1987: “Trump Lands in Red Square. The Soviets want him to build two luxury hotels.”
A few months later, Trump spends $130,000 on ads promoting a US withdrawal from NATO.
Nothing new under the sun.
While at it I have to note, less we forget, the absence of Dr Barry the DO and his companions, ubiquitous until the election and reveled in calling out "genocide" Joe, notably absent now that we have genocide Trump and rabid antisemite Elon running the government, and Donald handing Vlad a gift wrapped Ukraine, what say now all of the anti imperialist Marxists.
American imperialism bad, Russian imperialism good.
Here's troglydite Rick Scott's reply to my letter re Trum/Putin.
Dear Mr. Solomon,
Thank you for contacting me regarding the war in Ukraine. I appreciate the opportunity to respond.
Russia is a cancerous, evil regime that threatens our national security by attempting to control as much of Europe and Eurasia as it can. It also supports the regimes in Iran, Communist China, Cuba, and Venezuela. All of them continually seek to harm the United States and force us into a position of dependence upon them for our livelihood. Vladimir Putin’s unjustifiable and unlawful invasion of Ukraine is just one more example of this fact. I believe that the United States must continue to stand strongly with Ukraine and provide the lethal military aid it needs to win this war. Putin’s murderous attacks are a threat to our national security and the security of our democratic allies.
While we must continue to support democracy in Ukraine, I will not allow Russia’s unjust invasion to deprioritize or slow progress on solving urgent domestic issues such as securing the border, fighting inflation and rebuilding our national defense. Congress can continue to act and solve these issues, which we owe to the American people.
As Florida’s U.S. Senator, and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I will continue fighting for allies around the world, while also ensuring we take care of our families here at home. I am proud to represent every citizen in Florida and I appreciate the time you took to provide your position on this matter. Should you have any additional questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.
True believers and/or self serving opportunists. Enter congress as a pauper exit as a millionaire. Rick Scott of course was already a millionaire who defrauded Medicare and got away with it.
I strongly believe trump has been in bed with Putin since the 80ies. The Miss Teen Padgett that was a scandal,was the start, along with his Trump Hotel he was trying to negotiate.There's the PeePee tape rumor as well. What ever Putin has on him, it's Bad enough for trump to bend over backwards to please him and No is not in trump's vocabulary. Great article this morning ☕ Thom, looking forward to your program today, and will reStack ASAP 💯
At the time, it was illegal for a private citizen to deal directly with the Soviets.Thom documents that his first father in law reported on him to the Czech KGB.
Why would Ivana Trumps father report him to the Czech KGB? Which had no jurisdiction over him anyway. In 1987 Gorbachev ran Russia and he was in the process of dismantling it, just Musk is in the process of dismantling the U.S. Government
Where have you been? It's been pretty clear that Putin has owned Trump ever since Trump's visits to Moscow for Miss Universe contests many moons ago. Putin, now with Musk's help, plays Trump like a violin. Putin's term for people such as Trump is "a useful fool."
As Tim Snyder has pointed out, there is little or nothing Putin can do to make Russia stronger, but if he can make America and its allies weaker he comes out relatively way ahead. His strategy is working better than he ever could have dared to dream.
Don't be surprised if Putin and Musk arrange to throw Trump under the bus as soon as they no longer need him. For now, they find him useful, because he does have his well-armed MAGA following to help suppress dissenters to their ongoing coup.
agreed ...I see that as well. And where does that leave the USA...broken, vulnerable and isolated then defenceless to Russian a take over. Trump is stupid but Putin is diabolically brilliant and has been patient. Biden Presidency was a small blip in the project. It seems surreal, to be even considering what is now not inconceivable ?? !!
Musk has broken the U.S. of A. and like Humpty Dumpty it can't be put back together again. Governance requires continuity, with all of the firings, continuity has been lost, and since Musk has control of the payments system, he has complete control of the government, all he has to do is have one of his teenagers delete an SSAN or EIN account
Since his first term as president, Trump has shown us his affinity for different dictators around the globe but he inevitably focused more on Putin than the rest. I've always believed he is a traitor, and a purposely motivated delivery man for Putin.
"Trump, whose Doral resort is scheduled to host the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament in April, has called on the oil-rich nation to invest $1 trillion in the United States. His son-in-law Jared Kushner — whose private equity firm does business with the Public Investment Fund — is scheduled to speak Thursday at the event with Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff about the possibility of a “new era” of investment between the Middle East and the United States."
Saudi has the largest economy in the Middle East and is considered a high-income economy by the World Bank. But actually by comparison we are wealthier.
In case you don't remember I thik they have been undermining our economy via OPEC since 1973 and own our largest refineries and control many major "American" energy companies. I think we should sue to recoup lost Treasury receiprts and lost profits.
Arbitrarily high energy prices act like a tax on all of ujs.
Nominal GDP (2020 estimates):
United States: $22.67 trillion
China: $16.14 trillion
Japan: $5.15 trillion
Germany: $4.24 trillion
United Kingdom: $2.62 trillion
India: $2.55 trillion
France: $2.54 trillion
Russia: $1.73 trillion
Saudi Arabia: $773 billion
GDP (PPP) per capita (2020 estimates):
Qatar: $69,962
Luxembourg: $67,993
Singapore: $64,133
Ireland: $63,655
Norway: $62,759
Switzerland: $61,124
United Arab Emirates: $59,764
United States: $59,532
Saudi Arabia: $55,944
Netherlands: $55,538
Wealth per adult (2020 estimates):
United States: $105,602
Switzerland: $93,457
Hong Kong: $83,254
Singapore: $76,344
Norway: $74,144
Saudi Arabia: $67,144
Netherlands: $65,144
Denmark: $63,144
Sweden: $62,144
Australia: $61,144
Foreign exchange reserves (2020 estimates):
China: $3.22 trillion
Japan: $1.43 trillion
Switzerland: $814 billion
Saudi Arabia: $493 billion
Russia: $432 billion
India: $392 billion
South Korea: $384 billion
Brazil: $365 billion
Germany: $356 billion
France: $343 billion
Sovereign wealth funds (2020 estimates):
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (UAE): $828 billion
Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF): $620 billion
Norway Government Pension Fund Global: $570 billion
Kuwait Investment Authority: $459 billion
Qatar Investment Authority: $450 billion
China Investment Corporation: $434 billion
Russia National Wealth Fund: $398 billion
Singapore Temasek Holdings: $374 billion
Hong Kong Monetary Authority Investment Portfolio: $363 billion
Musk is chummy with Putin and Putin has Donald as a puppet. Promises the electorate anything to get in office and then scares the heck out of everyone as he has zero intention of doing any of it. Medicare/Medicaid/SS and other supports for people who either paid into it, retired, injured, etc. are put on the line WHILE he talks about making Gaza a vacation spot. I didn't take that as an off the cuff remark I saw boots on the ground and our soldiers in danger. It also would be a diversion from all the damage that he is intending on doing. Maybe Khruschev was correct - we will bury you.
This morning I was on the phone with Medicare and BC/BS reporting that I never was prescribed nor did I receive tens of thouands of dollars in medical equipment. I was not charged, but looks like Medicare paid for imaginary equipment to a company that doesn't exist. My wife has a similar case. Looks like the Medicare IG is no longer in business.
Musk and Trump lie... No proof they found ANY fraud. Make me king, and I'll find some...that's because I worked there and I heard their appeals, and I even fictionalized some in a novel.
Have said since 2015 that Putin has something so egregious on Trump and he has thrown his support behind Trump so that Trump will dance like a puppet….
The Steele Dossier has been hotly debated, because it speaks ill of Putin and Trump, so that the clue.
But the dossier does mention that Trump had a prostitute piss on the bed that Obama had slept on. He is that immature, mentally ill and petty and thanks to his mentally ill and petty followers and those that enabled him by not voting he is the process of making George Orwells 1984 a reality, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_geography_of_Nineteen_Eighty-Four
Oceania will be Greenland to South America, Eurasia will be England to Russia, East Asia will be China and the pacific.
Capitalism is incompatible with democracy on philosophical grounds. Give capitalists the freedom to develop fortunes and they will always turn their wealth toward knocking down the pillars of popular sovereignty. Of course Trump, Musk, Putin, Xi, MBS, et. al. are all aligned; of course they are ripping civil society to shreds.
Let's disregard the emotional language which taints the conversation, because it becomes akin to eschatological arguments.
Without the ability to save and invest your labor (mental and physical) and the fruits of that labor in the expectation of achieving a future return on investment, we would not have progressed beyond the dark ages.
None of us would be alive today, much less sit in the safety and comfort of a arm house, looking at a screen, with a full belly, wearing decent clothing, and pounding on a keyboard, or touching that screen as we pontificate, kvetch about a system that made all of this possible
Capitalism is indeed compatible with Democracy, it just needs to be restrained, everything human needs to be restrained, without a countervailing force there is no progress and we are susceptible to strongman rule.
Here is the thing, in 1607 a bunch of capitalists, pooled their resources and invested in something called the Virginia Company of London, they prevailed upon the governing authority (King James) to sanction them by issuing a charter that gave them a monopoly, to venture forth and exploit the New world for silver and gold
That charter was the first of three, the last in 1619 recognized that this commercial venture was capable of self governance, and the investors, the land owners, the patent holders, elected their own representative to a body called the House of Burgess. Burg being a Saxon word for fort, as the early settlement was a series of forts up and down the James and Elizabeth Rivers and their tributaries like the Appomattox.
In 1624 King James revoked the Charter and made the adventure a colony. He revoked it because, unlike it's promise, it was not delivering in gold or silver, just that stinky, smelly weed which he abhorred called tobacco, and it was having a lot of problem with the natives, as the adventurers were exploiting and double dealing them, They rebelled in 1622 in a surprise attack by the Powhatan Indians, we know as the Jamestown massacre, which was a big motivating factor in revoking the charter..
The point here s that the USA exists because of a capitalist venture, and within that venture arose the first notion of a democratic self governance. Not even England had such a system, they had a Parliament with a house of Lords, advising the King, but that is hardly self governance or what we would call a democracy.
The problem unfortunately lies in the concept of a democracy. From the Greek word meaning the people or the mob as in demonstration.
Thomas Jefferson, though an anti federalist, thus anti unitary executive or king, never the less was not enamored of a democracy in which the common man had a voice.
He had visited a business meeting of a Baptist Church in Danville, Pittsylvania Co, VA and was alarmed and disgusted with the disorder, anarcy, mayhem that he witnessed in a church.
His idea of a democracy was a Democratic Republic and so he named his political party, a Republic because a Republic is a rule by wise men, not the "rabble", in theAthenian Republic people with a vested interest in the welfare and prosperity of the state, were the ones that cast a vote,
In the Roman Republic the plebes had a vote and a say on law making, but that eroded over time, and i was the patricians, the Senatorial class that actually ruled. The plebes would vote for a senator, who was of the hereditary patrician class of property owners, over time a middle class emerged the equites, from which we have equestrian, but they were still middle class property owners.
And on that basis, with Rome as a guide, our forefathers were schooled in Latin and Greek and studied Latin literature., they set about creating our government .
In my walk down history's lane I neglected to mention that, save for the slave owners in Virginia and the Carolinas, the northern merchants were capitalists, one and all especially Benjamin Franklin.
So it is Capitalists that actually created our democracy. So not incompatible at all.
I know Daniel. I've said many times that Capitalism and Communism are economic theories, actually they are belief systems, Anything that ends in an ism is a belief system.
I've also said that Capitalism and Communism can exist within a form of government.
Words that end in cy like Democracy, autocracy, are forms of government.
China is a uniparty autocracy, it has a particular form of communism, that permits capitalistic investment and entrepreneurship.
So if capitalists created (recreated) democracy, with which they are compatible, why are capitalists destroying it now? Could it be that capitalists are gods, and destroying what they create is their prerogative? If so, I stand corrected.
You are not corrected and it is not so simple. but people routinely destroy that which they build.
Democracy served them, until it didn't.
Hitler's Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, said:
"It will always remain one of democracy's best jokes that it provided its deadly enemies with the means by which it was destroyed."
Quoted in Richard Evans, "The Coming of the Third Reich", p. 451.
There is truth in that. OBL made the statement, that "we will use your democratic freedoms, to destroy you".
Sacrilized free speech, empowers those that would destroy free speech.
Witness Musk and Shitter.
Free speech for me, but not for thee, and there is nothing the the government could do about it, because the 1st Amendment doesn't make speech sacred all it does is say that Congress shall make no law abridging the right to speech and assembly. It says nothing about people, universities, states, counties, municipalities or corporations like Shitter and Facebook
Yes, the ruling class were protestants, James II was a Catholic, and a fervent one at that. The nobility, the barons, had no desire to be under the Papal thumb so they asked William to come over and take the throne, He financed a small invasion force and there was a rather peaceful revolution. Mary was his wife and cousin and basically they were co rulers.
Of course he owns trump! That was reinforced the moment they came out of their meeting in Helsinki. Being a malignant narcissist (among other issues he has), he always appears self-confident, assured, and can look you straight in the eye while telling you that the sun is black (which many of his followers would believe).
Severe narcissists are actually, totally, unable to form an empathetic bond with another human being, even including family. They see people simply as objects, to be used to their advantage. If the object is no longer useful it is either discarded like yesterday's trash or simply ignored. If it disagrees with him, it is savagely denigrated (but rarely to their face, except in trump's case if it's a woman)!
He was raised by cold and distant parents, whom I doubt ever told him they loved him, and his father was the same, as was his grandfather.
IIRC, Donnie even got his dad to take one son, Fred, out of his will, and dad was upset because Fred didn't go into the family business, which is conning gullible people, so Fred flew planes for a living, and became an alcoholic because of how his own father and brother treated him, and died at a relatively young age.
Back to the original question; when trump came out of his meeting with his boss, at Helsinki, he was a hunched over, totally defeated man, while Putin stood straight up, smiling! That image is seared in my brain, and tells me all I need to know about the Russians having something on him. He has known connections to many Russian oligarchs, going back to the 80s, when he was trying to build a hotel/casino in Russia. When he spoke after the meeting, he was very quiet and very deferential to his boss, making sure it was known that he has "no reason to doubt Mr. Putin."
His job orders at that point were to destroy the U S, OR ELSE!
OMG! Call me crazy, but I see clearer every day the strengthening of BRICS. Russia especially today, and look also at Musk with his connections to China and now India. His South African citizenship. Gut and weaken USA, then BRICS can have their own currency, trade, power with Putin and Musk major players. Yikes!
More than 20 years ago, an investment banker at Goldman Sachs created a catchy slogan to lure investors to emerging market powers Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, collectively labeling them BRICS.
Running with that acronym, the five countries created a club that has now become a force for the Global South to oppose a US-led world order, wrote World Politics Review. This club, which has doubled in size in the past two years, has now become the “hottest multilateral ticket in town.”
On Jan. 7, Indonesia joined the group now known as BRICS+, which has already expanded to include Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, and Egypt in 2024. It did so, Indonesian officials said, because it wanted to create a global system that is “more inclusive and equitable.” Now, Turkey, Malaysia, and Thailand are waiting in the wings, some like Turkey with “partner status.” Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, hasn’t decided whether to accept membership yet.
With Indonesia in the club, the bloc of 10 and a further nine partner countries now includes more than half of the world’s population and a greater share of its economic output than the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized countries. It controls a multilateral lender, major energy producers, and the world’s biggest manufacturing power, China.
The push to expand is coming from China, wrote Bloomberg, as it is trying to boost its global clout by seeking to build an alternative world order that challenges US hegemony. It wants to accomplish that by pulling southern hemisphere countries into its economic orbit.
Still, the news outlet added, the expansion of BRICS is “more about politics and less about economics.”
The expansion of BRICS has been backed so far by South Africa and Russia. Russia, like China, but for different reasons, would like to see an alternate system to the US-led global order, especially because it has been shut out of the world’s largest payment system, SWIFT, after it invaded Ukraine in 2022, in an attempt by the US and its allies to isolate it.
The addition of major fossil-fuel producers may give the bloc more clout to challenge the US dollar’s dominance in oil and gas trading by switching to other currencies, a switch called de-dollarization. India and the UAE last year began trading in Indian rupees and UAE dirhams rather than in US dollars, for example.
Still, it’s not so easy to ditch the dollar: The widespread use of the US currency in world trade is a cornerstone of the world order, while many BRICS countries’ currencies are less liquid. Earlier this week, Brazil, who took over the bloc’s presidency, said it would not advance a common currency but would look for less reliance on the dollar.
US President Donald Trump is furious about any mention of de-dollarization and in January threatened 100 percent tariffs on BRICS members. But Trump’s threats of tariffs against countries around the world may be making joining the BRICS even more tempting – to insulate themselves from such threats, say analysts.
Already, tariff threats from the US have pushed Mexico to expand a trade deal with the European Union (EU) and look for expanding opportunities with the UAE and Brazil, Foreign Policy wrote. Uruguay, wary of tariffs, has been reaching out to China, and South Africa, due to “bullying” by the US announced last week it is now moving forward on a long-delayed EU-South Africa summit to be held in March to discuss expanding trade and investment.
Regardless, the expanded BRICS is becoming a strong counterweight to the G7 – the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the UK, wrote the Council on Foreign Relations, even as it competes with other clubs including OPEC, the African Union, Mercosur and ASEAN, who all want to see a more “multipolar” world.
Still, issues in the bloc remain. Some members such as Brazil worry about alienating the West, which is why Argentina recently declined membership. India doesn’t want the club to be dominated by China. And Turkey’s application for membership was a shock to geopolitics: If it joins, it would be the first NATO member and candidate for EU membership to have an active role in an entity seen by many as a challenger to the West.
However, the club hasn’t been so unified in its stance against the West that it broke Western sanctions placed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2022. Instead, Russia hasn’t been able to access dollars via the BRICS foreign-currency system because the other BRICS countries didn’t want to cross the West.
Some say the bloc is still too loose and unorganized to create any substantive challenge to the current world order. But others point out that more than 30 countries have expressed interest in joining, which makes it difficult for the US to punish a member country with tariffs, especially if China steps in to ease the pain.
“The size of the bloc makes it increasingly unlikely that the US will apply punitive 100 percent tariffs on BRICS countries,” Duncan Wrigley, chief China+ economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, told CNBC. “Doing so would risk steering nations neutral in the US-China rivalry toward Beijing and interfere with US interests.”
This feels very much like information overload. We know all this, and we do not doubt a word of it, and we would love to act on it. But how many of us are there, and what can any of us do that will have any significant impact? We can hope that the spontaneous uprisings and protests in cities around the country will make some difference. We can use social media and write letters to the editor. But otherwise, the feeling of helplessness is debilitating. The horse is out of the barn. If more people do not see the evidence and corporate media do not stop ignoring the obvious, it is hard to imagine what will stop this evil. Time is no longer on our side. Let me get my letter to the editor sent, which follows one from only ten days ago. They might not publish another one so soon. It's a good thing that so many of us are inveterate optimists. Or is it?
Bernie's speech in Iowa yesterday was truly inspiring. He asked the crowd to have their Republican congresswoman set up a town hall meeting before the vote, hoping they could persuade her to vote no. Several thousand people attended each of the venues where he spoke. Bernie is doing this coast to coast. Why aren't Kamala Harris, Barrie Obama, and the Clintons doing the same across the US? Instead, they are shoring up potential speaking engagements, and Kamala receives awards from the NAACP.
Trump is clearly so much Putin's man, that Russia talking to Trump is like talking to itself.
Since America has abandoned Ukraine and embraced Russia, it has no right to a seat at any peace talks.
I wonder what MAGA will think of America giving aid to Russia as it cuts their safety net at home.
Window of oppotunity....
I keep sayin' we need Republicans to object -- pressure the Senate Republicans who voted for the Ukraine package https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4464791-here-are-the-senate-republicans-who-voted-for-the-ukraine-package/
Oh, puhledze. The Republicans are in league with Putin, too. Putin is blackmailing them all.
Accuse them individually and see what happens.
https://www.mind-war.com/p/stop-being-shocked
1987: “Trump Lands in Red Square. The Soviets want him to build two luxury hotels.”
A few months later, Trump spends $130,000 on ads promoting a US withdrawal from NATO.
Nothing new under the sun.
While at it I have to note, less we forget, the absence of Dr Barry the DO and his companions, ubiquitous until the election and reveled in calling out "genocide" Joe, notably absent now that we have genocide Trump and rabid antisemite Elon running the government, and Donald handing Vlad a gift wrapped Ukraine, what say now all of the anti imperialist Marxists.
American imperialism bad, Russian imperialism good.
Here's troglydite Rick Scott's reply to my letter re Trum/Putin.
Dear Mr. Solomon,
Thank you for contacting me regarding the war in Ukraine. I appreciate the opportunity to respond.
Russia is a cancerous, evil regime that threatens our national security by attempting to control as much of Europe and Eurasia as it can. It also supports the regimes in Iran, Communist China, Cuba, and Venezuela. All of them continually seek to harm the United States and force us into a position of dependence upon them for our livelihood. Vladimir Putin’s unjustifiable and unlawful invasion of Ukraine is just one more example of this fact. I believe that the United States must continue to stand strongly with Ukraine and provide the lethal military aid it needs to win this war. Putin’s murderous attacks are a threat to our national security and the security of our democratic allies.
While we must continue to support democracy in Ukraine, I will not allow Russia’s unjust invasion to deprioritize or slow progress on solving urgent domestic issues such as securing the border, fighting inflation and rebuilding our national defense. Congress can continue to act and solve these issues, which we owe to the American people.
As Florida’s U.S. Senator, and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I will continue fighting for allies around the world, while also ensuring we take care of our families here at home. I am proud to represent every citizen in Florida and I appreciate the time you took to provide your position on this matter. Should you have any additional questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Rick Scott
United States Senator
Wow if only he put his money where his mouth is. He voted to confirm Gabbard and Hegseth and he will vote with Trump on all his initiatives.
In all other respects, these guys are true beievers.
True believers and/or self serving opportunists. Enter congress as a pauper exit as a millionaire. Rick Scott of course was already a millionaire who defrauded Medicare and got away with it.
Bernie's net worth speaks to me about his character. In contrast to others in Congress, it is apparent that he wasn't bought.
Putins man?More like Putin's bitch: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BjrRePprg/
I think of him more as a toddler.
I strongly believe trump has been in bed with Putin since the 80ies. The Miss Teen Padgett that was a scandal,was the start, along with his Trump Hotel he was trying to negotiate.There's the PeePee tape rumor as well. What ever Putin has on him, it's Bad enough for trump to bend over backwards to please him and No is not in trump's vocabulary. Great article this morning ☕ Thom, looking forward to your program today, and will reStack ASAP 💯
Karen: 1987: “Trump Lands in Red Square. The Soviets want him to build two luxury hotels.”
A few months later, Trump spends $130,000 on ads promoting a US withdrawal from NATO.
At the time, it was illegal for a private citizen to deal directly with the Soviets.Thom documents that his first father in law reported on him to the Czech KGB.
Why would Ivana Trumps father report him to the Czech KGB? Which had no jurisdiction over him anyway. In 1987 Gorbachev ran Russia and he was in the process of dismantling it, just Musk is in the process of dismantling the U.S. Government
Hmm, I'm beginning to sense a bigger plan afoot.
Trump is to America as Gorbachev was to Russia.;
False syllogism.
Not so sure Daniel. Gorbachev dismantled the USSR,Trump is dismantling the USA.
Where have you been? It's been pretty clear that Putin has owned Trump ever since Trump's visits to Moscow for Miss Universe contests many moons ago. Putin, now with Musk's help, plays Trump like a violin. Putin's term for people such as Trump is "a useful fool."
As Tim Snyder has pointed out, there is little or nothing Putin can do to make Russia stronger, but if he can make America and its allies weaker he comes out relatively way ahead. His strategy is working better than he ever could have dared to dream.
Don't be surprised if Putin and Musk arrange to throw Trump under the bus as soon as they no longer need him. For now, they find him useful, because he does have his well-armed MAGA following to help suppress dissenters to their ongoing coup.
agreed ...I see that as well. And where does that leave the USA...broken, vulnerable and isolated then defenceless to Russian a take over. Trump is stupid but Putin is diabolically brilliant and has been patient. Biden Presidency was a small blip in the project. It seems surreal, to be even considering what is now not inconceivable ?? !!
Musk has broken the U.S. of A. and like Humpty Dumpty it can't be put back together again. Governance requires continuity, with all of the firings, continuity has been lost, and since Musk has control of the payments system, he has complete control of the government, all he has to do is have one of his teenagers delete an SSAN or EIN account
Since his first term as president, Trump has shown us his affinity for different dictators around the globe but he inevitably focused more on Putin than the rest. I've always believed he is a traitor, and a purposely motivated delivery man for Putin.
Follow the dinars. Today in Baghdad By the Sea.
"Trump, whose Doral resort is scheduled to host the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament in April, has called on the oil-rich nation to invest $1 trillion in the United States. His son-in-law Jared Kushner — whose private equity firm does business with the Public Investment Fund — is scheduled to speak Thursday at the event with Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff about the possibility of a “new era” of investment between the Middle East and the United States."
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article300520989.html#storylink=cpy
A perfect opportunity to discuss Gaza. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g6697294-zff12-Gaza-Hotels.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Beach_Resort,_Gaza
Saudi has the largest economy in the Middle East and is considered a high-income economy by the World Bank. But actually by comparison we are wealthier.
In case you don't remember I thik they have been undermining our economy via OPEC since 1973 and own our largest refineries and control many major "American" energy companies. I think we should sue to recoup lost Treasury receiprts and lost profits.
Arbitrarily high energy prices act like a tax on all of ujs.
Nominal GDP (2020 estimates):
United States: $22.67 trillion
China: $16.14 trillion
Japan: $5.15 trillion
Germany: $4.24 trillion
United Kingdom: $2.62 trillion
India: $2.55 trillion
France: $2.54 trillion
Russia: $1.73 trillion
Saudi Arabia: $773 billion
GDP (PPP) per capita (2020 estimates):
Qatar: $69,962
Luxembourg: $67,993
Singapore: $64,133
Ireland: $63,655
Norway: $62,759
Switzerland: $61,124
United Arab Emirates: $59,764
United States: $59,532
Saudi Arabia: $55,944
Netherlands: $55,538
Wealth per adult (2020 estimates):
United States: $105,602
Switzerland: $93,457
Hong Kong: $83,254
Singapore: $76,344
Norway: $74,144
Saudi Arabia: $67,144
Netherlands: $65,144
Denmark: $63,144
Sweden: $62,144
Australia: $61,144
Foreign exchange reserves (2020 estimates):
China: $3.22 trillion
Japan: $1.43 trillion
Switzerland: $814 billion
Saudi Arabia: $493 billion
Russia: $432 billion
India: $392 billion
South Korea: $384 billion
Brazil: $365 billion
Germany: $356 billion
France: $343 billion
Sovereign wealth funds (2020 estimates):
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (UAE): $828 billion
Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF): $620 billion
Norway Government Pension Fund Global: $570 billion
Kuwait Investment Authority: $459 billion
Qatar Investment Authority: $450 billion
China Investment Corporation: $434 billion
Russia National Wealth Fund: $398 billion
Singapore Temasek Holdings: $374 billion
Hong Kong Monetary Authority Investment Portfolio: $363 billion
France BPIFrance: $344 billio
Musk is chummy with Putin and Putin has Donald as a puppet. Promises the electorate anything to get in office and then scares the heck out of everyone as he has zero intention of doing any of it. Medicare/Medicaid/SS and other supports for people who either paid into it, retired, injured, etc. are put on the line WHILE he talks about making Gaza a vacation spot. I didn't take that as an off the cuff remark I saw boots on the ground and our soldiers in danger. It also would be a diversion from all the damage that he is intending on doing. Maybe Khruschev was correct - we will bury you.
Just got a statement from the new acting SS commissioner. https://blog.ssa.gov/author/9def154796090964ff3e08925487b04115800af3/
Medicaid looks like toast.So does SSI.
This morning I was on the phone with Medicare and BC/BS reporting that I never was prescribed nor did I receive tens of thouands of dollars in medical equipment. I was not charged, but looks like Medicare paid for imaginary equipment to a company that doesn't exist. My wife has a similar case. Looks like the Medicare IG is no longer in business.
Musk and Trump lie... No proof they found ANY fraud. Make me king, and I'll find some...that's because I worked there and I heard their appeals, and I even fictionalized some in a novel.
Baghdad By the Sea is our nation's medical fraud capitol. https://www.wlrn.org/business/2024-12-09/malcolm-gladwell-medicare-fraud-miami-tipping-point
https://www.npr.org/2024/09/09/1198642620/miami-medicare-fraud-malcolm-gladwell
Thom should interview this guy, who knows where the bodies are burried at SS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeD2pD-9dJY&t=89s
Have said since 2015 that Putin has something so egregious on Trump and he has thrown his support behind Trump so that Trump will dance like a puppet….
Hello Russia: Trump asked Russia to find Clinton’s emails. On or around the same day, Russians targeted her accounts https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-asked-russia-to-find-clintons-emails-on-or-around-the-same-day-russians-targeted-her-accounts
Russian psy ops.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2024_United_States_elections#:~:text=Russia's%20efforts%20represented%20the%20most,society%20and%20foster%20anti%2DAmericanism.
The Steele Dossier has been hotly debated, because it speaks ill of Putin and Trump, so that the clue.
But the dossier does mention that Trump had a prostitute piss on the bed that Obama had slept on. He is that immature, mentally ill and petty and thanks to his mentally ill and petty followers and those that enabled him by not voting he is the process of making George Orwells 1984 a reality, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_geography_of_Nineteen_Eighty-Four
Oceania will be Greenland to South America, Eurasia will be England to Russia, East Asia will be China and the pacific.
The middle east will be a Caliphate
Sad but true!!!
Thanks for the receipts. The people "elected" a traitor. This may not end well.
Capitalism is incompatible with democracy on philosophical grounds. Give capitalists the freedom to develop fortunes and they will always turn their wealth toward knocking down the pillars of popular sovereignty. Of course Trump, Musk, Putin, Xi, MBS, et. al. are all aligned; of course they are ripping civil society to shreds.
Let's disregard the emotional language which taints the conversation, because it becomes akin to eschatological arguments.
Without the ability to save and invest your labor (mental and physical) and the fruits of that labor in the expectation of achieving a future return on investment, we would not have progressed beyond the dark ages.
None of us would be alive today, much less sit in the safety and comfort of a arm house, looking at a screen, with a full belly, wearing decent clothing, and pounding on a keyboard, or touching that screen as we pontificate, kvetch about a system that made all of this possible
Capitalism is indeed compatible with Democracy, it just needs to be restrained, everything human needs to be restrained, without a countervailing force there is no progress and we are susceptible to strongman rule.
Here is the thing, in 1607 a bunch of capitalists, pooled their resources and invested in something called the Virginia Company of London, they prevailed upon the governing authority (King James) to sanction them by issuing a charter that gave them a monopoly, to venture forth and exploit the New world for silver and gold
That charter was the first of three, the last in 1619 recognized that this commercial venture was capable of self governance, and the investors, the land owners, the patent holders, elected their own representative to a body called the House of Burgess. Burg being a Saxon word for fort, as the early settlement was a series of forts up and down the James and Elizabeth Rivers and their tributaries like the Appomattox.
In 1624 King James revoked the Charter and made the adventure a colony. He revoked it because, unlike it's promise, it was not delivering in gold or silver, just that stinky, smelly weed which he abhorred called tobacco, and it was having a lot of problem with the natives, as the adventurers were exploiting and double dealing them, They rebelled in 1622 in a surprise attack by the Powhatan Indians, we know as the Jamestown massacre, which was a big motivating factor in revoking the charter..
The point here s that the USA exists because of a capitalist venture, and within that venture arose the first notion of a democratic self governance. Not even England had such a system, they had a Parliament with a house of Lords, advising the King, but that is hardly self governance or what we would call a democracy.
The problem unfortunately lies in the concept of a democracy. From the Greek word meaning the people or the mob as in demonstration.
Thomas Jefferson, though an anti federalist, thus anti unitary executive or king, never the less was not enamored of a democracy in which the common man had a voice.
He had visited a business meeting of a Baptist Church in Danville, Pittsylvania Co, VA and was alarmed and disgusted with the disorder, anarcy, mayhem that he witnessed in a church.
His idea of a democracy was a Democratic Republic and so he named his political party, a Republic because a Republic is a rule by wise men, not the "rabble", in theAthenian Republic people with a vested interest in the welfare and prosperity of the state, were the ones that cast a vote,
In the Roman Republic the plebes had a vote and a say on law making, but that eroded over time, and i was the patricians, the Senatorial class that actually ruled. The plebes would vote for a senator, who was of the hereditary patrician class of property owners, over time a middle class emerged the equites, from which we have equestrian, but they were still middle class property owners.
And on that basis, with Rome as a guide, our forefathers were schooled in Latin and Greek and studied Latin literature., they set about creating our government .
In my walk down history's lane I neglected to mention that, save for the slave owners in Virginia and the Carolinas, the northern merchants were capitalists, one and all especially Benjamin Franklin.
So it is Capitalists that actually created our democracy. So not incompatible at all.
We've addressed this before. At the time the Declaration, the Constitution were argued at Freedom Hall, the fans in the stands were mostly Iriquois. .
Capitalism is not a form of government. US democracy is. We have always had a "mixed" economy.
I know Daniel. I've said many times that Capitalism and Communism are economic theories, actually they are belief systems, Anything that ends in an ism is a belief system.
I've also said that Capitalism and Communism can exist within a form of government.
Words that end in cy like Democracy, autocracy, are forms of government.
China is a uniparty autocracy, it has a particular form of communism, that permits capitalistic investment and entrepreneurship.
So if capitalists created (recreated) democracy, with which they are compatible, why are capitalists destroying it now? Could it be that capitalists are gods, and destroying what they create is their prerogative? If so, I stand corrected.
You are not corrected and it is not so simple. but people routinely destroy that which they build.
Democracy served them, until it didn't.
Hitler's Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, said:
"It will always remain one of democracy's best jokes that it provided its deadly enemies with the means by which it was destroyed."
Quoted in Richard Evans, "The Coming of the Third Reich", p. 451.
There is truth in that. OBL made the statement, that "we will use your democratic freedoms, to destroy you".
Sacrilized free speech, empowers those that would destroy free speech.
Witness Musk and Shitter.
Free speech for me, but not for thee, and there is nothing the the government could do about it, because the 1st Amendment doesn't make speech sacred all it does is say that Congress shall make no law abridging the right to speech and assembly. It says nothing about people, universities, states, counties, municipalities or corporations like Shitter and Facebook
Here is an easter egg for you, the lovers Musk and Trump https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BjrRePprg/
Any doubt that the U.S. needs an (anti-) Orange revolution at the civic action level?
Britain had a silent but glorious revolution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution
But the Glorious revolution was made possible only because of the invasion of William of Orange, who as I understand could not speak English.
He and Mary were asked.
Yes, the ruling class were protestants, James II was a Catholic, and a fervent one at that. The nobility, the barons, had no desire to be under the Papal thumb so they asked William to come over and take the throne, He financed a small invasion force and there was a rather peaceful revolution. Mary was his wife and cousin and basically they were co rulers.
Horowitz said Putin was negotiating Musk over who owns Trump. At any rate, we need to call out the fraud at every turn where we see it.
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/doge-savings-another-con-game?r=3m1bs
Of course he owns trump! That was reinforced the moment they came out of their meeting in Helsinki. Being a malignant narcissist (among other issues he has), he always appears self-confident, assured, and can look you straight in the eye while telling you that the sun is black (which many of his followers would believe).
Severe narcissists are actually, totally, unable to form an empathetic bond with another human being, even including family. They see people simply as objects, to be used to their advantage. If the object is no longer useful it is either discarded like yesterday's trash or simply ignored. If it disagrees with him, it is savagely denigrated (but rarely to their face, except in trump's case if it's a woman)!
He was raised by cold and distant parents, whom I doubt ever told him they loved him, and his father was the same, as was his grandfather.
IIRC, Donnie even got his dad to take one son, Fred, out of his will, and dad was upset because Fred didn't go into the family business, which is conning gullible people, so Fred flew planes for a living, and became an alcoholic because of how his own father and brother treated him, and died at a relatively young age.
Back to the original question; when trump came out of his meeting with his boss, at Helsinki, he was a hunched over, totally defeated man, while Putin stood straight up, smiling! That image is seared in my brain, and tells me all I need to know about the Russians having something on him. He has known connections to many Russian oligarchs, going back to the 80s, when he was trying to build a hotel/casino in Russia. When he spoke after the meeting, he was very quiet and very deferential to his boss, making sure it was known that he has "no reason to doubt Mr. Putin."
His job orders at that point were to destroy the U S, OR ELSE!
IOW, he was give marching orders
OMG! Call me crazy, but I see clearer every day the strengthening of BRICS. Russia especially today, and look also at Musk with his connections to China and now India. His South African citizenship. Gut and weaken USA, then BRICS can have their own currency, trade, power with Putin and Musk major players. Yikes!
From Global Post this morinig:
More than 20 years ago, an investment banker at Goldman Sachs created a catchy slogan to lure investors to emerging market powers Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, collectively labeling them BRICS.
Running with that acronym, the five countries created a club that has now become a force for the Global South to oppose a US-led world order, wrote World Politics Review. This club, which has doubled in size in the past two years, has now become the “hottest multilateral ticket in town.”
On Jan. 7, Indonesia joined the group now known as BRICS+, which has already expanded to include Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, and Egypt in 2024. It did so, Indonesian officials said, because it wanted to create a global system that is “more inclusive and equitable.” Now, Turkey, Malaysia, and Thailand are waiting in the wings, some like Turkey with “partner status.” Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, hasn’t decided whether to accept membership yet.
With Indonesia in the club, the bloc of 10 and a further nine partner countries now includes more than half of the world’s population and a greater share of its economic output than the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized countries. It controls a multilateral lender, major energy producers, and the world’s biggest manufacturing power, China.
The push to expand is coming from China, wrote Bloomberg, as it is trying to boost its global clout by seeking to build an alternative world order that challenges US hegemony. It wants to accomplish that by pulling southern hemisphere countries into its economic orbit.
Still, the news outlet added, the expansion of BRICS is “more about politics and less about economics.”
The expansion of BRICS has been backed so far by South Africa and Russia. Russia, like China, but for different reasons, would like to see an alternate system to the US-led global order, especially because it has been shut out of the world’s largest payment system, SWIFT, after it invaded Ukraine in 2022, in an attempt by the US and its allies to isolate it.
The addition of major fossil-fuel producers may give the bloc more clout to challenge the US dollar’s dominance in oil and gas trading by switching to other currencies, a switch called de-dollarization. India and the UAE last year began trading in Indian rupees and UAE dirhams rather than in US dollars, for example.
Still, it’s not so easy to ditch the dollar: The widespread use of the US currency in world trade is a cornerstone of the world order, while many BRICS countries’ currencies are less liquid. Earlier this week, Brazil, who took over the bloc’s presidency, said it would not advance a common currency but would look for less reliance on the dollar.
US President Donald Trump is furious about any mention of de-dollarization and in January threatened 100 percent tariffs on BRICS members. But Trump’s threats of tariffs against countries around the world may be making joining the BRICS even more tempting – to insulate themselves from such threats, say analysts.
Already, tariff threats from the US have pushed Mexico to expand a trade deal with the European Union (EU) and look for expanding opportunities with the UAE and Brazil, Foreign Policy wrote. Uruguay, wary of tariffs, has been reaching out to China, and South Africa, due to “bullying” by the US announced last week it is now moving forward on a long-delayed EU-South Africa summit to be held in March to discuss expanding trade and investment.
Regardless, the expanded BRICS is becoming a strong counterweight to the G7 – the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the UK, wrote the Council on Foreign Relations, even as it competes with other clubs including OPEC, the African Union, Mercosur and ASEAN, who all want to see a more “multipolar” world.
Still, issues in the bloc remain. Some members such as Brazil worry about alienating the West, which is why Argentina recently declined membership. India doesn’t want the club to be dominated by China. And Turkey’s application for membership was a shock to geopolitics: If it joins, it would be the first NATO member and candidate for EU membership to have an active role in an entity seen by many as a challenger to the West.
However, the club hasn’t been so unified in its stance against the West that it broke Western sanctions placed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2022. Instead, Russia hasn’t been able to access dollars via the BRICS foreign-currency system because the other BRICS countries didn’t want to cross the West.
Some say the bloc is still too loose and unorganized to create any substantive challenge to the current world order. But others point out that more than 30 countries have expressed interest in joining, which makes it difficult for the US to punish a member country with tariffs, especially if China steps in to ease the pain.
“The size of the bloc makes it increasingly unlikely that the US will apply punitive 100 percent tariffs on BRICS countries,” Duncan Wrigley, chief China+ economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, told CNBC. “Doing so would risk steering nations neutral in the US-China rivalry toward Beijing and interfere with US interests.”
A couple of days ago, some of us discussed that Musk wants the Treasury to be on a blockchain. He has control of it.
He is also heavily invested in China, the "C" in the Bric. China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), has a massive gold buying spree.
Fortune: “China resumed gold purchases last month after prices soared”
Bloomberg: “China’s Central Bank Buys More Gold as Prices Trade Near Record”
Reuters: “Gold surges past $2,800 as tariff threats reignite record rally”
Is BRICS dead or is this the end of the US dollar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M13Q8FIHYDA&t=2s
Devaluation.
More likely Musk, meglomaniac with delusions of granxdeur is burning the candle at both ends.
Aristotle said the sixth act of tragedy would be comedy and vice versa.
I got it now. Oceania, Eurasia, and BRICS
This feels very much like information overload. We know all this, and we do not doubt a word of it, and we would love to act on it. But how many of us are there, and what can any of us do that will have any significant impact? We can hope that the spontaneous uprisings and protests in cities around the country will make some difference. We can use social media and write letters to the editor. But otherwise, the feeling of helplessness is debilitating. The horse is out of the barn. If more people do not see the evidence and corporate media do not stop ignoring the obvious, it is hard to imagine what will stop this evil. Time is no longer on our side. Let me get my letter to the editor sent, which follows one from only ten days ago. They might not publish another one so soon. It's a good thing that so many of us are inveterate optimists. Or is it?
Bernie's speech in Iowa yesterday was truly inspiring. He asked the crowd to have their Republican congresswoman set up a town hall meeting before the vote, hoping they could persuade her to vote no. Several thousand people attended each of the venues where he spoke. Bernie is doing this coast to coast. Why aren't Kamala Harris, Barrie Obama, and the Clintons doing the same across the US? Instead, they are shoring up potential speaking engagements, and Kamala receives awards from the NAACP.
Robert, to which editor are you referring?
Both assholes are afraid of each other.
What a ridiculous situation we are in, having the globe dragged around by two no more horrific individuals.
Think of it. For a few million roubles spent on Trump, Putin not only got Ukraine but the entire United States government.
Some bargain!
That is a bargain!