Oh the irony!
​
Watched a PBS program tonight. The series is called “Hacking Your Mind”, the program I watched tonight was titled “Us vs Them”. The program demonstrated the natural tendency of human beings to divide into groups – Us vs Them, and how this human tendency presents a danger to our nation as we fall prey to media influences that make us divide one American group against another American group (Us vs Trump supporters, for example). Us vs Them – divided.
​
Irony is seen in the program as it sounds the alarm about THEM – the Russians.
​
Them
THem
THEM!
​
Here is the PBS video. The segment of interest begins at the 21 minutes mark.
https://www.pbs.org/video/us-vs-them-2t0c0s/
​
The segment in question discusses an anti-muslim video that had been shared on the internet since 2014.
2014.
Apparently, after the video had been shared thousands upon thousands of time since 2014 a Russian guy also shared this video on Facebook in 2016 and thus provided convenient fodder for Russiagate and this PBS program.
​
I found the segment beginning at 21 minutes very spooky and troubling and I fear for our nation that PBS is pushing hate. Pay attention to the distressing sound effects that accompany this segment.

Posted by: librul | Oct 4 2020 13:47 utc | 1

make that "last night"

Posted by: librul | Oct 4 2020 13:47 utc | 2

The new buzz-phrase "tensions rising" is in full news-play as seen here.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 4 2020 13:55 utc | 3

librul @1 - Have to say that I'm glad I no longer watch tv...And as you'd expect, what PBS does via visual media, its sibling NPR does via audio. More usually (so far at least) by the drip, drip, rinse and repeat method...They've never, ever stopped the "Russia meddled" 2016 and clearly no amount of evidence to the contrary will change their tune. And so too with the "Navalny" charade - when they mention it, it is always "Russia, Russia" (i.e. the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin)... The Flynn farrago - NPR always pushes the "he admitted to lying to the FBI" angle rather than ever thinking about presenting the evidence that the FBI set out to get him to lie and so on...

Anything that counters even to the slightest degree the DNC storyline, the corporate-capitalist-imperialist ruling plutocratic, establishment (also RNC) Russophobic or Sinophobic or Iranophobic prism is ignored completely. Instead their line is to continue to push the bizarre line that the US is out there against China, Iran because of those polities "human rights" abuses - and we are the world's saviors.....

Posted by: AnneR | Oct 4 2020 14:13 utc | 4

Good one Don B. @3

A buzz-phrase I keep noticing is the use of "without evidence". For example, when Trump, or anyone the MSM wants to target, makes an accusation and the MSM has to discuss that accusation it is unsurprising to encounter the phrase "without evidence"
as seen here

If only the anonymous "US intelligence sources" (here)
that the Mouthpiece Media echo so frequently were qualified with "without evidence".

I tried combining the two phrases and instead of receiving thousands of results I received
three.

Posted by: librul | Oct 4 2020 14:19 utc | 5

"A thread about Trump in Washington DC" looks like clever propaganda to me, just saying. Towards the end there I found myself nodding along: "Yep Trump is our only hope". A fun read but likely not reliable.

Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 4 2020 14:23 utc | 6

Very interesting week.. what I saw was a lot of people are beginning to understand how dysfunctional the USA government has become.. The oligarchs who own the International Nation State Franchising operation. .you know, the franchises that govern the local nation states are being discovered one by one, as part of the dysfunction that has been used to manipulate all of hamanity . .

Most people have begun to under the meaning of having a President that is not elected by the people and that it does not matter if the people go to the poles and vote, because their vote does not count, the electoral college appoints both President and VP.

Most people are beginning to understand their concerns are not explainable because the government is conducted in secret and the media, 92% owned by just 6 people world wide. has complete control over the information environments <=in each separate nation state. The MSM is where, until recently, most people got their information from <= so most people's information until recently has been completely shaped by the private owners of the media that controls each franchised nation state separately.

The meaning to democracy <=actually to lack of it, of a six person owned, private monopoly in media is starting to become understood by everyone, even the guy that cleans the commodes: those who must cover up their sins and those seeking to discover the sins of those seeking to hide their sins <=everyone is beginning to understand. Private control, by monopoly ownership of media, has protected the nation state franchisees from being discovered for too long. The nation state system has not only allowed, but fostered and promoted global unrest. Media is independent of top down nation state control, its an alternative way that the owners of the Franchise system enforce their intentions and control the narrative.. The USA has not been shy about acting on behalf of desperate private media to prevent out of the box disclosures about global corruption < intent clearly shown in the trial going on in Britain designed to bring Julian Assange into prosecution range. Documents Mr. Assange disclosured revealed how those who govern and those who benefit by Useing government accomplish their corruptions. Devil forbid! The Assange extradition trial reports that disclosing crimes of those in government is light years more terrible than holding up a corner grocery store.

Discussion should center not on finding a vaccine, which probably will often not work, but on finding and implementing a way to prevent corona virus of any vintage or flavor from infecting a single cell in a single person..(virus carried by mosquitoes is controlled by eradicating the mosquito)<=why not infection prevention instead of infection by vaccine? <=Because all vintages and flavors of the corona viri use essentially the same process to infect human cells <=preventing infection, which would eliminate the risk posed by the virus, seems primal to waiting for victims of infection to get sick so the vaccine can work its claimed magic. Many are working on prevention <= government will stop work on prevention, if it could find those working on prevention. Infection stopped <=would upset their feudal lords in the pharmaceutical industry and <=your great protectors at the FDA and NIH and HS would use the powers vested in their crimes by the government to stop the governed humanity from being able to protect itself by method of prevention. Government power depends on citizen dependence.

So much freedom from those who govern <=its difficult to move about.

Posted by: snake | Oct 4 2020 14:41 utc | 7

Emperor Trump:

An army of doctors. Access to an experimental drug. A special patient gets special care.

Meanwhile, his court is getting uneasy:

'People are losing their minds': Panic and confusion in White House

One of the most symbolic signs of American degeneration is the degeneration of the Executive Office into an essentially religious institution. The POTUS is increasingly losing his efficiency and efficacy, gaining an ever increasing ritualistic role, while a cabal of powerful courtiers (Deep State; Pentagon) become the de facto Executive. The POTUS' cabinet is gaining an ever increasing character of an absolutist or Byzantine court, i.e. a bunch of parasites without any talents or expertise, whose sole purpose is to serve as a buffer between the POTUS and the real world; their only feature is being from the POTUS' family or entourage; their only purpose is to keep the POTUS happy and alive in order to continue milking the taxpayer money while living as privileged citizens.

(Relatively) powerful POTUSes can and probably will still arise from time to time in the USA. But they'll become scarcer and scarcer, fruit of dumb luck and sheer punctual opportunism. The tendency is for the POTUS to become a mere figurehead, while the USA descends into poverty and fascism.

--//--

Plausible deniability at its best (or worse?):

Alexei Navalny He cheated death, but can Navalny ever break Putin’s grip on Russia?

It's getting to the point it doesn't even matter the creator of novichok himself came publicly and stated the chance of surviving novichok is zero. Like, even cold, hard facts matter anymore.

Anyway, "cheated death", a cute story that appeals to the First World middle and upper middle classes (the vast majority of its readership). Very emotional. The Guardian will get away with it.

--//--

Rothschild Heir Launches a Fresh Legal Action Against Vienna Over €110M Nazi-Seized Assets

When France was liberated, the Rothschild were one of the first non-military to set foot in Paris. The first thing they did was to go to their mansion, pop up one bottle of wine and celebrated like if nothing had happened. I guess their only complaint was that it took too long (five years).

Now the West pays the price for their refusal to reform.

--//--

West’s Triumphalism After German Reunification Was 'Serious Mistake', Bundestag Lawmaker Says

Little known fact even today: the German Reunification wasn't a reunification, but an incorporation of the East by the West. The Germany we see today is West Germany expanded, literally.

The absorption of the DDR was one of the most catastrophic, Human Rights violator events in post-war history. It turned East Germany into a wasteland, and it only wasn't an outright genocide because, contrary to Yeltsin's Russia (where a genocide really happened), the East Germans were able to mass migrate to the Western territories (mainly the big cities, such as Hamburg, Frankfurt or even Munich).

West Germany was able to easily dismantle the DDR because, as a socialist country, it had a planned economy. The operation was simple: they co-opted the DDR's central banker with a nice career in a West German bank and, in exchange, he gave the entire "map" of the DDR economy. Privatization was almost free, savage and quick. One of the most folkloric cases was Karl Zeiss' privatization for a little over DM 10.00.

Posted by: vk | Oct 4 2020 14:43 utc | 8

@ 6 same. After all Trump's administration has continued on the war footing against Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria, China [there are many more] and remains engaged in attempting to dismantle the emerging multipolar world centered around China and Russia. The domestic system of surplus extraction, gutting out the "middle class" and use of police violence for social control and the foreign policy of regime change, direct violence, sanctions-based killings remains remarkably consistent despite the attempt to pain Trump as an "outsider." For U.S. Americans "outsider" implies against the excesses of the elite, against wars of regime change and not part of the single-party (fake two party) system ... but Trump was always part of that.

Posted by: Thirsty | Oct 4 2020 14:47 utc | 9

It is quite fun watching the MSM go into full conspiracy con complete with the pixel police during Trumps hospitalization.

Posted by: circumspect | Oct 4 2020 14:49 utc | 10

This is one time when the links are particularly useless or even disgusting BS. It was impossible to finish reading either "Brad" or the fool reverently copied onto Naked Capitalism.

I had to stop reading "Brad" when he claimed Trump got such massive support from the media because Trump was good for ratings. Quite aside from the grossly stupid idea networks want ratings rather than ad sales, if it was about the ratings, the Democratic Party campaign would have given Bernie Sanders billions in free publicity too. Trump got so much media because the rich people liked his message, and Sanders didn't because they didn't like Sanders. End of story, almost. The end? "Brad" is a moron, QED!

If "Brad" makes you wonder whether there is intelligent life on Earth, the scumbag at Naked Capitalism reminds that militarism is indeed a Bad Thing. It is always strange to see military people whining about how states should do stuff and the federal government wastes money (imagined to be their income taxes, most likely,) while sucking the tit of the biggest waste of money in the US, and even worse, the most evil in its effects. Almost everything the clown has to say is regurgitation of simple-minded twaddle taught to grade schoolers, as part of their compulsory miseducation. Stupid cliches about waste and states' rights are mindlessly invoked, while talking points of notorious liars are swallowed hook, line and sinker.

There's no reason to think that when it comes to money Biden is one bit more senile than Trump. Except, ironically, the true believers who simultaneously believe Trump is a financial genius and he didn't falsify his massive losses on his tax returns have less more reason to doubt Trump's mental capacity. Biden managed to get the nomination without favorable publicity, without large amounts of money (what he's getting now is the donor class covering their asses for a Biden win,) without being very popular. This is not the case for stupid. Naked Capitalism I'm not much familiar with, but almost certainly this asshole is deemed worthy of attention for two reasons. First, the ignorant, backward economic ideas about deficits are evil, welfare spending is evil, hard money is God's work, etc., etc, ad nauseam, are cherished in their hearts. (This can be true ever, maybe especially, if Naked Capitalism has to make a show of critical thinking, for effect and/or vanity.) Second, the gay identity politics, like all identity politics, is a cheap way of being socially liberal while still sucking up to the ruling class. Class interest is more important than social identity. Pretending otherwise is favorite cover for turning to the right.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Oct 4 2020 14:50 utc | 11

Thanks b, for the links.
The Brad twitter thread should give anyone pause just for the short list of peculiar family connections listed.
The NC piece shows critical thinking skills still make a difference, if and when used.

Posted by: Michael | Oct 4 2020 15:01 utc | 12

Discussion of Trump's illness tends to obscure the reality that he, unlike most Americans and others who suffer from the virus, is getting proper treatment and all the necessary care to deal with the virus.
Most of those who have died did not get anything like that treatment, indeed they were left to die by Healthcare systems which are almost all infected by obsessions with profit and efficiency which have led to the dismantling- often in 'socialised' systems such as those in the UK and Canada- of nursing staffs and ICU capacity.
The truth is that Covid has exposed the fault lines in capitalist class society and the result has been that a million people have died, many of them, it looks increasingly clear, because the capitalists regard them as expendable, and politicians are confident that even if they decimate the electorate and kill off the elderly in every family they will still be able to convince the survivors that such behaviour is acceptable.

In Ontario, disabled people are charging the hospital system with having adopted a triage protocol which, essentially, puts patients with disabilities at the bottom of the list when treatment is being rationed. This is a practice which long pre-dates the current pandemic, as do many of the administrative malpractices which have contributed to death tolls in the "west" far exceeding those in the Far East where life is more valued.

In the UK the SKAWKBOX blog has released an Amnesty report which it describes as having destroyed government claims
"..that the Tories ‘threw a protective ring’ around care homes during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic."
It suggests that
"*the huge number of deaths caused by COVID-19 in care homes – well over 18,000 at the very least, but in reality almost 30,000 based on ‘excess’ deaths attributable to likely undiagnosed cases
breach of residents’ human rights by the government’s behaviour
"*the fact that the government knowingly put the people most at risk of the worst effects of the virus in the firing line
"*the fact that returning known-infected patients back to care homes on a huge scale was government policy (it still is, despite claims to have changed it)
*the government telling care homes not to use PPE (personal protective equipment) with asymptomatic infected patients
*blanket ‘do not resuscitate’ orders on elderly residents without regard for their or their family’s wishes
*protected the NHS’ by denying treatment to older and more vulnerable sufferers – condemning thousands to a hideous death – ‘protection’ that the Tories consistently boasted about.
"The report also details multiple ways in which government policies denied care home residents their human rights and put them at risk of inhumane treatment.... the report concludes – and says so in its title – that residents were treated as ‘expendable’.

"That’s geriatricide – the murder of our old and vulnerable."

https://skwawkbox.org/2020/10/04/expendable-amnesty-report-explodes-tories-protective-ring-care-home-lie-and-confirms-thousands-of-elderly-knowingly-sentenced-to-death/#comments

Posted by: bevin | Oct 4 2020 15:16 utc | 13

Re Amy Coney Barrett.
A couple of weeks ago, Planet America Fireside Chat's guest US commentator was Heidi Heitkamp (D), an American businesswoman, lawyer and politician who served as a US senator from North Dakota from 2013 to 2019.

She's more than a little worried by the prospect of mother of 7 and religious fruitcake, Amy Barrett, getting onto the Supreme Court. According to Ms Heidkamp, Amy has said on several occasions that if a conflict arose between the principles of her faith and the principles of the Constitution, she would be guided by the principles of her faith.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 4 2020 15:41 utc | 14

@ b who wrote
"
Speaking colloquially: When there is sufficient shit flying around some of it will eventual hit the fan.
"
LOL!!! Thanks for that. Fits with the shit show meme.

I have only skimmed a bit of the news but it reads like the White House without the bully there directing is a vacuum. Gawd help us if Pompeo fills that vacuum. It sure as hell (pun intended) isn't going to be Pence.

I want this Trump/Covid-19 situation to evolve in a way that brings the end to some of our species feelings of superiority over others. And I hope that includes the railroading of Amy Barrett into the US Supreme Court.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 4 2020 16:30 utc | 15

Oh, FGS!

You left out the part where Trump's doctor is prevaricating, inconsistent and dancing around the media's questions and I was expecting you to give your assessment on what his meds reveal and what Trump & co. are really up to with all this ambivalence. The President is not entitled to privacy on the status of his health. His health must be public knowledge.

Today, when his doctor was asked what CT imaging and X-rays reveal, whether they reveal extensive disease or pneumonia, he replied there were "findings" and wouldn't elaborate further. Come again?--Findings??? Any imbecile could come to that same conclusion!

Then the press asked whether his room was pressurized and he refused to answer that too with the cockamamie privacy excuse. What is the issue with revealing that???

Trump is on remdesivir and cortisone and yet, his doctor says he's doing great and will be sent home tomorrow.

WAAAT!? Are we being punked? This is crazy.

Posted by: Circe | Oct 4 2020 16:39 utc | 16

Oh yeah, Trump's doctor's name is Sean CONley.

Posted by: Circe | Oct 4 2020 16:48 utc | 17

thanks b and the many commentators here who make it interesting... @snake and bevin.. i enjoyed your posts on this thread.. thanks..

Posted by: james | Oct 4 2020 16:52 utc | 18

Re Amy Coney Barrett.

She's more than a little worried by the prospect of mother of 7 and religious fruitcake, Amy Barrett, getting onto the Supreme Court.

She is replacing a religious fruitcake. Ginsburg was a Kabbalist Jew. In a city with a +90% African American population she had only twenty African American law clerks out of 487 from her stints on the appeals court and the supreme court. Mostly men as well.

The religious test is skipped. How many were Jews? I would guess mostly. Those topic are off limits in our society. I would say that changing the make up of the power structure is more important than pushing abortion back to the states to control.

Abortion is a dog whistle for the left. I had to say it, I know how they love to use that term. Its all diversion to keep power placed in the right hands.

Posted by: circumspect | Oct 4 2020 17:02 utc | 19

Bow to the imperial overlord:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-huawei/japans-sony-and-kioxia-seeking-u-s-approval-to-supply-to-huawei-nikkei-idUSKBN26P00T

Obviously the large multinational corporations are not in fact in charge, and will meekly follow the edict of national-security bureaucrats even as it harms their bottom line.

Posted by: jay | Oct 4 2020 18:01 utc | 20

@ Posted by: circumspect | Oct 4 2020 17:02 utc | 19

She is replacing a religious fruitcake. Ginsburg was a Kabbalist Jew

Gimme the Kabalist over the speaker-in-tongues. Having lived in a part of the country dominated by Pentecostals, Southern Baptists, and other "charismatics," they're comparable to Salafists in their refusal to recognize a separation of the secular and sacred:

God is really interested not just in men’s souls but also in their whole life, work and enterprise. He wants all of it transformed into his kingdom. This means that what we often see as secular or worldly — jobs, career, economic programs, public and private education, health services, criminal justice and the courts, local, national, international politics and economics, questions of war, peace and justice, radio, TV, music and art — all are meant to be transformed into the Kingdom of God in the Earth.

They want to impose their religion onto us heathens, the "Kingdom of God on Earth" talk is not just metaphorical. These kinds of Christians should be kept far away from power. I know that she is a Catholic officially, but she has also embraced the Protestant heresies aforementioned through "Charismatic Renewal."

Abortion is a dog whistle for the left

I don't think dog whistle means what you think it means. A dog whistle is when Joe Biden says "school busing" or when Clinton talks about "welfare queens." Abortion is a serious issue, as it effects the bodies of ~52% of the population and the right to reproductive self-control. The opposition to abortion in this country is driven by maniacs who believe that God talks to them and has a personal relationship with them (we really do have a mental health crisis in the country). Barrett, if she does not go as far as to believe that states should be able to make abortion illegal (which, despite her protests, she would not get in the way of this), will at least be a force that allows a further chipping away of abortion access.

Take June Medical Services, LLC v. Russo, for example, which happened this year. This was a challenge to a Louisiana law which would have shut down the only abortion provider left in the state. It was a 5-4 ruling which struck down the law. Ginsberg's vote was deciding. Barrett would have almost certainly voted in a way that would have closed down the facility and effectively ended abortion access in the state of Louisiana. Importantly, the law would have shut down the facility by mandating that abortion clinics have hospital-admission requirements, not by making abortion illegal outright. It would have been a de facto abolition of abortion in Louisiana, because it would have imposed a constraint on the only operating clinic that it couldn't meet. This clinic doesn't only provide abortion to Louisiana residents, it also provides them to people in East Texas, South Arkansas, and other neighboring regions, so this would have been catastrophic for reproductive autonomy in the region.

This is not even getting too into the other issues with her politically, such as her brain dead commitment to Republican "free market" (read: anti-labor, pro-capital) shibboleths, or her record in opposing the Affordable Care Act, which is presently the only thing keeping people 18-26 on their parents' healthcare, and thus the only thing presently keeping the vast majority of that demographic with health insurance at all. This is the Trump administration at its most obviously dangerous, in its total capitulation to the same conservative ideology that Mitt Romney, John McCain, Bush I & II, and all the other ghouls not worthy of naming were the foremost proponents of prior to 2016. I know sometimes we have to pretend that the liberals are scared for nothing, but there are good reasons to see a Barrett nomination to the Supreme Court as a disaster for those of us who want to live in a free society.

Posted by: fnord | Oct 4 2020 18:01 utc | 21

Okay, how long is it going to take to turn around the gutting of the State Dept. with Christian dominionists? Is Pompeo just too fat, lazy and infected to engage in the artillery and rockets raining down on civilians in Nagorno-Karabak?

Posted by: Idland | Oct 4 2020 18:26 utc | 22

Yves at nakedcapitalism.com sneaks in an endorsement of Trump?!?

Why not? After all, the Democratic Party is practically trying to elect him as they stumble from one self-inflicted wound to the next.

Naturally, the reader that explains why he's voting for Trump complains that he's doing so for rational reasons while ignoring the evident set-up. Nor does Yves offer any critical analysis that might connect dots that have been memory-holed.

So, lets review: the Democrats went 'all in' on bogus Russiagate; on "all victims must be believed"; and then on a failed impeachment while supporting Trump's domestic agenda (tax cuts, nominations, etc.) and lending verbal/moral support for his foreign policy agenda (increased militarism, anti-Maduro, TWO missile attacks on Syria, persecution of Assange, etc.). With this in mind, more people should see that it's likely that Hillary threw the election in 2016 this seasoned campaigner: screwed progressives, ignored blacks, insulted white "deplorables", and chose not to campaign, in the closing weeks of the election, in the three states SHE KNEW would decide the election.

But there's more. The history of recent Presidential elections indicates a persistent manipulation:

• 1992: Ross Perot re-enters the race so that Bill Clinton is elected;

• 2000: VP Gore concedes to GWBush despite actually winning;

• 2008: Obama's "Change You Can Believe" naturally beats old establishment warmonger (John McCain) but nothing changes - no-drama Obama won't hold intelligence agencies or Bankers accountable; won't end the wars; won't provide a 'public option' for Romney Care; won't allow the irresponsible Bush tax cuts to expire; etc.

• 2016: Hillary throws the race to MAGA Nationalist Trump who has been selected to lead the charge against Russia and China (and Iran);
• Sheepdogs: it's clear that Sanders played sheepdog in 2016 and 2020 - he is just the latest to be the Party-controlled 'progressive voice' that pulls punches and falls in line.

As long as people continue to waste their vote by voting for a duopoly candidate, nothing will change. Democracy propagandists that play along by, among other things, urge others to vote for the lesser evil, promote disinfo and do a disservice to their readers/followers.

What is needed is a root-and-branch reform of the corrupt, money-driven electoral system. There will not be any real change until/unless that is done. Only real Movements and third-party candidates offer the hope for such reform to happen peacefully.

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 4 2020 18:26 utc | 23

Even on abortion there's practically no space between Reps and Dems. They share consensus that abortion should be freely available for women who have sufficient money and increasingly unavailable for women without money.

Compared to that, Roe v Wade is just a shiny dangly thing used for misdirection purposes. It will never provide a poor woman with access to an abortion, nor will its absence ever prevent a rich woman from getting one.

As for Barrett being a religious nut who would have her beliefs override the constitution, that would only make her a typical court justice. Just to give a few examples, belief in capitalism almost always comes first, belief in intellectual property of a scope grossly exceeding article 1 section 8, most of all literal religious worship of the corporate-person demons artificially summoned by governments. (Citizens United, for example, was substantively a unanimous decision. The four "dissenters" did so on the most narrow technical grounds. Not one dissented on the grounds that there should be no such thing as corporate "speech rights" at all, that corporate personhood is an abomination, that corporations shouldn't exist at all.)

Those are just a few typical examples. No, the court already is a fundamentalist free-for-all where the idea of the constitution is nothing but a political weapon to be cynically used and abused. Same as how everyone else in this decadent place views it. It's pretty pathetic how many people claim still to "believe in" the court, or congress, or the presidency.

Posted by: Russ | Oct 4 2020 18:32 utc | 24

the twitter thread wasn't informative and the "crazy" seems obvious when you realize it's a writer at the full retard site off-guardian. out of all the "theories" about covid the "dems are making it up fer the elecshun derp" one is probably the stupidest. i guess the clintons hired a bunch of guys to run around europe and india killing old people? this from the same site who said actors with covid were "just saying it to get attention and help their careers". jesus christ.

all the VP stuff he said is well known and hardly "insider" info. if you want an interesting LBJ anecdote you're better off reading seymour hersh's "reporter":

"Tom [Wicker] got into the car and the two of them sped off down a dusty dirt road. No words were spoken. After a moment or two, Johnson once again slammed on the brakes, wheeling to a halt near a stand of trees. Leaving the motor running, he climbed out, walked a few dozen feet toward the trees, stopped, pulled down his pants, and defecated, in full view. The President wiped himself with leaves and grass, pulled up his pants, climbed into the car, turned in around, and sped back to the press gathering. Once there, again the brakes were slammed on, and Tom was motioned out. All of this was done without a word being spoken."

for all the talk of "adults in the room" and "decorum", when you see DC people acting naturally you realize they're all completely fucking insane in one way or another (even if they're simply so pathologically bland, detached and WASPy that it becomes a disturbing form of neurosis). if the cavalier way they discuss bombing people to make the even more insane israelis shut the fuck up and quit whining doesn't convince you maybe the (unelected) president dropping a deuce in front of a journalist will.

the naked capitalism link is wank as well. a gay white military welfare queen whining about BLM. how novel. how original and daring. again - jesus goddamn christ. BLM is like joe rogan's daily dumbtwattery or half the shit trump says on twitter: if you didn't have media outlets screeching in your face when it happened you wouldn't even know it existed. maybe instead of lecturing black folks these people should address their addiction to clickbait.

Posted by: the pair | Oct 4 2020 18:51 utc | 25

US regime in this last forty years since the Iranian revolution has been totally successful making majority Iranian people anywhere in the world understand that the US is their chronic strategic enemy for decades to come, in mean time, US regime has been equally as successful in making American people believe Iran is their enemy.
The difference between the two sides belief is, Iranian people by experiencing US regime’ conducts came to their belief, but the American people’ belief was made by their own regime’ propaganda machinery. For this reason just like the people to people relation between the US and Russian people Before and after the fall of USSR the relation between US and Iran in next few generations will not come or even develop to anything substantial or meaningful. One can see this same trajectory in US Chinese relations, or US Cuban. Noticeably all these countries relation with US become terminally irreparable after their revolutions, regardless of maturity or termination of their revolution.
As much as US loves color revolutions, US hates real revolutions.

Posted by: Kooshy | Oct 4 2020 19:01 utc | 26

Naked capitalism remains cool. Your fever dream is uncool.

Posted by: Idland | Oct 4 2020 19:02 utc | 27

@11

" Quite aside from the grossly stupid idea networks want ratings rather than ad sales"

Umm...I believe that a network "ratings" do directly correlate to increased "ad sales" - that's fundamentally how the entire infotainment industries apparatus is successfully monetized. Their constant coverage of Trump provided these media outlets with billions of dollars from their dramatically increased "ratings" Hence Les Moonves' starly upfront admission of this fact:

"Leslie Moonves can appreciate a Donald Trump candidacy.

Not that the CBS executive chairman and CEO might vote for the Republican presidential frontrunner, but he likes the ad money Trump and his competitors are bringing to the network.

"It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS," he said of the presidential race.

Moonves called the campaign for president a "circus" full of "bomb throwing," and he hopes it continues"

It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS

"Biden managed to get the nomination without favorable publicity, without large amounts of money (what he's getting now is the donor class covering their asses for a Biden win,) without being very popular."

Biden got the Democratic Party's nomination largely due to the 'behind the scenes' machinations of Obama and his 'weekend of the long knives' just before Super Tuesday - when he personally intervened: successfully persuading all of the Democratic candidates to drop out of the race en-mass - with the exception of Elizabeth Warren - who then proceeded to strategically siphon crucial progressive votes that would have mostly likely gone to Sanders. If not for Obama's last minute back door democratic primary 'coup' maneuverings, I very much doubt that Biden would have ended up the nominee.

And as far as your disdain you have for an article that you happen to read on Naked Capitalism, you're right, your not really "familiar" with the site as it is probably one of the best overall independent financial sites on the web.

Posted by: time2wakeupnow | Oct 4 2020 19:07 utc | 28

Re: Top Eight Conspiracy Theories on Donald Trump Contracting COVID-19

This info was shocking: Trump wasn't tested at the debate because he arrived late.

Confirmation and more info:

Chris Wallace: Trump arrived too late to be tested in Ohio before debate, relied on 'honor system'

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 4 2020 19:15 utc | 29

JR@23

Somewhat related is what just happened to the two left candidates, Lascaris and Haddad, for leadership of the Green Party of Canada: needless to say, the leader chosen was neither left nor would she, unlike the two mentioned, condemn the US/NATO position on Venezuela. But the winner had identity on her side plus the support of the outgoing leader.

Lascaris talks UBI, MMT, getting out of NARO, NORAD, Five Eyes. So, unacceptable to the PTB.

Posted by: spudski | Oct 4 2020 19:17 utc | 30

Too many typos in my above post. Must take more time to proof read!

Posted by: time2wakeupnow | Oct 4 2020 19:22 utc | 31

@ spudski | Oct 4 2020 19:17 utc | 30... i noticed that a ''black, jewish, women'' won the green party leadership in canada.. identity politics writ large... canada the land of the politically correct, lol... i may have to reconsider not voting green now, but the choices are becoming less and less obvious...

Posted by: james | Oct 4 2020 19:22 utc | 32

What is needed is a root-and-branch reform of the corrupt, money-driven electoral system. Only real Movements and third-party candidates offer the hope for such reform to happen peacefully. by: Jackrabbit @ 23< what is needed is to return to the Articles of Confederation, to dispose of the federal reserve, the state department, the military, the FDA, the federal basket weavers Agency, the Federal sky water agency, the FCC, the Dept oF Agriculture, and the Department of most things..

what will fix nearly everything is to establish and fully fund (dollar for USA for dollar America) by an equivalent tax, independent second government made up 430,000,000 Americas, to be organized to spy on, indite and convict those in the elected government for their failures. Those who are in the domain of the govern, should be able to charge those who are in the domain of the governors (including elected, bureaucrats, contractors, suppliers, consultants and military) and prosecute the crimes and sins of the governors, in accord with the human rights and universal original jurisdiction.

The two parties system should be the USA, governors <=vs=> America the great, governed .. if the government fails Americans, Americans should be able to dispose of it and appoint a new one.

Posted by: snake | Oct 4 2020 19:26 utc | 33

time2wakeupnow @Oct4 19:07 #28

... it is probably one of the best overall independent financial sites on the web.

Their financial coverage is really besides the point.

Naked Capitalism regularly covers US politics and engage in political discussions (in the comments). Anyone that is familiar with NC know their views are just left of the "institutional left" that the site mostly attracts due to Yves financial muckraking. Thus, like Sanders, they'll bitch a little, but support the Democratic establishment in the end.

Thus, given that the Democratic establishment is essentially/practically trying to elect Trump, it's not surprising to me to see that Yves provides an endorsement of Trump via the pretense of dispassionate, arms-length "just one NC reader's view" of the election.

See my comment @Oct4 18:26 #23 for more.

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 4 2020 19:30 utc | 34

@James 32

I watched the 'pre-game' coverage on CPAC: when the eventual winner was interviewed before the vote she was asked about the help she had received from outgoing leader Elizabeth May in campaigning for the leadership. Her response was along the lines of 'May helped a number of candidates' and she then listed ONLY the other 'identity candidates' as getting the "neutral" May's campaign help. Then, when May got up to deliver her speech she uttered a few identity dog whistle phrases: at that point I said to my wife "Lascaris is in trouble."

Posted by: spudski | Oct 4 2020 19:39 utc | 35

Before the fall of USSR most Eastern Europe USSR dependencies energy and security was subsidized by Russians /USSR. After the fall of USSR most so called independent Eastern European former Soviet allies are reviving their energy from Russia but subsidized by EU/US in form of loans and capital investments and their security is total subsidized by US/NATO. This was understood as such and cleverly corrected by the Russians

Posted by: Kooshy | Oct 4 2020 19:41 utc | 36

Whoomp! (There it is)

Giuliani: I Hold China Responsible For What Happened To Trump

Everyone will now fall in line and blame China. For Trump's infection. For the deaths of hundreds of thousands around the world. For the bad economy. For everything.

Trump's lying to the American people about the severity of the virus and his failure to take swift preventative or to take comprehensive action to end the outbreak will be memory-holed with a jingoism that is reinforced by a financial hardships that will worsen over the coming months.

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 4 2020 19:45 utc | 37

@ spudski | Oct 4 2020 19:39 utc | 35.. i live in one of the 2 green party ridings federally - the one here on vancouver island.. i played music for a green party fundraiser and know paul manly as he is a bass player as well as our member of parliament in ottawa... i met elizabeth may at the fundraiser... they are all good people, but i know that ain't saying much... i am not a member, but generally like what they are trying to do... i don't have a tv and don't watch stuff like this usually, but i saw the cbc article on it.. it sure seems like identity politics is at the top of agenda in canada... it is disappointing, but what choices do we have as ordinary citizens?

Posted by: james | Oct 4 2020 19:47 utc | 38

@Jackrabbit

"the site mostly attracts due to Yves financial muckraking"

And that is why I am a regular follower of NC. Yves has been exceptional at covering and exposing the Wall Street 'cosa nostra' and their enablers since the financial fiasco in 2008. Whether I agree with everything that's posted or commented on NC is really besides the point - as I also have had issues with some of MOA's posts and commentators, but still find the it's overall content relevant and highly informational.

Posted by: time2wakeupnow | Oct 4 2020 19:50 utc | 39

@James 38

Thanks for your replies. You play an instrument, I take it? Anyhow, I'll leave you with the following exchange:

Haddad: "Annamie, when you were the Green Party of Canada’s Foreign Affairs Critic you did not condemn the coup against Evo Morales, an Indigenous elected leader in Bolivia. I was wondering how you justify talking about letting indigenous communities make their own decisions as decolonization and then endorse colonialism for it, imperialism in another country? Thank you"

Annamie Paul: “Thank you. That is a lot of incendiary language there. Um, as I said, you know, I’m an international human rights lawyer. I worked in conflict prevention. My husband actually worked in the office of the first indigenous Vice President of Bolivia, and he accompanied Evo Morales on a trip and interviewed him while he was there, so I can tell you that no one is a bigger supporter of the rights of indigenous peoples in Bolivia than I am, but I am also someone who is a foreign policy expert, and I am nuanced, and I can tell you that I go to excellent sources for information. Ahhhh, I want to see an election as soon as possible. I want to make sure that it is free and fair, and let’s try to be a little more careful with our language.”

Posted by: spudski | Oct 4 2020 20:02 utc | 40

@ time2wakeupnow | Oct 4 2020 19:50 utc | 39 and Idland | Oct 4 2020 19:02 utc | 27 with their support for Naked Capitalism

Yves is the Bernie Sanders of the financial press, a true sheep dog. In the Naked Capitalism world TINA to global private finance. To Yves there is no structural problem in our social contract with global private finance owing the money system.....just a few bad apples....

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 4 2020 20:17 utc | 41

@34 @39
I has found NC a few months after ZH, in early summer 2008. I read her blog closely for a while,
but in October 2008 when Yves basically declared the banks must be saved at all costs, roughly along the lines "Let the chips fall where they might? We can't do THAT!"
I gave up on her and only occasionally check on NC on the latest intentional blindness one-sided posts for a good laugh.

Last autumn I was wondering if Yves was realizing her chickens were coming home to roost (as nothing had been fixed since the GFC)... but she will likely never question her status quo-defending beliefs, til her deathbed.
So in summary she's just another shill for TPTB.

Posted by: Michael | Oct 4 2020 20:24 utc | 42

@spudski #40:

"...and let’s try to be a little more careful with our language." That's pretty dang funny! IMHO, politicians should feel the need to wear a nomex suit to attend a presser.

Posted by: Dr Wellington Yueh | Oct 4 2020 20:28 utc | 43

@psychohistorian:

I disagree with your reductive analysis of Yves and NC, but still enjoy many of your own posting here on MOA. Like with this site, it does provides me some useful information, and some not quite so useful. Still, better than mast..

Posted by: time2wakeupnow | Oct 4 2020 20:28 utc | 44

Correction: "Still, better than most.."

Posted by: time2wakeupnow | Oct 4 2020 20:30 utc | 45

@ spudski | Oct 4 2020 20:02 utc | 40... thanks.. her response speaks bullshit in spades to me... too bad about the green party if i am reading it right...

Posted by: james | Oct 4 2020 20:39 utc | 46

@43 Haddad's question seems pretty mild. I guess it counts as inflammatory in Canada.

Posted by: dh | Oct 4 2020 20:45 utc | 47

@JackRabbitt #23
You said:

What is needed is a root-and-branch reform of the corrupt, money-driven electoral system. There will not be any real change until/unless that is done. Only real Movements and third-party candidates offer the hope for such reform to happen peacefully.

My own view continues to be that until things get really bad, real reform isn't going to happen.
Therefore votes should be going to the greater evil.

"Real" movements are a fiction - because what is needed is for the rank and file behind either/both parties to stop supporting those patronage systems.

You believe a magical 3rd party will somehow manage to do this; historically it has never happened.
Even FDR wasn't a 3rd party - he prevailed mostly because he convinced enough people that things were close to bad enough that the Commies would prevail if some pushback to the Gilded Age excesses didn't happen. And it is 100% clear that the Gilded Age didn't occur randomly - it was very much the result of political, economic and societal actors colluding into ever more personally profiting/selfish and societally damaging actions.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 4 2020 21:12 utc | 48

Why I am NOT voting for Donald Trump even if Biden ends up being worse.

Because even if the next guy is worse, a series of one term Presidents sends a message. I will never vote for a candidate who continues our genocidal starvation campaign against Yemen and Trump took our aggression up a notch. By needlessly attacking Cuba, Syria, and Venezuela with cruel sanctions he reinforces that the bully can only satisfy his lust by torturing the weakest victims he can find.

So even if Biden does and same and adds other things I don't like fine. He must not be rewarded.

Posted by: Christian Chuba | Oct 4 2020 21:32 utc | 49

The electoral process itself isn't perfect, given gerrymandering, ballot-counting, ballot loss, poor access with voting on weekday, etc. but the primary problem is that these people after gaining office are in no way our representatives. There's a phone room down the street (they are prohibited from using their office phones) where they must spend major time calling the various lobbyists and money sources for their soon upcoming re-election. These funding sources come with obligations for the "representatives" which translates to: business as usual. It just doesn't work for us, which is why I abstain.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 4 2020 21:42 utc | 50

‘Expendable’ – Amnesty report explodes Tories’ ‘protective ring’ care home lie and confirms thousands of elderly knowingly sentenced to death (by Skwawkbox)

"* the huge number of deaths caused by COVID-19 in care homes – well over 18,000 at the very least, but in reality almost 30,000 based on ‘excess’ deaths attributable to likely undiagnosed cases

* breach of residents’ human rights by the government’s behaviour

* the fact that the government knowingly put the people most at risk of the worst effects of the virus in the firing line...

* the fact that returning known-infected patients back to care homes on a huge scale was government policy (it still is, despite claims to have changed it)

* the government telling care homes not to use PPE (personal protective equipment) with asymptomatic infected patients

* blanket ‘do not resuscitate’ orders on elderly residents without regard for their or their family’s wishes

*‘protected the NHS’ by denying treatment to older and more vulnerable sufferers – condemning thousands to a hideous death – ‘protection’ that the Tories consistently boasted about...

That’s geriatricide – the murder of our old and vulnerable."

Posted by: ADKC | Oct 4 2020 21:50 utc | 51

@CC #49
Of course the continued US killing actions against small countries is not a good thing, but the fact is that there are not new major aggressions, wars in all their shock and awe 'splendor,' with millions being killed, injured and displaced. There are several readers on this forum who don't understand this important difference and apparently you are one of them. This large-scale war isn't happening now as it did under the last two major-war presidents with support from imbecilic Biden. . .No loss of US military life for a long time now, is one indicator.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 4 2020 21:51 utc | 52

spudski@40
Anamie Paul is a human rights lawyer the way that Sir Keir Starmer in the UK is.
The case against Morales was always bad; by now it has been proved, conclusively to have been an imperialist coup. The nonsense about election irregularities was based on lies concocted by, inter alia, the Liberals in Ottawa.
Paul's statement makes it clear that she represents the very worst kind of Green politics, the sort aimed at organising environmentalists behind imperialist causes.
The Green Party, like the NDP, has no future until it faces the reality that capitalism is the problem, and unless it is crushed and replaced all talk of concern for the environment is just that: talk. Worse it is talk aimed at securing salaries and pensions for mediocrities who can't make it in the regular imperialist parties.

Posted by: bevin | Oct 4 2020 21:59 utc | 53

Just made my last comment ever at Sic Semper Tyrannis, though I doubt it will be posted. At least he will have to read it! Lang is trying his best to prop up Trump while playing the outrage card, which is all they’ve got at this point. Lang was a valuable source of ME intel for many years, but sadly, his right wing brain disease has overtaken him on his twilight years. Oh well, sic semper tyrannis!

Posted by: Roy G | Oct 4 2020 22:05 utc | 54

Over at Dissident Voice an excellent article on hubris, blowback and overreach:

https://dissidentvoice.org/2020/10/israel-lobby-will-face-blowback-eventually/#more-109557

“Zionism is the only political ideology I know of that claims that disagreement with it is a hate crime.”

Posted by: Paul | Oct 4 2020 22:10 utc | 55

Sad to see so many run down Naked Capitalism...your descriptions of Yves and her political views are mistaken.

She is an advocate for the WORKING CLASS. You know, those millions and millions of people in the US with NO representation?

and to Bevin above; my brother (an autistic man) was sent home from the hospital with Covid and died in his sleep that night. I wonder how many of his co-housing mates got it?

Posted by: spam | Oct 4 2020 22:14 utc | 56

Trump is on dexamethasone. That is one powerful steroid. If you have ever heard of " 'roid rage" - this is the drug they are talking about. Does wonderful things to alleviate inflammation, but you can go into psychosis and complete insomnia after a few days of use. (Insomnia, of course, makes the psychosis worse.)

I'm not sure how we'd be able to tell if Trump is psychotic from the drug or not. His usual ranting self with his conspiracy theories about the fake media and socialists behind every tree are pretty much par for the course. I guess if he starts talking about how the doctors are really space aliens out to kill him, that might be a sign.

Posted by: teri | Oct 4 2020 22:15 utc | 57

Thanks to all for the thoughtful responses.

Posted by: spudski | Oct 4 2020 22:40 utc | 58

Posted by: bevin | Oct 4 2020 21:59 utc | 53

More on the fake left in the west.

"Like 2017 France, will voters choose Trump just to end a fake-leftist party?" By Ramin Mazaheri

"Yes, the US is such a politically-ignorant country that Trump can accuse “Corporate Joe” Biden of being a “radical socialist” and actually find believers, but Western fake-leftist parties are increasingly being punished by voters for their “right-wing economics and right-wing foreign policy but with political correctness” platform."

Green Party of Canada, Environmentalists with Neocon characteristics.

http://thesaker.is/like-2017-france-will-voters-choose-trump-just-to-end-a-fake-leftist-party/

Posted by: Tom | Oct 4 2020 22:50 utc | 59

craig murray post is shocking -How a Police State Starts

@Roy G | Oct 4 2020 22:05 utc | 54.. pl got his girdle in a knot over a comment i made, so he had to erase it, lol... it seems like he is going senile or losing his perspective, what that he had...

Posted by: james | Oct 4 2020 22:51 utc | 60

Re: dexamethasone - I meant to also point out that anyone who has been on steroids has to wait months (or up to a year), depending on dosage and type of steroid) before taking a live vaccine. The pharma companies are working on various vaccines; some live, some dead and at least one genetically modified.

Posted by: teri | Oct 4 2020 22:57 utc | 61

"Speaking colloquial: When there is sufficient shit flying around some of it will eventual hit the fan."

Outstanding, b. I'm gonna remember that one. It's generally applicable to the whole human race, which is mostly comprised of the S in SHTF.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Oct 4 2020 22:58 utc | 62

time2wakeupnow@28 is still wrong. Hyping the Bernie Sanders' rebellion would have turned the Democratic Party nomination into a horserace and that would have boosted ratings. Networks do not sell ratings, they sell audiences. An audience for Sanders is not a commodity they can sell to rich buyers of air time. Audiences for Trump they can sell, because that's the kind of audience, the kind of market, the owners want to invest in. Expecting Moonves' to confess publicly is naive. It's like expecting a movie or TV producer to tell exactly why they made this choice or that.

"Biden got the Democratic Party's nomination largely due to the 'behind the scenes' machinations of Obama and his 'weekend of the long knives' just before Super Tuesday - when he personally intervened: successfully persuading all of the Democratic candidates to drop out of the race en-mass - with the exception of Elizabeth Warren - who then proceeded to strategically siphon crucial progressive votes that would have mostly likely gone to Sanders. If not for Obama's last minute back door democratic primary 'coup' maneuverings, I very much doubt that Biden would have ended up the nominee."

Warren, like Harris, never got enough votes to actually matter. The only opposition that got votes in significant numbers were Sanders, on the would-be left, and Buttigieg, on the would-be center. Buttigieg never had a chance, because. (It's likely he got funded as a spoiler precisely because he never would be tolerated as a candidate on a national stage.) Obama's intervention was irrelevant, except to get a good rep as party loyalists for those who dropped out. (As if it will do Buttigieg any good.)

On the other hand, I do not know much about Naked Capitalism and could well be wrong in my first impression. Won't be the first time I was wrong, won't be the last.

Yves is a man's name in French, isn't it?

Don Bacon forgets the soldiers killed in Niger, of all places. I also disagree that masses aren't dying in Yemen, for one. And no, Saudi does not have an independent foreign policy, their war is also a US war.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Oct 4 2020 23:07 utc | 63

Posted by: Circe | Oct 4 2020 16:39 utc | 16

Depending on when Trump was actually infected, of course, I wouldn't expect him to be in serious condition at this point. By end of next week, he should be or should be recovering. Assuming he was infected this past week, it would take probably five days to show symptoms, which apparently he is showing, as is Melania. So he's in stage one. Within the next five to ten days he should either peak and start to recover, or turn for the worse and have to be placed in ICU and given oxygen (not necessarily a ventilator, merely high-flow oxygen with a cannula, if the doctors do it right.) Then it will be down to his immune system - which is almost certainly compromised to at least some degree.

Now you are correct that it's likely the White House and the doctors will be BSing us all along the way. So nothing we read will necessarily be the truth about his condition. But eventually, if he does take a turn for the worse, it's going to become obvious. If he isn't out of the hospital and back into 14-day quarantine in the White House in another week or two, then he's in trouble. Plus, once he's in ICU under oxygen, it's likely that Pence will have to assume the office of Temporary President and that likely can't be hidden completely.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Oct 4 2020 23:13 utc | 64

The main victims of the Covid deniers and the reactionary politicians that they support have been the vulnerable: the old, the poor, the disabled and the lonely.
Forgetting about them leads to the conclusion that for most people- young, wealthy, able bodied- the virus is manageable. Trump is not going to die, just as Prince Charles, Boris Johnson and Bolsonaro didn't die, what saved them was care and medicine, the very things becoming unavailable to those on the margins of society.
Even the Pope has noticed.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/pope-says-older-people-cruelly-abandoned-to-covid-19-1.4371896

Posted by: bevin | Oct 4 2020 23:17 utc | 65

one thing you must never do at NC is espouse any inklings of support for sound money in our economy. She hates and I mean goes out of her way to crush anyone who even smells like a gold bug. It's all about MMT with her Keynesian disciples. She might be for the working class so long as they agree money grows on trees (MMT basis). Don't agree? Mention anything about returning to a gold standard and find out. I dare you to go there and say something like "between 1799 and 1899 in America, one hundred years, a pound of nails cost exactly the same". Even though IMO this is absolutely true, you will eat sand, other than that.

Posted by: George | Oct 4 2020 23:17 utc | 66

"Roid rage" is not a reference to the use of dexamethasone. It is a reference to the effects of anabolic steroids on males who use them to bulk up. Dexamethasone is not an anabolic steroid; it is a corticosteroid with virtually none of the same side effects as anabolics.

Posted by: _K_C_ | Oct 4 2020 23:20 utc | 67

Posted by: snake | Oct 4 2020 19:26 utc | 33

Agreed. But quoting Percival Rose again, "That ain't gonna happen." And the notion that some "third party" or "movement" is going to enable it to happen is ridiculous. The only thing that theoretically could improve things is...SHTF. Total social collapse. And even then, the odds are we end up with either a "warlord society" or outright fascism once someone figures out how to seize enough power. Or the rest of the world nukes us because a collapsed society with nuclear weapons is an existential threat to everyone else. If the US collapses, Russia and China *will* nuke us in self-defense and correctly so.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Oct 4 2020 23:22 utc | 68

Posted by: steven t johnson | Oct 4 2020 23:07 utc | 63 Networks do not sell ratings, they sell audiences.

While technically correct, ratings are what is used to measure audiences. Without ratings, you have no idea who is your audience. And there are those who claim the ratings really don't accurately measure audiences either, in these days of cable-cutting, Internet, etc.

I used to follow the Web site "TV By The Numbers", which used to analyze and explain TV show ratings, so I have some idea how this works. It's all dependent on one company: A. C. Nielsen. They selected 20-odd thousand families which allegedly statistically represent all the main demographics of the US. These people record everything they watch either via a machine attached to the TVs or via a "diary". This is analyzed every night by Nielsen computers, and the results distributed to subscribers such as networks, studios and advertisers every morning. This is how advertisers decide where to spend their ad dollars, and thus where the networks get their revenue.

So, yes, the goal of the network is to get an audience. How they measure that is ratings. So, yes, ratings are important and are followed religiously.

As an aside, this is why "save our show" efforts to get a network to keep a failing TV show on the air never work. It's all about ratings and what fans or critics of a show think about the show is utterly irrelevant to the networks.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Oct 4 2020 23:32 utc | 69

@ 13

"The truth is that Covid has exposed the fault lines in capitalist class society and the result has been that a million people have died, many of them, it looks increasingly clear, because the capitalists regard them as expendable, and politicians are confident that even if they decimate the electorate and kill off the elderly in every family they will still be able to convince the survivors that such behaviour is acceptable."

Poor old Bevin. Retired lefty lecturer and Marxist I imagine you have fallen for it just like you did for the Bolshevik murderers. There are loads of cases but how many deaths? Looking at graphs for deaths there are no differences between now and August or July.

So, Bevin you have joined the MSM.

Posted by: Lochearn | Oct 4 2020 23:32 utc | 70

Regarding the "Why I'm Voting for Trump" diatribe that is no different than what I see routinely on social media from my relatives back in the United States save for the author's clever but ironic use of identity politics to virtue signal his socially "liberal" viewpoints and establish credibility with the normal readers of NC (which I agree with others has often had some very good information and sometimes bad). I agree with psychohistorian's take on Yves and her contributors - they may be "pro working class" but all within the framework of the fundamental goodness of private finance and its stranglehold over the central banks and world economies, or perhaps through the use of non-governmental central banks to allow private finance to keep its stranglehold...blah blah though, not the topic anyway.

Back to the would-be Facebook rant that Yves for some reason allowed top billing this morning, I learned literally nothing I didn't already know about the typical Trump voter. I never got around to casting my mail in ballot from here in the EU, not sure I still can. But I wasn't going to vote for either of them until I saw Christian Chuba's comment about how it's best to limit the warmonger in chief to one term regardless of which fake alternative party they represent. That gives me pause....might still consider voting now if I can. Biden is a ghoul of course, and a senile one too. But part of me would get a kick out of trolling my Trump supporting family members and friends on social media if he loses and they trot out the inevitable portfolio of conspiracy theories on how the election was stolen from him. Hopefully the ensuing violence and chaos doesn't touch them no matter who "wins."

Finally, regarding abortion. That is one of the few topics where I too believe that the SCOTUS serves as a last bastion against (mostly) Southern states who, for alleged religious reasons, are constantly using one ploy after another to deny women the right to make that decision for themselves. Poor and lower middle class women, anyway. That's who these "abortion clinics" service, not the well-to-do upper middle class and rich women who simply have them done in actual hospitals at great expense. Coney Barrett strikes me as a retrograde religious nutcase that in fact would likely participate "gleefully" in striking down Roe and upholding the invariably ample attempts by the South to end abortion access for most women. I always conclude any comment about abortion with the following: I understand that there can be a debate about when life begins in earnest, but the arguments that are most often tossed around by opponents quickly devolve into disingenuous nonsense like trying to ban the "morning after" pill or super early term abortions. No woman WANTS to have to get an abortion, but the American religious right portrays the situation as though there are women who enjoy getting knocked up and having an invasive surgical procedure performed on them numerous times throughout their lives.

Posted by: _K_C_ | Oct 4 2020 23:35 utc | 71

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 4 2020 21:12 utc | 48 "Real" movements are a fiction - because what is needed is for the rank and file behind either/both parties to stop supporting those patronage systems. You believe a magical 3rd party will somehow manage to do this; historically it has never happened.

Totally agree. Except the last time a "third party" up-ended things, it was called "National Socialism." I can see that happening in the US, given how many US citizens supported Hitler. People forget the "German-American Bund."

Arguably, the zenith of the Bund's activities was the rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on February 20, 1939.[22] Some 20,000 people attended and heard Kuhn criticize President Roosevelt by repeatedly referring to him as "Frank D. Rosenfeld", calling his New Deal the "Jew Deal"[dubious – discuss] and denouncing what he believed to be Bolshevik-Jewish American leadership. Most shocking to American sensibilities was the outbreak of violence between protesters and Bund storm troopers. The rally, which attracted 20,000 Nazi supporters, was the subject of the 2017 short documentary A Night at the Garden by Marshall Curry.[23]

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Oct 4 2020 23:47 utc | 72

A question directed at the owner of the bar.

b, do you subscribe to Matt Taibbi's substack? He keeps much of his writing behind a paywall and accessible only to subscribers. I think it's worth the $5/month he charges and I also subscribe to Yasha Levine's, but I think that one's free.

I thought to ask because I've seen Taibbi linked at MoA (might have actually discovered his early work from a comment here years ago) by the author and in comments, and I read a really interesting entry the other day that I thought the other MoA participants would also enjoy. Here is the link, not shortened because it's already pretty small and shouldn't break anyone's browser:
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/tape-shows-ethically-cnn-chief-a

Posted by: _K_C_ | Oct 4 2020 23:47 utc | 73

Posted by: Roy G | Oct 4 2020 22:05 utc | 54

He banned me few years ago. He is military intelligence man, IMO extremely worried for an instability (color revolution of type) inside US specially ever since against his desire Trump became president and is steering the shit up with his racial contrarian showmanship. IMO Lang is an American nationalist and contrary to what he preaches IMO, he hates Trump, he don’t believe for a minute Trump is a real nationalist, but for sake of stability inside US, and not losing the world power it possess Lang is willing to take this one on the chin. This is the most dishonest way he is treating his audience.

Posted by: Kooshy | Oct 5 2020 0:03 utc | 74

@Posted by: fnord | Oct 4 2020 18:01 utc | 21
"Gimme the Kabalist over the speaker-in-tongues."

Ginsburg a "Kabalist"? You honestly bought that info-turd?

As to mother of seven, Amy Coney Barrett, surely I'm not the first to note the aptness of her middle name. And no, I'm not thinking of any of several small ungulate mammals of Africa and Asia with rodent-like incisors and feet with hooflike toes, let alone the black-spotted, usually dusky-colored fish with reddish fins; I'm thinking of the rabbit, an animal with a well-deserved reputation for f***ing like a supreme court justice. (Cf. the "Warren" court)

BTW, according to 2015 data from The American Bar Association, 4% of lawyers in the United States are African-American. And now we're told a mere 20 of Ginsburg's 487 law clerks were African American, i.e. a little over 4%. I trust you'll all join me in chanting "Let's Burn the Racist Bitch's Corpse!"

Posted by: drj | Oct 5 2020 0:10 utc | 75

As the Election Nears, Americans Continue to Buy Guns by the Millions

NSSF’s September 2020 adjusted NICS figures are 1.6 million, a 61 percent increase over September 2019, where figures came in at just over 1 million. This elevated trend is in keeping with what the firearm industry has witnessed since March, when adjusted NICS figures topped 2.3 million, an all-time one-month record.

It's driving the anti-gunners crazy. LOL

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Oct 5 2020 0:11 utc | 76

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Oct 4 2020 23:13 utc | 64

Apparently, if one can rely on the doctor's words, Drumpf has already needed oxygen supplementation twice, on Friday and Saturday. My understanding of the disease and its progression is that this usually occurs days 10-14. I do not believe what we are told by officials regarding the timeline of his illness.

Posted by: suzan | Oct 5 2020 0:36 utc | 77

Kooshy @74 agree, Lang is a white nationalist who dedicated his career to the Establishment. His idea of America doesn’t include the unwashed democratic masses, which is why he’s become so unhinged about any movement to the left. I’ve read him for many years in order to get whatever real intelligence was there, but his site has become increasingly didactic. I’ve always been clear about who he is, and now his time is up, like so many other dinosaurs of the Right wing.

Posted by: Roy G | Oct 5 2020 0:44 utc | 78

Posted by: bevin | Oct 4 2020 23:17 utc | 65

Hey bevin

Since you mentioned the pope, here's a link to the encyclical letter he just released, "FRATELLI TUTTI"
(OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON THE FRATERNITY AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP),
http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html

As (an agnostic) buddhist I find this pope's words needed in this world now. He refused to see Pompeo last week and then releases this letter. Take heed.

Posted by: suzan | Oct 5 2020 0:48 utc | 79

@Stephen T Johnson

"Warren, like Harris, never got enough votes to actually matter."

Warren remaining in the race at that time actually "mattered" considerably for Sanders in several of the still, in-play 'super Tuesday' states of Maine, Minnesota and Massachusetts (Warren didn't even carry her home state). And Texas (which Sanders lost be only 4.5 percent to Biden), would most likely have been carried by Bernie without Warren in the race - giving him a substantial overall delegate lead vs. Obamas' and DNC's hastily endorsed corporate Maginot-Line candidate: Joe Biden.

And even with all of their last minute, desperate sabotaging of the Sanders campaign, he still managed to come within striking distance of carrying the night. It literally took everything the establishment DNC and their corporate backers could muster to finally put a stake into Bernie's run before it eventually devolved into a "brokered convention" - which would have still found a way to deny him the nomination - even if it meant grwatly diminishing their prospects of winning the election.

As many have aptly stated before, the DNC corporation would have rather lost to Trump Inc., than win with Sanders - just as it was in 2016.

Posted by: time2wakeupnow | Oct 5 2020 1:35 utc | 80

@ suzan | Oct 5 2020 0:48 utc | 79 with the link to the latest encyclical by the Catholic pope

I skimmed the link to the pope's latest and the following are a few quoted paragraphs from the more than 287 in the whole thing.

"

15. The best way to dominate and gain control over people is to spread despair and discouragement, even under the guise of defending certain values. Today, in many countries, hyperbole, extremism and polarization have become political tools. Employing a strategy of ridicule, suspicion and relentless criticism, in a variety of ways one denies the right of others to exist or to have an opinion. Their share of the truth and their values are rejected and, as a result, the life of society is impoverished and subjected to the hubris of the powerful. Political life no longer has to do with healthy debates about long-term plans to improve people’s lives and to advance the common good, but only with slick marketing techniques primarily aimed at discrediting others. In this craven exchange of charges and counter-charges, debate degenerates into a permanent state of disagreement and confrontation.

16. Amid the fray of conflicting interests, where victory consists in eliminating one’s opponents, how is it possible to raise our sights to recognize our neighbours or to help those who have fallen along the way? A plan that would set great goals for the development of our entire human family nowadays sounds like madness. We are growing ever more distant from one another, while the slow and demanding march towards an increasingly united and just world is suffering a new and dramatic setback.

25. War, terrorist attacks, racial or religious persecution, and many other affronts to human dignity are judged differently, depending on how convenient it proves for certain, primarily economic, interests. What is true as long as it is convenient for someone in power stops being true once it becomes inconvenient. These situations of violence, sad to say, “have become so common as to constitute a real ‘third world war’ fought piecemeal”.

28. The loneliness, fear and insecurity experienced by those who feel abandoned by the system creates a fertile terrain for various “mafias”. These flourish because they claim to be defenders of the forgotten, often by providing various forms of assistance even as they pursue their criminal interests. There also exists a typically “mafioso” pedagogy that, by appealing to a false communitarian mystique, creates bonds of dependency and fealty from which it is very difficult to break free.

44. Even as individuals maintain their comfortable consumerist isolation, they can choose a form of constant and febrile bonding that encourages remarkable hostility, insults, abuse, defamation and verbal violence destructive of others, and this with a lack of restraint that could not exist in physical contact without tearing us all apart. Social aggression has found unparalleled room for expansion through computers and mobile devices.

45. This has now given free rein to ideologies. Things that until a few years ago could not be said by anyone without risking the loss of universal respect can now be said with impunity, and in the crudest of terms, even by some political figures. Nor should we forget that “there are huge economic interests operating in the digital world, capable of exercising forms of control as subtle as they are invasive, creating mechanisms for the manipulation of consciences and of the democratic process. The way many platforms work often ends up favouring encounter between persons who think alike, shielding them from debate. These closed circuits facilitate the spread of fake news and false information, fomenting prejudice and hate”.[47]

46. We should also recognize that destructive forms of fanaticism are at times found among religious believers, including Christians; they too “can be caught up in networks of verbal violence through the internet and the various forums of digital communication. Even in Catholic media, limits can be overstepped, defamation and slander can become commonplace, and all ethical standards and respect for the good name of others can be abandoned”.[48] How can this contribute to the fraternity that our common Father asks of us?

170. I would once more observe that “the financial crisis of 2007-08 provided an opportunity to develop a new economy, more attentive to ethical principles, and new ways of regulating speculative financial practices and virtual wealth. But the response to the crisis did not include rethinking the outdated criteria which continue to rule the world”.[147] Indeed, it appears that the actual strategies developed worldwide in the wake of the crisis fostered greater individualism, less integration and increased freedom for the truly powerful, who always find a way to escape unscathed.

172. The twenty-first century “is witnessing a weakening of the power of nation states, chiefly because the economic and financial sectors, being transnational, tend to prevail over the political. Given this situation, it is essential to devise stronger and more efficiently organized international institutions, with functionaries who are appointed fairly by agreement among national governments, and empowered to impose sanctions”.[149] When we talk about the possibility of some form of world authority regulated by law,[150] we need not necessarily think of a personal authority. Still, such an authority ought at least to promote more effective world organizations, equipped with the power to provide for the global common good, the elimination of hunger and poverty and the sure defence of fundamental human rights.

173. In this regard, I would also note the need for a reform of “the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth”.[151] Needless to say, this calls for clear legal limits to avoid power being co-opted only by a few countries and to prevent cultural impositions or a restriction of the basic freedoms of weaker nations on the basis of ideological differences. For “the international community is a juridical community founded on the sovereignty of each member state, without bonds of subordination that deny or limit its independence”.[152] At the same time, “the work of the United Nations, according to the principles set forth in the Preamble and the first Articles of its founding Charter, can be seen as the development and promotion of the rule of law, based on the realization that justice is an essential condition for achieving the ideal of universal fraternity… There is a need to ensure the uncontested rule of law and tireless recourse to negotiation, mediation and arbitration, as proposed by the Charter of the United Nations, which constitutes truly a fundamental juridical norm”.[153] There is need to prevent this Organization from being delegitimized, since its problems and shortcomings are capable of being jointly addressed and resolved.

177. Here I would once more observe that “politics must not be subject to the economy, nor should the economy be subject to the dictates of an efficiency-driven paradigm of technocracy”.[158] Although misuse of power, corruption, disregard for law and inefficiency must clearly be rejected, “economics without politics cannot be justified, since this would make it impossible to favour other ways of handling the various aspects of the present crisis”.[159] Instead, “what is needed is a politics which is far-sighted and capable of a new, integral and interdisciplinary approach to handling the different aspects of the crisis”.[160] In other words, a “healthy politics… capable of reforming and coordinating institutions, promoting best practices and overcoming undue pressure and bureaucratic inertia”.[161] We cannot expect economics to do this, nor can we allow economics to take over the real power of the state.

"

Nice words but Pope Francis is still pulling punches. He knows exactly how global private finance works because before the Enlightenment the religious folk in the West ran the money system for a while. Pope Francis knows that finance is private in the West but not in China. The problem Pope Francis has with China is that the China government is the religion in China and governance is otherwise totally secular. In the West, monotheistic religions are given lots more than the lip service they are suppose to get in governance.....in the US there is suppose to be separation of church and state, correct? Do the financial holdings of the Catholic church make Pope Francis one of the elite that own global private finance in the West that I keep writing about?...I wouldn't be surprised

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 5 2020 2:19 utc | 81

Pope's Encyclical

I have to agree with psychohistorian on this.

The words "oligarchy" and "plutocracy" do not appear in the Pope's Encyclical. The Pope argues a moral case for feeding the poor and even calls for directing money spent on arms to the third world but he steers clear of any concern about class inequity in an age of record wealth inequality.

In this way, he "pulls punches" (as psychohistorian notes) as much as any Western politician. Many of the evils that the Pope rails against - including his remarks regarding populism vs popular government - have their origin in the extreme wealth of a small number of people.

<> <> <> <> <> <>

Capitalism vs. Socialism is a red herring. The real problem is oligarch capitalism which leads to neoliberalism (a sort of fascism) and supremacist thinking of neoconservativism (a sort of aristocracy) and zionism (a sort of colonialism).

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 5 2020 2:46 utc | 82

I have to get back to the issue of Trump's meds which b totally ignored.

My sweet mother, who passed away last year, was COPD and suffered several bouts of pneumonia in her lifetime. She was always put on a combo of antibiotics and prednisone and the usual puffers.

Dexamethasone is 6 times more potent than prednisone. Prednisone is very powerful causing swelling, mood swings, irritability and insomnia. It can cause cataracts and osteoporosis, both of which my poor mother ended up with. I imagine that with Dexamethasone the adverse effects are multiplied. Dexamethasone is also used with chemo to prevent chemo side effects.

I'm really puzzled. Trump's doctor Conley stated Trump was okay to leave the hospital tomorrow. However, he is on some very serious drugs. All 3 drugs he is on have one thing in common: they have a high ratio of preventing death in Covid patients on a ventilator.

However, they should not be taken if the patient is not on a ventilator or not being administered oxygen.

Two things could be going on here:

1. Either Trump is sicker than his doctor pretends he is; or

2. Trump is terrified and wants to take every med known to increase survival, even though his symptoms don't require these, therefore, he is willingly being over-medicated because he's scared.

I saw the picture of him in the car today wearing his mask doing a drive-by for his adoring supporters.

His eyes told me he's really scared and emotional. It could just be the effect of the meds. He's behind the glass with Covid and his fans are healthy on the other side. That's something he can't handle and has no experience dealing with.

Posted by: Circe | Oct 5 2020 2:51 utc | 83

Below is a quote from Xinhuanet that should show why the EU will not be backing the Cold War against China

"
Driven by government spending, strong exports, and a low rate of new COVID-19 infections since March, China is forecast to grow by 2.0 percent in 2020, said the World Bank in its October update. Being the only major economy projected to achieve positive growth this year, China surpassed the United States to become the top trading partner of the European Union (EU) in the first seven months of 2020, according to Eurostat.
"

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 5 2020 2:53 utc | 84

Here's a question for someone in the medical profession: if his symptoms don't require these medications now and he's taking them prematurely (with the exception of Regeneron), then will they work if Regeneron fails and later on he develops more serious symptoms?

Posted by: Circe | Oct 5 2020 3:02 utc | 85

Posted by: suzan | Oct 5 2020 0:36 utc | 77 Apparently, if one can rely on the doctor's words, Drumpf has already needed oxygen supplementation twice, on Friday and Saturday. My understanding of the disease and its progression is that this usually occurs days 10-14. I do not believe what we are told by officials regarding the timeline of his illness.

You may be right. I wasn't aware that he was already given any oxygen. Usually you start getting oxygen help at the time where you have considerable shortness of breath, enough to make it difficult to, say, go to the bathroom. Of course, it could be they just gave it to him early due to his being overweight and probably short of breath a lot. It should be given based on the oximeter results.

All: Trump's little drive-by stunt today didn't go over well with the Secret Service, according to the Washington Post.

Some absolutely correct tweets I just read:

Micah Lee @micahflee
12m
I don't understand why anyone wouldn't be happy about the prospect of a racist, authoritarian cult leader/sexual abuser dying of a virus he's been working so hard to spread across the country by incessant lying and pushing misinformation about public health

Steven Greenhouse @greenhousenyt
2h
WashPost >> Secret Service agents are livid about Trump’s drive outside Walter Reed hospital

A few reacted with outrage to Trump's SUV drive with agents.
“Where are the adults?” said one former agent.
“He’s not even pretending to care” said another.

Travon Free @Travon
9h
The moral of the story is, he lied to you for months and encouraged you to live wrecklessly during a pandemic, and when it got to him he received every top tier treatment and medication to ensure his survival while your friends and family died alone. Remember that on Nov 3rd.

Tom Morello @tmorello
21h
There are currently more confirmed cases of corona virus in the White House than in New Zealand, Taiwan & Vietnam COMBINED. #SoMuchWinning

Leana Wen, M.D. @DrLeanaWen
3h
If @realDonaldTrump were my patient, in unstable condition + contagious illness, & he suddenly left the hospital to go for a car ride that endangers himself & others: I'd call security to restrain him then perform a psychiatric evaluation to examine his decision-making capacity.

And Glenn Greenwald weighs in on whether one should welcome a Trump recovery (although he doesn't actually say so) - very snarky piece LOL:

Why Are Democrats Praying for the Speedy Recovery of a “Fascist Dictator”?
People typically rejoice over, not lament, the death of someone they genuinely believe is a fascist dictator.

How is this messaging — we hope the racist fascist genocidal Nazi-like dictator gets well soon and returns to work? — not creating extreme cognitive dissonance among those who believed that they actually were sincere in their maximalist denunciations and invocations of fascism and Nazism regarding Trump?

Well, as I said previously, cognitive dissonance is how the world runs and is run by the elites.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Oct 5 2020 3:13 utc | 86

First of all, this 'Naked Capitalism' website? Why would anybody read that ultra-conventionalist pablum? Green Party? Any institution of any size (over seven members) is 99.9% guaranteed to be infiltrated within about five years. On many issues, they are about as green as a rat turd.

What you are about to see, right out of the blue, is the instant emergence of 'ranked choice voting' (RCV). Which is a vicious trap that will suck in most of the otherwise progressive suckretariat. I will protest against it in the street this week, demanding a 0-10 point simple ranked voting alternative. this '0-10 point simple ranked voting' would go far in the direction of weakening the present two, or few, party political lock-in. My 'redeveloped' website will be announced in a few days. It's gonna take more than a few rat turds to make any difference whatsoever. Especially following the oncoming social and economic collapse.

Posted by: blues | Oct 5 2020 3:22 utc | 87

Heh, talk about snark... And, yes, this does mean we won't get any real information about Trump's condition until he either gets well or dies.

Pwn All The Things @pwnallthethings
11h
Very smart. Never want to reveal your hand to the enemy in a briefing

Quote Tweet
David Mack @davidmackau
11h
Trump's doctor says he didn't admit yesterday that Trump was put on oxygen because he was trying to be publicly upbeat. "I didn't want to give any information that might steer the illness in another direction."

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Oct 5 2020 3:24 utc | 88

Circe #83

Two things could be going on here:

1. Either Trump is sicker than his doctor pretends he is; or

2. Trump is terrified and wants to take every med known to increase survival, even though his symptoms don't require these, therefore, he is willingly being over-medicated because he's scared.

I saw the picture of him in the car today wearing his mask doing a drive-by for his adoring supporters.

His eyes told me he's really scared ...

Thanks for the update, looks like I should leave shovel standing by the door.

psychohistorian #81

So the head of the Roman Catholic Church is expressing compassion. Not so much the head of the anglican church and meanwhile citizens her age are dying terrible deaths and one is being persecuted in her courts. The UK has maggots in the palace AGAIN.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Oct 5 2020 3:28 utc | 89

Posted by: suzan | Oct 5 2020 0:48 utc | 79

Thanks for the link to the latest encyclical by the Catholic pope

Some of the WOKE crowd take offence to Pope Francis encyclical. Pathetic.

"Pope slams capitalism & injustices in WOKE view on post-Covid world… but gets heat for insufficiently inclusive letter"

"Although the encyclical was woke-friendly in many respects, its title, "Fratelli Tutti," translates to "Brothers All" in English – connoting male dominance to some. The Vatican said the title was taken from the words of St. Francis of Assisi, the pope's namesake, and couldn't be changed. And in any case, an encyclical is inherently addressed to the whole world, and the Italian word "Fratelli" means brothers but can be used to mean brothers and sisters."

https://www.rt.com/news/502540-pope-francis-fratelli-tutti-capitalism/

Posted by: Tom | Oct 5 2020 3:49 utc | 90

Posted by: suzan | Oct 5 2020 0:48 utc | 79

Thanks for the link to the latest encyclical by the Catholic pope

Some of the WOKE crowd take offence to Pope Francis encyclical. Pathetic.

"Pope slams capitalism & injustices in WOKE view on post-Covid world… but gets heat for insufficiently inclusive letter"

"Although the encyclical was woke-friendly in many respects, its title, "Fratelli Tutti," translates to "Brothers All" in English – connoting male dominance to some. The Vatican said the title was taken from the words of St. Francis of Assisi, the pope's namesake, and couldn't be changed. And in any case, an encyclical is inherently addressed to the whole world, and the Italian word "Fratelli" means brothers but can be used to mean brothers and sisters."

https://www.rt.com/news/502540-pope-francis-fratelli-tutti-capitalism/

Posted by: Tom | Oct 5 2020 3:49 utc | 91

@ uncle tungsten | Oct 5 2020 3:28 utc | 89 who I think meant "..no one is being prosecuted in the courts."

uncle tungsten also wrote
"
So the head of the Roman Catholic Church is expressing compassion.
"
That compassion, if you read the screed, is coming from Saint Francis who was showing all this compassion to folks during the time of the Crusades......

The anglican church is a front for the faith based belief that global finance leaders are doing God's work.

.............

The commenters here making fun of the visceral fear associated with potential impending death have never faced such themselves it is clear. I am not excusing Trump's actions but Trump is having to face his mortality in a way he has not had to before and he doesn't want to give up the reins of power so he has to look like still in control. I don't think Trump is out of the woods yet and may be setting himself up for a bigger crash given all the drugs he has crammed into his body in the past 72 hours.

I was taught in my Christian youth that my body was just a vessel in the here and now but what is more important than ones body is their soul. I blame that stupidity for much of the obesity in the US....and I blame genius Trump for that stupidity as well...

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 5 2020 4:01 utc | 92

Posted by: snake | Oct 4 2020 19:26 utc | 33

"That ain't gonna happen." And the notion that some "third party" or "movement" is going to enable it to happen is ridiculous. by: Richard Steven Hack @ 68 <<==I agree, .. certainly confirms mind control propaganda does work. but something not before seen is at work, in France, England, Scotland, Israel and other places.. bottom up is challenging top down. In other words, its not just Americans that are dissatisfied with the local nation state franchise, its most of the people in the nation state governed world.

Voter indifference to (Reputaturd v. Democrap false flag MSM driven good guy| bad guy propaganda leaves only two at the dance: the Oligarch backed, corporate controlled USA and 430,000,000 virgin Americans <=seeking ratification in Article VII fashion, for the privilege of democracy, and the right of self determination, promised by the privately owned MSM propaganda.

Posted by: snake | Oct 5 2020 4:02 utc | 93

I think speculation about Trump's illness has missed the mark.

What seems apparent to me is that:

1. if Trump got the virus on the timeline that is claimed then Trump is either faking having the virus altogether or faking symptoms for sympathy,
2. but if Trump is actually at a point where he needs oxygen then he likely got coronavirus much earlier than we thought and that means that he probably showed up at the Presidential Debate knowing that he had the virus (he got to the Debate late so he wasn't tested by Debate officials).

Biden has tested negative but I'm not sure that the test would be positive soon after infection. It'll be interesting to see if Biden tests positive in the coming days.

<> <> <> <> <> <>

The only way I see the Democrats winning is if Biden is incapacitated and the Democratic Party establishment chooses Hillary to replace him. Trump has moved the ball for the Deep State and the job isn't yet done, but they might prefer for Hillary to take over from here.

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 5 2020 4:11 utc | 94

Doesn't Pass the Smell Test?

Why hasn't anyone on Trump's staff or any of Trump's doctors talked about this sense of smell?

Has he lost his sense of smell? If so, when?

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 5 2020 4:17 utc | 95

Posted by: snake | Oct 5 2020 4:02 utc | 93 430,000,000 virgin Americans

Thought the population as of this year was 331 million? Typo?

True, dissatisfaction with states appears to be on the rise world-wide. The problem is that people still are still thoroughly brainwashed into believing the problem is *their* state, not "state" in the abstract. And because of that, *any* change they make is likely to be for the worse, a la National Socialism. The likelihood of some form of "Chinese Communism" in this country is next to zero - not that I would welcome that, either, but some here would. France might swing toward some form of "council socialism", given their previous history with left revolutions, but I don't see that spreading anywhere else; maybe Spain given their anarchism history. No, I don't see any evidence that the state itself is under any significant threat anywhere. States may collapse, even in the US, but they will reform almost immediately. Any positive changes will be unlikely and even if implemented will quickly be eroded.

The *only* solution is extermination of the ruling class. "The world will only be free when the last politician is strangled with the guts of the last priest." And even then, without some kind of "re-education" of everyone else, it won't last. A new ruling class will simply arise.

Just looked up that Ben Franklin quote:

First reported by James McHenry, a Maryland delegate to the Constitutional Convention. This is what he wrote: “A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy. A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.” Another of his famous quotes from that era comes just after Washington had been elected the first president. “The first man put at the helm will be a good one. Nobody knows what sort may come afterwards,” he said. But that isn’t the full quote. He continued, “The executive will be always increasing here, as elsewhere, till it ends in a monarchy.”

Well, here we are. We didn't keep it. And here we are: a lunatic in office who thinks he's King George.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Oct 5 2020 4:25 utc | 96

Hope Hicks ‘frustrated’ with Trump over his ‘cavalier approach’ to COVID-19 after she tests positive: report

This morning the New York Times reported that Trump is exhibiting “coldlike symptoms.” Two Republicans in close contact with the White House told me that Trump’s symptoms have included a cough and fever. Melania is said to be asymptomatic.

. . .

[But Hope Hicks] ... has had a high fever and a cough ... [and] lost her sense of smell. Hicks is said to be frustrated with Trump for taking such a cavalier approach to the virus. She was one of the few West Wing staffers to wear a mask in meetings, which her colleagues chided her for. “She was made fun of because she wore a mask,” a friend said. Sources told me Hicks is also upset that news coverage has made it appear that she gave Trump the virus, when in fact no one knows where he got it.

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 5 2020 4:31 utc | 97

Looking for good information about coronavirus and loss of smell

So far, I found this summary:

... more than 2 in 3 confirmed COVID-19 cases have anosmia, a partial or complete loss of smell. In South Korea, where testing has been more widespread, 30% of patients testing positive have had anosmia as their major presenting symptom in otherwise mild cases.

and this study (also from April):

A total of 1480 patients with influenza‐like symptoms underwent COVID‐19 testing between March 3, 2020, and March 29, 2020. Our study captured 59 of 102 (58%) COVID‐19–positive patients and 203 of 1378 (15%) COVID‐19–negative patients. Smell and taste loss were reported in 68% (40/59) and 71% (42/59) of COVID‐19–positive subjects, respectively, compared to 16% (33/203) and 17% (35/203) of COVID‐19–negative patients (p < 0.001). Smell and taste impairment were independently and strongly associated with COVID‐19 positivity ...

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 5 2020 5:11 utc | 98

@46 james

Green Party in Canada is just the (neo)Liberal party with a bit of astro-turfing thrown in to prevent any truly socialist options. The Canadian duopoly is going on 153 years old and people still haven't figured it out.

Posted by: sad canuck | Oct 5 2020 5:29 utc | 99

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 5 2020 2:19 utc | 81

My support of the encyclical is culturally based -- that those who listen to his words, those who are mostly of that faith, move, step by step, to a more humane system whereby a system of public finance that serves the people and their environs is built.

Posted by: suzan | Oct 5 2020 6:11 utc | 100