“We should not count on friends or neutrals to save our civilization.” Hear that Taiwan, Japan and South Korea? You must build your own nuclear deterrent immediately.

USA must restart or civil defense program to teach the population how to survive nuclear attack. Many lives can be saved with some basic knowledge, reinforced in the schools, like we did in the 1950s. See: The Good News About Nuclear Destruction (goodnewsnuke.com)

This madman unmasks what is a diabolical gambit, the new US paradigm of war:

Arm all its satrapies around the world with nuclear weapons and encourage “local” nuclear wars.

Clean hands USA avoids the action. Its enemies and its competitors (even friendly) are eliminated. Last one left standing. We can see this strategy in action in the Ukraine where the United States created a crisis, before midwifing a violent coup in 2014. The US Front person was the repugnant Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland but ultimately even Nuland is just a face, if an ugly one, with her biolabs and hatred.

Ten years of state terrorism slowly built up the conditions for war. Now that war has started and the Ukraine has lots its doomed war, the United States pushes its European vassals forward, as the next man up in confrontation with Russia.

Fortunately, even Poland is not that foolish. The US has to rely on the mad or bought like Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who puts a pretty face on hate and serves as the point woman for the Fourth Reich, much as Lina and Reinhard Heydrich did for the Third Reich.

Spreading nuclear weapons around the world will result in their use. Every significant regional power, including states like Poland, should dread nuclear proliferation. Those arms will be used in local conflicts which will result in their own elimination. Damage to their larger neighbours will be significant but it’s small nations which will disappear completely in such exchanges.

It’s no coincidence that Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping announced at their joint public statement in May, “Everyone loses in a nuclear war.”

Simultaneously to spread nuclear weapons and fan regional conflicts, is the most cynical and diabolical strategy yet from US imperialism.

In the comments, BelleDelphine argues again in favour of US domination:

Sure but will you fare any better under Kremlin boot ?

The BelleDephine persona is a broken record and constant liar. To answer her question – would Europe be better off in a Russian economic coalition, akin to the EEC?

Yes, we’d have as much gas as we needed.

Yes, we’d have our well-heeled and free spending tourists back.

Yes, we’d have a great export market for our industrial machines and fine machines and cars and premium food products.

Yes, we’d have unlimited and reasonably priced raw materials.

Yes, as the Russians would fund and buy European software startups instead of trying to secretly lock them out of the market or destroy them.

Yes, we’d have far less woke nonsense to convert our children into twerking transsexuals before the age of eight. Drag queen fairy tale grooming hour would be over.

Yes, we’d have real borders again and our social insurance would not go bankrupt funding people who feel no attachment to our culture and would like to take over and destroy our lands.

Yes, because Russians like and respect Europe and don’t try to destroy the peoples who populate their sphere of influence. Would you rather be Iraq/Libya/Syria/Ukraine or Czechoslovakia/Poland/Belarus/East Germany? Check the death tolls and the long term damage to cultural heritage before you answer that question.

Europe has so far been lucky as it’s suited the US to coddle us for decades to prevent socialist governments coming to power and to quietly ensnare our countries deeper and deeper in the deep sea net of the EU. Now it’s time for us to pay the piper and become the “tip of the US spear”.

On the other hand, Russians really can’t be bothered with the outside world as long as the world leaves them alone, unlike the Anglosphere for whom genocide is a way of life and just another tool of economic piracy.¹

At this point US economic and cultural imperialism is so toxic that almost any other overlord or ideology would be less harmful to Europe. The US security state and MIC have brought us to bankruptcy, the start of World War III and now to the brink of atomic war on European soil. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have paid the ultimate price for succumbing to the siren song of US military support. Retired US military leadership brags about the bargain they received:

We’ve got a $6 trillion dollar budget…We’ve invested and I mean invested a $66 billion in Ukraine and I mean that’s like 1.1% [or our budget]…For $66 billion what we get – Ukraine is doing the fighting, they are literally destroying the Russian army on the battlefield, which would set them back for years….We are not doing the fighting. And that’s critical to what is happening here.

The US is prepared to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian and then to the last Pole and then to the last German. But this is our continent and we’d like to live in peace and heat our homes. This is not our ideological war. To support US economic and military imperialism neither does us nor the larger world no good. We are enabling the destruction of our continent and our way of life.

Currently the US is encouraging the Ukraine to shell Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporozhie. If shelling doesn’t work, the plan is to flood the entire area with a tidal wave as in Fukushima. The immediate result would be a radiation leak which would make Chernobyl seem like a dress rehearsal. This event would happen in the middle of Ukraine at the border of Europe, affecting Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, possible Austria and parts of Germany. This would be a generational event, rendering hundreds of thousands of kilometres unfit for human habitation for hundreds of years.

How could such a disaster possibly be in the interest of either the Ukraine or Europe? The US does not care and our EU leadership is more or less silent on the safety issue, choosing to blame the Russians (“shelling themselves to threaten Europe”) instead of the Ukrainian army who is shelling the plant with the help of US military advisors.

EU leadership no longer represents the people of Europe. These unelected bureaucrats are effectively appointed by the US based on service to Atlanticist ideology, not on either their merits nor on their loyalty to Europe. The EU leaders have become the Kapos of concentration camp Europe.

Of course what would be best would be an independent Europe of sovereign states in a loose economic coalition. We have not been given that choice. Since we must choose between destroying our continent and a Russian-run economic coalition, I’m against destroying our continent. The Russians will eventually tire of meddling and let us go our own way in peace. It might take a few decades. If the US get their way, there is unlikely to be a Europe over which to squabble.

Bingo. Fake money leads to fake everything. Fake business, fake media, fake politicians, fake science, fake religion.

The big boys know that all that really matters is pleasing those who control the thin-air money spigot. It is why business will insult their customers, media will lie to their viewers, politicians will betray their constituents, preachers will ignore their calling, researchers will skew/ignore data, and educators will defy the parents of the students.

Having all power in one place is the opposite of freedom, and you can’t have decentralized government and central banking. You have to choose one or the other. I know it is human nature to rally around personalities rather than ideas, but it is imperative we grow up and do so. We will either end fiat currency and central banking, or they will end the Republic. Period.

Such a position of ending fiat currency is of course too extreme but Mark Moore is right that unlimited backstopping of big business along with a captive press, bought politicians and fraudster scientists hopelessly distorts the marketplace of ideas. Instead of a virtuous self-correcting system, which generates greater productivity over time, i.e. more goods and services, one ends up with parasitical classes which gradually reduce the quantity of goods and services available. The first result is inflation.

The eventual result is failure. The tension between the real economy and the paper economy becomes greater and greater, eventually breaking out in an enormous black market economy. A black market economy is the only place we can be certain that the politicians and corporations won’t be siphoning off seventy per cent plus of our efforts.

The economies of Europe are not at that point yet. It’s between thirty-five and sixty percent, perhaps more if one allocates the resources spent on appeasing bureaucracy (there’s a lot of paperwork to file, which requires paying people just to create those papers and interact with the power structures who check those papers). But we’ll soon be there.²

What is shocking is that the people in the parasite classes are now able to buy bigger houses, more cars, travel in private jets – while those of us working to create goods and provide services, gradually watch our savings disappear into thin air.

Europe’s solution to a predatory class has always been revolutionary. We tear them from their mansions and behead them (Cromwell, French revolution, Russian revolution). Or impose enormous inheritance taxes and wealth taxes (UK in seventies). It should not be in anyone’s interests to push matters to these extremes. Yet push and pull, in that direction carries on.

Were the USA to stop its endless wars on the Middle East (Lebanon I, Afghanistan I, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon II) this would end the economy and security (important for tourism) draining invasion of mostly unsuitable migrants to Europe. Were the US to stop its Russia-baiting, Europe could focus again on tourism and trade with Russia, confident that we will enjoy inexpensive energy for another generation. Were the US to stop its bioweapons programs, which have resulted in plagues in Georgia and now Covid-19, we could go back to our restaurants, our theatres and our hospitality businesses.

Until very recently Europeans lived in a paradise on earth where everyone was working a service business to make each other’s lives better. Free health care was a universal right, a first class education for one’s children was within reach of most families. It was a virtuous circle: I write software which makes artists lives easier, who dance or act for us in the evening which makes our lives better, while chefs and waiters enjoy the same performances and make all of our lives better, while foreign visitors experience life-changing cultural and culinary experiences. Our police would enjoy the same restaurants and lifestyle, while protecting us from the worst side of human nature. Our bureaucrats would protect small farmers and regulate our artisanal guilds, while restraining multinationals from regulatory capture of the economy.

On the international front, Russians would sell us affordable energy and spend madly as tourists. Chines would sell us cheap electronics and come en masse as tourists.

Thanks to aggressive US actions in Eurasia and US capture of our political and financial institutions instead we are offered the joys of both cold and hot wars. Blithely printed fake money is what we are being given to bribe us to accede to our own doom. A few troublesome politicians must be blackmailed or run out of office via personal/financial scandal. Incorrigible troublemakers who can’t be bribed and are too popular to blackmail die in untimely accidents.

Ancient quantitative easing, i.e. currency depreciation, debasement of coin

The later Roman Empire was known for its extravagance, genocide and cruelty. Truly, the Romans³ must learn from us now, of corruption, hedonism, waste and destruction.

Over the weekend, Bloomberg reported that the White House is seeking to re-home around 9,000 Afghans who had worked with American forces as translators, drivers and in other supporting roles. However, despite fears they will be targets for reprisals, Washington is not said to be considering offering them the chance to go to the US. Instead, officials have asked nearby Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to take in the vengeance-wary Afghans.

[fvplayer id=”18″]

It shocks me that an external imperialist invader could co-opt thousands of citizens to collaborate against their fellow citizens and then just leave them. Even Nazi Germany allowed its Banderist collaborators in the Ukraine to retreat to Germany with the Wehrmacht. The US arrogance of expecting neighbouring countries to accept US collaborators is truly shocking. Why would the leaders of these countries want an unwelcome fifth column used to serving Uncle Sam?

Apparently even the Italians are not so craven and are welcoming their collaborators.

“Italy won’t forget them,” said Italian Defence Minister Lorenzo Guerini.

It’s like someone leaving a car full of his or her best friends for dead at the side of a highway after a collision. After watching US imperialism in action close up for the last thirty years I shouldn’t be surprised or shocked by anything any more.

One and Only asks a very good question:

Why do people want to work for the government so bad? I get it, job stability, decent paycheck, healthcare…

He gives a few examples:

• Nancy Pelosi 40 years.
• Barbara Boxer 38 years.
• Joe Biden 48 fuckin years.
• Donald Trump – 4 years but this weird. You’re old. You’re a billionaire. Hot wife. Family…what are you doing bro?

These people are old and rich. Everyone talks shit about you. Look at Rand Paul lost his lung. Scalise got shot. You’re getting spied on, if not by your enemies, by your friends who are trying to steal your spot. The longer you’re in the more culpable you are for screwing everything up.

What do people get out of it? How do people get intoxicated by this. It seems not that fun.

Truly it doesn’t seem like much fun, but One and Only is clearly not susceptible to the drug which is power. Stalin, Hitler, Churchill, Nixon, Trudeau Sr., H.R. Clinton were all held in wholly in its thrall.

Nancy Pelosi was born rich, the daughter of a wealthy politician, closely associated with mobsters. Donald Trump also came to politics very wealthy. On the other hand, Barbara Boxer, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton all became rich because of politics. Nancy Pelosi’s husband has made a fortune on legal insider trading while she is in office.

State of the Nation: Achievements of US Politicians over the last forty years

Since he started with forty year career politicians, it makes sense to talk about what those lifer pols achieved. It’s not a pretty picture. Imagine if you will, the year 2000, the USA runs a $200 million surplus and the national debt is at $6 trillion and shrinking. The peace dividend from the end of the Cold War is finally paying off. In 2001, Dick Cheney and his dirty birds of war come into power, orchestrate 9/11 ("the new Pearl Harbour" described in Project for a New American Century) to the War on Terror which leaves the US trillions in debt.

Last year we had the War on Biological Warfare, which devastated the economy further and required enormous quantitive easing almost doubling the national debt or since the US runs a hundred odd illegal bio-weapons labs around the world, we could call it a spade a spade – the current war is a War on Chinese Technological Advancement. In the future, China has the right to own sweat shops but all the chip manufacturing will be in Japan, South Korea, Israel or in the worst case Taiwan. The only tool the Chinese will be given are smelters for toxic metals and screw drivers for electronics assembly. If the War on CTA follows the pattern of past US "Wars" – Cold, Vietnam, Drug, Terror – it means huge grants to the Military Industrial Complex at the expense of ordinary tax-payers. It’s an open question whether the US economy will survive this way. The current fifteen year old Sanctions War (primarily against Russia and Iran with a small cameo from North Korea) has already begun to blunt many of the US instruments of control.

The healthcare system is good enough but aside from advances in technology…the healthcare system is worse then 40 years ago. We don’t have borders anymore so people who haven’t lived here are getting to vote so what’s so special about American? Osama Bin Laden could walk over from the Mexican border and find a way to vote. My vote doesn’t feel that special anymore. Immigration is worse.

Security? We have mass shootings all the time and we get spied on so the spying isn’t even protecting us. Taxes? The rich pay nothing and the poor making less than $25,000 a year get audited 3 times more then the rich (because its cheaper). So the tax system is not even worth talking about. The economy? If you’re not pissing in a bottle in an amazon warehouse well most jobs have been outsourced or automated. Race relations? Well if you’re white you’re a Nazi and if you’re black you’re a holocaust survior or at least that’s how it gets portrayed. We have riots all the time. Race relations are non existant we can’t even talk about it.

Infrastructure? Well if you’re lucky enough to not be effected by it getting hacked maybe you get a rolling blackout if it gets hot in the desert while you’re taking off from a runway with holes in it. Science in America? The top scientist just got busted not only lying for over a year but come to find out…we funded the virus. Free Speech? Ok…bring up the lab leak theory? You’re cancelled. Our rights to speak freely? Not even a former president can speak freely without getting cancelled. No free speach anymore. I can’t even remember when the last comedy was released that I liked…in America comics get silenced for telling jokes.

I could go on and more in depth but it’s like…what do these people have to show? To brag about? Great democrats beat Trump and that’s all anyone cared about but the people who brought Trump down are all responsible for the above.

Now one and only takes us down nostalgia lane. It’s dangerous to flirt with memory. Men remember what was good and forget what was bad. Women’s memories seem to be much stickier for negative events. Still, I lived through these years too and they were pretty good in Canada too.

I remember being a kid and it was a lot better here in America. The thing that sucks if you were born like 20 years ago you’ll never know how better it was. Getting on a plane without taking your stuff off and getting groped. Telling jokes how you wanted without consequence. The dollar menu…can’t get anything for a dollar. Food in school was ok…for a kid. You could start lemonaide stand as a kid…and not get shutdown by the police for not having a permit. SCHOOL SHOOTINGS AND MASS SHOOTINGS WEREN’T EVEN A THING. Bombing weren’t a thing. You could smoke in restaurants (smoking section) and no one complained or cared. The music was pretty good (content was not Wet Ass Pussy).

You didn’t have to press 1 for English because that was our language it wasn’t an option. Even if you came illegally you learned it. Almost everyone used to be able to afford medical costs and education costs (if not there was a scholarship if you deserved it) you didn’t graduate with a mortgage. You used to be able to support a family with 1 job…and the jobs were pretty good people were shitting in bags in their delivery van like they do now with Amazon. People used to stand PROUDLY for the national anthem not kneel for it. People used to stay married, the divorce rate now is 55% and that’s not very romantic or confidence inspiring. There was a time where we were more influential than Russia…now it seems we can’t vote, we can’t protect our infrastructure or culture because Russia is omnipotent now. Anything goes its Russia.

If you’re a politician and you’ve been in the government for 40 years. What brings you back to the table with all these accomplishments? What makes it worth it? You’re rich. You’re old. None of you are in good health. You’ve really ruined our future at least our present.

Why do you want to be a politician?

While One and Only may be mostly right about the good old days – single income, two-parent families certainly lead to better childhoods – he’s mistaken about the motivation of politicians. It’s not about money or comfort. It’s about power. Some people are sociopathic and what they require from life is neither happiness or joy.

Not even debauchery and satiated hedonism are enough for them. It’s the power over others, even the power of life and death. What motivates many politicians in an unhealthy society can be seen in the serial killer confessions, whether real life or cinematic. The release, the joy is in the ability to end or destroy another human life. The crazy lady laugh of Hillary Clinton when talking about the destruction of Libya and death of Ghadaffi is a good real life example caught on film.

[fvplayer id=”15″]

The US system is thoroughly broken though. Barrack Obama’s Cairo Speech was fabulous, where a clear commitment was given to peace in the Middle East. Obama was not allowed to implement any of it. Donald Trump’s commitment to end the new Cold War and focus on building US infrastructure and creating new technology would have been a breath of fresh air for the world. Any politician with principles who is not under the control of the Permanent War cabal is run out of politics, a recent example being Tulsi Gabbard. So we live on as the chattel of crooked sociopaths, themselves doing the bidding of psychotic plutocrats.

What happened to government of the people, for the people, by the people?

Paint the Russians as poisoners and you only have to sacrifice a pawn for a new round of sanctions. The timing here makes it more than obvious that a Navalny poisoning would be to help US policy. This month has been taken up with the attempt at overturning the Belarussian state (it’s early in that game yet, there’s some more moves to be made but they depend on putting the Russians on their back heel) and sabotaging Nord Stream II.

Poisoning your own man at risk of death and/or lifetime disability is a substantial sacrifice to make, but to a cynical imperialist mind well worth it to either win Belorussia, shut down Nord Stream II or even both.

Micron makes the medical case in more detail.

I do not really see the point of delving into complicated medicinal debates. Even if one of us here was a qualified MD, even a doctor would need to have access to the patient’s records to have an informed opinion. So, we are all shooting in the dark anyway.

The problem is intractable. Russophobes will never trust the Russian doctors and results of tests done in Russia, as nobody can fully exclude falsification or political pressure.

Sane people (sorry, I meant non-russophobes) will not trust Germany either. I mean, Navalny was practically given a BND escort and Angela Merkel’s spokesman has already gone on the record accusing Russia in an underhanded way. How can you trust whatever the German doctors will say, in an hospital a few hundred meters from Germany’s political decision centers and literally swarming with BND operatives ? Which doctor will have the guts to contradict political leadership and risk being found at the bottom of the Spree in a few weeks ?

Only conclusion is that the beliefs that Navalny was or was not poisoned are equally infalsifiable and cannot be proven. I do not see what could be admitted as conclusive proof by all the parties.

So we can only fall back to the good old cui bono analysis. And here, simple logic dictates that poisoning Navalny is easily the worst move of the decade for Russia, at the worst possible time : when Russia is trying to stabilize the Belarusian situation, as well as completing Nord Stream II pipeline. We are asked to believe that Putin basically said “hey you know what, screw the international situation and my carefully nurtured strategic projects, I absolutely need to eliminate a guy who polls at around 2% for some elections no one outside Russia cares about, and which my party would have won anyway”. The same guy who for years has gone out of his way to appease Turkey in Syria, and has systematically been extremely cautious in the Donbass despite half of Russia clamouring for annexation.

When faced with all this, the only answers I saw until now from MSM/Russophobes are either
1. Putin doesn’t care about international opinion, he kills whomever he wants. Sure, then why doesn’t Putin annex Donbass, or bomb the Turkish military to smithereenr, or kill dozens of guys much more nefarious and influential than Navalny ?
2. Putin is just an evil madman.

It’s a testament to the West’s extraordinary propaganda machine that there are still people who can utter or imply such insanities without being laughed out of the room.

Any one silly enough to blame the Russian government for what happened to Alexey Navalny has either not been paying attention or is deliberating disseminating false information. Both type of players are useful to the US propaganda war on Russia (and China and Iran and Venezuela). The US list of evil enemies is becoming awfully long. Heck, long time targets Cuba and North Korea and Syria had to be temporarily shelved to leave enough attention for those four.

Imagine being a US asset now though. You would have to wonder when your masters are coming for you, when your sacrifice will be considered worthwhile.

How can I see inside Japanese existence or
the mysteries of the Russian soul, or feel Filipino sense of complacent helplessness
and anger (their entire stock of able, active men, and those men’s women and children,
wiped out by E. Otis and J. Smith in just a few years).

I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn the better it will please me. I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States,

Resonance

Images will no longer do. Too banal.
Talking images mean something, yes, the movies,
but the penetrating step is in words. To make us feel
again the pulse of a mind. Dostoevsky’s frenzied existentialist
criminals or Tolstoi’s high-minded princes and naive debutantes.
To wake one morning to the crimp of fresh snow, the smell
of chocolate and strawberries from last night’s ball
floods in. Meeting someone who matters, touching eternity’s
companion soul, rare and wonderful bliss.

We only really love twice. Some not once, only feel sordid
longing, a burning in the crotch, primitive
like a fox’s blood hunger for the hens, an urge to the vixen.
Explain to them the choral radiance of a shared night sky,
invokes embarrassment or a snicker of contempt.

Better they say an afternoon of ball and beers,
or a lean drive through the hood, or for the materialist,
a test ride in the latest Lexala luxury car. Beautiful, inanimate,
an auto can neither talk back, demand emotions or complain.

Asian Postcript

The Japanese were allowed dominion in Korea, if the Nips
promised to keep their snouts out of American business
in the Philippines, a deal to suit all imperialists.

The present war is no bloodless, opera bouffe engagement; our men have been relentless, have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of ten up, the idea prevailing that the Filipino as such was little better than a dog…

There’s no forest left in the Philipines. Bare as a friar’s head, Spanish protectorate forgotten,
no talk from them of democracy or freedom while the jungle thrived.
Seoul too has its subway photos, part of the developed world.
Urban rapid transit comes now to Manila. Progress.

.
.
.
.

Photo Credit: Hong Kong Subway Photo by Horatio Tan.

The whole US instigated Canada vs China fight going on over the arrest of Meng Wanzhou of Huawei Technologies might have more impact on housing in Vancouver than local rules and regulations. Kelly McParland has an interesting analysis of China’s policy toward the West, how they’ve played us, and how we should accept the reality about China after what is happening to Canada right now.

The article to which she links is trashy jingoistic anti-Chinese propaganda from a guy who is basically a propaganda outlet (he’s anti-Iran, anti-China, anti-Liberal, anti-ecology, anti-Saudi Arabia now that the CIA have turned on MBS – the guy is Pavlov’s dog responding on cue).

Imagine what would happen if China arrested Tim Cook or Ivana Trump? That’s roughly what the morons in Canada did when they snatched Meng Wanzhou from a flight on a very dubious US request (US unilateral sanctions apply in the US and not worldwide or in Canada)?

President Donald Trump has indicated the arrest is a kind of kidnapping:

If I think it’s good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made — which is a very important thing — what’s good for national security — I would certainly intervene if I thought it was necessary.

The Americans have zero respect for Canadians, we’re just a doormat for them. Now that Canada has blown up relations with China, it looks like you’ll get the real estate market they deserve for this act of perfidy.

What do the US really want from Huawei:

1. to abandon the 5G market
2. to include compromised hardware in their products
3. to install software backdoors on request

It would help if Canadians would look a bit deeper than the National Post for insight. Repairing relations with China should probably be foremost in Canadians’ minds, not provoking them further.

But this is the issue of North Americans – an overwhelming majority are no more free thinkers at this point than the Chinese consuming state media. The media in North America is bankrupt literally (most papers lose money) and only exists as a loss-leader for plutocrats. The Washington Post is Jeff Bezos’s mouthpiece. It’s literally all pro-Hillary Clinton and pro-CIA propaganda all the time. Reuters publishes information they know is false.

If Canadians can’t be bothered to think for themselves and protect their own interests, why do they think Washington, DC would protect them? This is a country who fracks its groundwater and leaves its residents to drink and bathe in poisoned water.

Given the lack of American respect for the rule of law, Thom Paine asks why Russia has not aided and abbeted Syria and/or Iran in the acquisition of nuclear weapons.

Putin should have seen this coming, maybe has.

And armed Syria and Iran with nukes and high range S400 defense.

Nukes change the game for Saudis and Israel – Syria and Iran too close for comfort.

It worked for NK, it will work for Syria.

The problem with arming other nations with nuclear weapons is that it’s illegal. Didn’t stop the UK, US and France turning a blind eye at one point or another or abetting Israel, Pakistan and India.

The Russians believe in International Law. Most of us in the Western world (although not all Zerohedgers) also believe in the rule of law. It allows us to venture out into the streets, keep money in the bank, call the police safely (not in the USA though, they’ll shoot your neighbour’s dog, your dog, you or your neighbour). There is a contingent in the Western world now who believe they are above the law. The most visible representative was the extremely unsuccessful two time candidate for president, Hillary Clinton.

This group who are undermining the rule of law are pushing us to either anarchy or military plutocracy (information is also a weapon so Google effectively belongs to an arm of the MIC, along with Facebook – more closely aligned with the intelligence services than the Pentagon who is more closely aligned with the weapons manufacturers).

The Russians have worked very hard in the last two decades not to leave matters of state to either the Generals or the Oligarchs. When war means profit, bloodshed will not be long in coming. No respect for the rule of law internationally (which is where John Bolton, HC and his ilk have taken us explicitly – Obama followed the same policies implicitly while occasionally apologised for or attempted to justify illegal behaviour) will end in might makes right, oppression and global war.

That’s what the breakdown of the rule of law portends, whether at a neighbourhood, city-state or nation state level.

I’ve been participating very actively in political conversations on various alternative sites for the last six months and recently over at MoonOfAlabama.org. I’ve also been involved in a very involved internal comments-or-not debate for a high profile and widely read international political site recently. Professionally at Foliovision, we develop what is the most powerful freestanding (software, not a service) comment moderation software, Thoughtful Comments¹. Commenting has been on my mind would be an understatement.

MoonOfAlabama is not the only anti-Empire alternative media site who suffers from comment issues. Here’s a short list of some sites with whose comment sections I’m very familiar.

RT.com

RT.com wants instant comments but suffers from spot.im’s poor resource management to achieve that goal. If you don’t block comments on RT.com each open tab will balloon to over a GB in a matter of twelve hours, crippling your web browser. CPU usage is also an issue. RT.com is also a free fire zone so the calibre of comments is so low that there is literally almost nothing to miss. For a better reading experience, just block spot.im and ignore commenting on RT.com.

As long as a site is using Spot.im, that site is doomed to an extremely low-brow and low density comment section. Spot.im is not a comment system for sites for adults.

RussiaInsider.com

Russia Insider uses Disqus. Disqus right now is surprisingly robust and is not meddling much in moderation. The Empire has chewed up and digested existing platforms (YouTube, Facebook) and is now coming for Disqus.

The quality of comments on RussiaInsider.com is not great sadly. RI has become a pile-on of like-minded individuals who unfortunately don’t have much new information. Due to the coming censorship, Disqus will eventually become a problem for RussiaInsider.com but the insularity and vulgarity of the comment section is a problem beyond software.

Recommendations for RI below.

ZeroHedge.com

ZeroHedge has their own platform which includes upvotes and downvotes. The platform was terrible for ages (with any kind of ad-block on, upvoting or downvoting, froze a browser tab and the rest of the tabs in the window for up to a minute). This has been fixed. Technically, it’s pretty sound while the upvoting and downvoting leads to interesting spot polls (FYI, ZeroHedge public leans very libertarian, pro-Russia, pro-guns and pro-justice in Palestine: an interesting combination).

Zerohedge attempts to deal with the troll issue with a complex registration process. There is still an enormous amount of spam, repetition, pointless one liners. Obscenity is both allowed and enouraged. Amid all the dross and expletives, there are some sharp and sharp-witted mines. Probably not worth sorting through the rubbish most of the time.

In this case though, the ZeroHedge comment section does have a personality and a personality which suits its readership. I’m not convinced it would be possible to improve the quality of commentary on ZeroHedge without losing much of the readership. Intelligent readers should avoid the ZeroHedge comments section apart from checking opinion temperature via the spot poll upvoting and downvoting.

Mondoweiss.net

Mondoweiss suffers from too narrow a group and a narrow subject so inevitably the comment section becomes too repetitive. If one visits occasionally, one finds gems like this detailed exploration (see higher in the thread as well) of Albert Einstein’s relationship to the state of Israel and Zionism. At one point, Mondoweiss had some hardcore zionist flag waver propagandists. They were even more repetitive than the pro-Palestine crowd but often started lively debate. Eventually though even the back and forth became extremely repetitive.

Let’s take a quick look at two mainstream sites, on opposite ends of the political spectrum in the US.

Politico.com

Politico use Facebook comments. Despite a valid and genuine Facebook profile and some fairly careful but dissenting comments, I was unable to post there at all. Perhaps a technical, perhaps a moderation issue. In the end, though, only like-minded people (establishment democrats, Hillary fans) welcome. Repetitive, dull and one-sided.

Sadly that’s the way establishment democrats like their politics these days and that’s why they lost the last election to a career charlatan. They just don’t know how to listen and would like impose their values on everyone in Huxley-like Brave New World.

Breitbart.com

Breitbart use Disqus but with very loose moderation. Breitbart is kind of a no-holds barred area similar to ZeroHedge but with a far lower tolerance for expletives and obscenity (“conservative values”). On the other hand, Breitbart is where you are most likely to see the kind of “just nuke ’em” comments about China, Russia, Syria or even Europe. Anywhere which is not the United States (curiously Bloomberg comment sections are even worse).

Breitbart like Politico is an agitprop site so there is no real will to improve the comment section. Any participation there is anti-productive (the hordes of close-minded jingoistic gun-lovers seem endless). Intelligent comments don’t raise discussion (although they do get a few upvotes) but end in death threats.

Breitbart’s comment section makes a very strong argument that Trumpism is effectively National Socialism in a National Capitalist guise. If you (like I was) are under any delusions that the Trumpists are harbingers of a better world, a couple of weeks on Breitbart will cure you of any delusions that there is intelligence or humanity behind the movement. Trumpism is an angry mob, Trump is a pied-piper in front of that mob².

Lessons and Takeaways

Main lesson: it’s very difficult to post on controversial topics and maintain a diverse readership with a non-repetitive comment sections. What’s even more discouraging is that many sites who should know better have decided to just forego comments.

Just banishing dissent is anti-productive, resulting in a sterile environment with modest engagement (Mondoweiss, Politico). Allowing the site to be hijacked by trolls is no better a strategy (Breitbart, RussiaInsider, RT). The one counter indication is ZeroHedge which thrives in an almost free firezone of obscenity and insults seasoned with a touch of intelligence and wit. The exception proves the rule. Most people would not be comfortable on ZeroHedge. Intelligent readers will tire of the repetitive fireworks while little progress will be made to an intelligent debate to shape better policies in the future. Not only are the policies themselves important but civil discussion develops a well-informed and motivated electorship to support and vote for those better policies.

What RussiaInsider.com would have to do to save its comment section for instance, would be to stop allowing the rude one liner posts, whether from Ukrainian agitprop factories or from the pro-Russia faction. The level of debate has to take a massive leap up. A too sudden shift in moderation might confuse existing commenters so I’d recommend a gradual shift to stricter moderation, getting rid of the worst of mutual insults first and gradually encouraging well thought out and more intelligent commentary. One method of doing so is having a writer or an editor engage immediately with the better comments. Positive attention from an authority is a powerful tool.

Building a better comments section, example MoonOfAlabama

Returning to the comment section at MoonOfAlabama, for many years I often carefully read the comments here as there was often new information posted by commenters who are expert on a region or an economic sector. In the last couple of years, I stopped reading the comment section at MoA nearly as often, as it had become overpopulated with one-liners and pointless sniping. Some of the better informed commenters who added value either literally disappeared or their posts were difficult to ferret out from among the dross³.

My goal at MoA is to contribute to and help build a comment section I’d like to read and which would be persuasive to someone who is just exposed to alternative narratives for the first time. I often send MSM victims (they don’t perceive of themselves as such) to MoA as a first exposure to non-MSM and thus have an interest in MoA coming across as credible.

Progress has been made in the last couple of months. Most comment sections make sense. Sniping comments are less frequent. Ad-hominems are actively discouraged. The wildly delusional have been excluded (albeit with occasional regret, like Lear’s fool, the truly mad occasionally offer another kind of wisdom).

Here are my six sure fire rules (a work in progress) on how to nurture an intelligent comment section on your website, particularly a site which deals with controversial subjects.

Six Rules: How to Build an Intelligent Comment Section

1. Moderation. Your garden won’t grow properly by itself and neither will a comment section. Bad comments (obscene, off-topic, ad-hominem) must be pruned.
2. Good comments should be encouraged. An easy way to do this is with author or editor response. Upvotes can help, depending on your community.
3. Debate should be open, to encourage robust discussion. Disagreement is not a grounds for censorship. On the other hand, automated tools which allow the “early bird” strategy to derail comments should be fought (hold the comment, drop it into the discussion later).
4. Threaded discussion is better (keeps discussion in the right silos, off topic discussions don’t go too far). Deep threading is a bad idea on the other hand (over two levels and visitors are encouraged to go too far afield, we are discussing comments, not open forums). My recommendation is for single level threading (i.e. default plus a single reply level).
5. Upvoting and downvoting provides good entertainment value and increases engagement, even for more passive participants (who may graduate to become active participants).
6. A registered users system is better to combat sock puppets and every other kind of abuse. Users will put a value on their accounts (ZeroHedge).

If you are on WordPress, Thoughtful Comments will give you upvoting and downvoting as well as sophisticated front end moderation tools. Again, platform-specific tools are not so important, the strategy is.

1. Thoughtful Comments only works for WordPress and curiously enough most of the alternative media sites do not use either WordPress or at least native WordPress commenting. The issues with comments are primarily editorial and not technical. The technical tools can only help you implement a comment strategy. As I wrote yesterday, official trolls or minders (take your pick) are becoming more sophisticated, employing simple but effective techniques like the “early bird” to derail intelligent conversation.

2. I’m not arguing that Trump supporters don’t have a lot to be angry about. The decline and destruction of the White American Middle Class in favour of technocrats, defence contractors, perpetual war and docile new immigrants is a reality which gets worse every day. My issue is that the response to these issues such as making the wealthy wealthier, spending even more money on the military, escalating the drone wars, intensifying foreign illegal interventions (Syria and Yemen) and starting trade wars are not the solution to the original problems.

3. Occasionally I’m discouraged when what looks like new and important information is not sufficiently vetted (see Karlof1’s post above about the butterfly bullets – the tweet linked appears to be the wrong bullets if it’s generally an issue about what kind of rounds the IDF is using on Gazans. We make it too easy to discredit the alternative narrative when we spread false information).