Week 3

Politico: "Republicans finally have a health care plan.. Conservatives who sought free-market solutions to America’s exorbitant medical bills in an era before President Donald Trump, and struggled to come up with a plan to replace Obamacare in his first term, would be surprised to see what’s in it."

Bin Ladin was the quintessential Islamist. This is why "Saudi financing of 9/11" narrative never took hold - everyone understood where he came from and what he was, he would be seen no different than Mohammed Morsi later in the eyes of the Gulf monarchies. He was anti-elite, probably saw them infidels of sorts, wanted to topple them. Him being partly outside the existing elite structure of his country makes sense that way, Robert Fisk describes Osama as a Saudi "of humbler Yemeni descent". He was not "crème de la crème", inside but not exactly... He was an aspiring elite wanting to displace the existing one using a cultural construct (Islam) that is held dear by many.

If religions are political statements and all true religions carry left ideas at their core, why do they become problematic in the Islamic world between its political practitioners and their rulers?

Point of comparison: Christianity. It started as a spiritual rebellion, persecuted by the rulers (Rome) then accepted by the elites who later became Christians. The religion spread, it preached, had its internal wars and external ones (via Crusades).

Maybe Islam is seen as problematic because (due to its relative youth?) it preaches to an elite and society which already accepted / adopted a lot of its message, but Islamists might be seen as if they are fighting a Crusade against their own rulers, labeling them at times as infidels, doing this at the 11th hour... The problem is not one of political angle, it is one of intensity, and or at least perceived intensity. Communists could be militant, extreme but with any religion based politics claiming God on your side can turn the volume up a notch.

I hope the new show follows the style of SGA. Don't try to be too "dark and edgy" (a la BSG, Lost), the stories become unnecessarily convoluted, and stupid.

Potential good news..

Deadline: "‘Stargate’ TV Series From Martin Gero Based On Sci-Fi Franchise Ordered By Amazon"

Politico: "Education Department pauses wage seizures for unpaid student loans"

F24: "Trump says Gaza ‘board of peace’ formed, members to be named 'shortly'"

The Observer: "The rules of the rules-based order were continually breached by those strong enough to do so. From the coup that toppled Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 to the decade-long US covert intervention in Chile culminating in the overthrow of Salvador Allende’s socialist government in 1973; from the assassination of Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba in 1961 to the butchering of hundreds of thousands of suspected communist sympathisers in Indonesia in the mid-1960s; from Britain’s covert war in Yemen to the Vietnam war, western powers repeatedly broke the 'rules' to maintain order – or what they construed to be 'order'"

F24: "Trump threatens Insurrection Act as protests spread in Minnesota"

Firstpost: "US claims Iran 'halted' 800 executions as Trump warns of 'grave consequences' over protesters' killings"

Bashir was good friends with Asia Minor too.

You can see traces of Islamism vs Gulf monarchies tension even in Sudan. Listen to Hemeti (RSF leader), when the recent civil war started he blamed the other side, Sudanese Army SAF, to be composed of "Islamists". Obviously SAF chief Burhan, now allied with Egypt, is no Islamist. Hemeti says that because he knows that word carries weight in the Gulf. The previous leader of Sudan, Bashir, was supported by Islamists, and UAE did not like him (they might have financed the coup to topple him -SAF and RSF both played a role in that-).

CNBC: "India’s exports to China surge in December while shipments to U.S. decline"

All else aside, the whole event is hilarious

TDB: "Machado.. regifted [Trump] the Nobel Peace Prize she won in October... [she] had given her award a Trump makeover, mounting it in a gold frame to match the Oval Office decor"

#Ukraine 1/1 - 1/15

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"@jwz@mastodon.social

CA DROP is finally live.

California residents can use new tool to demand brokers delete their personal data: While state residents have had the right to demand that a company stop collecting and selling their data since 2020, doing so required a laborious process of opting out with each individual company. The Delete Act, passed in 2023, was supposed to simplify things, allowing residents to make a single request that more than 500 registered data brokers delete their information."

"@ThePSF

Anthropic is investing $1.5 million in the PSF, focused on security. These funds will make an enormous impact on the PSF and the security of millions of #Python and @pypi users. Please join us in thanking Anthropic for this landmark gift!"

"@ScottishGreens@mastodon.scot

Scotland will expand free school breakfast clubs and support former Mossmorran workers.

It will be paid for by taxes on private jets, shooting estates, and million pound homes.

The Scottish Green proposals were accepted by the Scottish Government and announced in today's budget."

Morsi's constitution in Egypt was not democratic. They would likely morph into an "Islamic Ba'ath" in the future, over time even the Islamic part would fade away and the country would be left with just Ba'ath. I guess neighboring monarchies saw through that and simply financed the other side... Why wait for Ba'ath tomorrow when you can have Ba'ath today?

It was a great big debacle.. Such a waste of time, lives and resources.

Spreading of democracy would be supported by the US military-industrial complex. The undertaking created chaos, lead to war, increasing their profits. MIC made bank thanks to the Arab Spring and its aftermath.

See the book Strategic Depth by Davutoglu (FM, and later PM). It was published on April 2001, and Davutoglu, the one-man think-tank, was seen as the inspiration for AK foreign policy. He described the Arab World being in a "legitimacy crisis".. The West probably read that and thought "Aha! Let's use these guys to stir shit up in the Arab world".

How did it all start? Post Sep 11 2001 US wanted to "bring democracy" to the Middle East. The starting point was TR, via 2002 election saw AKP with its Islamic roots winning the election. Its leader had a legal issue at the time, but Dubya admin pulled all the stops to give him legitimacy, inviting him to White House wout an official title. TR from then on assumed the mantle of "democracy spreader" in the region, supporting Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and other places. The narrative also helped with its own internal fight with its meddlesome military. TR-US together fanned the flames of uprisings in the Middle East.

But that stance put them at odds with the Gulf monarchies, Saudi had a TR ally Khasoggi killed in the Istanbul embassy, UAE provided financing against AKP, against Muslim Brotherhood (AK ally), they succeeded toppling Mohammad Morsi. Afterwards the sore loser TR prime minister would go around the country flashing the MB "Rabia sign" in speeches but it was too late.

Today is a different world. The Arab Spring is dead. Now TR is not trying to "spread democracy" in the Gulf, but itself seems to be becoming more like a pre-9/11 Syria, or Iraq (the opposition leader is in jail). The toppling of Syria's regime is not a great success for TR either, pre civil war it could have close relations with them anyway, now it has to contend with a faction inside it, not to mention a massive refuge crisis.

Watched a Muslim Brotherhood fan rooting for TR-Saudi alliance. He was glad Saudi beating up on UAE, took it as a sign of justification for their cause. That is an overreach. UAE funded coups against the Brotherhood, against the Arab Spring uprisings all over the globe, that's correct, but there are no signs Saudis would not do the same if they wanted to take the lead at the time. No monarchy would tolerate MB type movements, which were supposedly democratic organisations that pandered to "people power" trying to displace their monarchic elites.

Greece, Israel, India seem to be getting along better these days too. And joined by UAE? There are some interesting groupings these days.

Israel and UAE on the same side..

Wiki: "The I2U2 Group, also known as the Middle Eastern Quad or Western Quad, is a strategic partnership between India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States"

India is watching the pact for its potential NATO Article 5 type implications surely..

India Today: "Turkey's Entry into a 'Muslim NATO'.. As Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia draw closer, India faces a colder reality"

The Times of Israel: "Turkey said 'very likely' to join Saudi Arabia-Pakistan mutual defense pact.. Riyadh’s deal with nuclear-armed Islamabad was signed after Israel’s botched strike on Hamas in Qatar"

Reaganism, neoliberalism is a spent force. Already the econ is as pro-corporate it can be and it still destroys peoples lives while it produces 50 different types of candy cane. Therefore any advances, any improvements of any kind that will help people will necessarily have to go against corporate interests. The only good solutions at this point are (economic) left wing solutions.

Politico: "The president on Friday via Truth Social called for a one year cap of 10 percent for credit card interest rates in the name of affordability, starting Jan. 20. Warren, in a previous statement, said she told Trump a year ago that she would work on legislation to cap interest rates.

In her speech on Monday at the National Press Club on the Democratic party’s future, Warren said she made clear that if the president 'really wants to get something done, including capping credit card interest rates or lowering housing costs, he would use his leverage and pick up the phone.'

'President Trump and Sen. Warren had a productive call about credit card interest rates and housing affordability for the American people,' said a White House official."

The video below describes the Corporate Matrix.

"Rockefeller: The Man Who Created The System You Can Never Escape"

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Does Iran use force against the protestors? They likely do. It is not an easy thing to protest against the government... Look what happened to that woman shot by ICE. She was protesting, right? And what happened to her?

🤔 🤔 🤔

🤨 🤨 🤨

"[Erika Kirk's] mother, Lori Frantzve, is CEO of E3TEK Group, which has contracts with DHS and DOD."

"[Free and open source] Zorin, a Linux distro that positioned itself as a familiar and accessible entry point for users leaving Windows, continues to move with growing confidence toward reaching a broader user base... Following the release of Zorin OS 18 on October 14, the project recorded more than 100,000 downloads within the first 48 hours. In just one month, that figure climbed to 1 million."

Times of India: "'DNI = Do Not Invite'.. Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, was reportedly excluded from key planning meetings for the operation to oust Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro because of her past opposition to US military action in the country"

IC: "Netanyahu and leading figures within his extremist coalition repeatedly claimed that Israel has already 'won' the war. If that is the case, why insist on keeping the Gaza file open?..

First, Netanyahu continues to gamble on the possibility that international and regional opinion may eventually become receptive to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip—and subsequently, from the occupied West Bank. Sustained warfare, humanitarian collapse, and forced displacement are not unfortunate byproducts of the conflict; they are essential mechanisms for keeping that option alive and politically imaginable.

This logic explains Israel’s systematic manipulation of aid, including its haggling over food, medicine, fuel, and cement. These items bear little meaningful relationship to the strength of the Gaza resistance. Their restriction is designed to keep Gazans suspended between survival and death.

It also explains why Israel, after sustained pressure, agreed to open the Rafah border crossing from only one side—out of Gaza. This, too, is part of a broader scheme aimed at driving Palestinians out of the Strip incrementally, supported by a well-funded political and logistical machinery that has been operating for months.

Second, the genocidal war on Gaza is being actively exploited to escalate conditions in the occupied West Bank. Under the cover of regional war, Netanyahu and his coalition partners have accelerated settlement expansion, intensified repression, and advanced a long-term colonial project of de facto annexation with minimal international scrutiny."

Jim Rogers has a point. Thatcher was lucky to be in government when North Sea oil revenue started pouring in. I add, then the relative initial success Thatcher had wasn't due to her neoliberal economic policies, but bcz of that major source of cash inflow. Its easy to be pro-low taxes when gov has enough revenue.

TASS: "[2023] Argentina’s president-elect converts to Judaism"

Whether the accusation is true or not, the events still demonstrate how much support Israel has lost in recent years.

The Jerusalem Post: "In a post about the wildfires, former Argentine Army Deputy Chief Cesar Milani placed the blame on 'a foreign State, pointed out by the locals themselves as responsible,' alongside a picture of Argentine President Javier Milei waving an Israeli flag."

"Who is Behind the Wildfires in Argentina’s Patagonia? Allegations Involving Real Estate, Forestry, and Extractivism.. An Argentine analyst claims that the wildfires in Patagonia serve to facilitate a reform package aimed at altering key environmental laws to hand over territories to foreign capital. 'Let everything burn so they can advance with the reform package negotiated with the governors,' she states in her post."

Reddit: "I just saw a video of an argentine woman speaking to the press about the problem that israelis are causing fires so they can later buy land there."

Juhasz: "Exxon was producing in Venezuela. So was ConocoPhillips. So was Chevron. When the Chavez regime changed the terms and took greater state control, Chevron accepted those terms. Exxon and ConocoPhillips did not. Exxon and ConocoPhillips operations were then expropriated by the Venezuelans. Exxon and ConocoPhillips believe that they are owed money, and my guess is that part of what’s being negotiated is the billions of dollars that they believe that they are owed, and then can they come back in under terms that they can trust and are favorable to them?

They [also] want greater access. Exxon is also operating in waters offshore Guyana that Venezuela and Maduro claim as theirs. Maduro has even sent military gunboats in to threaten Exxon. Marco Rubio was in Guyana in March and said we will defend Exxon from Maduro. This is a massive new production that Exxon started from scratch and has hardly cost them a penny, because Guyana is fronting the bill...

This is all a negotiation. Now Chevron bought their way into offshore Guyana. [Oil companies are] also interested in offshore Trinidad and Tobago. They’re also interested in offshore Suriname."

Maybe they want more corporate socialism, they want government handouts, so they make it sound like they would not want to go back in at the current cost. They are liars. They would love to.

Juhasz, Jacobin: "[W]hen [the oil execs] they protest publicly [on Venezuella, the reason is], one, it’s to distance themselves from Trump.. but two, it’s a great public negotiating tactic. They’re basically saying publicly, and the media is repeating it, 'We wouldn’t want to operate in Venezuela. Oh, my God, it’s expensive, it’s technologically complex.' I actually think those are ridiculous things if you look where else they operate."

They want to cash in on that newfound popularity.. Go for it

CNBC: "Japan plans to dissolve parliament with possible snap election in February"

CNBC: "Fed Chair Powell says he's under criminal investigation, won't bow to Trump intimidation"

FYI US Navy has been positioned near Iran for over a month now..

Nassim Haramein refers to that passage below in the famous book Gravitation to support his theories. His is a similar line of research BTW that was followed by Dicke, Jean-Pierre Vigier, Van Flandern, Putoff, Tim Boyer, Ana Maria Cetto, Luis de la Peña, all of whom reference Sakharov. We made shares on this topic before. The zero-point field angle was a known and legit alternative, the book Gravitation, the bible of the field, a record of the known and speculated at the time, rightfully mentions it.

Wheeler, Gravitation: "[Physicist] Sakharov notes that present-day quantum field theory 'gets rid by a renormalization process' of an energy density in the vacuum that would formally be infinite if not removed by this renormalization."

#Pyramid

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UFOs, another similarity. DJT talked about UFOs, like Reagan. The UFO thing might be part of the sci-fi image they want to project. But DJT mostly used it for distraction... Reagan truly believed in the shit. He would frequently bring it up on internal talks, speeches, one account says Colin Powell (NSA at the time) sitting in the audience once, when Reagan starts going off on aliens he rolls his eyes and says "there we go with the little green men again". The no-nonsense army general from South Bronx could not take it.

Is DJT copying Reagan? Grenada -> Venezuella. Wanting to make peace with Russia but talking tough. Star Wars -> Golden Dome. Having trade conflicts with an Asian country. Wanting to appear tech savy in that glitzy Holywood way, Clancyesque techno-thriller style. Plaza Accords -> Maga Lago Accords. There was even an anti-drug thing previous admin that was carbon copy of Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No".

Firstpost: "Hamas pledges to dissolve govt once the 'Board of Peace' takes over Gaza"

"@mhoye@mastodon.social

To spell this out clearly, the reason RAM has quadrupled in price is that a huge quantity of RAM that hasn't been produced yet has been bought with money that doesn't exist to populate GPUs that also haven't been produced to go in datacenters that haven't been built powered by infrastructure that may never exist to meet a demand that doesn't exist at all to make profit margins that mathematically can't exist while economists talk about this thing they call the 'rational markets hypothesis'"

"According to [.. Nassim Haramein], everything starts from vacuum energy, and more specifically from 0-point energy; they extend the proton model – whose mass, according to Nassim Haramein’s previous work, takes vacuum energy into account – to the cosmological scale. In this way, they establish a model for the creation of mass and forces, and their mechanics. They then demonstrate that mass – and therefore energy – are emergent properties of the fundamental dynamics of space at the quantum scale, and that this energy then decays through a mechanism known as screening, right up to the cosmological scale...

What if Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle were the consequence of 0-point energy, not its cause? An astonishing point of view, which helps to maintain the coherence of quantum theory...

0-point energy, space and mass: Einstein’s field equations, which describe how mass curves spacetime, naturally contain zero-point energy… here we revisit the concepts of mass and space, including infographics!

0-point energy screening and emergence of mass: Spacetime behaves more like a superfluid of coherent quantum energy. Mass and gravity emerge directly from this superfluid; it constitutes and models both space and matter at all scales...

0-point energy, Planck force and gravity: The Planck force is the keystone of Nassim Haramein’s gravitational model. It leads to a reconsideration of gravity, which turns out to be a strong interaction on the quantum scale, particularly in the context of the internal structure of the proton…"

Tech bros are part of the system now.

CNBC: "[2025/8] Palantir lands $10 billion Army software and data contract"

"SpaceX Poised for $2B DOD Satellite Contract in Support of Golden Dome"

If you step out of line, muckers will have you shot. Remember Charlie Kirk? Israel was the trigger issue in that case but really the assasination was about defense spending and the expansion of war economy (Israel is always good for war).

The biggest defense firm is set to gain the most from the increased budget..

"Lockheed Martin Pops as Traders Price a Bigger Defense Spend Cycle"

CNBC: "[1/8] Defense stocks surge after Trump calls for $1.5 trillion military budget in 2027"

CNBC: "[1/7] Trump said he 'will not permit' defense companies to issue dividends or stock buybacks until those firms address his complaints about the industry.

Trump, on Truth Social, also took aim at defense contractors' executive pay packages.

Shares of General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman each fell about 3% following Trump's comments"

"Gavin Newsom joins Trump in blaming big investors for housing crisis"