Emmanuel Todd’s Lineages of Modernity by Ricardo Duchesne . There are interesting bits in the book but it seemed too sweeping and I could not complete reading it.
An earlier review by F.Roger Delvin which seems more readable.
Friday, May 13, 2022
Reviews of a recent book of Emmanuel Todd
Cory Doctorow on How Weblogging Made His Brain What It Is Today
“Cory Doctorow: The Memex Method. When Your Commonplace Book Is a Public Database: ‘The very act of recording your actions and impressions is itself powerfully mnemonic…. The genius of the blog was… in the publishing. The act of making your log-file public requires a rigor that keeping personal notes does not…. Repeated acts of public description adds each idea to a supersaturated, subconscious solution of fragmentary elements that have the potential to become something bigger. Every now and again, a few of these fragments will stick to each other and nucleate…. When one of those nucleation events occurs, the full-text search and tag-based retrieval tools built into Wordpress allow me to bring up everything I’ve ever written on the subject…. The availability of a deep, digital, searchable, published and public archive of my thoughts turns habits that would otherwise be time-wasters—or even harmful—into something valuable…. Systematically reviewing your older work to find the patterns in where you got it wrong (and right!) is hugely beneficial—it’s a useful process of introspection that makes it easier to spot and avoid your own pitfalls…. Two decades in, I can safely say that this community of peers, mentors, sounding boards, protégés, friends, combatants and interlocutors is more useful to me as a writer and a person than the even the prodigious instrumental benefits that blogging brings to my composition process… ”
Arianna Wright Rosenbluth
“Maybe we should’ve called it Arianna” by Andrew Gellman on Metropolis Algorithm
John Helmer an exile from Russia
Exile “ In my case I’ve been driven into exile more than once. The current one is lasting the longest. This is the one from Moscow, which began with my expulsion by the Foreign Ministry on September 28, 2010. The official sentence is Article 27(1) of the law No. 114-FZ — “necessary for the purposes of defence capability or security of the state, or public order, or protection of health of the population.” The reason, a foreign ministry official told an immigration service official when they didn’t know they were being overheard, was: “Helmer writes bad things about Russia.””
As one commenter said “ This seems so strange to me. That Helmer, who has done so much to set the facts straight, usually in favor of Russia and revealing the depth of American propaganda being used, that Helmer should be “exiled” in any way. I’ve always thought that nostalgia was an effect of our biological clock. That we became nostalgic for our youth just as we were no longer young. But being a political exile must be something different. Maybe because ideas don’t really decay. Nor facts. Interesting tidbit about the US putting a nuclear missile base in Deveselu, just west of Constanta, capable of demolishing southern Russia.”
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
Scott Ritter ‘The Greatest Generation’
The Greatest Generation “This is a letter by Scott Ritter, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer. It was published on RT as “An Open Letter To The American People – as Russia celebrates its WW2 victory over the Nazis”, but since RT is mostly banned in the west, I’ll post it here. It absolutely deserves that.” says Raúl Ilargi Meijer. But it is available in Australia:
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
A prescient speech by George W.Bush from 1991
The vindication of George H W Bush “not support those who seek independence in order to replace a far-off tyranny with a local despotism. They will not aid those who promote a suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred.”
Monday, May 09, 2022
Saturday, May 07, 2022
Friday, May 06, 2022
On China’s economy
Gulzar Natarajan summarises the problems which relate the slowdown of Chinese economy to its COVID policies: China update - The Bad Emperor problem hastens even as economic prospects dim
Michael Pettit sees more familiar structural problems The Only Five Paths China’s Economy Can Follow
“ Once it is recognized that China’s surging debt burden is a function of nonproductive investment, and that this investment must eventually be curtailed, it turns out that there are a limited number of ways the economy can continue growing. Any economy broadly speaking has only three sources of demand that can drive growth: consumption, investment, and trade surpluses. For that reason, there are basically five paths that China’s economy could take going forward.
- China can stay on its current path and keep letting large amounts of nonproductive investment continue driving the country’s debt burden up indefinitely
- China can reduce the large amount of nonproductive investment on which it relies to drive growth and replace it with productive investment in forms like new technology
- China can reduce the large amount of nonproductive investment on which it relies to drive growth and replace it with rising consumption
- China can reduce the large amount of nonproductive investment on which it relies to drive growth and replace it with a growing trade surplus
- China can reduce the large amount of nonproductive investment on which it relies to drive growth and replace it with nothing, in which case growth would necessarily slow sharply
Wednesday, May 04, 2022
Michael Hudson with Katie Halper and Aaron Mate transcript
portion of the Michael Hudson podcast with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté ‘ The transcript below is only of the portion of the Michael Hudson podcast with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté that is outside their paywall, but Michael assures me that the rest was almost entirely a personal chat. ’ says Yves Smith.
Tuesday, May 03, 2022
An interesting article by Jonathan Haidt
WHY THE PAST 10 YEARS OF AMERICAN LIFE HAVE BEEN UNIQUELY STUPID
A summary by Gulzar Natarajan “ A few days back Jonathan Haidt wrote what he calls his most important essay in The Atlantic. It's a must read in terms of a compelling diagnosis of several disturbing symptoms arising from the pervasiveness of social media that we see in societies across the world.”
Latest report from Gilbert Doctorow
America’s ideological blinkers and the Ukraine war
“ First, the Russian ‘special military operation’ is a millstone that grinds slowly but grinds fine. It is working. The Russians are crushing the Ukrainian forces. It is improbable that any amount of deliveries of foreign equipment to Kiev can make a difference on the outcome of this conflict. Indeed, while critics of the US-led intervention in the conflict claim, correctly, that the deliveries are drawing out the war by encouraging Kiev to fight on, it is also true that the Russians have no problem with that: the longer it goes on, the more territory they can seize, with a view to controlling and ultimately annexing the entire Black Sea littoral. They would thereby ensure that what survives of the Ukrainian state can never again pose a military threat to Russia, with or without NATO help.
Second, the Ukrainian army indeed has NATO trained officers and skilled professionals who may be admirable fighters, as the Western media insist. But it also has a lot of cannon fodder. By cannon fodder I mean overaged recruits dragooned into the forces and also volunteers who are useless to any modern military and are no longer trainable. Most of the prisoners of war shown on Russian television were in their late 50s and even late 60s; they had no prior military experience. One of the latter, with haggard face and scraggly beard down to his chest was asked why he enlisted to fight. The answer came back: “There was no work. So I signed up just to make some money.” After seeing their mates shot dead, is it any wonder that such soldiers raise their arms to surrender at the first opportunity?
The question not being asked is where are all the young and able Ukrainian males? How have they evaded the draft? Given the widely acknowledged corruption in Ukrainian government and society, would it not be strange if some just buy their way out of the war? Are they among the 5 million Ukrainians who have gone abroad since the start of the hostilities? Are they the ones now driving their high priced Mercedes with Ukrainian license plates around the streets of Hamburg? Who in the West records this or really cares about it?”
From another source https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1520446668331790337.html
Monday, May 02, 2022
Interview with a Ukrainian academic Olga Bashya
UKRAINE: The Real Zelensky from Consortium News.
An excerpt:
“ What about neoliberal reforms initiated by Zelensky? You can judge on their popularity by opinion polls – up to 72 percent of Ukrainians did not support his land reform, the flagship of Zelensky’s neoliberal program. After his party approved it despite people’s indignation, Zelensky’s rating fell from 73 percent in Spring 2019 to 23 percent in January 2022. The reason is simple: a deep sense of betrayal.
In his unofficial election platform — the show “Servant of the People” — Zelesnky-Holoborodko [Holoborodko was Zelensky’s character in the television show – NB] promised that if he could rule the country for just one week, he would “make the teacher live as the president, and the president live as the teacher.” To put it mildly, this promise was not fulfilled. People realized that they were duped once again — the reforms have been carried out in the interests of not Ukrainians but global capital.”
Saturday, April 30, 2022
Michael Hudson, Katie Halper and Aaron Maté
https://youtu.be/OdlGDSnCqz0 Michael Hudson from 24:00 onwards. It seems that the last part of the interview is for paid subscribers. Perhaps some transcript will be available soon. Michael Hudson’s view seems to be that the crisis will go on for another 39 years with the global south being the main sufferers and that class war is behind it.
There is a discussion at http://thesaker.is/michael-hudson-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/
Perhaps there will be a discussion in Naked Capitalism soon,
Friday, April 29, 2022
Gilbert Doctorow on Poland’s ambitions
“ According to SVR, Poland is coordinating this issue with the United States. The idea is to establish military and political control by Warsaw over the “its historic territories” which today fall within the boundaries of Ukraine. Poland would introduce its troops into the Western regions of the country under cover of a mission to “protect the territory from Russian aggression.” Eventually this would be expected to lead to a partition of Ukraine. The Poles would install a friendly government in the territory they control, ousting the Ukrainian nationalists.”
Thursday, April 28, 2022
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
An update from a (pro-Russian) blog
Here Part of it about the developments in Transnistria, a strip between Moldavia and Ukraine which has Russian peace keepers,
Another A Recap Of The War In Ukraine - by Gonzalo Lira
Both have lots of comments.
Monday, April 25, 2022
Aaron Mate on Syria and Ukraine
'Al Qaeda is on our side': How Obama-Biden team empowered terrorists in Syria by Aaron Mate
Ukraine is the Obama-Biden team's second major proxy war against Russia. The first was Syria, where US support for the insurgency helped create an Al Qaeda safe haven.
Sunday, April 24, 2022
Geetanjali Shree
Geetanjali Shree I never heard of her before. Her recent novel translated by Daisy Rockwell has been shortlisted for Booker Prize.
Saturday, April 23, 2022
Turkish foreign minister comments on Ukraine conflict
Turkey Says Some NATO Members Want Longer Ukraine War to Hurt Russia
“ The view among some NATO members on the war was summarized by a recent report from The Washington Post. The report said: “For some in NATO, it’s better for the Ukrainians to keep fighting, and dying, than to achieve a peace that comes too early or at too high a cost to Kyiv and the rest of Europe.”“
Friday, April 22, 2022
Chinese economy
How Big Is The Chinese Economy Compared to The West?
"To summarize then: China is:
- the number 1 trade partner of more nations than anyone else, and more than the US had in 1990.
- the world’s largest manufacturing nation
- Technologically near even with the West, and in some places ahead.
- The nation that helps the most other nations develop.
- When you adjust for PPP and service sector crap, a larger economy than the US. With Russia, a larger economy than the US and the EU combined."
Conversible economist on slavery in Brazil and USA
Slavery and Economic Development in Brazil
Slavery and the History of US Economic Growth
An excerpt from the second article:
"However, as numerous writers have pointed out over time, the coexistence of slavery with British and American capitalism of the 17th century does not prove that slavery was necessary or sufficient for an emerging capitalism. As many writers have pointed out, historical slavery across what we now call Latin America. At that time, Spain and Portugal (among others) were also active participants in the slave trade, yet their economies did not develop an industrial revolution like that of the UK. Countries all over Latin America were recipients of slaves, like the area that became the US, but those countries did not develop a US-style economy. Clearly, drawing a straight line from slavery to capitalism of the Anglo-American variety would be wildly simplistic. "
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
A confession
I grew up in left wing circles. But I was never a communist, partly because I did not understand what it was and secondly I did not believe in a philosophy of every thing. But Russia always had a hold on me as far as I can remember. It is possibly due to MIR books that were available and also the influence of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy who I read when I was in my teens, I think it was in the 1990s, I was travelling possibly to visit Peter Scott and the plane stopped longer than usual in Moscow. It was hot and they opened the doors and the plane’s step ladders were down. There was a sudden and strong urge to go down and touch Mother Russia. I decided that it was a silly feeling for an agnostic like me and refrained. May be if I get a chance again and if health permits, I will visit Russia.
P.S. It turned out to be an interesting trip. At one stage after Moscow, the toilets on our side were engaged and I went to another section of the plane. I found PPC Joshi ( a friend and a communist. His father was killed during The Telangana struggle around 1950) there who was going to the British Museum to get photocopies of Telugu books. I think, I met him later in Chicago which he visited for some book exhibition. It is possible that I am mixing up different trips.
P.S.
Ashutosh Jagalekar writes:Russia has always been a great country with terrible leaders. Freeman Dyson was so taken with it that he wanted to emigrate there instead of to the US after the war. But Stalin made it clear that he would not welcome foreigners.
Second phase of Russian operation in Ukraine
Russia invades Ukraine from CNN
"We are completely surrounded," he[Maj. Serhii Volyna, commander of Ukraine's 36th Separate Marine Brigade] said. "There are about 500 wounded military, it is very difficult to provide them with medical care. They literally rot. There are civilians on the territory. They are also suffering from explosions, blasts on them, next to them. They [the Russians] use heavy aircraft bombs against us and strike with artillery."
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Monday, April 18, 2022
A poem by Dana Giola ‘Being Happy’
This is what poets do. Put words in to our mouths. We do not really know what we feel or felt then.
Being Happy
by Dana Gioia
Of course it was doomed. I know that now,
but it ended so quickly, and I was young.
I hardly remember that summer in Seattle—
except for her. The city seems just a rainy backdrop.
From the moment I first saw her at the office
I was hooked. I started visiting her floor.
I couldn’t work unless I caught a glimpse of her.
Once we exchanged glances, but we never spoke.
Then at a party we found ourselves alone.
We started kissing and ended up in bed.
We talked all night. She claimed she had liked me
secretly for months. I wonder now if that was true.
Two weeks later her father had a heart attack.
While she was in Chicago, they shut down our division.
I was never one for writing letters.
On the phone we had less to say each time.
And that was it—just those two breathless weeks,
then years of mild regret and intermittent speculation.
Being happy is mostly like that. You don’t see it up close.
You recognize it later from the ache of memory.
And you can’t recapture it. You only get to choose
whether to remember or forget, whether to feel remorse
or nothing at all. Maybe it wasn’t really love.
But who can tell when nothing deeper ever came along?
Sunday, April 17, 2022
Michael Hudson and Patrick Bond discuss China
China – a sub-Imperial ally of the West? From two weeks ago. The first part from a month ago https://michael-hudson.com/2022/03/is-chinese-socialism-working/
Saturday, April 16, 2022
Gilbert Doctorow's latest on Ukraine conflict
The Russian Way of War: Part Two
"At the very start of the armed conflict, I remarked on the specifics of what I called ‘the Russian Way of War’ now being applied in Ukraine. This approach does not inflict death on huge numbers of civilians, does not count on a ‘shock and awe’ initial attack to demoralize and overrun the enemy. I said at the time that the overriding considerations on the Russian side were the traditional ‘brotherly’ relations between Ukrainians and Russians, who were extensively intermarried and had relations on both sides of the national frontiers. The intent of Vladimir Putin and his war collegiums was to do minimal damage to the Ukrainian people, to try to separate the ‘healthy’ elements in the Ukrainian military command from the rabid nationalist Azov and similar irregular forces that had become embedded in the army over the past eight years. If the two could be separated, the war could be won with absolute minimum expenditure of materiel and loss of life.
However, in the early weeks of the operation, after it had become manifestly clear that these were illusions, that Russia was facing a unified military force supported by widespread popular civilian backing, still there was no change visible in how Russia was operating on the ground. The only hint of change to come was the refocusing of available forces on the capture of Mariupol, to secure the whole Azov Sea littoral and the progressive redirection of the ground forces to the encirclement of the major part of the Ukrainian army that was entrenched just to the west of the line of demarcation with Donbas. In compensation, there was the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kiev and Chernigov, in the north."
He goes on to discuss "From the beginning, I have directed attention to what Russian social, academic and political elites have to say about the ‘special military operation.’ One of my key markers has been the Evening with Vladimir Solovyov political talk show and yesterday’s edition provided a lot of food for thought."
Stalemate in Ukraine
Says Defence Politics Asia. Apart from what is secured already, further progress is difficult foot Russia. Ukraine seems to have got a second wind but sustaining it will depend on continued western help. The economoceffe cc TS on various countries involved will have a long term role. It seems to be a bit like the Syrian situation.
https://youtu.be/Mz8mJo9_9yMP.S. Russia possibly has an edge because it is closer to Russia. On the other hand, Ukraine and the West had eight years to build entrenched defences. So, the final contours may take at least a couple of years to form and will depend on the staying power of various parties involved.
Friday, April 15, 2022
John Helmer forecast for Ukraine
Via Naked Capitalism “ The sources say this is not a plan for the breakup of the old Ukraine, nor is it a plan for the accession of Novorussia. It is a plan “to keep the Ukraine broken”, in which the big fracture lines will be moved to the west — and kept there.”
Thursday, April 14, 2022
Second part of Jacques Baud article
The Military Situation in Ukraine is here as well as the first part.
The Daily grind of fighting reported redularly at Defence Politics Asia videos. Here is one ofDay 48: https://youtu.be/F53yBZElHUg
Below Day47:
Wednesday, April 13, 2022
Review of a new book on noise in human judgement
Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment—A Review A review of Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment by Daniel Kahneman, Oliver Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein.
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Another Bill Gates book review
Is this how your brain works? Review of a book by Jeff Hawkins ‘A Thousand Brains’
Monday, April 11, 2022
Michael Hudson: The Dollar Devours the Euro
Michael Hudson: The Dollar Devours the Euro with lots of comments at Naked Capitalism.
" I would not be surprised to see some African country become the “next Ukraine,” with U.S. proxy troops (there are still plenty of Wahabi advocates and mercenaries) against the armies and populations of countries seeking to feed themselves with grain from Russian farm and oil or gas from Russian wells.
The world economy is being enflamed, and the United States has prepared for a military response and weaponization of its own oil and agricultural export trade, arms trade and demands for countries to choose which side of the New Iron Curtain they wish to join."
Already, there is change of government in Pakistan. Biden is supposed to speak to Modi today https://www.dawn.com/news/1684466/biden-will-speak-to-modi-over-russian-imports Possibly full global press.
Sunday, April 10, 2022
John Michael Greeron the end of the European Age
The end of the European Age The author is a Druid and also writes on the occult. From the article:
“ That said, it’s the European age that’s ending, not the American age. The American age hasn’t begun yet. The United States these days is a Third World country catapulted by a chapter of historical accidents into a temporary position as global hegemon. Its Europeanized elites, in the usual Third World fashion, are a small minority maintaining a tenuous temporary mastery over restless masses that don’t share its ideals and its interests, and are beginning to sense their potential power. America is still young, and pregnant with the future; centuries from now, long after the European veneer has been thrown off, she will give birth to something else wholly new, and it will inevitably be even more unacceptable—and indeed wholly incomprehensible—to the conventional wisdom of Europe-as-it-is.”
I do not understand this part of the article. May be there are hints in the comments. Here is a 2005 article by him which seems interesting https://www.ecoshock.org/transcripts/greer_on_collapse.pdf (How Civilizations Fall: A Theory of Catabolic Collapse).
Friday, April 08, 2022
Thursday, April 07, 2022
Monday, April 04, 2022
An analysis from John Helmer
HOW TO READ THE WAR IN REVERSE WITHOUT OUTSMARTING YOURSELF According to John Helmer, there are possibly several phases to this was and the second phase has started.
Sunday, April 03, 2022
Saturday, April 02, 2022
Andhra Pradesh high court jails IAS officers
Andhra Pradesh high court almost sends 8 IAS officers to jail for contempt
For one of them, it is the second time and seems to be more serious the first time.
Victoria Nuland comments about India -Russia relations
In Russia's war on Ukraine, India has remained neutral. Will it stay that way?
“ I think that they are quite uncomfortable, particularly as they see how Russian weapons have performed and the fact that they're likely not going to be a very reliable supplier going forward. And you know, Steve, for a long time, the United States was not willing to supply weapons to India ourselves. So now that has changed. And now we are talking about how we help them make that transition.”
George Kennan
He seems to be a diplomat who was sometimes correct and sometimes influential. He also had strange opinions “ Acheson was so offended by a report Kennan wrote in March 1950 in which he suggested that miscegenation between Europeans, Indians and African slaves was the root cause of Latin America's economic backwardness that he refused to have it distributed to the rest of the State Department.” From the Wikipedia article
Dangers of protracted war in Ukraine
Avoiding the Dangers of a Protracted Conflict in Ukraine QUINCY BRIEF NO. 23 Long report and seems very reasonable.
Two reports on the Ukraine conflict
Is a peace treaty to end the Russia-Ukraine war in sight? By Gilbert Doctorow
RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, MARCH 31 from Institute for the Study of War
Friday, April 01, 2022
A long and depressing discussion
It is mainly about USA, China and Russia and the current Ukraine. It does not discuss the internal dynamics of other countries except a bit about Cuba,
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Sakuntala Narasimhan about her life
A daily summary of Ukraine crisis
Most of the newspapers seem to be full of propaganda. I wonder whether this is a bit more neutral than others.
See also https://www.ianwelsh.net/reorienting-about-how-well-russia-is-doing-in-ukraine/
Monday, March 28, 2022
Long cold war ahead
Did Biden just escalate in Ukraine? "The greater question one must ask is: Why? Why on Earth would Biden wade into this geopolitical crisis that could go nuclear at any moment at a time when both the Ukrainian government and the Russian government appeared to be taking de-escalatory steps? And why hasn’t Biden come out immediately to correct the record, if he did indeed misspeak?"
Sunday, March 27, 2022
An Igor Tamm story
Told by George Gamow:
During the Russian revolution, the mathematical physicist Igor Tamm was seized by anti-communist vigilantes at a village near Odessa where he had gone to barter for food. They suspected he was an anti-Ukrainian communist agitator and dragged him off to their leader.
Asked what he did for a living, he said he was a mathematician. The sceptical gang leader began to finger the bullets and grenades slung round his neck. ‘All right,’ he said, ‘calculate the error when the Taylor series approximation to a function is truncated after n terms. Do this and you will go free. Fail and you will be shot.’ Tamm slowly calculated the answer in the dust with his quivering finger. When he had finished, the bandit cast his eye over the answer and waved him on his way.
Tamm won the 1958 Nobel prize for physics but he never did discover the identity of the unusual bandit leader.
……..
The following excerpt from Dirac-Tamm correspondence suggests that it may be true:
“ There is a possibility of the story being true. I came across this bit “e spent the years of the revolution and the Civil War quite adventurously, appearing, for instance, in June 1917 in St.Petersburg at the first All—Russian Congress of Soviets as a representative of the Men’shevik party (Social Democrats, rivals of the Bolsheviks), in 1919 as a member of a local Soviet in his home, in 1920 as a physics assistant at Tavria University in the Whitee stronghold Crimea. Several times he slipped across the front lines and several times was arrested by all possible political regimes. Survival was a matter of luck and chance.”
'pro' Russian parties in Ukraine
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/3/21/why-did-ukraine-suspend-11-pro-russia-parties informative article as Dan Kervick says.
A glimpse of Russian operation in Ukraine
Russian soldiers release Ukraine town’s mayor and agree to leave after protests
So, it seems not all in Ukraine want Russian occupation and that Russians are not too keen to occupy allof Ukraine.
Saturday, March 26, 2022
Summary of the Ukraine war after 30 days
From Defence politics Asia in video. This may possibly be a neutral site giving video reports few times a day.
The site information here and they are also on Facebook.
A canonical Indian tree Kherji (Jammi in Telugu)
"After a severe famine in Marwar 500 years ago, Jambeshwar Bhagwan formed a community that would live in harmony with nature to survive even in a worse famine. The community is known as Bishnois or twentyniners' on account of 29 principles that they follow. They not only protect trees and wild animals with great dedication but follow several customs that conserve nature. Bishnois allow wild animals to forage on crops from their fields. They do not cremate dead bodies because that needs firewood; they instead bury them to give back to the elements. They even do not use blue coloured clothes because blue die has to be produced from trees. A village 'Khejarli' in Thar desert near Jodhpur has many Khejari trees (Prosopis cineraria) which the Bishnois consider to be very valuable. They are one of the few trees that survive in the deserts of Rajasthan.
On a fateful 10th day of Bhadrapad in 1730, Maharaja Abhaysingh of Jodhpur sent men to cut Khejari trees in Khejarli village. A lot of firewood was needed to produce lime for the new royal palace. Amritadevi, a local Bishnoi sent them back in defense of Khejari trees. They retaliated with armed soldiers but Amritadevi embraced Khejari trees and challenged the soldiers to axe her head to spare Khejari trees. The obedient soldiers not only severed Amritadevi's head but went on to kill 363 Bishnois who dared to follow the courageous lady. The news of Bishnois sacrifice for Khejari trees reached the king who then apologized to Bishnois and assured protection to trees and wild animals of that region.Since the day of Khejari sacrifice, Amritadevi's embrace has become immortal 'Chipko' movement among dedicated conservationists, who gather at a monument in Khejarli every year in Bhadrapad month to salute the great Khejari sacrifice. Bhadrapad month is the sixth lunar month in the Hindu Calendar."
India -Russia currency swaps
India-Russia currency swaps bypass US sanctions from Asia Times "Several of India’s state-owned banks will execute the swaps under the supervision of the Reserve Bank of India, starting as early as next week, according to A. Sakthivel, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO)."
And in an interview with Saker:
Michael Hudson: There seem to be two ways for hostile countries to buy Russian gas. One seems to be to use Russian banks that are not banned from SWIFT. The other way would indeed seem to be to go through what looks to develop as a formal or informal third-country bank or exchange. India and China would seem to be the best positioned for this role. U.S. diplomats will be pressing India to impose its own sanctions on Russia, and there is a strong pro-U.S. constituency there. But even Modi sees the obvious superior benefits of benefiting from India’s geopolitical position with Russia and China’s Belt and Road Initiative relative to whatever the U.S. has to
Back in the 1960s the West dealt with the Soviet Union using barter deals. Arranging this barter became a big banking business. Barter is the typical “final stage” of the deterioration of a credit economy into a money economy that breaks down. Over the medium term, a new international financial organization needs to be created as an alternative to the dollarized IMF to handle such intra-bloc transactions in today’s new multipolarizing world. https://thesaker.is/the-saker-interviews-michael-hudson-5/
Bloomberg on the grand illusion of capitalism
The problem with the article is that it mainly pins it's hopes on Biden. He is some thing of a war hawk himself and appointed other war hawks like Victoria Nuland in key positions.
Friday, March 25, 2022
From the Wikipedia article on 'The economic consequences of peace's by Keynes
[Clemenceau] took the view that European civil war is to be regarded as a normal, or at least a recurrent, state of affairs for the future, and that the sort of conflicts between organised Great Powers which have occupied the past hundred years will also engage the next. According to this vision of the future, European history is to be a perpetual prize-fight, of which France has won this round, but of which this round is certainly not the last. From the belief that essentially the old order does not change, being based on human nature which is always the same, and from a consequent scepticism of all that class of doctrine which the League of Nations stands for, the policy of France and of Clemenceau followed logically. For a peace of magnanimity or of fair and equal treatment, based on such 'ideology' as the Fourteen Points of the President, could only have the effect of shortening the interval of Germany's recovery and hastening the day when she will once again hurl at France her greater numbers and her superior resources and technical skill.[7]
from the Wikipedia article https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economic_Consequences_of_the_Peace?fbclid=IwAR2TJn8zJ7hqGyNB95qPmX-IEkww7VBWQ99l5D8FMxU6ZPaOjr6I9o-i0YE
Articles on covid
Three posts below about covid in Africa,America and one in The Guardian about several countries in the west. One observation from The Guardian article is that one of the things that matters may be interpersonal trust of people in the society, apart from other interventions.
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Money laundering vs money washing
Wash "... rich Russians (no joke) hold as much money outside Russia as the entire Russian people hold inside Russia."
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