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REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS
In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
Tuesday, April 20, 2021 3:29 PM
6IXSTRINGJACK
Tuesday, April 20, 2021 3:47 PM
SIGNYM
I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.
Tuesday, April 20, 2021 5:07 PM
BRENDA
Tuesday, April 20, 2021 8:40 PM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: Your weather! Sigh. I checked the weather for western NY, since that's where sis lives and she's downrange of your weather, and indeed they're predicting a low of 30F tonight, and snow, and a low of 27F tomorrow night, and snow. But daytime highs will be @40F, so their weather not as bad as yours, prolly. Hot chocolate. That's my recommendation!
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 2:34 AM
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 6:50 AM
THG
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: apropos of me "thinking out loud" about the levers of power, this very interesting article was pointed out to me: Quote: America’s Neoliberal Financialization Policy vs. China’s Industrial Socialism Michael Hudson • April 15, 2021 • 2,400 Words Nearly half a millennium ago Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince described three options for how a conquering power might treat states that it defeated in war but that “have been accustomed to live under their own laws and in freedom: … the first is to ruin them, the next is to reside there in person, the third is to permit them to live under their own laws, drawing a tribute, and establishing within it an oligarchy which will keep it friendly to you.”[1] Machiavelli preferred the first option, citing Rome’s destruction of Carthage. That is what the United States did to Iraq and Libya after 2001. But in today’s New Cold War the mode of destruction is largely economic, via trade and financial sanctions such as the United States has imposed on China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela and other designated adversaries. The idea is to deny them key inputs, above all in essential technology and information processing, raw materials, and access to bank and financial connections, such as U.S. threats to expel Russia from the SWIFT bank-clearing system. The second option is to occupy rivals. This is done only partially by the troops in America’s 800 military bases abroad. [NOT BASES, INSTALLATIONS. - SIGNY] But the usual, more efficient occupation is by U.S. corporate takeovers of their basic infrastructure, owning their most lucrative assets and remitting their revenue back to the imperial core. President Trump said that he wanted to seize Iraq’s and Syria’s oil as reparations for the cost of destroying their society. His successor, Joe Biden, sought in 2021 to appoint Hillary Clinton’s loyalist Neera Tanden to head the government’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB). She had urged that America should make Libya turn over its vast oil reserves as reparations for the cost of destroying its society. “We have a giant deficit. They have a lot of oil. Most Americans would choose not to engage in the world because of that deficit. If we want to continue to engage in the world, gestures like having oil rich countries partially pay us back doesn’t seem crazy to me.” [2] U.S. strategists have preferred Machiavelli’s third option: To leave the defeated adversary nominally independent but to rule via client oligarchies. President Jimmy Carter’s national-security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski referred to them as “vassals,” in the classical medieval meaning of demanding loyalty to their American patrons, with a common interest in seeing the subject economy privatized, financialized, taxed and passed on to the United States for its patronage and support, based on a mutuality of interest against local democratic assertion of nationalistic self-reliance and keeping the economic surplus at home to promote domestic prosperity instead of being sent abroad. That policy of privatization by a client oligarchy with its own source of wealth based on the U.S. orbit is what American neoliberal diplomacy accomplished in the former Soviet economies after 1991 to secure its Cold War victory over Soviet Communism. The way in which client oligarchies were created was a grabitization that utterly disrupted the economic interconnections integrating the economies. “To put it in a terminology that harkens back to the more brutal age of ancient empires,” Brzezinski explained, “the three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected and to keep the barbarians from coming together.”[3] After reducing Germany and Japan to vassalage after defeating them in World War II, U.S. diplomacy quickly reduced the Britain and its imperial sterling area to vassalage by 1946, followed in due course by the rest of Western Europe and its former colonies. The next step was to isolate Russia and China, while keeping “the barbarians from coming together.” If they were to join up, warned Mr. Brzezinski, “the United States may have to determine how to cope with regional coalitions that seek to push America out of Eurasia, thereby threatening America’s status as a global power.”[4] By 2016, Brzezinski saw Pax Americana unravelling from its failure to achieve these aims. He acknowledged that the United States “is no longer the globally imperial power.”[5] That is what has motivated its increasing antagonism toward China and Russia, along with Iran and Venezuela. The problem was not Russia, whose Communist nomenklatura let their country be ruled by a Western-oriented kleptocracy, but China. The U.S.-China confrontation is not simply a national rivalry, but a conflict of economic and social systems. The reason why today’s world is being plunged into an economic and near-military Cold War 2.0 is to be found in the prospect of socialist control of what Western economies since classical antiquity have treated as privately owned rent-yielding assets: money and banking (along with the rules governing debt and foreclosure), land and natural resources, and infrastructure monopolies. This contrast in whether money and credit, land and natural monopolies will be privatized and duly concentrated in the hands of a rentier oligarchy or used to promote general prosperity and growth has basically become one of finance capitalism and socialism. Yet in its broadest terms this conflict existed already 2500 years ago, in the contrast between Near Eastern kingship and the Greek and Roman oligarchies. These oligarchies, ostensibly democratic in superficial political form and sanctimonious ideology, fought against the concept of kingship. The source of that opposition was that royal power – or that of domestic “tyrants” – might sponsor what Greek and Roman democratic reformers were advocating: cancellation of debts to save populations from being reduced to debt bondage and dependency (and ultimately to serfdom), and redistribution of lands to prevent its ownership from becoming polarized and concentrated in the hands of creditors and-landlords. From today’s U.S. vantage point, that polarization is the basic dynamic of today’s U.S.-sponsored neoliberalism. China and Russia are existential threats to the global expansion of financialized rentier wealth. Today’s Cold War 2.0 aims to deter China and potentially other counties from socializing their financial systems, land and natural resources, and keeping infrastructure utilities public to prevent their being monopolized in private hands to siphon off economic rents at the expense of productive investment in economic growth. The United States hoped that China might be as gullible as the Soviet Union and adopt neoliberal policy permitting its wealth to be privatized and turned into rent-extracting privileges, to be sold off to Americans. “What the free world expected when it welcomed China into the free trade body [the World Trade Organization] in 2001,” explained Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr, trade advisor in the Reagan administration, was that, “from the time of Deng Xiaoping’s adoption of some market methods in 1979 and especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992 … increased trade with and investment in China would inevitably lead to the marketization of its economy, the demise of its state-owned enterprises.”[6] But instead of adopting market-based neoliberalism, Mr. Prestowitz complained, China’s government supported industrial investment and kept money and debt control in its own hands. This government control was “at odds with the liberal, rules-based global system” along the neoliberal lines that had been imposed on the former Soviet economies after 1991. “More fundamentally,” Prestowitz summed up: China’s economy is incompatible with the main premises of the global economic system embodied today in the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and a long list of other free trade agreements. These pacts assume economies that are primarily market based with the role of the state circumscribed and micro-economic decisions largely left to private interests operating under a rule of law. This system never anticipated an economy like China’s in which state-owned enterprises account for one-third of production; the fusion of the civilian economy with the strategic-military economy is a government necessity; five year economic plans guide investment to targeted sectors; an eternally dominant political party names the CEOs of a third or more of major corporations and has established party cells in every significant company; the value of the currency is managed, corporate and personal data are minutely collected by the government to be used for economic and political control; and international trade is subject to being weaponized at any moment for strategic ends. This is jaw-dropping hypocrisy – as if the U.S. civilian economy is not fused with its own military-industrial complex, and does not manage its currency or weaponize its international trade as a means of achieving strategic ends. It is a case of the pot calling the kettle black, a fantasy depicting American industry as being independent of government. In fact, Prestowitz urged that “Biden should invoke the Defense Production Act to direct increased U.S.-based production of critical goods such as medicines, semiconductors, and solar panels.” While U.S. trade strategists juxtapose American “democracy” and the Free World to Chinese autocracy, the major conflict between the United States and China has been the role of government support for industry. American industry grew strong in the 19th century by government support, just as China is now providing. That was the doctrine of industrial capitalism, after all. But as the U.S. economy has become financialized, it has de-industrialized. China has shown itself to be aware of the risks in financialization, and has taken measures to attempt to contain it. That has helped it achieve what used to be the U.S. ideal of providing low-priced basic infrastructure services. Here is the U.S. policy dilemma: Its government is supporting industrial rivalry with China, but also supports financialization and privatization of the domestic economy – the very policy that it has used to control “vassal” countries and extract their economic surplus by rent-seeking. Why U.S. finance capitalism treats China’s socialist economy as an existential treat Financialized industrial capital wants a strong state to serve itself, but not to serve labor, consumers, the environment or long-term social progress at the cost of eroding profits and rents. U.S. attempts to globalize this neoliberal policy are driving China to resist Western financialization. Its success provides other countries with an object lesson of why to avoid financialization and rent-seeking that adds to the economy’s overhead and hence its cost of living and doing business. China also is providing an object lesson in how to protect its economy and that of its allies from foreign sanctions and related destabilization. Its most basic response has been to prevent an independent domestic or foreign-backed oligarchy from emerging. That has been one first and foremost by maintaining government control of finance and credit, property and land tenure policy in government hands with a long-term plan in mind. Looking back over the course of history, this retention is how Bronze Age Near Eastern rulers prevented an oligarchy from emerging to threaten Near Eastern palatial economies. It is a tradition that persisted down through Byzantine times, taxing large aggregations of wealth to prevent a rivalry with the palace and its protection of a broad prosperity and distribution of self-support land. China also is protecting its economy from U.S.-backed trade and financial sanctions and economic disruption by aiming at self-sufficiency in essentials. That involves technological independence and ability to provide enough food and energy resources to support an economy that can function in isolation from the unipolar U.S. bloc. It also involves decoupling from the U.S. dollar and from banking systems linked to it, and hence from U.S. ability to impose financial sanctions. Associated with this aim is creation of a domestic computerized alternative to the SWIFT bank-clearing system. The dollar still accounts for 80 percent of all global transactions, but less than half of today’s Sino-Russian trade, and the proportion is declining, especially as Russian firms avoid dollarized payments or accounts from being seized by U.S. sanctions. These protective moves limit the U.S. threat to Machiavelli’s first option: destroy the world if it does not submit to U.S.-sponsored financialized rent extraction. But as Vladimir Putin has framed matters: “Who would want to live in a world without Russia?” Kin Chi: My quick comment: The USA surely would want to destroy its rival, taking the first option. But it knows it is impossible to succeed, even in the case of Russia, and not to mention China. Thus it hopes for the rival to disintegrate from within, or for substantial interest blocs from within to be complicit with US interests. Hence we need to assess how Russia and China are reacting to this challenge, given that there are multiple contesting forces within each country. And that is also why we have been very concerned with pro-US neo-liberal political economists and policy-makers in these two countries. I agree with you that China has put much investment into infrastructure and industry. However, we have been concerned with China’s financialization moves. Hence your statement that “China has avoided financialization” may not be the actual case, as various moves have been taken in financialization, but we can say that China seems to be aware of the risks in financialization, and has taken measures to attempt to contain it, causing discontent from US financial interests which would want to see China going further down the road. It is interesting that yesterday, the White House expressed concern over the China-Iraq use of digital RMB to settle oil accounts as this would be beyond US monitoring of transactions. Notes [1] Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (1532), Chapter 5: “Concerning the way to govern cities or principalities which lived under their own laws before they were annexed.” [2] Neera Tanden, “Should Libya pay us back?” memo to Faiz Shakir, Peter Juul, Benjamin Armbruster and NSIP Core, October 21, 2011. Mr. Shakir, to his credit, wrote back: “If we think we can make money off an incursion, we’ll do it? That’s a serious policy/messaging/moral problem for our foreign policy I think.” As president of the Center for American Progress, Tanden backed a 2010 proposal to cut Social Security benefits, reflecting the long-term Obama-Clinton objective of fiscal austerity at home as well as abroad. [3] Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives (New York: 1997), p. 40. See the discussion by Pepe Escobar, “For Leviathan, It’s So Cold in Alaska,” Unz.com, March 18, 2021. [4] Brzezinski, ibid., p. 55. [5] Brzezinski, “Towards a Global Realignment,” The American Interest (April 17, 2016) For a discussion see Mike Whitney, “The Broken Checkboard: Brzezinski Gives Up on Empire,” Counterpunch, August 25, 2016. [6] Clyde Prestowitz, “Blow Up the Global Trading System, Washington Monthly, March 24, 2021.. ----------- Pity would be no more, If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.
Quote: America’s Neoliberal Financialization Policy vs. China’s Industrial Socialism Michael Hudson • April 15, 2021 • 2,400 Words Nearly half a millennium ago Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince described three options for how a conquering power might treat states that it defeated in war but that “have been accustomed to live under their own laws and in freedom: … the first is to ruin them, the next is to reside there in person, the third is to permit them to live under their own laws, drawing a tribute, and establishing within it an oligarchy which will keep it friendly to you.”[1] Machiavelli preferred the first option, citing Rome’s destruction of Carthage. That is what the United States did to Iraq and Libya after 2001. But in today’s New Cold War the mode of destruction is largely economic, via trade and financial sanctions such as the United States has imposed on China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela and other designated adversaries. The idea is to deny them key inputs, above all in essential technology and information processing, raw materials, and access to bank and financial connections, such as U.S. threats to expel Russia from the SWIFT bank-clearing system. The second option is to occupy rivals. This is done only partially by the troops in America’s 800 military bases abroad. [NOT BASES, INSTALLATIONS. - SIGNY] But the usual, more efficient occupation is by U.S. corporate takeovers of their basic infrastructure, owning their most lucrative assets and remitting their revenue back to the imperial core. President Trump said that he wanted to seize Iraq’s and Syria’s oil as reparations for the cost of destroying their society. His successor, Joe Biden, sought in 2021 to appoint Hillary Clinton’s loyalist Neera Tanden to head the government’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB). She had urged that America should make Libya turn over its vast oil reserves as reparations for the cost of destroying its society. “We have a giant deficit. They have a lot of oil. Most Americans would choose not to engage in the world because of that deficit. If we want to continue to engage in the world, gestures like having oil rich countries partially pay us back doesn’t seem crazy to me.” [2] U.S. strategists have preferred Machiavelli’s third option: To leave the defeated adversary nominally independent but to rule via client oligarchies. President Jimmy Carter’s national-security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski referred to them as “vassals,” in the classical medieval meaning of demanding loyalty to their American patrons, with a common interest in seeing the subject economy privatized, financialized, taxed and passed on to the United States for its patronage and support, based on a mutuality of interest against local democratic assertion of nationalistic self-reliance and keeping the economic surplus at home to promote domestic prosperity instead of being sent abroad. That policy of privatization by a client oligarchy with its own source of wealth based on the U.S. orbit is what American neoliberal diplomacy accomplished in the former Soviet economies after 1991 to secure its Cold War victory over Soviet Communism. The way in which client oligarchies were created was a grabitization that utterly disrupted the economic interconnections integrating the economies. “To put it in a terminology that harkens back to the more brutal age of ancient empires,” Brzezinski explained, “the three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected and to keep the barbarians from coming together.”[3] After reducing Germany and Japan to vassalage after defeating them in World War II, U.S. diplomacy quickly reduced the Britain and its imperial sterling area to vassalage by 1946, followed in due course by the rest of Western Europe and its former colonies. The next step was to isolate Russia and China, while keeping “the barbarians from coming together.” If they were to join up, warned Mr. Brzezinski, “the United States may have to determine how to cope with regional coalitions that seek to push America out of Eurasia, thereby threatening America’s status as a global power.”[4] By 2016, Brzezinski saw Pax Americana unravelling from its failure to achieve these aims. He acknowledged that the United States “is no longer the globally imperial power.”[5] That is what has motivated its increasing antagonism toward China and Russia, along with Iran and Venezuela. The problem was not Russia, whose Communist nomenklatura let their country be ruled by a Western-oriented kleptocracy, but China. The U.S.-China confrontation is not simply a national rivalry, but a conflict of economic and social systems. The reason why today’s world is being plunged into an economic and near-military Cold War 2.0 is to be found in the prospect of socialist control of what Western economies since classical antiquity have treated as privately owned rent-yielding assets: money and banking (along with the rules governing debt and foreclosure), land and natural resources, and infrastructure monopolies. This contrast in whether money and credit, land and natural monopolies will be privatized and duly concentrated in the hands of a rentier oligarchy or used to promote general prosperity and growth has basically become one of finance capitalism and socialism. Yet in its broadest terms this conflict existed already 2500 years ago, in the contrast between Near Eastern kingship and the Greek and Roman oligarchies. These oligarchies, ostensibly democratic in superficial political form and sanctimonious ideology, fought against the concept of kingship. The source of that opposition was that royal power – or that of domestic “tyrants” – might sponsor what Greek and Roman democratic reformers were advocating: cancellation of debts to save populations from being reduced to debt bondage and dependency (and ultimately to serfdom), and redistribution of lands to prevent its ownership from becoming polarized and concentrated in the hands of creditors and-landlords. From today’s U.S. vantage point, that polarization is the basic dynamic of today’s U.S.-sponsored neoliberalism. China and Russia are existential threats to the global expansion of financialized rentier wealth. Today’s Cold War 2.0 aims to deter China and potentially other counties from socializing their financial systems, land and natural resources, and keeping infrastructure utilities public to prevent their being monopolized in private hands to siphon off economic rents at the expense of productive investment in economic growth. The United States hoped that China might be as gullible as the Soviet Union and adopt neoliberal policy permitting its wealth to be privatized and turned into rent-extracting privileges, to be sold off to Americans. “What the free world expected when it welcomed China into the free trade body [the World Trade Organization] in 2001,” explained Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr, trade advisor in the Reagan administration, was that, “from the time of Deng Xiaoping’s adoption of some market methods in 1979 and especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992 … increased trade with and investment in China would inevitably lead to the marketization of its economy, the demise of its state-owned enterprises.”[6] But instead of adopting market-based neoliberalism, Mr. Prestowitz complained, China’s government supported industrial investment and kept money and debt control in its own hands. This government control was “at odds with the liberal, rules-based global system” along the neoliberal lines that had been imposed on the former Soviet economies after 1991. “More fundamentally,” Prestowitz summed up: China’s economy is incompatible with the main premises of the global economic system embodied today in the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and a long list of other free trade agreements. These pacts assume economies that are primarily market based with the role of the state circumscribed and micro-economic decisions largely left to private interests operating under a rule of law. This system never anticipated an economy like China’s in which state-owned enterprises account for one-third of production; the fusion of the civilian economy with the strategic-military economy is a government necessity; five year economic plans guide investment to targeted sectors; an eternally dominant political party names the CEOs of a third or more of major corporations and has established party cells in every significant company; the value of the currency is managed, corporate and personal data are minutely collected by the government to be used for economic and political control; and international trade is subject to being weaponized at any moment for strategic ends. This is jaw-dropping hypocrisy – as if the U.S. civilian economy is not fused with its own military-industrial complex, and does not manage its currency or weaponize its international trade as a means of achieving strategic ends. It is a case of the pot calling the kettle black, a fantasy depicting American industry as being independent of government. In fact, Prestowitz urged that “Biden should invoke the Defense Production Act to direct increased U.S.-based production of critical goods such as medicines, semiconductors, and solar panels.” While U.S. trade strategists juxtapose American “democracy” and the Free World to Chinese autocracy, the major conflict between the United States and China has been the role of government support for industry. American industry grew strong in the 19th century by government support, just as China is now providing. That was the doctrine of industrial capitalism, after all. But as the U.S. economy has become financialized, it has de-industrialized. China has shown itself to be aware of the risks in financialization, and has taken measures to attempt to contain it. That has helped it achieve what used to be the U.S. ideal of providing low-priced basic infrastructure services. Here is the U.S. policy dilemma: Its government is supporting industrial rivalry with China, but also supports financialization and privatization of the domestic economy – the very policy that it has used to control “vassal” countries and extract their economic surplus by rent-seeking. Why U.S. finance capitalism treats China’s socialist economy as an existential treat Financialized industrial capital wants a strong state to serve itself, but not to serve labor, consumers, the environment or long-term social progress at the cost of eroding profits and rents. U.S. attempts to globalize this neoliberal policy are driving China to resist Western financialization. Its success provides other countries with an object lesson of why to avoid financialization and rent-seeking that adds to the economy’s overhead and hence its cost of living and doing business. China also is providing an object lesson in how to protect its economy and that of its allies from foreign sanctions and related destabilization. Its most basic response has been to prevent an independent domestic or foreign-backed oligarchy from emerging. That has been one first and foremost by maintaining government control of finance and credit, property and land tenure policy in government hands with a long-term plan in mind. Looking back over the course of history, this retention is how Bronze Age Near Eastern rulers prevented an oligarchy from emerging to threaten Near Eastern palatial economies. It is a tradition that persisted down through Byzantine times, taxing large aggregations of wealth to prevent a rivalry with the palace and its protection of a broad prosperity and distribution of self-support land. China also is protecting its economy from U.S.-backed trade and financial sanctions and economic disruption by aiming at self-sufficiency in essentials. That involves technological independence and ability to provide enough food and energy resources to support an economy that can function in isolation from the unipolar U.S. bloc. It also involves decoupling from the U.S. dollar and from banking systems linked to it, and hence from U.S. ability to impose financial sanctions. Associated with this aim is creation of a domestic computerized alternative to the SWIFT bank-clearing system. The dollar still accounts for 80 percent of all global transactions, but less than half of today’s Sino-Russian trade, and the proportion is declining, especially as Russian firms avoid dollarized payments or accounts from being seized by U.S. sanctions. These protective moves limit the U.S. threat to Machiavelli’s first option: destroy the world if it does not submit to U.S.-sponsored financialized rent extraction. But as Vladimir Putin has framed matters: “Who would want to live in a world without Russia?” Kin Chi: My quick comment: The USA surely would want to destroy its rival, taking the first option. But it knows it is impossible to succeed, even in the case of Russia, and not to mention China. Thus it hopes for the rival to disintegrate from within, or for substantial interest blocs from within to be complicit with US interests. Hence we need to assess how Russia and China are reacting to this challenge, given that there are multiple contesting forces within each country. And that is also why we have been very concerned with pro-US neo-liberal political economists and policy-makers in these two countries. I agree with you that China has put much investment into infrastructure and industry. However, we have been concerned with China’s financialization moves. Hence your statement that “China has avoided financialization” may not be the actual case, as various moves have been taken in financialization, but we can say that China seems to be aware of the risks in financialization, and has taken measures to attempt to contain it, causing discontent from US financial interests which would want to see China going further down the road. It is interesting that yesterday, the White House expressed concern over the China-Iraq use of digital RMB to settle oil accounts as this would be beyond US monitoring of transactions. Notes [1] Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (1532), Chapter 5: “Concerning the way to govern cities or principalities which lived under their own laws before they were annexed.” [2] Neera Tanden, “Should Libya pay us back?” memo to Faiz Shakir, Peter Juul, Benjamin Armbruster and NSIP Core, October 21, 2011. Mr. Shakir, to his credit, wrote back: “If we think we can make money off an incursion, we’ll do it? That’s a serious policy/messaging/moral problem for our foreign policy I think.” As president of the Center for American Progress, Tanden backed a 2010 proposal to cut Social Security benefits, reflecting the long-term Obama-Clinton objective of fiscal austerity at home as well as abroad. [3] Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives (New York: 1997), p. 40. See the discussion by Pepe Escobar, “For Leviathan, It’s So Cold in Alaska,” Unz.com, March 18, 2021. [4] Brzezinski, ibid., p. 55. [5] Brzezinski, “Towards a Global Realignment,” The American Interest (April 17, 2016) For a discussion see Mike Whitney, “The Broken Checkboard: Brzezinski Gives Up on Empire,” Counterpunch, August 25, 2016. [6] Clyde Prestowitz, “Blow Up the Global Trading System, Washington Monthly, March 24, 2021..
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 9:15 AM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: Wow, that looks... REALLY nice, SIX! Sure you don't want to come over and work on OUR house? ----------- Pity would be no more, If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 8:29 PM
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 9:03 PM
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 11:09 PM
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 11:16 PM
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 11:46 PM
Thursday, April 22, 2021 1:08 AM
Thursday, April 22, 2021 8:53 AM
Thursday, April 22, 2021 4:11 PM
Thursday, April 22, 2021 5:02 PM
Thursday, April 22, 2021 10:08 PM
Friday, April 23, 2021 12:23 PM
Friday, April 23, 2021 4:11 PM
Friday, April 23, 2021 4:30 PM
JEWELSTAITEFAN
Friday, April 23, 2021 5:38 PM
Friday, April 23, 2021 6:44 PM
1KIKI
Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.
Friday, April 23, 2021 8:38 PM
Quote:Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN: Q for Sigs and kiki: I recently read a book, from the last couple years, which was set in a fictional place, but I recognized it as Laguna Beach. In the story, the local economy was bustling, stores were not empty, for sale, or for rent/lease. This is not the way I saw NoCal nor SoCal in the past number of years. The most prevalent product visible was signs saying For Rent, For Lease, For Sale, Closed, Out Of Business, etc. Is that just the fiction talking, or has CA returned to a robust economy? I mean, before Covid. I had heard many reports that CA had a steady exodus, before the accelerated exodus of 2020.
Friday, April 23, 2021 9:58 PM
Saturday, April 24, 2021 4:02 AM
Quote:I want a do-over on my friend and is fiancee dropping by a few weeks back.
Saturday, April 24, 2021 1:49 PM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: Quote:Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN: Q for Sigs and kiki: I recently read a book, from the last couple years, which was set in a fictional place, but I recognized it as Laguna Beach. In the story, the local economy was bustling, stores were not empty, for sale, or for rent/lease. This is not the way I saw NoCal nor SoCal in the past number of years. The most prevalent product visible was signs saying For Rent, For Lease, For Sale, Closed, Out Of Business, etc. Is that just the fiction talking, or has CA returned to a robust economy? I mean, before Covid. I had heard many reports that CA had a steady exodus, before the accelerated exodus of 2020. I have to say, I don't know. Laguna Beach is a VERY upscale place, like Beverly Hills but on the ocean. I've only been to Laguna Beach once, so long ago I don't even remember why, but when I was there it was indeed bustling. The restaurants were full (of young things with their sugar daddies), the yachts were bobbing next to the dock and all was well in their world. Seeing as it's full of people who are well off, and those people have reaped the benefit of free Fed money, my guess is that it suffered less, and bounced back faster, than most other places after 2008/ pre-Covid. But that's just a guess.
Saturday, April 24, 2021 2:10 PM
Saturday, April 24, 2021 5:21 PM
Saturday, April 24, 2021 8:00 PM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: Quote:I want a do-over on my friend and is fiancee dropping by a few weeks back. Well, invite them over! ----------- Pity would be no more, If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.
Saturday, April 24, 2021 8:46 PM
Saturday, April 24, 2021 10:10 PM
Saturday, April 24, 2021 11:50 PM
Sunday, April 25, 2021 12:32 AM
Sunday, April 25, 2021 2:58 AM
Quote:Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFANI'm sorry for confusion. I meant CA overall, or NoCal and SoCal, if they are different. I can understand Laguna Beach has changed, but many folk consider Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel to be the same community as Beach. Niguel seemed to be a bit more affordable (and it had my favorite beaches), and I think Hills was more pricey. PCH goes right through them, yards from the sand, and once cars are parked, the foot traffic was flowing, all establishments were welcoming. The only restriction, or non-friendly aspect I recall, was that the cops sometimes ticketed topless girls on the beach - I think the locals might complain, or the families visiting from ghost country. For those who like to body surf, the coves of Laguna Niguel are awesome. But I was wondering about all of Orange County, or SoCal. I can understand that LA is still a hellhole chock full of Libtard extremists, but overall, how is the economy, like maybe statewide. I had heard that beachfront property had dropped in price, and there was an exodus. I had the impression that the Inland Empire was more susceptable to lagging economic forces. But I liked the night life there. For those not familiar, the old formula was about 4x the normal amount, per month, for beachfront rental during the 6 winter months - and that same amount per week during the 6 summer months.
Sunday, April 25, 2021 3:03 AM
Sunday, April 25, 2021 2:31 PM
Sunday, April 25, 2021 4:16 PM
Sunday, April 25, 2021 4:23 PM
Sunday, April 25, 2021 5:18 PM
Sunday, April 25, 2021 10:26 PM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: Puppy wuppy is also on the mend. She was doing quite well on canine vitamins, and extra B vitamins and iron but she suddenly started "scooting", having small liquid BMs, inappetance, and listlessness. I suspect she got worms (again) from our backyard, so I started her on fenbendazole yesterday, and today she had a normal poop followed by some goo (dead worms?) and lively as usual. Yay Zippy! Today I think I'm going to fire up the leafshredder, shred the two 65-gallon bins of leaves and mulch my veggie patch #2. Tomorrow I hope to finish planting it out with a duoble row of carrots and one row of onions. After that, attention turns to veggie pathc #1, which I have to clear of the nasturtiums, borage, and sunflowers that keep planting themselves, bc I intend to put peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe, and maybe arugula there. So watered the property very thoroughly yesterday with the idea that in the drought-tolerant areas the water would have sunk in deeply enough that I won't have to water for another month. And I checked over the front and back yards to see what is blooming. The front yard is a riot of color from the CA poppies (not just orange, but also bright bright yellow, gold, cream, white, peach and tea-color) and cosmos (bright white, pale pink with drak eyes, dark lavender-pink with dark eyes) that reseed themselves very year. But my plum-color chrysanthemum is blooming, as well as my bright rosy-red iceplant, penstemon spectabilis (delphinium blue and lavender), the Spanish lavender is still blooming, a large patch of creeping (purple) lantana, and the bright coral flowers of cotyledon (a kind of ice plant-looking succulent). So ignoring the weeds, it looks quite lovely and the bees and butterflies are happy! Also, in looking it over I saw a little patch of bluish purple and thought maybe the pentemon had seeded itself someplace else, but a close examination showed a CA lupine!!! Now, I did NOT plant that! But seeing as it's there, I'm going to put a little fence around it so it doesn't get accidentally trampled or weeded up. I was shocked to find one. That's ONE "weed seed" I don't mind growing! In the back, the nasturtiums are blooming gold, orange, and pastel versions. The white climning rose that I did a hard pruning on last year with the idea that I was going to dig it up has reponded with a profusion of blossoms, next to the Joseph's coat (mutli-colored red, orange and peach) climbing rose. A couple of sunflowers are blooming, along with the borage (blue). The camellias still have a few flowers on them, as does the pink azalea. My woodland strawberries are blooming their bright white five-petaled flowers, the gold-coin is blooming (yellow), the verbena lilacina (which I pruned back last year) and verbena bonariensis (which I dug up and potted to save for replanting elsewhere) are blooming purple, and my impulse purchase- a bicolor Texas sage (salvia gregii, cerise and rose-peach) is also blooming. Potted geraniums too. The one thing I'm waiting for is the multi-colored lantana. It planted itself on a bad spot, and once I knew what it was I put it into a small pot with the idea I would xplant it elswhere. But I got busy, and it grew out of the drainage hole into the ground, so when I dug it up it had to break a lot of roots. It responded by dropping all leaves and looking dead, but I kept watering it with hope, and eventually it sprouted new leaves. It's a lovely shrub, and very butterfly-friendly, so I hope it will bloom soon. ----------- Pity would be no more, If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.
Sunday, April 25, 2021 10:28 PM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: So, I majorly kinked my neck last night, and it is BAD. The pain is actually giving me a throbbing frontal headache, and seems to extend from the crown of my head to my right shoulder. Managed to get thru the day, and dd got her second Pfizer shot, but I'm trying to figure out how I'll sleep. I took a meloxicam and a pregabalin. Tried a neck brace but I think it did more harm than good. I'm going to try a heat patch next; they usually work pretty well. I hope it works.
Sunday, April 25, 2021 10:41 PM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: Quote:Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFANI'm sorry for confusion. I meant CA overall, or NoCal and SoCal, if they are different. I can understand Laguna Beach has changed, but many folk consider Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel to be the same community as Beach. Niguel seemed to be a bit more affordable (and it had my favorite beaches), and I think Hills was more pricey. PCH goes right through them, yards from the sand, and once cars are parked, the foot traffic was flowing, all establishments were welcoming. The only restriction, or non-friendly aspect I recall, was that the cops sometimes ticketed topless girls on the beach - I think the locals might complain, or the families visiting from ghost country. For those who like to body surf, the coves of Laguna Niguel are awesome. But I was wondering about all of Orange County, or SoCal. I can understand that LA is still a hellhole chock full of Libtard extremists, but overall, how is the economy, like maybe statewide. I had heard that beachfront property had dropped in price, and there was an exodus. I had the impression that the Inland Empire was more susceptable to lagging economic forces. But I liked the night life there. For those not familiar, the old formula was about 4x the normal amount, per month, for beachfront rental during the 6 winter months - and that same amount per week during the 6 summer months.
Sunday, April 25, 2021 10:58 PM
Quote:Originally posted by 1KIKI: I've wondered like Signy about the same thing in my little town. I don't notice the out of state license plates that much, but there are 2 hotels already, the larger one (and it's pretty big) claiming 80% occupancy. There was a move to permit yet another one (I'm not sure how that's going, I put a "no big hotel" sign on my parkway because the residents including me are already up in arms about the extra traffic, noise, crowding, and so on from the existing large hotel). I can see putting up new hotels near the beaches, or up in the mountains ... but here? In an areas with no real attractions and far away from downtown LA and even further away from Disneyland than Signy ... ? I don't get it. Where is all the business coming from? And what is it coming for? BTW, afaik a lot of local money comes from building permits, which causes a problem when an area is "built out". The City of Walnut hit that limit quite some time ago ... Some comes back from state sales taxes, so cities try to get high-volume shopping malls or other shopping venues.
Monday, April 26, 2021 2:35 AM
Quote:Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN: I'm sorry for confusion. I meant CA overall, or NoCal and SoCal, if they are different. I can understand Laguna Beach has changed, but many folk consider Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel to be the same community as Beach. Niguel seemed to be a bit more affordable (and it had my favorite beaches), and I think Hills was more pricey. PCH goes right through them, yards from the sand, and once cars are parked, the foot traffic was flowing, all establishments were welcoming. The only restriction, or non-friendly aspect I recall, was that the cops sometimes ticketed topless girls on the beach - I think the locals might complain, or the families visiting from ghost country. For those who like to body surf, the coves of Laguna Niguel are awesome. But I was wondering about all of Orange County, or SoCal. I can understand that LA is still a hellhole chock full of Libtard extremists, but overall, how is the economy, like maybe statewide. I had heard that beachfront property had dropped in price, and there was an exodus. I had the impression that the Inland Empire was more susceptable to lagging economic forces.
Quote: But I liked the night life there. For those not familiar, the old formula was about 4x the normal amount, per month, for beachfront rental during the 6 winter months - and that same amount per week during the 6 summer months. SIGNY: You sound like an OC kinda guy. From the various things you posted, like remembering some famous derecho, and catching fish from a lake, I had you sort of located in rural Wisconsin. So, what's a guy so familiar with OC doing there? Or, how did a guy in rural Wisconsin get to OC? Were you a surfer? College student? Do tell! JSF: Born and raised in a suburb (farm town) of Madison. Godfather ran a farm (rural), pork and beef, 10 minutes away from my home. My evil brother just sold the family home last fall.
Quote: Family got a "cabin" or cottage on a fishing lake in Price County - what you would call rural - plus a 180-acre former deer preserve in Sawyer Co.
Quote: Orange Co was the 4th stop on the itinerary of my Travel Agent - aka USMC Recruiter.
Quote: Laguna Beach was 15 min drive from the base barracks. We were familiar with Capistrano, Laguna, Balboa, Newporsche, Costa Mesa, Corona del Mar, Huntington, Manhattan, Venice, Redondo, more I can't recall. My favorite residence in my life was in Manchester, 2 blocks from my workplace of LAX.
Monday, April 26, 2021 2:57 AM
Monday, April 26, 2021 4:23 PM
Monday, April 26, 2021 4:30 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Brenda: Walk in and back. Dry when I went out but spitting on my way back. I didn't bother with putting my umbrella up as it was nothing. Birthday card, mother's day card and another card for a friend. He celebrating his 30th year of sobriety. I also picked up a birthday present for him and a little something for his sobriety. Now to get the envelope addressed and popped into the Post tomorrow. It's off to Alberta.
Monday, April 26, 2021 4:40 PM
Monday, April 26, 2021 5:24 PM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: Quote:Originally posted by Brenda: Walk in and back. Dry when I went out but spitting on my way back. I didn't bother with putting my umbrella up as it was nothing. Birthday card, mother's day card and another card for a friend. He celebrating his 30th year of sobriety. I also picked up a birthday present for him and a little something for his sobriety. Now to get the envelope addressed and popped into the Post tomorrow. It's off to Alberta. It's always good to reach out and stay in touch, even long distance! Most of my relatives are "back east", either near Buffalo or Rochester, or in Delaware. I send cards with notes for all of the usual holidays, and the younger generation appreciates texting and email. I suspect that some of my more distant relatives (I know there are a few in NM and CO) stay in touch by Facebook, but I don't want to get involved with that so I'm trying to find a way to get in touch with them otherwise. ----------- Pity would be no more, If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.
Monday, April 26, 2021 5:25 PM
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