The MoA Week In Review - OT 2019-48
Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:
- August 13 - The Man Who Weaponizes And Loses Everything
The violence led to a backlash. Today was another pre-approved protest attended by less people than previous such assemblies. It ended peacefully. There were only few policeman around. A man from mainland China who passed by the protest was harassed. The black block now waits for the peaceful protesters to leave to cause trouble.
Turkey sent 'rebels' from the occupied Afrin to help the Jihadists in Khan Shaykhun. The Russian or Syrian airforce bombed some who were on their way. After repelling a counterattack the Syrian army operation continues as foreseen.
Is the war in Syria a civil war? The numbers answer that question.
Emmanuel @EmmanuelGMay - 12:17 UTC · Aug 18, 2019#Syria / July 2019: based on #SOHR victims' statistic, 96% of #SAA + allies fighters are Syrians. For Jihadists / "opposition" fighters, foreigners are clearly the majority (60% - 40%)
bigger - bigger - source data
- August 16 - Epstein Suicided - Thread 2
The borg sayz: "There is nothing to see here. Please move on."
Other issues:
737 Max: The Wall Street Journal produced a detailed piece on how MCAS came to be:
The Four-Second Catastrophe: How Boeing Doomed the 737 MAX
At the root of the company’s miscalculation was a flawed assumption that pilots could handle any malfunction
This is concerning:
In designing the flight controls for the 737 MAX, Boeing assumed that pilots trained on existing safety procedures should be able to sift through the jumble of contradictory warnings and take the proper action 100% of the time within four seconds.That is about the amount of time that it took you to read this sentence.
...
Regulators endorsed that determination, along with the single sensor. The FAA certification rules under which the MAX was allowed to fly assume pilots react correctly to certain emergencies 100% of the time.
The so called 'startle time', the moment it needs to react to unexpected complex events, is usually considered to be some 30 seconds.
And this is not only racist, but criminal:
The FAA is reassessing some of its key assumptions. The agency said certification procedures are “well-established and have consistently produced safe aircraft designs,” but it is rethinking reliance on average U.S. pilot reaction times as a design benchmark for planes that are sold in parts of the world with different experience levels and training standards.
Some 80% of FAA certified Boeing planes are sold abroad. If there is difference in the reaction time of "U.S. pilots" and foreign pilots, which I very much doubt, the safer number has to be applied. Also no safety criteria should ever be based on "average pilot reaction times" because that obviously means that 50% of all pilots will fail to save their own and their passengers asses.
Use as open thread ...
Posted by b on August 18, 2019 at 14:16 UTC | Permalink
« previous pageVk - "didn't know Keynes patented the concept."
Well VK that is because you are ignorant of economics. Which anyone reading your comments knows if they understand economics. As an economics commenter you are purely a political propagandist on behalf of the Chinese. I don't believe you wittingly spread disinformation. I believe you simply are out of your depth regarding finance and economics.
Keynes identified a key cause of the Great Depression as unnecessarily high long term interests leading to reduced money supply and in turn lower economic output.
In fact, the monetarist policies which the conservative Chinese governing elites are now widely implementing to combat the slowing economy descend from Keynes.
Monetarism is one branch of Keynes and is a "deformed" branch because it focuses overwhelmingly on money supply and interest rates not fiscal stimulus program, the second and more heralded branch of Keynes's prescription.
So yes, Milton Friedman the monetarist is also a Keynesian and so too are the conservative Chinese Capitalists who apply both ideas to their economy.
Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 19 2019 3:47 utc | 102
@ psychohistorian # 99
"Why is the world of medicine still pushing drugs into the bio-chemical part of synaptic activity and ignoring the more important bio-electric waveforms that our body makes from birth to death?"
Sadly american healthcare isn't concerned with healing, because using drugs to cover up symptoms from disease, or suffering is far more profitable than healing. Capitalism at it's worst.
Good to hear, however, that you overcame the deplorable healthcare offerer here, it's definitely a challenge, isn't it?
Posted by: aye, myself & me | Aug 19 2019 3:58 utc | 104
A little good news for most here, however, be forewarned it's the Mooch bein' the mooch, is that worth the hootch?
Posted by: aye, myself & me | Aug 19 2019 4:05 utc | 105
Just watched John Oliver's HBO show and he had a little segment where he's pushing the CIA and US DoS's line on Hong Kong at the same time as pretending to call out the CIA and that he's somehow independent in his thinking. Basically the Xi government called the protests a "black hand" operation funded by the CIA (true) and showed surveillance video clips of protesters being paid. Anyone have any English language links about this?
Posted by: KC | Aug 19 2019 4:24 utc | 106
I added the article shown below from Xinhuanet on the last HK posting thread.
"
BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- China will build the southern city of Shenzhen into a pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics, a document said Sunday.
The building of the demonstration area will help deepen reform and expand opening-up comprehensively, according to the document issued by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council.
It is also conducive to the implementation of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area plan and the fulfillment of the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.
By 2025, Shenzhen will become one of the leading cities in the world in terms of economic strength and quality of development. Its research and development input, industrial innovation capacity, and the quality of its public services and ecological environment will be first-rate in the world, according to the document.
By 2035, Shenzhen will become a national model of high-quality development, as well as a hub of innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity with international influence, the document said.
By mid-21st century, the city will become one of the top cosmopolis in the world and a global pacesetter with outstanding competitiveness, innovative capacity and influence, according to the document.
"
Yes, there is the rubbing HK's nose in this city just adjacent from one perspective but otherwise it is exactly what needs to be done to show up the colonialist backwater for what it is becoming. HK will go down with empire and then go begging to the civilization state of China for inclusion.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 19 2019 4:50 utc | 107
...
Hope that helps.
(Median vs Average)
Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Aug 18 2019 17:10 utc | 23
It does. It emphasises the fact that "median" is an artificial construct designed to 'smoothe' the effect of extreme highs or lows in a statistical group. It is therefore irrelevant to an assessment of qualified, currently employed, airline pilots because woefully incompetent pilots have been screened out of that statistical grouping and any fabulously excellent pilots may never face a situation which puts him/her to the ultimate test.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 19 2019 4:51 utc | 108
It is evidently not a hubristic joke that Trump and his cronies are conniving to buy Greenland from Denmark
My only question is who/when are adult leaders going to ask what of value other than fiat Reserve Currency is late empire offering? Cowry shells and beads maybe....
Late empire is whistling past their graveyard here, IMO
Hubris ad nauseam seems to be a penchant of Trump and his cronies. What a shit show we are watching transpire.
I still posit that the king of bankruptcies will declare US such within a year.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 19 2019 5:35 utc | 109
Greenland: well the thing about Greenland, it sticks up there past the Canadian Arctic lands and gives US a better piece of the Arctic seabed to exploit. Surely Denmark and the Greenlanders don't need any of that themselves? Lots of ice and fresh water too, and much closer to our friends in the Middle East where it's needed. As it sits Russia & Canada own most of the Arctic coastline, thus having a hammerlock on all those Arctic resources everybody anticipates finding when the ice melts. I imagine they are dusting off the plans in the Pentagon. I doubt Trump figured this out by himself.
Median, Mode, and Average: three ways to summarize a collection of numbers which theoretically are all in the same "population", each has its own merits. The Median is the "middle" value, than which half are larger and half less; the mode the most common value, the one that occurs the most; and the average, the most "probable" outcome, an estimate of the true population "mean value".
Posted by: Bemildred | Aug 19 2019 5:57 utc | 110
Bewildered @8. Are you kidding? California is one of the most gerrymandered states in the US. If the districts were divivded up by share the electorate, the Republicans would get 15 more seats. Giving it to the independent commission was a joke.
The commission people were poorly paid laypeople who knew nothing of politics, and Democratic Party operatives cleverly gamed them by suggesting all sorts of districts to maximize gains of all sorts of fake groups: Hispanics, Asians, Blacks, gays and lesbians, poor people, etc. These recommendations were actually for heavily gerrymandered districts. The commission bought these lies hook, line and sinker and now we have one of the most gerrymandered states in the US. And yes, ~40% of Californians are Republicans.
Posted by: Robert Lindsay | Aug 19 2019 6:46 utc | 111
Shmoe@17:
~35% of Californians vote conservative, either Republican or Libertarian. Check and see if conservatives have 1/3 of California's seats.
Posted by: Robert Lindsay | Aug 19 2019 7:00 utc | 112
Great. Just when SAA was going to free Khan Shaykhun from jihadi nuts, Turkey sends military convoy (obviously loaded with goodies) and decides to establish a new observation post there.
Since it wouldn't go well if RUAF downright bomb them to smithereens, that only leaves one obvious solution: encircle the city and let them all starve to death.
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Aug 19 2019 8:39 utc | 113
@karlof1 #35
The only NATO member taking part in the International Army Games is Greece. They participated in the Sniper Frontier competition in 2016 and 2017 and in the Warrior of the Commonwealth competition in 2018 and 2019.
I have visited the Tank Biathlon 2nd Division Final on August 15 and I highly recommend it (for the best experience, take binoculars and reserve the higher-placed “VIP” seats). I was puzzled by the fact that there were no foreigners except for the militaries of the participating countries and some Vietnamese students studying in Russia. Where are all the European and American military geeks? The “VIP” tickets are $20 a piece. There are no restrictions on visitors, they didn’t even check our passports when we entered the military grounds. The only problem would be the Russian visa, which is relatively expensive, but you wouldn’t visit Russia just for the tank biathlon, you’d see Moscow as well, at the very least.
And before anyone accuses me of glorifying instruments of murder, I find this competition to have certain therapeutic qualities, as it’s redirecting the energy of people from killing each other to competing with each other in a respectful and friendly manner. It has the vibe of a race, not of a military exercise. Lots of children, people are sipping kvass and applauding each team as it whizzes past the stands. Very positive and peaceful. Oh, and there’s a Field Kitchen competition at the same venue, with the military chefs cooking for the visitors on the first day of the competition. Perhaps, some of you will consider coming next year.
Posted by: S | Aug 19 2019 9:09 utc | 114
Posted by: c1ue | Aug 18 2019 16:09 utc | 12
That divide is international. I think it was Sartre who said "In the countryside it counts what you own, in the city it counts what you do".
Posted by: somebody | Aug 19 2019 10:28 utc | 115
Bernie Sanders issues a proposal for criminal justice reform:
Bernie Sanders, who was criticized by liberal activists in 2016 for not focusing more on racial injustice, is unveiling a sweeping plan on Sunday aimed at slashing the country’s prison population in half and ridding the criminal justice system of "institutional racism and corporate profiteering."The ambitious, nearly 6,000-word proposal seeks to remake the nation’s prisons, police departments, courts, drug laws and treatment of people who have mental illnesses with a full-throated progressive agenda. Sanders’ left-wing allies have argued he has "evolved" in recent years on the issue of criminal justice.
The plan calls for banning cash bail, solitary confinement and civil asset forfeiture, which allows law enforcement officials to seize people’s homes and other property even if they are not convicted of a crime. The plan also looks to legalize marijuana and abolish the death penalty, a practice Sanders has long opposed.
Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 19 2019 10:37 utc | 116
China has still a "planned economy"
Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/6250e4ec-8e68-11e7-9084-d0c17942ba93Some Chinese economists have gone further. In a recent paper Binbin Wang and Xiaoyan Li argue that a hybrid economy could be built on a “market-based, plan-driven” model.
The freer flow of data could counter many of the ills that disfigured planned economies: excessive concentration of power, rent-seeking corruption, and irrational decision-making. The granular detail provided by masses of data could also enable planners to offer consumers more personalised choice.
The authors argue that the online platform monopolies resemble central planning institutions. It would be more “legitimate and rational” for the state to become a “super-monopoly” platform.
Such state-owned platforms could operate like an airport directing market-driven traffic. The airport manages capacity, sets aviation standards, balances the demands of safety, the environment and the movement of goods, and serves the needs of
operators, passengers and retailers.There is no doubt that Big Data can improve the efficiency of managerial systems, both corporate and governmental. It might also lead to more rational resource allocation, whether in terms of planning long-term infrastructure or managing healthcare systems.
Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
https://www.ft.com/content/6250e4ec-8e68-11e7-9084-d0c17942ba93The second is how innovative such an economy could ever hope to be. It is hard for consumers to signal a data demand for a product that does not yet exist. In some respects, it would be like trying to drive into the future by staring into the rear-view mirror.
As Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs famously said: “Consumers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them.”
Which when I read the Steve Jobs quote would be a good thing - and the only ecologically viable.
Posted by: somebody | Aug 19 2019 10:41 utc | 117
Robert Lindseay
Read my post again. I mentioned gerrymandering. Check North Carolina and Texas.
Rs were thought to have an advantage nationally due to gerrymandering but they did not anticipate white suburban apathy to Rs as occurred in 2018, so the House's makeup now closely resembles the 2018 total House popular ovte.
Posted by: Schmoe | Aug 19 2019 11:04 utc | 118
Somebody - 117
Jobs' quote is exactly why we should abolish capitalism and never let anyone put a new product on the market that hasn't been seriously checked before - as in "Does it actually answer an actual need or is it just more useless BS that's only designed to make money - like, say, selfie sticks, chewing gum, cigarettes?" and "Is your product sustainable enough that it won't become obsolete in the next couple of years?" -, to ensure that mankind stops wasting resources on junk and crap.
To an extent, Jobs was right in his analysis. He just drew the totally wrong conclusion, because his goal was to make $$ and not to help people and mankind was a whole.
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Aug 19 2019 11:08 utc | 119
KC @ 106:
Try following 21SilkRoad Facebook group - the people who run the group live in Hong Kong and have posted photos showing students receiving cash payments and a hierarchy of cash amounts ranging from HK$1,000 for showing up to protest to HK$5,000 for damaging property while protesting. They have also posted videos showing protesters catapulting bricks at a police station and pointing laser beams into police officers' faces and eyes.
Posted by: Jen | Aug 19 2019 11:10 utc | 120
psycho @ 99
Heartfelt congratulations on completing a successful treatment for your brain injury.
And I agree that the cost of healthcare in the for profit US system is the greatest of the many economic crimes committed against working and middle class Amerikkkans.
I presume Medicare Part B covered your treatment?
Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 19 2019 11:15 utc | 121
psychohistorian says:
By mid-21st century, the city[Shenzhen] will become one of the top cosmopolis in the world and a global pacesetter with outstanding competitiveness, innovative capacity and influence, according to the document
sounds like the Chicago boy strut, no?
...and by mid-22nd century i imagine it'll be a specter, a vulgar reduction of the fishing village it was 50 years ago, except there'll be no more fish in the sea and the inhabitants will be scavenging the detritus of mid-21st century prosperity, working overtime to access a sunken, contaminated water table to sustain a meager and insufficient agriculture.
Posted by: john | Aug 19 2019 11:18 utc | 122
5000 British Steel workers privatized(Scunthorpe and Teeside), to foreign entity Oyak
Posted by: snake | Aug 19 2019 11:20 utc | 123
Schmoe
In Texas the concurrent trends of in-migration have reduced, but not eliminated, the effects of extreme GOP gerrymandering.
More Democrats are moving to Texas from California, Midwest and East Coast. More people of colour are moving into Texas.
Both parties gerrymander, with the the GOP doing moreso because they control more state legislatures and governorships, although that trend too has lately been arrested.
The most perverse GOP electoral strategy is voter suppression targeting minorities and the poor.
Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 19 2019 11:20 utc | 124
Greenland / ABM and Nuclear Primacy
I'm certain Trump is properly thinking in terms of mineral wealth but Greenland plays into the Neocon dream of nuclear primacy. If you look at a globe and consider both Alaska and Greenland, www.webglearth.com, a good ABM shield would pinch off Russia's second strike capability. The U.S. is allowed to install bases now in Greenland because of NATO treaties.
When the U.S. NATO supremacists bray about Russian aggression regarding their upgrades of their nuclear delivery systems they never bring up the issue of Russia protecting their second strike capability but act as if Russia is trying to obtain nuclear primacy.
Their new, and very dangerous, infinite range nuclear powered cruise missile is a terrible first strike weapon because it is slow and cannot be timed to take out the U.S. missile force in a timely manner. However, it is an excellent second strike weapon because it is small and nimble and can be hidden anywhere in the middle of Russia. It requires very little infrastructure.
Posted by: Christian J Chuba | Aug 19 2019 11:33 utc | 125
@Karlof 88
"While Gabbard continues to gain additional individual contributors, the last polling results I saw 2 weeks ago weren't good."
Of course not!!! The MSM has deemed her a MONSTER!!
Waaaay worse that the Orange Cheeto Man.
She's anti-war!!!!!!
How crazy can you get
Posted by: el sid | Aug 19 2019 11:36 utc | 126
At the intersection of pro vaxxing and the military
https://taskandpurpose.com/uss-fort-mchenry-mumps-outbreak
Mumps vaccine ‘only 88% effective’.
This highlights an important and subtle issue: if vaccines are understood by officials to be beneficial but risky interventions they will trade off risks and benefits to keep a health care revolt from happening due to side effects. But if health officials buy their own propaganda about vaccines being ‘safer than water’ then the dosages will increase and product quality will decrease until it does become an undeniable problem. After all, no vaccine is 100% effective but if it’s perfectly safe you can have the effectiveness rate approach 100% by giving ever increasing numbers of the same shots, right???
Only the latest and greatest in pharma for the troops (the vaxxes seem like a small issue next to the drugs), small wonder the vets have such a lousy reputation in terms of health outcomes.
Posted by: Arakawa | Aug 19 2019 11:59 utc | 127
Waving the white flag?
--//--
@ Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 19 2019 3:47 utc | 102
Your post is 100% wrong.
To begin with, there's no such a thing (and never was) as a "Keynesian theory". Keynes was an economist who wrotes some things with practical recomendations for governments; later, in the post-war period, he was kind of "deified" because the capitalist elites interpreted him as a prophet of the post-war miracle (the "30 golden years of capitalism"). The most you can say is that he created a doctrine. Indeed, that's why you -- and many other people mainly from the First World -- still interpret anything as "keynesian" -- he's like a center-left Jesus.
Milton Friedman a Keynesian? I only hope nobody here who read that believes you.
And I don't know why people in the West (mainly from the Left) have a problem with classifying China as socialist: 1) officially, it considers itself as socialist, 2) its people consider itself socialist (and living in a socialist system), 3) capital, albeit existent in China, is not the dominant mode of social reproduction: all land is of the central government (therefore, the people as a whole), the financial system is public and the strategic means of production are also public; 4) its main enemies (USA, the West) consider China socialist.
So, why the phobia of classifying China as socialist?
My guess is that would mean the Western Left has failed, and is not at the vanguard of intellectualism anymore. If the Western leftists admit China is socialist, that would mean an open admission that social-democracy and Western Marxism have degenerated to a point where its center is not in the West anymore, but in the East. That would be a complete disaster for the Western leftist intellectuals -- who only survive nowadays thanks to their past glories (and selling books).
It would also mean an admission from the democratic socialists in the USA that Chinese socialism is a real alternative to their form of socialism. This, they see, could be used by the American right-wing to resell the picture that socialism is dictatorial (even though China is not, in any sense of the word, a dictatorship). The same must be the case for the social-democrats in Western Europe, who seen more interested in restoring the peninsula's past imperial glory than to improve the lives of their working classes.
--//--
I'm flabbergasted by commenters here believing it's the fault of the quality of the pilots somehow. Single isle commercial planes are not cutting edge, unknown technology anymore. Even the worst trained pilot can pilot them easily. I don't need to prove my point here, just look at the competition: Airbus' model hasn't presented any kind of problems the 737 MAX have.
The solution to the 737 MAX is simple: Boeing needs to design another plane.
https://www.lossofbraintrust.com/
By the way, this litany of MSM articles put together by the Age of Autism people about school boards struggling with special needs kids is absolutely nuts.
Of course, it might not be vaccines. It might ‘just’ be glyphosate breakfast cereal.
Posted by: Arakawa | Aug 19 2019 12:19 utc | 129
Posted by: Christian J Chuba | Aug 19 2019 11:33 utc | 125
There are lots of directions Russia can send rockets across the North Pole, Greenland won't prevent any of this.
Russian and US militaries basically stare at each other at the Diomede islands.
Closest spots to Russian population centers - this is what would count in nuclear war - are European. If Russia is hit from Europe they will hit Europe - they said as much. As proven by Chernobyl a nuclear hit in Russia will also affect Europe. A US/NATO Russian nuclear war is completely unthinkable at least from a European perspective.
The problem with the US military doctrine of having military bases everywhere is that they can be attacked anywhere. Trump's move of the US army from Germany to Poland will take Germany out of the immediate range of fire.
Posted by: somebody | Aug 19 2019 12:51 utc | 130
Robert Lindsey @111: Horseshit. Sounds like typical Republican projection, all the things they are doing they claim you do. The Dems here are a sorry lot, and corrupt as can be, but they did not rig the districts here, the districts here got much more coherent. Adam Schiff is no longer my Rep. :-)
The problem the red districts have is loss of white population (no good jobs) and an influx of cheap non-white labor. Since a lot of the good jobs were and still are government jobs, Pubbies are never good for rural economies. Republicans are shitty at running government because they hate government, that's the problem. The Pubbies were smack dab in the middle of the evisceration of the industrial economy we once had here (remember Fontana Steel? the Chevy plant in Van Nuys? etc.), and all in the name of hatred for unions, hatred for the proles getting what they earn.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Steel_Industries
Posted by: Bemildred | Aug 19 2019 13:03 utc | 131
vk @15
This is absolutely correct, this is how engineering works. What WSJ wrote is the truth from the Wall Street buddies not from reality, pure bull as usual. Boeing 737Max is probably the biggest f'up in the history of civilian aviation, which has nothing to do with engineering and all to do with profit at any expense.
Posted by: Kiza | Aug 19 2019 13:10 utc | 132
VK - Lol. So, now you wish to double down on your painfully obvious ignorance? Nice.
To begin with, there's no such a thing (and never was) as a "Keynesian theory"
All economics is theoretical, except of course in your confused pseudo-intellectual mind.
Keynes major work is entitled "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money."
Indeed, that's why you -- and many other people mainly from the First World -- still interpret anything as "keynesian" -- he's like a center-left Jesus.
Very good. China's economy is also a form of "center-left capitalism". The Chinese have long taught Keynes in universities, they followed a keynesian stimulus formula since 2008...in fact they did so more fully than did the US, and of course the EU turned against Keynes presciption, as the German-oriented balance budget requirement promoted austerity at the worst possible moment. As a result, EU economic growth has lagged behind both the US and China to this very day...and is in fact the main underlying cause of Brexit. But I digress. Keynes' handiwork is all over the Chinese economic model:
The Chinese Party/State’s response to the 2008 global financial crisis, under the leadership of then Prime Minister Wen Jiabao (1953- ) was to, in fact, boost ‘aggregate demand’ and the government took steps to stimulate the economy through a programme of ‘quantitative easing’, with extensive investments in nationwide infra-structure amongst other things, in a four trillion RMB (US$586 billion) stimulus package, described as ‘Dr Keynes’ Chinese Patient’ (see The Economist 2008: 1). The question, however, was whether the ‘structural imbalance’ as between saving and consumption could be dealt with (Fang and Gang 2009: 149). The ‘multiplier effects’ were possibly slow to work and boosting domestic demand might be easier said than done. There is a high degree of income inequality in the PRC, with a Gini Coefficent at officially 0.47, but in reality it may be much higher, perhaps over 0.60 (see Warner 2013: 177).A World Bank Working Paper has, however, concluded that the
multiplier effects did in fact seem to have been effective and that: -
‘China’s government economic stimulus package in 2008-09 appears to
have worked well. It seems to have been about the right size, included a
number of appropriate components, and was well timed. Its
subnational component was designed to enhance the impact of the
stimulus package on the economy and reduce the potential pro-cyclical
elements that are usually built into subnational fiscal mechanisms in
federal countries. Moreover, China’s massive fiscal stimulus played an
important role in the overall recovery of the global economy’ (Fardousi,
Lin and Luo 2012: 27). A Western Marxist economist (John Ross)
teaching in China, commented on the irony: ‘Keynes explicitly put
forward his theories to save capitalism. But the structure of the US and
European economies has made it impossible to implement Keynes’s
15 policies even when confronted with the most severe recession since the
Great Depression. The anti-crisis measures of China’s “socialist market
economy” are far closer to those Keynes foresaw than in any capitalist
economy’ (Ross 2012:1).
And the push by China to institute a world reserve currency to settle international accounts? Yup. Pure Keynes.
In 2009, the Governor of the People’s Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan (1948- ), who had initially graduated with a top PhD in engineering (if not economics) from Tsinghua (Qinghua) University in 1975, recently resurrected Keynes’ idea of ‘an international reserve currency that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run’ (see Zhou 2009a: 1). This proposal, originally published by way of the Bank for International Settlements, in Basel, Switzerland, which set out a step-by-step process to resolving international imbalances, has been much discussed in the ensuing period (Zhou 2009b). It has received a good deal of publicity in the world’s financial press at the time, however not a great deal has come of this proposal to date, but it has again kept Keynes’ name alive both in China and globally in this regard (see Jaeger, Haas and Töpfer 2013).
And I don't know why people in the West (mainly from the Left) have a problem with classifying China as socialist: 1) officially, it considers itself as socialist, 2) its people consider itself socialist (and living in a socialist system), 3) capital, albeit existent in China, is not the dominant mode of social reproduction: all land is of the central government (therefore, the people as a whole), the financial system is public and the strategic means of production are also public; 4) its main enemies (USA, the West) consider China socialist.
China is socialist in word and capitalist in deed. To deny this prima facie is complete ignorance. And the main enemies, basically Trump, terms the Democrats socialist too!. Soo what?
Of course, China is Keynesian to its economic bones. You are forced to this deny reality because Keynes was a capitalist...and you are forced for some reason to surrender the reality that the Chinese economy is also capitalist.
To believe otherwise is just silly.
And about real estate issue in China: the land is leased to the homeowners for 20 or 70 years and the leases are renewable. The homes sitting on the land are financed and purchased by private individuals. To think someday the Chinese government will repossess the land by terminating the leases rather than renewing them is....silly. Unless that is the government wishes to have another "colour revolution" on its hands later thi century.
Chinese residential land is parceled out in 20- or 70-year leases. Home owners may own their apartment, but do not own the land it is built on, which belongs to the government. The question of how the land lease will be renewed is therefore a big question.
While the 2007 Property law stated that the right to use residential land would be renewed at the expiration of the contract, it did not state how the process would be carried out or how much it might cost to renew the lease. As 20-year leases come due, homeowners want to know what to expect for the future of their oftentimes largest asset. This impacts not only bequeathing property to the next generation, but also selling property. The first 70-year leases are expected to expire around 2030.Reassurances on the longer leases from the central government follow after Chinese officials in the land ministry assured homeowners in Wenzhou, a city in the eastern Zhejiang province, last December that they would not have to pay a renewal fee to continue to use their residences after the shorter 20-year lease expires. The was a reversal of earlier statements that homeowners would have to pay a large fee of up to a third of the property value to renew.
VK, you can preach the political and economic advantages of the Chinese planned economy all you want. I will agree with you by and large that China has learned the lessons of Western capitalism well and maintained a solid path of growth through the develping ("second world") phase, albeit with the same exploitative and wealth inequalities or worse than seen in the "First World" West.
Maybe someday the government will tame the market features that create unequal distribution of wealth. Maybe. But this is far from a foregone conclusion. At present the government is in the process of further liberalising the economy not taming it.
Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 19 2019 13:20 utc | 133
The solution to Boeing is simpler: no Boeing.
I'm not on the left and have no idea what is supposed to be the "past glories" of western leftists; to me they've always been exactly the same as those who now rule and who loves nothing more than bombing people to death, nagging people to death, and talking people to death all while singing their own praise. Merkel, Blair, and Stoltenberg come to mind as prime examples people might have heard of outside of Europe.
Or are "past glories" supposed to be Lenin and Stalin, or Marx and Engels down the pub? (One can still go to the same pub in England and sit exactly where they sat and "solved world problems" aided by drink and surrounded by people much worse off than they were themselves).
Don't misunderstand me: the "elites" claiming not to be on the left are exactly the same.
This is why there was such a thing as an "alternative right" (non-dogmatic, non-ideological) and why the powers that be prioritized corrupting it into something entirely different.
The most greedy (and hated) generation ever to exist (who came of age in the 1960ies) couldn't let anything like that happen.
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Aug 19 2019 13:26 utc | 134
30+ minute with David Icke on topic of leftists warmongering, propaganda, Trump and 5g/surveillance, better than you think:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaUKOQ4rsdQ
Posted by: Zanon | Aug 19 2019 14:01 utc | 135
5000 British Steel workers privatized(Scunthorpe and Teeside), to foreign entity (Oyak) how about that, private wealth continues to abuse the masses in the state to get even richer.. never mind the locals or the corruption of law or mankind that allowed this to happen
Turkish military Enters Idlib but see the next link were the Syrian government wiped them out and Turkey is gobbling that Assad had no business destroying weapons heading to Terrorist.
Turkey angry b/c Syria destroyed weapons delivery intended for Terrorist in Idlib Imagine that Turkey Angry when Assad responds?
In spite of Goondongle's speech, publication & comment denial and fact distortion, content rearranging and message disappearing services, these things keep popping up..
Posted by: snake | Aug 19 2019 14:09 utc | 136
climate science and the science behind vaccines are not "liberal". moreover, there is no evidence that i am aware of that the antivaxers and those who believe the science on climate change are the same groups--more the opposite; see nemesis calling.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Aug 19 2019 14:09 utc | 137
@ Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 19 2019 13:20 utc | 133
So what if Keynes put "theory" in his book's title? All the neoclassics call their doctrines "theories" (including the neoliberal one, the monetarists). Just parroting "lower interest!", "tax cuts!", "more QE!", "helicopter money!", "workers are freeloaders!" in the halls of Washington D.C. doesn't make you a theorist. Marx created a theory. Keynes, Friedman et caterva didn't create any theory -- at least theory in the rigorous sense of the word.
And Keynes diagnosis of the Great Depression was wrong: capitalism is not a system in equilibrium that is suscetible to external shocks. There's no such a thing as "aggregate demand". The capitalist world recovered because WWII destroyed old and unproductive capital in order to give space to newer, more productive capital. FDR's policies were a monumental failure until WWII bailed him out.
And Keynes' aggregate demand cum animal spirits "theory" doesn't automatically imply lower interest rates: it became synonym with lower interest rates because he became fashionable precisely in a historical moment of death of the gold standard (dollar-gold standard) and the birth of the fiat money system (dollar standard). If Keynes was born at the apex of the gold standard, he would be preaching for higher interest rates because his concept of aggregate demand would require him to do so. Indeed, that's why Keynes was born (as an economist) at the beginnign of the 20th Century, and not at the beginning of the 19th Century.
Keynes theory doesn't make any sense in socialist China for one very simple reason: there, the government owns the (strategic) means of production. When the PBOC lowers (or rises) interest rates, they are feeding their own "property". You also forgot to mention the Chinese government has been cutting taxes both for small and medium businesses and the working classes -- that's not on the Keynesians' textbook. They can do that because they have other sources of revenue -- a feature no other capitalist government has.
Since it became clear China is a success story, every Western "school" of economics has been claiming paternity: the Austrians (!!) claim China is the "most open (liberal) country of the world"; the neoliberals claim China is a capitalist success story; the Keynesians claim China is a keynesian success story. They are all false, because those Western "theories" don't apply to China. The interpretation that China is keynesian is a distortion the Western left makes when oberving the country from the outside. These absurd distortions happen for one simple reason: Westerners have only lived under capitalism, so it's normal for them to see the world with capitalist lens; we can observe that phenomenon in Hollywoodian science fiction movies, where events in the far future follow a capitalist logic/system.
" I'm not on the left and have no idea what is supposed to be the "past glories" of western leftists; to me they've always been exactly the same as those who now rule and who loves nothing more than bombing people to death, nagging people to death, and talking people to death all while singing their own praise. Merkel, Blair, and Stoltenberg come to mind as prime examples people might have heard of outside of Europe....
Sunny Runny Burger @134
Are you telling us that the three people cited are "leftists" ?
Posted by: bevin | Aug 19 2019 14:25 utc | 139
In re compelling people to get injections see the Nuremberg ethics requirement. searchterm> "The Nuremberg Code"
Informed consent is the international law.
No person can know what's in that syringe when the cat in a white coat smiles, can they?
Anyway, print a few copies and leave them at the doctors office, or at the bulletin board? No, that would be subversive... geewhiz.
.....................
In other newz, it is said (Aljazeera) that Red AF stopped the Turks on their way to reinforce Idlib...
"No" means no when Pappy Vlad sez no...or does it?
Posted by: Walter | Aug 19 2019 14:27 utc | 140
Russiagate is dead, long live race-baiting.
Democratic strategists have decided Russiagate is a loser as an issue
so their coins are now betting on race-baiting.
Headline:
Trump Slams NYT After Leaker Reveals Pivot From 'Russiagate' To 'Racism Witch Hunt'
Yesterday, the day after Antifa took it's violence to the streets of Portland,
Bernie Sanders joined in and declared WAR.
B.S.: "We Will Go to War With White Nationalism"
https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1162862945124139008/video/1
Today the center headline at Reuters is no longer Russiagate, today it is (you guessed it) Race:
Headline:
"For Trump, appeals to white fears about race may be a tougher sell in 2020: poll"
The subtext under the headline is this:
President Donald Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric and focus on the grievances of white voters helped him win the 2016 election. But his brand of white identity politics may be less effective in 2020.
Russiagate is dead.
Race-baiting is the next horse.
Posted by: librul | Aug 19 2019 14:30 utc | 141
Posted by: vk | Aug 19 2019 14:10 utc | 138
You are correct. Keynes is about state intervention not state ownership. China is about private innovation not private ownership.
Keynes most definitively is not about businessmen being Communist Party members.
Posted by: somebody | Aug 19 2019 14:44 utc | 142
45# Sasha 18 august 2019 19h40 utc
Hello Sasha,thanks for your comments,in general.
To compare the hongkong girl who lost her eye:
Here you see the wounds caused by french police violence,with about twenty five lost eyes,and five lost hands.Of cours the french regime states that it's their own fault,because they should have stayes at home.
Posted by: willie | Aug 19 2019 14:50 utc | 143
Shareholder Value Is No Longer Everything, Top C.E.O.s Say
A coalition of executives issued a statement saying that a corporation’s primary job should no longer be to advance the interests of shareholders.
Instead, it argues, companies must invest in employees and deliver value to customers. The nearly 200 signers included the leaders of Apple and JPMorgan.[...]
The statement was signed by nearly 200 chief executives, including the leaders of Apple, American Airlines, Accenture, AT&T, Bank of America, Boeing and BlackRock.
So, are the American capitalists afraid of something or what?...
@ 141 librul
Well, this "white nationalist" believes that Bernie has officially jumped the shark by piggybacking on these fringe non-issues.
4 more years! Of American decline.
Posted by: Nemesiscalling | Aug 19 2019 15:20 utc | 145
S @114--
Thanks for your reply! I'd very much like to visit Eurasia again to see most of it instead of the snippet I saw in 1998. Alas, that won't happen anytime soon. The tour I envision visiting all the Imperial capital cities would take several months at minimum. I must laugh at those NATO nations for not taking Russia's challenge.
Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 19 2019 15:23 utc | 146
India re Kashmir - Jammu and vs. Pakistan.
A fight for water resources, hidden from the public.
Ex. Strafor (i'm no fan but..)
Has a Water-Sharing Pact Between Pakistan and India Grown Stagnant?
No secret that drought and higher temps in India will wreak havock and lead to millions of deaths.
One ex. top of goog.
Experts needed to track the water / its origins / its control / distribution / the agreements / and more.
Posted by: Noirette | Aug 19 2019 15:26 utc | 147
A @ 129 said;"Of course, it might not be vaccines. It might ‘just’ be glyphosate breakfast cereal."
Yep!,sprayed on most wheat fields, before harvest, to "dry" out product, so the machines don't gum up...
Just another profits over health concerns solution...
Posted by: ben | Aug 19 2019 15:36 utc | 148
l @ 141 opined;"Russiagate is dead.
Race-baiting is the next horse.
Hey, but it keeps the issue of "healthcare" out of discussions. Perfect.
Posted by: ben | Aug 19 2019 15:39 utc | 149
@NemesisCalling #96
It is clear you have a libertarian viewpoint and agenda.
I'm not focusing on political aspects, but rather the supposed "good of all" aspects for both climate change and vaccinations.
Yes, ultimately frustrated climate panic-mongers turn towards authoritarianism to get their agenda enacted, but that's no different than any other political group.
Posted by: c1ue | Aug 19 2019 16:30 utc | 150
(I am a Green voter)
Thanks ben @148,
Was thinking along that line, too.
Way back in 2015 (or before?) I was early in pegging
Bernie Sanders (B.S.) as a shill for Hillary Clinton.
I didn't necessarily believe it was his intention, but
effectively he was a shill. I am still undecided.
I argued - imagine the Democratic primary race without the
excitement that Bernie brings, just corrupt and arrogant
dull Hillary by herself. And I argued, prophetically, that in the end
B.S. would graciously hand his voters over to Hillary.
I am not a prophet, that was easy to see coming.
Intentional shill or hapless shill?
People bought into the excitement, and when they learned through leaked
emails how rigged it all had been, they **still** went ahead
and voted for the corrupt, arrogant puppet master.
Yesterday I looked at Bernie from a different angle.
I considered how much Bernie had participated in the Russiagate psyop.
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/02/01/responding-to-bernies-promotion-of-the-new-cold-war/
[Russiagate psyop: "designed to manipulate the public into consenting
to geopolitical agendas"]
Has Bernie Sanders been a shill for the warmonger's geopolitical agendas?
All the while he is selling social proposals that he will never ever get
he is aiding/enabling a geopolitical agenda that we ARE getting.
Posted by: librul | Aug 19 2019 16:32 utc | 151
@NemesisCalling #100
I don't disagree that modern medical theory - sanitation is a part, but so has isolation of infected people and the use of antibiotics - has impacted the prevalence and spread of many diseases.
What is far less clear, however, is your assertion that sanitation and other medical practices - but excluding vaccination - is all that is needed.
While I'm not a medical professional, I do understand that one of the risks of having an active latent population of disease is the possibility of its mutation into a more deadly and/or virulent form. Reducing or removing all incidence of disease in a population is the only way to affect this potential outcome.
Ultimately, the issue is whether you are willing to give up some personal freedom in order to participate in the communal benefits of society. Unless you go completely off-grid: no roads or other infrastructure use - including communications like the internet, no manufactured goods, no education, etc - it seems quite narrow-visioned to want to have the cake of absolute freedom and eat the cake of societal benefit, too.
Posted by: c1ue | Aug 19 2019 16:36 utc | 152
@ vk # 144 with the Business Roundtable link...thanks
In the 50 year history of this group the number one priority has always been shareholder value. This reeks of circling the corporate wagons but without saying anything about the inherent globalization/outsourcing contradictions they still adhere to.
Back when "We the people..." still had some say in the world, corporations were limited by charters to operate in specific states for a specific purpose. There is a 2003 Corporations video I can't find a free link to, and once bought a copy of but can't find, that fairly clearly lays out the history of US corporations.
I am all for a mixed economy that includes private organizations but that economy should be architected as a primarily collective venture serving "We the people..." instead of the elite that own global private finance.
I believe China is showing the way in this but we are still in the war to decide that very existential question about who controls the central lifeblood of finance tools/money going forward.
Civilization/socialism or barbarism is still the question in front of us.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 19 2019 16:41 utc | 153
@Arakawa #115
I had a business partner pick up the mumps a couple years ago - that prompted me to do some research into it (we are fortunately geographically separated).
Mumps is tough to vaccinate against because it changes its spots much like influenza. There are also many varieties.
As for whether an 88% effective vaccine is worthwhile: the short answer is yes.
A simple experiment: if 1000 people are exposed but normal infection rate is 25%, you end up with 250 potential spreaders of the disease. If the same 1000 people were vaccinated, you would have only 30 people as potential spreaders of the disease. The percentage of exposed --> infected, who in turn can spread a disease (vectors) asymmetrically affects the ability of the disease to spread.
Put another way: Chloramphenicol is one of the early antibiotics discovered. It is still used, but only topically. Injection or consumption is greatly discouraged unless there is no alternative, because something like 0.5% of people taking it get a severe allergic reaction up to and including death.
It is getting a new life, however, as it appears to have promise against MRSA - resistant bacteria.
Posted by: c1ue | Aug 19 2019 16:50 utc | 154
To the vaccination folks I would suggest this is another area that is poisoned and advances stifled by profit
The "new" science of biology, IMO, points to Archaea, Bacteria and Eukaryotes as the building blocks of all living things and the link below the new "theory of evolution"
Symbiogenesis: the holobiont as a unit of evolution
Focus on profit instead of human advancement is the problem I continue to point out.
We will never have all the answers but I would much more trust health options that don't have profit as a reason they exist.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 19 2019 16:53 utc | 155
@pretzelattack #137
Climate science is actually liberal, because most science is heavily skewed liberal. Climate panic-mongering is overwhelmingly liberal.
In any case, your contribution this time continues your long record of adding zero value to any discussion.
This case is particularly egregious. Your assert that anti-vaxxers aren't liberal. Even disregarding the super-heavy blue state location of anti-vaxxers, there is very much an overlap between anti-vaxxers and homeopathic believers, organic food proponents etc.
NemesisCalling only cares about vaccinations because it is yet another symptom of "too much government" - which is also a liberal outcome.
Posted by: c1ue | Aug 19 2019 16:53 utc | 156
psychohistorian @ Aug 19 2019 16:41
re corporations
In late 1800's as Rockefeller sought to incorporate the birth of his Standard Oil empire, there were specific barriers in obtaining a Corporation Charter, such as specifying exact limits on what business practices and areas of operation would be covered.
To receive the important benefits of an official Charter to operate as a Corporation, it could only operate "for the public good" and "in the public interest", under threat of the Charter being revoked by the State issuing the Charter.
Since the benefits include, most importantly, limits on liability for the owners and officers, protecting them against personal liability, revoking the Charter to operate is a real danger.
Maybe this offers a way to controlling Corporations that do not behave? Or are Corporate Charters now somehow immune to revocation>
As far as I know, "for the public good" and "in the public interests" are still in force and thus
Posted by: chu teh | Aug 19 2019 17:23 utc | 157
@ 155 c1ue
I prefer not to be labeled so simply as just a libertarian. I have outlined my reasons for being skeptical of mandated vaccination programs that is grounded in science as well as the open question as to the medical ethic behind such intrusion. It is not enough to say that it is too much government. Indeed, as a nationalist, I believe that government should assert its authority over and reign in the globalists.
Posted by: Nemesiscalling | Aug 19 2019 17:31 utc | 158
psychohistorian | Aug 19 2019 16:53 utc | 154
"The "new" science of biology, IMO, points to Archaea, Bacteria and Eukaryotes as the building blocks of all living things and the link below the new "theory of evolution"
Sorry, this is decades old stuff. Where the focus can be depends apparently on the frame in which this research is done. What do you expect from science done in the West in this moment? This is no „new“ theory of evolution. Margulis rather contributes to the „old“ theory of evolution. Nothing wrong about it.
Posted by: Hausmeister | Aug 19 2019 17:35 utc | 159
@Noirette #146
Higher temperatures and drought lead to farmers suffering, that's not news.
The question is: is it different this time?
This research article notes that there are 7 droughts in the past 150 years in India, but famine was only a factor in some of them.
We show that over this century and a half period, India experienced seven major drought periods (1876–1882, 1895–1900, 1908–1924, 1937–1945, 1982–1990, 1997–2004, and 2011–2015) based on severity‐area‐duration analysis of reconstructed soil moisture. Out of six major famines (1873–74, 1876, 1877, 1896–97, 1899, and 1943) that occurred during 1870–2016, five are linked to soil moisture drought, and one (1943) was not. The three most deadly droughts (1877, 1896, and 1899) were linked with the positive phase of El Niño–Southern Oscillation. Five major droughts were not linked with famine, and three of those five nonfamine droughts occurred after Indian independence in 1947.
Posted by: c1ue | Aug 19 2019 17:40 utc | 160
Just to be clear about vaccination... Everybody seems to miss the point, which I thought was obvious.
My point is that since the injectee can not know what is in the syringe.
(and generally this is also true, also obviously, for the white coat)
It is therefore absolutely clear that each specific injection of a putative "vaccine" is in objective fact, an experiment.
It may be good or bad, you can't know in advance, it's an experiment.
Experiments require, repeat, require, informed consent. Period. Very often the injection is beneficial, I do not dispute that, but informed consent is vital.
Compulsory "vaccination" is prohibited under Nuremberg Code. Nazi doctors were hanged for this.
That's all, just a war crime...move along there....
Posted by: Walter | Aug 19 2019 18:11 utc | 161
Walter | Aug 19 2019 18:11 utc | 159
"It may be good or bad, you can't know in advance, it's an experiment.“
Yes, like any other medical treatment.Nobody can know the result in advance.
"Compulsory "vaccination" is prohibited under Nuremberg Code."
Sorry, this is kind of a hysterical overreaction.One piece is missing: informed consent with the people who are attacked by non-vaccinators. Vaccination should not be applied to eremites in case there is no consent.
Posted by: Hausmeister | Aug 19 2019 18:31 utc | 162
re Syria
A recommendation, Al-Masdar News has an article on the current operations around Khan Sheikhun, based on a 20-minute video by ANNA News. I found it very informative, it lets you grasp what it’s like there at the moment. If you want to watch the video, be advised, lots of dead soldiers with faces not very thoroughly pixelated. Watching the video, I couldn’t help but admire the SAA troops shown there (Tiger Forces). Some busy elderly commanders, though mostly pretty young guys but with very straight faces – something you don’t see in the West. They’re also showing and interviewing 2 prisoners from the Takfirists. These, too, are very young, guys in the prime of their youth, healthy and strong. They seemed pretty regular guys, not crazed-out, not fanatical, just matter-of-fact-ly. They seemed a bit shy of the camera. I could easily picture them sitting around a hookah with friends, at some urban café. Makes me wonder, what drives these people to risk their lives on the side of insanity and savagery? Is it really just the money? Because these 2 didn’t seem like believers to me…
Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Aug 19 2019 19:02 utc | 163
No doubt Herr Doctor Mengele would applaud, friend.
Try refutation in logic next time. The simple stuff don't work.
Posted by: Walter | Aug 19 2019 19:15 utc | 164
Walter | Aug 19 2019 19:15 utc | 164
Ok, my prejudice confirmed now. "No doubt Herr Doctor Mengele would applaud, ..." says it all. One can drive any thought into nonsense. Nothing new.
Posted by: Hausmeister | Aug 19 2019 19:22 utc | 165
@ Hausmeister with the response to my biology comment
I admit to only know a little bit but have been having discussions with US biology folk that say that the endocannabinoids in humans are there because of "chance" which I find impossible to believe. I think we are what we consume and our development of endocannabinoid receptors were the result of an evolutionary consumption of plant material that had the requisite chemicals spawning such receptors.
That is why, from the biologists I am exposed to, the old biology knowledge that you think this is doesn't seem to have made it to my part of the West.....they will get back to me when they have a chance to study the mitochondria.......
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 19 2019 19:43 utc | 166
#90@Christian Chuba
The color on the graph is tan for non-Syrian militias and gold for Hezb. My guess is that Hezb's casualties rate is so low proportionately, that they are less than 1%. Some of the non-Syrian militias would include Palestinian units (who, unlike MB, mostly support the government of Syria which has given them refuge).
Posted by: Rusty Pipes | Aug 19 2019 19:47 utc | 167
psychohistorian | Aug 19 2019 19:43 utc | 166
With such interactions between endocannabinoid receptors in humans and certain plant compounds it is more likely that the human endocannabinoid system evolved first, and before humans evolved. Normally certain plants develop protection systems against being grazed and within this stuff THC and friends may be. Evolution did not develop a plan at an early stage to enlighten species that were not yet existing. ;-)
Posted by: Hausmeister | Aug 19 2019 19:58 utc | 168
vk@138
"If Keynes was born at the apex of the gold standard,"
He was.
It was not until the end of the C19th that the Gold Standard became universally accepted.
Before the 1880s bi-metallism was the norm. As late as 1896 the coining of silver at 16:1 was wildly popular in the US.
Posted by: bevin | Aug 19 2019 23:30 utc | 169
Saw some discussion here on mump vaccine and its effectiveness. Most dont know Merck is alleged to have committed major fraud in overstating its effectiveness in the licensing of the MMR vaccine. Thanks to whistlebowers the case is in trial now. MSM downplaying it/ignoring it. You can google it if interested
I would recommend kennedys site childrens health defense for more information on vaccines. Dr Suzanne Humphries book Dissolving Illusions is an excellent start on understanding many of these childhood diseases history and how all were in great decline due to sanitation before vaccines
Someone try to explain Hep B vaccines given to newborns at zero risk, flu vaccines being recommended for pregnant women despite no testing, FDA approving vaccines that are not tested against a true placebo (saline), no liability for vaccine makers since 1986 confirmed by supreme court because they are “unavoidably unsafe”, and an explosion in childrens chronic illness from 16% to 54% since 1986 when far fewer vaccines were given to children, the lack of studies showing the effect on children who adhere to vaccine schedule vs those who groups are unvaccinated by choice (hence the move to eliminate the latter group to ensure such a study is never done/) and autism rates up from 1 in 2500 to 1 in 36 earning a shrug and comment that its a mystery but lets continue business as usual
Meanwhile, similar safety concerns from glyphosate, genetically modified food, RF EMF, gene edited livestock, etc are likewise ignored as life expectancy begins to decline, fertility rates and IQ plummet.
But contrast this with the hysteria over CO2, a harmless gas needed for life. Food for the gods and plants.
Lets face it. The corruption of science is complete.
Posted by: Pft | Aug 20 2019 0:42 utc | 170
@ 170 pft
To add to your list, how about the recent revelation that the DTap for pertussis in children does not prevent infection or carriers, only minimizing symptoms, allegedly. How about that! School districts nationwide still require a vaccine that offers no protection to others and, in fact, may be more dangerous because ir obscures symptoms! Take a look at that, pft. How stupid that more parents aren't aware of this when every winter brings a new minor whooping cough outbreak which fuels the scorn of non-immunized children and their parents. Pathetic!
What's more with the MMR is that they are continually stressing the need for boosters, which is not endearing them to the crowd which favors the longevity of acquired natural immunity which is perhaps 4x as powerful (5 years and booster compared to ~20 years natural immunity).
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Aug 20 2019 1:44 utc | 171
I am not a Republican. My analysis was from unaligned anti-gerrymandering articles lamenting how California Democrats gamed the system and gerrymandered California all to Hell. Fact: if Republicans had proportional representation here in this state, they would have 15 more CA seats in the House because 1/3 of the state is Republican. Instead they have something like 1/10 of the CA seats in the House. So this needs to be explained. So either the Republicans got screwed out of 15 seats by accident or something was afoot as the activists say.
Both parties gerrymander. Get over it. CA is now a one-party state, so expect the shenanigans to get worse and worse. There's two kinds of politicians: bad and worse. They don't go into it because they're nice people. They go into it because they have elevated psychopathy scores.
I guess I will leave it to you to explain how Republicans got screwed out of 15 seats by accident.
The Republicans are not even talking about this for some reason. I think they refuse to call Dems on their gerrymandering for fear it will call attention to the Republicans' own gerrymandering. The only people complaining about this are liberals against the whole mess.
I am a Leftist. I even hate Democrats because they're too rightwing. Nice try calling me a Republican! But unlike 99% of humans, I am not a black and white, my side is 100% good and the other side is 100% bad thinker. I even support some Trump policies even though I despise him and his politics in general. I give credit where it's due and call it like it is. If my side is acting bad, I am going to call them on their shit!
Posted by: Robert Lindsay | Aug 20 2019 3:26 utc | 172
1) What about all the thousands of 737 MAX planes Boeing already made? Melt 'em down? Re-Engine and re-Badge as Classic? I assume this would be during the government ownership of the company, intended to socialize the losses until the profit motor can be restarted. Because of this fiasco, I'm going to be avoiding flying from now on, and I realize now, I should have been supporting trains all along.
2) Gerrymandering has no effect on Presidential elections, because the Electors are determined by state-wide vote.. Democratic voters are in clear majority in California, AFAIK.
In Texas, Democratic voters are in minority in overal votes, and even less so in district local, state, and national elections due to gerrymandering, but when Democrats have districts, they have 88% Decmocratic districts, which means they could all have Our Revolution victories if the party even tried. Meanwhile, the Republican districts are 53%, which means they could all be flipped under the right circumstances.
This is not to say that California is a true Liberal Paradise. Many historical and recent govenors have been Republicans, including Reagan, Arnold, and so on. In power, Democratic politicians sell out their base as well or better than the most devious Republicans--who don't have to lie as much because Republicans large or small don't see a social problem with inequality anyway. Financial centers and managers and doctors are just as Republican as they are anywhere, and there's a general tilt toward Republican-ness as you go south along with the usual urban/exurban divide. If it weren't for the Bay Area, California's overall division would not be much different than Texas.
Posted by: Charles Peterson | Aug 20 2019 7:54 utc | 173
Charles Koch and Friedrich Hayek privately liking Social Security and Medicare
The cynicism is mindblowing.
Posted by: somebody | Aug 20 2019 10:09 utc | 174
Note everybody that > @ Hausmeister | Aug 19 2019 19:22 utc | 165 has attempted a crude trick in rhetoric - he avoided addressing the logic and reverted to contempt, a form of ad-homenim. This is, in the science of semantics, considered evidence that he has no logical refutation but in fact is (though he does not like it) in agreement with my statement that the Nuremberg Code prohibits medical experiments (such as vaccines) without informed consent. Mandatory injections are obviously illegal. Nazis were hanged for this crime. He has in effect agreed with this fact.
Posted by: Walter | Aug 20 2019 10:41 utc | 175
Another hint that someone is indeed attacking Iraq...
Iraq takes security measures following mysterious blasts blamed on Israel
Unauthorized flights banned, munitions depots moved outside major cities after deadly massive explosion Monday in Baghdadhttps://www.timesofisrael.com/iraq-takes-security-measures-following-mysterious-blasts-blamed-on-israel/
Posted by: Zanon | Aug 20 2019 10:54 utc | 176
Walter | Aug 20 2019 10:41 utc | 175
No, you use a trick here. Any medical treatment is an experiment with unknown result. Face it! And when it comes to vaccinations that admittedly have risks, the main problem is of course how to behave to people who want to reject it. What is your proposal to move the risk away from those who are vaccinated? Treat the non-vaccinators like people behaved to victims of leprosy? Or do what the Nikobarian islanders do with any foreigner: kill him before he can enter their place?
Just for being curious: you enter a train, or a car, or an airplane? ;-)
Filter-bubbled people can be headache.
Posted by: Hausmeister | Aug 20 2019 11:51 utc | 177
@3
You are totally wrong. The city of London is panicking at the prospect of capital flight for China. Europe is negative interest land. The FT keeps writing against Chinese reforms.
Posted by: j | Aug 20 2019 12:06 utc | 178
@91
You are very introspective. There is no doubt that there is a connection between Iran and globalists, as evidenced by their handling of the Trump-Iran conflict. The Israel-Iran-neocon cooperation is a much stretched concept on the other hand. What is the purpose?
Posted by: j | Aug 20 2019 12:27 utc | 180
@102
Milton Friedman would not want to call himself Keynesian today...
Posted by: j | Aug 20 2019 12:39 utc | 181
Keynesian: This has multiple meanings. Keynes disavowed the term, much as Marx disavowed Marxism and Lenin's widow disavowed Leninism.
The most common use is also most illegitimate. That is the "Keynesianism" of IS=LM, which relates interest rates to everything else, within an "equilibrium" economic model. It was actually developed by J R Hicks, starting with his paper "Mr. Keynes and the Classics." This tendency in economics displaced everything else for a few decades in the USA. But here's the problem, Keynes himself was not an Equilibrium economist. Keynes was what we'd now call a Heterodox economist, and his thinking was better continued by Minsky a few decades later. Toward the end of his life, Hicks admitted his economics was not really an extension of Keynes, it was Equilibrium economics with a slight Keynesian flavor, and not as general as he originally thought. Keynes "General Theory" really is more general, it does not presume equilibrum, in fact, toward the back, it becomes very concerned with randomness--the opposite of equilibrum. Equilibrium economics was intended to be more "scientific" but in fact is far less so. It's more like an attempt to apply formulas from physics to economics. It was developed toward the end of the 19th century by Jevons, Walras, and Menger. That it works at all is almost magic, and is used in enormously complex models to this day, but it's far from perfect, and has a distinct bias which you might call "conservative." It's also based on the general "Market" ideas of Adam Smith, so the direct extension of Equilibrium Economics became Classical economics which then became Neoclassical Economics, and has been the #1 school of economics in the anglo world since the decline of "Keynesian" economics, which is equilibrium economics also, but with a slight Keynesian flavor which somewhat masks the rotten smell. Keynsian has evolved too, into Neokeynesian and Post Keynesian, the latter being heterodox is really more like Keynes himself.
Boiled down to the minimum, the Keynesian insight is just this: we can stimulate demand, which is sometimes needed, using fiscal policy just as well as monetary policy, and this is especially important when interest rates are already close to zero. Now this should seem pretty obvious, but for the previous two centuries central banking had stayed far away from such ideas, and you can imagine why. Central banking in the Anglo style had gotten quite good at raising and lowering interest rates to keep the economy from exploding or imploding, and this all predated Keynes. But, in the Great Depression, the wheels had come off the cart, and Keynes laid out the alternatives in his General theory.
Friedman's Monetarism was really nothing but Keynesianism of the IS=LM variety, but with a few terms renamed for disparagement purposes, as Friedman didn't believe the government should spend money. He thought monetary policy could be fine tuned to handle anything that came up. But when put to the test, from 1978 to 1982, it was a disaster, and then was quickly abandoned by central bankers, but continued as a school of politics which need never admit error.
Posted by: Charles Peterson | Aug 20 2019 15:02 utc | 182
Re: Vaccination, some facts and results affecting Portugal extracted here (in portuguese)
Eradicated - smallpox
Eliminated - poliomyelitis / diphtheria / measles / rubella / baby tetanus /
Controlled - tetanus / N. meningitidis C / influenzae b / hepatitis B / parotitis / pertussis (cough) / tuberculosis
Expectations - papillomavirus / pneumococcus
As of 2017, universal vaccination against tuberculosis is ended.
If you guys want to discuss the tension between the individual risk/benefit vs colective risk/benefit you should consider at least the following:
- epidemic magnitude
- lethality
- successful treatment without resorting to a vaccine
- vaccine effectiveness
- contagious behaviour varies significantly (air, water, deep wounds, saliva, sexual, etc)
- social costs ( required coverage / administration plan / availability / acquisition / production / licensing )
- ...
Usually the discussion I stumble upon is an all or nothing wrt to vaccination, which I find very poor.
Questions I pose myself:
- Are institutions doing the due diligence in everyone's interest when devising the national vaccination plan (PNV), specially with respect to mandating a vaccine or not? Do they develop own research given the country's specificity? Do they track records of vaccination successes/failures? Do they buy into anything as a mindless consumer instead?
- Unless I am a professional, which I am not, can I ask for a second opinion regarding a mandated and certify exclusion (self or descendant) from the PNV program given my particular disposition? Are there grounded reasons to be sceptical of any vaccine in particular?
Posted by: Vasco da Gama | Aug 20 2019 16:47 utc | 183
Vk @ 138
Lmao. Please continue. Your willingness to bare the ass of your historical ignorance apparently knows no bounds.
But good show. I do agree WWII set the stage for the resurgence of western capitalism moreso than the failed political economics of the depression era.
This failure was not due to the economics of fiscal stimulus but to the failure of the political will to continue applying more stimulus measures after the moribund economy showed signs of revival in the mid-thirties.
The decision to ease off after the the economy began to recover was premature to say the least. However, this doesn't mean the stimulus didn't work at all.
What it indicates is you don't know wtf you're talking about.
China deserves a much better acolyte. Their understanding of keynesian prescriptions to stimulate a downward trending economy is far better than yours.
Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 21 2019 2:11 utc | 184
Somebody @ 142
China is all about private innovation not private enterprise?
That doesn't even make sense in the context of the link you posted which seems to call for a forced reinvigoration of the long moribund SOE's through the private sector as the economy slows.
The private sector has already subsidised the SOE's for years as it is.
Seems to be a bit of panic setting into the populace. Welcome to the world of private wealth guys.
It will get truly interesting in coming years as the people gain more private wealth to see how the psychology shifts when they realise the value of assets they posses can also decline and not automatically rise.
Me, I've always found life more gratifying the less I own.
Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 21 2019 2:45 utc | 185
When a 'head' of State can think/write that, you know you have a problem
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1163961882945970176
Posted by: Mina | Aug 21 2019 11:18 utc | 186
@ Vasco da Gama | Aug 20 2019 16:47 utc | 183
My point was, and remains, solely the fact that compulsory injections are a violation of the Nuremberg Medical Ethics, ie illegal in internal law.
As to "effective", well sometimes the individual benefits and looses too.
searchterm "rockefeller sterilization tetanus africa" and read.
The keyword is not vaccine, it is force.
.....................
In another matter, Truth is Disinformation while lies are good... see>
"Disinforma*on as Collabora*ve Work: Surfacing the Par*cipatory Nature of Strategic Informa*on Opera*ons"
"Evaluating disinformation is less about the truth value of one or more pieces of information and more about how those pieces fit together to serve a particular purpose."
Seems that ifin dey doan a like what you say, then you're an "agent"...
Makes a fella proud, doanit?
Posted by: Walter | Aug 21 2019 12:43 utc | 187
@ Mina # 187 with the Trump twit about Greenland
How is it there is enough money for dying empire to wage wars all over the world, bully everyone and offer to buy Greenland but none for decent health care and infrastructure?
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 21 2019 15:06 utc | 188
You don't get it!! it people had proper healthcare they would become decadent! Our elites must prevent it. They care for us. Europe is now joining the US by the way. Thanks to Brussels recommendations, the privatization of the system has resulted in the following:
-not private, no appointment early enough
-no money, no private
Posted by: Mina | Aug 21 2019 16:50 utc | 189
Walter@188
In international law what is specified is, CCPR quote:
Article 7No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.
-
In Portugal, as it happens, the latter part in question is observed. Its national vaccination plan (PNV) does not include any compulsive vaccine, it does however "encourage" full up to date individual vaccination at early school enrolments, any parent/tutor can on the other hand dispute it (source, pt), and no law at present may prevent such enrolment, private education perhaps may fall under specific regulation.
Having said this, I think it is a stretch to plainly equate the object of Article 7 of the CCPR with a vaccination plan including medicaments subject to medical trials and certification (under wide technical scrutiny), see EMA.
-
Keep in mind also that vaccines included in the PNV vary along the time, according to a vaccination technical commission (CTV, pt) mandated to the effect, under the auspices of the Portuguese Assembly, which approves and is free to include/exclude any vaccine in particular. Under current PNV rules any such vaccine becomes universal and gratuitous (infer the social cost/benefit given the high individual price for certain vaccines, or its dual, inability for any family with insufficient resources to access them).
-
Portugal transposes European directives (relevant transposition), so I expect this scenario not being too different from other European countries (even the no enforcement characteristic). Can you provide examples of countries which do enforce such?
--
I did search "sterilization tetanus africa", this incident exceeds the scope of the discussion, since it refers to lacing a legitimate vaccine with a sterilization compound, which should be considered a crime anywhere, precisely circumventing all the barriers that should be in place to ensure tax-payers health safety. The fact that apparently UN and WHO itself failed their mission or even facilitated the crime is another question.
Our institutions being trustworthy and the object of their mission are not one and the same thing.
--
Are Big-Pharma very suspicious in their business practices and its products scientifically recommended, we do have reasons to be sceptical. Are our Institutions deviated from their missions by lobbying of said businesses, beyond any doubt.
You tell me...
Posted by: Vasco da Gama | Aug 21 2019 17:34 utc | 190
@ Vasco da Gama | Aug 21 2019 17:34 utc | 191
You're in abetter place, Friend.
Nobody can know whether a specific injection is as claimed or not. Indeed, the tetanus affair was a vaccine against fertility as well as tetanus. I do not see that crime as "outside the scope"...how so? Crimes often come in groups.
Mandatory injections as well as criminally fraudulent injections are both crimes.
I wrote about injections. One cannot know if it is a vaccine or not, or what the effects may be over time. It is, as the African example and many others show, always an experiment, and sometimes a secret experiment. How many are unknown?
CIA is well-known, by the way, for secret medical experiments.
The "medical services" in USA have lied many times. There is no reason to believe them.
And they pressure people to accept injections that are unnecessary - as I discovered, in USA (here in a small town) The medico staff at the hospital threatened me with denial of medical service (surgery) unless I accepted a tetanus shot that was mixed with a "vaccine" against childhood infections. The tetanus serum is available only in this mixed form, they claimed. Denial such as they attempted is a crime here as well.
I showed them the Nuremberg Code and asked them to sign a form I wrote that they understood that they were violating it.
Then they changed their "tune"...I got the surgery without the unnecessary risk of danger from injection that was unnecessary.
(I probably would have taken a chance on the tetanus injection if it were proffered by a trusted doctor and was solely a tetanus jab. Trust-worthy doctors nowadays in USA are pretty rare...most have become delusional or transferred out of the profession. However, I am old enough to have been vaccinated in simpler times, even against smallpox, and work often with animals (which tends to create a frequent natural "vaccination")
Posted by: Walter | Aug 21 2019 18:52 utc | 191
Walter@192
I was a bit categorical, I meant "outside the discussion" so far.
I am attempting not to throw the baby with the bathwater, ie. Vaccines vs Vaccines* as cover for ulterior purposes. I relate a national vaccination program with the former, and relate the Kenya type incidents with the latter. Given their passing on peer-reviewed human trials a vaccination program does not fall anymore under violation of Article 7, IMHO, totally altering the nature of what is being experimented with, therefore unrelated with the medical crimes, produced absent any lawful scrutiny, which later gave rise to the Nuremberg Code.
*in this sense, could be anything besides vaccines.
--
I showed them the Nuremberg Code and asked them to sign a form I wrote that they understood that they were violating it.Then they changed their "tune"...I got the surgery without the unnecessary risk of danger from injection that was unnecessary.
Must congratulate you for your success there. Remind them how they might become justifiably accountable should work often. If indeed there exists some obscure intentions behind some practices, people in reception desks are not the most keen willing to pay for the consequences, and that should suffice. I do notice the inversion of onus, it increasingly falls on the awake to go the extra mile, and we simply can't be awake to everything, which is a pickle no doubt.
--
An argument I've given some credit against vaccines on its proper ground was the trade-off for short-term immunologic strength against a long-term weakness, related with a limit in anti-bodies budget of some kind, where there would be a maximum count of pathologies the immunologic system could identify throughout an individual's lifetime, and through vaccines we would be perhaps mindlessly exhausting that budget. I have never seen this properly validated, and again, as it happens with many other things we can't be sufficiently conscious about, we can hardly trust institutions anymore to replace that judgement with our own, given their affiliation with Big-Profit. There's the pickle again.
Posted by: Vasco da Gama | Aug 21 2019 20:14 utc | 192
As an adjunct, recently I went to a pharmacist to get a prescription filled. I asked the lady (a very nice & smart lady) what the chemical name of the drug was. She looked blank... I went on and said what's the IUPAC nomenclature for this drug?
"What?" She asked honestly, not offended.
"You didn't take chemistry?" (This was obvious to us both at this point)
"No, that was dropped from the curriculum the year before I started pharmacy school."
She was shocked, so was I. Nice gal, I bought an old IUPAC Handbook at the thrift store and gave it to her.
Man, I knew that stuff in high school. We had to memorize the periodic table in the 7th grade... Standards have fallen off badly - imagine, a pharmacist with zero chemistry. What could go wrong?
Posted by: Walter | Aug 21 2019 22:24 utc | 193
@ psychohistorian | Aug 19 2019 2:29 utc | 99
Thank you for the valuable information and personal attestation regarding neuromodulation. It will be of much help in my discussions of not-very-mainstream treatment modalities.
(I'm not sure if this is consistent with what you would like to see in our health care systems, but my model for good health care is based on Razi's life and perspective: give the very best treatment to every patient, even if it costs the provider more & educate people to become their own medical practitioners as much as possible. Medical care should be decided between only two parties: patient & physician.)
Posted by: Anacharsis | Aug 22 2019 1:36 utc | 194
@ Anacharsis #195 with the thanks for my neuromodulation comment
Neurofeedback using QEEG with the associated zscore/SLoreta and tDCS were the major contributors to my recovery. Ping me if I can provide more detail
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 22 2019 2:45 utc | 195
Two Wednesday quotes from Trump
"
“We’re holding thousands of ISIS fighters right now,” the president said. “And Europe has to take them. And if Europe doesn’t take them, I’ll have no choice but to release them into the countries from which they came. Which is Germany and France and other places.”
"
"
“The fake news, of which many of you are members, is trying to convince the public to have a recession,” the president said. “Let’s have a recession!”
"
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 22 2019 5:31 utc | 196
Walter, let me also share back with you some material anecdotes:
- My mother always told me this story which went around my birth, she was in a foreign country, before having learned the language, and, under some despair, she went to the pharmacy looking for hydrogen peroxide. She scribbled H2O2 in a piece of paper. Her satisfaction for knowing an universal language for such a critical moment was always present in her voice when remembering the event. She had exercised the profession some years earlier.
- When taking my joint physics-chemistry lab class electrolysis was mentioned, wanting to impress my teacher, I revealed I had done it at home going for electricity (did not mention the acid), she doubted me, but then I told her what I had used for anode and cathode, but specially how I had acquired sulfate in a pharmacy, along with silver nitrate for another experiment, both weighted and neatly packed in paper. She believed and asked me to describe the process to the class. I never got back to chemistry after... or so I thought.
- Chance induced me into a different profession, mechanic, which a friend of mine has already retired from. He was naturally very supportive during my new endeavour, providing me with sources, the ins and outs of. He mentioned a "bible" he used in his back pocket in his days, pretty common in the academy and later at work. Last year, he offered me his copy, leaving me speechless. Before his offer I was skimming unsearchable .pdfs of standards to no end.
- Literally, two or three months ago, my father asked me to artificially age a recent photo, his client was not exactly satisfied with the digitally induced age, he wanted "real old". I went to the pharmacy asking for silver nitrate, thinking only internet could solve my needs... to my relative surprise the lady there reached behind the counter and showed me a pack of darkened vials of silver nitrate. By contrast, I was reminded of the "farmácia" still written with the "ph" of old where medicine was mixed on the hour according to individual prescription or needs.
Next, as you may suspect is following from these events, I am going to take the degree in crab picking.
Posted by: Vasco da Gama | Aug 22 2019 20:21 utc | 197
I love the mean, incisive wit of MoA - always accurate, alert and on point.
Absolutely beautifully written, cutting, supreme and never any BS - well done B and all of you constructive commentators out there.
Thank you all so much and please keep it up, we are right behind you and we are winning.
Posted by: Entry Point | Aug 25 2019 9:49 utc | 198
The comments to this entry are closed.
@ 100 addendum
In my prior post, I meant to address the mortality rate of measles, which you can view here. As you can see, the death rate from measles fell off a cliff and this was indeed before the advent of the first measles vaccine. If the measles virus ceases to be a mortal threat through the effects of sanitation, is it worth the invasive and infringing compulsion of mandated vaccination?
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Aug 19 2019 2:45 utc | 101