The Real News Network has a very interesting 12 partseries Growing Up in the USSR – RAI with A. Buzgalin (1/12).

Prof. Alexander Buzgalin joins Paul Jay on Reality Asserts Itself; born two years after the death of Stalin, he talks about growing up in the Soviet Union.

This series gives me a much netter understanding of Russia and the Soviet Union from the point of view of a Russian scholar. I find this discussion to be very revealing.

I came to this series at a later segment, and found it so interesting, I went back to the beginning. I have listened to the first 3 segments so far, and intend to watch the rest of the series as time permits.

The initial link in this post leads to a collection of links to all 12 parts.

July 23, 2018

At this point, only 9 of the 12 segments have been published, and I have seen them all. I am getting a somewhat different picture of Russia than I had before. Some of what I thought before has been confirmed, but there are more than nuances and subtleties that are different.

The 10^th segment is now available Why Does the West Hate Putin? – RAI with A. Buzgalin (10/12).

July 27, 2018

The next segment has been published – Many Russians Think Climate Change is Propaganda to Weaken Their Economy – RAI with A. Buzgalin (11/12)

Senator Elizabeth Warren has posted some prepared remarks Senator Discusses Ways Congress Can Improve U.S. Business Bankruptcy System.

It is an interesting discussion about structuring bankruptcy laws. There is one slightly sour note in those remarks.

The business world is littered with companies that were thought to be invincible — right up until the killer moment: Worldcom and accounting fraud, Blockbuster and disruptive new companies; PanAm and terrorism. Toys ‘R’ Us, Payless Shoes, Radio Shack and Gymboree were all once bright stars-stars that all fell in 2017.

She misses an opportunity to single out special cases like Toys ‘R’ Us. This bankruptcy did not occur because the original company had a bad business plan. The only disaster that befell the company was the attack by vulture capitalists who took the company private. These vulture capitalists used other people’s money (money from investors in their vulture capital business) to take Toys ‘R’ Us private. They then stripped the assets out of the company to pay huge salaries and fees to themselves. They also loaded up the company in debt to pay themselves even more salaries and fees. When the company ran out of assets to keep itself in business, they abandoned the company to bankruptcy court. The businesses that were owed money by Toys ‘R’ Us, the people who lent money to Toys ‘R’ Us, and the people whose pensions, jobs, and health insurance depended on Toys ‘R’ Us, were all left holding an empty bag. The vulture capitalists walked away fat and happy. Elizabeth Warren makes no mention of holding the vulture capitalists accountable for what they did.

Global Times has the article Washington’s risky calculation of currency war.

A depreciating yuan would be favorable to China’s exports, but also put pressure on China’s capital flight, stimulate inflation and affect the market’s expectation of the country’s economic outlook. Why would China manipulate toward such a mixed blessing?

The renminbi’s recent fast depreciation is obviously a result of multiple market factors. And among them, the trade war launched by the US is a major driving force.

Here is a point of view I don’t expect that you will read in the USA’s corporate media. I wonder if #45 thought about this possibility when he started the trade war.

New Economic Perspectives has the interview Bill Black: Trump Sees Europe as a “Foe” Because of Key Misinformed Advisor.

As I started to listen to this I was thinking that one of my favorite economists was going to say something that I didn’t like, but it turns out he was right on point for things after we got past the introduction.

If I had read the introduction below before I started watching the video, maybe I wouldn’t have been so nervous.

President Trump’s belief that the European Union’s trade policies are more unfair towards the United States than just about any other trading partner is woefully misinformed and the result of his reliance “nutcase” trade advisor Peter Navarro, says NEP’s Bill Black.

With my new insight that suddenly dawned on me as to what the VIPS analysisi of the DNC “hacks” is all about, I decided to do a Google search. This is what I came up with.

Here is the YouTube video “Russian Hack an Inside Job?” Ray McGovern / VIPS Interview published on Jul 29, 2017.

As I was watching this, I kept wondering how I could have missed seeing this until now. Only about 8,600 people have seen this YouTube video. How could that be?

I cupied the YouTube intro text and pasted it into my editor without really looking at it. It was then that I looked at an icon showing who published this, and then read the txt of what I had copied and pasted.

Ray McGovern of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) joins LaRouchePAC to discuss a very important document released this week by the VIPS that debunks any idea that the DNC server was hacked by Putin and the Russians.

OMG! If I had realized who this came from before, maybe I wouldn’t have looked at it. Now that I have looked at it, I can’t very well keep it a secret.

OMG!, OMG!, as I published this post and went to where I could see the video that I had embedded, I wonder how I could have missed the banner that was down the side of the video.

OMG!, OMG!, OMG! In publishing this on Facebook, I just noticed that the left side banner is not displayed while the video is playing.

Time has this interesting article I’m Bill Browder. Here’s the Biggest Mistake Putin Made When Trying to Get Access to Me Through Trump.

Browder is the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management and was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005. Since 2009 when his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, died in prison after uncovering a $230 million fraud committed by Russian government officials, Browder has been leading a campaign to expose Russia’s endemic corruption and human rights abuses.

It is hard to know who is lying here, as if only one person could be lying. At least I know who this guy is now. After reading how the Russian economy was almost sunk by the corrupt Harvard University consultants until Putin stepped in to set it straight, I have always had the feeling that the oligarchs Putin was going after were the ones who tried to take Russia down. Despite that feeling, I have never assumed I actually knew if I was right or not.

Perhaps if this is out in the open, we will finally find out what’s what. Of course, it could always turn into more Russia hysteria, or maybe I might even be convinced that Putin is really as evil as some people want me to believe. The third possibility is that I will never be able to figure it out. There are some things in life that we will never know the truth about.

July 18, 2018

Jared Paquette put me on to this video. Fire up your “You know” filters and listen to this video. I’ll cut to the chase to tell you that Bill Browder is the grandson of Earl Browder. Who was Earl Browder? What is Browderism?.

YouTube has the video Debate: Is Trump-Putin Summit a “Danger to America” or Crucial Diplomacy Between Nuclear Powers?

I think Glenn Greenwald does a darn good job here, but I know that there are many in the audience who will have their fingers plugging their ears, at least figuratively, when Greenwald speaks.

The debates are also on the Intercept at A Spirited, Substantive Debate on the Trump-Putin Summit, Russia, and U.S. Politics. This is thee article that has links to both parts of the debate, and more.

Here is the excellent second part of the debate.

As Glenn Greenwald did, you can only eloquently express your opinion, but you can’t necessarily change someone else’s opinion.

In the Clinton administration lingo they might have said “It’s the oil and gas, stupid”

One piece of information that came out of the news conference was the reason we want to sanction Russia and to stop their pipeline to Germany. We have LNG (liquified natural gas) we want to sell to Europe, If Russia builds a pipeline that is more convenient to use than our LNG tankers, Europe will buy from Russia rather than the USA. Do the American people support using our military might to promote our commercial interests?

Time has published a press conference transcript in the article Read a Transcript of Trump and Putin’s Joint Press Conference.

TRUMP: Well, actually I called him a competitor. And a good competitor he is. And I think the word “competitor” is a compliment.

I think that we will be competing when you talk about the pipeline. I’m not sure, necessarily, that it’s in the best interests of Germany or not, but that was a decision that they made. We’ll be competing — as you know, the United States is now — or soon will be, but I think it actually is right now the largest in the oil and gas world.

So we’re going to be selling LNG, and we’ll have to be competing with the pipeline and I think will compete successfully, although there is a little advantage locationally.

So I just wish them luck. I mean, I did. I discussed with Angela Merkel in pretty strong tones. But I also know where they’re all coming from and they have a very close source. So we’ll see how that all works out.

PUTIN (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): If I may, I’d throw in some two cents.

We talked to Mr. President, including this subject as well.

We are aware of the stance of President Trump, and I think that we, as a major oil and gas power, and the United States as a major oil and gas power as well, we could work together on regulation of international markets, because neither of us is actually interested in the plummeting of the prices. And the consumers will suffer as well, and the consumers in the United States will suffer as well. And the shale gas production will suffer. Because beyond a sudden price breakup (ph), it’s no longer profitable to — to produce gas.

But nor we are interested in driving prices up, because it will drain just as — just as from all other sectors of the economy, from (inaudible) building (ph), et cetera. So we do have space for cooperation here. That’s the first thing.

Then about the Nord Stream 2, Mr. President voiced his concerns about the possibility of disappearance of transit through Ukraine. And I reassured Mr. President that Russia stands ready to maintain this transit. Moreover, we stand ready to extend this transit contract that’s about to expire next year in case — if the dispute between the economic entitles — dispute will be settled in the Stockholm arbitration court.

YouTube has the video Putin-Trump meeting in Helsinki: News conference following summit.

Since I have no powers of mind control, I am sure you will make of this video what you will.

<sarcasm>Don’t blame me if you start having strange hallucinations after watching this. Maybe you should scrub your computer of CIA malware after you click on this.</sarcasm>

Truthdig has the article Indictment of 12 Russians: Under the Shiny Wrapping, a Political Act.

Now, here is an analysis of what is going on that is based on a calm consideration of what we know and what we don’t know. This would be of significant influence if people were of a mind for calm consideration. However, usually fearmongering cannot be beaten by rationality.

Let me see if I can find something in the article to quote to give you even a hint at all the article contains. Let me leave it at this.

In the connection of known factual details to assumed actors and motives, the quote below states a truth we all need toi remember.

That’s the point of an indictment, however — it doesn’t exist to provide evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, but rather to provide only enough information to demonstrate probable cause.