity.
Luckily for you, Talha, Mr. P addressed this issue rather specifically. He said that the attackers would be sinners for having attacked and would, therefore, not be allowed into paradise. Nor would they have time to atone for their sins before being destroyed by Russian retaliation, so they wouldn’t go anywhere, they’d just be dead. This is almost verbatim what he said.
It’s a promotional video by the Berlin police, to show they’re against “hate” (Wir setzen ein Zeichen gegen Hass could be translated as We’re taking a stand against hate), pro-diversity and that policemen can be the “homies” of youths with a migrant background.
Berlin of course has massive problems with criminal Arab clans…I recently read how they came to the city in the 1970s and 1980s: they came as “students” to East Berlin, crossed over to West Berlin through a “gap” in the border (with the connivance of the East Germans), and then couldn’t be deported because they were or claimed to be stateless. Through family reunification and high birthrates their numbers have now grown to about 140 000 in Berlin. An expert on those clans (himself of Lebanese origin) recently said about them that “They’re regarding (German) society as prey”:
https://www.cicero.de/innenpolitik/arabische-clans-neukoelln-kriminalitaet-libanon-parallelgesellschaft-innensenator
There have also been reports that they’re now trying to infiltrate the police force in Berlin…the left’s diversity obsession and the push to make the police and civil service more diverse is helpful in this regard of course.
The Saudis are now considering replacing MbS with his probably saner and less ambitious younger brother, Prince Khalid bin Salman.
Too much cocaine
Wow – that is one of the most handsome and regal-looking 80-year olds I have ever seen – mashaAllah.
Peace.
What’s the source on this? This kind of stuff usually doesn’t happen without a coup, civil war or assassination in that region. Even some of the current Gulf monarchs overthrew their own father.
MBS is not going to simply go quietly if he can help it…
Peace.
Yes I can see that there are similarities, but seeking refuge is not quite the same as falling madly in love with – I think you would agree.
For instance, there are a couple of supplications that the Prophet (pbuh) which distinguish between the two:
“O Allah, I seek refuge with Your Pleasure from Your anger. I seek refuge in Your forgiveness from Your punishment. I seek refuge in You from You. I cannot enumerate Your praise; You are as You have praised Yourself.” – reported in Abu Dawud
“O Allah, I ask You for Your Love and the love of those who love You, and deeds which will cause me to attain Your Love. O Allah, make Your Love dearer to me than myself and my family…” – reported in Tirmidhi
There are portions of the Psalms that are absolutely stunning in their composition and beauty.
Peace.
I read it on Zero Hedge, who based their story on Le Figaro.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-19/saudi-allegiance-council-meeting-secret-consider-mbs-replacement-report
I’m not sure if MBS will have a lot of diehard supporters if the entire Saudi ruling class (including the king and his own brother) turn on him.
Makes total sense.
Interesting…I know the Orthodox hold a different view on this, but I remember conversations with an Evangelical Christian at work who was adamant that a Christian, who had faith in the Son of Mary (pbuh) having died for his sins, would gain salvation no matter what he did; he just needed to believe in the sacrifice and redemption. Not my religion though.
There would of course be millions of innocents killed in said retaliation, millions who didn’t want Russia attacked in the first place…but, what’re you gonna do; if you want a mutually-assured-destructive omelette, you gotta break a few tens of millions eggs…
Peace.
Sure, in which case he will be placed in house arrest or exiled, possibly after his inner circle is eliminated. But something tells me he wouldn’t be in his current position without a significant amount of support in the first place…don’t know.
I certainly hope it doesn’t come to civil war – that could be very, very destructive and disruptive to the world.
Peace.
err…yes Felix is in a position you revolting troll excrement. In every relevant facet of life, Russia does significantly better than Ukraine…..richer, less corrupt, less income tax, tax better spent, even ( embarrassingly) living longer, the Hermitage even gets 3 times as many tourists per year as the whole of ghosttown Lvov
The take-off ( which phase the genuine tragedy with the Tu-154 occurred) or a much less automated to fly and older plane is significantly a more dangerous period then what seems some inexplicable incident, well into it’s flight, with the comedy aspect of it being Ukraine’s “best pilot” vat of lard and an American you mentally sick tramp…of what happened this week in Ukraine.
Reasoning of the nature of source by the results can lead to ridiculous conclusions in regards to complexity of source. For example:
A) Agriculture and animal husbandry are signs of higher intelligence.
B) Chimpanzees and protohumans do not practice agriculture and livestock keeping.
C) Ants practice agriculture and animal husbandry.
D) Ergo, ants are of higher intelligence than chimpanzees and protohumans.
Sensible premises leads to senseless conclusion.
It is, of course, obvious that the results of human intellect are unique to hominids, though not necessarily of Homo Sapien Sapien as per evidence of Neanderthal art and death customs. But what makes humans unique is most likely the configuration of our neurons and genetic mutations that led to the development of an extensive prefrontal cortex and other mutations that lead to distinctively human behavior and capabilities.
On an epistemic level, assuming human uniqueness de jure is unhelpful insofar as biological substrate; for example, assuming that said “rosehip neurons” are unique only to humans can lead to almost certainly misleading conclusions on their importance to overall human cognition(given their purpose as inhibitory neurons as far as we know, this is probably a mistake, humanity is probably not defined by our inhibitions); at any rate, by assuming that they might not be so, it leads to additional knowledge seeking and hopefully helps us continue to learn about the nature of cognition, how animals experience it, and how to work with it in various models. It also decreases the number of models we can use for experiments to help us better understand, and benefit humanity.
And when you start with that foundational principle the approach seems coherent; love, longing and pining are of course a corollary of separation and distance.
One question on this; I believe in the past, this kind of pantheism or panentheism was predicated in a belief that the universe (as God) was beginninglessly eternal – is that still the case?
And again, this is interesting because the impression I have from the other Western traditions fits well into this paradigm (especially as you describe the universe as being like a clock such that you have the Maker and the clock as two separate things, perhaps sharing some mutual plane of existence). In our tradition it’s different (these things always get fuzzy when trying to figure out metaphysical realities); what’s posited are grades of existence. So we have wajib ul-wujud (Necessary Being) which is an attribute of God’s Alone – He is the only Being that truly Exists, Independently and by virtue of what He is Alone. What we see in the phenomenal world is al-wujud al-mumkin (possible/contingent being – contingent upon Him willing it into existence and sustaining it, in each moment, by the Divine Will). Thus we don’t really say the created world is neither disconnected/separate nor truly independent from God, but we say it is other than Him because – in its quiddity – it is an imperfect grade of existence; being neither necessary nor independent.
This is what I have read and heard about in lectures, which is somewhat surprising and somewhat not; that most mystical traditions report similar experiences. If one was to take, for instance, the words in the poems and aphorisms of men like Shaykh Ibn al-Arabi (ra) or others (and even some hadith) in a literal sense – one would assume they are speaking from a pantheist tradition. In fact, they were sometimes accused of doing so by people who took their words literally.
In our tradition, whatever the spiritual experience; the servant/lover remains the servant/lover and the Master/Beloved, the Master/Beloved.
Interesting – I did not know this.
Yes, once you break through the shell, there is no escaping this conclusion:
“The Prophet (pbuh) said; ‘Be deliberate in worship, draw near to Allah, and give glad tidings. Verily, none of you will enter Paradise because of his deeds.’ They said, ‘Not even you, O Messenger of Allah?’ The Prophet (pbuh) said, ‘Not even me, unless Allah grants me mercy from Himself. Know that the most beloved deed to Allah is that which is done regularly even if it is small.'” – reported in Bukhari and Muslim
Again, many thanks for the insights!
Peace.
That pilot looks upset in those photos, but surprisingly very huggable*. For some reason, I’m getting a Boris Yeltsin vibe from him.
Peace.
*It’s too bad, he would have made a great squishy grandpa (the best kind) to some little kids.
Yes, the universe is seen as uncreated and eternal.
I understand the emphasis on relationship. The idea is to discover you are already in a relationship with everyone and everything in a way that cannot be broken.
So what is the goal and aim of the Western tradition is seen as always having existed and as something that cannot be lost and cannot be attained. You need not struggle – struggling only obscures the relationship. There is total existential security. No need to build phallic rockets and penetrate space to prove your manhood 🙂
Love is the bond that unites two into one. So everything already exists in a relationship of love. The universe IS love (yes, utu) in its truest sense.
So what you aim for in regard to your creator is seen as the fabric of the universe.
Buddhism believes in Gods, but consider them to be as much trapped in illusion and in need of liberation as humans. Power is not impressive to Buddhists. There is a story of Indra the creator God boasting of his creation of the world and being seen as rather foolish.
Anyways that’s the idea, I realize you think differently.
The necessary thing is to completely surrender to the flow of life and give up ones struggle to dominate it – since you are one with all of it, its like the dog biting his own tail.
I have little doubt your cheerful and pleasant and happy demeanor comes from the tremendous release you have from surrendering to God, and thus the flow of life, and in having the proper attitude of non-struggle towards the world which is really yourself you feel tremendous existential security.
It is equally plain that someone like utu or Chieh are anxious and unhappy because they believes in the Western tradition of trying to dominate the world, eating their own tails. That’s the predicament if the West in general.
But its all part of the divine dance – when the West abandons their attempt to dominate, their happiness will be the more intense when they now know trying to dominate is futile.
It was s probably a natural and inevitable development of nature trying to dominate, but it will pass like all cycles do.
Seems to me the Saudi system is mostly based on the loyalty of those who are given oil money, plus nepotism. The question is how well can MBS control that. The country is not named Saudi Arabia for nothing.
On the other side, I think, is mostly the relationship with the US. I imagine that the arms industry has special pull beyond what one would generally think of supplied goods or replacement parts. There’s a lot of money involved for them, and I bet they aren’t keen on losing it. But the optics of MBS remaining in power probably make the status quo politically unfeasible. They will lobby to have him removed, for sure.
My money is on MBS stepping down formally, but retaining the real power. It will be interesting to see how things develop. I don’t believe there will be civil war, unless the checks stop going out. The outcome may finally answer the old question about who controls who in the US-Saudi relationship.
It will also be interesting to see how this will effect Neom. An idea that many have derided, and which to me seems like a desire to copy Dubai.
No, he is not- he gloats about Ukraine losing a jet flown by it allegedly best pilot in an accident (presumably as proof about the sorry state of the Ukrainian military) , yet two years ago Russia lost it military choir in a much more high profile accident. Russia’s military is not in a sorry state, though, right?
And this makes sense when you posit the initial principle. A question; how do Buddhists deal with infinite regress and/or the data that the universe seems to have had a beginning? Is the universe in some kind of cyclical process?
This would also make sense.
No problem, I’m asking questions to learn more and simply sharing the perspective I’ve been taught. Disagreement is fine as far as I’m concerned.
“…Verily in the remembrance of God do hearts find contentment.” (13:28)
Pascal said soemthing similar; that the heart of man has a “God-shaped” vacuum which will not be satisfied with anything else.
Indeed, once you put things in perspective, the worries and anxieties go away:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2dWvyY481I
“Renounce the world and Allah will love you. Renounce what people possess and people will love you.” – reported in Ibn Majah
Likely…because it seems unsustainable…something will have to change eventually.
Peace.
Yes, I agree. I would just add that refuge in itself inspires a certain sentimentality (in a good way) over time. Imagine you have an heirloom painting passed down through generations of Talhas. It’s known to heal and comfort all who look at it, and loved and cherished for its beauty and power. It also has the magical property of replicating itself for any who wish to make use of it, so you can give away your painting and keep it, too. The three Jewels are loved and adored in that way, as their name suggested, as a kind of cherished and venerated
So yes, it is quite different. I only mean to say that Buddhist sentimentality is real and authentic, not that it is identical with Western sentimentality.
No idea why “possession” is block quoted above.
Good point.
Hmmmm…very interesting proposition. If he really was controlling things efficiently from behind the curtain, how would we know…?
Peace.
Yes, I see your point.
I would agree here too.
Peace.
The Buddha himself studiously avoided these matters.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Poisoned_Arrow
I see – so the point is to stick to what matters in the day-to-day life and not spend too much time worrying about intellectual exercises.
To be honest, my teachers have taught me the same; don’t waste time with speculative matters and what not, make use of the time you have before it leaves you.
Peace.
In such a patronage system, it might be difficult to tell who steers the ship. If there is a new crown prince, even if he is independent, he may not want to lose any of the supporters of MBS by going in a different direction, or canceling his pet projects.
If Aramco cancels its IPO, I think we can definitely say that he has lost power, but otherwise, it might be pretty hard to tell.
The Hindus think the world is cyclical – gets destroyed then starts up again. But what get a destroyed is just the game God is playing with himself – the world of forms as manifesting God. The forms disappear.
Then God doesn’t manifest for a roughly equal amount of time, then it starts again.
The Buddhists dont speculate too much but this is the background to their thinking also.
There is only energy – the world that began is only a particular manifestation of energy, but the energy is uncreated.
Science shows that solid objects are really just patterns of energy and not solid at all.
The West of course will change, and instead of viewing modernity as a perverse anomaly, perhaps we can see it as a perfectly natural part of the cycle.
After all, we have myths from ancient times about societies that chose the path of dominating the world only to collapse in on themselves. The Tower of Babel, Atlantis, etc.
This seems to be a perennial theme, and maybe it’s a perfectly normal part of the cycle that happens again and again.
LSD isn’t helping your theory of mind, Aaron. Maybe Thorazine will do better.
Don’t take it personally 🙂
I actually like you, but you’re also a very good example of anxious and gloomy modern man who takes himself and the world too seriously and tries to control everything.
So I have to use you in my examples. But – nothing personal 🙂
This is why I suggest Thorazine for a better theory of mind. You have a very poor understanding of me.
Oh, I am not trying to understand the real Daniel Chieh, only the persona that emerges from your many comments here.
It is this ghost I am concerned with. His relationship to the real Daniel I cannot know.
But this ghostlike persona is an interesting character who exemplifies a common modern type very well.
So I must continue with ghost-Daniel 🙂
Ah, but for a few grams of Thorazine, you could save yourself much of the trouble of shadowboxing.
In other words, ruin all the fun – so typical of you 🙂
Ghost-Daniel is true to form tonight I see 🙂
There are more entertaining challenges when you have skin in the game.
Skin in the game is fine, as long as it is still a game 🙂
Yes, 200 mg daily of Thorazine would be great fun. Try it, its only a game, after all.
Now at least you are talking my language 🙂
But all life is a game, and I am already playing. As are you, even though you don’t realize it 🙂
What you do not sufficiently appreciate is that we want the same thing – you think the most important thing is to overcome the feeling of being a separate ego in a hostile environment, by controlling nature through science.
Although I doubt you have ever thought of it in quite these terms 🙂
I agree with this. That is the most important thing. It is the source of our anxiety and sense of inadequacy.
We differ in that I think overcoming this feeling involves a correction of metaphysics – enlightenment – whereas you think the feeling is an accurate description of objective reality, and thus only increasing our knowledge of how to control nature can cure our sense of powerless inadequacy and anxiety.
You accept your metaphysical assumptions and do not question them, so you must find me insane or psychotic. It may be your mind works in such a way that logical positivism is the only metaphysics you are capable of believing in.
More likely, you are unsure – and so you attack and defend, out of a sense of threat.
Which is all fine. You may attack my method of reaching the goal as insane, and find only logical positivism a sane metaphysics, without understanding you have simply made a choice. I am not asking you to change – change is impossible.
But – your fury at me may be tempered by appreciating we want the same thing, and are not truly enemies 🙂
And trust me, this is an accurate read on you – don’t bother pretending 🙂
Yes, it seems to be a cyclical thing. The Qur’an mentions a particular archetype that occurs again and again; God blesses a people in order to test them – will they be grateful or not – inevitably, they turn out ungrateful, turning their backs on Him and attributing success to themselves. The more He blesses them, the more they become arrogant and the more they turn away from Him. This continues until they have borne enough evidence against themselves. At this point, they either turn the ship around or God replaces them with others:
“How many were the gardens and the watersprings that they left behind, and corn-fields and noble buildings, and pleasant things in which they delighted. Such was their end, and what had been theirs We gave to other people to inherit. Neither heaven nor earth wept for them, nor were they allowed any respite.“ (44:25-29)
Thanks again with the insights.
Peace.
Very interesting, it is a good myth.
I wonder though if it is a moral failure or an unfortunate cognitive deficiency. If one is a logical positivist, then one cannot help but try and dominate nature to alleviate the anxiety and sense of inadequacy that comes from seeing oneself as a separate ego in a hostile world of dead matter.
Buddhists emphasize ‘ignorance’ as the main source of our troubles for this reason, but it seems to me that it is getting at the same thing.
I used to rail and fume at these people who desire power and especially the originators of science – bit more and more I see it as just an attempt to alleviate the existential insecurity that comes from what Buddhists call ignorance.
You see this clearly with utu and Daniel – are they bad, or trapped in a wrong metaphysic? I used to say Daniel was bad for trying to control his interactions with women – but isn’t it just anxiety?
But I think our different traditions are really getting at some fundamentally very similar phenomena, although taking different approaches.
Thanks for your comments.
The “connivance of the East Germans” part is very interesting… so GDR had cold feet about their ‘students’ and decided to use them as biological warfare? Or were they illegal immigrants from the beginning?
I used to read Zerohedge a lot, I think they’ve predicted over 100 of the past few financial crashes of this decade. Like Unz, the comments are usually better than the articles.
You should ask Ron for a ‘Ask a Russian’ column to replace the glorious ‘Ask a Mexican’ by Gus. Seriously. Think about about.
I don’t have fury at you. That’s for utu, who must serve his divine purpose.
I like fighting because fighting can be pretty fun, not because its of great importance to me. I just mock your logical fallacies. Otherwise its hard for me to care much; you overstate your impact, which I suppose is a relatively normal symptom of psychosis. Its amusing in the contradiction it implies in supposed ego-death.
Like everyone, I have concerns. I like looking for solutions to problems and puzzles, including those in life and using knowledge to resolve them. I like testing out hypotheticals and seeing what their results are. Emergent properties and behavior are fascinating to me, and I have any number of theories about structure. I’m not really a particularly anxious person at all, and to some extent, rather enjoy “anxiety-inducing” situations because I am atypically calm. Arguably its one of the aspects of my career, along with reducing the number of them. Its arguable if at some point if obsessive analysis was a means of dealing with anxiety earlier in my life, but its a pretty fixed part of who I am now.
You’re not an enemy. I don’t even dislike you, that would mean a lot more emotion than its really worth; any number of people in this world certainly have their own explorations of the world. Good for them(and you).
They have their limitations, basically they are a funny inverse of the cheerleading financial press. Their content varies in quality, but you can find good stuff. At least they are against the establishment. I don’t read the comments there, because their commenting system is horrible.
The US is about to withdraw from the INF treaty.
How long before all arms reduction treaties are abolished?
That is a very good image you’ve drawn of yourself. I wouldn’t change a thing. Change doesn’t work anyways.
A bit aloof, rigid, defending against a hostile world by emotional deadness, but that’s fine.
Now if you could simply laugh at yourself a bit that would make you divine. Continue to play this role, don’t change a thing. But laugh at it. Understand it’s a role.
There is no such thing as ego-death – we play our roles, but we don’t take them seriously. That’s ego-death.
My own role is perfectly absurd and silly – but I play it, while laughing 🙂
I have one quibble though – telling me I’m crazy and taking drugs isn’t exactly pointing out my logical fallacies 🙂
If you wish to continue taking your role seriously, that is ok too. That’s also a game.
Powerful take from the Numinous Negro Scientist:
https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/1052030055566598144?s=20
The students were the vanguard and discovered that it was possible to cross into West Berlin from the East…which then led to large-scale illegal immigration. Basically people traveled to East Berlin with the intention of crossing over into West Berlin and claim asylum in the Federal republic. Not just Arabs, but also Africans and large numbers of Sri Lankan Tamils.
The GDR profited financially from this because those people travelled to East Berlin in the GDR’s state airline Interflug; and I guess they also thought the issue could be used as political leverage against West Germany, maybe also for a destabilization of West Berlin.
Anyway, I googled it, and the numbers are interesting: In 1985 73832 people applied for asylum in the federal republic who had entered West Germany without valid papers – 60% of those crossed from East Berlin over into West Berlin.
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/die-gegenwart/fluechtlinge-vor-30-jahren-nach-drueben-13939024.html
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13518878.html
The fundamental issue has always been Germany’s idiotic right to asylum, guaranteed in the Basic law of the federal republic, one of the supposed “lessons” from our Nazi past. It was clear already in the early 1980s that it had the potential to lead to endless mass migration, and there were calls to change it, even by some Social Democrats. But the asylum lobby, national masochism and braindead “humanitarianism” won out, and as a result Germany is on its way to being destroyed as a nation.
groan
The Turks probably didn’t get the recording from an Apple Watch. The likely reason they haven’t disclosed it yet. They have probably bugged the consulate, and don’t want to admit it.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/15/khashoggi-apple-watch-recording-in-saudi-embassy-nearly-impossible.html
Do you support independence of Wales from the United Kingdom?
You could probably lower corporation tax to 5% (like Republic of Ireland) and attract a lot of multinational corporations.
Main problem of blacks in America, as I understand American discourse, is lower frequency of intelligent people in the population. (And various problems of lumpen lifestyle that result inevitably from that, as well as, fanatical attempts to overcorrect it as part of some attempt for religious self-cleansing from half of Americans guilty still about slavery).
But then when there are cleverer (or at least academically clever) black people, like ones who successfully completely PhDs in physics and then published research papers discipline like this one you quote – then they are promoted (by the side supposedly “anti-racists”), as some kind of “positive freaks” and “miracles”.
Actually, probably quite weird situation to be psychologically, one of the cleverer blacks. In addition, if you like things which are usually attracting more contemplative (like classical music), then black rednecks probably say you are “trying to be white”.
You’re the person who is generally elevating “East” mentality against “West” (or European mentality, to include Russia). But Daniel Chieh is Chinese, and perhaps quite representative of his nationality’s worldviews – so by your simple hypothesis, shouldn’t we all be listening to his advice? He’s perhaps the only example of an East-Asia acculturated person here (if we exclude that crazy guy who was writing texts in Chinese writing a few weeks ago).
That’s a really shallow reason.
Daniel Chieh is about as Western as it gets in terms of metaphysics. He is a full on logical positivist materialist realist who believes in human salvation through technology, control of nature, and locates happiness in some vague future as the result of hard work and sacrifice. Therefore he is against fun, frivolity, alcohol, and drugs, he is gloomy and serious, tries to project an image of rigid, defensive ‘strength’, and tries to control his interaction with women, because women represent nature, and nature is hostile and frightening.
He pretty much a good Protestant.
The only ‘Chinese’ thing about him is some social and moral influence from Confucianism, that leads him to appreciate collective welfare, noblesse oblige, and appreciate the role of effort as opposed to genetic determinism.
This is not a racial thing Dmitry.
Mainland China is now deliberately trying to emulate America and be coming quite coarse and stupid as a result.
Its not even East vs West, before modern vs pre-modern.
It is likely that these ‘Eastern’ traditions will be better realised in Europe in the near future than China, and probably this generation of Chinese are a lost bunch.
After all, you note that Europe is becoming Japanofied 🙂
And thank God.
They have their own language as well.
And according to Philip Owen, a lot of successful people and intelligensia.
Advantage of independence would be their own fiscal rules (allowing lowering corporation tax, which is how ROI has economic liftoff), as well as their own immigration rules (ROI has a specific policy to attract also non-EU skilled workers).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCjLWzRUZik
Logically, if the spiritual elevation of your enlightenment was of some genuine greater awareness, it would certainly survive the paltry efforts of antipsychotics. After all, if its only a game, why not play at it? Unless, of course, it is in fact, a form of psychosis.
That, and the enormous claim of awareness while being nearly totally off about the psychologies of others…well…it is pretty entertaining. But yet, if it serves a purpose for you, it does seem all in all rather harmless.
Ah, but unlike your gloomy prospects for the inability of change, I have presented an easy path for your recovery! Rest assured, I remain full of hope for you as you continue to shadowbox this “DanielChieh” of your fervent imaginations.
This is a better reason. But taxes is probably the most lame reason possible to declare independence.
Neither Ireland nor Wales need more non-Europeans.
It does seem interesting like it would sound interesting with another accent, but their British standard accents makes it just sound as if they are speaking English backwards.
There is no ‘elevation’ – ideas of better or worse, superiority or inferiority, only make sense from the perspective of an ego that sees itself as separate from everything else.
Spirituality is liberation from all that – it is ‘beyond good and evil’.
You are trying to judge my vision by your accustomed standards but fail to realize it is a liberation from that whole way of thinking.
That is why I say you do not need to change, nor can you. Your character is part of the dance. You only need to view yourself with detached amusement 🙂 And only if you wish, only if the pressure and gloom become too much for you.
I think we both know I got you pegged 🙂 Own it. There is no shame in it.
Of course you serve a purpose for me, and I you – I could not exist without my opposite. Its like front and back of the same coin. I could not know I see life as a game if there were not people like you. You would not know who to despite and be furious at if there were not frivolous people like me.
You only need antipsychotics, if you have symptoms of psychosis.
Aaronb does not say he has any symptoms of psychosis, just redneck tendencies.
The problem with his comments, is too much redneck essentialism and categorization of people and ideas into large groups (“West”, “East”,etc). And then claiming some of these are better than others.
It’s true different nationalities emphasize different characters and points of view to an extent, but within any larger population there will be still full spectrum of personality types and viewpoints (even if some are persecuted by others).
More civilized society, is resulting in better, productive relations between full spectrum of personalities, which we actually achieve very well in the modern society (which should have space for both poets and policemen).
As you become cleverer, you start to see most topics from multiple available viewpoints – resulting in more sui generis combinations, and even more problems of categorization. (And, again, why more civilized society will allow cleverer people to combine multiple career paths).
Benefit of independence will be mainly in fiscal independence. And clever policy in this area, is how they could raise living standards (Ireland is a role model in this area).
Ah, but that is just, inability to change is not gloomy but liberation – it is lightness and freedom. This is what most people do not understand. This is why you fight me : ) You think the thing that would liberate you would harm you. It’s perfectly natural. That follows from your wrong metaphysics, Buddhist ‘avidya’.
You are an ’emergent property’s of the pixels on my screen 🙂 Such an insubstantial wraith nevertheless provides me with a good foil.
These sentences sound like some parody.
Perhaps I am a psychotic redneck 🙂
Is that what’s bothering, Dmitry, that I make sweeping generalizations about nationalities without including caveats, reservations, exceptions?
And this from someone who claims he’s read Twilight of Idols and N in general… 🙂
Ireland’s policy for inviting skilled non-EU workforce, is one reason why it is attractive to non-EU multinational corporations (which includes “giants” like Google and Intel), and which is a significant segment of their newly high GDP .
Keep it up!
If corporations attracted, are working in technology, pharmaceuticals, etc. Then longterm effects of lower corporation tax, could even be eugenic contribution to a country.
This assuming that being clever has a heritable component, and that clever people have children.
Ultimately, clever people are moving to countries, only if there are jobs with higher salaries for them.
Importing a foreign overclass isn’t likely to be positive for the native population either.
Long story short, the antipsychotic I mentioned promotes the dopaminergic systems with a reasonably reliable effect on cognition to counteract serotonergic arousal. Its been associated as one of the most “anti-trip” medications out there.
At any rate, I think that society(and not even just humans) faces common issues of resource availability(food, status, etc), negative emissions from existence(pollution, waste, crowding), shelter from hostile elements, and so on. The prosperity and pleasantness of human societies, what you call “civilized”, comes from the range of solutions that help address these. Some are better than others within the context of our social and technological demands and expectations; e.g. nomadic pastoralism had a limit on population and crowding.
I believe Mr. Karlin described it basically as such in one article, and its a brilliant notion. It is a complex problem and I would note that the increasing range of people you have in your society, “diversity”, the more problems it can generate as well as potential solutions(maybe). At any rate, there’s increasing homogenization of the world thanks to mass communication and American Cultural Victory in our Civ game of reality, for better or worse.
As for AaronB, most of his rambles these days are just that and unfortunately seems to miss the rather obviously stated. He’s still entertaining, though. His understanding of East Asia is, well, confused and I used to put in pretty extensive examples demonstrating that. But ultimately, its not all that important. Given that at least some of his conclusions have been “the world is great with thieves and junk in the streets”, its clear that he’s working from vastly different terminal goals. Its pretty harmless all in all,
Higher tax income should lift living standards for the natives, if they do it cleverly. This is what smart people are thinking about.
If you compare Russian-speakers and Russians in Ireland who come as citizens EU states – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, with Russians who come directly from the Russian Federation.
The latter mostly young people with qualifications equivalent to M.Sc., and professional jobs (or being family members of such people). The former, mainly ordinary workers (although I do know a guy who is half-Russian Jew/half Estonian – from Estonia, who has a job in Google).
Professional immigrants are a result of low corporation tax, while the unprofessional immigration is a result of EU open borders.
Professional immigrants would be categorized (by believers in heritable component of intelligence), as eugenic immigration, while the unprofessional immigration (created by open borders regime) as dysgenic.
Whether there will be some “foreign overclass” of descendants from the workforce of mulitnational corporations, in the countries that attract them? It’s funny to imagine, but the higher management people are more locals, or people who can move around between different branches more easily.
Indeed, and it’s not like our political and cultural elites have ever been wrong about anything. They know what’s good for us and we should trust them unreservedly. If Ireland wants a good future in our global village, it should do everything in its power to attract benevolent corporations like Google (whose employess are tirelessly working for the good of all mankind) to its shores. There is no alternative.
I don’t know, my impression is that this is what’s happening in large parts of the formerly Anglo world (Canada, Australia, even the US) with East Asians and subcontinentals. And despite (or rather because of?) their privileged economic position, many of those immigrants seem to nourish extreme resentments against the native white population.
And people working for large multi-national corporations are likely to have adopted globalist values and to actively work for their propagation.
Corporation tax has been rising to very high levels in most economies, and all major economies. And then, when they try to correct in recent years, it was by very small numbers.
This is how Republic of Ireland created such a huge advantage, and nowadays a few other countries – mainly Hungary – try to imitate.
I believe tensions are mainly with unskilled immigrants, like the kind received from open borders situations.
When normal people immigrate for job offer in a corporation, receive the work permit for skilled profession, they usually do not create tensions, not exactly competing with local workforce, or have much free time, let alone give a shit about local politics.
For example, racism against Polish people in Ireland or UK, is because they are open borders immigrants living in proletarian areas, and competing with local proletariat and lower middle class (arriving without a job, and then applying for blue collar or lower middle class jobs, which competes with locals).
Non-EU program, is giving work permits (aside from for nurses) only in some high-salary professions, where there are more jobs created mainly by multinationals as well as startups, than available candidates. Of course, eventually there should be local development of the education system, so the local people can get more jobs in these areas. But currently, local people are not producing nearly sufficient numbers of qualified people to match the large investments in these industries.
Even comparatively high-skilled immigrants can be problematic when they become resentful ethnic activists and promote anti-national policies, to turn their host society into something that suits their own interests and reduce their sense that they don’t really belong there.
To be brutally frank, I’ve reached the point where I’m largely opposed to most non-European immigration (apart maybe from mostly inoffensive groups like Filipinos or Thais), no matter the skill level, because even many of the supposedly Westernized Mideasterners, Africans or Subcontinentals are constantly pushing for liberal immigration policies, whining about “racism” and denigrating the native population. Just take a character like “Okechuckwu” on this board, supposedly a successful businessman…Ireland (or any European country really) would do well to keep such ethnocentric aliens out, because their cultural impact could only be negative.
I think the problem is mainly coming from poverty. All we have to do is fixing the schools, which is actually easier with the high tax revenue paid by the corporations attracted by the lower tax rates and the easy availability of the many high skilled immigrants. This will achieve the end goal of raising GDP. It’s pretty bad to even think about lower GDP growth, no smart person would want to move to a country with lower GDP and higher corporate tax rates.
That sounds dangerously close to a trivialization of structural racism, the legacy of colonialism and white privilege. To focus solely on socioeconomic issues means ignoring the special experience and suffering of people of color.
There needs to be an even greater effort to create a truly inclusive society…racists need to be ostracized completely from society, if they can’t be reeducated. We also need to think about quotas for people of color on every level of industry, politics and the civil service, to ensure truly democratic participation for all, especially historically marginalized communities. Inclusiveness and diversity will also benefit the economy and attract foreign investors. The concerns of ignorant, racist hicks shouldn’t be taken into account. That demographic is thankfully dying off anyway.
Asian immigration in Australia is an absolute disaster, housing prices are now completely unaffordable (you don’t even have to be a citizen to own land there), most new developments are Chinese-owned, the universities are ¬50% Asian (because since privatisation foreign-students is how they stay afloat), who incidentally constantly cheat and plagiarize, every major company and building in major cities are covered in Chinese hieroglyphics, there are property ads on train-stations only in Chinese, Indians are omnipresent in all low-skilled work (the managers only hire their own) and generally have poor attitudes and smell bad… no it’s not an ideal situation even when such groups are overwhelmingly non-violent and law-abiding.
Chinese are relatively polite and assimilate in the open (though I hear they speak very differently in private), whilst higher-earning Indians are quite openly contemptuous, rude and clannish. Plus their lower-castes are likely the dumbest people on the entire planet, much more so than any negro. I remember being fined for speeding in Australia, coming to pay and there was an Indian casually explaining to an officer that ‘it was simply fun to drive drunk’.
You are an idiot for ridiculing a truism like the above. Typical alt-right woman hater.
For your information two women won Nobel Prizes in the sciences this year (in Physics and Chemistry).
Based Turks get what others wanted.
https://twitter.com/kambrone64/status/1053718338327732224
How do you swarthy Caucasians get along with the white anglo Australians nowadays? I remember reading about the Cronulla Riots. They still call the MENA types like you “wogs”?
It is a race to the bottom at the expense of other tax payers.
https://twitter.com/adam_tooze/status/857644264964190210
https://twitter.com/adam_tooze/status/1026438488772804608
The Saudi crown prince appears safe for now, and feels betrayed and angry. He didn’t even understand the outrage.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/scandal-over-dead-journalist-jolts-heir-to-saudi-throne-1540076164?mod=e2fb
It’s interesting that Turkey got the waiver. Does it mean that it’ll get the F-35 Lighting jets, after all?
Cronulla riots were building up over a period of years due to the cultural mores of the Lebanese Muslims in the area clashing with the very relaxed mores of a working-class beach suburb of Sydney. Greeks, Italians, Maronite Lebanese and the rest are long assimilated at this point, ‘wog’ if it’s ever heard today, is only self-used in the same way that American negroes refer to each other as ‘niggaz’.
Also, my roots come from a centuries-long diaspora. You couldn’t tell me apart from anybody else in Balkans.
Should the Russian government try to raise IQs by encouraging mass immigration of high IQ Chinese, say 2 million or so a year, in order to race replace the 5 to 10 point lower IQ Slavs? This will work better than pie in the sky genetic tampering.
Genetic therapy isn’t that crazy.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609643/2017-was-the-year-of-gene-therapy-breakthroughs/
Turkey returned the guy Washington wanted.
https://bilder.bild.de/fotos-skaliert/donald-trump-us-pastor-bittet-gott-um-uebernatuerliche-weisheit-fuer-ihn-200945097-57816080/7,w=658,c=2.bild.jpg
NPC Meme meets Bernie event
https://twitter.com/irootsorg/status/1053685330140975105
I actually have some acquaintance with Indian classical music since I studied the tabla s a child (I was very bad at it; I have never had any sense of rhythm or time in music, which is less than ideal for a percussionist; possibly with much hard work I could have created one, but at nine or twelve I didn’t care to give it that sort of commitment), so that takes me back. Yes, ghazals are good. Here’s one being sung at Benares:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxt9MKULcaE
I don’t know anything about ghazals in Persian or Arabic and in English I only know them as a poetic form which is usually executed rather poorly. To be honest I don’t keep up with Indian classical music much anymore; as a matter of fact music in general has been somewhat notably absent from my life recently, and my tastes in general are very American and Western. I like Mozart but it’s an acquired taste, and I find his religious music just a bit secular for me, though still very good.
All Indian music is somewhat less systematized than Western, and North Indian less than Carnatic, partially due to the more cosmopolitan mixture and jumble of cultures. I wouldn’t imagine an Arab would ask in what raag a ghazal was to be sung! This is also true of the Hindustani language, as you pointed out in an earlier comment to which I intended to reply but now likely will not. Especially musical Hindi, using the court language, is very Perso-Arabized. Sometimes you even find that a root which has been lost in Hindi is preserved in Tamil, of all places; the Hindi for “rose”, at least in songs (like the Rishi K. one I posted then) is gulab (Persian or Arabic), while the Tamil is roja, distantly cognate with Latin rosa and with rose. There was a movie by that name, which introduced A.R. Rahman, of whose work I have never been too fond. He started out writing advertising jingles (not that I have anything against them) and somehow it shows.
Film songs vary quite a bit though and in connection with the discussion of Carnatic music, this is one made of a poem of the great Bharathiyar. (You will seldom hear a Tamil mention him without the adjective.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdsCcPw4hqQ
That was a good era for Tamil films/songs but it was a better one for Sinhalese films, which had excellent music sometimes. Ganga Addara, for instance is probably better than about 95% of Indian film music (the remaining 5% being classics).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q4oAMesAB8
Unfortunately I can’t find a version with subtitles. Originally this song was written in English (it was, bizarrely, translated into Sinhala, and vastly improved, by a Tamil, Augustus Vinayagaratnam, from the English of a Sinhalese, Nimal de Mendis) and there are versions of this online. But the Sinhala is much better and more haunting.
And the Sinhala film industry, also, is much less soul-eating than the Indian (as you mentioned) or, God forbid, the American; possibly this is simply because stardom is somewhat unimportant in such a tiny pond, and possibly because film is very much integrated into the theatre and other intellectual life of the island. But there are fewer tragic stories– except for Vijaya Kumaratunga, the guy in the song, who got shot in the head. But that was hardly unique to him in the Sri Lanka of those days.
Sorry that this comment is somewhat disconnected, but I’m trying to get up to date on several strands of discussion at once.
Sinhala music also benefited from having more of a pop scene (Radio Ceylon, baila, etc.) than Indian, where “pop” was somewhat more dependent on films; the island not having much in the way of courts rather limited the local classical tradition though. But pop music in general is a recent phenomenon dependent on recording and radio technology. The Ceylonese also were on the edge of the Latin world which produced the first international “popular” music, even before the technology existed to embrace it– according to wikipedia one of the first internationally popular songs was the habanera “La Paloma”, which became popular as far as Afghanistan, of all places, and which even now, 150 years later, if you’re like me, you have probably heard without knowing it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8aN99X5MAY (The above version recorded in Germany.)
The habanera “La Bella Lola” (less well known outside the Hispanic world) was taken up by the Navarrese and turned into a song about getting shot and bleeding to death, showing the priorities of that tough people.