Lochearn #97

What is it about your site that you invite such mediocre comments? I have thought about this a great deal.

Here Lochearn, do provide us with an erudite commentary on the role of the state and the populace in regard to the extract below:

French security agencies then more than adequately identified the “Charlie Hebdo shooting” perpetrators as potential threats and tracked them for years beforehand. More recently, British authorities were more than well aware of the danger Sudesh Amman posed to society.
The problem is instead what appears to be a deliberate effort to keep these terrorists roaming freely among society. Free to join Western-backed mercenary forces abroad to fight in the West’s various proxy wars, and free to commit heinous acts of terror at home, both serving the singular agenda of expanding Western hegemony abroad while preserving the primacy of select special interests at home through divide and conquer politics and the use of fear as a political weapon.

Do assist us all to raise the debate and discuss the human challenges that we can influence with our analysis.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 13 2020 3:00 utc | 104

Thanks Vig @ 79 for that factual link on Bernie’s voting.

Posted by: Penelope | Feb 13 2020 3:02 utc | 106

Uncle tungsten @ 96:
I haven’t followed the terror attacks in Britain closely enough to evaluate them, but I did closely look at the one in Paris & quite a number of them here in the US. Every one that I researched was indubitably phoney.
It used to be quite easy to piggy-back one’s own research on that of others. One would simply search “Nashville shooting hoax” or wherever it was, and all of the citizen videos & commentaries would come up at once. These usually included images of the location before the incident, often showing alterations that had been made to facilitate the “incident.”
Alas, these citizen analytics proved so effective in persuading others that TPTB began abruptly to block them. (sigh)

Posted by: Penelope | Feb 13 2020 3:04 utc | 108

Oops. b’s article of Feb 8 about how the coronavirus is under control was way off base. Zerohedge reports that Hubei Province has come clean and reported a huge increase in infections using the previous statistical gathering rules. Hopefully it will be less severe than the 1918 flu pandemic that caused the death of TENS OF MILLIONS.
Do not ever trust a government to communicate truthful information to you if they have something to gain by lying. It doesn’t matter if it is your home country or an adversary country – they all lie when it is to their advantage. Truth is a very elusive commodity today.

Posted by: Don Wills | Feb 13 2020 3:11 utc | 110

zerohedge to the rescue, lol… it’s good we had a conversation on zh…

Posted by: james | Feb 13 2020 3:22 utc | 112

This is Jimmy Dore of Tucker Carlson show FoxTV.
You would not ever have seen this on Fox at the last election. Best high voltage spit by Jimmy Dore I have seen.
Tucker shows a great smirk especially when Jimmy dumps on Guaido.
five minutes of mirth

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 13 2020 4:10 utc | 114

eye care is not included, nor is dental care — EXORBITANT: 500 to 700 francs (US$ 500 to US$ 700) to have a cavity filled, 6,000+ francs for bridge work…
. . .
Posted by: RJPJR | Feb 12 2020 23:19 utc | 83
+++++++++
Why are eye care and dental care NEVER covered by normal insurance?
Bad teeth can easily cost you your life through influence of unhealthy teeth on the rest of the body. And obviously, people need to see to lead normal non-“Challenged” lives. Why are these never covered?

Posted by: Really?? | Feb 13 2020 4:26 utc | 116

Really?? #115
In my social democracy I have eye, dental and hearing as well as all the other things. I am also pushed to stay healthy and exercise etc. Its normal and easily achieved. The tax collection to fund services like these are readily applied. You could charge a fraction of a cent for every email, every facebook post, every financial transaction, every dollar earned, every dollar spent. You could tax the wealthy, the smokers, the alcohol drinkers, the income earned by financial investing, or mine profits on a yield at site calculation.
There will be screaming and gnashing of teeth at some of these suggestions but then that’s what you hear with a minor pin prick.
One just have to overcome the decades of propaganda against tax raising. Its not a demon, not a drama, the fear mongering about taxes is just a means of carpetbaggers extorting wealth to sustain a fancy lobby operation. Like politicians extorting money to represent the MIC or hollywood extorting money to produce drivel.
Everytime you hear someone bellowing about taxes and too much and gimme a discount, you are hearing a social vandal self enriching.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 13 2020 4:58 utc | 118

Below is another short Xinhuanet posting about current political posturing and threats in the ME
”
TEHRAN, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) — Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi warned on Wednesday that Iran’s response to any Israeli aggression against its interests in the region or in Syria will be “crushing.”
Mousavi said over the past 70 years Israel has resorted to violence to occupy Palestine and target its neighboring countries.
Iran’s presence in Syria has been at invitation with the aim of fighting terrorism, the spokesman added.
“Our country will not hesitate to protect its interests in Syria or in the region and will defend its national security,” he noted, vowing “decisive and crushing response to any aggression or stupid act of Israel against its interests.”
”
Sitting here on the West coast of North America all I can do is wish them well in working out the 70+ years of jamming the Occupied Palestine/Israel state into the middle of the ME…and then occupying more and into Syria….
And once again let me close by noting that the above is a proxy part of the current civilization war about public/private global finance in the social contract…..socialism or barbarism

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 13 2020 5:14 utc | 120

Don’t be deceived by Sanders’ demeanour. He’s a little rumpled, a little reserved, a little too old, a little curmudgeonly making him evermore authentic and quite endearing. However, believe it or not, behind this long-suffering activist for social justice, painfully consistent servant of public interest, patiently, unassumingly waiting in the wings to inspire a significant movement at a transformational moment in time, lies an astute, battle-ready, hardened yet tender warrior who could not have picked a better time or waited a moment longer to make a final stand when America’s democracy is crumbling and nothing has worked to avert certain disaster.
Could it be that all it will take to shut out the cacophony of white noise deception, hype and blanket corruption is what began as a quiet crescendo of humanity and will end in a blowout that stuns the world?
I feel like there is a shunned amorophous beast headed in the direction of Trumpian fascism and the complicit Ministry of Media Deception.
I invite you to read the excerpt of an article in GQ a long but important excerpt of which I copied below, followed by the link.

Why Does Mainstream Media Keep Attacking Bernie Sanders as He Wins?
Bernie Sanders keeps surprising cynical pundits in his second presidential run.
Poor Chuck Todd.
After a week of Todd using his MSNBC evening show Meet the Press Daily to assail the senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders has won—clearly—in New Hampshire. It’s not if Todd hadn’t tried.
On Monday, Todd quoted conservative outlet the Bulwark, characterizing Sanders’s online following as “digital brown shirts,” essentially likening a Jewish politician’s supporters to Nazis. The Friday prior, Todd led a panel in hand-wringing over class warfare against billionaires. He has long had his crosshairs on Sanders. In May, he told the senator “the right will hammer and sickle you to death.” In 2015 after a shooting, he called Sanders, who has a D minus rating from the NRA, “pro-NRA.” And in December, he balked at the idea of refraining from the unjournalistic phrase “Bernie Bros,” asking, “What do we call them, Bernie siblings? Bernie people?” His guest suggested the obvious: “Bernie supporters.”
Of course, Todd is one among many in an anti-Bernie chorus. After the New Hampshire debate last week, his colleague Hardball host Chris Matthews went on a socialism rant, warning of “executions in Central Park” and exclaiming that “I might have been one of the ones getting executed”—perhaps revealing elite pundit anxiety that a growing consciousness about wealth inequality and its enforcers might turn on them. Matthews continued: “I don’t know who Bernie supports over these years, I don’t know what he means by socialism. One week it’s Denmark…Well, what does he think of Castro? That’s a great question.” On Morning Joe, James Carville, the old Clinton strategist, warned: “That’s it. If we go the way of the British Labour Party, if we nominate Jeremy Corbyn, it’s going to be the end of days.” Nevermind that Corbyn is deeply unpopular in the UK, with a net favorability rating of -40 percent according to YouGov polling, while Sanders is America’s most popular politician.
And all of that was just MSNBC.
After the New Hampshire results came in, political reporters and pundits put facts into linguistic pretzels, instead of just stating what the numbers did: That Sanders had won, taking the popular vote for two straight contests in a crowded field. Not all of it was pure ideological offense. New York Times politics reporter Jeremy Peters, tweeted: “Pete, after winning Iowa, is almost beating Bernie in a state Bernie won four years ago by 22 points. Under any normal standard of assessing the Democratic race, Pete would be called a frontrunner.” Likewise, Trip Gabriel also of the New York Times, also asserted an upside-down analysis tweeting, that the number one story of the night was Amy Klobuchar (who came in third) and the number two story of the night was Pete Buttigieg (who came in second) coming closer to Sanders than expected.
Sanders has been a punching bag for the media establishment for some time. In explaining its decision to pass over Sanders to endorse, strangely, both Warren and Klobuchar, the New York Times editorial board wrote “we see little advantage to exchanging one over-promising, divisive figure in Washington for another.” Their competitors have been little different. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank and Jennifer Rubin have made Trump-Sanders comparisons a writerly tick. Last April, Milbank said both Sanders has emerged as “the Donald Trump of the left,” citing their “flair for demagoguery” and speeches with “Trumpian flourishes.” Rubin for her part has been banging that drum as daily practice, accusing Sanders in January of “playing Trumpian politics.” As if a politician advocating for healthcare and against student debt somehow equaled Trump’s authoritarian and racist radicalism.
In 2016, the media watch group FAIR found that the Washington Post ran a stunning 16 negative stories on Sanders in just 16 hours. The Sanders campaign collated a string of “misinterpreted” polls, in which Sanders as leader was not the headline story, like the New York Times reporting that Sanders had been “eclipsed by Warren and Buttigieg” in a story about an Iowa poll that had him in first, and five CNN articles about a poll also showing Sanders in the lead which went unmentioned in the headline. Back in November, the Onion parodied the liberal network’s bias: “MSNBC Poll Finds Support For Bernie Sanders Has Plummeted 2 Points Up.” But it might as well have been said about any major outlet.
Pundits like to point out that Sanders carried New Hampshire by 60 percent in 2016 when his only opponents were Hillary Clinton (38 percent) and Martin O’Malley (under 1 percent). But Obama, who only won Iowa with 37.4 percent of the vote, lost New Hampshire by 2.6 percentage points in 2008. Heading into more diverse states of Nevada and South Carolina, with something of a tie and a win at his back in a crowded field, Sanders seems only to be growing stronger. After criticism about his white-dominated base, he now leads all candidates in support from voters of color, gaining 10 points from black voters.
What is still impressive is, during our Citizens United era, Sanders’s massive grassroots fundraising donor base, surpassed 5 million donors with an average donation of $18.53, hauling in $34.5 million in the last quarter of 2019,[plus 25 million in January alone!] and more than any other campaign. His biggest challenge may not be whether he’s a democratic socialist pushing universal healthcare, but whether a daily barrage of negative media attacks, even when the news is objectively good, can chip away his potential support on the margins in a few vital states.
And if Sanders does manage to win without corporate PAC money or the $2 billion in earned media showered on Trump, well, that would certainly be a story.

mainstream-media-vs-bernie-sanders
[my comment in these brackets]
FIGHT, DAMNIT! FIGHT THIS! YOU WONDER MAYBE WHY I’VE BEEN OFTEN SCREAMING LATELY?
IT’S TIME TO SCREAM ALREADY FGS! IF NOT NOW, THEN WHEN???
BERNIE SANDERS CAN DEFEAT TRUMP AND THIS IS A FIGHT FOR THE AGES ONE COULD ONLY DREAM OF UNTIL NOW.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Posted by: Circe | Feb 13 2020 5:42 utc | 122

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Feb 12 2020 22:20 utc | 75
You realize it speaks really loudly as to the intelligence of union members in Nevada, that they would believe that a so called socialist would do this. Mind you I guess if the info comes from a ‘Trusted’ source might do the trick.
I hope im wrong but Bern is the perfect fall guy for a crashed economy
I can’t imagine why Bernie fans want for him and themselves to take all the blame for the coming economic collapse, but evidently they do. Speaks loudly as to their political intelligence.
Anyone with eyes to see what’s happening, if they go into visible opposition at all, would comprise an unequivocal opposition from without, not a loyal opposition from within the way the Bernie fan club is doing.

Posted by: Russ | Feb 13 2020 6:23 utc | 124

Anderson Cooper AND WEASELPETE get slam-dunked.
https://youtu.be/6i_vGQllwI0
BLANKFEIN: Start cleaning out your desk!
https://youtu.be/Z1prW3Hpb0E
Wall Street is the Wild, Wild West of hot Greed, while 500,000 sleep on the street, but soon the Sherrif will be coming to town. To think that Blankfein would deny every man, woman and child free permanent healthcare trying to stop Bernie Sanders from becoming the 46th President so he can continue to roll in billions…is the definition of depravity.

Posted by: Circe | Feb 13 2020 6:53 utc | 126

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 13 2020 6:39 utc | 124
“what are you proposing? Sit on your hands? ”
I’m through trying to teach history to the likes of you. No matter how many times these questions are answered you’ll turn around and keep asking them. It’s like arguing with a creationist.
It’s crystal clear that you find the history of movements, or anything else outside the bounds of government-approved and government-produced electoralism to be literally inconceivable. (Or maybe it’s just long hard work with no promise of short-run, let alone instant gratification, that many of you find inconceivable. Certainly our “alternative” Leader candidates are allergic to it.)
Even simple English – “unequivocal opposition from without” – is literally incomprehensible to you. You don’t even disagree with it, you literally can’t understand the concept of it.
“what are you proposing? pull your punch?”
The most pathetic thing about Berniebots is that even by your own lukewarm domesticated housebroken measure you do nothing but pull your punches. Bernie’s steadfast unilateral loyalty to the oldest pro-capitalist party on Earth with the longest-running record of co-opting and destroying all dissident energy is just the most glaring example of a pulled punch. And in fact it’s inexplicable unless he’s really a sheep-dogging con artist, while most or all of his fans are non-political circus performers and entertainment seekers.
But again, to know and understand that would require caring about, knowing about and understanding history. But there I again become incomprehensible to American electoral-bots.

Posted by: Russ | Feb 13 2020 7:08 utc | 128

Posted by: Perimetr | Feb 13 2020 7:02 utc | 126
“China reportedly has quarantined hundreds of millions of people at this point. Not a response you would expect for something that is innocuous.”
It’s weird how many people here hold the schizoid position that, on one hand the epidemic is mild and nothing to panic about, but at the same time China’s extreme measures have comprised an heroic campaign against an horrific danger.
Of course if the virus is not a great threat then China’s actions themselves would constitute a form of panic, if not something more sinister. But if it is such a threat that the big lockdown is warranted, then whence comes the “it’s not a big deal” rhetoric?
Sounds to me like these people are on the verge of panic themselves and are trying to calm themselves down, in no matter how incoherent a fashion.
(Not all that different from those who politically say or imply the US is in great existential crisis yet who assure themselves and everyone else that the sufficient, even necessary solution can be found within the Democratic Party.)

Posted by: Russ | Feb 13 2020 7:16 utc | 130

Bubbles |Feb 12 2020 22:39 utc|@78
“Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz slammed the UNHRC for “trying to blacken Israel’s name”
With the myriad fascist dog crimes against humanity Israel has committed over the past 7 decades, I really don’t think they require any further help from the UNHRC to tarnish their already worthless name.
When ANY nation acts like a bunch of evil fascist pigs, expect to be called-out on it. You suck, Israel. Wake up!
Power to the Palestinians! Peace for the Levant!

Posted by: Jon_in_AU | Feb 13 2020 7:42 utc | 132

So first Biden was the Media shiny object. Then, they switched to ex-prosecutor Kamala, a female Obama, then it was Warren, a socialist Clinton. Then back to Biden, Obama nostalgia. Last week Buttigieg, a white, gay Obama, was their darling, and this week it’s Klobuchar AND Buttigieg, two fresh faces, cause two might do better than one. Now they’re adding Biden, Buttigieg and Klobuchar together to pretend that the Centrist vote will stop Bernie Sanders.
And when none of that works; enter Bloomberg and his heavy-duty billion-dollar campaign machine. Okay, so what’s Bloomberg gonna say? I have 60 billion dollars, and I’ll stop you, Bernie Sanders, from giving universal healthcare to millions of struggling Americans?
Oh yeah, I like the sound of that–just what working people and the poor have been waiting to hear.
Wasn’t Bloomberg a Neocon Bush Republican?
…and slam those blacks and Latinos against the wall; fill the prison complex!
No doubt there’s another skeleton in the same closet that one fell out of.
Bring it on Mr. Mayor! Bring on that debate.
Oh, and if Bernie can defeat an ex-mayor businessman who owns a 60 billion-dollar empire, is it possible he can defeat a billionaire who’s really a fraud on a fascist ego trip?
OH HELL, YEAH!

Posted by: Circe | Feb 13 2020 7:53 utc | 134

Sharon M@10
As you have said Sanders is a warmonger which is very bad as the President’s main power is starting wars. Furthermore, none of the candidates of either party understand foreign affairs. Even Gabbard stupidly claims that Iran was responsible for killing some 600 US troops in Iraq.
Unfortunately, Trump is planning to cut the safety net by reducing the SNAP program, Medicare and even Social Security. Social programs are the one area where Sanders will defend against the billionaires looting. If he were president these programs would be safe, otherwise Trump and most democrats would make social cuts.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/12/18260271/trump-medicaid-social-security-medicare-budget-cuts
Given that Medicare and the SNAP program are in deep trouble, a Sanders presidency would have to cut the foreign aid to Israel, the security state and the “war” department to save these programs or stab the American people in the back.
Too bad the billionaires are running America as a neo-feudal state that will result in the collapse of the economy.

Posted by: krollchem | Feb 13 2020 8:19 utc | 136

Perimetr #126

China reportedly has quarantined hundreds of millions of people at this point. Not a response you would expect for something that is innocuous.

Thank you for that observation and if the coronavirus is anything like constructed from a mix of elements from other forms (deliberately or naturally) then it IS a serious threat. It appears that it is infectious BEFORE a person shows symptoms and so the threat is magnified immensely unless it is easily attenuated in open air. That is not likely from what I have read.
China has responded rationally and rapidly to date. Its response will certainly generate ill feeling and antagonism but people behave irrationally and are driven by self interest beyond the caring for the community when faced with these lethal unseen predators.
If/when this level of quarantine were to break out in the hysterical USA, could you imagine the response? The freedom brigades would be barricading streets, commandeering trains to escape and break quarantine. Hysterics like Rachel Maddow would weeping inanities on MSNBC every night. Chris Mathews would crapping his pants about it being a public execution virus … russia russia russia…..

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 13 2020 8:35 utc | 138

Things are moving fast in the real world, while B & co gloat endlessly on the might of Iranian, Hezbollah & Houthis missiles, I never shared this view on the value of these weapons. They were about to be deprecated, now they are. This was in development since 30 years and starts to appear on battlefield and mark the beginning of the end for low atmospheric kinetic intruder (shell, missiles, drones, planes). Test in rainy conditions were conducted 3 months ago with success also, range for now is up to 20km.
DRONE”>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVNtz8gLhaY&feature=emb_logo>DRONE DOME with LASER Intercepts Multiple Targets
For the record, each shot cost 3€. This new class of weapon are also effective against human being, unless they are resistant to a 3000°c beam. Portable system are on their way (oops laser gun). Too bad for Star wars fan, naked eyes don’t see the beam.

Posted by: murgen23 | Feb 13 2020 8:52 utc | 140

It’s clear that the goal of the economic civilization is ecocide for the sake of ecocide, destruction for the sake of destruction. Modern economic governments are designed first and foremost to organize and maximize this destruction. Here’s just one typical example of how the destruction imperative transcends even capitalist goals, let alone how such productionism is allegedly for human benefit.
(My emphasis, on how the whole system is driven not by capitalist “demand”, let alone human need or even want, but maximal production/destruction for the sake of production/destruction.)
“RY is blaming environmentalists for what they claim is an insufficient supply of timber from National Forests. But two recent articles reveal that the basic economic principles of over-supply and over-production in the timber industry are the real problems.
As Julia Altemus, logging lobbyist and director of the Montana Wood Products Association, told the Missoulian’s Rob Chaney: “There’s been a lot of over-production across the board. We have too much wood in the system and people weren’t building. That will make it tougher for us. What would help is if we could find new markets.”
When Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. cut back its mill production cycle from 80 to 50 hours weekly, manager Paul McKenzie told the Hungry Horse News: “It’s purely market driven… demand for lumber across the country is down…supply has actually been good.”
In fact, the “supply” from national forests is more than just good. Last year the Forest Service received no bids on 17.5% of the timber if offered, up from 15.6% that received no bids in 2018. That’s 615 million board feet that weren’t cut in 2019 because the timber industry did not bid on it. The truth is that Region One of the Forest Service, which includes Montana, has increased the amount of timber offered by 141% in the last 10 years and the cost to taxpayers continues to climb to staggering heights.
A report by the Center for a Sustainable Economy found “taxpayer losses of nearly $2 billion a year associated with the federal logging program carried out on National Forest and Bureau of Land Management lands. Despite these losses, the [US government] plans to significantly increase logging on these lands in the years ahead, a move that would plunge taxpayers into even greater debt.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/13/timber-industry-wants-to-rape-and-run-on-our-national-forests/

Posted by: Russ | Feb 13 2020 9:17 utc | 142

circe
is bernie an old flame of yours? if yes you should be a granny, no? if yes, where do you find the energy to be so passionate about an election? pills?
or, are you a troll for hire? if yes, how’s the payday?
questions, questions…

Posted by: albagen | Feb 13 2020 9:46 utc | 144

Pft 85 < The Constitution of the United States of America is a corporate charter. in form and substance, it redirected the distribution of profits from shareholders to feudal lords. What it has been doing since Lincoln was shot is to develop lordships (called monopoly possessing corporations) and making sure those lordships were vested by rule of law, war in foreign land, and other measures as needed, to make sure the feudal lords and their corporations were always profitable no matter what and to be sure that any need or want the feudal lords had need for, the USA corporation would extract from those (called Americans) that it governs. .. When the feudal lords fail, the government is made to give the feudal lord the money it needs to keep going. until the failed feudal lord can realize by its bull shit existence to be profitable again.

Posted by: snake | Feb 13 2020 11:16 utc | 146

China reshuffles top officials in coronavirus epicenter Hubei Province

Faced with the sudden CODIV-19 outbreak, problems such as sloppiness and poor management of work have been exposed among Wuhan and Hubei authorities, reflecting severe loopholes in local governance. The appointment of new officials will not only enhance prevention and control measures against the outbreak but also aim to highlight the urgency of improving crisis-handling capability among officials, analysts said.

The new appointed official was responsible for containing the epidemic to Shanghai:

In his effort in combating the virus in Shanghai, Ying, also head of Shanghai’s leading group for virus containment, emphasized grass-roots level units’ strength in fighting the battle. He also conducted detailed and thorough discussion with people working in residential communities, hearing their opinions concerning the containment work.
He also underlined the role that science plays in this battle. Ying suggested Shanghai use its edge as a “scientific highland” to support the prevention and control of the virus. Speaking at a conference on Tuesday, Ying suggested scientific achievements should race against time, against virus, to gain initiative of fighting the coronavirus.
An anonymous Shanghai-based expert praised Shanghai’s virus containment work. He told the Global Times that Shanghai, home to millions of migrant workers, could be the next epidemic center for the coronavirus.
However, with effective and scientific measures, which do not disturb people’s normal life, Shanghai has managed to keep the infection at a moderate level compared with other provinces and municipalities. The city reported 311 confirmed cases of the CODIV-19 infection.

This is very far from the dictatorial and brutal scenario the western MSM is describing. To fight an epidemic from spreading without disrupting the economy, you need more – not less – democracy. And that’s what the CCP is doing.
Also pay attention to the emphasis the new official gives to science as opposed to religion (i.e. superstition). This is not only a teaching moment for the Chinese people, but also an indirect jibe at Chinese paganism. The COVID-19 will be defeated with science (i.e. communism), not with religion (i.e. Chines paganism, or even Christianism or Islamism, depending on the province you go in China).
The Guardian described this reshuffling as a “purge”. It continues to descend more and more to a pro-capitalist (liberal) pamphlet.
–//–
@ Posted by: Russ | Feb 13 2020 7:16 utc | 129
What is most amazing is how many commenters here completely ignore Chinese media.
Xi Jinping literally made a speech where he stated the COVID-19 was a grave danger and crisis, that the battle against the virus would be very difficult, but that he had confidence the Chinese people was capable of fighting it off.
Before his speech, many editorials and other articles were published in the Chinese official and extraofficial media, all of them making extremely clear the crisis was grave, and that in no way the virus was a non-issue. It also highlighted the failures of the Chinese local governance and healthcare system, as well as its deficiencies in R&D in the medicine area. The Chinese media never downplayed the COVID-19 and its shortcomings.
It is only in the world of the Western MSM that the CCP is hiding the crisis from its own people, is falsifying the number of infected and dead, is brutally crushing a rebellion for free speech in Wuhan etc. etc.
The story of the millions of bodies cremated in Wuhan is even more bizarre, since it makes it clear commenters here do not research on Chinese media. There are inumerous videos on TikTok (Chinese Instagram) of people living in Wuhan documenting how their lives are going amid the quarantine. There’s no rebellion there; people are compreensive of the graveness of the situation, and understand it is a necessary evil. They are not cut off from the internet or any other kind of media. Sure, the situation is shitty, and many non-infected people in Wuhan are pissed off with the situation (as is in the nature of any human being) – but that’s far from being a rebellion to topple the CCP.
Wuhan was the birthplace of Chinese communism. In the 1920s, it was the first attempt to install a socialist republic in practice. It was brutally crushed by the Han supremacist forces of Chiang Kaishek – who personally ordered the massacre of all the communists there once he entered the city believed to be peacefully. It would take another 20 years for communism to recover from that episode. The people of Wuhan know their history, and they know they can trust the CCP.

Posted by: vk | Feb 13 2020 11:51 utc | 148

“Why isn’t the westerm MSM publicly denouncing this potential death trap”
I bet nobody has an idea how to deal with COVID-19. If you have an idea we are eager to read you..

Posted by: murgen23 | Feb 13 2020 12:46 utc | 150

Everytime you hear someone bellowing about taxes and too much and gimme a discount, you are hearing a social vandal self enriching.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 13 2020 4:58 utc | 117\
+++++++++++
I am glad to hear that all health issues are covered where you live. I wonder where that social democracy is!?
Re bellowing about taxes: Not all such are social vandals self-enriching. Many are people who are paying their taxes and getting very little in return. Namely, most Americans. Average income stats mean very little when you have a monthly bill of hundreds of dollars just to maybe get bottom line medical care.
That is why I believe Bernie could make some headway and some waves if he clarified that using the country’s tax monies to benefit all of its citizens, not to further enrich a few richies, is not “socialism.” It’s EQUITY, not to mention just common sense.
Bernie should state clearly that in this day and age it is guns OR butter. We cannot afford both.
Take your pick. The 99% will pick butter.

Posted by: Really?? | Feb 13 2020 13:02 utc | 152

Jen 116
Thanks for the link.

Posted by: Really?? | Feb 13 2020 13:35 utc | 154

Circe’s shouting about Bernie
If I really really wanted to shill for Bernie, I’d go to websites read by LGBT, women, and African-Americans to do so. Not Moon of Alabama, a small site focused on international relations.
I’m sure Circe knows that the biggest threat to Bernie’s winning the nomination is LGBT, women, and blacks voting for Buttigieg, Warren, and other candidates. The Democratic Party set it up that way.
But Circe spends his/her time here.
Psyops like Democracy Works! electoralism require that everyone be exposed. Including foreign policy wonks.
Circe implores us to JUST BELIEVE in the goodness of Bernie. We shouldn’t concern ourselves with Bernie’s foreign policy. Or the possibility that his intended failure strengthens the Zionist establishment. Just relax and soak in the happy message: Bernie is our savior.
<> <> <> <> <>
I haven’t seen anyone here arguing that Bernie doesn’t offer the best platform for change. Yet Circe is still harping on the Bernie.
The sad fact is, if Bernie is willing to compromise his platform – as his focus on Party unity indicates – then his candidacy is just bait and switch ‘sheepdogging’.
Only genuine, independent Movements will bring the change that people want to see.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Feb 13 2020 13:51 utc | 156

Circe@102, who can’t even see that the billionaires’ preferred candidates are Trump, Bloomberg and Steyer, can read a foolish article which claims a college buddy of Buttigieg’s is a senior anything in DC. The guy may be doing the actual work but the college buddy is no more a senior member of the State Department than Buttigieg is a senior stateman in the Democratic Party. The discovery that people who work for Trump in the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the Department of Justice (that for the conspiracy minded among you is the outfit that murder Epstein, not the Pedophile Party aka Democratic Party,) would prompt any sensible person to think, “Aha! Buttigieg is being funded by Republicans as a stalking horse!” The presumption that recognition of Somaliland is a Deep State principle is even more deranged, given that the US encouraged the Ethiopian and Kenyan invasions of Somalia. That is imperialism in action but Circe supports it. That’s passes hypocrisy, turning into open contempt for the reader. As a Rand Paul flunky, Circe is likely not only enraged by the presence of the gay guy, but wants Sanders to be the nominee, as the socialist is guaranteed to lose. But in these godless times, the gay guy might beat the god Trump? (The gay guy will not be nominated, not even if he won the majority of delegates, the party leaders would split first.)
Buttigieg’s infamous racism is of course why he failed to win re-election in South Bend, which is forty percent black and Latino. (Latinx?) Given that Barack Obama supported rebels in Libya who started by hanging black Africans, it is stupid to rely on twitter’s mental telepathy.
By the way, Seth Klarman, with his strong Republican background, being a major backer of Buttigieg, is also strong evidence a lot of Buttigieg’s money is to split the Democratic Party, a few identity politics gays from Sanders et al., but even more the so-called moderates, who don’t want an untested (aka not yet proven hopelessly corrupt) nominee, but who most especially will not tolerate a gay one.
Buttigieg not being “authentic” is a back-handed slash at him staying in the closet, personal abuse that is senseless save as an expression of homophobia. Warren who lied about being a Sanders-style progressive is the least authentic candidate in the Democratic Party race, so far as I can tell.
Lastly of course, Biden was always the favorite, but the new hope is…Amy Klobuchar!
Circe@133 in a vain attempt to catch up forgets that the Deep State is not flailing desperately to pick a favorite, previously pretended to be Buttigieg. Every indication is that Democratic Party has lost its the core of its donor base, mostly to Trump but a lot to would-be pirates like Bloomberg and Steyer.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 13 2020 14:24 utc | 158

Two thoughts …
> Abby Martin and Chris Hedges discuss the way our history pretty much is. and naturally touch to the PPE (phony phuckin’ e-lection) and the Sodomite Stooge whoz pals with Zukertube. YT Chris Hedges & Abby Martin: No Way Out Through Elections
> To-day, 13 Feb, might be a good time to discover Victor Klemperer’s “I Will Bear Witness” two jolly volumes. To-day marks Klemperer’s delivery from death, as his transport to the camps was prevented by the liquidation of Dresden…
In re my # 1 above, I note that the ungrateful and seditious Wet’suwet’en anti-pipeline protesters are interfering with the frakgaz pipe project simply because it’s their own country that Freedom Loving Capitalist Fascists want to steal…with seems at least to dove-tail into Hedges’ final implications… Worse yet! The ungrateful savages seek to stop the CN Railways!
Wet’suwet’en Nation never surrendered, never signed a “treaty”…
One may expect that they’re Rooskie agents, or worse, Sympathisch für Putin, den brutalen Diktator.
Oh well, happy Dresden Day…

Posted by: Walter | Feb 13 2020 14:30 utc | 160

We may never know what Trump’s first term would have looked like had he not been under attack. Trump advisors have been smeared, indicted, forced to recuse themselves…He was constantly attacked and pressured by the intelligence services, the MSM and Democrats.
Posted by: librul | Feb 12 2020 17:09 utc | 29
It is worse that you think. The true reason why Qasem Soleimani was killed is because Quds Force under his command committed grave atrocities upon American people. They have trained a dog that infiltrated White House and ate the the plan allowing “to repeal Obama’s Affordable Care Act and replace it with something better” and many other marvelous plans.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Feb 13 2020 14:37 utc | 162

@Taffyboy | 34
Akar is in Brussels at a NATO meeting today. I saw a report on Turkish CNN where the reporter was very negative saying that none of his comments regarding refugees, security threats had been met with anything than ‘understanding’. The reporter is an AA (Anadolou Agency) reporter. Interestingly she said added that there was also talk about invoking Artcile 4, not 5 as is often reported. Jeffry’s words in the video are the usual empty – we’ll review the situation, we regret the loss of allied soldiers etc. More hot air it seems.
Article 4
The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_17120.htm
Very early, of course, to say what will happen. But other talking heads have stated a few times that they do not see the situation in Idlib as being one that NATO involvement would be suitable. And I’ve said this before, would Turkey really want NATO invovement?
@Virgile | 35
Absolutely. And it is not a situation that was not foreseen years ago.
@ Bruce | 53
The tomatoes sanction took 20 years to be lifted! Previously even though Russia was Turkey’s biggest tomato importer, Russian consumers had long complained about tomatoes from Turkey – have you seen the spic ‘Russian women throwing tomatoes at a wall’ clip? Russian tomatoes squished and Turkish tomatoes bounced! Russia used the sanctions time to properly develop its own tomato production! ))))
Turkish produce is often seriously sub standard to the point that even the Ukraine which is desperate for cheap produce has on many occasions returned millions of Liras worth of produce because it does not meet health standards (hormones / pesticides etc.). Interesting to see what happens here.
And today’s Turkish tally or ‘Regime assets in Idlib eliminated’ is 55!
We are seeing the same daily tally game that has been going on for years regarding ‘PKK terrorists’. There is rarely any proof or corroboration of any kind.

Posted by: Egor68500 | Feb 13 2020 14:50 utc | 164

2 years to lift the tomato sanction not 20 – apologies. I need to start using the preview button! )))))

Posted by: Egor68500 | Feb 13 2020 14:53 utc | 166

Piotr Berman | Feb 13 2020 14:37 utc | 163 Obviously we will never know what did not happen, this is correct. The implication however is seditious and false. I agree it’s about as bad as can be, but the reason Soleimani was murdered was that he was an able leader, not because of anything he did, but because of what he might be in the future – an able opponent of Imperial Domination…and the murder revealed the weakness of Imperial Hubris…so it didn’t work.
Grave atrocities? Visit any US prison or city… No Soleimanis to be found. Lots of atrocities though… But speaking of atrocities>
But to happy thoughts> Perhaps it was the memory of Dresden that inspired the French so wonderfully for Science that they chose to-day 60 years ago to detonate their new gizmo>
HEUTE VOR 60 Jahren zündete Frankreich die erste Atombombe
“Hurra! Seit heute ist Frankreich stärker und stolzer!”, so bejubelte Präsident Charles de Gaulle den ersten Nukleartest, mit dem sich das Land am 13. Februar 1960 bei Reggane 1800 Kilometer südlich von Algier in den Kreis der Atommächte bombte.
Let’s hear a great big huraagh!
Wilfred Burchett’s The Atomic Plague” online in pdf

Posted by: Walter | Feb 13 2020 14:56 utc | 168

@psychohistorian | 119
“In conjunction with empire, Erdogan recruited, trained and supplied these folks that he now wants to settle in the invaded country, Syria.”
Yes. If you remember the first incursions into Al Bab there was an instant attempt at Turkification if you like, post offices, hospitals, schools etd.; shaved terrorists suddenly became trained up by Turkish police; etc.
There are two points that I think important a) construction – Assad made it clear that Turkey will not be awarded porfitable re-construction contracts; b) annexation. I have joked for many years that there will be a referendum in the areas and Erdogan will win and then ‘annex’ them ‘llegimimately’. Don’t forget that In many Turkish minds these are Turkish lands. Just today there was an interview with a sTurkish soldier in Idlib who said that ‘saving Idlib is a call from history! Among themselves it is often the case that veiled’ language is dropped whe talking among themselves and actual aims are laid bare.

Posted by: Egor68500 | Feb 13 2020 15:12 utc | 170

Re snake @ 160 and vk @ 170
Notice that one of the employees from the Japanese Health Ministry tested positive for the Coronavirus after surveying the passengers being held under quarantine on the cruise ship. And the employee was wearing a full body protective suit (!!). No, not very infectious at all.

Posted by: Perimetr | Feb 13 2020 15:20 utc | 172

Circe @ 122, you are correct about one thing, and that is FIGHT.
I have three points of interest for the open thread.
One: As an oldie I loved a recent link I found to a video of Fred Astaire and partner Leslie Caron in a long and enjoyable dance sequence…
…when an irresistible force, such as you
meets an old immovable object like me…
Two: Scrolling through comments about the New Hampshire primary, first total silence…What? Finally after so much else (as here) somebody piped up that the emperor had no clothes. Who the emperor?Bernie, that’s who. What the clothes? Young people, that’s the clothes. Where were the young people?
In the universities, on the streets homeless, working at walmart or McD’s. What happened to them? Stymied by a new rule, or old immovable objects.
Three: A fairly mindless travel bit in Czechoslovakia aimed at rich folk who can still travel. One glancing comment about what? Uprising. Young people. pouring into the main square in Prague. Keeping on going until it spread out into side streets, clogged the city.
And then a new leader. Axios!
When an irresistible force…such as you…
It’s a long dance, but beautiful!

Posted by: juliania | Feb 13 2020 15:57 utc | 174

I forgot to mention …in the prisons! Young people in the prisons!
…fight, fight, fight,
fight fight it with all of your might!!!
Chances are some heavenly star spangled night
You’ll find out as sure as you live
Something’s gotta give, something’s gotta give!

Posted by: juliania | Feb 13 2020 16:10 utc | 176

Bubbles 172
Who said anything different? Of course that’s the most likely primary succession, the most likely pioneer stage. History says so, and the indelible rot and residual pollution of the economic civilization renders it likely inescapable.
https://attempter.wordpress.com/2020/01/24/2020/
What of it? In itself it would be better than the totalitarian ecocide of Now, and it’s the only way toward anything better.

Posted by: Russ | Feb 13 2020 16:15 utc | 178

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/
2020-02-08/dance-like-fred-astaire-acb
Sorry to post in segments but my attempts to follow the rules have failed. Scroll down the article for the video.

Posted by: juliania | Feb 13 2020 16:21 utc | 180

OMG — this made me laugh… Had to share coz Priceless!!! Sometimes you just gotta say WTF is wrong with politics and this world… LOL
Dave Chappelle on Jussie Smollett HA HA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZXoErL2124

Posted by: Jayne | Feb 13 2020 16:43 utc | 182

Penelope@108
If you want good takedowns of fake events go directly to mileswmathis.com. Search engines mostly will never send you there.
Also be aware that not every single word you read there is true. Just as all the other conspiracy sites are mostly misdirection and fog, miles inserts plenty of intelligence tests and reading comprehension traps. He does not want followers.

Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 13 2020 16:53 utc | 184

b. What is it about your site that you invite such mediocre comments? I have thought about this a great deal.
Posted by: Lochearn | Feb 13 2020 1:24 utc | 97
Interesting question. Would you be willing the lead the perplexed among us out of/or into the wilderness? To help to keep the comment section clean? Or?
Mediocrity? I wondered about an earlier blog I read admittedly. I must have been a “mediocre comments” contributer/spammer there, indeed. Otherwise why would I have been wondering about frequent comments lavish praise on the wisdom of the commenters.
Ok in a nutsheLl: I am familiar with the flattery but not with the opposite so far. Otherwise new here.

Posted by: Vig | Feb 13 2020 17:29 utc | 186

I warmly recommend the following analysis of the US political scene:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52973.htm
I would appreciate recommendations about where one can find reliable, well-sourced and substantiated information about what on earth is going on with Turkey/Erdogan. My simple, but healthy, brain is not capable of fathoming the actions of this man.

Posted by: JB | Feb 13 2020 17:33 utc | 188

How do you know when your words have a real impact?
Answer: When you come back a few hours later and find that the trolls, the Zionist Trumpers, the choking, failing Neoliberal haters and the cynics who want people to heel to the status quo corruption are ALL BITING, condescending, mean and pissed! WHAT A SORRY LOT!
So if they’re all on the same side by another bad mother, frenemies, trying undermine and push away what I wrote here earlier, then, DO THE OPPOSITE, you other free-minded people, EMBRACE IT, cause what pisses them the most is: IT’S THE TRUTH and it’s hard to get around an obstacle like that!
They wouldn’t get all hot and bothered if it weren’t as impressive as the TRUTH is, and so everything they wrote to attack it feels, hollow, very boring, repetitive and personal and in some cases obvious troll weaselry in comparison.
When someone claims that Bernie’s a war-monger, you know they’re really desperate for attention and will say ANYTHING TO GET IT. THEY’LL LIE TO YOUR FACE, CHEAT YOU, AND WOULD BRAZENLY DISTRACT YOU ELSEWHERE TO EXPLOIT YOU AND KEEP YOU FROM YOUR BEST INTEREST. That’s how low they’ll stoop.
It’s such a desperate, dirty, stinking, low-life tactic to call Bernie, a war-monger, a man who will spend almost the entire Congressional budget to alleviate the hardship and financial stress of the poor and working class heros. How pathetically unimaginative and fake is your strategy to tear him down!
Bernie won’t have either the time or the money to waste on war. He’s in this fight to SAVE lives, not throw them away on war!
After he clears the establishment muck trying to stay relevant on one side; Bernie will defeat Trump and restore dignity and power to the maligned and abused people; victims of a corrupt DUOPOLY.
Long live the truth! Onward and forward on the path to victory. 😇

Posted by: Circe | Feb 13 2020 17:42 utc | 190

manipulation of votes was done around the periphery to keep things manageable. Move a little from column a into column b, a little from column a into column c, a little from column d into column b, etc.
Posted by: information_agent | Feb 13 2020 17:32 utc | 188
I observed a rather curious end to the count in NH after it stalled around 86% of votes counted the night of the primary. It took an extraordinary amount of time to count those few remaining votes and the result was @ 86% Sanders led Buttigieg by 5%, @ 100% Sanders lead had dropped to just over 1% which gave the punditatti cause to say things like Sanders ‘squeaked’ by, eked out a slim win, Buttigieg strong showing, Klobuchar! Klobuchar! Klobuchar! Hope, Change!!.. etc.

Posted by: Bubbles | Feb 13 2020 17:49 utc | 192

Russia’s military has declassified and released another trove of documents and photographs from its archives for those of us still interested in the events of WW2. Liberation of Budapest, after the siege of Leningrad and the battle for Stalingrad, the longest engagement made by the Red Army and seen as a rehearsal for Berlin. As expected, everything’s in Russian, so it’s an opportunity to work on your language skills. I hope Russia’s military continues these releases so other governments will follow, but I won’t hold my breath for the West to come clean.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 13 2020 18:08 utc | 194

UkraineGate
The documentary was produced by French investigative journalist Olivier Berruyer, founder of popular anti-corruption and economics blog Les Crises.
Part 1 – A Not So Solid Prosecutor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBQycscF08A
Part 2 – Not so “dormant” investigations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZSaB4eAP5Y
Part 3 – A not so noble president
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-Z5-zuw7kE

Posted by: Ag | Feb 13 2020 18:25 utc | 196

Another great Dave Lindorff item, “The Red-Baiting of Bernie Sanders Has Begun and is Already Becoming Laughable,” a topic we all knew was coming. Given his performances, Chris Matthews would be better off with a lobotomy. Many others are just as bad in their display of ignorance on the topic.
Meanwhile, Mnuchin admits before the Senate’s Finance Committee that Trump’s budget does gut Social Security and Medicare, proving Trump lied–again:
“Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, tweeted in response to the exchange that ‘Mnuchin admits Trump’s budget cuts your earned benefits in Social Security.’
“‘Slowing the rate of increase’ is Washington-speak for cutting benefits and breaking the Social Security and Medicare guarantee,’ Wyden added.
“The Trump admin claims there are no cuts to Social Security in the budget. So why wouldn’t Sec Mnuchin answer a simple yes or no question about whether there are billions in cuts to Social Security, hurting seniors?
“Answer: because there are cuts to Social Security in the budget.”
Yes, you can bet Sanders will milk that for all its worth just in time for all those retirees living in Vegas to cast their primary votes.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 13 2020 18:27 utc | 198

Posted by: juliania | Feb 13 2020 18:08 utc | 194
“I grow Russian named tomato seed, have always appreciated the quality!”
There’s some very good varieties. I’ve been growing and saving seed from my Black Krims since 2011.

Posted by: Russ | Feb 13 2020 18:34 utc | 200