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September 10, 2020
Open Thread 2020-72
Comments
#96
Walkback.
Almasdar News:
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/syrian-tribe-leader-reveals-20-saudi-soldiers-are-deployed-in-eastern-syria/
“BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:40 A.M.) – Sheikh Ibrahim Khalil Jadaan Al-Hafl, the general sheikh of the Akidat Tribe, said in a special statement to Russia’s Sputnik Agency in Al-Hasakah that the sons of the Arab tribes in the eastern Euphrates region are ready for any scenarios, repercussions and developments, with the end of (the month limit) that they gave to the U.S.-led International Coalition.
Sheikh Hafl explained that the possible scenarios include several options, the first of which is to hold peaceful demonstrations and sit-ins throughout the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, and forcing all young tribesmen to throw away weapons and defect from the ranks of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).”
Posted by: powerandpeople | Sep 11 2020 9:46 utc | 101
psychohistorian #83
Perhaps Trumps Covid-19 lies and callous deception will reduce his vote but is it possible that explains why the demonazis have spurned the left and progressives? Do they factor in Trumps reduced vote AND theirs so they can win free from any of those untidy socialist ideas. Could this be one big game to once again dump on socialist thought in the USA as they have been doing for the past century and more.
Trump is certainly an evil pos but so too is the Biden carpetbagger team.
Hopefully the peoples movement will gain traction.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 11 2020 10:11 utc | 102
Imaginary lab tests:
Germany’s claims it handed over materials on Navalny to OPCW untrue — Russian mission
Perhaps it serves the interests of the owners to undermine credibility of elections and democracy.
Posted by: jared | Sep 11 2020 11:33 utc | 104
jared @103: “Perhaps it serves the interests of the owners to undermine credibility of elections and democracy.”
How so? Specifically, what benefits do the elites reap from undermining the cover for their own de facto rule? While replacing liberal “democracy” with an overt police state sounds like it might be attractive to them, understand that such a change is expensive. To be sure, the “Democracy Show©” is becoming more expensive and is losing public credibility despite the elites’ best efforts to maintain it, but the benefits they accrue from it go well beyond just saving the cost of the salaries of the additional police they would need in a totalitarian state. Fore example, just one such benefit is that workers have been fooled into pursuing redress of their grievances through politics rather than the real democracy of organizing unions. Unions with actively engaged members are a major threat to the elites and they achieve real and tangible gains for workers. Liberal “democracy”, on the other hand, poses little threat to the elites’ authority in society and instead absorb the energy and enthusiasm for change in the working class, redirecting it safely into dead ends like those runaway truck ramps you see on the sides of highways in mountainous areas are designed to do.
Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 11 2020 12:08 utc | 105
Bevin@59 is absolutely correct: The peasantry is not agribusiness. To make it (over) simple, the peasantry is in it for their family to inherit more and more land, forever, not for profits to be invested wherever, like maybe bonds. Peasants are thus in competition with their neighbors. Rich peasants aka kulaks lend money to neighbors in hopes bad times will allow them to seize more land as repayment of debt. Agribusiness doesn’t work that way.
somebody@61 however is absolutely incorrect. People who own farmland really do not give a shit if the landless die. That’s why for some many centuries cities served as abattoirs for landless people driven away from the countryside. Reactionaries tend to disapprove of cities where the population can actually afford to reproduce itself (instead of being maintained by fresh immigration,) as intrinsic proof of, get this, urban tyranny over the noble sons of the soil! In the context of socialism, the scissors crisis in the Soviet Union was not prompted by mistreatment of the peasantry but by their desire for more, more, more consumption goods. Not giving the peasants a sellers’ market is *not* oppression. Or, if it is, the history of farming in the Us is a similar history of oppression driving the family farm down, down, down.
vk@70 is just embarrassing. Collectivization of agriculture was *not* part of the Cultural Revolution, but a process carried out over a decade, culminating in…the Great Leap Forward. This is why bourgeois propaganda on the Great Leap Forward centers on massive death tolls from collectivization, dubbing it a man-made famine. (A.K. Sen might dub other famines man-made, but in every other mouth I know of, “man-made famine” exclusively means any and all famines in socialist countries, never in capitalist ones, or especially colonial ones. Admitting that means blaming capitalism for, say, the Great Bengal Famine in the eighteenth century or the Irish famine.) It is a matter of principle that no failed harvests are ever caused in any fashion by droughts or floods. And it is unthinkable to suggest that decentralizing the economy in the Great Leap Forward was a fundamental cause for the failure to address local food shortages. The dogma is that decentralization, a key aspect of markets, must be good. By the way, it seems to me very likely the deaths were very unevenly distributed, so that projecting the worst cases nationally gives grotesquely exaggerated figures. This is useful for anti-communist propaganda and thus will be enshrined, much like the millioin Uighurs who vanished for life into prison camps. A key figure in collectivization by the way was Chen Boda who acted as Mao’s personal secretary.
But vk is correct that Deng was very much about de-collectivization. This is hailed as a great victory for humanity and a boon to all Chinese. Except that the landless people driven to the cities lack proper registration (houkou—as I understand it, the houkou system is being slowly modified.) As a result, there are about a hundred to two hundred *million* workers in cities who are super-exploited by the new bourgeoisie, neglected by the government. An uncritical touting of purchasing parity power statistics leads to overlooking this obstruction on the “Chinese road to socialism.”
Posted by: steven t johnson | Sep 11 2020 14:07 utc | 106
jared@103 “Perhaps it serves the interests of the owners to undermine credibility of elections and democracy.”
As a group, where each is selfless enough to take less for the sake of their class, even deigning to offer crumbs to the lowers? Yes of course it is. However the ability of even the haute bourgeoisie to do this depends on the pie being large enough. When the pie is shrinking, when capitalism is decaying, the costs in foregone profits becomes too high. It isn’t even possible to agree on what must be done, much less agree to pay for it. As the cost of politics balloons, with politicians extorting hundreds of millions of dollars, either directly as campaign contributions or as free publicity from the owners’ media, the resentment against “politics” builds up. The nerve of politicians thinking their mandates from the people mean they should be powerful and get rich when they leave office becomes more and more offensive. Every indication is that the owners as a class are ready to trash democracy, hence they tolerate Trump, who is trashing government they don’t want to wast money on any more. It is often forgotten that being anti-politics, even anti-“politician,” also is being against the very idea that the people should affect policy. Those who’ve spent their lives ranting about dirty politicians, in solidarity with owners, are reactionary trash.
The pretense that unions aren’t believed to be defunct overall and thus plays no role in the calculations of the owners is that kind of nonsense one should expect from William Gruff, who seems to be separated from the Kochs and Mercers and Musks and Bezos solely by the amount of money, and not at all by moral values.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Sep 11 2020 14:19 utc | 107
@ Posted by: steven t johnson | Sep 11 2020 14:07 utc | 105
This is not an academic blog, so I try to use the colloquial term used in the West. In this case, “Cultural Revolution”=Great Leap Forward.
Collectivization hasn’t stopped with Deng. He reversed it to a realistic level for his time (1978) only to restart it again slowly and gradually.
China’s agriculture continues to modernize and collectivize steadily. It continues to break records after records of output, and this trend didn’t stop with Xi Jinping (2012-present).
I don’t understand why Westerners have such a horror for collectivization of agriculture. The American “belts” de facto function as giant collectivized farms – the only difference being they are capitalist. The Third World basically operates on latifundia (giant farms, plantation) and nobody in the First World bats an eye. Capitalism only worked out after it managed to de-feudalize agriculture in England (enclosures). Yes small farmers do exist in capitalism, but they are of a secondary importance to the system (basically, to keep the local population happy and give a nation-State food security in case of war).
The Hukou system was a necessary evil for the time (because socialism doesn’t have a land price and rent system to keep everybody “in their place”), but it has been relaxed and will be extinct in the near future, as already announced years ago by the Chinese government. I don’t know why Westerners keep insisting on it, as if it was an evil secret/profane secret ingredient of Chinese socialism.
Interesting article by F William Engdahl
https://m.journal-neo.org/2020/09/07/gates-foundation-is-also-destroying-africa-s-food-economy/
Posted by: Down South | Sep 10 2020 14:21 utc | 2
//
I remember a significant number of knowledgeable persons warning about this when Gates began his assault on African farmers and farm communities back in 2006.
He also is campaigning across Africa to eliminate the use of cash and replace it with debit cards, so that banks can siphon off a chunk of what little money remains in the hands of the African people.
Posted by: AntiSpin | Sep 11 2020 14:42 utc | 109
This is one more reason why voting in a US election is an utter waste of time…
ACLU, GA Releases Palast Fund ‘Georgia Voter Purge Errors’ Report
State Likely Removed Nearly 200,000 Citizens from the Voter Rolls
Today, the ACLU of Georgia released a report by the Palast Investigative Fund titled Georgia Voter Roll Purge Errors that concluded the State had likely removed in 2019 the voter registrations of nearly 200,000 Georgia citizens on the grounds that they had moved from the address on their voter registration application. However, none of these citizens had moved, according to Advanced Address List Hygiene….
the Palast Investigative Fund hired the top five expert firms in address verification to scrutinize the list, name-by-name. To do so, they applied Advanced Address List Hygiene, the industry standard for residential address verification, calling on over 240 data sources.
Applying this standard methodology, the Fund found that of the 313,243 Georgia voters who supposedly moved from their registration addresses, 198,351 had not moved. Yet, the State removed their voter registrations.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Sep 11 2020 14:53 utc | 110
vk@107,
Regarding the Hukou system, Taiwan also has the same thing and it’s basically tied to everything in daily life over there. My impression is that Japan has something similar too. Not sure about S. Korea though. I believe China has applied the similar system for more than two thousand years but with different names at different times. It’s basically to track population for taxing and military recruiting purpose. As for the detailed implementation, it varies from time to time. Typically, when such a system becomes ineffective or even broken would indicate that a dynasty or regime is in decline or serious trouble. I’d think this is not uncommon in any country with effective governance. In US, it is in the form of social security number or a tax Id. Well, US likes to make it unnecessarily complicated with multiple systems so things can be “done” in between. In east Asia, it is just one Id number.
IMHO, the west look at all non-west through their own lens with quite hubris and not much respect. So they’d presume anything and everything different from it is bad until proven otherwise.
Posted by: LuRenJia | Sep 11 2020 14:57 utc | 111
Interesting piece over at The Intercept…
3,000 Dead on 9/11 Meant Everything. 200,000 Dead of Covid-19 Means Nothing. Here’s Why.
To America‘s leaders, our lives have value only insofar as they can be used to create a desired panic.
Today more than any other, we should understand how much Trump’s berserk honesty tells us about life on earth. Our lives have value insofar as the powerful can use them to create whatever “panic” they desire. If not, we Americans will die quietly in a void, as a thousand of us are currently doing every day from Covid-19.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Sep 11 2020 15:02 utc | 112
The Global Times editor bangs the drum and lays out the course of action, “China must be militarily and morally ready for a potential war.”
After laying out five key points, the editor follows them with these wise words:
“China must not fight an impulsive war. We must be fully prepared militarily and morally. Some may find such a war oppressive, but I must say that as the world’s repressed “number two” nation, China is doomed to suffer from certain periods of oppression, as it is the fate of all those in second place. During China’s rise, we need to keep a low profile, be patient, and bear all the complexities. When dealing with small opportunistic forces, we cannot use our power to quickly cut through the mess, but handle tensions with them slowly. We need to be able to stand such tests.
“To win the morality of a war, we also need to win the war of opinion in addition to being decent. In terms of external conflict, one of our big problems is that we’re speaking too little and too slowly. The other side has always spoken more and faster on the details of the conflicts. We must make great efforts to solve this problem.”
The outcome arrived at in Moscow between China and India I noted yesterday is vastly important and is the subject of other articles today. Aussie government idiocy is being attacked by Aussies, and it’s extremely unlikely the Outlaw US Empire will turn the ASEAN nations against China in the SCS. So, Taiwan remains the major tripwire, and China has certainly been “speaking” a lot on that front. China will soon speak again at the UNGA event that begins in eleven days.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2020 15:29 utc | 113
Sputnik reports on what Russian police now know about Navalny’s movements prior to his illness:
“Investigators with the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Siberian Federal District Transport Police have established where Alexei Navalny stayed and what he ate before his August 20 flight, with the information released as part of an ongoing pre-investigation probe.
“Police were able to establish the complete chronology of Navalny and his party’s movements in the city of Tomsk and the surrounding region, including the route of their travels, where they stayed, and places they visited.”
The key person’s been revealed:
“The Ministry specified that five out of six persons who had accompanied Navalny during his trip had been interviewed, with only one, British permanent resident Marina Pevhikh, refusing. According to the Ministry’s information, Pevhikh left Russia for Germany on August 22. ‘Her current location is being established,’ police said.” [My Emphasis]
I’ll bet the Outlaw US Empire’s national debt she’ll never be located–alive.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2020 15:41 utc | 114
@113 Karlof1
Neither a duckduckgo nor a google search for “Marina Pevhikh” turn up any hits other than the Sputnik article you linked – whatever that means: what I really don’t understand is how they could let her leave Russia for Germany without being interviewed.
Posted by: spudski | Sep 11 2020 15:55 utc | 115
Canada’s ‘feminist foreign policy’ hard at work in Saudi Arabia…
Canadian Troops in Saudi Arabia a Legacy of Support for Iraq War
https://buff.ly/3hf4vSU
“The revelation that Canadian soldiers have been in Saudi Arabia for 17 years highlights Canada’s ties to the repressive monarchy, contribution to the Iraq war and hollowness of Canadian foreign policy mythology…”
Canada is Fueling War in Yemen With Arms Sales, UN Report Says
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-un-report-on-yemen-war-names-canada-as-one-of-arms-suppliers/
“Canada for the first time is being publicly named as one of the countries helping fuel the war in Yemen, by a panel of experts monitoring the conflict for the UN and investigating possible war crimes by the combatants, including Saudi Arabia. Canada exported nearly $2.9 billion worth of military exports to Saudi Arabia last year, nearly all of it LAVs made in London, Ont by a subsidiary of US defense contractor General Dynamics Corp…”
Posted by: John Gilberts | Sep 11 2020 15:58 utc | 116
After the successful 3-way meeting with China and India’s Foreign Ministers which came after the SCO FM’s Council, Lavrov and Wang Yi conferred earlier today then held a presser after. Here’s the transcript. Although it’s unfortunately currently incomplete, Lavrov foreshadowed what will likely be a solid front presentation at the UNGA in 11 days:
“We discussed the key international problems and reaffirmed the closeness of our views on effective solutions to them. We have been consistently advocating the development of a fairer and more democratic polycentric international order based on respect for the norms of international law. We expressed satisfaction with the level of our foreign policy interaction, including at the UN, which marks its 75th anniversary this year. Russia and China stand for strengthening the UN’s central role in global affairs. We agreed to carry on our close collaboration, including in the interests of implementing President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to convene a summit meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to discuss the entire range of international security and stability issues.”
That solid front I expect to also include most SCO nations, with only India being questionable. The rapidity of India’s backing down tells me someone turned the screws down in a big way; but as Global Times notes, will it last:
“But how should the consensus be implemented? Chinese and Indian leaders met many times and reached consensus after the Doklam standoff, but then border conflicts happened again. In June, the deadly clash happened, and Indian troops fired threatening shots at the Chinese army on Monday. The border situation has repeatedly eroded people’s confidence in the implementation of the agreement.
“The fundamental problem between China and India is the lack of basic mutual trust. The border issue has been fully activated, forming the two societies’ confrontation of wills. Both believe they have the advantage, and China’s advantage is based on strength. The gap between China and India in national strength is much wider than in 1962. India’s sense of superiority comes from its geopolitical mobilization capabilities. The US, Japan and Australia are trying to win over India. New Delhi believes Beijing is afraid of this since China is being strategically blocked by the US. India believes China will yield at the border.
“China takes a defensive position, but India is trying to connect the China-India border conflicts with Indo-Pacific geopolitics, which is a gamble.”
IMO, Modi is the weak link as it seems the Empire has him on a leash. Time will tell if India wants to develop or to forever be a tool of the Anglos against their own interests.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2020 16:10 utc | 117
@vk #5
As I was actually in Sao Paulo literally a week ago, here’s what I saw on the ground:
1) The 2 months of lockdown Brazil attempted were a catastrophe. Around 50% of the restaurants are in the process of disappearing; this is particularly brutal because low-paid Brazilians get an employer provided card which allows them to be paid tax-free money (both for them and for the employer) which can only be used for buying food. For many of these people, this is the largest/only meal of the day and is why many of the lower scale restaurants like botecos advertise specifically for these customers (big meal! under tarifo limit!).
2) Everything in Sao Paulo is open, at least as of last week. However, many shops have closed permanently. I was looking for Havaianas on orders from the boss – 2 of the 3 in the area I was in were closed as in steel shutters down and not open for months. Only the main store on the high fashion street was open and had 5 shoppers, including myself, at 5 pm on a weekday. And they close at 6 pm… Many of the non-food stores are having much shorter operating hours, if they are still in existence at all.
3) Life is a lot worse and more dangerous. 3 people in the company I was visiting – out of 7 – had been robbed of their cell phones in the past few months. This is far more than typical. In previous visits, I had heard of maybe 2 people having had this done in a dozen visits or more.
So: is the economic suffering of the poor due to the shift from the previous PTB party to Bolsanaro? Certainly at least some part.
But IMO – the majority is due to COVID-19 – more specifically, the response to it.
Posted by: c1ue | Sep 11 2020 16:23 utc | 118
@norecovery #91
There are several ways by which href/link posts go wrong.
1) iPhones. At least for 1 iPhone that I use, the quote symbol does not correspond to what HTML expects. So links get hosed.
2) Forgetting or leaving out the greater than/less than symbol or end quotes around the link.
3) typoing the end slash a. I do a slash occasionally.
Try copying the example and replacing the innards with the quote/text you want.
Posted by: c1ue | Sep 11 2020 16:26 utc | 119
This article is interesting primarily because it was cross-posted to Counterpunch and is by Marshall Auerbeck.
It seems the liberal consensus that any economic impact vs. “controlling” COVID-19 is fine – is weakening
Lockdowns aren’t ideal
Posted by: c1ue | Sep 11 2020 16:29 utc | 120
I wonder how many fakenews hit pieces against Trump it will take for those calling for his ouster to realize that maybe, just maybe, the establishment actually don’t want him to carry on as POTUS?
Every day there is a new smear piece. Today i saw on reddit that POTUS funneled money away from the 9/11 survivors fund. Lol! What a terrible bastard this guy is!
Calling our war-dead “pussy-losers?”
Single-handedly influencing states to all let coronavirus spread amongst their most vulnerable!
This guy has his hands over all the levers and gears like an evil octopus.
…
At this point, I just assume get it over with and do a Biden-presidency.
It is obvious our youth are so horrifically indoctrinated that even another four years of POTUS will not bring significant enough change to jam the tide and bring them back from the abyss of neo-marxist identity-politics, itself a front for globalist neoliberalism.
Bring on Biden and let’s get this party rolling. There will be blood. Buckets of it.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 11 2020 16:36 utc | 121
@ Posted by: c1ue | Sep 11 2020 16:23 utc | 118
São Paulo has been in recession or stagnation since 2013 (official data).
The pandemic is an external shock to capitalism. After the shock is gone, it should come back to normal. But it won’t happen because capitalism already was in a dire situation before the pandemic.
Of course the petite-bourgeoisie is suffering during this pandemic. They’re zombie business since 2008 (zero profit, zero investment, a lot of debt).
@ NemesisCalling | Sep 11 2020 16:36 utc | 121 who wrote
”
Bring on Biden and let’s get this party rolling. There will be blood. Buckets of it.
”
Do you not see the hypocrisy in your supposed religious beliefs and the above statement? You are calling for violence against fellow humans.
You seem blinded now by your seemingly visceral hatred of those you oppose…..how Christian………NOT in words but actions like Pence and Trump, your heroes……GAG!
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 11 2020 16:44 utc | 123
karlof1 | 114
“Marina Pevhikh”, I doubt that “Pevhikh” is even a real name in Russian. Who’s taking whom for a ride here?
Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Sep 11 2020 16:51 utc | 124
“Aaron Maté
@aaronjmate
·
13h
The Trump administration’s coup puppet in Venezuela, Juan Guaido, organized rallies in four cities today. Only “several dozen participants” showed up. The Washington Post describes it this way: “The response was subdued.””
Posted by: arby | Sep 11 2020 17:07 utc | 125
@123 psycho
My christianity has nothing to do with natural comeuppance that is deserved by any historical people that shirks its duty to future generations and is mired in self-centered delusions, which one can argue has been the bane of western youth since neoliberalism’s rise.
Christ also brought a knife.
Indeed, turmoil is actually the modeling clay of christian acts.
It allows us to show what Christians are truly made of.
That’s why I say, “Bring it on.” I am ready.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 11 2020 17:39 utc | 126
@123 psycho
And why not just say it? Lol.
Trump is a hero of mine.
I can’t think of another public figure so hated by the msm and establishment, and yet simultaneously is able to let it roll off his back and still have the intestinal fortitude to run circles around his opposition, whether psychologically trolling his enemies into a wonderful froth of TDS or physically outlasting them on the campaign trail.
He has an amazing amount of endurance and an easy ability to be relateable to the everyman, contrary to the 24/7 attacks which attempt to paint him as some kind of snobbish elitist.
He is the greater POTUS in my life and in my memory.
And so while you idiots sit there waiting for Godot and some kind of messiah to emerge which is paradoxically both pro-U.S. laborer and pro-China with its unfettered, undercutting mercantilism, I and many others are ecstatic to see someone actually speak plainly and incite the wrath of the establishment thereby exposing its desperation to be rid of this POTUS harbinger.
If POTUS loses, he will have been the POTUS we needed but didn’t deserve.
But as I have said countless times, to the Christian, it is best to be ready at all times. A Biden Presidency will expose the kind of end game plan the elites have for us. To the Christian, it is always a welcome affair to live and show yourself in truth.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 11 2020 17:54 utc | 127
@ Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 11 2020 17:54 utc | 127
I can’t think of another public figure so hated by the msm and establishment, and yet simultaneously is able to let it roll off his back and still have the intestinal fortitude to run circles around his opposition, whether psychologically trolling his enemies into a wonderful froth of TDS or physically outlasting them on the campaign trail.
He has an amazing amount of endurance and an easy ability to be relateable to the everyman, contrary to the 24/7 attacks which attempt to paint him as some kind of snobbish elitist.
That may be true within US territory, but certainly not in the rest of the world. Trump is fooling nobody here, and is being played like a fiddle.
Vk, that’s rich.
President Obama was loudly venerated in Europe and elsewhere.
I think I will take the world’s slight towards DJT as a good thing, thank you very much.
I would never want a U.S. President to be so beholden to his worldly image and likeability.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 11 2020 18:09 utc | 129
@ NemesisCalling | Sep 11 2020 17:39 utc | 126 who wrote
”
Christ also brought a knife.
”
How rich. Care to provide supportive documentation? I take it you missed the turn the other cheek part.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 11 2020 18:30 utc | 130
Yesterday, Mike Lofgren accused Trump of committing “Political Genocide” in an article I linked to above. Today, Finninan Cunningham surveys the great damage and crimes for which Trump and Company are responsible. To the world’s great misfortune, Biden and the Ds don’t appear to want to use these revelations to destroy Trump politically. Indeed, Cunningham lays out what appears to be Trump’s reactions to Deep State demands/guidance, which also means Biden won’t do anything since he and Harris are both creatures of the Deep State.
It can now be said that Trump declared war on his own people while escalating the pandemic’s severity for the entire world.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2020 18:47 utc | 131
@ Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 11 2020 18:09 utc | 129
Europe doesn’t count. It’s basically a province of the USA.
@130 – “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
– Matthew 10:34
From the New International Version
Posted by: lex talionis | Sep 11 2020 18:57 utc | 133
@130 psycho
The idea that the neoliberal world can endure indefinitely is faulty.
Sooner or later, the architects are revealed, as are the paymasters of our elite figureheads.
How can they not? A continual upwell of wealth is possible but only at the cost of the odds increasing as a backlash becomes more probable statistically as those holding the wealth become fewer and fewer and the underclass increasingly bulges until a great anger can be seized upon collectively and focused at the tip of a pitchfork.
Here it is that Hegel has proven himself right, historically speaking.
DJT emerged as a world-historical figure to jam this neoliberal tide and reverse it in the form of a resurging nationalism which, by its nature, is anaethma to neoliberal globalism. Essentially, as many here have said, POTUS is more a less a wrench in the gears. Simultaneously disrupting policy on an international level while also awakening people the world over to remember what nationalism as a force is and what it can accomplish.
Which brings me to my point which is the neoliberal seams are already starting to show. Trump’s mission has already been accomplished. With or without his next four years.
If Biden were to win, however, you would see an increased ironfisted grasping by the elites and, in turn, an increasing reactionary response which will lead to violence and possibly succession.
My hope with Trump would have been the transforming of public opinion around our neoliberal arrangement. As it stands, I believe his fatal flaw is his ineloquence and his inability to reach our urbanized youth (with their muddled brains) who have been colonized and stunted by crypto-neoliberalists in our university and academic spheres. He also can not win with the simple minds of the elderly who increasingly feel that their twilight years matter by a greater order of magnitude than all other prior geriatric generations. Boomers today think that their wealth was their creation and not from the groundwork laid by prior ones. As such, they greatly overvalue their life at the detriment of future generations and their prosperity.
I believe that in a short time, America will be a bloody battleground, both literally and figuratively.
…
When it comes to Christ, you are well aware that he was sent to separate father from son and mother from daughter. To cut into the ties that bind us from picking up our oen cross.
And the Gospel of Luke has:
Luke 23:26-31
26 As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 27 A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28 Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’
30 Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!”
and to the hills, “Cover us!”’
31 For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Even Christ can not prevent the great evil that awaits even those who mourn properly.
The best thing is to know a hard rain is about to fall.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 11 2020 19:12 utc | 134
Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Sep 11 2020 16:51 utc | 124
It’s a typo in the Sputnik article in english, the name is Марина Певчих, transliterated: Marina Pevchikh, someone dropped a c before the h…
Posted by: Paco | Sep 11 2020 19:34 utc | 135
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2020 15:41 utc | 114
A brief curriculum of Marina, also Maria Pevchikh in Argumenty i Fakty, can do a machine translation.
Seems to be a Khodorkovsky and Chichvarkin associate. Big money behind.
https://aif.ru/society/people/kto_takaya_mariya_pevchih
Posted by: Paco | Sep 11 2020 19:43 utc | 136
When Navalny left Tomsk, a few of the group members stayed behind, including Maria Pevchikh. After the news broke that Navalny had been poisoned, they all went to Omsk. Meduza found out that Maria Pevchikh was allowed to leave Russia without any difficulties. Russia’s law enforcement agencies have made no attempt to contact her over the past two weeks, even though her Russian phone is always on. She was never called in for questioning or interrogation, and hasn’t received a summons. Pevchikh told Meduza that she will be prepared to give detailed comments at a later date.
According to German BND they assume that Navalny was poisoned on the way to or at Tomsk airport.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 11 2020 20:10 utc | 137
Machine translation from another article:
Some sources claim that in Tomsk Pevchikh lived with Navalny in the same hotel room. But she did not fly with him to Moscow, but remained in the city. After it became known about the hospitalization, she allegedly made a strange maneuver – first she got to Novosibirsk by car, and from there she flew to Omsk.
When Navalny was transported to Germany, his wife Yulia was not on board, but Pevchikh was. She entered as a translator. By the way, this flight was paid for by Boris Zimin, a Russian millionaire living in Britain.
Russian blogger Oleg Kashin said that he was familiar with the Singers (translator snag, her family name has the root sing). He called her one of the many unnoticed employees of the FBK (Navalny Anti-Corruption Fund – Ed.).
Full article:
https://strana.ua/news/289139-marina-pevchikh-chto-izvestno-o-sputnitse-navalnoho.html
Meduza leans to the western side, but has interesting stuff sometimes.
Posted by: Paco | Sep 11 2020 20:26 utc | 138
Diana Rigg, aka Mrs Emma Peel, one of the Swingin’ Sixties cutest cuties passed away on September 10. Fond memories of The Good Old Days…
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 11 2020 20:26 utc | 139
Paco @135&136–
Thanks for doing that bit of investigative work! The Russians likely know much more than they’re revealing.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2020 20:32 utc | 140
“The German govt now says that “evidences” will be sent to #Russia only if Navalny gives his consent.”
Now where have I seen this precedent before? Oh yea, Ukraine has veto rights on investigation into MH17 stitch-up.
https://www.kp.ru/online/news/4009981/?from=twall
Posted by: Tom | Sep 11 2020 20:49 utc | 141
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 11 2020 17:39 utc | 126
“…Christ also brought a knife…”
https://youtu.be/gAsysbwX5bI?t=110
Posted by: tucenz | Sep 11 2020 20:49 utc | 142
I second Karlof1. Yes Paco, than you for that investigating you did. You have done more to reveal this sordid affair than all of MSM combined!
Posted by: Tom | Sep 11 2020 20:51 utc | 143
Paco@135
Thanks – lots of duckduckgo hits on “Marina Pevchikh.”
Posted by: spudski | Sep 11 2020 20:51 utc | 144
Posted by: Circe | Sep 11 2020 0:36 utc | 67
”If most of them end up dead from Covid the collective public IQ of the rest of the mass will rise significantly.”
I’ve been thinking the same for some time now. The tragedy will be the number of decent persons who will be infected by the Trumpers as they head for that great Nuremberg rally in the ground.
Posted by: AntiSpin | Sep 11 2020 20:53 utc | 145
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2020 20:32 utc | 140
The stream of info and desinfo going on would overflow North Stream I, II, and Turkstream together. Everything has to be filtered, not an easy task. It is going to drag on just like the other fields of battle, MH17, Skripals and now Navalny. For sure they’ve got a team to write Navalny’s script since he will be speaking soon I guess, meanwhile some chemists that worked with novichok are laughing at the whole movie, what a frightful weapon… for its creators, it just doesn’t work!!
Posted by: Paco | Sep 11 2020 21:00 utc | 146
Posted by: Paco | Sep 11 2020 21:00 utc | 146
Difference is that Navalny will not be disappeared like Skripals (? I hope, it would be a strange German move), and Germany does want to finish Nord Stream 2.
Strange part is where they found the “Novichok”, as I don’t think you can deduce it from blood. Somehow I don’t think the German army made it up.
It is clear that German/Russian authorities are kind of cooperative.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 11 2020 21:17 utc | 147
Paco @146–
Thanks for your reply! I see the transcript of the Lavrov/Yi Presser has been updated but not completed; however, the info added is very important, particularly about the Navalny event. I copy/paste the entire content related to it:
“Question: Will Russia push for the transfer of data on the Navalny case to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)?
“Sergey Lavrov: It is imperative that we obtain information from our German colleagues. Something is happening to them. As you may be aware, on August 27, on the basis of a pre-investigation check, which immediately began in our country, Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office sent a request for legal assistance from the relevant German authorities in the case of the suspected poisoning of Mr Navalny. Later, we found out that this request was not forwarded and got stuck in the German Foreign Ministry. Only a week later, (around September 3) was this request finally sent to the justice authorities. An official representative of Berlin publicly announced this, saying that ‘now these requests are being reviewed by the justice authorities, which are independent in our country. We cannot tell you anything. They will do so themselves when they are ready.’
“Then, it was announced that Germany had sent an official letter to the OPCW and would push this organisation’s Secretariat to take action. We have read this letter. It says that, according to German experts, it was poisoning, and the so-called Novichok agent was used. There were no other exchanges between Berlin and the OPCW.
“We are interested in receiving, if not directly, then through the OPCW, information that Germany is for some reason so painstakingly concealing.
“Our permanent representative to the OPCW has addressed the heads of the organisation’s secretariat several times. Each time, including last night, he was told that this organisation had not received any other facts to support the allegations of poisoning. This makes us wonder. Just yesterday in New York, a German representative to the UN was asked about the data and why Germany is refusing to provide them to the general public, including Russia, demanding that Russia must conduct an investigation. He said that these data are no longer the subject of bilateral Germany-Russia relations, and that they are already the subject of multilateral proceedings. The Germans cannot specify what kind of proceedings they are talking about.
“I hope this ludicrous behaviour will stop, and Germany, if only for the sake of its reputation as a punctual nation, will honour its obligations under the treaty with the Russian Federation.
“An investigation is demanded of us, but all those who accompanied Mr Navalny on that trip are also relocating to Germany. This is all very unpleasant and gives rise to serious thoughts. So, it is in the interest of our German colleagues to preserve their reputation and provide all the necessary information that would in any way shed some light on their absolutely unfounded accusations.”
Clearly, Lavrov smells a big rat at work. The following statement by Lavrov is also important as you’ll note as his bluntness about the Outlaw US Empire’s behavior is clearer than ever before:
“We noted the destructive character of Washington’s actions that undermine global strategic stability. They are fueling tensions in various parts of the world, including along the Russian and Chinese borders. Of course, we are worried about this and object to these attempts to escalate artificial tensions. In this context, we stated that the so-called ‘Indo-Pacific strategy’ as it was planned by the initiators, only leads to the separation of the region’s states, and is therefore fraught with serious consequences for peace, security and stability in the Asia-Pacific Region. We spoke in favour of the ASEAN-centric regional security architecture with a view to promoting the unifying agenda, and the preservation of the consensus style of work and consensus-based decision-making in these mechanisms, as it has always been done in the framework of ASEAN and the associated entities. We are seeing attempts to split the ranks of ASEAN members with the same aims: to abandon consensus-based methods of work and fuel confrontation in this region that is common for all of us.
“Today, we discussed the situation regarding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear programme. Of course, as an overwhelming majority of UN Security Council members, Russia and China do not accept the US attempts to dismantle the international agreement approved by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which is vital for the entire world. We find unacceptable the US unlawful unilateral actions regarding the situation around Iran’s nuclear programme. The United States withdrew from this agreement in gross violation of the UN Security Council consensus-based resolution, thereby losing any legal, judicial, political or moral rights to try and prevent all other states from implementing this major decision.”
We haven’t heard anything official from Putin about Navalny yet. IMO, Putin’s resolve and patience is being tested like never before. I’ve read what’s posted at the Kremlin website about his work which is what informs my opinion–his demeanor, level of energy and intensity related to governance is higher than it was just a month ago. His address on Knowledge Day differed from the many I’d read before but I couldn’t put my finger on why; now I think I know.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2020 21:27 utc | 148
There is wild speculation about this Singer/Pevchikh lady going on right now on runet. The pro western side argues that the whole thing will be dumped on Khodorkovsky since he is in England. On the other hand the Russian foreign ministry tends to be cautious but lately they’re either excited or a bit out of balance. There was friction with Serbia caused by Zakharova’s twit about Vucic in the WH looking like a bus boy before Trump, she made the analogy of Sharon Stone and her crosslegged scene. But they are starting to name names, the Lukashenko interview -one hour 47 mins.- stayed a bit under the radar but Luka himself named Soros, something that at that level is not common practice, a president naming a culprit directly. Right now the cricket chorus is chirping about this lady like, lover, financier, daughter or a renowned chemist and owner of laboratories, and all sort of wild things. The movie goes on and it would be funny if it was not tragic, cause someone is going to pay for all this noise.
Posted by: Paco | Sep 11 2020 21:50 utc | 149
Gee, what else might get added to the above mix? How about a new study suggesting COVID-19 was already present in Los Angeles, California in the early Winter of 2019:
“‘A significantly higher number of patients with respiratory complaints and diseases starting in late December 2019 and continuing through February 2020 suggests community spread of SARS-CoV-2 prior to established clinical awareness and testing capabilities,’ the researchers concluded in the report.
“’It is possible that some of this excess represents early COVID-19 disease before clinical recognition and testing,’ the researchers added.”
Recall Italian sources reported that they discovered COVID cases occurred prior to China’s outbreak. The plot thickens as they say.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2020 21:54 utc | 150
Posted by: Paco | Sep 11 2020 21:50 utc | 149
Main thing to know about Navalny is that he and his organisation has been financed by “liberal” Russian oligarchs. He is part of the oligarch wars.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 11 2020 22:02 utc | 151
add to 151
Novichok seems to have been on a water bottle the people who accompanied Navalny brought to Berlin but did not show Omsk.
I don’t think Germany will insist on this version.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 11 2020 22:07 utc | 152
@Circe #67
I do find it amusing that you consider Trump supporters to be stupid when your multi-month campaign for Bernie was so transparently and completely sold out.
As many people, even on MoA, were saying so from the very beginning.
But sadly, the reality is this: 180K dead from COVID-19 doesn’t mean squat in a nation of 328 million people. It is barely over 0.05%.
And considering a majority of the dead were in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut – it is even less justifiable to say that COVID-19 mortality are Trump supporters.
If anything, it is the opposite given the overwhelming political leanings of those states.
Posted by: c1ue | Sep 11 2020 22:08 utc | 153
This links to the Lukashenko interview Paco mentions. It’s 1.75 hrs long with voice-over English translation.
And here we have some good news for those of us within the Outlaw US Empire. The ploy suggested by myself and others to retake the states prior to retaking the federal government won a significant victory that shows what’s possible.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2020 22:22 utc | 154
Seems c1ue ought to be added to that living sculpture too after its remarks about those unfortunate to die from COVID @153.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2020 22:27 utc | 155
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 11 2020 20:26 utc | 139 Diana Rigg, aka Mrs Emma Peel, one of the Swingin’ Sixties cutest cuties passed away on September 10.
Sorry to hear that. She was one of my two favorite babes back in the late ’60s and ’70s (the other was Suzanne Pleshette). My favorite role of Riggs was “The Assassination Bureau”, along with her turn in the worst of the Bond films, ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, and also on “Hospital”. She even had her own TV show in the US, which sadly barely made it through I think ten episodes. And of course, The Avengers series.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Sep 11 2020 22:32 utc | 156
A minor news snippet that may interest some barflies. As you may know it is difficult to practice yoga properly unless you are wearing expensive leggings.
A marketing person at Lululemon thought it might be a good idea to add a political dimension…..
“Lululemon, known for its £128 yoga leggings, is facing mockery on social media for promoting an event about “decolonising gender” and how to “resist capitalism”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54121641
Posted by: dh | Sep 11 2020 23:03 utc | 157
@ Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 11 2020 12:08 utc | 105
Well my hypothesis is that (while I agree with you completely that the democracy (and capitalism) that we have in the US is a sham intended to pacify and entertain the masses while they are being fleeced) the problem with this scam is that instills the rabble with false hope and aspirations and expectations. It is populism. And if there is one thing that the owners despise more than thoughts of socialism, it would be populism. Makes the people uppity. Time to wheel out the Yannopolis.
Posted by: jared | Sep 11 2020 23:16 utc | 158
I know some barflies have been following Matthew Ehret’s writings as they relate to his overall thesis, which IMO is sound in its basic premises but lacks depth and rigor. Seems he caught the eye of The Saker for I just found his most recent essay there. MY main critique of Ehret is he sees Trump as someone he’s not. In my comment I noted the need to watch Trump’s interactions with the Fed and its wholesale purchasing of US-based assets, the aim being to take them 100% private.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2020 23:18 utc | 159
H/S as if Escobar put down the bong for a day or two:
https://asiatimes.com/2020/09/from-9-11-to-the-great-reset/
Something think about.
Posted by: jared | Sep 11 2020 23:40 utc | 160
Matt Taibbi is writing that the Bob Woodward outing of Trump lies about Covid are not the big story of the week.
His story at the link below followed by a quote tell of the CNN leadership helping Trump get elected
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/tape-shows-ethically-cnn-chief-a
The take-away quote
”
CNN these days plays face to Trump’s heel, and vice versa, because that’s where the money is, in this era of WWE politics and hate-for-profit media. Does CNN feel guilty about the record ratings and billions in revenue the Trump era’s earned them? Just listen to the tape. As a business, they’re more than fond of “the boss.” They just can’t have us knowing it.
”
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 12 2020 1:50 utc | 162
There is another story up at ZH saying that the main Q site Qmap has shut down and the owner outed.
No link and I expect more will come out about this soon…
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 12 2020 1:53 utc | 163
Psych@162
As I have been saying for awhile. This is all Fake Wrestling. Trump is a master of. Kayfabe which is a fake wrestling term. Its not just CNN vs Trump but DNC vs RNC, and China/Russia vs US. Its purpose is preventing people from looking at the real enemy which is the billionaires club herding us into a Global Technocratic Tyranny.
Posted by: Kay Fabe | Sep 12 2020 2:37 utc | 164
Karlof1 #148
“He said that these data are no longer the subject of bilateral Germany-Russia relations, and that they are already the subject of multilateral proceedings. The Germans cannot specify what kind of proceedings they are talking about.”
MERKEL SAVES NORD STREAM 2 WITH A CUNNING TRICK by Gevorg Mirzayan
Maybe Merkel is attempting to kick the pipeline down the road for a while to avoid unilateral action until the attention of the west wanes or the whole sordid mess falls apart.
https://www.stalkerzone.org/merkel-saves-nord-stream-2-with-a-cunning-trick/
“The German Chancellor said that the fate of the most important Russian gas pipeline “Nord Stream 2” will be decided not by Germany, but by the European Union as a whole.
Angela Merkel’s proposal has another advantage for Russia – it protects (at least for a while) Nord Stream 2 from threats from other EU states. There is a risk that some less conscious countries (for example, Denmark) may take their own sanctions against the project. For example, revoke permission to lay a pipe through their waters. Bringing the issue to a pan-European discussion puts unilateral sanctions on pause.
And since Navalny is not dead, but is on the mend, time will cool the hot European heads, and the idea of blocking Nord Stream 2 will go off the agenda. At least for a while.”
Posted by: Tom | Sep 12 2020 2:52 utc | 165
It can now be said that Trump declared war on his own people while escalating the pandemic’s severity for the entire world.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2020 18:47 utc | 131
Declaring war on ones own people seems to be a tradition. The throwaway people, the homeless and poor are criminalised including those who try to help them, the drug epidemic fueled by the state, soldiers returning home with PTSD, the rust belt where people are left to die from suicide or drug overdoses mirrored overseas with the countries and lives destroyed there. That goes for Canada as well. Only we are mor
Posted by: Tom | Sep 12 2020 4:05 utc | 166
Below is a ZH link of a posting submitted by Southfront reporting on the war in Yemen
Houthis Strike Riyadh With Missiles And Drones; Saudi Coalition Retreats In Yemen
While empire may still be on top, its supporting legs are having trouble doing Trump kind of winning it seems
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 12 2020 4:16 utc | 167
Below is a quote from part of a Reuters story…no link
”
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday that a “U.S. spy” was captured while spying on the largest refining complex in the country, which is going through a severe fuel shortage crisis.
In a live broadcast on state television, Maduro said the man was arrested on Thursday in the northwest state of Falcon where he was spying on the Amuay and Cardon oil refineries.
They captured “a marine, who was serving as a marine on CIA bases in Iraq,” Maduro said. “He was captured with specialized weapons, he was captured with large amounts of cash, large amounts of dollars and other items.”
”
Later in the story they also report stopping an attempted attack on another refinery…..the different fronts in the civilization war we are in are many and empire continues to aggressively press its side…..is the tide of empire going out or coming in? I posit that the tide of empire is going out.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 12 2020 5:41 utc | 168
Just watched the Disney film, “Mulan”. Excellent work, great cast, great writing, great directing, great cinematography. Definitely worth watching – if for no other reason then there isn’t anything else to watch since the theaters here in San Francisco are still shut down.
However, my favorite character is – wait for it – the witch, played by Gong Li (who also played the Chinese drug lord in the “Miami Vice” movie.) My kind of babe. 🙂
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Sep 12 2020 9:18 utc | 169
@Posted by: snake | Sep 10 2020 19:07 utc | 28
You referenced, “controlled access to drinking water”.
I’ll bite, what made you bring up that topic?
Remote access to residential and commercial water metering is becoming ubiquitous. Who (what agencies and what countries) developed the software and firmware that controls these meters? Could a city be nailed to the wall by say, Iceland (wink) if Iceland got angry with a policy decision and decided to shut off the water to that city? <=by: librul @ 44 I worked for a city water company while in college occasionally someone would pour too much phenol into the water supply and presto the whole city was flushing to the sewer at once.
What has happened since once again about 1974 in USA governed America, is the cities sold off (privatized) the water systems to quote unquote non profits. The non profits then got massive bonds to finance to achieve complete control over the city fluids.. many cities now recycle the processed sewerage water into the drinking water.. and redistribute.. <=such is a potential political health hazard in itself.. but it is also a security point of access control, Imagine a population expressing civil unrest quelled by tranquillized drinking water supply. I don't trust Non profits any more than I do governments.
Next, I was often involved in water effluent purity from a production facility which discharged to open bays.. the production facility used a lot of water, millions of gallons and the reason it located where it did was the availability of massive aquifer quantities of pure clear water..no water was discharged until after it had been in the settling ponds for a time and no gold fish died or showed signs of sickness. today that city is using recycled water .when some of the purist water in the world is just beneath them. . as above..the facility cost was floated with bond deal after bond deal.. and interestingly the city zoning and permitting codes will not allow a drinking water well to be drilled.
Posted by: snake | Sep 12 2020 15:38 utc | 170
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-h1xifVS1o
An air armada including US, UK and Norwegian war planes, including nuclear capable B-52s approached the coast of Azov Sea (getting aim on Crimean bridge?). This type of stunts sets strategic nuclear forces on a hair trigger, so any sensor mishap, mis-classified meteor etc. can lead to a nuclear exchange. WTF?
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Sep 12 2020 15:56 utc | 171
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBcI5ZdgF_w
Another take on B-52 story. It starts from small inaccuracy: the presenter complained about scorching heat, “100 degrees, feels like a furnace”, so I checked because 100 F does not feel like that. But they had 110 F in Tucson on September 5, and that indeed gives a furnace feel (every degree above body temperature changes the feeling a lot). Anyway, listen to the voice of a preacher from an American desert, to my surprise (I have some biases), quite sane.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Sep 12 2020 16:19 utc | 172
172
Ukrainians don’t want to fight for the guys protecting them.
It is childish but so what.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 12 2020 16:39 utc | 173
Gee, what else might get added to the above mix? How about a new study suggesting COVID-19 was already present in Los Angeles, California in the early Winter of 2019:
“‘A significantly higher number of patients with respiratory complaints and diseases starting in late December 2019 and continuing through February 2020 suggests community spread of SARS-CoV-2 prior to established clinical awareness and testing capabilities,’ the researchers concluded in the report.
“’It is possible that some of this excess represents early COVID-19 disease before clinical recognition and testing,’ the researchers added.”
Recall Italian sources reported that they discovered COVID cases occurred prior to China’s outbreak. The plot thickens as they say. by: karlof1 @ 150 <==yes, I reported that some literature claimed the virus had been detected in Spain some time early in 2018.. .. I suspect several strains of as yet undetermined viri are present somewhere around the world all the time.. SARS Covid 19 just a strain that on infection causes a severe inflammatory response, and that response causes an extremely acute Respiratory reaction in the lungs and other organs. Epithelial cells that line the airway and the passage ways into an out of other organs (liver, heart, kidney etc. are subject to infection as well, and sometimes those infections cause violent destruction to the affected organ). This corona genetic variant is just one probably there are others as well.. but AFAICT all corona viri infect cells by the same infection process ACE-2 Receptor (or other less known Rs c/b entangled as well) entanglement with virus protein S1, and attachment and binding to the outer membrane of the attacked human host cell, followed by a vibratory motion (similar to method of infecting cells by RF see+. EU Patent entitled Method of and apparatus for cell poration [holes thru membrane)] and cell fusion using radiofrequency electrical pulses EP 0 710-718 A1 dated 5.10.1988) that opens a pore from the outer side of the cell through both cell membranes into that inner protected guts of the cell. Once inside the cell the virus eats the guts of the cell, then it reproduces (multi hundred copies) then it burst the cell, and releases replicated virons distribute into the fluids of the body, where the new virons look for new victim cells to infect. Infection is a process that needs to be exploited instead of developing a new vaccine for each new strain of the virus. If the infection itself is prevented, there is no need for a vaccine, and no one will be a sick victim of the virus.
We stop most virus that are carried by mosquitoes by spraying to kill the mosquitoes; maybe we can find a way (laser<=Iran worked some on this) to detect the virus in a room and and find a spray that will prevent infection..put that spray(or whatever) into the air system in buildings. who knows. but working on vaccinations seems to me to be the wrong way to go because by the time a vaccine can be developed, tested, and made ready, the virus may have again mutated.
Posted by: snake | Sep 12 2020 16:54 utc | 174
psychohistorian@162, as you cautioned me on the krugman thread, I would also caution you on Taibbi. Remembering back to 2012, Taibbi advocated voting in Obama on his second term. He’s a very good writer, (Taibbi, that is) but needs to be read with caution.
So many tangled fealties!
Posted by: juliania | Sep 12 2020 17:37 utc | 175
And not to promote Trump, but I wouldn’t trust Woodward either.
Posted by: juliania | Sep 12 2020 17:38 utc | 176
Those of us in Oregon have good reason to be burning in our ire, All 6 ONG heavy lift helos capable of fighting wildfires were sent to Afghanistan last May, and who knows how many were sent from Washington, California, Nevada, and Idaho. We were fortunate; others we know weren’t; and we’re off to donate our store of frozen ready made meals to those who’ve been evacuated.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 12 2020 17:58 utc | 178
A June 2015 US State department report admitted that “more than 16,000 foreign terrorist fighters from more than 90 countries” had traveled to Syria in 2014. But Western mainstream news media of course never points that out, as that doesn’t fit the “Syrian” “moderate” “rebels” narrative that they were given to propagate.
Came across that from a ZH article:
Never Forget: Smoking Gun Intel Memo From 1990s Warned Of ‘Frankenstein The CIA Created’
(Has ZH improved in tone very slightly recently? Wonder if they had some writing staff changes.)
Posted by: Canadian Cents | Sep 12 2020 18:45 utc | 179
And good on you karlof1@178 as well. I’m sorry, I know you have mentioned Ehret with a caveat on Trump back in one of these recent threads. I finally made it to Saker to read his latest essay. I think it is important historical reading, would encourage more folk to consider it.
The heading of the article is “Trump vs the Military Industrial Complex”, still to be found at the second set of articles beyond the top arrow. (I’m bookmarking this article as well.)
Do stay safe, all west coast inhabitants.
Posted by: juliania | Sep 12 2020 18:49 utc | 180
@ Paco
Thanks a lot for putting me on the right track with Pevchikh. Much appreciated. Even so, I believe she is a red herring. Probably just freaked out by the tangled web weaved around Navalny and his crew. Nobody was poisened with ‘novichok’, so there’s no need to ask if she’s the one who did it.
—
This here seems to me to be an excellent summary of Trump as a politician and why he succeeded:
Here’s why ‘Frankenstein’ Trump will probably win in November, and the aloof global elites will only have themselves to blame by one Graham Hryce. Fair, balanced, rational, calm.
Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Sep 12 2020 18:53 utc | 181
Piotr Berman | Sep 12 2020 16:19 utc | 172
It may have possibly been more dangerous than that. I saw one tweet that said that the Russian missile defenses did not react (ie were shut off). The tweet has not been confirmed or denied so no way to know if that this is true. However, the Russians shut down the electronics of the “Cook” some time ago and scared the US, so they will have been working feverishly on counter measures or the ability to do the same. It seems in the realm of possibility.
Note that the Russians sent 8 fighters (I didn’t know about the Russian bombers as well) so the US seems to have provoked a panic reaction. Crimea is the centre of the Russian southern defensive system.
I had thought then that the aim was also to overfly Donbass etc. as a possible target for a land invasion. (At the same time there was a lot of pressure on Belarus and Kalingrad).
Interesting that there were three bombers and one more plane hidden underneath, (to confuse radar signals) which lends credence to the idea that there was an hidden agenda via an electronic “interference”.
Obviously the whole situation could, quite literally, have blown up.
Posted by: Stonebird | Sep 12 2020 18:54 utc | 182
@ juliania | Sep 12 2020 17:37 utc | 175 about trusting various sources/authors……agreed!
Taibbi is a lesser of evils breather and I am not
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 12 2020 19:17 utc | 183
Note that the Russians sent 8 fighters (I didn’t know about the Russian bombers as well) so the US seems to have provoked a panic reaction. Crimea is the centre of the Russian southern defensive system. […]
Posted by: Stonebird | Sep 12 2020 18:54 utc | 182
One can quibble if Crimea is the center or “vanguard” but my theory is that Russians are in Crimea for good for a combination of reasons: people of Crimea are 90-95% culturally Russian (Tatars and Ukrainians are defined by admitted ancestry, “cultural tie” is more complicated and stronger.), to all Russia this is a sentimental vacation place (like youth camps in Soviet times, worker union vacation houses, Crimea was THE PLACE to be during Russian summer), and the strategic vanguard position. In the same time, to legalists in the West, EVERYTHING in Crimea is illegal, supplying water, food, electricity etc., and most of all, the Crimean bridge. You can shoot a salvo of missiles from considerable distance to disable the bridge for months, and repeat. This would not start all-out war, perhaps, but a bloody war even so.* From the sea, the mission would be suicidal, from the air… slow-poke B-52’s would not survive but this is not like loosing hundreds or thousands of sailors. I must stress that this is insane calculus, some old men making futile attempts at obtaining an orgasm.
* What could Russian do, paying attention to gain/loss calculus? The best gain would be to make a blitz taking over south and east areas of Ukraine with (culturally) Russian majority, easy to keep — the misgoverned population would approve — and creating strategically invulnerable position on the Black Sea. That is associated with big losses too, but attacking multi-billion infrastructure pieces deserves many billions spent on prevention and retaliation.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Sep 12 2020 20:00 utc | 184
“Nobody was poisened with ‘novichok’, so there’s no need to ask if she’s the one who did it.”
Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Sep 12 2020 18:53 utc | 181
Huhhh ? ?
It looks like you forgot Navalny was actually poisoned by means of a still unknown chemical. Do you remember? In Russia, his plane had to do an emergency landing.
Whatever the poison actually was, it’s worthwhile to ask if she did it.
Posted by: Parisian Guy | Sep 12 2020 20:15 utc | 185
Re: Covid-19 in Italy, California etc. before January. I personally doubt it. Coronavirus are quite related to each other, and it is somewhat random what antibodies are produced in response to them. Allegedly, a large portion of the population – 30%? – got antibodies that effectively cope with COVID-19 from common colds in the past. As with salmonella, E-coli, influenza, new strains appear all the time, some being more lethal, some being more infections and most, just different but not lethal at all (it is easier for the virus to spread when infected people get sniffles and at worst, mild fever, then viruses literally fly under the metaphoric radar screen). Covid-19 is both more lethal and quite infectious. From the aftermath of lethal outbreaks of coronaviruses in 2019, there were strains more lethal to geriatric patients and people in old age hospices than average, but they were not particularly infectious and those outbreaks, with symptoms resembling Covid-19 (“glass lung”) remained local.
Because such outbreaks occur every year in few places on the planet, in the initial weeks of Wuhan outbreaks it was highly unclear how to calibrate the response.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Sep 12 2020 20:25 utc | 186
I’m mainly interested in confirming my bias against Facebook’s Official bullshit. My takeaway is that ALL of Facebook’s senior staffers are chosen for their obfuscation & spin-doctoring skills 🙂
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 10 2020 17:18 utc | 16
Not necessarily. For example, to guide censorships for posts in Ukrainian and about Ukraine they hired an outfit stuffed solely by verified fascists. If your newsfeed is in English, they indeed, the obfuscate, but in other languages they can be radical (I wonder if posts in Arabic are censored following advise by certified radical Salafists, it would fit the MOD).
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Sep 12 2020 20:54 utc | 187
And why do the Democrats wish to remain in the #2 place? Because they continue to enrich themselves from insider trading and corporate sponsorship,…
Posted by: Grieved | Sep 11 2020 5:38 utc | 90
An alternative theory is that their leadership is as geriatric (or more) than Soviet elite in their final years. They are capable of one new idea every few years or so, and their last idea (Russian threat) is pretty moronic as a vote gaining strategy. In other words, they try their damn best to win, but their thinking is lame. I will need to read in article again (a bland review of things Biden), but it seems that Biden is actually close to the average in his mental capacities among “wise old men” (women are there too, of course), surely old, but wisdom is lacking.
I wonder about Trump circle too. I keep seeing ads “Biden can be seen in different places, but wherever he goes he is not quite there” — video of blank stares and stumbles — “Too week to tackle the radicals that ravage America.” There goes my Trump vote (OK, I am only a lowly permanent resident. Trump advocated police brutality and associated tactics like declaring people guilty without a proof for years, so senility may be a better alternative (but then the ticket has “strong woman” Harris).
Perhaps Dems should demand that Harris will represent them in Presidential debates by declaring that they solemnly promise that she will be the brain in the ticket, so Biden would debate Pence.
To expand on my polemic, highly ranked Dems could enrich themselves after winning, normally this gives a larger loot. Typical example is endlessly dragging stuff like banking reforms, forcing nervous money grubber to frantically increase palm greasing.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Sep 12 2020 21:20 utc | 188
@180 juliania, thanks for your suggestion of the Matthew Ehret article on the Saker site. Here’s the link: Trump vs the Military Industrial Complex
There seem to be many parallels between past and present …
This 10-minute Jimmy Dore video Why war mongers hate Trump is somewhat related to that, and to my earlier post @179 (in that Trump seems to refer to these endless US wars as training grounds for extremists, though I might be reading too much into his words.)
Posted by: Canadian Cents | Sep 12 2020 21:20 utc | 189
Looks like I had a glitch in that article link. Here it is corrected: Trump vs the Military Industrial Complex
Posted by: Canadian Cents | Sep 12 2020 21:27 utc | 190
Posted by: Parisian Guy | Sep 12 2020 20:15 utc | 185
“It looks like you forgot Navalny was actually poisoned by means of a still unknown chemical.
Actually it is not clear he was poisoned, and least on the plane originally, he presented a pretty good representation of a diabetic coma, with background to fit that, and until that is ruled out and some actual evidence is presented that something more nefarious was afoot, I’m sticking with that. I look forward to watching the Russians duke it out with the Germans over what really happened, should be entertaining.
And I’m not asserting that all sorts of spookery may have ensued once they got their hands on him in Germany, just that the Russian didn’t do it to begin with, if they wanted him dead, he’d be dead. They let him go to Germany, I expect they think they can defend themselves.
I had a brother who was a “late onset type I (juvenile) diabetic” and he had a number of episodes very similar incuding the doctors having no idea what was up at first. Then they would talk to family and it would be “oh yeah, yeah, diabetic coma, heh heh heh”.
Posted by: Bemildred | Sep 12 2020 21:55 utc | 191
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Sep 12 2020 20:25 utc | 186
Covid-19 is both more lethal and quite infectious. From the aftermath of lethal outbreaks of coronaviruses in 2019, there were strains more lethal to geriatric patients and people in old age hospices than average, but they were not particularly infectious and those outbreaks, with symptoms resembling Covid-19 (“glass lung”) remained local.
I doubt it. You cannot distinguish an excess immune reaction caused by other viruses from an excess immune reaction caused by covid-19. More likely or not you fight more than one virus anyway when you are immune deficient. Covid-19 has no distinct symptoms: It is identified by positive Sars-Cov-2 test. So where ever testing started, the virus will have started its documented run of mutation.
From 2012: Lung infections: The radiologist’s perspective
“In patients with immune deficiency not caused by AIDS, ground glass opacities are common but nonspecific, as they can be caused by viral or pyogenic infection”
It is a – deadly – marketing hoax. First patients were killed by wrong and experimental treatment. WHO has settled now on treatment by dexamethasone which is an immune suppressant corticosteroid. Rushed vaccination will likely cause more damage when immune systems have problems reacting to vaccinations. You can’t vaccinate against an autoimmune reaction. I don’t know what they try to achieve with Sputnik V in Russia, as the vaccine has no side effects it presumably has no effect either. They should have called it Potemkin.
I used to joke that should antivirus programmers ever need a job, they would simply send a new virus around. I am not joking anymore.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 12 2020 22:01 utc | 192
anybody know anything about this iranian wrestler case? seems like an obvious propaganda smear of iran, but all i’ve seen so far are msm accounts, which weep copious tears over the poor oppressed people in iran who have to put up with an “oppressive government”. there is a american ngo behind some of it, iran center for human rights or something innocuous sounding.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 13 2020 0:27 utc | 193
re racism in the military, there is supposedly a good deal of penetration by white supremacist organizations of both the u.s. military (sometimes tied in with the evangelical right’s equally successful penetration) and the u.s. police, which troops often join after serving in overseas wars, with no cognitive dissonance whatever.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 13 2020 0:30 utc | 194
Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 13 2020 0:30 utc | 194
RE the wrestler: I don’t know much, but:
1.) It’s safe to say the only reason we are hearing about is because it’s a way to bash Iran. Trump wants them to recognize him bad, so he tries to bait them or provoke them. And it does seem to be real, unlike a lot of the Iran-bashing.
2.) It seems the wrestler was involved in the last big bout of civil-unrest in Iran in 2018 I think it said, and some cop got killed. I didn’t see anything about how that happened, but besides executing the wrestler, there were two other guys that got 24 and 48 years (last number probably off a bit).
Posted by: Bemildred | Sep 13 2020 0:55 utc | 195
@195 The wrestler might have had a better chance if Trump hadn’t interfered.
Posted by: dh | Sep 13 2020 1:08 utc | 196
The KGB, or its replacement, is that FIS, GRU,FSS, or SCSR? must be red in the face.
Can’t even kill a foreign backed minor dissident with the best and most lethal nerve agent ever produced?
Or simply cannot take out, by any means available, a Russian citizen just as Obama took out US citizens as it suited his agenda?
Americans used picric acid under Clinton. Generates an acute heart failure and disappears at autopsy time. McDougal can attest to that.
Haitians would have used natural secretions of cadavers, human or animal. A few drops in coffee, tea or in any beverage would be enough to generate a fatal septicemia, quite a natural one at that. Could be construed to have stemmed from food poisonning.
Or the intended victim could be fed delicious ham harboring Clostridium Botilinium in abundance.
In other words, Russian Federation spooks should be sent back to school because they are so ineffective!
With the best and most lethal nerve agents they cannot even kill one target!!!!
Now, when it comes to narrative constructs, we must laud the German spooks that invented a new “Novichok”(even more lethal than the Skripals) that also fails to kill the target.
So, with all this, Germany will shoot itself in the foot and work against its best interests.
Ze Russkies will lose nothing. The “fait du Prince” will absolve the Russian Federation of any wrongdoing stemming from the stoppage of NS2.
Meanwhile, the EU contributors will be substantially hurt by NATO’s shenanigans.
So, now, in retaliation, Russia stops pumping gas through The Ukraine… Germany has now to supply the Ukraine too!!!
To solve that dreadful situation, Germany resorts to import Liquefied Natural Gas from the trusted United States of America!!!! (at a higher price, of course.)
The United States buys Liquefied Natural Gas from its Russian Suppliers and resells it to Germany at a higher price.
The US is happy, the Russian Federation is happy and Europe is f*cked.
Posted by: CarlD | Sep 13 2020 1:13 utc | 197
Thanks to karlof1 for a while back posting Putin’s meeting with various groups of school children. It was refreshing to see him back in the mode of responding to the various groups of people in the country, and this time to the young.
You mentioned that you found it had a different aspect, and you thought you knew why that was. I’m curious as to what you discerned on that. I have a bit of an answer, though it might be different from yours. I was impressed with Putin’s encouraging tone, but also that the questions from children to him were only referred to in general, unlike other forums where the questions and responses were given in detail. There was a sense of privacy about that, a courtesy to the young, that I found gratifying. I’ve always thought that children should be allowed to be just children longer than happens in the United States as a general policy, and as has been alarmingly the case more and more recently, especially with the push to have schools open up when the virus is still raging unchecked.
This concern for the young is what I would call wisdom. And no, neocons and neoliberals don’t have it.
Posted by: juliania | Sep 13 2020 1:59 utc | 198
I would like to hear if anyone else has any opinions on whether the infrastructure for receiving the quantities required of shipped US LNG actually exist or are likely to come into existence any time soon like within five years.
My uninformed impression is that they don’t and that none have been planned.
I remember seeing something about how the Poles had to let the Norwegians use some fancy ship-based LNG terminal solutions so that the Norwegian gas could be delivered through those ships who then in turn hooked up to the network in Poland.
As far as I know there aren’t any more of those ships and certainly not enough to handle enough imports from the US.
I could be 100% wrong about all of this.
If I’m not the whole idea of US LNG is meaningless like everything else they pretend to huff and puff about.
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Sep 13 2020 2:31 utc | 199
Posted by: dh | Sep 13 2020 1:08 utc | 196
@195 The wrestler might have had a better chance if Trump hadn’t interfered.
Probably so. They do get upset with anybody that they think is collaborating with the Great Satan, and there was some of that with the gas protests. I don’t think Trump’s wishes carry any weight with them, so yeah he’s not being helpful, but I think he intended to bait them, he’s a bully, helpful is not Trump-like anyway.
Posted by: Bemildred | Sep 13 2020 2:40 utc | 200