“Banksters” pitch: Alexander Lebedev about his film project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLGElVPd2ic

Posted by: Mao | Nov 18 2019 10:14 utc | 103

About links: if it ends in a slash (IIRC), certain files (“index.html” or the like) are looked for, as default values. I there is something after the slash, that is interpreted as the file it is to start with.
Basically, if the URL leads to a file, it tries to load that file. If it leads to a directory, it looks for default file names in that directory.
So there is no right way to do it, it depends on how the server is set up. I just copy what I see in the address bar (without the crap after the first ‘?’).
It looks like this: “http://url…../{file}:port?{stuff for the server to know about you which you should remove when posting, which makes it shorter too}”.
YMMV

Posted by: Bemildred | Nov 18 2019 11:23 utc | 105

Now even the humble Chinese admit what I’ve been touting here for at least one year:
India’s GDP slowdown won’t soon be reversed
India is one of the great frauds of post-war capitalism.

Posted by: vk | Nov 18 2019 12:03 utc | 107

vk @108: It’s worse than that, it was loudly declared by various commenters and pundits beforehand (late 2002-ish) that the Iraq invasion would – in the end – result in the new Shi’ia Crescent that we see forming before us now. And that was because we were destroying the main political counter-force to Iranian influence in the region at the time: Saddam’s Iraq.
Mr. Crooke thinks we may be in the early stages of the re-formation of Iraqi-Iraq, which I think is not a bad guess, we live in revolutionary times:
Is the Middle East Beginning a Self-Correction?

Posted by: Bemildred | Nov 18 2019 13:20 utc | 109

Posted by: ziogolem | Nov 18 2019 1:40 utc | 70
“Bolivia’s shithole status will now be cemented as lithium miners and kidney donors for the west.”
Speaking of the Western Big Green climate-industrial campaign, there’s nothing they’re more ardent about than continued ecocide for worthless $hit like lithium and other rare metals for electric cars and for industrial non-“renewables”. They want nothing but to continue the Earth-raping binge unto the bitter end. They hate the Earth every bit as much as ExxonMobil.
Meanwhile, it looks like there’s a more immediate crisis brewing in Bolivia. From the first moments of the coup the openly fascist coup regime has been loudly shouting rhetoric and holding rallies demonizing indigenous people, an atmosphere which looks exactly that immediately preceding the Rwanda genocide in 1994. We may be about to see that in real time.
Tells you a lot about the mindset of the US media and entire political class, that they’re all celebrating this openly fascist saturnalia.

Posted by: Russ | Nov 18 2019 13:57 utc | 111

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(12)61229-X/fulltext
About SCA. Is recessive gene. Distribution used to be Mediterranean littoral and Africa, pretty much.
See Lancet @ tiny url dot /uoaqp3x “Global epidemiology of sickle haemoglobin in neonates: a contemporary geostatistical model-based map and population estimates”
See also wiki.
There seems to be here some lack of understanding between the genetic and the disease.

Posted by: Walter | Nov 18 2019 14:27 utc | 113

Thanks uncle tungsten for your comments on the first page. You have picked out areas that I didn’t consider to be germaine to the problems concerning the impeachment of the president – first I’d class the conservative sentences you post as a kind of credo – we all have our own and I wouldn’t bother taking that as a reason to do the address in. I was more interested in the historical points he was making – and that goes for what I also agree is unfounded, the later paragraphs on military ‘justice’.
I thought his explanation of the balance of powers issues was on point. That’s the area I would think applies to what we discuss here, and was more what I wanted to hear others critique. It’s the bulk of the address, to my mind. Does he have a point when he says the other two segments of government are ganging up on the executive? I think he does. I’d rather we tackle not just picking out the parts we don’t like, but seeing if he has points to make where we have common ground. But thanks very much for taking the time to read and discuss.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 18 2019 16:18 utc | 115

In regard to my link to Barr’s speech, I note that no longer goes directly to the speech itself but to the Justice Department in general. But if you page down to Friday, November 15, you will see the address listed and can access the speech. Here are Barr’s opening remarks:
“…First, let me say a little about what the Framers had in mind in establishing an independent Executive in Article II of the Constitution.
The grammar school civics class version of our Revolution is that it was a rebellion against monarchial tyranny, and that, in framing our Constitution, one of the main preoccupations of the Founders was to keep the Executive weak. This is misguided. By the time of the Glorious Revolution of 1689, monarchical power was effectively neutered and had begun its steady decline. Parliamentary power was well on its way to supremacy and was effectively in the driver’s seat. By the time of the American Revolution, the patriots well understood that their prime antagonist was an overweening Parliament. Indeed, British thinkers came to conceive of Parliament, rather than the people, as the seat of Sovereignty.
During the Revolutionary era, American thinkers who considered inaugurating a republican form of government tended to think of the Executive component as essentially an errand boy of a Supreme legislative branch. Often the Executive (sometimes constituted as a multi-member council) was conceived as a creature of the Legislature, dependent on and subservient to that body, whose sole function was carrying out the Legislative will. Under the Articles of Confederation, for example, there was no Executive separate from Congress.
Things changed by the Constitutional Convention of 1787. To my mind, the real “miracle” in Philadelphia that summer was the creation of a strong Executive, independent of, and coequal with, the other two branches of government…”

Posted by: juliania | Nov 18 2019 16:30 utc | 117

@NemesisCalling #40
In post #40, you seem to be saying that vaccination is unnecessary because modern hygiene is enough.
Clearly this is false given the measles outbreaks that have been occurring.
Some diseases are spread primarily through lack of clean water – like typhoid. Yet as I noted earlier – there is still plenty of typhoid in less wealthy parts of the world.
Measles is spread by exposure. Hygiene doesn’t help although quarantine can.
But nonetheless, the issue is still the same:
Are the benefits not worth the risks or costs?
Are the vaccines in fact not effective?
Arguing that vaccines aren’t the proximate cause of disease level reduction isn’t addressing either of these questions.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 18 2019 16:35 utc | 119

@NemesisCalling #60
There is a very big difference between disease and the human allergy/antigen reaction system.
There actually is a lot of research showing, among other things:
1) The human immune system has a roughly fixed number of allergy cells, and that each given cell apparently reacts to a very limited number of allergens. This in turn means that the more different allergens are exposed to, the less severe allergic reactions overall become. This has been validated by many studies showing that rural kids have far less allergies than city kids: they’re absolutely exposed to more and varied types of allergens than their city counterparts, and even kids moved from rural areas to the city at a young age suffer less allergies – which makes “city toxins” much less likely a reason.
2) There’s a second factor: the gut biome. Again, the overuse of antibiotics and the “sterile” diets most Americans have almost certainly relate to unusual gut biome types. We already know many types of gut biomes can directly cause problems such as ulcers; it seems very possible that other diseases are also a result. That is one reason why people are doing poop transplants – specifically to combat digestive system problems.
Here’s an article which is pretty objective: it doesn’t say a poop transplant will cure, but it does note major gut biome abnormalities in Crohn’s disease sufferers.
The point is simply that saying vaccines are the problem – is almost certainly wrong.
Modern humans in the 1st world are living in very unusual conditions – conditions which clearly human biology was not designed for. Gout was an early example of a lifestyle disease; it wouldn’t surprise me if many of the autoimmune diseases are also lifestyle diseases – i.e. lifestyle of being wealthy, clean, able to choose food in great detail, etc.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 18 2019 16:49 utc | 121

@119 c1ue
Take a look at my post again where I reference the veteran’s today article.
I was attempting to deconstruct the author’s point that it was the measles vaccine which contributed to overall decline in case numbers. What the author fails to notice is that he disproves this claim himself in his own article and it was very easy to surmise that before the vaccine, case numbers were in freefall due to modern understanding of disease and mitigation efforts to address this. Take a look at this claim I am making and get back to me. You can not claim for sure that it was the vaccine that took case numbers to such low levels.
I am at work and so will better address your posts when I have the time.
I am not saying that vaccines are ineffective only that they are venerated to such a high degree that other far more important factors can not help but be dismissed. Especially as it pertains to the west. And I think this is part and parcel of their plan. I say “their” in a nefarious sense, because I think vaccination is a huge cornerstone of the globalists.
Another topic entirely is the widespread use of vaccines in the third world. I know the gates foundation pushes for this. In other respects, the gates foundation is a nefarious neoliberal entity well known for its dirt. If I was not in the west and knowledgeable on the subject, I would be absolutely pushing for infrastructure improvement with better sanitation firstly. Of course you can make the argument that vaccines are a stopgap until these improvement are implemented. But again, I am only looking at westernism and disease. It is not for me to say how a developing nation should get its shit together.

Posted by: Nemesiscalling | Nov 18 2019 17:36 utc | 123

@Nemesiscalling #123
You address other issues than public health – I have no stake or interest in that, so will abstain.
As for vaccine veneration: I agree this is the case, but I am still unclear as to what your preferred alternative is?
As for Africa: building infrastructure is enormously expensive and time consuming. China has been able to do it, but very few other nations that didn’t have colonialist economic inputs, have been able to.
I absolutely agree vaccines don’t take the place of better public hygiene and sanitation.
On the other hand, there is a very clear World Bank and IMF campaign against enabling financing of fossil fuel based electricity in Africa. Arguably, electricity is one of the main enablers for public sanitation as well as a very clear productivity booster.
Is this an evil plot to keep down the African man? Or a misguided attempt to affix 1st world liberal choices onto 3rd world nations? Or a way to subsidize and enrich the alternative energy sector?
The precise reason why doesn’t ultimately matter, does it?

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 18 2019 18:03 utc | 125

Below is a tweet from Trump today that I want to comment on
”
Just finished a very good & cordial meeting at the White House with Jay Powell of the Federal Reserve. Everything was discused including interest rates, negative interest, low inflation, easing, Dollar strength & its effect on manufacturing, trade with China, E.U. & others, etc.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2019
”
The words in the tweet I want to focus on are “negative interest”.
If you have savings of any sort and are being very conservative about how you hold those savings you hold them as cash, CDs or US Treasuries. If the government moves to having negative interest than you stand to lose value in your savings.
This is Trump trying to drive the value of the US dollar down so America is more competitive even though we don’t make hardly anything any more (except financial BS) and it will just make the cost of purchasing everything more expensive for Americans. It will also make it less likely that foreign countries and investors will buy US Treasuries as investments because they lose value.
I have advocated for a while that when the crash comes the value of the US dollar will fall dramatically and the above mentioned results will occur. I have also said that America and Americans are being thrown under the bus as a Shock Doctrine event and Trump is actively pursuing that end.
And because of the “legal” derivative market owned by the private finance folk, when this occurs they will hold Super-Priority position to buy up everything at a discount with their ill-gotten gains.
If we had public finance, this would not be happening, IMO.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 18 2019 18:12 utc | 127

@ c1ue
Thx for the discussing. I hope eyes are getting something out of it.
Again, I will address your posts better this evening.
Although I left out motivations of neoliberals in the promotion of vaccines.
We all know that curbing domestic spending and investment in infrastructure is a large part of what they are known for. They are the “extractor” class, not the developing class.
In this regard it is very safe to say that promoting vaccines serves them by disguising the effects of deteriorating local infrastructure and economy which in turn leads to resurgence of disease that was taken care of by investment and developing.
It is indeed an “aha!” moment when it comes to why neoliberal globalists encourage vaccines. It artificially inflates a country’s health index score overall.
Would you agree that this is possibly a fair assessment?

Posted by: Nemesiscalling | Nov 18 2019 18:54 utc | 129

@77 bevin.. thanks for the very informative article on the us medical system at present… how horrible! here’s the article again.
https://dissidentvoice.org/2019/11/the-killing-fields-of-american-health-care/
@ 124 arby… the intel services seem to be working overtime hiding behind their anon name – philip cross…
craig murrays latest on andrew and etc.. Boris Johnson Must Waive Any Claim of Immunity for Prince Andrew

Posted by: james | Nov 18 2019 19:04 utc | 131

@ james #131 and bevin with the original link (again below) about the horrible state of US medical system
https://dissidentvoice.org/2019/11/the-killing-fields-of-american-health-care/
I have sent this around to friends and the response has been focused so far on the reported finding therein that prescription drugs are the 4th leading cause of death…….think about that and the medical oath to “do no harm”.
Profit needs to be removed from health care provision entirely.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 18 2019 19:43 utc | 133

@118 c1ue
You asked me what my messaging would be wrt vaccines. That’s an easy one.
I am firmly against forcing children to vaccinate. Now, it is only if you want to attend public and even private school, which is obviously extortion in itself. But it won’t be that way for long. They will force vaccination onto children very soon.
It will happen when lawsuits arise claiming that the unvaccinated caused deaths of immunocomprimised. Hysteria will boil over even without proof of culpability…only theory. But that theory is of course treated as fact.
Hell, it might even happen without deaths.
And with the points I raise with these posts, I hope you would be able to see the dangers of such mandates, both because of its totalitarian nature but that it is also very anti-science.
…
Re: abnormal gut biome in Crohn’s patients. I know a good deal about this, obviously as a first-hand sufferer. It is chronic and degenerative. But scientists do not know the cause. Laying it at the feet of abnormal gut biome is theory and not scientific. Why? Because of the degenerative aspect of the disease itself. The disease purely by its symptoms, changes a healthy gut to an unhealthy one. Diarrhea does not allow proper absorption of nutrients and inflammation in the intestinal walls does not allow proper function of healthy, beneficial bacteria. This you get increasing abnormality. But this is a symptom, of course. Not the cause.

Posted by: Nemesiscalling | Nov 18 2019 20:06 utc | 135

Your Zionist boy Tromp is changing the status of Israeli settlements from illegal to legal. This new U.S. policy is shortly to be announced by Pimp-eo, Tromp’s lying lap dog at State.
Zionist Tromp has done more for Israhell and furthered the interests of Zionism more than all previous Presidents combined. He’s been up Netanyahu’s ass since he took office and the donkey can’t get enough of Trompbeetch.
This new TrompCON policy will make it easier to steal the entire West Bank from the Palestinians in Tromp’s Great Deal. This move comes after pardoning 3 U.S. military war criminals this the weekend.
BUT b keeps on coddling and defending baby Tromp cause the dog ate his homework and nothing is his fault. 🤥 Blech.🤮

Posted by: Circe | Nov 18 2019 20:33 utc | 137

james @131: craig murrays latest on andrew
If Prince Andrew believes himself to be completely innocent, then why isn’t he demanding that G. Maxwell be arrested? She is clearly connected to the “conspiracy” that has tried to portray Andrew as a pedophile and bring disrepute to the Crown.
AFAIK, G. Maxwell is still a British citizen and libel laws in UK are very strong.
I think we know why that ‘dog’ doesn’t bark.
Photos Of “Sweaty” Prince Andrew Confound Claims Made By Royal Over Epstein Links
<> <> <> <> <> <>
And why would they kill Epstein but not even issue a warrant for G. Maxwell? If G. Maxwell is protected/untouchable then shouldn’t we expect the same treatment for Epstein? ==> Epstein was extracted, not killed.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Nov 18 2019 20:36 utc | 139

Chinahand weighs in on recent HK events. At the kink, he tells David Seaton of the Financial Times quite politely he’s full of Bantha Pudu, that HK is somehow Xi’s failure, and at the 4th tweet in thread says:
“my feeling is xjp regards hk as deng’s mistake. contain the damage & move on.”
It would be nice to read more of Chinahand’s reasoning how he determined Xi thinks Deng’s to blame for an Evil Outlaw US Empire attempt at Color Revolution.
Comment on Trump diktat Occupied Palestine’s Illegal Settlements now Legal:
“nice gift to Putin btw legitimizing “facts on the ground” after an acquisition (like Crimea). & PRC saying, “hey, looks like Israel’s nine dash line!” waiting for neolib commentariat to leap on this one.”
Excepting no UNSCR governs the fate of Crimea or SCS.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 18 2019 20:43 utc | 141

for juliania @ 117 you might want to read the federalist because it supports your thesis but there is a large body of literature by people that dn like it called the antifederalist. and of course the civil war.
I don’t call creating an ivory tower executive or creating an office that isolates Americans from foreign, corrupt or leader misdirected activities of their government a miracle, I call it a problem.
If you want executives, you should have the qualified (governed) voters elect to each cabinet post and each diplomatic post ,and to each judgeship those persons the governed want in those positions?
There are two parties to a government (the governed and the governors);the governed should have the power to correct deficiencies or add omissions to the constitution; but as it stands, only the government or its states can amend the Constitution of the USA ). There is no way that governed Americans can prevent or eject a takeover of the USA by a mafia, a massive in size corporation, a criminal enterprise or a foreign government or a combination of those elements; worse, there is no independent [of the operate in secret USA] way for Americans to remove a person from elected office, a bureaucratic position, a judgeship, or a contractor that uses some aspect of the USA to violate privatize a govern resource or to violate a human right nor is there a way that the governed can remove a candidate that defaults on his/her campaign promise. A barfiy said not long ago, wrte USA, that Americans are spectators.

Posted by: snake | Nov 18 2019 21:11 utc | 143

Jackrabbit #139
Les Wexner, don’t forget dear old Les Wexner. Arrest both. Amazing Polly has a list of names of the key admin and recruiting team that worked for Maxwell and Wexner.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 18 2019 21:14 utc | 145

US media and entire political class, that they’re all celebrating this openly fascist saturnalia.

@Posted by: Russ | Nov 18 2019 13:57 utc | 111
Not true, the entire US political class is not, unless you mean by political class the caste who have ever hold government/power and besides exert the grip into the bipartisan system.
There have been honorable people in the US who have kept denouncing the fascist coup in Bolivia and following genocide intent…Along with Spanish left and ALBA countries, to my knowledge, they have been the only ones in the world, since the EU has not condemned the coup and instead “has warned the two parts in conflict to moderate themselves”, ( the same they have done with Chile, as if the force would be being used by the two sides in the same way and at the same level…or as if a part would not be victim of expeditive measures by the other…)
Of those I know and I have read Twitters about, Alexandría Ocasio Cortez, Jill Stein, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders…
I fear these are those whom Obama was directing his warning on “not going too much to the left”…
Has said the most promoted by the Trumpist troupe and military people here and there( as a reserve card in case of defeat of The Donald…), Tulsi Gabard, anything about this coup? I mean unconditionally condemnating it, as the others have done…?
Do not misinterpret me, I love all what Tulsi almost always says, but this shameful coup in Bolivia I fear is going to be the turning point for a revelation on the reagroupment of conservative/far right forces around the world ( even those who seem to oppose each other all the time…) to counter the obvious rising of socialism around the world…. again…
The Russians, in front of their silence at official level, have decided to insist on their position and warn us, “staunch commenters”, on our lack of “expertise” and our “ignorance of the whole picture” ( whose mainly proof is that many of us do not know even to write Áñez´s name correctly, and thus, that authomatically implies we know nothing and are unable to interpret what we see in front of our very eyes thanks to people´s activism on the net, obviating at passing that most people outside the Spanish speaking world lacks the letter “ñ” in their boards …), to end recognizing that what has been unleashed in Bolivia are plain nazi scum, and thus, give us the reason on that one does not need to be any “expert”, nor “know it all” to catch at the first nanoseconds that the usurpers in Bolivia were what they are…
Of course, we have not ideological biases…have the instincts still intact ( if not by experience in own bodies/relatives…) and we do like working masses revolutions, when the elites do not leave us another resort, and their outcome…
The best alibi they are able to build is that “Bolivia is a very unstable country where presidents has sometimes lasted only some weeks”…Well, this falls with all its weight when you see that Africa is also a very unstable continent, full of unstable countries, and there they are the Russians supporting certain governments…
Then, they come with the same complain than the Bolivian usurper nazi opposition, on that Morales lost the referendum on prolonging its mandate, and throwing suspicions on his victory in the last elections, by supporting and accepting as God´s word what was assesd by the AEO, a known US settled and fully controled organization ( a fact known even for “non-experts” and “non-knowitalls…) well known recently as well for supporting the intend of usurpation of power in Venezuela by far-right unelected minority opposition…
Still, in an exercise of looping the loop worth the circus, in spite of their alleged “dominion of the whole picture” and alleged “expertise”, they try to convince us they did know nothing of past year openly racist, and plainly fascist, Twitts by usurper Áñez, whom they run to recognize as “Interim President of Bolivia” and trusted for to organize “new fair elections”…
They end insisting on leaving it to the Bolivians and the next unfair elections ( where the party who holds the majority of parliament will be unable to concurr under menaces of jailing or death…)to decide on their future…so as to fix the unfixable…
Attention to the sight the conductor throws at us, critics of the Russian position with respect the coup in Bolivia, at certain moment of footage…si las miradas mataran…….
This is the same conductor who in a report on a Russian business group travel to Cuba was complaining about the difficulties to do business there…
Also, if memory does not fails me, this is the same guy who expresses always very particular views about women´s liberties, I mean with respect to their bodies, dress style, religious habits, and so on…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMfcUaXjXrI
It continues being a great shame that the administration of a country who lost 27 million people fighting the nazis, who wanted to wipe out them form the face of Earth, has supported obvious nazi coupistas in Bolivia. It adds to this shame that to jusitify this shameful position they recur to the same arguments than Morales opposition and US expecialists in coups d´etat…
I am noticing gladly that negotiations progress in the Ukraine…and may be in Syria too…but or you are against nazism always, or you are not…Claims about statues and events of the past fall empty when you contradict your stance with your actions in the present…
Keep flattering the US, as a lapdog, in the hope they will have leniency with you…They will not, as history ( who you so much like to remember when it fits you…) so clearly shows…
When they came for the Bolivians I said nothing…I do nothing…..
We should hear other “experts”….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADHIQWIUdgI
Some years ago, certain commenter whom I called “strategist” ( for to refer him in a way…) and who made me know of the Soviet series Seventeen Moments of Spring, brought my attention to the fact that all the Nazi officials characters whose files are read during the footage, were presented in a very good light, as exemplary people…He told me that that series was given shape at high spheres in the KGB before releasing on TV…At the time, I had a too much supportive stance for the Russians ( and still do I…of the people…)in the heights of aftermath of the Ukrainian Maidan, to consider what I was understanding ( it did not help that the man was way too much intriguing and even harsh in his interaction…), and willingly decided to forget about it…but not to the extend of not recalling that conversation from time to time…like now…

Posted by: Sasha | Nov 18 2019 21:52 utc | 147

It is Monday, 18 November 2019, Adam Shifty Schiff needs an Attorney:
White House Official Files Libel Suit Against Politico Over Trump Impeachment Allegations – Report

Kash Patel, the National Security Council’s senior counterterrorism director, is reportedly seeking over $25 million in damages from Politico in a suit filed in Virginia over allegations centering on what US President Donald Trump was allegedly told by staffers about the situation in Ukraine.[.]
Politico alleged that Patel was “so involved in the issue” that “at one point Trump thought he was in charge of Ukraine policy for the National Security Council,” a fact attributed to in closed-door House testimony from Fiona Hill – a former NSC official. Politico also reported that “Patel’s involvement demonstrates that the president had at least some support for the scheme from within the NSC”, referencing allegations that there had been a plot to pressure Kiev into investigations that would help Trump get reelected president in 2020.
US House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is also targeted in the lawsuit, according to Fox News. The suit claims that the defendants “acted in concert” with the congressman or his aides to further the impeachment probe. The alleged purpose was to “destroy Kash’s reputation” as a lawyer and presidential aide and to further what the lawsuit claims is “Schiff’s baseless Ukrainian quid pro quo hoax”.
[.]

Posted by: Likklemore | Nov 18 2019 21:59 utc | 149

@Posted by: vk | Nov 18 2019 12:03 utc | 107
Then, how you measure Putin´s victorius remarks about BRICS´prospects karlof1 has brought in here?
With India, I have the same sensation that with other allegedly flourishing countries, that the poorest of the poor there never take off and are condemned to sucumb into misery and slavery…
I wonder what of positive an organization like the BRICS will bring to humanity, I mean which social and political advances, apart from those in favor of business, could bring an organization that holds amongst its members a Troy Horse of the cureent US administration, like Brazil under Bolsonaro…

Posted by: Sasha | Nov 18 2019 22:40 utc | 151

@ jr…my memory is russia acknowledged it as a coup, but said they would work with the intern leadership.. maybe we need an update..

Posted by: james | Nov 18 2019 22:58 utc | 153

@Posted by: Jackrabbit | Nov 18 2019 22:55 utc | 152
I have followed Russian media and official sites during these days, in vain, there is nothing, ate least at Kremlin level or MFA_Russia, after they declared this ammounted to them as a coup but that they recognized the interim presidenta and thus will work with her…
Thus, I have not but take this video broadcast from official Rossiya1 as pseudo-official position..
I must recognize though that RT coverage has been quite fair and objective…and even Margarita Symonian offered a broadcasting space to Morales in case he could be interested…Sputnik may be less so but also has a good coverage…Nothing at TASS…

Posted by: Sasha | Nov 18 2019 23:15 utc | 155

Thanks to you also, Likklemore. I found a lot to like in what he was saying.
We shall see…

Posted by: juliania | Nov 19 2019 0:00 utc | 157

I thought this was a pretty good article on Bolivia–
http://en.granma.cu/mundo/2019-11-14/evo-and-bolivia-bother-the-empire

Posted by: arby | Nov 19 2019 0:14 utc | 159

Sasha
Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, clarified the position of Russia towards the crisis:

We are not talking about recognising what happened in Bolivia as a legitimate process. This is not something we are dealing with here.
We have already shared our perspective with the international community. Let me remind you that Russia expressed its concern with what had happened in Bolivia. In the course of a domestic political crisis in the country the government’s determination to find constructive dialogue-based solutions was wiped out by developments typical of a well-orchestrated government coup …
It is against this backdrop that the [previous] statement by Sergey Ryabkov must be interpreted.

Southfront writes:

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow recognizes the acting president of Bolivia, Senator Janine Agnes as head of state, but only until an election is organized.
This decision was made due to the fact that it was she who was to take the place of the interim head of the republic in accordance with the law after the resignation of the leadership. At the same time, the events preceding the change of power in the country, the Russian side regards as a coup.

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Nov 19 2019 0:32 utc | 161

Juliana #many
Thanks Juliana, I return after tending the mother earth and the orchard.
My take on the intention / practicality of the US constitution vs the monarchical old world that it was designed to escape is based on its recognition that the people are sovereign. I am not a US citizen and have only limited comprehension of its minutae BUT I see the founding authors as being deliberative in turning monarchical mind set on its head and insisting on the people as the judge arbitrator and ultimate defender of their democracy.
I see the periodic tension and gridlocks occurring between the president, courts and congress as being entirely predictable and I am sure the original authors were likewise insightful. They made a solution reasonably consistent with that foresight and people’s power by establishing a regular system of elections. Indeed, to the outsider there seems to be a continuous election cycle in the USA butone has to accept that that is the mechanism to maintain contemporaneity in the legislature and governance. The USA even elects judges and sheriffs and education boards AFAIK.
So the people are sovereign (more or less) but they are subject to the most intense propagandising imaginable and vast sums are spent on perfecting that propagandising effort (see Mercer and company, facebook, msm).
On the subject of China and its system there is a more labyrinthine system of democratic election mechanisms. They are very different from European culture as they derive from millennia old, deep knowledge of maintaining empire and the rule over or with citizens. I would hazard a comment that both Putin and Xi have representative bodies to answer to and that both are factionalised to a greater or lesser extent. Both Putin and Xi seem to enjoy a reasonably unfettered space to exercise their administration. Not so the USA.
The USA is clearly infused (infected) more and more with the affliction of belligerence as a mechanism of opposition. People are attacked more than reasoned with. This affliction disables reason and inverts people’s aspiration for good government. The frenzied ad hominem assaults by disagreeable people crowds out the US constitutional desire to have both a space for effective unhampered administration free from tyranny AND a peoples democracy and sovereignty.
So back to Barr and his speech:

Conservatives, on the other hand, do not seek an earthly paradise. We are interested in preserving over the long run the proper balance of freedom and order necessary for healthy development of natural civil society and individual human flourishing…

That is a deception as the most belligerence was exercised by the ‘conservatives’ against the progressive ideas of emancipation, women’s rights to vote or determine their reproductive abilities, and social democracy and socially owned enterprise. The conservatives (regardless of party affiliation) made a deal with reactionary religionists and capitalists to drag USA into a belligerent jungle so they could continue to plunder and dominate at their will. They abused the instruments of state policing and a free press to murder socialist advocates throughout the history of the USA. The conservatives have gamed the election process to render the people’s vote in their favour or deny that vote whenever they detect insurrection against their dominance.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 19 2019 0:45 utc | 163

Nemesiscalling #154
Acupuncture is a brilliant system of remedial support but you must commit to stay the course of both the jab and the herbs. First locate a practitioner possessing substantial training and experience in the source country. There are many practitioners with only a brief training and little knowledge of the essential complimentarity of the herbs.
My experience has been that the progress from initial treatments is still abundantly liberating in many unexpected ways years later. But you must commit to staying the course and that may well be two visits per week for 5 weeks or more and dutiful cooking up the herbs each day.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 19 2019 1:04 utc | 165

ciue @ 118 responding to NemesisCalling @ #32
Re: So I’m unclear on the message you’re trying to convey:
That vaccination doesn’t work?
That its benefits outweighs its risks or costs?
Because those seem to be the questions that matter.
By any chance, do you have access to the mandated biennial CDC safety studies pursuant to
§300aa–27. Mandate for safer childhood vaccines
(a) General rule
In the administration of this part and other pertinent laws under the jurisdiction of the Secretary, the Secretary shall-
(1) promote the development of childhood vaccines that result in fewer and less serious adverse reactions than those vaccines on the market on December 22, 1987, and promote the refinement of such vaccines, and
(2) make or assure improvements in, and otherwise use the authorities of the Secretary with respect to, the licensing, manufacturing, processing, testing, labeling, warning, use instructions, distribution, storage, administration, field surveillance, adverse reaction reporting, and recall of reactogenic lots or batches, of vaccines, and research on vaccines, in order to reduce the risks of adverse reactions to vaccines.
(b) Task force
(1) The Secretary shall establish a task force on safer childhood vaccines which shall consist of the Director of the National Institutes of Health, the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and the Director of the Centers for Disease Control.
(2) The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall serve as chairman of the task force.
(3) In consultation with the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines, the task force shall prepare recommendations to the Secretary concerning implementation of the requirements of subsection (a).
(c) Report
Within 2 years after December 22, 1987, and periodically thereafter, the Secretary shall prepare and transmit to the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Labor and Human Resources of the Senate a report describing the actions taken pursuant to subsection (a) during the preceding 2-year period.[emphasis added]
(July 1, 1944, ch. 373, title XXI, §2127, as added Pub. L. 99–660, title III, §311(a), Nov. 14, 1986, 100 Stat. 3777 ; amended Pub. L. 100–203, title IV, §4302(b)(1), Dec. 22, 1987, 101 Stat. 1330–221 ; Pub. L. 101–239, title VI, §6601(q), Dec. 19, 1989, 103 Stat. 2292 .)

Posted by: pogohere | Nov 19 2019 2:37 utc | 167

ut @ 163 said in response to a AG Barr lie;
“That is a deception as the most belligerence was exercised by the ‘conservatives’ against the progressive ideas of emancipation, women’s rights to vote or determine their reproductive abilities, and social democracy and socially owned enterprise. The conservatives (regardless of party affiliation) made a deal with reactionary religionists and capitalists to drag USA into a belligerent jungle so they could continue to plunder and dominate at their will. They abused the instruments of state policing and a free press to murder socialist advocates throughout the history of the USA. The conservatives have gamed the election process to render the people’s vote in their favour or deny that vote whenever they detect insurrection against their dominance.”
Absolutely right on ut!!!!

Posted by: ben | Nov 19 2019 3:09 utc | 169

KL @ 169; Agree with everything except the notion that “cultural liberalism” is behind everything going on with globalism. Maybe “Neo-liberalism, but certainly not classic “Liberalism”
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liberal

Posted by: ben | Nov 19 2019 3:20 utc | 171

@ King Lear who writes about me that
”
However, I take issue with your statement that Trump is supported by “Russian bots”, which is a clear allusion to Russiagate, the conspiracy theory that Trump was elected by Putin.
”
I never wrote such a thing. You haven’t been at this bar very long if you don’t understand where I am coming from. I see the West as a Top/Bottom construct hidden by the myth of Left/Right by the international cabal that owns global private finance. And I believe that China has public finance and, as such, is a major threat to the centuries old Western empire of private finance.
I agree with karlof1 #173 in thinking that “Bolsonaro and those like him in South America won’t last long enough to alter the overall geoeconomic dynamic that” ends the reign of global private finance…..the brainwashing will end and people will wake up to building a world based on sharing (global commons) and limits to Top/Bottom inheritance fed empire BS.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 19 2019 4:35 utc | 173

@174psychohistorian
You misread his post. He was addressing me with that quote.
@169 King Lear
No, I know it’s Zionist oligarchs who helped Trump win the Presidency, but Russians seem to be deluded about Trump and his intentions vis a vis Russia. IOW, Trump is conning Russia like he’s conning the working class saps who voted for him. So that’s why I included Russians in the sorry lot still clinging to him and I’m pissed with all the bullshet propaganda they fabricate to salvage Trump.
On another note, Obama’s been warning the Left not to lean towards Sanders and leftist purity. Obama did a lot of damage to the left during his Presidency. He should shut up and go away. No one buys his bullshet anymore except neoliberals. This is a critical time. Sanders is the only candidate pushing for revolutionary change. People are at a boiling point. There’s dishonesty on the Democratic side and even greater dishonesty on the Republican side. Trump generates dishonesty and his opacity and corruption are off the charts. He cannot get a second term, but neither can the likes of Biden, Buttigieg or even Warren take over. Actually, Buttigieg is the most dangerous, besides Klobuchar, Harris and Booker who are thankfully low in the polls.
Only radical change can turn around what has become of Washington politics. It’s like climate change. Only radical steps on different levels will avert the multiple disasters looming. But the PTB want to keep everyone locked onto the status quo that sustains the power and wealth of the few at the expense of the many.
However, maybe society today is undeserving of empowering change. Maybe people need to suffer intense hardship instead before good change can happen.
So, I’m not sure what’s in store, but if it’s not Sanders, there will be serious trouble ahead.

Posted by: Circe | Nov 19 2019 4:53 utc | 175

@ King lear # 178
I think you need to learn more about China culture/history and read the Art of War instead of the Western, Art of the Deal.
China has been beat up by the West/private finance folks and will not be fooled again but are succeeding at making people like you think they are complicit in Western ways……which their history says they are not.
China know the adage, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” very well. They won’t be fooled again…..stay tuned to see if they and I are fools.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 19 2019 5:25 utc | 177

karlof1 #132
George Galloway is like a marble in the boot of the establishment. I am absolutely wishing him well and every vote he needs to cross the line. He is a goliath in the zioborgs harem. Go George go.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 19 2019 7:16 utc | 179

Pogohere: I am a vaccinologist (PhD Immunologist) who in my career was deeply involved in the design and animal testing of vaccines for orphan (read military biothreats) diseases so I can add some insight to the subject. Vaccines are designed to stimulate an immune response that is protective to the individual at risk from potential infection from a given disease. The best vaccine is surviving an actual infection and this was the basis for many vaccines which were live but attenuated disease agents. This is now not acceptable as a safe vaccine but older vaccines are still used which work this way and are grandfathered in. New vaccines must be subcomponent vaccines and have a much harder time establishing immunity.
No vaccine is perfect and none have 100% efficacy. Some diseases such as Brucellosis recovered victims do not have any active protective immunity so even in some diseases survival doesn’t provide protection for subsequent infections. It is a tough and very expensive process to develop vaccines and most of the world’s infections are in places that cannot afford to develop vaccines. But, the military is faced with fighting in potential areas with endemic zoonotic diseases so that is where the effort lies for these “orphan” vaccines. Sadly, in the military budget the amount given to finance vaccine research is peanuts and insufficient to do any meaningful work.
There are two actual strategies which depend on the at risk population being looked at for a given vaccine strategy. The first is disease prevalence in a given area and second the morbidity/mortality of that disease for a given population. In some populations such as adult military males who are by definition in excellent physical health the risks are different than that for infants or the elderly so the target population affects the decision as to what goals you want to achieve. There are also wide differences between ethnicities, age, gender, and personal history of previous exposure. Some vaccines will kill you if you have already had the disease due to an overwhelming immune response to the vaccine itself which can shut down major organ systems. The Lyme disease vaccine has this kind of problem in some populations.
So, if a disease has a high risk of fatality to those exposed then the vaccines can be higher risk themselves. Take the original anthrax vaccine which was made by grinding anthrax spores and suspending it in formaldehyde. That vaccine required 5 injections all of which were extremely painful and got worse each vaccination just to get an immune response which waned to a non-effective status after 5 years thus requiring periodic vaccinations to boost the response. Because the full course requires 6 months to establish immunity it is not something you can pull out of your hat immediately prior to a deployment. It also hurts like hell. So, medical intelligence is necessary to determine the risk. The vaccine is also roughly $100 a dose so relatively expensive and there are significant side effects so this brings into question another consideration being risk versus reward. Other vaccines such as Dengue Fever there are actually 5 different strains of the disease and if you are vaccinated against one it can actually make the disease from other strains more fatal so again you have to weigh risk/benefit ratios.
Even if you inject sterile saline alone into a given population roughly 1 in 1,000 people will die just from the injection even from something as innocuous as saline. So, you have that baseline risk. If a disease prevalence is 1:1,000 and only causes minor symptoms then it isn’t worth the risk. However, some diseases like influenza will kill a fairly substantial percent of the infant and elderly or immune compromised populations and can easily go epidemic rapidly. In this case you are vaccinating the entire population at a high enough rate to lower the overall disease prevalence rate or slow down the transmission and the target is really the entire population and not the specific individual. Specific at risk individuals are vaccinated at a higher rate to protect them but in general the idea is to stop the rapid spread by trying to vaccinate as many people as possible and there are, as always, some risks to the vaccines themselves so it is a delicate analysis based on disease prevalence and prediction of infections which frequently seems to always be wrong. Mother Nature will fool you every time. The same is true for measles which also have a high morbidity rate in at risk populations. So, people refusing the vaccines for themselves or their children are actually affecting the overall ability of a given population to thwart a potential epidemic and not only putting themselves at risk but also everyone else.
So, my point is that it is an extremely valuable tool and also very difficult to manage. This has gotten worse due to concerns about mercury compounds (we added it back in the day to keep the solution sterile) and the use of adjuvants. These are substances which are known to boost the immune response, sometimes in ways you can’t predict hence the animal testing. Even then it can be different in humans and in other sub-populations so testing is very expensive and often requires 10,000 or more subjects for safety. Efficacy testing can be a lot higher and is dependent on disease prevalence. Some adjuvants work great in establishing immunity but have significant side effects making them unusable. So, it is a very tough field. This is now complicated by the anti-vaccine crowd based on fraudulent research which was debunked a long time ago yet has persisted as “fact” in the liberal left. Yes, some vaccines can cause problems and these are emergency use only types to be used only for specific epidemics where the risk/benefit ratio warrants it. However, licensed vaccines for children have had an extremely large impact on reducing mortality to diseases. Look at any old cemetery and you can see with your own eyes the impact vaccines have had on childhood deaths. But, because of the anti-vaccine movement these cemeteries are going to be once again filled with dead children.

Posted by: Old Microbiologist | Nov 19 2019 9:51 utc | 181

It would be interesting to read comments from B & the barflies who are knowledgeable on technology, what significance may or may not have this article. Thanks.

Posted by: Doesit Matter | Nov 19 2019 11:14 utc | 183

More bad news for the Asian Paper Tiger:
Moody’s denies Seoul’s rosy economic outlook
As I’ve posted here many times before, Jae-in Moon’s social-democrat policies are failing and will fail. The problem with social-democracy is that it is naive towards the possibilities of capitalism: it thinks capitalism can be “humanized” through good governance. It can’t.
Expect a conservative president in SK in the next elections and with it rising tensions with North Korea.

Posted by: vk | Nov 19 2019 11:31 utc | 185

My main complaint about China is that I perceive their government as being to cozy with the U$…”
See, this is some western derangement that gets people railing at Putin too. WTH is wrong with countries trying to be “cozy” with other countries, even if those other countries are massive cancerous cultural tumors that bear thinly concealed ill will towards the entire planet? Especially if those other countries are hostile and hyper-aggressive in their fundamental demeanor right down to their individual citizens? Playing along with the heavily armed psycho killer can help steer him away from shooting your kids, perhaps even redirecting his pointless rage against imaginary “enemies” at inanimate objects instead of more innocents (America has no enemies other than its victims, and even they would be willing to forgive if America could just chill the f#ck out).
Being “cozy” with other countries, even the ones you disagree with, is the healthy and sane approach to international relations”. This is the way people whose minds are not scrambled by endless jingoism and 24X7 brainwashing view the world. While in Ukraine, where America’s cultural cancer has metastasized to, many who have been immersed in intensive mass media brainwashing are screaming “Moskaliv na nozhi!” (clearly their minds are massively damaged), but do Russians want to see Ukrainians knifed? Of course not. Russia still provides aid to Ukraine, and not just the independent republics that broke away. The Russians are taking steps to protect themselves, but they remain “cozy” with Ukraine despite Ukraine being infected with America’s insanity.
This is the same with China and Hong Kong. While some visible percentage of the Hong Kongian youth have had their brains damaged by intensive indoctrination and are frothing-at-the-mouth, rabidly and irrationally consumed with hate for mainland Chinese, the mainlanders don’t want to see harm come to them. The mainland Chinese might like to see them spanked, as the rioters are displaying the traits of petulant and spoiled brats and a bit of discipline would do them a world of good, but actually harmed? No, the mainland Chinese are not twisted into knots of hateful rage by western mass cultural cancer.
“…[China’s] economic relationship with the United States is detrimental to their country (both the people and the ruling Communist Party) in that it only helps to enrich Wall Street (at the disvantage of the working class of both China and the U$) and ultimately puts China into dependence on trade with a country that will ultimately seek regime change in China…”
This exposes a fundamental misunderstanding about how economics works, but it is a common misunderstanding in the West.
China’s economic relationship with the United States has resulted in China’s rapid industrialization and massive improvements in their domestic productivity. China got enormous production facilities and the opportunity to move the skills of their workforce far up the manufacturing value added chain. What did America get out of it? Some pieces of paper and some entries in electronic ledgers. Oh yeah, and the opportunity to buy cheap sh!t at Walmart for a few years… better hope that lasts!
The real value in any economy is manufacturing capacity. Trump, to some degree, understands this, as do growing number throughout the establishment. Americans were all OK with their relationship with China so long as they thought they were taking advantage of China, but only now that they are (slowly) realizing that China had the upper hand are Americans concerned about the relationship. While America was economically atrophying away, China was delaying gratification and beefing up economically. China has real economic might now, while America just has illusory economic muscle only on paper.
Don’t pretend to cry for China. Save your tears for yourself.

Posted by: William Gruff | Nov 19 2019 12:11 utc | 187

Asia Times has published a series of essays on fusion research. The latest being titled> “Asia and the commercial future of cold fusion”.
The socio-polit-econo secondary (and primary) effects are a multitude, and many secondary effects probably not predictable… But this new understanding and ability (CFT) is going to have very large effects – this is obvious.
I suggest a thoughtful armchair read of all three of the AT/CF essays.
The author is an expert and evidently a polymath, not a fake. It’s real.

Posted by: Walter | Nov 19 2019 13:11 utc | 189

Below is a link from the worthless BBC about US politics that I want to comment about
Does shock Buttigieg lead in Iowa mean anything?
The take away quote
”
On Saturday, the Des Moines Register released a mid-November survey of Iowa Democratic voters that had South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg in a comfortable lead among candidates in the state’s first-in-the-nation presidential nomination caucuses.
The mayor of Indiana’s fourth-largest city stood at 25%, followed by Senator Elizabeth Warren with 16%, and Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice-President Joe Biden tied at 15%. The survey’s margin of error was 4.4%.
The results represent a remarkable surge for Buttigieg, who posted 9% in the Register’s September survey. The 37-year-old also had the highest favourability rating of any Democrat in the field, with 72% of likely Democratic caucus-goers having either a very or mostly favourable view of the candidate.
”
I see Buttigieg as the Dems Uncle Tom Gay candidate of this cycle. The Dems are trying hard to deprecate the Sanders and Warren appeal to voters and so they work with the media to push vacuous candidates like Buttigieg who has no doubt been groomed like Obama behind the scenes. The article says absolutely nothing about Tulsi Gabbard.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 19 2019 13:20 utc | 191

@ : psychohistorian | Nov 19 2019 13:20 utc | 194 …………..
In the common usage “freedom and democracy”…in the several variations of locution what do these words mean? Seen in context as say “Pompero” would use such phrases, does use them, what is the semantic value?
Seems to me that when they say such things they mean this>
Democracy occurs when the ruling agency enjoys ruling an Nth population that willingly obeys. Elections are one method of creating a mythic belief in each individual and collectively that the obedience is to his own will, when the reality is otherwise. If elections produce disobedience, eg voting goes wrong, then gladio et sec and of course plenty of TBS, and another election, generally repairs the fault.

Posted by: Walter | Nov 19 2019 13:39 utc | 193

William Gruff 190
*Don’t pretend to cry for China. Save your tears for yourself.*
LOL/
Empire shills like to shed cro tears
these days, …
‘We love the Chinese people, what we
loathe is the regime’
Hence we wanna do a regime change
on behalf of the Chinese people’
hehehhehehhe

Posted by: denk | Nov 19 2019 13:44 utc | 195

what on earth does the “liberal left” have to do with anti vaxxers?

Posted by: pretzelattack | Nov 19 2019 14:09 utc | 197

@ Posted by: dh | Nov 19 2019 13:54 utc | 199
No. That means the “rape charges” are a farce from the beginning the the Swedish knew it.
Now that the damage is already done and Assange is already arrested, there’s no need for the Swedish justice to keep the kabuki going.

Posted by: vk | Nov 19 2019 14:44 utc | 199