FWIW
Racial disparities in arrests and police shootings are highest in liberal cities
https://www.unz.com/isteve/racial-disparities-in-arrests-and-police-shootings-are-highe/
Pelosi Bans Naval Academy Grad from Watching His Mother Sworn In to Congress: Report
https://www.westernjournal.com/pelosi-bans-naval-academy-grad-watching-mother-sworn-congress-report/

Posted by: Dogon Priest | Feb 12 2021 16:35 utc | 103

vk @101: “…did you know WeChat has a payment system?”
Dude, I’ve lived and loved in China. I think I know how to buy lunch there.
There is 0% chance that a US-based corporation will ever get hold of WeChat operations in China. I never even considered that in this discussion as it is just as preposterous as a Chinese SOE gaining control over Google’s parent company Alphabet, or Bezos’ Amazon. On the other hand it is conceivable that WeChat could choose to spin off its US operations into a separate business to allow majority US ownership of that portion.
Of course the government isn’t going to go with an outright ban on threatening platforms unless they have no other choice. Rather they will force those platforms to be sold to a corporation loyal to the empire so that business can manage the narratives on the platform. Considering that hundreds of $billions are spent on narrative management in the US, a few $billion in annual circulation isn’t going to save a platform from being shut down if that platform becomes a medium for discourse that is a danger to the establishment.

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 12 2021 17:00 utc | 105

@ 65 paul… you’re welcome! i like nathan robinsons writing… b left an article from him a few years ago that turned me onto him… i agree with what you say too!
paco and vinnieoh
thanks for that track from the spanish players paco.. i enjoyed it and liked the shirts the horn players were wearing! corea wrote many songs with a spanish theme – spain, armandos rhumba, fiesta ( which you linked to ) and etc. etc… here is an short and thoughtful obit on him from ethan iverson that you all may enjoy… i hadn’t heard this track inside of it before from 1969… https://ethaniverson.com/2021/02/12/chick-corea/
on the vitamin d topic… thanks lurk, oldhippie, john and others…
thanks for all your posts! living on the wetcoast, i never feel like i get enough sunshine, so i often wonder how much of it i get in food… i am taking 2000 iu a day at present.. maybe that is not enough… it would be interesting to get that test that psychohistorian mentioned to see what my level is.. john – thanks for that quote on music and food earlier as well.. some of my musician friends are also cooks! not me, because my wife is such a fantastic cook, i have been banished from the kitchen!

Posted by: james | Feb 12 2021 17:27 utc | 107

oldhippie
I’m not propagandizing against supplements, and I never said, “only from food”.
If you have a healthy level of vitamin D(most people), supplements are a waste of money.
But OK, if you can’t eat decent food and get a half hour of sun most every day, or you have a deficiency for any other reason, then by all means, dig in.
I guess I’m advocating ‘to change their behavior’.
Paco
My culinary situation is similar to yours. I think it’s difficult for most Americans to perceive a healthy food chain at a cultural, grassroots level. Odd, really, when you consider that that’s how most people in the world still live.
Oh yeah, skip the vaccine, you don’t need it.

Posted by: john | Feb 12 2021 17:33 utc | 109

regarding the soil and food…. reading wendell berry the past 5 years certainly enlightened me to the thought that big agra is happy to rape the continents and hope that chemical fertilizer will continue to yield results, but any person who wants to eat healthy needs to run far away from anything that big agra is offering…. all the major food corporations are a part of this and none of them are working towards a sustainable future.. it is all about profit and not about sustainability..

Posted by: james | Feb 12 2021 17:54 utc | 111

Below is a short Reuters posting about Yemen
”
CAIRO – (Reuters) – Yemen Houthis’ military spokesman said in a tweet on Friday that the Houthis’ air force had hit Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport and King Khalid Air Base with drones.
Saudi Arabia has been fighting the Iran-aligned Houthis as part of a coalition that includes the UAE since 2015.
There was no immediate Saudi confirmation of the attacks.
”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 12 2021 19:11 utc | 113

For oldhippie, james,
and anyone else who’s taking supplemental vitamin D, I have one question…
have all of you, or any of you(I see lysias has an excess), discovered a deficiency of D via the necessary blood test,
or are you just playing it safe?
Just a curiosity.

Posted by: john | Feb 12 2021 20:50 utc | 115

Re: “Anyway, don’t sweat it, we’ll all be eating immaculately conceived astronaut food soon enough.”
-john | Feb 12 2021 15:43 utc | 93
If the Borg Gates Technocratic Continuum has their way, it is more likely to be industrially farmed and processed (from sewage lees and semi-composted dead things) mealworms and black soldier fly larvae…much cheaper/more efficient to produce edible proteins & fats from…[not sure about Vit D content though].
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/eu-gives-go-ahead-eating-worms
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/worlds-largest-insect-farm-be-built-illinois-amid-signs-soaring-food-inflation
And as to what you suppose (“It’s also true that the countries with the highest life expectancies are some of the richest”) regarding places with (highest quality of/functional) life expectancy, it is not the richest enclaves, on average.
It is places like Japan, [especially Nagano and Okinawa prefectures], Nicoya Peninsula (Costa Rica [Pura Vida]), Sardinia, Loma Linda (San Bernardino Co CA avg income $39K/yr), San Marino (Italy, probably a tax haven (?)) which coincidently also experienced the 2nd highest Covid death rate on the planet, after Gibralter (pop 34 k (British tax haven?), and [Ok], Singapore, and Monaco (population <40 K).
https://goop.com/wellness/health/the-geographic-areas-where-people-live-the-longest-and-clues-as-to-why/

Posted by: gm | Feb 12 2021 21:46 utc | 117

Anybody who is following developments in Scotland might find my reply to Mia on Wings to be of interest.
Yes. In principle this is exactly the same as they did to Anglia Television plc.
The role played here by Ms Sturgeon’s special advisor/chief of staff (Liz Lloyd) is identical to the role played there by the Managing Director. That of the Cloak behind which the crafty hide their faces.
There, they installed a new Managing Director who was a phony, who’d never been appointed by the Board.
He did all of the “butcher and bolt” that was required.
THEN they appointed him legally, after all the dirty work had got done, and made him a Director.
That way the Board of Directors was not responsible in law for what the phony director had done PRIOR to the appointment.
BUT surely his acts are not valid, and so can be reversed by law? you say.
Then you don’t know about the Companies Act 1985
285. Validity of acts of directors. The acts of a director or manager are valid notwithstanding any defect that may afterwards be discovered in his appointment or qualification; and this provision is not excluded by section 292(2) (void resolution to appoint).
Bingo! They Butchered us and bolted, and the people that opened the gate, and accepted legally binding commitments on our behalves, were not legally responsible for any of it. Trebles all round!
Except they got caught.
Queens Bench 1994-c-2024
J P Cleary v Anglia Television
The phony director was Malcolm Wall. I was dismissed by Mr Wall on 24 May 1994
He was appointed at the Board meeting on 22 July 1994.
On that Board were Their Wonderfulnesses Lord Hollick and Lady Archer.
Seems like John Smith didn’t go along with it.

Posted by: JohnC | Feb 13 2021 0:21 utc | 119

Oops. My bad…
They actually found ~1.5 ug of provitamin D3 in ground-up black soldier Fly larvae, whether grown on chicken manure, kitchen waste, or spent brewers grain lees.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-46603-z/tables/7

Posted by: gm | Feb 13 2021 0:59 utc | 121

And that is what results from taking 6K of Vitamin D per day.

Posted by: lysias | Feb 13 2021 1:25 utc | 123

Thanks Bemildred
What I have read comesaily from Nigeria. I live there 2 years during my stint running an onchosorisas eradication project. The opened of discussing the church bombings is sickening.

Posted by: Dogon Priest | Feb 13 2021 1:57 utc | 125

re john @ # 115 who commented on whether people who use vitamin supplements especially vitamin D have ever been tested for and shown to have a vitamin deficiency.
I made a decision more than 40 years ago not to take vitamin supplements nor give them to my children. Not because they are over priced rip offs in many cases, which they are but because of research that suggests consistently taking vitamin supplements can inhibits your body’s processing and or manufacture of vitamins. That is to say if your body detects a big mob of Vitamin B coming into it via yeast extracts or similar, apart from making yer piss stink, your body will stop producing vitamin B which can mean that if you do stop taking the supplements, there will be a period of vitamin deficiency until your biochemistry catches up. AFAIK that applies to all vitamins.
I went through major issues with my liver back in the early noughties and for a while it seemed that I would need a transplant, however during treatment and then after it, the quacks checked a myriad of different issues to see what effect having a liver functioning at less than 25% efficiency was having on me. They were surprised to discover there was no vitamin deficiency at all.
As some may know those of us who live in the Southern Hemisphere live in an area where a major hole in the ozone layer means spending too much time in the sun with nothing to screen out UV light will probably be fatal. Everyone knows a few people dead from melanomas, or at the very least who have had to have had big chunks cut out from their face and/or arms because they were ‘fortunate’ to have caught the cancer before it went internal and riddled their organs with melanomas.
I have tried to avoid spending too much time in the sun since the 70’s, but of course one cannot be absolute about that if one enjoys playing cricket, fishing, hunting or any other outdoor activity, but one can coat oneself in sun block which I along with most other whitefellas have to do to live.
Anyway the point is that even with heavy sunblock use and a crook liver, test results showed that I had no Vitamin D deficiency. That was before I started eating much fish too. Nowadays I tend to eat a wild caught (often by me) reef fish of some type or another for lunch every day, because I enjoy fish not because I need Vitamin D, I maintain though that if I was concerned about increasing my Vitamin D intake, eating more fish or some other natural food high in Vitamin D is the best way to do it as by ingesting food high in vitamin D which requires the body to refine & utilise it when necessary is the best way to ensure that there is no sudden shutdown on cessation, as the body does what it is designed to and switches across to source other forms of the required substance naturally of its own accord.
amerika’s affection for the handful of biochemicals known as vitamins has always struck me as being just another facet of over the top consumerist indoctrination. Disingenuous at the least and very probably 100% deceit by big corporations.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Feb 13 2021 3:48 utc | 127

i was fortunate to have met abrahm hoffer in my 20s & to have followed his research, protocol & guidance. in the autumn of 2019 attending my mother in law (who’d spent her last months in a high end nursing home in WA & upon death was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis as were all the deaths in her nursing home) through her very ugly death. my husband & i contracted what our canadian gp after the fact thought was probably covid. during our illness, left entirely on own as no one had the slightest notion what we were dealing with—abrahm’s protocol came into play…. it was that protocol that indeed saved us. i am not suggesting or relating this in any way to challenge or convince anyone of the worthiness of vitamin therapy, simply to say in our case it proved life saving. granted, we humans are all different & as abrahm suggested after years of serious study, some people/bodies process well & others do not. i for one need a great more b’s than many others. curcumin, as the medical papers posted on pubmed will attest, can assist all manner of problems & disorders. vit C, a, betacarol, b’s, d, selenium, coq10, resveratrol, melatonin, msm, minerals (zinc/calcium) all interact with each other & need each other to process. it’s complicated, not simply one, but interdependent. certainly some are fortunate to process all they need from what they eat, breathe, but not all of us are so fortunate. abrahm taught me to appreciate how complex & very unique we all are.

Posted by: emersonreturn | Feb 13 2021 5:13 utc | 129

@William Gruff | Feb 12 2021 16:03 utc | 98

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.

Thank you for bringing this important observation to the surface, it is actually something of an optimistic message in very dark times (or maybe they have enough money to bury democracy once and for all).
Alex Christoforou made a similar observation about Twitter which is losing big money every year. So obviously we are not seeing “The Market” at play, but rather the oligarchy throwing all they have into controlling the narrative. They will ultimately fail.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 13 2021 8:27 utc | 131

RJ Eskow and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss the deeper issues of facbook censorship. Then their conversation ranges into electoral mechanism and proportional representation. Thirty three minutes of in depth discussion.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 13 2021 9:24 utc | 133

james @ 116
No, james, I haven’t heard that, but thanks for the heads up. Bud Powell’s a demon!
gm
And as to what you suppose (“It’s also true that the countries with the highest life expectancies are some of the richest”) regarding places with (highest quality of/functional) life expectancy, it is not the richest enclaves, on average
Yeah, in fact.
lysias @ 121
My 57.46 ng/mL Vitamin D blood level is not an excess. It falls squarely within the range the lab report gives for Sufficient: between 30 and 100. Excessive is over 100
Got it. So did you originally take supplemental D because of a deficiency, or just because?
Debsisdead @ 126
Interesting. Thanks for that.
Grieved @ 127
As was mentioned up-thread, there isn’t enough food in the world for everyone to get their vitamin D from
Don’t know about that, but in any case it certainly doesn’t apply to you or anyone else on this forum.
emersonreturn @ 128
…it’s complicated, not simply one, but interdependent. certainly some are fortunate to process all they need from what they eat, breathe, but not all of us are so fortunate…
Indeed, which is why I stick to the big numbers, the collective statistics.

Posted by: john | Feb 13 2021 10:32 utc | 135

Cheap steroid inhalers suppress severe COVID symptoms, trial finds
Seems like an obvious idea to me, but they are not all that cheap here.

Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 13 2021 10:50 utc | 137

https://www.rcinet.ca/eye-on-the-arctic/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2016/06/yakutsk_22.jpg
Getting vitamin D in Subarctic.
For amusement, I check Accuweather for Tiksi in Arctic — not-so-busy port city on Arctic Ocean (the photo is from Yakutsk that is 1000 km more south).
Something like that
Tue -27 C seasonably cold
Wed -34 C bitter cold
Thu -28 C wind SE 42 kmh, 81 in gusts
Pollution index 0, enjoy your favorite outdoor activities

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Feb 13 2021 11:31 utc | 139

They actually found ~1.5 ug of provitamin D3 in ground-up black soldier Fly larvae, whether grown on chicken manure, kitchen waste, or spent brewers grain lees.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-46603-z/tables/7
Posted by: gm | Feb 13 2021 0:59 utc | 120
I look forward to gourmet reviews of larva burgers from larvae raised on different “feed streams”.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Feb 13 2021 12:03 utc | 141

Onto the good news, COVID cases in Japan are decreasing: https://japantoday.com/category/national/tokyo-reports-369-new-coronavirus-cases
Yeah, lockdown works, even if it’s mild lockdown like in Japan.
Death rates are still rather high tho.

Posted by: Smith | Feb 13 2021 12:16 utc | 143

Posted by: Stonebird | Feb 13 2021 12:06 utc | 141
I’m no expert, what I know is from having a couple inhalers once as treatment for pneumonia, and from one of my brothers who had one and needed it regularly. (Cost a couple hundred $$ apiece as I remember.) I do have asthmatic type constrictions & cough at times, but do well enough with anti-histamines. In this case it seems they might be of use to anybody with COVID too as prophylaxis.

Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 13 2021 12:38 utc | 145

Number of COVID-19 patients who died outside hospitals spikes in Japan

A total of 132 people with the coronavirus died in places other than hospitals in January, National Police Agency sources said Friday.
The monthly number of such deaths more than doubled from 56 in December, surpassing the cumulative total of 122 in the final 10 months of 2020.
Of January’s total, 56 had tested positive for the virus before dying while infections in the remaining 76 came to light after their deaths.
Of the total, 123 died either at home, in elderly nursing homes or other accommodation facilities, while the other nine died at work, in parking areas or other locations.

132 that they know of. If they are dying from COVID-19 outside controlled environments now, they were before. But the most astonishing number here is of the dead who were diagnosed post mortem: 76 out of 132, i.e. more than half the known numbers. Which means that, it is in the doctor’s hands to declare the individual died or not from COVID-19. By previous actions from the fascist Japanese government, by bet is the doctors are “inclined” to declare COVID-19 as the causa mortis the fewest possible.
Do you still believe Japan managed the pandemic well?

Posted by: vk | Feb 13 2021 14:31 utc | 147

I had what I then thought was a bad cold in October 2019. Considering the symptoms, it may well have been covid. I got over it in about a week. The Vitamin D I have been taking probably assisted my recovery.

Posted by: lysias | Feb 13 2021 14:49 utc | 149

Magnitude ~7 quake off Japan just now, near fukushima: here

Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 13 2021 15:24 utc | 151

Surprise, our dear NYT caught lying and slandering China once again, this time by 2 WHO experts:
https://twitter.com/PeterDaszak/status/1360551108565999619
https://twitter.com/theakfischer/status/1360590441817772034?s=21

Posted by: J W | Feb 13 2021 16:41 utc | 153

@ Smith:
Colonialism and war contributed to a tangle of race and culture all over Asia.
The Rohingya crisis, for one, is fall out from British movement of people across their empire.
White Russian women married Chinese men, as they escaped the Bolsheviks.
The Chinese actress Angela baby claims German ancestry.
Hong Kong has South Asians who call it home; Macao, its Eurasians.
Both are self ruled under central oversight.
Chengdu and Chongqing have people whose families fled inland from across China during the invasion.
Likewise, Taiwan’s melting pot includes its mixed blood and Japanese minority from modern colonial days, plus its aboriginal nations ( so does the mainland).
Taiwan has its local flavours, within the Chinese context.
Granted that the island’s development took a slightly different turn after Japanese annexation, and it doesn’t want to come under the mainland’s form of government.
The Qing crushed the Ming loyalists on Taiwan because it could not abide by a hostile regime on its doorstep, and that is no different today. Add national pride to that.
The earliest organized Chinese workers to southern Taiwan were mainly Hakka ( guest people) from Fujian and Guangdong, fiercely hardy and clannish.
Deng Xiaoping was Hakka and his wisdom for solving the Diaoyutai dispute with Japan, should apply to Taiwan: leave it to the next generation.
Tsai and her crew are not that generation, and independence is not at the end of Taiwan’s road.
Unless they have bought a third party promise to fight the mainland – to the last Taiwanese.
Ciao!

Posted by: LittleWhiteCabbage | Feb 13 2021 17:50 utc | 155

Below is a quote from a ZH posting about the US “impeachment” trial that clearly shows the corruption on both sides of the duopoly of American politics
”
After a couple of hours of ‘negotiations’ during which Sen. Cruz threatened to subpoena Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Trump’s lawyers said they would call “100s of witnesses”, a deal has been reached that means no witnesses will be called.
”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 13 2021 19:04 utc | 157

Posted by: Grieved | Feb 13 2021 16:00 utc | 152
Yes, I’d recommend the nasal lavage to anybody. Once you get used to it, it works great. A little salt, a couple ounces of water, and something to snort it from. Cheap. It’s annoying and messy, but so is a cold.
The inhaler idea occured to me a couple days ago because of my brother, and then I ran into that story. Serendipity. But I thought it could help people, so …

Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 13 2021 19:56 utc | 159

Below is a quote from a Reuters piece that shows that the IMF is an arm of the global private financial system, which is steadfastly against any form of business regulation. The quote also shows that within Ukraine government there is some attempt to work for the good of the people over the system.
”
Last June, the IMF approved the $5 billion loan programme and disbursed the first tranche of $2.1 billion to help the economy, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
Further loans have been frozen due to the slow pace of reforms.
The IMF was also concerned about the government’s decision made in January to regulate household gas prices.
“Very predictable the latest IMF mission “departs” with no deal … Gas price cap was the last nail in the coffin of hoping to get sign off,” Timothy Ash, head of emerging market research at Blue Bay Asset Management, wrote on Twitter.
”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 14 2021 0:25 utc | 161

Below is a link to a The Register article, the quoted summary and then a get rid of the garbage edit of the comments when I read it which I find insightful
Amazon sues NY Attorney General in preemptive strike: Web giant faces claim it did not fully protect workers in COVID-19 pandemic
Amazon on Friday sued New York Attorney General Letitia James to prevent her office from bringing legal action that would punish the behemoth computing biz for alleged worker health and safety violations.
The lawsuit follows from a year of rancorous disputes with Amazon warehouse workers who claim the company hasn’t done enough to ensure their well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.
THE COMMENTS
mark l 2
Why should US tax payers money be spent on aiding Intel, AMD, Qualcomm etc build new US fabs when these are companies worth billions so shouldn’t need state aid. Giving them grants or tax cuts just makes their shareholders more money.
Reply
Brewster’s Angle Grinder
Trickle down my arse.
I was about to have the same rant. The free market fundamentalists are classic bullies. When they’re doing well, everybody should stand on their own laurels and government should be as small as possible.
But as soon things get tough, they’re straight to government crying, “Pay for our R&D; subsidise our factories. It’ll create jobs for all those people we’ve told you not to look after and who we said we’d create jobs for if you just cut our taxes (although, in reality, we used the cash to fund a share buyback so our directors’ options became more valuable). BTW, did we say that last bit out loud?”
Reply
Chris G
Re: Trickle down my arse.
Would those free market fundamentalists be the same ones who outsourced manufacturing to competing countries in the name of profit?
“We screwed up but we don’t want to dig into our own money piles when the government can just print some more for us.”
Reply
anmigueelbeer
Re: Trickle down my arse.
subsidise our factories
What “factories”?
Presently, Foxconn’s Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin factory is still an empty building. It is more-or-less a facade.
Reply
Warm Braw
If you can be sure that you will have access to secure supplies of critical technology and see no problems with your potential enemies having unfettered, or even preferential, access to the same, then it would clearly be a waste of money.
Looking at it from the other end of the telescope, it’s precisely why (apart from the economic benefit) other countries might find themselves offering state aid to similar industries.
The US is probably just about still in a position where it can reassert some control over its technology supply chain. Whether it’s worth doing, given the loss of control over much of the rest of it, is not clear.
Reply
Jellied Eel
The US is probably just about still in a position where it can reassert some control over its technology supply chain. Whether it’s worth doing, given the loss of control over much of the rest of it, is not clear.
But.. but.. Free Market! And making America great chips again!
Or, even though Executive Orders sound great, in practice there are a few snags. Like the US semiconductor industry happily offshored much of it’s fabrication years ago. So how the US could persuade it’s own industry to bring those plants, jobs and revenues back home. I guess there are some policy levers, like tax breaks, subsidies, sanctions etc that could be done, or undone. But not sure how given some of the practicalities would end up at State-level, ie which State gets bungs to attract plants. And then there’s other snags, or benefits. Like how to tempt youngsters to take on $100K+ debt to study & supply skills needed to feed fab plants.
And as I understand it, one of the reasons why there are component shortages is that fab plants follow the money and have switched production lines to chips with the best profit margins. So producing the chips that are wanted means dangling $$$. Or there’s some legislation intended for war-time production priorities as was used to get Covid stuff supplied, but can’t force that on operations outside the US. And fab plants cost billions, and can’t be built overnight.
Or, given the shortages seem to be impacting automakers, look again at whether cars have become too complex, and ways to potentially simplify design so fewer components are needed.. Which automakers have been doing, but that also puts them in competition with all the computer and IoT producers.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 14 2021 5:13 utc | 163

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 14 2021 5:27 utc | 164
Intel has torpedoed their own semiconductor manufacturing lead for past 6 years despite having a virtually bottomless budget, but sure a signature on a paper by some politician is gonna fix the decades of robbing productive capital for higher numbers in fictitious finance.
Also, the computational demands of running a car are utterly trivial compared to even a cheap smartphone running a web browser. There’s no need for advanced chips at all, unless they are processing data for three letter agencies.

Posted by: J W | Feb 14 2021 5:59 utc | 165

Must keep your mind on the job when at work. (from a tweet)
“Darwin award winner: Samarra Police said that 21 ISIS terrorists were killed by a booby-trapped car driven by one of them when the latter wanted to farewell his friends and honked the car forgetting the honk button is the detonator of the vehicle.”

Posted by: Stonebird | Feb 14 2021 8:58 utc | 167

An ill wind has been sown, beware of harvest time.
Folk wisdom has a saying: Take great care in who you make an enemy – you become like them. Keep in mind the 20th century’s enemies: the Bosch; Mussolini; Hitler; Stalin; Mao, the echoes of all resound loudly in the (Illegal) Outlaw U.S. Empire now existing. Withdraw your consent.
Retaining the Republic as it was is impossible, a cancer within the body politic prohibits cure. That cancer is democracy of citizens bamboozled and controlled by marketing technology. Universal suffrage is not democracy; democracy is the aggregate decision of a people having uncontrolled but informed minds – accept no substitute.
The U.S. Republic was structured with the legislative branch the centre but divided political power. No control of governmental function is possible without the control of the legislative branch. Capture of the legislative branch has been completed decades ago, that capture depends on incumbency to prevail. About the only non-violent means to overcome that capture is to eliminate incumbency for all but the rarest legislators who devotedly serve the public interest. That decision is for the public to make through informed decisions in their voting booth. Otherwise nothing will change, at least for the good of the public in their Republic.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Feb 14 2021 13:06 utc | 169

@psychohistorian #164
The reason cars use more and more semiconductors is because of ever increasing legal requirements on them.
The biggest single reason is emissions control and fuel economy (closely related). The CAN bus was created in the 1980s – generally the largest chip connected to it is the one controlling the engine.
Modern engines employ enormous numbers of sensors and what not in order to reduce emissions and to improve gas mileage. The sensors in turn also require silicon, and so do the control chips (processor is just the brain, not the hands).
Then we have the transmission, the anti-lock brakes, the cruise control, power windows, power locks, air conditioning, audio system. For electric cars – add the battery and recharging systems.
There can be as many as 3500 semiconductor chips in a single vehicle.
So while you can greatly simplify the automobile by removing much of the above – the resulting car will be in violation of dozens of regulations in the US and probably 2 or 3 times more in the EU.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 14 2021 16:35 utc | 171

@ c1ue | Feb 14 2021 16:45 utc | 172
Appreciate your reply and questions. The bar for incumbency is for the public office. You put your finger on the problem: “The campaign finance unleashing by Citizens United has pushed focus ever more strongly on donors – why then should anyone be surprised that said Senators and Representatives serve their donors first and foremost?“. Apparently there is still sufficient wherewithal to afford only one pass on that merry-go-round but dividends from the investment become limited when incumbency doesn’t occur. How much will be invested without political dividend? The first term is usually the loss leader whilst the incum gets bent.
Last congress where seniority functioned probably was during the final years of Speaker Tip O’Neill when the Democratic flood also swept away seniority rules for the party. Mr. O’Neill pointed out the problem but was overruled. The Republican party did not follow suit and maintained party discipline, the Dems became an undisciplined mob.
Incumbency is the discipline that now directs public affairs. The weak point in this arrangement appears to be incumbency; damage that the system is weakened and sufficient first termers will be the only avenue to possible change. YMMV

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Feb 14 2021 17:36 utc | 173

Ben Norton at the Grayzone has an in depth scoop– a must read– on what’s going on in Ecuador: while most U.S. citizens are fixated on Trump’s impeachment the Biden administration is working with Colombia and Luis Almagro (OAS) and Lenin Moreno (current Ecuadorian president) to eliminate Arauz from the final election in April. Key in the plot was Lenin Moreno’s quick visit to Washington just before the Feb 7 vote where he met with Almagro and Biden’s replacement for Elliott Abrams: his name is Juan Sebastian Gonzalez. Remember him. https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/bureau/254661.htm He is Colombian by birth but Georgetown educated.
According to Norton one of the plans is to do a “selective” recount and get rid of enough Arauz votes to put him in 3rd place which would mean he would be out.
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/15/us-oas-colombia-steal-ecuador-election/
Biden’s Monroe Doctrine plan for Latin America has been consistent and evident for years since he brags a lot: Colombia is key, followed by Honduras. He thumps his chest, waves money at the rich and establishes a huge pipeline of cash, arms and perks if they “deliver” their respective countries and the raw materials and peons as well. This particular chapter– Ecuador– should expose more malfeasance than usual. Kudos to the Grayzone for being there again and digging into it.

Posted by: migueljose | Feb 15 2021 17:30 utc | 175

@Formerly T-Bear #173
I apologize for the slow reply. Been really busy with my work.
Thank you for the expansion. I understand better what you are advocating.
From my own view – term limits or other forms of anti-incumbency laws won’t be effective. As with all occupations, there is some significant amount of learning required to execute the job of legislator whether Senator or Representative. The benefit of term limits is that it reduces the “known” factor for donors when placing their orders; the downside is that incoming politicians will be even less capable – even in theory – of doing their jobs well.
I fear the outcome of term limits would be even greater reliance on lobbyists and other forms of pond scum than exists today.
That’s why I see the more effective bandaid as attacking the money side. While campaign finance laws were certainly never fully effective, the threat of potential criminal prosecution clearly kept those abuses far below the level we see today with legalized bribery.
And I say band-aid because the ultimate problem is that Senators and Representatives, by and large, are clearly either focused on their and their donor class or are just plain corrupt. Failing to benefit, much less safeguard their constituents – both immediate and societal – is what underlies the ongoing slide of American society.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 17 2021 14:46 utc | 177

The last note regarding term limits:
The last major problem with term limits is that it empowers the federal bureaucracy even more.
It takes familiarity and experience to understand the many tricks these bureaucrats use. The un-elected or even appointed levels in the various departments have enormous sway over policy – both by delaying/ignoring/obstructing policies they dislike and by implementing policies in areas which don’t come under regular scrutiny.
The good thing about no term limits is that it allows that rare, capable and non-self interested person to influence the body politic for as long as they (and the voters) want them to. An external lobbying group, much less the donor/1% class, is far more able to game term limits than the short term good such laws might bring.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 17 2021 14:55 utc | 179

@Formerly T-Bear #180
Thank you for further expanding.
I understand the rationale behind the proposed increased voting percentages, however, have you looked at this historical voting breakdowns for such individuals as McConnell?
I fear that even a 66.6% bar wouldn’t change much = although I freely grant that such a bar would invite more challengers.
However, ultimately the problem is that such a system is absolutely extra-Constitutional at the moment.
The likelihood of such a proposed amendment being implemented in the face of the combined incumbents’ opposition is certainly zero.
And if we need a modern Cincinnatus to come forward and tyrant his/her way to reform, I’m sure there are better ways to accomplish the desired outcome such as limiting individual and corporate campaign contributions to start with, or banning all political advertising, period.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 18 2021 19:05 utc | 181

Just having another look at this Lady.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Smith,_Baroness_Smith_of_Gilmorehill
I think this is significant:
Baroness Smith is president of Scottish Opera
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Opera
Nothing wrong with that of course, but I don’t know much of the lower classes you will encounter. And I do wonder how many of the Judging classes she might run into in her guise as president of Scottish Opera.

Posted by: John Cleary | Feb 20 2021 2:43 utc | 183