A double-header on the USA from NEO:
America’s Hundred Year War on Socialism
America’s Despair

More and more people in the United States are feeling let down by American capitalism, and the population is being plunged into depression. This was the alarming conclusion reached by two researchers from Princeton University, Anne Case and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics Angus Deaton.

Posted by: vk | Feb 26 2020 16:40 utc | 3

“I hope that it is some solace to Julian and his family that people around the world are watching and are appalled.” –Trailer Trash @2
Unfortunately, the emotional discomfort of the spectators rarely offers much consolation to the one being led to the altar for sacrifice.

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 26 2020 17:07 utc | 5

Assange is doomed. He will be extradited, tried in a US kangaroo court, convicted, and sentenced to life (or the physical equivalent given his health.) There’s zero chance he goes free regardless of what anyone says or does about the injustice of it all.
The only question is will he enable Wikileaks to violate Aaron Rich’s source privilege and reveal that Seth and Aaron Rich were the email leakers. In my view, he should because the truth in this case is far more important than protecting Wikileaks’ policy on protection of sources.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Feb 26 2020 17:26 utc | 7

The Greatest
Wide ranging interview from 1972 with Muhammad Ali. Best 52 mins you can spend today. Highly entertaining and educational. Guaranteed to make you laugh out loud.
b4real

Posted by: b4real | Feb 26 2020 17:39 utc | 9

Pepe Escobar updates us on Afghanistan and the Outlaw US Empire’s efforts to make it look like its withdrawing when it has absolutely no intension of doing so. In the course of his prose, Pepe provides us with a lesson in Pashtun culture, which IMO is critical to fully cite:
“Not every Pashtun is a Taliban, but the overwhelming majority of Taliban are Pashtuns.
“The Washington establishment never did their ‘know your enemy’ homework, trying to understand how Pashtuns from extremely diverse groups are linked by a common system of values establishing their ethnic foundation and necessary social rules. That’s the essence of their code of conduct – the fascinating, complex Pashtunwali. Although it incorporates numerous Islamic elements, Pashtunwali is in total contradiction with Islamic law on many points. [Emphasis Original]
“Islam did introduce key moral elements to Pashtun society. But there are also juridical norms, imposed by a hereditary nobility, that support the whole edifice and that came from the Turko-Mongols.
“Pashtuns – a tribal society – have a deep aversion to the Western concept of the state. Central power can only expect to neutralize them with – to put it bluntly – bribes. That’s what passes as a sort of system of government in Afghanistan. Which brings the question of how much – and with what – the US is now bribing the Taliban.
“Afghan political life, in practice, works out from actors that are factions, sub-tribes, ‘Islamic coalitions’ or regional groups.
“Since 1996, and up to 9/11, the Taliban incarnated the legitimate return of Pashtuns as the dominant element in Afghanistan. That’s why they instituted an emirate and not a republic, more appropriate for a Muslim community ruled only by religious legislation. The diffidence towards cities, particularly Kabul, also expresses the sentiment of Pashtun superiority over other Afghan ethnic groups.
“The Taliban do represent a process of overcoming tribal identity and the affirmation of Pashtunistan. The Beltway never understood this powerful dynamic – and that’s one of the key reasons for the American debacle.” [Emphasis Original]
Pepe also links to a recent State Department Strategy Paper for Central Asia which begins with the usual lies of the Outlaw Empire regarding its benevolence toward those nations. Fortunately, Pepe summarizes it for us, and we find out it’s all about countering Eurasian Integration efforts, which should come as no surprise.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 26 2020 17:41 utc | 11

Corona virus
Here in the U.K. this virus hasn’t been declared a pandemic yet ! They’re going to wait till it’s out of control first. Just stop and think about that for a minute! Locking the door after the Horse has bolted.
Sorry i’m not buying that !
They’ve been reasearching this sh*t for years, planning for it.
We new this was coming, but it was to horrific for us to face ! Yes even here on MOA
We know there are 70 million displaced refugees in the world, and yet never never mention it ! Do we ?
We know the truth the white helmets did the chlorine attack in Syria !
The Sykripal false flag poisoning a few miles from Portland down bio war fare research establishment whilst chemical war training was going on near by.

Posted by: Mark2 | Feb 26 2020 17:54 utc | 13

Circe# 8
Jeff Bezos’s Jet touched down in New Zealand a few days ago, but I’m sure it’s nothing.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2020/02/private-jet-owned-by-world-s-richest-man-jeff-bezos-lands-in-wellington-spurring-rumours-the-amazon-ceo-is-in-new-zealand.html

Posted by: dennis | Feb 26 2020 18:05 utc | 15

We also know there is a toxic political alineghment between
Trump US, Johnson U.K. and not least Natenyaho Mossad Israel. Also there servile vassel empire nations.
We know that the above have total dominance of the western world media and social media.
Add this all up ! I did !

Posted by: Mark2 | Feb 26 2020 18:08 utc | 17

Corona Virus
Dont let’s forget Big Pharma.
They’ve turned 1/5 of the population of US U.K. into sedated zombies.
Think profit
The line between medicine and chemical warfare got blurred by Monsanto !
Hell its all profit. Who bought Monsanto ?
Back to the media tv don’t you just feel dumbed down ?
Where do you go for the truth ? ……
This virus will cut clean across the public Politics.
But the elite will gain.
We’ll all look the same in body bags. Wake up people.

Posted by: Mark2 | Feb 26 2020 18:34 utc | 19

vk | Feb 26 2020 16:40 utc | 3
Reading Einstein’s essay on “Why Socialism” provided for me useful insight; awesome perspective from a credible observer.
https://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/

Posted by: chu teh | Feb 26 2020 18:41 utc | 21

Re the Pepe Escobar piece on Afghanistan, maybe now that Trump has made it plain with his biowar on China that America is not a normal country, it’s time for the sovereignists to seriously arm the Taliban. If Trump loses two planes a month it will seriously focus the mind of that very stable genius.

Posted by: sarz | Feb 26 2020 19:02 utc | 23

P.S.- Hey b, thanks for the therapy, it’s priceless….

Posted by: ben | Feb 26 2020 19:13 utc | 25

I find that labels such as “communism” and “socialism” have been so abused that they are not much use, especially without a specific definition. Here are definitions of socialism and communism I came across someplace. Perhaps someone will find this useful.
A simple example of communism is a water fountain in a public park. No one limits access to it, anyone can drink from it at any time with no prior permission, and no one keeps track of usage.
A simple example of socialism is borrowing a book from a public library. This requires permission of the institution and tracking of who borrows what. Permission is based on rules such as proving local residence. Borrowing a book is essentially a contract that can be enforced by the state. And knowledge of who is reading what is often interesting to the state.
By these definitions the difference between communism and socialism is control by hierarchical state institutions, control that (so far) is inevitably bent to benefit the bureaucracy. If citizens also benefit, that is more of a happy side effect.
A long time ago I regularly went to the state law library to review new labor law rulings. I was amazed when I was able to borrow expensive law books on just my signature – no account, library card, or Official Identification necessary. Obviously they don’t expect regular citizens to use the law library. Still, it is interesting that lawyers who run everything think that law library socialism that benefits lawyers is good, but all other forms of socialism are evil, or something.

Posted by: Trailer Trash | Feb 26 2020 19:49 utc | 27

@ Mina #26
Thanks for considering this matter. If one has ever been to Salone del Mobile Milano, there one can frequently see a number of people mostly of asian origin taking detailed 360º (HD?) video of designer display product models with professional camera equipment which shortly after (coincidentally) become mass produced unauthorised copies of said copyright designer works. The issue for me in this case is not that these things happen, but how goods are shipped, and if that shipping is also a virus transmission conduit to the population of Europe.

Posted by: dennis | Feb 26 2020 20:59 utc | 29

Here is an interesting article from – – –
Globle Research (a site with a lot of credabilty)
Regarding the latest corona virus.
The first half we already know, but stick with it half-way down there is this – – –
Dr ALAN CANTWELL
https://www.globalresearch.ca/chinas-new-coronavirus-an-examination-of-the-facts/5701662

Posted by: Mark2 | Feb 26 2020 21:11 utc | 31

some brazilian music i am listening to at the moment..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-imtF1DSmtU

Posted by: james | Feb 26 2020 21:16 utc | 33

I sadly have lost any shred of faith in organisations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch or International Red Cross and their other looky like NGO’s who have long been subverted to the causes of Govt. of the day, narrative generators (White Helmets & that ilk) and the inevitable paymasters mostly lurking at the back.
I would like to think that the British, and perhaps in particular the Irish Public and anyone within their personal budget travel distance of UK grabs a yellow vest and heads down to the courthouse before this last supporter of a free democratic press is hauled off to a whole new distopian nightmare paraded before courts and congressional hearings of Orwellian doublespeak that we can barely imagine in a legal charade that will be abused for máximum effect for the rest of his life. The only way left to prevent this now is by sheer forcé of numbers.
Roger Ver‏Verified account @rogerkver3h3 hours ago
Cheney was never indicted.
Bush was never indicted.
Bolton was never indicted.
Mattis was never indicted.
Revealing crime is more dangerous than committing crime.
https://defend.wikileaks.org/
https://saker.community/2019/04/12/julian-assange/

Posted by: dennis | Feb 26 2020 21:29 utc | 35

Dennis @ 35 said;”Revealing crime is more dangerous than committing crime.”
True, but, only if the committer happens to be a member of, or working in the interests of the ruling elites..

Posted by: ben | Feb 26 2020 21:51 utc | 37

Petri Krohn 38
I interesting. Gives rise to thoughts of possible Chinese response if they were to believe this outbreak is deliberate bio warfare. Using the momentum of the attack against the attacker type thing.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 26 2020 22:32 utc | 39

this dip in the stock market is a minor blimp.. it might turn into something more significant, but for now the s and p is back around the nov 20th levels… the whole ponzi scheme has lots of room to correct and come back soon enough…

Posted by: james | Feb 26 2020 23:10 utc | 41

“Gives rise to thoughts of possible Chinese response if they were to believe this outbreak is deliberate bio warfare.”
The Chinese already know that this is a deliberate attack on them by the US. Their response to a bioweapon attack is precisely what we are seeing: Mitigate/defeat the attack by containing and controlling the contagion within their population.
Trying to project western “values” (ingrained perfidiousness, knee-jerk aggression, insatiable greed) onto the Chinese will never result in analysis that matches reality. The Chinese really do think very much differently from typical westerners, and even more so after more than half a century of “socialism with Chinese characteristics”.
See if you can possibly comprehend this one simple difference between yourself and the Chinese: You are wandering through a major city in China and you feel thirsty, so you stop at a vending machine to buy a bottle of tea. You see your favorite brand of green tea in two sizes, 500ml and 250ml.
They are the same price.
Your reaction (because you are a westerner afflicted with insatiable greed, even if you believe otherwise) is to wonder who in their right mind would ever buy the smaller bottle for the same price as the larger one.
The Chinese person, on the other hand, would wonder who in their right mind would buy the larger bottle when they were only thirsty enough to drink the smaller one and then throw half of it away.
Honestly try to understand that difference, and try to extrapolate how the underlying difference in perspective impacts various behaviors
The Chinese will not try to punish the West for this attack because the West’s mindless viciousness is its own self-punishment. You can attribute this to a belief in karma if you want, but that isn’t completely accurate. The Chinese will pursue justice, not revenge.
That doesn’t mean that western psychopaths are off the hook for their villainy. When all is said and done they will likely have preferred the revenge rather than the justice.

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 26 2020 23:39 utc | 43

@ ben #37
Yes, should have read “war crimes”:
I was reading earlier accounts of recipients of Nobel Peace prizes and passed over omissions. Whatever happened to righteous indignation? I fear in regard to Julian and the general population’s following of news that the pendulum of awareness has swung so far into unconsciousness, that when it swings back it will be with piano wire and lampposts.

Posted by: dennis | Feb 26 2020 23:54 utc | 45

Thanks for that wisdom from both you and China William Gruff
Iran would have been waiting for the other shoe to drop, how do you see that playing out ?
I think it will be the overlooked and under-estimated detail that will escalate this beyond control !
We don’t know what we don’t know, or is it the known unknown.
Bolton and Pompaeo have got a hand in this i’ll be bound !!

Posted by: Mark2 | Feb 27 2020 0:02 utc | 47

Might be nice to look back on the outbreak and summarize.
The first focus is why China was so insistent the virus came from the market without evidence.
On January 22, Gao Fu, director of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that the source of the New Coronavirus in Wuhan was wild animals illegally sold in a seafood market in Wuhan.
On January 26, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that 33 samples tested positive for the New Coronavirus nucleic acid out of 585 environmental samples taken from the South China Seafood Market . They announced that the virus originated from wild animals sold in the South China Seafood Market but did not identify which animals.
On January 27th a report published online by Science cited a paper in the medical journal The Lancet, suggesting that the source of the New Coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan may not be the South China seafood market.
The paper, titled “Clinical Features of New Coronavirus Infected Patients“, was published in The Lancet on January 24. The first author of the paper was Huang Chao Lin, the deputy director of Jinyintan Hospital, the first designated hospital for unknown pneumonia in Wuhan. The rest of the authors included other clinicians in the hospital and members of several research institutions.
This paper revealed the following key information:
* The first patient had an onset of disease on December 1st, which was not associated with the seafood market.
* The first patient had no epidemic association with subsequent patients.
* On December 10th, another 3 cases had occurred, of which 2 were not related to South China seafood market.
* Starting from December 15th, cases with a history of exposure to the seafood market are concentrated.
* The paper counts a total of 41 patients, and 14 cases are not related to the seafood market, the proportion exceeds 1/3.
* No bats are sold in the seafood market and no trace of bats has been found.
On January 29 a study in The Lancet analyzed 99 confirmed cases at Jinyintan Hospital, 50 of which had no history of contact with the seafood market.
The New England Journal of Medicine also published a paper showing that: Of the 425 cases, 45% of those affected before January 1 had no history of exposure to the seafood market.
Why did China require that the “history of seafood market contact” be included in the diagnosis criteria up until January 17th when it knew that at least one third of the cases are not related to the seafood market?

Posted by: Pft | Feb 27 2020 0:51 utc | 49

pft
Not much can be taken from that at the moment. If the virus did come through an intermediary animal that is used for food or medicine, would that animal only be sold in the one seafood market. Plenty of unknowns as yet.
Always huge amounts of chaff and crap on the net to sift through in the days and weeks after or during an incident.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 27 2020 1:07 utc | 51

i apologize if this has been brought up before but is there any connection to Dr. Charles Lieber, chair of Harvard University’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology being arrested and his connections to the university in wuhan?? is this just a coincidence or some type of cia-fbi frame up, or what?? i haven’t been following it closely…

Posted by: james | Feb 27 2020 1:22 utc | 53

Get a life if u wanna believed China manufacture Convid-19.
BTW CANADIAN Dr. Bruce Alyward leading WHO team investigates Coronavirus in China including Wuhan. Over a 2-hrs report never mentioned once China was responsible but we should thank china. Like Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, he too said China should take credit for shutting down Hubei and preventing Convid-19 from spreading. Now Convid-19 tapering down in China as predicted by b in China, but spreading into Korea, Iran, Italy and ZeroHedge reported (if u still believes ZeroHedge) “First US Coronavirus Case “Of Unknown Origin” Reported in Northern California As Trump Speaks: Live Update”
The chickens have back come home to roost!
(more or less the yanks are not in WHO team except maybe one)

Posted by: JC | Feb 27 2020 1:50 utc | 55

Pft
I guess 52 is not a direct copy and paste, apart from a few sentences but best to link to site you are taking the information from.
https://greatgameindia.com/covid19-files-scientific-investigation-on-mysterious-origin-of-coronavirus/

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 27 2020 2:49 utc | 57

@ Posted by: Really?? | Feb 27 2020 2:36 utc | 56
That wouldn’t work for two reasons:
1) Americans have anti-communism deeply ingrained in their national ideology. It’s elite is highly class conscious. They can smell socialism at thousands of kilometers of distance, no matter the terminology you try to use to hide it.
2) It is the revolutionary’s condition sine qua non for truth to be on your side. As such, there’s no need to try to deceive the masses – that would only hurt socialism (because, if it’s so good, why are you trying to sell it as something else?).

Posted by: vk | Feb 27 2020 3:22 utc | 59

vk
Its origins I leave open. If it is of natural origin through an intermediary, that could have been passed on to several human in different locations around the same time frame.bHow long before pneumonia cases were noticed to be different. I take this was noticed because of the large number of cases appearing at the same time who had also contact with the seafood market.
Laboratory origins… After MERS and SARS, many labs around would have been studying bat coronavirus, some for good intentions some for not so good intentions. If this turns out to be a lab creation, then I tend to look at the players that do not have good intentions towards China.
Fatalities, or lack of, in five-eyes will be a good indicator.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 27 2020 4:13 utc | 61

to add to my comment above, the why locking up people also applies to the Italy and soon the US.
Is this like a drill run on us unsuspecting citizens by our selected overlord to see if we comply like the good sheep we are supposed to be?

Posted by: Sabine | Feb 27 2020 6:30 utc | 63

Pft@49 – “…Why did China require that the “history of seafood market contact” be included in the diagnosis criteria up until January 17th when it knew that at least one third of the cases are not related to the seafood market?”
Indeed, why does the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) require travel from Wuhan or contact with another confirmed COVID-19 patient as criteria for accepting samples for testing in Atlanta? The CDC finally made an exception last Sunday for a seriously ill patient at the University of California Davis Medical Center who did NOT meet the criteria. This was after the CDC first refused to test the patient last Wednesday, Feb. 19th, despite a specific request from UCDMC.
Newly diagnosed coronavirus patient being treated at UC Davis Medical Center
By Anne Ternus-Bellamy [link]

An email sent out Wednesday by two UC Davis officials said the patient arrived at the medical center in Sacramento last Wednesday but was only tested for the virus on Sunday despite a request made by med center officials that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conduct a test when the patient was admitted.
“Today the CDC confirmed the patient’s test was positive,” said the email from David Lubarsky, vice-chancellor of human health services, and Brad Simmons, interim CEO of UC Davis Medical Center.
“This is not the first COVID-19 patient we have treated, and because of the precautions we have had in place since this patient’s arrival, we believe there has been minimal potential for exposure here at UC Davis Medical Center,” the email said.
Nevertheless, a small number of medical center employees have been asked to stay home and monitor their temperatures.
Lubarsky and Simmons said the patient was transferred to UC Davis from “another Northern California hospital” on Wednesday, Feb 19.

Tweet with referenced email.
The patient was only identified as being from Solano County, southwest of Sacramento. Travis AFB, formerly holding quarantined Wuhan and Diamond Princess returnees, is in the same county. UC Davis Medical Center is next to Solano County and would normally receive some critically ill patients from hospitals there. They had also treated critically ill confirmed COVID-19 patients from Travis AFB.
The CDC (and pals at the Food and Drug Administration) have a regulatory monopoly stranglehold on approved COVID-19 testing kits, and those kits are designed specifically for equipment at state public health labs. Most kits didn’t pass Q/C at the beginning of February (bad reagent) and are not used. CDC says replacement kits mid-March… maybe. The ones the are used produce false positives so the samples still have to be shipped to CDC in Atlanta for ‘confirmation’ (48 hours turnaround). California doesn’t have any of those – everything there must go to Atlanta providing the CDC will accept them.
Other qualified, certified labs in the U.S. are capable of designing a reliable COVID-19 test on their equipment, but they must apply for and receive emergency approval from the regulators first. That would be months of useless bureaucratic nonsense without any guarantee of approval. Hawaii has a lot of visitors from Japan. They asked the CDC for approval for a few thousand Japanese test kits, but the CDC said they need the emergency approval as well. Best to just wait for the CDC to fix their own monopolized botched testing kits by (their unofficial guess) mid-March. That’s six weeks into a public health crisis.
Until then, you’ll only see a handful of ‘exceptions’ that will show (like this case) the U.S. population had COVID-19 in the wild since the beginning of February, and those hospitalized probably infected medical workers at the hospitals, who infected other patients before the workers were symptomatic and stopped working.
Viral pneumonia only calls for droplet protection during care. COVID-19 patient care requires stricter airborne and contact protection, in addition to droplet protection.
You have to wonder if this is just normal CDC incompetence or some kind of corruption, e.g., sketchy test kit vendor is someone’s brother-in-law. I’m hesitant to rule out abject evil though. The public can’t panic about the spread of an infectious disease that hospitals can’t test for or confirm.
“You just got a bad case of the flu. You can’t have COVID-19 – it’s not allowed. Sorry, but this year’s vaccine was only 45% effective against the B-Victoria strain, and 50% good against the A-strains going around Oh, and virtually ineffective for A-strains if you are a young adult. Imagine that! We’re not sure why.”

Posted by: PavewayIV | Feb 27 2020 7:11 utc | 65

Slowly but surely Syria is being/will be rebuilt . Great twitter profile too @syriarebuilt.. lovely resilient people, they didn’t deserve this.

Posted by: Maximus | Feb 27 2020 9:11 utc | 67

Assad’s forces seem to be on the edge of a route now. I suppose the next 24 hours will be decisive. I think we are looking at the turning point in this war. When Turkey chose to enter the war full force, filling Idlib with overwhelming firepower, Russia chose to do nothing, it seems, in terms of reinforcing their strength or the strength of the SAA.

Posted by: paul | Feb 27 2020 9:25 utc | 69

The Syria proxy war was always going to be decided, I think, by the moment when one of the great powers involved decided to fully commit. Turkey has done so.

Posted by: paul | Feb 27 2020 9:45 utc | 71

Paveway IV
“I’m hesitant to rule out abject evil though. The public can’t panic about the spread of an infectious disease that hospitals can’t test for or confirm.”
That would be insane, it would mean the virus would spread across the entire US the way it raged across Hubei for weeks, with similar results. At some point, Americans would notice there’s a massive increase in very ill people in critical conditions, and a peak in “unexplainable” deaths, and I assume this would get out faster than in China (specially with the MSM gunning for Trump).

Posted by: Clueless Joe | Feb 27 2020 9:50 utc | 73

paul
Russia was fully committed when on the ground commanders were given the order to destroy not only a threat but where it is launched from. That was quite sometime ag oand very much made public by the Russians.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 27 2020 9:55 utc | 75

Mark2 @47
I apologize for not being able to comment much about how Iran is dealing with the SARS-CoV Mk2 bioweapon as I am not very familiar with Persian culture or their capabilities.

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 27 2020 10:09 utc | 77

“if the virus is such a non thing, not lethal like the current standard flue etc, why the exaggerated responses to it?”
Because it is a bioweapon attack. The Chinese learned from the last one (SARS-CoV Mk1) and put procedures in place to respond to biological warfare. When they identified the weapon as being similar to the prior one it triggered the biological warfare civil defense protocols. The effectiveness/lethality of the weapon is not a consideration in triggering the initiation of those protocols, only establishing the fact of an attack is required.

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 27 2020 10:29 utc | 79

Maximus @ 68 says:
Slowly but surely Syria is being/will be rebuilt . Great twitter profile too @syriarebuilt.. lovely resilient people, they didn’t deserve this
no, they didn’t. thanks for the update! my wife and i are waiting for the green light to visit…

Posted by: john | Feb 27 2020 11:19 utc | 81

Updates on COVID-19:
Coronavirus: Weakest patients could be denied lifesaving care due to lack of funding for NHS, doctors admit
The protocol is called “Three Wise Men”: a special board of three people would be responsible to decide who should be treated and who should not in case of scarcity. Well, I’ll just call it “British authoritarianism” in homage to the propaganda being spilled against China.
Samsung, Hyundai, SK, LG ramping up coronavirus aid efforts
Come on, guys – you knew it would come eventually.
People joke that the UAE is just “twelve oil wells and one radio station”. Well, South Korea is just twelve chaebols and one big kpop stage.
The moment the South Korean government showed its first sign of impotence (and the South Korean knew it would come, very soon), the local media would quickly resort to “faith in the chaebols” narrative in order to calm the masses.
‘Cured’ Japanese ‘positive’; expert sees crossroads
Oops…
Japan is being exposed as the farce it really is.
Mecca shuts gates as Covid-19 migrates from Iran
God doesn’t exist. Nothing is sacred. Everything is politics.
As a very wise man once said: everything solid melts into the air.
P.S.: not seeing the liberals complaining about an alleged attack on “freedom of religion”.
Russia and China are taking dangerous approaches to coronavirus (Editorial)
WaPo’s Editorial Board is stating Russia and China are approaching the COVID-19 problem “wrongly”.
That can only mean one thing: Russia and China are doing everything right. Keep going!
–//–
Bonus news:
The Primaries Are Just Dumb: There’s a better way to do democracy.
This op-ed recommends ranked-choice voting – which is indeed a better, more democratic way, of electing people.
The question is: why is the NYT recommending it now? This wasn’t a problem when Bill Clinton was chosen, or when Hillary Clinton was chosen. Or any other candidate in the History of the USA was chosen for that matter.
At least the NYT was wiser than the WaPo: it hired a mouthpiece to disguise its Editorial as an op-ed.

Posted by: vk | Feb 27 2020 11:40 utc | 83

@ Posted by: Clueless Joe | Feb 27 2020 11:59 utc | 85
In the American system – where there can be only the Democratic and Republican parties – I think you may be right.
But in a truly pluripartidary system (i.e. any other Western Democracy except Japan), ranked is definitely better, because each party represents a separate ideology/manifesto.

Posted by: vk | Feb 27 2020 12:10 utc | 85

Posted by: vk | Feb 27 2020 3:30 utc | 60
There’s already a study out in China that hypothetizes that, albeit the COVID-19 first spreaded in a seafood market, it was not there that the virus originated.
I have already debunked that study in the previous coronavirus thread.

CORONAVIRUS WITH TIME MACHINE?
The phylogenetic network alone cannot determine what was the ancestral haplotype. Mutations can have happened both ways. There are three ways of deriving the ancestral node from a phylogenetic network:

• Date the appearance of each haplotype.
• Follow known infection patterns.
• Compare genomes to known distant ancestor (bat-RaTG13-CoV).

The ChinaXiV paper is doing this wrong. The known cases of H3 appeared one month later than H1. This is evident from the haplotype timeline included in the article.

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Feb 27 2020 12:29 utc | 87

“It is the height of stupidity to claim that men… will now agree… to be our equals.”
Most men, at least working class ones in America, actually do agree to be equals. Likewise most working class white Americans agree to be equals with Black Americans as well. Problem is that one cannot be made equal by the actions and good intentions of someone else. A User made an eloquent post about that a few days ago referencing his work among indigenous peoples in the country where he lives. I recommend anyone who has doubts to reread that post.
Basically, no matter how much you may want to do so, you cannot “uplift” the downtrodden as some sort of favor or good deed. Removing the physical chains as a gift leaves the psychological ones in place, and nobody can remove someone else’s psychological chains. This is even more the case when those chains become integral components of the individual’s “identity”, in which case attempting to remove those chains amounts to an effort to destroy the individual’s “identity”. It is not wise to even attempt this, at least not directly.
Does this mean that western underprivileged groups are forever stuck with their chains built right into their identities? No, there is one possible out from that condition: engaging in the class struggle with other members of their class as equals. In the context of such a struggle the effort of fellow members of one’s class to help ditch the personalized chains is no longer an enslaving act of charity but a necessity for class victory… Getting rid of your chains isn’t a gift that you owe me for, but something that we as a class need to do in order to place the economy under deliberate and conscious control and thus take control of our society from capital.
Outside of the class struggle there can be no emancipation of women or former enslaved demographics. There is simply no other mechanism in society that can make it happen. After more than a century of trying no progress has been made in this regard except for during those periods when rights movements were linked to the class struggle. It is the realization of this that led MLK to the observation that “You cannot have capitalism without racism.” It was that realization that King was assassinated for.

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 27 2020 14:29 utc | 89

I just find it strange that Iran is on the list of countries most infected.
That country is under severe sanctions from the U.S. and now this?
Very unfortunate for a people already struggling to keep their economy afloat.

Posted by: Circe | Feb 27 2020 14:44 utc | 91

Iran is with China one of the most polluted countries in the world. It does not help to keep good natural defenses. I wonder why India does not have more cases. Either they do not reach the hospitals or that having a vegetarian diet helps? But what of those who do not have a vegetarian diet there?

Posted by: Mina | Feb 27 2020 15:16 utc | 93

Paveway @ 66
To your final query about corruption and incompetence. The CDC lead for this entire affair has been Dr. Nancy Messonier. She is Rod Rosenstein’s sister. (Insert rim shot.)
From that basis it would be possible to construct Deep State conspiracy fantasies until the end of time and some might even be plausible. With rather more certainty it appears that everything, absolutely everything, is property of a club. It’s a big club and you ain’t in it. Membership in the club always trumps competency.

Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 27 2020 15:40 utc | 95

Mina @94
China is not in the top ten most polluted countries, and is rapidly dropping lower.
India doesn’t get epidemics of weird viruses for the simple reason that they are not under attack by the United States. India would certainly “catch a cold” if America were to view them as a serious threat to imperial hegemony. What has saved India so far is that nobody takes them seriously.

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 27 2020 15:55 utc | 97

Circe @ 8. Ha ha. I read somewhere that Trump put Pence in charge of the USA Corona Response. (Sounds more like a beer-monopoly quarrel.) Admittedly I have not delved deeply into Pence’s mind set (argh) but, afaik, he does not believe in Evolution. Therefore presumably not in mutations or antibiotics, etc. Which just goes to show. Well something. 🙁
Richard S. Hack @ 7 wrote. Re. Assange.
The only question is will he enable Wikileaks to violate Aaron Rich’s source privilege and reveal that Seth and Aaron Rich were the email leakers. In my view, he should because the truth in this case is far more important than protecting Wikileaks’ policy on protection of sources.
Re. Seth only, as he is deceased, maybe. Aaron is the problem. (I have not followed the stuff about a possible Trump pardon…so don’t know of clues that might have appeared in that story.) It also appears to me that Assange’s lawyers were – are not being forceful or attack-dog enough (easy to say by an outside observer), there might be good reasons for it, so who knows. In any case, Assange’s lengthy stay at the Embassy shows that no negotiations were going on / were brought to any conclusion. Naturally, the partie(s) opposing JA had the luxury of ‘waiting it out’ but they lost their patience. (Note the campaigner Trump repeatedly said he loved Wikileaks but has seemingly…changed his mind.)
The morality of the situation is hard to judge. A promise is a promise, but the barriers for breaking it, in the minds of those involved, are opaque to us.
The ghastly irony of the situation – if one adheres to the scenario sketched – is that Assange is protecting the Corporate Dems via his obstinate silence not revealing internal strife, defection, corruption, not to mention destroying the Russia3x trope. Yet, the no. 1. force to kill him comes from that quarter.
Was this vid posted? > re. Assange.
25 Feb St. Pancreas Church (during trial.)
Speakers. P. Lavelle, A. Mercouris, G. Galloway, Eva Barlett, Joe Lauria, C. Murray, Joti Brar, Mike Barson. Watched the first part, OK, 2nd part, idk.
link is via facebook, couldn’t find orig
https://www.facebook.com/SputnikNews/videos/194995805068181/
For sure the response to JA’s situation is: too little too late, in the sense that various bodies (public, journos defense, etc. etc.) did not act / had no impact / other / etc.

Posted by: Noirette | Feb 27 2020 16:26 utc | 99