Source: Russia Matters.

This brief analysis — completed at the end of November — is both superb and easy to read.

Source: ZeroHedge.

How does reality work: Do truths emerge, or do lies fade away?

In this case the lie of Russian propaganda influence over the 2016 presidential election is all but stamped out. Maybe next we’ll get lucky and learn who delivered the trove of stolen DNC emails to Wikileaks.

Source: Son of the New American Revolution.

Larry Johnson shares an intriguing detail about the territory of Bakhmut in Ukraine.

While slow moving, this is the biggest, most important story on Earth at present, in my view.

The U.S. will gradually lose influence and power as the global oil industry de-dollarizes. We are in no position to prevent the transformation that is already underway, so the question is: How will we respond?

Will we seek to harm those nations that choose to conduct international trade in currencies other than ours? Will we learn to operate in markets where dollars don’t count? Will we isolate ourselves from the global system, or double-down on regime change operations, even war?

The only thing I am certain of is that American arrogance is due for a reset. We will need to stop thinking of the rest of the world in simplistic ways — as, for example, a collection of friends and enemies.

Source: Nature.

Recommended by Tyler Cowen, this story is a follow-on to a couple of recent posts, one on human progress and one on scientific groupthink.

We tend to think that human progress is defined by innovation and discovery, but the instant report clearly shows that it is possible for progress of that kind to simply end. Groupthink may be a cause, but the cause might otherwise be that Nature herself offers only a finite number of basic problems to solve. Or perhaps Nature is infinite, but the human mind is only capable of conceiving a finite problem set.

Another possibility is that scientific disruptions ebb and flow according to some rhythm we have yet to detect or understand.

A final possibility is that the disruptive science of the past has been erroneous to the point that new innovations will be impossible until we correct our mistakes.

Absurd Trolley Problems.

Source: Wall Street Journal (free link).

This may be a nature vs. nurture story. The question is whether the Covid virus as we now know it is following a natural or a nurtured pattern of evolution.

Might we have been better off letting the virus run its course through humanity instead of trying to stop it with mass vaccination?

Source: Wikipedia.

I have sometimes contended that the standard view of history is wrong. That view can be summarized: Intelligent apes in tiny clans learned to use tools, then they learned agriculture which necessitated the development of cities which in turn fostered civilizations which became empires that produced a complex global society.

The overall pattern is one of primitive humans evolving into an advanced or sophisticated species. As an alternative, I have proposed that there has been no essential human progress at all for at least 200,000 years.

Continue reading “The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity” →

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhItnEdw38U

Eleven minutes of video cannot capture anything close to comprehensive truths but can — as in this case — remind us to be skeptical of stories we hear.

Ania K is a Polish-born writer and YouTube vlogger. She seems to me to be just a normal person who pursues a curiosity and shares the experience. But of course, Ania K may be a Kremlin operative, a Tokyo Rose, a Mata Hari.

In that case, God save the American empire from Ania K’s evil!

For my part, Ania K seems genuine and her videos are interesting. This one was made relevant by a recent post in the Forum which claimed that the Russian banking system is collapsing.