“Culture is the root of politics, and religion is the root of culture.” — Richard John Neuhaus
tag > Politics
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In China, fears of financial Iron Curtain as U.S. tensions rise
A sharp escalation in tensions with the United States has stoked fears in China of a deepening financial war that could result in it being shut out of the global dollar system - a devastating prospect once considered far-fetched but now not impossible. Chinese officials and economists have in recent months been unusually public in discussing worst-case scenarios under which China is blocked from dollar settlements, or Washington freezes or confiscates a portion of China’s huge U.S. debt holdings.
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Oligarchic green-washing - a new Olympic discipline?
The wanna-be "world government" western technocratic oligarchs may have many things - but dignity, taste and sanity are certainly not among them. Bad comedy at best.
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Symbolic image from the dying oil age: Turkish Natural Gas Explorer Escorted By Warships
Turkey’s Defense Ministry has released pictures of the seismic vessel Oruc Reis escorted by five Turkish naval units. “The Turkish Armed Forces have taken all necessary measures… to protect our rights and interests under international law in the maritime zones under our jurisdiction,” the ministry said in a statement.... (via)
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Elon Musk’s New Baby’s Name Is Actually Less Absurd Than His Anti-Democratic, Quasi-Eugenicist Views (jacobinmag) (archived version)
Elon Musk drew attention recently for announcing the name of his and Grimes's new baby, X Æ A-12. But what’s more disturbing about Musk is the anti-democratic, quasi-eugenicist views that he and other tech elites espouse.
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Oil giants' production cuts come to 1 million bpd as they post massive writedowns
The world’s five largest oil companies collectively cut the value of their assets by nearly $50 billion in the second quarter, and slashed production rates as the coronavirus pandemic caused a drastic fall in fuel prices and demand.
Saudi Aramco's second-quarter net profit plunges 73.4% on lower oil prices
Saudi Arabian state oil group Aramco (2222.SE) on Sunday reported a 73.4% fall in second-quarter net profit, a steeper drop than analysts had expected, hit by lower crude oil prices and declining refining and chemicals margins, as the coronavirus hit demand.
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Mercenaries target American citizens in cities around the nation
What was once practiced by mercs in Baghdad, Fallujah, and Kandahar is now taking place on the streets of America. Supplementing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) paramilitary forces targeting peaceful protesters around the country are private security personnel contracted to DHS by Constellis, the mercenary company once known as Blackwater. See as well this related video.
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This is Fine: Optimism & Emergency in the P2P Network - by Cade Diehm
Excellent Article! Here is its conclusion section: "We can no longer marvel at the novel interactions afforded by peer-to-peer technologies, nor perform political theatrics within these networks. We need to lay aside our delusions that decentralisation grants us immunity – any ground ceded to the commons will be met with amplified resistance from those who already own these spaces. When this happens, every single arrogant tradeoff, every decision made in ignorance that assumes a stable march towards progress without regression will be called to account. Without cohesive organisation, mobilisation to harden security and privacy and without a sincere commitment from protocol designers to revise their collective assumptions, the push back from incumbent power will leverage each and every socio-technical flaw in each and every network. The fallout and trauma for increasingly digitalised communities will unquestionably dwarf the 2000s Copyright War. If there is no collective worldview reset, the peer-to-peer movement will remain a historical novelty, a technological bauble and thought experiment for detached technologists unable to understand the political gravity of their tools, and whose life work will never withstand the attacks against it."
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US has ‘lost its mind, morals and credibility’, China’s foreign minister tells Russian counterpart (SCMP)
America has pushed ‘egoism, unilateralism and bullying to the limit … and that’s not what a great power should be about’, Wang Yi tells Sergey Lavrov. US has ‘resorted to extreme measures and even created hotspots and confrontations in international relationships’, he says
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Shale boss says US has passed peak oil
"The shale sector has not been gifted with discipline" - Matt Gallagher
US crude production has already peaked, according to one of the country’s leading shale executives, as producers battered by the price crash shun new output growth and start trying to become profitable. Matt Gallagher, chief executive of Parsley Energy, one of Texas’s biggest independent oil producers, said the record output level struck earlier this year would be the high-water mark. “I don’t think I’ll see 13m [barrels a day] again in my lifetime,” the 37-year-old Mr Gallagher told the Financial Times.
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As permafrost melts under intense heat, Russia's Siberia burns — again
Russia's northern landscape is being transformed by heat and fire.
Scientists Alarmed About Siberia's Record Breaking Winter and Spring Temperatures
Scientists say that Siberia’s unusually warm weather through winter and spring is “an alarming sign” - illustrating the most notable effects of global climate change as the world warms.
Siberian Arctic experiences record high temperatures
Temperatures rise to a record average for June amid a heat wave that is stoking some of the worst wildfires in Siberia.
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China, Iran deal eyes a future decoupled from US
In recent weeks, Iran and China have been hammering out the details of a potentially momentous cooperation deal meant to span the next quarter-century and chart a future decoupled from the United States. Under the terms of a draft viewed by Asia Times, China will invest tens of billions of US dollars in Iran as part of Beijing’s ambitious Road and Belt Initiative. The 25-year agreement includes economic, security, and military dimensions. Such a deal is particularly important for Iran’s ailing energy sector, which is in dire need of substantial investment to refurbish an aging oil industry, which requires upwards of $150 billion for much-needed modernization of wells, refineries and other infrastructure.
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China-India border conflict can be resolved with Himalaya nature reserve, says scientist
Indian environmentalist argues rare wildlife under threat as both countries build infrastructure along contested border. Ecology trumps geopolitics as Himalaya rivers supply water to more than 1 billion people, scientist says
