alanjjohnstone
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The Taliban have captured vast amounts of sophisticated US so we can expect a hive of activity on the arms black market.
The ex-chair of the Competition and Markets Authority, Lord Tyrie, tests for travel have become “a predictable Covid rip-off”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58200203
Holidaymakers have objected to high prices and poor service from many of the 400-plus test firms listed on the government’s website. Tests cost about £75 on average, but prices can reach hundreds.
Should we be surprised?
Three-quarters of people in the world’s wealthiest nations believe humanity is pushing the planet towards a dangerous tipping point and support a shift of priorities away from economic profit, according to a global survey. 74% of people agreed that countries should move beyond focussing on gross domestic product and profit, and instead focus more on the health and wellbeing of humans and nature.
We have the audience, why are they not receptive to our message?
I doubt very much that it was the ordinary local Afghan who was raking it in.
Poverty and destitution still prevail for those fellow workers of ours.
But in the post-mortem, anti-corruption officials will easily track down the profiteers if they choose to by simply visiting Dubai where the aid money has ended up, according to those in the know.
It may be a media disaster for the USA image but the swift collapse of the Afghan Government is most fortunate for civilians in Kabul.
“There is currently no fighting in Kabul. If there had been conflict in Kabul the civilian suffering would have been enormous,” the Red Cross, Red Crescent delegation head, Eloi Fillon, said “However, what is clear is that there are huge humanitarian needs resulting from weeks of heavy fighting in cities like Kandahar, Herat, and Lashkar Gah.”
Medical charity MSF has said it is continuing its medical activities in all five of its projects in Herat, Kandahar, Khost, Kunduz and Lashkar Gah,
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby also said he was confident that the US could move “thousands” of people out of the Afghan capital once the US had regained control of the airport.
“Capacity is not going to be a problem,” he said at the press conference.
Still in denial
Hmmm…with all the writing Hardcastle did for the SPGB, when did he have time to do his research job for my union the UPW as it was in his time?
In lieu of a press statement by the Party, the blog has this to say
https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2021/08/america-in-denial.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/15/antony-blinken-us-mission-afghanistan-saigon
“This is manifestly not Saigon,” the US secretary of state Antony Blinken told ABC’s This Week. “We went into Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission in mind, and that was to deal with the people who attacked us on 9/11, and that mission has been successful.”
Still very much in denial
Re-writing history before it even gets into the history books
Kabul all but falls
It seems to be Saigon all over again
An article i wrote only an hour ago is already out of date.
Words and their meaning.
“We need to put policies in place throughout society otherwise our targets will just become empty promises,” said Joeri Rogelj, director of research at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London.
Translated means “a national plan that would be instigated to ensure implementation of all the different policies – from transport to power generation and from home heating to farming – that will be needed to make sure emissions are cut as quickly as possible.”
Hardly the “society wide vision”, the article talks about
But not known for their hyperbole, some experts are now using very emotive language.
“Our future climate could well become some kind of hell on Earth,” said Prof Tim Palmer, of Oxford University.
Prof Dave Reay, executive director of Edinburgh University’s Climate Change Institute, put it: “This is not just another scientific report. This is hell and high water writ large.”
Others confess the lack of science and that there are still not full understanding or knowledge.
Prof Andrew Watson of Edinburgh University. “The IPCC report gives a comprehensive update on the knowns of climate change, and that makes for grim reading. But it also makes the point that climate models don’t include ‘low probability-high impact’ events, such as drastic changes in ocean circulation, that also become more likely the more the climate is changed. These ‘known unknowns’ are scarier still.”
And when some look back at the predictions they admit mistaken optimism
“It is plain that any hopes that climate change might turn out to be ‘not as bad as expected’ were forlorn,” said Prof Rowan Sutton, of Reading University’s National Centre for Atmospheric Science. “It is happening now and it is happening very fast. Dealing with this crisis means taking urgent actions.”
And urgent actions?
“The climate story was all over the front pages on Tuesday but by Friday, three days later, it was hardly mentioned,” added Prof Martin Siegert of Imperial College, London.
“Yet this is the most important thing that humanity needs to do in the next 30 years. It is going to change our lives, it is going to change the way we regard ourselves on the planet. And if we don’t, we are going to stoke up huge problems for our children. But after three days we seemed to be forgotten despite the fact this is something that needs decades of consistent, persistent work.”1% of GDP are needed to ensure the country’s transition to net-zero status.
“However, we are currently spending about 0.01%… a 100th of that estimated price tag. And this is also well below what the government is spending on things that will actually add to our emissions, such as airport expansion plans and the tens of billions it has pledged on new road schemes, which will only make it easier to drive around and burn more fossil fuel.”
Some may find this a useful and helpful read
To conclude, MMT remains hesitant to take the decision-making on investment and jobs out of the hands of the capitalist sector. As long as the bulk of investment and employment remains under the control of capitalism, government expenditure can’t be raised permanently since deficit-financed spending ultimately meets its limits in the contradictions at work in the sphere of private production. In the long run, the concentrated dominance of big business and private monopolies needs to be broken down if the effects of monetary financing are to be sustainably continued even after the exhaustion of unused resources. In short, MMT provides an anti-neoliberal opening but does not reach the socialist conclusion that a radical reconstitution of the system is not only desirable but necessary.
From the horse’s mouth
McChrystal, the former Joint Special Operations Command and Afghanistan War commander, said the unending battle against ever-changing terrorist organisations, launched as a response to the 9/11 attacks, was not worth it.
You may have missed an earlier post, Wez, where I referred to my own late father futilely fighting the Afghans in the 1930s and me recalling when news of the Russians was being covered, him predicting defeat for them.
