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February 3, 2021
Open Thread 2021-010
Comments
Getting more pushback all the time:
International Court of Justice claims jurisdiction to hear Iran’s dispute against US sanctions
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 3 2021 16:56 utc | 2
librul @Feb3 16:24 #1:
swamped?
Appropriate title of Trump’s next book: I came, I saw, covfefe.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Feb 3 2021 17:37 utc | 4
Though life, color revolutionary:
British newspaper’s man in Moscow claims Russians ‘lack self worth’ because they failed to riot over Navalny court verdict
Awful news:
Former ECB chief Draghi appointed to form Italy’s new govt
Can we honestly say Italy still exists? I don’t think so. It was destroyed and devoured and turned into a de facto EU special administration zone.
LAHT: The US Department of Justice is making yet another bold move to prevent Iran from doing business with Venezuela by offering a $15 million reward for any information that may hinder any kind of financial mechanisms from the Middle-East’s nation so-called Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (CGRI) related to oil sales and gasoline with the regime of Nicolás Maduro that constitute a violation of the sanctions imposed by Washington and other countries, said James Story, the US Ambassador for the Venezuela Affairs Unit located in Colombia, via his Twitter account on late on Monday.
LAHT: The Mexican government announced on Tuesday that more than three million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Russia and the World Health Organization’s COVAX platform will arrive in February to speed up the country’s ambitious but delayed immunization program.
Oil Now Guyana: ExxonMobil Guyana asserted on Tuesday that the South American country has made steady progress in the expansion of the nation’s capacity to build a skilled workforce and create a competitive supplier base to support its oil and gas operations.
El Salvador Perspectives: Following the deadly attack on a truck carrying FMLN supporters leaving an election rally on Sunday night, the situation is only slightly clearer. Responses to the event have been along three lines:
1) Condemnations of the murders and demands for a transparent investigation.
2) Concerns that this event does not signal a return to times of political violence which have marked El Salvador’s past.
3) Denunciations of the style of discourse of president Nayib Bukele and his allies, especially as represented by Bukele’s tweet in the moments after the attack which insinuated that the deaths were a self-attack by the FMLN on its own to generate sympathy for the party and criticism of his government.
Posted by: Maracatu | Feb 3 2021 18:07 utc | 7
somebody explain if the military coup in Myanmar bad or good for China’s BRI. I’m pretty sure it is deeply connected to China’s BRI road and this is one more monkey wrench thrown into BRI
Posted by: zapekk | Feb 3 2021 18:07 utc | 8
Posted by: zapekk | Feb 3 2021 18:07 utc | 8
RE BRI, Myanmar: The drift I get is we (USA) have been playing footsie with the Generals for some time now, and this is the Generals deciding it’s not worth their time anymore. So I expect USA to be annoyed, China doesn’t care or approves of the change. I am no expert on Myanmar, but that makes the most sense of all the theories I’ve read. Next few days should make it clearer. I don’t see anybody whose side I want to take in it except the ordinary people who live there. I notice Modi the weathervane doesn’t seem to want to get too involved either.
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 3 2021 18:16 utc | 9
This one has potential – not those farces people have been hyping here (Zinc, Vitamin-D, HCQ, ivermectin):
Thapsigargin Is a Broad-Spectrum Inhibitor of Major Human Respiratory Viruses: Coronavirus, Respiratory Syncytial Virus and Influenza A Virus
Thapsigargin is an antiviral and already was part of the cocktail used for treatment against SARS-CoV-2.
Posted by: vk | Feb 3 2021 18:17 utc | 10
I would be very surprised if a determined search of our fellow biological creatures would produce tons of anti-virals. They’ve been working on it for quite a long time. The problem is those can’t be patented or copyrighted or otherwise “enclosed”.
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 3 2021 18:26 utc | 11
Just when you thought the future couldn’t get much more dystopian, scientists have issued more stark warnings that COVID-19 is reducing fertility in men, and could contribute to depopulation of the planet.
Scientists say that there is increasing evidence in patients of testicular damage and lower sperm counts and mobility, with initial studies revealing the presence of the virus in semen samples.
Scientists Ominously Warn COVID Is Reducing Fertility
Posted by: Down South | Feb 3 2021 18:32 utc | 12
Chinese state capitalism — a threat to US and the world, and how Biden must respond
Three of the world’s five largest companies are Chinese. Joe Biden will have to tackle Beijing’s state capitalism.
https://theprint.in/opinion/chinese-state-capitalism-a-threat-to-us-and-the-world-and-how-biden-must-respond/596062/
Posted by: Mao | Feb 3 2021 18:43 utc | 13
@ vk | Feb 3 2021 18:17 utc | 10
I wonder how the proven efficacy of Ivermectin all of a sudden becomes a “hype” just because another antiviral compound is discovered. Reality can accommodate more than one good solutions.
Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Feb 3 2021 18:44 utc | 14
Forget about fact checkers. NY Times is calling for a “Reality” Czar.
The muddled, chaotic information ecosystem that produces these misguided beliefs doesn’t just jeopardize some lofty ideal of national unity. It actively exacerbates our biggest national problems, and creates more work for those trying to solve them. And it raises an important question for the Biden administration: How do you unite a country in which millions of people have chosen to create their own version of reality?
How the Biden Administration Can Help Solve Our Reality Crisis
Posted by: Down South | Feb 3 2021 18:45 utc | 15
Conversation January 31, 2021
Muhammad Marandi
Alistair Crooke
Max Blumenthal
Pepe Escobar
The Post-American World; Crooke, Escobar, Blumenthal and Marandi lay it all out
Posted by: suzan | Feb 3 2021 18:49 utc | 16
Tiktok has decided to exit India after the Indian government didn’t lift the ban on Chinese apps since July. The parent company ByteDance cut 2,000 jobs in India, almost all of its local employees. This is not a big blow to ByteDance because it wasn’t making much money in India and India is relatively poor ($2,000 per capita) and not growing as fast as China did when at the same economic level as India is now.
Posted by: swampcreature | Feb 3 2021 18:54 utc | 17
@ Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Feb 3 2021 18:44 utc | 14
I think you got it backwards: it is already proven Ivermectin doesn’t work. It’s just a placebo. The author of this blog published the paper with data some open threads ago.
I’ll repeat what I said on that occasion: vermifuges don’t work against viruses. If they worked against viruses, they would be antivirals (which are much more profitable for Big Pharma), not vermifuges. It’s that same analogy Americans know very well: if cornerbacks knew how to catch, they would be wide receivers.
Covid? Infertility? Or perhaps its the experimental intervention that will be degrading the placenta?
Posted by: Chevrus | Feb 3 2021 18:56 utc | 19
Reality Czar indeed….I believe its called The Ministry of Truth.
Posted by: Chevrus | Feb 3 2021 18:57 utc | 20
Posted by: Mao | Feb 3 2021 18:43 utc | 13
RE ThePrint.in piece: Surprisingly realistic. I am glad to know there are still a few realists around. I want to tell them if they want to compete with the Chinese, they are going to have explicitly state managed economies too. That is the state’s job. The fact it is not the same way you want to do it is not relevant. It appears to me they are trying to do it right, China, with lots of competition, all those big SOEs are in competition with each other. We in the west are much too fond of monopoly, and rent. If China goes that route, the easy way, it will do them in too.
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 3 2021 19:10 utc | 21
If covid was manufactured in a lab, reducing human fertility may well have been on of the desired features.
Posted by: lysias | Feb 3 2021 19:13 utc | 22
From yesterday:
Tokyo Olympics President and failed former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori declares, “No matter what situation will be with the coronavirus pandemic, we will hold the Olympic Games.”
Most people must be asking themselves: “why the fuck is Japan so decided to host these fucking Olympic Games nobody cares about anymore”? After all, it’s not that it will generate a revenue that will save the Japanese economy: just some USD 7-10 billion, max – which is nothing to an economy the size of Japan’s.
Well, here’s why (from today):
Successful Olympics amid pandemic will inspire the world: experts
Oh, you didn’t click this article’s link? This one is about the Beijing Winter Olympics, scheduled for 2022.
Indeed, if the Winter Olympics is held and a huge success, that would be a pretty bad PR blow to Japan.
@4 Jackrabbit
I still remember that press secretary who seriously claimed that “covfefe” is some kind of code word and that Trump used that word on purporse in order to address a small group of people who knew what it means.
Posted by: m | Feb 3 2021 19:24 utc | 24
B’Tselem’s Historic Declaration: Israel’s Open War on Its Own Civil Society
“A Regime of Jewish Supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is Apartheid,” was the title of a January 12 report by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem. No matter how one is to interpret B’Tselem’s findings, the report is earth-shattering. The official Israeli response merely confirmed what B’Tselem has stated in no uncertain terms.
Those of us who repeatedly claimed that Israel is not democratic, governed by an apartheid regime and systematically discriminates against its ethnic and racial minorities, in favor of the country’s Jewish majority, purportedly have nothing to learn from B’Tselem’s declaration. Thus, it may seem that the report, which highlighted racial discrimination in four major areas – land, citizenship, freedom of movement and political participation – merely restated the obvious. In actuality, it went much further.
B’Tselem is a credible Israeli human rights organization. However, like other Israeli rights groups, it rarely went far enough in challenging the Israeli state’s basic definition of itself as a democratic state. Yes, on numerous occasions it rightly accused the Israeli government and military of undemocratic practices, rampant human rights violations and so on. But to demolish the very raison d’etre, the basic premise that gives Israel its legitimacy in the eyes of its Jewish citizens, and many more around the world, is a whole different story.
http://www.ramzybaroud.net/btselems-historic-declaration-israels-open-war-on-its-own-civil-society/
A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid
https://www.btselem.org/apartheid
Posted by: Mao | Feb 3 2021 19:37 utc | 25
@ m 24
I just love the word and think its hilrious! There was one near my house with a ‘Women for Trump’ flag on it. It folded and the building is up for sale….
On a related note, all the incensed lefties were screeching about OrangeManBad being “fascist” made me wonder if they even knew the meaning of the word. Apparently not. But hey swinging the social engineering pendullum back and forth sure does divide the masses dont it?
Posted by: Chevrus | Feb 3 2021 19:38 utc | 26
Chris Hedges latest; Papering over the rot;
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/02/01/chris-hedges-papering-over-the-rot/
Posted by: vetinLA | Feb 3 2021 19:39 utc | 27
Posted by: vk | Feb 3 2021 18:17 utc | 10
Vitamin D is a known means of enhancing your immune system to protect against respiratory tract infections, among other things. It isn’t used to treat COVID19. As with any other vitamins and minerals that contribute to a stronger immune system, it is necessary to ensure that levels are not deficient. Vitamin D would seem to be important for this type of infection given that many people suffer from Vitamin D deficiency.
HCQ has been used and is being used in many counties with success in mitigating the effects of COVID 19. It has been used by frontline medical practitioners, not amateurs. It is really unfortunate that Trump championed it, along with Big Pharma propaganda studies, thereby, giving it the kiss of death.
It may not be known what in Ivermectin makes it successful in mitigating COVİD effects, yet, but it does seem to be effective. So, why diss it?
None of these are claimed to be “cures”. They have been found by medical practioners to reduce the more serious effects of COVID when used properly at certain stages of the invection.
Known antivirals and effective vaccines are certainly desirable, but the virus alone is not the cause of the respiratory issues. Antibiotics and antimicrobial treatments also have their place in treating the disease after the infection, given that the worst effects of COVID tend to be caused by bacteria not the virus. This is even more important given the purported lack of effectiveness of the current vaccines in preventing invection.
Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Feb 3 2021 19:53 utc | 28
I can’t see the post several weeks back about financial support for this site, so sorry this is posted here, not there – contribution is now on its way, late, but not too late, I trust!
Posted by: Hope | Feb 3 2021 19:53 utc | 29
@ suzan | Feb 3 2021 18:49 utc | 16… looks interesting, but 2 and 1/2 hours of watching a video is too much for me and i see there is no transcript where i could skim it… would you feel like saying what you got from it?? if there is a transcript, i am interested.. thanks…
Posted by: james | Feb 3 2021 19:59 utc | 30
@ 10 vk…. your dismissive attitude towards those alternatives makes me think of how rigid you may be with your marxism as well… just a thought…
Posted by: james | Feb 3 2021 20:01 utc | 31
Posted by: vk | Feb 3 2021 18:55 utc | 18
Ivermectin has antimicrobial, antiviral, and anti-cancer properties. It is used as such against some viruses. This is well established as far as I understand. Your fixation with it as only a vermifuge is incorrect.
Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Feb 3 2021 20:05 utc | 32
Myanmar holds first cabinet meeting after major reshuffle
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/asiapacific/2021-02/02/c_139716519.htm
22.01.2021 (09:15)
Russian Defence Minister General of the Army Sergei Shoigu held talks with the Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Armed Forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing
http://eng.mil.ru/en/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12340122@egNews
January 22
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing welcomes and meets Russian Defence Minister Army General Sergey K. SHOIGU
https://cincds.gov.mm/node/10355
Posted by: Mao | Feb 3 2021 20:10 utc | 33
Watch Ecuador: elections are scheduled this Sunday, Feb 7. Leftist candidate Arauz is way ahead, the right is divided and hated by most. I see 2 possible attempts to steal the election: rig the count so Arauz doesn’t get enough to win outright (Ecuador’s system is the same as Bolivia’s) or just flat out suspend the election.
Alan Macleod has a good scoop at Mint Press exposing that current president Lenin Moreno flew to Washington to meet with Biden people, the IMF and OAS head Luis Almagro, the key plotter in Evo Morales’ overthrow.
“Only adding to the worries that a Bolivia-style coup might be imminent in Ecuador is current president Lenín Moreno’s decision to spend his final few days in office not in his homeland, but in Washington, D.C., where he has been meeting with senior members of the new Biden administration, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and OAS chief Luis Almagro, who is currently under investigation for his part in Bolivia’s coup.”
If the Empire loses Ecuador South America is poised to continue going socialist. Ecuador is a basket case and the people know why. I think South America is a priority for Biden, the problem for the Empire is that they don’t have their team together and ready yet so I don’t know if the Empire will be able to force Ecuador back into peonage. The wheels are falling off in so many places, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Chile… meanwhile, the leftist nations are not backing down, in fact, they are stepping up: Amlo in Mexico, Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, increasing ties with China, Iran, Russia.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/anti-imf-candidate-surging-ecuador-moreno-flies-to-dc-election/275005/
Posted by: migueljose | Feb 3 2021 20:10 utc | 34
US State Dept rejects Iran offer to mediate return to JCPOA through EU representatives.
Also announces intention to “impose costs” on China and Russia for “malign activity”.
This is posturing. Good chance that the imposition of “costs” will instead be regularly directed at US before Biden admin’s first term is up. The social dislocation that covid will engender in absence of domestic support programs – as looks to be the case with Congressional opposition – is going to create havoc:
I thought the State Dept would quickly move to reduce their international problems to buy time to solve domestic issues, but this appears impossible task for US political system as stands.
Posted by: jayc | Feb 3 2021 20:12 utc | 35
@ Posted by: james | Feb 3 2021 20:01 utc | 31; Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Feb 3 2021 20:05 utc | 32
From Open Thread 2021-007:
The effect of early treatment with ivermectin on viral load, symptoms and humoral response in patients with non-severe COVID-19: A pilot, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial
It simply doesn’t work. Best case scenario, it can lower the chance of permanent taste and smell loss – if you survive.
You’re welcome. And good read.
Thapsigargin seems at the moment only to be available to researchers. If it does become available for humans to use on themselves, I will be surprised if they do not make it only available with a prescription. Like hydroxichloroquine.
Ivermectin is available without a prescription because of its use on animals. Where, by the way, are the studies that allegedly show it does not work on covid?
Posted by: lysias | Feb 3 2021 20:17 utc | 37
Is Covfefe another form of Covinsanity?
It gets worse. The German police arrested a woman for singing in the garden. It takes about 20 SWAT type police in the US to evict/eject one woman and her underage children into the middle of the night. Little girls of 9 must be sprayed in the eyes to make them cry.(also US). Don’t mention the UK police doing dances in empty streets or nurses doing the same in empty hospitals.
I think IT is transmissable through those touch screens on those little listening boxes most people have. DON’T TOUCH, you might catch IT. (or what is worse an alien mutant version of IT)
BIDEN knows what to do. He is putting a lot of leftovers from some crummy cookie party in charge of correcting the world to Covfefe compliant mutts. Calls it Furrin’ policy.
Posted by: Stonebird | Feb 3 2021 20:18 utc | 38
China and Russia blocked the UN from condemning Myanmar’s military coup
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-and-russia-blocked-the-un-from-condemning-myanmar-s-military-coup/ar-BB1dlIQB?c=12548332121724061834%3fmkt%3den-us
Chinese Plan to Boost ‘Masculinity’ With PE Classes Sparks Debate
https://www.asiaone.com/china/chinese-plan-boost-masculinity-pe-classes-sparks-debate
Can’t recall if I shared these or not
Peruvian Court Rules That Bill Gates, George Soros Criminally Liable For “Creating” COVID-19 Pandemic
https://en-volve.com/2021/02/03/peruvian-court-rules-that-bill-gates-george-soros-criminally-liable-for-creating-covid-19-pandemic/
What Happens When America is Secularized based on Race and Identity Politics
https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/madness-madness-war
If ‘Systemic Racism’ Is Real, Why Does Biden Want To Bring Immigrants Here?
https://www.newsweek.com/if-systemic-racism-real-why-does-biden-want-bring-immigrants-here-opinion-1565688
Posted by: Dogon Priest | Feb 3 2021 20:22 utc | 39
Anyone who persists in believing that the United States is not Israel’s poodle should pay attention to the comedy that is playing out right now. Joe Biden was president for less than a week when the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu government announced that he would soon be receiving a possibly unwelcome visitor in the form of the Israeli foreign intelligence service Mossad’s chief Yossi Cohen, who will be flying to Washington in February to explain the correct policy when dealing with Iran. And lest there be any confusion on the issue, the Israel Defense Force chief of staff Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi also announced that any Biden attempt to mend fences with the Islamic Republic will have to meet certain conditions or Israel will exercise other options.
https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/israel-cracks-the-whip/
Posted by: Mao | Feb 3 2021 20:31 utc | 40
i posted this at irrussianality and thought i’d do so here since it is the best analogy for MSM coverage of russia and trump (and increasingly china):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIyo9spmhAg
as caitlin johnstone said before the election, a lot of yanks who would otherwise just try to live their lives and such give in to the adam schiffs and rachel maddows of the world because after a while MYAAAAAAAAH!! in your face makes you willing to do anything just to shut the screeching assholes up.
Posted by: the pair | Feb 3 2021 20:33 utc | 41
In the panicked aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the powers-that-be dusted off wish lists of surveillance-state powers and began monitoring and tracking us in ways that affect our lives two decades later. The political turbulence of recent years, culminating in the Capitol riot on January 6, may similarly liberate the political class to do its worst—this time with free speech as the target. The effort will likely again enjoy support from members of the public eager to surrender their freedom.
“We need to shut down the influencers who radicalize people and set them on the path toward violence and sedition,” argued columnist Max Boot in The Washington Post. His solution? Carriers should drop Fox News and other conservative cable news outlets if they don’t stop spreading “misinformation.” Boot also believes that “Biden needs to reinvigorate the FCC” to impose British-style controls over the news—never mind that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) doesn’t have the authority to regulate cable outlets that it has over broadcasters that use public airwaves.
https://reason.com/2021/01/29/americans-abandoning-free-speech-protections-better-brace-for-the-consequences/
Posted by: Mao | Feb 3 2021 20:34 utc | 42
‘Inadmissible’: Correa Denounces New Attempt to Suspend Elections in Ecuador
Today, February 2, former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa alerted Ecuador and the world of a new attempt to suspend the elections due to take place next Sunday, February 7.
“New attempt to suspend elections! They know they will lose in the first round and they are desperate. Now they are trying through the TCE [Electoral Contention Court], letter received yesterday by Judge Ángel Torres (the worst!). Álvaro Noboa already announced this morning that elections would be postponed for two months. Inadmissible!” wrote Correa on his Twitter account.
According to the former president, this is a new attempt to postpone the elections due to the concern of the Government and its allies about the triumph of progressivism in Ecuador.
Following his 2017 presidential victory, Lenín Moreno—former vice president under Correa— betrayed the electorate of Ecuador, abandoning progressive policies put in place by Correa. Moreno received significant loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and implemented a neoliberal economic program dictated by Washington and the IMF, submerging the country into a deep economic crisis and losing his popular support.
https://orinocotribune.com/inadmissible-correa-denounces-new-attempt-to-suspend-elections-in-ecuador/
Posted by: Mao | Feb 3 2021 20:38 utc | 43
If you survive?
Ivermectin has a remarkable safety profile. Currently being used at whole population level in India with great success.
Vitamin D is being used at whole population level in Andalusia both as prophylaxis and as treatment.
The search engines are busy scrubbing information. Look up ‘India ivermectin’ and find pages of “scientists are puzzled” or “mystery of tumbling covid numbers”. The best is the story about how India’s success may be due to a visit from a team of Yale economists. Which is still more rational than what certain Marxists espouse.
Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 3 2021 20:39 utc | 44
Dems Sit in Silence as Witness Debunks Their ‘Assault’ Rifle Lies
“Americans use firearms to defend themselves between 500,000 and two million times every year. God forbid that my mother is ever faced with a scenario where she has to stop a threat to her life. But if she is, I hope politicians protected by professional armed security didn’t strip her of the right to use the firearm she can handle most competently.” – Amy Swearer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZmkv-5jnW0
Posted by: Mao | Feb 3 2021 20:40 utc | 45
#13 It seems you have not read, or taken seriously, the Michael Hudson interview, a link to which was posted on this site recently. Stop bitching about the Chineese stealing our jobs vía “state capitalism”
Posted by: c | Feb 3 2021 20:43 utc | 46
America’s Frontline Doctors have created a website where they urge Americans to sign a petition that warns mandates for experimental medical therapies are neither permissible nor advisable.
https://zonenews-24.com/2021/02/02/mandates-for-experimental-therapies-are-neither-permissible-nor-advisable-americas-frontline-doctors-create-a-petition-to-stop-forced-experimental-vaccines/
Posted by: Mao | Feb 3 2021 20:54 utc | 47
Just read this
North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson (a black man) slams media company for cartoon depicting GOP as KKK members
https://abc11.com/lt-governor-mark-robinson-racism-social-studies-schools/10254732
Posted by: Dogon Priest | Feb 3 2021 21:08 utc | 48
Viva Ecuador libre
A grayzone video 6 minutes.Election day is this Sunday. This is the one to watch and the USAi rightist presidential candidate went to Washington yesterday for a week of ‘talks’.
Left wing Citizens Revolution candidate Andres Arauz is expected to win as the rightist President is a scumbag.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 3 2021 21:19 utc | 49
Mao #13
Joe Biden couldn’t tackle a flapping curtain and has no chance of tackling State Capitalism. The advanced nations are where they are due to state capitalism: infrastructure, schools, medial services, industry all because the state sector invested in those enterprises for the past century. It is the idiot private ‘finance’ zealots and their globalisation mania of the past 40 years that have led us into this desert gulch. NOT CHINA.
If you want to rebuild the USA job base and manufacturing capacity and infrastructure then inject the same $Trillions that Trump did last year and give it to people and productivity NOT BANKS.
Modern sane nations build social capital and public enterprise NOT private finance capital. Modern insane nations do the opposite.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 3 2021 21:27 utc | 50
@ james
I’ve made a summary for you.
Yes, it is a long conversation. People familiar with Crooke and Escobar’s recent opinion pieces will already know much of what is said. If I were to give a several-sentence summary of the entire conversation, perhaps,
The world is undergoing a seismic geopolitical shift from unipolarism to multipolarism but Washington remains stuck in its failed mythical bubble, unable to read the tea leaves. The rest of the world, those who are watching, see as the USA is forced to look inward because everything is broken, powers abroad have more room to maneuver and (re)create themselves on a more cooperative civilizational basis.
~~~~
Here’s a timeline that I jotted it down earlier. The minutes may be a bit off.
0-5 minutes Marandi introduction
5-20 minutes Crooke summarizes a position he laid out in a recent opinion re how events are now the main driver in USA, not mobilizations.
21-55 Blumenthal describes the Jan 6th event; and the militarization of D.C., ongoing, where the government is being “protected” from the people.
55-1:08 Escobar discusses the speeches Xi and Putin recently gave at Davos and suggests that these, along with some earlier events (Putin’s 2007 Munich speech, 2008 Georgia, 2014 Maiden coup and 2014 Crimea reunification with Russia), along with Michael Hudson’s newest book, lays an unfolding of an anti “Great Reset,” an “AntiTINA” roadmap.
1:03-1:13 Marandi comments and then poses a question, “Where to now?”
1:13-1:27 Crooke talks about the failure of liberalism and the [re]emergence of civilizational states. He believes that the unmasking of the US Empire allows people to reinvent themselves.
1:27-1:30 Marandi poses question, Does what we are talking about here make any sense in Washington D.C.?
Most answer, no — because Washington is stuck in a delusional bubble of mediocrity.
1:30-1:45 Blumenthal mentions Israel as an example of what is occurring in the USA today. The public is internally divided to extremes. These internal divisions are being manipulated into a union by setting up a common external enemy. In the US the so-called China threat is being set up as this uniting external enemy, with profits going to the MIC.
1:45-1:49 Marandi talks about how Iranians view the US to be agreement unworthy; and a failed example of democracy.
1:49-1:56 Escobar quotes Bob Dylan, “everything is broken” internally and recaps a recent opinion piece he wrote re a book on the fall of France and the CFR 1940 committee planning out the future us empire — 12 months of planning, 80 years of empire, with the whole scheme now dissolving completely. He also mentions a perhaps landmark issuance from the Atlantic Council, “The Long Telegram.” While the mediocre functionaries of the US empire may control the language and major media landscape, what it says rings hollow. Thomas Pynchon’s hollow american dream
1:56-1:59 Crooke While the Washington bubble may believe it can go back to what was before, we, it can’t go back. The more complex the networks of systems, and the bigger they grow, the greater the risk of total collapse. The elites are nervous and without confidence.
1:59-2:07 Blumenthal Liberalism used to mean something to ordinary USA people but now it is meaning is completely gutted, a fraud. The liberal state will not deliver for the people. The rising domestic furor will be turned on the so-called deep state. Another mediocre functionary of the empire, Susan Rice, has been put in charge of domestic policy, not a promising outlook for the people.
2:07-2:12 Marandi People are watching. As the US looks inward, powers abroad will have more room to maneuver.
Posted by: suzan | Feb 3 2021 21:43 utc | 51
Yanis Varoufakis: From an Economics without Capitalism to Markets without Capitalism | DiEM25
A lecture organised by University of Tübingen economics students, delivered on Monday February 3, 2020, on the theme “From an Economics without Capitalism to Markets without Capitalism”.
Mainstream economic models lack some important features of really-existing capitalism, including money, time and space. Its models offer ideological cover for a capitalist system that has usurped competitive, free markets.
The result? Unbearable inequality, climate catastrophe and permanent stagnation. A fork on the road is approaching: It will take us either into deeper stagnation and environmental degradation or to a society with markets but no capitalism. Prof. Yanis Varoufakis talks about the future of our economy and the current state of economics with special regard to pluralism in economics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aK4OztueuE
Posted by: Mao | Feb 3 2021 22:03 utc | 52
Richard D. Wolff
US Economy Excels at One Thing: Producing Massive Inequality
To solve the extreme inequality of US capitalism requires systemic change, an end to capitalism pitting employers against employees.
https://www.newsclick.in/US-Economy-Excels-One-Thing-Producing-Massive-Inequality
Posted by: Mao | Feb 3 2021 22:06 utc | 53
Suzan @16 & james @30–
The discussion was a great accompaniment to lunch. Max provided the best analysis of what happened on the 6th in DC. Alastair elaborated on the content of his last several essays, particularly on the Empire’s cultural collapse. Pepe is always more of a listener but has revealed something to me through his review of Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy and then the discussion of the recent Atlantic Council Paper, The Longer Telegram: The first reveals the initial planning for what was later articulated as the #1 Foreign Policy Goal of the Outlaw US Empire–Full Spectrum Domination–and the second reveals the yet again doubling-down of this failed policy goal. They won’t disabuse themselves of their Exceptionalist mythos because to do that would render them identitliless AND merely a motely collection of ideological zealots devoid of any moral or ethical standard:
The Emperor is not only naked but has dropped all of its masks; and like Humpty-Dumpty, there’s no way to put it back together again.
Pepe also brought forth the challenge posed by the Davos speeches of Putin and Xi, while Max revisited Putin’s 2007 Munich speech that was said directly into the face of the War Criminal and Traitor John McCain. A key point made is the utter blindness of the Outlaw US Empire to the fact that both Putin’s Russia and today’s China are the direct result of their reactions to the Empire’s policies towards them. I can’t recall who but Putin’s speech was described as “Hard Line,” which from one POV it’s possible to see it as such since Putin said matter-of-factly that we have our own development path and will follow it regardless AND that your lies and illegalities are creating a 1930s situation whose outcome will be war if you don’t stop.
Last is the utter mediocrity of BidenCo and the even lesser minds that are directing it. The fact that there’s some Class Consciousness and solidarity between Reds and Blues as the fantastical fraud and collusion between BigTech and Neoliberal Parasites was made crystal clear to both–and to the world–may be a game-changer. But, their expectation is for the 2024 election to be even more manipulated than 2020’s.
I’m sure I missed covering a few items. But it was worth the time.
@ suzan | Feb 3 2021 21:43 utc | 51.. thanks! that is very kind of you… i made it 41 minutes and stopped it… now that you’ve given this, i will proceed further… i enjoyed crookes commentary in the 20 minutes.. max is fine, but not as interesting as a listener for me anyway! thank you! you might want to share that on youtube as a post for others…
on a related note, i am looking into peertube as an alternative to youtube… https://joinpeertube.org/
i think the time is fast approaching where google is going to monetize youtube by forcing people to pay to watch and listen to what is on it… as a musician i need to find an alternative platform to promote myself.. i have a website, but i presently use youtube for videos… i basically detest google..
Posted by: james | Feb 3 2021 22:10 utc | 55
Suzan @51–
Well, now james has two to read! IMO, Crooke’s notion that what’s been termed a Black Swan Event–one that’s unanticipated by some and anticipated by others–will occur within the Outlaw US Empire during BidenCo as more people get thrown under the bus and thus become aware and combine seemed to be agreed to by all. But in the realm where retreat is actually the best policy move, what we get is yet another doubling-down to try and accomplish the now impossible goal of Full Spectrum Dominance, while the domestic population gets subdued by the BigTech Boot.
AS of january 19th the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has upgraded their recommendation for the drug ivermectin, making it an option for use in treating COVID-19 within the United States.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/miraculous-ivermectin-approved-for-use-in-the-us-for-the-treatment-of-covid-19
.
Posted by: Fíréan | Feb 3 2021 22:31 utc | 58
if, as some experts claim, the Pfizer vaccine affects fertility, will Israelis will cease to reproduce, as they have all been vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine?
Posted by: Virgile | Feb 3 2021 22:37 utc | 59
Correction to previous post : the update of ivermectin was january 14th., the news article was 19th.
Posted by: Fíréan | Feb 3 2021 22:40 utc | 60
Black swan event? Well, the vent itself might be unpredictable, but an event that will precipitate crisis and eventual fall of US Empire isn’t a black swan as such. Actually, it’s a given; something I’ve been expecting for the last 28 years. One could actually have some, say, intellectual and speculative fun and game: if you know the inescapable outcome, how would we go from here, our current state, to there – if the US is going to collapse in the next few decades, how will it happen, what will be the biggest trigger, and when?
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Feb 3 2021 22:40 utc | 61
While I found Ehret’s last essay to be one of his best, he still needs to be read very critically as is the case with the essay published today. He immediately attacks Bertrand Russell for saying things in an edition of a book he doesn’t link to, yet links to the second edition (The Scientific Outlook) that contains Russell’s updated introduction which is placed there as a warning to the reader that Ehret has apparently ignored:
“Man hitherto has been prevented from realizing his hopes by ignorance as to means. As this ignorance disappears he becomes increasingly able to mould his physical environment, his social milieu and himself into the forms which he deems best. In so far as he is wise this new power is beneficent; in so far as he is foolish it is quite the reverse. If, therefore, a scientific civilization is to be a good civilization it is necessary that increase in knowledge should be accompanied by increase in wisdom. I mean by wisdom a right conception of the ends of life. This is something which science in itself does not provide. Increase of science by itself, therefore, is not enough to guarantee any genuine progress, though it provides one of the ingredients which progress requires.
“In the following pages we shall be concerned with science rather than with wisdom. It is well to remember, however, that this preoccupation is one-sided and needs to be corrected if a balanced view of human life is to be achieved.” [My Emphasis]
As with his colleague Cynthia Chung, Ehret misrepresents a famous personage to manipulate the premise to his thesis. Far better would be to use Russell’s warning about the implementation of technology without the requisite wisdom to use it properly and go on from there.
Clueless Joe @61–
I’m not certain that Crooke would have used that term, but he did emphasize that events are the driving force, not the various ideologies in play. This was the main point in his last essay, “On the American Dharma of Dynamics, and the Confusion of Symptom With Cause”.
ut @ 50 stated;”If you want to rebuild the USA job base and manufacturing capacity and infrastructure then inject the same $Trillions that Trump did last year and give it to people and productivity NOT BANKS.”
“Modern sane nations build social capital and public enterprise NOT private finance capital. Modern insane nations do the opposite.”
Exactly!!! NOT rocket science..
Posted by: vetinLA | Feb 3 2021 23:53 utc | 64
I was actually in Myanmar (Burma) for 15 minutes, before someone with a rifle convinced me to return back into Thailand.
Posted by: Duncan Idaho | Feb 4 2021 0:03 utc | 65
karlof1 #62
Thank you. Bertrand Russel was the first writer on philosophy that I read as it was poked under my teenage nose. I read most of his works and many others.
That Ehret gets Russel’s easy propositions wrong is a testament to Ehret’s willful or casual ignorance.
Russel wrote in a time where there was deep consideration of human ethics and principles of social organisation. He was the subject of constant criticism from the oligarch and private finance factions of the ruling class. In their view, he had betrayed his class and championed the potential of the human mind: unforgivable.
Example book: why I am not a christian!
The Bertrand Russel War Crimes Tribunal was created in response to the USAi invasion and attempted re-colonisation of Vietnam and many contributed to it throughout the planet.
Russel stands for human reason above all else (more or less).
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 4 2021 0:08 utc | 66
“Far better would be to use Russell’s warning about the implementation of technology without the requisite wisdom to use it properly and go on from there.”
Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 3 2021 23:25 utc | 62
I’d say we about neck-deep in that now. I can’t remember when I saw more ephemeral crap, everything is crap designed to fall apart in less than ten years. There’s a reason they like to market to the young. Even our military which we spend so much on is crap. With batteries. Batteries in everything. Anything to add some more cheap electronics to impress the Rubes. Remember all the little pens with 4-function calculators and clocks?
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 4 2021 0:10 utc | 67
How the Biden Administration Can Help Solve Our Reality Crisis
Several experts I spoke with recommended that the Biden administration put together a cross-agency task force to tackle disinformation and domestic extremism, which would be led by something like a “reality czar.”
First of all: you have to admire the arrogance. When the USA is not well, it is not the USA that is not well: it’s reality itself that is not well (“in crisis”). Therefore it is reality that is obliged to bend to the USA’s will.
Second: the arrogance is such that the Americans really believe that they can appoint a bureaucrat that can change reality itself (reality czar). Therefore, the American people is delusional enough to think their government is so powerful that it can change reality with an executive order.
@ vk | Feb 3 2021 18:55 utc | 18 and 36
The most important conclusion I draw from the study you referred to in #36 is that they used the wrong dose of Ivermectin. They used a single dose of 0.4mg/kg, whereas the recommended dose is at least 0.4mg/kg per day in a multiple-day dosing regime. As a result, any conclusion about Ivermectin’s efficacy from this study is meaningless.
In contrast, check out these two publications. The first one summarizes results of 8 studies (5 observational and 4 RCT) to demonstrate efficacy in prophylaxis and 12 studies (5 observational and 7 RCT) to demonstrate efficacy in treatment.
https://covid19criticalcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FLCCC-Ivermectin-in-the-prophylaxis-and-treatment-of-COVID-19.pdf
The second one does a meta-analysis of 18 RCT studies and comes to a positive conclusion.
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-148845/v1
Everybody, including the authors of the above papers, and Ivermectin proponents, agree that more studies are needed. Multiple new studies are in progress and are being planned. But if you call these very positive results “hype” then the definition of the term must have changed.
Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Feb 4 2021 0:28 utc | 69
A useful source to keep up to date on Ivermectin is the website of Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance
https://covid19criticalcare.com
Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Feb 4 2021 0:31 utc | 70
Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 3 2021 23:25 utc | 62
RE Ehret: OK I read it all, I usually get a paragraph or two in and quit. He makes some good points but I am mystified as to why he thinks dragging Bertrand Russell into the argument is a good idea when there so many far better choices. Many of the evil things he accuses Russell of advocating for sound a lot like what Putin & Xi claim to be aiming for. Global rules and regulations. It’s just not a good argument.
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 4 2021 0:36 utc | 71
uncle tungsten @50: “…inject the same $Trillions that Trump did last year and give it to people and productivity NOT BANKS.”
Unfortunately there is a very good reason that the printed monies are going to banks and wealthy investors rather than plebes like us. If you conjure a cool $trillion out of thin air, then whatever you spend it on will inflate in price. If you spend it on food and housing and other life necessities then those items will be hit with inflation. Normal market dynamics: more dollars chasing the same commodities always cranks up inflation. You give that $trillion to us little people and we will spend it on commodities, and that would drive up their prices. That would be a bad thing right now.
On the other hand what do rich people spend their windfalls on? Various equities and financial instruments. You give the rich cash by the pallet loads and that will inflate the equities markets and blow big financial bubbles. In the shallow-thinking MMT world that represents economic growth.
Basically, while the Fed can hand out unlimited baseless cash to big investors, they have no choice but to be very parsimonious with the handouts to people who might actually spend that money on something tangible.
Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 4 2021 0:43 utc | 72
Is there no social media that is no controlled by the global Zionist cabal?
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/parler-ceo-fired-rebekah-mercer-controlled-board
“On January 29, 2021, the Parler board controlled by Rebekah Mercer decided to immediately terminate my position as CEO of Parler. I did not participate in this decision,” wrote Matze in a statement obtained by Fox Business. “I understand that those who now control the company have made some communications to employees and other third parties that have unfortunately created confusion and prompted me to make this public statement.”
I can’t think of a single social media platform that is not founded, funded, controlled in some way or another by the global cabal of They Who Shall Not Be Named on Pain of Deplatforming.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Feb 4 2021 0:47 utc | 73
uncle tungsten @66 & Bemildred @67–
Thanks for your replies! Yes, I was shocked at Ehret’s attempt to invert Russell’s humanism and turn him into a devil. I thought to writing much more, but I’ve grown tired of those two propagandists. Russell’s point is something I’ve been saying since the 1970s and relates to the adoption of inbuilt obsolescence to further consumerism. When teaching about the Great Depression, I noted that American made goods at that time were made to last and last and last, and that was deemed to be a problem since once everyone had a toaster, there’d be no more demand for them and jobs would be lost. So, what’s the moral choice in relation to that problem? Today, I want a car like the basic Hillman Husky my buddy owned when I was in high school in the early 1970s, completely without bells and whistles, yet totally utilitarian and very inexpensive, a far cry from the average $35,000 for a new car nowadays that’s almost impossible to perform basic maintenance on.
As far as I’m concerned, the two nations with wisdom far in excess of that in the West are Russia and China, and likely others within the Eurasian Bloc. Just their moral emphasis on Good Governance puts them on a level so far above the West, such that one wonders what happened.
VK @ 36:
I’d be a bit wary of quoting The Lancet given that that journal had to retract its May 2020 article on an observational study of treating hospitalised COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine and its findings that giving such a treatment to the patients increased their risk of death, after three of the four authors of the article admitted they could not vouch for the veracity of the primary data when the company that owned the data, Surgisphere, and whose founder is also an author of the observational study), refused to release the information.
Curiously Surgisphere, whose founder is one of the four authors of the retracted study, counted among its employees a science fiction writer and an adult-content model.
I would not like to think that The Lancet hasn’t learned something from its earlier blunder but the journal seems just as eager to discredit the use of Ivermectin as one alternative treatment for COVID-19 by quoting a study conducted in a way that as Nathan Mulcahy observes @ 36 makes it useless, as it did with hydroxychloroquine.
Posted by: Jen | Feb 4 2021 0:58 utc | 75
I think you got it backwards: it is already proven Ivermectin doesn’t work. It’s just a placebo. The author of this blog published the paper with data some open threads ago.
I’ll repeat what I said on that occasion: vermifuges don’t work against viruses. If they worked against viruses, they would be antivirals (which are much more profitable for Big Pharma), not vermifuges. It’s that same analogy Americans know very well: if cornerbacks knew how to catch, they would be wide receivers.
As shown on flccc.net Ivermectin does work! It has been sucessfullly used in Bangladesh for the past 12 months!
Why does VK continue to harp on this issue!! Given he doesn’t know didly squat about this or any other matter!!
Now to the Scott Ritter rant on RT against restoring the USA draft…
“Bull Shit!!
You draft them for one of those endless mindless wars… they will take matters into their capable hands…
And…..
FRAG the god damn officers…
UNTIL….
The Generals call it quits!!!
Which is what happened in Nam….
INDY
Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Feb 4 2021 1:02 utc | 76
@vk, 36
The researchers in the paper which you cited gave one dose of ivermectin and reported that it did not work. None of the doctors who have had success in treating patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 with ivermectin use the drug by itself. The treatment protocol developed by doctors like Professor Thomas Borody and Dr Pierre Kory involves ivermectin + zinc + doxycycline.
Vitamin D itself is excellent for the prevention of Covid-19 but it takes a couple of weeks to go through the liver to become fully active in the blood-stream. This makes it too slow for treatment. However, there is a part-activated form called calcifediol (25 hydroxyvitamin B) that if taken by mouth is active within a couple of hours. A clinical trial in Córdoba in Spain showed spectacular results from the use of calcifediol in patients admitted to hospital with Covid-19 pneumonia, reducing ICU admissions by 96%.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960076020302764
Posted by: cirsium | Feb 4 2021 1:05 utc | 77
The most important conclusion I draw from the study you referred to in #36 is that they used the wrong dose of Ivermectin. They used a single dose of 0.4mg/kg, whereas the recommended dose is at least 0.4mg/kg per day in a multiple-day dosing regime. As a result, any conclusion about Ivermectin’s efficacy from this study is meaningless.
The dosage is .15 -.2 micrograms / kg of body weight on days 1 – 5 for treatment days 1, 3, 7, 14. 28 and every 14 days thereafter. Together with…. Zn+ Quercitin, Vit D, Vit C, daily
go to flccc.net for Dr. Zelenko’s treatment regimen..
INDY
Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Feb 4 2021 1:06 utc | 78
The Lancet studies of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin were both pretty clearly designed to fail.
Posted by: lysias | Feb 4 2021 1:08 utc | 79
Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 4 2021 0:56 utc | 74
Yeah, I’d take a Hillman, or Renault 4CV. Cheap, reliable, and easy to fix with simple tools. The original Volkswagen. I don’t think most people today realize that was a choice, to crapify everything so we could all have to work all our lives while they try to conquer the planet. Walter Karp called it the “Priciple of Waste”, and it has much to do with the size of our dumps and the need for consumer storage places for the excess crap.
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 4 2021 1:13 utc | 80
Interview with Dr. Hector Carvallo : pioneer in Ivermectin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB6Bvi_g-w8&feature=emb_title
quote from a LifeSite article : Carvallo added that “by now half of Argentina is using” ivermectin, as are doctors in at least ten other South American countries. While top British scientific journal Nature has censured Latin Americans for “unchecked ivermectin use,” Dr. Kory has attributed some of the region’s major victories against the virus to widespread adoption of the drug. /endquote
(hope the youtube link is good. not familair with posting )
Posted by: Fíréan | Feb 4 2021 1:14 utc | 81
@vk, 36
You seem to have forgotten or never to have been aware of what Shrub Jr’s adviser, mr Karl Rove said almost 20 years ago: “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/faith-certainty-and-the-presidency-of-george-w-bush.html
So according to Mr Rove, USA has been creating its own Reality since at least 2004.
Posted by: Hoyeru | Feb 4 2021 1:31 utc | 82
@vk, 36
forgot to finish: So maybe that is exactly why Reality has chosen to bite USA’s ass hard right now, to remind USA that Reality isn’t something that goes away after you refuse to believe in it.(Philip K. Dick)
Posted by: Hoyeru | Feb 4 2021 1:34 utc | 83
car talk
Hillman was a truly horrible car. I know, my mother had one when I was learning
to drive. Lucas ignition guaranteed to fail when damp.
VW bugs were so high maintenance, required adjusting valves constantly
(was it every 10K miles?) or valves burned. This meant warming the engine,
then getting under the hot engine and reaching up to adjust 8 valves located
under 2 valve covers. Handling? so dangerous, all the weight was on the rear,
and most drivers overinflated front tires (supposed to be only 17 psi!!!)
so any cross wind blew them off the road.
2CV? Are you serious? Did you ever drive one for a 1000 mile trip?
A far better cheap old car was the Datsun 210, which had ohv (NOT ohc) so there
was no timing belt to replace. Very little power, but more than a HIllman.
Very light, excellent mpg, durable drivetrain, thin body begging for moisture to rust out.
BUT
small cars from Japan were fazed out because USA restricted the number
of Japanese cars imported, so they got bigger, fancier, more complex.
Posted by: downtownhaiku | Feb 4 2021 1:55 utc | 84
Posted by: downtownhaiku | Feb 4 2021 1:55 utc | 84
Datsun 210 was a great car, my wife had one. Shoulda kept it. Renault 4CV: I didn’t say it was fancy or comfortable. I boutght one for $50.00. It served me for some time with the help of some foil from a pack of gum and a bit of wire to fix a vacuum line. This kind of success is gratifying. I used to drive a Ford Escort for long trips all the time. I’m 6′ 2″. I did indeed suck, but have you ever tried a motorcycle? Hillman indeed had no power, but still saved lots of time compared to walking. Safety would have to be improved. Seat belts and bags for sure. How much time and money do you waste now repairing/replacing failed plastic crap?
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 4 2021 2:14 utc | 85
article up today on michael hudsons website…
At the Oxford Economics Society
you stirred up a hornets nest vk, lol…
Posted by: james | Feb 4 2021 2:26 utc | 86
Car talk cont.
My vote for the Ford Escort (UK style, no idea about the US version). That 1600cc engine with the x-flow head was a great little engine (used in the single-seater Formula Ford racing series forever). When I needed a new carb my friend used the cardboard from a Dunhill packet as a gasket between the carb and intake manifold, worked like a charm.
Posted by: S.P. Korolev | Feb 4 2021 2:43 utc | 87
Dr. George W Oprisko | Feb 4 2021 1:06 utc | 78
Pls doublecheck dosage. I have in micrograms at 200mcg/kg bodyweight; works out in milligrams as 0.2 mg/kg.
I have also seen it at 300mcg/kg. So please doublecheck. I am not a doc.
Posted by: chu teh | Feb 4 2021 2:49 utc | 88
I’d say one of the greatest losses of this “pandemic” will be confidence in the medical community. Doctors were certainly the most trusted professionals, especially in countries with universal health care. After ten months of madness, it appears they are just as corrupted as everything else in our society. I wonder how many have been captured by big Pharma.
Posted by: EoinW | Feb 4 2021 2:58 utc | 89
Yes, Ford Escort = good car
My son was planning to drive from CA to Conn for college.
My brother found a Ford Escort for him.
Son’s 3 friends joined him, with all their baggage.
They bought a rooftop container for all the stuff.
Drove North to see Montana, across Canada, eventually to Conn.
Drove the car at college for 3 more years.
Never a problem
Posted by: downtownhaiku | Feb 4 2021 3:19 utc | 90
Posted by: james | Feb 4 2021 2:26 utc | 86
RE Hudson: thanks, that’s very good.
In other news:
‘It’s Just Hard to Understand’: Head of US Space Force Complains Not Many Realize Its Purpose
I think Sputkink puts these stories up as a form of propaganda.
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 4 2021 3:19 utc | 91
The update from India regarding covid19. The caseload is declining dramatically. The latest is just 11000 cases for the whole country as on 3rd Feb 2021. The cases are mostly restricted to two states of Kerala (which funnily enough took all WHO prescribed precautions for suppression very early and went for search, isolate and treat method) and Maharashtra. All other states are reporting cases in hundreds only. There severity is also gone and people are resuming daily activities normally. As with any power grabbing organisation , TPTB are unwilling to relax mask mandate / social distancing which are observed more in breach than in practice.
India is officially using both HCQ and ivermectin for treatment and prophylaxis purposes. It is left to states choice.
It is a fact that cases are on continuous decline and mortality is very low.
In such an environment govt is pushing ahead vaccination for front line workers unnecessarily.
About 50% are unwilling to become geniapigs.
Posted by: Rao | Feb 4 2021 3:21 utc | 92
Posted by: james | Feb 4 2021 2:26 utc | 86
I will comment a bit more on the Hudson interview:
You can see that we did to ourselves deliberately what we did to the British after WWII, de-industrialized. I have always thought it dumbfoundingly stupid for people who think the are going to rule the world to do that. Autarky is essential. We actually helped the Chinese build themselves up, I assume on racist assumptions about their ablity to compete with us, we didn’t think they could to pose a “serious threat”. Our vaunted Pentagon wizards have done screwed themselves, we are the ones who are hamstrung. Some nitwit military guy I read today thinks nuclear war is a real possibility. The light dawns.
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 4 2021 3:30 utc | 93
@ vk | Feb 3 2021 18:55 utc | 18
Oh another thing. I believe you are mistaken about how science works. You have commented several times to the effect that Ivermectin cannot work because you/experts cannot come up with a credible hypothesis how it would work against Covid-19.
Hypotheses are very useful tools in science. They can be used to design experiments or to explain experimental data. But in the end, real data always trumps any hypothesis. Good data still reigns supreme, even if no hypothesis can yet been postulated to explain a mechanism.
In this specific case, if good data (e.g. good quality clinical studies) demonstrate that Ivermectin is efficacious then that’s what matters most. Suitable hypotheses will follow in time. BTW, it is not the rule, but there are plenty of examples in science where unexpected results (meaning results that were not expected based on available hypotheses) have opened up completely new fields of science.
Posted by: NathanMulcahy | Feb 4 2021 3:47 utc | 94
@ bemildred…. i like that recent article of his.. i think you are right in the long run… as i like to say.. the jig is up! or almost up!
i would like to quote a section that might entice others to take a look at it…
“You should essentially think of the IMF as a small office in the basement of the Pentagon, deciding what countries to support, and what countries are following policies that the United States do not want and therefore wants to wreck. That explains why the IMF will give loans to completely non-creditworthy countries such as Argentina under the dictators, or the Ukraine with no visible means of paying off the debt.
The loans to Ukraine, the loans to Greece recently that ended up bankrupting it, the loans yet again to Argentina have demoralized the IMF staff. They complained that every forecast they make shows that the debts can’t be paid, but the IMF continues to make them anyway. The IMF has become a pariah among competent financial analysts throughout the world. The United States is still trying to force countries into the IMF as a means of controlling them, saying “Either you engage in a pro-American war against labor and [engage in] neoliberalism, or the alternative is wreckage.”
Ironically what’s changing all this is the United States’ cold war against Russia and China. The United States has begun to impose sanctions on the Russian and other post-Soviet economies, and on China. This is driving them into a position where their only defense is to do what Britain could not do in 1945L to create an alternative economic order with its own rules. So for the last five years or so China, Russia and other countries are discussing how to de-dollarize their economy.”
this reminds me of that book i read a few years ago… a bit of a rerun… – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man
i had a few austin cambridges i was particularly fond of… bought them for a few hundred dollars and ran them into the ground relatively quickly… but i did like the car!
Posted by: james | Feb 4 2021 3:48 utc | 95
@ EoinW | Feb 4 2021 2:58 utc | 89
“I’d say one of the greatest losses of this “pandemic” will be confidence in the medical community”
You got it right. It was also instructive to realize that while they are taught to use scientific knowledge, many, if not most, of them lack a scientific mindset, if not proper scientific training (unless they are M.D. Ph.D’s). An anecdotal evidence is my talking to three physicians (two in the USA and one in Germany). I was stunned to find out that none of them understood limitations of the PCR test (limitations I have referred to several time in this forum). And yet they have been making decisions partially based on PCR test results!
Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Feb 4 2021 3:59 utc | 96
re Ivermectin protocol dated at bottom “v,8 Jan12,2021”
from FLCCC:
link
Posted by: chu teh | Feb 4 2021 4:12 utc | 97
Posted by: james | Feb 4 2021 3:48 utc | 95
Yeah, I liked the Austin too. I had a friend with an old 3000, he would complain about the carburetors all the time. Fun ride though. Jaguars were hard to tune too. A friend had a Hillman, it was unimpressive to drive, but you couldn’t break it with a hammer. A lot of the British product was like that, robust.
Confessions was good and early, like Naomi Wolfe’s early work; what I like about Hudson is he explains why all this disfunctional behavior from our government. TINA isn’t much of an answer.
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 4 2021 4:21 utc | 98
Just read the latest Hudson piece linked to by james #86 and it is really good about how it covers economic history of the past century.
I am glad to read in it that China, Russia, Iran and the SCO countries really are starting to walk down a different financial road. No wonder the Wurlitzer of empire is spinning at breakneck speed trying to stop that progress and direction.
Hudson also agrees with my assertion that we are in a MAD phase of human evolution because that is all the response that empire has left……extinction or capitulation.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 4 2021 5:14 utc | 99
Here’s more articulation of what Escobar said in the Conversation linked above. It is taken from one of his recent essays:
Xi and Putin’s speeches were de facto complementary – emphasizing sustainable, win-win economic development for all actors, especially across the Global South, coupled with the necessity of a new socio-political contract in international relations.
This drive should be based on two pillars: sovereignty – that is, the good old Westphalian model (and not Great Reset, hyper-concentrated, one world “governance”) and sustainable development propelled by techno-scientific progress (and not techno-feudalism).
So what Putin-Xi proposed, in fact, was a concerted effort to expand the basic foundations of the Russia-China strategic partnership to the whole Global South: the crucial choice ahead is between win-win and the Exceptionalist zero-sum game.
The Xi-Putin road map is already being examined in excruciating detail by Michael Hudson, for instance in … his upcoming book Cold War 2.0: The Geopolitical Economics of Finance Capitalism vs. Industrial Capitalism…
The whole Global South is figuring out how the contrast could not be starker between the American model – neoliberalism redux, in the form of turbo-financialization – and East Asia’s productive investment in industrial capitalism.[my emphasis]
Alastair Crooke has outlined the dubious “appeal” of the American model, including “asset markets…severed from any connection to economic returns”; markets that “are not free, but Treasury managed”; and “enterprise capitalism…morphed into monopolistic oligarchism”.
The glaring counterpoint to Xi-Putin at Davos has been a so-called “strategy paper” released by NATO think tank The Atlantic Council, pompously titled The Longer Telegram [link provided below], as if this was as relevant as George Kennan’s 1946 Long Telegram that designed the containment of the USSR.
Well, the least one can say to the anonymous “former senior government official with deep expertise” on China is, “Mr. Anonymous, You’re No George Kennan”. At best, we’re dealing with a sub-Mike Pompeo with a massive hangover.
Amidst a tsunami of platitudes, we learn that China is a “revisionist power” that “presents a serious problem for the whole of the democratic world”; and that the Chinese leadership better get its act together and operate “within the US-led liberal international order rather than building a rival order”.
The usual toxic mix of arrogance and condescension totally gives away the game, which boils down to “deterring and preventing China from crossing US red lines”, and applying good, old Kissingerian Divide and Rule between Russia and China.
Oh, and don’t forget regime change: if the “strategy” works, “Xi will in time be replaced by the more traditional form of Communist Party leadership.”
If this is what passes for intellectual firepower in Atlanticist circles, Beijing and Moscow don’t even need enemies.
http://thesaker.is/xi-and-putin-make-the-case-for-win-win-vs-zero-sum/
~~~~~~
The Longer Telegram
Toward a new American China strategy
by Anonymous
Published by the Atlantic Council
Mr. Anonymous lays out a new! American China strategy, enumerating goals (one of which is to maintain the US $ as the global reserve currency), red lines, o.s.v. to ‘contain’ China. The plan oozes entitlement exceptionalism, the right to intervene and change the paradigm of China’s political system, punish its so-called bad behaviours, target its ‘bad’ actors (Xi), all cloaked fairy tales and myths of liberal triumphalism.
From the summary conclusion:
Some question the United States’ ability to effectively mobilize the nation to meet the China challenge …Some also question whether there is still sufficient national wisdom to devise the type of detailed operational strategy that could succeed: finding the necessary balance between circumscribing Chinese behaviors where necessary, cooperating with China where appropriate, and always deterring China from contemplating any form of military action or political aggression. Still others doubt there is sufficient national unity and resolve to cross the lines of partisan division as needed not only to preserve the very idea of the republic, but also to remain a beacon of light to the world. The purpose of this paper is to argue not only that it is possible, but that it is necessary. Otherwise, current generations would prove to be unworthy successors of the greatest generation of Americans, who defeated tyranny to preserve not just the nation, but the world. [ !!! my emphasis ]
How should the success of this new US China strategy be measured? That, by midcentury, the United States and its major allies continue to dominate the regional and global balance of power across all the major indices of power;
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/atlantic-council-strategy-paper-series/the-longer-telegram/#toc
Posted by: suzan | Feb 4 2021 5:37 utc | 100