The Corporate State envelopes the administrators of the MSM, Medical and Academic Institutions, and State and Local Governments, in order to create and enforce a largely fictitious health emergency — the latest in a series of Disaster Capitalist scenarios designed to rob us blind.

Posted by: norecovery | Nov 16 2020 20:16 utc | 3

Capitalist Swine Flu aka(SARS/CoV-2)is a bigger hoax than Weapons of Mass Destruction. The Great Reset is coming your way. Brought to you by the biggest swindlers EVER!

Posted by: par4 | Nov 16 2020 20:30 utc | 5

I don’t think this is what cost him. His handling of the virus from
Day 1 was shaky. Daily press briefings that were mostly BS and fighting with the press during them nonstop. Constant media propaganda trying to pin him as a Nazi, a spy, a racist you name it. He lost a good amount of the suburban white voter. Made some gains with the Latino and minority voter but not enough to offset the amount of young low information voters that think a corrupt and senile Biden would have done better. I think it’s his personality that caused him issues with the voters, not Dr Doom

Posted by: Danny | Nov 16 2020 20:44 utc | 7

After some days of breathing I am quit happy that trump didn’t got the chance to destroy world peace by accident, without the limitation of a re-election cycle.
brilliant analysis. Actually it gets now also a German topic. The stuff is produced and distributed by Pfizer, but developed by a company named biontech wich ist I think owned by a third from German state. They have to be involved.

Posted by: rico rose | Nov 16 2020 20:57 utc | 9

@All
What please means “success” in this case exactly?

Posted by: Hausmeister | Nov 16 2020 21:11 utc | 11

To hear this argumentation from someone who has been committed to preventive measures against C-19 seems bizarre to me. If Tronald had listened to Fauci, who has never said anything unreasonable, the disagreement would not have arisen. But Tronald was desperate to save ‘his’ economical situation, causing a record number of deaths and also damaging the economy. If it is true, and if Fauci did in fact sabotage Tronald, that was more than deserved.

Posted by: pnyx | Nov 16 2020 21:14 utc | 13

Placebo should be saline. Something matching biochem that is inert. Other vaccines or placebos full of adjuvants are not inert & are in no way a proper placebo. In Pfizer’s case, certainly not a placebo that kills. If the vaccine kills same #, it will be considered “safe” vs placebo.

Posted by: BDrizzle | Nov 16 2020 21:20 utc | 15

If this article’s thesis is true, I wouldn’t be surprised, but it’s small potatoes compared to plenty of other actions to ‘shape the narrative’ etc.
Firstly, it would be a modest act of political influence compared to 4 years of headlines announcing certain proof of ‘treason’ being imminent. Also consider that despite turning the hysteria up to 10 on Russiagate, it actually had little long term effect on Trump’s approval ratings. What it did is scare nearly all competent administrators away from the Trump administration, creating a paralyzed government devoid incapable of doing anything right, including disaster response, but whatever.
Next, its not like Trump’s allies don’t play this game. The only difference is that most US media leans Democrat, but people need to learn to read between the lines.
Next, on the vaccine news itself. What we’re looking at is essentially a trial with a sample size that we *think* is (90 x placebo infection rate) … that would be assuming the same amount of vaccinated subjects were exposed to the disease as the number of placebo subjects. So a relatively small sample in terms of the main function of the drug. Also, consider that there are both short-term and long-term immunity mechanisms. Due to the short time, these trials would prove the short-term immunity much more than long-term. This is true for all vaccines everywhere around the world. Finally, vaccines won’t actually be available anywhere nearly soon enough to justify changing behavior in time for the election.
It is still good news however – at current rates it would take 4-6 years to infect enough people for so called herd immunity, so shave that down to a year or two to get the vaccine delivered. Now if we had a sane world, in the first year while supply is limited, vaccine priority could be given to the elderly (assuming they want it) rather than the rich, but that will be a story for another day.
As for Trump… he’s out of here. Get over it. He actually did make a pretty big impact on US politics, ran some policies that are unusual for Republicans (pro-govt-debt, reduced immigration, in contrast to the earlier balanced-budget-austerity, de-facto support of whatever one needs to minimize-wages policies of the GOP), KO’d Clintonist triangulated centrism, and taught a generation of independent voters that the msm is scripted. But he’s out and the world is better off for it. Hopefully Biden will follow into retirement soon.

Posted by: ptb | Nov 16 2020 21:20 utc | 17

Pfizer were insider trading leading up to this anoucment.
The whole thing is a can of worms, welcome to the Rotten USA where money is king, human life just a resource or libilty.
It’s a small club and we’re not in it, Trump is though.

Posted by: Mark2 | Nov 16 2020 21:29 utc | 19

Fauci knew Trump was lying when he said that the US had “Turned the corner.” He also knew that Trump lied throughout his criminally negligent response to the Covid-19 crisis. Trump has effectively admitted that he lied when he said he deliberately “understated” the seriousness of the disease. There is audio tape proving that Trump lied. There is nothing that can be described as proof to support b’s theory that Fauci withheld information in the service of an effort to defeat Trump but if he had, doing so would have been justifiable. Fauci’s job is to protect public health. Saving lives should be his first priority. There was no better way to do that than to do everything possible to see that Trump is removed from office.

Posted by: David | Nov 16 2020 21:42 utc | 21

This may or not be a safe vaccine, come back to me in 5 years on that one.
Point is ——- do I trust ‘them’ Ummm no !
Would I buy a used car from any of them, no.
Credabilty / intergrity / belevabilty generally speaking don’t seem to be an American or British ‘thing’

Posted by: Mark2 | Nov 16 2020 21:45 utc | 23

Seems more and more like ZeroHedge when I visit here. Looking forward to full QAnon.

Posted by: Roy G | Nov 16 2020 21:51 utc | 25

People will rally around a President during a crisis if he is providing sound and resolute leadership. Even if the economy is suffering, a President can rally support to fight a common crisis together, and gain in popularity.
Trump totally lacked the character, the resources and the people to provide that kind of leadership.
His fixation on saving the economy first lead to disastrous policies and decisions.
It was not Covid that cost him the Presidency. He could have won despite the disease. It was his (mis-)handling of it that drove support away from him. From him personally, the GOP made overall gains in the House and is likely going to keep the Senate unless Trump manages to really piss off GOP voters in Georgia.

Posted by: Malchik Ralf | Nov 16 2020 21:57 utc | 27

These studies leave me quite unimpressed. In effect, they tested 30,000 people. Out of those, 90 developped symptoms without vaccine, and 5 with it. That means that, by chance or not, 29,905 people did not get Covid19, no matter whether vaccinated or not. If that is a stable result, and only 0.028% of the populace are likely to be infected, why all the fuss? If this is just by chance that the 30k ppl did not get anything, the test is crap. It is not a “90% success”.

Posted by: aquadraht | Nov 16 2020 22:27 utc | 29

VK @ 22:

“… the SARS-CoV-2 is rapidly mutating to even deadlier forms (see Denmark’s culling of 15 million minks) …”

From Nature.com: “The coronavirus is mutating — does it matter?”

“… Soon after SARS-CoV-2 was detected in China, researchers began analysing viral samples and posting the genetic codes online. Mutations — most of them single-letter alterations between viruses from different people — allowed researchers to track the spread by linking closely related viruses, and to estimate when SARS-CoV-2 started infecting humans.
Viruses that encode their genome in RNA, such as SARS-CoV-2, HIV and influenza, tend to pick up mutations quickly as they are copied inside their hosts, because enzymes that copy RNA are prone to making errors. After the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus began circulating in humans, for instance, it developed a kind of mutation called a deletion that might have slowed its spread4.
But sequencing data suggest that coronaviruses change more slowly than most other RNA viruses, probably because of a ‘proofreading’ enzyme that corrects potentially fatal copying mistakes. A typical SARS-CoV-2 virus accumulates only two single-letter mutations per month in its genome — a rate of change about half that of influenza and one-quarter that of HIV, says Emma Hodcroft, a molecular epidemiologist at the University of Basel, Switzerland.
Other genome data have emphasized this stability — more than 90,000 isolates have been sequenced and made public (see http://www.gisaid.org). Two SARS-CoV-2 viruses collected from anywhere in the world differ by an average of just 10 RNA letters out of 29,903, says Lucy Van Dorp, a computational geneticist at University College London, who is tracking the differences for signs that they confer an evolutionary advantage …”

From ScienceMag.org: Kai Kupferschmidt, “Mutations can reveal how the coronavirus moves—but they’re easy to overinterpret” (March 2020)

“… Like all viruses, SARS-CoV-2 evolves over time through random mutations, only some of which are caught and corrected by the virus’s error correction machinery. Over the length of its 30,000-base-pair genome, SARS-CoV-2 accumulates an average of about one to two mutations per month, [Andrew Rambaut, a molecular evolutionary biologist at the University of Edinburgh] says. “It’s about two to four times slower than the flu,” he says. Using these little changes, researchers can draw up phylogenetic trees, much like family trees. They can also make connections between different cases of COVID-19 and gauge whether there might be undetected spread of the virus …”

Presumably the rapid mutation of SARS-COV-2 results in a form so deadly that people in Denmark at least, if not the rest of the world, must beware in case they are suddenly arrested by the police and transported to a secret military lab to be put down before the virus kills them.

Posted by: Jen | Nov 16 2020 22:43 utc | 31

Well, we ought to add to b’s piece the latest by Alastair Crooke which seeks to take the election divide and predict where it might lead. Much of what we see and experience has to do with the demise of Liberalism, particularly its acceptance/tolerance, of its embrace of differences–the notion that out of many can come one yet retain individuality. Then there’s the complete abandonment of the notion of Community, of a shared responsibility for each other which was almost killed by the Anti-Communist Crusade; failure of religious institutions to promote community and inter-community solidarity; and the atomization of society as demanded by Neoliberal Parasitism via identity politics. Compare in contrast the great efforts put forth by Xi and Putin to keep their multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nations fused together in their efforts to work together to better everyone. The polarized division of the USA is exactly what its Imperial planners wanted to do to Russia and China. But there is one area I’m in deep disagreemnet with Crooke:
“Red America – to survive – will reach back to old values (as every society in crisis does), and try to draw out, from the tale of their erosion and neglect, an explication – a story – for their present distress. They can observe that ‘other’ values, opposed to collectivism, always have arisen from within the deep layers of human experience and history.”
Just what in the hell does Crooke think Community, or a Labor Union, or a pack of Red voters happen to be if not a collective?! What is a Church’s Congregation? A Collective. The Rancher’s Co-op? A Collective. An agricultural Grange? A Collective. All those “old values” that will be reached back “to draw out” are all familial, community, collective values, not the atomization identity politics aims at achieving.
So, what do we really have situationally here within the Outlaw US Empire? Half the nation voted for Trump again, only this time the result was flipped for the time being. Reds and Blues common points of convergence are their very large distrust of the federal government and large financial institutions, and their desire for a government run healthcare system. And they love their children and want the best for them. What divides most US citizens remains deeply rooted in the past instead of having been exorcised because of the great unwillingness to confront it, acknowledge it, use both as tools to heal, and move on to confront the real existential challenges we’re kept from dealing with because the past acts like a massive ball and chain–Confession is called for on a Continental scale, particularly by the millions of genuine Haters, epitomized by Marco Rubio. And I’m certain Showtime’s mini-series about John Brown, The Good Lord Bird will add future fuel to the fire.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 16 2020 22:46 utc | 33

BDrizzle | Nov 16 2020 21:02 utc | 10
Please let me repeat my question. From where did you get this?
“Pfizer’s “placebo” was a meningitis vaccine that killed one of the test subjects. In what bizarro universe is that a proper control or placebo? What nasty side effects do you think that “placebo” is hiding? In no sane universe is that safety testing. Another fun fact, not 1 vaccine gets tested against a real placebo.”

Posted by: Hausmeister | Nov 16 2020 22:54 utc | 35

Aye Tone, nice hit you made on that Trump fellow.

Posted by: Kevin | Nov 16 2020 23:09 utc | 37

To all the people who believe that the Covid-19 pandemic is a capitalist or deep state hoax, I suggest you take a long walk until you fall off the edge of the flat earth.

Posted by: Rob | Nov 16 2020 23:11 utc | 39

Prof K @34–
I don’t see b being “pissy;” rather, I see him reporting on an important aspect at the end of Trump’s first term that might have affected his reelection chances. Clearly the situation is dynamic and the populace polarized, but little’s being done to dig into the very important question, Why? One big factor I’ve heard nobody mention is the utter failure of Reconstruction and inability of white Americans to kill racism prior to the 20th Century. Time can’t heal wounds that are swept under the rug. The USA I was born into in 1955 was a divided, polarized nation filled with hatred and yearning for justice, with that entire clause still very much alive and well today. And the hatred’s kept alive through the demonizing of all nations and peoples that don’t salute the Outlaw US Empire and agree to become its vassal–Currently the USA’s demonizing Russians, Chinese, Iranians, Iraqis, Syrians, North Koreans, Venezuelans, Belarusans, Ukrainians, Haitians, Cubans, Lebanese, Muslims generally, and anyone trying to immigrate into the USA. That’s a very big list that educates/indoctrinates/reinforces Americans that hating others is normal, not immoral and dysfunctional.
Biases–being pro Georgia, Auburn or Alabama–and rooting for home teams is an acceptable human behavior, while remembering that ultimately we’re all on the same team–the Imperial crimes committed by the Outlaw US Empire has killed most instinctive nationalism. Many either understand or greatly fear 911 was done by the CIA to further project Empire; and although it’s not in the 24/7/365 news cycle anymore, Gitmo is still there holding innocent people. And we have Forever Wars. So, WTF is there to be proud of in a nationalistic sense when guilt is the biggest emotion?
Yes, the USA’s polity needs an analyst every bit as much as it need honest government that provides Good Governance.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 16 2020 23:23 utc | 41

TimmyB: Actually, I always assumed Trump was hoping Biden wouldn’t make it to November.
But still, I think Big Pharma was more important in the decision than Fauci.
Then of course there was the stupid decision from Trump to assume that all this was a plot to see him fail – instead of trying to be a bit serious about the pandemic, like Johnson eventually did, or be really serious like Netanyahu. That some of his few real international pals took this seriously should’ve been a hint – that Putin and Xi Jinping did as well should’ve been the last warning he had to act and not screw up on this. Someone like him should’ve known better and acted like a genuine showman, taking the mantle of “crisis president” with the added bonus that crisis wasn’t a major war, nor a war he had started, but a crisis he could have had no part in creating (say, unlike your usual economic bubble / Wall Street crash); from GOP/Trump camp’s point of view, that really was a missed opportunity to play it like a new Roosevelt with the world on the brink of collapse (yes I know it’s a massive exaggeration, but if there’s one thing Trump can do, it’s outrageous exaggeration).

Posted by: Clueless Joe | Nov 16 2020 23:32 utc | 43

@31 aquadraht
With 50% of study participants were placebo [study protocol p.16], best guess is 90 out of ~15000 or 0.6% … which is actually not entirely surprising – if extrapolated to US population, it would be 1.8 million, in however many of the summer or fall months the phase 3 of the study was conducted.
@22 vk / re: vaccine
Completely agree regarding Russian or Chinese vaccine method. Little chance of having access to either of these in the US. In the case of the Russian one, production is unfortunately severely delayed too, presumably because of worldwide shortage of all kinds of manufacturing equipment that drug/diagnostic-device manufacturers have to use, to get regulatory approval. Plus the sanctions besides that. So the world suffers for it some more.
Much of the equipment that is sold out is fairly simple parts or machinery. Even stupid stuff like disposable plastic containers that have become standardized and can’t easily be changed. Most of this can be replaced in months if one really needs to have it, if some regulatory rules can be avoided by emergency waiver, and one willing to burn some cash, and isn’t fighting their own business structure too much (and for the latter those stories will come out in a year or so I’d guess).
However, the process equipment for doing the microbiology and the science equipment for verifying the results on a very large scale, I’m not sure. Mostly US-EU suppliers, some JP, some ROK. Without a domestic industry that already builds these tools, it would really be problematic. Nevertheless, I would say the Chinese have far and away the best chance in winning a race to quickly mass-produce a vaccine. The US side is making up for it with astronomical subsidies. Wouldn’t be surprised if US pharma’s make more money than ever in history. A final twist is that the incoming Biden administration may have a slightly different set of crony vendors than Trump did, although I have to guess they’re not that different.

Posted by: ptb | Nov 16 2020 23:36 utc | 45

Pfizer and Moderna are both touting mRNA vaccines. There has never been an mRNA vaccine. Has there been any mRNA product of any type? Even for lab use? Anyone? Sticking my neck out here, feel free with the axe. Moderna has been around forty years now and has never had a product. Government money and dark government money.
The idea that an entirely new class and category of product is going to be injected into entire populations is insane. No one in their right mind would do such a thing. My bet is they won’t. Placebos more likely. But who knows. Crazy people in charge.

Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 16 2020 23:39 utc | 47

I don’t understand why all the fuss over big pharma directly affecting the elections.
The USA is a capitalist nation, which, on the superstructural level, means the primacy of the private sector. Big business has all the right to decide who rules the country and, more importantly, who doesn’t. The system worked as intended.
You live by the sword, you die by the sword. You can’t ask for the best of the two worlds just because you’re American.

Posted by: vk | Nov 16 2020 23:47 utc | 49

I wouldn’t trust the vaccine announcements. The drug companies have extreme leeway in selecting candidates for the trial since the drugs and the virus are classified as novel. They pick the healthiest patients to avoid reactions to the drug and side effects. Very few on placebo are testing positive for the virus. It reduces your odds of getting infected from 0.4 percent to 0.1 percent. I think much longer study is needed before they make any announcements at all. These announcements are as phony as the Trump announcements on imminent North Korea deals, China deals, FTAs, bioweapon, whatever.

Posted by: Les | Nov 16 2020 23:51 utc | 51

Fauci is the maestro of COVID-19. Trump should have revealed Fauci’s gain of function work with the Chinese from the beginning … and then dismissed him. Newsweek covered this but not much else in the MSM.
I found this about a month ago. It puts a lot of the story together.
Treachery With Anthony Fauci

Posted by: Curtis | Nov 17 2020 0:04 utc | 53

hilarious whether or not it was intentional (private sector fascist) meddling but still seems like a massive stretch. also, your link is broken.
https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/09/covid-19-vaccine-from-pfizer-and-biontech-is-strongly-effective-early-data-from-large-trial-indicate/
someone “hate voting” against trump and ergo for biden is not going to switch based on the minutiae of a vaccine trial. black communities have been hit hard but trump got more of that collective vote than last time.
again, biden gained with white guys who are – let’s face it – the primary drivers of covidiocy. if someone considers themselves a “one issue” voter and said issue is covid, their view of trump mishandling the crisis isn’t going to be swayed by a private company’s announcement that they “might maybe be kinda sorta close to a vaccine that didn’t kill or fail half of a tiny test group if the stars are aligned right and we have olympic swimming pools full of liquid nitrogen” and they certainly won’t twist their brains to think trump had any hand in the success at all.
which brings me to the last point: even if they’d kept to the date, would the entire sprawling corporate media aligned against trump suddenly be bestowing greatness upon him? and if they did would his MAGAtard followers in the KFC states who think it’s a chinese hoax give a damn? would the pussy hats? not buying it. there were few if any voters who hadn’t made a firm decision months ago and the early voting – from up to 46 days before the election due to that firmness and covid – was tilted heavily toward biden.

Posted by: the pair | Nov 17 2020 0:19 utc | 55

Hausmeister@56
“which test kit was used? How many cycles? – This is the minimum one needs to know to judge the result.”
Agreed. General tracking won’t provide that detail, neither will Labs bother to provide that information to those that information would be key, namely an individual’s physician (even when explicitly asked for). Generally neither does a physician seam to care, they are merely following a (screen level) protocol and while when mentioned some appear to recall something regarding Ct values they send you into isolation independently of actual clinical symptoms, the “test” is the only thing that matters. This is absurd!

Posted by: Vasco da Gama | Nov 17 2020 0:34 utc | 57

If Pfizer and Moderna sat on such good results for a while, and Fauci and the FDA knew about it too, then that increases the likelihood of someone falling for the temptation of profiting by insider trading during that interval. Trump/Barr/Giuliani might want to have someone at the SEC look into that before January, if they can spare any investigative/legal attention from their election lawsuits. Just a completely speculative thought of course.

Posted by: Canadian Cents | Nov 17 2020 0:49 utc | 59

I agree with Lex in comment # 1 also but let me tell my Big Pharma story
I have healed from a traumatic brain injury using neuromodulation techniques, mostly QEEG and associated “training”. And this is non-drug related technology that you can find out more about at my web site under neuromodulation….but that is not what I can to write about.
The Big Pharma story I want to tell is the disservice to humanity that Big Pharma and the associated, for profit, medical professionals are extending. I say extending because the science stake-in-the-ground that Big Pharma is mostly based on has been proven to be only part of the story, and not the controlling part.
The stake-in-the-ground is the science done in 1951 by a science guy on the Sparks side of the Soups/Sparks controversy about whether the human neuronal event was bio-chemical or bio-electric. He proved, given technology of the day, that the synaptic event was bio-chemical……and Big Pharma was born.
Since then science has discovered that there is a type of glia called an astrocyte that sets up the synaptic cleft before the bio-chemical event can take place and clears out the junction after the bio-chemical part takes place. All the while that the astrocytes are doing this synaptic management, (the bio-chemical event does not take place if the astrocyte does not set up the junction), they are making bio-electric wave forms that science knows exist but are still having trouble reading because the wave form is too slow for current technology. While the wave forms created by astrocytes may be thought of as slow, cumulatively, they represent our reptilian/mammalian/human trauma/emotional processing abilities that occur before our brain ever gets involved.
The point I am making is that the bio-chemical mental health paradigm is wrong in the sense that it does not incorporate the bio-electric facets of our bodies operation…and, given my experience, is quite dysfunctional for many mental health issues.
I spent a lot of time and out-of-pocket funding for my neuromodulation healing and much more research needs to be done to flush out our bio-electric workings but the new mental health paradigm of dysregulation of neural networks has a lot more current science going for it than the out of date bio-chemical one that has folks throwing drugs at everything.
If humanity is to prosper, we need to get the concept of profit out of any provision of health care. Current Western health care based on the profit motive is a crime against humanity and an impediment to our evolving as a species.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 17 2020 1:01 utc | 61

Trumph has at least two ways to get back at Fauci. Fauci should be pilloried for his proclamations that Hydroxychloroquinine doesn’t work against covid 19. It is proven to work by the French doctor Raul Didier provided it is used before symptons are severe and in combination with Zinc and Azithromycin antibiotic. In fact this is how many third world countries have kept the levels of Covid 19 down. Trump should be letting the public know about this deliberate deception by Fauci, in cahoots with the drug manufacturers. Also there is the deliberate postponement of a vaccine release.
p.s. Ivermectin used in combination with zinc and an antibiotic has even greater efficacy than Hydroxychloroquinine but this too has been suppressed by Fauci and friends.

Posted by: Ike | Nov 17 2020 1:47 utc | 63

The death of a quarter of a million Americans is not nothing. Dr. Anthony Fauci has been a master corporate/government bureaucrat superb at increasing profits but unable to control HIV or COVID-19 outbreaks. His bad science is as responsible for the deaths as White House magical thinking.
Only nations with a functional government have been able to control coronavirus. The West is unable to do anything since democratic governments have been dismantled to increase profits, privatize public functions, and to cut taxes on the wealthy. This is the ultimate cause. We are all “whistling in the dark” until functional public health systems are restored. The vaccines may or may not control the virus, but all the collateral damage to date and to come are due to the ruling classes assuring that the pharmaceutical industry makes a profit.

Posted by: VietnamVet | Nov 17 2020 1:47 utc | 65

Trump screwed Trump of an easy reelection. His stupidity during Covid briefings was in full display. He was the one who said Covid was going to dissapear like magic. He was the onw who infected half the white house and most of the secret service with the virus. He didnt wear a mask and made fun of people wearing them. Blaming his utter failure on pharma corps or Dr Fauci is plain sill at this point.

Posted by: comandante | Nov 17 2020 2:26 utc | 67

is Roy G @ 25, the same as Ric G who has posted at least 7 times here today?? i am curious based on what was said @ 25…
@ Prof K | Nov 16 2020 22:44 utc | 34 quote – “This blog has been good at taking Covid seriously, and at recommending the correct public health measures.
Now this blogger is all pissy because Trump, the asshole who already let 200,000+ people die from Covid, lost! Someone explain that…”
well karlof1 gave you a response and i am going to give one too… pointing out bullshit and manipulation is something b seems to excel at… i don’t sense a particular partisanship in b, but i do sense a desire to point out what appear as manipulation…. i think this is a good enough reason for him to cover this as he is doing.. maybe you see it differently…
@ Ric G… here are the stats for 2018 n the usa deaths based on type of death..
Heart disease: 655,381
Cancer: 599,274
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 167,127
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 159,486
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 147,810
Alzheimer’s disease: 122,019
Diabetes: 84,946
Influenza and Pneumonia: 59,120
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis: 51,386
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 48,344
now we know that covid will tip the scale if a person has pre existing health conditions – heart disease and etc. but one can’t get around the fact that so far this year, and it really only started beginning in march – the death rate for the usa based just based on on covid stands at 252,651 for 2020…. that is significantly higher then the data from 2018 of 59,120 deaths… maybe you can have a conversation wtih @ 25 Roy G who compares moa to zerohedge which you are sharing links to, lol..

Posted by: james | Nov 17 2020 3:03 utc | 69

Oh for God’s sake! Quit this Trump is the eternal victim hogwash!
There’s news breaking that Trump wanted to launch a military strike on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility last week and Pence, Milley, Pompeo and the new acting Secy of Defense talked him down from it.
The man wants to start a f**king war, kill efforts to reinstate the JCPOA and saddle Biden with war from the getgo! He’s that vindictive!
He’s out of his damn mind, tweeting bullshit every day and playing golf while people are dying by the thousands and others lining up for miles to get food and your still pretending he’s innocent and Fauci’s out to get him?!
Stop jerking us around, already!

Posted by: Circe | Nov 17 2020 3:12 utc | 71

@70 Vietnam Vet
And of course that pharma industry includes all relevant politicians and people like Fauci who are so deeply compromised with insider trading and on the hook for baksheesh that governance simply cannot work in a crisis.
bevin’s links @71 are worth reading for those who don’t already know, but what the US failed to do was copy China. The US saw a successful containment and treatment operation made up of of several parts and concluded, well we have one of those parts, and none of the others, so we’ll lie about the importance of the others, and we’ll do the one thing we can, which is lock down. The people of the US were the ones who decided for themselves that masking would help, long before their government grudgingly admitted it. Fauci too was one of the liars there.
In sum, it was truly a case of savages and barbarians attempting to emulate the example of civilized people, and it failed utterly, and still does fail, because the barbarians still haven’t learned.
The recipe is clear. How to be like China: first throw a very wide cordon around the infection area because making sure no infected people escape detection is like herding cats – so throw a wide net. Then test everyone inside the net and move the positive tests into confinement and treatment. Contact-trace for all you’re worth to find more likely subjects to test. Rinse and repeat as if life depended on it. Make sure the priority is the safety of the population. Compensate wholesale across the board for economic harm so the entire population knows it’s a true society-wide crisis, and that the government is telling the truth, and thereby can join in with the effort as volunteers.
Eventually, when you think you’ve contained all the cats you were herding, let the negative tests get on with their life. Eventually, if the virus has too few hosts, it can’t replicate enough to gain over the ongoing vigilance and remedial efforts. This was what we first saw in Wuhan, and China has demonstrated the same recipe elsewhere as isolated events have erupted.
The secret was always testing. This was one of the missing ingredients in the US, and the greatest missing ingredient was the capacity for government to act with honest diligence.
The US, as we knew and said from the beginning, is a broken nation. It was incapable of copying China. As Putin remarked, it takes a viable state to defeat the virus.
~~
As an aside: to this day I thank fate that China showed the first explosion of this virus, because if it had boomed in the US first, I wouldn’t know what to believe. Only watching China act has anchored my personal certainty about the reality of this virus. It’s a pitiful state of bewilderment to experience, and it serves as a benchmark for the lack of information available in this benighted society.
~~
@72 Ric G – I hope some of the above helps explain how Asia seems free of the virus. It’s because they’re dealing with it correctly. It’s absolutely, truly that simple.

Posted by: Grieved | Nov 17 2020 3:28 utc | 73

@ Grieved 80
Suggesting that Americans need to act like Chinese is like asking Chinese to act like Westerners, never happen. Chinese believe in collectivity and unity for the common good, whereas Americans believe in independence, every man for himself, and only the strong survive.
It’s a sort of payback for the hundred years of China humility imposed by westerners, one might say.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Nov 17 2020 3:52 utc | 75

Lol, good. “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law, but remember, nobody likes an asshole.” This is the kind of court intrigue that makes our society of the spectacle at least fun to spectate.

Posted by: fnord | Nov 17 2020 4:47 utc | 77

CDW @ 50:
“…Perhaps. Or perhaps Trump was just one COVID stimulus check away from victory? Biden has been silent on the subject. I think would he have been a shoo in had he done that one thing.”
I agree.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 17 2020 5:02 utc | 79

This reads like a Daily Mail article. Article quality tends downward.

Posted by: BM | Nov 17 2020 5:21 utc | 81

@85 Don Bacon
I’d have to agree with you and go a step further…Chinese government is a product of their culture…as is our government. Social cultures tend to produce social governments…on the flip-side individualistic cultures tend to produces individualistic governments.
I would even go further and say different cultures arise out of racial differences, but in this day and age that isn’t an allowable opinion in some circles.

Posted by: Jason | Nov 17 2020 6:23 utc | 83

@90 Don Bacon
And that’s your best argument…a type?
@87 Same
That’s one way to pass the buck.
@86 juliania and CDW
You really think that’s the singular reason 78,600,000 voted to kick Trump out of office? How about he’s a lying sack of shit and it’s always all about him all the time? Oh and tomorrow or Wednesday the Covid death total will reach a quarter of a million but golf’s more important than the mourning of a million people or more who have suffered this loss. I’m just getting started…

Posted by: Circe | Nov 17 2020 6:35 utc | 85

In fact, Fauchy knew he was in trouble with Trump and was licking Trump’s ass, repeating the same BS trump was saying for the last 2 months. Fauchy capitulated. B is talking out of his ass.

Posted by: Hoyeru | Nov 17 2020 6:44 utc | 87

First off, my lead up. I spent the past 3 1/2 days isolated with a good friend who is dying of cancer, in a cabin in the woods, on a lake/river. This little holiday began on Friday the 13th on purpose. I figured if there was ever a year in which my superstitions and the fact that horror is my favorite movie genre (for entertainment, not critical thinking – usually) might manifest in some real action, be it raging zombie mobs (covidiots?) attempting to loot vacation homes, Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers, 2020 had to be the year. I’m almost sad to say that all that really went down was some good quasi-political banter, the use of psilocybin and show and tell with each of our caches of illicit firearms, bows and crazy machete blades. Tuned out of all news and Internet, social media, and the only phone call was from a long-ago ex fiancee who I happened to be with during the time in which this particular friend and I became close. Anyway the only reason I wasted anyone’s time with that lead-up is that I’ve been looking at this 2020 Presidential election from more of a human interest angle and Joe Schmoe in my various circle of human beings, and NOT from the grand conspiratorial deep state-Democrat-MSM collusion. Especially not the nonsense now floating about regarding Dominion voting systems (which BTW has acquired whatever Diebold was renamed to and has a history of questionable security and conflicts of interest in favor of Republicans – and yawn, yes I know, to the hard core Trump and Qanon fans, even ALL Republicans are ultimately part of the far reaching conspiracy to keep Trump from exposing the satanic, child sex trafficking Democrats and ivory tower elites).
But b seems to have missed out on the real reason – assuming the vote counts are valid, and I have seen zero reason to believe that they aren’t, especially in a manner so as to flip a landslide Trump victory to Joe Biden in a systemic and coordinated manner – that Trump lost. The short answer is: “white guys like me and the people who tried to convince me to vote for Biden.” The other short answer is that they were sick to death of Trumpism and what it inspired in his fanatical supporters, including the further poisoning of the already toxic political dialogue in the USA. Turns out that even my friends, family and acquaintances who ended up being this election’s “silent majority” weren’t convinced that Antifa and BLM were actual terrorist groups that would decide, proactively, to attack and burn every city they could until they got their way. Nope. They realized that Antifa is a fringe movement that constitutes a tiny minority of whatever it is that what’s ‘left of the left’ in the USA is made up of. They certainly weren’t convinced of this by the corporate media, who did their best to keep the protests and violence going (all of which would seem to help Trump get re-elected), and who didn’t exactly go out of their way to explain that Biden/Harris were far from “leftist” or “ultra-liberal” politicians, not to mention the Marxists they were widely portrayed as by right leaning media and cyberspace. They just enjoyed the ratings.
They know that the left has long ago been crushed by the private finance, rentier right-wing power structure for more than a hundred years. These maniacs in the streets – the ones actually committing violence – are mostly nutcase anarchists, outside agitators (including plenty of right-wing operatives), and a small minority of desperate, penniless, jobless and hopeless angry people. And that Trump wasn’t doing anything to alleviate the conditions that they faced in their daily lives. Of course the media – both sides – loved to show the videos of crazy black people driving VERY expensive SUV’s driving up and looting VERY high end boutique storefronts, but there was never a real, honest accounting of the real impact of the protests/”riots” and police response when compared to the already dire financial situation that existed BEFORE COVID-19 hit. But again. Great ratings! Great way for the oligarch owned media in the inverted totalitarian (corporate controlled) USA to keep people divided, angry and tuned in! But other than a few isolated stories of a shop owner losing everything JUST because of riots and looting, the real damage to the economy and social fabric was long brewing and long stoked by guys like Trump – and long brushed under the rug and glad handed by guys like Obama.
So long story short, in addition to the good points made by others before me in this thread about how it’s absolutely ridiculous and, in fact, the complete reverse of the truth to claim that vaccine trial announcements were somehow coordinated and delayed to hand Joe Biden the election, the real reason Trump lost is that he is an asshole, but more importantly, a LOT of his American citizen fans are even bigger persecution complex having privileged assholes who have no qualms about shoving it in ‘your’ face as though screaming “TRUMP!” completely unprovoked in some black woman’s face trying to do her minimum wage service industry job (or flight attendants, whatever) was some kind of real political statement rather than just a manifestation of being an asshole.
Like I’ve said, I didn’t vote from here in Europe. I’m still registered in Texas to do so, but even if I had, I would have cast my vote for Howie Hawkins, a REAL outsider who would NEVER be allowed to ascend to the same level as Nancy Peloser, Mitch McConnel, Mike Pimpeous or least of all Trump’s level. THAT is an outsider who understands how the economy works and is humble, worldly and intelligent enough to try to seek out the best minds for whatever task his administration would have needed to accomplish. Of course, he knows this too. While there is no way that the vote count was a fraud, the entire system is one – rotted to the core and set up to siphon taxpayer money into the off-shore bank accounts (and rentier class property and majority share holdings) of the oligarchy. The fact that Trump was allowed to reach the point he achieved speaks more loudly to this than anything else. He was the APPROVED “outsider” who – if he had been serious at all about or intelligent enough to go about helping the “deplorable” flyover country living MAGAtards, would have been far more effective at turning the MSM’s Russiagate/Ukrainegate farces back against them to people like me who saw them for what they were immediately: a kayfabe kabuki theater distraction from the continued pillage of the national treasure by the oligarch class, of which Trump – despite whatever debts he may have coming due – is a privileged member. No new wars? LOL, my ass – Just today it came out that he had to be talked down from bombing Naantz (and possibly other places in Iran) and I believe those reports to be credible, since they match exactly the way he has conducted his foreign policy and nearly to the letter of what I have long predicted – a second term greater war in the Middle East, concentrated on Iran.
Regarding the way I tend to read b’s thought process: I think that when he’s not doing sitreps and solid analysis of geostrategic and regional conflicts, he tends to take the Glenn Greenwald approach to Western media criticism. I.e., flipping the headlines around to show exactly how they distort or reverse the truth of what is really going on and making fun of the MSM and DNC – the same people who character assassinated Al Gore and gave us George Bush and the Iraq war – for the way they’ve spent 4 years trying to paint Trump’s legitimate electoral win as illegitimate. What I hope is that he and his readers can apply the same critical eye to what’s already happening and will continue for as long as a person who is approved by Trump’s fans isn’t in the Oval Office – namely the false painting of the candidate himself, rather than the entire inverted totalitarian faux-democratic system – as illegitimate and turning it into more than just a cottage industry. Because I already know most Trump supporters/voters won’t do that, but they won’t have the self-awareness or concern for the national discourse (disregarding the MSM’s bullshit narratives) to be “the better person” and take every opportunity to point out – yeah Joe Biden most likely really did win the election and for sure he won the popular vote without fraud, but look at us here not spending 4 years hysterically trying to come up with any lie possible to de-legitimize his presidency when, like Trump, he’ll INVARIABLY doing enough real things and hurting real people to make it obvious that his and ANY OTHER person allowed to reach that office are illegitimate by the very definition of the system that is in place to put them in office and to keep out people like Howie Hawkins or Ron Paul.

Posted by: _K_C_ | Nov 17 2020 7:06 utc | 89

I miss Richard. Please don’t kill anybody Bro (yet) !

Posted by: Featherless | Nov 17 2020 7:44 utc | 91

It is not hard to see why Big Pharma screwed him over. He campaigned on reversing Obamacare which as this article from Politico shows just how profitable it had been for the medical industry.
How hospitals got richer off Obamacare
Biden was VP when Obamacare was passed so it makes sense for them to choose Biden, The other policy Trump was trying pass that would hurt Big Pharma profits was standardising the price of medicine. If Big Pharma can sell it for $1 in Mexico but $10 in the US with that policy Big Pharma would’ve been forced to sell it for $1 in the US.
With Biden Big Pharma profits will keep on rolling in.
As to the vaccine itself, the fact that the CEO sold the bulk of his shares at the announcement of the vaccine tells you all you need to know about it’s efficacy. Why sell you shares before the profits start rolling in ??? From an investment viewpoint it makes no sense. Unless the CEO knows something the rest of us don’t. Best of luck to whoever takes it!
You guys first! No I insist, you first! lol.

Posted by: Down South | Nov 17 2020 8:27 utc | 93

If above is true, a big if, then why? Because Trump handled this so badly not because those involved in healthcare were shills for Democrats. So let us focus on Trump’s inadequacies and not their reactions to it.

Posted by: Orage | Nov 17 2020 8:48 utc | 95

Excellent article by Edward Curtain of the Off-Guardian that most of us at MOA could appreciate.
https://off-guardian.org/2020/11/15/everybody-knows-the-fight-was-fixed/
A quote from the piece:
“Be grateful, give thanks that you live in a democracy where voting is allowed and your choice is as important as a billionaire’s such as Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, or Charles Koch. In the voting booth we are all equal.
Myths die hard. This one never does:
Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams, will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way.”
Donald Trump, January 20, 2017
With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. It’s time for America to unite. And to heal.”
Joe Biden, November 7, 2020
Above all else, the time has come for us to renew our faith in ourselves and in America. In recent years, that faith has been challenged.”
Richard Nixon, January 20, 1973
Your voice – our faith – it’s time to unite and heal.”

Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Nov 17 2020 8:58 utc | 97

Very poor analysis. Fauci was not ignored. Fauci convinced Trump not to close borders early, which would have been the only effective measure against the pandemic (see Taiwan and others). And it was Fauci who advised against masks in spring.
Also, vaccine trials were not conclusive initially. Their results became only conclusive towards the end of October. If they had published their results a few days before the election, this would have been obvious interference. It was a wise move to stay out of politics and publish only afterwards.
Besides, a press release by Pfizer would certainly not have changed the election outcome. Many are skeptical of vaccines anyway.

Posted by: Rob K. | Nov 17 2020 10:23 utc | 99