Posted by: Arch Bungle | Feb 7 2021 13:01 utc | 3
Indeed.

Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 7 2021 13:16 utc | 4

Result? More than 1,200 deaths per day and becoming the worst prepared nation against the pandemic in the world:
HCQ consumption grew almost 100% in 2020; Ivermectin consumption grew 829% in 2020 in Brazil
–//–
Leyen admits China is a socialist nation:
Von der Leyen Says Quest for COVID Vaccines is ‘Not a Competition’, But Calls China ‘Systemic Rival’
Only the suckers from the plebeian masses of the West still fall for the old divide et impera bullshit and consider China a bad country from which nothing is to be learned.
Meanwhile, the capitalist elites are working 24/7 to destroy the last beacon of hope for humanity.
–//–
Live Updates: At Least 10 Dead, Over 100 People Missing in Glacier Burst in Uttarakhand, India
I think India should stop blaming China for all problems of the world and start to take care of its own people.
–//–
‘Genie’s out of the bottle’: German FM pledges €21 million to help Belarusian opposition in fight to remove embattled Lukashenko
Speaking of genies out of the bottle, I would suggest Mr. Maas to stop looking east and start to look south – at the EU’s “soft underbelly”.
I’ve heard a banker has just taken over the Italian central government as a last and desperate attempt to save the country. I think it can’t be saved…
For those who don’t know: Italy is already bankrupt. The only reason it hasn’t collapsed already is because it is in the Euro Zone: Germany is pretending it is not collapsed so the Euro Bonds can continue to be traded at its current rates and the Euro itself doesn’t collapse (which would bankrupt Germany). But Italy itself is already destroyed: it is a literal walking dead nation-state. It is estimated Italy’s default would generate an instant hole of more than EUR 750 billion to the German coffers – not enough (theoretically) to bring Germany down, but close.
–//–
Biden’s message for the world: America is back
It took longer than I expected for the Western journalists (propagandists) to start using Biden’s slogan as if it was information. And it surprised me the initiative came from an Asia Times columnist. You know, Asia Times – a.k.a. David P. Goldman’s personal blog.
–//–
US economic woes expose trade war absurdity
Hasn’t the news come to Beijing yet? The USA has decided it is above reality! It makes whatever the fuck it wants!
–//–
China’s pragmatic diplomacy is taking effect against US tarnishing: Global Times editorial
The liberals and the religious fundamentalists can keep masturbating in the world of ideas; the Marxists are the masters of the material – also known as the real world.
–//–
Advantage China, as democracy slides from view in Southeast Asia
Editorial board of the SCMP: “guys, guys, I have a brilliant idea: what if we substituted the word ‘capitalism’ for ‘democracy’?”
–//–
As U.S. Vaccinations Ramp Up, Some Recipients Struggle to Secure a Second Dose
Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine granted conditional market approval in China
Hear this sound? This is the sound of the Chinese Juggernaut heating up its system and getting ready to roll over.
–//–
Fortuna pipe-laying ship resumes work on Nord Stream 2 in Danish waters
Modern-day Germans hate the Russians. Problem is they also love cheap gas.
At the end of the day, we’re all just animals. We need to keep our bodies warm during the winter just like the bear shitting in the woods next door.
Nothing personal, just business.
–//–
Biden plays Deng’s card against Xi
Sure, buddy, whatever makes you sleep better at night.
–//–
The Exponential Power of a $15 Wage Floor
Lenin who? Mao who? Fidel who?
Don’t need to learn from these frauds! AOC, Bernie Sanders, bread-and-butter trade-unionist policies – those are the statesmen, policies and ideas that will revolutionize America and therefore the whole world!
Meanwhile, let’s continue to low key support the destruction of Libya, Syria, Yemen and a future war against China, because that’s a small price to pay for a USD 15.00 minimum wage…
–//–
The Russian Embassy responded to the words of the Lithuanian Prime Minister about Sputnik V
Someone must remind the Germans chihuahuas are not watchdogs. They should be kept locked inside the house.
–//–
Best for last:
COVID-19 may have spread in Wuhan market, but originated elsewhere: WHO expert
I wouldn’t be surprised if the virus came from Italy. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the virus came from the USA.
Just leaving this here for posterity.

Posted by: vk | Feb 7 2021 13:40 utc | 6

@ #6
As bad as Brazil is doing they are better than US and at current rate will not approach US.
Brazil has a coup regime imposed by US and is not sovereign or independent.
829% of not much remains not much. A tweet is a tweet.

Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 7 2021 14:43 utc | 8

PS Another aspect to people bragging about how their genius saved democracy (aka won for their side,) is “Victory has a thousand fathers but defeat is an orphan.” People trying to spin their usual activities plus pandemic accommodations into political genius is no more to be taken seriously than Trumpers claiming the stable genius gamed the Electoral College.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 7 2021 15:35 utc | 10

Posted by: Jason C | Feb 7 2021 15:40 utc | 11
Perhaps https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/ by ex. Ambassador Craig Murray?

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Feb 7 2021 15:42 utc | 12

It appears to have dawned on our “elites” that they still need the rest of us:
Senior Democrats to unveil new $3,000-per-child benefit as Biden stimulus gains steam
Perhaps $15/hr will not be such a big deal after all.

Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 7 2021 16:01 utc | 14

Arch Bungle @Feb7 15:55 #13

With an ethnic majority Russian population no less!

Yeah, and anti-Russian propagandist avoid mentioning that Crimea held a Referendum.
When they are reminded of this, the propagandists claim that it was held under duress. Yet we don’t hear about any protests or attempted color revolution in Crimea. No doubt they are damn happy to have left Ukraine where political corruption is legendary and financial hardship is widespread.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Feb 7 2021 16:13 utc | 16

Jason C @Feb7 15:40 #11
Have you tried searching moa archives?
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Feb 7 2021 16:15 utc | 18

vk | Feb 7 2021 13:40 utc | 6
“It is estimated Italy’s default would generate an instant hole of more than EUR 750 billion to the German coffers – not enough (theoretically) to bring Germany down, but close.”
Way off.
Quote; If TARGET2 collapsed, the Bundesbank would lose the trillion plus euros owed to it by the others and the ECB itself, and additionally have to pay up to €400bn of the net losses, based on current imbalances. That is currently a notional cost for the Bundesbank of at least €1.536 trillion, wiping out its own balance sheet.
https://www.goldmoney.com/research/the-rapidly-failing-eu
He estimates that it is the Euro that has the problems, through using TARGET2″, (Inter central Bank settlement scheme) to ; “ a mechanism that permits the PIGS to shelter nonperforming loans in increasing quantities, the TARGET2 setup has become rotten to the core
In other words, the Euro could bust, the Germans would find that they might have to “reinvent” the Mark and could find themselves in the position of “bailing out Europe”, Which it won’t do.
Also he thinks that would cause the end of the Central Bank system and “naturally” drag the US dollar into the muck as well. (Don’t forget the “foreigners” have lots of “money”……, or something related to equities/asses, denominated in those two currencies as well.)
When we go down, we all go together.

Posted by: Stonebird | Feb 7 2021 16:34 utc | 20

vk | Feb 7 2021 13:40 utc | 6
I only needed to see the HCQ headline and I knew who was posting!
Given that 2020 deaths were right on average, I’d love to know where all these Covid deaths are coming from? Creative counting? That might explain why influenza is on decline. Seriously, Covid is a flu virus. Bizarro World, here we are!
I envy the USA. People can actually flee Lockdowns and move to states without them(for now). Considering how divided society has become, couldn’t we divide every country in two? One half for lockdowns and the other half for people who don’t wish to live under lockdown. I guess that wouldn’t work because governments would have to surrender half their power. We know they never willingly give up any power.
The other problem is that all the karens would no longer be able to behave like moral bullies if their country was made up only of karens. I suspect they might develop a distaste for lockdowns if they couldn’t lord it over all the Covid Idiot Deplorables.

Posted by: EoinW | Feb 7 2021 16:39 utc | 22

re M @ 5 et al
We should note that the vital and strategically important Crimea was ‘annexed’ after a referendum with 95% support which was after a US planned, financed and executed coup against the Russian-friendly, democratically elected government of Ukraine DURING the Russian hosted international Olympic games.
The USA and its vassals are ALWAYS the aggressor in its for-profit quest of world domination.

Posted by: gottlieb | Feb 7 2021 16:50 utc | 24

john@19 ignores how the classic mode of a Color Revolution is to claim the government has rigged the election generally without bothering to produce any evidence, demands new elections, put people into the streets in the capital to make a crisis situation, then use the crisis to, in their minds, legitimate a new Color government. The media narrative is that the election was stolen. The Time article is wrong, john is wrong and it was Trump trying to stage a Color Revolution against the plurality who voted for Biden. The only significant difference between Trump’s failed Color Revolution and the others is…actually, I’m coming up dry. One of the key points, more privileged, petty bourgeois supporters than working people, fits Trumpery like a Savile Row suit. Because pretending “deplorable” was supposed to mean “working class” rather than consciously racist is just an equivocation, not an argument, much less a fact.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 7 2021 17:15 utc | 26

Posted by: Willow | Feb 7 2021 17:17 utc | 27
RE Time article: Not “stolen”, “fortified”, like vitamins. We have healthy elections.
That article looks like a “modified, limited hangout” to me. Strange days.

Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 7 2021 17:22 utc | 28

Posted by: EoinW | Feb 7 2021 16:39 utc | 22
It’s called Survivorship bias. Pandemic countermeasures and awareness can reduce all kinds of transmissible diseases not just CV19.

Posted by: Lucci | Feb 7 2021 17:35 utc | 30

Thanks vk, for everything and posterity is good. For those who are fed up with all the marx stuff of him and others, try to take a look into another way of german thinking of 19th century. Actualy is interesting that booth, Nietzsche and Marx, never really spoke about each other. Their modern follower does neither.
We all are not through half of the predictions they made seperatly and differently. Its interesting to see how north american thinking can find shelter with Nietzsche.
America’s Delusional Elite Is Done
The Author is young.
Another interesting emerging in germany is a story about a doctor named Winfried Stöcker. He is a sucessful bio entrepreneur and deeply involved with c19 tests. He is a MD as well and startet to vaccacinate himself, his family and this year around 100 people with the antigene s21. He says to take out the whole process of making the cell producing the antigen by giving it directly, like modern hepatitis vac work. His results look promising including that he made the process by publishing IP free. He starts to jump on the frontpages of MSM. He have very strong opinions about migration. Typical german outsider scientist. Only did find his german Webside. Wikipedia is also interesting.

Posted by: rico rose | Feb 7 2021 17:47 utc | 32

thanks b… lots to chew on…
@ arch.. ignore the trolls..
@ jason c.. you might also want to take a look at john helmers site for that.. http://johnhelmer.net/
from the other thread – thanks juliania! i am really enjoying the book! i understand what they mean – those who have read it..

Posted by: james | Feb 7 2021 17:48 utc | 34

To the President, something felt amiss. “It was all very, very strange,” Trump said on Dec. 2. “Within days after the election, we witnessed an orchestrated effort to anoint the winner, even while many key states were still being counted.”
BS, it wasn’t “strange”, a few days after the election–which was Nov. 3rd, not Nov. 30th–it was clear Biden had won, but that there would be recounts of close states like Georgia.
And those recounts confirmed Biden’s win. Anyone claiming, or implying, that Trump won after that mid-November 2020 is either delusional and/or an active insurrectionist. Because NO evidence has come out that shows any especial problems with the vote count–so massively unlike 2000, 2004, and yes irony, additionally unlike Trump’s “wins” of Michigan, Wisconsin, + Florida, in 2016, and therefore the presidency. What is cited as evidence that Trump “won” in 2020, by the likes of Trump and Rudy Giuliani, is unsubstantiated claims, wishes, and lies, with many of those lies being highly racist. This is much the same as the the “techniques” used to sell the US invasion of Iraq in 20003.
This type of validation of Trump’s lies sides those who push it with neo-Nazis.
Trump’s claim, cited by Time Magazine, is highly akin to Netanyahu and his ilk asserting what is called Israel was empty land circa 1890 CE and European Jewish settlers made it an attractive place for “fake” Palestinians to settle. It’s Trump, Time Magazine, and now MoA, dressing up extremist lies in the form of “but there’s the outlier exception”, but the outlier exception is an utter invention.
Sad, that RT degrades its okay reputation by pretending that Jan. 6th wasn’t a coup attempt, but RT is in “good” company with Glenn Greenwald.

Posted by: Jay | Feb 7 2021 17:53 utc | 36

killwallstreet | Feb 7 2021 17:22 utc | 28
While I accept that Iran will not make nuclear bombs. If the Bidens/israel force a “regime change” somehow, then the next “regime” will probably be worse and NOT necessarliy any more favourable to the US/Isr. eg. the MEK is a terrorist group, at the moment supported by the US and EU, but they are not “democracy” minded, (except for financial handouts). They could be worse. More extremist certainly.
However, one reason that the Israelis will be very careful if they decide to start a war, is that Iranian extremists could use an less-efficient, but more deadly alternative..
How much Uranium is necessary for a “dirty” bomb? If you think of the long-term physical disaster that is Fallujah, where only depleted uranium was used, then any nuclear exchange is a future human disaster.
Note, that NATO transforming Europe into a battleground will leave us in the same situation.

Posted by: Stonebird | Feb 7 2021 18:06 utc | 38

Regulation Chinese Style:
“An industry observer who declined to be identified told the Global Times that the committee’s move is a warning to all of China’s giant internet-based platforms, including e-commerce, food delivery and express delivery, to strictly abide by the new law. These companies will be placed under constant supervision and scrutiny by the regulators. [My Emphasis]
“For example, if the lucrative online lending business of Ant Group is not scrutinized on a regular basis, the rising debt risks generated on the platform may one day make it a ‘too big to fail’ financial beast, the kind that will need a government bailout if it encounters severe problems, the observer continued.”
One of the major lessons provided by the Neoliberals to the world is that of destroying regulation by owning the regulators via the infamous Revolving Door. China will not allow that to occur. BRAVO!! The Outlaw US Empire’s business environment has become so corrupt many businesses don’t want to do business within it and don’t at all mind taking their HQs to China. The constant, most important point Stacey and Max make in their Keiser Reports is the utter debasement of market mechanisms within the Neoliberal financial and business world where price discovery and other vital basics no longer work or were deregulated out of existence.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 7 2021 18:39 utc | 40

Great quote, Bemildred
I looked it up and in looking it up came across MLK, Jr quotes
that are so applicable today.
https://mlk.wsu.edu/about-dr-king/famous-quotes/
(not in any order of preference)

On Justice
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
– Letter from Birmingham City Jail, 1963

The above immediately made me think of Julian Assange.
The above letter continued:

In a real sense, all life is interrelated. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.
I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality … I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
The time is always right to do what is right.

This one reminds me of where BLM and anti-fa have gone off the rails.

As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love. Let no man pull you so low as to hate him. Always avoid violence. If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in your struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos. (1956)
We believe in law and order. We are not advocating violence. We want to love our enemies. If I am stopped, our work will not stop, for what we are doing is right.
– 1956, in Montgomery, Alabama

There are more. Check out the link.

Posted by: librul | Feb 7 2021 19:02 utc | 42

Severe Dysfunction in Washington and Wall Street Puts the U.S. at Risk of Capital Flight
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2021/02/severe-dysfunction-in-washington-and-wall-street-put-the-u-s-at-risk-of-capital-flight/

Posted by: Mao | Feb 7 2021 19:05 utc | 44

@36 “No, the media narrative is that the election was won fair and square. Since apparently you haven’t noticed, voices to the contrary are being censored at an alarming pace. ”
And that’s actually the most conclusive confirmation (to me, at least) that the election was indeed stolen.
They are not just being censored, it’s much worse than that: Some of America’s biggest companies are suspending donations to Republican Congress members who objected to the Electoral College’s votes.
They are being destroyed; this is an equivalent of banana-republic ‘disappearing’. I’ve never seen anything like that in the US. Or anywhere else, come to think of it.
If the election was clean, why would the establishment resort to these desperate measures?

Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 7 2021 19:47 utc | 46

rico rose@33
Speaking of C19th Germans: Friedrich List could make a claim to have been more influential on economic development than either of the duo that you mention. Of course there is a lot more to it than that but List’s is a name worth considering in the history of capitalism.
re the Presidential Election
I look forward to reading the Time article. As I have argued before all elections in the US are corrupt and every election delivers a ‘mandate’ so tawdry that politicians can do nothing except await orders from their masters, whose names are recorded in the contributions lists.
In the recent election Trump faced a candidate who, in any reasonable process would have been disqualified. Biden’s pedigree, after all, is that of a practical and thoroughgoing racist owing his ‘election’ to the massive support of his long suffering victims, blacks whom he hadn’t managed to get jailed, voting against Bernie Sanders and a reform platform, from Medicare for All to higher wages and support during this economic emergency, which reflected their needs and desires.
Add to that the clear evidence that Biden and son were immersed in crude corruption deals with Ukrainian oligarchs (not to mention others) and there was no way-short of election tampering- that he would have been on the ballot.
The truth is that US elections are run by parties which each specialise in aspects of election fixing. The Republicans specialise in vote suppression. Interestingly it is a strategy they came upon in the baggage of the Dixiecrats who joined them in the Southern Strategy. Together with gerrymandering (another time hallowed Democrat trick) they ensure that the minority platform of the plutocrats’ Chamber of Commerce dominates US politics.
As to the Democrats: vote harvesting, in which mail in ballots are very useful, is their currently favoured tactic. It only works however so long as the Democrats can succeed in keeping reformers off the ballot and preserving the ‘lesser evil’ option which is the only thing that motivates America’s marginalised voters in choosing them.
By ensuring that no serious Third Party contenders can emerge and concentrating their energies on fixing the Primary process- and the 2020 Primaries were a clinic in dirty tricks, bribery and ‘counting out’- the Democrats have the luxury to run candidates like Biden and Harris who, in a fair election, would be also rans.
It is a sad commentary on our culture that there is almost nothing here about the real question of the hour: the desperate and courageous struggle of India’s poor against the genocidal IMF fathered ‘reforms’ being imposed by a political party whose leadership meets under a portrait of Adolf Hitler- the Aryan superstar.

Posted by: bevin | Feb 7 2021 20:29 utc | 48

Anyone have an update on “Ayatollah” Michael D’Andrea? The total news blackout on the story is fascinating IMHO.

Posted by: HD | Feb 7 2021 20:40 utc | 50

@49 bevin
List, right. He was just not so provocative in his writings than the two. Very mainstream establishment. He did lay the path for german development since than, also in high appreciation by the eastern communist part. In the question what is the most important factor in economy, who gets the surplus, Marx said the capitalist say the capital is, the communist say the work. List said it is the soil. The Goverment have to take care, that every piece of land, maximise its economic output. Nietzsche does break all of this up, by saying its the will.

Posted by: rico rose | Feb 7 2021 20:56 utc | 52

Jason C #11

What was the name of the British guy’s blog where he took apart every detail of the Skripal hoax over many months? I know its been mentioned here. I want brush up on the details of that case and see what he’s written about the newest “even deadlier poison” fiasco. Thank you. Also if anyone can link to any critical journalism on this new case in the British or US press?

theblogmire.com. But it is the joyful band of bloggers who did intense analysis and on site examination that exposed the fraud. A crowd source par excellence.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 7 2021 21:43 utc | 54

And that’s actually the most conclusive confirmation (to me, at least) that the election was indeed stolen.
They are not just being censored, it’s much worse than that: Some of America’s biggest companies are suspending donations to Republican Congress members who objected to the Electoral College’s votes.
They are being destroyed; this is an equivalent of banana-republic ‘disappearing’. I’ve never seen anything like that in the US. Or anywhere else, come to think of it.
If the election was clean, why would the establishment resort to these desperate measures?
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 7 2021 19:47 utc | 47
Makes me wonder how many of those companies donate to Bernie Sanders and Congress members and candidates that are sympathetic to Sanders? Are the bereft Republican Congresscritters in the position of children cast out by hitherto loving mother? In my ears I hear the notes of “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child”.
Republican strategy was predicated on core supports that consisted of less educated whites, energizing them while building all possible obstacles for other groups to vote (especially less educated non-whites) AND lavish funding from businesses of all sizes. But they also pissed off major business sectors. COVID enabled temporary reforms of voting, which in combination with VERY energetic funding and VERY disagreeable nature of Trump’s appeal (best to love, best to hate type of guy) led to 10-20% rise of the number of voters — that were quite meager before. All of those seems perfectly legal. One can ponder about the ease with each billions of dollars can be poured into politics, but it was not a concern of GOP before. Actually, dismantling any impediments for the role of money in politics was mostly THEIR achievement.
My prediction is that “big money” will return to GOP, and Democrats would be wise to develop strategies not based on funding advantage — they exist and were already deployed, many times and in many places. Political situation in USA is unstable, as it should — it is not like any party offers reliable solutions to the problems of citizens.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Feb 7 2021 22:02 utc | 56

Posted by: Stonebird | Feb 7 2021 20:53 utc | 52
Frightening isn’t it? Now that “we” have allowed these tech giants and social media/newsmedia monopolistic entities to form and run amok it will be nearly impossible to stop it from metastasizing. No help that the Democrats are fully embedded (and in bed) with Silly-Con Valley thus cementing the merger of government and corporate America. The removal of all opposing viewpoints from the realm of mere discussion will only continue until there is an appetite in the American or European people or their elected representatives to break up these giant conglomerates.
That having been said, I look forward to viewing this new video and wish that Twitter had let that account remain so that when it does come out, it can be analyzed and debunked if it isn’t true. By censoring it, Twitter only gives an immediate veneer of credibility to the notion that the election was in fact stolen (a truly ridiculous concept if you’ve done the work of actually tracking down each and every rumor/allegation – as was the case with RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA post-2016).

Posted by: _K_C_ | Feb 7 2021 22:07 utc | 58

@ bevin | Feb 7 2021 20:29 utc | 49.. some of us here including b have put a focus on what is happening in india with the farmers.. it was discussed last week on the open week in review thread as i recall.. i don’t think it is being overlooked…
@ Passer by | Feb 7 2021 21:51 utc | 56… what a hit piece of propaganda that is!
“It seems that Russia is progressively disconnecting itself from Europe and looking at democratic values as an existential threat.” the guy looks outward and wants to put the focus on navalny and the expelled diplomats, but it either incapable or unwilling to see the role the eu plays in any of anything… it is quite an impressive piece of propaganda and showing no ability to reflect on its own actions whether they be towards julian assange, the stonewalling of requests from russia to share their conclusions on the novichok and on and on the lists continues to grow…. i guess this is why they have this buffoon jself borrell as the top diplomat for europe, again making the west look like mental midgits next to russia… it is impressive and depressing all at the same time!

Posted by: james | Feb 7 2021 22:14 utc | 60

Mao Cheng Ji #47

They are being destroyed; this is an equivalent of banana-republic ‘disappearing’. I’ve never seen anything like that in the US. Or anywhere else, come to think of it.
If the election was clean, why would the establishment resort to these desperate measures?

Well try Haiti as ‘anywhere else’: Jean-Bertrand Aristide comes to mind.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 7 2021 22:24 utc | 62

Jason @ 11:
As others before me have already said, Rob Slane who lives in Salisbury covered the Skripal poisoning farce in considerable detail in his posts on The Blogmire. Several of his regular commenters like Liane Theuer also did original investigative work and it was they who discovered that the Skripals were being held at the US airforce base at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.
John Helmer has published a book on the Skripal poisoning hoax and acknowledges The Blogmire and its commenters as valuable sources of information.
Slane has left behind the Skripal poisoning hoax until such time as something new appears that adds to the hoax narrative (not likely – it has probably been played for all it is worth now) and is currently covering the lockdowns in the UK. The last post he put up on the Skripals is at this link. The comments forum there is discussing the Navalny poisoning farce.

Posted by: Jen | Feb 7 2021 22:26 utc | 64

Piotr Berman #57

My prediction is that “big money” will return to GOP, and Democrats would be wise to develop strategies not based on funding advantage — they exist and were already deployed, many times and in many places. Political situation in USA is unstable, as it should — it is not like any party offers reliable solutions to the problems of citizens.

I see the dimratss as having picked up Damocles sword in that they and the election strengtheners have enabled postal voting and extended hours etc etc. This will be vigorously excluded, undermined and gamed in all dimratss primaries as they want ‘only the right people’ to be winners in their candidate pre-selections.
There will ultimately be one law for the nation and yet a much more constrained law for the DNC Corporation. And they will hide behind that Corporation shield to absolve themselves from compliance with the ‘people’s law’.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 7 2021 22:35 utc | 66

Posted by: Josh | Feb 7 2021 19:50 utc | 48
Bread and circuses inside the core of the imperium to keep the masses distracted.

Posted by: _K_C_ | Feb 7 2021 22:50 utc | 68

bevin@50 “This is complete nonsense- either a failure to understand the rules of logic or, most likely, a deliberate attempt to change the subject.”
Trying to change the subject to “logic” is deliberate. bevin doesn’t mention which “rules of logic” are violated for the simple reason there is no violation of “logic” that bevin can name. Making a supposed criticism about how this or that is all wrong without being brave enough to actually *say what was wrong* should never convince anyone, not even the person spouting such vacuous tripe. Screaming “wrong” is a simulation of a criticism. It merely signifies your ox was gored.
The biggest reason fascism was so unpopular for so long after WWII was because the stink of losing was so strong. After January 6, the stink of losing on the Trumper’s means they are being dumped by some of the big donors and being shafted by some of the big tech social media. It took the hard right of the Republican Party nearly twenty years to take over the whole party after Goldwater lost so big, but Reagan came through. Trump has done a Goldwater with the ignominious failure of his autogolpe. But there is no reason to think OAN and Newsmax will disappear, Parler or an imitation will be re-built with a competently made platform, after the stink dissipates the big money will come back. The Republican Party, which isn’t even going to dump trash like Greene or Boebert, nor a Gaetz or Gomert or Cawthorn, much less a McCarthy or a Hawley or a Cruz or a Nunes. There’s nothing too vicious, stupid or crazy that will bring the Republican Party back. The narrative about how Trump-God is cast down and now His faithful are being persecuted is nothing but wretched servility in panic mode.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 7 2021 22:58 utc | 70

On Mike Adams’ broadcast yesterday he brought up that the Dems proposed legislation on gun control will include a publicly searchable database with all legal gun owners on it. He discussed that that publicly available list of who owns what would be an open invitation to criminals (not legal gun owners) with a shopping list of weapons they need will people in their local who had them. A bit like a dating site for guns.
My concern is more the opposite, it is also a reverse list of all those citizens who don’t own guns and are therefore extremely vulnerable to those same criminals who will have a pretty good idea of where the sitting ducks are.
I bet no-one gave a thought to that aspect, or maybe they did.

Posted by: JohninMK | Feb 7 2021 23:02 utc | 72

it is an interesting observation seeing who reads others posts and who doesn’t…

Posted by: james | Feb 7 2021 23:13 utc | 74

wine callers -> wine cellars (damn you, autocorrect!!!)

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Feb 7 2021 23:31 utc | 76

Paul Robinson offers balanced article on Ukraine whose title says much:
“Western pundits believed post-Maidan Ukraine would serve as an ‘example’ for Russia – in reality, it’s become a cautionary tale.”
The 2014 Ukraine Coup now stands as a complete failure by its instigators where the Zelensky government just proved itself to be far more authoritarian and undemocratic than any other in the region with perhaps the exception of Latvia. The situation there makes the remarks/lies by Borrell after his meeting with Lavrov even more idiotic given the well known facts of the matter. He might as well have planted a pie on his own face since it’s now clear he’s just another clown.
Pretty much everything Western Neoliberals have touched since George HW Bush declared the New World Order Paramount in 1990 has turned into shit not even good enough for fertilizer.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 7 2021 23:35 utc | 78

^^ By the Mirror pictures it seems the Brazilian president look like one of the 3 Stooges members.

Posted by: Nick | Feb 8 2021 0:14 utc | 80

“Ben Norton
@BenjaminNorton
·
2h
Ecuador’s leftist candidate Andrés Arauz just declared victory in today’s election
Early exit polls show his socialist Correista party beating right-wing US-backed banker Guillermo Lasso massively
We’re waiting for more conclusive results, but this looks like a historic victory”

Posted by: arby | Feb 8 2021 0:44 utc | 82

Everything Wrong With the Capitol Shooting In 21 Minutes Or Less
2-4-21
~21 min

The simulated riots in DC was a powder-keg long in the making. The evidence for preplanning and setting up a situation for disaster is overwhelming. In this episode, we’re going to show you how a little stage direction and fake blood became an instrumental role in furthering the division of the nation. Strap yourselves in- it’s going to be a bumpy ride… down the Babbitt hole.

Also available here
__________________

Posted by: pogohere | Feb 8 2021 1:19 utc | 84

@karlof1 68
Do not worry, Khamenei set the conditions for JCPOA:

If they want Iran to return to its commitments, America should first revoke all the sanctions and then we will do verification and if the measure was valid, we then will return

https://en.mehrnews.com/news/169614/Leader-sets-clear-condition-for-JCPOA-return

Posted by: Arata | Feb 8 2021 1:53 utc | 86

Thank you b for the link to the CEPR story ‘The coronavirus fail and the international elites’.
CEPR: Center for Economic and Policy research. AKA lightweigt dimratss apologists if you get my drift.
I say ‘story’ because that is what it is. A pathetic fairy story written by CEPR ‘senior economist’ writer.
This entire scribble fails to make one mention of the many vaccines for Covid-19 produced by any other country than the USA. They don’t exist in the stenographers brain of Dean Baker, Senior Economist, CEPR. He has this to say:

The logical path would have been to open-source all research on treatments and vaccines, both so that progress could be made as quickly as possible, and also intellectual property rights would not be an obstacle to large-scale production throughout the world. This would have required some collective agreement where countries agreed to both put up some amount of research funding, presumably based on size and per capita income, and also that all findings, including results from clinical trials, would be quickly posted on the web. This way, the information would be quickly shared so that researchers and public health experts everywhere could benefit.
This sort of international cooperation was obviously not on Donald Trump’s agenda. Mr. “America First!” was not interested in the possibility that we might better be able to tame the pandemic if we acted in cooperation with other countries. But it wasn’t just Donald Trump who rejected the idea of open research and international cooperation, it really wasn’t on the agenda of any prominent politician, including progressives like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. It was an issue in the scientific community, but as we know, people in policy circles don’t take science seriously. (I describe a mechanism for advanced funding of open-source research in chapter 5 of Rigged [it’s free].)

And, of course, he blames Trump.
Not one mention of enabling all the vaccines in circulation to be made under license in the USA or one of its colonies. Never a mention of the economics of BIG PHARMA.
This is a puff piece and I can only assume b linked to it so someone would bite. So here I am biting on this exemplar piece of degenerate drivel passing as ‘thoughtful journalism’. If these critical thinkers are advising Xerxes Biden then you can be sure “there will be no changes”. I would benefit more gnawing on an apple than this old bone.
RT does an infinitely better analysis on a continuing basis and that is nowhere near as good as the many sources of sane discussion and even heretical thoughts and links here at MOA over the past year+

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 8 2021 2:58 utc | 88

@ 43 librul; Thanks for the MLK quotes. My favorite has always been this one;
“Rules and regulations have never changed a man’s heart, but, they can restrain the heartless.”
arby @ 83: Hope the news on the election in Ecuador is valid, if so, the U$A will begin soon to undermine it..

Posted by: vetinLA | Feb 8 2021 5:58 utc | 90

@Piotr, Re: Sanders
I was wrong about hedge funds, misremembered, my mistake.
But look at the ‘defense’ industry, 2020:
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=D
Sanders is in the third place ($760K), after Biden ($3M) and Trump (2M).
Not too shabby, for the reputed Vermont hippie…

Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 8 2021 8:44 utc | 92

uncle tungsten | Feb 8 2021 3:22 utc | 90
Short version but complete. Very good.
I had heard of another “version/part” of the same theory. Where the low angle of the meteorite (or comet breaking up), coming in low over Siberia first, would have thrown masses of air and ejecta (Earth and water in this case)into space. Forming a semi vacuum behind it. Which in turn caused an massive influx of super cold (hailstorms, air) across Siberia. (Or via the four part of the same comet?) I’ll definitely watch the longer version. (ie impact on the US and Fauna.) I am still not quite sure how the impacts relate to Siberia AND the US at the same time.
Those 7.54 earthquakes, multiple megaton blasts would have been quite something – unavoidable! The longer version (only skimmed, but I couldn’t resist peeking) giving real calculations is going to be studied by me.

Posted by: Stonebird | Feb 8 2021 9:53 utc | 94

Germany’s Ministry of the Interior hired scientists to justify corona measures (in German use translation service)
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer accused of having commissioned scientists to create a calculation model aimed at “manipulating” the real severity of the health emergency.
“The Federal Ministry of the Interior engaged scientists from several research institutes and universities for political purposes in the first wave of the corona pandemic in March 2020. It commissioned the researchers from the Robert Koch Institute and other institutions to create a calculation model on the basis of which the Ministry of the Interior, Horst Seehofer (CSU), wanted to justify tough corona measures.”

Posted by: ADKC | Feb 8 2021 12:40 utc | 96

People here have posted links with collections of adverse reactions to our new mRNA vaccines – for the US.
I found a similar database for the EU. It’s an awfully long web address. Anyway, this is courtesy of EudraVigilance or “European database of suspected adverse drug reaction reports”, a part of the European Medicines Agency EMA. Mind you, those are suspected reactions. To date some 40,000 cases, a large chunk of those coming from Italy.
Any thoughts on the numbers?

Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Feb 8 2021 14:06 utc | 98

U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen: Too soon to say if changes needed to address market volatility
Let the woman who received USD 7 million in de facto bribes from Wall Street during the last two years to sit on the system like a bored mule.
Posted by: vk | Feb 8 2021 12:22 utc | 96
I agree that the nomination of Yellen was disturbing. Why they could not find a high executive of Goldman Sachs to head DoT? Perhaps all were busy… but in that situation, there was a dire need for someone intimately familiar with Wall Street, and Yellen passed that requirement with aplomb. Incidentally, the position Secretary of Treasury comes with some ethnic restriction which somewhat decreases the pool of candidates that can be considered, Yellen is OK from that point of view. This is perhaps fair, ethnicity of cabinet Secretaries is delicately balanced, so only gradual changes can happen in each Department.
More interesting is what could be done to diminish market volatility. “Minnesota Rep. llhan Omar, for instance, tweeted, “A small tax – 0.1% – on each Wall Street trade would reduce high-frequency trading, a practice which drains profits from retail investors and benefits only the very rich.” She added that a financial transaction tax, or a tax on buying and selling stocks, bonds, and other financial contracts, would help to even the playing field between retail investors and large hedge funds, helping to prevent the super-rich from getting richer while lower income Americans struggle.”
This is a cite of Sunday commentary on RCP by “Kevin Chambliss is a member of the Florida House of Representatives and a past president of the Miami-Dade NAACP and of the Miami-Dade Democratic Black Caucus.” The representative explains how misguided this idea is. He explains that it would hit middle class and the precarious savings of those people “Pensions, 401(k)s, 529 educational savings, and retirement funds: Few people understand that these funds are typically managed by Wall Street companies and they are traded often to maximize investments. ”
Frankly, I was not aware of that. Bulk of my retirement savings was in three mutual funds and I did not change allocation for decades. A typical fund has turnover below 50% (above it is called “a high turnover fund”), so this tax would impose yearly 0.05% (or less) of “wealth tax” which is quite a bit less than normal management costs. But ignorant as I am, it is nice to see that Democrats in Congress worry about working and middle class.
Incidentally, folks on both sides of GameStop brouhaha have much, much higher turnover, especially that they trade “on margin”. So called “day traders” would be wiped out, forced to find jobs like barristers, impacting the poor people who have these jobs currently. Thus working people would be hit.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Feb 8 2021 14:54 utc | 100