SANCTIONS - SOUTH AFRICA

21 July 2022

These sanctions worked. A white minority government handed power to a forming black government as a result of a universal condemnation of apartheid.

 In 1968, the then SA president Vorster banned a UK cricket tour because the team contained a black player. Sanctions started in the sports industry, in particular cricket and rugby, mutch loved by all South Africans.

 And later, the ban extended to music with for example a concert by Elton John transferred to neighbouring Botswana.

 In 1985, foreign banks called in their loans.

 In 1976, civil unrest began amongst children in Soweto, which eventually made the country ungovernable.

 The collapse of communism in 1991 and changing world politics as the world became more inclusive following globalisation also played into the the worldwide anti-apartheid movement and global support for human rights. There was a popular world wide boycott of goods from South Africa. All this especially at a time when in the mid 1980s CND were marching through the streets of London, the conial power. 

 The US didn't have the same sporting and commercial links, but protests started there in churches and eventually forced big business to disinvest and the US government to impose financial sanctions.

 So we see that following decolonisation there was a worldwide revulsion at apartheid and this coupled with boycotts and sanctions lead to the transfer of power to a black majority government.

We could at the same time ask why sanctions were not applied against Israel another apartheid regime. And the answer lies in the very active support from the essentially American Jewish lobby and the history of pogroms and the Holocaust. 

So in this case, we might expect to see a flourishing, if contested, Zionist regime from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean.

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ENERGY WILL BE RATIONED

The EU has a plan to reduce energy consumption by 15% by next March.

It's a clever and detailed plan that breaks down your permitted consumption levels by EU state, first public sector must make economies, then commercial and finally individuals.

It's a proposal from the commission and needs to be approved. 

I just wonder how they will decide the split between states, industry and private individuals; and I wonder how they (the EU) will ensure compliance (by states with their plans). Do people get (digital) ration books? Is it done with the smart meters?

So I guess that's hundreds of new processes and hundreds of thousands of new staff to run all this for the EU bureaucracy. Love it.

What about the effect - on top of recent vertiginous price rises and caps- on GDP, on employment and share prices?

Will Germany shut down its automobile production lines? The principal Industries using up energy are automobile and chemicals, the biggest consumers of Russian gas. These industries will suffer the most and in particular ... the manufacture of fertiliser - oh rich irony! No food.

The Europeans can join the starving billions of the South.  And no doubt there will also be new covid-style handouts for industry and the public to keep them off the streets.... I mean there's the price caps on energy and petrol and the subsidies that they require; and now there'll be more subsidies to keep industry open even if the wheels aren't turning, and for people who lose their jobs. And surely this subsidies should be means-tested, or perhaps we have given up caring about the effects on future generations, to further plump up the state bureaucracy. Or we could organise auction sales of gas, at least for industry.

Just gets dumber and dumber with more and more hot air.

How will the public take price rises and now rationing? I guess in France the gilets jaunes are ok as they keep themselves warm on their roundabouts with braziers of foraged wood. But yes, how will we deal with heat waves and winter freeze-overs? We need an energy lockdown, obviously. And they are recommending that we turn offer our Wi-Fi at night, but what about turning off the data centres as there's so much duplicated and obsolete data?

What started as a western boycott, is now Russia turning off the taps. And just as we go into the final death spiral of debt along comes LNG at four times the price, I gather, of piped gas....More top ironies.

And we're told it was Putin who miscalculated!*

*PS Putin started cutting back delivery of gas over a year ago, it seems, to stop Germany from topping up its reserves. E'ez a clever bugger!!

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A THREE FRONT WAR

AMERICA'S GOALS IN ITS WAR WITH RUSSIA

 Interesting view from Russel Brand

https://youtu.be/uAnpvte1l10

I'd imagine that many people do not like RB's manner. He's a bit shouty, a ranter.

While his style is popular tabloid, he's making the profound points of all political analyst able to think freely about "America's war with Russia". Brand is someone not misled by propaganda or emotion, it's the facts that count. He is also by nature a contrarian and a self-publicist.

Three complementary points to his video:

1. Yanukovych (2005 - 22 Feb 2014) - popular opposition because he backed away from EU membership, supposedly...

2. He makes a moral point: Ukrainian people should not be used as cannon fodder. That's true, but irrelevent to foreign policy. Europe and RoW objects to America ripping up the world as we want to live here. (The American Order needs profound reform, which the UN or a sovereign Europe can propose as basis for ending this war. But Europe is helpless, because 100% dependent.)

3. He could make reference to New Russia - the Donbas was conceived by Catherine II and designed & built by Potemkine.

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

I am curious to know why zelenski was making all those return trips to Israel and what is the purpose of biden's visit this week to the Middle East.

I think the agreement this week that Israel be allowed to over fly Arabia was not made for commercial reasons, but it was to allow Israel to bomb Iran.

This would prevent an opportune moment for China to take to Taiwan.

And that we will open a three-front war that is likely to crack the planet open like a soft-boiled egg. 

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LANGUAGE LEARNING

Naom Chomsky was first a linguist and then a political activist. His idea is that grammar is a set of Rules that given an input of all known words in a language can produce the infinite array of all possible grammatically correct sentences visa rules for grammar but there are also rules for words for accent.

Now we have computers that are so powerful we can build neural networks and these are are tools that allow for artificial intelligence and learning.

Below, is a video that explores this idea for for adults learning a second language

What are your thoughts?

https://youtu.be/qyjorhutyr4

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JOURNALISM AS PROPAGANDA

The journalist today have been eaten up by the blob and become the soft power that sells America. The Intelligence agencies and the military prepare their daily briefings, which they send to the news channels, who then edit and publish them

Journalism used to be objective, neutral and balanced, but today it is subjective and political. 

Instead of being left to make up our minds, today we have the views of the elite that support their interest, repeatedly imposed on us. The elite manipulates and exploits the public at large, and serves itself from the wealth of future generations.

As you've probably guessed I don't really have a lot of faith in the Anglo-Saxon news channels. They seem extreme in their vehement support of causes that are wrong. They misrepresent and mislead their publics. US and UK governments, serving big business, cancel their opponents.

Whereas if you read the stuff from Deutsche World or from some of the French channels, they seem a lot more balanced, both sides are usually given fair and thorough hearings. Democracy seems to work better.

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OUR LEADERS HAVE ABANDONNED US

10 July 2022

 https://rumble.com/v1bjo2d-biden-reads-teleprompter-instruction.html

Our leaders have abandonned us.

Biden reads through the stage directions as well. He has no thoughts of his own. Kamala Harris is as vacuous, she is hairdresser material and gives hairdresser interviews.

You're left with a feeling of unreality, it's phony, our leaders have abandoned us for publicity and self-display on the international stage, they are out of ideas, they have no plans, the whole setup is Potemkin village.

Viewers of this Biden interview are left feeling weightless, with scores of missiles rushing past them, to thud into old familiar landmarks. The past is being wiped, rewritten, the headlines do not tell us the truth, the narratives are see-through propaganda, we are told by Biden and others that we are the white supremacist oppressors.

Disconcerting. End of the "unipolar moment", alas. Leaders on their way out everywhere across the Western world. Most of the world is privately wishing Russia wins, get rid of these arrogant American bullies, can't reform the USA, can't reform the EU, NATO is headquartered in Arlington County, Virginia, not Brussels. 

Reform of these and other institutions created after the last World War is impossible, just we wait for their collapse....but then a new Order will emerge and this is not going to be favourable to us and our interests.

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AND THE MORAL OF THIS STORY IS ...

9 July 2022

 America wants to weaken Russia? Why?

If you look at 10,000 years of recorded history, you might think it's all familiar and predictable.

It's one power seeking to take the territory of its neighbour, subjugate its people and put its resources to work, to build its own empire.

What might have started as the Monroe doctrine and a policy of containment is looking more and more like America wanting to steal the resources of Russia in order to solve it Order-threatening debt problem.

RISK OFF

If you always think the worst of your neighbour and protect yourself against this risk, then you might miss out on a few opportunities, but you will reduce the chances of some very bad surprises.

Manage the risks before go-getting the objectives. 

Preserve what you've got before going for more.

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THE FUTURE OF THE WEST

9 July 2022

 Here, we will look at this American war in Ukraine from three perspectives: military, economic (sanctions) and diplomatic.

 So militarily, the Russians are advancing quite rapidly, albeit metre by metre rather than street by street, and now need a bit of time to re-group and to integrate the captured territory into Russian administrative systems. 

Ukraine is holding firm, waiting for Western arms; and longer-term for the effects of sanctions on the Russian economy and on Russia's being deprived of western technology. "We'll be back", they say, but this does not recognise Russian - human! - ingenuity.

Russia has won the war in the war in the Donbass, but can it hold it?

The sanctions seem to be working against the interests of the West. 

We know that Russia is a land full of resources on which the West depends, with a weak and vulnerable western frontier. But here is one possibly lesser-known example of the failure of the sanctions regime to grip the support of the world. 

India is buying Russian oil, I gather, at discounted prices and selling it on to the West. India's military is supplied by Russia. India stands geographically on the lookout to Middle East oil routes. India has not played in the trading setup provided by America and won't participate in the sanctions. 

Sanctions are shooting the west in the foot and rivals to the American trading reserve currency and to inter-bank transfer systems are being set up to shoot the west in the other foot.

The price the public is paying to support Ukraine is high and resistance is growing.

Diplomatically three quarters+ of the world is either against or at least does not support the West, meaning the effects of NATO containment policy, meaning do not support the USA & "Global Britain", with Europe being nothing more than an American protectorate. 

And now Macron publishing that confidential telephone call with Putin is final evidence that France can no longer hold its Gaullist internationalist position.

Although the West may hope for Russian support in any final conflagration with China, isn't the reality on the ground that Russia and China are increasingly cooperating on military, economic and diplomatic matters and the American order on which we depend is in peril?

CONCLUSION

The public need access to objective, neutral and balanced reporting, in order to assess what is an American war in Ukraine, from the military, economic and diplomatic positions.

If we then put these assessments into a longer-term perspective on the financial crisis, brexit, the pandemic, the Woke (Marxist) challenge and civil unrest, the Chinese "threat" ... where does that leave the future of the West?

Uncertain? Hanging on a thread? There is a lot of (stifled) dissatisfaction with the current leaderships, and eventually, as we know, history works to the benefit of the people. Was it the accumulation of scandals that forced Boris out or was it economic failure and a search for new goals, strategies and especially new winning plans?

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CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT SHOCKER

4 July 2022

LEVELLING UP SHOULD INCLUDE THE SOUTH-EAST

Ref the UK government's decision to take £100 million from the devolved budgets of Scotland and Wales for military aid to the American war in Ukraine.

First of all, we will make sure that we understand what the news article is talking about. Then we will define "devolution" and we will consider whether this re-purposing by the UK government of assistance it had previously given is morally ok or not. Then ask what the the subordinate governments can do about it if anything and what Westminster government could or should have done instead.

So here's the news article:

Looks like Boris' Westminster govt has simply reallocated the money previously given to the two devolved governments of Scotland and Wales, without even informing them or seeking their opinion.

This is an example of the difference between "consult" and "inform", or the difference between asking permission before the fact and apologising after for what you've done.

Devolution - "Delegation of authority or duties to a subordinate or substitute." - is implemented through block grants or budgets. But it seems that the Westminster govt can "repurpose" ie take with the left hand what it has given with the right.

I'd imagine that the warmongering - the West provoking Russia into war in Ukraine - comes out of Westminster exclusively, and Scotland and Wales are not much interested in fighting foreign wars, so this money - purposed originally for levelling up for "development" of local economies and social infrastructure - if it had to go to Ukraine, could have gone to Ukraine for humanitarian purposes, but is unlikely to get support from the Scottish and Welsh peoples if it's for military purposes. 

What is the sentiment in Scotland and Wales towards this war? What do the polls tell us?

Overall it looks like an outrageous abuse of devolution and a disrespect of the wishes of the local representatives of the people, a high-handed way to treat these two countries as "client states".

The devolved governments are not in much of a position to fight back as they both take more from the UK deal than they put in... but then again the whole of the UK is in hock to its foreign lenders and the printing presses, as we saw yesterday the 22Q1 current account deficit is an astonishing 8.3% of GDP, the highest it's ever been and for comparison purposes India's in 2021 was 1.5%.

Isn't really the best idea to include the southeast itself in "levelling up"?! The UK has plenty of problems but as to economic, it comes down to poor productivity and lack of competitivity....another devaluation anyone?

I wouldn't have thought it was worth it politically, for the sake of 100 million quid, to alienate Scotland and Wales, with already a breakup of the kingdom on the cards. Boris have rolled the worn out, tired old, counterfeiting printing presses again. 

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WAS GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE DURING COVID EFFECTIVE?

30 June 2030

Reader's question:

"During covid, the government pour many scheme to help pour people to survive with money. But there is question about : is that effective?"

For example, Government gave money for those who are eligible, an amount of money to live but in real life, they spend money on new clothes.. remember this is poor people….

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The governments faced four challenges in dealing with the covid pandemic. The first was to develop medicines and treatments against the virus itself.

The second was to take care of the health of the people affected by Covid and this was their physical health as well as their mental health. The third was to deal with the economic consequences, both to businesses and to the individual. And the last challenge was to deal with security issues that might arise when groups of people, who resist the lengthy confinement and isolation required to control the virus, become disaffcted and challenge the authority of the state.

At the beginning of the outbreak, there was no vaccine to counter the virus. Covid was believed to be a highly contagious and lethal disease. The health of the nation was under threat.There was also a risk that the very large numbers of people in need of hospitalisation would overwhelm and shut down the National Health Service.

Pending a vaccine therefore, people had to be kept apart and very often were forced to stay at home. This meant businesses could not operate, would go banktupt and close, and people would lose their source of income.

An economy is made up of many many businesses that employ people to transform resources into saleable goods and services. Businesses make profits, out of which they pay taxes to their government. Thus, there was a problem for governments who wished to give financial assistance because with income from taxes, they would have to borrow money.

When a business has to close, for lack of profits, its assets are sold off and its employees are made redundant. If people have no income, they face starvation and the state faces the possibility of serious and widespread social disorder. To avoid starvation and disorder, most states chose to give social assistance to citizens, in place of their salaries, and in addition to medical care. But not only that.

If a pandemic is allowed to dissolve large swathes of business, at the end of the pandemic, it would be almost impossible to restart the economy from nothing. Therefore, because businesses could not pay the salaries of their employees, the government stepped in and began to pay the salaries, just to keep the businesses open, although not trading, ready for restart.

Citizens were taken care of financially and medically - although there was a lot of mental illness that was impossible to deal with, caused through isolation and disruption of social routines.

So this is why governments poured money into schemes to help poor people to survive when, through the pandemic, they had lost their livelihoods.

But there remains a question. While these government schemes were effective in dealing with the problems of citizens and business, were they too generous?

Many people think that the cause of the high inflation that is the scourge of economies today, lies in the enormous demand from people coming out of covid with large surpluses in their bank accounts. A demand that could not be met because there was no supply because businesses had closed. This created a large imbalance in supply and demand and as as we know, excess demand  leads to a high inflation.

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EVERYDAY THE WEST LOSES MORE GROUND

I guess you'll have read that Sweden has agreed to send its poor bloody Kurdish refugees to Turkey for presumably torture and execution, in the order that Turkey can lift its veto on their joining NATO. Predictable.

And after America went trying to drag Iran and Argentina out of purdah in order to take their oil, they have effectively as I understand it told him to F off and are applying to join the club of BRICS.

Every day the west loses more ground.

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