@1 nothing says Americans should not start producing own oil and gas from America.. Oil is all over the nation.. and if Americans need to feed the oil and gas Americans need they can produce it in America.
Americans should insist that the USA make importing gas or oil from, or exporting any gas and oil produced in American on American soil anywhere into or out of the America a criminal offense and remove from all locations any requirement that an America lil producer has to get a license to produce. In less than a year, Americans will show the USA just how to produce oil and gas from Americans need .
Same with farming, Americans should insist that the USA stop paying American farmers not to produce food stuffs on their farms. and make import or export to/from America of food stuffs illegal. within a growing season Americans will be feeding themselves.
And with copyright and patents, Americans should insist that the USA remove its laws that create monopolies (patents and copyrights and government contracts) , because these monopolies are anti competitive, within months the big corporations will be out of business and little company Americans will be producing better products than any giant ever made.
And with drugs and pharmaceuticals, Americans should insist that the prohibition on, and laws that regulate D&Ps be removed, leave the policing to tort law, so that there is no profit in any D or P that is not earned by competition.
Americans should insist that the USA act as a government and perform its duties as a government, instead of privatizing or contracting out for services, products, and needs that are duties to be perform by the USA. If the USA needs it, the USA should hire the employees, and build the factory to make it.
In my opinion this would return America to Americans, and make the bill of rights the guardian of human rights it was designed to be.

Posted by: snake | Apr 26 2020 15:28 utc | 4

I’ve been looking into data released in daily statements by government (in this example the Ontario, Canada provincial government) and I’ve noticed that their ‘change from previous report’ data which is stated as a % increase. This % does not seem to take into account ‘resolved’ cases and ‘deceased’ cases, simple taking the new positive cases and dividing by the total cases.
Isn’t the value in seeing the % increase vs. in currently active cases?
New cases / (Total cases – resolved cases – deceased cases)
In the Ontario data if you calculate the way I’m suggesting above it changes their stated 3.1% increase to a 7.8% increase.
https://www.ontario.ca/page/2019-novel-coronavirus#section-0
When you include cases where three weeks have passed and the person is ‘better’ aren’t you deliberately misrepresenting how infectious COVID-19 really is? I mean people that are no longer infectious or dead aren’t actively spreading the virus anymore so why include them in the calculation?

Posted by: WG | Apr 26 2020 15:41 utc | 6

It may be useful for readers to remember that it was already policy in China to be moving up the “value added chain” as part of ‘Made in China 2025’. It was always the intention of this project to move lower levels of the value added chain out of China and into the economies of the “Belt and Road Initiative” participants. This helps those participants become larger consumers of China’s exports, and raises living standards across the B&RI in a sustainable and continuous fashion. Final assembly of products tends to be relatively low skill and low on the value added chain, and so long as the components, sub-assemblies, and materials are coming from China then it is in their expressed interest to move those parts of the process elsewhere… Vietnam, for instance.
In other words, American businesses sourcing finished products from Vietnam rather than directly from China is precisely in line with China’s intentions. The apparent switch to sourcing from countries other than China is not nearly so significant an issue for China as some Sinophobes would like to imagine.

Posted by: William Gruff | Apr 26 2020 16:08 utc | 8

Here’s the reality: it doesn’t even have USD 4 billion to absorb Embraer: VK @ 6,, <===Americans don't need so much money, if they are not dealing with don't farm don't compete (because of monopoly laws such as patents, copyrights, etc) and don't work unless you have a license.. laws. Since 1949 . we have been dealing with these don'ts. its time to empower Americans to do their thing again.

Posted by: snake | Apr 26 2020 16:27 utc | 10

“Russia Sends Flowers to Still-Absent Kim Jong Un While U.S. and South Korea Hold Air Drills”
link

Posted by: arby | Apr 26 2020 16:42 utc | 12

@vk #6
Embraer was always about maintaining monopsony in airplane production.
Now that air travel in general seems due to a long, profitless period – much less clear that the Embraer acquisition is worth it.

Posted by: c1ue | Apr 26 2020 16:50 utc | 14

vk @6
A quibble: NN Taleb has been unequivocal about this – COVID-19 is NOT a Black Swan. Have a look at his tweets on this topic from Mar 30 or the youtube video “Nassim Taleb Says ‘White Swan’ Coronavirus Pandemic Was Preventable.”

Posted by: spudski | Apr 26 2020 16:57 utc | 16

RE: Jackrabbit | Apr 26 2020 16:18 utc | 9
“The lock-downs (not “shutdown”) were done as to prevent the overwhelming of the healthcare system.
It’s deceptive to use the success of the lock-downs to argue against lock-doTHe wns.”
The US came in with shutdowns well after the point where the hospitals should have been overwhelmed, according to intial projections. But it isn’t happening. I find it rather amazing that there is essentially no reporting on the census in US hospitals.
One story in Boston says the numbers are tracked. LOL since when does the US not track data, especially something so simple to track? It is not being reported because the numbers don’t conform to the narrative.
I did find one story that documents the fact that even in NY, the system is NOT overwhelmed. Officials had estimated that 140,000 hospital beds might be needed to treat coronavirus patients. Only about 18,500 were in use by week’s end.
Let me restate that, 140,000 predicted and only 18,500 beds in use in NYC, the epicenter of COVID in the US. Yes, the lockdown did flatten the curve . . . but the shutdown did not happen early enough, especially in NYC, to lead to this discrepancy in the data. COVID-19 has not turned out to be nearly as lethal as initially predicted. The deaths that are occurring all mostly involve comorbidity.

Posted by: Perimetr | Apr 26 2020 17:17 utc | 18

As Pompeo chides the leaders of Hong Kong for not abiding with “universal values of freedom of expression, association”, we learn how these values apply in Iraq:
“Washington blatantly dictated its demands to the Iraqi officials: to rescind all signed agreements with China, disband the PMF by fragmenting its brigades, and integrate these into the existing security apparatus (Ministry of Defence and Interior Ministry). The US wanted its harsh sanctions to be applied on Iran … Finally, Washington wanted the Iraqi parliament to overturn its previous decision to withdraw US forces from the country…”
https://ejmagnier.com/2020/04/25/iraq-facing-a-great-us-threat-china-al-hashd-and-iran-out-or-else-1-2/
Rescind all signed agreements with China – that’s a new one.

Posted by: jayc | Apr 26 2020 18:26 utc | 20

The king donkey rear has no idea what Marxism is, despite all of its efforts to study the articles in Wikipedia on the subject to improve its performance for its employer, David Brock. It’s obvious adherence to marching orders from the DemocRat party to demonize China are not sufficiently subtle for this forum, however.

Posted by: William Gruff | Apr 26 2020 18:51 utc | 22

Not really news, but good information nuggets about the Second Cold War front:
China boosts oil imports from Russia, while slashing purchases from Saudi Arabia
China no longer the world’s garbage dump as it plans to cut waste imports to zero this year

Posted by: vk | Apr 26 2020 19:59 utc | 24

Snake nbr 4:
What a simplified world view, I hope you never have children, it would be a waste.

Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Apr 26 2020 20:11 utc | 26

JC | Apr 26 2020 15:10 utc | 2
With the oil industry having to shut down a large part of itself – probably in a few weeks, not months, I think that SA is going to be very vulnerable. I saw a tweet somewhere mentioning that they had 800 dissidents/executions, either this year (since january) or in a whole year (12 months). I can’t be more explicit as I don’t remember which is the correct time. Big amount anyway. Plus now Mecca is shut. Plus a war. They are going to need an income renewal fairly soon.
So it makes sense for the Chinese to make sure of their supply lines.
The US army has sent the “elite” units of the SDF to guard the oil fields in the North-east of Syria, and it has made a lot of unreasonable demands on the New Iraqi PM. (To screw up Iran as well). War as usual for the US?

Posted by: Stonebird | Apr 26 2020 20:40 utc | 28

Stonebird 31: “Someone blundered?”
Perhaps Sputnik is trolling westerners, fishing to see if slimy outfits like Washington Bezos Post would publish a moronically gleeful article reveling in Russia’s hardships without even checking a ship tracking site to verify it.

Posted by: William Gruff | Apr 26 2020 20:54 utc | 30

Thanks for posting, blues @ 34. What rules did Howie violate?

Posted by: juliania | Apr 26 2020 21:40 utc | 32

Stonebird and William Gruff
I’ve been tracking her since Singapore. She is a very important ship to the Russians and Germans. Basically she has to get to the Baltic at all costs. Without her NordStream 2 can’t be completed and the Germans really need it with their move from nuclear/coal power to gas. The Russian gas will be much cheaper via that pipeline as opposed to trekking across eastern Europe paying transit charges on the way. Hence those Eastern Europe countries doing everything the can, with US help, to stop it. Mind you with fracking going down the tubes the US won’t have any LPG to sell the EU anyway. Best laid plans and all that.
Back to the AC, down the Pacific and onto Sri Lanka she had the Russian cruiser Admiral Vinogradov as escort. The Russians must have decided the Suez route was too risky so sent her the long way round the Cape of Good Hope. At Sri Lanka she picked up a Russian frigate Yaroslav Mudrii (out of the Red Sea)as escort (AIS destination Maputu Mozambique). Then at Capetown she met up with a Russian Slava class cruiser. The Russians are clearly very concerned. I would speculate that she also has a Russian attack submarine under her. But we don’t know if she has one or two escorts now as naval ships don’t activate their AIS transponders often.
Since then she has chugged up the coast of Africa (AIS destination Las Palmas) at a steady 8 knts. Once past Las Palmas her AIS destination changed to Port Said but she went straight past the entrance to the Med and next AIS changed to Aberdeen! Then it changed to Nakhodka in the Pacific. Meanwhile whilst traveling up the Portuguese she didn’t join the northbound line of ships, she trekked well out of the way about 50 miles offshore. She is now in the regulation northbound Channel stream, next to the French coast.
I am hoping to find out if she does indeed have a cruiser/frigate with her by the normal Royal Navy ‘defend the UK’ action to rush out and escort them evil Ruskie ships. Then we get photos in the Daily Mail. Failing that the Dutch Navy usually gets some good pictures. Unfortunately she is passing through the Straits of Dover in the dark.
I suspect she will end up in Kaliningrad or St Petersberg. She is certainly in no hurry. Then start pipe laying, after the crew has had a break (travelling since Feb 9th), in June.

Posted by: JohninMK | Apr 26 2020 21:58 utc | 34

blues #34

You catching on yet?

I notice that the alt left and progressive youtubers are still frantically talking about Biden, Bernie and Trump and busy interviewing people like Nina Turner and so busy talking about the election in 2024! All that oxygen for the losers – the 1% and no talking about who is the third party President running NOW for the 99%. Who are the new people defying the 2 party lockdown?? Interview them??? NAH. Keep on looking backwards, No one walking forwards.
Jimmy Dore, Useful Idiots, Rational National, etc etc…. NOT ONE WORD to support the changemaker in THIS 2020 election. WTF

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 26 2020 22:51 utc | 36

b re Yemen link at beginning. NFG. not configured.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 26 2020 23:04 utc | 38

Definately an engineered virus is a paraphrase of what the linked article is about and more. The item’s peppered with links to support its content. Here’s the main premise:
“The key fact that the Covid-19 virus is a laboratory product and therefore man-made was authoritatively established by French Prof. Luc Montagnier who recently disclosed the results of his laboratory analysis of the virus genome. He found it to be laced with spliced-in HIV sequences, which effectively excludes the possibility of its being the product of a natural process. (Prof. Montaigner put it extremely delicately: ‘in fact, part of the virus, not the whole, has been manipulated’.) Was it manipulated by bats in some Chinese caves? Prof. Montaigner, incidentally, is eminently qualified to speak on the subject as he was in 2008 a recipient of the Nobel Prize in medicine for identifying the HIV virus. The fact that as soon as he let the cat out of the bag he became subjected to harsh denunciation (here and here) by all the right circles lends powerful support to the credibility of his findings.”
Very few arguments have been posted saying the virus is manmade. Perhaps b has already investigated the same sources but arrived at a different conclusion, although most of us have yet to say with 100% certainty natural or man made.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 26 2020 23:26 utc | 40

@32 Or perhaps referring to Aberdeen as a destination is an example of Russian humour?

Posted by: dh | Apr 26 2020 23:38 utc | 42

Maybe Marx was Right Afterall is the title of this short think piece. There’s theory and there’s practice. I also don’t think Marx contemplated a planet with 8 Billion people, with more always coming onboard.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 26 2020 23:50 utc | 44

to blues 26/04 21:26 as I read the beginning of your post, I thought oh great, at last a real candidate. Then I came to the bitter end, if we may so call it. Business as usual. Until the money gets out of politics, there will be no change – so there will be no change. Think of it: the Three Bs – Buffy, Bezos and Billious, have amongst them nearly One Trillion Dollars. To say that murkan voters are ant people is to exaggerate their size. Meanwhile – many of the rabid Dump haters are lining behind – Biden???!!!!!*&^%$#@ I’ll just echo Uncle Tungsten WTF???? Murkans truly are stupid….. masochists – ??? Remember Dennis Kuchinich? Had some great ideas and some hands on successes. Go buried by the ‘Bomber Dims machine. It happens again and again.
Do they like being fucked?
to Johnin MK thanks for the update on Academic Chersky. That particular tinderbox has been out of the news lately.

Posted by: Miss Lacy | Apr 26 2020 23:51 utc | 46

karlof1
b banned links to the Montagnier stuff.
I looked into it at the time when commenters were linking to that stuff. The Genome work was done by another person
and posted to research gate which is simply a social media site for researchers rather than a place where peer reviewed papers are published.
He was pushing the HIV bullshit because HIV attacks T cells. The MERS coronavirus does the same though so no need to place a section of HIV in a coronavirus as it already has that capability.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 26 2020 23:58 utc | 48

I had posted this comment at the ‘coronavirus and smoking’ thread, but it looks like it may be a major advance on understanding COVID-19 and how it affects the body so will post it here as well.
http://www.en.usz.ch/media/press-releases/pages/covid-19-endotheliitis.aspx

Varga has been able to use an electron microscope to verify for the first time that SARS-CoV-2 is present and causes cell necrosis in endothelial tissue.
Endothelial tissue is a cell layer that acts as a protective shield in blood vessels and regulates and balances out various processes in the microvessels. The disruption of this regulatory process can, for example, cause circulatory disorders in organs and body tissue, resulting in cellular necrosis and thus to the death of these organs or tissue…
… This means that the virus not only triggers the inflammation of the lungs, which then causes further complications, but is also directly responsible for systemic endotheliitis, an inflammation of all endothelial tissue in the body which affects all vessel beds – in heart, brain, lung and renal vessels as well as vessels in the intestinal tract….
…The endothelial tissue of younger patients is usually capable of coping well with the attacks launched by the virus. The situation is different for patients suffering from hypertension, diabetes, heart failure or coronary heart diseases, all of which have one thing in common – their endothelial function is markedly impaired. If patients such as these become infected with SARS-COV-2, they will be particularly at risk, as their already weakened endothelial function will diminish even further, especially during the phase in which the virus reproduces the most.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 27 2020 0:05 utc | 50

thanks b… i appreciate being able to read interesting articles like this one you posted above from nejm- Asymptomatic Transmission, the Achilles’ Heel of Current Strategies to Control Covid-19
bevin.. sundays are usually slower days..
i agree with oglalla.. being civil goes a long ways… it is hard when others are pushing our buttons, i’ll admit!!

Posted by: james | Apr 27 2020 0:25 utc | 52

Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation (UBI) is an interesting idea.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4783265/
It was actually quite a thing in the 1940’s and 1950’s for diseases like septicemia, pneumonia, tuberculosis, arthritis, asthma and even poliomyelitis.
Low and mild doses of UV kill microorganisms by damaging the DNA, while any DNA damage in host cells can be rapidly repaired by DNA repair enzymes.
Having done a bit of reading on porphyrins of late and seeing a NY doctor mentioning that covid-19 patients have hypoxia w/o pneumonia and good lung function got me thinking. This may be due to the porphyrin heme is unable to transport oxygen , perhaps because the virus somehow has displaced iron from the porphyrin (heme) , and makes me wonder if UV light can help in this regard .
Porphyrins are highly pigmented (heme gives blood its red color) fluorescent molecules . Strong pigments are always efficient energy absorbers, and if they are also fluorescent like porphyrins, they are also good energy transmitters.
Porphyrins are more efficient energy transmitters than any other of life’s components. In technical terms, their ionization potential is low, and their electron affinity high. They are therefore capable of transmitting large amounts of energy rapidly in small steps, one low-energy electron at a time. They can even transmit energy electronically from oxygen to other molecules, instead of dissipating that energy as heat and burning up. That’s why breathing is possible.
The word porphyrin is derived from the Greek porphura meaning purple. The pandemic exercise last year was named Crimson Contagion. Crimson is a strong, red color, inclining to purple like heme. Coincidence?
Could it be that whatever is causing COVID-19 , and we dont know for sure because kochs postulate was not fulfilled on the virus China said they isolated, that it is infecting or altering a porphyrin like heme?
Completely out of my depth here of course. Food for thought though.

Posted by: Pft | Apr 27 2020 0:40 utc | 54

Posted by: Perimetr | Apr 26 2020 15:54 utc | 7
It is a must watch. Part 2 got a bit “political” /g
Btw, this NYC overrun news is news to this Brooklynite. The nearest hospital, 10 minutes away, is tranquil on the outside and very little ambulance activity occurs. It is good to remember that NYC is the city where steel skyscrapers collapse on their own footprint and the steel rubble is dispatched post-haste to China. I would not be shocked if they were lying.
Dr. Erikson’s briefing also occasions the question as to “why did China quarentine healthy people? Why close an entire city?” if the medical practice to date (“since biblical times”) has been to isolate the sick?
Interesting to note that the narrative most of us dumbed-down get handed is ala films such as ‘Contagion’ wherein healthy too are indeed quarentined.
This is very interesting axis: CCP, WHO, CDC, Bill Gates Foundation, Hollywood, and what passes for journalism these days.

Posted by: concerned | Apr 27 2020 0:49 utc | 56

we all have to do what we have to do… i liked the quote arby left on another thread – never wrestle with a pig as you get dirty and the pig likes it!!!

Posted by: james | Apr 27 2020 1:22 utc | 58

@karlof1 #43
The problem with Luc Montagnier is that he’s possibly lost his shit.
This isn’t based on speculation – he published a paper which drove all the homeopath advocates into a tizzy, then most recently started talking about electromagnetic waves from DNA – which is possibly where the Iranian radio detectors for coronavirus came from.
What is certain is that he’s gone far, far afield and that none of his work from the last 2 decades is either notable or even possibly sane. The Nobel prize was for work done in the 80s and 90s…
I’d particularly note the irony of relying on a person who is known for his work in the 1990s – well before any modern gene-typing techniques either biological or computer – for analysis of how nCOV is engineered.
Has Montagnier ever engineered anything using CRISPR or older techniques?
If he hasn’t – then why again is he credible?

Posted by: c1ue | Apr 27 2020 1:45 utc | 60

@ Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 26 2020 23:50 utc | 48
According to Marx’s theory, the concept of (human) superpopulation is subjective by default. 600,000 in a city is nothing by industrial capitalist society, but is superpopulation for, e.g. a feudal society. 100 people can already be superpopulation for a hunter-gatherer society, but even for remote villages of out times is very few people.
Absolute superpopulation is very hard to happen in the real world because the ecosystem already regulates how much a given species can grow before it collapses.
The myth of superpopulation arose with the theory of Thomas Malthus, who analyzed the cycle of land prices and wage prices in medieval Europe. He theorized that humans grew on a faster rate than food production. Therefore, when human population surpassed a certain critical mass, wage prices dropped below subsistence levels, thus starving a large part of said population to death. This would generate a subpopulation, which would make land prices fall, rising wage prices again, thus initiating another process of human population growth and so on.
There is evidence of such cycles in medieval Europe (e.g. 11th-12th Centuries England). However, it is important to highlight that pre-modern societies didn’t see the world in terms of economic theory, but in natural terms (of politics between humans, and the relation of humans to the gods). It is very unlikely that macroeconomic data were never invented, let alone gathered, before the rise of capitalism. So we don’t have (and never will) reliable macroeconomic data for the likes of the Roman Empire, the Carolingian Empire, the Mongol Empire, Chinese Empire etc. etc. etc. Some procapitalist historians like to extrapolate data from merchant letters found in desert areas like Egypt, the Levant and the Samarkand (“Silk Route”) – but those are clearly fantastical extrapolations with an evident hidden agenda behind them (many of those “Economic Historians” are from outside the field of History, and end up getting a job in History Departments in universities and colleges; some of them are sponsored by interest groups).
It’s also important to have in mind that Malthus was an ardent conservative, who was still with the French Revolution (1789) fresh in his mind when he published his most famous works. The French Revolution, it is worth remembering, was triggered not by idealism, but by an epic famine that desolated France at the time (as we can infer by the historically high prices of bread), in a time capitalism really couldn’t feed everybody in absolute terms, and absolute scarcity was still a real threat. The event certainly traumatized Malthus, but that’s another story for another time.

Posted by: vk | Apr 27 2020 2:12 utc | 62

Disabuseer @ 58 said “How is this blog any more credible than ZH, except in the use of more flowery diplomatic language?”
Well the lack of drooling MAGA racists within the readership gives it a bit of a head start 🙂

Posted by: sad canuck | Apr 27 2020 3:29 utc | 64

karlof1 #43

Very few arguments have been posted saying the virus is manmade. Perhaps b has already investigated the same sources but arrived at a different conclusion, although most of us have yet to say with 100% certainty natural or man made.

There is a video of a Swedish epidemiologist (maybe over at SPRS?) where she is adamant that the genome appears to be badly hacked. Something to the effect that it is engineered with lots of mess littered about in the genome. If I can retrieve that I will post the link. But she certainly supported the ‘engineered’ hypothesis.
Time will tell.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 27 2020 4:02 utc | 66

james #65

we all have to do what we have to do… i liked the quote arby left on another thread – never wrestle with a pig as you get dirty and the pig likes it!!!

Caution feral animal eradication program.
How to deal with pigs.
Beats wresting with them any day.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 27 2020 4:49 utc | 68

As I didn’t get an answer to my question above @ 35, I would guess that Blues posted without really intending to elucidate – I’ve found more on the subject of the Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins, his run in with Twitter, at the following:
https://cafe-babylon.net/2020/04/18/demexit-greenenter/#more-16411
He apparently still has an account in his name, but I was confused by the link Blues posted as that seemed to suggest a different party from the Greens. Oh well, as things go, it’s only one more confusion on top of many.
Back to my garden.

Posted by: juliania | Apr 27 2020 5:28 utc | 70

Whitney Webb is doing a great job on revealing the malign antics of the security state and its scabrous minions:
look here at her twitter feed and she now is writing for TLAvagabond.
See also her interview on the Jimmy Dore Show.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 27 2020 6:59 utc | 72

The fact that so much outdoor work is going on (as I see with my own eyes in NJ) seems surprising given the generally depressed condition of the economy. I assume the “innocuous” parts are being funded with corporate bailout money.
Beyond that I get the sense that various actors are seizing the opportunity to barrel ahead with lots of what would normally be controversial projects, since at least for now almost all of the people, including those who up until a few weeks ago defined themselves as politically active, have abdicated all political thought and responsibility. That’s part of the general regression to an infantile state which I think many of these people, at least the ones without immediate financial or social worries, are enjoying.
One thing is crystal clear: For as long as people believe in and conform to the mass terror campaign it’s the absolute end of ALL politics, and the system’s fake democracy will proceed in a purely scripted manner. That’s probably part of the attraction lockdown holds for so many: Being tired of democratic responsibility and (with some justice, under US conditions) loathing the thought of even a modicum of political participation, people embrace the “escape from freedom” and the mass mindset which historically has been the best habitat for fascism, especially where felt by a middle class which feels itself to be plummeting fast economically.
How ironic that the lockdownists like to portray their submission as the exercise of “responsibility” when it’s the radical opposite, an abdication of public citizen responsibility. Just one of their many Orwellian inversions of language and thought.

Posted by: Russ | Apr 27 2020 7:26 utc | 74

The problem with Luc Montagnier is that he’s possibly lost his shit.
This isn’t based on speculation – he published a paper which drove all the homeopath advocates into a tizzy, then most recently started talking about electromagnetic waves from DNA – which is possibly where the Iranian radio detectors for coronavirus came from.
What is certain is that he’s gone far, far afield and that none of his work from the last 2 decades is either notable or even possibly sane. The Nobel prize was for work done in the 80s and 90s…
I’d particularly note the irony of relying on a person who is known for his work in the 1990s – well before any modern gene-typing techniques either biological or computer – for analysis of how nCOV is engineered.
Has Montagnier ever engineered anything using CRISPR or older techniques?
If he hasn’t – then why again is he credible?
Posted by: c1ue | Apr 27 2020 1:45 utc | 67

Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier inaccurately claims that the novel coronavirus is man-made and contains genetic material from HIV

Posted by: Avid Lurker | Apr 27 2020 9:11 utc | 76

blues #87

However, we are quickly learning how to deal with Cov19, and it is beginning to look less catastrophic, at least for most people.
Therefor, I suspect that the so-called ‘lock-down’ will soon be deemed excessively expensive in many respects. Hopefully it will be mostly rescinded soon.

Great news but will you quickly learn how to deal with the extraordinary powers now in the hands of the police under direction of the public health emergency bureaucrats?
For example the lockdown is not the end, it is the preliminary first move after which comes the mandatory quarantine or house arrest for all those people who came close to a known covid carrier. This is revealed by their smartphone being traced as ‘too close’ to the known carrier who is also being traced. So if an asymptomatic person (known to the health authorities) goes to a supermarket at the same time as you and passes you in the aisle: bingo you are then under house arrest for a fortnight or two. Thanks smart phone.
Considering approx 80% of people are asymptomatic and in the next six to twelve months will all likely contact the virus and not even know it then we have a large problem reliant on a test that is somewhere near the order of 50% false results.
Happy times ahead for all.
Rule number one: leave the smartphone at home.
Rule number two: wear a good size mask when out.
Rule number three: pay cash.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 27 2020 11:00 utc | 78

BM@70
Something like 80% of the HK judiciary is not HK Chinese. Basic Law, no change for 50 years etc. Judicial reform is high on the wish list of many who would like to eliminate colonial relics and their wigs from the government of HK.

Posted by: TDeL | Apr 27 2020 11:39 utc | 80

Here’s a good piece compiling more studies which reinforce the fact that outdoor transmission risks are negligible. That’s against the backdrop of the long established science on the health benefits of outdoor recreation, including and especially for the immune system.
Park closures never had one iota of scientific rationale and always went completely against all known science. At best such closures were driven by official panic and cover-your-ass motives. They never had any connection whatsoever to protecting public health. Even the rationale touted by some state regimes, that some park-goers weren’t observing the right amount of spacing, has no scientific basis since there’s no evidence that constant rigorous spacing is necessary outdoors.
By now all this is clear, and keeping such closures in place is no longer a mistake but a malign act which casts doubt on the entire motivation for all lockdown measures.
https://alethonews.com/2020/04/27/why-outside-air-is-safe-and-park-closures-should-end/

Posted by: Russ | Apr 27 2020 12:16 utc | 82

It’s time to buy a few Lockheed shares !
https://www.stripes.com/news/us-still-world-s-biggest-military-spender-as-global-expenditures-approach-2-trillion-1.627517
http://www.kxan36news.com/russia-entered-the-top-five-countries-with-highest-defense-spending
https://bnn-news.com/germany-spent-10-more-on-its-military-in-2019-212767

Posted by: Mina | Apr 27 2020 13:03 utc | 84

Japan authorizes its central bank to buy unlimited amounts of bonds:
Bank of Japan opens bond-buying flood gates

Posted by: vk | Apr 27 2020 13:30 utc | 86

to psychohistorian… I think you are correct. Certainly the virus lockdown has accelerated the crash especially in oil, but warning signs were in abundance in the fall of 2019. I will again highly recommend the website wallstreetonparade for details. The authors, to my mind, are on a par with our excellent B in their dedication and knowledge. The mechanics of our current crash have been analyzed by many, ej The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. It seems to me
that the cracks were there and the wall streeters gleefully applied the virus sledge hammer.

Posted by: Miss Lacy | Apr 27 2020 13:50 utc | 88

Allen @Apr27 13:33 No coverage of how Covid is a business model …
Yeah, the business of Empire:

The Empire Games Covid-19
Empire Games: CRISIS! as the New Bloodsport

Oh, and don’t miss this nasty “business”:

Covid-19 Trumped-up CRISIS! Allows Government-assisted Profiteering: Chloroquine vs. Remdesivir
‘Flatten the Curve’: A Prescription for Failure

<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
I provided the links above multiple times at moa weeks before the libertarians mob showed up to complain about the lockdowns. Most of the libertarian mob didn’t have anything to say about the stealth bailouts of Wall Street, Boeing, etc. They just want their “freedom” to be wage slaves restored – just as the doctor establishment ordered.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 27 2020 13:55 utc | 90

As to the Hòngkóng story, The South China Morning Post (an anloistic HK daily rag) telles us that the demonstrators are “democracy activists” and that the police denies “acting on the orders og the Hinese regime in Bêijing”. Likewise character assasinations against the Peaple’s Republic of China central authorities are ablase everywhere in Atlantisist media. No-one amongst these news sources and suchalike point out that the arrested activists’ ideal is to return to the Anglosphere, and whether they aim for as being colonies or plutocratic millionaire republics à la the US or richman’s playgrounds as Britain is for the Ciy of London, that info now still eludes us.

Posted by: Oū Sī / 區司/ Usman | Apr 27 2020 15:53 utc | 92

Pft@62
UVC light has been proposed as a means to sterilize indoor areas to prevent COVID-19 infections in crowded areas such as shops.
https://news.columbia.edu/ultraviolet-technology-virus-covid-19-UV-light
Interesting comment about crimson contegion. The attack on hemogloblin was reported a few weeks ago but has since disappeared. Do not know if it was true. Perhaps UVC in conjunction with ECMO which involves shunting blood outside the body and then back again may be a means to kill the virus, thus suppressing the disease progression.

Posted by: krollchem | Apr 27 2020 16:04 utc | 94

@ Russ 77
While I do enjoy reading your comments, Russ, I can’t help but detect a level of disgust with the lockdown. (/sarc)
It has only been a handful or so of weeks, sir, and soon the economy will be humming again. I already notice the freeways are filling up again and I even had to tap the breaks heading home the other day, the first time in quite a while.
Is this what you are lamenting? Or merely that parks are not open? (Although in my area sunbathers are indeed out in droves and the public parks (perhaps not the state and national ones) are getting more use than before, with the exception of organized sporting events.
But the fact remains that this has indeed annoyed many people, some for reasons such as from yourself and others because they want to work and fail to trust the warnings for the nature of the virus.
I can only say that the gov’t will not be allowed another dry run of quarantine lockdowns, presuming of course that covid-19 was nothing to worry about in the first place, without a different disease epidemic where one can draw back their curtains and see the dead in the street.
Indeed, “they” blew their wad on this one.
If it was an opportunity for them to further loot the public treasury, I see nothing out of the ordinary here. And your insistence that this is an excuse for the everyman to hide from the responsibility of liberty I think is an exaggeration. This apathy is nothing out of the ordinary in my view for us Americans.
And so I am not ready to admit that ceasing work for a few weeks and spending time with family, especially with the opportunity to assist a spouse who is taking on the role of schoolmaster for their children, is a poor use of time. I believe a collective breath given to one is useful where they are able to step outside the normal flow of anxiety from the average day in America where they consistently devote themselves to the slavish pursuit of money, position, power, and yet more comfort to stave off any threat to their general sense of wellbeing and where they are convinced of their own power to be able to indeed head off any struggle of life or faith that would blow its way into their lives.
You want them to get back to work. Why? So we can forget about the whole thing?
You think we are shutting down as citizens and forfeiting that which is most valuable. I am not ready to say this.
When my daughter was born, I took three months leave under FEMLA, all of which was paid using accrued sick time. It was a marvelous stint and I was busy assisting my wife who was recovering from a c-section and getting to know my daughter. The time also gave me room to think about my current job from a different perspective, that of being outside it, and where, upon returning to it, I decided to seek other employment elsewhere and where the whole experience of it endowed me with a sense of confidence where I was not only able to accept my role as interchangeable in any position at any job but also as free to leave if only given the proper time to think about my situation with a current employer.
In other words, my friend, you seem to view this downtime as an abdication of responsibility whereas the work of the spirit is often stunted during the hustle and bustle of the daily grind. This time could mean the opposite as it fills one up with a sense of responsibility for their own life.
But like I said above, we’ll be back to our desk jobs or our labor jobs soon and again under the thumb of those who equate time with money.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Apr 27 2020 16:32 utc | 96

@96 nemesis calling.. good ruminations my friend… lets hope you don’t catch trouble for saying all that!

Posted by: james | Apr 27 2020 16:45 utc | 98

Another excellent Alastair Crooke essay digging into the complexities of the situation using historical and current observations. My initial presumption that the pandemic was the needle piercing the bubble is akin to Crooke’s grain of sand in that it’s unleashed a cascade of broken complexities that impact other complexities within our very complex society, which led me at the outset to invoke Tainter’s hypothesis about the collapse of complex societies. IMO, the essay needs to be read slowly while enjoying some tea or coffee for there’s much within it to unpack. It also comes at a point in the crisis where the Outlaw US Empire is trying to blame China for the entire affair, unjustly of course, but we also see similar behavior from the past Crooke documents.
One ought to read today’s Global Times editorial and compare it with yesterday’s I linked upthread–softer in tone but equally full of resolve.
Much to contemplate, but at least the bouncer has done its work!

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 27 2020 17:04 utc | 100