I think you give the Chinese government too much credit. The fundamentals of the Chinese economy - natural resources geography, and the quality of its workforce - would predict that it'd be a pretty wealthy country. It was only because it had the worst policies in the world a few decades ago that it was as poor as Sub-Saharan Africa. I don't think it's given any indication of being a better government than the more developed Asian countries; it just used to be way way worse, and thus has had lots of catching up to do.
And... uh... using Richard's own heuristic ("whatever system that masks children the least") China would seem to do badly. They are perhaps the MOST aggressive in restricting freedoms due to COVID - China literally welded doors shut. I don't disagree that they're "effective", but at least some of that effectiveness comes at the cost of what we call over in the decadent/ineffective West "basic freedoms." I'll take the waste over the authoritarianism, thank you.
Hilarious to me that in that podcast discussing you, Freitch claims several times that he doesn't believe cancel culture and wokeness are powerful forces of progressivism in the working world. Several minutes later, he lets it slip that he no longer officially identifies to his university as white, but as Ashkenazi, because "it's just something I've been working out". So Freitch claims he doesn't believe wokeness is harmful or antagonistic towards whites, but he's also taking steps to set himself apart racially from the list of white faculty. He even admits his workplace only keeps tabs on those numbers for the sake of their DEI statistics (and presumably, future hiring initiatives).
It's even more ironic because Ashkenazis are apparently even more privileged than white gentiles in the US. By affirmative action logic he should be docked even more points now.
Everywhere a puzzling and completely irrational DNC/media/security state propaganda.
BUT -- there is a VERY rational reason for that.
We are dealing with BIG Lie(s)
ANY, even rudimentary, discussion would unravel the lie(s) -- total censorship and prompt defamations are the ONLY choice for the immensely corrupt Deep State cabal.
PS: A sad thing is that GOP lunatics are equally repulsive and dangerous -- happily grunting together while feeding at same donor troughs.
Also the one that looks like someone you see working the bar at a Portland brewery saying he doesn't identify as white but as Askhenazi. You could write a whole article about that. I thought he was being facetious at first.
WOW. I will have to really review and reserve any kind of support or non support for some of Richard's positions. Very smart and interesting. I see a lot of "coded" language and I am a scientist by training in Molecular Biology and I worked in hard sciences: biochemistry so I always get those little tingles when I see the language of what I call SOCIAL justice terms; like Political Science or WOKE unless one is very clear like Vivek. Good for you responding to the WOKE social justice warriors who imagine that if they use the terms "social justice" in the same sentence often enough then magic happens, and justice will be socialized; just like if Woke social justice warriors use the term "equity" over and over that somehow it actually means equality. Both of those amazing concepts are defined in the Old Testament.
Back to your main point: I am a serious China Watcher and have been for over 20 years for personal reasons and I do think that it is CHINA that our attention should be laser focused because of its total disregard for human life and enslavement and genocide. Have you ever read a book called Full Spectrum Dominance? Fascinating title and I don't agree with a lot of it.. but that is the nature of intellectual discussion in the arena of disagreement which could lead to WAR. I speculate that China and XI are on their way to attempting Full Spectrum Dominance Worldwide. IT IS THEY WHO are actually engaged in this right now, not the U.S, Ukraine, Russia or any of the other OTAN, UN, "other nations" category. I would like to comment on Richard's reference to his Judaism. (Please excuse my use of referring to him by his name rather than addressing him directly since I am not sure if this is really his site, and I am not sure why, I am tired though). He may want to refer to some his ancestors' beliefs and practices as well as the suffering the Jewish people have gone through since Jews are God's servants on this planet as manifested through by the Jesus Christ who assumed flesh sent by a loving Creator God for Israel in the second Covenant called the New Testament. The Old Testament contains all the information that mankind needs know for future engagements and negotiations with other nations. Yeshua was Jewish and his ministry was based on the Old Testament which predicted His manifestation in Flesh. I am not Jewish, well DNA said 2.4 % if that counts, but of 30% Italian and German 40%, some French and "other nations" of Caucasians heritage: so what? I am God's kid.. just as we all are! I am frankly not sure what to make of your assessments, I guess I will have to read more. As a scientist and technical writer, I have tendency to go right to the heart of the subject rather than wandering around social issues and answering people's questions about who thinks I am what kind of thinker re: Agnostic “Caesarist and so on.. OK.. now that I have wandered about my pet topics we agree in many areas, but I am not sure why you are even talking about Biden's and Ukraine... other than it is a news topic. Putin is not going to invade Ukraine not even Eastern Ukraine. The core of what happened in terms of WORLD VIEW and the SCRIPTURE is Crimea. Anyway, I will take some more time to see if I can WADE through all the other personal tales.. :) and check out your podcast. Yes, as a retired Virologist I think masks never worked and the current vaccination were useless and were chemical analogues for a real vaccine. We should have used the cheap therapeutics which many doctors knew worked. When history records this "pandemic" created by Chinese, who failed in their true goal of creating a virus to destroy the population, science writers will say wow.. created a chemical vaccine for an endogenous cold/flu virus which existed in mammals and was then GOF'd to be transmissible to humans to give us a severe cold. yeah. That is a tale for another day! Shabbat Shalom!
Ukraine: actually, Russia has many other options in response to US intransigence, other than invading a neighboring country. Stationing short-range missiles (with nuclear warheads) in the Kaliningrad region, increasing air and submarine patrols in the Arctic and western Atlantic respectively, even starting talks with Cuba about military cooperation. According to people that are often right (moonofalabama.org) the whole “invasion is imminent” craze was made of the whole cloth.
Unless Ukraine attacks Donbas, the probability of Russia invading Ukraine is exactly zero.
Russia needs a buffer between herself and NATO. A neutral Ukraine would achieve this goal.
Ukraine integrated into Russia just brings the border closer.
Besides, the Russians have a lot of relatives in Ukraine. A sizeable part of the Russian elite is Ukrainian born. Waging war against relatives is not an easy step to take.
Maybe, but as Hanania said we’re not looking at a neutral Ukraine, we’re looking at a Ukraine actively pursuing alignment with NATO and a US policy establishment that refuses to budge on the matter. What else is Russia to do?
A confluence of factors, all starting with Yanukovych being removed eight years ago. NATO is just the tip of the iceberg. Ukraine is a mess but continues to improve its military capabilities, meaning that each day a future invasion is harder. Russia has realized that America refuses to accommodate any of their demands and their foreign policy establishment is intractable and ideologically hostile. See this article written a month before the current situation:
Thank you --- "The Russia-gate" is MORE than just a political ploy against Trump by the DNC that distracted the media from reporting the innumerable horrible things the incompetent lunatic Trump was actually doing for four years.
Russia-gate hoax is a new term for (and the continuation of) "McCarthyism" which began immediately after WWII and is currently fueling our unilateral incredibly dangerous cold wars with both China and Russia.
Blaming Russia for everything that’s wrong in the US is absurd on its face, yet like a cancer this narrative has invaded every cell of the so-called liberal media and is ever-increasing since the Obama-Biden-Hillary lying team is back in full power (note Kamala is Hillary's protégé). Politically it derailed both the Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard campaigns and gave Americans what was close to a “single choice menu” in the 2020 election.
The Iraq War clearly revealed that our top military & intelligence officials are engaged in a disinformation campaign aimed at American citizens in service of fabricating enemies to increase their funding and justify our "interventionist" wars. During the 2020 presidential campaign Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard and Dr. Jill Stein were accused by no less than Hillary Clinton as “Russian assets”. When Clinton asked if she meant this literally she replied, “absolutely”. Clinton’s remarks were so wildly absurd and vicious that her political standing and reputation should have been forever damaged, however this didn’t happen -- the massive War party was behind Hillary (and now Biden).
Given the fact that the US has surrounded Russia's southern borders with nuclear missiles, whatever feeling Russia now has towards the US is more than understandable.
Everything Dwight Eisenhower warned the public in his famous farewell address has occurred and -- "progressive" neoliberals don't care. Arms industry is immensely profitable for ALL players involved.
“Russia-gate” is FAR MORE dangerous to American democracy than Russia will ever be... !!!
Left still unexplored is the huge role of UK in concocting the Russia-gate hoax, including Scripal and Navalny "poisonings" and US+UK fabrications of OPCW reports on Syria -- fully exposed by top experts at OPCW. Note how, in desperation and sensing the danger, DNC/CIA handlers instructed e.g., TYT's despicable Cenk & Ana to go on maximal / unhinged attack on the Gray-zone high-integrity team and, especially, on its truly outstanding and high-integrity journalist Aaron Mate.
"Given the fact that the US has surrounded Russia's southern borders with nuclear missiles, whatever feeling Russia now has towards the US is more than understandable."
This is not correct. The number of nuclear weapons that the US has stationed in European NATO countries has declined since the end of the Cold War. The US has no nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, etc. on Russia's southern borders. There's a small remnant in the NATO nations of Turkey, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, all gravity bombs dropped by manned bombers, not ballistic or hypersonic missiles. None are stationed in the NATO nations added after the end of the Cold War near Russian borders, e.g. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, or Poland.
This is a non sequitur. What I was responding to was a comment that included clear factual errors, like the one I specifically called out. Saying that "the US has surrounded Russia's southern borders with nuclear missiles" is a false statement, regardless of whether that action would be escalatory, or whether you agree with the actions the US has actually taken. It's worthwhile to be accurate and precise about what is actually going on, especially if you are going to be upset about it!
Whether a different set of actions, like what you brought up, would be "OK" is a value judgment we could debate back and forth and has no bearing on the factual issue I pointed out.
I think you give the Chinese government too much credit. The fundamentals of the Chinese economy - natural resources geography, and the quality of its workforce - would predict that it'd be a pretty wealthy country. It was only because it had the worst policies in the world a few decades ago that it was as poor as Sub-Saharan Africa. I don't think it's given any indication of being a better government than the more developed Asian countries; it just used to be way way worse, and thus has had lots of catching up to do.
And... uh... using Richard's own heuristic ("whatever system that masks children the least") China would seem to do badly. They are perhaps the MOST aggressive in restricting freedoms due to COVID - China literally welded doors shut. I don't disagree that they're "effective", but at least some of that effectiveness comes at the cost of what we call over in the decadent/ineffective West "basic freedoms." I'll take the waste over the authoritarianism, thank you.
Hilarious to me that in that podcast discussing you, Freitch claims several times that he doesn't believe cancel culture and wokeness are powerful forces of progressivism in the working world. Several minutes later, he lets it slip that he no longer officially identifies to his university as white, but as Ashkenazi, because "it's just something I've been working out". So Freitch claims he doesn't believe wokeness is harmful or antagonistic towards whites, but he's also taking steps to set himself apart racially from the list of white faculty. He even admits his workplace only keeps tabs on those numbers for the sake of their DEI statistics (and presumably, future hiring initiatives).
It's even more ironic because Ashkenazis are apparently even more privileged than white gentiles in the US. By affirmative action logic he should be docked even more points now.
Everywhere a puzzling and completely irrational DNC/media/security state propaganda.
BUT -- there is a VERY rational reason for that.
We are dealing with BIG Lie(s)
ANY, even rudimentary, discussion would unravel the lie(s) -- total censorship and prompt defamations are the ONLY choice for the immensely corrupt Deep State cabal.
PS: A sad thing is that GOP lunatics are equally repulsive and dangerous -- happily grunting together while feeding at same donor troughs.
That video clip of the duo talking your work is pretty interesting. I didn't know professors these days are so extremely online.
Also the one that looks like someone you see working the bar at a Portland brewery saying he doesn't identify as white but as Askhenazi. You could write a whole article about that. I thought he was being facetious at first.
The flamboyant one (philosopher) is much more bright than the Reddit one (political scientist).
WOW. I will have to really review and reserve any kind of support or non support for some of Richard's positions. Very smart and interesting. I see a lot of "coded" language and I am a scientist by training in Molecular Biology and I worked in hard sciences: biochemistry so I always get those little tingles when I see the language of what I call SOCIAL justice terms; like Political Science or WOKE unless one is very clear like Vivek. Good for you responding to the WOKE social justice warriors who imagine that if they use the terms "social justice" in the same sentence often enough then magic happens, and justice will be socialized; just like if Woke social justice warriors use the term "equity" over and over that somehow it actually means equality. Both of those amazing concepts are defined in the Old Testament.
Back to your main point: I am a serious China Watcher and have been for over 20 years for personal reasons and I do think that it is CHINA that our attention should be laser focused because of its total disregard for human life and enslavement and genocide. Have you ever read a book called Full Spectrum Dominance? Fascinating title and I don't agree with a lot of it.. but that is the nature of intellectual discussion in the arena of disagreement which could lead to WAR. I speculate that China and XI are on their way to attempting Full Spectrum Dominance Worldwide. IT IS THEY WHO are actually engaged in this right now, not the U.S, Ukraine, Russia or any of the other OTAN, UN, "other nations" category. I would like to comment on Richard's reference to his Judaism. (Please excuse my use of referring to him by his name rather than addressing him directly since I am not sure if this is really his site, and I am not sure why, I am tired though). He may want to refer to some his ancestors' beliefs and practices as well as the suffering the Jewish people have gone through since Jews are God's servants on this planet as manifested through by the Jesus Christ who assumed flesh sent by a loving Creator God for Israel in the second Covenant called the New Testament. The Old Testament contains all the information that mankind needs know for future engagements and negotiations with other nations. Yeshua was Jewish and his ministry was based on the Old Testament which predicted His manifestation in Flesh. I am not Jewish, well DNA said 2.4 % if that counts, but of 30% Italian and German 40%, some French and "other nations" of Caucasians heritage: so what? I am God's kid.. just as we all are! I am frankly not sure what to make of your assessments, I guess I will have to read more. As a scientist and technical writer, I have tendency to go right to the heart of the subject rather than wandering around social issues and answering people's questions about who thinks I am what kind of thinker re: Agnostic “Caesarist and so on.. OK.. now that I have wandered about my pet topics we agree in many areas, but I am not sure why you are even talking about Biden's and Ukraine... other than it is a news topic. Putin is not going to invade Ukraine not even Eastern Ukraine. The core of what happened in terms of WORLD VIEW and the SCRIPTURE is Crimea. Anyway, I will take some more time to see if I can WADE through all the other personal tales.. :) and check out your podcast. Yes, as a retired Virologist I think masks never worked and the current vaccination were useless and were chemical analogues for a real vaccine. We should have used the cheap therapeutics which many doctors knew worked. When history records this "pandemic" created by Chinese, who failed in their true goal of creating a virus to destroy the population, science writers will say wow.. created a chemical vaccine for an endogenous cold/flu virus which existed in mammals and was then GOF'd to be transmissible to humans to give us a severe cold. yeah. That is a tale for another day! Shabbat Shalom!
Ukraine: actually, Russia has many other options in response to US intransigence, other than invading a neighboring country. Stationing short-range missiles (with nuclear warheads) in the Kaliningrad region, increasing air and submarine patrols in the Arctic and western Atlantic respectively, even starting talks with Cuba about military cooperation. According to people that are often right (moonofalabama.org) the whole “invasion is imminent” craze was made of the whole cloth.
Unless Ukraine attacks Donbas, the probability of Russia invading Ukraine is exactly zero.
Russia needs a buffer between herself and NATO. A neutral Ukraine would achieve this goal.
Ukraine integrated into Russia just brings the border closer.
Besides, the Russians have a lot of relatives in Ukraine. A sizeable part of the Russian elite is Ukrainian born. Waging war against relatives is not an easy step to take.
this is nonsense. if they be truly relatives, they will either be neutral or take up arms in your favor.
Unless Ukraine attacks Donbas, the probability of Russia invading Ukraine is exactly zero.
Russia needs a buffer between herself and NATO. A neutral Ukraine would achieve this goal.
Ukraine integrated into Russia just brings the border closer.
Maybe, but as Hanania said we’re not looking at a neutral Ukraine, we’re looking at a Ukraine actively pursuing alignment with NATO and a US policy establishment that refuses to budge on the matter. What else is Russia to do?
In this case, Russia might strike, but why now?
A confluence of factors, all starting with Yanukovych being removed eight years ago. NATO is just the tip of the iceberg. Ukraine is a mess but continues to improve its military capabilities, meaning that each day a future invasion is harder. Russia has realized that America refuses to accommodate any of their demands and their foreign policy establishment is intractable and ideologically hostile. See this article written a month before the current situation:
https://www.fpri.org/article/2022/01/moscows-compellence-strategy/
Thank you --- "The Russia-gate" is MORE than just a political ploy against Trump by the DNC that distracted the media from reporting the innumerable horrible things the incompetent lunatic Trump was actually doing for four years.
Russia-gate hoax is a new term for (and the continuation of) "McCarthyism" which began immediately after WWII and is currently fueling our unilateral incredibly dangerous cold wars with both China and Russia.
Blaming Russia for everything that’s wrong in the US is absurd on its face, yet like a cancer this narrative has invaded every cell of the so-called liberal media and is ever-increasing since the Obama-Biden-Hillary lying team is back in full power (note Kamala is Hillary's protégé). Politically it derailed both the Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard campaigns and gave Americans what was close to a “single choice menu” in the 2020 election.
The Iraq War clearly revealed that our top military & intelligence officials are engaged in a disinformation campaign aimed at American citizens in service of fabricating enemies to increase their funding and justify our "interventionist" wars. During the 2020 presidential campaign Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard and Dr. Jill Stein were accused by no less than Hillary Clinton as “Russian assets”. When Clinton asked if she meant this literally she replied, “absolutely”. Clinton’s remarks were so wildly absurd and vicious that her political standing and reputation should have been forever damaged, however this didn’t happen -- the massive War party was behind Hillary (and now Biden).
Given the fact that the US has surrounded Russia's southern borders with nuclear missiles, whatever feeling Russia now has towards the US is more than understandable.
Everything Dwight Eisenhower warned the public in his famous farewell address has occurred and -- "progressive" neoliberals don't care. Arms industry is immensely profitable for ALL players involved.
“Russia-gate” is FAR MORE dangerous to American democracy than Russia will ever be... !!!
Left still unexplored is the huge role of UK in concocting the Russia-gate hoax, including Scripal and Navalny "poisonings" and US+UK fabrications of OPCW reports on Syria -- fully exposed by top experts at OPCW. Note how, in desperation and sensing the danger, DNC/CIA handlers instructed e.g., TYT's despicable Cenk & Ana to go on maximal / unhinged attack on the Gray-zone high-integrity team and, especially, on its truly outstanding and high-integrity journalist Aaron Mate.
"Given the fact that the US has surrounded Russia's southern borders with nuclear missiles, whatever feeling Russia now has towards the US is more than understandable."
This is not correct. The number of nuclear weapons that the US has stationed in European NATO countries has declined since the end of the Cold War. The US has no nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, etc. on Russia's southern borders. There's a small remnant in the NATO nations of Turkey, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, all gravity bombs dropped by manned bombers, not ballistic or hypersonic missiles. None are stationed in the NATO nations added after the end of the Cold War near Russian borders, e.g. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, or Poland.
Would it be ok for Russia to deploy some gravity nuclear bombs in Cuba? Just a small regiment? Let them be dropped by manned bombers?
This is a non sequitur. What I was responding to was a comment that included clear factual errors, like the one I specifically called out. Saying that "the US has surrounded Russia's southern borders with nuclear missiles" is a false statement, regardless of whether that action would be escalatory, or whether you agree with the actions the US has actually taken. It's worthwhile to be accurate and precise about what is actually going on, especially if you are going to be upset about it!
Whether a different set of actions, like what you brought up, would be "OK" is a value judgment we could debate back and forth and has no bearing on the factual issue I pointed out.