One wonders how sick Boris was with the Coronavirus. Maybe Boris faked a bit for street cred.

The UK with its City of London Corporation is another power center for empire and Boris and his team are playing their part in support thereof.....when your god is finance, that fealty comes before health evidently

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 25 2020 19:09 utc | 1

"Manufacture a vaccine with Sanofi of France"
Well, Sanofi allegedly "of France", traitorous scum which has notoriously and publicly announced that its vaccine would be for the US first.
So, what is it now, Cummings. Did your masters in the US told you to order GSK to ally with Sanofi to save the US and let Britons die first, just like they did with Sanofi?

Posted by: Clueless Joe | May 25 2020 19:11 utc | 2

The Thick of It -now live...

Posted by: Pnyx | May 25 2020 19:17 utc | 3

jesus... thanks b... these politicians are pathological liars... boris acts like a deranged schizophrenic... they deserve everything they get.. the uk deserves much better..

thanks for your insights..

Posted by: james | May 25 2020 19:22 utc | 4

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/05/why-barnard-castle/comment-page-4/#comments

UPDATED Dominic Cummings specifically stated now in the press briefing that he had been eager to “get back to work to get vaccine deals through, move regulations aside” and that is why he drove to Barnard Castle to test his eyesight.

Now it may be entirely a coincidence that the place to which he chose to drive for his eyesight test happened to be the site of the major factory of GlaxoSmithKline. It may be an entire coincidence that two days later, on the very day Cummings actually started work back in Downing Street he has stated was “to get vaccine deals through”, GlaxoSmithKline announced an agreement to develop the vaccine.

Posted by: Blue Dotterel | May 25 2020 19:39 utc | 5

the increasing incompetence and corruption of Western political elites is setting the stage for a revolutionary figure. Not another sheepdog Bernie or hopeless hack Obama. But a real revolutionary, like Lenin or Robespierre, who wants to burn down the whole rotten structure and its' institutions and completely replace it. Historically, these types of changes are extremely destructive (both to the host nation and it's neighbours) I not saying this change will necessarily be overall good or bad. But people eventually get tired of constant, humiliating failure by own their leaders, especially when it is compared to other nations with different leaderships that see resounding triumphs. Once people lose faith in their government to govern successfully they will accept increasingly radical figures in hopes of success.

We've seen the US populous from Clinton to Bush to Obama to Trump, all of whom were sold as being radical departures from the predecessors. But in terms of policies I think it's undeniable that Obama was effectively the 3rd and 4th term of Bush and for all of his bombast Trump has basically been the 5th term. There is a huge pent up demand for change within the American zeitgeist that is not being catered to and there will be profound consequences for the US and Western political elite for refusing to serve or even acknowledge this. I've previously said that the US empire looks like the Soviet Union of the mid-1980s but I think you could also argue it's becoming more like Czarist Russia at the turn of the century or pre-revolutionary France, none of these comparison suggests this will ends well for the US.

Posted by: Kadath | May 25 2020 19:59 utc | 6

james @ 4

these politicians are pathological liars... boris acts like a deranged schizophrenic... they deserve everything they get..

james, they tend to die of old age, in the lap of luxury, with the best healthcare money can buy.

they don't deserve it.

Posted by: john | May 25 2020 20:09 utc | 7

This whole episode is to us man in the street plebs a storm in a Westminster teacup. We couldn't give a shit. We have seen reports of other figures in power doing similar things. It is just what they do, one rule for us and another for them. A bit like the implementation of the Law in the US, and the UK as well.

More interesting is WHY and why now? First and most important, is that Cummings is hated and I mean HATED by anyone in favour of Remain and that includes the civil service and most of the press. This is them all blowing up this situation into a huge fuss in an attempt to get him out of power. All else follows from that.

The sticks to beat up the Government were becoming weaker as the situation improves, albeit slowly. Attempts to beat up the Government on the Brexit negotiations no progress and approach of the end June deadline for negotiation timescale delay were getting no traction.

A new stick was needed to take the trades unions attempts to delay the slow trip back to normal out of the headlines. A couple of papers have apparently been working up the story for weeks. Cummings was that stick.

The protestors problem is both Boris's loyalty to his right hand man and the population's growing boredom with it. My instinct is that it will blow over and then the proverbial will really hit the fan. This is a very real 'if you attack the King you'd better kill him' situation. Cummings has already said that he is going to reorganise the structure of Government to make it fit for the 21st century, not the 19th century. He has the power to do it too whilst Boris with his huge majority and nearly 5 years to go in Parliament is invulnerable.

Cummings is clever, hard and tough, I suspect a lot of 'soft' people are going to get a lesson that will be more uncomfortable than it might have been. Especially as, to cope with the financial fallout of Covid-19, there are going to be some big cuts in Government, hopefully starting with the appalling performance administrators in our NHS.

The UK, like many others, is in a deep financial mess. We need someone with balls to get us out. My reading is that Cummings could be the man. No wonder so many hate him to their bones.

Posted by: JohninMK | May 25 2020 20:25 utc | 8

@ 7 john... good point, putting it that way! they don't deserve any of that! i was thinking of how they ought to be trashed instead..

Posted by: james | May 25 2020 20:26 utc | 9

siterep seasonality: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-virology-012420-022445

Posted by: e | May 25 2020 20:30 utc | 10

A very related corollary to this article by b posted at CN by a Dr. Marcello Ferrada de Noli about how the ptb's in Sweden are fudging the numbers.

Completely agree with john@7 above. And their heirs and assigns don't deserve it either.

Posted by: vinnieoh | May 25 2020 20:46 utc | 11

Kadath | May 25 2020 19:59 utc | 6

"We've seen the US populous from Clinton to Bush to Obama to Trump, all of whom were sold as being radical departures from the predecessors. But in terms of policies I think it's undeniable that Obama was effectively the 3rd and 4th term of Bush and for all of his bombast Trump has basically been the 5th term."

I think you could say that for most countries, the UK for instance had previous PMs Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron/Clegg, Cameron and May. While their rhetoric was different their applied policies were basically the same. To me this simply says that our democracies are false, a mirage, while the political class are effectively unimportant, mere window dressing, while our true Masters sit silent and hidden in the shadows, directing our lives as they desire in pursuit of their interests.

Peter

Posted by: p | May 25 2020 21:03 utc | 12

"The UK, like many others, is in a deep financial mess. We need someone with balls to get us out. My reading is that Cummings could be the man. No wonder so many hate him to their bones." JohninMK@8
Don't hold your breath. And don't think that Johnson is invulnerable either- that majority will mean nothing if, as his agenda suggests he will, he returns to the austerity plan of privatising and cutting benefits.
The crisis that is coming in the UK is of a very old fashioned kind: incomes are insufficient to meet the cost of necessities. People are dying of malnourishment and bad living conditions, unemployment is high and wages are low, those benefiting are a minority getting ever smaller. The number of desperate people is increasing.
As to Parliament, the removal of Corbyn will prove to have been a bad move for the ruling class. As long as he was there Labour acted as a safety valve for growing anger. Now with nothing in Parliament that could possibly work for the majority, the politics of protest, extra parliamentary action and a thorough rebuilding of the left and particularly of the Unions are at the top of the agenda.

Posted by: bevin | May 25 2020 21:11 utc | 13

JohninMK

Cummings is now getting the Corbyn treatment from the media and the London elite.

Cummings is a brexiteer, Corbyn a soft Brexiteer.

Cummings is a Keynesian, so was Corbyn.

These are the two greatest threats to the British Establishment, The City and the Banks.

They've got rid of Corbyn. Now they're after Cummings.

If they do it is centrist rule by mediocrities like Starmer or Hunt, doing The City's will. Neo-conservatism, neo-liberalism, and identity politics.

Posted by: johnf | May 25 2020 21:14 utc | 14

There's this too: https://tompride.wordpress.com/2020/05/25/dominic-cummings-sister-director-of-private-firm-winning-millions-in-nhs-contracts/

Here's a side effect of the Cummings saga: I live in a tourist hotspot on the south coast of England. It was quiet during lockdown, but then the papers predicted an end to lockdown, and it got a bit busier. Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson changed the message from "stay home" to "stay alert" ( Britain needs Lerts ), and there was an influx of visitors, though nowhere near as many as would be expected at this time of year. This weekend ( a holiday weekend ) was about as busty as normal. Today, after the government defence of Cummings, we were busier than ever - three times as many people as on Sunday. Lockdown has ended, because if Cummings can do as he pleases, everyone else can. The beaches are crowded, the narrow approaches are clogged, there is no "social distancing, no masks, people from towns and cities across England are mingling in an unrestrained way. Should make GSK's vaccine a real winner.

Posted by: Bindoner | May 25 2020 21:16 utc | 15

The US Navy Intelligence lanyard worn by Cummings was very revealing of his idiocy and egomania. He can be seen wearing the lanyard in one of the press gauntlets he had to run. This bad slip up was pointed out by one commenter at Craig Murray's blog who are always worth reading as they are integral to the main story.

Cummings is a Bannon clone in the UK only sharper and competent. He is hell bent on dismantling the UK establishment and if he survives this assault he will likely succeed.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 25 2020 21:30 utc | 16

I'm no friend of Boris or Cummings. But this whole thing stinks of Dem Resistance operations over the past 4 years. Moral bigheads reckoning they can set the rules on what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. This is entirely a Brexit revenge attack.

By all means though call out the UK on not testing as promised (the BBC radio stats program, More Or Less, has been pointing to the discrepancy between claimed tests and actual tests for about 4 weeks now).

I am very supportive of Craig Murray's writings - but he is surely being over imaginative here.

b? Any views of IFR or whether a significant part of the population can be resistant (that is not just asymptomatic, but it just passes them by unaffected).

It is time this topic was resolved with all the info coming out. Too many people just counting deaths or illnesses while ignoring the scale.

Posted by: Michael Droy | May 25 2020 21:46 utc | 17

Bevin @13 you seem to have somehow mixed up the future with the present, what you describe is not what the UK is today.

Given the unprecedented outflow of Government funds due to Covid-19 support of society something is going to have to happen to fund it, either borrowing in the markets or taxing it back or letting hyperinflation rip. This would apply regardless of who was in power.

Not only is money being spent but tax revenues are being crushed. All of them. At the national level Income Tax, Corporation Tax, VAT, Business Rates and local level Council Tax plus any others I omit, are cratering. Something will have to give.

Unless Governments perform some kind of miracle and get economic activities back up very quickly what you describe will be coming to a country near you, including the UK. We are heading into the abyss and few understand that the life we have enjoyed was by running up debt on our national credit cards and is in the rear view mirror, the future could be very bleak. Your description of the UK might prove to have been too optimistic.

The Party in power is probably immaterial, but perhaps you could suggest an alternative to "privatising and slashing benefits" as you put it?

I can't see any alternative to selling what assets they can (not much left now to sell)(not many buyers either in the new debt maxed out World), cutting Government operating costs (forget High Speed Rail and Trident replacement), reducing by capping all benefits including all Government funded pensions, Civil Service, military etc as well as the State Pension.

Posted by: JohninMK | May 25 2020 21:57 utc | 18

to the person who mentioned "the thick of it", it's pretty close but a real-life malcolm tucker would have had this guy walk out of #10 naked with his own head on a platter.

overall, more proof that voters get the government they deserve. especially when they pick a guy who was cloned from thatcher's lipstick stain on a coffee mug. if they had worried about bigger issues than brexit dates, weaponized charges of anti-"semitism" and phantom "rapefugees" roaming in the shadows they might have adults in charge. enjoy your increasingly screwed NHS, folks.

Posted by: the pair | May 25 2020 22:44 utc | 19

I adore your articles and have referred countless people to your site. I've noticed recently a surge in typos. Trivial, most people will say. I disagree. You are a monument against mainstream media. Journalists like you have been dealt with decisively by the powers that be, through various means: influence, job loss threats, and often violence. You resist through the excellence of your work. And because of this, no mistake is allowed, not even a typo. It's "boasted", not "boosted".

I'd be more than happy and actually deeply honored to proofread your articles, free of charge. Please don't take it as an insult. It's a friendly offer.

Posted by: Melkiades | May 25 2020 22:47 utc | 20

Using the fiat system to print money in order to keep some liquidity in a depressed market will not - can not, in fact be inflationary much less the inanely hyperbolic 'hyper' inflationary. The only danger is that rightist dingbats who see the revelation of free money as they call it, may inspire a wake up in the fools who imagine that economies are actually run on the 'balance the books' tosh.
Balance the books, the mantra that all governments, neolib, conservative and fascist have been feeding to the population for the last half century has been a lie. The actual government policies have been counter to that, so as to best enable their backers to steal this nonsense 'money' as they desire.

All this 'money' that has been generated by so called 'financial service industries' is 'free' in exactly the same way and yet that isn't claimed to be inflationary, so it beggars belief that any rational person could claim producing money in exactly the same way but 1) at lower amounts than the city of london plus all the dodgy service industries across the UK who make this 'money' while producing nothing up until the lockdown & 2) distributing that direct to consumers thereby ensuring there will be no asset inflation is suddenly deemed to be destructive. They only thing destroyed will be deceitful economists' & politicians' already dubious credibility.

Posted by: A User | May 25 2020 23:20 utc | 21

re Melkiades | May 25 2020 22:47 utc | 21
If you have been coming here as long as you claim you would know english is b's second language and as well as the obvious, that is sorting the anally regressive out from the herd, the odd typo and spelling mistake indicates that yes it is in fact b who wrote that article.
At a time when so many posts here have been deleted for no obvious reason and the article above it is typo free, it does make even long term regulars worry if b is still the source.
This post was reassuring as not only did it not attempt to force a sheep like point of view on visitors, it contained exactly the typos that indicate b wrote it.

A b typo is difficult to accurately describe, but after decades of seeing them most can easily recognise them.

What did it say on a popular live album set 50 years ago? Something like "Just as scars on antique leather prove the veracity of the item, flaws in this recording are proof that this recording is live".

Posted by: A User | May 25 2020 23:32 utc | 22

The top nine nations with the most coronavirus cases were members of the Western Empire (former democracies weakened by corporations and oligarchs to promote global trade) or the Elite reaching an understanding with Authoritarians. “Profit over lives” was the result. Endless wars, offshoring, corruption, exploitation and despair led to the decreased life expectancy in the USA and England.

The novel coronavirus pandemic is the direct result of these dysfunctional governments. Corporations see the epidemic as a profit center for their magical treatment or vaccine. There is no US national public health system. US hospitals and nursing homes primary purpose is to make money for stockholders and mangers. It is of no matter that nearly 100,000 Americans have died so far with many more to come. No great wealth will be spent to fight the pandemic nationally in the USA using the proven public health practices of universal testing, contact tracing and isolation of the ill.

This is now a bipolar world. The USA and UK are pariah nations quarantined from the nations that have controlled the virus. The Western Empire has fallen.

The Democrats are just as responsible for the mess as the Republicans. I have yet to receive my mail-in ballot for the postponed June 2nd Maryland primary. Besides being incarcerated at home, it looks like I am also disenfranchised. Yet, I am very lucky, once again, but for how long?

Either a democratic constitutional government retakes control of the USA or a second civil war between the credentialed and the left-behind is inevitable. The aristocracy always loses but with wholesale chaos, major loss of life and redistribution of wealth.

This is an extraordinary dangerous time for Homo sapiens due the Pandemic and the resulting Greatest Depression leading to unrest, scapegoating and confrontation which could result in the use of nuclear weapons. Plus, climate change looms ahead. How can this possibly be addressed if the developed world is unable to control a once in a century pandemic; let alone, evolve a sustainable civilization that can survive on a finite planet.

Posted by: VietnamVet | May 25 2020 23:36 utc | 23

Typo ...

Now the government admitted that taking salvia and ...

... But maybe Salvia is just the thing we need ...

Posted by: Arch | May 25 2020 23:49 utc | 24

A User | May 25 2020 23:20 utc | 22

When money is free, that is exactly what it is worth.

Posted by: dh-mtl | May 26 2020 0:03 utc | 25

Big Pharma colluding with Government. Just as some of us have been warning of.

The sense that we are being f*cked with is papable:

• The virus is only a mild illness (trust us).
• Masks are not needed (trust us).
• Stay at home if you're sick (trust us).
• We're doing tons of testing (trust us).
• Don't use unproven medicines/treatments (trust us).
• We'll have a vaccine (trust us).
• The economy will come roaring back (trust us).
• Trillions of dollar of loans to wall street and big companies was necessary (trust us).
• China is to blame (trust us).
• We're in this together (trust us).

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | May 26 2020 0:31 utc | 26

palpable

Posted by: Jackrabbit | May 26 2020 0:31 utc | 27

Also add to the fact that people who tested positive when they went back the next week to take the test again and if they were positive again that was counted as two cases not just the one and some people got tested three or four times all positive and those were coming his four cases so what are the real numbers?

Posted by: Josh | May 26 2020 1:31 utc | 28

Boris Johnson should worry about going to jail.
Boris Johnson’s big lie in, and lying

Posted by: Rigoxa | May 26 2020 1:34 utc | 29

Bindoner @15 May 25 2020 21:16

The article you linked to (about a firm linked to Cummings sister winning millions in NHS contracts) has been removed/deleted. Pity - it sounded interesting. What sort of contracts? What firm?
I do know that a sister (the same sister?) has just (14 April) been appointed a non-executive director of a firm called IDOX. Is this the firm in question?

Posted by: Hope | May 26 2020 1:39 utc | 30

Hope:

Yes, IDOX is the company referred to. I imagine the post was lawyered out, but it consisted of a screenshot of IDOX own page showing its directors ( https://tompride.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=44352 ), a roll of puff stories about its COVID/government business ( https://tompride.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=44354 ), and some snarky framing about the lack of "oversight or comment from our fawning, forelocking media".

Posted by: Bindoner | May 26 2020 2:29 utc | 31

"...article above it is typo free, it does make even long term regulars worry if b is still the source."

"...missteps..."
"...unserious..."
"...sheltered in place..."

...he seems to have transitioned into an American millennial.

Posted by: ted01 | May 26 2020 2:45 utc | 32

b - stories like this and your previously documented regulatory capture of the FAA by Boeing are what make many of your readers suspicious of big pharma and their persistent downplaying of existing cheap drugs that seem to provide prophylactic protection / benefits from the corona virus. I can't help but see the same dynamic as an established industry working with "captured" regulatory agencies to promote profitable solutions over the general welfare. This includes funding / promoting studies that are pre-determined to show that the cheap prophylactic doesn't work. You are one of the few writers who always does an excellent job at explaining and clarifying complex issues. However, apart from some brief explanations of studies showing that HCQ is not an effective treatment as some people are touting, MoA has not done a detailed essay about the studies and the interests behind them (both pro and against). It would be appreciated if you did.

Posted by: Mpn | May 26 2020 4:01 utc | 33

The only thing keeping Boris Johnson as Prime Minister is Dominic Cummings.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | May 26 2020 5:09 utc | 34

Ghost Ship @ 35:

I should think, after your comment, MoA may as well close this comments thread because you pithily summed up Boris Johnson's leadership and all that is strong and weak about it. Well done!

If Johnson doesn't get rid of Cummings, he loses all authority (because everyone will see who rules the roost at No 10) and if he does get rid of Cummings, he'll still lose all authority (he'll be all at sea).

From this point on, Johnson will be the lamest of all lame ducks. And he hasn't yet been Prime Minister for 12 calendar months!

Posted by: Jen | May 26 2020 5:50 utc | 35

Q what has Domminc Cummings got on Boris Johnson ?

Tory election fraud ?
That is why you get honour among thieves.
Whilst this distraction takes place, what I wonder is the other hand doing ? Prepping the next killing field ?

Posted by: Mark2 | May 26 2020 6:35 utc | 36

"Britain has had the second highest number of deaths from Covid-19 so far, 36.875 according to the current count"
Graphs like that displaying absolute numbers make no sense. They are just made for scaremongering people who are not fluent in reading graphs. One cannot compare countries unless numbers per capita are being used.
When you do the math, Belgium has the highest number of deaths per capita, UK is third an US only nineth place.

Posted by: Joost | May 26 2020 6:54 utc | 37

The REAL reason for Cummings' trip:

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/05/why-barnard-castle/

Now it may be entirely a coincidence that the place to which he chose to drive for his eyesight test happened to be the site of the major factory of GlaxoSmithKline. It may be an entire coincidence that two days later, on the very day Cummings actually started work back in Downing Street he has stated was “to get vaccine deals through”, GlaxoSmithKline announced an agreement to develop the vaccine.

Posted by: Barovsky | May 26 2020 7:43 utc | 38

I hope everyone round this joint realises that the poms are going to let cummings get away with this nonsense. It seems crazy but when we consider england we need to recognise that this is a country where the 99% have been allowing this not for decades, not even centuries but for millennia.

If anything, the desire for the average englander to tug his/her forelock around any wide boy in a decent suit, spouting thru with a elite style accent, has become even more prevalent over the last 200 years.
Why? Because any englander with a brain larger than a pea, shot through to somewhere even a tad more egalitarian when the opportunity presented, as it did in abundance these 200 years.

Trouble is things have gotten so wrong in england since 1978 that even the unreconstructed forelock tuggers are fleeing, but since they're incapable of comprehending that obeisance takes two, the fawnee and the fawner, so have been practising their self abnegating cringyness at away games too. This has unfortunately sown the seed of arse kissing in cultures where it must never belong.

Pommie 'ex pats' can salute Brenda and the inbreds as much as they desire, but must never be allowed to pass this tosh on.

Posted by: A User | May 26 2020 7:50 utc | 39

Posted by: Jackrabbit | May 26 2020 0:31 utc | 26 Only genuine Movements for Democratic reform will change anything.

Problem is finding a "genuine" movement for almost anything...

Quoting Percival Rose yet again..."That ain't gonna happen." The other line he had on that show was even better: "People want to believe that God has a plan for them. They don't want to hear that anyone else does."

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | May 26 2020 8:32 utc | 40

Posted by: A User | May 25 2020 23:32 utc | 22 This post was reassuring as not only did it not attempt to force a sheep like point of view on visitors, it contained exactly the typos that indicate b wrote it.

I'm still trying to figure out how all you people who think b has suddenly vanished now figure that he's "back"...

What do you think? Every time he leaves the room to take a leak, some CIA agent sneaks in and makes a post?

Seriously? There's a degree of paranoia that qualifies as straight-up mental illness. Suggest all the people questioning whether this is b immediately make an appointment with your psychiatrist...or get back on your meds...or maybe off your "meds"... :-)

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | May 26 2020 8:37 utc | 41

A User @ 39
Yes all of that is true.
Domminc Cummings is Boris Johnson’s ‘Advicer’ !
An unelected ‘spin doctor’ so his Monday non resignation speech, was just that spin, a prerfomance ! Not real, worthy of a barff-ta!
He comes at the end of a long line of spin doctors, notably Lynton Cosby who was pretty much a one man disarster area — Australia/Canada / UK all f*** up.
Do we beleave this mans story ? I would not beleave him if he told me he was lying !

Posted by: Mark2 | May 26 2020 8:37 utc | 42

Just a reminder !
This is what spin doctors do and how they do it.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-vomit-principle-the-dead-bat-the-freeze-how-political-spin-doctors-tactics-aim-to-shape-the-news-20190201-p50v40.html

Posted by: Mark2 | May 26 2020 8:53 utc | 43

Jen #35

From this point on, Johnson will be the lamest of all lame ducks. And he hasn't yet been Prime Minister for 12 calendar months!

Thank you for that post. I am not so sure any of this is fatal to either of them. They are gross provocateurs. They thrive on extreme media reports of the their absurd antics. They both are expert in sowing smoke screens so I wonder what else is going on.

Here is my surmise: The vast Tory majority in the parliament owes everything to this pair of cunning strategists and it is way too early to think any Tory will think of challenge. This Tory UK government is going to demolish the establishment in a similar way that Queensland Premier Campbell Newman did in the Queensland Public Sector not so long ago. Recall he slaughtered it and reduced it to a thin rump of his own party apparatchiks. That is the model and the Tories will repeat it in the UK.

It will be the same fate for the middle and upper class lot public servants that the miners got from Thatcher.

And they know it is coming. There is fear and real loathing but there will be no escape. So I assume Boris will prevail and the labor clown cart will just tag along keeping busy looking for anti semites and commies.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 26 2020 9:42 utc | 44

re Richard Steven Hack | May 26 2020 8:37 utc | 41 Oh all right - since you have broken down and acknowledged yer inability to escape the morass that is MoA I shall attempt to explain.
Over the last few months b's behavviour has been most 'un b-like'. I'm not referring to his coronavirus position as that of itself indicates sfa. I am however talking about the oppressive censorship which, to me indicates a human under considerable pressure.

That combined with the reluctance to discuss important & relevant subjects that have been essential to what MoA is, get me for one, questioning WTF is exactly going on.
AFAIAC if bernhard wants to winnow our posts down to those he finds tolerable, that would have been a lot more efficacious 3 or 4 years ago when the new but still foolishly fascistic right first began hanging around here like a bunch of spare pricks at a wedding.

I wouldn't have applauded that - if one cannot defeat a selfish corporatist argument, one simply doesn't know the world, but at least that position would have been comprehensible, the current censorship which is random to say the least, I do not find defensible at all.

I'm not pissed at the current subjects, I am pissed at the ones that haven't been mentioned, in particular Libya.

AJ news has been reporting all day that several hundred Russian mercenaries have been 'redeployed' back home in the last few days. This has left well known military leader
& puppet of a weird capitalist cabal, general haftar, desperately short of a pot to piss in.

Russia controls Syria, yet Turkey controls the oil which belongs to all Libyans.

That is an issue which ought to be analysed & discussed here. That is why so many of us hung loose here.

I do mot care about that.

The sudden change is worthy of comment even hyperbolic assertion because if it is true Russia & Turkey have bargained over other human's future so grossly every human able to must be decrying such cruel imperialism.

If it is not true, we must analyse it more to be certain this isn't more greedy nonsense.

When I'm not pissed at the route we have been on for too long I worry about whether b has been entrapped in a circumstance he cannot escape, therefore I shall continue to poke at this issue. There's summat odd down woodshed & I wanna know if b is an instigator or a victim.

This is b's site and afaiac b can do whatever he chooses, but equally if the site stops being what it once was I am free to bolt.
AJ has been reporting that the withdrawal of mercenaries is down to a seal cut between Russia & Turkey where the Idlib 'decision' for Syria was on the table.
Russia quit supporting Haftar is Turkey accepted that the final design of Syria becomes Russia's bailiwick.

I wanna know much more.

Posted by: A User | May 26 2020 9:43 utc | 45

If we look a little more closely, as barflies are won’t to do, we notice something interesting. The ‘get Cummings’ story can’t be about Brexit they say, because look at all the Brexiteers calling for his head! But wait a moment, aren’t all of these people like Ian Duncan Smith and Tom Tugenhadt the ones being given Op-Ed’s in the Times to demand we cancel the Huawei deal? And aren’t they all on that interesting WIkipedia list of MPs who used to serve in the Military? The story appeared six weeks ‘late’ in the Guardian, known mouthpiece of the security state in the UK and then was picked up by the Times, the other establishment ‘fact’ sheet. Front page of Times on Sunday, left column, Cummings is supported, right column, Boris to reopen Huawei deal. Boris traded Huawei for Dom. Meanwhile, Mark Sedwill remains head of the cabinet office, head of the civil service and head of National security.

Posted by: Mark T | May 26 2020 10:01 utc | 46

Joost the way I see it the graph is using deaths to indicate and infer virulence and more precisely changes in the rate of death and thus indicating changes in the rate of virulence and then normalizing the data to a common arbitrary low point so as to enable comparison between different geographical/political/demographic areas aka countries.

In this case one couldn't do that at all if one tried using per capita.

Why use deaths? Because with all the different unequal definitions and methodologies different countries use the number of reported deaths form a somewhat less uncertain set of data although it would be interesting to see the same graph with all deaths minus the ten year average number of deaths and compare that between countries instead.

It's not perfect but does what all graphs are supposed to do: a sensible or at least a sensible attempt of a quick summary of data.

The differences in steepness of the angle of the lines and any changes in it is what is most interesting in this graph, not their height. One could argue that the area below each line is also interesting as a measure of political action and efficiency; yes it is worrying for the US and UK that they have a steep graph but I'm personally more worried about the lack of decrease in the group of countries represented at the bottom since it indicates that while they've managed to do what the others haven't they've run out of steam in quenching the infections. In these cases the height of the flat lines actually do convey meaning (but it's probably better to look directly at number of infected if one thinks the quality of such data is good enough ie. enough testing) since they represent a continued unabated level of transmission that haven't been defeated by the measures taken so far.

That invites the heightened possibility of sudden new large outbreaks.

They seem unable to do what China did, my impression is that China performed enormous amounts of disease tracking and them doing that seems to be ignored, if it stays like this it means most of the rest of the world will remain unable to defeat the spread because they're unable to localize it and it always comes "out of nowhere".

Data and graphs such as these is part of why I believe this virus isn't going away until governments and people take it much more seriously. A worsening pandemic looks very likely to me, easily by one or two orders of magnitude.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | May 26 2020 10:02 utc | 47

The most extraordinary comment Cummings made in his presser doesn't seem to have been followed up at all by any media commentators.

Early on in his performance, he said he'd never been tested (for SARS-CoV-2).

So.. there's a culture in 10 Downing Street that doesn't require testing of staff - even after they've had symptoms consistent with COVID-19!

If that's their casual attitude to the core of their own State, no wonder the national response to the crisis has been so slipshod overall.

https://twitter.com/SydWalker/status/1264988536031203329

Posted by: Syd Walker | May 26 2020 10:40 utc | 48

Well Cummings can hardly say he ran out of dope ,like so many drug users,so he had to ssee his friends in laboratories where it is freely available.

Unless peoples death squads commence taking out this kind of political personal,little is going to change.

630 billionaires rules the united snakes,kidnap them like MBS did to his fellow Saud's,and make them sign the transfer of their riches to a fund benefiting the people.Leave them 10000 dollars,not more.

Posted by: willie | May 26 2020 10:55 utc | 49

It's doubtful that Cummings was visiting GSK. Barnard Castle is a desolate, windblown site. The GSK bigwigs who may have done any 'signing' for a COVID19 vaccine with Sanofi-Aventis are more likely to be found at the corporate HQ in West London, if they can be found at all.

Posted by: Cornelius Pipe | May 26 2020 11:15 utc | 50

Posted by: A User | May 26 2020 9:43 utc | 45 I wanna know much more.

There are other sources of that information.

Frankly, I find Libya a matter of zero interest. That mess already happened, and while it may get worse or better, it's unlikely to affect the greater Middle East to the same degree as if Syria were to fall, or Hezbollah to be defeated in Lebanon, or Iran to be attacked (let alone China.) Libya is a fight between one group and another, with the sides being supported by external actors, mostly Turkey, due to Sultan Erdogan's desire to be a king-maker throughout the Middle East (but his desires are limited by Russia's desire to *not* see messes grow greater.)

Then there's the fact that the pandemic is arguably the topic which has the most immediate impact on the world, and possibly as b has pointed out in earlier posts, even a long-term impact on the world economy. So concentrating on that topic has been quite reasonable, and I for one have found it of considerable value. It was MoA which alerted me to the risk of this virus. I might be dead now had I not paid more attention. b's coverage has been exemplary.

In any event, b decides what he covers and what is significant and what isn't. That hardly suggests he is "under pressure" or "vanished into night and fog." As for his coverage of the virus, I suggest that at some point even b has decided that stupid shit just brings down the blog - which is no doubt why he refers to it as "cleaning up."

If I ran a blog, I wouldn't even allow comments. If someone wanted to comment on a post of mine on my blog, they can start their own and post a comment there. If I deign to notice it and consider it worthy of response, I'd respond (indirectly). And I say that even after I've been banned from various blogs by owners who frankly were overly sensitive or incapable of responding to logic (not least of which is that blowhard Pat Lang.) A blog owner owes you nothing.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | May 26 2020 12:17 utc | 51

Posted by: Melkiades | May 25 2020 22:47 utc | 20
(b's typos)

If b asked my opinion I would advise him not to accept your offer.
b's typos have their roots in phonetics (sounds like)
They are trivial and inconsequential and can be corrected in the reader's mind as easily as one re-interprets a less-than-perfect word-choice in any written document.

b's output, based on careful research and fact-checking is prodigious and could be slowed by a superfluous editor. He's also an excellent communicator. The peccadilloes don't bother anyone except anal-retentive nit-pickers.

I've NEVER read an article from Pepe E which didn't have at least one trivial error or omission and it hasn't harmed his popularity or credibility - because IT DOES NOT MATTER.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 26 2020 12:45 utc | 52

@A User,

having been around these parts about as long as you have, I share your suspicions, and even discussed it in meat space with another old regular who doesn't get his comments past the censorship anymore.

it is NOT a matter of being overly paranoid or being off meds, the way self-admitted sociopath Dick Hack depicts it.

Posted by: lizard | May 26 2020 13:38 utc | 53

AJ news has been reporting all day that several hundred Russian mercenaries have been 'redeployed' back home in the last few days. This has left well known military leader
& puppet of a weird capitalist cabal, general haftar, desperately short of a pot to piss in.
I wanna know much more.
Posted by: A User | May 26 2020 9:43 utc | 45

The problem I have understanding that claim is the thousands of jihadi terrorists Turkey has sent to Libya. If Russian mercenaries pull out (if they were really there) as a deal in exchange for Idlib, those thousands of terrorists in Libya can at any time be flown back to Idlib, or Daraa, or Afghanistan, or even inside Russia or directly on the border with Russia. To make such a deal as you suggest does not make any sense to me. But then, some things just don't make sense only because you lack part of the jigsaw, so I don't know. Also Aljazeera have a play in the game, so they are not reliable sources on Libya.

I agree with you on the need to hear more about Libya, and also Yemen.

Posted by: BM | May 26 2020 13:56 utc | 54

This is why it matters ———-

https://twitter.com/kayburley/status/1265187601377636356

In two weeks time their will be another spike in virus deaths, another 30 or more thousand people needlessly killed by the Tory scum. Heart Brocken families left to greave !
What shocks me is the people who voted them in, new full well what they voted for ! All be it having been brain washed first by Tory/media lie’s.

Posted by: Mark2 | May 26 2020 14:08 utc | 55

I don't suppose too many of you will snap up my suggestion too quickly. But, I am going to make it anyway. If you want to know what is transpiring at the top of the Anglo Zionist Empire you must, I repeat, you must read the Prolegomena (al-Mughadama) of Ibn Khaldoun.

The author and his amazing magnum opus, as some will recognise, are the father and foundation of the modern science of sociology. Empires can ignore them but only at their own expense.

Posted by: Al Kiani | May 26 2020 14:10 utc | 56

[typos] are trivial and inconsequential and can be corrected in the reader's mind as easily as one re-interprets a less-than-perfect word-choice in any written document.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 26 2020 12:45 utc | 52

Speak for yourself! Elitist snobbery, assuming that a reader "has a mind". [humming "If I only had a brain" from "Wizard of Oz"]

----

On the other note, some worry that b changed his personality when he makes typos, other worry about the same when he does not (i.e. when they do not notice them).

Posted by: Piotr Berman | May 26 2020 14:12 utc | 57

On Libya I agree with Hack.

Not much interest in these parts as far as I can tell.

OT: while we mess about with Covid and China bashing

US: Trump Administration Abandons Landmine Ban

Posted by: arby | May 26 2020 14:42 utc | 58

"Manufacture a vaccine with Sanofi of France"
Well, Sanofi allegedly "of France", traitorous scum which has notoriously and publicly announced that its vaccine would be for the US first.
So, what is it now, Cummings. Did your masters in the US told you to order GSK to ally with Sanofi to save the US and let Britons die first, just like they did with Sanofi?

Posted by: Clueless Joe | May 25 2020 19:11 utc | 2

If you are an European, you may view it as a blessing. Sometimes sketchily tested vaccine is dangerous. Corona viruses are tricky. Many people had immunity to the latest corona virus from having past infections with almost harmless corona viruses. On the other hand

"Scientists fear that it may prove impossible to produce a working coronavirus vaccine and believe the world may have to simply learn to adapt to the permanent threat of COVID-19.

The UK's Chief Medical Officer, Christopher Whitty, told a Parliamentary committee on Friday that there was "concerning" evidence suggesting that it may not be possible to stimulate immunity to the virus."

The bottom line is that while immunity can appear naturally, reproducing this process RELIABLY is tricky. Perhaps it will help that there will be multiple research efforts, but the sad truth is that if you have 10 research groups, you do not get 10 times more original ideas, and the more people you hire, the fraction of "the best" inevitably goes down.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | May 26 2020 14:46 utc | 59

One wonders how sick Boris was with the Coronavirus. Maybe Boris faked a bit for street cred.

The UK with its City of London Corporation is another power center for empire and Boris and his team are playing their part in support thereof.....when your god is finance, that fealty comes before health evidently by: psychohistorian @ 1 <=Yes, but maybe more than just playing it up. there is the problem of deleting.. being conducted by the big media data collectors? To date the search engine powers and private social media powers have eliminated nearly all objecting narrative Twilightzone, facecrook, the anti-..whatever websites and so on are all gown or rendered dysfunctional..numbers of very high level persons in many nation states that host competition oil and gas enterprises have almost selectively died of the SARS Covid 19 virus. seems to the SARS Covid 19 virus was a first shot in a war against competition to the oil and gas hosting capitalist controlled nation states. A better fit is not west vs east, but instead the big oil and gas company home players in the Pandemic host lock down state. If the state host a large oil or gas enterprise likely it is in the Johnson camp might express the feeling I get from looking around. .

Posted by: snake | May 26 2020 14:58 utc | 60

The trend in this thread is an interesting one. I'll focus first on this from Kadath @ 6:

the increasing incompetence and corruption of Western political elites is setting the stage for a revolutionary figure. Not another sheepdog Bernie or hopeless hack Obama. But a real revolutionary, like Lenin or Robespierre, who wants to burn down the whole rotten structure and its' institutions and completely replace it. Historically, these types of changes are extremely destructive (both to the host nation and it's neighbours) I not saying this change will necessarily be overall good or bad...

Your comment, Kadath, caused me to cast back to the most recent such occurrence - which was of course Russia. Several commentors took us back to that 'passing of the torch' from Yeltsin to Putin, and the comparison with Boris Johnson and Trump as Yeltsin figures has often been made here. Even their would be replacements have a Yeltsin like cast to them, as moribund neocapitalism appeals only to geriatric oligarchs it would seem.

We can remember that there was a series of elderly leaders in the USSR before finally the system toppled and Yeltsin gave the Russians a good helping of hopelessness. I don't know if Johnson and Trump are finished doing that yet - we might have a few more years of them left, if Russia is any guide. But both the latter did seem to be attempting to buck the system, at least at the start of their administrations. Attempting and failing.

We don't need a Robespierre; we need a Putin. Someone who, like Snowden (and no, I am not suggesting he is the one!) comes from within the system, so knows well its faults and its better parts, and how to gradually make changes for the better.

To those above my comment who note changes in b's approach to the virus and on, with more hands on weeding out of the clutter on the thread, I will suggest something of the same sort of approach has been happening here. Same b, but a new urgency that we get it right. That we help instead of hinder - and for the old, hindrance was paramount. We can only guess how much of an effort this has taken, how much behind the scenes corrective measures being needed to keep the blog threads readable.

Thanks b. You are only human, but you do a great job here. Something vastly new is on its way for the world. We still have a way to go. Maybe even another four years, or down the line a Yeltsin like passing of the torch. To new leaderships, men or women we are not even noticing right now. Who noticed Putin in the Yeltsin years? But he was there.

Posted by: juliania | May 26 2020 15:04 utc | 61

Sorry, I meant to add Xi into the mixture, and to point out that Xi and Putin are very different leaders, honed each to his own nation. So for Britain and the US each new leader has to be different from Putin and Xi in the same way, each honed to her/his nation, coming from within the old system but taking the nation forward. I think you also see this in my own native land, where a successful new leader is making her way forward and bringing the country with her. I'd never seen or heard of her before, but now there she is.

We should not lose hope.

Posted by: juliania | May 26 2020 15:14 utc | 62

@ Posted by: juliania | May 26 2020 15:04 utc | 61

I don't think the West's present situation resembles Russia at all.

At the same time, I also disagree with Kadath.

Even if you take Bernie Sanders' "democratic socialism" movement seriously (and I think we should), the diagnosis is very clear: the really existing dissent in post-2008 USA is not of revolutionary nature. What we observe is a reformist/reactionary movement, a dissent that still has faith in the imperial system.

That means today's dissent in America doesn't aim to topple the Empire, but to make it function better for a specific portion of its populace. They still believe the Empire is the best system possible - as long as a series of virtuous individuals is managing it.

In that sense, the political situation in present USA is more akin to the Late Roman Empire, from the Crisis of the Third Century to the Islamic Conquests.

Posted by: vk | May 26 2020 15:21 utc | 63

This article underlines the point that I have tried to make that we have moved beyond the neo-liberal stage. All that remains is for politicians and their owner/trainers to face up to reality- if they don't make changes, the people will.
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/what-are-the-three-concurrent-crises-of-the-coronavirus-depression/  
Already the crisis is well beyond the ability of either the UK or the US governments to manage it- the measures needed involve a total repudiation of the policies of the past half century. The reforms necessary begin with the kind of minimal socialist programme put forward by Corbyn in the last two elections, but they will have to go much further. In the UK House of Commons there are perhaps a dozen members who can see this. The political system is like a beached whale, floundering around as it dies-only a lot less majestic.
It needs to be added, with special reference to those who venerate the EU, that the EU is at least as vulnerable to the problems that its inbuilt bias towards neo-liberalism will cause it as the system disintegrates.
Keynes gave the capitalist ruling class tools to extend its existence, the neo-liberals, contemptuously dismissed them as cowardly compromises- "Real Men bust Unions" is the neo-liberal motto. Now the reckoning is coming and Keynes is suddenly looking very clever. And modern.

Posted by: bevin | May 26 2020 15:34 utc | 64

Undermining the government authority assumes that it had authority in the first place. The PM is not very good at being responsible and serious in his approach to dealing with the crisis. The second larger amount of deaths in the world (54000 following the ONS numbers) by any count, that of the government or that of the Office for National Statistics. It is a total failure of leadership, the USA, the UK and Brazil are at the top of this league, there is no shame, assuming of responsibility or accountability. The leaders of the Western world no more.

Posted by: Juan | May 26 2020 16:06 utc | 65

Gimme a "J & T" partnership to continue Wʻs leadership in the demolition of the myth of "[implied competence] of the white manʻs burden". Although in one sense they prove that any incompetent "legacy" white can get elected which is one way to view "white supremacy" their masterful incompetence proves that Euro-whiteness dominance is on shaky pins. The notion of "white manʻs burden" can be read differently. White men are a burden on the rest of us.

Posted by: stevelaudig | May 26 2020 16:26 utc | 66

Posted by: juliania | May 26 2020 15:04 utc | 61

We don't need a Robespierre; we need a Putin. Someone who, like Snowden (and no, I am not suggesting he is the one!) comes from within the system, so knows well its faults and its better parts, and how to gradually make changes for the better.

You mean someone like General Flynn? Look what happend to him. He did not last two days in his post.

Posted by: Petri Krohn | May 26 2020 16:29 utc | 67

bevin | May26 15:34 @64

The reforms necessary begin with the kind of minimal socialist programme

Pointing to the brick wall of socialism once again.

Socialism has been portrayed by the establishment as selfish and unfair. The establishment offers to create/save jobs instead. This has mostly worked as can easily be seen by the enfeebled left.

And then there's the problem of establishment media and the socialist pretenders it raises up (aka the "fake left") - people like Bernie Sanders and Obama. These sly operators should be warning enough of the futility of a 'people's hero' that will usher in a socialist paradise.

Yet some (like bevin) still hope for a socialist revival. No doubt the next Obama or Sanders is already waiting in the wings to offer more false hope.

=
"Real Men bust Unions" is the neo-liberal motto.

Real men break cartels, which neoliberalism spawns in spades.

To break these neoliberal cartels requires nothing more than an effective democracy which our dumbed-down, know-nothing populace and craven establishment still claim to cherish yet, knowingly or unknowingly, allow to be compromised. People exercising their democratic rights will take care of the rest.

Demand democracy.

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | May 26 2020 16:31 utc | 68

Touché! ,mr. "b" .

Posted by: Ou Si (區司) | May 26 2020 16:53 utc | 69

Continuing my comment @ 63

The Putin phenomenon is completely different and has no parallel to any Western country. He represents a mini-reaction of the pro-Soviet camp to the unparalleled devastation of a bizarre neoliberal reform.

In that case, the Russians were able to "comeback" from a disastrous reform for the simple reason the Soviet legacy wasn't completely destroyed yet. They had the time and had the means to "fix" (i.e. reduce the damage) of an abortion of History which was the Yeltsin government (of which the second term was only possible because of direct American intervention at the elections).

However, Putin should not be seen as a restorer. He was a necessary compromise made between the Russian oligarchs and the American elite in order to avoid a full communist restoration (which would've happened in the elections of the mid-1990s if it wasn't for the aforementioned intervention and systematic fraud). Putin pretends to respect the Soviet legacy while paying his dues to the Orthodox patriarch and legalizing wife beating. More importantly, it is patent by now that the Russian Federation is a historic failure in comparison to the USSR, as the economic indicators show us (30 years vs 30 last years of the USSR).

No need to state that a Putin is impossible in the USA - or any other liberal democracy, for that matter - because of those structural differences.

Posted by: vk | May 26 2020 16:58 utc | 70

What would the flies at the bar talk about on a slow news day? b’s spelling.
More calls are made for b to well, be, inhuman. No mistakes here allowed by our host.
I see the news about the insertion of mistakes into the Orange one’s tweet, just to make the sheeple believe he wrote them.

What that saying? To err is human, to forgive…

Be human b.

The rest of flies, I used the term at the ’behest of’ recently in my conversation with Richard.
You are here at the ‘behest of’ our host, b.
Otherwise, get your own blog.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | May 26 2020 17:13 utc | 71

The latest episode in UK politics has the merit of clarification, for the wider public.

Cummings (DC) is a crank and a zealot, combined the two characteristics makes him close to crazy. (By contrast N. Ferguson is a run-of-the-mill charlatan, of no account, except as exploited by others.)

The brains behind the ‘throne’ in the shadows, as cartoonists joked, is actually in charge, as a grave transgression - for which ordinary ppl are fined, hauled to court, vilified, or even imprisoned (if his wife was really ill, going to elderly parents is criminal..) - is not even pretend-ousted, sacked, fined, etc.

Boss Bojo supports him and cannot even merely verbally condemn or critisise, he has to uphold DC as courageoulsy acting ethically and in the best interests of his family! (or whatever the precise words were.) These two are tied together in a bro - pact resting on mutual info / secrets - imho Bojo knew what Dom was doing and where he was and said OK.

Not even a pretense of equality before the law is to be dished up. Great — sadly I guess the British ppl will not react, besides hate-fest in tabloids on the internet, local screams, demos, and some loss of Tory voters, big deal. (They don’t realise what is coming down the pipe.) -> see also John at 8.

The article his wife wrote for the Spectator is disgusting. She details herself being affected and DC being extremely, dangerously, ill, not quite near death, you get the picture! Implied is, they were in London the whole time, and came out of confinement to a deserted London, etc. She is a media person, natch (see many power couples, particularly in France..) and all this is emblematic of MSM-Gvmt-Corp melding.

The wife writing a fantasy tale, with outright lies, and implied falsehoods, etc. about their family life and doings, including about their son, for publication in the MSM, is vile.

Btw, if one tots up DC’s travels, and dates, he was only mildly sick for 2-3 days at most. Prob. he was just looking to cash in on covid-sympathy like Bojo, and had other things to do. (see Syd 48 > DC never tested for COV.)

Wifey article in Spectator that works for me today. (from GB blocked.)

https://www.spectator.com.au/2020/04/an-infectious-uncertainty/

Posted by: Noirette | May 26 2020 17:22 utc | 72

I find it all quite puzzling. The UK goverrnment in its financial and foreign policy decisions is led by the Establishment/deep state. In my opinion Cummings has been installed by the Establishment to guide Johnson as he's basically inept but he was a vote winner. I also believe Cummings was positioned to help bring about Brexit. However, I can't match all this up with the Guardian's lead in exposing Cummings' breaking of lockdown. Why should an Establishment paper do this?

Posted by: Ruth | May 26 2020 17:24 utc | 73

极端非值得证明而已焉哉？
(Should not this be
a prime instanne of
the Confucian insistence
of the necessity for the
"rectification of names"
-- i.e, the necessity
to dell everybody
who he is -- he and
also his beefeater-
provisions-provider
in Downing Street (8/10?)

Posted by: Oū Sī / 區司/ Usman | May 26 2020 17:56 utc | 74

Britain has had the second highest number of deaths from Covid-19 so far, 36.875 according to the current count.

Relative to population, it is currently only the fifth:

   #  Country         Deaths /
                      million
                      people

   1  San Marino         1,251
   2  Belgium              808
   3  Andorra              658
   4  Spain                570
   5  United Kingdom       557
   6  Italy                546
   7  France               424
   8  Sweden               390
   9  Netherlands          335
  10  Ireland              326
  11  United States        298
      ...
      Russia                25
      ...
      China                  3

Posted by: S | May 26 2020 18:23 utc | 75

P.S. China is not at the bottom of the list; Ghana is, at ~1 death/million people.

Posted by: S | May 26 2020 18:35 utc | 76

"checking his eyesight" is clearly code, probably something to do with the illuminati. They love their one eye symbology, I suspect what he is saying, he was checking his next move with his i-handlers.

Posted by: Bright star | May 26 2020 18:37 utc | 77

Posted by: S | May 26 2020 18:23 utc | 75

S must be a British govt troll, to insist on a version of the figures which makes Britain look good. It's completely misleading. Two of the four ahead of Britain are micro-states who don't even have a million population between them. And Belgium is well-known for the honesty of its reporting, whereas Britain is known for continually lying and downgrading figures that look bad, while exaggerating those that look good. For example, in order to get the numbers of tests up to the promised level, home-tests that were sent out were counted as already done, although some weren't or couldn't be used, and if a sample was taken from the throat and the nose, it was counted as two tests, not one. They're very sharp, the Brits.

Posted by: Laguerre | May 26 2020 18:42 utc | 78

I try to avoid commenting here. Except in exceptional instances.
Such as when comments are obvious narratives and let to stand unanswered.
The Johns who are supporting Cummings and the Brexit Imperative.

The bit about the timing of revelation compared to when D.C. transgressed is missing.
As it was in Professor Cerguson and the Avaaz set up (and indeed the Prince Andrew etc BBC interview)

Here’s a couple of snippets in the comments which point the way.

City of London
The transport body in London (TFL) are extending the limits of the ancient City by stealth.

IDOX.
That is a very interesting connection. The firm Cummings sister is mentioned connected with in a comment.
They are the company that does postal votes in the privatised electoral commission of the UK.
Interesting history. Tory grandee Peter Lilley was involved in it.
Part of Canadian conglomerate CGI - a big Big Data player in the intelligence agencies of the world.

Ruth stops me ranting at the BS Johns earlier comment. She needs to understand the Guardian is DeepsState run and owned.
You are seeing classic Dom, diversion and Limited Hangout by them.
The story was going to break anyway. And it was ‘sexed up’ by the DS & D.C. knowing it was.

The Imperative is prime target . Corona is just another crises to take advantage of.

Keep up the good work MOA.

Posted by: DG | May 26 2020 18:45 utc | 79

@Laguerre #78

…to insist on a version of the figures…

I’m not “insisting” on anything. I have simply reported top countries by relative deaths.

It’s not a “version of the figures”. One takes the absolute figures, divides them by populations and multiplies by 1,000,000. That is all.

…which makes Britain look good.

How does being the fifth country in the world by relative deaths (third if we exclude microstates) make Britain look good? It makes Britain look terrible.

It's completely misleading.

Nope. It’s the absolute deaths that are misleading. Relative deaths are not.

For example, in order to get the numbers of tests up to the promised level, home-tests that were sent out were counted as already done, although some weren't or couldn't be used, and if a sample was taken from the throat and the nose, it was counted as two tests, not one.

Thank you, I have already read b’s article. I’m not in the habit of jumping to the comment section without reading the article first.

S must be a British govt troll…

Laguerre is an aggressive low-IQ person who can not or is unwilling to carefully read and properly comprehend and evaluate what is written by others and, as a result, accuses an honest commenter of being “a British gov[ernmen]t troll” without any factual basis whatsoever.

Posted by: S | May 26 2020 20:02 utc | 80

p | May 25 2020 21:03 utc | 12

our true Masters sit silent and hidden in the shadows, directing our lives as they desire in pursuit of their interests.

Peter

Posted by: foolisholdman | May 26 2020 20:11 utc | 81

dh-mtl | May 26 2020 0:03 utc | 25

When money is free, that is exactly what it is worth.

Posted by: foolisholdman | May 26 2020 20:31 utc | 82

Posted by: A User | May 26 2020 9:43 utc | 45
(Russia pulls mercs out of Libya)

I was tempted to suggest that the mercs may have been moved out of harm's way, but Al Jazeera reported on May 26 that Russia has assigned a flock of its 4th Gen fighter jets to the Libya SNAFU. Prior to the merc story Al Jazeera was reporting that Haftar had been kicked out of an air base but set up camp outside and began shelling and rocketing the new occupiers of the base.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 26 2020 22:25 utc | 83

Posted by: lizard | May 26 2020 13:38 utc | 53 it is NOT a matter of being overly paranoid or being off meds, the way self-admitted sociopath Dick Hack depicts it.

You're right. It's not being overly paranoid. It's being fucking stupid. How anyone can remotely consider this a viable hypothesis as to why *morons* are being censored here is frankly unbelievable.

Which is why they're being censored - fucking pig-witless stupidity. Which brings down the blog's quality of commentary to Lizard's level.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | May 27 2020 0:34 utc | 84

Posted by: Kay Fabe | May 26 2020 22:31 utc | 84

Missed this?

The parameters in the scenarios:

Are estimates intended to support public health preparedness and planning.
Are not predictions of the expected effects of COVID-19.
Do not reflect the impact of any behavioral changes, social distancing, or other interventions.

Missed this?

Scientists Say New, Lower CDC Estimates For Severity Of COVID-19 Are Optimistic
https://tinyurl.com/ycfhbcxt

The CDC's current "best guess" is that — in a scenario without any further social distancing or other efforts to control the spread of the virus — roughly 4 million patients would be hospitalized in the U.S. with COVID-19 and 500,000 would die over the course of the pandemic. That's according to the agency's new parameters that the Center for Public Integrity plugged into a simple epidemiological model.

Four out of seven experts consulted earlier by the Center for Public Integrity found the CDC's death rate estimates from April too low. The revised figures remain too optimistic, Harvard epidemiologist William Hanage said.

"If you're taking these numbers to be your guide, they're obviously lowball estimates," he said.

The fatality rates in the document "are certainly at the very low end" of those that scientists think possible, agreed Joseph Lewnard, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Berkeley. "Greater clarity on the scientific basis for these estimates is urgently needed."

Another expert, University of Washington biologist Carl Bergstrom, said that even the CDC's worst-case scenario is realistically a best-case scenario. The agency's worst-case fatality rate, he noted, is more optimistic than recent, high-quality coronavirus data about the death rate in Spain.

"These [CDC] numbers are so far outside of the scientific consensus that this strikes me as a devious and cynical effort to manipulate not only federal modeling but the broader scientific discourse," Bergstrom wrote on Twitter.

The CDC's latest fatality rates are in line with one set of estimates: those that John Ioannidis, a Stanford University professor of medicine, published in a not-yet-peer-reviewed analysis of antibody studies worldwide.

Ioannidis has championed a less cautious response to the coronavirus, earning kudos from those who favor swift reopenings, such as Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham, and criticism from many public health experts. He did not respond to a request for comment.

The CDC doubled its fatality-rate estimates for the coronavirus from early April to mid-April, with the resulting death estimates jumping from roughly 300,000 to 600,000 over the course of the pandemic, before adjusting them downward in the current document. The hospitalization rate also went up in mid-April but now sits below either of the April figures.

It is unclear whether the CDC's new parameters, which the agency said come from data it received before April 29, are based on test data that improperly mixed both antibody and viral results, as The Atlantic reported Thursday.

That mistake has raised suspicions among health experts that political considerations are marring the CDC's data since mixing the two types of tests made the nation's viral testing capacity look better than it is and confused the scientific picture of the virus.

"It's incomprehensible that the CDC's scientists would make such a rookie mistake that muddies their own data — unless politics is interfering with their ability to do their job," the Harvard Global Health Institute said in a newsletter Thursday.

Precisely. The CDC has botched this crisis almost from the beginning. I'm not taking their obviously "adjusted" figures seriously.

From the article referenced:

Federal Documents: More than 300,000 likely to die if restrictions are lifted
https://tinyurl.com/y7mkd5py

The bottom line: We *still do not know* what the overall fatality rate will be.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | May 27 2020 1:08 utc | 85

@ JohninMK

"Cummings is hated and I mean HATED by anyone in favour of Remain and that includes the civil service and most of the press. This is them all blowing up this situation into a huge fuss in an attempt to get him out of power"

Posted by: AmyB | May 27 2020 1:59 utc | 86

vk@ 63/70, thanks for your responses. Bearing in mind that this is a thread about Boris Johnson, I must disagree with your characterization of Putin. Broadly speaking,I stand by my comparisons, given of course the differences each leader faces, as I stated. I gave the commonalities as far as my comparison went - it was not meant to be an exact duplication of events or even on the basis as you have put it of revolution. No, I simply meant that the people of the UK and the US find themselves in a similar position to that of Russia under Yeltsin - and I will agree that has happened for different reasons in each country. What I praise both Putin and Xi for is that they care about their respective citizenry, and they are pursuing policies which favor the entire population, with popular support.

Also, to this statement:

" Even if you take Bernie Sanders' "democratic socialism" movement seriously (and I think we should), the diagnosis is very clear: the really existing dissent in post-2008 USA is not of revolutionary nature. What we observe is a reformist/reactionary movement, a dissent that still has faith in the imperial system. "

No, we shouldn't take that seriously, not as far as Sanders himself goes. karlof1 has pointed out that unfortunately those of us who thought he might simply be a judas goat were correct. Again, it is about policies that consider the welfare of the people, not the system. And no, it is not about empire. It's about statesmanship. Knowing what a country needs and working towards bringing that to pass from within the system. Unfortunately, both Johnson and Trump aren't doing that. Maybe resignation is in order for both. Johnson could be weakened by his hospital ordeal; and Trump is maybe over medicating himself -- in any case they don't seem well, and so the Yeltsin comparison is the kindest one I can give. Both are simply not handling the pandemic, in any case.

Yeltsin supported Putin - that was a good move on his part. Would that our subject here would support in similar fashion new leadership for Britain that could steer the country through these troubling times.

Night all.

Posted by: juliania | May 27 2020 5:02 utc | 87

Are we awake yet ?

https://twitter.com/sara8smiles/status/949502995963801601

Posted by: Mark2 | May 27 2020 12:21 utc | 88

Cummings is a hardcore Thatcherite. Well, Good Riddance

Posted by: Wilford | May 27 2020 17:25 utc | 89

- There are already one million british citizens who want to get rid of Cummings:

https://inews.co.uk/news/dominic-cummings-million-britons-petition-change-org-pm-adviser-sacked-2869494

Posted by: Willy2 | Jun 1 2020 13:33 utc | 90

aNtIfAaaa, Lol :p
Breaking news
Three suspects are in custody on terror charges in an alleged right-wing conspiracy to spark violence during protests in Las Vegas, prosecutors say.
https://twitter.com/AP/status/1268309345575538688

Posted by: Sol Invictus | Jun 4 2020 0:51 utc | 91