Our Securities and Insecurities: A Multifaceted Examination of the Philippines
The Philippines, a Southeast Asian archipelago nation, grapples with a complex web of interconnected “securities” and “insecurities.” This paper explores how the Philippines strives for food security, human security, national security, and maritime security. By examining these interwoven realities, we gain a deeper understanding of the nation’s challenges and ongoing efforts towards stability and progress.
Part 1: The Intertwined Challenges
At the foundation lies the challenge of ensuring both food security and human security. While achieving self-sufficiency in rice production holds nationalistic appeal, a more nuanced approach is necessary, as discussed in “What Now, Philippine Agriculture?” Diversification and infrastructure development are crucial, alongside considerations explored in “Community-Based Progress: The Barangay Rules.” Empowering barangays (local communities) to address local issues related to infrastructure, health, education, and environmental sustainability strengthens the foundation for national security.
Part 2: National Security Framework
A modern legal framework for the Philippine defense establishment, as discussed in the article examining the National Defense Act, is essential for a holistic approach to national security. This ensures effective defense planning, resource allocation, command structure, and civilian-military relations in the face of evolving threats. Furthermore, national security is intricately linked to foreign policy, as explored in “All in the Name of National Interest.” Balancing the pursuit of national interest with ethical considerations, human rights, and international law is a complex but crucial endeavor that shapes the Philippines’ diplomatic engagements on the global stage.
Part 3: The Philippines: A Maritime Nation
The Philippines’ identity as a maritime nation is undeniable, as emphasized in “We Are a Maritime Nation.” From vast territorial waters and rich marine resources to historical ties to trade and navigation, the sea plays a central role in the Philippines’ economic well-being, security, and cultural heritage. However, maritime disputes and environmental degradation pose significant challenges that demand a holistic and integrated approach to maritime governance.
Part 4: Safeguarding Sovereignty and Promoting Stability
Modernizing the AFP:
Building on these foundational concepts, “Safeguarding Sovereignty and Promoting Stability: An Extensive Examination of the Philippine Defense Sector” offers a comprehensive analysis. It delves into the historical context, strategic needs, procurement processes, and modernization efforts of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
- Abstract: The Philippines faces a diverse array of security challenges. This analysis explores the Philippine defense sector, focusing on the AFP Modernization Program. By fostering domestic capabilities and regional cooperation, the Philippines can strengthen national security and promote regional stability.
- Historical Context: Since gaining independence, the Philippines’ defense establishment has evolved significantly, with the legacy of US military presence influencing defense structures and doctrines. Internal security threats have also shaped defense priorities.
- Strategic Needs: The Philippines faces a multi-faceted security landscape, requiring a diverse defense strategy. Key areas of concern include addressing threats from non-state actors, countering potential adversaries’ strategies, safeguarding maritime interests, and maintaining disaster response capabilities.
- Defense Procurement: The Philippine defense procurement process has both strengths and weaknesses. Collaboration with local companies fosters domestic expertise but bureaucratic hurdles can impede timely acquisition of critical equipment.
- AFP Modernization Program: The multi-phased program aims to address capability gaps and achieve self-reliance. It includes Horizon 1 (immediate needs), Horizon 2 (external defense enhancements), and Horizon 3 (long-term self-reliance through domestic manufacturing and technology development).
- Ocean and Maritime Governance: Given its archipelagic nature, the Philippines prioritizes maritime security and governance, including patrolling territorial waters, fisheries management, environmental protection, and search and rescue operations.
- Social and Economic Impact: Balancing defense spending with social programs and economic development is crucial. Defense investments can contribute to economic growth through job creation, technological advancement, and infrastructure development, benefiting both military and civilian sectors.
Part 5: Recommendations and Conclusion
The Philippines faces a complex security landscape requiring a modernized and adaptable defense sector. Strategic options must be carefully considered, and domestic capabilities fostered. Regional cooperation is essential for promoting stability. Here are key recommendations:
- Enhanced Inter-agency Coordination: Improved collaboration between government agencies can streamline decision-making and resource allocation.
- Innovation in Indigenous Defense Technologies: Promoting research and development can lessen dependence on foreign suppliers and enhance self-reliance.
- Strengthening Regional Partnerships: Collaboration with regional partners on joint exercises, intelligence sharing, and maritime patrols can deter threats.
- Adapting to Emerging Threats: The Philippines must be prepared for new security challenges like cyberattacks. Exploring technological advancements like unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for surveillance and defense can be beneficial.
- Climate Resilience in Defense Planning: Integrating climate change considerations into defense strategies is crucial for disaster preparedness and safeguarding military installations.
Conclusion:
The Philippines must continue its efforts to strengthen its defense sector to safeguard sovereignty and promote regional stability. By addressing the recommendations outlined above and adapting to evolving security challenges, the nation can navigate its complex security landscape effectively. This will ensure a secure and prosperous future for its people.
**Further Considerations:**
* This analysis highlights the interconnectedness of food security, human security, national security, and maritime security. A holistic approach that addresses these challenges simultaneously is vital.
* Public trust and transparency are essential for a robust national security framework. Engaging with civil society and fostering open communication can strengthen public support for defense initiatives.
* The Philippines can learn from the experiences of other nations facing similar security challenges. Studying successful regional security cooperation models can provide valuable insights.
By acknowledging the multifaceted nature of its “securities” and “insecurities” and implementing comprehensive strategies, the Philippines can chart a course towards a more secure and prosperous future.
Reference materials used.
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
DJB calls this development in Batanes sleepwalking (and, for the Philippines at least, a willing accomplice) into Thucydides Trap
https://asiatimes.com/2024/03/philippines-in-hard-and-fast-offensive-shift-on-china/
Greeks, Romans, Holy Roman Empire, Ottomans, Vikings, Mongols,Spain, Portugal, England.
Before that Israelites vs Philistiines present day Israel vs people of Gaza.
Billog ang mundo. So in the end its flat earthers vs non flat earthes.
Forgot Persians, Babylonians and Egyptians.
Only the Pyramids of Giza atand in the Seven Wondrs of the World, all the rest were destroyed by war and calamities.
wonders of the world, and we have horror of the world. firstly it was 9dash line, now it’s 10, tomorrow it’s gonna be 11. china is bullish at sea, but cannot really put boots on our the ground and make landfall. we have edca as deterrent and more edcas coming, making china nervous. its bots both trolls and humans (among them pro chinese filipinos) entrusted with disinformation, belittling our country and undermining our democracy met water off the duck’s back. filipinos continue to align themselves with super power USA.
and oh, wonders indeed! I got crocodiles tears as china’s propaganda barbie the movie was badly beaten at the 2024 oscar and lost big time to openheimer. vietnam was right to ban barbie the movie, whereas philippines was shamelessly pussyfooting. blurring the dash lines did not make the dash line go away.
I disagree with neutrality even if this is a fight between two bulls, elephants, or TRexes. Even if suddenly China is able to perfect the manufacturing of the semiconductor and everything related to it meaning one ACE of Taiwan eliminated old wounds would still come up. Tayo lang mabait we only demanded that Japan to make a public apology for comfort women while our neighbors literally spit at world war 2 pictures in museums, I happen to have see one instance in SG during the 90s. We cannot afford to choose the wrong bully.
it’s been reported that china is suffering from low birthrate, its youth unemployment is rising, and its economic projections cannot be trusted sabi ng mga ekonomista. firms and companies are likewise leaving china. if they follow USA’s lead and see us as good place to invest . . . kaso, that bloody chacha looks worrisome. they’ll probly wait and see what new provisions there are in the worrisome chacha, how beneficial or malevolent they are to business.
I might be wrong but if we send OFWS abroad we must be willing to accept Foreign nuclear physicists anything we lack in the high positions and the low positions. Wacha think?
ay naku, foreign nuclear physicists are much in demand these days, iran pay heaps for them, india as well, not only for much needed cheaper nuclear energy output but to develop nuclear arms too. if we can match what’s on offer, maybe we can have foreign nuclear physicists too working for us too.
my aussie friends said, iran previously sent some very bright, young and eager students to australia to study nuclear physics and when they graduated, they immediately went back to iran, gainfully employed by the mulahs, and developed iran’s nuclear strategy vs the world.
Now as to demographic winter even due to one child policy, we already have ofws in HK and we are no stranger to CH environment, but if we send wives and baby makers that is another point to ponder.
I heard na most of china’s budget goes to the military.
chinese women of child bearing age complain that their govt is not very supportive: childcare there is summat backward and below western standard, there is rarely any incentives to bring up well and healthy children from cradle to grave.
china can always boost its population via immigration, kaso it does not readily open its door to refugees and immigrants.
China already has the world’s largest population at 1.3 billion. Why would they want to increase it?
Sabi nga ng iba mag isip. Ginawa daw nila Covid as a population measure.
Is China Overpopulated or Underpopulated?
After peaking at over 1.42 billion in 2021, current forecasts project that China’s population will shrink by over 100 million people by 2050. By the end of the century, China’s population may dwindle to less than 800 million, with more dire scenarios putting the figure at less than 500 million.
above is copied from google.
I think to maintain progress and be sustainable china would need a good ratio of income to people.
Old bully coming into town to confront the emerging new bully.
Exactly, I could not disagree with that.
The question for me is HOW might the Philippines attain real neutrality? The answer is to use neutrality as the sledge to drive China out of Philippine seas under agreement to remove US bases concurrently with exit of China from the WPS. Would China agree? Probably not because they are rooted at the soul to expansion across the Pacific. So the Philippines has no real choice as to which bully to favor.
https://joeam.com/2020/09/14/philippines-from-the-edge-to-the-middle-of-things/ in the article I wrote two years ago, a treaty that governs the SCS/WPS including the SEA neighbors (and the US/China, unavoidable as both have interests in what is now a major artery of global trade) similar to what Turkey has for the Bosporus could be a goal, but of course the question with treaties is how long do they stay enforced and adhered to, who interprets them?
If we are already speaking of bullies, international conferences are basically “sit-downs” similar to what mobsters have during or between gang wars to minimize bloodshed and keep business flowing. The only difficulty being: territory at sea is by nature more difficult than on land.
Between Rome and Carthage, it amounted to who’s sea the Mediterranean is, after the Greek colonists on Sicily especially had been reduced to irrelevance by both superpowers of then. Though between Europe and North Africa it was a standoff for centuries. Really don’t know.
A Summit among AUKUS plus and the so-called new axis of evil in the Philippine Arena?
I have no idea how that could happen and how the conditions for that could exist, because such summits usually happen only AFTER there is a war
Like gang bosses have sit-downs only when turf wars get too bloody.
Allow me to drop this link. https://maritimereview.ph/south-china-sea-disputes-a-zero-sum-undertaking/
That makes sense.. also checking how the parties along the frontline deal with the situation. But exactly that is what ASEAN is for or should be for, to promote ASEAN interests, pool the interests of the local boys against the bullies. Multilateral is what China “fears”, of course.
Vietnam is best capable of being an honest broker like Bismarck’s Germany was in 1871. Such a broker must be honest, powerful, and not have major players in it easily bought. Indonesia is powerful but outside the front line, and the Javanese way isn’t always that transparent.
The EU does define its interests even if it has superpowers tugging at its individual members: the USA at Poland and Romania, Russia at Bulgaria and Hungary, the USA and Russia tugging at our very weak Chancellor Scholz who is not a stable heavyweight like Bismarck had to be..
..but the EU may not survive the Ukraine crisis, I am in fact surprised it is still here after a number of crises, and ASEAN is far from being as developed in doing stuff together as EU.
Your conclusion that superpowers are there to stay is right. They were there to stay ever since Magellan and those after him opened the Indopacific for Business centuries ago, putting the Philippines from the Edge of Asian trade routes into the Middle of other power’s interests.
thanks
One more thing re neutrality: in the Cold War, Austria managed to be neutral because of its by then smallness. Yugoslavia was indeed playing both sides, meaning it knew it could count on Russia but sent workers to the West. Sweden was effectively part of the West, even if theoretically neutral and Finland was totally at the northern edge of the frontline. Germany going united and neutral would have made it a pawn of the USSR, so rejecting the Stalin offer was the right thing for Adenauer to do at the time. Just like Ostpolitik, aka slowly finding a modus vivendi for peace, was the right policy for Brandt with another Soviet Union than that under Stalin. Yes, it depends on who is in power as well.
The results of Bismarck’s being an honest broker in 1878 led to results in Southeastern Europe that would not be permanent, to say the least – especially in what later became Yugoslavia.
It looks like a standoff for the meantime for the Philippines. Now is Marcos Jr. going for joint exploration of oil with China while having US “resbak” and therefore not officially recognizing any Chinese claims? Trying to do A and B, Adenauer and Brandt in one step? Ay ewan. Hmm..
I also suspect that the politics of the Asian century will run on an altered version of the rules of the until now Western centered way. Totally different deals, standoffs and also modus vivendi.
it’s often said superpowers will do as they like, weaker nations suffer as they must. and we stayed with the lesser of two evils. for the philippines to be truly neutral, it must get rid of edca, and we all know that once we are rid of our deterrent edca, we will be vulnerable to all and sundry.
and the nearest unwelcome presence already positioned and much closer to us, will most certainly take advantage of the void left by edca, spring into action, ready to occupy our country, water cannons blazing! lasers pointing! oh, they wish!
question: what is pbbm’s modus vivendi, if any?
answer: to dodge those pesky problems of national proportion if any, by forever traveling overseas! be feted overseas and listened to, if any.
question: what is the vp’s modus vivendi if any?
answer: to be daddy’s minime, supportive of pbbm when he is around if any, stabbing him at the back if any. otherwise, to maximise collection of guns, what no guns you say? oh, well, there is always more satellite offices to create on top of the many she has already amassed, if any. hahaha.
The rally I told ou were Quiboly’s flock asked PBBM to resign, Sara can feign ignorance and use the freedom of spits card.
pbbm is to blame, the vp gets away with ignorance. he is supposed to lead. leaving the country under the care of an ignorant when he is not around is a reflection of how he leads.
right you are kb
The almost inevitable confrontation between US and China is not confined solely to disputes over sea or land territories (Taiwan and WPS).
It is, in the main, a civilizational and ideological conflict. There’s a strong undercurrent of class war involved. On whether capital gets to control the state (US), or the state control capital (China).
USA is banning tiktok, this is going to be technocrats gambit.
American tiktokers will not sympathise and might even protest. My take.
Excellent characterization.
Not really, Joe. that’s as meaningless a phrase as any. state control capital, capital control state. big wow. until Micha regards the new definition of capital, said phrase is devoid of meaning. like Foucault’s power is knowledge, knowledge is power, well from whence does power originate. i’m watching Shogun and 5 episodes in right now. and the way in which Portuguese regard the Japanese is comedic at best and thats when i realized shit the Spanish galleon has not yet even set sailed during this time, meaning south american silver which Argentina is named for has not even begun yet. and Filipino saint Lorenzo Ruiz has not even been born yet much less gone to Japan. then I read this Micha nonesense above about capital and state this morning, and realize d until Micha regards Bitcoin with more open mind then Micha does not really know what she’s talking about re capital, like that asteroid made completely of gold past Mars. so what is capital, in early 1600s Japan and now today as we speak. well i dunno cuz i’m Luddite, but i take public transport and well i like to eavesdrop and have since noticed among passengers of bus/train etc. for awhile now that TikTok is the main virtual drug these days. so why does America wanna buy it? cuz China’s bad? well we know from Snowden that the NSA/CIA and god knows what other lettered US agency listens to and records Americans, so China listening and tracking Americans bad, but US listening and tracking good? that’s soooo stooopid. like what Micha said. thus Foucault might be on to something after all re Power and Knowledge which came first the chicken or the egg and if the egg where did the egg come from. well i dunno cuz i’m just a Google Phd, but now we know that capital and knowledge are now in 2024 intertwined. and Maybe Toranaga-sama’s pigeons gives as a clue as to their relationship. but for sure capital needs some definition updating and Micha needs to consider Bitcoin as part of said definition now, Joe.
The galleon trade had already started by 1571, and the Bolivian silver that funded it had been found in the late 1540s. So that stuff already happened while the historical events similar to the ones in Shogun unfolded. What would be later is Blessed Justo Takayama, a Christian samurai, fleeing Nagasaki for Manila and even getting an offer from Spain to help him get even with Tokugawa Ieyasu aka Toranaga, which he refused. Ruiz was yet later.
The multiple powers that tried to take over Taiwan and China finally securing an island that had barely interested it before European powers came, somewhat parallel to the Shogun events Takayama and Ruiz, form part of the big picture as well. The 1582 battle of Cagayan, which was most probably not Spanish troops versus real samurai, but versus pirates that included Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, Okinawans (not yet Japanese) etc. was part of that insane era..
Sources regarding Manila in 1571 clearly noted that Manila and Tondo warriors who could afford Japanese katana had them. What I actually wonder is if the likes of Tokugawa Ieyasu aka Toranaga knew more about what Europeans were up to than they knew about what their competitors were doing – Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and to a small extent already the English? We will never know, but possibly the trade networks will have spread news to major lords.
ah, thanks for the clarification Ireneo. so Shogun isn’t really placing Japan-Portueguese relations in correct light here. though Macao is mentioned, as well as samurais reminiscing their time in Korea , i guess they invaded. So the windfall re silver Spain-China is going on already. according to your timeline already for a generation. Curious now about Chinese-Japanese relations during this time. but yeah, ronins in Macau was mentioned in episode 4. good info thanks.
The re-pivot to US came after BBM’s audience with whoever is in charge of the White House. Just wondering whether the First Family’s frozen cash horde has been returned.Also wondering how’s DU30’s build build build projects with Chinese cash going on.Also wondering where the V stands. With daddy DU30’s romancing the Chinese, or BBM’s US stance?
Sara Duterte is very pro-China and hostile to President Marcos and Speaker Romualdez from time to time (like when she was stripped of her confidential funds). They all put on the happy face for the public though. There is considerable drama attached to the proposed revision to the Constitution. Some speculate that term limits will come into play because Romualdez does not have the popularity to defeat Daughter Duterte, even though he is supposedly the designated presidential placeholder until Son Marcos is ready. What is peculiar is how little the well-being of the nation drives anything. Entitlement is the name of the game.
i’m still trying to figure out how you can buy trains that don’t fit your train tracks! you have to be galactically stoopid. what ever came of this scandal?
The trains fit the tracks. They are heavier than specs, and signal features are not compatible with existing technology. Life’s rich with stupidity I suppose. Murder, corruption, receiving goods that did not meet specs given to the Chinese manufacturer, and dimwits actually being able to find justification for voting for a rapist, racist, con man, liar and general overall horrid human as President of the United States.
I think no one wants to be responsible for a mass casualty event if trains were jerry rigged into existing lines, but it does say the 3rd party organization that thumbs up it was German and Germans are pretty good engineers, Joe. As for Trump, you plaster the dude in prime time news for 4 years, what do you expect. People just grew accustomed to the dude. as for me, I’m telling everyone here in CA if they don’t run Newsom i’m voting for Trump. anti Trumps seem to think that rationale makes sense, so too Trumpists. like killing two birds with one stone.
Well, for me, you criticize the ordering of useless train cars while finding a way to vote for a destructive President, as a form of blackmail or petulance if you don’t get your way, so pardon me if I attach zero credibility to anything you say because you are just playing mind games, or games, rather than using your intelligence to build good values and hold people to account.
To be sure, Joe, remember that Putin since taking power was able to reconstitute territories from the former USSR from every US president except for Trump. during Trump’s time, Putin hit pause (i don’t know why). but from W. to Obama to Biden with that gap during Trump’s time Putin just took and took. I don’t buy Micha’s narrative that the Piknik attack was CIA’s or the West’s its just too messy, but Ukraine is likely and under Putin’s direction too is likely, but given Putin’s pattern the Piknik attack just doesn’t fit Putin’s MO, thus it has to be Ukraine’s whether they masterminded it or just help shepherd them across who knows. but the messiness of it all points to Ukraine not Russia nor ISIS (lack of suicides like Micha said is a big indicator). Nordstream though looks very American, it served a very distinct purpose in the bigger scheme of things. as to voting for Trump, the Dems wanted to stick Trump on primetime for 4 years, so they got whats coming. like i said, only Gavin Newsom can save them now, especially after this TikTok stuff. Trump’s sky rocketing among the young. as for the useless train cars, make ’em resort cottages in Bohol. sell at discounted price i’m sure its been rusting. 😉
Guesses, deductions, hypotheses are not facts. They are noise filling space, like what gossip columns do or London tabloids. They are destructive when organized to defeat good values and good thinking. I’m tired of them. My ears hurt. My brain is exhausted. My heart aches for the idiots we become when all we do is run around chattering what we believe.
that during Trump’s time as president Putin didn’t take any territories is fact, Joe. you can check that. Putin took during W.’s time and during Obama’s time. then pause. then during Biden Putin took again but finally the US took a stand. why didn’t Putin take during Trump. that part i don’t know. but the rest is indeed fact, Joe. Putin took and took.
What are you getting on about? Of course Putin is a taker, and has been, and will be.
but Putin didn’t during Trump, Joe.
Oh, he did. He took Trump.
LOL! that’s a good one. i shoulda seen that one coming. lol. touché! indeed. you got me.
Dropping Links
Re Missile Proliferation
https://www.ndcp.edu.ph/missile-proliferation-in-the-indo-pacific-opportunities-and-challenges-for-philippine-deterrence/
Re Future of Warfare
https://ndcp.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/PP-Future-of-Philippine-Warfare-Web.pdf
Future of Warfare Vol 2
https://www.ndcp.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/FPW-Vol2.pdf
Understanding Social Classes in the Philippines.
https://www.pids.gov.ph/details/understanding-social-class-in-the-philippines-which-class-do-you-belong-to
The Five Pillars of Growth. Kulang na lang implementation.
https://legacy.senate.gov.ph/publications/Five%20Pillars%20of%20Growth.pdf
if chacha goes tru, all this can probly change drastically. the five pillars could well be cut down to any size desired, implemented as seen fit not by us, but by foreign players whose agenda we have no control to speak of. and its going to be confusing coz congress can play catch up anytime, anywhere, recall bits and pieces of the act, and make modification as often as needed.
our taipans, tycoons have been partnering with foreigners for years. The port operator I worked for had a succession of expat ceos,svps and evps so what is new? I even suggested here foreign engineers, physicists, even teachers, doctors.
the new things under the proposed economic tweaking of chacha is that foreigners may no longer need filipinos partners. foreigners may legally own 100 per cent of local and national infrastructures in their entirety, considering foreigners have ample funds.
and if foreigners formed a bloc with other multinationals and jointly buy up businesses after businesses, infras after infras, and leave us with nothing, chacha is okay yata with that.
then the crux of the matter is the devil in the detail, the chacha clause that said ‘as stipulated by law’ which can be anyone’s guess. if congress later decide to apply the clause and add and amend anything to suit the whims and caprices of the government of the day, it is going to be upheaval.
and if business bloc challenges the decision made by congress in the international court of justice via dictum of world trade organisation, hinting that their businesses have suffered greatly and they have loses, there is going to be bigger upheaval, is what I think.
me plebiscite dapat and ngo guardians must monitor and give info campaign that gov has not disclosed
the devil in the detail was disclosed yata, and edcel lagman questioned it but he’s just one man. since congress is numbers game, it’s possible economic chacha ay lulusot ng lulusot. and to counter chacha’s future unfair economic intervention, foreign investors also have trick up their sleeves and may resort to transfer pricing. but I’ll stop now, economics is not really my forte.
financial inclusion at a glance.
https://legacy.senate.gov.ph/publications/SEPO/SEPO_AAG_Financial%20Inclusion%20AAG_final.pdf
Re Classwar
Among my socmed Friends Chuck Jugo was the one who always talks about class war even before the hash tag was the norm. Now he uses #class war as often as possible
I love class war, though I call it class divide. I go from one division to another then back again, wiser but not really, materialistic but not really.
Slightly OT, about safety in the Philippines for foreigners.. an American was shot in front of Waterfront Hotel Cebu this Sunday..
The (at times controversial) vlogger makes sense here in telling the new crowd of expats not to take their safety for granted, something Joe’s batch knows and I can imagine LCPL_X was cautious at Mango Ave. inspite of all the fun he had.
Safety is paramount.
chatgpt on safety and security
Safety and security are related concepts but they are not synonymous. Safety typically refers to the condition of being protected from harm, danger, or risk. It encompasses physical safety, emotional safety, and overall well-being. On the other hand, security generally refers to measures taken to protect against intentional threats, such as crime, terrorism, or unauthorized access.
While safety and security are closely intertwined, they differ in scope and emphasis:
Scope: Safety is a broader concept that encompasses not only protection from deliberate threats but also from accidents, natural disasters, and other unforeseen events that could cause harm. Security, on the other hand, tends to focus more narrowly on preventing intentional harm or threats.
Focus: Safety often emphasizes the prevention of harm or mitigation of risks through various means such as education, training, regulation, and infrastructure improvements. Security, meanwhile, tends to focus on measures such as surveillance, access control, encryption, and enforcement to protect against specific threats or attacks.
Subjectivity: Safety can be subjective, as individuals may have different perceptions of what constitutes safety based on their experiences, beliefs, and cultural background. Security measures, however, are often more objective and standardized, aiming to provide a certain level of protection against defined threats.
While safety and security are related, it’s important to recognize that they address different aspects of protection and well-being. In some contexts, safety measures may contribute to security, and vice versa, but they can also operate independently. For instance, ensuring the safety of a workplace may involve implementing security protocols to prevent unauthorized access, but it may also involve measures such as providing proper training and equipment to prevent accidents. Similarly, security measures may enhance safety by deterring criminal activity, but they may not address all potential sources of harm or risk.
joeam is apparently doing right, he rarely attracts unwarranted attention, sussing situations before sticking his neck out. same with all of us, there are malingering riding in tandems that get their kick by shooting people. our kapolisan are rushed off their feet fighting crime and going after criminals.
we all have to be careful, be cognisant and be aware when walking down a seemingly innocuous the street even in broad daylight. keeping your eyes on your phones and not where you are going is not good modus.
I keep one eye on where I am going and one eye on the rear view mirror to see who is coming up from behind. Truly. My windows are tinted so black that I can’t drive at night. Nor do I want to.
Well, I don’t go around touching girl’s butts for one thing. And I stay away from other Americans because too many have that superior air that smacks of racism to me. Europeans, too. Most killings are for a reason, and I write from behind a screen like the Wizard of Oz because some people think I’m peddling snake oil, whereas I think they are snakes.
The phenomena in expat communities are very similar worldwide, Germans in places as far apart as Thailand, Spain, and the Dominican Republic can be quite similar, for instance. Apart from a sense of superiority, a lot of expat communities can be inbred and toxic.
Being morbidly curious, I can’t help but look at the exhibitionistic stuff some vloggers put out, even if the curiosity wears down after a while when there is no more sense of novelty. Meanwhile, it seems some fans of the Cebuano rapper think he is the new Lapu-Lapu. 🤪
The saying “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” seems to be still applicable.
About this saying, here is an interesting historical tidbit:
“The origin of this saying is often attributed to Saint Ambrose, a bishop of Milan, who offered valuable advice to Saint Augustine. Augustine had recently moved from Milan to Rome and was surprised to find that the church in Rome didn’t fast on Saturdays as he was used to. Saint Ambrose told him: “Romanum venio, ieiuno Sabbato; hic sum, non ieiuno: sic etiam tu, ad quam forte ecclesiam veneris, eius morem serva, si cuiquam non vis esse scandalum nec quemquam tibi.” This translates to: “When I go to Rome, I fast on Saturday, but here I do not. Do you also follow the custom of whatever church you attend if you do not want to give or receive scandal?”
but does that necessarily apply to lady boys, NH? i’ve been looking for footage of the actual fighting cuz i’ve always wondered what thai boxing vs eskrima would look like in real life.
lcx off topic.
https://www.rappler.com/philippines/arnie-teves-arrested-timor-leste-march-21-2024/
teves is still in timor leste held in detention. it was reported his paperworks will take a while to formally process. his passport has been canceled and he cannot escape to other countries to hide anew, maliban lang kung meron siyang 2nd passport that we know nothing.
Thanks for that NH. But nowadays people frown on intolerance at the same time also frown on too much tolerance. We live in a bipolar world, until both the arctic and antarctic polar caps melts down.
Good advice for sure.
Personal stuff i can understand. this happened when i was there too, usually with expats just getting beat up by Filipinos. its the non-specific stuff that worries me Ireneo. and Cebu , you never have to worry about non-specific stuff against foreigners. Manila is a different story though more crime ridden. but yeah, it was just shabu that i noticed and running amok type behavior due to shabu and/or mental illness or just too much San Miguel usually theres other Filipinos to contain such behavior (basically Filipinos protecting foreigners). specific to Mango Ave were the girls boyfriends (or relatives) that end up visiting the establishments, so if you’re in the process of bar-fining just go back get a refund and take another girl out. easy peezy. taxi drivers too were a problem, but once they know you know the value of things there. its an easy fix. with all that said, I’m pro Filipino here re Water Front (which was too expensive for my tastes) that dude got what’s coming to him. well deserved. i’d like to see more of it ngl, Filipinos need to push back and not just when they’re drunk on Red Horse either. more of this please. 😉
Here’s a summary of the matter, including three relevant videos, trigger warnings not for Lance of course but for whoever might be triggered. Seems the dude – who has died now – acted very foolishly in a lot of ways..
50th Anniversary Edition of the National Security Review
https://ndcp.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/re-awakeningat50ndcp.pdf
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2024/03/21/2342167/36-chinese-served-pcg-auxiliary-house-told
I wonder what the national security review said about the above link posted. that unbeknown to most of us, sa panahon ni digong there were chinese from peoples republic of china actually working in phillipines coast guard! it’s no wonder chinese militia vessels were already in position even before our resupply boats pumalaot sa ayungin shoal. to make matter worse, our country probly paid for the wages of these chinese spying on us. our coastguard ought to sweep their boats for listening devices planted by the chinese, maybe to compromise our navigational aids such as radar.
sabi pa ng china to estados unidos nitong mga nakaraang linggo not to interfere in south china sea, tapos sila palang mga chinese ang tanging interferers! interfering with our national maritime security. so, nuong panahon ni digong, maybe each time there is military exercises between our country and estados unidos as well as between our country and australia, the chinese may have first hand view of the exercises and maybe, playing a part too.
Grabe me Chinese na General sa Coast guard auxillary
I wonder how much the chinese foreigners paid to get in our coastguard auxillary, considering walang silang clearance.
latest reports said the chinese did not do any harm to our security kuno, could not possibly! meaning our coastguard most likely did not know what the chinese were doing, or dont want to know what the chinese were doing because in most probability the price paid is right! the yuan sees to it.
I am friends with a Duterte admin PCG higher up, kaya I will refrain from commenting even if naiinis ako sa pangyayari.
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2024/03/22/2342414/heads-should-roll-over-chinese-recruitment-pcg-lawmaker
thanks for your honesty and tact. and thanks for the link you posted.
thanks as well
Many good reads here.
https://ndcp.edu.ph/ndcp-publication/
https://legacy.senate.gov.ph/publications.asp
and
https://cpbrd.congress.gov.ph/index.php/component/content/
OT
Sen Risa is proving to be a heaven sent.
More heaven sent than Quiboloy who can make the Senators protect him by defending him and giving too much benefit of the doubt. All people deserve to be treated fairly, but life is unfair with the way Q gets special treatment.
he is single kuno, unmarried pa, kaya woman magnet daw siya. ay, mali siya! a true man of god would have said, he is unmarried coz he is already married to his faith.
if he wants to be treated fairly, he must learn to treat others fairly too.
Senate nod needed to cancel franchise of SMNI, bakit nung Abs lower house lang ata. tama ba?
iba yang sa abs, kasi abs was asking to renew its congressional franchise that expired on may 4 2020, congress refuse to renew it, citing covid and whatnots.
habang itong franchise ng smni is current but being canceled midway, hence nod of senate is needed.
many thanks
Karl, thank you for this blog post. Our security is indeed multi-faceted/ complicated but requires attention.
My pleasure.
OT — A pause that refreshes?
Here is an anecdote apropos a current happening in the US of A:
“Imagine you sold someone a glass engagement ring that you claimed was a real diamond. Then, when a judge found you liable for fraud, you tried to use the “diamond ring” as collateral for an appeal bond.”
🤣
we can source cO2 to create pure carbon from the atmosphere nowadays to make lab grown diamonds. Protein too to make burgers from the sky.
Like AI app, no need to fake diamond then with glass ‘cos we have lab-grown diamond. 🙂
Rhinestone or pwit ng baso. Ang kawawang koboy.
remember PNB aka rhine stone?
Our securities and insecurities will undeniably be tied up in the global stage as the nuclear armed behemoths are going after each other with increasing ferocity.
Everyone’s now waiting what will Russia do after capturing the paid mercenaries who killed 140+ in a Moscow concert hall. US insists it was an ISIS terrorist attack but developing investigation reveal it was most likely orchestrated by Ukraine with the able assistance of CIA and the neocons.
Calls for retribution is certainly growing with some Russian officials prescribing total annihilation of Ukraine precipitating direct confrontation with NATO and the collective west.
For all intents and purpose, we’re now in the initial stages of WW3, throwing in Taiwan and WPS flashpoint.
How do you assign legitimacy to *news* reports? It troubles me greatly. There is so much horseshit coming out of the Israel conflict that it is impossible to find a purely informed and rational take on things. Most people assign legitimacy to the news that best fits their own preconceptions and toss out uncomfortable truths that may oppose them. Does Russia have a legitimate news organization? Is Fox a news organization? We the ignorant are merely useful pawns to dirty data distributors. Like Princess Kate, boy did the news organizations botch that one in ugly time. I trust no one myself so don’t draw too many quick conclusions.
It’s for the individual news consumer to acquire the abilities of discernment and critical thinking as news organizations everywhere seem to have subjective biases to advance.
When New York Times broadcasts a headline “ISIS likely culprit in Moscow terrorist attack”, one must be compelled to ask, how true? What or who were their sources of info?
From all indications, the terrorist attack in Moscow was orchestrated by the chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence service (GUR), Kirill Budanov.
It’s a huge strategic mistake because now Russia will have the rationale to deploy their arsenal and level Kiev to the ground. Whereas before, Putin held back in totally destroying the infrastructure of the city because that was not really their main objective (and maybe in deference to the cultural and ethnic ties between the two countries).
We’re in the scary part of the conflict because now it’s total escalation when Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister, said…
“We will avenge each and every one. And those who are involved (in the attack), regardless of the country of origin and status, are now our main and legitimate target.”
GUR was propped up by CIA after the Maidan coup of 2014 engineered by Victoria Nuland, the neocon hawk who resigned from her State Department post days before the perpetrators planned and surveilled the concert venue in Moscow.
It’s going to be very interesting days ahead.
One is inclined to ask “how true? What or who were the sources of info?”
I’ve scoured the news and it seems the people accusing Ukraine are Putin and Putin’s spokesman, whereas ISIS has claimed responsibility and US defense officials say they can confirm it was ISIS. The killers were evidently caught trying to escape to Ukraine and appear to have been beaten and tortured. I’d say any of us lay observers claiming to “know” what happened is feeding potentially dirty data into his belief system and feeding us his beliefs, no matter what truths remain out there, hidden to the uninformed mere mortal. I’d welcome knowing the sources of additional information.
The perpetrators were captured alive Joe. First hint they were not ISIS because partisans would normally wear suicide vests and prefer “martyrdom” than be captured.
Upon interrogation, it was learned they were Tajikistan nationals who were promised 1 million roubles to kill as many Russians as possible.
And it was Budanov who declared last year that “we’ve been killing Russians and we will keep killing Russians anywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine.”
Anywhere on the face of this earth. Meaning it doesn’t have to be in the battlefield. It’s pure bloodlust.
Hence, the massacre of civilians in a concert hall.
Well, that may be a deduction, or a belief, but it is not a confirmed fact. You have yet to provide a source link that would allow verification, or even assurances. it’s a crazy world we live in, mean and brutal. I’ll not follow anybody into that abyss.
One thing’s for sure at this point Joe; the “ISIS alone” narrative gobbled up by western media is flat out false. Russian authorities are in the process of determining who orchestrated the hit and all fingers thus far are pointing to state actors from Ukraine which the US is trying hard to exculpate.
At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what you and I think of who might be responsible. The ball of investigation is in the Russian court. And they will act accordingly.
So far, within the last 24 hours, they have levelled the headquarters of SBU and GUR in Kiev with hypersonic missiles.
As successful as the Piknik concert attack was (which is more like the Taj Mumbai attack by Pakistan), theres really no gain to be had. precisely because the attackers were non-Russian. attacks like that are more profitable for Ukraine and the West if carried out by Russians themselves (which is why CIA could not have signed off on this op, no ROI really). Ukraine just needs to focus on refineries ngl, and foment more Russian vs Russian ops. ops like this is counterproductive for the West, serves Russian interests, though looks good on Ukraine eg. complex operations a lot of moving parts. but in the end, just consolidates more power to Putin, and why targetting refineries got more bang for your buck as we say here. as for the angle that it was Putin hisself that orchestrated all this, unlikely imho cuz Piknik is pro Russian which means pro Putin, unless there were pro-Navalney or just anti Putins in that crowd that needed disappearing.
putin is most likely spreading disinformation saying there was window in ukraine for the tajik gunmen to escape.
it has been said the border between ukraine and russia is heavily guarded; the russian side by armed russians, ukraine side by equally armed ukrainians. it is also strewn with mines and razor wires and constantly watched.
if indeed there was window, or safe passage, it could only be made possible by the connivance of the both the russians and ukranians, which is very highly unlikely.
by the way, it was reported the gunmen were able to case and walk around the hall days prior to the concert, and did so with ease. no once challenge them.
agreed , kb. thats why i’m still entertaining the Ukrainian Tajikistan connection via the USSR.
No, there is no basis to say the ISIS alone narrative is false because it does not fit your belief system that automatically attaches no credibility to the WSJ and 100% credibility to Russian sourced data. I tell you, it is just one more case of rotten critical thinking that typifies so much public debate. Russia blasting the SBU is not evidence of any truth whatsoever. You have yet to document your belief so pardon me if I consider it horse shit until you can present credible sources. You are in the abyss of dirty data that confuses beliefs with facts, and I shall not follow you there.
ISIS
USA
Ukraine
Putin
of those 4, the Ukraine/ISIS connection is more probable. Putin would be killing his own supporters. USA nothing to gain with civilian targets, now if it was Russians vs. Russians then maybe.
here’s a good matrix to help analysis in this whodunit, Joe.
https://quartermaster.substack.com/p/the-quartermaster-friday-7-june
and how to use,
https://irp.fas.org/doddir/army/fm34-36/appd.htm
No, I don’t play clue or monopoly or even checkers. I’ll place my trust in Joe Biden until I get trustworthy facts that say he’s wrong.
“I’ll place my trust in Joe Biden until I get trustworthy facts that say he’s wrong.”
Joe,Can you cite (say, 7) trustworthy facts that say Biden is right?Can you cite (say, 7) trustworthy facts that say Trump is wrong?
Yes, I can. But you can as well. On Trump, start with his 91 indictments. On Biden, start with his cabinet appointments.
we’re talking about ISIS and Moscow here, Joe. are we not?
I’m talking about the discipline of thinking clean in a world of dirty data, with Moscow being the incident I refuse to swim in muddy water on.
blind belief seems so much worst. we should be playing detective here, like Micha is. it allows for better analyses. otherwise , belief in one dude is the reason so many bad policies transpired post WWII, even pre WWII remember the banana Wars? bad media sent the US to war with Spain, same with Vietnam, all because Americans just decided trustworthy facts can only come from one place. that’s bunk. and you know it Joe. more analyses is what’s needed. it’ll never be perfect with all facts connected but we can connect as many dots and patterns. that’s a better way forward, you’re talking faith base crap. I can’t tell the difference between Joe and i7sharp any longer. and thats never good. one i7sharp is enough, too many and we’ll be connecting all sorts of data points.
Analysis is done before the conclusions, and considers all scenarios. It does not lead with the conclusion then preach it as if facts had nothing to do with anything. I’m happy to be matched with i7sharp. His mysteries make more sense to me than your analyses.
i7sharp and Micha have concluded, Joe. I and isk and NH, et al have not only proposed patterns and likelihoods. you’re not even entertaining likelihoods, just belief on Biden (as per your last comment). again Micha brings forth a good point re Nordstream and ISIS.
My trust in President Biden is not a matter of faith, but a matter of pragmatics in a situation where dirty data is out there, all kinds of analyses and suppositions, and I consider it irresponsible to be painting people who may be innocent as being complicit in a heinous slaughter of innocents. It’s not nice, and I’m full bore pollyanna on it. Why are we in such a hurry to confirm our biases? I trust that President Biden is collecting data and he has more sources than Micha. So why recruit me to a position founded on weak data? Your ego needs a win or what?
i do agree when i7sharp delves into numerology its entertaining. that part I want some more of, Joe.
just to be clear this is Micha and i7sharps conclusions: America’s bad; and KJV is good. I’m saying chances are its Ukraine (thus not really ISIS, again Micha’s no suicides cuz ISIS is all about suicides 72 virgins and all). so if Joe’s stance is that its ISIS, then Micha’s Nordstream point makes your ISIS stance balance negative, eg. conclusion clear re Nordstream but lets wait for facts re ISIS? again Micha’s stance would be superior to Joe’s due to Nordstream here. My point about Ukraine is that its good for Ukraine all around, tells the American people they’re still in the fight. thus my pragmatics would be superior to Joe’s ‘lets wait and see’ which serves no purpose (though silence in Nordstream does), cuz Ukraine gets paid if Ukraine claims responsibility. but again like the JFK assasination if your stance is to wait for all the facts, you’ll wait forever, Joe. Putin blames Ukraine, Biden should blame Ukraine too! and fast track funding, exactly because they’re still in the fight. that is pragmatics, Joe. don’t be shy like Nordstream on this, lay it on Ukraine’s shoulders and use it for funds. like Clint Eastwood’s Flags of our Fathers and war bonds.
Absolute nonsense. Gives me the heebie jeebies to see all the turds flowing down the data stream, some so ripe they are green. I damage no one with my stance. You damage anyone you slander or lead astray. That said, expressing conclusions as probabilities is good, a tacit acknowledgement that they could be wrong. Then people can bet responsibly . . . and always set a limit.
Micha’s would be 60% (but re Nordstream 90%).
Joe’s would be 40%.
i7sharp is always 100%.
LCPL_X would be 90% (ps. I’m with Micha by the way re Nordstream so that’s 180% for me. NH, can you check my math here?).
isk/kb although not as committed but tracking from commentary they’ll be at 70% both.
My bookie is drunk as a skunk so I can neither confirm nor deny those calculations.
Micha’s blinders is that she’s anti-America always– granted its more like anti-American gov’t, eg. cuz of history (and rightly so), but she believes in the American dream. i7sharp’s is KJV and that he doesn’t hedge when thining thru things those are serious blinders but useful like Dune. in this case, Joe’s blinders is this whole notion of good and bad, but here specifically this posture of protecting Biden as if blaming Ukraine here would some how hurt Biden’s chance in Nov. which is absurd. the strength in my position is theres no blinders, am fluid in matters until i get to i7sharp’s solidity only then am i all in kinda like when you pressurize water you get a crystal but where i7sharp easily reaches the solid state I take my time. thus I can say Nordstream seems an American op textbook covert ops Micha’s correct and Moscow attack is not too messy with possible blowback that the US has now been very wary of. on top of that there’s a fund raising opportunity. ergo, and i’m no bookie, and i never bet on games like Ohtani, just grading analyses here… hence the 90%, Joe. all about grading blinders. ps. your blinders is easily excused cuz your motivations are for the greater good, Joe. but blinders nonetheless. Micha’s is not due to revisionism somehow equating the past with the present sloppy thinking like pro MMT but anti Bitcoin . i7sharp’s theres no excuse but its entertaining thus he should never be banned. ever.
Bad analysis. I am not “protecting Biden” on the Moscow event, I am relying on him to provide factual information rather than spewing my biases across the internet as some are doing. Just today it was learned that the suspects were captured an hour before earlier statements put it, and 100 miles further from the Ukrainian border. Facts are important. Beliefs devoid of facts are huge ripe green turds floating down the River Internet. My analysis is that you are slow on the uptake and fast on the judgments.
let me ask you this , Joe. how do those 2 information help your analysis (eg. Biden’s) and hurt mine (eg. Ukrainian helped)? 1 hour earlier okay big wow. 100 miles from border okay another big wow, cuz where they run after the fact is not really important as where they originated but even that is not as important as Micha’s no suicides. thats the biggest tell actually. so analysis still stands, again more ROI if Ukraine and Biden own up to it, unlike Nordstream which they shouldn’t own up to. ever.
All you are doing is speculating and throwing dirt on facts that undermine your speculation. In other words, your bias is more important than getting it right. It’s what cult members and conspiracy theorists do, and is consistent with what about 90% of all internet argument consists of. People motivated to avoid humiliating themselves to themselves, and avoiding uncomfortable truths. I am saying “Well, honestly, I don’t know who did it, but I know vested interests will be throwing up dirt on it, clouds of it, and whole rivers of green turds. Where can I go to get the best information available and stay out of the dirt and turds?”
So I end up with Joe Biden. Not Micha. If you choose to go with Micha, that’s your business, but I suggest you pump yourself full of antibiotics first.
RE: Victoria Nuland -resigned, retired or got fired ? Just curious.
Agree. And if a news source in Russia claims Ukraine did it, one must be compelled to ask the same questions.
the nature of asymmetrical war is that combatants are not clearly defined. and if intel is up to par, preventive action can be taken beforehand to lessen casualties. and the way things are going, nations can expect more terror attacks and more deaths in the offing. terror comes when least expected, never be complacent.
anyhow, the goddess of death and destruction kali must be in fine form. such votive offerings. navalny died in prison, apparently tortured and killed, and not long after that, more than 130 russians followed on his wake. and right after putin won the election.
The van used has a Belarusian plate no. of 8682 AX-3 while a Ukrainian plate is like this KA2313HK
The border in Belarus is open to traffic from Russia. An escape route to Ukraine ? Something to ponder.
Would a gun for hire in Manila use an escape vehicle with a plate number directly traceable to its owner?
That part can be part of the ruse. they seemed to have been promised a way out. i’m still thinking theres a warlord here investigate that connection and some old hand Ukrainian, they always have a surplus of blind followers, but for sure not ISIS.
https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2024/3/23/24109865/moscow-crocus-city-hall-theater-terrorist-attack-russia-isis-vladimir-putin-ukraine-war
istambaysakanto, your hint is on the mark. the getaway van bearing belarus plate was headed for belarus. but could not enter belarus since the border was closed to traffic. it headed to ukraine apparently, but the russian side of the border between russia and ukraine was ultra heavily guarded and they were turned back.
it appears the tajiks gunmen were already living in russia as migrants and earning a very meager living. they were recruited in the internet via messenger.
Thanks for the link kb.
Interesting exchange — between Micha who brought up the subject here and Joe — of an important news item about the terrorist attack in a Moscow venue where some 140 people died. Thanks for bringing up the subject.
With the conscious or unconscious bias of “news” from even supposed trusted sources it is difficult to get to the truth of this, at least as of now.
So I go with Micha’s statement below:
“It’s for the individual news consumer to acquire the abilities of discernment and critical thinking as news organizations everywhere seem to have subjective biases to advance.”
I don’t think the CIA will do anymore of these double triple agents operations cuz it always bites them in the butt (eg. Taliban, Al Qaeda, etc. etc.) thus Micha though correct historically i think here and now is wrong (CIA has tired of the cost/benefit of those typa ops). but for Ukrainians to do so, I gotta admit it kinda makes me proud for them. I hope this type of operation will enliven support, eg. see America, we can do complex ops against Russia give us more funding please. I hope Putin blames Ukraine more and the US also repeats said accusations in hopes of fast tracking Ukrainian funding. I’m reading also that Ukrainians are targetting more and m ore of Russia’s gas/oil refineries, which is good. plus sending ISIS into Russia, hell more of that please. Go Ukraine. No worries re nukes Russia won’t use ’em cuz China’s CBDC is about to go viral via the SCO. Bitcoin will have to enter the strategy talk when deciding to defeat the SCO, NH. but keep diminishing Putin’s securities & insecurities.
Oh, how the oldies like myself — and the not so old, I suppose — like real world spy/ undercover stories. It will really be a goody to get the real score about this Moscow story. It may take some years before serious comprehensive research brings out what brought it about.
Notwithstanding what cause it, there will be significant consequence I believe in the Russia-Ukraine war, favorable to one or the other.
my bet is Ukrainians that were Russians in the 1970s-80s who did work in that region when USSR went into Afghanistan, still had contacts with warlords there and did a quid pro quo with said warlord who agreed to send them peeps. CIA need not be involved. but it was kinda elaborate as attacks go so Putin letting it unfold, i dunno maybe lots of Navalney supporters in that concert hall, but then again Piknik the band that played is pro-Russia so concert goers had to have been pro-Putin not Navalney. which means Ukraine indeed caught Russia slippin’, NH. again kudos to Ukraine for this. i hope they do more ops like it and hit more refineries too. Xi and Biden are happy i’m sure. as we should all be. more please. release the Ukrainian funding I’m pro Ukrainian funding again becuz of this.
nh, canada has probly its own share of terror after a sikh separatist was killed on canadian soil apparently under the order of india’s top man modi whose intel adviser doval is often called the james bond of india. trudeau is probly walking on fine line now that modi is showing higher than usual gumption now that india has become a world player having risen to the ascendancy of the five eyes.
here’s hoping canada will not get caught in the middle considering that canada has the highest sikh population outside india, and india’s never ending pursuit of sikhs that goes beyond borders.
I hope so, too, kb.
Anyone want to submit an article?
Regulars and silent readers alike.
karl, instead of asking for articles, which may take awhile, why not just prompt Gemini or ChatGPT for articles 250 words is best IMHO. you and gian can pump out articles like every couple days. example: Gemini, in 250 words can you write an essay in the style of John Steinbeck about the Philippines joining the SCO and its pros & cons?
Don’t do what LCX suggests, Karl. This is a human blog. AI can supplement what humans write, but it would make the blog a tinny empty place to crank out computer data as core content.
I think if theres a disclaimer that AI wrote it in the style of so and so author, people won’t be fooled. but how AI can mimic writing style is nuts, Joe. but per my suggestion I think karl’s problem is that comment threads become stale and a new blog would keep things fresh. maybe two blogs a week. but i do agree more folks should write. but in between, and to keep commentary threads fresh, stick in AI articles here and there, important part is to prompt it in an interesting way thus getting an interesting essay. maybe we can write prompts here in the threads and gian/karl plug and play into AI of choice, voila! new article and commentary is refreshed.
That’s better. Human content first. AI generated to keep fresh ideas churning if the human content is not there. Yes, I agree that is better than comment threads that reach into the hundreds. One got to a thousand.
In today’s situation we can be happy if there is a new article every month and the discussion threads are like a pub with just a few regulars, though isk and kb do come in more and we hopefully can attract others.
Hopefully we get a few more people to write as well but this probably is a bit of a dry season for this blog. I do believe it can come around but people aren’t quite ready yet.
Yes this is a human blog. I do ask for ai assistance but I still write the article and Gian if he is not busy guides me accordingly.
Ah, thanks for reminding me. I’ve got one ready to go and will notify Giancarlo.
That is nice and we would be looking forward.
@JoeAm
When a terrorist act happened in the capital city of Russia, President Biden has no business speculating on who might have masterminded the whole operation. That determination exclusively belongs to Russian authorities in the same way that the 911 incident was left to US authorities to investigate.
That western media, prematurely picking up sources from American government on the supposed orchestrators of the terror attack even as Russian police and intel units are still in the process of piecing up the puzzle is, to say the least, unethical and sowing misinformation.
I am saying “Well, honestly, I don’t know who did it, but I know vested interests will be throwing up dirt on it, clouds of it, and whole rivers of green turds. Where can I go to get the best information available and stay out of the dirt and turds?” I get that, that’s why I said your position is akin to blind trust, in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king typa thinking , Joe. and that’s worst than actually actively trying to investigate the matter. granted as civilians just folks online we’ll never know, like JFK, etc. but the exercise of thinking these things thru is what’s profitable (like NH’s penchant for game theory) is my secondary point in all this thus theres no need to defensive putting Biden on a pedestal . but what we do need to do is grade these analyses (or speculations if you wish) accordingly. becuz youre totally cool with blind trust, automatically your way of thinking here is bunk. Micha’s scores higher because she’s adding the pattern of American interference in the past ensuring validity. but her thinking above there totally gets a low score because Biden does totally get a say, so does Putin and Zelensky, hell everyone in the EU and NATO even Xi. because this is the kind of war it is, lots of interests at play. the PsyOps component to this is truly interesting, instead of finding it interesting your solution is to just “trust” Biden, again that’s bunk Joe. Nordstream and ISIS are related here, Micha is correct what she fails to account for is the bureacratic realities of the very gov’t entities she’s implicating. she’s not seeing the nuance differences of Nordstream and ISIS. though stochastic terrorism is in play too. thus she gets a 60%.
LCPL_X, your militia angle is interesting. Why?
1) The 2002 attack on a Moscow theater by Chechens was hauntingly similar.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis
There are Chechen militia fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.
Add to that the scary reputation of the Chechen mafia. They would have the money to pay it.
I don’t think the USA or Russia or even Ukraine are crazy enough to do stuff like recently.
Politically, stuff like that is like lighting a match in a room full of gas.
It doesn’t have to be the Chechens, of course. It can be other former Soviet subjects.
One must not underestimate how deep anti-Russian resentment is in some places.
The shifting alliances in that space make it even harder to see clearly, so we should be humble.
hear, hear. I’m summat surprised, Irineo, coming from you! havent it been said that germany is the nato country most teeming with russian spies! probly remnants of the old stasi loyal to russia may have made it possible for russian spies to operate proliferately in germany. listening to secret conversation and caught a german general talking about british soldiers in ukraine fighting vs russians. and that angers the russian bear, growling and threatening to nuke the west.
with technology so far advanced and deep into the unknown, I seriously doubt if anything can be keep secret now. humans are just a tad too slow to catch up, let alone verify given info.
a decade ago, suicide vest was the trend. now terrorist allegedly carry high powered guns and go for the most number of kill sans the vest, they are already in a suicide mission, the vest is just an encumbrance. martydom is good, but now they need cash and maybe an apartment thrown in for the folks they left behind. the higher the tally of kills the more the reward. who knows! if the bargain is kept, more terrorist will go on a mission.
Germany also has a lot of ethnic Germans from Russia. Most are the so-called Volga Russians who were relocated by Stalin during WW2. German citizenship and migration from the early 1990s. Where their respective loyalties and sympathies lie varies depending on many things. Their original migration from Germany was as far back as the Amish to the USA, and many were or are also Baptists whom neither Catholics nor mainstream Protestants here accepted.
There can be a number who are very racist (and anti-Muslim) and even vote AfD. Some are pro-Putin as they are influenced by Russian social media. There used to be a monthly Russian disco party in Berlin with a prominent Russian Jewish author who writes in German as DJ. There used to be a Russian disco in Munich up to the early 2010s with the usual Russian themes and a very mixed crowd. Going back further to the 1950s, there was a Ukrainian refugee politician in Munich who was killed in autumn by the KGB with a poisoned umbrella.
The distance between Berlin and Moscow is similar to between Houston and Phoenix BTW.
Irineo, I agree, zelensky (ukraine) is not mad enough to do stuff like sending terrorists to storm a hall and firing on people.
zelensky is begging arms and money from the west, I doubt if he’ll be using his hard begged money to pay for terrorists millions of roubles, like those terrorists that stormed crocus hall in russian and fired on people got paid. zelensky is big on using drones to hit targets and had quite a success, though he abhors putting boots on russian soil.
russia on the other hand, already had migrants living within, like the tadjiks, they speak russian with an accent, quite poor, and barely accepted in russian community. if they get radicalized, it’s putin’s problem. and if putin blame the attack on ukraine or the west, he has got a bigger problem. not addressing the problem within will only serve to lull lay russians and give them false sense of security.
“One must not underestimate how deep anti-Russian resentment is in some places.”
Bingo!
It is not blind trust. It is confidence in the resources that the President of the United States has at his disposal, and his character. You and Micha are just two people who do not tap the internet or field spies, and appear to have made no oath of allegiance to anyone. As to character, I don’t know whether Micha ia a man or woman, how can I judge motives which are infinitely more disguisable?
Here, educate yourself, stop listening to corny ideas bouncing around in your cranial chambers. https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-03-27/why-is-putin-accusing-the-west-in-moscow-terrorist-attack
Ireneo and kb, thanks this is the type of discourse we should be having. first, I totally agree with kb about this being homegrown, eg. Tajiks in Russia, as a likely possibility . the only weakness i see in that angle is that Russian security apparatus has already got those folks on lock down, hell they’re even sending immigrants to Ukraine just the other day there was a ukraine video of their drone killing a black African dude fighting for Russia. though it would explain why no suicides poor Tajik dudes were just wanting to leave Russia and their ticket out was a big orchestrated attack in the heart of Moscow. thus ruling out ISIS. but a plan with moving parts for a people that’s already squeezed inside Russia seems unlikely… though i’m more open to this angle than ISIS, like Ireneo’s Chechens. as for Zelensky not being mad enough for this, Ukraine’s already taking the fight to Russia. why not fund (or mastermind) a Moscow attack? but that’s my point about Micha’s the USA is behind this, the USA is not mad enough, bureaucratically psychologically for this, if any boss saw this it would ‘ve gotten shut down right away. but in Ukraine’s case Zelensky need not know about it, there’s probably a unit in Ukraine that sends out drones to attack Putin’s oil and there’s another one whose sole purpose is to bring the war into Russia. the question is are Ukrainians mad enough to do this. cuz bureacratically Ukraine won’t be on par with USA. they can totally do this. once you get to that point, it opens up the possibility that yeah Ukraine is totally still in the fight and not just milking US taxpayers money.
Between you and Chempo, I can’t tell who has plunged deeper into the dark abyss of guesses, conspiracies, and mean motives, over facts. Why the hurry? Let it play out.
It is playing out, we are discussing as things are playing out, Joe. where are the developments that prove your point? aside from I trust in Joe Biden?
I’ve been giving them to you but they conflict with your narrative so you throw them away. In Rand I trust.
What have you offered exactly, Joe? the 1 hour the 100 miles away? what?
An example of an ISIS Tajik: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulmurod_Khalimov
The Tajik Government does not believe he is dead.
In Tadyakistan, people are kicked around a lot.
That can make them unpredictable.
It isn’t speculation. They use spies and internet taps and satellites and know what’s going on. Here’s an article that puts some shading on it.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-03-27/why-is-putin-accusing-the-west-in-moscow-terrorist-attack
Again, what does Biden say about Nordstream , Joe? with all his spies, wire taps and satellites?
Because it is totally irrelevant I suppose. I don’t actually talk to him every day.
shouldn’t there be a similar LA times article like the one you’ve shared?
I have offered that I don’t know the facts. The 100 miles is to demonstrate that facts are coming in. The posting of the article saying the US did inform Russian authorities is to counter Micha’s saying they did not. What other mistruths are you and Micha spreading by misrepresenting beliefs as facts? I gave you the LA Times article for the insights on why Irineo makes sense when he says that there is a lot of resentment toward Russia, an inconvenient truth you choose to give less weight to than other suppositions. I have no position on it other than to garner facts. You want me to defend a position. My position is to get the best data and not wallow in green turds dispensed by preachers yelling at lightposts.
There are two approaches to analysis of current events. The old school method is to examine the facts and then draw a conclusion. The modern method, fueled by the internet giving everyone availability to data they are not intellectually qualified to appreciate, is to filter through the data to support a preconceived conclusion and defend it as if their egos were too fragile to handle the truth (cue Jack Nicholson). Micha is fully modern, you are anywhereman, a chameleon going anywhere to avoid uncomfortable truths and dirty up the discussion as a method to avoid accountability for spewing so much nonsense. Frankly, I’m tired of deceits, lies, and green turds as a foundation for argument.
“the LA Times article for the insights on why Irineo makes sense when he says that there is a lot of resentment toward Russia” Joe, how is this an inconvenient truth as I myself agree with Ireneo. hell Thailand hates Russia right now due to an influx of Russians kicking pregnant women in Thailand. so i don’t doubt that a lot of people hate Russia and Russians. what I’m doubting is that a 2002 Chechen attack can happen in 2024 during a war with Ukraine. 2002 Russia and 2024 Russia are two difference places, Joe. that LA Times just toes the party line nothing really investigative is offered in it. ISISK can’t operate inside Russia is my estimate. notice the Iranian attack by ISISK were suicide bombings. so yeah lots of people hate Russia, but how many can operate inside Russia right now is the question. for sure not ISISK at that level. MO’s different.
Your estimate is a belief, not a fact. So I get nothing from it. It is what I term dirt. A lot of people dispense the stuff, a lot of people believe it, and we get Duterte and Trump as leaders because of it. I’m trying to learn a different discipline and it starts by seeing dirt as dirt.
Then poke holes at said estimate, Joe. why does it not make sense. don’t just say well I believe in Joe Biden like a robot. look at what me and Ireneo are doing below, matching both our estimates. he pokes holes at mine, i do his. we don’t get emotional.
No, I’m not going down your rabbit hole. Irineo can do as he wishes. I see no reason to speculate and blame-cast and am in no hurry to make things up because there is a vacuum in our knowledge.
How can a robot be emotional?
Emo bots are not yet commercially available. Prototypes aren’t that reliable yet.
Pinoy senti matic apps are much further based on my unreliable sources.
How am I blame casting, Joe? am saying Psyops wise, whether or not Ukraine is involved (which I think they are but at 90% confidence), it serves them to own it. either way Putins gonna attack them, so show Russia they mean to kill more Russians.
Why should they own slaughtering innocents if they had no part in it? Crazy thinking, really.
Puts the fear in Russians. Putins gonna attack ’em anyway. if they own it, will garner more support from US, shows they’re still in the fight. win-win-win, Joe.
Nonsense. It would destroy their relations with the EU. Rubbish. Huge green turd.
The EU and NATO wants them to fight, Joe. to kill more Russians, cuz certainly the EU themselves won’t or can’t do it. look at recent polling of EU especially western EU no one wants to fight, Joe, all have indicated that they want others to fight for them. so Ukraines best bet here is to not deny but instead to promise more “black” Russians will kill more “white” Russians.
Sri Lanka stops welcoming Russians AND Ukrainians after a whites only party..
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/sri-lanka-russia-ukraine-whites-only-party-fuels-outrage-rcna140640
This is about how the attacks showed the weakness of Russian security services in protecting the Russian people.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/24/vladimir-putin-moscow-attack-crocus-city-hall-russians-terrorism
In fact, what the FSB is saying now sounds about as credible to me as Duterte’s so-called drug witnesses against Leila de Lima. But LCPL_X, your saying certain groups don’t have the capability opens a new angle for me. Does anyone remember pictures of how Putin treated Duterte when he visited?
The body language and facial expression made it clear that he saw his counterpart as WAY beneath him. For old-school Russian racists even bona-fide, literal Caucasians like Armenians and Georgians are chornije, literally “black people”, let’s say meaning “dark people.”
The Tajik Karl mentioned in a link may have had some Soviet background. Chechen Mafiosi, who used to be known as those doing the dirtiest work for the Russian Mafia, most probably had some degree of KGB background just like their former masters.
If you ask me what is most unlikely about Hunt for Red October, it is even Soviets with all their ideas of international brotherhood on paper trusting a Lithuanian to command a submarine. Because of suspicion that resentment might come back to bite them AND belief that a white as in pale white like Russians mostly are can pull something off against them. But empires not believing “barbarians” can learn beyond what is expected of them is as old as Varus trusting Arminius, a Germanic tribesman who was, after all, trained in Roman military ways. Russia today, of course, is still merely another iteration of the old Russian empire. Possibly, the modus operandi this time was to tap immigrants inside Russia who feel they have nothing to lose. How humiliating for some Russians if the deed was not just done but organized by “dark people”?
KB mentioned that nearly everything is traceable nowadays. More easily for those who have a known address within certain institutions. How about NPAs, meaning “no permanent address”?
Who would have thought that Houthis nowadays would acquire substantial technological capabilities in disrupting sea lanes? That “barbarians” learn while Imperial institutions become too comfortable is a historical reality. ALL present empires may be in for surprises nowadays.
I get what you’re saying, Ireneo. small groups do become big groups. look at Hizbullah now running Lebanon. or Hamas was running Gaza but decided on the retarded path to go. Houthis are running Yemen, and now attacking the west. but all those three examples , its Iran that props them up, Ireneo. so yea i agree with you that Russian mafia could have been behind that attack too, for sure not ISIS (again cuz lack of suicides). but from my understaning of Russia in 2024, its pretty tight. operations like that cant willy nilly be done by some small time group, not now, even mafia type groups. something bigger has to pull strings. too complex.
For old-school Russian racists even bona-fide, literal Caucasians like Armenians and Georgians are chornije, literally “black people” Ireneo, as an aside, theres an old Armenian gang in Socal called AP for Armenian Power for the most part they butt up against Mexican gangs and Filipino gangs (especially in Glendale and Hollywood areas). i guess Armenians have been here quite awhile but when Russians started coming here in the 90s for some reason they automatically played attack dogs for the Russians. at some point in the 90s, people thought Russians were gonna take over, but mexicans pushed them away eventually and you seldom hear Russian drama in the streets these days. but AP still works for Russians small time operations like heroin or girls etc. as attack dogs. so that chornije may have some connection, eg. Armenians see themselves as below Russians.
Here’s a test for the good old school method.
60 years after Kennedy’s assassination, do you believe with finality Lee Harvey Oswald’s acting alone theory?
Nordstream pipeline was blown up 2 years ago; where’s the sophisticated intel gathering apparatus of the US to pinpoint the saboteurs?
trivia: What was Oswald charged with and arrested for?
I’ve always doubted Oswald acted alone. I don’t know what US intelligence says about Nordstream. Neither of those positions confirms that your suppositions have merit. Your beliefs mean absolutely nothing to me. Zero, zip, nada.
And therein lies the rigidity of your own beliefs because not all events are created equal. Believing the ISIS alone story is as naive and simplistic as the Oswald acting alone theory and that resorting to your old school method is unreliable template for uncovering the complex corrupted game of hegemonic control and geopolitics.
Fantastic sentence, stating your agenda and the reason for developing conspiracies over fact. It’s like writing fiction, actually. I’ll keep reading, and if there is evidence that it was not ISIS, I’ll take it up. What I won’t take up is someone else’s agenda-based dirty data.
Oh, and did you acknowledge you were wrong in saying the US did not warn Russian officials? Or are you going to duck, dodge, hide, and divert to pursue your agenda?
Corrupted data in the Iraq war predicated on weapons of mass destruction should give us pause to reflect on the lies and deceits being peddled as truth.
Russian ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said it has not received any warnings from the US on the impending terror attack so there was, at minimum, a breakdown in communication channels on that regard.
https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/moscow-russia-shooting-03-24-24/h_5c7f9a524c5ed0ae882e1109eb1e1819
That’s a diplomat in Washington. He is responsible for nothing. You are weaseling out of the truth. The US warned Russia.
https://www.voanews.com/a/white-house-reveals-urgency-of-warning-russians-of-potential-terror-attack-/7547599.html
Ha, even Putin acknowledged the warnings you deny.
“US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the US government had “shared this information with Russian authorities in accordance with its longstanding ‘duty to warn’ policy.”
But in a speech Tuesday, Putin had blasted the American warnings as “provocative,” saying “these actions resemble outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society.”
CNN
Thanks for inspiring me to read the entire Wiki article on Nordstream. Great whodunit, almost like Graham Greene penned it. My inclination is that the US probably blew it up, or else Russia did, or maybe Ukraine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Nord_Stream_pipeline_sabotage
Wonder no more.
After 911, both Russia and the US had an agreement to share intel and resources for counterterrorism efforts. Why did the US not share those info this time?
They did. See other note and article.
Preliminary result of investigation by Russia’s intelligence bureau (FSB) as stated by its director, Alexander Bortnikov, revealed that, based on confessions and testimonies of the perpetrators and their accomplices, March 22 was not the original date for the planned attack. It was supposed to be carried out on March 8, a week before the presidential election to, ostensibly, sow chaos and instability and also perhaps to undermine Putin’s chances at the polls.
However, the United States intelligence have gathered info that March 8 was not feasible because Russian security preparations will be tight and on high alert for several days prior to the elections.
Victoria Nuland resigned (or was fired) on March 5 because the mission that she initially supervised to attack Russia was no longer operable (or projected to fail) but the Ukrainians, according to Bortnikov, insisted to go ahead with it anyway even if the date has to be postponed.
Hence that fateful day of March 22.
The United States embassy in Moscow issued warnings and advisories on March 7 to all American citizens in Russia to avoid large gatherings such as malls and concert venues.
The mercenary gunmen had been training in Turkey for the mission since February.
“Who’s on first?”
“What?”
“No, not what. Who’s on second?”
“What?”
“No. Who. What’s on first.”
So the US issued a warning to Russia on the 7th that an attack on civilians it had arranged to carry out with Ukraine was about to happen, but then decided there was too much security so changed the date. Ahhhh!
US embassy in Moscow issued warning to US citizens, but did not share the intel info to Russian authorities.
If there’s to be a terrorist attack by the US, covert actions don’t make a warning to US citizens , Micha. that’s just silly.
Because the plan was botched by the US. The US objected to carrying it out because of heavy security preparation prior to elections. It was the Ukrainians (and the neocon hawk Nuland) who were out for a bloodlust and insisted to push through even if the planned date was changed.
The US, through Nuland, was part of the original plan.
The warning was damage control because Nuland and Ukraine went rogue.
I gotcha that does kinda make sense now that you put it that way. That attack on Iran’s centrifuges using Stuxnet malware was initially a US/Israeli op. US pulled out (issues probably similar untenable outcome) and Israel kept on going thus divulging the very weapon they tried to keep secret. so theres precedence for sure. thanks for clarifying.
Russia launched a missile strike in Golan Heights yesterday asserting that the area claimed by Israel is part of Syria.
This conflict is circling the globe now and will be the initial salvo of what might be considered an escalation towards WW3 if the Taiwan and SCS flashpoint is also not contained.
That whole Russia in Syria part and Russia getting back at Israel has been going on for more than 10 years now so i doubt it’ll lead to WW3. but Tajiks in ISIS is a more interesting thread to pull on. kb’s Tajiks being maltreated in Russia is also an interesting angle. as for Victoria Nuland i ‘m pretty sure she’s not CIA, though that CNAS was largely responsible for convincing Obama to go all in back in Afghanistan 2009. am just having a hard time wrapping my mind around Nuland being part of some covert op as a Dept of State big wig. that’s just not their area. thus i’m not convince of your narrative here, Micha. but subtract Nuland out of the whole picture, and leave Ukraine that narrative still viable. even as a project with the US and US got cold feet which they should. and that it was indeed Ukraine that pulled the triggered. makes sense. precisely because Russia is tighter now than the 2002 chenchen attack and especially because of war with Ukraine not so easy to operate inside Russian territory these days. sure Ireneo’s right that Russia has lots of enemies, but i just find it hard for them to operate inside Russia now. Ukraine whether its just providing safe passage basically launching them into Russia or actually masterminding the whole thing from start to finish makes more sense to me. those Tajiks had help plain and simple.
Victoria “Fuck the EU” Nuland had been the architect and US point person in the whole Ukraine conflagration and instability since the 2014 Maidan Coup.
Her resignation (or firing) was, in some sense, damage control considering the losing progress of the war even after pouring in unlimited billions which could be a liability for President Biden’s reelection bid.
Here is Victoria Nuland’s biography which gives the context of the “fuck the EU” statement, and other details.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Nuland
Fomenting war and instability and regime change in places like Ukraine because war is good business for the empire.
“War is good business for the empire.” Perfect statement of the bias you gather information to support. It’s your filter. Toss information that opposes this belief. Amplify information that supports it. Turns you into a preacher shouting at lamp posts, a slightly wild look in the eyes.
Never mind that President Biden ended the US engagement in Afghanistan. That doesn’t fit the narrative.
I agree Nuland as Dept of State can foment alliances that lead to wars, but something like covert ops she’ll not be privvy to, Micha. you need to do more to make that Nuland-Ukraine connection. her track record as neocon does not automatically make her covert ops.
She’s a state department operative whose official actions are out in the open sanctioned by her bosses until it’s no longer desired or feasible. Does she work or coordinate with the CIA to get some uncomfortable things done? You bet she does.
Her resignation (or firing) was an admission of policy failure in Ukraine and viewed by some as US peace offering to Russia.
Remains to be seen how Biden will alter the course of the war going into the November elections.
Does she work or coordinate with the CIA to get some uncomfortable things done? You bet she does. Micha, thats just not how the bureaucracy is set up though. CIA does covert ops, State does the public stuff, sure State would get read in certain CIA ops but State would never run covert ops. its just not how its done.
Sharing info and intel and pursuing common coherent policy objectives are routine stuff between agencies who all work for and under the broader umbrella of the state.
that’s like Marines telling the Navy how to run ships, Micha. you’re lacking a nuanced understanding of how the empire’s security apparatus works here bureaucratically. ergo , you have to work harder to make the Nuland covert ops connection. if your stance is that she’s gone rogue off the reservation then you have to connect resources involved. going rogue is just not done by State types. but theres precedence in the CIA side for this, eg. Dewey Clarridge, the crack cocaine in south central dude which that movie Kill the Messenger is based off of (with Hawkeye).
Pointless non-sensical matters to be arguing about. Go find somebody else to waste your time on.
Better said in Tagalog vernacular, maghanap ka ng kausap mo.
You brought up Nuland, Micha. doesn’t add up. You brought up US not warning Russia, turns out they did. as Joe said Putin even pointed it out. so you got nothing, Micha. sorry.
Bullshit. Russian authorities are not done with their investigations. They’re finding the money trail now traceable from the accounts of the mercenary killers and arrested the Ukrainian financier.
Again, if you have nothing better to talk about, maghanap ka ng kausap mo.
So Joe believes anything Biden says, and you believe anything Putin says? two peas in pod, Micha. you should at the very least acknowledge to Joe that you were wrong about US not reporting to Russia. even things out at least.
Well, fuck you. You don’t get to dictate what I need to do.
There was clearly a breakdown in communication channels in the delivery of those warning because both the Russian ambassador and Sergie Lavrov’s spokesperson at the Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, have denied receiving any.
And it’s not clear what’s the supposed communication protocol in delivering those warnings. Maybe they sent it out directly to the police or the Defense Minister or the FSB or to Putin himself. Who knows.
That thing aside, don’t you have better things to do than post trollish comments on this site considering that you’re already a retired octogenarian?
Putin got the warning, Micha. read Joe’s link. face it , you’re just wrong.
“Ooooggggah! Ooooggggahhhh! Lunatic alert! Lunatic alert! Dive! Dive! Ooooogggggaah!”
Wrong. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/white-house-says-us-passed-written-warning-moscow-attack-russia-2024-03-28/
March 7 is already at least a week after Nuland’s associates at the State Department and the CIA opposed her project of terror.
Somewhat OT but not really OT. Watching Shogun – I finished Episode 3 now – makes it clear that so many times in history, it isn’t one major force shaping things. It is an interplay of many forces and sometimes of chance. SPOILERS AHEAD:
Even the Jesuits, who to many Europeans of that era had a reputation similar to a combination of Illuminati, CIA and Neocons 😉, finally appear helpless in that Episode inspite of their enormous capacity for sowing political intrigue.
The narrow channel the English pilot escapes by is a metaphor for the narrow escape channel Lord Toranaga takes. And Toranaga’s lesson to his son rings in my ears: “you are too caught in your idea of friends and enemies but don’t realize that in the end all you have is yourself.”
Well OK, some might say the English pilot who came with a Dutch ship was destined to win as part of the neoliberal global conspiracy that the Dutch East Indies Company started. 🤔
The real-life Tokugawa son would later throw out Neolibs and Neocons by that interpretation.😒
I wonder how the Jesuits coordinated with the crown. or were the Jesuits like Victoria Nuland acting by themselves out there. i think this early on other catholic denominations were already hating on Jesuits, so aside from sacraments their hold on the Japanese catholics would be psychological only. not really capable of operations covert or overt, just nudge here and there ala Victoria Nuland. that’s why i wonder what the Japanese relationship with the Chinese were like. we know from the show they’ve invaded Korea, but what of China then?
ps. I thoroughly enjoyed the geisha scene. Lady Kiku is hot.
Yes, she is. Binged Episodes 4-6 last night.
Today, I had a look at Metatron’s detailed analysis of Episode 1. No other analyses so far, but it is OK as Metatron is always thorough to the max. In addition to being an aficionado of ancient Rome, he is also fascinated by Japan, lived there, learned the language, collected armor and arms from different periods there. He also took pains to read the book and watch the 1980s series for comparison. For me, the 1980s series is a faint memory from German TV back then.
Good video. it did occur to me that the whole “your God” won’t be accurate. Anjin would more likely talk shit of the Pope not bring God into it. but in episode 6 when Mariko-sama and Anjin were praying the Lord’s prayer together, she in Latin and he (i guess) in Portuguese (cuz when they both speak english they’re suppose to be speaking Portuguese) he’s essentially telling her that the Latin can also be said in Portuguese thus the whole Catholic vs. Protestant divide expressed in one short scene. it was deep. perfect scene. though I was hoping when Lady Kiku invited Mariko-sama to the private room, she’d say yes. my heart sunk when she told her it’ll only be the both of you. i almost cried. so tragic.
Mariko might have known that Kiku is also the mistress of the town mayor and therefore likely to give details to the other side.
And yes, the English used the term Papists or Popers for Catholics before.
oh yeah, I forgot to account for that. that would’ve been a huge strategic blunder. my mind was in the gutter. clouded. I would never last in Russia with all their honey pot operations, Ireneo. never.
The Ming dynasty had practically closed itself to the outside world, with Macau as the only official gateway. If I am not mistaken, the Chinese who traded with Manila were technically pirates and smugglers.
The Chinese under the Mongol Yuan dynasty – basically Kublai Khan and descendants – had tried to invade Japan twice, 1274 and 1281.
oh, that’s right. thanks for reminding me, Ireneo. after https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He they burned their ships and never ventured out again for awhile.
I’m no Chinese scholar, but they’d venture out again for the 9 dash line. that’s like 500 years.
On this Easter Sunday, maybe we can reflect on what is really happening in Gaza from this Chris Hedges abbreviated essay.
The genocide in Gaza is the culmination of a process. It is not an act. The genocide is the predictable denouement of Israel’s settler colonial project. It is coded within the DNA of the Israeli apartheid state. It is where Israel had to end up.
Zionist leaders are open about their goals.
The message from the Israeli leadership is unequivocal. Annihilate the Palestinians the same way we annihilated Native Americans, the Australians annihilated the First Nations peoples, the Germans annihilated the Herero in Namibia, the Turks annihilated Armenians and the Nazis annihilated the Jews.
The specifics are different. The process is the same.
We cannot plead ignorance. We know what happened to the Palestinians. We know what is happening to the Palestinians. We know what will happen to the Palestinians.
The genocide, which the U.S. is funding and sustaining with weapons shipments, says something not only about Israel, but about us, about Western civilization, about who we are as a people, where we came from and what defines us. It says that all our vaunted morality and respect for human rights is a lie. It says that people of color, especially when they are poor and vulnerable, do not count. It says their hopes, dreams, dignity and aspirations for freedom are worthless. It says we will ensure global domination through racialized violence.
This lie — that Western civilization is predicated on “values” such as respect for human rights and the rule of law — is one the Palestinians, and all those in the Global South, as well as Native Americans and Black and Brown Americans have known for centuries. But, with the Gaza genocide live streamed, this lie is impossible to sustain.
We do not halt Israel’s genocide because we are Israel, infected with white supremacy and intoxicated by our domination of the globe’s wealth and the power to obliterate others with our industrial weapons. Remember The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman telling Charlie Rose on the eve of the war in Iraq that American soldiers should go house to house from Basra to Baghdad and say to Iraqis “suck on this?” That is the real credo of the U.S. empire.
The world outside of the industrialized fortresses in the Global North is acutely aware that the fate of the Palestinians is their fate. As climate change imperils survival, as resources become scarce, as migration becomes an imperative for millions, as agricultural yields decline, as costal areas are flooded, as droughts and wild fires proliferate, as states fail, as armed resistance movements rise to battle their oppressors along with their proxies, genocide will not be an anomaly. It will be the norm. The earth’s vulnerable and poor, those Frantz Fanon called “the wretched of the earth,” will be the next Palestinians.
That pretty well nails it but does not chart the path out, which is mired in historical allegiances, a very influential Jewish population in the US, and persistent hostilities from Arabs in the Middle East, without which it would not have become so bad. The best solution is for Israel to toss Netanyahu and for the US to withhold aid until the framework for a two-state solution is in place. But the US has its own violence and nonsense rising under Trump, so it does not act as a sensible state because sense has no traction with Republicans. (As an amusing anecdote, when Joe Jr gets irked at me, he calls me a ‘Republican’. It’s like a swear word in our house.)
Thanks for going through the (relatively) long post.
So what’s the possible way out of that full throttled racial obliteration?
Darn, missed that Netanyahu out and withholding aid solution in the middle which could be plausible. Got distracted by the Joe Jr. early political development..
Gaza is lost. Neom is the answer, Micha.
The US to rescue Gazans, the Israelis to throw Netanyahu out, the UN to mandate a two-state resolution. Best I can come up with.
ahem, I kinda like netanyahu. US need not rescue gazans coz they can rescue themselves if they really want to. gazans can tell hamas to bugger off! stage rallys after rallys and until hamas capitulate. and for gazans not to play statistics for hamas to count off the number of deaths. allegedly hamas dont care about gazans, hamas care more about hamas, the gazans are just props.
two state solution did not work before, never has, never will. so, in my very twisted mind, I say, maybe it’s okay if they fight it out, israel the only democratic nation in the middle east vs hamas the terror group, to the winner the spoils.
I read yesterday that the Gaza majority wants Hamas out. But they are powerless, fodder for the killing fields to Hamas. Well, who would know for sure, eh? But accountability at its core seems to me to rest with Hamas. Netanyahu is old school Israeli, shaped by sneaking around the globe killing folks who wish Israel ill. I think he forgot to recognize that not all of the enemy is the enemy, and Israel has its own accountabilities denied.
We’re marching ever closer to confrontation as Philippines, Japan, and the US plan joint SCS naval patrols.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/29/us-japan-philippines-plan-joint-south-china-sea-naval-patrols-00149797
Micha, if I were one the Marines assigned to Hollywood I would totally try to pitch that samurais vs. conquistadors in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1582_Cagayan_battles Shogun is such a big hit now, fans will want more samurai shows and what better than a Philippine samurai story set before Shogun. feature Spanish swordsmanship and Japanese swordsmanship then investigate where Filipino eskrima really came from or maybe Filipino swordmanship is indeed a halo-halo of samurai and conquistadors. and maybe for season two feature Sikh gatka. get that whole India-Philippines-Japan relations going thru Hollywood.
Nice material for a Netflix-ABS/CBN collab, LCPL_X..
not much to get excited about the tri-nation joint patrols. we already have joint patrols before between philippines and estados unidos.
it’s just a joint patrol, not a resupply mission.
Yes, nothing new, really. The more profound takaway is that Japan, which uses its military only for defense, is stepping up its activities. Japan will likely start selling arms as well.
With regard to Philippine China policy, there are three basic positions to take: 1) hard resistance, 2) moderate resistance, or 3) roll over. Marcos started at 1.5 but is now 1.0 due to China’s aggressions injuring Filipinos. The Left is aligned with Duterte at 3.0. Micha is probably in that range. They don’t like being associated with the US but have no solutions to the China problem. Because China jumps at any 2 as a sign of weakness, advocates for “neutrality” or “independence” are actually 3s as to outcome. China steals more. I very much like Defense Secretary Teodoro. He’s a firm 1.
totally agree, I too like gibo, he got balls! two of them. pity about the president’s sister, she is for peace; the end result, she gets. but not the arduous journey to peace which in our times is fraught with dangers, sometimes so very hard fought and more than deftly negotiated, that she did not get. she’s a terrible back seat driver and should never be given the steering wheel.
Meanwhile…
“Initial data received from those detained in the case related to the terrorist attack indicated Ukraine pulled the strings. However, the fresh report by the Russian Investigative Committee points to the Ukrainian special services, and “we must understand that they are directly connected with the CIA and MI6 and MI5,” Kabanov said.
“That is why the West is trying to cover this up, blaming an outlawed international terrorist organization for everything. In order to save face, and to hide the fact that Ukraine itself is a huge terrorist organization,” Kabanov, who is also a member of the Human Rights Council, said.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240330/money-transfers-proof-that-crocus-terrorists-for-hire-followed-orders-from-ukraine-1117652604.html
A Sputnik News link gets a comment moderation?
Seems so. Your post is out now. It is a systems edit, not mine. The system is built to filter out spam based on history.
Thank you.
Anyways, Russia has now officially implicated Ukraine in the terror attack and is demanding that it turn over those involved for prosecution.
In the news today, Iran had warned Russia of terrorist activity before the attack, gaining information from interrogations of those complicit in bombings in Iran. ISIS-K.
https://www.reuters.com/world/iran-alerted-russia-security-threat-before-moscow-attack-sources-say-2024-04-01/
It’s moot and academic now. ISIS were just the paid mercenaries. The masterminds were holed up in Ukraine.
to my mind, reuters is trustworthy, sputnikglobe not so. I heard sputnikglobe is owned by russian govt and could well be putin’s mouthpiece. it lack editorial independence kuno and more often than not, portray russia in positive light.
anything sputnikglobe say, I wait to read confirmatory notes from reuters if not from associated press. so, I take sputnikglobe news with grain of sea salt.
Yes, agree.
As always, a gem of geopolitical analysis from Michael Hudson:
Germany as Collateral Damage in America’s New Cold War
https://michael-hudson.com/2024/03/germany-as-collateral-damage-in-americas-new-cold-war/
Being an academic, he missed the sum of all German fears finally becoming reality.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/22/business/nike-germany-soccer-adidas/index.html
My unreliable sources at Munich pubs with imagined contacts to Bayern München furthermore told me that Joe Biden forced our soccer federation to do this by threatening to have all our soccer balls in tournaments deflated. “The Kaiser” Franz Beckenbauer, who could have prevented this, is dead, and Angie Merkel’s sister is Nuland’s hostage, my mentally unstable East German sources told me confidentially. 🤪 😒
Remains to be seen how the legendary German dry humor can sustain them as the neoliberal project dismantle their stability.
Indeed, we’ll see. Though my German grandma survived WW1, the inflationary early 1920s, divorce in 1938, WW2, and the harsh realities of postwar West Berlin. There are always good times and hard times.
Your source seems a bit one-sided, but I don’t have the time to research more and especially to talk to you. I have a living to make and a job to keep in INDEED hard times, and yeah, also my sanity to keep. Probably you have all the time to read this stuff because you are either “homeless” like LCPL_X, so too much time or tenured in academe – also too much time. Or you are a bored State Department mail room clerk. Better look for other people to talk to.
LOL, nothing personal, stick to objective analysis. Prof. Hudson offers insight that you rarely (if ever) see in mainstream media.
If what he’s saying makes you uncomfortable, nobody’s stopping you to ignore it, bury your head in the sand, or go your merry way.
Or you could chose to engage, state your case, make your point but nothing personal. It’s a freaking geopolitical analysis, for chrissakes.
It was also published in Berliner Zeitung. You do know that we have dry humor over here, but assume we are ignorant of public affairs. If you are looking for peasants to impress dahil Inglesero ka, huwag kami dito sa Europe.
We over here are far more sophisticated than the kind of Filipino serf minds that believe Americans are superheros or supervillains. You seem to believe the latter, not uncommon for the Filipino left. LCPL_X is the discarded 1.0 version of Iron Man.
I don’t want to discuss this stuff with you as you are clearly pushing an agenda, not looking for the truth. LCPL_X is in his own way, at least. Joe is giving his namesake the benefit of the doubt in a world of many evils, also OK.
I prefer not to engage in useless discussions on Germany with YOU. I would rather read more interesting analyses by those interested in finding the truth, not pushing an agenda. BTW I read a lot about Germany’s industry and energy, our complex situation and challenges.
The future of Europe hangs in the balance as of now. You, Micha, are not a stakeholder here. Meron ka bang nababasang opinions sa wikang French o German, o kahit British, di Kano? LCPL_X knows how the State Department works better than you. What can YOU teach me?
Aba’y dambuhalang tanga ka pala. I did not post that article for you. It’s part of a broader security topic in a geopolitical sphere. If you did not agree with the content of the article, you should just have elaborated xyz points are not accurate or whatever. Instead right off the bat you denigrated his being an academic and went off tangent with football tale.
This is not about you. Nor is this a contest of academic superiority, tanga!
I probably have a way deeper background in geopolitics, especially in the historical sphere than you do. I didn’t denigrate his being an academic, I made fun of your being such a poser. Posting an article by a lunatic fringe figure para magpasikat dito.
I am able to sense when something is a serious analysis – and it can be from any given political direction as long as it is intellectually honest – and mere propaganda.
This is the last sentence of the article you posted:
“So far, the loser in the U.S. New Cold War has been Germany and the rest of Europe. Is economic vassalage to the United States worth forfeiting the opportunity for mutual prosperity with the fastest growing world markets?”
That in itself is such a ridiculous statement that I decided to not take the article seriously. The opposite of such a statement if Germany and Europe did the opposite would be:
“Is making money worth betraying the West and the Free World?”
‐——‐————
No need for black and white discussions. BTW you mentioned WMDs recently, now a matter widely doubted. Could blaming Ukraine be Putin’s kind of “WMD” aka manufactured casus belli?
The lessons of the past are not “America bad.” They are that lots of dirty games happen.
As for Germany: Merkel’s mobile was tapped by the USA in Obama’s time. Chinese state hackers seem to have breached major German ministries around 15 years ago. Russians recently tapped German generals discussing. All in the news over here. Alam na this.
I believe that this is what is happening today – we in Germany and Europe are trusting to some degree those who are most like us in way of life and values. That is a gamble to take.
I don’t see vassaldom as of now. A lot of Eastern Europeans were true Russian vassals. Don’t tell me the Soviet era is over. There is a continuity of Russian politics since the Russian empire. I tend to believe old policy hands like George Kennan (name drop din ako hehe) on that.
‐——————–
That’s my opinion, for the record. As I am a mainstay here posting with real name and face.
If you’re not taking the article seriously and you’re not inclined to substantiate your points of disagreements anyway, why bother to post a reply, gunggong?
I posted an article that you don’t agree with and whose author you call a fringe lunatic (he’s a leading intellectual in the American left in case you didn’t bother to find out) and you call me a poser?
Baka kailangan mong pa check up yang kukuti mo, gunggong.
🤣😅😂👏👏👏👏🏆
Micha, in case you didn’t get it the Mark 1 may seem ad hoc but what makes it significant is the ARC reactor developed by Tony Stark’s father which he from memory alone prototyped in captivity inside a cave in Afghanistan.
OT: this preview of Shogun Episode 7 just dropped BTW.
Interesting how Blackthorne first holds the katana like a cutlass.
I won’t go into the sweeping generalizations of the article re energy and export. Let it suffice to say that his conclusions don’t hold water for me based on my knowledge of what is going on over here.
Just to add, the lesson for the Philippines in the present geopolitical situation will be that it has to decide what specific gamble to take, as its situation is totally different.
That would be placing the article in the context of the actual blog topic.
It does seem you have an inflated ego, pala. If the article’s conclusion doesn’t hold water for you, so what?
Titigil ba ang mundo at sasara ang mga palengke dahil si dakilang Irineo ay may hindi nagustuhang article?
All you have to do is just ignore it if you’re not interested to rebut or substantiate instead of making fun of the author and personally attacking me.
Tanga.
Will Germany or Europe go under because you or Rock Hudson say it will?
You called Germany Hitlerland (I didn’t forget that) while saying Russia isn’t the Soviet Union anymore, even as it is ruled by a total Soviet KGB man.
If ever, Germany has learned from history, maybe TOO MUCH, as it will never be an ideal world, and we have become Heinrich Heine’s Germans again, who “rule in the realm of dreams”.
You want me to substantiate? Not transsubstantiate, that isn’t for me to do.
Let me enumerate his stuff on energy, trade and arms and my doubts:
1. Energy (all points until e I already mentioned before in comments)
1a. LNG alam ko. I posted about that in a comment that BASF has a deal with a Texan conglomerate. Tama si Rock Hudson diyan.
1b. Nordstream. It was a mistake for Europe not to finish the Black Sea Pipeline to have an alternative. That isn’t the fault of the USA. It isn’t all bad bad Imperyalismo ibagsak. Sometimes we make our own major blunders.
1c. Nuclear shutdown. Germany’s major mistake was too much idealism.
1d. By contrast, Sweden is building nuclear plants AND German plants are relocating.
1e. Finally, the Stromautobahn is progressing, better late than never. The electricity Autobahn for renewables.
1f. Bavaria is now allowing more wind power plants even where we didn’t allow them before because of our Sound of Music Landscape.
1g. Czech Republic is building MORE than planned near the Bavarian border, probably to help BMW, AUDI and MAN keep producing.
2. Trade
2a. Trade with China is proceeding.
2b. More partnerships with ASEAN countries now from the EU. It isn’t just superpowers.
2c. More partnership with India in many matters. They are also a relevant player.
3. Arms. He says Europeans will only buy US arms. Not so sure about that.
3a. Of course European arms manufacturers will lobby for their products, HERE. Rock Hudson assuming that Europeans are “tuta” and will do US bidding is wrong. What does he think we are some Latin American banana republics?
3b. The temptation to not only rearm but follow the American model of employing large parts of its underclass that exists due to neolib in the military exists here too. Germany abolished military service years ago and is recruiting full-time soldiers with big ads.
3c. Whoever had stocks in German or French armament firms before 2022 is probably doing very well now.
NOW TO CONCLUSIONS. Rock Hudson called Germany and Europe a big loser.
Well, it can go many ways. It isn’t a good situation now. It can strengthen us over here or destroy us but that hasn’t been any different to many other historical challenges.
What is more dangerous is that we might lose the capability to rebuild stuff. There is a serious challenge to Germany Rock Hudson does not see. The culture of respecting people who get stuff done in high quality – craftsmen and engineers – is being replaced by a culture that respects “influencers” more for the working classes and “business consultants” more for college grads, thus, we have a dearth of young craftsmen AND import IT consultants from everywhere. Once you lose certain capabilities, it is hard to rebuild them ever again.
Why am I basically a glorified programmer in many ways? Because Siemens stopped producing microchips in the 1990s. My college specialization was microchip design. Forget bringing that back here NOW even if it would be great to do so. Thank neolib.
I have met real neolib casualties, for instance a former international Siemens sales rep who became a taxi driver as he was laid off. We spoke in French a lot of times, etc. so please stop your hypocrisy you don’t care about real people for all your anti neolib talk.
Of course you will dismiss this post as garbage or ignore it in your boundless conceit. Just like you dismissed LCPL_X when he validly commented that State Department does no covert. Unless na may alam ka talaga sa kalakarang US na di galing kay Tom Clancy, huwag ganyan.
If you started the discussion about the article in a civil and objective manner like that instead of name calling him as a fringe lunatic, then I am more than interested to engage. I am for getting insights, consider other viewpoints in a civil respectful manner. But you did not start that way. You’ve poisoned this thread with insults and denigration from the start, so yeah, trash your shit.
Your method has been “trusted sources are discounted and shamed with irrelevancies” like Joe has mentioned so you wouldn’t have dealt with my points anyway. This is just for the record in this Society, authenticated and notarized.
You thought you could intimidate me by acting snootier than the worst McKinsey types – the junior types not the truly seasoned ones,
Mayhap (c) kb you just failed in that world and are selling real estate now, hating the neolib world where you wanted to be a big shot? Wawa ka naman.
Hahaha, walang limit dito ang mag speculate, so try some more and try again.
At medyo self projection yata yang “trusted sources are shamed and discounted” part considering what you’ve just did, hindi ba, dakilang gunggong?
Why should I continue trying? I regularly converse with Pinoy historians both there and in the USA. None of them acts as haughty as you do. They have real substance, that’s why. You can quote Hudson, who has indeed some interesting ideas like today’s rentier capitalism – basically, Monopoly – but is off tangent with his geopolitical stuff just like Fukuyama was. You can’t explain your point without any appeal to authority, so you get back what you deserve. You have been poisoning threads here for weeks on end and are too dense to even notice. Now why not make practical use of your economics knowledge kung magaling ka talaga and apply yourself in Joe’s new article. Quiet ako 😌
Again, I am here to engage in a civil respectful manner. I am not here para mag pataasan ng ihi, or mang insulto unless unahan mo ako.
We’re not elevating the quality of discussion here with this kind of engagement.
I’m done with you, Dambuhalang Gunggong.
You are done in this blog.
You just haven’t noticed it.
Hahaha, sabi ng Dakilang Gunggong.
As if I care, tanga.
Yes, we are stupid, and we are losers over here.
Prof. Hudson, who did study German philology, might use the word Hanswurst for Germans and for me.
Feel free to use that word also if it makes you feel superior, if you are in fact more than just an empty coconut husk.
Feeling intellectual, bugok naman pala. Laos ka na bago ka pa sumikat.:-)
Pansin mo ba na nilalangaw na ang blog na ito. Who of us two is the reason?
Sige di muna ako magpapakita tignan natin kung may kakausap sa iyo.
Ay katanga talaga.
You think this site is the center of the universe?
It’s more than obvious there’s no more than 20 people reading this site at a time.
So what if you leave? You think that’s a huge loss?
Fantastical grandeur and self-importance much?
Hindi naman mayabang ano?
Yeah, so what is the point of all this? I am not leaving just taking a break, and then you can see who YOU get along with. I am indeed not important at all, who of us here is important? OMG. Now, I am a fake philosopher. 😒
Repeat after me, DG.
I. DON’T. CARE.
🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
😜😜😜
Tagal naman.
Tsupeh.
Alis na.
In terms of immersive experience, intellectual heft, number of intellectually important books written, and academic credentials, kung ikumpara mo ang sarili mo kay Michael Hudson isa ka lang hamak na langaw, gunggong.
Oh even the big guys make wrong predictions.
Eh anong ipagmamalaki mo, drayber ka ba niya o houseboy?
Fukuyama on the neolib side BTW made a majestic error with The End of History.
It would be great opportunity and honor to be working for him even as a driver, but he’s not burgis gaya ng iba dyan.
Ang tinatawag mong fringe lunatic ay may sariling wikipedia page, ito basahin mo at sabihin mo kung sino sa inyo ang lunatic, gunggong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hudson_(economist)
Thanks for being short of patience with nonsense. I tend to see Micha as following the path of Chempo where a belief becomes its own engine supporting bad thinking. Facts are filtered to sift out the ones that prove the belief wrong, sketchy sources are quoted as if they were the Bible, trusted sources are discounted or shamed with irrelevancies, fallacious arguments are used to distract, confuse, and get it wrong in real English. Eventually one has to just shrug and ignore, rather as Edgar did in reacting to LCX’s periodic nonsense. Only he considered everything LCX did as being morally ungrounded.
That’s an option, too. Or consider it an amusement, or tragic, like the preachers on Main Street yelling at lamp posts.
Oh, re LCPL_X, I wrote this in a draft for an article which takes Shogun as a starting point for many musings:
“Japanese speak of honor. This is Joe America’s Society of Honor. LCPL_X says we ain’t nothing but mammals, it’s all rules of engagement at best.”
Being reminded that ideals are just our feeble attempt to keep the animal in us from taking over is a good reality check.
A very good one. It seems to be an era of animals rising, fed by big green turds.
Corporal X is nothing more than a troll who’s got lots of time to spend on the net perverting knowledge and insights already known.
Micha, you’re wrong about Germany because we have Guyana now. I hope they export the Devil’s wheel to America. ps. you didn’t even know how the Dept of State works, Micha. you’re welcome for that.
Unlike you, he has his own thoughts about stuff, not always right, but at least he is trying to, you can’t express in own words nor deal with own words of others as you treat the stuff of certain authors as gospel. Buti pa si i7sharp.
But don’t give a troll too much time to write a book. Yesterday 100 years ago, an Austrian Lance Corporal was sentenced to jail for treason in Bavaria. The book he wrote in jail is a mix of nonsense. Unlike you, Micha, he didn’t blame neolib but “international Jewry” (the AfD uses “international financial capital”) and saw them as a global conspiracy to control the whole world. In the past, there were people who blamed the Templars, the Jesuits, the Illuminati, etc. but I fear the world ain’t that simple. Like I already mentioned, playing dirty happens on all sides, and I prefer the side that tries to keep that in check. Your preference for totalitarian regimes that do NOT have true checks and balances is suspect.
So you’re into woo-woo and misrepresentation too. Wawa ka naman, feeling intellectual kuno, bugok naman. Subukan mo nga mag publish ng book gaya ng ginawa ni Prof. Hudson na tinawag mong fringe lunatic, tingnan natin kung di sakaling langawin. 🙂
What have YOU actually published to merit such arrogance? If you really had something to show for, you would show your face and name here.
Hey, if I survive until my pension, I might write a book. Besides writing a book doesn’t mean it makes sense. Hitler’s Mein Kampf is a major example of a book that was lots of stuff mixed and combined.
It’s you who called Prof. Hudson fringe lunatic.
Enough said.
I’m done with you, Dakilang Gunggong.
I just wanna slide in here and say that Bitcoin is still very much alive and El Salvador still going strong, Micha. so were also wrong there. i agree with Ireneo, the only contribution you’ve made here is just MMT and that’s still not even your own idea. and Prof. Hudson may just be a lunatic, who knows.
I’m with Ireneo. you’ve not had one original idea. at all. i’ve said this awhile back too. its like a one trick pony, MMT Micha glows, talk about anything else, no glow. have you no hobbies or interests?
Oh look here, the resident troll butted in.
As you very well know, dickhead, we now have an information superhighway. This is not the only forum that I engage. Multiple sites out there that have quality content participated in by polite knowledgeable contributors; and trolls like you are being vanished outright.
If you think, like Dakilang Irineo, that this is the center of the universe, you’re a first class moron. Main reason Irineo sticks here is because he used to have his own blog that gets 2 readers a month. Isn’t that something?
And the main reason I don’t anymore engage with you on the subject of crypto is that I think you’re a wild eyed naive sucker for that tulip mania.
I blocked Micha. He forgot that this is more of an online tambayan of people wanting to learn and discuss about the Philippines. we have been talking long enough to be friends.
Yes, good editorial judgment.
Anyway, many thanks. I think I have made my point – or not – and will take a bit of a break to see if the climate of discussion here improves.
I don’t like getting impatient, but yes, I remember even Edgar got mad at times.
Hindi lang feeling intellectual, feeling important pa.