Guys, guys, you don’t understand: we were the ones stealing technology from the Chinese!
Europe ‘Risks Falling Behind Again’ In 5G Rollout Amid Swedish Huawei Ban, Ericsson Chief Exec Says

Posted by: vk | Nov 18 2020 18:17 utc | 3

El Salvador Perspectives: November 16, 2020, marks the 31st anniversary of the massacre by Salvadoran troops of six Jesuit priests, a female co-worker and her daughter during El Salvador’s civil war. (…) The past year has been full of developments, positive and negative, for the search for justice for the atrocity. That search is now in its fourth decade. The positive development was the judgment of guilt and the sentence to 133 years in prison for former Salvadoran colonel Inocente Orlando Montano rendered by a court in Spain. The court took jurisdiction of the case under principles of universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity and the Spanish citizenship of 5 of the six murdered priests. It represented the first full-fledged criminal trial under proper procedures where the world heard the testimony of actual witnesses to the events and to the subsequent government cover-up at the top levels of the Salvadoran military and civilian government. But Montano was the only defendant from the Salvadoran high command on trial in Spain. The rest of the high-ranking officers implicated as intellectual authors of the massacre have always been protected from extradition by the Salvadoran courts. In spite of this, the Jesuits in El Salvador and their lawyers have made calls following Montano’s conviction for a long-stalled criminal prosecution on Salvadoran soil to actually proceed.
Colombia Reports: A court indicted Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe on Friday after the prosecution failed to confirm the far-right politician’s fraud and bribery charges. The Supreme Court had already filed criminal charges and placed Uribe under house arrest, but agreed to transfer his case to a lower court after the far-right politician resigned from the Senate. Uribe’s renunciation of his congressional privileges allowed a Bogota court to lift the house arrest and allow the prosecution to decide whether or not to indict the former president.

Posted by: Mararcatu | Nov 18 2020 18:50 utc | 5

For those that dont understand that Biden, not Trump, works with Wall street!
Report: Fortune 500 CEOs Will Intervene if Joe Biden Isn’t Inaugurated by January 20
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/11/16/corporate-executives-plan-to-intervene-if-biden-is-not-inaugurated/

Posted by: Zanon | Nov 18 2020 18:57 utc | 7

For any Mac users, if you just upgraded to the latest version (Big Sur):
Your computer is now a “Spy Book Pro” that reports on you.
https://sneak.berlin/20201112/your-computer-isnt-yours/
There is a new feature (which you cannot turn off) which reports each time you start an application. The article has more technical details. It can also prevent you from starting an application.
Of course things have been moving in this direction for a while, but previously you could switch the surveillance off or work around it – apparently no longer.
Some articles (eg. appleinsider) are telling us that is of no concern and not to worry, so if that’s what you prefer to believe, please read them.
A common question to this kind of news is “what am I to do?” and the common answer is “use Linux instead”. Unfortunately that answer only works for some people – new computers come with Windows pre-installed; installing linux requires some technical ability; many people will simply give up and use what’s already installed because they do not have the technical support they would need.
Perhaps one can hope that the empire falls over and the NSA budget dries up and all of this blows away with the winds of change.

Posted by: Deltaeus | Nov 18 2020 19:33 utc | 9

Zanon@7 doesn’t realize that Fortune 500 execs finally deciding to cut Trump loose *after he lost the election* is just politics. The appalling thing is that they had to think about it, then prod each other into doing taking a cautious course that won’t hurt them. The truth of course is that if big business was really behind Biden because Trump was drying up the swamp, they would have pulled advertising from Fox New and the other Trumpist parts of the mainstream media long, long ago.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 18 2020 19:48 utc | 11

Any intentions to cover the Biden administrations relationship with / attitude towards Israel? I’m surprised that the issue draws so little interest from the commentators here. This seems to be the foreign policy area where the new administration differs the most from the previous one.

Posted by: m | Nov 18 2020 19:52 utc | 13

The extradition trial for Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou tipped into farcical circumstance after the Border Services Superintendent in charge of the initial airport interview told the court he had developed “suspicion” that Huawei “could be involved in subverting the Canadian government and that Meng might be a security risk” after consulting Wikipedia. He also told the court that “determining whether Meng was admissible to Canada was the sole reason for his questions”, even though she was not in fact entering Canada at the time. Previously, the RCMP agent who conducted the interview, and who seized Meng’s electronic devices and passwords and then communicated with the FBI, refused to testify. Several months ago it was revealed that numerous European countries had been issued extradition orders for Meng and had refused to carry it out, unlike Canada. Meng’s detention and possible extradition has been a serious foreign policy mistake likely approved by Freeland.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3110284/canada-border-officer-who-questioned-meng-wanzhou-says-10

Posted by: jayc | Nov 18 2020 19:53 utc | 15

Posted by: jayc | Nov 18 2020 19:53 utc | 15
Ms Freeland seems to share Trump’s propensity for finding the worst possible thing to do, the most embarassing, and to then choose that with as much energy as possible, doubling down with each new failure.
Biden will be just as bad, but less in your face about it.

Posted by: Bemildred | Nov 18 2020 20:20 utc | 17

i think Biden will be surprised when the CIA seeking to replinish it access to drug money reinitiates war in Afghanistan but Trump is trying to get even with the CIA for subverting his election (the CIA owns the media via 6 front men) and getting even might hold true for Netanyohu.
Trumps big mistake was misunderstanding his enemy was not only in his camp the whole of the 4 years, but was also in control of the gates that supplied information and access to the Trump mind.
I hope Trump writes a book that explains what really happened inside.. and I pray before Trump leaves the white house that he will declassify just about everything that happened in government since George Washington (including pearl Harbor and 9/11 and expose Bushes tricks, fire half or more of every person in the government bureaucracies that has been there longer than 4 years, and pardon everyone in jail there for crimes less than murder so the private owners of the jails would go broke. I think Trump would be among the worlds most popular persons if he does that.

Posted by: snake | Nov 18 2020 23:02 utc | 19

Jayc and James
How does one get a name like “Free Land”? Freeland

Posted by: arby | Nov 18 2020 23:57 utc | 21

Posted by: jayc | Nov 18 2020 19:53 utc | 15
I was thinking that Australia should arrest some Britons on “hilarious” accusations like “unregistered foreign agents” (copy the methodology from the case of Marina Butina), and discretely linked their fate to the fate of Australian citizen detained in Britain (Assange). At the very least, he would get a comfortable house arrest. Trudeau is a proud PM of New Trumpland, but now Ottawa will be renamed Biden Biden to make a more nuanced relationships with the major USAian political parties.
I am old enough to remember times when Canada at least pretended to be independent.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 19 2020 2:28 utc | 23

arby @21
Well apparently her compatriot Chrystia Nuland’s original last name was « Nudelman ».
So maybe… « Friedman » ?

Posted by: Featherless | Nov 19 2020 2:50 utc | 25

All sorts of shenanigans are going on right now – some of them are enough to make you wonder how many of the DC covid cases are real and how many are down to pols not wanting to make a contentious decision.
The standout on that was the vote on whether Judy Shelton should be appointed to the board of the federal reserve.
The standard reason for the rethugs losing the confirmation vote in a senate where they hold a majority is being given as Covid, as in this Yahoo news Header:
“Shelton nomination to the Federal Reserve runs into COVID snag”
I guess some of the rethug tools of Wall St did not want to be seen to be doing the bidding of Citibank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs et al so they played the Covid card to unseat her without seeming to be a glove puppet of their betters.
Why all the fuss about 1 nominee, the other Trump nominee had none of these problems.
Well if you read the myriad of critiques of Shelton spread across the media, say this one from MSN.com which came complete with an attachment from former senior staff at the fed which of itself is a cynical workaround of a rule which prevents Fed staff & its board from commenting on Fed board nominees, you soon learn there is one major issue that gives the entire amerikan elite a severe case of the collywobbles.
That is Ms Shelton has had the sheer unmitigated gall to suggest that the US return to the gold standard.
Nevermind that her view wouldn’t change a lightbulb much less shift the fiat money scam since her opinion on that would be trounced by the staunch support for the fiat scam by all the rest of the Fed’s board.
Bankers just do not want to see the obvious benefits of a currency which has real value over a currency that is paper nonsense whose worth always comes down to amerika’s ability to wreak extreme violence, because they know if people woke up, they, the bankers that is, would lose their ability to screw over anyone/thing else by simply printing a coupla $trillion more whenever the situation requires it.
Yeah, maybe orangeutan’s motives are dodgy here, maybe this was more about tossing a cat into a mob of sickly pigeons – since if amerika did go back to a gold standard, he would have as much trouble from it as every other self-asserted ‘billionaire’ but so what? This could do much for the world in it’s current state of complete financial anarchy.
The other kicker is that the ex-fedsters plus the media are whining that appointing Ms Shelton would “politicise the Fed”.
FMD! WTF are they doing with the last week of intense lobbying against Ms Shelton, aimed at every shitkicker on Capitol Hill? Isn’t that politicising the Fed or does that only apply when someone argues for changes the banks don’t want, and lobbying for banksters is ‘apolitical’?

Posted by: Debsisdead | Nov 19 2020 3:35 utc | 27

Privacy-conscious Mac users who use software firewalls to block unauthorized outbound connections should stay on macOS 10.15.x Catalina (the 2019 version of macOS) until Apple makes its own software go through the “Network Extensions” subsystem.
Posted by: S | Nov 19 2020 0:23 utc | 22
Whatever operating system you choose, PTB may know all pieces of merchandise that you even thought of buying — or were just curious about them. And this is not all…
A more serious question is what does it do for computer security. Vendors pack software with features which take over the control of your computer for purposes that benefit them and advertisers. It would be half bad if they decided once for all what annoying and computer freezing features to pack, but as they add more and more, there is an unending stream of “important security updates”, presumably, important security deficiencies. A small stable set of annoying features could be fixed years ago. There are “anti-trust” problems and national security problems. But the progressive era when something effective was done about the abuses of market power is long gone.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 19 2020 3:46 utc | 29

With post-2006 Macs using the same Intel x86 processor architecture as competing Windows-based PCs, I hesitate to refer to these Apple logo-clad computers as Macs anymore. For most of the history of the Macintosh platform the common choice of CPU was not an Intel 80×86, but rather either the Motorola 680×0 (1984-’94, 10 years) or the PowerPC (1994-2006, 12 years). As much as I understand the reasons for changing, I can’t help but feel that Apple had capitulated to the exact same behemoth that it tried to fight against back in 1984. To some degree the switchover to ARM processors might probably grant Apple some autonomy, but the damage will have already been done.
I used to be an Apple fanboy in 2011 ever since I read about the advantages of the Mac and iOS over Windows-based PCs and Android. The real reason I wanted a Mac in the first place was an exclusive video game called GooBall – the very first game made with the Unity engine. I had to wait until the end of the summer for my parents to buy me a second-hand 2006 iMac (newer Macs are relatively more expensive; I was only twelve years old at the time).
I had good times with the Macintosh platform at first, and I even thought the Mac and I were made for each other (My birthday is on 24 January). Growing up, my obsession turned to indifference, many of the quirks that made the Mac special no longer became relevant, and I began to feel dissatisfied with certain aspects:
* The interface of Mac OS X is not easily as customizable/themeable out-of-the-box as that of Windows or your typical Linux distro (e.g. Ubuntu MATE). Even Mac OS 9 had customizable themes.
* Apple abandoned the Classic environment in 2007 and Rosetta in 2011, making it impossible to run older programs (e.g. Casady & Greene games) right out of the box. The abolition of Classic trashed 17-22 years’ worth of pre-X software at a time when Mac OS X was only six years old. Even then Windows XP/Vista could still run Windows 95 software without any third-party workarounds.
* Even before the discontinuation of 32-bit support, compatibility with certain programs was hit or miss (e.g. a program that worked in 10.7 stops working in 10.9).
* Apple has not made a Mac with a pizza-box form factor since before I was born. The closest thing to such a horizontal form factor is the Mac mini, but it’s still too small.
* Newer Macs no longer allow you to upgrade the RAM or replace the hard disk/SSD without resorting to warranty-violating measures or proprietary tools. Some of said components are nonstandard and proprietary.
Eventually I bit the bullet in 2016 and bought a Windows-based PC and Samsung Galaxy, and never looked back. I have since stopped caring about the Apple ecosystem. In a nutshell my eventual dissatisfaction with the Mac stemmed from its closed, proprietary hardware and operating system.
Had Apple licensed the Intel version of Mac OS X to OEMs (including non-American ones) like it did in the 1990s, maybe Apple wouldn’t have to abandon Rosetta or 32-bit software.

Posted by: Josep | Nov 19 2020 4:00 utc | 31

WHAT? a bit of clarity on FakeNews that COV-19 is natural occuring…
[the lede at Zerohedge now]
“Emails obtained by U.S. Right to Know show that a statement in The Lancet authored by 27 prominent public health scientists condemning “conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin” was organized by employees of EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit group that has received millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer funding to genetically manipulate coronaviruses with scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” …
Curiouser and curiouser morphs into wilder and wilder.

Posted by: chu teh | Nov 19 2020 5:10 utc | 33

I have a link! (Celebrating as I don’t often have something to contribute – and yes, I know this won’t be what happens…)
https://prospect.org/day-one-agenda/how-biden-could-give-everyone-medicare-on-his-own/
There’s a link within the article (by David Dayen, whom ancient firedoglake fans will remember) to other day one agenda items and even a video.
One can still dream…

Posted by: juliania | Nov 19 2020 6:22 utc | 35

Posted by: james | Nov 18 2020 20:17 utc | 16 (and #1)
Agree – Tired of the U.S. election and Biden vs. Trump or just Biden bashing – it’s too easy. We’ll have PLENTY of things to criticize him for very shortly. The irony is that those of us on the left actually have no problem criticizing “our side” (if you hold your nose and pretend Democrats are remotely leftist) whereas with the Republicans, and especially under Trump, there has always been a circle the wagons mentality and hypocrisy which, combined, are wielded like a sharp weapon rather than shied away from or talked around like the kabuki theater pearl clutching Dems do as a total pretense for following the corporate right policies that are dictated to them from on high. They’ve been a fake “resistance” party since Carter.
Regarding the Canadian border security agent – Laughable. He didn’t “consult Wikipedia” – that’s just a farcical cover story. I mean, I’m sooo sure. I’ve never heard anything like this and the woman wasn’t even trying to enter or exit the country. He was told via his little computer system, which flagged the Huawei exec as someone to be detained, which was what the Canadian Border service’s American masters programmed in, exactly what to do. His higher ups came in to finish the capture. I mean what would have been the difference if they had pulled up in a black van and kidnapped her in broad daylight off the street? As the OP stated, that was a dead giveaway – like the Assange show trial. The truth doesn’t even matter anymore, for those with power simply define and re-define the truth anytime it’s expedient to them. They’re phoning in the cover stories these days – and that it’s happening in Canada too now is not a very good sign (spoken as someone who’s never been to Canada and don’t know much about it).

Posted by: _K_C_ | Nov 19 2020 8:35 utc | 37

Piotr Berman @ 24
That made me chuckle ! but I think your about right.
You are a calm and steady voice on this blog.
We only need to look at the election map (in colour) to see the post election reality of America.
This is now the new reality, both sides have to face that, it’s a product of a weaponised militaryistic mind set.
As seen world wide, where ever the US has contact.
But now on its own soil, expect rubble, this is a new chapter, a new American disaster movie.

Posted by: Mark2 | Nov 19 2020 9:05 utc | 39

@arby | Nov 18 2020 23:57 utc | 21

How does one get a name like “Free Land”? Freeland

I guess there are several possible explanations. One possibility is an “inverse anglicism” of the Danish/Norwegian ‘Friland’.
For example ‘Frilandsgris’ = Outdoor pig (gris=pig)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU_GShRR9Kk

Posted by: Norwegian | Nov 19 2020 9:59 utc | 41

Pretzelattack @ 42
There are 100 ways I could answer that, only the whole of them would explain. It’s always easyer to ask a question than answer. But ——-
Whilst trump and his supporters were shouting ‘MAGA’ they were in fact. deviding a powerful country in two (the law of unintended consequences )
Rich dudes meenwhile have to be pragmatic it’s how they stay rich.
The rest of the trading world see a devided America correctly as weakend. Courtesy of trump (unentended consequenses)
Trump and no one else devided America between the violent and the peace loving.
Most murderers crimes are for short term gain. Trumps race war election stunt, will leave a permenate scar on its victem community, trumps legacy America will have to live with and try to heal. Rawanda would be a comparison.
I think we will see states draw lines on those issues.

Posted by: Mark2 | Nov 19 2020 10:53 utc | 43

As far as geopolitics goes
The world new as Putin said — — (under trump) America wasn’t agreement capable.
Basicly he drove a coach and horses through any agreement, treaty or convention. Breaking into the venizalian embassy ect ect.
Hopefully with a bit of sanity the US madman can with support and supervision be returned to the world community ( without busting s**t up)

Posted by: Mark2 | Nov 19 2020 11:26 utc | 45

mark i dont know if you live in america, but it has been badly divided for hundreds of years. and crime bill joe and lock em up kamala are as divisive as any. trump didn’t come out of nowhere, he arose because he was an alternative to the warmonger state that has bankrupted the american people. he’s an asshole who completely screwed up on the virus, and broke numerous campaign promises, but he is less of a warmonger than obama was or clinton would have been, and in all probability than biden will be.
putin didn’t divide america, and trump didn’t divide america. there is a class war on, and the people are losing it.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Nov 19 2020 12:07 utc | 47

Late Capitalism begging for mercy:
Save America’s Restaurants: A fresh round of federal aid can keep restaurants in business during the winter months while protecting public health.
Brilliant idea, NYT EB, that will certainly save the American economy. Restaurants are the basis of technological progress, after all…

Posted by: vk | Nov 19 2020 12:29 utc | 49

@ Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 19 2020 13:16 utc | 50
The authors of the study themselves say the result of their research is inconclusive.
The only part telling us it tells masks are useless is the MSM.

Posted by: vk | Nov 19 2020 13:20 utc | 51

Keep going VK
I’m here, I’m listening but I’v sat down now. I love what your saying.
My last thought for now, from this exchange is ——
America defiantly needs a new buseness model. Not mite is right. Not cheating at cards, that game is over, the world sees through it now.
America needs to rebuild trust, co-operation muitial profit and progress.
Valuing people over money, only then will we harvest the fruits that this planet has to offer.
Bidens a blank slate (snigger) for us to write on.

Posted by: Mark2 | Nov 19 2020 13:54 utc | 53

@ Posted by: Mark2 | Nov 19 2020 13:54 utc | 53
The problem with the USA is that its success depends on a healthy capitalist system around the world. But capitalism has an expiring date (as Marx demonstrated scientifically in his three books of Capital), and what we’re seeing now is a long phase of decline of the system (due to declining profit rates).
Just remembering: it was also a long phase of capitalist economic depression (1870s-1890s) that was responsible for the terminal decline of the British Empire. The UK begun to bleed capital outwards – mainly to the USA, but also Australia – while the USA and Germany begun to rise. Many people like to compare the USA with the USSR, but the pattern of decline of a capitalist superpower is completely different from the pattern of decline of a socialist superpower: in the USSR, once the CPSU became divided, it was all but over. Capitalist empires tend to decline much slower and much more chaotically.

Posted by: vk | Nov 19 2020 14:04 utc | 55

pretzelattack@47 writes “trump didn’t come out of nowhere, he arose because he was an alternative to the warmonger state that has bankrupted the american people.” To criticize Democrats for military spending that bankrupted the country when it is Trump who has raised the military budget even more is typical insolence. Trumpery is an infallible sign of intellectual depravity.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 19 2020 14:27 utc | 57

@Josep #31
You do realize that MacOS is a forked Linux, right?
As for “Intel taking over” – the reality is that Intel owns the PC-CPU market. I worked at AMD during the era where AMD actually created a faster processor than Intel – but Intel fought back by slicing the new/high end chip costs in half knowing that AMD couldn’t make enough chips to seriously erode Intel’s market share at the high end, even as Intel slow rolled cost improvement bleedthrough to consumers at the mid/low end. A pure monopolist tactic.
But I would dispute that Apple “was forced” to support Intel. Apple overplayed its hand thinking it would forever maintain its usability lead sufficient to justify their price premium.
With the iPhone, they’re using the same playbook. Don’t forget – the iMAC specifically was marketed as being simple and complete. Look up the first iMac TV commercial where the cables and jumble of a highly upgradeable/customizable PC was compared to the iMac’s simplicity.
We’ll see if the outcome is different this time.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 19 2020 14:50 utc | 59

@steven t johnson #57
Supporting “Credit Card” Joe and “Jail her own people” Harris is a sign of what, exactly?
Sadly, your credibility continues to be nonexistent.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 19 2020 14:59 utc | 61

“The Elements of the China Challenge (pdf)” The West seems determined to insult China in every way possible. In the PDF linked in your post in the first lines they “mistake” the name of the established political party as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which is wrong and they know it. The name is the Communist Party of China (CPC). It’s pretty universal left/right nobody cares if they are insulted by it.

Posted by: Babyl-on | Nov 19 2020 15:24 utc | 63

The better part of the American public have had their say, a cry for help, you could say.
The rest of the sane world needs to hear that call. And as a world community help America to become agreement capable. Undoing completely the damage trump did. And supporting victem country’s with out fear. Sanctions need to be scraped that strangle hold released.
America is nothing to fear. And for the American public you have a small minority of loud thugs some in uniform, deal with them, I recomend law and order. Plus compensation for the black community.
Trump needs to face justice, peace follows.

Posted by: Mark2 | Nov 19 2020 16:32 utc | 65

@ _K_C_ | Nov 19 2020 8:35 utc | 37… i hear what you are saying in the first paragraph and i agree with that view.. i suppose i consider myself more leftist and i do think what you say is true.. i have no way of knowing for sure, but that sounds like my viewpoint you have expressed!
your 2nd paragraph quote – “They’re phoning in the cover stories these days – and that it’s happening in Canada too now is not a very good sign (spoken as someone who’s never been to Canada and don’t know much about it).” you have this exactly correct… i think someone posted an article from the global times that the 5 eyes better be careful they don’t have their eyes poked out! i thought that was prescient… at this point in time the msm is the main place where the b.s. is being laundered by 5 eyes..

Posted by: james | Nov 19 2020 17:19 utc | 67

It is not an accident that I can quote pretzelattack lying about how Trump is different from the Democrats on bankrupting the country with useless military spending, while neither the reliably dishonest c1ue nor pretzelattack can quote me saying that the Democrats are better. Even more amazing, pretzelattack at 66 writes “pretending that trump is some kind of anomaly on foreign policy…is intellectual depravity.” Yes, it is, but it was pretzelattack who was pretending Trump was the anomaly, and a superior anomaly to boot. But pretzelattack is inadvertently correct, claiming that is indeed intellectual depravity.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 19 2020 17:48 utc | 69

The complete Danish mask study is logged in at Annals of Internal Medicine. Fairly short and not overly technical. Look it up if interested. Again, the largest ever study of mask effectiveness and the answer is they do nothing.
I happen to be sitting across kitchen table from a medical editor who has worked as a copy editor at the Annals. It is an imprint of the AMA and is far down the totem pole from JAMA. My partner is a close reader to say the least. Her take is she has never seen an article with so many obvious insertions and rewrites by committee. Also has never seen an article that argues against itself and wallows through every possible quibble and quiddity.
Two simple takeaways. And the people who would be the normal consumers of such an article would cut to the chase and get the meat of the text in seconds. Masked infection rate, 1.8%; unmasked infection rate, 2.1%. No ordinary reader would get into the 15% difference between the two figures. Functionally identical. The other takeaway is this article did not find normal publication and has been savaged over nonsense. This study will therefore never be repeated.
This is refusal to accept knowledge. The study is in the memory hole and never coming out. The only choice is do you believe received wisdom or do you quietly accept received wisdom and keep your mouth shut. vk above is never going to know even one thing unless the science of dialectical materialism is stamped all over it.

Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 19 2020 18:55 utc | 71

“Major Iraqi parliamentary bloc wants full withdrawal of US troops, not partial drawdown ”
seek complete pullout of all foreign forces

Posted by: arby | Nov 19 2020 19:01 utc | 73

@ oldhippie | Nov 19 2020 18:55 utc | 71
Exactement.
Adding insult to injury they believe we are mentally impaired.
Germany, official numbers from the Federal Bureau of Statistics, based on numbers given by the RKI-Institute, another governmental body equivalent to the CDC.
Mortality Germany 2020
Red line: 2020
Blue line: 2016-2019 mean
Bluish area: 2016-2019 min/max values (weekly)

Posted by: Hmpf | Nov 19 2020 19:26 utc | 75

@75 Hmpf
Thanks for supplying the link Hmpf. I was closely following Bundestag debate about the new “Infection law”. It was amazing how simple and fast forward they passed the new law, legalizing break down of elementary citizen rights. Outside Bundestag at least 365 arrests and extensive use of water canons against protesting masses, someone must have told the police that usage of a water canon under cold weather conditions help to disinfect and not spread the flu.

Posted by: Framarz | Nov 19 2020 19:58 utc | 77

StormCloudsGathering has some solutions to the current collapse.

Posted by: Doubter | Nov 19 2020 20:42 utc | 79

Impressive Results from a new study of Covid patients/subjects (n=600) in Egypt treated using ivermectin.
Oral Ivermectin (6mg/day x 4 days) plus standard care (+) (Azithromycin, vitamin C, Zinc, Lactoferrin & Acetylcystein & prophylactic or therapeutic anticoagulation if D-dimer [a blood test] result > 1000))
performed extremely well in both mild/moderate clinically managed covid cases (in home and in hospital) *and* in severe Covid patients in hospital. Ivermectin (+) > HCQ (+) > (+ [standard care alone).
“Efficacy and Safety of Ivermectin for Treatment and prophylaxis of COVID-19 Pandemic”
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-100956/v2
Reported by Chris Martenson yesterday: (from min 12:00) https://youtu.be/FwJq4u_120U?t=733
Sorry but you won’t find much about this appearing in the US fake/censored media or from timid controlled US medical science community, if you rely on Google News. For example:
a Google News search mainly casts shade on oral ivermectin (which costs next to nothing and is used world-wide as an OTC (over the counter) deworming drug in people, pets, and livestock such as horses),
whereas Google promotes “news” stories that hype the dubious and outrageously expensive $3K intravenous remdesivir (5 shots over 5 days) covid treatment, the efficacy in covid of which several well designed independent studies have been unable to replicate thus far.

Posted by: gm | Nov 19 2020 20:54 utc | 81

# spudski 80
Watched the whole thing, Impressive stuff. I never thought I would be lauding praise on Giuliani after his 9/11 evidence fiasco, but here it is. He laid the gauntlet solidly down and ripped the whole thing wide open, Sidney Powell’s commentary on Dominion (and other aliases) was pretty jaw dropping in itself, though If I was going to make a fraudulent machine and didn’t want to get caught, Venezuela is a convenient location to point fingers rather than somewhere in Virginia? It has all the makings of an inflection point if it can be held together, given the size of the sharks in this tank that’s a big if. Jenna Ellis also had a strong command and will be interesting to hear as this unfolds.

Posted by: Mercury | Nov 19 2020 21:07 utc | 83

John Helmer’s latest book: The Lie that Shot Down MH17
http://johnhelmer.net/the-lie-that-shot-down-mh17/
“The first book to prove the Dutch Government is running a sham trial with Dutch judges, prosecutors, lawyers and police serving as soldiers in the Kiev regime’s and the NATO war against Russia…”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Nov 19 2020 21:24 utc | 85

Mercury @83 and Kadath @86
If they get a hearing and a fair shot at it, should be very interesting. Two big “IFs” though.

Posted by: spudski | Nov 19 2020 21:44 utc | 87

from Pepe:
The Kraken has been released.
Game on. . .here
That’s all he said, but apparently the kraken is in this video.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Nov 19 2020 22:03 utc | 89

By “it” in “a small part of it” I meant my anger and not the death which was from COVID and where COVID was not a small part but instead the final straw/blow.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Nov 19 2020 22:07 utc | 91

Are those in Atlantic Council and European Council living in an alternative reality or did they simply forgot that USA is not a member of JCPOA anymore?

“On the nuclear file, we recommend that the E3 and EU immediately start a process within the JCPOA’s Joint Commission—ideally at the foreign minister level—to explore how best to sequence a restoration of full compliance by both the US and Iran. The E3 and EU should press both parties to achieve this prior to the Iranian presidential elections that will take place in mid-June 2021.”

Do they really expect that Biden can walk in and have a seat with a US flag in front of it like nothing has happen.
Read the full hallucination from 18.Nov.20 – Europe can bridge the gap between Iran and a Biden administration

Posted by: Framarz | Nov 19 2020 22:26 utc | 93

Don Bacon @Nov19 22:03 #89
Sidney Powell again claims that Trump won by a landslide.
That may never be proven, but if Trump wins that claim is likely to be repeated by Trump and everyone that is pro-Trump.
A Trump win would be bittersweet as my prediction would be true but it is based on a scenario in which war is likely.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Nov 19 2020 22:57 utc | 95

Had Biden (or anyone else) advocated for Medicare For All, I would have voted for that person because the $2T to $2.5T of wasted extra annual medical spending in the US is far, far bigger than the entire Defense Department (plus black ops, Intel agencies, VA etc) spending.
Posted by: c1ue | Nov 19 2020 14:57 utc | 60
From time to time I compare prices of drugs. I had to get topical Acyclovir, and I had these options
30 g tube, 600+ dollars
15 g tube, 50 dollars (??)
5 g tube of cream, price would take time to check
Since I had out-of-date tube that seemed to be helping, I decided to go for 5 g.
Then the price was 600+. Hm. “Do you have a generic?” “This is generic”. Brand 5 g tube is 900+.
Then I googled “Acyclowir Kremlin price” to find prices in Poland. Under 2 dollars for 5 g tube. Producer is a local vendor of cosmetics, if you think about it, a beauty cream should be mixed properly and adequately sterile, the main ingredient is off patent for many years, other ingredients are under 100 dollars per kilogram, so Polish producers and Polish pharmacists all get some profit. And the price is too low to be covered by insurance.
Before I investigated EpiPen because it was a laud scandal, the American vendor doubled the price from 300. Like Acyclovir, it is a kind of medication that it is good to have at hand if you have propensity for intense allergic reactions (Acyclovir is for outbreaks of herpes simplex and cold sores). With outrageous prices, people may not have them at hand, in case of Acyclovir you may get nasty complications (I got cornea infected once), and in case of anaphylactic shock, lacking epinephrin people sometimes die.
So EpiPen, not generic!, was 75 dollars In Poland, but it seemed that people mostly used prepackaged syringes with pre-measured doses for 16 dollars, 80% covered by insurance, but for folks who do not want to inject themselves, there is EpiPen. Importantly, that option does not exist in USA. Interestingly, there is a perennial issue “what about the children”? They play outside and get bitten by wasps and bees, occasionally with an anaphylactic shock. A legislature obliged school nurse rooms to stock EpiPens. But regular vial for injections costs 1 dollar!! A nurse can remove vial from the refrigerator, cut off the top, load a syringe and inject under a minute. And indeed, it is good to stock basic life saving medications there, and refresh (e.g. epinephrin has to be replaced after 6 months).
Those are just two little examples how medications worth 1-2 dollars are converted into medications that costs hundred. Interestingly, while there were articles about EpiPen, no journalist in USA checked what happens in countries with adequate health care. Regulation of medicines in USA would make mafia families cry — why are we in a wrong line of business?! Perhaps they switched already.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 19 2020 23:04 utc | 97

pretzelattack wrote, as I already quoted “trump didn’t come out of nowhere, he arose because he was an alternative to the warmonger state that has bankrupted the american people.” But @70 pretzelattack pretends this is equivalent to claiming “being marginally better than obama is not the same as claiming trump is an anomaly…” It’s not. If Trump really had been an alternative to Democratic Party bankruptcy from military spending, he would have been an anomaly.
Again, it’s not an accident that pretzelattack can’t quote anything I wrote, because pretzelattack is a useless Trump shill.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 19 2020 23:50 utc | 99