John Durham...

The Democrats have done such a tremendously good job of narrative control
after the 1/6 Capitol disorder
that even if John Durham were to set off
a megaton of allegations it would all just be background noise.

Posted by: librul | Jan 24 2021 13:58 utc | 1

There should be a minimum 6-week hard lockdown, enforced by police and military, and paid for by drastic cuts to the Pentagon and a draconian tax on billionaire wealth. No non-essential business should be allowed to operate at all (that means no one buying stupid yoga clothes and new home office furniture), and everyone should be forced to shelter at home. Not a repeat of the fake lockdown we had last March. A real one.

Why won't this happen? It would save lives and allow the US economy to rebound strongly in the mid-term, as the Chinese and New Zealand lockdowns and zero-covid strategies proved.

The reason for Biden's lie is that corporations, banks and their political servants won't consider any policies that impede the flow of capital into profits.

This is a crisis of capitalism.

Posted by: Prof K | Jan 24 2021 14:26 utc | 2

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

. . . everyone should be ensured of being able to shelter in place -- of having a place in which to shelter, and food and water and maybe a few other necessities for the duration.

Which is part of why it's rather unlikely to happen.

Posted by: jalp Name-Too-Long | Jan 24 2021 14:53 utc | 4

'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

The British variant of concern is not only 30% more infectious but also 30% more deadly.

Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 24 2021 15:53 utc | 6

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

On 6Dec20 Aljazeera reported "Iran sends biggest ever fleet of oil tankers to Venezuela." I don't know how long it takes for tankers to travel from Iran to Venezuela but I'll bet it's less than six weeks. Anyway, although I've watched the news closely, I haven't seen a word about the progress of those tankers. Did they never set sail? Did the US Navy capture them? Did they deliver their cargo without media coverage? What I'm wondering is if anyone here knows what happened to those oil tankers?
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/12/6/biggest-iranian-flotilla-yet-en-route-to-venezuela-with-fuel

Posted by: Chas | Jan 24 2021 16:06 utc | 8

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

Barflies,

Does anyone know of a detailed economic study/model analyzing the profitability of the BRI, specifically the overland rail component?

Most of the discussions and articles I have seen claim that the overland rail component is a loss making enterprise.

However, I have my doubts: it is far from clear that the development of Central Asian overland rail routes is loss making ... and knowing the Chinese it could in short order be part of a far more profitable model.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jan 24 2021 16:18 utc | 10

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

The Lancet study in top post that finds minimal efficacy for ivermectin gets that result by using a single large dose instead of the lower dose for two to five days recommended by FLCCC and pretty much everyone else. Designed to fail. They will never quit. Dozens of studies piling up all showing very strong efficacy so time for a well publicized well placed hit job.

Posted by: oldhippie | Jan 24 2021 16:35 utc | 12

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

@VK

Didn't know revolutions had to wait for weekends to happen...

It is so evident, the whole show is following a script, first Navalny asset goes back home to a sure arrest before losing any value to his handlers, or his life as a sacral victim.

They're doing a Belarus 2.0 using the same channels installed in Poland and Lithuania. School kids called to illegal gatherings during a pandemic, using atractive young girls who offer dates. They are grooming Navalny's wife to do a Guaidikha© 2.0:

Yulia Navalnaya

The US embassy has been publishing in twitter the routes for the protest. They have been called to the Russian Foreign Ministry to explain the meddling in what is non of their business, it has not been translated yet but here it is:

USA Embassy meddling

All foreign digital platforms had been warned about publishing illegal calls to protest, including TikTok, economic fines coming. The Biden team has been three days at the wheel and as usual, telling everybody else what to do while their own kitchen is on fire. Bumpy ride coming or what.

Posted by: Paco | Jan 24 2021 16:51 utc | 14

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

@oldhippie | Jan 24 2021 16:35 utc | 12

It is the same thing with vitamin D studies. They use very low doses (400 iu instead of 4000 iu - nb: high doses only start at 10000 iu, the equivalent of 30 minutes of good sunlight exposure), and administer it weekly or even monthly. Vitamin D3 has a serum half life of one day, ie you must supplement daily to actually get all the benefits. Retrospective studies on populations receiving daily sufficient doses and that show excellent results are simply not included in review studies. It is appaling.

Posted by: Lurk | Jan 24 2021 16:58 utc | 16

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

Another topical 'unbiased' report stoking more China fear mongering from our favourite liberal UK mouthpiece...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/23/chinese-aircraft-enter-taiwans-air-defence-zone

Posted by: Et Tu | Jan 24 2021 17:13 utc | 18

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

@ oldhippie | Jan 24 2021 16:35 utc | 12

But that parsimonious [bare-bones, miserly] Lancet start is nevertheless a very good start in that it showed a halving of illness patient-days to recovery of sense of taste/smell in the ivermectin group vs controls, in a youngish (median age =26) covid patient test group population (where 99+% survive covid even without treatment), and where nearly all the disease markers investigators did measure, they found the ivermection group consistently trended lower [better], even though not yet reaching level of significance.

And this was a bare-bones ivermectin *only* study; w/o assessment of supplemental vits D3 or C, Zn-complexing carrier agents (quercetin etc), doxycycline/Azithro or other antibiotics statuses, which other clinicians, eg. FLCCC [I-MASK+ protocol], Dr. Thomas Borody et al., have found to work synergistically with invermectin in the large #s of covid pts they have treated successfully in their clinical practices.

This Lancet study finding will stimulate and facilitate many more studies of ivermectin covid treatments/improved protocols, and it will be difficult for the big pharma-FDA/Mendacious Midget/NIH-WHO Collective to continue to suppress/pervert such studies going forward.

Posted by: gm | Jan 24 2021 17:25 utc | 20

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

When inoculation and then vaccination were used against smallpox, it was a century before Pasteur. Nobody knew why it worked. But it did work.

Similarly, for ivermectin and covid, the first thing we should be concerned with is whether it works. If it works, we can later work on why it works.

Posted by: lysias | Jan 24 2021 18:34 utc | 22

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

@ Chas *

Per TankerTrackers' twitter feed, 3 of those ships should have arrived a few days ago. No updates beyond that.

Posted by: schmoe | Jan 24 2021 18:58 utc | 24

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

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

The use could be related to a positive change in the intestinal microbiome flora which then facilitates the body’s ability to fight off the virus. Just one possibility among many. Cause and result is not always direct, but complex and often unfathomable until investigated.

Posted by: suzan | Jan 24 2021 19:05 utc | 26

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

Posted by: schmoe | Jan 24 2021 18:58 utc

Interesting that there is not a word about this anywhere. Looks like the US can't do anything about it except pretend it isn't happening.

Posted by: arby | Jan 24 2021 19:28 utc | 28

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

Regeneron's price tag finally revealed:

Germany buys Trump-touted antibody cocktail against Covid-19 at $2,400 per dose – health minister

Posted by: vk | Jan 24 2021 19:46 utc | 30

@ 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

@gottlieb | Jan 24 2021 19:31 utc | 29

Why, are you suggesting that EVALI, COVID, Fort Detrick and the gain-of-funcion research at the University of Carolina Chapel Hill are all related?

It can't be true, because youtube stubbornly keeps putting dozens of 'wuhan biolab' fake-conspiracy videos in my suggestions list. I thought youtube banned corona conspiracies, but apparently not that particular one.

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

Posted by: Lurk | Jan 24 2021 19:53 utc | 32

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

@vk | Jan 24 2021 17:56 utc | 21

Since you're asking..

No need to point out to us that you already know all the facts and do not need to consider any thoughts that you have predetermined to be irrelevant. You have shown off your immaculate self so many times before that everyone is well accustomed to it.

Why don't you stick to 'Das Kapital'-thumping, at least you're good at that.

Let us do the actual reading and thinking, then you do your usual unrestrained link spamming. (Oh and please tell us where does someone who is supposedly not a petit-bourgeois himself get the time to collect all those links and post them here, often at the top of the threads??)

Posted by: Lurk | Jan 24 2021 20:04 utc | 34

How about a fully paid six week lockdown?

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

@ Posted by: Lurk | Jan 24 2021 20:04 utc | 34

Don't blame the messenger.

--//--

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

Wow. A bunch of Dutch kids burned a PCR testing facility. The Truth is Revealed.

They uncovered us, guys. It's over...

Posted by: vk | Jan 24 2021 20:26 utc | 36

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

Thx for the crypto link, b.

We should always be on the guard for charlatans. They try to outrun regulators and many will probably escape, tripping and sacrificing a few patsies as they head for the door. The globalists will try the same on their way underground when America finally comes to.

We are approaching the end of financial rule in America. The dollar will fall into the morass and the people will be angry. Our country can Phoenix then. What will it look like?

Far preferable to living under a banner of death, at-home and abroad.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jan 24 2021 21:22 utc | 38

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

Err...that should be:... ten (10) 200ug/kg doses for a 150 lb person...

Posted by: gm | Jan 24 2021 21:43 utc | 40

@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

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

Good to know the world turns around AMLO.

Posted by: vk | Jan 24 2021 21:46 utc | 42

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

PS to the above: we also don't really need the subs. In what future will they be useful or decisive? To think what that S400-500B could do properly invested...

Posted by: Patroklos | Jan 24 2021 22:22 utc | 44

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

Has there been any indication that the Dems will allow the John Durham Special Counsel investigation to continue? The last news in late December I could find was that the investigation was 'progressing'.

Posted by: chet380 | Jan 24 2021 22:40 utc | 46

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

The crypto article while most likely accurate in its contention Tether is a deliberate scam conducted by a fraudulent conspiracy made me chuckle for another reason, that is that the writer a small capitalist investor, while thoroughly skeptical about the mechanics of his investments, retains an unquestioning regard for the sanctity of the USD.
If he and other amerikan capitalists questioned the sinking foundations of the Fed the same way as he has done with Tether, he wouldn't be 'repatriating' his investments into USDs, he would be ditching them equally fast while searching out a commodity whose demand survives regardless of the state of any fiat currency.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jan 24 2021 22:51 utc | 48

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

A search of the US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) shows that, up to 15th Jan 2021, there have been 139 deaths in the US that are correlated to the Covid-19 vaccine (i.e. closely associated with the date of vaccination).

VAERS is maintained by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is a passive recording system which means anyone can make an entry but it is generally regarded as "under-reporting" vaccine-related problems.

To perform your own query please click on the following link:

VAERS search on Covid-19 Vaccine related deaths"

Then click "I Agree" followed by clicking "VAERS Data Search" then wait 20 to 30 seconds and the results should display.

(The above search produces results for the period Dec 2020 to Jan 2021 but searches a longer period to find 3 results with incorrect dates).

(Please beware that the search results also provides descriptions of how people died which may be upsetting).

For comparison, I did a search on all US flu vaccine correlated deaths and found 4 deaths for the 3 month period Nov 2020 to Jan 2021 and 20 deaths for the year Jan 2020 to Jan 2021.

Posted by: ADKC | Jan 24 2021 23:22 utc | 50

"...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

Reagan had Alzheimer's. Trump was incompetent in a way seen in no president since Harding. George W. Bush nearly choked to death while drunk (sue me, I'm sure of it.) Nixon seems to have been an alcoholic. Wilson had a stroke. Coolidge reportedly slept a regular eleven to fifteen hours a day.

As long as Biden isn't comatose, he's going to be president and the hints that Kamala Harris is somehow on deck are silly appeals to racisms/male chauvinism, a twofer to be sure, but still a cheap shot. As to the discovery that most presidents don't actually do real work, any more than most executives, that it's done by long-time henchmen at best, or by wet-behind-the-ears young'uns notable largely for their shameless self-promotion? The White House for decades has been as Byzantine as, well, the palace of the Byzantine emperor. Most of our executive politics for decades has mostly been courtiers, cliques of courtiers, back-stage camarillas, cabals (cabal is an acronym for Chudleigh, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, Lauderdale, trash in Charles' II court,) outside the loop executive assistants, glorified gophers and possibly the asswiper in chief. Nobody thinks the Cabinet officers actually make policy because they are formally in policy making positions, do they?

Anybody surprised hasn't been paying attention.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Jan 24 2021 23:54 utc | 52

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

NYT's mental gymnastics: Has China Done Too Well Against Covid-19? vs How The Epoch Times Created A Giant Influence Machine

This NYT hired gun Yanzhong Huang, an (ex-?)Epoch Times employee, claims that China's COVID-19 response is bad because not enough people are getting sick to reach herd immunity.

Posted by: lulu | Jan 25 2021 0:23 utc | 54

@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

@steven t johnson | Jan 24 2021 23:54 utc | 52

It is one thing to discover 4 or 6 years into an administration that a president is neurodegenerating and becoming demented, but in the case of the Uniparty leadership Pelosi McConnell, Schumer, McCarthy etc. and deepstate insiders, backers/handlers of Biden's campaign, They all were well aware he was well down the road to Alzheimer's City even before they picked him as their vehicle to power..

And don't deceive yourself for one instant that all the PTB's and DC insiders did not kmow/hack EVERYTHING in Biden's confidential medical files/history before they made their decision to steal the win and put Biden the puppet in place.

So these bad actors dangling Biden through the motions as a presidential hologram, are betraying and deceiving the country in multiple ways.

Posted by: gm | Jan 25 2021 0:35 utc | 56

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

Grieved @37--

I linked to that, and it was one of a number of pushbacks made by numerous Chinese. Do note that Xi seldom says much in that regard; it's always handled by subordinates. Global Times published this very serious editorial that closes with this astute observation:

"The danger is that Tsai has been in power for five years. Many American people have already forgotten the changes in the Taiwan Straits caused by Tsai and the DPP authorities. All the radical US public opinion remembers is the subsequent conflicts on the Taiwan question. The US has won Tsai, an active pawn to control China. And to a greater extent, Washington is already kidnapped by Tsai. The Biden administration has a very professional diplomatic team. Hopefully they can clarify the boundaries and importance of the US interests on the Taiwan question, and restore Washington's strategic sobriety."

Unfortunately, IMO the editor's mistaken about Biden's diplomatic team. Read about the communique it issued to Japan in the Sputnik article linked @57. Taiwan is China, and those rocks captured by the Japanese 100+ years ago are also Chinese--just look at a map. Japan, too, is acting idiotic as it must come to grips that the American Century is over and done with and embark on a new relationship with China.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 25 2021 0:59 utc | 58

"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

related to lurk and gottlieb's posts ---

Executive order 13887, Modernizing Influenza Vaccines in the United States to Promote National Security and Public Health, was issued on September 24, 2019.

It called for the creation and immediate implementation of plans to modernize (supersede egg-yolk vaccine technology) and scale-up the manufacturing of influenza vaccines, i.e. rapidly get on with public-private sector financing and engineering of patentable mRNA vaccine technologies.

Were they looking in the rear-view mirror? hoping to make a killing? No pun intended. Or just coincidental timing, taking pro-active preventive measures as was that administration's habit? sarc

Modernizing Influenza Vaccines in the United States to Promote National Security and Public Health

Posted by: suzan | Jan 25 2021 1:07 utc | 60

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

Steven T Johnson @ 52:

The story I heard here in Australia was that George W Bush nearly met his maker courtesy of a pretzel stuck in his craw early in his 8-year Presidency.

John F Kennedy had Addison's disease and various other health issues: spinal problems and back pain caused by college football injuries, compounded by osteoporosis caused by drugs to treat his other afflictions; symptoms suggestive of irritable bowel syndrome or spastic colitis; urinary tract infections; and a stomach ulcer. He contracted malaria while serving during WWII.

Posted by: Jen | Jan 25 2021 1:11 utc | 62

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

Corporate Media’s Leaked Chinese Documents Confirm China Didn’t Hide Covid-19

Who Was the First Doctor to Report Covid-19 Breakout in Wuhan

Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist, the much celebrated "whistleblower" by Western MSM and China's so-called liberal media (Caixin, The Paper, etc.), was in fact NOT the whistleblower nor the first one to report Covid-19 to the world.

Dr. Zhang Jixian, a respiratory and intensive care specialist at the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine in the central city of Wuhan, on Dec. 27th informed the Wuhan health authorities that a new type of pneumonia was emerging.

3-day before Dr. Li Wenliang, would post anything at all!

December 30th, 2019 Wuhan Municipal Health Commission already issued internal notification to all hospitals asking to treat, track and report the new type of pneumonia before Li Wenliang posted his post in his Wechat group at 17:43 and at 18:42 asking not to leak his messages out of his chatting group.

FYI, Hubei CPC recommended Dr. Zhang jixian to become National Model of Worker, one of the highest honours in China.

Western MSM, also Caixin, The Paper & neo liberals in China, keeps to ignore/censor of Dr. Zhang Jixian as the first person who reported Covid-19 to the world.

--- In memorial of one year of Wuhan Lockdown.

Posted by: lulu | Jan 25 2021 1:20 utc | 64

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

Japan death has been over 5000, all because they failed to lockdown.

All this fruits of the japs imitating westerners are now rearing its head.

Posted by: Smith | Jan 25 2021 2:11 utc | 66

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

bevin @ 51 opined; "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..."

Case closed people. Reality sometimes, is hard to swallow, deal with it.

Hey vk, brevity is a virtue. Like some of your links, but christ, write a book..

Posted by: vetinLA | Jan 25 2021 2:32 utc | 68

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

To all those Aussies here at MoA, below is a short Reuters posting about more money going for Australia navy weapons

"
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia will spend A$1 billion ($770 million) developing new naval weaponry capabilities, including long-range missiles and torpedoes, the federal government said on Monday, part of a vast defence upgrade amid rising regional tensions.

The country plans to provide its navy with advanced long-range anti-ship missiles, extended range surface-to-air missiles, advanced lightweight torpedoes, and maritime land strike capabilities to “project and maintain sea control”, the government said in a statement.

“These new capabilities will provide a strong, credible deterrent that will ensure stability and security in the region,” Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said in the statement.

The spending is part of a previously announced defence budget increase over the next decade as the country seeks to pivot its military focus to the Indo-Pacific region amid worsening relations with China.
"

How is China suppose to respond to this? Isn't China Australia's biggest export destination?

The shit show will continue until it stops suddenly.......

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 25 2021 3:04 utc | 70

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

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.

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

--------

Don't see any connection to a scam??

Spoken like a man that's either totally blind or most likely never even bothered to look.

https://bitcoinfoundation.org/board-of-directors/

Brock Pierce

Chairman

Twitter: @brockpierce | LinkedIn

Brock Pierce is a venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur best known for pioneering the market for digital currency. He is a Founder and Managing Partner of Blockchain Capital. Blockchain Capital has invested in more than 30 blockchain enabling technology companies.

Pierce is also a founder, advisor, or board member of GoCoin, Tether, ZenBox, Blade Financial, Expresscoin, Noble Markets, BitGo, ChangeTip, BlockStreet, Coin Congress, and Plug and Play.

Now go Google what shady activities***** Brock Pierce has been involved in, in his past. Follow the trail back to the media mogul.

There's your most likely candidate for "someone in the background".

***** That's a euphemism for blatantly illegal sex crimes by a guy that shoulda been locked up for a very very looooong time.

But he wasn't?

Why?

And how does a guy like that end up as Chairman of the US Bitcoin Foundation?

Cos he's obviously "connected"

Posted by: Triden | Jan 25 2021 3:13 utc | 72

arby @59--

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

------

Spoken like a truly clueless buffoon who seems to lift all his economic views direct from the Bitcoin ponzi promoters at the "The Max & Stacey Show!!"

Posted by: Triden | Jan 25 2021 3:21 utc | 73

Lysias #22

susan #26

As part of the Covid response manual published by the Chinese medical authorities after their initial Covid experience, they dedicated an entire chapter to Traditional Chinese Medicine ie: accupuncture AND herbs. That practice has developed and proven its value over millennia. The sane Chinese Marxist approach to combining modern science and ancient science shows that evidence based Marxism is the smartest and most effective approach. Armchair voodoo Marxism that worships only one 'god of science' is stupidity.

The use of wormwood cold extract today as a response to malaria was based on a text some 600 years old that set out the use of wormwood when all other treatments fail - only the cold extract is functional. Steam distillation destroys its remedial capacity.

Once again the use of invermectin and similar as a response to gut bacteria etc for a range of maladies is immediately effective. The link between aggressive bacteria and stomach ulcers is a case in point. The Australian professor Thomas Borody has revealed his outstanding success in this field.

Even Einstein's dismissal of three 'peculiar and almost mystical' conjectures later proved to be premature and were proven to exist.

Invermectin is cheap. Therefor it must be banned. Invermectin will get many people out of harms way and back to their economic, social and cultural productivity, therefor it must be cancelled, shut down, stopped before it renders vaccination obsolete. etc etc etc.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 25 2021 3:24 utc | 74

What the buffoon @61 means is that he once heard Max&Stacey say that "Bitcoin is a commodity" and so, becuase he's a buffoon, he repeats that when he wants to try and convince others here that's he's both knowledgeable and wise in the ways of economics and finance.

Bitcoin is traded like a commodity.

That part is correct

But that doesn't make it a commodity. It's just traded like one that's all.

All that glitters is not gold

Posted by: Triden | Jan 25 2021 3:27 utc | 75

In a public post on the Bitcoin Foundation’s website, many members expressed their displeasure at Pierce’s election.

Patrick Alexander wrote:

Unfortunately I must resign as an individual member of the Bitcoin Foundation. Reasons are many, but the following are salient:
• Charlie Shrem engaging in alleged money laundering and associated crimes.
  
• Mark Karpeles misappropriating people's money to the tune of millions.
  
• Brock Pierce being associated with alleged pedophilia. (Now newly elected to an industry seat)

This is not the direction this foundation needs to take. The foundation members need to emulate very high moral values and ethics in business and in personal dealings, especially as it involves money. So far, the track record of prominent Bitcoin Foundation members has been abysmal. I know that most foundation members are probably swell people and are not like this. However, the acts of a few have overshadowed us all unfortunately.

I no longer want to be associated with these people.

Olivier Janssens, wrote:

I am also resigning as a lifetime member. If the bitcoin foundation is to be taken seriously, they need to immediately remove Brock Pierce from the board and save face. Brad, there are plenty more allegations than what you brought up. There are active lawsuits on corporate fraud and child porn. This is NOT the type of associations you want to have for Bitcoin, especially not with the [mainstream media] trying to pull every stunt in the book.

Posted by: Triden | Jan 25 2021 3:44 utc | 76

Aaron Mate Pushes Back against a truly idiotic William Arkin who received awards for his bigoted scribbles at newsweek and a stack of propaganda works.

Worth watching if you are capable of not shooting holes in your screen.

Mate is so restrained and so measured.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 25 2021 3:46 utc | 77

@ triden... i can't tell you how to interact with others, but as a former punk myself, i eventually found it more rewarding to play nice with others - most of the time... we all have opinions.. i happen to share your views on bitcoin, but here's no need to talk down to anyone who doesn't have the same view... otherwise, keep up the good work@ 72 and etc!

@ b - thanks for the post.. and thanks to the posters sharing here with others too..

Posted by: james | Jan 25 2021 3:48 utc | 78

Bitcoin is like any other currency or gold, it has no real value. Like the dollar it's utility is derived by people agreeing it represents value and using it as a method to facilitate trade.

Posted by: Jason | Jan 25 2021 3:52 utc | 79

Sorry james but I'm tired of watching the condescending buffoon speak down to others. The buffoon seems quite convinvined he's the ultimate fountain of wisdom so much so that anyone who disagrees simply must be in the pay of the government. Hilariously deluded to pit it mildly. But what else would one expect from a constantly self-referencing buffoon? One can almost smell the narcissism.

Posted by: Triden | Jan 25 2021 3:56 utc | 80

American medicine has suffered the same fate as other industries over the past 50 years.

Like Boeing or the Military Industrial Complex, western medicine's "science" is determined by the bean counters, financiers, and shareholders profitability, rather than scientists/doctor's. It isn't progressing, it is regressing.

Posted by: Jason | Jan 25 2021 3:58 utc | 81

Posted by: Jason | Jan 25 2021 3:52 utc | 79

Gold actually has verifiable intrinsic value as something useful in the real world, beyond use as currency/a-store-of-value

Posted by: Triden | Jan 25 2021 4:00 utc | 82

Trident 82
Yes, but that value is minimal, nothing close to the dollar value assigned to it. It is useful in some electrical applications, that's about it, though.

Posted by: Jason | Jan 25 2021 4:04 utc | 83

@80 Triden

When I first started noticing your posts here it was because they gave me something valuable. That's the only way I remember avatars here. And we are all only avatars, presenting points of view into the ultimate mix.

But ad hominem is the automatic STOP button.

I would like to hear more of your comments on other topics, or perhaps even this topic of bitcoin. But I have no wish to hear your disparagement of commenters here. Especially the one you chose to pick on - he can wipe the floor with you but he's busy on the mutual project we all share, which is the attempt to parse reality, and to agree on its meaning.

I would be so happy if you would come and join us in this mutual project, instead of inching yourself out the door on the path you're currently embarked upon.

Please reflect, and rejoin the conversation as an esteemed guest.

Posted by: Grieved | Jan 25 2021 4:13 utc | 84

Oxford University was going to open source its vaccine, then the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation stepped in and convinced them to sell exclusive rights to AstraZeneca.

Posted by: lulu | Jan 25 2021 4:17 utc | 85

uncle tungsten @77

Agree with your comments on Aaron Mate's guest,but he is not bat*(*& crazy:

William Arkin on Trump per a news article in 2019:
"“Of course he is an ignorant and incompetent impostor. And yet I’m alarmed at how quick NBC is to mechanically argue the contrary, to be in favor of policies that just spell more conflict and more war,” he wrote. “Really? We shouldn’t get out Syria? We shouldn’t go for the bold move of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula? Even on Russia, though we should be concerned about the brittleness of our democracy that it is so vulnerable to manipulation, do we really yearn for the Cold War? And don’t even get me started with the FBI: What? We now lionize this historically destructive institution?”

Mr. Arkin argued that NBC, and news outlets like it, often miss crucial news stories because they’re so caught up in the “day-to-day whirlwind and hostage status as prisoners of Donald Trump.”

He also lamented that the national security establishment gained “dangerous strength” under the Trump administration and that NBC “somehow” found itself defending “Washington and the system.”

Posted by: schmoe | Jan 25 2021 4:25 utc | 86

@85 lulu

Your links are supremely valuable, and thank you for all you contribute here.

For interested readers, the source link to the story of Oxford selling out to Astra is here:
They Pledged to Donate Rights to Their COVID Vaccine, Then Sold Them to Pharma

~~

By the way, as time goes by, I become more persuaded to the view that the virus is completely real, and a devastating event, but that many portions of the global society we live in are so corrupt that this event very practically serves as a litmus test to show how useless they are to serve the general purposes of society.

The virus is real. The society it arises in is either equally real, or commensurately unreal.

~~

And that's not even going into where this virus came from - but I don't think that question has ended its life of service either.

Posted by: Grieved | Jan 25 2021 4:37 utc | 87

I can't be bothered arguing over the reality or not of covid that ship sailed long ago. Equally its original source is irrelevant but I thought this piece on the fall in all deaths in Aotearoa may be of interest to some. Unfortunately most of that article is behind a paywall accessible by those who have installed the "Bypass Paywalls" addon, as no one should ever give a brass razoo to the corruptly conservative creeps who own the NZ Herald.

" A new study has also shown how a marked drop in deaths which came with level 4 restrictions was followed by historically low rates well beyond lockdown.

The Medical Research Institute of New Zealand-led (MRINZ) analysis, published in The Lancet this month, explored trends 2020 death rates as far as mid-October.

It found lower rates that came after a sharp drop triggered by lockdown carried on through for nearly 30 weeks after."

The MRINZ analysis posits a few suggestions as to why the death rate dropped in 2020, the main one being that increased handwashing, masks, social distancing etc, reduced the spread of influenza and associated pneumonia even after lockdown finished. eg 474 of the 500 hospitalizations from influenza happened in the 2 1/2 months preceding lockdown.

Normally the number of kiwis killed by the flu & related conditions exceeds the numbers killed in traffic accidents, but that was not the case in 2020 even though the number of traffic fatalities also decreased.
I haven't seen the figures but reckon the fall in traffic fatalities is probably entirely due to lockdown/s, but the drop in overall deaths throughout the year is down to something else.

Oh the drop in influenza is probably a part of it but imo the reason the death rate fell in Aotearoa for 2020 is down to something rather different.

Like everywhere else Jo/Joe Citizen kept away from Drs surgeries & hospitals in 2020 because they were concerned at the possibility of coming in contact with Covid. In other words there were a lot less medical interventions in 2020 and there is a proven correlation between death and medical intervention. Go into hospital & you are considerably more likely to die.

Some of those who stayed away would have had cancers and other diseases that are eventually more fatal without medical intervention than with it. Nevertheless it will be interesting to monitor the rate of death post covid, to see if the deaths catch up eventually or if because of the risk of stress, medical error etc the statistics for fatality never 'catch up' giving truth to the adage that hospitals kill and one should always steer clear of those joints until it is absolutely necessary.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jan 25 2021 5:14 utc | 88

Debsisdead #88

Nevertheless it will be interesting to monitor the rate of death post covid, to see if the deaths catch up eventually or if because of the risk of stress, medical error etc the statistics for fatality never 'catch up' giving truth to the adage that hospitals kill and one should always steer clear of those joints until it is absolutely necessary.

Agreed entirely, and wont there be some obfuscating and shenanigans played out against all inquiring of that data. I can see many an aspiring mathematician and statistician and even historian being offered either a fellowship to focus on what 'really matters' to the Royal College or the National Medical Association or if they decline - a threat against their career.

The Lancet will debase itself further (if that were possible) and print all manner of balderdash reports or reject anything that dares to peek under the shroud of the profession, labeling it 'fake news'.

Bring it on: let us have some evidence based inquiry to consider.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 25 2021 5:45 utc | 89

psychohistorian #70

The shit show will continue until it stops suddenly.......

The leaders of the bunya nut republic behave as if they have been chewing cycad nuts instead of the bunya nut. They exhibit strong indicators of lytigo-bodig disease as they thrash their friends and those they depend on and make useless devices that go bang. Australia forgets at its peril what the USAi has only yesterday done in their homeland, their region and neighbors north of the equator.

Forgetting what happened only yesterday and revisiting the same blunder tomorrow is a prime symptom of lytico - bodig.

Oliver Sachs wrote a mighty good novel 'Island of the Colorblind' of his research into that topic. Great writer.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 25 2021 5:58 utc | 90

schmoe #86

Thank you and I agree that he is not 'bat*(*& crazy:'.

Perhaps I see him as akin to Steve Pieczenic (who is a Trump admirer) and definitely 'bat*(*& crazy:'. They both believe in this Russia hatelust thingy and consequently show their commitment to accepting the propaganda hyper brainwash therapy. They both are almost scientologist in going 'clear', etc, etc.

Noticeably Steve has not published a video for two months so I guess he is mourning. Arkin has no such excuse to be so tumescent about empire and the USA being all empire and proud of it. I did like Arkin's response to Mate's comment about HEGEMONY and his wriggling around the USA being an invader of Syria whereas Russia was invited. He didn't outright spit on his microphone but I bet his sphincter tweaked. Mate used the trigger word :))

No wonder the USAi has got itself in such a mess with one dimensional men like Arkin and Pieczenic pontificating at a national level.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 25 2021 6:13 utc | 91

Watching the latest Jimmy Dore video where he interviews that Trotskyist from WSW, it brought home to me and made clear why I can't stand internationalists. Quite possibly the most tone deaf and dumb people on the planet, with heads in the sand.

And being a Hegelian, I look to historical events unfolding in the world to understand the Dialectical Process of History.

I still feel like the world is not done with Donald Trump. Whether or not his fat ass comes along now, though, is irrelevant.

There was that Apple Orwellian send-up commercial with the athlete destroying the jumbotron of Big Brother in the 80s? For me, I view Trump as that pre-diabetic wheezing athlete to get the gears of history moving again.

But perhaps America need not be at the forefront of history as it is told and grasped by future generations.

There is a sneakier, world-historical figure who always manages to fly under-the-radar. And he has done infinitely more, as of yet, to cement the role of the nation going forward.

Where he did this was in Syria.

I would love to know the Arabic translation or saying for "Line in the sand," because surely that phrase has taken on an epic meaning.

It is where the Nationalist Putin upset the Internationalist plan of full spectrum dominance.

Putin is a far greater figure in the world according to Hegel.

But as we enter Act 2, where the Empire is looking to Strike Back, I pray not only for the nation of Syria, but for the world of nations. The internationalists are about ready to turn the whole card table over.

God help us.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jan 25 2021 6:46 utc | 92

Why would the US do what even some EU countries dont do?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-55773591

Posted by: Mina | Jan 25 2021 8:48 utc | 93

It appears the Houthis are now inside Saudi Arabia.

Attack on Saudi Arabia: US Issues Statement

Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 25 2021 8:53 utc | 94

nemesis calling #92

Would you care to post a link to 'that Jimmy Dore video' so that I can understand your post and perhaps respond.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 25 2021 8:56 utc | 95

The prospects with the new virus mutations look really frightening. Let`s hope the vaccines still work.

As of the Nawalyn protests: In the past years Russia has enacted several laws that makes financing and organising protests from abroad very difficult. The purpose was to make foreign organized "color revolutions" in Russia impossible. So the current protests are essentially real and genuinely Russian. Besides 10.000 protesters in a city like Moscow aren`t really that many.

Posted by: m | Jan 25 2021 9:26 utc | 96

Bemildred #94

The Houthi movement involves a people that span the 'border' between Yemen and Saudi Arabia. They are opposed to the government that they toppled in Yemen.

This from the Brookings Institute is an attempt to describe them:

First and foremost, the Houthis are Zaydi Shiites, or Zaydiyyah. Shiite Muslims are the minority community in the Islamic world and Zaydis are a minority of Shiites, significantly different in doctrine and beliefs from the Shiites who dominate in Iran, Iraq, and elsewhere (often called Twelvers for their belief in twelve Imams).

The Zadiyyah take their name from Zayd bin Ali, the great grandson of Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, whom all Shiites revere. Zayd bin Ali led an uprising against the Umayyad Empire in 740, the first dynastic empire in Islamic history, which ruled from Damascus. Zayd was martyred in his revolt, and his head is believed to be buried in a shrine to him in Kerak, Jordan. Zaydis believe he was a model of a pure caliph who should have ruled instead of the Umayyads.

The Houthis have made fighting corruption the centerpiece of their political program, at least nominally.

The distinguishing feature of Zayd’s remembered biography is that he fought against a corrupt regime. Sunnis and Shiites agree that he was a righteous man. The Zaydi elevate him to be the epitome of a symbol of fighting corruption. The Houthis have made fighting corruption the centerpiece of their political program, at least nominally. The Zaydi do not believe in ayatollahs like the Twelver Shiites—who are the Shiite sect in Iran and most of the Muslim world—nor do they practice the other Twelver doctrine of taqqiyah (dissimulation), which permits one to disguise his or her faith for self-protection.

In short, they are a very different sect than the Iranian version of Shiism that Americans have come to know since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Followers of Zayd established themselves in north Yemen’s rugged mountains in the ninth century. For the next thousand years, the Zaydis fought for control of Yemen with various degrees of success. A succession of Zaydi Imams ruled the community and Zaydis were the majority of the population in the mountains of the north. They fought against both the Ottomans and the Wahhabis in the 18th and 19th centuries.

With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, a Zaydi monarchy took power in North Yemen called the Mutawakkilite Kingdom. The ruler, or imam, was both a secular ruler and a spiritual leader. Their kingdom fought and lost a border war with Saudi Arabia in the 1930s, losing territory to the Saudi state. They also enjoyed international recognition as the legitimate government of North Yemen. Their capital was in Taiz.

I guess they have always been 'in Saudi Arabia' as that border is a recent artefact of colonial great games and ignorant blunders.

There is little chance of Xerxes Biden avoiding being driven to military adventures as he has a record of really liking war mongering.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 25 2021 9:29 utc | 97

COVID-19 is real and people are dying from it. This doesn’t change the fact that the Great Reset crowd are using the pandemic to force through social and economic changes that otherwise would not have been possible. Event 201 sponsored also by the Great Reset crowd makes you wonder about where the virus came from.

Dmitry Orlov raised the point that the changes that are being made have to do with curbing oil use due to peak oil. The more I look into it the truer it rings.

UK energy major BP has warned of a peak in oil demand within the next few years, signalling that the coronavirus pandemic is ushering in an earlier than anticipated decline for the fossil fuel era.

Total SE joined the ranks of oil companies anticipating a peak for the industry in the coming decade, saying demand growth will end around 2030.

While the French energy giant’s analysis is more conservative than that of BP, which earlier this month said the era of oil-market growth was already over, it adds to the chorus of executives and investors predicting rapid change for the industry.

It’s timing with Agenda 2030 is too close to be co-incidental.

Posted by: Down South | Jan 25 2021 9:44 utc | 98

Down South #98

My guess is that the oil oligarchies will progressively morph into 'energy sector providers'. All people generating or storing energy in whatever form that the provider wants to send through their grid system will have to pay a privilege tax to the state (where it exists) and the state will pay it on to them. Socialism for the rich will continue uninterrupted.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 25 2021 10:00 utc | 99

Glen Greenwald sets out his case before the Left Bitches.

Welcome Home, War on Terror.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 25 2021 10:22 utc | 100