ZeroHedge says the whistleblower had a professional relationship with one of the Dem primary candidates. We know he worked in the White House at some point. CIA officer attached as an adviser to Vice President Biden’s office? Should be possible to identify this guy.

Posted by: lysias | Oct 9 2019 0:14 utc | 103

@ dennis in comment #106 who broke the web page formatting….not being a regular that I recognize I wonder if your abuse of MoA was intentional
Below are the last two paragraphs from one of the Michael Hudson’s links that karlof1 provided and which I found well written and appropriate to today
”
Since 2008, Wall Street investment banks have obtained much more wealth by capital gains (asset-price gains for
real estate, bonds and stocks) and investment fees than from interest. This has led them to press the government
for policies to inflate asset sheets more than provide credit for industry. Europe has followed suit. The upshot is that
banks both in Europe and America have gained control over government policy to become the main suppliers of the
economy’s money and receive public subsidy and favors. Their capture of the government’s financial, regulatory and
policy-making institutions has led to a policy bias favoring creditors over debtors. In terms of monetary policy, creditors
always have advocated downward commodity prices and wages. But since the 1980s they also have favored debt-leveraged
inflation of real estate, stock and bond prices to create “capital” gains via low-interest “soft money” policies.
The European Central Bank’s withdrawal of credit to Greek banks under the Syriza government is reminiscent of Jackson’s
war against banks not favorable to his own political control. And the European Central Bank’s support of the largest banks
and bondholders at the cost of domestic taxpayers has imposed monetary deflation on Eurozone countries, reminiscent of
America’s 19th-century deflation before and after the Civil War.
”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 9 2019 1:53 utc | 105

For those who feel tempted to give the pro-empire fanbois and Sinophobes the benefit of the doubt, consider how the West’s imperialist mass media would be reporting on the following if it were happening in Hong Kong:
Ecuador: Public Radio Pulled Off Air For Reporting on Anti-Gov’t Protests

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 9 2019 10:35 utc | 107

I came across this on Al-Masdar News:
Houthi fighter armed with just a rifle captures Saudi military vehicle
They claim that this is a Saudi vehicle. But it is an LAV-25 (the US spawn of the Swiss Mowag Piranha II) which, however, is not supposed to be in the inventory of the Saudi army. It’s difficult to see any markings on this vehicle, but at 2:20 you can see a red crescent on white background. This doesn’t strike me as Saudi.
So what does it all mean? Can anyone help figuring out whose forces this vehicle belonged to?

Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Oct 9 2019 17:20 utc | 109

@ Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 9 2019 17:24 utc | 110
Agree with Hudson on Piketty. The only theory that explains scientifically Piketty’s data is Marxism — and it will remain so for eternity, since Marxism is the correct scientific theory of capitalism.
–//–
PG&E Cuts Power to 500,000 in California: Live Updates
The reason for the cuts? “A precaution against sparking wildfires”.
So, it’s not that wildfires disrupted the energy supplies, but that the company responsible already knows it will have its supply disrupted and is already getting its customers accostumed with the reality.
Here’s the most recommended comment of the article by the time of this post:

This is an outrage.
For decades, Pacific Gas and Electric Company failed to invest in its aging infrastructure. 30% of their high transmission lines were built between 1900 and 1910 (!) and the other 60% were constructed between 1920 and 1950. According to a July 2019 Wall Street Journal article, “PG&E has known for years that hundreds of miles of high-voltage power lines could fail and spark fires, yet it repeatedly failed to perform the necessary upgrades.”
These PG&E so-called public safety shutoffs are creating incalculable hardship, especially for the elderly. Schools and businesses have had to close while literally tons of unrefrigerated food is rotting away.
While PG&E is legally liable for damage from fires caused by transmission lines, it is not liable for costs incurred by businesses and customers when power is shut off. If PG&E were required to pay for losses occurred during these power shut-offs, they most likely would not be doing them.
How can this (bankrupt) utility’s actions be acceptable?

Take whatever you want from this.
–//–
With a $450 Million Expansion, MoMA Is Bigger. Is That Better?
Good to know there’s plenty of money around in the US.
–//–
On Hong Kong.
Many news have been floating around these days about protesters escalating on the violence. They are clearly black blocks, possibly hired by institutions linked to the West. We know this because strategy shifted to activism on Western territory itself about the same time.
This strategy of “reverse vanguard” — where the group that was supposed to be the vanguard goes on the rearguard, as a “sweeping” force — is common in unconventional warfare operations, since color revolutions are extremely vulnerable to decapitation operations by the target government. This is another aspect a counter-revolution is the exact opposite of a revolution: its leadership is opportunistic, an elite in the waiting, so they can’t sacrifice themselves at the front line.
If I were the HK Police, I would’ve already used intelligence to identify the leaders and take out the shotguns from the armory. One night and twenty or thirty black block corpses later nobody would be getting out of the streets for the next 40 years. Liberals valorize themselves as individuals above all else, so they won’t go to the streets if they think they may die.
Either way, the liberal counter-revolution is already dead in HK. Western MSM has already stopped covering and giving numbers. The SCMP gives generous “hundreds” number, but photos clearly show only a few dozens max. It’s now up to Beijing to decide how HK will be pacified in the long term.

Posted by: vk | Oct 9 2019 19:04 utc | 111