China is so evil for “censoring” Google… oh wait:
Australia lashes out at Big Tech threats, says it’s ‘inevitable’ that Facebook & Google will pay for content
By the way: China never blocked Google from its domestic market. Google wanted free rein in China, China said “no”. Google then lashed out and spread the word in the West it was being “censored” in China. The propaganda then evolved with time, so now we have the “Great Firewall”, “the Chinese people is living in darkness” narratives.
–//–
Cartoon of the Month:
Actual Joe Biden vs Joe Biden in the Republicans’ minds
–//–
No V-shaped recovery for the West:
In January the economies of Europe and Japan continued to contract.
And yes, by “Europe”, the UK is also included.
–//–
Widespread arrests & dozens of police injured in pro-Navalny protests in Russia as organizers say MORE TO COME next weekend
In this headline alone there is one information that already proves beyond all reasonable doubt the pro-Navalny protests are just an artificial, pathetic color revolution attempt: “next weekend”.
Didn’t know revolutions had to wait for weekends to happen…
I can smell the fetid aroma of the middle class and the petite bourgeoisie from thousands of kilometers of distance – that’s my gift and my curse. And I can tell you those pro-Navalny protesters stink from that smell.
–//–
NYT already publishing its Middle Class weekend self-help articles to prepare its readership for absolute defeat against COVID-19:
What if You Never Get Better From Covid-19?
Just rebrand being a victim of COVID-19 as something chic and all will be well in Manhattan and LA.
–//–
The Nation being The Nation:
What Our Forever Wars Will Look Like Under Biden: Expect the new president to eschew starting new wars while avoiding to end existing ones.
Translating: it will the exact same thing as with Trump.
Like I told you, people: the USA is becoming the Whale in a Swimming Pool.
–//–
This one is really funny:
Jewish leaders use Holocaust Day to decry persecution of Uighurs
Muslims are Zionists now! Welcome to the globalist club!
As Stalin once said: for the capitalists, everything is fair game against communism.
–//–
One more to Dystopia series of this blog: America, the Christian Theocracy:
In Biden’s Catholic Faith, an Ascendant Liberal Christianity

President Biden, perhaps the most religiously observant commander in chief in half a century, regularly speaks of how faith grounds his life and policies.

Remember: my prediction is that the USA will not collapse, but degenerate into a “byzantine period”, marked mainly (in the cultural front) in the Christianization of the Empire.
Mark my words.
–//–
You have to admire the audacity of the NYT in this one:
How Beijing Turned China’s Covid-19 Tragedy to Its Advantage

The Communist Party’s control of the narrative has become absolute, showcasing its ability to rally the people with propaganda.A year ago, Wuhan’s hospitals were filling up with coronavirus patients. The Chinese government has since declared victory.

All I have to say is this: it’s easier to “control the narrative” when you save at least 15 million lives. You know, because human beings are living things, and living things like to live.
Much easier to propagandize when the truth is on your side.
–//–
One last funny one to lighten your Sunday up:
American soft power on display at Russian pro-Navalny protest

Posted by: vk | Jan 24 2021 14:50 utc | 3

‘The Day the Music Died’*
A brief history of the decline and fall of the United States of America
– November 22, 1963
The Anglo-American Ruling Elite, through their Deep State operatives, overthrow the U.S. government. From now on all presidents will rule under Deep State supervision.
– January 20, 1981
The Anglo-American Ruling Elite’s first puppet president is installed. Others will follow (Clinton, W, Obama).
Over the next 40 years the U.S. economy will be hollowed out while the The Anglo-American Ruling Elite strip mines the country’s assets, leaving both the government and the population in perpetual debt servitude.
– November 9, 1989
The Soviet Union gives up on the Cold War
The Anglo-American Ruling Elite is now free to rebuild the former British Empire as a new, improved Global Empire, based in global institutions and without the inconvenience of host countries.
The Anglo-American Ruling Elite now becomes the ‘Global Elite’.
– September 11, 2001
Domestic resistance to the U.S. military becoming the Global Elite’s mercenary military force is removed.
The colonial wars may begin.
– November 3, 2020
After decades of suffering a thousand cuts, U.S. democracy is delivered the final, fatal blow.
– January 6, 2021 – The Day the Music Died
The U.S. Capitol is under military occupation. The constitution is effectively suspended.
The United States of America, as a constitutional republic, is no more.
From now on the U.S. is just another Globalist colony.
* From Don McLean’s 1971 song ‘American Pie’. At the time it seemed an omen of things to come. It took 50 years for the premonition to be realized.

Posted by: dh-mtl | Jan 24 2021 15:15 utc | 5

Ecuador’s Feb 7 election is coming up: Arauz is heavily favored, he is allied with former president Rafael Correa. At this point it looks like Ecuadorians are not mobilized as much as the Bolivians (lots of people who gave up and are not going to vote) but I think the left will win because Moreno is hated.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Andres-Arauz-Favorite-to-Become-Ecuadors-Next-President-20210122-0014.html
Brazil: here is a link to a documentary on Brasil from “brazilwire”. U.S. expat Brian Mier runs the website and co- produced the 25 minute video in English which I haven’t watched yet but will. There is a bit of a print interview with Lula where he digs into some of the architecture of regime change/control by the globalist elite.
“Lula: First of all, the US was worried about a certain independence of ours, of a certain kind of alliance with China, of a certain alliance with India, of a certain alliance with Russia – I think this worried them. It has now been proven that the Lava Jato investigation brought great benefits to the United States and great damage to the Brazilian people. It destroyed our natural gas and oil industries, it nearly destroyed our ship building industry, it nearly destroyed the Brazilian engineering industry, which competed with companies from all over the World on big construction projects, and they have started dismantling Petrobras state petroleum company.”
Biden was the “courier” who went to Brazil for Obama and made the bribe offer/threat to president Dilma, which she refused, Biden flew home and Dilma was deposed.
My prediction: Ecuador will be the next to rise. Brazil will eventually follow but I’m not sure about this year. Lula has become more radicalized and is standing up solidly with the axis of resistance.

Posted by: migueljose | Jan 24 2021 16:04 utc | 7

It has been popular to compare the fall of the USSR with the fall of the USA.
Gorbatsjov tried to reform the USSR but it ended in failure and the drunken Yeltsin crashed the remains. His only success was to name Putin as his successor.
Trump tried to reform the USA but it ended in failure, election coup and the demented and hyper-corrupt Biden as his successor. It remains to be seen if the outcome of Biden’s rule will be better or worse than Yeltsin’s, but my money is on Yeltsin the way things are looking.

Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 24 2021 16:07 utc | 9

Re: “Biden says nothing can change the trajectory of the Covid pandemic over the next several months – CNBC”
Well I think Biden’s Caregivers (through first days Executive Orders) are making a good start to *INCREASE* the Pandemic trajectory domestically by opening back up the borders to travel and widespread unimpeded entrance.
Proclamation cutting off funding for the border wall [and increase funding for The DC Wall]
Biden signed a proclamation Thursday terminating funding for the border wall that was being built under Trump.
The move revoked the emergency proclamation that sped construction of a wall on the Mexican border, the building of which was a top promise from the Trump administration and one of its most divisive immigration moves.
Memorandum strengthening the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program
Biden issued a memorandum to the Justice and Homeland Security departments strengthening the Obama-era DACA program that was a top target of the Trump administration.
The memorandum allows the government to accept new applications for the DACA program and orders the two agencies to “take all actions … consistent with applicable law, to preserve and fortify DACA.”
The program protects immigrants brought to the country illegally as minors from deportation.
Executive order ending Trump’s travel ban
Biden signed an executive order ending the Trump administration’s controversial travel ban, which barred admissions into the country from several majority-Muslim countries.
Scrapping the ban was another campaign promise after Trump’s move came under an avalanche of criticism from Democrats who said the prohibition on entry was Islamophobic.
Executive order mandating undocumented immigrants be counted in the census
Undocumented immigrants will be counted in the decennial population count, according to another executive order.
Trump had pushed to strike immigrants in the country without authorization from the count, but he faced a flood of court challenges.
Executive order to revoke Trump’s strict immigration policies
Biden issued an executive order revoking an order under the Trump administration that pushed broad efforts to find and deport undocumented immigrants.
Memorandum reinstating deportation protections for Liberian immigrants
Biden sent another memorandum to the departments of State and Homeland Security reinstating deportation protections for some Liberian immigrants.
The memorandum approved deferred enforced departure for Liberians. Recipients of the deferral will be able to live and work in the U.S., similar to those protected under a temporary protected status.
(from the Hill)

Posted by: gm | Jan 24 2021 16:29 utc | 11

This is a fascinating story:
“We decided not to fight the Russians.” Nationalists have a new enemy in Latvia
Some peoples are born to be pathetic bugs, waiting to be crushed. The Baltic peoples are examples of those.
–//–
@ Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jan 24 2021 16:18 utc | 10
Every investment is a loss in capitalist accountancy. And correctly so, as Marx demonstrated.
That’s one of the reasons “investment” in finance is so attractive in Late Capitalism: as fictitious capital, it can be immediately be accounted as a plus instead of a minus – even it is literal debt.
It is a futile exercise to try to calculate how much the world will gain with the completion and full operation of the BRI. It will only be finished in 2050, and it is so grandiose that it will change the rules, change the world to something unrecognizable to today’s world. Besides, it has a high chance of failure also – as is the case of all revolutionary and long-term projects.

Posted by: vk | Jan 24 2021 16:43 utc | 13

Posted by: Paco | Jan 24 2021 16:51 utc | 14
There we are, that’s why the Capitol coup was a failure, there is no USA Embassy in Washington DC.

Posted by: Paco | Jan 24 2021 16:52 utc | 15

Random reads:
It’s John Brennan’s Authoritarianism That Threatens ‘Democracy’
https://www.wnd.com/2021/01/john-brennans-authoritarianism-threatens-democracy/
The Echo Chamber Era: Trust in media is down. If journalists don’t listen to critics anyway,should they care?
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-echo-chamber-era
Rescue CA continues efforts to recall Governor Gavin Newsom
https://www.kusi.com/rescue-ca-continues-efforts-to-recall-governor-gavin-newsom/
181 Dead in the U.S. During 2 Week Period From Experimental COVID Injections – How Long Will We Continue to Allow Mass Murder by Lethal Injection?
https://healthimpactnews.com/2021/181-dead-in-the-u-s-during-2-week-period-from-experimental-covid-injections-how-long-will-we-continue-to-allow-mass-murder-by-lethal-injection/print/
Why the Priorities of the Biden Administration Push Division over Unity and Economic Prosperity
https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/quockerwodger-in-chief
Intelligence Agencies Bypass the Need for Warrants by Buying Data Harvested From Smartphones
https://reclaimthenet.org/intelligence-agencies-bypass-the-need-for-warrants-by-buying-data-harvested-from-smartphones/

Posted by: Dogon Priest | Jan 24 2021 17:06 utc | 17

Lurk @ 16
There is apparently an entire population distribution of Vitamin D occurring in Andalucia with very positive results. Have been trying for days to find out the dosage and how it gets distributed, the search engines all look away and turn up nothing. But mortality in Andalucia is way down compared to rest of Spain.
Wide use of ivermectin is underway in Chiapas and in Uttar Pradesh, positive results in both places. Everyone seems determined to look away.
After reading the entire (short enough) Lancet study it would seem there were exactly twelve in treatment group, twelve in control group. And they were given ivermectin plus nothing. No D, no C, no zinc, nothing. If the results are what the powers that be are looking for then any protocol is good enough. The negative study will be promoted.
The accepted wisdom is there is just nothing anyone can do but wait to be infected. And if you get sick nothing to do at all before hospitalization. When hospitalized it will be supportive care plus remdesivir.

Posted by: oldhippie | Jan 24 2021 17:21 utc | 19

This will be my only comment on the “new HCQ”. Don’t bother trying to bait me with ad hominem comments.
The idea that a vermifuge can be used to fight a virus is simply nuts. Absolute madness. It throws 200 years of medicine in the trash bin.
If this nonsense goes one, it will the beginning of the end of Western Medicine.

Posted by: vk | Jan 24 2021 17:56 utc | 21

Arch Bungle | Jan 24 2021 16:18 utc | 10
No economic breakdown, just this for an added interest. (originally CNN sorry)
https://www.sott.net/article/447670-China-debuts-train-prototype-that-can-hit-speeds-of-620-kilometers-per-hour
If they addd this to the existing 37’000 km of high speed rail, plus the wilder versions of maglev. (One is supposed to work at -40°C at 350 km/hr. Another is the maglev in vacuum tubes). Then they can still be considered in the “setup” phase. So overall economy won’t be realisable yet. The planned routes are all between major cities so some thought has gone into profitability.
Everyone else has a lot to catch up.

Posted by: Stonebird | Jan 24 2021 18:56 utc | 23

The link to the i-mask+ protocol for ivermectin treatment.
https://covid19criticalcare.com/i-mask-prophylaxis-treatment-protocol/
Good source of quality ivermectin information.

Posted by: naiverealist | Jan 24 2021 19:00 utc | 25

B’s outstanding analysis of the Boeing 737 MAX flaws over the past two years is echoed in this article:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-the-boeing-737-max-remains-a-risky-ride/?fbclid=IwAR1L_E4MqebeGXEyiTwQHZq2nSXPH1Toj0dmaJgt3dG09uwHs9Bg4L4hfPg

Posted by: Victor | Jan 24 2021 19:26 utc | 27

Golly, this whole pandemic thingy has been a riotous barrel of monkey laughs. There have been more red flags than a drunken NASCAR race, yet some of those who shout ‘propaganda’ most swallow the pandemic from the same information sources hook, line and sinker.
It’s pretty clear at this point the ‘virus’ accidentally-on-purpose escaped from a lab. The Medical Establishment uses Cheney’s 1% Doctrine that a 1% chance of something occurring requires a response as though there is a 100% chance of said occurrence. The medical establishment, funded by hundreds of millions of dollars has been inventing animal viruses to prove they are transmittable between bat/pig/bird/pangolin and human which therefore requires a proactive vaccine program to thwart the 1% threat of a lab-produced result manifesting in nature.
One wonders at the financial liability if it is established the Pandemic was released from the nexus of government/business research. A trillion dollars of liability is chump change to the true cost of this Pandemic. Certainly we have motive to lie, cheat and steal the truth away from public knowledge.
For folks to accept at face value what they hear from sources they don’t trust is the height of folly.

Posted by: gottlieb | Jan 24 2021 19:31 utc | 29

@ 10 arch bungle – my understanding of the real economic benefit of the Belt Road Initiative is that by rail or highway (over land) it takes around 15 days for products to travel from the Pacific in eastern China to Europe. By sea it takes around 45 days.

Posted by: lex talionis | Jan 24 2021 19:50 utc | 31

Whether or not ivermectin works (as FLCCC claims) can only be proven by clinical data, which has nothing to do with whether or not experts and non-experts can come up beforehand with a hypothesis that can explain why it works or doesn’t work.
If it works then the hypotheses will certainly be proposed, and validated. That’s how science works.

Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Jan 24 2021 20:02 utc | 33

How about a fully paid six week lockdown?

How about listening to people who get what is happening before everything explodes in violence?
Dutch Youth Torch COVID-Testing Facility In Violent Curfew Backlash

Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 24 2021 20:08 utc | 35

I don’t know if any of Hua Chunying’s weekly press conference from last Monday was linked here, but she had some ripping things to say about the liar Pompeo, illustrating how the retreating army lays mines as it withdraws, etc.
Pompeo as we know has made more assertions recently that the Covid virus escaped from the Wuhan lab (because the US has “new information”). In response to a question on this point, and whether China was opening up to international investigation enough, Hua fired off a lengthy reply containing this tasty rejoinder:

“I’d like to stress that if the United States truly respects facts, it should open the biological lab at Fort Detrick, give more transparency to issues like its 200-plus overseas bio-labs, invite WHO experts to conduct origin-tracing in the United States, and respond to the concerns from the international community with real actions. We hope certain U.S. politicians can respect science, act with due conscience, stop shifting the blame or playing the political game, and fostering a favorable environment for international cooperation on origin-tracing and combating the virus, which is what they should do at the moment.”
– Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying’s Regular Press Conference on January 18, 2021

One can only dream, but it’s nice to see it said out loud.

Posted by: Grieved | Jan 24 2021 21:01 utc | 37

RE: Regeneron’s price tag finally revealed:
Germany buys Trump-touted antibody cocktail against Covid-19 at $2,400 per dose – health minister
– vk | Jan 24 2021 19:46 utc | 30
I got my ivermectin apple flavor horse paste for $5.99 from the farm and feed store (enough for ten 200/ug/kg doses for a 150lb person).
Add Zn gluconate tablets (50mg, 250 tabs, $8.00; Kroger) and quercetin (800 mg 120 caps; $10.99 on-line vitamin venders) and doxycycline (cheap but need to get a prescription in US for that one), [all safe as sh*t] and I’m ready to go the moment I feel the Corona-chan coming on.
Once that’s on board I will try to go through my health-plan gate-keepers and see the primary care doctor.

Posted by: gm | Jan 24 2021 21:33 utc | 39

@vk | Jan 24 2021 20:26 utc | 36

They uncovered us, guys. It’s over…

Mexican President López Obrador says pandemic lockdowns are the tactic of dictators.
https://twitter.com/roccogalatilaw/status/1350151592268410880

Mexicos’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador suggested on Wednesday that politicians who impose lockdowns or curfews to limit Covid-19 are acting like dictators.
The comments came as López Obrador once again fended off questions about why he almost never wears a face mask, saying it was a question of liberty.
The Mexican leader said pandemic measures that limit people’s movements are “fashionable among authorities … who want to show they are heavy-handed, dictatorship.

Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 24 2021 21:44 utc | 41

There is a slow-motion train wreck unfolding in Australia. We signed a $25B contract with a French submarine manufacturer in 2016 to build a state-of-the-art new fleet with a clause stating the subs would be built in Australia with local labour. We also wanted US electronics on board but the French said they were unable to install. So we signed another deal with US companies to fit the square systems into the French round holes. That cost another $25B. To date the French have defaulted on the local labour clause and costs have ballooned to $100B trying to organise the match between hardwares. These subs will not go online before 2030 and are more likely to be fully operational by 2040. By then estimates range that the total on-costs for the subs will have reached between $400 and $500BN over the period of development.
None of this is being discussed in the media nor is it being challenged by the opposition. Does this surprise us? The Coalition right wing US bootlicking government’s main task is the redistribution of taxpayer wealth into the hands of corporate interests in return for commissions and fat consultancies after political life. This is a tragedy if you think that government serves the nation and its citizens, but business as usual for PM Morrison’s mates, who see their job as stealing everything that isn’t nailed down. The press is naive if they think the purpose of government is to serve the interests of citizens. Somewhere someone is holding big bits of that money aside for them. We need to call this for what it is: CORRUPTION on a colossal scale. The press, the opposition and the organs of dissent are incapable of preventing this blatant looting. The resulting submarines will be lemons too, you just know it. They will never be serious deterrents. Can you just imagine the local benefits from a New Deal-style policy to redirect $400B to create a completely home-grown defence materiel industry, building our own ships in our own dockyards? The incompetence, mendacity and and venality is so awful it doesn’t bear contemplating…

Posted by: Patroklos | Jan 24 2021 22:18 utc | 43

Lurk | Jan 24 2021 19:53 utc | 32

On the other hand I haven’t seen many suggestions relating to EVALI and Ft Detrick on youtube or google.

Actually, there are a few, but my very own post above is in the top ten…
LOL

Posted by: Lurk | Jan 24 2021 22:35 utc | 45

Clueless Biden signing orders in the Oval Office(?), while watched carefully by Creepy Caregivers and Corrupt Congress-Creatures, to make sure he signs everything put in front of him, and he doesn’t wander off, or do anything ridiculous while press cameras are running:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evhUYk9HG7w
SHOCK VIDEO: Biden Signs Executive Orders But There Is No Evidence He Has Any Idea What He’s Signing

Posted by: gm | Jan 24 2021 22:50 utc | 47

It looks like one of Biden’s handlers is giving him protocol hints through an earpiece to “salute the Marines” as he passes through a doorway flanked/held open by Marines on Inaugural Day.
Biden appears to just robotically mumble/repeat out loud the instructions coming through his earpiece, oblivious to their meaning. He does not salute the marines at the door as he and Dr. Jill pass through.
https://youtu.be/qP_54n4DIJc?t=69

Posted by: gm | Jan 24 2021 23:19 utc | 49

“…by rail or highway (over land) it takes around 15 days for products to travel from the Pacific in eastern China to Europe. By sea it takes around 45 days.”lex talionis@31
It really is that simple. And that profound.
“It’s pretty clear at this point the ‘virus’ accidentally-on-purpose escaped from a lab.” gottlieb@29
Robin Ramsay in the current Lobster agrees with you:
“I noted the novelist Nicholson Baker’s interest in US biological warfare in
Lobster 80. In a 12,500 word essay in the New York Magazine Baker 33 34
displays a striking level of knowledge about viruses and research into them
and takes the reader through the possible causes of the Covid pandemic in
great detail. There are only three possibilities. The first – that it was made in a
lab and released deliberately – he doesn’t discuss. The second is that it
emerged in another species and transferred to humans. The third is that it was
developed in a lab and escaped. About a quarter of the way through the piece
Baker mentions the American company, EcoHealth Alliance, which had been
collaborating with the lab in Wuhan, China, from which the virus is thought to
have originated. Elsewhere it had been reported that EcoHealth Alliance was
receiving much of its funding from the US Department of Defense.
“Which brings us back to Professor Francis Boyle. I quoted him in Lobster
80 as saying last October that Covid was a bio-warfare lab escapee. In that 36
talk, he described the Wuhan-US Defence Department relationship. EcoHealth 37
Alliance is part of that. To me it looks very likely that the American and
Chinese biowarfare people cooked this up and it has escaped. Boyle’s point is
that these things always escape and that is why he wants all the bio-warfare
labs closed. There is a group of scientists who are aware of this risk, who have
been grumbling off-stage for decades about the hazards generated by virus
research and experimentation.
“Baker ends his essay with this:
‘Could a world full of scientists do all kinds of reckless recombinant things
with viral diseases for many years and successfully avoid a serious
outbreak? The hypothesis was that, yes, it was doable. The risk was worth
taking. There would be no pandemic.
I hope the vaccine works.’”
“It is already pretty clear that the vaccines won’t work in the way that other
vaccines – e.g. polio – have worked in the past; and that Covid probably
means the end of the world as we knew it. But even if it is established that it
was the result of military experiments, carried out despite all the warnings
about lab escapes, this will never be officially admitted, either by the US or its
Chinese partners…”

Posted by: bevin | Jan 24 2021 23:36 utc | 51

The tether article is nothing new. As the article itself notes: the US government has been after Tether for a long time.
Equally, from my own experience as an investigator of digital crimes – all of the major red flags for a Ponzi or other type of fraud exist with Tether.
The thing is, the author mistakes the amount of tether out there in the sense of how major it is.
Bitcoin trades around $3b every day.
$25b is this 1 week’s trading volume.
Is that a problem?
What about the holders of tether?
Total bitcoin worry is $580b now. Overall total crypto value is at least $750b.
Is $25b going to destroy that?
Finally, who is holding the bag of tether implodes?
It isn’t people who actually hold bitcoin or whatever.
It will be those people doing the leverage or who are literally in the process of buying/selling crypto.
Net net: this is not good analysis. Good data, bad understanding of the ecosystem and bad analysis.
And to be clear: crypto isn’t money. It isn’t fundamentally valuable. Harris Kupperman has it right, I think: every article he writes has a sentence calling it a scam and Ponzi; but tether isn’t the primary driver for it.

Posted by: c1ue | Jan 25 2021 0:08 utc | 53

@steven t johnson:
“Reagan had Alzheimer’s”
Ya…..but ol’ Joe has quite noticable dementia/Alzheimer’s starting from his very first day as our titular ‘head of state’. And at least all of the ones you mentioned had some modicum of cognitive awareness of who they were and what was going on around them – even if they did delegate much of their day to day to their “handlers”. Biden is barely able to even navigate the simplest of ceremonial cosmetic tasks – relying almost exclusively on the arm/support and constant prompting of his wife and apparent caregiver “Dr.” Jill..ala Nancy R in Ronnie’s later half of his 2nd term..
We have just installed an upfront ‘consortium’ that wields complete power behind the Biden facade..made up of Harris, Obama (80% + are of this admin’s picks are directly from his “influence”), Rice..etc. This is most obviously a “weekend at Biden’s” production that will probably end prematurely with ol’ Joe either becoming increasingly invisible and then quietly retiring, or being politely 25th amendment-ed.
But do put your spin on this ongoing Biden presidential charade. After all, the ‘show’ must go on…

Posted by: time2wakeupnow | Jan 25 2021 0:34 utc | 55

Paco @14–
Thanks for the FYI! Did you see this from TASS? Maria Zakharova:
“In the United States, information about blocking Russian official or media accounts comes at a level of some corporate decisions. One can say that these are containment attempts. But I would put it in a more global way. It is a crisis, a profound crisis of the Western mode of thinking, the Western pseudo-democracy and pseudo-liberalism,…
“Now, after, so to say, rains in the recent years and months, the paint came off and we see what is actually happening there. It is a crisis of their ideology but this crisis is dangerous because it threatens sovereignty of many nations.”
She said the above and more during “an interview with the Voskresny Vecher (Sunday Evening) with Vladimir Solovyov program on the Rossiya-1 television channel.” I followed the link but couldn’t find the video; and there’s nothing at the MFA’s website. IMO, her statements were certainly vetted prior by both Lavrov and Putin.
There’s also additional trouble brewing in the SCS related to Taiwan and the Diaoyu Islands.
We didn’t need to wait long for the first international crisis of Biden’s term to arise. Should Russia go ahead and take Biden’s offer to extend New START for 5 years while Navalny is used as a human bomb? I know Putin was hoping for its extension and to return to negotiations. But? Will we see Hard Ball being played by Russia or?

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 25 2021 0:37 utc | 57

“And to be clear: crypto isn’t money. It isn’t fundamentally valuable. Harris Kupperman has it right, I think: every article he writes has a sentence calling it a scam and Ponzi;”
Is the US dollar fundamentally valuable?
And I can’t see the connection to a scam. Scams always have someone in the background promoting the scam, prof-fitting from the scam. I see no one in Bitcoin.
Ponzi also has someone in the background, eg; Bernie Madoff. I don’t see that in bitcoin.

Posted by: arby | Jan 25 2021 1:01 utc | 59

arby @59–
Bitcoin is more akin to a commodity–Cybergold is one way to think of it.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 25 2021 1:09 utc | 61

Patroklos @ 43, 44:
Since when did Australia ever had submarines that were nothing more than black-hole vacuums for hoovering taxpayer money in huge tsunami-sized waves? Saltwater crocodiles in northern Australia and white sharks elsewhere would do a much better job of defending the country against foreign invasion.
We don’t even need submarines if we invite the US to set up military bases – we may as well disable our entire military, we already let the enemy in!

Posted by: Jen | Jan 25 2021 1:20 utc | 63

Liberals can’t accept US is a ‘leading terrorist state,’ just as Trump supporters can’t accept his election loss – Chomsky to RT

Posted by: lulu | Jan 25 2021 1:23 utc | 65

Prof K,@ 2
I agree, A complete lockdown works, no exceptions, otherwise there is no economy to save.
Meanwhile, the more things change the more they stay the same.
See the US throwing good money after bad [$2.8 B]. My bet it’s all wasted in Ecuador after the upcoming elections. Pity the destitute US taxpayers.
https://asiatimes.com/2021/01/us-rescue-of-ecuador-from-chinese-debt-is-a-trap/
When China does it it’s a ‘debt trap.’ When Uncle Shmuel does it it’s a ‘rescue.’

Posted by: Paul | Jan 25 2021 2:24 utc | 67

Many things could be done. How about a fully paid six week lockdown?
b doesn’t provide the context for Biden’s remark. Biden was walking back his initial optimism about defeating the virus by inoculating 100 million people. And today Biden surrogates even walked-back that goal by saying they want 100 million SHOTS to be given (the current vaccines require TWO shots).
Furthermore, b is asking for trouble by advocating for a new lock-down. Yet, MAGICALLY, there is no longer push-back from the astro-turf libertarian mob. LOL.
But it’s unclear if lock-downs would work. Most of us already live in virtual “lockdown” because everyone that’s not essential works remotely; most activities are cancelled; and testing is now ubiquitous. Plus almost everyone wears masks now in public and practice social distancing.
Further complicating a call for more/more stringent lock-down is that there are a lot of false positives and possibly some counting of influenza deaths as Covid-19 deaths. (Note: Acknowledging that doesn’t mean that I don’t believe the pandemic isn’t real and very deadly.)
What do we NOT DO that successful countries have done?

• Quarantine the sick
  CDC only recently acknowledged that sick people infect others in their household. The household-infected then spread the virus when while they are assymptomatic.
• Effective contact tracing
  Is there any western country that does this well? AFAICT USA sucks at it.

=
Lancet Study
Why would anyone trust what Lancet has to say after they completely discredited themselves?
oldhippie and Lurk explain how “the authorities” are still screwing around with bogus studies.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jan 25 2021 2:40 utc | 69

jrabbit @69 said; “Plus almost everyone wears masks now in public and practice social distancing.”
Not in Orange county Ca. rabbit, and the numbers there show it. Bet the ones whining about their “freedoms” being taken away, also have a problem with stop signs, and red lights. Although, the wearing of masks, and traffic signals have the same objective, safety….

Posted by: vetinLA | Jan 25 2021 3:11 utc | 71