@ Jen | Feb 5 2020 22:06 utc | 78, / foolisholdman | Feb 5 2020 22:45 utc | 83
Look where it broke apart.
https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/passenger-jet-snaps-into-three-catches-on-fire-at-turkish-airport/news-story/ac500cc4637cd362aa95336454cae4a8
Exactly where the previous airframes came apart, because of those same sloppy, mis-fitting, crucial fuselage parts, as outlined in this video, which I posted a few days ago:
Boeing 737NG – a Flying Deathtrap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaWdEtANi-0
So Boeing has known full well about these extremely dangerous fuselage conditions for at least 15 or more years, and has chosen not to fix them, but instead to let passengers die.
How long will it be until one of those many thousands of weakened airframes comes apart in the air?

Posted by: AntiSpin | Feb 6 2020 0:44 utc | 103

Biologist Michael Farzan of Scripps Research was part of the team that identified the structure of the “spike protein” by which SARS enters human cells.
He said SARS has a molecular proofreading system that reduces its mutation rate, and the new coronavirus’s similarity to SARS at the genomic level suggests it does, too. “That makes the mutation rate much, much lower than for flu or HIV,”
Any evolution that does take place in an endemic coronavirus, including one that spikes seasonally, might well be toward less virulence. “It doesn’t want to kill you before you transmit it,” Farzan said. “One would therefore expect a slow attenuation” of virulence if the virus becomes like seasonal flu. Dead people don’t transmit viruses, “and even people sitting in their beds and shivering” because they are seriously ill “don’t transmit that well,” he said.
Exposure to the four endemic coronaviruses produces immunity, but not permanent immunity. Like respiratory syncytial virus, which can re-infect adults who had it in childhood, coronavirus immunity wanes. Because it doesn’t last, older people can get reinfected. The elderly also have a higher death rate from coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS, a pattern 2019-nCoV is following (Chinese official reported 80% of deaths in 60+ age group).
Dr. Susan Kline, an infectious disease specialist at of the University of Minnesota also confirms this saying “There is some evidence that people can be reinfected with the four coronaviruses and that there is no long-lasting immunity…You can mount an antibody response, but it wanes, so on subsequent exposure you don’t have protection.” This doesnt bode well for the effectiveness of any future vaccine.
Since 2019-nCoV is new the first wave will be worst because we have an immunologically naïve population. Future waves should pass by people who were exposed (but not necessarily sickened).
This sort of negates the need for a vaccine, let natural immunity take its course. Especially when you consider an early concern for application of a SARS-CoV vaccine was the experience with other coronavirus infections which induced enhanced disease and immunopathology in animals when challenged with infectious virus . There were reports that animals given a SARS vaccine and subsequently challenged with SARS-CoV exhibited a serious immunopathologic lung reaction .
Yasui et al., (2012) reported severe pneumonia in mice who were vaccinated against SARS who were subsequently infected with SARS.
Another study of a double-inactived SARS vaccine found increased eosinophilic proinflammatory responses in vaccinated mice, especially older mice, who
displayed increased eosinophilic immune pathology in the lungs and were not protected against significant virus replication.
In fact one wonders if the seriousness of the cases in China , especially among older folks are persons who were exposed to SARS 16 years ago.

Posted by: Pft | Feb 6 2020 0:46 utc | 105

@ karlof1 | Feb 6 2020 0:39 utc | 101
Let us all be sure to remember, please, that the very first time that electronic machines were used to tally votes in a federal election, Republicans began winning races where they never had been able to win prior to the use of the machines. And to remember, too, that the machines were manufactured and coded by Republican-linked companies, who have consistently refused to let anyone examine any of all that vote-switching code.

Posted by: AntiSpin | Feb 6 2020 0:58 utc | 107

Is Bernie a Sheepdog in 2020?

Bernie’s greatest achievement is that he has created the conditions for a break with the two-party duopoly; his greatest failure is that he will do “everything in his power”to block that from happening.

This is the conclusion from The Polemicist (though unfortunately placed in an addendum) which provides a surprisingly even-handed and well-informed analysis of “Bernie”. He cites (literally) “The Good”, “The Bad”, and “The Ugly”.
Under “The Bad”, he takes Bernie to task:

The biggest problem here, from the perspective of those who are working hard for the “political revolution” that Bernie has inspired is that Sanders has had four years to publicize, denounce, and insist on correcting all of these methods of cheating, and has said or done nothing substantive to that end.
So if/when he, and that movement, are cheated out of the majority or large plurality of delegates by these stratagems, there is no one more responsible for it than Bernie himself.
. . .
The key here is what Bernie does. Will he Corbyn-ize himself with death-by-a thousand apologies and backtracks, or will he take Kate Aronoff’s advice and “nip that shit in the bud”? … Again, Bernie’s biggest potential weakness is Bernie himself.
. . .
A telling moment in the “villainous and shameful” CNN/Des Moines Register debate was when Bernie—after being shivved by Warren and portrayed as a reckless fantasist by everyone else on the stage—felt the need to declare, for the umpteenth time, that he would “do everything in my power” to get her or any of them elected.
Why? Nobody asked him for that. Nothing in the context demanded it….
This is nothing else but Bernie signaling submission to the Democratic Party, which is—and keeps telling him it is—the enemy of everything he claims to stand for. It’s telling the party it can betray him in any way and still get his support. A foolish forfeit in advance.
. . .
We have to ask: What is Bernie saying or doing about this [Democratic Party election-rigging]? What is he doing to support not only himself, but the many thousands of people who are working hard for the “political revolution” he is claiming to lead—supporters who see the Democratic Party right now organizing to deprive Bernie of the nomination and derail anything like that movement from taking hold in the party, whether Bernie is nominated or not? Not him, us, and all that—and “us” want to know. ‘Cause if Bernie is doing or saying nothing about this, if he’s willing to ignore and accept it without raising hell, then it’s fair for “us” to suspect we’re seeing a hair of the Democratic sheepdog emerging through the revolutionary lion’s mane.

!!
Re-posted from the “Putin Prepares to Release Iowa Caucus Results” Thread – hat-tip to uncle tungsten.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Feb 6 2020 1:44 utc | 109

@Jen #82:

I don’t suppose anyone here will be watching Hollywood’s annual self-congratulatory smugfest but two propaganda films “The Cave” (directed by Firas Fayyad as a companion piece to “Last Men in Aleppo”) and “For Sama” claiming to profile individuals trying to survive the Syrian War are competing for the Best [Fake] Documentary Oscar along with three other films.

Photo 1 – Waad Al-Kateab, author of For Sama, her husband Hamza Al-Kateab and their daughter Sama at the BAFTA award ceremony after receiving the Best Documentary award.
Photo 2 – Hamza Al-Kateab and Maayouf Abu Bahr.
Photo 3 – Hamza Al-Kateab and Maayouf Abu Bahr.
Photo 4 – Maayouf Abu Bahr and his buddies make a selfie with 12-year-old Abdallah Issah before they behead him.

Posted by: S | Feb 6 2020 2:19 utc | 111

circe – pure entertainment on my part, but i never saw a direct response from you to wg.. care to comment? from the thread Putin Prepares To Release Iowa Caucus Results
“Just curious Circe, but is your hatred of Trump so overwhelming that you will now begin to demand that we support the obvious CIA stooge Butt-gig?
Now that we know beyond doubt that the Democrats are as crooked as a dog’s hind leg, what’s your suggestion for a path forward? Do you think we can do as the Mexicans did with AMLO and steamroll Sanders into the White House through sheer overwhelming numbers? Do you think enough Americans have hit that second level of “woke” necessary to do pull that off?
I don’t think we are there yet, and I believe people being hung up with “Trump Derangement Syndrome” holds us back from getting there.
Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 5 2020 0:51 utc | 204″

Posted by: james | Feb 6 2020 2:43 utc | 113

HRC and the DNC’s hands are all over this Iowa SNAFU. Can’t link right now, but this was reported on Democracy Now, on 2/5. Shadow, the group that built the non-working apt, has connections to HRC and the winning candidate.
This SNAFU was no accident…

Posted by: ben | Feb 6 2020 2:56 utc | 115

@115; The candidate I referred to is Pete Buttigieg…
Watch all of my 116, it’s interesting…

Posted by: ben | Feb 6 2020 3:13 utc | 117

Such august company. 65 , I thank you for your good sense. But i caution you. The anecdotal evidence of cover up will take a while to filter out, given state controls. State officials don,t care about next month …they have to lie this day, hoping it will all come out in the wash after this panic is over …..
But i cannot refrain from commenting on the SAA advancing , to slip past the eastern defences of saraquib, Moving to take the M4 highway , and, more importantly, threaten idlib city! Holy Crap! hts commander must have focussed his best to prevent the breakthrough the SAA have Just accomplished. #lo, the question is, what defence is left in Idlib city, if the SAA come to call?
Cheers’

Posted by: James sullivan | Feb 6 2020 3:46 utc | 119

@113 james
Let me instead respond to William Gruff.
you will now begin to demand that we support the obvious CIA stooge Butt-gig?
Of course not! That’s like a choice between Hillary and Trump. Doesn’t matter what you do. If Buttigieg is the nominee, the die will already be cast and the vote will already be irreversibly programmed for Trump to win. That’s why Buttigieg must not be the nominee!
When it’s rigged like that, nothing you can do to stop the mass brainwash. Buttigieg is the perfect foil, and whether you believe this or not, so was Hillary. But Buttigieg is a much better foil, less riskier foil to score a Trump win. That’s why deep $ pockets are suddenly in his corner.
Regarding Sanders, I really believe he has a good shot. It won’t be easy. It’ll be very dirty and a knock ’em drag ’em out fight to the finish, but it can be done, whether some woke or no woke.
Personally, I prefer it to be an intense race all the way, because that sustains people’s interest, and therefore, I believe that Trump loathing is a powerful motivator and Trump is an endless bounty of excellent negative ad material, together with a very positive platform that appeals to the average person who has been the mouse on the wheel for the super rich to exploit; it’s a winning combination. You can’t repair this kind of deep political rift until Trump is in the dustbin of history, and it’s outrage turned to rage that must drive him out.
Trumpian Republicans are operating under an uncompromising, no holes barred survival of the fittest hubris. Another reason the Sanders campaign stands a chance is because his supporters have the same kind of my way or the highway resolve and resistance needed to win and transform the system. Hey, Trump fcked things up a lot, and he’ll do much worse in his second term, and so you gotta be ready to fight fire with fire to take back power. Ziofascists won’t give up their power nicely.
However, if this moment is not seized; it’s game over and the real hell begins.
This is a very serious moment in history; that’s why you (WG) and Jr and Russ piss me off to no end, because your cynicism is like a drug that kills opportunity. Trump must be defeated, you got that??? PERIOD SCRAM. You’re the enemy of truth and I don’t have time for this kind of stupid test!

Posted by: Circe | Feb 6 2020 4:22 utc | 121

james @114: i think i understand what the term is supposed to mean
Sanders was identified as a ‘sheepdog’ early on by The Black Agenda Report, which describes exactly what ‘sheepdog’ means: Candidate Bernie Sanders: Sheep-dogging for Hillary and the Democrats in 2016:

Vermont senator and ostensible socialist Bernie Sanders is playing the sheepdog candidate for Hillary Clinton this year. Bernie’s job is to warm up the crowd for Hillary, herding activist energies and the disaffected left back into the Democratic fold one more time. Bernie aims to tie up activist energies and resources till the summer of 2016 when the only remaining choice will be the usual lesser of two evils.
“The sheepdog is a card the Democratic party plays every presidential primary season when there’s no White House Democrat running for re-election.”
Spoiler alert: we have seen the Bernie Sanders show before, and we know exactly how it ends. Bernie has zero likelihood of winning the Democratic nomination for president over Hillary Clinton. Bernie will lose, Hillary will win. When Bernie folds his tent in the summer of 2016, the money, the hopes and prayers, the year of activist zeal that folks put behind Bernie Sanders’ either vanishes into thin air, or directly benefits the Hillary Clinton campaign.

The 2016 race went exactly as BAR had predicted. Bernie refused to attack Hillary on character issues (“Enough with your damn emails!”); had little to say about electoral manipulation and media bias; and ultimately endorsed Hillary – even after she disrespected him and his ‘base’ by bringing Debra-Wasserman Shultz into her campaign.
Some think that Bernie has shrugged off the ‘sheepdog’ role because he’s now “top dog”. But Bernie’s meekness in the face of Democratic Party moves against his campaign cause many to believe that Sanders hasn’t changed.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Feb 6 2020 4:56 utc | 123

I’m sorry, Circe, but it isn’t cynicism. A post above attempted to counter the sheepdog claim because Bernie is indeed sincere on all his hardhitting points and he is expending so much effort – but I remember my uncle’s best sheepdog, and what Bernie does is what a good sheepdog does – not to say he doesn’t hope his ‘master’ will take notice of how successful he is with the people and incorporate some concessions into the final outcome but it has to be said, and has been said by Bernie himself, that he indeed has a master.
At #109 above Jack Rabbit reposts from uncle tungsten a few quotes of which one is the following:
“The biggest problem here, from the perspective of those who are working hard for the “political revolution” that Bernie has inspired is that Sanders has had four years to publicize, denounce, and insist on correcting all of these methods of cheating, and has said or done nothing substantive to that end.”
You see, we remember that Obama also “inspired” a political revolution in young people, and then proceeded to shaft them. Bernie is not the same kind of person by any means as Obama is and was, but he does have a similar devotion to his ‘side of the aisle’. Which means he is used to compromise in all matters Congressional. He’s no LBJ, in other words. He himself doesn’t cheat, but that’s not enough. They, as you know, do.
What he has done is create a following – and rather than expect him to change, maybe there’s hope his followers will. How would you feel about that?

Posted by: juliania | Feb 6 2020 5:18 utc | 125

I was a in charge of a polling place in CA during the primary when Jesse Jackson ran. When the polls closed, it took us 20 minutes to count the ballots for the candidates. Had the system provided for it, we could have phoned the results in to a central location in one minute flat. Also, had the system provided for it, we could have had observers to witness the count.
—
CORONA VIRUS: Greater contagion appears to reside in possession of a lung enzyme common to Chinese only. Most if not all of cases outside China are of Chinese ethnicity. Many events are preceded by or are simultaneous with a similar false event. There was such an event forewarning emergence of Corona.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/all-sectors-us-establishment-lock-step-deep-states-latest-bio-war/5702773

Posted by: Penelope | Feb 6 2020 5:40 utc | 127

Buttigieg is going to slam into a wall in South Carolina; he’s not authentic and blacks are not buying his lip service.
Bernie has been handed a unique opportunity with Iowa. Okay, the Buttigieg cabal stole the show with their fix, but you know what they say about a door closing and a window opening. Biden will be going into SC a much weaker candidate. Therefore, the black community might be rethinking their support for him and wavering on whether he can defeat Trump.
Bernie already has much better support from the black community than Buttigieg who rightly has ZERO or very minimal support support. Bernie has come a long way since Black Lives Matter confronted him in 2015. He needs to seize on the opportunity waning with Biden and reach out to BLM and come out with a program beyond lip service before the South Carolina primary that will grow his base of black support. If Bernie succeeds in getting the black community to resoundly support him; he’s on his way to the White House. And why wouldn’t they support him when his platform is much more social justice oriented than Biden’s?
He already has endorsements from notable black figures in the music and entertainment industry, so he just needs to use these endorsements to make wider connections, but he better expand this support soon.
If he comes out of South carolina doubling the support he already has, he’ll be in a very strong position to make further gains.
Outreach to the black and latino community is extremely important and BLM is definitely not going to connect with Buttigieg.
One more thing, I also find Tom Steyer an interesting and likable candidate whose policies are good. The problem is that like Gabbard he hasn’t been VIABLE.
Bernie’s very VIABLE, and very committed to cleaning things up, social justice and restoring a sane foreign policy, therefore, he must go all the way.
@122 ben
I posted that link on Tuesay a.m. and then b posted it with an excerpt from the article in the previous thread to this one.

Posted by: Circe | Feb 6 2020 5:59 utc | 129

It seems Bernie Sanders blew a big chance to aggressively promote his victory at the Iowa caucus and let establishment favourite Pete Buttigieg pull a Juan Guido and declare himself the winner before voting results had been publicly released (and said results later clearly showed Sanders, not Buttigieg, was the winner). Unfortunately, Sanders stayed quiet and let Buttman’s bullshit go unchallenged in the media.
I agree with this article by Green Party supporter Peter LaVenia, entitled Does Bernie Have What It Takes? which makes some very good points regarding Sanders’ weak media strategy and inability, or unwillingness, to act decisively when presented with opportunities to gain momentum. An excerpt from the piece:

For Bernie Sanders supporters, the true debacle of the Iowa caucus meltdown was not the failure of the Shadow app, but rather their candidate’s failure to claim victory when he had the chance. Instead he unwisely ceded that role to the corporate candidate extraordinaire, Pete Buttigieg. It stands in stark contrast to Donald Trump, who for all his faults would not have hesitated to declare victory, and who would have energized his supporters with the statement and cowed the party establishment.

Posted by: Daniel | Feb 6 2020 6:10 utc | 131

Circe #129
I finally found you Circe over here. You departed the last thread quietly. So I repost this here for all to see.
This is a well presented assessment of the fork in the road from Patrice de Bergeracpas.
What say you Circe to this link?
I say its time for Bernie to get tough with the DNC or get rolled and be seen to betray his base.
Then I posted this from Grateful Dead.
Truckin, like the do-dah man once told me – “youve got to play your hand”
“Sometimes your cards aint worth a dime, if you dont layem down,”
So layem down Bernie and Tulsi, call their bluff.
I would be interested in your response Circe.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 6 2020 6:19 utc | 133

What do barflies make of the claims made here in the Sydney Morning Herald? For a conservative MSM broadsheet it’s a panicky forecasting that this Chinese shutdown is the trigger of the next big financial collapse.

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 6 2020 6:29 utc | 135

b – you nailed it…
“Rep. Sheila Jackson (D) called on Iowa Democrats to bring the FBI in to investigate Russian involvement in the malfunctioning of the vote-reporting app that threw the first vote of the 2020 election season into disarray. She made the comment during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on FBI oversight on Wednesday, but shrewd observers of Democratic behavior had predicted it almost immediately after the extent of the botched caucus vote count came to light.”
Russians did it! Democratic congresswoman finally says what Russiagaters have all been thinking about Iowa caucus fail

Posted by: james | Feb 6 2020 6:32 utc | 137

I should add too that my Australian university is debating delaying the start of semester 1. Over 20% of the university market here depends on Chinese students who are banned from entering Australia, and 25% of tourism consists of Chinese tour-groups. One can only imagine the dependent sectors caught up in this. It really doesn’t matter much about the truth of this virus one way or the other when the cash-supply drys up completely. The consequences will be serious.

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 6 2020 6:37 utc | 139

Trailer Trash & Walter @9,12 & 13
Oops. I posted in a rush, and have just been scrolling through comments and saw yours’. It makes the Al Jazeera video posted by AntiSpin I referred to above to rather prophetic.
I, for one, will never set foot on any Boeing again as long as I live.

Posted by: Jon_in_AU | Feb 6 2020 6:39 utc | 141

Oops, sorry. Forgot the source on #140: It’s https://www.voltairenet.org/article209126.html

Posted by: Penelope | Feb 6 2020 6:42 utc | 143

I have to wonder when China will decide it no longer wants to accept the endless stream of digital currency (created by simply adding more and more zeros to the end of the Federal Reserve balance books) in exchange for its goods and services? It’s not like they don’t have internal markets and, of course, the Belt Road Initiative.
Sure, its a great deal for the banksters and the military here, how else can the US afford to keep 1000 military bases, 11 Carrier Strike Groups, and everything else going? The US debt is being monetized at a phenomenal, exponential rate, have you noticed the Fed is pumping tens of billions of dollars into the banks on a daily basis? I marvel at how this seems to go on forever, not that laws matter here in the US anymore, but just simply because of the scale of this process.
I keep telling myself it can’t go on forever, but it still seems to. Until one day it doesn’t, I guess.

Posted by: Perimetr | Feb 6 2020 6:49 utc | 145

Only a small heads-up: I’ve noticed instances of the “US”/”western” propaganda apparatus misusing the term “false flag” in nonsensical ways to corrupt it, including by “experts”, “veterans”, people who portray themselves or who are portrayed by others as authoritative and so on.
Something to take notice of for anyone when they comes across it. I assume it will become more widespread. It is clearly not by mistake. Everyone should feel free to publicly ridicule, mock, and shame such people if they have the opportunity to do so.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Feb 6 2020 6:53 utc | 147

karlof1 @87
“what I’m most interested in is its idea that Socialism represents Total Democracy, which is my term arrived at from Sidney Webb’s essay here and in the above linked book where he says:
‘The economic side of the democratic ideal is, in fact, socialism itself’.”
This is what Lenin wrote of in his The State and Revolution as “winning the battle of democracy.”
Lenin, as opposed to the Fabians, was a Communist. As Sherwood Anderson put it:
“What’s the difference between a Socialist and a Communist? The Communists are the ones who really mean it.”

Posted by: Vintage Red | Feb 6 2020 7:07 utc | 149

Perimetr @ 145
“I have to wonder when China will decide it no longer wants to accept the endless stream of digital currency . . .”
Inside China’s mission to create digital yuan
The country’s new sovereign currency, the first of its kind in the world, appears to be nearing completion
2-5-20

This may be the year we see the world’s first sovereign digital currency, Wired reported. First discussed more than five years ago, China’s DCEP (short for Digital Currency/Electronic Payments) looks to be nearing completion. There have been some false starts; reports initially said there was a chance it would be released countrywide by November 11, while Caijing, a large domestic finance magazine, thought it would be debuted in Shenzhen before the end of 2019.
While neither of these deadlines have come to pass, it’s clear that China is gearing up to release DCEP as soon as possible, according to presentations by Mu Changchun, the head of the Chinese central bank’s digital currency research institute. In these presentations, Mu has elucidated a vision of a sovereign digital currency, one that stands in stark contrast to the decentralized aspirations embedded into existing cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

Posted by: pogohere | Feb 6 2020 7:10 utc | 151

Really? #102
You evaded 98% of the question. Let me restate it:

The NSDAP (nazi party) supported an extensive welfare state. It included free higher education, family and child support, pensions, health insurance and an array of publically supported entertainment and vacation options.
Source?

Hiking trips and limited vacations for Nazi party members ≠ ≠ “extensive welfare state” or any of the rest except for “vacation options”….for a decent rundown by an actual historian, I recommend this article.

Posted by: Mister Wiggles | Feb 6 2020 7:17 utc | 153

STANDPUNKTE – The war alternative. A fake called AfD: antisocial & militaristic
All quotations are taken from a paper of the “Arbeitskreis Verteidigung der AfD-Bundestagsfraktion”.
As an alternative, as opposition, the AfD appears. Now its parliamentary group presented a paper entitled “Armed Forces Bundeswehr”, which wipes off the oppositional make-up of the party and shows the true face of the AfD: asocial & militaristic. Because brutally open, the AfD wants to completely fulfil the financial demands of NATO. And it does not shy away from foreign missions either. In addition, it wants the “national procurement pact”, a profitable alliance with the arms industry, at the taxpayer’s expense, of course. The party is actually selling this as “national”. As if Schulzes from next door and the shareholders of Rheinmetall were on an equal footing.
Abroad, abroad, above all
The AfD is only concerned that “foreign missions to stabilize foreign states . . . do not endanger Germany’s defence preparedness at any time”. Even the slimy camouflage word “stabilization” – invented by the SPD and CDU in the wake of the war in Afghanistan – is being submissively adopted by the alleged alternative. And then the “Alternative for Germany” also camouflages itself nationally: “Moreover, they (the foreign missions) are always subject to the national interest of Germany. Like in Mali? Where the Bundeswehr serves the interests of the French nuclear industry? Or like in Syria, where the Bundeswehr planes protected the interests of the USA? Or like in Ramstein in the Palatinate, where the German town serves the Americans as a control center for drones? Not a word about that at the AfD.
Out of the butt of NATO
Instead, the AfD stoops so low in front of NATO that it is easy to see the party behind it: “The North Atlantic Alliance has consistently demonstrated its efficiency and reliability during the decades of the Cold War. Sure. In Afghanistan, in Libya, everywhere where the raw materials interests of the USA had to be reliably fought for. And what does the AfD tell NATO’s butt: “In order for NATO to maintain its military and political strength, the German government must fully comply with the contractually agreed commitments to the alliance. This sells the AfD as national:
Making tax money easy on foreign wars. And, hardly hidden, the alternative counterfeit wants to fulfil the NATO target of 2 percent of the gross domestic product (80 billion euros!) as an “agreed promise” in a well-behaved manner. This costs the money for schools, roads, apartments. Doesn’t the antisocial AfD care at all. The Party for Nuclear War is deeply submissive in its formulation: “The nuclear capabilities of the partners in the North Atlantic Alliance represent . . . . .is an essential component of military deterrence.” One can hardly hear the voice of the AfD, as it sits so deep in the gut of the USA-NATO organisation when it praises the old anti-Russian front as a new insight: “In addition, the Federal Government must make it clear that it respects the outstanding strategic importance of NATO for our country.
George Bush’s terror thesis stolen
The bloody old propaganda thesis of George Bush is also recycled by the AfD with this sentence: “In the case of terrorist threats against the Federal Republic of Germany and its citizens, the Bundeswehr is also empowered and authorized to avert danger and to support criminal prosecution abroad. The AfD thinks its voters are stupid and hopes that they will not remember that the USA declared every second goatherd a terrorist if this was in their geostrategic interest. So the USA doesn’t give a shit about national borders when they are once again on their way to “criminal prosecution abroad”. In this illegal and deadly hunt, the AfD wants to involve the Bundeswehr. And openly admits: “A precise and robust approach by German armed forces also develops a preventive protection for Germans abroad through its deterrent effect”. Of course, in translation robust means “deadly”. And the fact that NATO’s previous missions have only produced more refugees is something that the alternative dummy catchers keep quiet about.
The buzzing “R” of the Austrian
For everything to go smoothly abroad, the AfD strategists on the home front need calm. In order to ensure a proper peace of mind, the AfD wants to set up a “reserve corps for territorial tasks” at home, which will provide support for the police and border guards. “Of course, this illegal police force is to be deployed domestically in the future as part of an “extended military operation” to “avert dangers below the threshold of a defence case …”.
That the alternative putschists will have to override German laws for this is even known to the flyspeck Gauland: “For these tasks, an amendment of the constitutional provisions for the deployment of the Bundeswehr at home is necessary. On the way back into the Reich, even the worst years of German history are rediscovered: “The Bundeswehr is part of a centuries-old German military tradition. That the “traditional” 2nd World War cost at least 55 million people their lives? Never mind. That among the victims were 6.3 million dead Germans? The nationally painted AfD obviously doesn’t give a shit. But back to the Reich also means: “Military service also strengthens the will of the German people for military service.” You can hear the Austrian’s rolling “R” buzzing out of the text.
Stand at attention in front of each flagpole
Because the AfD recommends foreign missions and dubious foreign friends to the Bundeswehr, the Germans have to be barracked mentally: “The Federal Government advocates social privileges for its soldiers. That’s what the Höckes, the Meuthens and Gaulands would like to see: an ideologisation of the Germans, which should lead to the military formation of the country, to standing at attention in front of every flagpole. And because too little money is constantly being spent on the country’s youth and because the German educational standard has long since fallen below that of China, the AfD prays that education will be healthy: “The Bundeswehr will be included in the teaching and training plans of schools. Whoever has a clue knows that this entrance only serves the ideologization of the lessons and will not clean the dirty school toilets. The AfD does not want to know that. Anyone who has a clue knows that this kind of school policy has only one outcome: downwards.
All quotations are taken from a paper of the “Arbeitskreis Verteidigung der AfD-Bundestagsfraktion”.
https://kenfm.de/standpunkte-%E2%80%A2-die-kriegs-alternative-ein-fake-namens-afd-asozial-militaristisch/
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Posted by: arosa2 | Feb 6 2020 7:20 utc | 155

Science: Study claiming new coronavirus can be transmitted by people without symptoms was flawed
Posted by: b | Feb 5 2020 18:21 utc | 32
The last pasragraph of the linked article is interesting:

The German cluster does reveal another interesting aspect about the new virus, Drosten says. So far most attention has gone to patients who get seriously ill, but all four cases in Germany had a very mild infection. That may be true for many more patients, Drosten says, which may help the virus spread. “There is increasingly the sense that patients may just experience mild cold symptoms, while already shedding the virus,” he says. “Those are not symptoms that lead people to stay at home.”

In other words, it’s really just a normal bog-standard flu and nothing more – or maybe even less! Fatalities are infinitesimal, compared to the population of the country most affected. If Drosten’s claim is true, then the number infected in China (but so mildly that not detected) would be massively greater than the twenty-something thousand confirmed cases, making the true fatality rate even lower still. Most of the deaths are from elderly people already immune-compromised by another illness, and every bog-standard strain of flu is fatal in some people especially elderly people with compromised immune systems.
2019-nCoV is NOT a medical incident at all, it is a pure political incident and nothing more.
China’s response to the incident is not at all warranted by the medical facts (except probably at an early stage before it was clear what the situation was); nevertheless the real issue was and is the political attack on China, and China’s containment of the “new bog-standard strain of flu” was an absolutely first-class and fully warranted response to the political attack.
My commiserations for the small number of deceased and their families, but the incident also has some major advantages. The danger of the self-immolating empire deliberately deploying a far more dangerous bio-weapon in China is extremely great, and with nCoV China has had a perfect chance to run a highly realistic drill for dealing with a REAL bio-threat – and again they have passed with better than five stars. What they have learnt from all this is absolutely priceless and will probably save millions of lives, if there is ever the release of a really dangerous bio-weapon by the self-immolating empire.
Another less spectacular but nevertheless worthwhile advantage for China is the global display of a truly spectacular preformance in administration, science, medicine, social management, crisis management, morality, discipline … and so much else.
Congratulations China!

Posted by: BM | Feb 6 2020 7:23 utc | 157

Posted by: Perimetr | Feb 6 2020 5:18 utc | 124
“It still is hard for me to believe that the Chinese would go to these lengths over anything less than a serious threat.”
Well, its certainly ended those Hk protests.
Also, they do have an aging overpopulation problem. And a distraction taking away from economic and pollution problems might be politically useful, especially if they can come off as hero’s for squashing a problem with their decisive and strong actions , people not knowing it was all hype and would have amounted to nothing anyways.
They now have an excuse not to honor the trade deal which was so one sided there must have been some unhappiness internally
Also, with a growing vaccine and pharmaceutical industry forced vaccinations and other prophylactic therapies globally could be a boon. Who better to develop a vaccine than the creator and owner of most of the virus with a large population who survived with ample source of plasma antibodies and cellular transfer agents?

Posted by: Pft | Feb 6 2020 7:57 utc | 159

@karlof1 98
“What purpose would be served by CIA/State to allow the rumored death to continue? …if we don’t see a healthy A-Mike within a week, then he’s either dead or a POW.”
This is precisely why I was raising the question, here over a week on. It would seem simple enough for Mikey to have been trotted out, for whatever innocuous purpose, to disprove Taliban claims if he was indeed safe and sound. In fact, given his duties, it seems to be pushing it to believe he wouldn’t have been sighted somewhere doing something in the ten days since. Of course, I suppose one could argue the opposite, that this has been plenty of time for the Taliban to have provided further corroboration. But boy, if Iranian intelligence somehow managed that sort of a surgical response…you won’t find anyone of any import from the US volunteering to go anywhere near the ME. Of course, if this plane were indeed “brought down” (and if so, one would presume a fairly simple explosive device planted at the airfield), even that prospect is enough to send shivers down the spines of anyone who considers themselves a potential target.
As to the mini-nukes, those are indeed troubling. I spent some time trying to decipher the mental gymnastics of any conceivable argument that their purpose would be countering anything Russian, and frankly I had to lay down for a while. When I got up it is still ludicrous. However, what I’m concerned about is the actual “natural” purpose of such devices would be for use against a nation who can at least be argued to be a “nuclear threat,” e.g. Iran and N. Korea, thus justifying the use of nuclear devices in the minds of neocons (who have been whining for some time “what’s the use of having nukes if we never get to use them?). Remember, a lot of these fascists actually believe the nonsense that the A-bombs caused the immediate surrender of Japan, and I could see them thinking that a suitable demonstration of horrible destruction would cause Iran (or N. Korea, or whoever’s next in line) to immediately fold. Didn’t Trump make some off-hand comment a while back about turning some small militarized island into glass?
Anyway, I could see these idiots thinking that mini-nukes are just the ticket–horrendous enough to force any foe to surrender, while allowing the US to reassure the world that it only barely nuked another country and shouldn’t be thought the less of. Plus, they’re “safe” for the US to use, as compared to the until-so-recently favored bombing campaign, now that they’re coming up against foes with actual air defenses. Scary times.

Posted by: J Swift | Feb 6 2020 9:10 utc | 161

https://www.georgemjames.com/blog/macron-buttigieg-and-juan-gauido-venezuela I am wondering who is behind these people. They came from nowhere and yet are supported to the hilt by those in power. Odd. I cannot help but be suspicious. Time will tell. GMJ

Posted by: GMJ | Feb 6 2020 9:49 utc | 163

bevin @ 92
That is a pretty good analysis. I do believe that Bernie does not want division of the party as it could hand a great deal of power to the Republicans yet he is still an independent for all practical purposes. He could wield a great deal of power to obtain some objectives but he appears to have done little.
He is a massive threat that could split the DNC in half and create a new party and his followers know that they get little from the DNC. They have a great deal of organized shoe leather at their disposal that could inflict tremendous damage.
Why not use the threat to obtain some of your goals? Why not spend three years bashing and trashing the DNC to obtain concessions on how power is shared? It would be an exercise in massive popularity as well. WE all know the corruption is rampant.
In the 3 years since the last election what has he done? Of course you cannot get much done with Trumpenstien in power but you could blow the bugle before the battle. The jury is out for me on the sheep dog angle. I am going to have to spend time to read and watch some of his material.
I saw the labor party start with significant support in California and it quietly died being co opted by the DNC power brokers. These elections are exceedingly important and I am sure that there are foreign and domestic intelligence agencies involved as well.
It is all about working in the shadows. Everyone is suspect, even Sanders

Posted by: dltravers | Feb 6 2020 9:59 utc | 165

They [the Chinese] now have an excuse not to honor the trade deal which was so one sided there must have been some unhappiness internally pft @159.. I think you hit the nail on the head.. China is about to roll out its new digital currency, it d/n need to lose its trade with outsiders, and it does not want its secret to get out, also its about to announce advanced innervation in quantum processor technology.. , I believe its resident population is fully prepared to suffer the consequences of foregoing trade with the west. ..it seems from what I could understand, that Chinese people willingly sacrifice their present circumstances for the benefit of future generations. Several Chinese persons have told me privately, it is endemic among Chinese residents to find ways to decouple from the USD the state must have nearly full support for this?
I do not know much about this China stuff, so I would appreciate some to explain more to me.. or tell me my sources are not accurate.

Posted by: snake | Feb 6 2020 11:05 utc | 167

Circ #165
Bernie got flogged I 2016 because no paper ballot. He has had numerous ocasionsevery week since to demand a transparent vote on paper. Silence. Iowa gives him that opportunity. Silence. Silence so poorly exercised that butigieg steals the advantage.
Both Bernie and Tulsi have a moment to stand up for their people and admirers and demand transparent, accountable elections on paper ballots properly preserved. The stench of a rigged vote is overwhelming PLUS it destroys the will to fight in their support base.
If both Bernie and Tulsi cannot get a guarantee or get gyped again then it should be a walkout at or before the convention and a rally for a new party. Sure, that is a move fraught with danger but acquiescing is treachery and would certainly shatter their base.
The day demands integrity and both Bernie and Tulsi claim to have that in spades. Its time to be either on the bus or get off the bus. No more drinking the DNC cool aid playing nice.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 6 2020 11:09 utc | 169

Ding dong… Biohazard waste boxes found buried inside evacuated Wuhan US Consulate goes the claim. What do you make of it?
According to the video, a couple of plastic containers marked with bio-hazard symbols were found on the premises of the US consulate in Wuhan. The containers were wrapped in two layers of tarp and buried 1.5 meters under the ground. Chinese authorities did a search once the consulate was completely evacuated by the US.
Wow.
Who’d have thought that the US had a consulate in Wuhan. Well, apparently they do. It’s a small one though, in terms of staff, according to their website. However, we have to remember that as recently as October, a large delegation of US military personnel was in Wuhan on the occasion of the 2019 Military World Games (like the Olympics, but for the military). Sounds like the perfect cover to me.
It would sound unbelievable to pull such a thing of, but so did playing dirty games with poisonous chemicals in an English small town or staging an abominable play with corpses for props in a Damascus suburb.

Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Feb 6 2020 11:18 utc | 171

I am always impressed by the quality of b’s information, but about Corona I disagree.
I see the enormous efforts in China. The ‘leaked’video’s from civilians, and I listened to Dr. Martensen’s video updates.
Yes, the ordinary flew has much more deaths each year, as it is the way to die for older and weaker people. And we do not isolate the sick. If we do the same with 2019-nCoV (no isolation) at Ro= 4 and fatality of 6% the whole of China will be ill in 3 months, and 85 million will have died. One year later the world will have 450 million deaths, if we do no isolation and have no vaccin.
The worst part of the virus is that ill people do spread it before they know that they are ill.
Example: cruise ship with 3700 people. One man boarded on 20 january, left the ship on 25 january and fell ill on 1 febr.
The ship was kept in quarantaine and now 10 people have gotten ill: contaminated while the old man was still ‘OK’. These 10 who are taken off the boat now have probably contaminated 100 people, who will become ill soon. After that the isolation between passengers has done its protective work, we may hope.
Also very alarming: Everywhere in the world ill people have been found, except in Africa and South America. I think the virus is spreading there, and these countries cannot organise ‘isolation’.
It really looks bad.
.

Posted by: Hugo Jansen | Feb 6 2020 11:29 utc | 173

On the myth of Erdoghan = Putin = Trump and In Turkey post #161 above, I posted this retort three threads ago (Syrian Army Progress Leads To New Scuffle Between Turkey And Russia) and the turkish mouse is still squeaking so tolerate me reposting it here.

A small addition to your insistence that turkey invaded Idlib etc… The full picture needs to be appreciated. Syria has been at war on numerous fronts. At the time of the attempted turkish annexation of Idlib, Syrian army was fully stretched retaking the East at Deir Ezzor and the south at Darra along the Golan border and relieving the pressure on Damascus. Given the belligerent neighbours to the south and west – Jordan and Israel – and turkey to the north and north west, they chose to secure the South first as the Northern belligerent was partly ‘in the camp’.
It is in the context of achievability and resources that Syria made that strategic decision. Plus working with Russia to have somewhere to accommodate the terrorist close to their least capable ally. Had Syria taken Idlib first and sent the terrorists South they would have been fully in the arms and support of USA and its Jordanian and Israeli vassals.
Assad acts in order to protect the Syrian people as best he can with the limited military capability that he has. He will protect the capitol as would any sensible leader and his persistent work with the Russian ‘deconflit strategy’ has worked well while he maintains his military strategy of gradual liberation and minimal soldiers deaths.
Erdoghan on the other hand is acting out a different military strategy (somewhat like the invading wehrmacht) and opening many fronts, one far from home and across vulnerable seas.
The rout in Idlib may well happen quickly, I have no idea but if exit fever grips the jihadis in Idlib then Erdoghan may be well advised to give them all safe passage to Libya – IF he can. He is trapped by strong political challengers emerging at home, powerful turkish chauvinism that will not tolerate more land being ceded to ‘foreigners from the east’ let alone vicious killer refugees. And he is trapped by his Moslem Brotherhood expectation of success which he MUST achieve. Otherwise the garrote awaits him.
He has just been conned by the USA who’s only goal is to prevent his full use of the S400 in turkey. The USA will go to extremes to prevent that weapon system being installed and rendered operational anywhere. His citizens will not be entirely happy with that capitulation as it paints a picture of failure.
IMO Erdoghan has found his Dien Bien Phu in Idlib AND Libya. It is only a matter of time before he is demised.

So much for that and I will add that Erdoghan’s absolute obligation under that agreement was to demilitarise 20 kilometers within that Idlib province to prevent continuous conflict while resettlement of refugees proceeded. Erdoghan did not comply, he resupplied the terrorist goons, he set up ‘observation posts’ that were radio monitoring installations and informed the terrorist goons of military and civilian activities in the Syrian liberated zones. He enabled repetitive drone attacks on the Russian airbase in Latakia.
Clearly Erdoghan is no one’s ally but he is certainly a menace against humanity.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 6 2020 11:40 utc | 175

I’ve been speaking about the “Japanification” phenomenon for a while here. Now I finally have a colleague in this regard:
Preventing the ‘Japanification’ of East Asia’s economies
I disagree with the rest of her op-ed, though (indeed, her first suggestion would only make the Japanification problem worse).
–/
This is new…
Japan’s problem? Too much competition
Whoa! There’s too much competition! This is bad for capitalism! You read it on the newspaper! Spread the word!
I noticed most commenters here in this blog a are middle classers from First World countries. Here’s my advice for you: ideology is a fabrication of the middle class. The rich don’t need it because they can do whatever they please; the poor don’t need it because they have nothing to lose.
You can be middle class; just don’t be a sucker by acting like a cheap ideologue/priest on the internet.

Posted by: vk | Feb 6 2020 12:02 utc | 177

@37 Nick
From your link.
“He left the old establishment in its entrenched positions in the economy, army, and the state” …sure he did, that’s why he kicked out (I mean holocausted) the jews out right? because he left them all in power.
Expects to get the truth about Hitler and Germany from a bolshevik “professor” in a commie “university” named “Schoenbaum” hahahahaha

Posted by: Nothing | Feb 6 2020 12:21 utc | 179

VK, VR and karlof1 (perhaps to a lesser extent but maybe not) present a hagiographical reductionist form of Marx’s historical dialectical process of the stages of capitalism giving way to socialism in some future China.
What they fail to connect from Marx and Lenin is the role of class struggle by the working classes to achieve ultimate supremacy over the bourgeois.
Here they present a dreamworldly China marching surehandedly to the socialist phase through a bloodless, classless construct of a benevolent communist hierarchy. Class struggle, what class struggle?
No the reality is the Chinese “communist” hierarchy exults in financial markets, its nouveau riche build real estate and manufacturing empires through intensely leveraged liquidity meted out by the state to those favoured “entrepreneurs”, the Party that long ago opened its doors to multinational corporations which thrives to this day on the exploitation of the Chinese working class then passes the rewards onto the globalist shareholder class, including this very Chinese hierarchy and their extremely fortunate families.
China presents a profoundly imperialist foreign policy to further exploit third world nations resources and working class labor and yet this too is pure benevolence in service to mankind.
And simply because they call themselves “socialist” and can augur back to a now mythical Maoist past both VK and VR confidently predict that at some magical future moment this supposedly benevolent bourgeois caste will decide to flip a switch and the massive wealth inequality will disappear, the bourgeoisie will be self- destructed and replaced by working class rule?
That inside China no class struggle will be required because the state has somehow merged its overt neoliberalism with an unseen, hidden hand of communist political ideology?
Nonsense.

Posted by: donkeytale | Feb 6 2020 12:38 utc | 181

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/05/802850223/venezuelan-opposition-leader-juan-guaid-inspires-rare-bipartisan-moment
i just threw up a little. in my mouth.
that guy gets more smoke blown up his ass than an australian firefighter…while this guy gets ejected:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/05/politics/fred-guttenberg-parkland-state-of-the-union-guest/index.html
maybe he’ll get a sweet committee spot out of it in a few years.

Posted by: the pair | Feb 6 2020 12:48 utc | 183

paul @ 170
Very true and I will add to those points. Ralph Nader took a bunch of heat for running third party and allegedly drawing enough votes away from Gore to get Bush elected. The left pilloried Nader over allegedly drawing enough votes from Gore getting Bush elected.
Whether true or not it was a well played out narrative that was used to discourage a third party run. If true then the NEOCONS would have been out of power and we may have avoided the post 911 wars. It could have been one of the “death by 1000 cuts” that you describe.
Bernie views Trumpenstein as an existential threat the the world. This may play into his thinking.

Posted by: dltravers | Feb 6 2020 12:55 utc | 185

vk,
I agree with a great deal of what you say.
China is a very different system. It is a threat to the neo-liberal west because it shows that there is a successful alternative. Absolutely!
I consider it to be a blend of socialism and confucianism – ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics”
Chinese culture has never accepted the primacy of the individual over soociety.
There’s a quote from Dr Joseph Needham I’m trying to remember. He wrote that massive multi-volume study of Chinese science. It goes something like:
“Chinese civilization, in contrast to the West, has never accepted that there is a conflict between the individual and society or between man and nature, but has sought to integrate, realizing that the individual only fulfills himself in society, and that man is a part of nature”

Posted by: clickkid | Feb 6 2020 13:13 utc | 187

The educational system in Iowa (and by extension the USofA) is an additional source of muck up for the “pork state”. (Production of pork in Iowa is triple that of it’s nearest competitor state.)
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rounding-errors-found-30-iowa-caucus-worksheets-could-flip-significant-number-delegates
“After an app created by a Democratic digital firm botched the Iowa caucus results, the 1,678 precincts across the state resorted to awarding delegates using a “Caucus Math Worksheet,” causing significant delays in reporting.
The worksheet requires caucus workers perform basic multiplication and division, and then round the results up or down.
Unfortunately, Iowa Democrats are apparently terrible at math and rounding, as journalist and co-founder of Smart Elections, Lulu Friesdat, reveals that 30% of the worksheets she examined contained errors.
The kicker, “If 30% of 1678 precincts have an extra delegate assigned this way, it could be approximately 500 delegates. Buttigieg is currently leading Sanders by 18 delegates.”
”

Posted by: librul | Feb 6 2020 13:33 utc | 189

@BM #157
400 dead in a single city in two weeks is not a “normal bog-standard flu”. Saying that “2019-nCoV is NOT a medical incident at all” is just as nonsensical as claiming that it will wipe out all of humanity. Let’s be realistic, please.
Sina.com’s 2019-nCoV statistics for China:
1. The first graph shows cumulative patients (red = infected, purple = suspected of being infected, black = deceased, yellow = recovered).
2. The second graph zooms on deceased/recovered patients only.
3. The third graph shows new infected/suspected patients for each day.
4. The fourth graph shows data specifically for Wuhan.

Posted by: S | Feb 6 2020 13:42 utc | 191

For those into the Boeing Clusterf*ck… this movie just came into my head… Not a bad movie on a winters day.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043859/

Posted by: Jayne | Feb 6 2020 13:55 utc | 193

Posted by: dltravers | Feb 6 2020 12:55 utc | 186
“Bernie views Trumpenstein as an existential threat the the world. This may play into his thinking.”
In which case he’d be the same as any other Trump-Deranged Any-Blue-Will-Do moron, when the whole point is to transcend the fear-mongering of the moment and work for great affirmative transformations for tomorrow. That’s what movement-building would entail.
Oh well. I’ve noticed that the Sheep-Dog explanation of Bernie’s record is getting competition from the theory that he’s like Corbyn – sincere but stupid and cowardly.
I suppose either theory explains the evidence equally well, and one would make the same predictions based on either. So in the end they’re the same.

Posted by: Russ | Feb 6 2020 14:04 utc | 195

I’m surprised by how many commenters here still fall for the old Western fascination with stereotype of the Exotic East full of treacherous mysteries (a preconception we inherited from the Romans).
If you read the Chinese MSM (in Mandarin, not the English version), you’ll quickly see the the most harsh critics of the situation is the Chinese government itself. And they aren’t burying those at the bottom of their pages, nor are they mincing any words: they straight up admitted they screwed up in the headlines.
The Chinese people is not in the dark about the coronavirus situation. And the Chinese government do consider this epidemic as “very serious”. Just because you think you can win doesn’t mean you don’t think it will be easy.

Posted by: vk | Feb 6 2020 14:10 utc | 197

@William Gruff Comment 65
The CCP is attempting to downplay the deaths in the short run. They don’t care about the long run as they are in panic mode at the moment.
Videos of bagged bodies lying around are out there. Crematorium workers have been interviewed.
I guess this is just too hard to believe until the MSM chimes in and ok’s it.

Posted by: dorje | Feb 6 2020 14:23 utc | 199