World War Three

[Wind]

Seems like a happy camper.

[Lord Sidious]

Source: Wikipedia

Harold Charles' "Hal" Turner (born March 15, 1962) is an American far-right political commentator and convicted felon from North Bergen, New Jersey.

Turner's viewpoints typically encompass Holocaust denial, conspiracy theories, white supremacy, and have included calls for assassination of government officials. In August 2010, he was convicted for making threats against three federal judges with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, for which he spent two years in prison.

Turner has sporadically hosted The Hal Turner Show, usually on shortwave radio station WBCQ, since 2002, as well as a corresponding blog, which has changed URLs frequently and has spread hoaxes and fake news.

[- continue reading here -]

Source: Wikipedia


Now why am I not surprised?

There's more.

[Aragorn]

Source: Wikipedia

Harold Charles' "Hal" Turner (born March 15, 1962) is an American far-right political commentator and convicted felon from North Bergen, New Jersey.

Turner's viewpoints typically encompass Holocaust denial, conspiracy theories, white supremacy, and have included calls for assassination of government officials. In August 2010, he was convicted for making threats against three federal judges with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, for which he spent two years in prison.

Turner has sporadically hosted The Hal Turner Show, usually on shortwave radio station WBCQ, since 2002, as well as a corresponding blog, which has changed URLs frequently and has spread hoaxes and fake news.

[- continue reading here -]

Source: Wikipedia


Now why am I not surprised?

There's more.

Such as that he is ─ or at any rate, has been ─ a paid FBI informer? Yes, that was mentioned on the Wikipedia page. Or are you talking of something else yet?

[Lord Sidious]

Such as that he is ─ or at any rate, has been ─ a paid FBI informer? Yes, that was mentioned on the Wikipedia page. Or are you talking of something else yet?

Nope, that bit

[Chris]

A panel of Australian and US experts discusses the possibility of an imminent war with China. This is a must-watch in my view, excellent work from 60 minutes as always.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA2KaEKs1LA

[Wind]

Xi Jinping is a power-hungry genocidal asswipe, but I doubt he would be that insane. US still has far superior military power.

Even if China were to join forces with Russia and North Korea, they still would be no match against the coalition consisting of USA, UK, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia etc. There are no really winners in such wars, China would lose badly but there would of course be casualties on all sides.

[Chuckie]

These are the checks and balances of true journalism. It is the way it is suppose to work. It is a remarkable 'real world' anomaly that Fox News is still around after 25 years.

OZY (media company)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A request that this article title be changed to Ozy (media company) is under discussion. Please do not move this article until the discussion is closed.

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Tagline: Live Curiously
Type Private
Industry Mass media, Entertainment
Founded September 2013; 8 years ago
Founders Carlos Watson (co-founder and CEO), Samir Rao (co-founder and COO
Defunct October 1, 2021; 2 days ago
Fate Closed
Headquarters Mountain View, California, U.S.
Website www.ozy.com

Ozy (styled as OZY) was an American media and entertainment company launched in September 2013 by Carlos Watson and Samir Rao. It was headquartered in Mountain View, California, with an additional office in New York City.
Ozy produced podcasts, television series and events. Ozy received an Emmy for a 2019 television show that aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Following a scandal concerning executive misbehavior and exaggerated user engagement metrics reported upon by The New York Times in late September 2021, Ozy announced on October 1, 2021, that it would cease operations.

Ozy was launched as a digital magazine and daily newsletter in September 2013. The company raised a $5.3 million seed round of funding in December 2013 backed by Laurene Powell Jobs, founder of Emerson Collective. Additional early investors included Louise Rogers and Ron Conway.

In October 2014, Ozy announced that German media giant Axel Springer had invested $20 million in the company. In January 2017, Ozy announced a $10 million Series B round of fundraising, led by Michael Moe's GSV Capital. In November 2019 Ozy announced a Series C round of $35 million, led by businessman Marc Lasry.

In January 2021, Axios announced that the company had reached profitability for the first time, having brought in $50 million in revenue in 2020. It was also revealed that the company had received acquisition offers from unnamed media companies.[citation needed] In March 2021, AdWeek announced that Ozy and advertising agency Dentsu had agreed a multi-year partnership as part of Dentsu's investment in "meaningful media" focused on millennial and Gen Z consumers.

Allegations of fraud and subsequent dissolution

On September 26, 2021, the New York Times published a Ben Smith media column which included revelations that Samir Rao, COO and a co-founder of the company, had impersonated a YouTube executive in a formal meeting with Goldman Sachs earlier in the year to secure a $40 million investment. There was evidence to suggest an open FBI investigation into the matter. The piece also discussed inflated traffic numbers, which BuzzFeed had reported on in 2017.

Following media coverage of Rao's misbehavior, Ozy's board of directors asked him to take a leave of absence and announced that they had engaged the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to undertake a review of the company's business practices.

Several prominent people and organizations distanced themselves from Ozy following the publication of the New York Times article. Katty Kay resigned from Ozy Media, SV Angel announced it would give up the shares it had acquired in Ozy in 2012, and A&E canceled the broadcast of a documentary it had produced with Ozy. Ozy's chairman Marc Lasry resigned after three weeks on the job and released a statement, “I believe that going forward Ozy requires experience in areas like crisis management and investigations, where I do not have particular expertise.” Shortly after the Times article was published, Sharon Osbourne responded to a request by CNBC to verify a statement Ozy CEO Watson had made in a 2019 interview with them, where he said that Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, after having sued Ozy over infringement on their Ozzfest brand, "decided to be friends and now they’re investors in Ozy." Osbourne denied that she or her husband had been investors, saying, "This guy is the biggest shyster I have ever seen in my life."

On October 1, 2021, Watson, who had just been reelected to a second three-year term as a corporate director of NPR, resigned immediately before a governance committee was planning to meet to determine his future.[24] The same day, Ozy edited its website to remove Samir Rao's staff page.

Ozy announced on October 1, 2021, that it would cease operations.

Magazine
Ozy's digital magazine focused on profiles of rising stars and trends, often rehashing stories covered previously by other media without any original interviews or reporting. Reporters were given budgets as small as $150 per story and were instructed not to cover topics that had been covered by other mainstream media outlets, which led to the publication of some articles that focused on issues that were of very narrow interest.

In 2017, Ozy reporters visited all 50 U.S. states for a project called "States of the Nation." The year after that, Ozy produced a series called "Around the World" in which they committed to report on three stories in every country. CNN reported that both series were largely delivered as promised, although the latter grouped some smaller countries together.

Television
In 2016, Ozy's first television series, The Contenders: 16 for '16, aired on PBS. It later produced three additional series for PBS.

The four-part show Black Women OWN the Conversation aired in August and September 2019 on the Oprah Winfrey Network. The episode "Motherhood" won the Outstanding News Discussion and Analysis award at the 41st News & Documentary Emmy Awards in 2020. The show featured conversations with an audience of 100 black women.

In January 2020, Ozy announced a partnership with A&E Networks to co-produce at least two additional television shows. By September 2020, the number of titles announced under the partnership had grown to five, including two scripted shows, a dating show, and a re-editing of the company's first TV show, The Contenders, updated for the 2020 election.

In July 2020, Ozy announced The Carlos Watson Show, a new daily talk show focused on long-form interviews, which would be distributed on YouTube.[39] Brad Bessey, executive producer of The Carlos Watson Show, told The New York Times in September 2021 that he had been misled to believe that the show would air in prime time on A&E when he was hired. Talent bookers provided similarly misleading statements to guests on the show. Bessey resigned after learning that the show would instead be produced by the A&E Networks company for YouTube distribution. In his farewell email to Watson and Ozy COO Samir Rao, Bessey wrote, “You are playing a dangerous game with the truth. The consequences of offering an A&E show to guests when we don’t have one to offer are catastrophic for Ozy and for me.”

Podcasts
Ozy produced several podcasts, beginning with history podcast The Thread in 2017. The company also produced a science and technology podcast The Future of X, and OZY Confidential, an interview podcast.

OZY Fest

In 2016 an event dubbed "OZY Fest" was launched, which until 2018 was held in Rumsey Playfield at Central Park in New York City. The name of OZY Fest sparked a lawsuit from Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest in 2017. The festival featured appearances from Wyclef Jean, Isse Rae, Katie Couric, and others.

OZY Fest 2019 was canceled, which was blamed on a heat wave. It later emerged that Ozy had been grossly inflating crowd projections and was ill-prepared for the event itself, with one employee saying “It was going to be Fyre Fest.”

In 2021, OZY Fest aired a two-day virtual event to raise funds for the United Negro College Fund.

OZY Genius Awards
Ozy has hosted an irregular scholarship program since 2015, awarding 10 college-aged applicants with a $10,000 grant to pursue a "genius idea". Among the 2017 class of OZY Genius Award winners was 2021 inauguration poet Amanda Gorman.

Reception
The Daily Telegraph described OZY as "a left-wing media company". Variety profiled Ozy favorably. Axios described it as "one of the few digital media companies today that was founded and is run by a person of color".

OZY Fest 2018 was also criticized as a "neoliberal nightmare" by Rolling Stone, a "sizzling hot festival for folks who love Coachella and neoliberalism" by GQ, and "a progressive alternate reality" by The Washington Post.

[Chris]

Xi Jinping is a power-hungry genocidal asswipe, but I doubt he would be that insane. US still has far superior military power.

Even if China were to join forces with Russia and North Korea, they still would be no match against the coalition consisting of USA, UK, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia etc. There are no really winners in such wars, China would lose badly but there would of course be casualties on all sides.

It's a comforting thought, but your conclusions aren't supported by evidence from recent history.

Heard about a little thing called the Korean War?

The same players were more or less involved as they are today, except the balance of power was much more in favour of the US than it is today. The communists launched a surprise attack on South Korea and when the US and Australia got involved for geopolitical reasons, China joined the war directly by sending millions of "volunteer" troops, helping to turn the tide of the war. In fact, general MacArthur was ready to nuke China at this point, but cooler heads prevailed and he was removed in favour of a less hawkish commander.

That conflict is still frozen and ready to restart at any moment, with the big difference being that the US and its allies are in a significantly weaker position. The conflict in the Taiwan straits has even older roots, going back to the conflict between the communists and nationalists, with the latter being supported by the allies during and after the war.

Neither Taiwan, nor Korea has been resolved, they are in effect frozen conflicts, with both sides ready to restart it at any time.

[Wind]

I know about it. How mad do you think that Xi is though?

[Chuckie]

It's a comforting thought, but your conclusions aren't supported by evidence from recent history.

Heard about a little thing called the Korean War?

The same players were more or less involved as they are today, except the balance of power was much more in favour of the US than it is today. The communists launched a surprise attack on South Korea and when the US and Australia got involved for geopolitical reasons, China joined the war directly by sending millions of "volunteer" troops, helping to turn the tide of the war. In fact, general MacArthur was ready to nuke China at this point, but cooler heads prevailed and he was removed in favour of a less hawkish commander.

That conflict is still frozen and ready to restart at any moment, with the big difference being that the US and its allies are in a significantly weaker position. The conflict in the Taiwan straits has even older roots, going back to the conflict between the communists and nationalists, with the latter being supported by the allies during and after the war.

Neither Taiwan, nor Korea has been resolved, they are in effect frozen conflicts, with both sides ready to restart it at any time.

That the U.S. is weaker from a military hardware perspective is just propaganda. On the other hand they are in a much weaker diplomatic position. A long history of bad moves and then the last four years have pretty much undone any diplomatic forward movement accomplished since Richard Nixon. He was only mildly dysfunctional compared to the one-man clusterfuck that the Orange Gork was. And apparently Biden is doing what Biden has done for 40 years. Tried to balance the needs and desires of ALL the American people. I am now convinced it is a genetic predisposition of which he has little hope of escaping. All he will get from the right is the same thing Obama got with a little extra. It was just a slap and spit that Obama got in the face. Biden will most assuredly get the slap minus the spit (he is a 'nice' white guy) with a little 'dementia ridicule' and a kick in the ass for being an ass.

[Chris]

I know about it. How mad do you think that Xi is though?

Very.

It seems he is a worthy successor to Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot at this point. I think he's capable of anything, including a surprise attack on Taiwan.

[Chris]

That the U.S. is weaker from a military hardware perspective is just propaganda. On the other hand they are in a much weaker diplomatic position. A long history of bad moves and then the last four years have pretty much undone any diplomatic forward movement accomplished since Richard Nixon. He was only mildly dysfunctional compared to the one-man clusterfuck that the Orange Gork was. And apparently Biden is doing what Biden has done for 40 years. Tried to balance the needs and desires of ALL the American people. I am now convinced it is a genetic predisposition of which he has little hope of escaping. All he will get from the right is the same thing Obama got with a little extra. It was just a slap and spit that Obama got in the face. Biden will most assuredly get the slap minus the spit (he is a 'nice' white guy) with a little 'dementia ridicule' and a kick in the ass for being an ass.

I'm sorry BOB, but you're just objectively wrong there.

In 1950, the USA was half of the world economy, not counting its allies and had the most modern and best equipped armed forces in the world, whereas China largely had bare-footed peasants with all their semi-modern weaponry provided by the Soviet Union. Plus the US had all the Nukes in the world, whereas China had none.

The situation is very different today. China is the undisputed manufacturing powerhouse on the planet today (which is what matters in a protracted war) and has a larger Navy than the US, with a simiarly-sized air force and a larger land army, just as well-equipped, though admittedly not as well trained as the US equivalent. Plus, China has hundreds of Nukes as well and it still has the backing of Russia.

In a an Asian land war, the US does not stand a chance, that is the sad truth. China knows that and is just biding its time to strike the US at a moment of maximum weakness. Having a compromised president who can barely remember his own name seems like the perfect opportunity.

[Chuckie]

Probably true, which is why there likely would not be a land war, at least not at first. And if it does occur, it will probably play out with makeshift clubs, rakes, and garden hoes. No, it would be the big one and the U.S. has not displayed their true weapons in 70 years, the last crush, kill, destroy confrontation that the planet Earth has seen. Armageddon anyone?

[Chris]

Probably true, which is why there likely would not be a land war, at least not at first. And if it does occur, it will probably play out with makeshift clubs, rakes, and garden hoes. No, it would be the big one and the U.S. has not displayed their true weapons in 70 years, the last crush, kill, destroy confrontation that the planet Earth has seen. Armageddon anyone?

I don't know how such a war would play out, but it would very likely go global within a matter of months.

The current situation actually looks a lot like pre-WW1 Europe with two major blocks gearing up for war, but this one is likely to be centred around Asia and the Pacific, unlike the two previous world conflicts.

Both sides clearly have a lot of undisclosed weapons that are only hinted at. We can only guess, but space will probably be a major theatre of war this time.

[Dreamtimer]

Nope, that bit

Can we just invent some device which can detect the sell-outs and 'pay to say' folks? I'm so utterly sick of them.



IMO, China wants economic domination and it believes that can be achieved. China has been working on its new silk road for some time now. It's doubtful they want to screw that up. They will continue to watch Americans falling for endless divisive propaganda and try to inject more wherever possible.

It could even work, considering how batshit we're acting about the pandemic, environment, and economy. Yeah, let's just shoot ourselves in the foot by bringing the government to a halt and failing to compromise on what the majority of Americans want.

As long as we continue on this self-destructive trajectory, China doesn't have to do shit beyond continued economic domination.