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February 11, 2021
Open Thread 2021-012
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The BBC apparently didn’t adhere to community standards and was moderated…
China pulls BBC World News off the air for serious content violation
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2021 18:19 utc | 1
Bravo @1, The leadership of a nation state finally addressed access to media by content that violates certain standards. Can someone point to a English language version of these content rules.. ??
also just aired on local TV was the very large numbers of people who are refusing to take the vaccination , and that one of the Kennedy clan had their stuff pulled down because it provided data which advised against taking the vaccination RNA script substituting for a real vaccination.
Could be tons of excess vaccination materials unused.. and it is beginning to look as if the effort of the nation states (USA and UK, and others) to force, RNA scripts designed to pass for classical vaccinations, on those the nation states govern may initiate a physical revolution in retaliation. Apparently people don’t trust the nation state to inject genetic scripts into their bodies, especially scripts that government agencies promote or that are made by the same pharmas that pay billions to settle lawsuits for past failures and known problem cover-ups.
Posted by: snake | Feb 11 2021 18:47 utc | 2
Meanwhile, the reality show continues in D.C., which IMO, will lead to exactly nothing, but the reality that some people, are in fact, above the law…
Posted by: vetinLA | Feb 11 2021 18:54 utc | 3
yet one more proof the Russians are either dumb or simply have no capability to counter attack when attacked.
All Lavrov needs to do when asked about Navalny by any of the so called European Union “Western Democracies” is to ask them back when they plan on attacking UK about Assange. And if pressured, to insist on talking about Assange the way the so called European Union “Western Democracies” keep on talking about Navalny.
Lavrov, this aint no fukken game, man. They really mean it. You better learn how to talk.
Posted by: Hoyeru | Feb 11 2021 18:55 utc | 4
@snake | Feb 11 2021 18:47 utc | 2
Apparently people don’t trust the nation state to inject genetic scripts into their bodies, especially scripts that government agencies promote or that are made by the same pharmas that pay billions to settle lawsuits for past failures and known problem cover-ups.
One should not trust anyone suggesting such a horrible thing, be it nation states or private corporations. In my opinion people or organisations promoting such a thing should be prosecuted.
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2021 18:59 utc | 5
This one takes the cake:
The China model has come to America: Too few Americans understand the threat that China’s governing philosophy and structures pose to the US
China envy runs strong among America’s progressive elite. The Communist Party of China’s hold on power and centralized decision-making has long appealed to progressives infuriated with their inability to mandate solutions to global warming (and other progressive priorities).
[…]
As David Goldman has explained, though the CPC is nominally Communist, China is what it has been for millennia: an empire run by oligarchic mandarins. The appeal to an American elite that sees itself as a worthy meritocracy enamored of governance by bureaucratic experts is obvious.
When will Asia Times finally change its name to “David P. Goldman and Friends”? It’s ridiculous at this point.
And extra points to the author for low-key correlating fight against global warming with a mythical sinophilia by the American liberal elites.
–//–
California Is Making Liberals Squirm: If progressivism can’t work there, why should the country believe it can work anywhere else?
Remember what the Jews and the Christians taught you: never worship false gods (idols). The British center-left made the same mistake post-Brexit when it begun to deify Germany as the ideal welfare European State.
–//–
Flash in the pan (I called it):
Los Angeles temporarily shuts five vaccination sites over shortages, including the one at Dodger Stadium
All I want to know is this: when is the USA’s foreign minister going to visit Russia to beg for the Sputnik V?
–//–
China bars BBC World News over false reports
BBC is literally the UK’s official propaganda outlet, so I don’t understand why its government being so revolted over the decision.
Besides, the BBC’s credibility was already in the mud among the British people themselves after the rapid degeneration it went through since 2016, so I doubt Boris Johnson’s protest against China will gather much support at home.
–//–
German foreign minister warns scrapping Nord Stream 2 pipeline would cut Russia loose from obligations to Western Europe
And he’s absolutely correct: even from a purely liberal, russophobe point of view, finishing the NS-2 is the right move for Germany. It will keep the Russian economy primarized and highly dependent on the European consumer market.
Only the crazy wackos from the Americanophile faction and the Greens are against the NS-2.
–//–
‘Double standards’: New Delhi blasts Twitter for treating Capitol Hill unrest & Indian farmers’ violent protests differently
The double standards from the liberals is there for obvious reasons. What I don’t understand is the silence from the Trotskyists: aren’t they the pro-union, pro-strike sect of the 21st Century? That epic strike should be all over the WSWS 24/7. Oh, I forgot: India must be spared so they can destroy “Stalinist-neoliberal” China…
–//–
Japan, fearing impact on businesses and benefits for China, faces Myanmar balancing act
Japan is really shook by the Myanmar coup. Its usually timid MSM immediately published editorials left and right calling for the immediate reversal of the coup. Beverage giant Kirin immediately pulled out of the country in protest and called the other Japanese multinationals installed there to do the same.
Circa 400 (!!) Japanese multinationals are installed in Myanmar. It has great interests in the SE-Asian nation.
–//–
Bulgaria disagrees with calls for resignation of Josep Borrell
When he was nominated, Borrell had the illusion he was Trajan – the man from the depths of Hispania who took off to lead the Empire and make it feel young again. In reality, he’s just the African with inferiority complex sent out by his Germanic masters to serve as the proverbial sacrificial lamb in the cold Russian tundra.
–//–
Just to finish the clipping with one good news for humanity:
China’s Tianwen-1 probe enters orbit around Mars
Ellen Brown is wading into the GameStop debacle with a posting, the link and take away quote are below
The Gamers’ Uprising Against Wall Street Has Deep Populist Roots
The take away quote
”
The American people acting together have beaten the financial elite before. In the 18th century, it was London bankers who held the British colonies in financial bondage. The American colonists broke free by issuing their own paper currencies. The colony of Pennsylvania and then Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton refined that system by establishing publicly-owned banks that extended the credit of the colony and then of the nation; and Abraham Lincoln’s government avoided a 30% interest rate by reviving the colonial practice of issuing debt-free, interest-free paper currency.
The 19th century movement against Wall Street largely faded after Populist and Democratic Party candidate William Jennings Bryan lost to Republican candidate William McKinley in the 1896 and 1900 presidential elections. But a remnant of the Midwest movement triumphed in 1919, when the Non-Partisan League (NPL) was formed in protest against widespread foreclosures on North Dakota farms. The NPL won a statewide election and beat Wall Street at its own game by establishing a state-owned bank. The Bank of North Dakota cut out the Wall Street middlemen and partnered with local community banks; and by 2014, according to the Wall Street Journal, it was more profitable than either J.P. Morgan Chase or Goldman Sachs.
We the people need to recapture our local and national governments and regulators. If we had a popular nonpartisan government that put the public interest above the Corporatocracy, we could do remarkable things as a nation. Congress could even follow Lincoln in exercising its constitutional right to mint some very large coins, perhaps $1 trillion each, buy a controlling interest in some major corporations (Amazon? The New York Times? Some pharmaceutical or energy or telecommunications giants?), and distribute the dividends to the people. The public acting together is Goliath. E pluribus unum: strength in unity.
”
Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 11 2021 19:45 utc | 7
Posted by: vk | Feb 11 2021 19:05 utc | 6
“And extra points to the author for low-key correlating fight against global warming with a mythical sinophilia by the American liberal elites.”
Republicans have been gushing hatred over China, especially since Trump lost the election.
Yes, there are the obvious reasons this board has mentioned many times but it seems even more deep seated. It’s as if people like Laura Ingraham are addicted to their hatred. She’s obsessed w/China and uses China like a Club to try to discredit anyone to the left of Adolf Hitler. I love it when she then screams about the ‘Cancel Culture’.
I look at her twitter feed and she’s totally unhinged. She talks about China like a deprived drug addict who finally found their stash. I feel like I’m missing something.
Posted by: Christian J. Chuba | Feb 11 2021 20:04 utc | 8
Tesla’s real business model starting to become more commonly understood: Tesla’s dirty secret
As I’ve talked about many times before – the company is really a tax farmer: it has sucked in enormous subsidies, both public and private.
The credits talked about in the article are entirely due to CARB – the California Air Resource Board – mandating x% of new vehicles sold in California being “renewable”.
An excellent article on the true history of California, of a long line of good work by the Baffler: California elegy
Thomas Frank: always a good read Thomas Frank on Biden in Le Monde
California Recall Newsome at 1.4M signatures…1.8M to trigger Recall Gavin site
Posted by: c1ue | Feb 11 2021 20:19 utc | 9
@psychohistorian #7
Ellen Brown and others are confused. WSB and Robinhooders were only part of the GameStop saga – it is extremely unlikely that even 2 million robinhooders simultaneously could generate the $15B a day that was pushing GameStop shorts to the wall.
Nor will this situation happen again. The shorters have been reminded that short sales are effectively unlimited losses and are extremely unlikely to caught out the same way in the near future.
In fact, Kuppy straight out said that shorting is dead for at least a year. His fund was in on GameStop from a value play at $4.40 and fully enjoyed the ride up, but he says that it is a once in a generation deal.
Posted by: c1ue | Feb 11 2021 20:23 utc | 10
Did we underestimate Russia’s vaccine?
Not long ago, talk of the Russian-made coronavirus vaccine provoked mockery. “There’s no way in hell the U.S. tries this on monkeys, let alone people,” a Trump administration official told CNN in August, referring to initial reports about Russia’s development of the Sputnik V drug — which bypassed traditional steps in testing before its release. Even at home, where a history of political opacity and bureaucratic incompetence has left a lingering distrust of authority, many ordinary Russians shied away from getting the jab once it was made available to the public in December.
But now, Sputnik V — named after the world’s first satellite that saw the Soviets initially outpace the Americans in the space race — is starting to look like it could be a global success story. It got a boost last week after the respected British medical journal the Lancet published a peer-reviewed paper that found the vaccine had 91.6 percent efficacy 21 days after the first shot and 91.8 percent for those over 60 years old, placing it on par with the celebrated Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
More than a dozen countries have approved the vaccine for use, with more likely to follow now that it has received the Lancet’s seal of approval. Sputnik V is considerably cheaper than its Western competitors and does not require the same sort of ultracold storage infrastructure that would complicate distribution of the Pfizer vaccine in much of the developing world.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/02/10/russia-sputnik-vaccine-underestimated/
Posted by: Mao | Feb 11 2021 20:30 utc | 11
Below is a ZH link showing that despite what c1ue | Feb 11 2021 20:23 utc | 10 claims the world of short selling is alive and continuing
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/latest-data-and-here-are-most-shorted-stocks
For c1ue | Feb 11 2021 20:23 utc | 10 to say that Ellen Brown and the Wall Street on Parade folk are confused says more about the commenter than these folks.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 11 2021 20:53 utc | 12
Mao @ 11; Thanks for the link. I’m wondering about the Venezuelan and Cuban versions also.
Posted by: vetinLA | Feb 11 2021 20:54 utc | 13
Putin’s Mocked Sputnik Vaccine Is In Orbit
President Vladimir Putin sparked worldwide skepticism in August when he announced that Russia had cleared the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine for use—even before it had completed safety trials.
Now countries are lining up for supplies of Sputnik V after peer-reviewed results published in The Lancet medical journal last week showed the Russian vaccine has a 91.6% success rate. That’s about as good as U.S. and European shots, and far more effective than Chinese rivals.
At least 20 countries have approved the inoculation for use, including European Union member-state Hungary, while key markets such as Brazil and India are close to authorizing it.
While Latin America is the most enthusiastic taker, Russia is also setting its sights on the prized EU market as the bloc struggles with its vaccination program amid supply shortages.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said last week the Russian shot could be used to protect people in the 27-member EU as long as it was approved by the European Medicines Agency.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-02-09/putin-s-mocked-sputnik-vaccine-is-in-orbit
Posted by: Mao | Feb 11 2021 20:54 utc | 14
Why Germany is eyeing up the Sputnik V vaccine
After the EU’s vaccine distribution disaster, German lawmakers are now taking a closer look at Russia’s Sputnik V jab. If approved by EU regulators, Sputnik V could be the fourth vaccine available in the bloc after the BioNTech-Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.
It’s easy to see why Germany could be tempted by the Sputnik V vaccine. The rollout of the BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna jabs has been hampered by delivery delays and political blunders. And European regulators have remained wary of AstraZeneca’s vaccine – a scepticism that was solidified by a recent trial showing that the shot may not significantly reduce the risk of mild or moderate disease caused by the 501Y.V2 variant, also known as the South African strain.
Meanwhile, the Lancet reported last week that Sputnik V, which was developed at Russia’s Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, was 91.6 per cent effective against symptomatic cases of Covid-19. That news has caused a flurry of activity in Germany. Health minister Jens Spahn said on Wednesday that talks were being held with Moscow to explore production capacities for the Russian jab in Germany. One day later, it was confirmed that Russian developers had reached out to the German company IDT Biologika to discuss jointly producing Sputnik V at a facility in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-germany-is-eyeing-up-the-sputnik-v-vaccine
Posted by: Mao | Feb 11 2021 20:59 utc | 15
Hungary will start vaccinating people suffering no chronic diseases with Russia’s Sputnik COVID-19 vaccine soon, the surgeon general said on Tuesday, becoming the first European Union country to use it.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hungary-vaccine-sputnik/hungary-to-start-vaccinations-with-russian-covid-19-shot-idUSKBN2A91EQ
Posted by: Mao | Feb 11 2021 21:00 utc | 16
How the Media Cracks Down on Critics of Israel
“Mulholland’s assurance that Guardian writers are “free” to speak their minds was clearly false. You’re free, but if you go after Israel, your pitches go in the wastebasket. My editor admitted as much to me directly, by saying that the denial of my pitches was the direct result of the tweet.
But it turned out that I was not just being temporarily ignored. On Tuesday, my editor called me and told me that after a conversation with Mulholland, it had been decided to discontinue my column altogether. I asked if it was possible for me to talk with Mulholland and work something out. ”
i knew it was a crappy outlet – the guardian), but this puts more of the finishing touches on it…
Posted by: james | Feb 11 2021 21:14 utc | 17
How the USSR helped Japan defeat a deadly virus
The most effective vaccine against polio was invented by an American scientist, but tested in the USSR, despite the Cold War. And it is to Moscow that the Japanese government appealed for help after mothers fearful for their children took to the streets to stage protests.
Japanese newsreels from 1961 show long waiting lines at vaccination stations. Worried-looking women are holding babies in their arms and older children stand next to their parents, while members of medical center staff are recording everyone who has received the vaccine. The vaccine was not injected, but taken orally: Children swallowed the medicine from spoons and were no longer able to catch poliomyelitis (commonly known as polio) – a dangerous disease that affects the gray matter of the spinal cord and can cause paralysis of the limbs and even cause death.
The polio vaccine was long awaited in Japan – 13 million doses were imported from the Soviet Union in the summer of 1961. Prior to that, outraged mothers, fearing for the wellbeing of their children, had protested in the streets for months and besieged the Ministry of Health and Welfare – the government was very reluctant to buy the vaccine from Moscow.
But how did it happen that the USSR found itself at the forefront in the fight against polio?
https://www.rbth.com/science-and-tech/333327-ussr-japan-polio-vaccine
Posted by: Mao | Feb 11 2021 21:17 utc | 18
‘The Mandalorian’ Star Gina Carano Fired Amid Social Media Controversy
“Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future,” Lucasfilm said in a statement.
Gina Carano will not be returning to The Mandalorian.
“Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future,” a Lucasfilm spokesperson said in a statement. “Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”
On Wednesday, Carano was trending on social media after The Mandalorian shared a post inferring that being a Republican today is like being Jewish during the Holocaust.
The Instagram post (since deleted but screenshot and widely shared by users on social media) from the outspoken conservative actor and former mixed martial artist was met with severe backlash. And, as has happened in the past, social media users called for her termination from the hit Disney+ Star Wars show.
This is not the first time Carano, who plays former Rebel Alliance soldier Cara Dune on The Mandalorian, has been the focus of social media ire for her political comments.
Last November, she issued contentious tweets, one in which she mocked mask-wearing amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and another in which she falsely suggested voter fraud occurred during the 2020 presidential election.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/the-mandalorian-star-gina-carano-fired-amid-social-media-controversy
Posted by: Mao | Feb 11 2021 21:34 utc | 19
Thursday, February 04, 2021, 22:52
China, Russia stress adherence to non-interference
By Xinhua
China and Russia said Thursday that the principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, one of the basic norms governing international relations, should be upheld.
In a phone conversation between Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the two sides also pledged to jointly preserve global and regional strategic stability.
…
The two heads of state have also agreed to celebrate this year the 20th anniversary of the signing of the China-Russia Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, pointing out the direction for deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between the two countries, Wang said.
Both sides should take this opportunity to add new dimensions to this important treaty and send a clear message to the world that the two countries will safeguard the security of themselves and along their peripheries, he added.
http://www.chinadailyhk.com/article/156995
Posted by: Mao | Feb 11 2021 21:38 utc | 20
james@17
See Craig Murray for details of this story- you will have to scroll down past the Fabiani story.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/
“…Criticising US military aid to Israel, according to Mulholland, was tantamount to arguing that Israel controls the United States.
“This kind of circular reasoning, by which all criticism of Israel is anti-semitic so any criticism of military support to Israel is anti-semitic, is evidently invalid. But this tells you a great deal about how the Guardian now operates, in addition to it being the main media conduit for the UK security services. But actually, the part of Mr Robinson’s narrative I found most enlightening about his employment by the Guardian was:
“‘I only had a column spiked for content reasons once, as far as I can remember, which occurred when I criticized Joe Biden over Hunter Biden’s corrupt business ties.’
“That tells you everything about the massive hypocrisy of the so-called “liberal” media, which actually is anything but liberal. The fact that the Biden administration has decided to pursue the prosecution of Julian Assange confirms that the people are getting the same slops, in a different bucket.
“The lack of media interest in the fact that Hunter Biden was receiving $720,000 a year, plus a one off $850,000, from a Ukrainian company he never visited nor did any identifiable work for, was not just laziness. They were actually spiking the stories. The BBC reported Trump’s efforts to get information on it from the government of Ukraine as an abuse of position by Trump (arguably correct), but managed to report the story without ever revealing the facts about Hunter Biden. It was not just the mainstream media – when I tried to blog on the subject, both Twitter and Facebook subjected my posts to whole new levels of suppression….”
Posted by: bevin | Feb 11 2021 22:03 utc | 21
ammended
They have pledged allegiance
to the land across the sea
making sure that they have healthcare
thanks to you and me
they don’t have to pay for
University… is free.
The gifts keep going on.
Glory glory halejeuha
glory glory halejuha
glory glory halejuha
the shit keeps going on
they own our politicians
banks and media too
there is nothing we say
or hasbara’s on you
You cannot run for office
lest you represent the Jews
this shit keeps going on
they can sink our ships
and shoot our sailors as they swim
we pretend it didn’t happen
cuz we know that it was them
but there’s nothing we can do
Bcuz they own us through and through
this shit keeps going on
they’re allowed to kill their neighbours
and lock them up inside
of an open air gulag
committing genocide
for anyone who mentions it…
professional suicide
and the whole world looks away
we must fight their battles
until the end of time
killing who they say
inventing silly crimes
even though americans
stand in a bread line
we must defend the Jews.
gory gory halejuha
gory gory halejuha
gory gory halejuha
this shit keeps going on
Posted by: ld | Feb 11 2021 22:06 utc | 22
Just an ask. Does anyone here have any links/thoughts about how/why the west blows up secular Arab nations (Libya, Syria ect) and gets cozy with head chopping crazies (Saudi, UAE ect)? Thanks in advance.
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Feb 11 2021 22:07 utc | 23
Tannenhouser
It’s sadly pretty easy – Israel’s nemesis is the Shiite militia Hezbolla, which drove Israel from Lebanon in the late 1980’s and for all intents and purposes defeated them again in 2006. The crazy headchoppers are invariably Sunni and therefore opposed to Hezbollah. The Israeli airstrikes in Syria always target forces fighting ISIS or Al Qaeda; never (I do not believe I am exaggerating) ISIS or Al Qaeda themselves. US forces in Syria are there to prevent a landroute between Shia Iraq and Iran into Syria and Lebanon.
Posted by: schmoe | Feb 11 2021 22:16 utc | 24
Suppose we’d all be taking dirt cheap and generally safe vitamin D supplements, there would be ten times less deaths from Covid-19 and it would resemble a not even really bad flu season. Bonus, we’d have less cancers, heart disease, depressions and a host of autoimmune diseases like crohn’s, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis etc. (read this)
Nutrients. 2020 Nov 27;12(12):3642. doi: 10.3390/nu12123642.
Vitamin D Insufficiency May Account for Almost Nine of Ten COVID-19 Deaths: Time to Act. Comment on: “Vitamin D Deficiency and Outcome of COVID-19 Patients”. Nutrients 2020, 12, 2757
Hermann Brenner 1 2 , Ben Schöttker 1 2
Fulltext of article at https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/12/3642/htm
Posted by: Lurk | Feb 11 2021 22:43 utc | 25
I take 150 micrograms (6000 iu) of vitamin D3 daily.
Don’t bother with the officially recommended daily intake of 400 iu. That advice is based on outdated knowledge and not even sufficient for proper bone growth. We have discovered that vitamine D is a crucial hormone for the body and we need lots of it for it to do its work.
Posted by: Lurk | Feb 11 2021 22:47 utc | 26
Jazz icon Chick Correa has died at 79 from a rare type of cancer. The man was brilliant yet humble. I was able to see him perform seven times and had hoped to make it eight. What a gigantic bummer!
@Mao #18
The story has been dramatized in a 1988 Soviet–Japanese movie, A Step, directed by renowned Soviet and Russian film director Aleksandr Mitta. You can read about the movie in the Russian Wikipedia (machine translation) and watch it online (no English subtitles available).
Posted by: S | Feb 11 2021 23:28 utc | 28
Tannenhouser @23–
The Outlaw US Empire and its mother the British Empire have always acted like the Godfather and thus need goons for their enforcers–they are easy to control and share a similar mindset. Look at the history of how the British elite treated controlled their own people via Terror–a Terror they felt was deserved by the lower orders. Look at how cheap life was during the era of the Roman Empire, the Empire that both Britain and the Outlaw US Empire claim to be heirs. Think of Hobbes and then of the reality faced by the masses. And it’s not too much different today. What were the gods upset about in Gilgamesh such that they wanted to destroy them? And the East isn’t much different, particularly India. I highly suggest Peter Linebaugh’sThe Many-Headed Hydra which reviews the terror referred to above that’s seldom if ever mentioned in textbooks and never by Court Historians.
@psychohistorian #12
People I know for a fact, that are experts in the trading world, say short selling is dead for at least a year.
Are there people still doing it? Of course. There are always idiots.
But Ellen Brown isn’t a trader nor are the WSOP people – so their opinions in this area are not expert.
Posted by: c1ue | Feb 11 2021 23:45 utc | 30
Norway’s Energy Champion Comes to Regret Foray Into Shale Oil
Norwegian oil and gas giant Equinor ASA said it never should have made the investments into U.S. shale fields that resulted in billions of dollars in losses and a brewing political controversy at home.
After the company announced the sale of assets in North Dakota’s Bakken shale formation for $900 million — just a fraction of the price it originally paid almost a decade ago — Equinor Chief Executive Officer Anders Opedal said things would have been done very differently in hindsight.
“We should not have made these investments,” Opedal said in a phone interview on Wednesday after Equinor reported a surprise fourth-quarter loss. When the company did these deals “higher oil prices were expected in the future, a high consumption of oil was expected,” but that’s not how it turned out, he said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-10/norway-s-energy-champion-comes-to-regret-foray-into-shale-oil
Posted by: Mao | Feb 12 2021 0:00 utc | 31
Excessive use of vitamin D can cause kidney damage in people who are not deficient in the vitamin.
Posted by: Nick | Feb 12 2021 0:07 utc | 32
@ c1ue | Feb 11 2021 23:45 utc | 30 who continues to project his knowledge into areas in which he is ignorant.
You continue to do this like most of the fucking engineers I had to manage in my career….if you have hammer vision, everything becomes a nail mentality.
In case you want to know, and as I mentioned in my first comment here about GameStop and such, the only necessary current value to short selling is price/value assessment in a fiat currency world where market fundamentals don’t exist anymore. It is not going to go away as you and your co-propagandists posit.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 12 2021 0:13 utc | 33
@ 21 bevin… thanks… i didn’t see craigs post from yesterday, but had read the one from today.. more then a few writers have covered this… i do think it says a lot how the question on hunter biden never got any traction – it wasn’t allowed to get any… these gate keepers make sure only certain topics can be broached…the hunter biden story will only see the light of day, if biden doesn’t conform to what he has shown a lifetime of conformity towards… so, the chance of anything changing here is very remote…
@ 27 karlof1… i only see him once, but i have gotten a lot of joy and happiness from his music over the course of my life… i’m sorry he is gone.. i loved his early work with airto and flora purim, but he never stopped putting out a lot of great music.. the trio album with roy haynes was fantastic… his work with steve gadd and so many other great players was always a treat to hear… he did a project more recently that i also dug with christian mcbride and brian blade.. life doesn’t last forever, but i am sorry he is gone..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9fjDNHEfVM
Posted by: james | Feb 12 2021 0:14 utc | 34
Posted by: S | Feb 11 2021 23:28 utc | 28
Thank you for the above links. The Russian language is my native language. However, I have never heard of this move.
Posted by: Mao | Feb 12 2021 0:19 utc | 35
I admire the cleverness of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in his response to Biden’s demands: Biden has no grounds to complain as the Outlaw US Empire stands in violation of the JCPOA; so, “Before spouting off, COMPLY!” [Emphasis original] is all Zarif has to say. But the Godfather Outlaw never has to comply as that’s why it’s the Godfather and an Outlaw. The situation is both absurd and hilarious, and Biden doesn’t realize just how tremendously stupid he looks when he devours both feet as did Trump. I should also suggest the sarcasm of Philip Giraldi as he evaluates Biden’s beginnings.
@32 Nick – “Excessive use of vitamin D”
Raises the obvious question of what constitutes “excessive”. If anyone has numbers, please share.
I know we’ve discussed this here, and I seem to have read that “excessive” D is really difficult to accomplish, but I’m no expert. On the other hand, a deficiency really does seem to be dangerous. So obviously people who don’t get a lot of natural D need to supplement if they want a good immune system.
I read people who are doing 10000 iu per day with no apparent problems. I’m on 4K but if 6K is good for Lurk I’ll take it as a tip to increase.
Posted by: Grieved | Feb 12 2021 0:56 utc | 38
I haven’t seen anyone post this yet, A Saker must read: “The Headless Chicken and the Bear” reviews all the recent events and adds many that few of us knew about.
8 Must-Know Tips About Vitamin D (7.5 min YT, plus a lot of detailed info in the description box)
I take 5000 iu (125 microgram) Vit D3 per day.
Posted by: gm | Feb 12 2021 1:41 utc | 40
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/biden-addresses-possible-link-between-sons-fatal-brain-cancer-and-toxic-military-burn-pits
Does Biden blame his son’s cancer death on burn pits……………from a war he helped start?
Posted by: Eighthman | Feb 12 2021 1:45 utc | 41
Grieved @ 38:
Recommended use of Vitamin D is 600 international units (IU) per day.
The upper limit of daily use, beyond which you’d be in danger of suffering from hypervitaminosis D, is 10,000 IU. That would be possible if you had been taking vitamin D supplements every day for quite a while.
Another article I found says the upper limit of daily use should be 4,000 IUs.
Posted by: Jen Hor | Feb 12 2021 1:52 utc | 42
@ 37 and 39 karlof1… thanks for the links to giraldi and the headless chicken article.. you’re right.. the giraldi article is quite sarcastic in a humourous way… the headless chicken article is good too..
i go back to what @4 Hoyeru says… why is it that russia doesn’t challenge the west every time they mention navalny by bringing up assange??? this seems like a no brainer to me…. the west is a complete hypocrite on this… i think they would really get a lot of mileage out of doing this.. i am mystified why they don’t… i guess me and hoyeru are too blunt for the russians and it clearly isn’t a diplomatic response, but dang is it ever a good one… i wish they would use it pronto the next time navalny is mentioned..
Posted by: james | Feb 12 2021 2:35 utc | 43
Lurk | Feb 11 2021 22:47 utc | 26
Great advice! I’ve been taking 25 mcg(1000 IU) for a year. Last weekend I read a Texas MD who advised 125 mcg(5000 IU). I’ve been bumping up my intake this week. I figure late winter is when we all need vitamin D the most.
Posted by: EoinW | Feb 12 2021 2:37 utc | 44
Can we show some empathy for the ISIS head choppers this year? They are coming off a tough 2020 campaign. The Covid fake pandemic has knocked them right off the Top 40 Terror Chart.
Posted by: EoinW | Feb 12 2021 2:40 utc | 45
@42 Jen Hor
Thanks. Those articles make a strong case that excessive D is uncommon – very uncommon from the case studies they cite.
Since 1 billion people on the planet suffer from a deficiency, and almost no one ever gets diagnosed with an over sufficiency – and since COVID does seem to kill, and Vitamin D does seem to help keep it at bay, it seems to make prophylactic sense to lean towards too much rather than too little.
I decided to check Dr. Eric Berg, whom I like and have valued for several other pieces of advice. He says 75% percent of the global population is deficient. As always, good explanations of how the body works – 5-minute video, explains a lot about D:
Is 10,000 IUs of Vitamin D3 Safe to Take?
Berg likes 10,000 iu of Vitamin D. The comments mention Vitamin K2 is important to take with the D3, to make sure the calcium goes where it’s useful and not where it’s not.
Posted by: Grieved | Feb 12 2021 2:46 utc | 46
It helps to have a test done to see what your VIT D level is
in the US the test is known as the 25-OH vitamin D test and the calcidiol 25-hydroxycholecalcifoerol test.
Vitamin D must go through several processes in your body before your body can use it. The first transformation occurs in the liver. Here, your body converts vitamin D to a chemical known as 25-hydroxyvitamin D, also called calcidiol.
The normal result range is 20 – 80 ng/mL
In 2019, the last time I had this test, my result was 114 ng/mL…fairly high until you consider that I use a UV-B tanning bed regularly for a skin fungus I have fought with since 1974.
That said, I am not taking any VIT D supplement. I don’t know of test outside the healthcare world but they may exist and I encourage folks to learn what their VIT D level is if they are, or feel, at risk.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 12 2021 2:53 utc | 47
For those who claim that short selling (stocks) is “dead” :
Largest Short Interest Positions on . . (as dated . was 1/29/2021 when i posted link here ) NYSE & NASDAQ
https://www.marketbeat.com/short-interest/
as stated in the title, the largest short positions not the total.
Links at bottom of same page for both largest decrease and increase in short selling interest.
Posted by: Fíréan | Feb 12 2021 3:07 utc | 48
Supplement to my last post, i draw attention to the USA dollar value of each postion posted in the short seller list and so to the sum total of all the positions on the page –
near one hundred billion USA dollars.
If anyone wishes to contribute a post to reason that a market of that value is “dead” i will gladly spend time to read and gain an insight into their thinking ( or that of their knowledgeable and expert acquaintances).
Posted by: Fíréan | Feb 12 2021 4:01 utc | 49
Think you can get around to writing on: 1 abortion in poland and 2 the war/fighting in Ethiopia?
FWIW
Philadelphia elementary school forces fifth-grade students to celebrate ‘black communism and Angela Davis’…
https://www.city-journal.org/philadelphia-fifth-graders-forced-to-celebrate-black-communism
A Gender-Neutral Maternity Hospital
https://www.rt.com/uk/515082-gender-neutral-maternity-hospital/
IMF Wants to Use “Digital Footprint of Customers’ Online Activities” To Assess Creditworthiness
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/imf-wants-use-digital-footprint-customers-online-activities-assess-creditworthiness
Decadent Morons and Other Elites
Notes from the post Trump vortex and CCP
https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/decadent-morons-and-other-elites
Assassination Attempt Against Serbian President Thwarted
https://rmx.news/article/article/assassination-attempt-against-serbian-president-thwarted
Posted by: Dogon Priest | Feb 12 2021 4:08 utc | 50
From the BBC on being banned by China:
We are disappointed that the Chinese authorities have decided to take this course of action. The BBC is the world’s most trusted international news broadcaster and reports on stories from around the world fairly, impartially and without fear or favour.”
I like how the only fact in the second sentence is “stories” and even that is only semantical.
Posted by: J W | Feb 12 2021 4:15 utc | 51
So the truly clueless one states at #30 ” Ellen Brown isn’t a trader nor are the WSOP people – so their opinions in this area are not expert.” Hmmm. Even more inaccurate & bigoted than usual.
WSOP must be clueless’s way of saying Wall St On Parade without actually saying it.
Wall St On Parade is an online journal of Wall St edited by Pam Martens and her husband Ross, Pam worked on Wall St for more than 20 years before becoming a journalist on Wall St and its shenanigans.
Her contacts within nearly all of Wall St’s trading houses means she has an unrivalled network of informants who keep her across of all the current shonkies.
If Ms Martens writes that the institutional short market continues, then it is certain that her contacts within banks and brokers have informed her that shorting is still a thing with their employers, and provided examples of that.
Unlike the clueless one of rubber chicken dinners with stock spielers fame, Martens and her husband hold no stock or securities, a fact they advertise and which has made Ms Martens articles a must go to for anyone who wants to know what is actually happening in amerika’s ‘investments’ casino yet be secure in the knowledge they’re not being led astray by a self interested tout.
When Pam Martens got jack of Counterpunch’s nonsense and left, that was the time I quit reading that news source regularly as her departure & Cockburn’s demise reduced the site to a mob of chicken littles endlessly repeating the same stories.
People with an interest in amerika’s corrupt and broken financial system who do not heed Ms Martens words are intentionally depriving themselves of the good oil.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Feb 12 2021 4:31 utc | 52
i miss out on all the juicy conversations… the good oil… never heard of that before…
it is best to not comment on topics you know nothing about… i see some are at it here again on the issue of ‘shorts’….. lolol…
Posted by: james | Feb 12 2021 4:38 utc | 53
@ Dogon Priest 50
” Think you can get around to writing on: 1 abortion in poland and 2 the war/fighting in Ethiopia? ”
Maybe they’ll be “circling back” on those matters in due course.
Posted by: Fíréan | Feb 12 2021 5:09 utc | 54
It’s Friday evening here, sun’s well over the yardarm, which means that it’s time for some Art!
Creedence performing Screamin’ Jay Hawkins “I put a spell on you”
Posted by: Debsisdead | Feb 12 2021 6:08 utc | 55
Re: vitamin d
Even when working outside in the winter and getting 8+ hours of daylight, my vitamin d is consistently low. I also supplement with 4000 iu daily. My blood is routinely drawn due to Crohn’s where a leaky gut means constant vitamin/mineral depletion.
My diet incorporating raw jersey milk and fermenting it has greatly improved my gut health, I believe. As a result, absorbing these vitamins will be easier.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Feb 12 2021 6:10 utc | 56
Karlofi 39
last Saker “Chicken etc…”
Yes it is a very good one
Do you follow Patrick Armstrong: Russia Sitrep ?
I know it’s on Tuercopolier stuff, but…
Posted by: Charles Michael | Feb 12 2021 6:54 utc | 57
Posted by: james | Feb 12 2021 0:14 utc | 34
One of his compositions performed by members from Paco de Lucía’s band. Jorge Pardo plays flute, he collaborated with Corea in various projects and he is a regular -or was before the plague- of this area in summertime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyMph8Np7CY
Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 12 2021 1:22 utc | 39
Another victim of a failed project, the liberals in Moscow are at each other’s throat after one of his ditinguished members deserted them by defining the headless chicken as the Reich of Ethics, so far even Peskov was asked about it and commented, that story is going to have legs.
Posted by: Paco | Feb 12 2021 6:54 utc | 58
Navalny back in court this morning, after his self immolation in his previous appearance, for lack of dope according to Helmer, today we have the second chapter of a shameful spectacle that the free western press did ignore completely.
Posted by: Paco | Feb 12 2021 7:18 utc | 59
Machine translation of article about MH17 from politpuzzle.ru (the link goes directly to the translation):
Antipov named the reason for the West’s concealment of the rear part of the mh17 Boeing…
The Dutch deliberately blocked access to the wreckage of the Malaysian Boeing, which crashed in the South-East of Ukraine in 2014, in order to lead the investigation on the wrong path.
Independent technical expert Yuri Antipov never tires of claiming that the cause of the plane crash involving flight MH17, which claimed the lives of 298 people, is an explosion on Board the plane. However, the West continues to stand its ground, claiming that the plane crashed in the Donbass as a result of a Buk missile hitting it. The motivation is that only this version gives at least some chance to lay responsibility for what happened on Russia.
For this reason, it is not surprising that the Hague court rejected the request of the defense, which insisted on studying 18 boxes with the wreckage of the Boeing located in the Dutch city of Susterberg. And what is interesting is that these fragments of the fuselage could refute the version of the West with the Buk air defense system and direct the investigation on the right path.
So, in your article for the site”Uinform” Yuri Antipov pointed out that the wreckage of the tail section had traces of burning. Taking into account the fact that no traces of fire were found at the site of their fall, and a rocket hit in the front of the aircraft would not have led to a fire in the tail of the airliner, the conclusion suggests itself. For this reason, the prosecution opposed that the lawyers, together with specialists of the Almaz-Antey company, could study all the fragments of the Boeing ….
So… a bomb in the aft fuselage. A Lockerbie re-run?
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 12 2021 7:27 utc | 60
Search for ‘mh17 hiv australia’ to find out about the almost forgotten fact that among the victims of the mh17 crash were 100 top level hiv experts on their way to attend a conference in Australia.
For the paranoia-inclined, this adds plenty of avenues for speculation on motives and ‘qui bono’.
Certainly, the origins of hiv has been a fertile field for alternative theories involving biological warfare research and even eugenics agendas.
Posted by: Lurk | Feb 12 2021 7:52 utc | 61
In today 8 am bulletin, hospital doctor interviewed by France Inter explains that after they have had 50 percent of heavy side effects (flu-like symptoms, fever for 24-48 hours) causing temporary incapacity to work among 50% of the medical staff who received the astra zeneca 1st jab, they have decided not to vaccinate on the same day a whole team/department, because of the organisational problems the sick leaves are causing.
They also mentioned in passing that the Pfizer too was known as “heavy”, same kind of side effects, and that it was worse on people who actually had had covid and that they might space the 2nd jab on those.
Posted by: Mina | Feb 12 2021 8:43 utc | 62
Hi B, it would be really awesome if I could link to the ‘silly talk’ group of links as a whole article. Right now, the permalink goes straight to the forum.
Posted by: Likwid | Feb 12 2021 8:52 utc | 63
Hypervitaminosis D happens to people with sarcoid disorders, the granulomas will produce millions of units of D. Otherwise the most common way to provoke hypervitaminosis is to use bulk concentrates and completely miscalculate dosage. And persist at an excessive level of dosing for years.
On the other hand there is little or nothing to be gained by taking above 5000 units a day. Serum levels don’t go up with higher doses until the doses are extreme. The big fat exception is obesity. The obese require much higher doses to reach same serum level. Commonly given is the obese require three times as much supplementation. About the only occasion where testing might be indicated and then only if nervous.
Psychohistorians level sounds high, could that be an nmol figure? The two different methods of testing cause confusion. Those who work outdoors in lower latitudes sometimes reach those levels. A day at the beach (and a sunburn) can easily produce hundreds of thousands of units.
The US Generally Recognized As Safe level is 4000 units daily. GRAS levels means “can’t possibly hurt anyone”. Those with granulomas don’t need supplements. The only real contraindication is a group of rare kidney diseases. If you have one of those the doctor should be testing levels already.
Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 12 2021 9:06 utc | 64
Thank you James @17 for your comment and your illuminating link:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/02/how-the-media-cracks-down-on-critics-of-israel/
I have circulated it widely, particularly to friends who subscribe the Guardian and point to the occasional mildly pro Palestine article. Only published for appearance sake.
In my former life I worked for a MSM metropolitan daily. Everyone knew the bandit state was sacrosanct and the sub editors routinely lied on its behalf, although it was not in the interests of my country. The trouble was the opposition newspaper also lied but the lies were not coordinated with each other, as we discovered when we read the first editions of both papers.
One was supposed to learn to lie on the subject of zionism and deploy semantics as a cover for for their blatant barbarism and war crimes.
What’s changed is the shameless tactics employed to ensure compliance to the unwritten code of compliance – instant dismissal without apology or subterfuge.
Your new publication is worthy of a subscription. Who wants to pay for BS ‘news’ from the usual propagandists?
Remember Lord Northcliff’s famous dictum: News is what someone somewhere wishes to suppress – all the rest is advertising.
I think the original Manchester Guardian was an early and ardent advocate for the UK government’s policy of the theft of Palestine and the expulsion of the Palestinians from their homeland.
Welcome to the truth community, good work for exposing the progressive except for Palestine [PEP] fakes.
Posted by: Paul | Feb 12 2021 9:11 utc | 65
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced [Russia’s] readiness to break off relations with the EU, if there are sanctions on his part that create risks for sensitive areas of the Russian economy.
Bravo. It is high time to act harder with regard to negligent “partners” who have long crossed all possible red lines.
re supplements:
A far better strategy would be to improve your diet before you start loading up on supplements. A balanced diet composed of high quality ingredients is all you need(well, some exercise, too). Nutrients from food are more potent as well, and they come with myriad other benefits. Taste better, too…and can even be less expensive.
Sure, it involves some quality time in the kitchen, but, as Fran Lebowitz said, “I really think that musicians, probably musicians and cooks, are responsible for the most pleasure in human life.”
Buon appetito!
Posted by: john | Feb 12 2021 10:08 utc | 67
@67
Dietary source of D is fish. Eat fish three times a day and diet will take care of D requirements. Only other source is two varieties of mushroom, if they are sun dried.
D is the sunshine vitamin. In northern latitudes no one can get enough from sun in winter. D is stored, excess accumulated over summer months can be sufficient for two or even three months, though that is the best case. Take a winter vacation to Florida or Costa del Sol and just maybe no supplementation could work.
Certainly nutrients from diet are superior. Being absolutist about that leads to deficiency. Or we all relocate to equator.
Most obvious case of certain deficiency is residents of long term care facilities. They are the ones dying of covid. In years past they would have been wheeled out into sun when possible. That no longer happens. They definitely are not getting fish three times a day.
Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 12 2021 11:15 utc | 68
Some news about nordstream
Die Bundesregierung ist bereit, eine Milliarde Euro deutsches Steuergeld als Förderung zu investieren, um Flüssigerdgas-Terminals an der norddeutschen Küste zu errichten. Über diese Terminals soll dann umwelt- und klimaschädliches US-amerikanisches Fracking-Erdgas nach Deutschland importiert werden. Dazu bietet Deutschland einige diplomatische Hilfen an, um Polen und die Ukraine zu besänftigen.
This is a letter with no self respect, begging and offering money to the bully. How do germans feel about being used again to fight for the empire? When do Europeans decide what will happen in Europe?
Posted by: gary | Feb 12 2021 11:37 utc | 69
Posted by: Dogon Priest | Feb 12 2021 4:08 utc | 50
RE Ethiopia: What is happening there is quite interesting, but also not much information coming out. CounterPunch had a few interesting pieces on it, here is one:
The Final Hours of Ethiopia’s TPLF Regime
Ethiopia is one of a number of “frozen” conflicts that heated up during the change in administrations.
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 12 2021 11:58 utc | 70
@68
Certainly nutrients from diet are superior. Being absolutist about that leads to deficiency
No, being absolutist about that leads to a healthy immune system, which was my point. Being lazy about that, on the other hand, would lead to deficiencies.
Just ask Hippocrates 🙂
Posted by: john | Feb 12 2021 12:01 utc | 71
Pause in WeChat, TikTok ban a positive signal for China-US ties: analysts
The Americans were going to ban WeChat and TikTok from the USA. Then they realized many of their businesses – specially the precious petite bourgeois “small businesses” – are only profitable with WeChat, while a whole sector of the “influencers” business only existed (and prospered) because of TikTok (the same way many glorified salesmen only exist in YouTube).
My bet is, if they can’t outright expropriate WeChat and TikTok (Trump tried to expropriate TikTok, forcing it to include their algorithm and source code in the forced selling of their American branch of the business, essentially creating a second, American clone of the company), the Americans will simply let this legal aberration to slowly die and fade into oblivion.
–//–
China shows zero tolerance for fake news by banning BBC World News
Propaganda is not information. Fake news is not press. Lies are not speech. Therefore, the BBC is not press and is not speech.
The USA’s response was hilarious. It basically stated that, because China has an oppressive system and the West has a free system (because of reasons), China is not entitled to ban Western news outlets, while the West is entitled to ban Chinese newspapers at will. Typical case of infantile “I’m better than you” rant.
–//–
Chinese consumption unabated on Spring Festival Eve despite ‘stay put’ policy
After months of double digit cases, Mainland China finally zeroed new cases and is holding its Spring Festival. Meanwhile, the self-governed province of Taiwan cancelled its Spring Festival after eight consecutive months of (officially) zero new cases and just some 20 cases in January (12 of which happened in a cluster, a hospital). Weird, somebody is cooking the books here…
–//–
UK economy hit by record slump in 2020 but double-dip recession avoided
The UK’s economy fell double the expected – but at least it avoided a double-dip recession!
–//–
Why Japan Inc can’t and won’t quit China
Welcome to the world of capitalism, Mr. Pesek.
Vitamin D is required for T-cells to function properly. T-cells are a huge part of immune system. No D, no immune response.
Primary source of D is skin exposed to sunlight. Diet is secondary. Repeat, diet is secondary. In winter, for most of us, there is no uptake via sunlight. Of course many moderns get little sunlight any time of year.
Insisting on D only via diet ignores facts.
Telling us all to stay indoors and lockdown, discouraging or prohibiting outdoor exercise was the worst possible public health response. Food fetishists drive another nail in coffin. US doctors are also averse to vitamins and to common sense.
Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 12 2021 12:26 utc | 73
Capitalists really will sell the ropes that we use to hang them.
Posted by: Smith | Feb 12 2021 12:27 utc | 74
Chrystia Freeland’s side gig with the WEF is endangering Canadian democracy.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rupa-subramanya-chrystia-freelands-side-gig-with-the-wef-is-endangering-canadian-democracy
Wonder how much WEF has penetrated in governments around the world.
Posted by: AG17 | Feb 12 2021 12:35 utc | 75
oldhippie | Feb 12 2021 12:26 utc | 73
Great info in all your posts. Thanks!
In my home town they closed the beach all last summer. Do not tell me that governments – at any level – care about people’s health.
Posted by: EoinW | Feb 12 2021 12:46 utc | 76
@john | Feb 12 2021 10:08 utc | 67
It is not as simple as you like to make it sound.
Dietary vitamin D is not sustainable for most of the people on earth, the oceans simply do not hold enough fish for that. Our natural source of vitamin D is the sun and there would need to be mass migrations towards the equator in order for all people to effectively receive the right quantity and quality of sunlight. We’d also need to go outside a lot more and be more naked (it’s actually fun!). Alternatively, exposure to artificial uv-b light as mentioned by psychohistorian would also be effective.
Many soils are deficient in minerals, in many cases as a result of bad farming practices. Even organically grown crops will not magically acquire minerals that just aren’t there to begin with.
Otherwise, I fully agree that proper nutrition is a paramount. Stay away from hyper-processed and refined foods laden with industrial additives. Buy or grow fresh vegetables if you can, keep free range chickens and enjoy the healthy eggs. But most people, especially city dwellers, are unable to do so and are held captive by their supermarkets’ offerings. In those situations, supplements help.
Posted by: Lurk | Feb 12 2021 13:07 utc | 78
Old hippie thanks for the very solid advice on basic lifestyle and health practices. your priorities are lined up right: get outside (gyms are not that good), use your body, eat from the woods, the parks (if they don’t spray), every day. Learn to collect, sun dry and consume mushrooms daily: turkey tail is everywhere in temperate climates and does not have a poisonous look alike cousin. Wild rose bushes with their rose hips will provide you with vitamin C for teas and tinctures or just pick and eat. Here in Illinois they’re almost gone but dandelions will be out in a month so I’ll rely on dried shrooms and hips until St. Patrick’s Day. Walk, walk, walk.
Posted by: migueljose | Feb 12 2021 13:13 utc | 79
‘Western Elites Want a World Without Religion and History’: Publisher Slams Repurposing of Churches
The Netherlands is organically secularizing, as the newer generations don’t see much sense in Christianity anymore. Churches are losing their public and therefore cannot keep up with the costs of maintaining their buildings.
Whose fault it is? Of course it is the “globalist elites'”. The Dutch government should keep their churches with taxpayer money…
But maybe the Christians really know the “globalist elites”: it is now known that, during the Cold War, an incessant and very expensive operation, which involved the CIA among others, revived Christianity (and Christian fundamentalism) with tons of cash and know-how to fight Communism in the ideological front. The West was on a linear path to full secularization and the trend was successfully reversed. As a result, many late boomers and Gen X in the USA and Europe are more religiously fanatics than their parents and even grandparents.
That time, the “globalist elites” weren’t called “globalist elites”: they were called God’s blessing.
vk @72
It may be that you are not giving enough weight to social factors in the government interest in banning WeChat and TikTok. The revenue from those two is nowhere hear enough to move the needle on American businesses’ profitability. The key is that they are social media. Social media are communicative venues where narratives naturally bubble up from the masses, and controlling the narratives on social media platforms takes full buy-in of those narratives from whoever manages the given platform. For example it has taken extreme censorship“moderation” to tamp down discourse that casts doubt on the official narratives about “riots” in Washington on January 6 on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. It would be difficult to get that kind of aggressive censorship from organizations that are not businesses based in the imperial heartlands.
The only reason that the empire has stepped back from efforts to control WeChat and TikTok is because the establishment feels confident that they have regained control of the daily narratives with the actions that they have taken so far. If the Boogaloo Boys, for example, start successfully using WeChat to express themselves then you can safely bet the empire will resume their efforts to snuff that avenue of communication. This is doubly true if the Boogaloo Boys start seeing success in their current outreach efforts to Black Lives Matter and AntiFa. Such an alliance would be devastating for the establishment and cannot be allowed to happen.
Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 12 2021 13:33 utc | 81
oldhippie
So now people who are attentive to what they eat are ‘absolutists’ and ‘food fetishists’? Maybe you’re just lazy.
And of course sunlight is fundamental for vitamin D intake…I never said otherwise. Perhaps living in central Italy I take that for granted. And maybe I also take for granted the Mediterranean diet…which here is deep daily culture, certainly not fetishistic, and has produced some of the highest life expectancy rates in the world.
Posted by: john | Feb 12 2021 14:06 utc | 82
@psychohistorian #33
The trader I know, Harris Kupperman, is one of around 100 small equity hedge fund managers in the US. He has been successfully trading since 2000 – when he made enough money as a teenager that he elected to go full time rather than attend college.
I had dinner with him in January and talked about a number of things including GameStop and bitcoin.
His fund is traditionally value but he’s switched to what he calls “Event Driven” trading because value is largely dead in this inflated environment, but he had owned Gamestop starting at $4.40 based on both value (i.e. dying but not dead yet or dead so fast) and event driven (short ratio).
There are literally hundreds of companies that are in a similar business situation as GameStop; a significant number of them also have short interest. Kuppy is publishing KEDM for a short time – and it lists such companies (among many other types), for free for a short time.
None of these other companies are going to have the same setup as GameStop – for that to happen, there were specific things that have to occur and it is almost impossible even to dictate that, much less have it “organically” occur.
Now that GameStop has occurred, it is even less likely that a cascading short squeeze on a over 100% short stock will occur.
Kuppy is the one who has publicly said that shorting is dead for at least a year – not just his own opinion but his entire small equity genre – and large equity as well. He recently talked about how several large funds called him to get the latest KEDM list and put $1M on every shorted company in that list, just because “the market is going up”.
In contrast, your confidence seems primarily based on people who just publish for a living.
Ellen Brown, Pam Martens and so forth a smart people but this is not the same thing as hands-on, field specific experience and expertise.
So you can try to insult me all you like – you don’t know jack and are apparently too stupid or stubborn to recognize it.
Posted by: c1ue | Feb 12 2021 14:09 utc | 83
@Debsisdead #52
Are you now saying you understand the difference between a real world, practicing trader and a publisher?
Anyway, I am far more amused than insulted when a whiner like yourself attempts to intimidate me from a public forum.
Please, by all means continue your chihuahua like barks.
Hopefully you’ll actually emit something of value, once in a while.
For my part – I don’t push anyone to not say anything.
I will respond and at least attempt to correct or counterpoint, but unlike you I actually believe in free speech no matter what it is.
Posted by: c1ue | Feb 12 2021 14:13 utc | 84
@ Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 12 2021 13:33 utc | 81
Doesn’t look like it:
Trump ban on WeChat would hit U.S. business revenues, survey says
Trump’s WeChat ban could prevent US companies from doing business in China
How a TikTok ban would affect the influencer economy
Trump Administration Reassures Apple, Other Firms on Using WeChat in China
The Trump administration is privately seeking to reassure U.S. companies including Apple Inc. that they can still do business with the WeChat messaging app in China, according to several people familiar with the matter, two weeks after President Donald Trump ordered a U.S. ban on the Chinese-owned service.
TikTok creators flocked to L.A. to become stars. What will they do if Trump’s ban takes effect?
TikTok reveals detailed user numbers for the first time
Rule of thumb: everything in capitalism is about profits. Everything. If your analysis on a capitalist environment doesn’t take profits into account, it is not a serious analysis.
Update on bitcoin and the Kuppy thesis:
Now that SA man has run in front of the crowd and is calling it a parade, it is time for another examination of the Harris Kupperman thesis on bitcoin.
Note: Kuppy is not a bitcoin faithful. Every one of his posts talks about bitcoin being a ponzi scheme over a fundamentally useless contruct that is not going anywhere. However, as a trader, he will make money wherever he thinks the best opportunity is.
From my view: bitcoin isn’t money, it isn’t the future of money, it is horrendously expensive for transactions ($20+ at the moment) and it is even fiat as bitcoin are created every day to pay (900) for the ginormous electricity consumption that bitcoin requires. I think bitcoin is now consuming as much electricity as Argentina annually.
Kuppy published this article in July 2020.
During the second quarter of 2020, GBTC bought approximately 83,800 Bitcoin. This doesn’t sound like much, but let’s do some quick math here. There have been approximately 18.5 million Bitcoins mined to date. Roughly half are owned by “whales” and other true believers who are unlikely to sell—yeah, I made that up, but it does roughly triangulate with the mid-point of ranges from many people who follow these things. Another 10% of Bitcoins (the number is open to debate and could be much higher) are “lost” as people forgot how to access their wallets. I know, these are abstract numbers and all, but let’s just roll with it for now. That means that 60% or 11.1 million Bitcoin are “locked up” and the remaining float is around 7.4 million. During Q2, GBTC bought over 1% of my estimated free float and now controls 390,000 Bitcoin or 5.3% of my estimated free float. The key thing is that the rate of purchases is accelerating and this is before Bitcoin broke through the magical $10k barrier over the weekend.
He then published this followup in November 2020.
As of Friday November 13, that number had grown to 531.6 million, or an increase of 125 million shares. That’s equivalent to about 119,000 additional Bitcoins purchased during a brief period of time. To put this into perspective, the total “free float” is somewhere between 6 and 8 million coins. Hence GBTC purchased somewhere between 1.5% and 2% of the “free float” during this brief period of time.
Between the 2 articles, Microstrategy the company (Note August 2020 vs. Tesla January 2021).
The last relevant Kuppy article was published in late November 2020:
To start with, I believe that Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC – USA) is unique in the world of finance in that it facilitates an oddly reflexive Ponzi Scheme.
…
What is GBTC? It is a vehicle that issues new shares daily in exchange for cash or Bitcoins. The shares are issued at the Net Asset Value (NAV), but with the unique wrinkle that they cannot be sold for 6 months. GBTC does not sell Bitcoin except to pay management fees and there is no mechanism in place for it to ever sell Bitcoin like a typical ETF. Think of GBTC as Pac-Man. The coins go in, but do not go out.
…
Now, here’s what makes GBTC special; GBTC currently trades at a 26% premium to NAV and has traded at a 18.7% average premium for the past year. Why does it trade at such a wide premium? That’s easy to understand; a lot of people are lazy and they want Bitcoin exposure but don’t want to open a new account and figure out how a wallet works. Others want exposure to Bitcoin, but are restricted from opening new accounts to own it directly—remember, as an institutional investor, you deal with compliance, custodians and auditors. As a result, for a whole bunch of investors there are only two choices; Bitcoin futures or GBTC. Given the roll cost in futures, the only real option is GBTC. As a result, investors keep bidding up GBTC. While you may laugh at people paying a 26% spread to NAV, in a bull market, such spread could easily increase dramatically beyond that, as it has in the past.
However, that spread to NAV is what makes this all reflexive. I’ve already shown why people continue to plow into GBTC despite it trading at a wide premium to NAV. Now let’s talk about why this is reflexive and how funds are making a fortune off of this. Any time there’s a spread, someone in finance will try and monetize it. When the spread is 26% wide and liquid to the tune of hundreds of millions per week, you can bet the biggest guys in finance are all over it. What’s the trade? You buy GBTC in the daily offering and short free-trading GBTC. Six months later, it all nets out and you are left with your profits. Of course, you take on a multitude of operational risks like securing term borrow and balance sheet risk if the spread blows out, but the pros know how to handle that. You can recycle your capital twice a year and on an unlevered basis, even after paying borrow fees, you’re making north of 40% a year (FYI—I left out a few other steps and a bunch of legal wrinkles to overcome).
Why have I just spent a few paragraphs explaining all of this? That’s because every version of this almost risk-free arbitrage trade involves a leg that buys GBTC directly at NAV. This results in GBTC purchasing more Bitcoin. Every day, it seems that GBTC and the other CUSIPS are buying a few basis points of the Bitcoin “free-float.” As they buy Bitcoin at a rate that is a few percent of the global Bitcoin trading volume, it is forcing Bitcoin higher, which is in turn bringing marginal investors into the Bitcoin ecosystem, often through GBTC as no one wants to deal with the brain damage of opening a Bitcoin custody account, which is then forcing the spread further out, which is bringing in more arbitrage players who buy more GBTC and the process accelerates. It is stunning that despite hundreds of millions deployed into this arbitrage trade lately, the spread keeps blowing out. The FOMO is just so powerful that the arbs cannot close it (yet).
By the time this bubble pops, even the doubters will have to own Bitcoin or get redeemed for lagging their benchmarks—which ironically completes the circle as these funds will either buy GBTC in the market or buy in a placement. Seriously, if you’re running a Global Macro fund and don’t at least have a few percent allocation to something this obvious, you should be ashamed. With GBTC now owning almost 10% of the “free-float” of Bitcoins, it has become the central enabler of this Ponzi Scheme. I have never seen a security act in this fashion and as soon as I realized that the risk-free arbitrage mechanism imbedded in GBTC was driving Bitcoin higher, I bought a whole lot of GBTC.
All Ponzi Schemes collapse under their own weight and this one will too, but first Bitcoin is going to have a supernova squeeze higher as the free float continues to be restricted as GBTC corners the market, driving the price higher. As long as the demand for free-trading GBTC exceeds the supply and this spread exists, there will be arbs who help accelerate the process of GBTC cornering the market. That doesn’t mean that Bitcoin cannot swoon tomorrow or that the spread cannot go negative for periods of time (this is Bitcoin after-all and it’s all sort of made up). However, the multi-year trend says that the spread will remain wide and force Bitcoin higher.
This arbitrage spread drives everything else in Bitcoin.
So Kuppy’s thesis: hedge fund arbitrage of GBTC vs. bitcoin is the base of the bitcoin price rise.
As bitcoin price exceeded trading range and outperformed all other assets, the pressure on hedge funds to own bitcoin keeps increasing. Even at a 5% exposure, bitcoin’s jump from $13K at the end of October to $48K now – a 370% increase – would mean visibly better overall fund results, and bitcoin’s liquidity and market cap are more than large enough to accommodate 5% of even hundred billion dollar funds.
The latest: GBTC in January
In the last 30 days, Grayscale purchased 42,356 BTC, bringing its total to approximately 650,000 BTC.
So GBTC owns 650K bitcoins as of the end of January – which is between 5% and 10% of all bitcoins that actually trade (from article 1 estimate).
Tesla just bought bitcoin – $1.5B worth and SA man is busy doing his Twitter pumping. Price paid was in the $30K to $35K range = 43K to 50K bitcoins.
Microstrategy doubled down on its bitcoin buys and owns around 73K bitcoins.
You can see here – whether it is true or not – what Kuppy says about the free float shrinking. Between Paypal, MasterCard, BNY Mellon, Fidelity, etc etc – the number of “legit” financial institutions that enable/allow customers to hold or transact bitcoin has increased dramatically in the past 4 months.
Kuppy’s money statement:
Normally, when I have a 50% gain this fast, I think of taking some off the table as there’s always a pullback. Instead, I’m hoping for a pullback so I can add more. I suspect that Bitcoin will be one of the best performing asset classes in 2021—by then, the CUSIPs will control the whole “free float.” I want to be as long as possible for when that happens.
Note this is not investment advice of any kind.
Buying in now is incredibly risky vs. buying in many months ago.
The point is to show that bitcoin’s rise was not automagical.
It was not due to robinhooders.
There was at least one person who articulated a verifiable basis behind his prediction and includes future indicators to see if the thesis continues to hold true – one not based on pseudo-religious views of bitcoin as money or what not.
Full disclosure: yes, I acted on them.
Posted by: c1ue | Feb 12 2021 14:44 utc | 86
@john | Feb 12 2021 14:06 utc | 82
Dream on. Northern Italy is an epicenter of vitamin D deficiency. Surprisingly, many mediterranean countries have a high prevalence of hypovitaminosis D. Also, the diet isn’t always as good as you claim. Italians consume a lot of refined carbohydrates, they call it pasta.
As an illustration, consult this article: https://arh.amegroups.com/article/view/4866/html
The vitamin D paradox: high prevalence of deficiency in sunny Athens (Greece)
Our findings reveal a paradoxically high prevalence of severe hypovitaminosis D in postmenopausal women residing in one of the sunniest European cities, Athens. Our results are in line with previous studies carried out in South Europe and specifically Greece. The SENECA study carried out among elderly Europeans 70 years or older, showed that paradoxically hypovitaminosis D was much more common among people living in countries considered to be cherished by the sun, such as Italy, Spain and Greece, than among those living in countries in which sunshine exposure is commonly considered insufficient (Northern Europe) (3,6-8).
Although the major source of vitD is skin synthesis after exposure to sunlight, a variety of factors can impair cutaneous production of vitD in people residing in Athens, such as higher melanin content of the skin, avoidance of exposure to direct sunlight and use of sunscreens because of skin cancer concerns, limited outdoor activity in an urban environment and aging. Moreover, food sources rich in vitD (fatty fish, cod liver oil) are not routinely consumed in Greece and fortified products are absent (with the exception of infants’ and children’s milk).
Posted by: Lurk | Feb 12 2021 15:02 utc | 87
vk @85
Ease up on the silly nonsense. First of all the assault on WeChat and TikTok was being (and will be again) conducted by the state, not “The Market™” (hallowed be Its name). The state intervenes when market forces are inadequate to serve the empire’s needs. Managing the narratives that the empire relies upon for its very survival is one of those needs, which is why the capitalist mass media subjects itself to state coordination of the narratives they disseminate via Operation Mockingbird, and quite willingly at that. Media, including in particular of the social sort, that does not subordinate itself to the empire’s needs must be silenced or otherwise shut down.
Something even more interesting is the “Get woke, go broke” phenomenon that has been apparent in the mass entertainment media for a number of years. In this phenomenon businesses are prioritizing the ideological narratives contained in their media products over the profitability of those products. To briefly exemplify see Disney’s live action version of “Mulan” which flopped horribly due to efforts to use the property as a vehicle for indoctrination in unnatural ideological content that was rejected by viewers. If it was all only about immediate profits in some mechanistic manner then why would these businesses sacrifice those profits by injecting ideological content into their products that the consumers do not want?
Censoring“Moderating” content on social media costs Twitter, Facebook, and Google countless $millions per year. These are $millions that would be profits if not spent on controlling discourse. How does this censorship generate profits?
Quite simply the capitalists are concerned that the very system itself that allows them to enjoy profits is at risk and must be reinforced. They perceive that capitalism itself is under attack and without capitalism they can have no profits. They realize that narrative control is even more important to their survival than police forces or armies.
Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 12 2021 15:17 utc | 88
@ Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 12 2021 15:17 utc | 88
The state intervenes when market forces are inadequate to serve the empire’s needs.
This is the Keynesian hypothesis, not the truth.
The modern State is a capitalist creation, and always serves capitalism. There is no such a thing as “I’m phased out until the free market needs me”; real life is not a video game, politics never sleeps and never stops.
karlof1 & james
I too am saddened at the passing of Chick Corea. So fortunate for you karlof to have seen him perform live so many times. Of all those I wished to hear/see live, he is the one I regret the most not having been able to experience live. His imagination and inventiveness as a composer and his brilliance and sensitivity as a performer was exceptional. As I type this I’m listening to The Mad Hatter Rhapsody. Later I’ll listen to Romantic Warrior and I have some very early Chic performing with Lionel Hampton that I’ll have to listen to also, to honor his passing. The sadness is tempered with joy though at a life well lived. You are haunting my memory Chic, trilling through the shadows of the Black Forest. For some reason the composition of his long time collaborator, Herbie Hancock, is playing in my mind – Butterfly
Posted by: vinnieoh | Feb 12 2021 15:34 utc | 90
@vk | Feb 12 2021 13:25 utc | 80
You and the Sputnik article that you quote are wrong. Let me explain why from personal observation on the ground.
The empty churches in the Netherlands are the catholic churches. Nobody has been joining these churches since the sixties and seventies anyway and long before Covid-19 came, their congregations were dying off – literally. The average age of the catholic churchgoer has undoubtably influenced the clerical policy to suspend public services.
Also, if you ask me, no spirituality was lost, only empty rituals. The catholic church here has always been very dogmatic, petty and authoritarian. The Netherlands has for centuries been a warzone between Rome and the reformation and the intensely reactionary character of local catholicism reflects this. It was also the catholic church that has been most stridently and viciously opposed to socialism and communism, much more so than the other denominations.
In contrast, protestant and evangelical churches are doing much less bad. The evangelicals attract a lot of migrants and people who feel lost in postmodernity. The cultishly orthodox protestants seem to be holding on to their numbers as well. These “blacksocks” don’t believe in worldly measures keeping them from going to church twice every sunday. To them, all is willed by god and man is not to raise up his hand against that. Consequently they have been refusing vaccinations since these were invented. They probably consider Rome a greater devil than Marx.
Then there is the person who was interviewed by Sputnik and whose ranting is presented as “analysis”.
This Tom Zwitser is a creepy alt-right loonie. Zwitser was affiliated with the conservative catholic publication “Catholica”, which was disbanded after it came out that Zwitser and fellow publicists were on the mailinglist of Anders Breivik. He and his newly founded publishing group feature on the official Dutch shortlists of potential terrorist threats. You can bet that Zwitser nurtures a viscreal hatred for “cultural marxists” – not your friend, vk.
Posted by: Lurk | Feb 12 2021 15:40 utc | 91
For those interested in trying to understand China’s economic growth in detail as opposed to public propaganda, here is a BIS study worth looking at: BIS review of 31 province data vs. national statistics
It is particularly interesting because the usage of detailed provincial information leads to (obviously retrograde) estimation of just what contributed to China’s progress over the study period.
It is a very long list which includes: Productivity, population, government expenditures, consumption, house prices, investments, credit, inflation, etc.
No idea how accurate these estimates are since these are essentially mathematically derived but food for thought.
Posted by: c1ue | Feb 12 2021 15:40 utc | 92
Lurk
I concede that there are deficiencies of one kind or another in many places(here in Umbria, which is landlocked, thyroid problems are not uncommon, mostly attributed to a lack of iodine), and also that food chains everywhere are being degraded. It’s also true that the countries with the highest life expectancies are some of the richest, but still, I contend that a quality balanced diet, yes, with plenty of sunlight and exercise, is your best ticket to a strong immune system and a healthy life.
It’s certainly not, as your study suggests, just about how much sunshine one absorbs.
***
Anyway, don’t sweat it, we’ll all be eating immaculately conceived astronaut food soon enough.
Posted by: john | Feb 12 2021 15:43 utc | 93
William Gruff | Feb 12 2021 15:17 utc | 88
Can’t blame them as it seems to work. Look at how many people, inside and outside USA, hate Trump. Hate him with a religious fanaticism. They must have been shocked by their success – and how anti-intellectual most people are. Now Covid has confirmed how controlling the narrative can get people to even act against their own interests. To even destroy the society they live in simply because they believe the narrative. It’s scary that people can be so emotional as to be blind to all other considerations. Also scary as it empowers our elites to a level only they could dream of.
Now is this narrative empowerment a strength? Or is it their last desperate gambit because their position in power is actually very fragile? Time will tell.
Posted by: EoinW | Feb 12 2021 15:44 utc | 94
vk @89
You are getting pissy and going even sillier. The state perpetually intervenes in markets now because market forces are now perpetually inadequate to serve the empire’s needs. Falling rate of profits and all of that. Despite this constant intervention the state remains distinct from “The Market”. They serve different functions in society and operate under different mechanisms. Though significant effort has been invested into reducing state power into just another commodity, it is not there yet as the 2016 elections in the US, and failed color revolutions elsewhere, clearly demonstrated. Likewise the color revolutions that the empire relies upon to maintain its vassals and client states as vassals and clients cannot be left to market forces. These take years to set up and do not directly generate profits while “The Market” requires returns on at least a quarterly basis.
While it is certainly true that in capitalist society the state serves the interests of capitalism, the state does so by doing the things for capitalism that capitalist enterprises cannot. This very fact illustrates the distinction between the state and “The Market”.
Anyway, this is a trivial point that has little to do with the empire’s interest in WeChat and TikTok.
Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 12 2021 15:54 utc | 95
Migueljose @ 79
Thank you and thank you for making me read more about mushrooms.
Previous reading on the subject had been rather discouraging. It is a topic where different authors come up with all sorts of contrary information. What numbers I’d seen before sounded so low it seemed not worth pursuing.
Reading just a little more it gets easier to determine which authors simply ground out 300 words to spec and who to ignore. More mushrooms have significant D than I’d been led to believe. Some mushrooms do have plain large amounts of D. The sun drying process is the key. Just as human skin converts cholesterol and UV-B to D3, mushrooms have ergosterol which converts to D2 with UV-B. D2 is what goes into fortified milk. Human liver and kidneys process D2 slightly differently, end result the same.
Only problem is it seems the sun drying will normally be something to do at home. Most people won’t. And unless there is a laboratory handy it wouldn’t be possible to quantify intake. For those who simply enjoy mushrooms and eat variety and quantity it should not matter. For vegans it makes great sense.
No one had ever told me turkey tail was edible. No shortage of that one. Will be giving that a try soon.
@john
The “only from food” meme is one I hear all the time. The result of that is deficiency and sickness. D does not primarily come from food. Not many will be either willing or able to arrange their diet for sufficiency. The number who do not and will not ever get enough sun is substantial. It would be nice to change their behavior, in meantime they should not all be condemned to death by covid. Or to ill health. Yes, they would be healthier getting sun than taking a supplement. Right now the temperature outside my door is negative ten Celsius. I will not be exposing skin to the dim winter sun today. I failed to sun dry inventory of mushrooms last summer. Supplements make sense. Propagandizing against supplements is frequently the same as advocating for disease.
Nursing home residents can’t be told to go get some exercise in the sun. They eat what the institutional kitchen serves.
The menu rarely has fish, does not have sun dried mushrooms. May we make an exception for grandma?
Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 12 2021 16:00 utc | 96
Well, as the drumbeat for war against China seems to be mounting on multiple fronts (which have been discussed on this site, including but not limited to internal concentration camps and “genocide,” Taiwan, Hong Kong, unfair trade practices, blah, blah)–here’s a new-old one. Apparently Bloomberg has chosen now, of all times /s/, to regurgitate it’s “invisible secret Chinese spy chips” story. Here’s a pretty good article on the “story” and it’s debunking, even when it was new-news.
https://9to5mac.com/2021/02/12/spy-chip-story-2/
Posted by: J Swift | Feb 12 2021 16:01 utc | 97
EoinW @94
Precisely, and that propaganda effort to attack Trump and those who voted for him cost tens of $billions. Where are the profits from that enormous investment?
There are tremendous resources being burned by the empire lately that do not directly result in any increase in profits. This in itself tells us that the empire perceives itself to be in crisis and is making desperate moves.
Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 12 2021 16:03 utc | 98
Posted by: alaff |
RT sees this differently
Kremlin says Russia wants to improve ties with EU, not break them off, but must prepare for worst as Brussels threatens sanctions
Posted by: arby | Feb 12 2021 16:17 utc | 99
Perhaps some of you are familiar with James Corbett.
He is a tenacious yet agreeable ‘nice’ Canadian expat settled in a very nice city, Kanazawa (?) [Incidently, one of the few large coastal cities in Japan that escaped being fire-bombed/nuked by US in WW2] in western Japan, who has been doing quality alternative news and conspiracy research reporting (starting with Iraq war, 911 etc) on the internet for the past 16+ years, at *The Corbett Report*, and in collaborations with other likeminded voices.
He has had a YouTube channel since 2007, that has grown steadily (92.4 million cumulative views) without suffering obvious google hanky-panky ie., freezing view/like counts, ghosting, deleting content—UNTIL yesterday.
GOOGLE-youtube deleted this mild-seeming alternative news weekly roundup Corbett YT video after being up ~1 day or less:
Time Games Conspiracy Theorists With Cave Wall Distractions – #NewWorldNextWeek (Odysee platform version, 22 min)
According to a comment below the ODYSEE clip, GOOGLE deleted it because “it violated community standards” (??)
Here is the outline of the news items covered in the google-deleted video:
Story #1: *The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election*
No, there wasn’t a massive, secretive cooperative effort between government agencies and corporations to rig the election; It was just a massive, secretive cooperative effort between government agencies and corporations to change the rules of the election
Why Biden’s ‘Virtual’ Border Could Be Worse Than Trump’s Wall
Pentagon Will Deploy Active Duty Troops To Support COVID-19 Vaccination Sites
Story #2: *Germany Hired Koch Institute And Other Scientists To Justify Unconstitutional Lockdowns*
Robert Koch Institute
Bauernkorso durch Berlin, 8. Februar 2021
S. Africa Halts Rollout of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 Vaccine After Shot Falters Against Variant
Swiss Say ’No’ to AstraZeneca Vaccine, France Restricts Access
COVID-19 mRNA Shots Are Legally Not Vaccines
Maddow Not News, But “Rhetorical Hyperbole, Incapable of Being Proved True or False”
60 Minutes: The Swine Flu Fraud of 1976
Story #3: *Nevada Bill Would Allow Tech Companies to Create Governments*
Nevada Bill to Allow Tech Companies to Create Governments
Google’s Sidewalk Labs: Smart Cities For Dumb Humans
Google Affiliate Cancels Controversial Toronto “Smart City” Project
Maybe someone else can see what the Overlords did not like in this vid, but I just don’t see it…
Posted by: gm | Feb 12 2021 16:28 utc | 100