Non-Covid-19 news & views …
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May 5, 2020
Open Thread 2020-36
Comments
PJB@100
My poor old post about Jack Vance looks strangely lonely without your post – originally 68 – above it. I too am puzzled that b has decided to take it out as it was, as I remember, in no way controversial. But b has been recently complaining about an invasion of trolls and he clearly descends, from time to time, with fire and the sword to purge the bar and I suspect your post became collateral damage, (as the Americans might say.)
Posted by: Montreal | May 6 2020 20:44 utc | 101
Since I gaffed and posted this in the election thread, here is the post with c1ue’s answer, for the benefit of other barflies:
So, being a complete noob in crypto-currency matters, what does the finance savvy folks here think, should one invest in bitcoin or not? Thoughts?
Posted by: Lozion | May 6 2020 15:05 utc | 44
@Lozion #44
The word “invest” should never cross paths with “cryptocurrency” or “bitcoin”.
The entire sector has been infested with charlatans from the start.
The largest cryptocurrency exchange in Canada was literally founded by ex-pyramid scheme gold pushers.
Thefts of cryptocurrency are billions per year – a rounding error for the rest of the monetary system, but a visible percentage of the entire cryptocurrency market cap.
From a value investment perspective: how valuable is a currency which is primarily used for cyber crime? Note investment is not “usage”.
And even on the investment side: the number of pump and dumpers is literally astounding. The number of telegram channels devoted to this was literally in the thousands: the means by which the pump and dumpers would coordinate their actions. Some turned out to be scams on scams: they’d bring in people to be dumped on.
Crypocurrencies are to investment what Mogadishu is to government.
Posted by: c1ue | May 6 2020 18:07 utc | 49
Posted by: Lozion | May 6 2020 21:01 utc | 102
Thanks to all the barflies that replied to my post about digital currencies, but I want to give a special shout-out to Grieved for his patient tutorial. I know more now but still lack proficiency sufficient to tutor others, particularly my wife.
BM & Walter–Yes, the biowarfare regime has never ended and is mentioned in the latest National Defense Doctrine while the #1 goal remains Full Spectrum Dominance.
vk @97– The New Deal was announced by FDR in his DNC Acceptance Speech in 1932, not 1937. Why the Golpistas were never prosecuted is one of my top historical mysteries. Many reinfiltrated government and later became founders of the National Security State and managers of its initial organs.
Posted by: karlof1 | May 6 2020 21:48 utc | 103
More evidence of lockdown induced supply chain disruption
CNN article on why flour shortages are on
The demand we have been experiencing is double what we experience during our busiest holiday months (November and December).
Posted by: c1ue | May 6 2020 21:54 utc | 104
Walter–
Here’s a link to a site detailing the “Business Plot” which I found using McCormack-Dickstein Committee as the search term, a process I hadn’t used in my previous searches into the topic. I wish I had more time presently to investigate, but all the current events are keeping me beyond occupied–then of course, there’s life with the missus.
As for Pompeo’s anti-China Crusade, he’s dancing with fire as more evidence of pre-December COVID-19 cases will surface to join those already known and burn him real good. I’m elated some Patriotic People are calling out Trump for gross Dereliction of Duty while some are publicly saying his behavior was deliberate. I wonder what your Anoxia patriots would say to that.
Posted by: karlof1 | May 6 2020 22:02 utc | 105
c1ue @104–
A few weeks ago, I said I was going to look into the flour shortage story when shopping at our local food services supply outlet that caters to restaurants and public alike. What I found was no flour shortage; indeed, I could’ve purchased a ton–2K pounds–of various types of flour. On the new subject of meat shortages, yes, certain cuts aren’t available–but–other cuts are being sold at a discount at a time when you’d expect higher prices due to supply. This has recurred at both wholesale and retail levels. My step-son works at a retail grocer and says complete order filling is just as inconsistent now as it was last year when nothing was happening. Farmer’s Markets are due to reopen, so it’ll be interesting to hear their stories and see if their operations differ from previous years.
Posted by: karlof1 | May 6 2020 22:13 utc | 106
The Iran file:
Trump vetoes Iran war powers resolution
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Wednesday vetoed legislation passed by both houses of Congress to limit a president’s ability to wage war against Iran, as Trump wages a campaign of maximum pressure against the Islamic Republic.
“This was a very insulting resolution, introduced by Democrats as part of a strategy to win an election on November 3 by dividing the Republican Party,” Trump said in a statement released by the White House. “The few Republicans who voted for it played right into their hands.”
The Senate, where Trump’s fellow Republicans hold a 53-to 47-seat majority, is expected to hold a veto-override vote as soon as Thursday.{.}
The U.S. has a dunce for a president whose finger is on the nuclear button. However, I critique the Congress, that august body, which relinquished its war powers authority to declare war some two decades ago. Once it’s gone it is an uphill fight and Very difficult to retrieve. Now, if the override votes aren’t there tomorrow a good case can be made at the Supreme Court. Congress has the power to amend any Act they choose. Trump also is unaware of the power of the purse held by Congress to fund and defund.
And earlier this week after U.S. Pompeo has been saying we are only a little half pregnant and still a participant in the JCPOA and that the U.N. arms embargo due to expire in October should be extended,
from Iran cometh this:
Rouhani Warns of ‘Crushing Response’ if Arms Embargo Against Iran Extended
[.] Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said that Tehran would oppose any efforts by the UN Security Council to extend an arms embargo on the country.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Tehran will deal a ‘crushing response’ if the arms embargo against the country is extended, and added that US President Donald Trump had made a stupid mistake by exiting the 2015 Nuclear Deal.
“If America wants to return to the deal, it should lift all the sanctions on Tehran and compensate for the reimposition of sanctions … Iran will give a crushing response if the arms embargo on Tehran is extended,” Rouhani said on Wednesday.
Any hands up here what this “crushing response” is likely to deploy?
Depression risk and drums of war.
Posted by: Likklemore | May 6 2020 22:46 utc | 107
: karlof1 | May 6 2020 22:02 utc | 105 Our “patriots” are simply moderately ignorant peasants, but they’re also smart…I am happy to say that they go to ordinary American protestant churches, a lot…so while they’re crazy, they’re also not very dangerous. I went to a SoJ meeting once, as a sky…they’re generally ex cops and farmers, ranchers, and their wives…”straight people”…and they’re scared…retreating, and have passion. Anoxia, as a concept, relates to the TUC…the Time of Useful Consciousness, which lies between losing the O2 and losing the ability to care. That can be a crazy time.
I reckon the first CV infections were in August, near Ft Detrick…and then in a panic, since it was out, they had to cast it wide as an attempt to make the best of a fubar and cast blame on others…of course it may not have been Policy, a small cabal…(as Burroughs would write), might design to mousetrap the State and the Clown, geewhiz, yatink?
Best old man…..
…
In another line, related to the considerations that Peter Lavelle mooted about “uprising” in usa… a philosophical story that is entirely unrelated to the fascist zionish enterprises of today and our time, but which subtly speaks to the question of meekness. Lenard Nemoy…
Yiddish Story Time; Bontshe The Silent by I. L. Peretz (you tube)
(lotta people doan know this fine story)
Posted by: Walter | May 7 2020 0:06 utc | 108
karlof1 | May 6 2020 22:02 utc | 105 Thanks for the link to BMP. Everything there and much more is familiar to me, on my book shelves in fact,..again, when did the Policy of that Class, change? Obviously it has gone on and found success in degree, perhaps especially with the Truman affair and the timely departure (Stalin said murder) of FDR and with the Dallas affair of ’63, thence to the “surprises and secret coups…which “seem” some say, to revolve ’round that especial family of secrets…bushers, if we read the subversive commie lies from “Russ Raker.”…
Posted by: Walter | May 7 2020 0:27 utc | 109
@ Posted by: karlof1 | May 6 2020 21:48 utc | 103
Yes, that’s technically correct. But when he took office, he abandoned the New Deal and begun to enforce a typical austerity program (i.e. he lied to the people who voted for him).
It was only when these austerity policies resulted in another recession on top of the 1929 depression that FDR found enough political space to de facto implement the New Deal. Even then it begun timidly. It only really picked up steam when WWII begun in 1939, and reached its apex when the USA itself entered the war as a belligerent, in 1941.
There is no way this is not going to Supreme Court. The orange one just vetoed the war powers resolution.
Who do want to have the power to start a war? Congress or the President?
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/06/politics/trump-veto-iran-war-powers/index.html
Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | May 7 2020 3:01 utc | 111
King Lear 113
I guess most people in the so-called “alternative” media, desperately need to believe that the world is divided into “Good Guys” (Russia and China) and “Bad guys” (the U$), when in reality all three of those countries are led by the “Same Guys” (the Global Financial elite) who believe in the “Same Principles” (Rabid Neoliberal Capitalism)
Most “alt-media” types are psychologically the same as mainstream adherents in the sense of having a deep-seated need to believe that if there’s Bad Guys, there also have to be Good Guys. They merely change polarities and put a plus sign where the mainstream puts a minus and vice versa. No amount of evidence can change their minds, same as with the regular sheeple.
It’s the same with the flu epidemic. It was clear from the start that there was no “good” solution, since you have incompetent and malign systems trying to apply fundamentally wrong-headed ideologies and practices against nature at her most assertive, fluid and flexible. It was always clear that the best societies could do was take precautions to protect the most vulnerable (something Western societies STILL are not doing to this day) while otherwise letting the bug do what it certainly is going to do anyway regardless of any flat-earth attempts to violently segregate and suppress it. Lockdowns accomplish nothing but to delay the inevitable while adding immense collateral harms to physical and mental health, human community and culture, and radically accelerate the economic liquidation of the people.
But “alt” types just as much as the mainstream heed the call to “Stampede!”, feel the imperative “We Have to DO Something!!”, and from there it follows as religious doctrine that there must exist a Good Solution, when in fact no such thing exists. Usually the alt types’ alleged Good Solution is different from that of the mainstream, but in this case they’re in lock step, and indeed the “alternative” has largely dissolved itself back into the mainstream, probably permanently, even though it still has a different place to hang out.
Having read Pepe’s essay about China’s foray into digital currency & electronic transactions, I had a vision – of Xi responding to yet another pathetic Yankee insult by appearing on stage in an Al Jolson costume, complete with black-face, and bursting into song…
You made me stun you.
I didn’t wanna do it.
I didn’t wanna do it…
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 7 2020 5:43 utc | 113
USA’s extraofficial version about its Venezuelan “Bay of Pigs” came out yesterday:
From a Miami condo to the Venezuelan coast, how a plan to ‘capture’ Maduro went rogue
Once more WaPo “journalists” give us a very detailed – insider grade – story about an allegedly very obscure operation involving a lot of dangerous people and a very far away land. I guess Anthony Faiola, Karen DeYoung and Venessa Herrero just had an inspired day…
More evidence of Japanese book cooking:
Requests in Japan to test corpses for coronavirus often rejected
You can’t deny what you don’t know. That’s the fascist way, the anti-knowledge, anti-science, anti-reason way.
Adeyinka Makinde, a QC and writer in London posted on the 4th a brief article about Comrade Tito, with a cool quote:
“Stalin: Stop sending people to kill me! We’ve already captured five of them, one with a bomb and another with a rifle … If you don’t stop sending killers, I’ll send one to Moscow, and I won’t have to send another.” – Tito.
(Perhaps Comrade Maduro might take a lesson, not that there is any similarity between the Clownish business in Venezuela…ahemmm.)
It’s interesting that the actor, Sterling Hayden, who played the insane anticommie General Ripper in Strangelove, in fact skippered boats across the Adriatic to…you guessed it, Tito…and was briefly a Communist (CPUSA) his own self..though, like most, he caved in to the US fascist pogrom after the war… Hayden played it with personal heat and precision, too.
“Remembering Marshal Josip Broz Tito, Leader of Yugoslavia”
tinyurl [dot] com/yc425gru
Includes about 8 minutes of video too.
RIP Josip
Posted by: Walter | May 7 2020 13:41 utc | 116
What’s that old adage? If you can’t beat them, Join them.
Say it ain’t so, Pompeo got binned. Hope he enjoyed the lobster tails and steak dinners as he lobbied in the UK, Germany, France and especially Canada.
This is quite a U-turn on “National Security Interests” with implications for that ‘extradition-on-hold-hearings’ in Vancouver, Canada!!!
Exclusive: U.S. drafts rule to allow Huawei and U.S. firms to work together on 5G standards – sources LINK
(Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Commerce is close to signing off on a new rule that would allow U.S. companies to work with China’s Huawei Technologies on setting standards for next generation 5G networks, people familiar with the matter said.
Engineers in some U.S. technology companies stopped engaging with Huawei to develop standards after the Commerce Department blacklisted the company last year. The listing left companies uncertain about what technology and information their employees could share with Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker.
That has put the United States at a disadvantage, said industry and government officials. In standards setting meetings, where protocols and technical specifications are developed that allow equipment from different companies to function together smoothly, Huawei gained a stronger voice as U.S. engineers sat back in silence.[.]
In adding Huawei to the list last May, the Commerce Department cited U.S. charges pending against the company for alleged violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran. It also noted that the indictment alleges Huawei engaged in “deceptive and obstructive acts” to evade U.S. law. Huawei has pleaded not guilty in the case.[.]
“International standard setting is important to the development of 5G,” said another senior administration official, who also did not want to be identified. “The discussions are about balancing that consideration with America’s national security needs.”[.]
(emphasis added).
Attorneys for Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou extradition hearing just received added ammunition.
Posted by: Likklemore | May 7 2020 15:15 utc | 117
Why Trump won’t cancel US debt obligations toward China
Responding to the question of whether the US might not pay its debt obligation to China, Trump said that it’s a “rough game” and said he “doesn’t have to do that” and needs to protect “the sanctity of the dollar.”
“The sanctity of the dollar”…
@ 100 pjb.. i too share @ 101 montreals view that b has been swamped with having to deal with the trolls.. as a consequence some posts have been removed that shouldn’t have been like yours…
Posted by: james | May 7 2020 16:00 utc | 119
a big shout out to Dr. Haring: pushing back on the “War on Cash”-
his interview.
When you pay by credit cards, they do not get a cut. It’s all about fees and curtailing privacy and liberty:
A consortium of powerful interests that include Visa and Mastercard, the International Monetary Fund, billionaire Bill Gates and the US Treasury have been slowly lobbying for cash to be abolished worldwide and replaced with digital only currencies. Pushing humans to the wall and the revolution will be televised.
Norbert Haering holds a PhD in economics and is co-founder and co-director of the World Economics Association, the second largest association of economists worldwide.[.]
Dr Häring initiated a lawsuit in 2015 for the right to pay his fees to public broadcasters in cash, which has since made its way to the European Court of Justice (CJEU). The date for the oral hearing at the CJEU is set for 15 June 2020.[.]
Sputnik: Why are they doing this?
Norbert Häring: The interest of the financial sector in selling their own products instead of cash is obvious. The IT-companies want the data that [goes] with digitalisation [of cash] and the US-government wants the surveillance and sanctioning power that goes with digitalisation of payments. The other countries that co-operate also like the aspect of gaining more surveillance power over their populations.[.]
Oh, and when you prohibit a thing!! – they overlook that during this COVID-19 lockdown banks’ ATM have been closed; no bill payments.
And will they suspend power outages? Food and gas much?
I bet on certain unnamed agencies to silently be friends of the liberty to use cash. It is not illegal and if so declared, we go use sea shells, 1 kg of sand or five rocks and in a worst case good old fashioned barter.
Posted by: Likklemore | May 7 2020 17:17 utc | 120
@114 The US government has denied all knowledge of the botched bounty hunters.
Pompeo will however use every tool available to get them safely back. And he has an inexhaustible supply of tools.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/skeptics/pompeo-denies-us-involvement-botched-venezuela-coup-151646
Posted by: dh | May 7 2020 17:44 utc | 121
AP Exclusive: Justice Dept dropping Flynn’s criminal case
Hopes Flynn now sues the hack out of the FBI and the agents that tried to entrap him and lied about it.
(Which doesn’t mean I like him or his policies.)
@ b 122
You bet in 3, 2, 1 ; Flynn’s Attorney, Sidney Powell, will file a huge billion $ wrongful lawsuit which will go to settlement. And here is the ammunition – the gift from DOJ:
The Justice Department said it had concluded that Flynn’s interview by the FBI was “untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn” and that the interview on January 24, 2017 was “conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.
LINK
(emphasis added)
Ouch!!!!
How many millions spent by Mueller?
Posted by: Likklemore | May 7 2020 19:27 utc | 123
Meanwhile Uncle Sam’s Supreme Injustices openly declare that some corruption is legal:
Supreme Court Reverses Bridgegate Convictions: “Not Every Corrupt Act Is A Federal Crime”
The Supreme Court has decided to reverse the fraud convictions of two aides to former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who played key roles in the Bridgegate scandal, the incident involving the politically-motivated shutdown of traffic lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge in 2013.
“But not every corrupt act by state or local officials is a federal crime,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the unanimous decision. “Because the scheme here did not aim to obtain money or property, Baroni and Kelly could not have violated the federal-program fraud or wire fraud laws.”
Posted by: Trailer Trash | May 7 2020 21:31 utc | 124
124 Trailer Trash
What’s new? Not every murder is a crime neither.Soldiers are educated to it.
Posted by: willie | May 8 2020 6:50 utc | 125
Posted by: willie | May 8 2020 6:50 utc | 125
“What’s new? Not every murder is a crime neither.Soldiers are educated to it.”
Legalistically none of the murders at Auschwitz were crimes. The Nazis were punctilious about that.
But in this case there’s no doubt that if the convicts didn’t have the right political connections, the court would have decided differently. In the US there is no “rule of law”, any more than there are meaningful elections or significant regulation. To expect any of those is fundamentally mistake the real purposes and goals of US law, the US electoral system, US regulatory agencies.
Exactly the same as how you can’t take a pseudo-medical structure dedicated to maximizing corporate profit and try to use it for such a completely different purpose as to practice medicine. That won’t work. Same when you try to use a profit-seeking “health insurance” system to provide actual health care.
Same for all US “authorities”, institutions and media. Their system, their ideology, the educational background and mindset of their cadres, are dedicated completely to goals – power and profit – which render it impossible for any of their structures to function effectively toward any other goal. These scientific and medical structures couldn’t act effectively toward the public good, the public health, even if they suddenly wanted to.
Of course there’s zero evidence that any US institutions want to act for the public health, all to the contrary. Their actions prove it.
75 years ago t-day
some fascists
were chittingthemselvesinfear,
eh?
Happened once, can happen again?
Motivation.
Happy 08 May!
Posted by: Walter | May 8 2020 11:12 utc | 127
Germany versus the European Central Bank:
https://www.ft.com/content/db720dde-19e8-4e9c-bbfb-b4d48db71a6c
https://www.economist.com/europe/2020/05/07/germanys-highest-court-takes-issue-with-the-european-central-bank
ECB answering on a public holiday!
https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2020-05/cp200058en.pdf
Confirming what Varoufakis has been saying…
Posted by: Mina | May 8 2020 12:33 utc | 128
It’s interesting how the “lockdown” business is going to inter-act with the jolly weather…see wunderground
Florida Panhandle Wildfires Burn Homes; Hundreds Ordered to Evacuate
Northeast Could See Bombogenesis
An extreme weather pattern, with snowflakes and record cold, is setting up for Mother’s Day weekend.
110°F in China Already?
Wildfires are raging in Russia, and at least three countries saw their most intense April heat on record.
..
So, I get it…we have to say at home and wear a muzzle, er, mask, and also evacuate.
They say that in a state of exceptionalism things are like Schroderger’s Cat – true and false simultaneously, legal, and illegal, right, and wrong…
Goebbels used to cry “einmalig in der geschichte!” (mostly when he thought the nazi forces were winning. In fact they were conquering the flypaper.
Posted by: Walter | May 8 2020 13:17 utc | 129
BM | May 6 2020 17:36 utc | 90 (report) Yes, I have read the entire corpus with attached evidence and testimonials, same as you.
It took quite a while. Everybody ought to read it all.
…
I mooted long ago “Agent Sam went to Wuhan”…anyway the affair is a con as well as probable attack and rhymes with episodes of ’41 and ’52…as is obvious.
…
Everyone must read it. It illuminates with brilliance this moment as well as a sordid history.
Posted by: Walter | May 6 2020 17:54 utc | 92
Yes I agree entirely, everybody should read it. It should be compulsory reading in every school and university in the world. Not only that International Scientific Commission (report on the US biological warfare against Korea and China in 1952) but also the “Kobe Unscreened” report by Wilfred Burchett and Alan Winnington on the US death camps of Korean War POWs, both Korean and Chinese. (The latter seems to have been scrubbed very effectively from the internet, I was unable to find a link, but maybe someone better at searching can find a link – it is available somewhere, as a pdf).
Not only should the above two reports be read for moral education and to understand the context and modus operandi of US actions today, but also the ISC report (especially selected appendices, much more so than the report itself which pulls its punches) is an absolute fundamental must-read for a proper understanding of (a) the entire phenomenon of Covid-19, and (b) how the Chinese eradicated Covid-19 from China so quickly and effectively, the kind of attitude of mind they were able to draw on to achieve this, and why the West could never have the slightest hope of having anywhere near such success.
Anyone shouting from the rooftops about “lockdowns” who does not read the ISC report has no idea what they are talking about, since “lockdowns” in the brutal and profoundly stupid manner practised by countries like the USA and the UK is nothing more than a suicide pact – unable to control Covid-19 and causing far more deaths through economic causes, impaired access to medical treatment for other ailments, panic, fear etc. “Lockdown” without contact tracing and quarantine of contacts, is useless.
Here is a taster from the ISC report, showing teams of citizens meticulously collecting the pathogen-infected insects regularly spread by US planes over hundreds of square kilometers of North Korea and China, to prevent the epidemics the US was trying to cause, and burning the insects here and here.
Posted by: BM | May 8 2020 13:45 utc | 130
BM | May 8 2020 13:45 utc | 130 Yes.
Karlof1 remarked in the matter of US Policy that the Policy of germwar/biowar, which obviously began in 1941 (or prior) (Merck Report is mentioned in the corpus of the “report” the “International Report” of which we’re speaking – Merck Report in ’46 stated that the US went industrial into “CBW” in ’41…)
K remarked recently the the Policy continues as part of “full spectrum dominance”. Possibly this explains why I cannot discover and cancellation of the Policy.
…………..
WSWS to-day has a number of interesting articles. Can it be that the people in power seek to game the events? Aw, they wouldn’t! (don’t bet on that!)
Seventy-five years since the end of World War II
Trump administration suppresses Centers for Disease Control coronavirus guidance document
Opening report to Online International May Day Rally
The COVID-19 pandemic: A trigger event in world history
At “reopen the economy” event, Trump confirms plans to shut down coronavirus task force
……..
As to everyone ought to read it… Perhaps “b” will (or has) and perhaps that will influence his series of essays. And since every spook in the world reads MoA…perhaps they too will read it.
No doubt the “western spooks” will be confirmed in their loyalties by the true historic records of glory, and, er, perhaps … perhaps not.
Facts can be revolutionary in effect. Ahemmm.
Posted by: Walter | May 8 2020 14:17 utc | 131
Yesterday NYT “An Incursion Into Venezuela, Straight Out of Hollywood”
They should consult the journalist from entertainment section, is slapstick comedy produced in Hollywood? I though that Hollywood specializes in something more heroic and high budget. Some quotes:
[1] Jordan G. Goudreau, a United States citizen and former Green Beret
[2] The Maduro administration has blamed the attack on the United States government, which has denied a connection to Mr. Goudreau or his Florida-based security company SilverCorp. The company claims it had entered into a $220 million agreement with the Venezuelan opposition to help oust Mr. Maduro.
[3] In the end, there were just two boats with 60 men who were to storm the capital and capture Mr. Maduro. Mr. Goudreau later said his men vomited the entire way and nearly ran out of gasoline as they headed toward Venezuela.
[4] In an interrogation video released by the Venezuelan government, Luke Denman, one of the captured Green Berets, said he “was helping Venezuelans take back control of their country,” and expected to be paid $50,000 to $100,000 for his efforts.
[5] Mr. Goudreau did not participate in the raid because he was prevented by coronavirus-related border closures from traveling to Colombia to join his men. Instead, Mr. Goudreau, who lives in Florida, remained in the United States.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | May 8 2020 14:25 utc | 132
Exactly the same as how you can’t take a pseudo-medical structure dedicated to maximizing corporate profit and try to use it for such a completely different purpose as to practice medicine. That won’t work. Same when you try to use a profit-seeking “health insurance” system to provide actual health care.
Posted by: Russ | May 8 2020 7:48 utc | 126
Oh dear! You mean like trying to use futile patentable drugs to cure Covid-19? Or trying to use deadly but futile patentable vaccines to prevent it?
Western medicine – in its entirety, and at every level – is just an institution optimised for maximising profit extraction, highly ill-suited for curing patients. Ouch! There is an urgent need for developing an entirely new paradigm for evidence-based medicine founded on morality and on optimisation of the health of society, instead of optimised profits of the few.
The contrast between China’s approach to Covid-19 and the USA’s approach to Covid-19 is the perfect illustration of that need.
Posted by: BM | May 8 2020 14:28 utc | 133
VK(vk) , with whom I generally agree or defer to, said recently that in the US the anti-nazi theme was promoted [only?] after WW2. Yes, he’s correct, as I can say from observation.
However as a boy I read the “pulp magazines” published between 1935 and 1945…stacks and stacks of cheap popular magazines, thousands of pages of crumbling cheap paper… (swiped from paper-drives, which we used to have).
There was plenty of anti-nazi rhetoric. Massive pro-soviet.
Then of course there are movies, and these survive…especially The Great Dictator”.
Withal, it seems fair to me to say that the anti-nazi rhetoric and propaganda existed in US even before the war began in 1939, but that the post war quality of anti-nazi rhetoric changed to an attempt to “colonize” the history, a gradual revisionism…in this attempt the volume increased by perhaps an order of magnitude….such that to-day most Americans imagine the America defeated the nazis.
Goebbels once wrote that with enough bs he could get people to believe triangles were squares.
I wish I could send those long lost pulp magazines to vk.
But I agree, he’s almost right, the volume went way up after the war, about the same times that the nazis were being sheepdipped into Canada and the US and rehabilitated in Europe.
Of course, the bulk of US persons in 1940 were pretty well “pink” and many were communists, of a mild sort. This too is erased. But “they”, the bosses, still fear it.
Posted by: Walter | May 8 2020 14:40 utc | 134
Koje Unscreened
Posted by: Lucille Crystal Ball | May 8 2020 15:13 utc | 135
Thanks for posting that link, Lucille. It is an important document.
Posted by: BM | May 8 2020 16:07 utc | 135
Thanks for Koje U., Lucille!
What a great crowd at the bar!
Thanks to ‘b’ for hosting his traveling salon and symposium.
(as an aside, I remember reading somewhere, not too long ago, that the spook bosses are having a hellofatime maintaining in their troll-armies the suspension of disbelief necessary to their jobs, because when they read the true history, incidental to said jobs, their delusions, ah, suffer. The smartest most ardent fellas an gals, becoming ruined and, ah, “disloyal” as they begin to twig to the lies they must believe… I suppose that story is true. It makes sense. Thus “Koje U.” is especially nice to see here, eh?)
Posted by: Walter | May 8 2020 16:40 utc | 136
BM @136 & Walter @137–
I also came across the link supplied by Lucille Crystal Ball. In my search, I also came across “Truth or Treason? Dirty Secrets of the Korean War” by George Burchett that provides even more grist for the mill. What at first seemed a small can of worms when I first began looking into the Outlaw US Empire’s hidden past 40 years ago has grow into a Supertanker filled to the brim with not worms but vipers. The linked article links to other puzzle pieces that help to clear the fog. It seems clear to me that at some point either just before or at the beginning of 1942 a change occurred in the federal government’s moral compass. Now that I ponder that, the timing might even be earlier given the need to get the Japanese to strike the first blow to finally jolt the still very Anti-war nature of the US public AND Congress into being Pro-war. The political maneuverings to get around the Neutrality Acts began earnestly in 1938 and escalated from there in a rather secretive, hidden manner. Another question dogs my mind–When did the Manhattan Project actually begin as I doubt it was 1942. The revolutionary power of Atomics would require a change in moral values to even think about implementing.
Walter, the observations you provided to vk @134 are very important as they jibe with Hudson’s recollection of his youth in Minnesota and Chicago. I was surprised to discover Milwaukee had a Socialist government for quite sometime whose existence is actively suppressed, but not enough as there’s a museum there that preserves artifacts from that Era I once visited. Prior to digging into the Empire’s secrets, I was into studying the Great Depression and still wonder just how “pink” the general US populace became during that period since that would have motivated Reactionaries to do their utmost to turn a tide that could end their positions of power and deprive them of their ill-gotten comfort and wealth.
Seeking the roots of the problem’s important as we humans need to connect effect with cause to become convinced of something that otherwise seems improbable, unlikely, unthinkable, like the need to perform 911 and thus supply the desired new Pearl Harbor at that moment in time. Grieved made the important connection between the repo dealings, CEO retirements and onset of plague that’s all part of the Big Picture. It would be excellent to find some loose lips amongst those CEOs. Did Epstein know a few of the strings? What if Hitlerry had become POTUS; would we have seen COVID earlier? The Chinese have announced they’ll be upgrading their nuclear arsenal to face the Empire’s threat. Other snippets now emerging indicate China anticipated something and had already implemented some measures at Wuhan. And the Beat Goes On….
Posted by: karlof1 | May 8 2020 17:58 utc | 137
karlof1 @ 138
i’ve posted thank you, karlof1, several times unfortunately the cloud never released them. i’ll try again. thank you karlof1 for your many links, one of the reasons i come to moa & other sites is to learn & you invariably provide much for us to consider, & learn. you are a gifted sage & we are fortunate indeed to have you visit & post. thank you.
Posted by: emersonreturn | May 8 2020 18:04 utc | 138
emersonreturn @138–
Thanks for your reply and its kudos!! Long ago after I read The Warren Report, I became an Objectivist, a seeker of the Truth, and much later realized that Logos=Gnosis. As fate would have it, the Junior High I attended was named after Emerson; that Transcendentalism was recently invoked on the Keiser Report related to our current context IMO was also well placed to stimulate. Try to keep all within all as in Holistically to comprehend. And thank those as diverse as Socrates, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Gene Rodenberry, and George Lucas for their inadvertent aid in the overall quest, not that they stand alone for there are many others!
Posted by: karlof1 | May 8 2020 21:12 utc | 139
@ K et al, in re Korea…oftentimes matters incidental to and of a minor nature result in very large inflections in the flow of events upon which we form history…as “Maud Lebowski” reminds us there can be “unintended secondary after-effects”… of germs and violence.
Mostly as an aside..”The Springing of George Blake”…a fair story. Would that such a thing might happen to Comrade Assange! But it shows how jails have change to dungeons in UK… Rumpole’s fear is justified!
And Blake? Ah! The man was trapped in Korea, and watched the fire-bombs and all of it… With the result.
He never had any choice after that.
I expect you know the story. If not…
All the best old man. (If I were you I’d think twice about getting a shot from old bill.)
Posted by: Walter | May 8 2020 22:44 utc | 140
Global R says> Why Did Hundreds Of CEOs Resign Just Before The World Started Going Absolutely Crazy?
Off hand, Wally would guess they did it like whores, for the money…
Posted by: Walter | May 8 2020 22:52 utc | 141
Salt Of The Earth (1954) (movie) The union wins a moment in time despite the bosses promoting divisions…will geer play a kapalistphatcat…
On YT for now.
The last scene is important…because it tells us that there is no victory, yet, but struggle is worth it
Posted by: Walter | May 8 2020 23:36 utc | 142
Russian Trials of Japanese Germwar boffines and officers…Some may read the Russian…document in Russian is the full transcript of the Khabarovsk Trials. It is 538 pages long. That’s how it begins:
“From 25 to 30 December in the city of Khabarovsk, a trial was held in the case of twelve former officers of the Japanese army accused of preparing and using bacteriological weapons.”
see tinyurl[dot]com/y8ww8m5l
in pdf 538 delightful and jolly pages…
Any copy in English would be a nice find…
Posted by: Walter | May 9 2020 0:16 utc | 143
Details on the May negative oil contract price
In all, 14,913 crude oil contracts exchanged hands at negative prices on April 20, according to CME data.
To put this in perspective: each contract is for 1000 barrels of oil.
14,913 contracts (at least some of which were traded more than once) – represents less than 1 day’s consumption by the US. Not nothing, but definitely not an overall market trend.
Posted by: c1ue | May 9 2020 14:04 utc | 144
@karlof1 #106
I’m not surprised that a food service store would still have flour – the same is not true for grocery stores. It is there, but the cheaper varieties are extremely rarely available and even the high cost ones are in short supply.
The point of the article I posted was that consumer demand was double that of the industry’s normally busiest months.
I’ve posted elsewhere on the travails of the commercial supply space, and what the largely complete separation of commercial and retail food supply chains means.
Posted by: c1ue | May 9 2020 14:24 utc | 145
Walter @143–
I’ll see what I can find as I recall there being something published in English about that trial. On another front, the proper set of questions are finally asked by the somewhat unreliable writer Matthew Ehret:
“The allies never actually won World War II…
“Now please don’t get me wrong. I am eternally thankful for the immortal souls who gave their lives to put down the fascist machine during those bleak years… but the fact is that a certain something wasn’t resolved on the 9th of May, 1945 which has a lot to do with the slow re-emergence of a new form of fascism during the second half of the 20th century and the renewed danger of a global bankers’ dictatorship which the world faces again today.
“It is my contention that it is only when we find the courage to really look at this problem with sober eyes, that we will be able to truly honor our courageous forebears who devoted their lives to winning a peace for their children, grandchildren and humanity more broadly.”
He then gets into the meat of his very correct assertion as follows:
“I’ll stop beating around the Bush now and just say it: Adolph Hitler or Benito Mussolini were never ‘their own men’.
“The machines they led were never fully under their sovereign control and the financing they used as fuel in their effort to dominate the world did not come from the Banks of Italy or Germany. The technologies they used in petrochemicals, rubber, and computing didn’t come from Germany or Italy, and the governing scientific ideology of eugenics that drove so many of the horrors of Germany’s racial purification practices never originated in the minds of German thinkers or from German institutions.
“Were it not for a powerful network of financiers and industrialists of the 1920s-1940s with names such as Rockefeller, Warburg, Montague Norman, Osborn, Morgan, Harriman or Dulles, then it can safely be said that fascism would never have been possible as a “solution” to the economic woes of the post-WWI order. To prove this point, let us take the strange case of Prescott Bush as a useful entry point.”
I’ll let you and others read what follows, but IMO we’ll all agree that the War Against Fascism wasn’t finished with Japan’s surrender, that the Beast must still be slain so humans can finally be free. Within the article’s a shocker for me for I never heard of what is relayed in this report Ehret links to. I’ll admit in this article Ehret shines like never before. This looks like a fine piece of work, although there’s some follow up needing to be done for me to be satisfied. Too bad there’s no other place currently to post this at as many will likely miss it. We’ll just need to repost it to the next open thread.
Posted by: karlof1 | May 9 2020 22:40 utc | 146
fyi Re Bay of Piglets – Lest we Forget:
How Chrystia Freeland Organized Donald Trump’s [Failed] Coup in Venezuela
https://www.pressenza.com/2019/02/how-chrystia-freeland-organized-donald-trumps-coup-in-venezuela/
“We Celebrate Today the 75th Anniversary of your Nazi Grandpa’s Defeat…”
https://twitter.com/CarlZha/status/1258966178073939968
Posted by: John Gilberts | May 9 2020 23:45 utc | 147
karlof1 | May 9 2020 22:40 utc | 146…Dude, it’s the 4th Reich, morphed and mutated…samesame, eh? Glad ya twigged.
I read it.
And maybe Adolf did die of old age, eh? And maybe the Truman switch was a coincidence…
Irving’s views coincide with Ehret, though their personal druthers differ quite a bit…!
meantime see for lockdowntainment…this amusing propaganda flick
of YT “The Soviet Media’s Portrait of America”
tinyurl dot com/y8bwjzsr
How much for a beer? Read the stories of Weimar…the upper class cat going to the bordello and asking for a child, only to be introduced to his own daughter…
It was/is Ruski joke…”Everything the Communist said about Communism was a lie, and everything they said about the Capitalist was true”
see propaganda movie! A hoot!
Now for pure grain alcohol and rainwater…those precious bodily fluids an all that stuff…
Later.
Posted by: Walter | May 10 2020 0:20 utc | 148
Dude> see US NAZI COMPANIES MINT PRESS
Victory in Europe Day: These American Corporations Aided Nazi Germany
tinyurl. { dot }om/y89bbl6u
The timely passing of Wallace and FDR prevented Prescott the Bushie from facing — an “uncertain” future. What a lucky guy!
Posted by: Walter | May 10 2020 0:32 utc | 149
Regular MoA salooners will remember whose sacrifice this RF memorial flight is commemorating!
(Hint: It is not the French)
WATCH Russia’s active-duty pilots fly over Syria for V-Day parade in stunning GoPro FOOTAGE
Екатери́на
Posted by: Екатери́на | May 10 2020 12:48 utc | 150
Russian Trials of Japanese Germwar boffines and officers
Any copy in English would be a nice find…
Posted by: Walter | May 9 2020 0:16 utc | 143
Here is your nice find for you Wally! I haven’t had a chance to look at it myself yet, having just downloaded a string of files plus having my usual long list of web pages queued up to read …
Materials on the Trial of Former Servicemen of the Japanese Army Charged with Manufacturing and Employing Bacteriological Weapons
Actually someone posted a Google link earlier in the thread, but I couldn’t find any way of getting at the file for some reason.
I never heard of what is relayed in this report Ehret links to.
Posted by: karlof1 | May 9 2020 22:40 utc | 146
I couldn’t access the Miami Herald link, it just seemed to be dead, no matter how many times I tried. But I ploughed it through archive.is (an old trick I’ve found works sometimes) and after a rather lengthy delay archive.is was able to access the article. So anyone else trying to access it can do so here, He took a shot at a president-elect, and could have changed history
@Walter, can you give a link to the global research article on the CEOs resigning, I can’t find it. Or at least the proper article title.
And what was all that about George Blake being sprung and Korea? That was lost on me.
@Karl, According to my memory the Manhattan Project was started much earlier than 1942 … but then maybe that memory is completely false. A lot of the Physics was done before the war even started – but that was certainly before the start of the secret project of course.
A question for you Karl, can you give me a link to Escobar’s VK page? Thanks.
Posted by: BM | May 10 2020 17:18 utc | 151
BM @151–
Thanks for your replies. I seem to recall reading long ago something about early atomics during the development of the TVA during the later 1930s, and the camp at Los Alamos was ready for research early on, same if I recall correctly for Hanford. The 1942 date is given by Wiki, and it didn’t seem correct when I read it, although that might only relate to the Congressional appropriation for that project, not its precursors. Pepe’s VK page which he visits and posts at about every other day or so, particularly items being censored by FB.
We have the core of an excellent team here at MoA, but IMO we need to be able to communicate more directly. I’m going to set up an MoA community page at VK and post its URL when done. It will be moderated and thus capable of keeping the trolls out and of course not subject to FB censorship as our topics and discussion would surly be targeted.
Posted by: karlof1 | May 11 2020 16:55 utc | 152
BM @151–
Thanks for your replies. I seem to recall reading long ago something about early atomics during the development of the TVA during the later 1930s, and the camp at Los Alamos was ready for research early on, same if I recall correctly for Hanford. The 1942 date is given by Wiki, and it didn’t seem correct when I read it, although that might only relate to the Congressional appropriation for that project, not its precursors. Pepe’s page URL you requested Typepad won’t allow so I’ll spell it out pepeasia comes after v k dot com slash which follows the standard prefix (so we’ll see if this works) which he visits and posts at about every other day or so, particularly items being censored by FB.
We have the core of an excellent team here at MoA, but IMO we need to be able to communicate more directly. I’m going to set up an MoA community page there and post its URL when done. It will be moderated and thus capable of keeping the trolls out and of course not subject to FB censorship as our topics and discussion would surly be targeted.
Posted by: karlof1 | May 11 2020 17:03 utc | 153