Onsdag den 30 mars 2022, Cooks Bay, Moorea
Igår tog vi en tur med jollen ut på revet. Hela vägen förbi hotellet. Revet här är omkring tre meter djupt och vattnet är kristallklart. Vi fick syn på en del stingray rockor som tyvärr försvann illa kvick, förmodligen hörde de inte vår motor eftersom den är så tyst. Inga avgaser heller. Natten var varm så vi sov inte så värst bra.
Idag steg vi upp vid sextiden och efter frukost åkte vi med jollen in i Cooks Bay till supermarknaden Super-U. De har en liten brygga där man kan förtöja jollen och handla. Vid bryggan mötte vi Schweizaren Greger som har legat här ett tag nu. Han berättade om sitt missnöje med ’Techni Marine’, varvet i Papeete, som inte reparerade båtens läckande propelleraxel på ett bra sätt. Vi rekommenderade varvet på Raiatea som vi är nöjda med.
Efter ett kort kaffestopp på ’Bengt’ åkte vi jollen vidare åt andra hållet, mot järnaffären och apoteket. Det är en bit att gå till järnaffären från där man förtöjer jollen men det blåste skönt så vi blev inte så svettiga. Vi hittade svart lackfärg till ’Bengt’ och, efter en lång stunds letande, där vi fick hjälp av en trevlig expedit, valde vi en stor burk färg i ’satin’ och i en lite gulare nyans av antikvitt eftersom Elisabeth har bestämt sig för att måla om Bengts interiör i en ljusare färg. Vid hemkomst bad. Eftersom vi nu låg alldeles ensamma här behövdes det inga badkläder. Skönt!
Squal
På eftermiddagen fick vi en ny granna, den här gången en svensk båt ’Mon Ami of Sweden’. Vi hade tänkt ta oss till nästa vik imorgon men kanske att vi stannar för att hälsa på våra nya grannar.
Ukraine: The Economic Fallout, March 28, 2022 (Consortium News)
“Economists Michael Hudson and Richard Wolff join CN Live! to discuss the economic war against Russia, its boomerang effect on the West.
Elizabeth Vos.
And one last question for me before I head back to Joe. Why is Europe going along with the U.S. on this? I mean, economically, on the economic front, how on earth do they think that they could survive an economic war with Russia and China, potentially?
Michael Hudson
Well, they don’t care there, but there they are. I talked to officials in the U.S. Treasury. They say we can simply buy foreign politicians; we can simply pay them. When you say Europe, what you really mean are the foreign politicians that are getting enormous financial support from various U.S. State Department agencies and they’re after all opportunists. They’re like Zelensky there.
They’re after their own wealth. They don’t care. Europe is not led by politicians that have Europe’s interests at heart. They’re just as corrupt as they are in any other part of the world, if not more. So I’ve met many of them. I can hardly believe the venal greed that they have. It’s almost like they’re a Democrat.
Michael Hudson
Because if you look at the news, look at the news, we’ve been saying on Ukraine, you don’t get any sign of what Russians and the rest of the world see. You don’t get any sign of what the neo-Nazis are doing against the civilians there. It’s like there’s a complete — I’ve never in my life seen such a total control of the news by the right-wing censorship. So you’re finding the same thing in economics. I stopped teaching economics because economically, because there was no way I could fit reality into the curriculum. How are people going to understand the dynamics that we’ve just been discussing for the last hour? I don’t know how it can be done. Yeah.
Joe Lauria
So, Michael, you made an interesting comment that the U.S. is an Orwellian society and much of the rest of the world isn’t. In 1984, Winston Smith’s job was to go into the archives of the Times, years back. And if there had been a prediction of the wheat yield in the five-year plan and it didn’t actually make it, he had to go back and change the article in the archives to the actual number. But we’re seeing this in real time now. They aren’t going back into the archives.
We’re seeing right now excised from the Ukraine story of the coup in 2014, the existence of neo-Nazis that are part of the state military, and the war for eight years against the Donbass that is not mentioned at all even though in 2014 major media did a lot of stories about the neo-Nazis. It is gone, absolutely excised. It’s the most frightening thing you would never expect to see. You’ve never seen it worse. I’m in the news business. I have never seen it worse.
I never thought I’d ever seen it this bad and that’s why Consortium News exists and CN Live! – to plug those holes to explain this conflict. Of course we’re going to be attacked as I’m sure you are Michael as I’m sure Rick has been as being some kind of stooge of the Kremlin. And that’s the first resort. They don’t want to debate you because they know they’ll lose. So the first thing they go to is a smear.
Richard D. Wolff
The so-called flip of President Biden making a regime change in Russia. You know, his passion or it’s whatever you want. You know, this is desperate. You don’t waste your time insulting other leaders in the world that you don’t like, whose policies you disagree with. You don’t do that if you’re confident. It’s a little bit like having a conflict with somebody across the street. You know, if you start calling them bad names, you know, it’s you that are out of control. And I think to flesh out what we’ve been saying, both Michael and I, the United States wants to control Europe because it’s losing most of the rest of the world. It’s looking for an ally. It’s looking for something. So you have to shift gears instead of showing your rear end to Europe.
Joe Lauria
Rick, while we’re speaking, there’s news, breaking news. The New York Times reported that Russia said it would stop attacks near Kiev because they were close to an agreement with Ukraine on a cease fire. And now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. And we have to say that only they are saying this now, say that Ukraine is ready to become a neutral state, unable to own nuclear weapons with international guaranteed independence, that these guarantees will not be extended to Donbass region or Crimea, which would mean that Kiev formally abandons the idea to annex them and that they are part of Russia. Ukraine would be unable to have any military presence, including NATO and Russian forces. It doesn’t say where. And Kiev is requesting a final treaty to be signed by Russian and Ukrainian heads of state. This is from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It could be that the United States realized the sanctions weren’t working. They know what side of the ledger they’re on in terms of this massive change in economics in the world. And they did not stop Zelensky from agreeing to this. These were the three conditions that Russia put forward about ten days ago. Michael, you wanted to comment on that or what we were discussing before.”
Michael Hudson
Regarding the last thing you mentioned about the news that came about. I know that all along Zelensky has been asking for a ceasefire so that his neo-Nazi groups can continue their assassination programs, bombing of civilians. So I don’t know if there is a ceasefire that Russia agrees to. It must have completed clearing out the Azov battalion from Mariupol. And if they really cleared out the neo-Nazi groups there now, they’ve achieved exactly what President Putin said his objectives where from the day that he moved in to protect the Russian speaking population in the Donbass.
Joe Lauria
Not only did they clear Mariupol, but it seems as they’re decimating the 60,000 best troops Ukraine has that were lined up along the Donbass confrontation line that appeared to be starting an offensive which brought Russia into this eight-year civil war to begin with. I want to turn quickly to the question of the cost to the United States economy, to American voters, to the West, especially Europe, how they’ve suffered.”
Läs hela intervjun på www.consortiumnews.com
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