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September 23, 2020
Open Thread 2020-76
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Andre Vltchek- Resist in Peace
“André stood always up for justice, in defense of the poor, for the persecuted, the oppressed – for those that by and large are considered non-people by the elitist Global North; the destitute, the refugees, political prisoners, those that disappear and wither away in the shadows. As an investigative journalist and geopolitical analyst, he fought Supremacist Might for Human Rights.”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/andre-vltchek-remembered/5724601
Posted by: CitizenX | Sep 23 2020 17:27 utc | 1
The Cultural Marxism theory began as a reaction to the Beats and Counterculture of the 1960s. Even though many people on the right call the current woke agenda Cultural Marxism, what it really is doesn’t have anything to do with Marxism and is instead something new which serves the agenda of the middle and upper classes instead of the workers even though they pretend it does in order to justify their mania and attempts to force everyone to submit to their agenda.
Posted by: Kali | Sep 23 2020 17:30 utc | 2
Alastair Crooke digs into the gist of Applebaum’s Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism to expose it as part of the newly formed narrative dealing with the upcoming election. The blurb noted here IMO exposes her agenda:
“People, she argues, are not just ideological; they are also practical, pragmatic, opportunistic. They worry about their families, their houses, their careers. Some political systems offer them possibilities, and others don’t. In particular, the modern authoritarian parties that have arisen within democracies today offer the possibility of success to people who do not thrive in the meritocratic, democratic, or free-market competition that determines access to wealth and power. [My Emphasis]
As a member of the elite, she clearly favors Neoliberalism which has effectively destroyed the above bolded aspects of political-economy. IMO, the use of her book greatly damages the thesis he posits:
“Secular Millenarianism – the belief that some transformative catharsis in history has the power to expunge the crimes and follies of the past – has a long and bloody history. The notion originally owes to religion. Theories of human ‘Progress’ as an upward-trending, linear continuum, inevitably leading to ‘a better human end’, though clothed today as technological ‘miracles’, were never empirical hypotheses. They were always concocted myths, answering to a human need for meaning, yet manipulated ruthlessly in the interests of power.
“But what are such myths doing in a modern U.S. Presidential election? Quite odd. Suddenly, American politics now (by and large), eschews detailed policies, and defines itself, rather, as a Manichean struggle between the forces of light and of darkness; of freedom versus despotism; of justice versus oppression and cruelty.
“The election is no longer ‘politics’, but is configured more as a ‘crusade’ against cosmic evil – a devil, or demiurge. Stranger still, the two sides seem to mirror each other in these intense passions.” [My Emphasis]
Of course they “mirror each other”; they’re the Duopoly and are meant to appear that way. What Crooke must do is look behind the curtain at what’s being done with money & capital, the gross distortions and fraud that reside there and how they’re driving the unrest–an unrest that’s been growing since 2009 and Obama’s Great Betrayal. I wonder if Kill List Obama is even considered an “authoritarian” by Applebaum.
The level of political analysis by the American elite today:
A Divided America Is a National Security Threat, by Susan E. Rice
If that’s the quality of what the USA has best to offer, then China and Russia can already pop the champagne.
–//–
America’s Health Care Is Under Existential Threat
Err… I think the headline means exactly the opposite of what it says.
–//–
Europe being put on its knees by the second wave of the pandemic:
The Eurozone economy stopped recovering and stagnated in September (PMI)
On the subject, Putin has already warned them it will take a long time until the capitalist part of the world will recover economically from the pandemic:
Putin says global economy won’t recover from Covid-19 pandemic ‘for a long time,’ calls for world trade to be freed from sanctions
Marxist theory (which predicted the capitalist economy would be in a depression after 2008) once again proved scientifically. No V-shaped recovery unless you’re a nation-state called “China”.
–//–
A general picture on the state of global capitalism today:
The 90% world economy (UNCTAD report)
–//–
British people on its knees (again):
England’s new Covid rules ‘too little, too late’ for the second time, say scientists
I really can’t figure out what the British people wants. They don’t want to be an American colony, but they also don’t want social-democracy; they want their empire back, but they don’t want to deal with Blacks, Arabs and Indians; they want good wages and jobs but they don’t want strong unions. They want the government to act but they don’t want a lockdown. Is there a British here who can explain this whole mess to me?
–//–
The Independent and its imaginary investigative journalist infiltrated in the Palace of Independence:
Lukashenko secretly inaugurated after disputed Belarus election
The inauguration wasn’t secret. It is all over the place, including the Belarusian official news agency website, Belta.
The Western MSM must learn they’re not the Papal States. They don’t have to be formally invited and be there in order for a democratically elected head-of-state to be legally and officially sworn in office.
–//–
“Rules based international world order”:
Though Japan and Australia get closer, US is real master of puppets
“WASHINGTON, D.C.—It was a doubly sad day for the Supreme Court. While they were still mourning the loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, pink slips were handed out to Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor as they were told to pack up their things and leave.”
“I heard about court-packing,” Trump told the press. “I looked into it, and it ends up you can change the number of justices on the Supreme Court! Some people say it’s bad, very bad. But I think it may be actually very good, really. We’re trying to cut costs and get the economy rolling again! Why are we paying for all these extra justices we don’t even need? So we’re doing kind of a reverse court-packing process and getting rid of all the really bad judges who don’t like me”
“Instead of going through the expensive headache of confirming a new justice to replace Ginsburg, Trump will now reduce the number of justices on the Supreme Court by four. This means that in addition to not appointing a successor to Ginsburg, three more justices needed to get the boot. Trump said he pulled the names at random from a hat. “Totally random, but not really,” he said.”
“Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor were told to clear out their desks and walk out, escorted by security. Each was given two weeks’ pay as severance. They were also given a going away party at TGI Fridays, but few were allowed to attend due to social distancing.”
https://babylonbee.com/news/breyer-kagan-and-sotomayor-given-pink-slips-as-trump-reduces-court-size
Posted by: Punch | Sep 23 2020 18:34 utc | 5
Punch’s source @5 clearly didn’t do proper Due Diligence prior to writing. Only Congress via its legislation can change the size of the US Supreme Court. During the 1936 election campaign, FDR trotted out an idea to increase the number of Justices, which was dubbed the Court Packing Plan/Plot, as a way to threaten a bench that was rightly seen as partisan attempts to impede both Congress and the Executive’s efforts to try and solve/mitigate the terrible effects of the Great Depression. FDR was criticized from both sides, but his threat was affective as no more New Deal legislation was deemed unconstitutional.
As far as obeying the Constitution’s concerned, ceasing its daily violation by both Congress and Executive would be proper if either is to be seen as standing for the Rule of Law. But then 75 continual years of lawbreaking does become habitual to the point where it seems quite normal behavior instead of self-deception and derangement on a scale all its own.
@Punch & karlof1 re: the Onion-esque report
Gave me a good chuckle, though. The Orange Dick is a coyote, and I expect him to do something entirely devious soon.
Posted by: Dr Wellington Yueh | Sep 23 2020 19:16 utc | 7
@ karlof1 #3
What Crooke must do is look behind the curtain
Yes.
Crooke: Some political systems offer them possibilities, and others don’t. In particular, the modern authoritarian parties that have arisen within democracies today offer the possibility of success to people who do not thrive in the meritocratic, democratic, or free-market competition that determines access to wealth and power.
re Applebaum’s Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
. . .from Amazon
“How did our democracy go wrong? This extraordinary document . . . is Applebaum’s answer.” —Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny
Democracy, democracy . . .very funny.
Let’s look behind the curtain. Where was there ever a democracy, which requires that the people be involved in national decisions? Never, that’s when. And we shouldn’t neglect religion’s role in this charade, with its united we stand and god bless america. Government and religion go hand-in-hand to keep people down and obedient, and now the usurpers must be put down. It’s nothing to do with any democracy, Alastair.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 23 2020 19:29 utc | 8
And the trophy for the ‘Worst Analysis of the Week’ goes to…[drumbeat]…Tom Luongo:
With Ginsburg’s Death Cue the Last Stand of American Marxists
(not recommended)
Posted by: v | Sep 23 2020 19:39 utc | 9
I wondered when US companies would complain about the China tariffs.
Tesla sues US government
Posted by: arby | Sep 23 2020 19:41 utc | 10
It reads like Boeing is still trying to low-ball their fix for the 737 MAX
Proposed US fix for Boeing 737 Max software woes does not address Ethiopian crash scenario, UK pilot union warns
The take-away quotes
”
The British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) has told American aviation regulators that the Boeing 737 Max needs better fixes for its infamous MCAS software, warning that a plane crash which killed 149 people could happen again.
…..
BALPA said: “Requiring both crew members to turn the trim wheel simultaneously in a non-normal scenario is extremely undesirable and goes against all philosophies of having one pilot fly and one run the QRH [quick reference handbook: reading out the emergency checklist]. No flight control system should require both pilots to operate it at any stage, let alone in an emergency.”
The trade union added: “It is felt that this should be reconsidered (particularly in light of the smaller diameter trim wheel as fitted to the MAX to enable the new larger screens to fit, and as per the scenario observed in the Ethiopian Airlines accident).
….
Bootnote
The 737 Max will be known as the 737-7, 737-8 and 737-9. In Ryanair’s case it will be known as the 737-8200, a reference to the base -8 Max model having been fettled to fit 200 seats rather than the stock -8’s 180ish.
International Air Transport Association aeroplane type codes will be B37M, B38M and B39M should you want to avoid booking a flight on one.
”
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 23 2020 20:34 utc | 11
Hi Don @8–
Far too many people who ought to know better continue to back the False Narrative that the USA’s a democracy and has always been one. Are they ashamed or afraid to admit reality? Certainly it’s true we have some of the vestiges of democracy, but that doesn’t mean the entire system is democratic–every Executive Order written proves that it isn’t. The entirely private system of debt creation and its machinations also proves the USA isn’t at all democratic. And so forth. Those are the things that lurk behind the curtain. That’s why Greider entitled his book about the Fed Secrets of the Temple. If Applebaum was really interested in the rise of authoritarianism within the USA, she’d research and write about the reasons for the 1787 Coup euphemized at the time as the Philadelphia Convention.
The terrible ignorance of the USA’s history–particularly that of its founding–present in such a high percentage of the populace makes it very easy for those people to be manipulated and for needed change to occur so difficult to achieve.
Stella Moris @StellaMoris1 – 15:17 UTC · Sep 16, 2020
Each day Julian is woken at 5am, handcuffed, put in holding cells, stripped naked and x-rayed. He’s transported 1.5h each way in what feels like a vertical coffin in a claustrophobic van. He’s in a glass box at the back of court from where he can’t consult his lawyers properly.
Posted by: S | Sep 23 2020 20:50 utc | 13
Below is a link to a posting at The Register that has a title that is a bit over the top but the reporting is good.
China sets out world domination plan for its digital currency
Paper money that exists is representative of debt, not anything of value like it use to be prior to Nixon taking the Reserve Currency off the gold standard in 1971….called fiat money.
The creation of fiat money should be controlled by sovereign governments everywhere but in the West it is mostly controlled by those that own global private finance tools (BIS, FED, SWIFT,etc.) China is challenging that control by creating their own fiat digital “currency” and the rubber will meet the road when/if that digital currency is exchanged for US dollars….or it will get more complicated if China creates currency with associated intrinsic value.
Many people still cling to the myth that money has some intrinsic value and when/if it goes poof, there will be much anguish. While having a currency, digital and/or physical that has some sort of intrinsic value by being associated with things of stable value has merit, the creation and management of such is daunting because of to opportunity to game the value measures for profit.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 23 2020 21:02 utc | 14
I’m amazed that no commentator (that I’m aware of) has spoken about what seems obvious about Biden/Harris. It’s a setup.
Why would the Deep State want an elderly, half senile man? Because, after all the difficulty in removing Trump, they want someone they can get rid of easily, if he disobeys. They can have him declared mentally incompetent any time they want. After that, they get a soulless deeply ambitious woman – who has made a career out putting black men in jail and ignoring pleas of innocence w/new evidence.
So, they get a “black” female who can yell “racism” anytime she is disputed. And the ironic thing is that they scream about Trump wanting to be a dictator.
Posted by: Eighthman | Sep 23 2020 21:17 utc | 15
@ph #14
from link….
China sets out world domination plan for its digital currency
Seeks first-mover advantage and says US dollar ripe to be dethroned
The issuance and circulation of digital currency will bring about tremendous changes and impacts on the existing international monetary system, clearing system, and financial system. Therefore, the right to issue and control digital currencies will become a ‘new battlefield’ for competition among sovereign nations.
…..from Barron’s Sep 21:
Cash Is History. How to Profit From the Digital-Payment Future.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 23 2020 21:21 utc | 16
Do you remember a winter without a cold?” Thoughts about the corona crisis and how to move on thereafter
“1. Corona viruses are one of the viral agents of the common cold, which, just like the flu, invade the whole planet every year. They cause largely widespread, mostly benign, yearly pandemics of respiratory tract infections.
2. COVID-19, the infection caused by SARS-CoV-2, the current corona mutation, is not more lethal than the flu, with a 0.1-0.2% infection fatality rate.
3. An immense majority (95%) of fatal evolutions happen in old and frail individuals with premorbidities, with an average age of death at or above 80 years old.
4. Antibody studies, cross immunization with other corona strains and the completion of the death toll curve in many countries are strong evidence that the human population is developing herd immunity against SARS-CoV-2. In this context, a severe “second wave” for SARS-CoV-2 is improbable. We may rather expect a new cold episode from it just like every year, but of regular or even weak intensity thanks to the gained herd immunity.
5. PCR testing of SARS-CoV-2 presence does not give any reliable prognostic evidence of its infectious power and lethality. The monitoring of the pandemic state and evolution is given only by the daily evolution of fatalities. In Switzerland as in many other countries, there is no longer any excess mortality attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic. Positive test rate is low (around 3%), and tests have as always a technical false positive rate and react to inactive viral fragments or to other corona strains.
6. Only in a small percentage of COVID-19 patients, the SARS-CoV-2 virus may, like the flu virus, activate an immunological and inflammatory overresponse, causing at worst fatal pulmonary organ failure.”
Posted by: ADKC | Sep 23 2020 21:34 utc | 17
@ karlof1 #12
The terrible ignorance of the USA’s history–particularly that of its founding–present in such a high percentage of the populace makes it very easy for those people to be manipulated and for needed change to occur so difficult to achieve.
Yes, the Philly coups, and let’s go back even further in American history.
I’m not much of a book-reader, but recently hit on and enjoyed “1491” by Charles Mann, “New revelations of the America’s before Columbus.”
There were many more people BC — Before Columbus — in the Western Hemisphere than what we were led to believe, before the plague, and some of their societies were quite democratic. But we haven’t learned anything from that (nor from their excellent forest management, also now in the news).
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 23 2020 21:35 utc | 18
@ADKC #17
An immense majority (95%) of fatal evolutions happen in old and frail individuals with premorbidities
Yes, plus most Americans avoid exercise and healthy diets, plus are over-stessed, obese and sleep-deprived, which is how many (not all) get frail, at any age. Has CDC ever emphasized that? Dr Fauci has discussed it but probably it needs more emphasis than that. The USA is easy pickin’ for Mr. Covid. From my observations in visits the Chinese (like many in other countries) keep moving. Americans move also — mostly on wheels of one kind or another.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 23 2020 21:49 utc | 20
This will cause another eruption:
“Once again, the law says that property is more valuable than Black life.”
And Trump rages at China’s supposed human rights violations. Too be sure, lots of whites, browns and all other hues have been killed in similar no-knock raids gone very wrong. The article rightly includes an accusation of the Drug War’s complicity in Taylor’s murder. But Omar’s correct to echo mine and others cry to end qualified immunity–a doctrine that ought to be front and center at the confirmation hearings to replace Ginsberg.
psychohistorian @14–
Thanks for that link! In the SWIFT clearing system that features the dollar, do people really think it transfers physical cash? Clearly in many respects the dollar is already digital to a degree–all electronic transfers are digital. So, how is China going to dominate the world via a digital currency? Or is that just the current China bashing hyperbole? Again, at my VK space I wrote a short essay “Why Money” in anticipation of its finally becoming passé. I intend to follow it with a discussion about the Universal Basic Income concept that was somewhat experimented with during the COVID. Unfortunately as you note, for that concept and others related to it to be equitable and function properly the source of money issuance must be made public and not entrusted to any private entity, for as we’ve seen that is an invitation to massive fraud.
We have the technical capabilities to do away with physical money, and those same capabilities could be used to solve the problem of inequity once all debt is eliminated. But I fear too many humans haven’t evolved enough to accept such a radical change for the betterment of humanity. As usual, it all boils down to the 5,000+ year-old Class War between Creditors and everyone else.
Karlofi @ 21
Yes indeed here we are again. A blatant injustice in the run up to a fake election. A fake democracy, in a curuption riddled America !
Yet another deliberate provocation.
https://mobile.twitter.com/socialistra
A sign of the times, a glimpse into the future, ‘the new abnormal ‘
I could spit.
————-
Thanks for your suggested link on preveous thread. I find hope in the ever increasing groundswell of enlightenment !
Posted by: Mark2 | Sep 23 2020 22:27 utc | 23
Eighthman #15, i’ve been saying this since she dropped out pre primary (radically unpopular candidate who was the dnc favorite), that they were going to insert her in place as VP. just so happens the only reason dnc/donors/elites coalesque behind biden (awful choice) was he was the only candidate running who would step aside and let the VP take over once he won the election (if he can win, which is doubtful). that’s why i knew kamala would be VP, the entire ‘who’s it gonna be for VP’ was a sham all along because it was always going to be harris.
i have found it a tad surprising more people didn’t come to this conclusion earlier, but there have been a few. i’ve tweeted about it multiple times.
Posted by: annie | Sep 23 2020 22:30 utc | 24
Don Bacon @16 wrote about cash is history.
I’m sorry to inform you that your belief in regards to cash is about 40 years out of date.
Here is a graph showing the ratio of currency in circulation to GDP (in the US).
If you had said in 1981 that cash was on its way out this graph would have supported your claim. But since 1981 the amount of cash circulating has been growing faster than GDP. The only exception is 2003 to 2008.
The simple fact is that cash is still the basis of the banking system (it always has been). The reason you believe the money in your bank account is really there is because you can convert it to cash. The reason that cash has been growing faster than GDP since 1980 is because people (and businesses) have been taking more cash out of the banks than they have been putting in. As you can see from the graph the level of cash currently circulating relative to GDP is reaching levels not seen since the Great Depression.
cash is not only not on its way out it is now more prominent than it has been in 90 years
Posted by: jinn | Sep 23 2020 22:41 utc | 25
Why would the Deep State want an elderly, half senile man?
______________________________________
Because that is the easiest way to get trump reelected.
If you think the deep state doesn’t want Trump reelected you haven’t been paying attention to all the things they are doing to get trump reelected.
When the deep state needs to rig the voting system they will do just that. But right now they don’t need to rig the voting system because they can so easily get voters to vote the way they want.
Posted by: jinn | Sep 23 2020 22:50 utc | 26
The disintegration of Britain?
Sunak axes budget in scramble for urgent measures to save jobs
What a time to be alive: The Guardian – the newspaper of the traditional European center-left (social-democrat) – praising Germany’s labor precarization reforms because it preserves its petite-bourgeoisie:
Germany’s furlough scheme saves firms from freefall
People commenting there should remind mr. Oltermann that the UK already has a much more brutal version of the Kurzarbeit: the Zero Hour Contract (ZHC).
@ADKC #17
Good summary.
Unfortunately, the Fall flu and cold season is going to be used to hype COVID to justify lockdowns, which by Spring 2021 will collapse Western economies making assets ripe for the picking by the big financial institutions who received huge bail out money in the Spring of 2020.
Posted by: JasonT | Sep 23 2020 22:57 utc | 29
although b. is someone I read most everyday and notes his sources I don’t believe the mainstream paradigm on covid 19 as he apparently does. I find James Corbett reporting on the “plandemic” to be closer to reality. Early on b. believed a Nature article (one online blogger said it was just a letter to the editor) that SARS COV 2 was zoonotic.
Many other virologists and related think it was gain of functioned in a biolab including Nobel Laureate Luc Montagnier. The usual suspects say it came from the Wuhan biolab making it the China virus. The usual conspiracy theorists say it appears to have escaped from Fort Detrick or intentionally released in China. the way it soon killed members of the Iranian Parliament points to that country we can’t criticize. In some ways its not that important unless – there is another one in the works for the Pandemic 2 that Bill Gates says is coming. One that is more deadly than the not much more than a bad flu SARS Cov 2. In some ways a severe flu is worse as it also kills children rather than almost all unhealthy people mainly over 70. Many actual clinical doctors who treat patients say hyddrozychloroquine + zinc + azithromycin works if given to patients before they are critically ill and need an ICU bed. Also the early ventilation killed people and left most of those that survived with lung damage. Very few autopsies are being done on those who are said to die from or with covid 19. b. would usually be suspicious if both Nature and the new England Journal of Medicine had to retract peer reviewed articles that used fraudulent data to say it doesn’t work. The test the CDC first released didn’t work and many knowledgeable people say the rt PCR test gives many false positves = see Prof Carl Heneghan – How many covid diagnoses are false positives?
There was a spike in escess mortality in the spring but it followed the usual pattern for a communicable respiratory disease. I would wonder even more if China and Russia hadn’t taken this pandemic very seriously. Was the Chinese response necessary? The control apparatus in every major power is using the pandemic to increase their control. then there is the world economic forum saying this pandemic is useful for us to bring on the “great reset”. For myself I am not worried even though I’m over 70. I don’t wear a mask. I don’t have to worry about French kissing strange women in bars (I doubt any attractive women would be available to me) I think the mask mandates and the lockdowns even more so are actually harmful. Creating a new world depression could only be done by people whose decisions are actually implemented. The deep state doesn’t have complete power as Texas and Alabama still have college football while the Ivy league was the first to say none this fall. Belarus even kept stadium soccer games happening with apparently no ill effect.
Posted by: gepay | Sep 23 2020 23:13 utc | 30
jinn @25–
Here’s a current chart of the US Money Supply that measures Y/Y% of money supply growth/shrinkage. As you can see, M1 is up 40% Y/Y and still climbing. The chartmaker writes the following note:
“Panicked, Unlimited Federal Reserve Money Creation and Federal Government Deficit Spending Continues and Has Begun to Trigger Major Domestic Inflation.”
And:
“ShadowStats Conclusions: Policy Effects Will Mean a Continued Money Supply Spike, With Consumer Inflation Mounting Rapidly in the Next Six-to-Nine Months.”
Here’s the M1 Velocity Chart. Note it’s dropped almost 31% Y/Y. So despite what appears to be printing a fantastical amount of money, it’s not being used at all–it’s being hoarded. Now who’s doing the hoarding? Big Money or Little People?
And I’ll bet all that money that it wasn’t actually printed by a press but created digitally on the Fed’s keyboards.
Rules based international order:
Moderna, Pfizer & AstraZeneca seek urgent approval for their shots, just what Sputnik V was attacked for – don’t expect a backlash
The Moderna vaccine, by the way, is carcinogenic (as it is an mRNA vaccine). If you live in the USA, don’t take it. If possible, seek the Russian one (Sputnik V).
karlof1 @31 wrote
Here’s a current chart of the US Money Supply that measures Y/Y% of money supply growth/shrinkage.
______________________________________
What was being discussed was currency not M1, M2 or M3. The claim that was made by Don Bacon was that cash currency was on its way out. The data doesn’t support that claim. The points you make contribute nothing to that discussion…
yes it is well known that the dollar money supply has gone up a lot in the last 2 quarters. That is what happens when the Fed buys assets.
As for money velocity that is just a ratio of a particular money supply to GDP. Given that GDP went down and Money supply(M1, M2 or M3) went up the ratio of the two is of course going to be way down. The graph I posted earlier is the ratio of currency to GDP if you turn that graph upside down you have the graph of velocity of currency.
Money velocity has nothing to do with how fast money is changing hands or how much money is being used its just a ratio. If you want some idea of how much money is being used daily you might look at the volume of money transferred on fed wire each day. It looks like the volume of money transferred each day has increased by about 20%-25% in the last two quarters. The actual number of wire transfers has remained about the same but the average value of transfers has increased significantly.
https://www.frbservices.org/resources/financial-services/wires/volume-value-stats/quarterly-stats.html
Posted by: jinn | Sep 24 2020 0:32 utc | 33
The Senate report on Biden & Son’s corrupt behaviour in Ukraine is getting suppressed and spun by most of the media. Readers of MoA would recall the scary days of 2014, the Maidan, Kiev coup, Right Sector, Azov Battalion, the massacres in Odessa, Kherson & Mariupol that led into the Crimean referendum & the war in Donbas.
All through that time USVP Joe Biden was the administration’s ‘point man’ on Ukraine while Victoria Nuland handed out cookies in the Maidan square and agents provocateurs sniped at protesters, right-wing militia & riot police to create the chaos that led to Yanukovich and his government fleeing.
So although partisan politics in lead up to US election may have influenced the Senate’s release of the Ukraine report at this time, the content has to be considered:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hunter-biden-raised-counterintelligence-and-extortion-concerns-may-have-participated-sex
https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/senate-report-slams-bidens-conflicts-interest-flags
Posted by: PJB | Sep 24 2020 0:34 utc | 34
karlof1 | Sep 23 2020 17:50 utc | 3
I don’t know what Crooke oughta do, but clearly he is focused on a color revolution now under way in the US:
What is going on here is, of course, classic ‘colour revolution’ management of mass psychology – albeit perpetrated from within the U.S., against its own incumbent President. What the TIP represents is the laying down of the narrative mosaic: It proposes nothing abrupt. The Electoral College simply is incrementally ‘moved along’ from the ‘in need of reform’ category, to the ‘obstacle to democracy’ that “should be dumped” category (see here, for example).
TIP is all about massaging public perceptions about Trump’s likely election mis-behaviour, Vlahos relates (as a historian, and former War College professor), so as to slide the notion of the need to remove him under a soothing mantle of legality and acceptability.
The project also permits people a period of time to put behind them the shock of what is about to unfold: providing them with time and space to embrace this ‘new world’ – and, for them to come to see that the world they were inhabiting has become unbearable and unacceptable. (i.e. Classic myth-making instrumentalised for political ends.)
All this is being orchestrated so that people will be able to move smoothly through and be prepared for the violence and turmoil – of that which is to come.
And what is to come? Massive demonstrations (in the millions, that are already being prepared) to give the impression that all of America is against the President, thus posing the question to the U.S. military: ‘On whose side, are you: Democracy or Despotism?’ The TIP outlines clearly: “A show of numbers in the streets – and actions in the streets – may be decisive factors in determining what the public perceives as a just and legitimate outcome”. Or, in other words, events will conspire to suggest to people and to the military command, the only ‘correct’ answer.
Will it work? It just might. Only a clear win in the popular vote might be a spanner in the works, but that seems a stretch. Will the senior military balk? Debateable.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/09/23/and-then-what-we-darent-not-look-into-abyss/
Posted by: pogohere | Sep 24 2020 1:02 utc | 35
VK says, apparently inspired by The Fraudian:
“I really can’t figure out what the British people wants. They don’t want to be an American colony, but they also don’t want social-democracy; they want their empire back, but they don’t want to deal with Blacks, Arabs and Indians; they want good wages and jobs but they don’t want strong unions. They want the government to act but they don’t want a lockdown. Is there a British here who can explain this whole mess to me?”
VK, allow me to assist.
British people do not want the empire back, and nor is there a societal hatred towards the groups you mentioned. I doubt you would believe The Guardian when it is stenographing the latest imperialist, Russophobic MI6 BS from Luke Harding as ‘news’, yet you happily do when it comes to regurgitating its latent anti-working class prejudices about the plebs being jingoists and xenophobes. It is the Guardian who are the imperialists, not the workers.
The pro-lockdown Guardian will also not go out of its way to publish views of scientists contrary to the authoritarian faction it chooses to quote, and like the government and its shady advisors, has been dishonest in pretending that numbers of ‘cases’ found in a relatively extensive testing regime today can be compared with Feb/March, when the only people getting a test were those already seriously ill in hospital. Apples and pears.
I think I can honestly inform you that opinion is divided between those who are scared shitless by the constant doomy propaganda, who will accept all the endless infringements on their liberty, and the sceptics who have noticed that very few people are actually dying, or even ill from the disease, and who recognise that most of the current ‘cases’ are asymptomatic. Quarantine is what you do to sick people, not healthy people.
I’ve already lost my job, and London is dying. Not from covid, but from the shutdown of the economy and the destruction of all social, cultural and sporting life. I’m not saying that some restrictions, even a short initial lockdown at peak, were not needed, but ‘flattening the curve’ as a temporary measure has turned into a never ending hellish dystopia. Peter Hitchens, who you may remember as the only MSM journalist to report on the OPCW scandal, has suggested that the new measures, justified by the latest round of scaremongering from selected scientists, are to force an extension of the Coronavirus Act in Parliament, which allows the Government to govern basically by decree, and all of the totalitarian measures go undebated, uncontested, and not voted for by parliament. Democracy has been cancelled until further notice.
Posted by: Ash Naz | Sep 24 2020 1:05 utc | 36
Iran’s Javad Zarif’s Interview and follow up discussion at Council on Foreign Relations. Highly articulate and self assured …. exposing US’s and west’s moral bankruptcy…. and skillfully turning the question on Iran supposedly being isolated in west Asia. A superb performance ….,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=KLhCCot0pzw&app=desktop
Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Sep 24 2020 1:10 utc | 37
To whom it may concern
https://healthfreedomidaho.org/serious-concerns-over-masks-and-carbon-dioxide-levels/
Best regards
Posted by: Roberto | Sep 24 2020 1:10 utc | 38
Damn, Vichek is dead? RIP.
I have disagreements with him, specifically about Hong Kong, but can’t believe he’s gone. I guess that’s why he went silent for months.
Also
@vk
“peaceful BLM protestors” Yeah, look at riot going right now, why do you keep lying?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/breonna-taylor-protesters-unload-shields-190617926.html
100% state-funded and corporate-funded troublemakers.
Posted by: Smith | Sep 24 2020 1:13 utc | 39
I may be preaching to the choir but I have found Consortium News to be invaluable in keeping up to date with Julian Assange extradition proceedings, I mean the kangaroo court proceedings
https://consortiumnews.com/
Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Sep 24 2020 1:13 utc | 40
@Nathan Mulcahy
Good to know.
A disgusting article this one though: https://consortiumnews.com/2020/09/15/uprising-the-attorney-general-has-condoned-an-extra-judicial-killing/
Ironically, the guy who was killed by feds was an assassin who ambushed a right winger and claimed self-defense. But somehow he walked until the feds find him, while Kyle is still in jail now.
The US really is outlaw land.
Posted by: Smith | Sep 24 2020 1:37 utc | 41
Here is a puzzling, back of the envelop comparison, I did for COVID-19 mortality for several countries.
I looked up the total number of COVID deaths and population size for each country (from worldometers website), and then calculated “COVID-19 deaths per million” for each. According to this calculation, “COVID-19 deaths per million” in the USA is similar to that in the UK, 5x higher than in Germany, 63x higher than in Cuba, 188x higher than in China and 1,668x higher than in Vietnam!
I understand that the reported number of deaths assigned to any country has to be taken with a grain of salt (I can list multiple factors that could credibly change the number in one direction or the other), I can also think of factors why mortality in different countries could be different due to demography. But I’d have never thought that the spread would differ by three orders of magnitude!
My initial thought is that people simply do not die from a virus. Rather the virus triggers a cascade of events that can ultimately lead to death. That cascade of events encompasses biological processes, as well as nonbiological ones. Examples of the latter include quality of public health system, other infra structure, cultural norms, political system, etc. Also, depending on what other factors are involved in this cascade of events, the inherent lethality of the virus can play a minor role. If my interpretation is correct, then this way of comparing COVID-19 mortality exposes huge elephants that have remained invisible.
I also think that by narrowly focusing on number of infected cases, and then automatically demanding lockdowns etc. we’d do much better to identify these invisible elephants and figure out why COVID-19 mortality in this country is higher by several orders of magnitude than other countries. What are your thoughts?
Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Sep 24 2020 1:45 utc | 42
I found this – What explains elite contempt for Joe Rogan? – System Update with Glenn Greenwald – an interesting talk, not so much in terms of Rogan, but the discussion about the culture wars, the Democrats, etc. You might find it interesting, too. I only occasionally watch Rogan – last week the Snowden interview, for instance – and I usually just watch Rogan clips. But this analysis of why and how he’s popular – and especially why Rogan drives the “SJWs” crazy – was informative.
I am so far removed from the “culture wars” that it’s like being a Martian, so these kinds of analyses are interesting, to some small degree anyway.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Sep 24 2020 1:50 utc | 43
Tonight fox news.. 30 minutes ago 2 cop in Louisville, Ky shot..
Foxnews qualified Biden and son for president tonight, report they may be guilty of extortion and corruption. Said Biden’s son made millions.. go figure.
On central bank money supply Around here a hurricane proved that money by electronic credit or transactions processed and recorded electronically is dangerous to your health, at one Wall Mart, no one used the electronic check out, anyone without something to trade could not buy a damn thing, including food, gas or a place without a tree through its roof to sleep.
China, Russia and India have initiated what i see developing all over America, private local trade exchanges with intent to avoid anything to do with national or international monetized central bank script or private party issued plastic.
nearly everyone around here has reduced their bank accounts to $5 or less. and are avoiding banks, FED RESERVE money or credit cards. the movement to avoid central bank anything is advancing in many locales around USA exploited America. No nations monetary solution is acceptable to these people. many are refusing to obey orders or to take action on mandates by government officials. As one person put it, my intention is to make good people quit working for government. People are just plain fed up. They want their local economies back..they don’t believe any of the media or the government. If I were a banker I would be heading for the hills.. I don’t think being in the USA exploited America is going to be safe much longer for Bankers or stockbrokers and people with lofty degrees in Blue suits. .
Posted by: snake | Sep 24 2020 2:28 utc | 44
Kentucky Attorney General, Trump bootlicker, who spoke at RNC Convention just lit match to dry timber by refusing to bring charges against officers who murdered Breonna Taylor. How convenient for Trump’s fake security narrative that rightful protests are erupting just one month to elections!
Trump is manipulating this whole scenario in the most shameless, cruel and devious manner.
Fascist conniving pig!
Posted by: Circe | Sep 24 2020 2:52 utc | 45
There are some delightfully pithy comments in the Solemeini Blowback thread over at SST. It would seem that only the perps thought killing Solemeini was a “brilliant” idea…
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 24 2020 3:00 utc | 46
Jinn #26
Biden is the rig in the rigged voting system. To be clear – the demonazis ran to lose ably assisted by Bernie Sanders who set out a policy platform to get voters excited and then collaborate with the class enemy to spit in their face. They won’t be voting.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 24 2020 3:20 utc | 47
Circe #45
Just the same way as Bernie rigged the game to drive demonazis voters away and leave the field open for Trumps home run.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 24 2020 3:24 utc | 48
Realizing The Assange prosecution is a project of the MSM. was big to me..
The government has no real problem that jailing Assange would fix,, but if the MSM and criminal elements can use the USA to make impossible another Assange type expose’, then six guys don’t just own 92% of the media, 6% guys don’t just make their living off of advertising, these six guys control 100% of the media. They can engineer their poison at will.
It just did not make sense that the government cared that much.. But I can see how it would bother the hell out of Israel and Oligarchs who fund, and mercenaries that carry out genocides and special ops around the globe because human rights courts might find in disclosed documents evidence enough to prosecute them.
Posted by: snake | Sep 24 2020 3:26 utc | 49
@49 snake
You know, that’s actually quite a thought. Wikileaks as competitor to the corporate purveyors of data. So crucify the leader and stop that shit from happening anymore. Then it’s back to business with a clear field.
Quite a thought.
Posted by: Grieved | Sep 24 2020 3:54 utc | 50
Another one bites the dust…
Andre Vltchek
https://www.news1.news/en/2020/06/andre-vltchek-the-world-cannot-breathe-crushed-by-the-united-states-world-affairs.html
truthers are dropping like ten pins,
somebody should do an autopsy on
Harold Pinter, Stephen Cohen, Andre Vltchek,
Posted by: denk | Sep 24 2020 4:32 utc | 51
Eighthman @ 15, Annie @ 24:
I don’t think anyone in the MoA comments forums was really all that surprised by the selection of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden’s running mate. She ticks all the right boxes on the Identity Politics checklist and (as Eighthman says) is a deeply soulless and ambitious woman in the mould of Hillary Clinton.
If HRC had been running for President again with Harris as her wing, we’d be hard put to tell their characters apart.
Perhaps the real reason for the Biden / Harris ticket is that when Harris becomes President, HRC would be the eminence grise behind her every time she issues and signs an Executive Order.
Maybe that’s why out in the real world (as in the physical world), few commentators have said anything about the Biden / Harris combination. They suspect or know this is how HRC will resurrect and they realise this is not going to be popular among the American electorate. So it is better to say nothing at all in case mention of any kind helps Donald Trump in any way.
Posted by: Jen | Sep 24 2020 6:10 utc | 52
Max Blumenthal has obtained an exclusive, BOMBSHELL intercepted recording of a call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian military intelligence head Admiral Igor Kostyukov:
Kostyukov: Hello, Mr. President. What I can do you for?
Putin: Admiral, we have big problem and need immediate operation. Aleksey Navalny, you know?
Kostyukov: Yes, Sir.
Putin: There is new poll out, his party was at 1%, now his party is at 2%. I won last presidential election by only 76 points. We must eliminate new existential threat to my political survival.
Kostyukov: Yes, Sir. So how to proceed?
Putin: After a massive success of Skripal poison operation, perfectly timed ahead of World Cup in Russia, in middle of my global charm offensive, to make whole of Europe hate Russia, we must immediately go back to same playbook.
Kostyukov: Brilliant idea, Sir.
Putin: Yes, Admiral. We will deploy chemical weapon that only Soviet Union has manufactured and make sure it is so deadly, it failed to kill Skripal and daughter, and both made full recovery and disappeared in British witness protection.
Kostyukov: Very intelligent idea, Sir. We must break him.
Putin: Da! Da! So, we poison Navalny in crowded airport with Novichok, which according to chemical expert will kill everyone in immediate vicinity, but, like with Skripal, this Novichok will somehow kill no one—it instead will make Navalny go into coma. Then, when international community go crazy and demand custody of Mr. “2%” Navalny, we agree to send him to Germany.
Kostyukov: Germany is great potential economic partner in Nordstream pipeline.
Putin: Exactamenski, Admiral. If we poison Navalny and make sure he go to Germany, we successfully disrupt our chances of securing vital natural gas pipeline deal with Germany that is critical to Russian national security and economic future.
Kostyukov: Sir, you are genius. You play three-dimension chess better than the warmongering grifter. . . uhhh. . . what his name?
Putin: I. . . think you mean. . . uhh. . . Garry Kasparov.
Kostyukov: Da, da.
Putin: Sooo. . . where was I? Uh, we poisoned Navalny, put Nordstream deal in danger, hurt credibility of security service and also maybe can help Joseph Biden and. . .
(The call is interrupted by President Putin’s personal assistant Annushka.)
Posted by: S | Sep 24 2020 9:09 utc | 53
Kali
Your cultural marxism link does not lead to an article about cultural marxism.
Posted by: Johny Conspiranoid | Sep 24 2020 9:50 utc | 54
ADKC @ 17
I have never seen anything like this… I am not talking about the pandemic, because I have seen 30 of them, one every year… But I have never seen this reaction, and I am trying to understand why…” (from your link)
yeah, it’s weird how the mass psychosis we’re witnessing is exponentially more contagious than the germ itself. there’s something seriously amiss with such levels of fallibility. i mean, i understand how and why the event has been activated to usher in some kind of reset, but to see at least half of humanity wearing a mask, cutting wide arcs around each other, accepting lockdowns from their schools, musical venues, places of worship,…i.e. places of general fulfillment, succumbing to the most denigrating and villainous regimen imaginable, is truly mind-boggling.
if or when this bug blows over i wonder if the deluded will claim insanity as their defense?
Posted by: john | Sep 24 2020 9:59 utc | 55
Smith @39
Odd. And what is the difference between the NGO and corporate-sponsored BLM goons and the “Fiery but Peaceful” fascist cockroaches in Hong Kong?
Here is Vltchek’s “A letter to the young people of Hong Kong”. Some people might mistakenly assume from your comment that Vltchek supported the empire’s hired thugs in Honk Kong. He absolutely did not. Of all the people I have ever met, Vltchek’s understanding of the nature and behavior of the empire was the clearest and least warped by fantasy and delusion. Unlike some “liberal” posters here, Vltchek never shied away from and denied the horrors that the American people are responsible for.
By the way, a young woman of color near where I currently live (walking distance, actually) had the door to her home kicked in by some thugs who shot her a dozen times. There are no protests for her, no GoFundMe fundraising set up, and the mindless meat robots controlled by their TV sets who shed fake tears for the woman killed in Louisville don’t know this woman’s name and they don’t care. They only care about what their TV tells them to care about because they are meat robots.
Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 24 2020 11:11 utc | 56
Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 24 2020 11:11 utc | 56 they are meat robots.
Timothy Leary used to say one way to tell how intelligent a person was is to ask them how much of their behavior is robotic. If they said something less than 90 percent, he figured they were too stupid to talk to. He assumed 99 percent of his behavior was robotic.
Humans: only as intelligent as evolution has required them to be.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Sep 24 2020 11:21 utc | 57
Posted by: Grieved | Sep 24 2020 3:54 utc | 50 So crucify the leader and stop that shit from happening anymore. Then it’s back to business with a clear field.
Except it’s not going to work. Crucifying Wikileaks just means hackers will get the data anyway and then dump it on the Internet without any vetting. As usual, the idiots trying to control everything are just shooting themselves in the foot again. Wikileaks is controllable, or at least observable. Random hackers aren’t. Look at Blue Leaks. I don’t know how the FinCen papers were retrieved, but I wouldn’t be surprised if hacking wasn’t involved somewhere along the line – or at least an insider. The only thing slowing this sort of thing is the fact that most hackers today are after the money instead of the activism.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Sep 24 2020 11:26 utc | 58
Mysterious QAnon Conspiracy Theory Mailings Spook Minneapolis Suburbs
I call “Deep State operation”. Or some QAnon believer with deep pockets. Or both.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Sep 24 2020 11:31 utc | 59
@46 Hoarsewhisperer
Since you stepped right into the manure; let me add: that must be why your mango-d Trump is always taking credit for that killjob and bragging about it.
Just the same way as Bernie rigged the game to drive demonazis voters away and leave the field open for Trumps home run.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 24 2020 3:24 utc | 48
Oh yeah dum-dum, Sanders is playing 3-D chess to get Trump re-elected.🙄
Posted by: Circe | Sep 24 2020 11:37 utc | 60
The Election That Could Break America
If the vote is close, Donald Trump could easily throw the election into chaos and subvert the result. Who will stop him?
A lot of people, including Joe Biden, the Democratic Party nominee, have misconceived the nature of the threat. They frame it as a concern, unthinkable for presidents past, that Trump might refuse to vacate the Oval Office if he loses. They generally conclude, as Biden has, that in that event the proper authorities “will escort him from the White House with great dispatch.”
The worst case, however, is not that Trump rejects the election outcome. The worst case is that he uses his power to prevent a decisive outcome against him. If Trump sheds all restraint, and if his Republican allies play the parts he assigns them, he could obstruct the emergence of a legally unambiguous victory for Biden in the Electoral College and then in Congress. He could prevent the formation of consensus about whether there is any outcome at all. He could seize on that uncertainty to hold on to power.
Trump’s state and national legal teams are already laying the groundwork for postelection maneuvers that would circumvent the results of the vote count in battleground states. Ambiguities in the Constitution and logic bombs in the Electoral Count Act make it possible to extend the dispute all the way to Inauguration Day, which would bring the nation to a precipice. The Twentieth Amendment is crystal clear that the president’s term in office “shall end” at noon on January 20, but two men could show up to be sworn in. One of them would arrive with all the tools and power of the presidency already in hand….
Let us not hedge about one thing. Donald Trump may win or lose, but he will never concede. Not under any circumstance. Not during the Interregnum and not afterward. If compelled in the end to vacate his office, Trump will insist from exile, as long as he draws breath, that the contest was rigged.
Trump’s invincible commitment to this stance will be the most important fact about the coming Interregnum. It will deform the proceedings from beginning to end. We have not experienced anything like it before.
Maybe you hesitate. Is it a fact that if Trump loses, he will reject defeat, come what may? Do we know that? Technically, you feel obliged to point out, the proposition is framed in the future conditional, and prophecy is no man’s gift, and so forth. With all due respect, that is pettifoggery. We know this man. We cannot afford to pretend.
I agree with that last for one simple reason: What has Trump got to lose? He’s not someone who cares about behaving in accordance with “protocol”. To him, it’s just another game where he gets to win on his own terms. As long as the game doesn’t cause him to hurt his narcissism on his terms, he’s got nothing to lose by causing a Constitutional crisis. Even if he loses, he wins by proving he had the power to do it. And if he can rope in enough other powerful players who see an opportunity to improve their positions, he could win.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Sep 24 2020 11:44 utc | 61
Fed capitulates, USA to enter into a new “lost decade” at the least:
You’re on your own, Fed tells panicked market: Officials warn that monetary policy cannot get the US economy out of its ‘deep hole’
This is the scientific explanation for this (link at the end of the link):
Fed chairman Jay Powell waves white flag
Texas Deployed SWAT, Bomb Robot, Small Army of Cops to Arrest a Woman and Her Dog
It took 600 cops to take down the “Symbionese Liberation Army” – six people – back in the day. This time it took over a 100 cops, two armored cars, an ambulance, and a bomb robot to get one innocent woman and her dog out of a car.
Cops are cowards.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Sep 24 2020 11:49 utc | 63
Looks like the Americans didn’t like RT’s joke about Trump:
‘Bizarre & deeply disturbing’: MSM think that RT’s Trump deepfake parody is ADMISSION he is ‘Putin’s pawn’
Bad Actors Could Exploit US Mail-In Voting System, FBI and CISA Warn
Let me fix that headline: Bad Actors Could Exploit US Mail-In Voting System, FBI and CISA PLAN…
Tell me this wasn’t a dog whistle.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Sep 24 2020 11:54 utc | 65
@William Gruff
To my knowledge, most of HK protesters have never reached the level of violence of BLM people, and they are actually suppressed brutally because HK police doesn’t give a shit. There is also some triad involved, against the HK protesters.
It’s not a half-ass deal/controlled demolition like what is going in the US, where the cops basically allow the mob to burn, loot whatever they want and arrest anyone who try to stop them.
Posted by: Smith | Sep 24 2020 11:58 utc | 66
Richard Steven Hack @57
Very true, but that 1% of volition, for those who have that much, is of crucial importance.
Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 24 2020 12:04 utc | 67
@ Posted by: Smith | Sep 24 2020 11:58 utc | 66
Not only the HK protesters destroyed more, but they also killed more. They also beat more – including many policemen, some nearly to death.
Smith @66
Your “knowledge” is not just flawed, but it is entirely fabricated nonsense planted in an otherwise empty mind by the empire’s mass media brainwashing machinery.
There is comfort in being a meat robot, though. It is intellectually and cognitively effortless.
Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 24 2020 12:15 utc | 69
Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 24 2020 12:04 utc | 67
Yup. But it also has next to zero effect other than on a personal level.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Sep 24 2020 12:15 utc | 70
Cops are cowards.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Sep 24 2020 11:49 utc | 63
Bullies and cowards. I grew up in farm country where there were no cops. It was great.
Tell me this wasn’t a dog whistle.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Sep 24 2020 11:54 utc | 65
That’s a red herring, intended to derail your interest in voting by mail. Interesting to note though, that our spooks and cops clearly don’t want honest elections. They like the corruption. Far from wanting to clean up our political and economic system they like it fine and want to protect it just the way it is.
A Dog Whistle would be like talking about crime when you mean non-white crime, a secret code, like putting ((())) around language when you mean Jewish people, or talking about immigration when you mean non-West-European immigration, anybody not like you. Down south it’s all about sex, they get terribly worked up about black people and sex, so their dog whistles tend to run that way. People who otherwise are disgusting pigs sexually will all of a sudden become prim and proper when non-white people come up, their sexuality is scary as Hell.
https://literarydevices.net/red-herring/
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dog%20whistle
Posted by: Bemildred | Sep 24 2020 12:25 utc | 71
The Velocity Decline is a myth if you use the standard economic textbook equation of the
‘Quantity Theory of Money’: MV= PY
M: Money Supply
V: Velocity
P: nom. Price Index
Y: GDP,
which says that the money used for transactions MV must be equal to the value of these transactions PY.
However, if you want to understand why the velocity of money seems to be declining you have to understand that the equation above – which is used within almost every economic theory – doesn’t distinguishe between Money M used for Financial Purposes Y(f) and Money M used for Real (tangible) GDP Growth Y(r). Put differenty, Money (actually credit creation) for financial circulation and Money (credit) for real circulation.
But what is Money M?
Economic Textbooks do not know. They use all kind of measures for M (M1, M2,…., M30). They use these many surrogates for M because they know that they have no useful measures to empirically trace the Money Supply and validate the above equation such that the Velocity of Money V remains constant.
Let’s break Money down:
Broadly, money in the UK/US can take several forms. Cash (coins and bank notes) accounts for <3% (notes: 94%, coins: 4%) in money circulation, whilst the remaining 97% of the money creation comprises of Credit Money that has been created by banks.
Central Bank Reserves refer to commercial bank reserves held at the Central Bank and which facilitate large scale payments BETWEEN commercial banks only to settle net amounts owed between commercial banks at the end of each day. Central bank reserves DO NOT circulate outside of the banking system and so are not considered when presenting the total amount of money circulating within the economy. However, the central bank will convert electronic central bank reserves into physical notes and coins that circulate within the economy, at the request of a commercial bank if required.
There are 3 theories of HOW banks create money:
1) Banks are merely intermediaries that loan out money which has been put into it. WRONG
2) Money Multiplier Theory of Credit. WRONG
3) Credit Creation Theory of Banking (proven by likes of Steve Keen, Richard Werner, etc). BINGO!
-> 3) Credit creation theory of banking proposes that individual banks can create money, and banks do not solely lend out deposits that have been provided to the bank. Instead, the bank creates bank deposits whenever making a loan to an individual or a company. Consequently, the amount of money that a bank can create is not constrained by their deposit taking activities, and the act of bank lending creates NEW purchasing power that did not previously exist. The repayment of existing debt destroys money, as a consequence of reducing bank loans (asset side of balance sheet) and customer deposits (liability side of the bank balance sheet).
Banks’ ability to create credit money is also a consequence of being exempt from the ‘client money rules’ (legal requirements).
Conclusion:
If you now disaggregate and substitute Credit C for Financial Purposes C(f) and for Real Growth C(r) for aggregated Money M and disaggregate Growth Y into Growth for Financial Purposes Y(f) (financial transaction) and Growth for Real/Productive Investment Y(r), you get the
‘Disaggregated Equation of Exchange’:
C(r)V(r) = P(r)Y(r) ‘real circulation’
C(f)V(f) = P(f)Y(f) ‘financial circulation’.
If credit for financial transactions rises, the traditional definition of velocity within the original ‘Quantity Theory of Money’ will give the illusion of a velocity decline because MV= PY
or the Money demand M(d)= 1/V PY restatement does NOT take into account if Money M (i.e Credit) is created for financial transactions Y(f) or for tangible investment Y(r).
Posted by: vato | Sep 24 2020 12:31 utc | 72
@vk & @William Gruff
Care to prove your points?
It’s funny because two US policemen are shot dead today in the US, and the destruction of the US riots spread to many cities, so it’s impossible for the HK protesters to destroy more.
Posted by: Smith | Sep 24 2020 12:37 utc | 74
William Gruff | Sep 24 2020 11:11 utc | 56
By the way, a young woman of color near where I currently live … thugs who shot her a dozen times. There are no protests for her …
The protests are for racial justice against a system that is perceived as biased against blacks.
What you are implicitly asking is that people agitate for an even stronger police state.
________________
Smith @Sep24 11:58 #66
… in the US, where the cops basically allow the mob to burn, loot whatever they want and arrest anyone who try to stop them.
Cops allow?
Re-phrasing: Why aren’t the cops goosestepping?/sarc
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Sep 24 2020 12:42 utc | 75
Richard Steven Hack @70: “Yup. But it also has next to zero effect other than on a personal level.”
I’m not so sure about that. That small amount of sentient volition by a small fragment of the population is what has allowed our species to develop and amass a body of culture that differentiates us from animals. It was that volition that allowed one of our caveman ancestors to overcome instinctive fear enough to dash out into the thunderstorm to snatch that lightning-stuck burning branch and bring it back to the protection of the cave. That predecessor to modern day scientists doubtless burned himself multiple times while trying to learn how to tend and manipulate fire, and he was likely shunned by many of his peers who were terrified that the smoke from the fire would sap and impurify their precious bodily fluids, but it was acts of intellectual bravery from the few people like him that raised the rest of the species above being simple naked knuckle-draggers.
Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 24 2020 12:46 utc | 76
Yes, indeed, US cops allow these acts to happen.
Imagine if they were mass-arrested and jailed, like what the HK police did.
As well, as hosed, firing tear-gas and flashbang.
https://sl.sbs.com.au/public/image/file/ef9295c8-129f-4fc5-bd85-fd83653af27e
Imagine if the US police actually used colored water to hose down protesters, then identify them afterwards and arrest them. Would solve a lot of problems.
!!
Posted by: Smith | Sep 24 2020 12:48 utc | 77
Smith @Sep24 12:37 #74
… two US policemen are shot dead today in the US …
I assume you’re referring to the officers shot in Louisville, KY.
They were not “shot dead”.
Once again, you exaggerate. Their injuries are serious but not deadly.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Sep 24 2020 12:52 utc | 78
@Jackrabbit
Well, I don’t care about cops, just saying the thought of HK protesters being more violent than BLM/antifa thugs are laughable.
Anyway, these 2 aren’t dead, but these (3) are:
https://dailycaller.com/2020/06/10/police-officers-shot-riots-george-floyd/
!!
Posted by: Smith | Sep 24 2020 12:55 utc | 79
Smith @66: “[the HK rioters] are actually suppressed brutally…”
One cannot prove a negative, but there is no evidence whatsoever of this, so you’re the one who needs to provide the proof.
Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 24 2020 13:03 utc | 80
Yet again I see Trump making this pronouncement– a few times now
“Today, we proclaim that America will never be a socialist or communist country,” he added, as reported by The Hill.”
President Trump Bans US Citizens From Staying in Cuban Hotels
Posted by: arby | Sep 24 2020 13:04 utc | 81
@ William Gruff
One can easily google a video or two:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4QL2rvmd3s
Possible involvement of employment of Triad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nB9ILTigFk
Compared this to say, Portland or NY where mob just forms and harasses people at will, even politicians:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf12w2EGLu0
Police just stands there.
Posted by: Smith | Sep 24 2020 13:12 utc | 82
Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 24 2020 12:46 utc | 76 That small amount of sentient volition by a small fragment of the population is what has allowed our species to develop and amass a body of culture that differentiates us from animals. It was that volition that allowed one of our caveman ancestors to overcome instinctive fear enough to dash out into the thunderstorm to snatch that lightning-stuck burning branch and bring it back to the protection of the cave.
Oh, I agree in the area of the advancement of the knowledge and technology of the species that the 1% are important. And the 99% depend on that 1% for their survival. But they don’t like it and they don’t support it. And they’re never influenced by it in comparison to the con artists they do follow: the priests, the statists, etc.
I believe in studies of rats. there are four classes of behaviors in a rat colony. There are alphas, the leader rats. There are betas, the follower rats. There are probers, which are rats which exhibit intense curiosity and sexuality – they invade other nests and screw the alphas’ females. Then there are the omegas. Those rats are what would be called “schizoid” in humans. They behave oddly and are shunned by the other classes and eventually either commit suicide by refusing to eat or are killed by the other rats. Of course, in humans, these behavioral classes are more complex, more mixed and on a wider spectrum of behavior. But betas outnumber the other classes by far. And betas follow alphas – not the other classes. And that’s true in primate species and humans as well.
Posted by: Bemildred | Sep 24 2020 12:25 utc | 71
I may have misused the term “dog whistle”. What I meant is that the Deep State are claiming malign influences on the election mail-in process precisely to cover the plan to disrupt the election by such actions on the part of the Deep State – or at least to claim such actions occurred on the part of the “usual suspects” – Russia, China, Iran – and thereby enable the Deep State to get its desired election outcomes, whether that be a win by Trump or Biden or simply a Constitutional crisis they can use for other purposes. So they’re in essence “telegraphing” their desired outcome and laying the foundation for it at the same time. Most people will go along and blame the desired usual suspects because it agrees with their agendas, whichever political side they’re actually on. This is the ideal intelligence operation – the Deep State wins no matter what happens.
The big story on my Twitter timeline today is Trump was asked whether he could guarantee a “peaceful transfer of power” if he loses. He ducked the question. I agree with the article by Bart Gellman I posted above. I think the fix is in for a Constitutional crisis, and perhaps even martial law. It would be prudent for everyone to plan for that possibility.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Sep 24 2020 13:16 utc | 83
Smith @82
What kind of wimpified place do you come from where that police behavior is considered “brutal suppression”? I see police officers very gently arresting people who are resisting arrest. Resisting arrest gets you shot dead in America. I’m sure you’ve seen videos of that.
Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 24 2020 13:22 utc | 84
@ William Gruff
Yeah, I see cops who are beating people until they cry, and not even cuffing them but continue the beating.
Don’t know, man, but if this isn’t police brutality, I don’t know what is.
And nah, I don’t defend US cops, they deserve everything they get for protecting rioters.
Posted by: Smith | Sep 24 2020 13:25 utc | 85
Richard Steven Hack @83: “And the 99% depend on that 1% for their survival. But they don’t like it and they don’t support it. And they’re never influenced by it in comparison to the con artists they do follow: the priests, the statists, etc.”
Oh, come now! They’re influenced! They wear clothes, don’t they? Even if their pants are around their knees they are still clothed which they wouldn’t be if it were not for millennia of the scientists and engineers developing fabric technology and industrial manufacturing capabilities. Doubtless you are right that many are resentful and would rather be naked on the savanna and clubbing each other with antelope thigh bones, but most are actually trained to behave very similar to what real sentient humans are like. That’s some serious influence!
Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 24 2020 13:39 utc | 86
I see what you did there!
arby @Sep24 13:04 #81
[Trump:] … we proclaim that America will never be a socialist or communist country
Complaints about record wealth inequality are transformed into an existential battle between capitalism and socialism.
We see similar manipulation in other areas:
- Any change to healthcare is decried as deadly and super inconvenient (longer wait times!)
- Any change to policing is decried as opening the door to apocalyptic lawlessness.
<> <> <> <> <>
According to TPTB, WE MUST have an EMPIRE FIRST oligarchy/plutocracy protected by a police state with gold-plated healthcare that best serves the wealthiest.
TINA!
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Sep 24 2020 13:41 utc | 87
“…beating people until they cry…”
Oh my goodness! Until they cry? That bad? LMAO! I saw a parent do that to a small child who was misbehaving at the park the other day. Doubtless you are the type who would be on the phone to the… who, the police? lol … if you saw that mom swat her bratty kid on the rump.
Pathetic.
Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 24 2020 13:45 utc | 88
JR @87–
I have heard him say it several times as if was written into the constitution–
“Feb 6, 2019 – Our country is vibrant and our economy is thriving like never before. On Friday, it … Tonight, we renew our resolve, that America will never be a socialist country.”
Posted by: arby | Sep 24 2020 14:01 utc | 89
#1. Andre Vltchek was one of the best and as latin american and world citizen I mourn his death.
Posted by: Abu Aisha | Sep 24 2020 14:07 utc | 90
‘Quantity Theory of Money’: MV= PY
M: Money Supply
V: Velocity
P: nom. Price Index
Y: GDP,
That formula is just more economic silliness
P = price of goods services
and
Y = quantity of goods and services produced
P X Y is the dollar amount of goods and services produced.
Neither P nor Y factors are known for the whole country. All that is known is the dollar amount of goods and services produced which is reported by business on their taxes. The total dollar amount of goods and services produced is called US GDP
(Velocity of money) = GDP/(Money supply)
The above formula is the one and only way that money velocity can be calculated. Any purported calculation that uses P and Y is nonsensical because P and Y are both unknown quantities.
If GDP goes down and the Fed in reaction adds to the money supply even a fifth grader should be able to look at the formula for velocity of money and tell you what happens to velocity.
None of this has much of anything to do with the original claim that cash currency is on its way out.
_
Posted by: jinn | Sep 24 2020 14:37 utc | 91
Latest post by Craig Murray.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/09/your-man-in-the-public-gallery-assange-hearing-day-16/
You can feel the depression in Craig’s state of mind when reading this post. Very sad.
There must be a way to spread this news to more people. Tweets and Facebook posts with links to Craig’s website are blocked apparenty.
Would be good if B can highlight Assange’s plight in a separate post to create more spread of this news.
Posted by: Bprad | Sep 24 2020 14:59 utc | 92
(Velocity of money) = GDP/(Money supply)
The above formula is the one and only way that money velocity can be calculated. Any purported calculation that uses P and Y is nonsensical because P and Y are both unknown quantities.
Posted by: jinn | Sep 24 2020 14:37 utc | 91
LOL
Y is unknown but in your little formula it is known??
Hint: GDP is Y
Posted by: vato | Sep 24 2020 15:04 utc | 93
Collision in Øresund Straits on Sep 23
Very little is being said on the Russian side.
RT has asked the Danish military for details on the warship who had none 🙂 Why didn’t they ask the Russian military??
The Russian ship is reported to be a Parchim Class light frigate called the Kazanets, Hull number 311 and may have been one of two Parchim class frigates in the straights at the time. Ref, https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2020/09/russian-navy-warship-collides-with-merchant-ship-in-baltic/ The frigate is reported to be headed back to base (St Petersburg) under own steam with damage above the water line. They are saying that the Russian AIS identifier was turned off.
The merchant ship was a freighter called Ice Rose a 12,401 ton reefer carrying refrigerated containers. was apparently headed north about to pass under “The Bridge” which connects Copenhagen with Sweden, and has significant damage but not leaking anything at anchor.
Fog causing very poor visibility at the time but I think that is what those on-deck revolving dishes and christmas trees are for and although it is difficult to understand why AIS was turned off in a narrow, busy, international shipping lane on a foggy morning, the active radar would still have picked the war ship up as a 236 foot long blip, albeit without a ping-back of exactly who it was identified as.
So, who was on Starboard? Who T-boned who? etc should be interesting? Though both vessels have equal responsibility to avoid any collision.
Russians staying Mum at the moment which may be a sign of Sheepishness. Where were the frigates headed to? apparently also going North? The war ships are equipped with anti-submarine capability. :-O
Stay tuned (if you like that kind of thing:)
Posted by: inept | Sep 24 2020 15:10 utc | 94
It’s no good people whinging about riots now. You don’t listen do you ? so just live with it. So are guns a good thing or a bad thing, ha ha ha.
Hey but look at the arms industry increase in profits and share price !
If guns are the problem do you think guns will be the solution ?
It’s good that America has a taste of conflict in its own back yard, it should give the right wing war mongers empathy.
If you can’t take it don’t dish it out. End of.
Posted by: Mark2 | Sep 24 2020 15:13 utc | 95
@karlof1 #3
Given that Anne Applebaum is both a neocon mouthpiece and the wife of Sikorski – why exactly would anything this person writes, have even the tiniest bit of credibility?
Posted by: c1ue | Sep 24 2020 15:30 utc | 96
Probably not as good as the fake Trump clip but RT published another one to mark their 10th aniversary, its 2035 and a retired Obama talks with Kerry, goes to the kitchen for a beer and… the best part.
https://youtu.be/THrZZ95i8zQ
Posted by: Paco | Sep 24 2020 15:31 utc | 97
@jinn #91
You clearly have no idea what you are talking about.
Money velocity has no absolute relationship to money supply.
If the money supply was $1 but that dollar traveled between 1000000 people in a year (it is the only dollar in existence), then money velocity would be 1000000.
Equally, there are periods in history where both money supply AND money velocity went up: World War 2 is one.
Learn some basic economic definitions.
Posted by: c1ue | Sep 24 2020 15:34 utc | 98
@William Gruff #76
You said
I’m not so sure about that. That small amount of sentient volition by a small fragment of the population is what has allowed our species to develop and amass a body of culture that differentiates us from animals.
This is classic elitist self-justication, and is also nonsense.
Sentient volition is irrelevant. The infrastructure all around us is created, maintained and used by all of us in society.
All you need to see as proof is Latin America. 200 years ago, these countries were just as prosperous as the US. Some were wealthier.
In that period, those nations became ever more unequal – the “sentient volitionists” pushed ever more economic activity into their own benefit. The exclusion of 95%+ of their population from economic activity is what led these nations to be the “shitholes” they are today.
This process is now acting in America: Amazon warehouse workers, Uber/Lyft drivers and the like are the modern version of economic pigeon-holing and exclusion.
Posted by: c1ue | Sep 24 2020 15:41 utc | 99
@vato #72
You speak of economic theory, but economic theory also would say that increase of money supply should lead to more credit, which in turn is a boost to money velocity.
It is the use of the increased money supply which matters, not the amount per se.
With respect to COVID-19 stimulus spending: arguably it will lead to increased money velocity because more of it is going to poor people than to rich – unlike all of the past bailouts.
However, the negative money velocity due to shutdown of huge swathes of the economy is so great that it seems unlikely that overall money velocity will increase, particularly since so many venues for money spending (= more activity = more velocity) are closed.
For lockdown cities: it is quite challenging to go out to eat, to get drinks in a bar, to see live sports, to attend a convention, to go to a meetup to learn about new things, etc etc.
Nor is it clear that the stimulus spending offsets the financial anxiety of not being able to pay rent because of (lack of) employment.
Ultimately, the biggest problems with all economists is that they’re all a bunch of fakers. They don’t know shit, they don’t do shit, and they don’t even go out and check to see if their shit is real.
The exceptions like Dr. Michael Hudson are marginalized in favor of wankers like Krugman.
Posted by: c1ue | Sep 24 2020 15:46 utc | 100