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April 15, 2020
Open Thread 2020-30
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Lol
And you schmucks thought that at least the 1,200 dollar crumbs Trump threw at you was yours to spend?
Banks have been given the green light by regulators to take the $1,200 CARES Act payments and use them to offset an individual’s existing debts.
Your Coronavirus Check Is Coming. Your Bank Can Grab It.
Posted by: Realist | Apr 15 2020 17:05 utc | 1
if anyone wants to step outside the mind barriers being put into place, even at forums like MoA (I’m a long time reader, by the way, not one of the newbies who recently popped up), check out Gary Lachman’s book Dark Star Rising, magick and power in the age of Trump.
though I can hear the scoffing already, I continue to think lots of people have a big blind spot in understanding power and how it’s being executed because they don’t want to consider silly sounding things like the occult.
it’s taken me many long years and lots of reading to start wrapping my head around the twisted belief system of these sociopaths. I don’t think it benefits anyone to underestimate what they are capable of, yet many of you here seem to be doing precisely that.
SST has fully jumped the shark, it seems, going full in with the “Chinese poisoned us/this is war” concept, which will be the new “Putin stole the election”. Racist troglodytes are already flooding the comment board calling for the summary execution of anyone involved with Chinese students or academic institutions. The empty wheel blog went full in with the Russiagate nonsense and became virtually unreadable. SST is next.
Americans are wigged out, in general. They will believe what they want to believe, and shout anyone else down while insisting they must be Russian or Chinese agents.
Posted by: jayc | Apr 15 2020 17:26 utc | 3
device claims capable to detect presence of Covid 19 within 100 meter area in seconds.
anybody interested in finding out if it works?
Posted by: snake | Apr 15 2020 17:35 utc | 4
Posted by: snake | Apr 15 2020 17:35 utc | 4
Well I’d guess that it doesn’t, but it would be interesting to see what they have. The only thing that comes to mind is infrared for temperature or something like that.
Posted by: Bemildred | Apr 15 2020 17:44 utc | 6
Fallacious Generalization
Lombard Italy manifest measurement X ..THEREFORE: Italy must also manifest measurement X (not empirically verified)
NY City manifest measurement X …THEREFORE USA must also manifest measurement X (not empirically verified)
Italy and USA have assumed (not empirically verified) measurement X …
THEREFORE world must also manifest measurement X (not empirically verified)
Posted by: Tom Verso | Apr 15 2020 17:47 utc | 7
Re: British Labour Party leader “Sir” Keir Starmer and his connection to British Military Intelligence service MI5
https://www.twitter.com/DCKennard/status/1250344315777212416
Matt Kennard
Why did then head of the CPS, Keir Starmer, meet then head of MI5, Sir Jonathan Evans, for informal social drinks in April 2013, the year after Starmer decided not to prosecute MI5 for its role in torture. No record any other CPS head accepting hospitality from an intel chief.
When Starmer decided not to prosecute MI5, its director-general Sir Jonathan Evans said: “I am delighted that after a thorough police investigation the CPS has concluded that [MI5] has no case to answer”.
Sir Jonathan Evans left MI5 a week following his drinks with Starmer. The day after Evans left the service, Starmer announced he would also leave the CPS. Evans is now Baron Evans of Weardale after David Cameron made him a life peer in 2014.
The CPS’ role involved attempting to trace responsibility for the actions of the MI5 officer it was investigating further up MI5’s chain of command. It is likely that Sir Jonathan Evans—who joined MI5 in 1980—played a role in the case under investigation.
In September 2001 Sir Jonathan Evans had become director of international counter terrorism at MI5 and was in this position when the British resident—whose treatment the CPS was investigating—was snatched, tortured and rendered by the CIA, with MI5 involvement.
It’s not known if Evans would have been criminally liable if the prosecution had gone ahead, but he later had to defend MI5 from accusations of a cover-up in case after Lord Neuberger, then President of the Court of Appeal, said there was a “culture of suppression” in the agency
The value of the hospitality Starmer received from Evans is listed as “unknown” and MI5 is not mentioned, indicating this was a social meeting. Formal meetings for the head of the CPS are registered separately under “meetings with external organisations”, which would include MI5
Such social drinks appear to be unusual for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The three years hospitality records for the period after Starmer left the CPS show his successor as DPP received no hospitality from a sitting intelligence chief—or met them formally.
At the time of Starmer’s social drinks with Sir Jonathan Evans the CPS was still investigating the role of MI5’s sister organisation MI6 in the rendition of two families to Libya when it was ruled by Muammar Gaddafi.
In 2012—the year before Starmer met Evans for drinks—Conservative MP David Davis said it was “essential” for MI5 to be investigated by Scotland Yard for joint operations it conducted with Libyan intelligence against Libyan dissidents living in the UK. That never happened.
TRILATERAL COMMISSION: Sir Keir Starmer is a member of the intelligence-linked Trilateral Commission, an organisation set up in 1973 by American billionaire David Rockefeller who was then chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank. Starmer is the only British MP who is a member.
Posted by: Realist | Apr 15 2020 17:51 utc | 8
Noticed that in American politics, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Obama all endorsed Joe Biden this week. Can’t help but wonder if this has something to do with the rising profile of NY state governor, Cuomo. Cuomo must have the backing of some of New York’s most powerful. Are the New York elites jumping ship? I think about the rats deserting a sinking ship, with Washington DC as the ship, but it seems a lot of rats are still on that ship (with Captain Joe at the helm.) Maybe it’s the deplorables among the New York upper-crust who are deserting Good Ship Washington?
It makes me wonder what they know that I don’t. And then it leads to intriguing thoughts of what political structure could emerge from this. An aristocracy?
On a more serious (and frightening) note, I wonder if a New York/NE US political entity could be established without armed conflict. Judging by that Russian plane that landed at JFK airport, (and now I’d love to know what was on that plane – maybe just medical supplies, but oh the possibilities,) this may involve a cordial discussion between Putin and Trump. Hopefully nothing more than that. Any submarines off the coast, though?
Posted by: Anonymous | Apr 15 2020 18:02 utc | 9
Posted by: Anonymous | Apr 15 2020 18:02 utc | 9
Thanks, that is an interesting speculation there, I’ve been wondering why the DNC has been so vigorously circling the wagons, that might explain it.
Posted by: Bemildred | Apr 15 2020 18:14 utc | 10
Tin foil hat time
Posted by: arby | Apr 15 2020 18:27 utc | 11
aka ‘ostrich in the sand’ syndrome 😉
Posted by: Jayne | Apr 15 2020 18:33 utc | 12
device claims capable to detect presence of Covid 19 within 100 meter area in seconds.
anybody interested in finding out if it works?
Posted by: snake | Apr 15 2020 17:35 utc | 4
With 5G technology activated bouncing and connecting off our devices in the home walls and mobile phones — anything is possible! But be damned about what happens to our human cells in the cross-fire= aka ‘short’ human life-span. Wakey Wakey…
Posted by: Jayne | Apr 15 2020 18:37 utc | 13
@3
Agreed, I have been following SST for about 5 years now, but that was enough time to realize that while they know the truth about RussiaGate, the origins of the war on Syria and the advent of a new Cold War, there was a enough there to see that they were completely down with Trump’s domestic agenda. At this point I consider them the new Brown Shirts and petit bourgeois reactionaries. I’ve had to stop looking at their site!
Posted by: DougDiggler | Apr 15 2020 18:42 utc | 14
@Lozion
gladly. the book makes an interesting comparison between New Thought writers like Reverend Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote a book in 1952 titled The Power of Positive Thinking, and those who practice chaos magick. both operate under the principle that there is real power to effect one’s environment through directing one’s will, manifesting what you want if your belief and willpower is strong enough (Peale had a big influence on Trump’s dad and Trump himself).
this concept is like meth to a malignant narcissist.
the author also discusses how post-modernism fits in to creating the condition we have today. here’s an excerpt:
Postmodernism is a philosophical perspective that developed in the late twentieth century, having its sources in earlier philosophers such as Nietzsche and Heidegger, both of whom cut away at the notion of a stable, “objective” truth, the kind we use in everyday life and in science. Simply put, the essence of postmodernism–although it would deny that it has an “essence”–can be summed up in the phrase “anything goes.” For postmodernism the kind of scientific, rational certainties that built the modern world, as well as traditional values such as truth, no longer apply; at least they are seen to be much less certain than was believed.
Well before it became a political buzzword, postmodernism knew all about being “post-truth,” and was aware of the “alternative facts” and “fake news” that accompany that condition. It could even be said that postmodernism and related schools like deconstructionism prepared the ground for the epistemological skepticism pervading western consciousness today, which Trump both abets and profits by. Rarified notions of a pliant, flexible, relative “truth” trickled down from the metaphysical heights, and infected the popular mind with what the philosopher Paul Ricoeur called the “hermeneutics of suspicion,” a kind of cynical nihilism that we take for granted as part of everyday life, and which Nietzsche, more than a century ago, predicted was on its way. Hence our conspiracy ridden world, to which Trump himself contributes. For postmodernism, the dictum “Nothing is true, everything is permitted,” attributed to Hasan bin Sabbah, “the Old Man of the Mountain,” leader of the ancient Islamic sect of Ismailis called the Hashashin, or Assassins, is taken as given. The same goes for chaos magick.
@ jayc #3 The Chinese war against the US is like Russia’s war against the US: self defense. It’s not difficult to see who the aggressor is – and has been since 1945. That these two countries have been driven into alliance by a shared adversary is deliciously ironic, or would be if it did not have the overwhelming potential to be globally catastrophic.
The inability of the Colonel to recognize (voice?) that reveals his true allegiance. Whether it is to a continued income stream from media consultancy or ties to the intelligence cartel or both makes no difference.
Posted by: Noah Way | Apr 15 2020 19:10 utc | 16
Just saw Lavrov’s Q & A at MFA ru …
Very interesting. “after this there’s going to be changes…sober stuff.
(Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with Russian and foreign media via video-conference on urgent international issues, Moscow, April 14, 2020)
There’s a transcript.
“The third challenge: the current situation is a test not only for states, but also for integration and other associations that include such states. I think that after we overcome this global threat using joint efforts and work out an antidote in case such developments recur, we will have to rethink a lot of things concerning the operation of multilateral organisations. Perhaps we will have a better understanding, for example, of what Europeans think of the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance….” (L)
Posted by: Walter | Apr 15 2020 19:10 utc | 17
A bunch of well known progressive websites and youtube channels all came out with an autopsy of the Bernie Sanders campaign in the last 2 days. Mostly they agree that the failure was in not understanding how to connect outside of the insular Twitter Blue Checkmark woke pro-war crowd. From Pam Ho The Berniecrat Revolution Will Not Be Televised or: Re-evolution For Dummies
Posted by: Kali | Apr 15 2020 19:11 utc | 18
Posted by: Walter | Apr 15 2020 19:10 utc | 17
“integration” is all I focused on with your post 😉
“Global threat” — first thing that came to my mind is what we have at the Head of the WHO? and that Fauci (sp?) dude both of of whom are of unknown origin?
Posted by: Jayne | Apr 15 2020 19:20 utc | 20
@ 15 lizard.. i like this summary..” this concept is like meth to a malignant narcissist” did you think this up?
russiagate was a dem thing.. chinagate looks to be a republican thing… they are both f@ked in the head and refuse to see any of it.. is this an american specialty??
Posted by: james | Apr 15 2020 19:20 utc | 21
what do usa, uk and sweden all have in common?? they want to screw assange… i don’t trust any of them..
Posted by: james | Apr 15 2020 19:24 utc | 22
@ Posted by: lizard | Apr 15 2020 18:46 utc | 15
That’s why I trust the Chinese government sources more than the Western governments. As a Marxist State, China is still science (reason) based.
The West lives in the postmodern world, a post-truth world.
Walter | Apr 15 2020 19:10 utc | 17
Have a link for that? I found a link at positive universe to rt. At rt there is not link, but if I search for lavrov there, I find a link that just takes me back to the first page.
Posted by: David F | Apr 15 2020 19:38 utc | 25
@James,
yes, the meth/narcissist analogy is mine. I live in Montana, so our big drug problem is meth. as for narcissists, I worked at a homeless shelter for many years, so became quite familiar with the wide range of personality disorders. these were obviously lower functioning psycho paths.
I suspect a big part of identifying the progeny of the elite who will take on leadership roles entails figuring out which one exhibits the most sociopathic tendencies.
while I abhor violence, I sometimes wonder if the true way to fix our broken world is to find a screening process for sociopaths/psychopaths and, once identified, either execute or sterilize them. we’ve been taking their top-down eugenics programs for decades now (centuries?). maybe what we need is a bottom-up program to rid our institutions of their influence.
lizard@26
“while I abhor violence, I sometimes wonder if the true way to fix our broken world is to find a screening process for sociopaths/psychopaths and, once identified, either execute or sterilize them. we’ve been taking their top-down eugenics programs for decades now (centuries?). maybe what we need is a bottom-up program to rid our institutions of their influence.”
I have had that exact same thought before, and I do believe that would be the only way to ‘fix’ our problems. Our system rewards those socio/psyco traits, hence they always rise to the top. Kind, caring people rarely rise to the top.
Posted by: David F | Apr 15 2020 19:48 utc | 27
Posted by: lizard | Apr 15 2020 17:10 utc | 2
I used to design electric devices for research purposes and think April fools day is late this year. That thing is clearly a basic remote sensing IR thermometer with a standard black plastic electronic equiment housing box mounted on top. The desciption is BS and it does not contain a pcr lab for sure.
The only way it could possibly work is if sick people release certain molecules into the air so a dog could sniff them out. The antenna thing could be a tube that sucks in an air sample, passing it over a highly selective chemical film with molecular binding sites on top of a surface acoustic wave or surface plasmon resonance sensor. It then detects the specific molecules that stick to it. If that is the case, I recommend the dog. Canines are more reliable.
Posted by: Joost | Apr 15 2020 19:58 utc | 28
So much for the recent OPEC plus production cuts to save America’s Shale Oil Bubble.
Even Americans like Scott Ritter are admitting that the United States got played by the chess masters:
“Trump cannot turn on or off the U.S. oil-producing spigot, a fact Russia knows only too well. When Trump attempted to gain credit for a 2.5-million-barrel reduction in production brought on by bankruptcy, Russia refused to allow it. Likewise, when Trump promised cuts in oil production to help Mexico meet G20 targets, it was a promise the American president is unable to deliver on. In getting the U.S. to agree to attend a G20 summit on oil production, the Russians lured the U.S. into a policy trap from which there is no escape.”
Is Putin Laying a Petroleum Trap for Trump?
https://www.globalresearch.ca/putin-laying-petroleum-trap-trump/5709710
Posted by: ak74 | Apr 15 2020 20:00 utc | 29
lizard and David F
Inuit’s view of Socipaths: “Kunlangeta is allegedly an Inuit Yupik word for psychopath – in a 1976 study anthropologist Jane M. Murphy, then at Harvard University, found that an isolated group of Yupik-speaking Inuits near the Bering Strait had a term (kunlangeta) they used to describe “a man who … repeatedly lies and cheats and steals things and … takes sexual advantage of many women—someone who does not pay attention to reprimands and who is always being brought to the elders for punishment.” When Murphy asked an Inuit what the group would typically do with a kunlangeta, he replied, “Somebody would have pushed him off the ice when nobody else was looking.”
Posted by: john | Apr 15 2020 20:00 utc | 30
“…while I abhor violence, I sometimes wonder if the true way to fix our broken world is to find a screening process for sociopaths/psychopaths and, once identified, either execute or sterilize them. we’ve been taking their top-down eugenics programs for decades now (centuries?). maybe what we need is a bottom-up program to rid our institutions of their influence…”
Posted by: lizard | Apr 15 2020 19:42 utc | 26
Yikes… Nah, the Bill Gates et al. of this World were intentional *groomed* — and his father before him. Noting many of us (heck the majority of us) came from a very different ethical *human* strain it would seem. Much has to do with our perception of human consciousness, (throwing in some Jung in there). Plus, reviewing our *institutional* constructed realities we were *BORN* in to and confined to — we and ‘they’ had no choice! However, we are seeing the underlying breaking down and all factions are in chaos. We are in unknown territory. Even-though those NWO psychopaths think they are in control. LOL.
I certainly don’t go down the eugenics model which it would seem the Gates (Epstein etc.) model would like to take us. We are definitely moving into a new paradym IMHO. This is me coming from such a analytical political/critical analysis training background.
Posted by: Jayne | Apr 15 2020 20:01 utc | 31
lizard@26
Sterilizing them is insufficient. They can still spread their socio/psychopathic tendencies, like a virus.
With positive testing, they must be executed post haste. I used to be absolutely against the death penalty, but this is a damn good justification for it.
Posted by: Just Me | Apr 15 2020 20:05 utc | 32
@ 26 lizard.. thanks.. interesting background.. are you familiar with gabor mate and his work?? he worked in the downtown vancouver and came to the conclusion – i don’t know if this is backed up statistically – 90, or 95% of the homeless, street type people come from a background where sexual abuse as a key part of many of these peoples background.. i am not sure that squares with psycho, or socio pathology… maybe they connect.. i have a hard time with those terms anyway… i can think of a handful of people i have come across in my life that baffle my sense of logic and that i am inclined to think they might fall in this category – pscyho or sociopaths… but i did find the conclusion gabor mate came to quite fascinating… as it turns out i have a close friend who has a junkie from about age 13 to 38 and indeed his background included signficant sexual abuse.. and he lived in the street in the downtown eastside of vancouver too for a number of years.. he says he thinks the stat is probably fairly accurate… i liked what vk said in response to the occult concept, post modernism and etc @23… to me occult is just a word to describe a different layer of reality that tends to go un noticed.. people dream.. that is another reality too which in our society tends to also get ignored or bypassed by ” scientific types”… i have always held a fascination for all of that.. the book you mention sounds interesting.. thanks for your comments!
Posted by: james | Apr 15 2020 20:09 utc | 33
@lizard #26:
It’s something that is better done through education. Socio/psycho are mental illness. Don’t follow leaders with debilitating mental illnesses. Don’t breed with people who have these mental illnesses. Don’t associate with them. Ostracize, shun, run away. Most important, once you’ve recognized one, stop teaching it stuff.
Sterilization and execution are not reversible. If you find you’ve made a mistake in excommunication, you can possibly make amends.
Also, thanks for your poems! I dearly miss the occasional art we used to get here, particularly your poems and beq’s paintings/collages/whatevers.
Posted by: Dr Wellington Yueh | Apr 15 2020 20:14 utc | 34
john | Apr 15 2020 20:00 utc | 31
What an elegant solution! Now, how to lure these folks out onto the ice?
Posted by: David F | Apr 15 2020 20:16 utc | 35
David F @25–
Here’s the missing link. Note the vastly different approach to the crisis:
“Sergey Lavrov: Of course, the pandemic has created very serious problems, the most important of which is saving people’s lives, ensuring their security, biomedical safety and the preservation of the human environment, which should be comfortable and pose no threats to life and health.”
@ 33 bruno..interesting conjecture.. it seems to me many people are willing to give up their freedom without realizing it.. whether this is a subtle pressure from wanting to ”fit in” to society or not, i think it is hard to say.. how many people actually ”need” a cell phone?? and how much of it is social pressure to conform??? i use this analogy as it sort of fits with the more extreme scenarios you describe… owning a cell phone is having a tracking device on you everywhere you go.. they came in handy with obamas drone program… and on it goes.. i am not sure how many people unknowingly conform and how many consciously rebel.. it seems like the ratio is skewed towards large numbers conforming without thinking about it much which would imply we are in trouble as we move forward here..
as has been said before – the 1% or creeps who seek power are going to continue to do what they do whether there is a crisis or not.. so here we are in a crisis and people are naturally wanting to talk about issues of losing control or losing their independence… you may as well sign your independence away if you participate in any of the social media outlets… many don’t seem to care..
Posted by: james | Apr 15 2020 20:17 utc | 37
Posted by: Bruno Marz | Apr 15 2020 20:02 utc | 33
You might well be right – it could well be a physical test of strength? Still think it probably has more to do with consciousness. Arghh… Kushner reminds me so much of that Dorian Grey character…
A Bug’s Life – ”Then they ALL might stand up to us”
https://youtu.be/VLbWnJGlyMU
Posted by: Jayne | Apr 15 2020 20:20 utc | 38
>Our system rewards those socio/psyco traits, hence they always
>rise to the top. Kind, caring people rarely rise to the top.
>Posted by: David F | Apr 15 2020 19:48 utc | 27
So… maybe the problem is not the people, but the system design? If there were no top to rise to, i.e., a non-hierarchical design, that would keep psychopaths from getting control.
The Pyramid of Capitalism
Posted by: Trailer Trash | Apr 15 2020 20:29 utc | 39
The people who are getting all excited over the new hardcore Orwellian global dictatorship in the making are themselves caught up in COVID-19 induced hysteria and are lost in a reality distortion zone. They will look mighty foolish when the quarantine is lifted.
What these folks are missing is that mass political repression in Western “democracies” relies on psychological mind fuckery and subtler methods of control , rather than wide scale hardcore police state measures.
The many incidences of cops beating on and brutalizing people for breaking quarantine is, well, typical behaviour by cops when given extra authority. It’s hardly a new thing.
The OffGuardian brigade is blinded by their inability to accurately assess how mind and social control works in the west.
It’s done by propaganda disseminated via the media, censorship and algorithm tweaking on the internet so “dangerous” information remains hidden from view, getting the gullible public hooked on surveillance apps “for their safety and protecting” and by relentlessly portraying every dissenting voice as a Kremlin dupe or a conspiracy theorist out to destroy democracy. Westerners, unless they live in France, are very obedient and don’t need to be clubbed or tear gassed into submission.
Should the meek and obedient western public take to the streets that will change, but for now it would be overkill because the public is by and large completely pacified.
The overt police state methods are, for now, reserved for people like Assange, Manning, Snowden and various entrapped “terrorists”. These people are like the heads on pikes in medieval times, serving to warn the commoners what happens when the king is disobeyed.
So, yes, COVID-19 is being used to roll out the next phase of repression, but it won’t be in the form of permanent curfews or security checkpoints and policemen on every corner.
Posted by: Daniel | Apr 15 2020 20:33 utc | 40
Interesting (though, not surprising) news from the Russian MoD:
On the night of 13-14 April 2020, a group of illegal armed groups trained at the United States Armed Forces base in the “Rukban” camp area attempted to withdraw from et-Tanf zone.
The militants intended to surrender to government forces and return to peaceful life. On the border of the 55-kilometre security zone, the group was attacked by a group of radical armed gang “commandos of the revolution” – “Magavir Al-Saura,” controlled by the United States.
As a result of the fighting, the militants lost three pickup trucks. 27 people managed to escape and are currently in Palmira under guard of Syrian governmental forces. They handed over dozens of small arms, among them grenade-launchers and heavy machine guns, including Western made.
According to the testimony passed to the government by the illegal armed group members, the weapons and cars “pickup” were provided to them by the Americans. Trainers from the United States trained them to sabotage oil and gas and transport infrastructure, as well as to organize terrorist acts in territory controlled by Syrian government forces.
One can wonder who is really a terrorist.
Lizard @ 2 and elsewhere:
That different societies, even one as seemingly isolated as Yupik-speaking Inuit, can recognise sociopathic / psychopathic individuals may indicate that in the past there was some evolutionary advantage gained by the human species for societies to bring forth such people. Either that or the sociopathic mind is the price societies pay for human intelligence having developed over hundreds of thousands of years in particular ways that aided human survival.
Therefore we need to think of ways to spot sociopathic tendencies in children and young people, find out what is in their social backgrounds that encourages such tendencies, and do what we can to turn these tendencies into something different.
Does Western society produce more such individuals than others, and if so, why so? Why do sociopaths seem to rise to the top in politics, the corporate world and other areas of human endeavour and culture? What is it about Western culture and values that favour the rise of these individuals?
Posted by: Jen | Apr 15 2020 20:34 utc | 42
karlof@38
Thanks for the link. Russia has the best leadership in the world right now. I have read transcripts from lavrov and putin on many occasions, I seem to recall listening to putin speak a few times in english; these guys are always level headed, competent, rational; and first and foremost, taking care of their people.
As an american, I am jealous. Just compare them to any of our leaders in my lifetime (50yrs), and for that matter, I haven’t even read about too many of our leaders being real statesmen, absolutely no comparison.
Posted by: David F | Apr 15 2020 20:36 utc | 43
Trailer Trash | Apr 15 2020 20:29 utc | 41
The system is definitely part of the problem, but the people are the core problem. Systems don’t just appear, they are created. By people.
Jen | Apr 15 2020 20:34 utc | 45
“Does Western society produce … the rise of these individuals?”
I don’t know if we produce more, anecdotally is would see so, but why they rise to the top seems obvious. But why they rise to the top seems obvious. Lack of morals, amoral at best, and a lack of empathy. Money, power, and sex are the rewards.
Posted by: David F | Apr 15 2020 20:44 utc | 44
>But is it better to have died fighting for your freedom or
>to have lived with no freedom at all?
>Posted by: Bruno Marz | Apr 15 2020 20:29 utc | 42
Yes. I daresay that most of the 50 million US peons that own guns would prefer to die on their feet than live on their knees. Even our brain-dead Dear Leaders must understand this, so I think it’s unlikely they will try to enforce a chip-and-vaccine scheme. Plus they will be too busy putting down small local rebellions and civil unrest if their mad scheme of house arrest continues into the hot weather. Three days of 90F weather in a major East Coast city should do it.
Posted by: Trailer Trash | Apr 15 2020 20:47 utc | 45
Jayne @ 20 and for all. In the NEO website today F. William Engdahl has quite a bit of information about Tony Fauci and what he’s been doing these past 35 years. Interesting read.
Posted by: Scott from Chitown | Apr 15 2020 20:51 utc | 46
@ 42 bruno… i don’t know where you live, but based on your comments i suspect the usa in some larger urban area… my experience doesn’t conform with your comments.. as for forcing an implant.. i can’t see it myself.. as for the impact on people economically, it is not extreme in canada as it is for people in the usa.. i am not sure how it is for euro countries.. as for fear – it works both ways.. a certain amount of it is useful.. too much of it is a problem… how can we tell whether one has too much or too little? paranoia is too much… i was only using the cell phone analogy of an example of something i thought relevant to the conversation, but perhaps i was wrong and you have a very specific furrow you want to plough here..
Posted by: james | Apr 15 2020 20:59 utc | 47
@ 43 daniel… i share your view… thanks for stating all that..
Posted by: james | Apr 15 2020 21:01 utc | 48
” I sometimes wonder if the true way to fix our broken world is to find a screening process for sociopaths/psychopaths and, once identified, either execute or sterilize them. we’ve been taking their top-down eugenics programs for decades now (centuries?). maybe what we need is a bottom-up program to rid our institutions of their influence..” lizard@26
Like most Nazi ideas this one, if put into practice again, would lead to the killing and ill treatment of large numbers of the most vulnerable persons. It is not some genetic failing that makes people nasty but life experience and environmental influences, particularly in their early years.
What lizard proposes is to act towards these people exactly as they hare alleged to have acted towards others. This would not relieve society of the problem but augment it greatly.
As one sensible commenter points out the fault lies in a system of class rule and exploitation which schools people to lie, cheat and steal- so long as that system exists you might as well, like the Nazis, attempt to put an end to usury by killing Jews. Or to petty theft by killing Roma, or to threats to private property by killing socialists.
Anyone who believes in capital punishment and in the screening of the population in order to identify personality traits to be erased, is very likely to be a socio-psychopath (whatever either may be), himself. And deserves our sympathy and society’s assistance in conquering the disease.
Posted by: bevin | Apr 15 2020 21:08 utc | 49
@ 53 bevin.. well put.. i didn’t want to say that, and in fact i couldn’t have said it near as well as you.. thanks.
Posted by: james | Apr 15 2020 21:12 utc | 50
Great resource for corona facts and analysis: https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
Looks like the death rate has substantially decreased during recent weeks, as many more people have had the virus but didn’t show any symptoms than was previously known. 80% without symptoms really makes you wonder. Also up to 60% of all deaths in nursing homes. Sad we coulnd’t protect these places any better?!
Posted by: L. Tim | Apr 15 2020 21:22 utc | 51
Jen @ 45
Interesting question’s you raise there.
Strictly speaking psychopaths aren’t ‘mentally ill’ if they end up in a mental institution they are not given the usual psychiatric drugs.
Psychopaths have a personality disorder. This is where it gets interesting and relivant to this debate.
Psychopaths can be born that way, but there is a nature or nurture debate. most importantly they can be trained .
Deception is a successful part of nature! With a huge number of examples. Young children naturally use many of the same techniques. But as they grow learn to suppress them.
Posted by: Mark2 | Apr 15 2020 21:30 utc | 53
@53 Posted by: bevin
indeed. people can learn and change for better or for worse.
sure there are real crazy fks out there. but like how things are, you can pick as many fights as you want,till you find yourself fighting the entire world. and then what? final solution? good intentions really do lead straight to hell when you take into account the details of how the plan is to be executed…..
Posted by: jason | Apr 15 2020 21:35 utc | 54
There are some pretty fundamental problems with the logic of a psycho witch hunt.
– blaming a select few for everything (instead of looking in a mirror)
– doing x to stop someone else from doing x
– identity politics traps… etc etc
Posted by: Tony | Apr 15 2020 21:42 utc | 55
This conversation is going of the deep end really quickly. I am going to exit. Just for the record, I wasn’t advocating any ‘final solution’.
This is the core of humanities problem though, how to prevent the wrong people, namely socio/psycho people from obtaining the reigns of power. This has been the core problem before recorded history began. How to keep the wolves from being in charge of the flock. Enjoy, guys.
Posted by: David F | Apr 15 2020 21:43 utc | 56
Psychopaths have commen symtems that the lay person can identify (not least in politicians and murders)
1 they are very popular. You ask haw they seem to rise to the top?
They are very good at borrowing power from people around them. Now look at the way Israel relies on American power.
Prycopaths have an infantile/ childish personality that a lot of people find atractive /magnetic ! Think Boris Johnson.
I hope people find this interesting and important in order to identify them, and avoid them.
Posted by: Mark2 | Apr 15 2020 21:53 utc | 57
Please don’t let Julian Assange be hustled out of public view at this time.
Anyone with good links to any Assange-supporting site, including fund-raising for Assange’s legal team, or parents, please post them.
Anyone in isolation or unable to leave your home, there is a German site running Solo Vigils for Assange:
https://candles4assange.de/#soloVigils
You can send in a photo of your own vigil – and maybe send it to your own politicians.
Posted by: Hope | Apr 15 2020 21:53 utc | 58
>In the NEO website today F. William Engdahl has quite a bit of
>information about Tony Fauci
I think this is the article. I look forward to reading it, as I have a hate-on for Fauci due to his horrid treatment of ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) patients and his refusal to allow NIH to organize an effective research program. This has been going on for three decades! He was also part of the botched US response to the AIDS epidemic. The documentary “How to Survive a Plague” shows him being burned in effigy, ha ha.
This guy has been at NIH for fifty years, acts like he owns the place, and he is not even the director. According to the organization chart, the NIH Director is Francis Collins, so where the hell is Collins, and why is no one asking?
Posted by: Trailer Trash | Apr 15 2020 21:54 utc | 59
38 Cont’d–
Lavrov is an artist cloaked in diplomatic disguise. I find him very pleasurable to read. Yes, he said a great many things in answer to a wide variety of questions. Aside from the quote cited @38, for me there were two important points. The first was the Outlaw US Empire’s offer to resume discussions on arms control and outer space, although I suspect the upcoming election is tied to the offer. Second relates to my thesis that nations can be seen as Nurturing or Parasitic based on their behavior during this crisis. One of the attributes of Nurturing nations is the collective aspect of their socio-cultural composition:
Question: “However, there is a lack of global unity and joint efforts to fight the pandemic. In addition, the existing alliances have proven ineffective in these conditions. In your opinion, how will all this affect the future world order? What will it look like after the pandemic?
“Sergey Lavrov: In my response to one of the first questions I said that apart from fighting the pandemic and resolving economic problems at the national and global levels the third greatest challenge is to understand what lies ahead for multilateral institutions, what role they will play in the future and whether they will remain relevant. The outcome of the fight against the coronavirus will show which countries and multilateral structures have withstood the test of this horrible threat, this crisis. I understand your concern that the egoistic aspirations we are currently witnessing in the behaviour of some countries could prevail, leading to future attempts to self-insulate from the outside world. We are already witnessing anxious debates about Schengen Area countries on their shared future and neighbourly relations. In the end, I think that a collective approach will prevail. It may take some time though. It will require meetings and persuasion. However, this is the only possible way forward.” [My Emphasis]
The unilateral, Rugged Individual, Herd Immunity, Neoliberal approach has failed bigtime despite frantic efforts to keep them afloat–note that such approaches were opposed by the publics of those nations whose “leaders” trod that path. I recall the aim of The Man in the Wilderness was to return to his collective–his family–and the fear that gripped the collective that abandoned him. (There’s a very big lesson there if people think upon it while watching the film.) The attempt to glorify the Rugged Individual is unique, began in the 1820s with the popular writings of James Fenimore Cooper, and solely belongs to the Outlaw US Empire and its attempt to cultivate the myth of Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism.
It appears the only collectivism to be allowed within the Outlaw US Empire is that of the Money Power; all others are to be atomized, restricted in their ability to act together except when laboring to feed the Money Power. Something like Orwell’s description of the Proles in 1984–joyfully ignorant and powerless. The only way to thwart the Money Power’s plan for ongoing dominance and pauperization of the Outlaw US Empire’s masses is for those masses to discover how to act collectively. Yes, it’s been done before but the effort was abandoned prior to the final goal being attained in 1900. There was another attempt to establish a mass collective during the early 1930s, but that too was thwarted and its memory washed away by War and the pseudo war that followed–do note the concerted attack on collective effort made from 1946-1964. The one major collective organization that remained in 1972–the draft-based civilian military–was then disbanded, and nothing has arisen to replace it. Even the mass politicking that had grown during the 1960s withered to where only a ghost remains.
An ongoing discourse here at MoA deals with the question of how to get people to again come together as a collective to create the change that’s so badly needed to preserve our own wellbeing, which is in the collective interest of 330+ million people, as well as that of the planet’s populous. IMO, the answer lies in seizing advantage of the obvious failure of the unilateral go-it-alone, damn the torpedoes, approach to COVID-19 that deliberately omitted the needs of 330+ million people and directly threatened their wellbeing.
If there was ever a teachable moment to educate an entire nation, that time is upon us. Fortunately, part of the message is already there and just needs to be spread further along with its associated rationale: Not Me, US! The formula for success isn’t Top->Down it’s Bottom->Up since it’s decentralized and very hard to defuse.
Lizard and others. If you have seen the documentary The Corporation, there is a segment where a sociopathic person is compared to the corporation entity and symptoms like anti-social behaviour, lack of empathy, etc. are common to both. With that said, dismantling the current status of corporations, effectively negating their existence and the equivalent of stopping sociopaths in society wont happen imo without resort to violence, unfortunately. Ways to change the system have been re-hashed @MoA so many times but I say again: Pitch forks & lamp posts, Mussolini style..
Posted by: Lozion | Apr 15 2020 22:10 utc | 61
Does anyone here know why MoA has failed us during the most important event since 9/11? (Serious question)
It doesn’t even matter where the virus originated from or how deadly it is (actually it looks like it’s not very deadly to otherwise healthy people), what matters is the long-lasting response using the virus as a pretext.
Of course one explanation would be MoA is “controlled opposition”, but I really cannot believe this.
Posted by: Em78 | Apr 15 2020 22:10 utc | 62
Remember the United Kingdom’s eugenicist Herd Culling… sorry Herd Immunity strategy that it initially adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Based on the comments in a leaked UK Home Office call, it appears that the British regime has effectively decided to let the pandemic run its course throughout the population in order to prioritize reopening the economy.
In other words, the United Kingdom will readopt its Herd Culling strategy in disguise.
America will surely soon follow.
LEAKED HOME OFFICE CALL
Reveals Government Wants Economy to ‘Continue Running’
As ‘We Will All Get’ COVID-19 Anyway
https://bylinetimes.com/2020/04/09/leaked-home-office-call-reveals-uk-government-wants-economy-to-continue-running-as-we-will-all-get-covid-19-anyway/
Posted by: ak74 | Apr 15 2020 22:19 utc | 63
Regarding psychopaths. Genraly speaking it’s ‘frowned apon’ to push them off the ice !
Far better to expose them, study the individual, identify him for what he is and spread the word far and wide. Remember their power is an illusion.
Having said that im quite partial to the pitchfork approach as well. Best not dwell on that !
Posted by: Mark2 | Apr 15 2020 22:36 utc | 64
snake #4
device claims capable to detect presence of Covid 19 within 100 meter area in seconds.
anybody interested in finding out if it works?
No but tell me – is it a dog?
They have a magnificent sense of smell and can detect many things. If one was trained to select COVID19 specifically at the early stage it would be helpful for the long term. I sadly under-researched topic.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 15 2020 22:45 utc | 65
David F@46
Russia has the best leadership in the world right … these guys are always level headed, competent, rational; and first and foremost, taking care of their people.
You are just not familiar with the internal policies, and they are devastating for Russian people.
As an american, I am jealous.
Don’t be jealous; the grass is always greener on the other side.
Just compare them to any of our leaders in my lifetime (50yrs), and for that matter, I haven’t even read about too many of our leaders being real statesmen, absolutely no comparison.
Real leaders, real statesmen are rear.
Posted by: teatree | Apr 15 2020 22:57 utc | 66
It’s fairly simple to identify the dangerous socionutz.
Essentially, at 18th birthday every kid gets inducted into basic military training… Run them around and feed them and make sure they’re healthy – a glorified summer camp.
The evaluations that the instructors and teacher make according to an expert set of characteristics are then the basis for career inducments…sociopaths can be curated and channeled into constructive lives by an intelligent program. Any totally dangerous guys (or ladies), if watched over, would commit crimes for which they’d be arrested, or possibly they can have an accident. It’s not murder if it’s self defense…and the killer would have to stand before the bar.
This in some small way the US had, when we had the draft and before Vietnam.
Older non-coms have seen thousand of kids…they see character. (one of those guys saved me from making certain errors…he had a sharp eye.
“Wally” he sai, “You’re a phuck up..lemmee tell ya what’s going to happen…”
I’d a wound up in Leavenworth.
Posted by: Walter | Apr 15 2020 23:03 utc | 67
@James,
yes, very familiar with Gabor Mate. I would assume most of the people I worked with who had personality disorders had them in part due to trauma when they were younger. the first two years of development for a child is so critically important, even mild abuse primes them for addiction down the road. the more ACEs they have (adverse childhood experiences) also increases their chances of developing chronic health conditions. the sociopaths with power know this and are now psychologically traumatizing us on a mass-scale.
@DavidF,
yep, crony capitalism incentivizes these monsters to be as bad as they can be.
@John,
I have heard that anecdote before and it’s interesting because it shows there is a type of sociopath that probably exists in all cultures, and that they are born that way.
@Jayne,
a new paradigm is definitely coming, the question is who gets to shape it.
@JustMe,
I’m afraid you’re right.
@Dr. Wellington Yueh,
thank you very much. I miss r’giap and beq and many of the old regulars. and Malooga, if I’m remembering the name correctly. you know it’s funny, I just watched Dune a few nights ago so realized where your name comes from. the movie is made by someone I consider part of the sociopath club, David Lynch. he literally cannot show a genuine loving human connection in any of his work.
@Jen,
great questions, thank you.
@bevin,
are you calling me a sociopath? sometimes I wish I was. caring for others is a weakness they won’t hesitate to exploit.
@all concerned with my initial “maybe”. I don’t relish even thinking this idea, but I have spent too much time looking into very dark things and I think we need to be as prepared as possible as they tighten the noose around our collective necks.
Posted by: vk | Apr 15 2020 19:30 utc | 24
Perpetrators of recent terrorist attacks in Damascus confess details of recruitment
may be similar or identical to your Sputnik link.
Posted by: Phil | Apr 15 2020 23:22 utc | 70
teatree @71–
I see you’re busy spreading BigLies. Please, jump out of your tree onto your head. Thanks.
“Neofeudalism by design” is today’s Keiser Report Mantra–Max and Stacy present an excellent argument that tries to inform people about what I call the Money Power, which is the collective term for the Central Bank and the “Princely Class” within the Outlaw US Empire. And their critique about Sanders, Biden and “Progressives” I agree with 100%.
Become enlightened and watch at the link.
Germany begins opening up. Why? Because they have data; real data; not the nonsense that our media has been pushing.
From the article “Ms Merkel’s announcement makes Germany the latest European nation to start easing restrictions:
Denmark has reopened schools and nurseries for children up to the age of 11
Construction and manufacturing work is back under way in Spain
Thousands of smaller shops in Austria reopened on Tuesday, and the country will allow outdoor sport such as tennis, golf and athletics from 1 May
Some regions in Italy have reopened bookshops and children’s clothing stores”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52299358
Posted by: JFo | Apr 15 2020 23:26 utc | 72
Trailer Trash@64. Yes that is the article. I think it’s pretty darn good. Also, I found another at Unz Review by Whitney Webb. It pertains to the company filled with selfless, giving humanitarians who will be providing Sweet Billy Gate’s wet dream vaccine we will be encouraged to partake in. A warning…it is a long article…frankly reading it made me feel a bit dirty. Just the insights into “bidness” in D.C.
Posted by: Scott from Chitown | Apr 15 2020 23:38 utc | 73
lizard @74–
Yes, the topic broached is difficult to discuss when trying to avoid collateral damage and morally justifying such eliminations. If framed within Just War Theory–the war being The Class War–IMO, their elimination is Just. They certainly won’t blink when deciding our elimination, which appears to be their ultimate goal based on all that’s transpired up till now over the past 4K years or so. This latest drive began circa 1450, came close to being defeated circa 1850, and has been on a genuine terror since about 1890, killing well over 140 Million–directly and indirectly. The wife and I had a discussion about the merits of violent revolution to eliminate the Money Power and its abettors since they’re the genuine enemy within. It ended without our gaining consensus given the considerations noted in my opening sentence. I imagine many Syrians had similar issues as their world was turned upside-down and inside-out, but they faced guns not bureaucratic pens. And to make matters worse, the ice is melting.
ZeroHedge a progressive independent voice previously anti-Trump and anti-Democrats is now leading China’s bashing with three new anti-China articles:
Trump Says US ‘Thoroughly Examining’ Possibility Virus Leaked From Wuhan Biolab
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-live-white-house-coronavirus-task-force-holds-wednesday-briefing
China Gleeful That 4 US Carriers Hampered By COVID-19, Boasts PLA Navy “Not Impacted”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-gleeful-4-us-carriers-hampered-covid-19-boasts-pla-navy-not-impacted
$3.5 Billion Has Flowed From U.S. Taxpayers To The World Health Organization Since 2010
https://www.zerohedge.com/health/35-billion-has-flowed-us-taxpayers-world-health-organization-2010
Posted by: JC | Apr 15 2020 23:56 utc | 75
Trailer Trash 64
Important info about Dr. Fauci.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 16 2020 0:02 utc | 76
@ Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 15 2020 23:50 utc | 79
Yes, in revolutionary times, violence is not only justifiable – it is inevitable.
Even ardent anti-communist stooge Solzhenystin admitted that the Bolsheviks “took the Russian power from the ground”. Which was a half-truth: yes, the Bolsheviks would’ve never be able to take power in Russia if the empire was still at its apex – but they also made the conscious decision that Russia would not disappear when the decadent imperial forces made everything possible to permenently destroy it.
When something’s over, it is over. The only decision humanity has on its hands in these situations if if it will fall upwards or downwards.
Quick question: I recall someone posting about the bankruptcy and bailout of the NYT by some very wealthy figures. I cannot find decent info on this …. if anyone has a link I would appreciate it.
Posted by: Chevrus | Apr 16 2020 0:15 utc | 78
Isn’t it marvelous how quickly it’s all unravelling? Our lives, our dreams, our certainties, such as they were. All gone now, as we huddle under our beds awaiting the Corona Man to come coughing.
And the different governments responses? So quick and so similar, almost as if a template was on a shelf just waiting for a nudge.
While it’s pointless denying that something is happening out there, it’s also hard to ignore the feeling that so much of it is manufactured and unnecessary.
Eventually we’ll emerge into the light of day, wary and distrusting if not hungry and unemployed. And then what?
Two points to consider among all the others: The Greenland ice shelf is melting, and the world is awash in weapons.
Posted by: Hal Duell | Apr 16 2020 0:36 utc | 79
An interesting twitter thread.
Dmitry Polyanskiy First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia Flag of Russia to the UN.
https://twitter.com/Dpol_un/status/1250495480087355392
Dmitry Polyanskiy
@Dpol_un
1/5 Maria #Zakharova: 74 Russian secondary school students had arrived in the US under the Secondary School Student Program, supervised by the
@StateDept
. Now the programme is being suspended due to the pandemic. The host party does not bear any responsibility for the children..
2/5 …and has not even provided the lists and information about their whereabouts. Russian MFA was not informed of any programmes that involve sending our students to the US.Their implementation was not coordinated with us, it happened behind the backs of the Russian authorities
3/5 Back in 2014, Russia was forced to withdraw from the FLEX school exchange programme supervised by the Department of State. This was due to the inability of the organisers to guarantee the safe return of Russian children home. We had to stop such events, but Washington…
4/5 ..did not calm down and began to act in secret. The critical situation has brought this scam to light. We are currently seeking comprehensive information about our schoolchildren. We also demanded an explanation as to why the Americans took them from Russia.
5/5 Implementation of any projects that involve sending minor Russian citizens abroad without proper coordination with the Russian competent authorities is unacceptable. All responsibility for the consequences of such fraud lies entirely with those who took the children there
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 16 2020 0:38 utc | 80
As far as I know, based on experiences I have had or behaviours I have witnessed in others, the terms sociopath & psychopath which many use interchangeably, are labels we attach to two distinct groups of people.
The first group, who are the types most often found in the politics, snakes & ladders mazes are people totally focused on becoming the most powerful in their particular pond.
No method is verboten because no one counts apart from themselves. IMO this is a learned behaviour one which it may be possible to treat, although it wouldn’t be very long before these types developed ways & means to manipulate the treatment system to their personal advantage. I have a friend who worked as an educational psychologist for many years who told me that back in the 1970’s when he commenced his career, the accepted way of treating such personalities was to encourage them to go into business as an allegedly ‘constructive’ outlet for their type. By the 80’s he was having a lot of doubt about that practice and he eschewed it entirely by the early 90’s. Not because it didn’t work, it most certainly did, be he had decided that the cost to the rest of us was too high so explored other interventions which were less successful but also less damaging.
Business and politics that is where we will find the classic middle class type who has suffered dehumanising experiences that cause him/her to believe survival is dependent on investing all effort into oneself, regarding everything else as disposable or food for power.
I’ve come to believe that some sort of vicious cycle has been triggered in many societies so that the existence of such types, the preponderance of them in many environments has caused even more to be created. Politicians or business-people who have no interest in how their actions impact negatively on others are creating more families where children are forced to experience suffering of a type which leads them to be dehumanised & the problem grows.
An intervention is required to break this cycle.
The other class of dangerous human I reckon is the result of the relatively random distribution in human populations of types who have an ability to hurt & kill others that springs from what some called the ‘warrior gene’. Myself I doubt that the cause is that simple. For my money the randomness of this type would suggest that the birth of this personality is the result of more than one genetic source and possibly as with the political business type, also a result of some type of epigenetic action. Perhaps experiences of a parent, particularly the mother esp during pregnancy have affected the behaviour of the child.
It has always seemed to me that this type of sociopath is not susceptible to any treatment, their behaviour is just too hardwired. On the other hand killing them would be unjust since they have made no conscious choice to kill, the act was inevitable from the day they were born.
As others have commented setting about taking the lives of sociopaths for want of a better term, will only succeed in providing a training ground & a raison d’etre for other sociopaths.
Many people believe that punishment is an essential part of a justice system because without it, everyone would behave as they do, maybe, but I doubt that as any normal human who has taken a life or even done something which has seriously damaged another, even when it appeared to be justifiable at the time, knows that the worst punishment is that which we give ourselves.
The most important issue is preventing the creation of sociopaths, succeed at that, break the cycle in a way which doesn’t cause more to be developed would seem to me to be the most efficacious solution. We cannot go back in time to undo the damage such types bring about, but we can probably take actions now which prevent destruction in the future.
The first move would be to halt dog eat dog capitalism, reverence & respect for the wealthy who got where they are today by committing disgusting acts legal and/or illegal against their fellow humans. Obliterate the motivation as we obliterate the means – otherwise as long as the motivation exists some will keep probing the system for flaws until they find the means.
sorry bout the typos I have missed & the grammar errors but I’ve spent too long on this already.
Posted by: A User | Apr 16 2020 0:55 utc | 81
The ancient Athenian system of choosing representatives and most officials by lot from the whole citizen body limited the power of psychopaths. The very highest officials, the generals, were elected, but, even there, the power of a single general was limited by the fact that he was only one of ten generals.
You just have to read Plato or Pseudo-Xenophon to see how deeply the Athenian elite resented the democratic system.
Posted by: lysias | Apr 16 2020 1:05 utc | 82
I’m waiting for the “Orange Banana”, “Orange Tulip”, “Purple Toaster”, “Pink Toilet”, “Azure Tomato” and other popular bot names to show up (or is that so 6 months ago).
We’ve seen these shit-storms before (Skripal, etc), and it will pass.
Keep up the good work, B (though I disagree it’s not a manipulated virus).
Posted by: daffyDuct | Apr 16 2020 1:07 utc | 83
teatree | Apr 15 2020 22:57 utc | 71
Pardon me, but how do you know what I am or am not familiar with?
Do you have some sort of insight into russia, something specific, like maybe living there?
Thanks, but I will form my own educated opinions!
Posted by: David F | Apr 16 2020 1:26 utc | 84
-Not that it matters, but, I see K. Harris being trotted out on CNN. Possibly a Biden/Harris ticket? BARF!!!
Posted by: ben | Apr 16 2020 1:49 utc | 85
karlof1 @76; Thanks for the Kaiser link. The s### is about to hit the fan..And we thought things couldn’t get much worse..
Posted by: ben | Apr 16 2020 1:55 utc | 86
“Governor Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday, using a mix of taxpayer money and charitable contributions to give 150,000 adults $500 each during the coronavirus outbreak.”
Gavin Newsom now become a potential presidential materials.
Coronavirus: California to pay $500 each to 150,000 undocumented immigrants
https://www.today.ng/news/world/coronavirus-california-pay-500-150000-undocumented-immigrants-292504
Posted by: JC | Apr 16 2020 1:55 utc | 87
Fauci Hoax?
https://journal-neo.org/2020/04/15/the-remarkable-doctor-a-fauci/
Posted by: IronForge | Apr 16 2020 2:04 utc | 88
@ A User who wrote
”
The first move would be to halt dog eat dog capitalism, reverence & respect for the wealthy who got where they are today by committing disgusting acts legal and/or illegal against their fellow humans. Obliterate the motivation as we obliterate the means – otherwise as long as the motivation exists some will keep probing the system for flaws until they find the means.
”
I agree, thanks.
As I continue to push here in other comments, making finance a public utility would remove the means of finance as a social end rather than as a personal and social fulfillment tool. Without the means of private finance there is only the motivation to accumulate which I agree, needs to be stopped and ill gotten gains returned.
I think that the China approach of government ownership of all land but limited term lease arrangements for business and personal use is good.
Ongoing inheritance is another factor in maintaining an oligarchy that I think should be eliminated or seriously constrained.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 16 2020 2:16 utc | 89
The psychiatric profession is a racket. Family and society aren’t.
Societies and families however can get pretty dysfunctional. The proffering of solutions is a necessary hazard :people are attracted to finality, to utopias which demand compliance. Thanks to Karlof1 for his intelligent ruminations. (And I do love Tracy and Max’s “money power”, a very apropos concept). But I wonder just how “collectivity compliant” the American people are. I’ll take Pam Ho’s advice and not mention the word socialism, but can people who are trained to be instinctively adversarial, who take their exceptionalism personally, who are atomised yet vulnerable to group-think, who are raised and entertained on the most primitive Manichean values, be converted to think collectively? Some basic considerations are in order.
How about “humanity has no exceptionals”?
Karlof1 also mentioned the old, U. S. draft-based civilian military,and immediately F. Scott Peck(A
Road Less Travelled, People of the Lie) came to my mind.
F. Scott Peck was a military psychiatrist, a Catholic convert, a seeker of truth and peace and a fervent believer in the benefits of a civilian military, draft-based. Many social ills originate from that decision to change to a volunteer army. Public oversight for instance.
And the public of all nations with armies should be asking their governments why they have bioweapons laboratories.
Posted by: Australian lady | Apr 16 2020 2:19 utc | 90
MH17 was the tool to separate EU and the US west from Russia. Covid-19 is the tool to separate the US west from China. Majority of people in the west will believe the anti China – China dunnit crap that is being pumped out by the US and all MSN.
Reuters running an article on Iran speed boats harassing US coast guard vessels When they were innocently conducting helicopter integration exercises. I guess Iran moved its country to close to the US.
Trump regime says it wants to have discussions with Iraq in June about moving out. I guess that means Trump will be making his move on Persian gulf oil before June.
Whatever is coming this covid bullshit is just the beginning – a planned move setting the stage for what is to come.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 16 2020 2:31 utc | 91
Australian lady
Your post reminded me for whatever reason of something I saw on television quite a few years back.
Segment of the show was interviewing people who were “expressing their individually”. Expressing individuality was something of a fad at the time.
They all wore tatt’s and body piercings and all looked the same. From what I could make of it they had to look up what to do to express “individuality” and copied what others did.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 16 2020 2:41 utc | 92
Zerohedge was un-twittered for writing the same article that Fox News just wrote. The CCP has been lying since day one. Where are the disappeared doctors? Those who believe the CCP are naive, at best.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/fox-news-reports-coronavirus-originated-wuhan-lab
Posted by: Don Wills | Apr 16 2020 2:45 utc | 93
>> Posted by: Walter | Apr 15 2020 23:03 utc | 72
Interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: oglalla | Apr 16 2020 2:52 utc | 94
I have written here before about my opinion of the Western bio-chemical mental health paradigm.
That bio-chemical paradigm was created in the early 1950’s and Big Pharma was born. Fix any mental health problem with a pill paradigm was created and continues to be operative today. I wrote operative but I didn’t write functionally operative, which I don’t believe it is.
As a person who is 6-9 months out from healing themselves from a traumatic brain injury I feel compelled to cry out that a much more sensible mental health paradigm exists based on more of a bio-electric paradigm. And further there are a host of what are called neuromodulation tools available that available to all to tune there own bio-electric harmonics.
Go check out my moniker linked web site for more information. Humanity needs to take back ALL health care from the for profit model and demand that scientific advances are incorporated into the ongoing understanding, analysis and provision of health care.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 16 2020 3:10 utc | 95
A lady @ 94 said;”The psychiatric profession is a racket. Family and society aren’t.”
Take that to the bank. I’ve often thought that a degree in Psychology or Psychiatry is a licence to steal. They’re performing a function any good friend could perform by listening and giving an opinion. Unless, you’re in to semantics..
Posted by: ben | Apr 16 2020 3:11 utc | 96
@ psycho
>> As a person who is 6-9 months out from healing themselves from a traumatic brain injury
Because I remember u mentioning this a while (years?) ago, gotta say I’m a little disappointed you’re not completely well!
How do you track progress on something like this? How do you know when you’re done?
I *glanced* at your website and don’t see a FAQ or, short of emailing you, a way to submit questions/comments.
Onecomment so far: why not create a video demonstrating the breathing exercises you mention? And any equipment you use? And your personal case (injury, doctor-recommended treatments you rejected and why, gains from self-healing)?
Posted by: oglalla | Apr 16 2020 3:27 utc | 97
@ oglalla | Apr 16 2020 3:27 utc | 101 who asked
”
How do you track progress on something like this? How do you know when you’re done?
”
Tracking progress was a bitch at times but you know that you are done when you can truthfully say you are not experiencing symptoms or feel that your interaction with others comes from a place of hurt…..can you imagine how wonderful I feel?
My healing took the heavy lifting tools of neuromodulation (Qeeg?Zscore/sLoreta/operant conditioning) where you get a head cap with 20 leads put on your head and mapping is then made of your rhythms in relation to “normative”. Sessions repeat with the head cap wiring, associated operant conditioning relative to “power or coherence” issues. Where most folks heal with this therapy by 40 sessions, I went over 100 and we combined other neuromodulation therapies into the sessions as well…..I am worth every penny, especially now that I have been successful.
I am very pleased with the results of my persistence and see the healing potential with the tools I used for others.
I have written before about details of my healing path that include ongoing inversion table use, half/hour of specific daily exercises, use of photobiomodulation tool )medlight 630pro) for pain management, etc.
I recently lent my spare light unit to a roofer that is working for me but I had told him I paid $175 for each unit and they are now selling for $299/ea. and he barked at that price increase, which I don’t blame him for.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 16 2020 4:02 utc | 98
Watch this extreemly brutal angry racist attacked….
The White Australian Woman yelled “you fucking immigrant” multiple times at the Chinese woman as she dragged her to the floor before hitting her.
“When Chinese make some racist comment or be violent, there would be like Hongkongers, US people, australians, etc, saying chinese bad and more. But when a chinese is attacked, nobody care. We live under an amazing Anti-China propaganda that makes chinese always the bad people.”
https://twitter.com/steelmuslim/status/1250577705453547520
Posted by: JC | Apr 16 2020 4:09 utc | 99
I see you’re busy spreading BigLies. Please, jump out of your tree onto your head. Thanks.
What a “mature” way to claim your ignorance, karlof1@76.
Or do you claim that the latest pension reform was for the benefit of Russian people? Really? How?
Or do you claim that the recent buy out of Sberbank’s shares from the Central bank of Russia (how can you buy something that belongs to you and why is this foreign entity – the Central bank “of Russia” – functioning in Russia, anyway?) while saying at the same time that there is no money to pay beyond low wage salaries to doctors is beneficial to Russia?
Or that the educational reform that destroyed the last rumnants of the famous Russian educational system is not an evil thing to do?
Unless you wish for Russia’s demise, enlighten me what the “BigLies” are.
Posted by: teatree | Apr 16 2020 4:17 utc | 100