The MoA Week In Review - OT 2021-005
Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:
- January 11 - Dear Congress - Stop Wasting Time With Impeaching Trump - End His Famine In Yemen
Related:
Dems Reject Bigger Survival Checks, Float Tax Breaks For The Rich - Daily Poster
Party leaders are backing off a chance to push for a new round of full $2,000 survival checks — while Democratic lawmakers consider new tax breaks for the wealthy.
- January 12 - Apartheid News
Related:
The Separate Regimes Delusion - Nathan Thrall on Israel’s apartheid - LRB
Anti-Semitism: Mantagu Memo on the Anti-Semitism of the British Government (August 23, 1917) - Jewish Virtual Library
Israel to push Biden to take it easy on Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt - Axios
- January 13 - Three Views On The Current Situation In The U.S. Of A.
Related:
ANATꙮLY KARLIN @akarlin88 - 16:39 UTC · Jan 16, 2021
A Russian meets up with an American.
"We have freedom of speech," the Russian says. "I can post that Russian elections are falsified on social media."
"What's the big deal?" asks the American. "I too can write that Russian elections are falsified on social media."
- January 14 - The Suppression Of Trump Voters Will Not Create Long Term Stability
Related:
Impeachment is more dangerous than Trump - The aftermath of the Capitol 'coup' echoes the post-9/11 era - Michael Tracey / Unherd
Federal official walks back allegation rioters intended to 'capture and assassinate' - NBCNews
---
Other issues:
Covid-19:
Eric Feigl-Ding @DrEricDing - 1:13 UTC · 17 Jan 2021
Psssst... pass it on: ➡️ COVID LUNG is worse than smoker’s lung.
"Post-COVID lungs look worse than any type of terrible smoker's lung we've ever seen. And they collapse. And they clot off. And the shortness of breath lingers” says Dr @BKendallMD. #COVID19
- The Future of the Coronavirus? An Annoying Childhood Infection - New York Times
- Increased infections, but not viral burden, with a new SARS-CoV-2 variant - MedRxiv
- We may have only weeks to act before a variant coronavirus dominates the US - Technology review
- China builds 1,500-bed hospital in five days amid surge in Covid cases - Independent
- 'Surge'? Coronavirus: China reports 96 new infections, links superspreader to 102 asymptomatic cases - SCMP
- Why America Should Look To China To Contain Covid-19 - William Haseltine / Forbes
> I decry the stubborn resistance of most governments and people to acknowledge and to learn from China’s success. For most, their resistance is led by ignorance. China’s successes are not widely known and rarely covered by the US and international media. For others who are more well informed, it is willful disregard of an important public health achievement that we should all be learning from. <
Germany:
The governing conservative party (CDU) elected Armin Laschet as its new leader. He defeated two staunch Atlanticists.
John Kerry @JohnKerry - Aug 20, 2014
ISIL must be destroyed/will be crushed.Armin Laschet @ArminLaschet - 19:55 UTC · Aug 20, 2014
Replying to @JohnKerry
@JohnKerry: Yes, Mr Kerry. But You supported ISIS and Al Nusra against President Assad in Syria. And they are financed by Qatar and Saudi-Arabia.
Brexit:
Haggis_UK 🇬🇧🇪🇺 @Haggis_UK - 12:07 UTC · Jan 14, 2021
Jacob Rees-Mogg - "The key is we've got our fish back. They are now British fish, & they're better & happier fish for it." 😬
Mr Speaker - Obviously there's overwhelming evidence for that. - vid
Intercept:
- Open Letter From Laura Poitras - Praxisfilms
- Laura Poitras says she's been fired by First Look Media over Reality Winner controversy. Now she's questioning the watchdog's integrity. - Washington Post
> Now, Jeremy Scahill, a former Nation writer who is close to the Intercept’s editor in chief, Betsy Reed, is the only member of the founding team remaining at the organization. <
> The most logical conclusion to draw is that Poitras, under pressure from the pro-Democratic Party and left-feminist circles in which she travels, has accommodated herself to the anti-WikiLeaks campaign. Again, what is especially significant is the coming together of the gender politics zealots, on the one hand, and the proponents of American imperialist intervention across the globe in the name of “democratic rights,” on the other. <
Use as open thread ...
Posted by b on January 17, 2021 at 13:33 UTC | Permalink
next page »Fwiw
Blacklists are back and the Democrats have got ’em
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/essays-and-commentaries/blacklists-are-back-and-the-democrats-have-got-em/
Trump Administration Accomplishments
https://www.whitehouse.gov/trump-administration-accomplishments/?utm_source=link
Posted by: Dogon Priest | Jan 17 2021 14:27 utc | 2
For most, their resistance is led by ignorance.
Or, alternatively, it is not about a virus at all
https://gab.com/SomeBitchIKnow/posts/105563993120332312
Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 17 2021 14:40 utc | 3
The Orinoco Tribune is worth adding to your list of informative sites. If you're like me I look for stuff that is less on whining and more on reporting and possibly predicting.
Here's what the Orinoco Tribune says about itself:
"The Orinoco Tribune is an independent news outlet created in 2018 and specially designed to provide relevant progressive information about Venezuela or related to venezuela in the form of news articles and opinion pieces for English speakers around the world.
Our objective is to create our own content, curate and translate from Spanish to English the most relevant pieces that we can have access to. Our aim is to provide an accurate approach to Venezuela’s reality on a daily basis without all the bias you find about our country in mainstream media."
https://orinocotribune.com/category/news/
Most are fast reads, not deep dives, but seem like solid reporting summarized so they don't waste your time.
Here's a good example, a small article on Biden's pick to replace Elliot Abrams (IMO),
https://orinocotribune.com/bidens-new-adviser-for-venezuelas-opinion-on-juan-guaido-aka-us-regime-change-operation/
His name is Juan Gonzalez, he's Colombian by birth, and he is quoted as heaping praise on Juan Guaido.
Colombia is the dark heart of U.S. empire's death machine in Latin America. Biden has strong connections with Colombia.
Posted by: migueljose | Jan 17 2021 14:41 utc | 4
A China strategy to reunite America’s allies
This op-ed is basically a Centrist Manifesto. If you want to understand the logic behind the American centrists who supported and are behind Biden and the whole "America is Back" thing, I recommend you to read it; you'll see that Centrism is not some evil conspiracy behind-the-scenes - it is a legitimate ideology in contemporary America, with true believers.
--//--
Ex-Friends: Anne Applebaum and the crisis of centrist politics.
The answer to her dilemma is simple: she and her friends aren't and never were "centrists". They already were hard right, borderline far-right, and just needed to take one step more to the right to become full-fledged far-right.
The Nation, by the way, is raping Goodwin's Law: they now have a "who voted for Hitler?" article in their home page, and some days ago they had a "how Hitler rose to power" article, clearly relating Trump with the Nazis. Weird fetish.
--//--
Iran reacts to rumors on possible release of South Korean vessel
By the way: where is the mighty US Navy? I thought South Korea and the USA were allies...
The vessel is seized since January 4th.
--//--
Chinese vaccines gaining momentum overseas
In related news: water is wet.
Those mRNA vaccines were never meant to be distributed globally. It is a pipe dream to think Third World countries would have the logistics to pull that off.
The goal always was to preserve Big Pharma's market shares in the First World countries, i.e. remove the Russian and Chinese options from those markets. The mission was accomplished, now the Third World countries that believed in the PR are having to desperately scramble to buy the leftovers or, inevitably, succumb to the obvious and buy the Chinese and Russian vaccines.
--//--
American lap dog Jair Messias Bolsonaro is using the Brazilian CDC (Anvisa) to block/delay the authorization for the Russian and Chinese vaccines (while using that time to buy whatever he can of the AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines) the most he can, but reality is simply stronger. Brazil will have to accept both the Sputnik V - which is already being produced by Brazilian pharmaceutical União Química, in Brasília - and the Coronavac (Chinese-Brazilian vaccine developed and produced in São Paulo by Instituto Butantan).
--//--
America will reunite - with or without your consent:
FBI Investigates if Rioters at US Capitol Were Sponsored From Abroad, Reports Say
--//--
One more to the "it's not bad if it's done by a Western Democracy" series:
The Independent Editorial: Angela Merkel’s party is wise to choose continuity over change
Alternation of power - a premiere principle of Western Democracy and which is so much valued when criticizing the systems of Russia, China and Venezuela - is not a problem in Germany.
And again with that "Angela Merkel's party" thing: either you want to inform your readership or you don't. The party has a name and the information should be given in the headline, by all journalistic standards.
Laura Poitras, is one of the most disgusting enemies of Wikileaks and supporter of Imperial rule by the Western oligarchy. Her film is nothing but a hit piece - typical of the phony Western "left" who conveniently turn against humanity in favor of oppression.
Posted by: Babyl-on | Jan 17 2021 15:24 utc | 6
If you want to have a good laugh in this Sunday, read this:
We can set up vaccination clinics in neighborhoods or workplaces with many African-Americans or Latinos, and set a lower age limit, say 40 or 50 — the exact number can be calculated based on vaccine availability. Simple schema like grouping days or hours by the first letter of people’s last name can avoid overcrowding. Lines can be added for the elderly to help them get through more rapidly.There is also an important technical concern about distribution. The two vaccines authorized in the United States, by Moderna and Pfizer, must be transported or kept in deep freezers or refrigerators, and used shortly after being thawed. They are transported in cumbersome containers — for example, the Pfizer vaccine is shipped in boxes of 4,875 doses, divided into “pizza boxes” of 195 vials, all of which is topped with 50 pounds of dry ice. Under those circumstances, vaccination is most efficient if the vaccine is distributed in large numbers, inoculating people in at neighborhood locations rather than having to go back and forth in batches to meet strict eligibility priority.
4,875 divided by 195 gives us 25 "pizza" boxes, each needing 50 pounds of dry ice. That means each box needs a whooping 566,25 kg of dry ice - and that's only to transport the box, from a given point A to a given point B. After that, the doses will have to be stored in special freezers, which only a handful of state-of-the-art hospital facilities have.
Let's be honest. Most likely scenario is those doses will be stored in sub-optimum freezers - God-willing being able to reach -30°C on a good day, but most likely hovering around -10°C to -20°C - and the average Joe (or is it José?) will probably receive semi-spoiled doses in those theoretical "vaccine clinics in neighborhoods or workplaces with many African-Americans or Latinos". Realistically, those Pfizer/Moderna vaccines will have a de facto 50% efficacy because of denaturation of mRNA by the time they are given. You could offset that by rising the concentration of the doses, but that would rise the price of cost of each dose - of an already very expensive vaccine.
ERRATA: forgot to put the link to @ 7:
Speed Up Vaccinations and Reduce the Red Tape, by Zeynep Tufekci.
Posted by: migueljose | Jan 17 2021 14:41 utc | 4
Orinoco Tribune: thanks, I see them from time to time, I'll start checking them out.
Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 17 2021 15:40 utc | 9
@ vk
Thank you for regularly enriching the open threads with your links!
Posted by: oglalla | Jan 17 2021 16:25 utc | 10
Brazil ditches US drive to strangle Huawei: report
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1213075.shtml
Posted by: arby | Jan 17 2021 16:39 utc | 11
Posted by: vk | Jan 17 2021 14:41 utc | 5
Another Sunday event worth mentioning, The Navalny Circus about to arrive to Vnukovo airport in Moscow after being driven to the Berlin airport with police escort, like all the Guaidós of this world deserve.
Posted by: Paco | Jan 17 2021 16:42 utc | 12
An excellent interview of Glenn Greenwald by Chris Hedges on what to expect from the Biden admin (aka 3rd Obama admin), the dangers of totalitarianism coming from the Biden admin etc.
https://www.rt.com/shows/on-contact/512689-biden-deep-state-censorship/
Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Jan 17 2021 16:50 utc | 13
Unexpected development in the Circus tent, Vnukovo airport where all the free pressers where expecting the descent of Russia's Messiah, has been closed, they'll fly the Circus master directly to Kolymá!!! Well not that far away, but it rained and snowed in their show.
Here is a clip from the airplane:
Posted by: Paco | Jan 17 2021 16:55 utc | 14
Posted by: vk | Jan 17 2021 15:24 utc | 7
Thanks for links too.
Posted by: Passer by | Jan 17 2021 17:00 utc | 15
@5 vk
I never believed that possible, but you were fooled by suger-sweet words.
First of all, the people you call "centrists" and who sound so sober and reasonable when they talk about foreign policy are fanatical ideologues and witch-hunters when it comes to domestic policy. By "democracy" they mean their own ideology, not democracy. When they speak of uniting the "democracies" they think of of a alliance of states with an almost crusade-like mentality.
Second, the "centrists" are also staunch American exceptionalists. They just don't say it explicitly, because they can't even think in different terms. By American leadership they mean that Washington takes the lead and in exchange all others get the privilege of being lead.
And third, more money for infrastructure, health and education, that sounds good. Where to take that money from? No word from the centrists about reducing the military budget and ending the never-ending wars, for the "centrists" all also interventionists.
Posted by: m | Jan 17 2021 17:23 utc | 16
About Applebaum, I still think her story is like Timothy Snyder's, trying to dodge her share of responsibility for putting a new scholarly gloss on fascist propaganda. You spend your academic career explaining how Stalin is worse than Hitler, when he wasn't, you are rehabbing Hitler.
Does anyone still read The Nation except to get a does of "even the liberal...?"
Godwin's Law is an internet thing which means it isn't a thing at all, in my experience. It's true that fascism in the US isn't going to wear swastika, which does *not* mean that comparisons to Hitler are automatically nuts.
What we need is to use section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment> Hawley and Cruz in the Senate, Boebert et al. in the House I'm sure can be quickly replaced by loathesome reactionary Republicans, with no harm to the reactionary Republican cause whatsoever.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jan 17 2021 17:37 utc | 17
Continuing the discussion from the last open thread (04) on Cynthia Chung and her outstanding essay An OrWELLSian Purge? Why H.G. Wells’ ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ Has Arrived Today
See
On last Thursday, there was a discussion about Webster Tarpley wherein I disclosed he was published by Lyndon LaRouce's media firms. I also again disclosed the fact that Matthew Ehret and Cynthia Chung were also part of that network, are both based in Canada, and are often published by Strategic-Culture. Today, One finds this essay by Chung, "An OrWELLSian Purge? Why H.G. Wells’ ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ Has Arrived Today," that presents some very curious facts about H.G. Wells. As I wrote on Thursday, one must be very aware while reading their work. This was proven true regarding Chung's essay when she discusses Wells's The War of the Worlds and the radio play performed by Orson Welles in the USA--She says there was a similar radio play that occurred in England run by Wells that never happened. Why a so easily discovered falsehood amidst her essay?! Indeed, there were two as she also states, "Apparently, during the broadcast it had not made itself clear to its audience that it was in fact a radio drama and not the actual news," when in fact the audience was informed on four separate occasions--once before, twice during, and once after--during the broadcast. (I had a double disc vinyl recording of that very radio play that I listened to well over 100 times and thus confirm what's reported about that fact in the linked Wiki entry.) The vast majority of readers--and the publishers!!--will never know the author lied to them thus destroying the credibility of her entire essay. And that's not the first time I've discovered such deviance, which she shares with Ehret.
There was absolutely no reason to insert those lies. Worse, it hurts the reputation of Strategic-Culture, which is already censored by Facebook. The essay's purpose was likely ethical in the author's mind. But employing unethical means lowers the author to the level of those she's accusing, thus in reality rendering her no different.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 16 2021 23:01 utc | 120
and
@120 karlof1
I'm inclined to be more forgiving of Cynthia Ching for this, preferring, with uncle tungsten @126, to call it a "blunder" rather than outright lies.
She cites a radio play and quotes Wells talking about London by name, giving the footnote to a Wells book published in 1905 - before, I assume, radio plays in London were actually happening, and certainly before the NY version of his novel was aired. So there's some broken coherence here but it seems to me more innocent than sinister. I urge forgiveness here. There are few enough authentic and well meaning writers around as it is. I'd hate to lose this one. And as you know, citations can be a bear.
...
People are foolish and misguided - but it's best we keep them :)
Posted by: Grieved | Jan 17 2021 3:07 utc | 131
I very strongly agree with Grieved. This is an absolutely trivial and inconsequential error, a minor mixup of sources, an easily arisen mixup between H G Wells, Orson Welles and George Orwell, with absolutely no consequence to her argument. Yes, journalists should get their facts right - but you know what, Karl, human beings are fallible and make errors. That includes all of us including you. It is disingenuous and irresponsible to accuse her of deliberate lying with absolutely zero evidence of intention of deception.
The article in question is absolutely bang on with the sinister connections between H G Wells' fictional story, his long time work for British establishment propaganda and manipulation of public perception, and his history of arguing for totalitarianism and killing off the "nutzlose Fressern" (useless eaters), on the one hand, and the coming Biden regime, Gate's population control ambitions, Covid-19, and the many recent years of convergence to an Orwellian State and worse.
Cynthia Chung's essay is - as is wont for her essays - deeply insightful, relevant, and meticulously researched (notwithstanding the aforementioned errors), and prescient to the intentions of the elites and the goals of Western politicians. You make a grave mistake in dismissing it.
It is also a grave mistake to lump Cynthia Chung with that most pathetic of incompetent fools Matthew Ehret - they are on incomparably different levels. Matthew Ehret - in my view - writes about good topics, but is utterly unreliable and has a hopelessly inadequate grasp of his topics, being frequently wrong as a result.
Posted by: BM | Jan 17 2021 17:49 utc | 18
@ karlof1
A week ago, you mentioned you wish more bar patrons would’ve analyzed and commented on some article. You seemed a little disappointed. About that...
We all rely on various shortcuts, such as reading a summary and analysis by a “trusted analyst”. Because I still feel compelled to work to fund a decent retirement, I rely on “Karlof Notes” and other bar patrons’ work when they’re available. So, thank you for anything you post here as well. Please don’t feel bad if people don’t chime in. It’s probably simply because people agree or maybe don’t read/know enough to contribute anything extra.
Posted by: oglalla | Jan 17 2021 17:50 utc | 19
I haven’t been carefully reading comments for a few weeks. But, when’s the last time anyone’s seen Richard Steven Hack? He went from quiet to loquacious to quiet.
Wherever you are, RHS and Chipnik, happy new year.
Posted by: oglalla | Jan 17 2021 18:00 utc | 20
thanks b... some great links and quotes.. thank you...
@ migeljose... thanks for the link to orinoco tribune... i am unfamiliar with it, but note they have an article today on "Norway Links 13 Deaths to Pfizer Vaccine’s Side Effects".. that in itself is interesting and not south american.. anyway - thanks for your posts!
Laura Poitras - anyone know what glenn greenwald has to say about her at this point?? thanks..
@ 18 BM... thanks for sharing that.. i missed that.. i agree with you and grieved....
here is a link to jack mcduffs 'screamin' album - 1962... i am listening to this now..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv9E_4KEDW8
Posted by: james | Jan 17 2021 18:24 utc | 21
@BM | Jan 17 2021 17:49 utc | 18
Matthew Ehret - in my view - writes about good topics, but is utterly unreliable and has a hopelessly inadequate grasp of his topics, being frequently wrong as a result.
Could you please give some links and explanations to support this claim? I have listened to him recently about various topics, including pure scientific issues. I have also heard some of his political analyses, and find them interesting and informative.
So where is the problem?
Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 17 2021 18:29 utc | 22
@steven t johnson: "reactionary Republicans"
Since you like Hitler analogies so much, dear Steven, why don't you contemplate the 'reactionary' aspect of those Germans who resisted, in the 1930s, the 'progress' of the National-Socialist movement.
'Reactionary' simply means 'opposing the change', and the changes instituted by global finance, aided by their faithful servants, your liberal comrades, -- those changes should be opposed by all decent citizens.
And they are opposed by all decent citizens, and especially by the American working class, which is why your liberal comrades have to resort to fascist methods: goebbelsian propaganda, censorship, blacklisting, police repression.
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Jan 17 2021 19:03 utc | 23
Test. Several attempted posts seem to not be getting thru. I get a 'your post has been successful..." message, but they don't show up on the thread.
Is there a problem?
Posted by: gm | Jan 17 2021 19:21 utc | 25
BM@18
There is nothing 'outstanding' about Chung's article. It is really tawdry. And, as karlofi points out, there is no excuse for the deliberate confusion of London with New York in the War of the Worlds broadcast, which is nor accidental but deliberately intended to promote the nonsense that Wells was a central figure in British Propaganda. He wasn't nor was he interested in becoming one.
The problem with both Chung and Ehret is that they really are conspiracy theorists blaming individuals and networks of individuals for the machinations of a capitalist ruling class , whose existence both would deny.
The fact that both are Canadian suggests to me that their political ancestors came from the right wing Social Credit movement which, as recently as the eighties, governed in two provinces and was an important part of the Quebec polity. But that is just a guess.
It is a pity to see their stuff being promoted at Strategic Culture but there are plenty of other right wing weirdos there too- and the site is still a welcome refuge from the ubiquitous MSM and its totalitarian liberalism.
Posted by: bevin | Jan 17 2021 20:40 utc | 26
Posted by: bevin | Jan 17 2021 20:40 utc | 26
For more infos, Ehret (or someone close to him) runs a website - The Canadian Patriot - which publishes his articles (and articles of Cynthia Chung). In the disclaimer it says:
The views expressed in the Canadian Patriot Review are inspired by the philosophy and strategic outlook of Lyndon LaRouche and the International Schiller Institute, the specific policy propositions for Canada contained in this report are those of the authors of the Canadian Patriot Review alone.
People should come to their own conclusion re Ehret & Co., but having read many of his stuff I can only agree with bevin, Karlof1.
Posted by: vato | Jan 17 2021 21:07 utc | 27
@ Posted by: bevin | Jan 17 2021 20:40 utc | 26
I've already warned people here and will warn again: Strategic Culture is not a newspaper; it is essentially a think tank where some well-to-do enfant terribles from the Western establishment publish freestyle analysis over whatever they want to write about either pro bono (if they don't need the money) or possibly for a cushy commission (sinecure).
There is no editorial board in The Strategic Culture: the "editor" only asks for a piece and publish it, as one of its writers disclosed once.
Therefore, take everything you read on The Strategic Culture with a grain of salt. It may or may not be useful information - 99.99% of the time it isn't.
I have not owned a television machine for thirty years. Unfortunately sometimes the infernal machine is viewed anyway. Recent weeks a 92 year old friend has required more than usual assistance. At her house CNN is on constantly. It is a nonstop barrage of the Russians are coming! The KKK is coming! The Nazis are here! It is like an all caps rant by Circe that never ends. If there is an interruption it is only to tell the news that covid is here to stay and is a fate worse than death. And of course it was Russians and Trump who brought us the virus. No one could watch ten minutes of that rubbish and remain sane.
If you think I exaggerate go find a television and attempt to watch. If you wonder why American politics has gone haywire just pay attention to the number one newsfeed.
Posted by: oldhippie | Jan 17 2021 21:36 utc | 29
During his first days in office, President-elect Joe Biden plans to send a groundbreaking legislative package to Congress to address the long-elusive goal of immigration reform, including what’s certain to be a controversial centerpiece: a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million immigrants who are in the country without legal status, according to immigrant rights activists in communication with the Biden-Harris transition team.
Posted by: Mao | Jan 17 2021 21:37 utc | 30
So-called Liberals are really about Jewish Supremacism Uber Alles. They should be called Uberalls.
Posted by: Andrea Ostrov | Jan 17 2021 21:41 utc | 31
Mao Cheng Ji, driven to desperation that Tin God Trump is finally going out without (yet) murdering Democrats en masse, resorts to more lies, astonishingly shameless even for Mao Cheng Ji.
First, "reactionary" does not mean wanting to stand point, it means wanting to turn back the clock. Being stodgy or cautious or unwelcoming to novelty is what reactionaries pretend to want rather than admit their real program. Conservative in the sense falsely alleged by Mao Cheng Ji means things like accepting the results of elections. Reactionary means wanting to set aside the will of the majority (technically, plurality,) for the will of a minority because of a self-serving belief that the proponent is one of the superior people.
Second, comparison with Hitler are apt when talking about fascists, even those of the modern US variety. *Hitler was put into power by conservative people.* He didn't win the presidency, the Nazi Party didn't win a parliamentary majority. Hitler was chosen as chancellor by the conservative president, Hindenburg, at the behest of the conservative army general von Schleicher and the conservative politician von Papen, because they wanted to use him to roll back the Weimar Republican left, the Communists primarily but also the Social Democrats. After the Reichstag fire, Hitler basically declared a state of emergency with police powers, then had elections under the gun so to speak. The Nazis *still* didn't win a majority, but Hitler's bully boys intimidated the Reichstag into passing the Enabling Act. The Communists were then banned, then trade unions were replaced by Nazi fronts, then the Social Democrats were expelled. The Zentrum, the Catholic party "voluntarily" dissolved. When Hindenburg died, Hitler absorbed the powers of the presidency into his new office of Chancellor and Reichsfuehrer. Other conservative parties, like the German People's Party and the German National People's Party (and its conservative veterans' group, the Stahlhelm or Steel Helmet,) were never opponents of the Nazis. Conservatives, reactionaries, *did not* fight Hitler. The claim is yet another Mao Cheng Ji lie.
AS this brief review shows, bullying the Congress and re-running elections with a state of emergency, as the failed autogolpe apparently intended, are precisely the kinds of fascist tactics Mao Cheng Ji wants to use. Accusing others of what you want to do is an appropriate tactic for a malicious villain who wants to swindle people.
Additionally, the notion that Trump-worshippers like Mao Cheng Ji are the majority, or are "working class," are also Mao Cheng Ji lies. Millions more really did vote for Biden, not Trump and all the idiotic "arguments" and fake news facts the Mao Cheng Jis can produce don't change that. The fake leftist Mao Cheng Ji is apparently deciding that anyone who makes less than $50 000 per year is a lumpen loser, so that the higher income brackets can congratulate themselves on being the good, hardworking decent people. This is viciously reactionary BS, contemptible from beginning to end. So much for the vicious nonsense about the American working class favoring Trump. Quite aside from the plurality of the electorate that rejected Trump, "they" or Republican cheating put Republicans into many state houses and legislatures and has a strong presence in both House and Senate (Joe Manchin is probably deciding whether to change registration as I comment!) proving the election was not, was not, was not some liberal conspiracy. Conservatism was well represented, not least because Biden was possibly the most conservative Democrat running (which is why the strenuous efforts to make sure he was the Democratic Party nominee!) Again, Biden is not a lefty of any sort, that's another damned lie. Even worse, the implicit notion that those who still didn't vote are Trumpersw would be insane were it not so blatantly self-serving BS.
Given the ever more threadbare pretense of not being a conscious fascist attempted by Mao Cheng Ji, the incoherent reference to "changes" instituted by "global finance" is almost certainly meant to refer to the Jewish conspiracy. (Not even hard-core Zionists are running the US, at least not the Jewish ones, though Christian Zionists crazed by false prophets swilling Revelations have a lot to say...Israel is the tail and the tail does not wag the dog.) In practice, "global finance" is the US banking system, guided by the Federal Reserve and US banks operating in the City of London. Even the EU central bank is following the Fed's lead. When the current recession first broke in December 2019 with a financial crisis, Trump did not "make" the Fed turn all the spigots to full to support the banks and the stock market...but insofar as he helped, it proves Trump is an anti-people, pro-Wall Street fraud. The stock market is not the economy, it's the rich people's casino. And Trump services rich people in his day job. That's why he's always specialized in luxury hotels, condos, casinos, etc. except when he's straightforwardly swindling people like with Trump Foundation and Trump University.
What prompted this meltdown? At a guess, the reference to using section two of the Fourteenth Amendment, which forbids the service in Congress of those who abetted insurrection. It also requires that representation in the House be proportional to the number of citizens allowed to vote. As should be well known, enforcing the Fourteenth Amendment has been a spotty business at best. Likely enough Mao Cheng Ji is among those who hate and detest the Civil War Amendments, the Thirteenth, the Fourteenth and the Fifteenth, with a passion. Reactionary judges, like those trained in the Federalist Society, have dedicated years of their lives to undermining the clear meaning of the Constitution. Conservatives applaud this kind of judicial activism, of course.
Mao Cheng Ji is invited to explain the Marxist rationale for rejecting the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amerndments, or breaking ranks with MoA peers to support them.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jan 17 2021 21:43 utc | 32
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell brings notes to White House that suggest calling for ‘martial law if necessary’
It comes after Mr Lindell tweeted, then deleted, calls for Donald Trump to impose martial law in the seven battleground states that delivered Joe Biden the presidency
https://twitter.com/jabinbotsford/status/1350186100564905985
Posted by: Mao | Jan 17 2021 21:50 utc | 33
Good news on the COVID/Ivermectin battle. The NIH (National Institute of Health) has upgraded their stance on Ivermectin from "Do not use" to "We don't care if you use it of not."
The amount of data showing the effectiveness of the Ivermectin treatment (for both prophylaxis and treatment of the disease) is mounting daily. I read an instance where an 80 year old woman in the US was taken to the ICU and given a 20% chance of survival and the prospect of being on a ventilator for a month. Her family had researched Ivermectin and requested (against most of the doctors resistance)that she be treated with it. Finally, they found a doctor that would agree with the protocol. Within 48 hours, she was off the ventilator, sitting up in bed, and released from the ICU.
Posted by: naiverealist | Jan 17 2021 21:56 utc | 34
Orthodox rabbi warns COVID-19 vaccine will make you gay
https://www.queerty.com/orthodox-rabbi-warns-covid-19-vaccine-will-make-gay-20210116
Posted by: Mao | Jan 17 2021 22:01 utc | 35
Forgot to include the reference to the i-mask+ protocol for Ivermectine research.
Heck, just google 1mask+ protocol
Posted by: naiverealist | Jan 17 2021 22:01 utc | 36
I meant i-mask + protocol
(don't know how i change the I to a 1)
Posted by: naiverealist | Jan 17 2021 22:03 utc | 37
2020 Saw Unprecedented Murder Spike In Major U.S. Cities
In late December the Associated Press reported that 2020 was on track to become the deadliest year in U.S. history with the total number of deaths forecast to rise 15 percent compared to 2019, primarily due to the coronavirus pandemic. There were also several other smaller contributory factors, however, including higher death tolls from heart & circulatory diseases as well as from the country's opioid crisis. The U.S. also experienced its most violent year in decades with an unprecedented rise in homicides. The Gun Violence Archive reported that more than 19,000 people died in shootings or firearm-related incidents in 2020, the highest figure in over two decades.
https://www.statista.com/chart/23905/change-in-homicides-in-us-cities/
****
The rise in murders in the US, explained
The homicide rate is significantly up in American cities. Here are some explanations for why.
https://www.vox.com/2020/8/3/21334149/murders-crime-shootings-protests-riots-trump-biden
Posted by: Mao | Jan 17 2021 22:12 utc | 39
Speaking of Strategic-Culture, its lead essay today is an excellent analysis by Alastair Crooke. I posted the following comment at Pepe Escobar's FB page:
Seems most have taken a short vacation from their computer today. Not that they missed it since it can be read tomorrow, but Alastair Crooke's lead essay today at Strategic-Culture will be applauded by many. Here's a large portion of the meat:
"Yet of greater – and wider – significance is that the ‘noble lie’ – the mask concealing the cynical arrangement that is American ‘democracy’ – has been stripped away. The crucial import was underlined by the German FM, Heiko Maas, when he observed: 'Without democracy in the U.S., [there is] no democracy in Europe'.
"What might have Maas meant? Possibly, he was referring to the angry 75 millions of Red America that have now grasped the shocking magnitude of the fraud played on them. By fraud here is not a reference to the particular claims about 3 November, but to the much bigger fraud of a system rigged in the interests of the Establishment. This has been one of the basic props to the engineered consent upon which public order and social stability in America and Europe has rested for decades: the naïve belief in the democratic essence of the system.
"This prop is being overturned by the ‘Blue State’ precisely in order to savour a sweet revenge on Trump for pulling aside the mask on so much else of ‘Establishment America’. Trump laid bare how corrupt the ‘swamp’ had become, and he articulated Red America’s deepest concerns and frustrations about off-shored jobs, economic precarity and ‘forever wars’. They, in turn, had projected their exasperation, bitterness, and illusions back onto him, turning him, by default, into their standard-bearer.
"Yet – astonishingly – this toppling of the pillar of an engineered ‘noble lie’ is being done precisely by those (the Establishment), who one might have thought, had the most interest in keeping it intact. But they cannot resist it. They just cannot forgive ‘outsider’ Trump’s intrusion into their neatly constructed illusions: trashing their elaborate ‘construct’ of reality, simply by magicking up new ‘facts’ to contest their ‘science’."
I'd always wondered why the reason for Rome's Senators's murder of Caesar is never told to us in all the tales made for the masses--He was killed because he wanted to provide debt relief for the masses, a move only made by Kings; but Rome was to have no more Kings who served the masses, only Emperors who served the Oligarchy, Rome's Neoliberal Parasites. Trump was seen as a similar threat and treated in the usual manner as history proves. Post WW2 Outlaw US Empire behavior shows very well that Champions of the Masses are not to be allowed.
/////
The horse is now well out of the corral and roaming the range such that the West's 500+ years of planetary dominance has crashed upon the rocks thanks to Trump's helmsmanship. For me, that will be Trump's Historical Significance.
/////
As an educator, if a student turns in an essay containing easily proven falsehoods and tries to document them using a source published 33 years prior to the event its supposed to substantiate--where even the endnote is incorrectly done--that student's paper would be severely Red Lined, Graded as an F, and told to rewrite if any credit is still desired. It's many degrees worse than the sin of Plagiarism!! Plus Chung makes a huge assumption based on her falsity:
"Suffice to say the reporting of a man-eating alien invasion caused quite the panic in its London boroughs, and I am sure the British Propaganda Bureau got quite the chuckle out of it. It was great news for them, for it showed how easy it would be to control the narrative even if it were to be carried out to an absurd degree. It confirmed to them that the public will believe anything." [My Emphasis]
All that's made up out of thin air!!!
Yes, the British have waged Class War against their own people for @800 years, and there's lots of evidence proving such Exceptionality by British Royalty and its highest Upper Classes. They then carried their Class War overseas and implanted it in the newly discovered lands and used it to secure their position in more ancient lands. In Chung's case, the messenger committed suicide; but as seen here, very few will even know. And even when they do, many still won't question the rest of her essay.
NRA Leaves New York to Reincorporate in Texas, Announces New Strategic Plan
NRA Plans to Exit New York to Pursue Opportunity, Growth and Progress in Texas; Plan Benefits Association, Its Millions of Members, and All Supporters of the Second Amendment
https://www.nraforward.org/press-release
Posted by: Mao | Jan 17 2021 22:23 utc | 41
Let's use IRS accounts as voter registration - less chance of double voting.
Posted by: jake | Jan 17 2021 22:23 utc | 42
Simultaneous flight of six An-124 Ruslan | Russian military transport aircraft
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CbKnXluJX4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgYgKXZU3f0
Posted by: Mao | Jan 17 2021 22:33 utc | 43
jake @41--
My voter card has its own unique number as do all others in my state. Voting is conducted by individual states, not by the Federal government. Thus, using IRS id is inane.
Thanks, karlof1 (39, Jan 17 22:15) for linking to Alastair Crooke's excellent article and for your comment.
The horse is now well out of the corral and roaming the range such that the West's 500+ years of planetary dominance has crashed upon the rocks thanks to Trump's helmsmanship. For me, that will be Trump's Historical Significance.
This reminds me of a comment made by President Assad in an interview last year to the effect that President Trump was different from previous incumbents in that he did not hide the fact that the USA was in the business of stealing the resources of other countries. As the journalist John Wight wrote “Donald Trump is the land of the free with its mask removed.”
Posted by: cirsium | Jan 17 2021 22:59 utc | 45
"Mao Cheng Ji is invited to explain the Marxist rationale for rejecting the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amerndments, or breaking ranks with MoA peers to support them."
Wtf are you talking about, dear Steven?
Your endless Ad Hominem tell us a lot (more than I want to know, frankly) about you, and nothing even remotely enlightening.
You, dear Steven, are kindly invited to please restrain yourself, to try to suppress (if temporarily) your seemingly irrational hatred, and address the essence of the disagreement.
If it is at all possible. Otherwise, you'll be left rambling and raving alone. Perhaps this is exactly what you prefer.
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Jan 17 2021 23:04 utc | 46
Thank you b for the Laura Poitras posts and especially the last link outing the fraud Poitras for the 'job' she did on Julian Assange and Wikileaks. She is a clever duplicitous cretin that once worked in the company of duplicitous cretins.
Norwegian #3
Thank you, perfectly well done :))
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 17 2021 23:23 utc | 47
Mao Cheng Ji doesn't know what an ad hominem argument is. An ad hominem argument would be for example saying that Mao Cheng Ji is an anti-Semite, like so many of fascists/fascist sympathizers, implying that means no one need pay any attention to the alleged point about global finance. An argument, not an ad hominem, is pointing about that global finance is run by the US...that would be the "Empire" part of the US Empire, since only a handful of colonies are admitted to be colonies. Etc.
Pretending not to understand is an admission of defeat.
For the record if anyone is naive enough not to see through Mao Cheng Ji's pretenses, Mao Cheng Ji likes to contrive supposedly Marxist explanations or rationales for the right wing, cryptofascist drivel spouted in Mao Cheng Ji comments. If Mao Cheng Ji had the courage of the principles professed at such length, so often, either an allegely Marxist explanation or rationale could be produced for dismissing the Constitution, specifically the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments *or* Mao Cheng Ji would confess to the reactionary friends here at MoA. Mao Cheng Ji does not support the amendments abolishing slavery, etc. but doesn't want to admit to that, which I think is merely a kind of cowardice But rather than admit that faking a left-wing case for repudiating the Civil War amendments is beyond even Mao Cheng Ji's duplicity, there's a pretense of not understanding English and a false charge of ad hominem fallacy.
By the way, ad hominem is a valid argument, not a fallacy, when a person of demonstrated untrustworthiness is stating facts on their own authority. Thus if I had said, Mao Cheng Ji's tripe about Nazis is irrelevant because everyone knows Mao Cheng Ji can't be trusted to tell a straight fact, that would have been an ad hominem argument, yet a valid one.
But on reflection, it seems that it was foolish of me to waste time talking about the actual history of how reactionaries and conservatives supported Hitler's rise to power, rather than resisting it, the opposite of what Mao Cheng Ji claimed.
Except, I got Mao Cheng Ji to call me "dear," which is always a gratifying sign the truth hurt.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jan 17 2021 23:55 utc | 48
Re Alastair Crooke and Strategic Culture
I really appreciate Crooke's perspective. He was a Brit spy and diplo for many years, including in the middle east, and he knows many of the players some of whom are considered enemies of UK and USA.
Crooke seems to have found an outlet for his prose in Strategic Culture, so I go there to read him.
Strategic Culture is somewhat mysterious. Clearly it is owned and operated by some part of the Russian government.
That's OK with me, but needs to be kept in mind.
If anyone here can say more about SC, I would like to hear it.
Posted by: downtownhaiku | Jan 17 2021 23:58 utc | 49
dh @49--
And Maria Zakharova was ready and waiting:
"... [Obey] International Law [and] deal with your domestic problems."
It was no secret that Nalvany faced immediate arrest upon returning to Russia for rather valid reasons--he faced arrest for breaching terms of his probation stemming from a previous criminal case; there was no way that he didn't know the consequences.
karlof1 #39
/////The horse is now well out of the corral and roaming the range such that the West's 500+ years of planetary dominance has crashed upon the rocks thanks to Trump's helmsmanship. For me, that will be Trump's Historical Significance.
/////
AGREED that's exactly it. The guest at some elite society function that gets tanked, vomits on the canapes and gropes the maitre d' on his exit. Trashes the entire showpiece. And for the next act Trump is followed by a clown that has already started on the same course in reverse order.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 18 2021 1:17 utc | 52
Pompeo's twitter has become full of China hysterics. A snake becomes crazy when it is wounded and nears its demise.
Posted by: Passer by | Jan 18 2021 1:26 utc | 53
With your indulgence I am reposting this from the past open thread as it could be significant for the Xerxes Biden clown cart.
Here is a quick video from RISING at the Hill discussing Mitch McConnell playing Republican hard ball in the Senate over the House vote to impeach Trump yet again.
The delight is that McConnell seems to be about to pay back for the delay and damage done to Trump by the total BS Russia hacking election fiasco of 2016. If its good enough for the Dimratss to sabotage a Republican presidency then ditto for the Republicans to return the favor to Biden.
The Senate rules stipulate that the Senate can only do one thing at a time and impeachment trials require EVERY Senator to be physically present or the proceedings halt. PLUS Senate rules require each Biden appointment to be vetted and that can take days for each and longer if one party plays hard ball. So as Biden has a few dozen to appoint then the entire program can take months and not even start until the impeachment trial is completed.
And some of Biden's nominees are the scum of the earth and could be subject to gruelling examination. I would like to see that!
Now IMO Mitch McConnell is as low as snakes belly but there is a sweet justice here that only a mendacious Repugnant could dream up. Apparently Joe Biden has taken a deep dandruff snort and asked his old friend Mitch to play nice :))
Too good. Laugh your rs off Vladimir, the evil empire is truly devouring itself.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 18 2021 1:27 utc | 54
Regarding Strategic Culture Foundation, I formed the impression in the early Noughties that it's Russian, or funded by Russia. I've never read an SCF article which caused me to doubt that impression. I think it's fairly obvious that Russia does indeed have a strategic culture - more so than any other nation.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 18 2021 1:34 utc | 55
Raising Their Banner High: Fascism, Imperialism, and Anti-Communism at the Capitol Hill Riots
The flags of U.S. client states, anti-communist regimes, and pre-revolution puppet states dotted the sea of MAGA hats and Confederate flags at the Capitol Hill mobs. Making sense of why requires understanding the convergence between imperialism abroad and fascism at home.
Not happy with the whole circus, the capitalists also brought the entire zoo. That's the analysis.
Thanks to karlof1@39 for the link to the Alistair Crooke article - it has caused me to ask another of my dumb questions -- that is, how did it ever become legitimate voting procedure in the US to have mail in ballots? I'm assuming it started with citizens overseas wishing to vote, but in country how and when? I remember that Oregonians have been very proud of their mail-in voting for some time. An added question would be do any other countries have that procedure with respect to voters in country?
A second issue, and forgive me for finding your analysis at this post a bit difficult to follow -- I've probably made many blunders in the past supposing things are this or that when they are not. The second issue is the comment (I think yours in between the extracts from the article,) about Caesar having been slain because he wanted to assist the indebted masses:
"...I'd always wondered why the reason for Rome's Senators's murder of Caesar is never told to us in all the tales made for the masses--He was killed because he wanted to provide debt relief for the masses, a move only made by Kings; but Rome was to have no more Kings who served the masses, only Emperors who served the Oligarchy, Rome's Neoliberal Parasites..."
My understanding from school latin days was that Caesar's overreach in a power play to become emperor went beyond republican values, not that it was a wise economical move, so I will be intrigued to hear how that was not the case. Is that a Michael Hudson discovery?
Posted by: juliania | Jan 18 2021 1:55 utc | 57
Sorry if someone has already posted this, but if so, still worth sharing:
Jimmy Dore: America Has The Tinder To IGNITE Social Uprising - Chris Hedges
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olBU619Dlsc (44 min)
[Small gripe with Hedges... given his mistreatment/professional ostracism by the Borg, Chris Hedges should not be so quick to trash-talk Alex Jones, who experienced a similar fate, carried out by the same Machine]
Speaking of Alex Jones, listen to what he has to say here, with Paul Joseph Watson in the last couple of days:
The Final Hours of Donald Trump https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEp024TNtu4 (63 min)
Posted by: gm | Jan 18 2021 1:55 utc | 58
@56 juliania
Michael Parenti has a book on the assassination of Julius Caesar, and there's a YouTube of a talk on that subject he gave that I really enjoyed:
Michael Parenti - The Assassination of Julius Caesar
Posted by: Grieved | Jan 18 2021 2:03 utc | 59
@ gm... i think we need to get sun tzu to give us the proper word that needs to be used in dores title...
"America Has The Tinder To IGNITE Social Uprising " you sure jimmy dore didn't mean to say 'detonate'? he sure as hell better not have to to ''explode'', lolol...
Posted by: james | Jan 18 2021 2:07 utc | 60
I doubt that Putin will lock Navalny up and throw away the key. He's too valuable as a CIA nitwit magnet to waste him by letting him rot in prison.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 18 2021 2:16 utc | 61
Regarding Strategic Culture Foundation. They do write editorials at times, but apart from that there seems to be no editorial infiltration of articles. Pepe Escobar I believe said once that they never changed any of his content or asked him for anything.
I probably read about one-quarter to one-third of what they publish - no grain of salt needed over there, one simply has to know how to choose, and think, for oneself.
I regard the source as a good aggregator of interesting material, and I have countless bookmarks to articles there. There are precious few such outlets for good essays, so they get my thanks.
I did read somewhere in the last couple of days that they were funded by Russia, and I see their About page shows that Facebook , Twitter and YouTube have banned them, so they go up in my estimation now. I hope it's true that Russia funds them, because I'd like those bookmarks to endure. They struck me as pretty stable, and I'd guess now that they're not going away. They've been around since 2005.
My estimation of Russia's efforts in the information war also goes up now.
Posted by: Grieved | Jan 18 2021 2:20 utc | 62
Karloff @ 39,
Yes. Trump, in his own weird, idiosyncratic, ersatz way, not only ripped off bandages.. he clawed of goddamn pustulous scab raw!
Truth, however one receives it, can hurt - Biggly!
Posted by: polecat | Jan 18 2021 2:29 utc | 63
juliana #56
Many countries have mail in voting. Australia And New Zealand do. It is reliable and easy and difficult to game for malign players. In countries where fraud is enforced and swiftly pursued and high penalties, the malign keep their distance. I doubt this applies in the USAi, where enforcement is laughable for white collar crimes and plea bargaining would result in an election fraud charge being reduced to perhaps a minor traffic light offence and 5 years to pay a 50 dollar fine.
Automatic and total voter registration and easy access to mail in voting or pre poll voting for a fortnight before the 'election day' would overturn many of the malign practices extant in the USAi. The Dimratss primaries could be significantly improved this way.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 18 2021 2:58 utc | 65
...
I did read somewhere in the last couple of days that (Strategic Culture) were funded by Russia, and I see their About page shows that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have banned them...
...
Posted by: Grieved | Jan 18 2021 2:20 utc | 61
So, Navalny isn't the only nitwit magnet in Russia's info arsenal?
AmeriKKKa is beginning to remind me of a grandiose anthem from a Gilbert & Sullivan farce - Behold The Lord High Executioner!
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 18 2021 3:47 utc | 66
Taiwan isn't the only place the US can make mischief in the western Pacific. There are the Kuril Islands.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will attend Biden's inauguration and discuss the Kuril Islands and wishes to meet with President Putin to discuss the Kuril Islands sovereignty.
Over the decades since WW2 Cold War 1 and 2 have dragged out the final outcome of the Kuril Islands. In the past Japan held out the offer of investment to the USSR, while now it seems that advantage is now on Russia's side. Good luck with gaining sovereignty over the "Northern Territories". Given the natural resources of the area and its strategic value Russia will never give up sovereignty of any of the islands. Japan, you lost. Too bad, so sad.
Japanese government for the first time draws a space map of the Russian islands of the South Kuril Ridge
"The Japanese Government makes no secret of the claim that the preparation of the South Kuril Flora map is an important link in Japan's assertion of its sovereignty over these islands. According to Tokyo's calculations, this event will serve the purpose of bringing to the international community(US speak meaning Europe, 5 eyes and Israel) a "strong message" about the unshakable affiliation of the "northern territories" of Japan." Next I expect Ukraine will do the same for Crimea and break a way eastern Ukraine. Throwing more of my tax money away. (In the past Canada has allowed Ukraine to use Canadian satellites for monitoring break a way eastern Ukraine.)
https://inosmi.ru/politic/20210106/248869516.html
Japan’s Prime Minister Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga wishes to meet soon with President Putin and resolve the issue of sovereignty over the South Kuril Islands.
"However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after the talks that Moscow was not going to discuss its sovereignty over the southern Kuril Islands. Two days later, he pointed out that Japan’s territorial claims run counter to the country’s liabilities under the United Nations Charter, which says that the outcome of World War II is not subject to review."
https://tass.com/world/1041010
Is Japan preparing a war?
"Japan's new prime minister, Yushihide Suga, has announced his intention to visit the United States to attend Joe Biden's inauguration ceremony and enlist "U.S. support on the four islands""
https://politus.ru/politics/4629-japonija-gotovit-vojnu.html
Posted by: Tom | Jan 18 2021 4:17 utc | 67
@ Tom | Jan 18 2021 4:17 utc | 66 who wrote about Japan aggression toward Russia
Japan is a tool of empire with the highest debt to GDP in the world at 237% with Italy next at 135%
Japan is also the biggest holder of US Treasuries, with over $1 trillion
Japan is the home of Fukushima which has yet to be decommissioned and they are dumping radioactivally contaminated water into the sea this year
Japan is what would happen to China if China gave up control of its sovereign finance banking.
Yes, Japan is a tool in the ongoing circus shit show we are watching.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 18 2021 4:39 utc | 68
Basic critical reading skills. Strategic-Culture editorials are all written by Phil Giraldi. He is ex-CIA. Take the ex- part however you will. He is longtime luncheon companion to Pat Lang and Sy Hersh. He is also the Executive Director of the Center for the National Interest. Which was founded by well known radical Congressman John Anderson.
Can you say limited hangout? Sure, I knew you could. Does not mean he is incapable of being an editor. The quality of writing on display is all you need to know.
LaRouchies? They have been with us a long time. Their origin story is pure comedy. If you can’t figure out where they come from yet I can’t help you.
Posted by: Oldhippie | Jan 18 2021 5:02 utc | 69
British fish - thanks b for that little gem:
Jacob Rees-Mogg - "The key is we've got our fish back. They are now British fish, & they're better & happier fish for it." 😬
Mr Speaker - Obviously there's overwhelming evidence for that. - vid
The backstory of the british fishing disaster tracks back to Thatcher as does most of the disastrous capitalism of our times.
Rees-Mogg is the perfect Tory persona to make such a statement. Barflies should take 40 seconds to see the totality of this wretched man's statement in the House of Commons. He is truly alone in his opinion.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 18 2021 5:32 utc | 70
While some englanders may benefit from Brexit and the changes in fishing rights, the rest of the planet is the victim of disaster capitalism.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Mitsubishi corporation and its competitors.
"Western banks provide billions in backing for firms driving tuna species to collapse"
"New York-based Citi has provided more financial support in loans and bond underwriting to firms with at-risk tuna in their supply chains than any other bank"
One of the companies it supported was Mitsubishi Corporation, Japan’s largest trading company. It has been called the biggest purchaser of Bluefin tuna in the world.Citi has provided the company with $7bn total financial support in the last 10 years, but Unearthed counted only 9% of this – because that is the percentage of earnings the group expects to make from food in 2020 – leaving $634m.
On this methodology, fellow American institution Morgan Stanley has provided support worth $485m, JP Morgan has provided $142m and Bank of America $11m. Mitsubishi has also been backed by the Japanese banks Mizuho Financial, Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui, which provided support worth $460m between them.
Japan consumes 80% of all Bluefin tuna caught around the world and much of it is sold by Mitsubishi. The company sources Pacific Bluefin, Atlantic Bluefin and Southern Bluefin.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers these three species to be vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered, respectively. Multiple experts told Unearthed that Bluefin stocks all over the world are in serious trouble.
A spokesperson for Mitsubishi said the company “is committed to sourcing all of its tuna products in a sustainable manner and to supporting marine biodiversity conservation based on sound science and responsible fishery management”.
Barflies might read it a and weep over their fish and chips and beer.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 18 2021 6:07 utc | 71
Is Trump going to give a blanket pardon to all those being prosecuted for Jan 6th activities in DC?
I see it as he is dammed if he does and dammed if he doesn't.
Just another of the many shit show distractions.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 18 2021 7:25 utc | 72
I object to the accusation of Poitras having a hidden agenda. The rape claims have been very effective in destroying Assange's reputation and everyone with any feminist sensitivity was turned off by it. It is a nice example of the feedback effects in the protective power of reputation : Nils Melzer was at not motivated at all to work on the Assange case but once he became convinced there was something rotten he investigated the swedish case (the lighter of the two claims which was kept alive) and pressured Sweden to justify themselves. This likely caused the Swedes to drop the claims completely and this improved Assange's reputation to the extent that people could again defend his case and be associated with him, still under the flag of 'it is not about him but about press freedom'. This allowed yet more people to join in and it becomes even possible to defend Assange as a person, which makes it easier for others to defend his case while still distancing themselves from him.
Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | Jan 18 2021 8:16 utc | 73
psychohistorian #70
On pardons in general. Does the Pope pardon treachery such as this? dated 25 October 2020.
In Sacred Scripture, Saint Paul speaks to us of “the one who opposes” the manifestation of the mystery of iniquity, the kathèkon (2 Thess 2:6-7). In the religious sphere, this obstacle to evil is the Church, and in particular the papacy; in the political sphere, it is those who impede the establishment of the New World Order.As is now clear, the one who occupies the Chair of Peter has betrayed his role from the very beginning in order to defend and promote the globalist ideology, supporting the agenda of the deep church, who chose him from its ranks.
Mr. President, you have clearly stated that you want to defend the nation – One Nation under God, fundamental liberties, and non-negotiable values that are denied and fought against today. It is you, dear President, who are “the one who opposes” the deep state, the final assault of the children of darkness.
Methinks archbishop Vigano is a profoundly troubled being. Is there a factional feud between the modern Venetian oligarchs and the papacy?
I gather it is nutters of this caliber that have driven the little american swamp drainer into his ridiculous finale. Good job too I say.
And here is the good archbishop's closing paragraph:
Mr. President, you are well aware that, in this crucial hour, the United States of America is considered the defending wall against which the war declared by the advocates of globalism has been unleashed. Place your trust in the Lord, strengthened by the words of the Apostle Paul: “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13). To be an instrument of Divine Providence is a great responsibility, for which you will certainly receive all the graces of state that you need, since they are being fervently implored for you by the many people who support you with their prayers.With this heavenly hope and the assurance of my prayer for you, for the First Lady, and for your collaborators, with all my heart I send you my blessing.
God bless the United States of America!
+ Carlo Maria Viganò
Tit. Archbishop of Ulpiana
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 18 2021 9:19 utc | 74
The real Indian punchline is well below the belt as reported in peoplesdispatch
This grim situation has murkier depths. A breakdown of job losses in the past year across various demographic sections shows that more jobs have been lost in urban areas, among younger workers, among women and in the salaried employees, CMIE’s analysis shows. Women’s employment was always a bottleneck in India and it appears that in the past year, women have borne the brunt of the lockdown-cum-economic downturn induced unemployment. Although they make up only 11% of the workforce, 52% of all job losses were among women.The other demographic and economic categories are precisely those that used to be considered engines of jobs growth. Among younger people, job losses in the below-40 years age group were estimated at a mind boggling 2.17 crore (21.7 million) compared with 2019-20. Within this, those in the 30-39 years age group seemed to have suffered the most with 48% of all job losses being concentrated among them, although they make up only 23% of the country’s workforce. Above 40 year-old workers and employees gained about 72 lakh jobs (7.2 million) in the same period.
Salaried employees make up an estimated 21% of total employment but they were blindsided by a whopping loss of 71% of their jobs in the past year. Similarly, those with high education (graduates and post-graduates) make up only 13% of total employment but 65% of them lost their jobs. CMIE estimates suggest that some 95 lakh (9.5 million) of these highly educated persons lost their jobs.
Modhi is another 'leader' that refuses to invigorate the economy with substantial relief cash. Last election was early 2019 giving Modhi and his conservative party an overwhelming majority. No wonder he is playing chauvinist distraction games and provoking India's neighbours.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 18 2021 9:49 utc | 75
I see that the German police are intolerant of people conducting peaceful parades in memory of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. The anti socialist repressive forces of the German state are just the same as the USAi uniformed thugs.
This report in peoplesdispatch is a brief 2 minute video.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 18 2021 10:05 utc | 76
Effective treatment for COVID-19 has been right under our noses.
SUMMARY
The evidence that ivermectin prevents morbidity and mortality from Covid-19 is so compelling, that further
placebo-controlled clinical trials of ivermectin (versus no ivermectin) for treatment of covid-19 are
unethical, according to Dr Tess Lawrie of the independent Evidence-based Medicine Consultancy Limited in
Bath. This view was shared by many of the 20 experts and stakeholders attending the British Ivermectin
Recommendation Development (BIRD) meeting which took place Wednesday, the 13th of January.
https://www.e-bmc.co.uk/
Posted by: WastedTalent | Jan 18 2021 10:36 utc | 77
@Passer by | Jan 18 2021 1:26 utc | 52
Pompeo's twitter has become full of China hysterics. A snake becomes crazy when it is wounded and nears its demise.
What POMPEO Does After TRUMP Administration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv-DG8l_wqU
Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 18 2021 11:12 utc | 78
Funny one:
One Year, 400,000 Coronavirus Deaths: How the U.S. Guaranteed Its Own Failure
The Twitter version of the headline is even funnier: "The U.S. let the coronavirus win. Here's what went wrong".
You see, it's not that the USA lost - it just let the SARS-CoV-2 win.
Posted by: vk | Jan 18 2021 11:29 utc | 78
Well, they have to come up with some explanation, right? I mean he went back voluntarily. How can that be?
Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 18 2021 11:56 utc | 81
Guys, guys, the narrative has changed! Sound the alarms!
China’s recovering economy needs to cool down to manage overheating risks
Posted by: vk | Jan 18 2021 11:58 utc | 80
I suppose "They are going to collapse in a pile of debt" was getting too close to home.
Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 18 2021 12:00 utc | 83
Navalny is aligned with the US/CIA/CHGQ. That makes him an enemy. It does not necessarily make him dishonest, and I would agree he is courageous.
It could make him a target for elimination.
The most plausible explanation for what happened to him however for me includes a lot of CIA/CHGQ deception. Pity James Randi is dead.
Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | Jan 18 2021 12:02 utc | 84
Something appropriate for the day:
"If America does not use her vast resources of wealth to end poverty and make it possible for all of God’s children to have the basic necessities of life, she too will go to hell.”
Martin Luther King, 18 March 1968
Apparently Pat Lang thinks we are there too:
Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 18 2021 12:25 utc | 85
Things are not going well for mRNA vaccines:
California Recommends to Suspend Moderna Vaccine Batch Due to High Number of Adverse Events
Norway Warns Third Vaccine Shot May Prove Necessary for Solid Immunity
France Expects 140,000 Fewer Vaccine Doses This Week as Pfizer Cuts Back Supplies
Sputniknews mentions official sources for all three news, so they are reliable.
Let's recap: you have two very expensive vaccines, both very expensive to transport and store, with severe side effects including death and, to top it off, with very low inefficacy - to the point you'll probably need a third dose.
--//--
@ Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | Jan 18 2021 12:02 utc | 82
Navalny is on parole, which was revoked the moment he fled to Germany. He was then recalled to Russia.
I already can imagine the dialogue the BND had with Navalny: "either you become a liberal martyr alive in a Russian prison or dead in mysterious circumstances in Germany". Navalny must've quickly found out he was actually safer in Russia.
Lavrov Press Conference about 2020, and it is Monday only, a lot will be talked about it, since I’ve listened to the first quarter hour and Lavrov does not bite his tongue.
There is not any material in English yet on the mid.ru site.
There is a video in Russian though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0NEZrCHdC4
Posted by: Paco | Jan 18 2021 12:37 utc | 87
@vk that would mean the BND threatened Navalny. Quite speculative.
Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | Jan 18 2021 12:41 utc | 88
@ Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | Jan 18 2021 12:41 utc | 86
We know as certainty (via Belarusian intelligence) that the Western capitalists planned burning Tikhanovskaya alive in her HQ in a false flag operation as part of the color revolution; that's why she fled to Lithuania (with the help of the government, who not only saved her life, but also allowed her to flee in the cover of darkness). We also know that her initial goal was to flee to Poland, but she was intercepted by the Lithuanian government (secret service) on her way. She is a captive in Lithuania, and is telling what the Lithuanian government wants her to.
Given the extent and cruelty of the Belarusian plan, I don't think it to be farfetched to presume the plan B to the Navalny fiasco included, at some point, his assassination on German soil in a false flag operation. The BND must thus have given him this option after the FSB "gave them" the counter-intelligence move of revoking his parole. The FSB probably saved Navalny's life, in a timely and very sophisticated manner.
@vk | Jan 18 2021 12:26 utc | 84
Norway Warns Third Vaccine Shot May Prove Necessary for Solid Immunity
Translation: After the third shot you will be dead (="solid immunity")
This thing is murder.
Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 18 2021 13:09 utc | 90
Lavrov:
Navalny arrest being used as tool to distract from crises in West - Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov
Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 18 2021 13:29 utc | 91
For those of you who are concerned about the Class War currently being conducted in the guise of a global pandemic response under the guidance of zillionaires and their toadies (both individuals and organizations), this is for you:
https://off-guardian.org/2021/01/18/anteroom-of-our-own-extinction/
It is a fact that injustices committed against some far flung strong man in some shithole has no direct bearing on your freedoms, your life, your future. Realise this.
What does have direct, immediate, and lasting impact on YOUR life and the life of everyone you care about is the continued tightening of the noose of authoritarianism on this planet.
You can always return to your geopolitical who-dunnits when The Great Restoration has defeated the Great Reset overloards.
Posted by: HelpfulDragon | Jan 18 2021 13:54 utc | 92
@ vk 80
That change of narrative is funny.
Hey, which English-language China news sites are good? Which are crap?
Posted by: oglalla | Jan 18 2021 15:28 utc | 93
@ Posted by: oglalla | Jan 18 2021 15:28 utc | 91
Basically all of the official and extraofficial Chinese news outlets have their version in English: Global Times, People Daily, Xinhua, Qiushi, CGTN, Caixin etc. etc.
@vk | Jan 18 2021 12:26 utc | 86
Navalny must've quickly found out he was actually safer in Russia.
Except, since he is stupid, it took him several months to figure that out. The rest of the world knew it early on. But finally it dawned on him.
Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 18 2021 16:09 utc | 95
@Tuyzentfloot | Jan 18 2021 12:41 utc | 88
that would mean the BND threatened Navalny. Quite speculative.
No such threat required. Just say "Skripal" to him.
Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 18 2021 16:12 utc | 96
Another huge mysterious explosion, largely underreported by controlled media, destroys a "barn" right next to Sybase Secure Data Center on the 16th of Jan., in Sterling, VA (between Reston and Leesburg, just across the Potomac River from DC).
Looks like the Ghost of Lee RV Oswald strikes again...another 5G-Lizard People-inspired *propane bomb*, according to the Official Evidence Sifters.
Posted by: gm | Jan 18 2021 16:13 utc | 97
@gm | Jan 18 2021 16:13 utc | 97
second link "451: Unavailable due to legal reasons"
So, another data center. A coincidence. What was in that center?
Once an accident, twice a coincidence, three times a pattern
Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 18 2021 16:19 utc | 98
By the way, the book burners have really selected the most suitable error code for denying access to information: 451
Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 18 2021 16:23 utc | 99
Talking about the NWO, SBS.com.au broadcast an alarmist 2020 anti-Trump doco from ViceNews this evening. It's called Secrets Of America's Shadow Government. It outlines the plans of the US PTB to ensure Continuity of Government IF their bullshit and bluster backfire resulting in AmeriKKKa being Nuked. Unsurprisingly, being an American 'strategy', it's about underground bases & bunkers :-)
Early on the doco makes the point that if the Nuker of USA is too quick for the psychopaths, and the USG is wiped out in the First Strike, it won't matter because there is already a Shadow Government ready, willing and able to step into the breach(?!).
The over-arching theme is that the Elites are planning to sacrifice the Peasants and save themselves. Two of the locations identified were Cheyenne Mountain/Raven Rock & Mt Weber. Raven Rock is an underground Pentagon full of 3-storey office buildings, There's the usual tosh about how clever they are and how flawless and far-sighted their planning has been. There's some file footage of a military parade and rocket tests in NK and a couple of snippets from Dr Strangelove. There's also some footage of POTUS' 747 Sanctuary In The Sky(?!).
There's a brief redux of various potentially critical stand-offs since WWII and a cute piece during which a wise person says "Of course all of this careful planning is wasted if it's the POTUS himself who is the danger to the US" against a backdrop of Prez Trump looking angry. After this VICE floats the concept of Lame Duck Armageddon during the lull between POTUSes.
Fortunately there is a bright note, by omission. No-one bothered to explain when and how the Shadow Government will emerge from its bunkers, and who will protect the psychopaths therein from Angry Americans eager to lynch them, or Mummify them by burying the exits and transforming the bunkers into tombs.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 18 2021 16:25 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
Yes, it is a big defeat for NATO that the one least stink like poo of Biden got elected as successor of Merkel by conservative party. They will invest now heavily in green party. End of september will be general election in Germany about how and when starts new war with Russia.
Posted by: rico rose | Jan 17 2021 14:00 utc | 1