Just to note that Biden’s speech at State Department was bellicose, bellicose even beyond American standards. And delivered by a very old and feeble man.

Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 5 2021 11:25 utc | 204

vk | Feb 5 2021 11:27 utc | 204
Merck says: yada, yada, yada. I feel better now. Pass the Vioxx!

Posted by: EoinW | Feb 5 2021 13:02 utc | 206

@ Posted by: EoinW | Feb 5 2021 13:02 utc | 205
Merck produces and sells the drug. It would have profited greatly if it had piled on the hype.

Posted by: vk | Feb 5 2021 13:38 utc | 208

@ Posted by: Oldhippie | Feb 5 2021 14:04 utc | 208
Price per unit doesn’t affect the profit rate. Water and electricity are as profitable – if not more profitable – than durable goods even though their price per unit being much lower.

Posted by: vk | Feb 5 2021 14:17 utc | 210

Price per unit doesn’t affect the profit rate. Water and electricity are as profitable – if not more profitable – than durable goods even though their price per unit being much lower.
Posted by: vk | Feb 5 2021 14:17 utc | 209
An incredibly stupid statement
Vk’s problem is that, since he knows absolutely everything and is therefore infallible, once he adopts a position ( no matter how unwise, illinformed or just plain wrong it may appear to lesser mortals, those of us incapbale of survival on vks elevated plain of existance) no amount of evidence to the contrary will persuade him otherwise.
This causes him to not only continue the argument long after he’s lost it, but to do so using incredibly stupid “logic” and arguments such as the quoted text above

Posted by: Triden | Feb 5 2021 14:51 utc | 212

@ Posted by: Triden | Feb 5 2021 14:51 utc | 211
Profit is surplus value accounted against total capital invested. It’s irrelevant which is the price of the resulting commodity-capital produced.
The other factor that influences profitability is the speed of rotation: the faster a capital rotates, the more profitable it is.
Otherwise capitalism would never produce cheap stuff. Ok, you could argue natural monopolies could extract profits through rent. But that doesn’t explain the cheap and non-essential products capitalism is known for (candies, cheap clothing, fast food, cheap toys, cheap entertainment etc. etc.). Capitalism would be a giant fine arts/luxury market if price per unit mattered to its profitability.

Posted by: vk | Feb 5 2021 15:07 utc | 214

This is the sort of classic apples/oranges argument an idiot would contine to flog to death long after the poor horse has expired
You’re talking “capitalism” in general, whereas others here are referring to one single company and one single product.
The bulk of the capital outlay to bring that product to market was in its reasearch and development phase, which has long since passed. After that point the producer’s next concern is passing it’s next milestone : the break even point.
After that has passed raising or lowering the cost per unit to the purchaser would vastly increase or decrease the bankable profit made over the lifetime of that one single product.

Posted by: Triden | Feb 5 2021 15:28 utc | 216

Debsisdead @202:
“…That saddens me because even though I can get really angry and pee’d off about the nasty shit amerika has inflicted on all the rest of us, I also have to acknowledge the really great times I have spent talking shit & bein’ foolish with normal ( even if thru no fault of their own, cos they have been 100% indoctrinated) ‘average’, & ‘normal’ amerikans.“
Thanks for this first read of my morning, Debsisdead. It says in a nutshell what the wisdoms of China and Russia in holding back from aggressive behaviour is all about. I was thinking this morning that the US is blessed in that it has hosted both Solzhenitsyn and the Dalai Lama, for periods long enough for both those charismatic persons to enjoy American hospitality without the taint of military maga. Putin has been here also, and has good memories of being well treated in earlier days. They most certainly saw our faults close up, as did my wonderful Chinese son-in-law, but they know and remember the people here. Those are the contacts which save us from being misunderstood, the ones which drew me in as my American family held me here. There are good people in this land, and they have eyes wide open, only like those overseas watching, they are so far powerless to bring change as quickly as they would wish. Heaven is my witness, we have tried. And will keep on trying. We tried with Obama, and again and again thereafter battling a corrupted voting system. All we could manage was Trump to at least halt the duopoly’s extreme carnage. It was still bad, but it was better than it could have been. And now perhaps the spear is blunted, and I say yay for that. Good on us, Americans. Don’t give up.

Posted by: juliania | Feb 5 2021 16:37 utc | 218

Paco @200-202–
Thanks for the early updates as the MFA has yet to post a transcript of the post-meeting presser. Seems a bit of progress was made over Cuba’s sanctions and terrorism inclusion, but little else is being divulged. TASS’s reports say little. I wonder if Borrell watched the film Lavrov provided.
Merkel seems to have been given a shot of testosterone:
“German Chancellor Angela Merkel has strongly rejected US threats to impose extraterritorial sanctions against Nord Stream 2 pipeline. At the same time, the chancellor assured that the rift between Germany and the US is ‘not as deep’ as it seems and vowed to ‘find a solution’ to the existing disagreements.”
Or perhaps now that her reign is almost over she now feels capable of speaking up to atone for her earlier cowardice.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 5 2021 17:46 utc | 220

@Posted by: NemesisCalling | Feb 5 2021 17:34 utc | 219
Even if we abstract from the fact that you’re all very stupid, and that using a vermifuge to fight a virus is nonsense, you have to face the fact that, in the political (humanities) front, Merck had just pulled out of the vaccine race (therefore, absorbed huge loss or taxpayers’ loss).
In such a scenario, feeding the ivermectin hype would only be a plus for Merck – it would have everything to win and nothing to lose by overselling ivermectin, as the drug is only a placebo (you won’t die by taking it, as it is just a harmless vermifuge). Even if it has an antiviral in the oven for COVID-19, you would still have to consider the objective fact that it would be better for Merck to announce ivermectin is ineffective later, when the new (and more profitable) drug was ready.
The only reasonable conclusion to take here is Merck is being forced by the government of its HQ to debunk the myth now, if it wants to continue to receive bailouts and taxpayer money for R&D for the future. It denounced the farce now so it could preserve the image of the corporation for long term profits (and bail outs).

Posted by: vk | Feb 5 2021 18:20 utc | 222

Maria Zakharova’s latest briefing is far more incendiary than Lavrov’s comments after his meeting with Borrell, and are further parsed here:
“We have noted the recent comments made by the so-called collective West, with the United States playing the role of the lead singer and conductor of the ‘choir.’ The heads of state and foreign ministers of NATO and EU countries have also made statements on the socio-political situation in Russia.
“This is a coordinated information campaign. Its goal is a global attempt to contain Russia and interfere in its internal affairs. This is nothing new though. Russia is far from being the only country targeted by its Western partners. They are just worried about anyone who might be able to compete with them, in one way or another. They are unable to accept rivalry normally, in a healthy legal context. For our Western partners, it is a pain in the neck because it runs contrary to their doctrinal principle of their exclusiveness – they alone can tell everyone what to do and how democracy should work. We are well aware of this; we have been there many times already. They are just having another bout.
“As I have mentioned, the United States plays a leading role. We will have a separate talk with them. The UK, Germany, and France have also picked up the tune, replicating the string of groundless accusations against us, and distorting facts when describing events happening in Russia. Let me underscore that we are talking about interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state here. This is how we interpret these statements. One gets the impression that the Western officialdom is refusing to see what has been happening in recent days and months in the EU or the US. They are deliberately diverting the international community’s attention from the situation in their own countries, focusing on their version of developments in Russia instead.” [My Emphasis]
Ho-hum, Maria says. 100+ years of ongoing distortions about Russia from the West. How droll! Then she comes out swinging against the “Choir Master” and its assault on its citizens’s legitimate right to support the candidate they voted for calling several hundred of them domestic terrorists for doing acts not differing much from those who are paid to support Navalny:
“Their protest will not just go away. You cannot just sweep discontent under the rug. Even the rhetoric that the United States allows itself to use with respect to Russia will not help distract public attention from the country’s own problems. They will have to be dealt with. US citizens deserve to be treated according to the law and in line with Washington’s international obligations. In this context, we have every reason to express concern and demand that basic human rights be observed. US officials are constantly and hypocritically taking care of these rights when it comes to other countries; and yet, they have no scruples in ignoring them at home. Why don’t you deal with your own problems? There are plenty of them and they need to be solved.” [My Emphasis]
The problem of course is her words and those of other high ranking Russian officials don’t even fall on deaf ears as they’re completely ignored–for what the other side says doesn’t matter when you’re a Unilateralist Outlaw Empire that violates the basic tenets of International law on a daily basis, a trait that will not be modified by BidenCo.
/////////////
Hopefully we’ll soon read of a proposal from the Eurasian Bloc for the formation of a special trading currency for its use along with a clearing system that bypasses the dollar and Swift that will be negotiated and possibly adopted without much external disruption. Action like this is the only form of pushback the Empire fears as unlike 1919 and 1944, nations are now quite willing to stand up for themselves after having been subjugated to an unfair international monetary system that’s robbed them all and cost millions of lives (See Hudson’s Oxford Talk) because no nation was willing to stand up to the Bully because there was no solidarity.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 5 2021 18:37 utc | 224

karlof1@224. thank you for this, if you have more info on this morning’s meeting of the russian sc please post it. thank you in advance.

Posted by: emersonreturn | Feb 5 2021 18:46 utc | 226

The only reasonable conclusion to take here is Merck is being forced by the government of its HQ to debunk the myth now, if it wants to continue to receive bailouts and taxpayer money for R&D for the future. It denounced the farce now so it could preserve the image of the corporation for long term profits (and bail outs).
Posted by: vk | Feb 5 2021 18:20 utc | 222
—-
More stupid “logic” and stupid arguments from the resident knowitall who knowsfuckall, in order to continue to flog a dead horse argument he lost quite a while ago
Merck & Co. Inc.’s operating profit margin ratio improved from 2017 to 2018 and from 2018 to 2019.
…
Merck & Co. Inc., profitability ratios.
…..Date…….ROE…. ROA
Dec 31, 2016 9.78% 4.11%
Dec 31, 2017 6.97% 2.72%
Dec 31, 2018 23.30% 7.53%
Dec 31, 2019 37.99% 11.66%
Merck doesn’t have any need for a bailout nor is it at all likely they might need one in the near future.
Its a pharmaceutical company, not a financial institution or a retail outlet. Its doing just fine in the current climate and given the current health panic is extremely likely to continue to do so.
The far more obvious conclusion is that Merck made that statement simply to protect its own ass legally should there be any attempt at a lawsuit were anyone anywhere to claim to have experienced any adverse health effect after taking invermectin.
Since Merck obviously haven’t tested the drug for effect on CoVid it makes a lot of sense to release a statement like that. People who want to try it will do so anyway. Either way Merck’s ass is covered legally should anyone try any legal shenanigans after the fact.
But hey, if you’re vk why not just make up sone nonsensical shit about bailouts in order to try distract from your bullshit? Its not like its the first time everyone here has seen him do that. He literally does it every single time he’s he loses an argument.

Posted by: Triden | Feb 5 2021 18:54 utc | 228

The hint re Merck’s intentions in releasing that statement is right there in your own quote from that press release

Merck added that there was a concerning lack of safety data in the majority of studies testing ivermectin to treat COVID-19 and cautioned against the use of the drug beyond its use as an anti-parasitic.
Posted by: vk | Feb 5 2021 11:27 utc | 205

One can only presume your preferred process is to run off to Google, grab the first thing you think supports whatever astoundingly illinformed and borderline retarded stance you have just taken, and then post it here without either reading or takeing time to understand its meaning

Posted by: Triden | Feb 5 2021 19:13 utc | 230

Nonsense, vk.
Let’s say a cheap, generic therapeutic did work for covid. Can you imagine the kind of backlash this would engender towards Big Pharma, which Merck is very much a part, when a cheap solution to covid was there all along and yet we were being sheparded down an avenue of fear, experimental vaccines, and government collusion?
Do you suppose that acknowledging a cheap therapeutic as effective could potentially cost billions to Merck in the long run where it would be discovered that Merck and co. would prolong our suffering by dismissing such a potential fix.
A cheap therapeutic for a problem which has wrecked untold harm upon labor, our economy, and spirit is a non-option for the continual extraction business of Big Phar-Gov where they would have to admit that despite the lab coats and high-production values, maybe they weren’t needed after all.
What profit hath them, vk? They are marketters just as much as scientists. And like they, they can not stand to lose their authority.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Feb 5 2021 19:15 utc | 232

The trouble is that Borell started off by talking about Navalny. The US “regime change” agenda before the affairs of the EU. Who does he work for? I’m not really surprised that Lavorov was a bit dry. The Russians must have been expecting a “RegiChange” attempt for some time. It is a standard plot. There will be no chance that they will allow this to grow into a general movement.
The Diplomats who are to be expelled ; The UK Embassy put up details on Twitter/facebook of where and when the manifestations were to be held (where they had organised them). So those two from Poland and Sweden can be understood as being part of the organising team and not just innocent bystanders. The German as well, all we needed was “Cookie monster” Nuland to be there.
I was wondering how the MSM in Europe would manage to find the “one article a day”, to keep the agit momentum until September. (or 912 articles for 2.5 years) Borrell would have been really newsworthy only IF he had managed to see N.
(“Poisoning”, return, arrest, trial, Putins “Palazzo” – just to keep up the anti-P momentum, with the trolls out in force, to activate the public’s mind.). The FT has one article a day, but the Palazzo part is off to a bad start since it has been roundly debunked (at least in the Alt-M)
The Cubans ARE offering jabs for tourists – right at the front of the queue. (Trouble would be you might need a jab just to get on the plane first.) Corbyn is among the 22 UK MP’s who have nominated the Cuban Medical teams for the Nobble Peace Prize. Since the Covidiocy in the UK is reduced to a charade for a limited number of MP’s and Starmer is a Political stutter representing the Lobby, there seems to be a “crass-” sorry, Grass-roots campaign by some MP’s (both sides!) to get some relevance back.
—-
PS. If Invermectin is an anti-parasitic medecine, could it be used to get rid of some of those found in Hedge funds or in the Banks?

Posted by: Stonebird | Feb 5 2021 19:50 utc | 234

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 5 2021 19:15 utc | 231
That is one of the constitution amendments just passed, preeminence of Russian Law over any other one, Yeltsyn’s constitution was redacted by Harvard boys. And that is why they are so pissed off. I saw today the add for the constitution campaign, the old veteran with all his medals appear, calling for the vote, and Navalny really insulted all who appeared in that add, but calling servile traitor a veteran that was a bit too much. Today I lost any doubt about the intentions of that sinister character, Navalny, during the court appearance he called the veteran’s grandson a profiteer of his grandad’s record, despicable, that insult I’ve heard it here in Spain too, a country that goes around giving democracy lessons but with more corpses in ditches from our civil war that any other in the world but for Cambodia.
I’d go to Russia anytime and get the jab there, as soon as they open borders and if a PCR test is sufficient to avoid the two weeks quarantine. Have a lot of friends there.

Posted by: Paco | Feb 5 2021 20:14 utc | 236

Bemildred@167. I sure hope so for the Yemeni people. For us here at MoA, not sure anyone wants to listen to the screech of the Trumpie w a C. Which is a possibility if true so….Good riddance to that twat.

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Feb 5 2021 22:39 utc | 238

@karlof1 #229:

Sputnik-5

The “V” in Sputnik V is not a Roman number; it stands for “vaccine.”

Posted by: S | Feb 5 2021 23:18 utc | 240

@ Fíréan | Feb 5 2021 18:47 utc | 227… ditto your comment… unfortunately we have some slow learners here on this point.. they are not able to recognize they’re giving themselves the mute button, instead of the intended target….

Posted by: james | Feb 6 2021 0:16 utc | 242

This is the promised Mike Lindell documentary on the election.
Listen to this from 1hr 36 min onwards to get the new stuff. It details the data traffic in and out of the US on election night down to the level of IP addresses originating/targeting and their locations. This is serious evidence of a highly planned Chinese cyber attack on the US.
Be quick, this site will likely be under DoS attack.
https://www.brighteon.com/78931d4e-8d2d-4751-beb6-11bb394dc1f1
The whole program goes into detail of how the election was stolen.

Posted by: JohninMK | Feb 6 2021 0:23 utc | 244

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Feb 5 2021 22:39 utc | 238
I’m just nobody out here in TV-land, but without going into it, I think we have to leave. To conserve our resources if nothing else, because the Saudis are losing.
It has dawned on the people who manage our “defense” that they are not going to win the next war, so they are planning to circle the wagons and put up a new Iran Curtain. They are also worried about the loyalty of their troops.
Kiss globalization goodbye. You are with us or against us. It looks like a purge is coming too. Show trials. That would be aimed at bringing discipline to the politicians.
They seem to feel pretty insecure, “Biden”, so lots of Kabuki.

Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 6 2021 1:43 utc | 246

@223 paco & #234 Stonebird and others
The story here says Cuba intends to use its own vaccine on its population later this year, and the story specifically mentions that Cuba will provide this vaccine for tourists.
Cuba aims to immunise its population this year with its own coronavirus vaccine
Its vaccine is in Phase 2 trials now. Phase III is scheduled for March if all goes well. It has the capacity to make “100 million doses of Soberana 2 in 2021”.
And Mexico I believe has a large order for Russia’s Sputnik V – there is perhaps hope for US adventurers. The question of course is whether the US would treat either of those vaccinations as acceptable.

Posted by: Grieved | Feb 6 2021 2:12 utc | 248

chu teh #196
Thank you for the reference to “the Senator from Du Pont”. I just had to follow that up:
From Harpers – Hard Times By Andrew Cockburn ‘Will America recover under Biden?’ February 2021.

Given Biden’s ideological outlook, he may well have sincerely believed it was a good deal for Americans. This conclusion is bolstered by his choice of aides, whose connections, professed beliefs, and résumés all too often reflect an affection for government by corporation. One such figure is Michael McCabe, who served as a senior Biden staffer from 1987 to 1995. From there, McCabe transited to the EPA and then to his own consultancy, where one of his clients was the chemical giant DuPont, long dominant in Delaware. (During a 2002 Senate hearing on criminal enforcement of environmental laws, Biden joked that when he was a young senator, those introducing him “would slip and say, ‘Now I want to introduce the senator from DuPont—I mean, Delaware.’ ”) Among DuPont’s most profitable products was Teflon, which is manufactured with PFOA, a chemical compound that has been linked to multiple cancers. After its lethal toxicity came to light in the Nineties, the corporation fought long and hard to ward off penalties and efforts to ban the chemical. As The Intercept has reported, McCabe was a late addition to this campaign. At DuPont, he oversaw negotiations with the EPA on the poisonous product, helping to secure generous terms for its gradual phaseout. Today, Biden’s Environmental Justice Plan pledges to crack down on the use of deadly PFOA-type pollutants. Among the advisers appointed to Biden’s EPA transition team is none other than Michael McCabe.
The case of the DuPont apparatchik sends a depressing message regarding the new administration’s overall institutional personality, which has been further confirmed by Biden’s selection of figures such as Bruce Reed, architect of Clinton’s war on welfare; Brian Deese, austerity hawk and a senior executive at the $7 trillion investment firm BlackRock; Antony Blinken, forever warrior and enabler of Obama-era humanitarian disasters in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen; and Neera Tanden, the Clinton loyalist known for responding to progressive critics with unbridled venom. [my emphasis]

He is sometimes referred to as “the Senator from Boeing”. I don’t get a laugh out of that either.
And then Cockburn writes this:

Public concern regarding the radical realignment of the federal courts tends to focus on social issues such as abortion or marriage equality. But corporate power’s tightening grip on the judiciary has lethal implications for any progressive economic agenda, now or in the future. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who opposed the 2012 tax deal, is among the few prominent officials in Washington who has raised this issue. He has assiduously tracked the intricate system by which corporate-friendly judges are vetted, selected, and promoted with dark money, while lawsuits integral to the overall agenda are steered toward the Supreme Court with the aid of coordinated supportive briefs. Expense in this endeavor has clearly been no object; the campaign to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, for example, was fueled by $22 million in anonymous donations, $17 million of which came from a single donor.
I asked Whitehouse what legal bombshells might be on their way to the Supreme Court that could hamper the incoming administration’s plans for New Deal–type initiatives. He pointed to a “super abstruse” California tax case, Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra, which could make dark money hard to track by limiting state government access to nonprofit donor information. The case has made its way out of the Ninth Circuit and is waiting to get on the Supreme Court docket. “The dark money vultures are gathering there,” he wrote me. It “will give them a dangerous opportunity. . . . Big groups in the dark money conspiracy like the Chamber [of Commerce] and Marathon Petroleum are asserting a First Amendment right to dark money,” which, he added, they need “like the cavalry needs horses.” The likely outcome is that corporate political finance, unconstrained by public scrutiny, will be free to repel irksome interference from executive agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, whose supposedly independent director was fired by Trump after the Supreme Court granted him the power to do so. “I’d say ‘change’ is the loser,” concluded Freeman, the Harvard Law professor. “The winner is corporate America.”[my emphasis]

Worth a read brother barflies.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 6 2021 2:34 utc | 250

Kadath #251

It looks to me that the Biden/Harris regime is going to spend its first year driving the US from a rightwing ditch into a leftwing ditch and then drive down the center lane into oncoming traffic. All of the domestic economic problems within the US look certain to get worse.

Not a leftwing ditch. That is not what the dimratss do. They HATE the left so perhaps we can ditch that notion. Any sane leftist would never embrace one sniff of the dimratss output. The dimratss and their mouthpieces are trying to propagandize all of us about left and right so that we adopt their language meaning.
Forget the dimratss they are inseparable from the repugnants. They are one and the same – rightists and handmaidens to the oligarchs.
The left would call for immediate Medicare for All, immediate cancellation of student debt, end to foreighn assignment of troops, immediate redistribution of the accumulated wealth of the 0.01% to the rest of the nation to achieve that end.
The dimratss are the servants of that 0.01% and would NEVER dream of redistributing their wealth. That is what they are paid to do. They are also paid to destroy anyone espousing a true left position and to maintain the confused blather about left/right.
The USA can easily escape the deadly dimratss game but it will likely require some revolutionary thought and action. That will be hard to achieve as Trump has just led all his team into a trap and they are being rounded up for prosecution and then disarmament as we speak. Expect the dimratss to play the same trap.
The USAi is in the deadly embrace of the oligarch serpent coils.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 6 2021 3:32 utc | 252

Hmm I cannot comprehend what VK is tryin’ to say at vk @ # 215 – That all the USSR’s nuclear power stations were run as stand alone collectives, or maybe every large collective farm in Monrovia decided individually that the best way forward was to expose all crop seeds to radioactivity, select the mutants and only plant them. Every farm collective decided this individually and it wasn’t a decision which was made in Moscow as an experiment for the Soviet Union or even by the State government of Monrovia, every collective just decided of their own accord that was the way to go, is that it?

Posted by: Debsisdead | Feb 6 2021 5:55 utc | 254

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 6 2021 3:32 utc | 252 and 250
“The USAi is in the deadly embrace of the oligarch serpent coils.”
This goes much further than appears on the surface. A link to support your idea.
https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/2021-legislature/bill-would-allow-tech-companies-to-create-local-governments-2272887/
Oligarchs already have mercenary armies, Pentagon revolving doors, Financial control, and as you say, control over the judiciary. Are more or less untouchable by regulations and taxes. What “perogatives” of a nation state are left untouched? Not many, but then comes news that in the UK, Governments will gain new powers to ; “The Times….unnamed government sources…… claimed government ministers are expected to take more control of the NHS, in line with Britain’s “biggest health reform for a decade”. The shake-up stipulates that ministers will be authorised to block the closure of hospitals, put fluoride in water, and deal with obesity prevention measures, among other things.“. ie Oligarchs will decide for the “scientists” what you will be forced to do next. (Fluoride, rots the brain, renders people docile and cuts down the sperm level. Just what the doctors new substitute ordered). “Follow the science” has had its’ day.
In other words the totalitarian occupation of society is almost complete, there only remains “free speech” – oops, (Will I be allowed to say that it might be “compromised”? I must ask the twit overseer).

Posted by: Stonebird | Feb 6 2021 9:34 utc | 256

Stonebird #256

(Fluoride, rots the brain, renders people docile and cuts down the sperm level. Just what the doctors new substitute ordered). “Follow the science” has had its’ day.

I lived in the bush drinking creek and rainwater for may years so I got my fair share of that fluoride there and then moved to a city that plonked it in the drinking water. My brain doesn’t tolerate rot, I am definitely not docile, and I choked off the sperm level a long time ago with a bowline knot. But I go fucking crazy at full moon and I put that down the inner cro-magnon or denisovan.
As for the englanders – I can only take Prince Charles as the model male exemplar and so I guess you are right on all three counts. Don’t you love what the Israelis did to the UK? Gave you an absolute Tory majority. Now that is docility and no fluoride in the water. he he he.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 6 2021 9:56 utc | 258

Brasil update: ,a href=”https://www.brasilwire.com/bolsonaros-disaster/”>Bolsonaro’s Neoliberal Disaster: An Interview With Esther Dweck
From brasilwire – podcast inteview in Spanish, a text in english.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 6 2021 10:40 utc | 260

The englanders government deepens the silence, blackens the sun, smothers the sounds of government by the Tory class.
UK government running ‘Orwellian’ unit to block release of ‘sensitive’ information
Just when you get used to the secrecy of UKi political machinations…

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 6 2021 10:48 utc | 262

Haiti people demand that their constitution be respected.

On February 4, Haitian opposition party, Pitit Dessalines Political Party (PPPD), led by Moïse Jean-Charles, called for nationwide mobilizations on February 5 and 6 against US-backed President Jovenel Moïse. The PPPD urged the citizens to mobilize en masse throughout the country to pressurize Moïse to respect the 1987 Constitution and leave power this February 7.
Since January 10, thousands of Haitians have been demonstrating across the country in rejection of Moïse’s decision to hold presidential and legislative elections on September 19 this year. The opposition denounced Moïse’s decision as an attempt to extend his term of office until February 7, 2022, which according to the constitution ends on February 7, 2021.

From across Latin American and Caribbean leaders and organizations have expressed their solidarity with the struggle of Haitian people and have demanded that Moïse comply with the Constitution and leaves office when his term expires on February 7, 2021
With Haiti and Ecuador at the cusp of change the mendacious, meddlesome USAi will be itching to flex its oligarchic muscles.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 6 2021 10:55 utc | 264

The debt rattle has a few tales to tell
• New Covid Strains ‘May Even Escape The Immune Response’ – Biden Advisor (CNBC)
• Domestic Violence Is a Pandemic Within the COVID-19 Pandemic (Time)
• YouTube Censors Senate Testimony From Doctor On Possible Covid Drug (Turley)
• Biden Revokes Terrorist Designation For Yemen’s Houthis (Fox)
• Biden: Trump Should No Longer Receive Classified Intelligence Briefings (CNN)
• Trump’s Decision Not To Testify Is Not Evidence Of His Guilt (Turley)
• The Fire This Time (Kunstler)
• Sanders Says He Never Intended To Raise Minimum Wage To $15 During Pandemic (JTN)
• EU Parliament Snubs Anti-Corruption Researchers (EUO)
• Ecuador Gov’t Scrambles to Privatize the Central Bank Before Elections (MPN)
• Nevada Bill Would Allow Tech Companies To Create Governments (AP)
• The WEF’s Simulation of a Coming “Cyber Pandemic” (Webb/Vedmore)

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 6 2021 11:08 utc | 266

Uncle tungsten @ 255
Read Marx’s student letters to his father. Marx received an allowance greater than sons of the nobility. Seven hundred thalers in spending cash for a single term was a princely sum. Not tuition, 700 thalers for his tailor, his bar tab, tarts. Then look at his wife and her family. Poor children do not marry that way.

Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 6 2021 13:47 utc | 268

By coincidence of posting notably foolish things elsewhere, oldhippie@268 stood out.
1)Marx’s student letters do not give useful data about the allowances for rich kids.
2)The phrase “tailor, bar tab, tarts” omits “rent, meals, books,” which is misleading and invidious, aka “dishonest.”
3)Rich kids expenditures included gambling, horses, giving parties, not just “tailor, bar tab, tarts” making this phrase doubly misleading and invidious, doubly dishonest.
4)Most of all, the notion that Jenny von Westphalen did not anger her family by *marrying down* is BS. The von Westphalen’s did not welcome Marx as an appropriate son-in-law.
It is sad how often people who pose as common sense observers are merely commonplace, regurgitating cliches and mean-spirited slanders.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 6 2021 18:19 utc | 270

Most countries have a critical minerals list. Australia list 21 minerals and have an abundance of most: search for – critical+minerals+projects+in+australia 2020 Sorry I cant provide the PDF link.
However Australia omitted tin from its list despite the importance of tin for a number of important applications. According to the excellent up to date book, translated from French ‘The Rare Metals Wars’ the world has between six to seventeen years supply of tin.
I am interested in the sudden spike in the share price of a number of tin miners. The price has been stable for some time.
I suspect the military takeover in Myanmar, one of the worlds big producers, has contributed to the spike. China takes most of Myanmar’s production, probably for solder in circuit boards.
I believe sanctions will be impose on Myanmar.
Forget silver, tin is the new silver.

Posted by: Paul | Feb 6 2021 19:52 utc | 272

US/UK/EU blame game afoot? Setting up the stage for future manufactured outrage?
1. Embrace any “wrong” vaccines from Russia or China or Cuba or similar.
2. Blame them for any and all current and future issues caused by the “right” vaccines and anything else done wrong.
If it was me I wouldn’t be keen on selling any vaccines to places like the US, the UK, Israel, or through the EU.
Think OSCE, OPCW and WADA; the usual suspects can (and have already tried and failed to) use the WHO the same way. By doing the above they get to try again.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Feb 7 2021 3:44 utc | 274

Below is a short posting from Xinhuanet
”
MOSCOW, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) — Wuhan’s Huanan seafood market may have made it possible for the novel coronavirus to spread, but it does not mean the virus originated there, a Russian expert has said.
“There is no evidence that the virus originated there” but “hypothetically, there are all conditions for the spread of the virus there,” Vladimir Dedkov, a member of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) expert team, was quoted as saying by Sputnik on Thursday.
The seafood market was linked to an early cluster of COVID-19 cases, but scientists have yet to come to an unequivocal conclusion regarding the role it played in the contagion.
Dedkov also refuted the theory of a virus leakage while visiting the Wuhan Institute of Virology along with nine other WHO experts on Wednesday.
“Of course, it was important for our mission to visit this facility, talk to our colleagues and see how everything is organized there,” the expert said.
“The laboratory is perfectly equipped,” he said. “It is hard for me to imagine that something could have leaked from there.”
”
China keeps asking for other nations to open their facilities to the WHO…….

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 7 2021 6:12 utc | 276

As a follow-on to my comment # 275 about China/US relations and the Xinhuanet quote let me provide a quote from Reuters about the same conversation which does not say the same thing.
”
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi in a phone call on Friday the United States will stand up for human rights and democratic values in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, the State Department said.
Blinken also pressed China to condemn the military coup in Myanmar, and he reaffirmed that Washington will work with allies to hold China accountable for efforts to threaten stability of Indo-Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait, the department said in a statement.
”
And just because it fits I will include one of the latest jokes passing my way
A Catholic lawyer, who had a wife and 12 children, needed to rent a larger house. However, he was having a lot of difficulties finding a new place to house his family When he said, he had 12 children, no one would rent a home to him because they felt that the children would destroy the place. He couldn’t say he had no children because he couldn’t lie, we all know lawyers cannot and do not lie. So, he sent his wife for a walk to the cemetery with 11 of their kids. He took the remaining one with him to see rental homes with the real estate agent.
He loved one of the homes and the price was right —
The agent asked: “How many children do you have?
He answered: “Twelve.”
The agent asked, “Where are the others?”
The lawyer, with his best courtroom sad look, answered, “They’re in the cemetery with their mother.”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 7 2021 6:33 utc | 278

uncle tungsten @ 273
More interesting than the monetary figures is the family. Marx was a Phillips (family would be Phillips Electronics), a Pressburg, a Barent Cohen. He was only connected by marriage to the Rothschilds, but it was his first cousin and the Rothschild was Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the head of the family in those years. His family was good enough for Rothschild.
Jenny was a princess by any standard. Closely related to half the Scottish peerage. Also related to Duke of Brunswick. It was something like a royal marriage. The sob story about their poverty is a joke.
A big part of what Marx did was start a faction fight that has never ended. He never talked about persons, only about theory. Well, he talked about persons when they were opponents of his current theoretical tack. Louis Napoleon and a few others are mentioned in passing. Does he ever mention the leading capitalist of the day? No, he doesn’t mention his family.
It seems to me that we all continue the paradigm. We don’t like capitalism. Capitalists get a pass.

Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 7 2021 12:58 utc | 280