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June 30, 2021
Bloomberg: Here Is How We Make The U.S. Look Great
In October 2019 the Global Health Security Index published a report about global preparedness for epidemics and pandemics. It led to this graphic with was flogged by various news sites and the World Economic Forum. The U.S. and Britain were claimed to be the leaders in pandemic preparedness.  bigger Then came the pandemic and Britain and the U.S. turned out to be leaders in cumulative deaths per million people. Cont. reading: Bloomberg: Here Is How We Make The U.S. Look Great June 29, 2021
Biden’s Iran Policy Is Already At A Dead End
On Sunday the U.S.bombed three positions of Iraqi Popular Mobilization Force at the Syrian-Iraqi border. The U.S. had no right to do so. The legal reasoning the Biden administration provided for the attack is nonsense. As is the claimed rationale of establishing 'deterrence' against further attacks on U.S. troops by this or that Iraqi militia group. The last strike in that area in February was supposed to have fulfilled the same purpose but obviously did not deter anything. Sunday's strike was immediately responded to with missiles fired against a U.S. position in Syria. More such incidents will follow. The attack has embarrassed Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi:
The strike has weakened the U.S. position in Iraq and has strengthened Iran's position. Some analysts say that the attack was a message to Iran in the context of the ongoing talks about the nuclear deal. But what did that message say? That the U.S. can bomb some minor targets? What is new with that? Let's go back to the big picture. June 28, 2021
Mentions
Thanks to Peter Lee, aka Chinahand, for pointing out that China's flagship English language media, the Global Times, recently quoted Moon of Alabama:
The Global Times quotes from our piece The 'Lab-Leak' Theory Is Not Of Equal Value – Promoting It Furthers The China Hawks are correct. What is concerning though is that such mention in Chinese state controlled media, warranted or not, will surely entice the usual suspects, from Barfing Cat to Pro Porn OT, to again depict this lone blog as an instrument of entities they are told to defame and dislike. For the record; Neither this blog nor its author have ever received any gratitude, donation or contribution from any state entity or derivative thereof. The same thing can not be said of all the entities or persons which criticize it. June 27, 2021
The MoA Week In Review – OT 2021-049
Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:
—
‘Leaked’ Documents: British HMS Defender Stunt Near Crimea Was An Intentional Provocation
Last week someone 'leaked' a number of confidential papers from the British Ministry of Defence to the BBC:
Last week saw a provocative move against Russia by a British warship in the Black Sea. The documents include this map which shows two potential routes that the HMS Defender could have taken to sail from Odessa in the Ukraine to Batumi in Georgia.  bigger The British government ordered the ship to take the aggressive route through territorial waters of Crimea which the Russian government had announced to be off limits. Those three designated off-limits zones are marked on the British map! Taking that route was patently illegal under international law. The map thus proves that the move of the HMS Defender was an intended provocation, not an 'innocent passage' as the British government had originally claimed. The BBC acknowledges this but insists on the false claim that the British move was legal: June 26, 2021
Seattle Will Have A Hot Sunday
Washington State is having a hot weekend. I have been there twice but only during fall and winter. I find it hard to image the landscape there with such tropical temperatures. This picture shows the projected deviation from historic temperatures (1981-2010) for Sunday afternoon local time:  bigger Along west Canada and north west U.S. the temperature will be up to 24°F = 13°C hotter than it has historically been. This next picture shows the projected absolute temperature in Fahrenheit for Sunday afternoon: June 25, 2021
Experts: British HMS Defender Stunt Near Crimea Was Patently Illegal
On Wednesday the British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender staged a provocation by sailing through territorial waters of Crimea. The British government, which had explicitly instructed the destroyer to do so, insists that the move was legal:
The British government then lied about the incident insisting that no warning shots had been fired when the destroyer was in the relevant area. However, video material from the BBC, which had embedded with the destroyer, as well as footage from the Russian coastguard proved that to be false. The ship was warned to leave the area and warning shots were fired. Russia insist that the 'innocent passage' of the warship through the relevant territorial waters was illegal. Craig Murray, a former British diplomat who himself has negotiated several sea treaties, concurs with Russia's position:
Murray goes on to explain why that is an unsound argument but he misses an important legal point. Cont. reading: Experts: British HMS Defender Stunt Near Crimea Was Patently Illegal June 24, 2021
Open Thread 2021-048
News & views … June 23, 2021
These Uppity Brits Need A Slap-like Lesson
The Brits were getting a bit uppity today so the Russians responded by opening fire:
The Brits denied that any shots were fired at(!) them:
That is non-denial denial. Warning shots are never directed AT the target. A BBC journalist on board of the British ship does not think that it was just an 'innocent passage':
The BBC reporter phoned his report in. One can hear Russian jets buzzing the ship.  bigger Innocent passage with loaded weapons? That is a no no. Passing a battle ready warship through Russian territorial water without necessity? There are no 'shipping lanes' in that area but lots of room to the west to pass around Crimea. So no. The Brits were clearly seeking a confrontation. There was also a U.S. spy plane flying in the area to record the Russian reaction.  bigger This came just hours after the U.K had signed an agreement with the Ukraine for the "enhancement of Ukrainian naval capabilities":
The editor of the Chinese Global Times says that Britain should receive a "slap-like lesson" for today's incident. That is probably a good idea. But Russia tends to not react hasty over such issues. Revenge is best served cold. Unrelated to the above a slap-like lesson was given to Britain today when U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken arrived in Germany:
London will not like that statement. Next week NATO will run its Exercise Seabreeze in and near to the Black Sea in which soldiers and sailors from some 30 nations will take part. In light of today's provocation the Russian military will probably prepare some surprises for them. June 22, 2021
U.S., EU Profess Support For Belarus Then Launch A War Against Its People
In there attempt regime change the country the U.S. and the European Union have launched an economic war against the people of Belarus. First they doubted the results of elections in Belarus which the longtime socialist President Alexander Lukashenko had won against an politically unexperienced English teacher who was backed by a 'western' aligned group with a strong neoliberal program. Belarus is still a mostly socialist industrialized country with many production assets owned by the state and relatively good social services. The people of Belarus have seen their neighbor countries Russia and the Ukraine go through extreme economic problems and poverty after the Soviet Union broke down. Neoliberalism had ruined those countries. It is thus quite plausible that a majority does not want to experience that in their own country and that Lukashenko has indeed won the votes of that majority.  The U.S. and EU claimed election fraud and supported demonstrations and riots against the results. This was an obvious color revolution attempt directed from the outside by 'western' supported forces. The demonstrations soon died down. The color revolution attempt had failed. A few sanctions against some Belorussian politicians and functionaries were issued by the U.S. and the EU with claims that they are supporting the people of Belarus. But the effort soon ran out of steam and went no further. Then a mysterious bomb threat against a plane flying from Greece to Lithuania led to the pilot deciding to land the plane in Minsk. Two passengers on board had outstanding warrants against them and were arrested after passing through passport control. A U.S. paid agitator for the color revolution immediately claimed that plane had been 'hijacked' to arrest the two people. However the evidence provided so far shows that this was a typical bomb threat as they happen every once a while all over the world and that the pilot's decision to land in Minsk was absolutely normal. The authorities in Belarus reacted to the incident exactly as they are supposed to do. But the whole western media and its politicians promoted the 'hijacked' propaganda version. Moon of Alabama has discussed the evidence and laid out the timeline, narrative control and consequences of the incident. The fake story propagandized by the media reignited the regime change efforts and was used to rush out new sanctions against Belarus. These are no longer directed at only a few persons but aim at the core of the Belorussian economy and thereby at all its people. As the New York Times headlines: Belarus Faces Expanded E.U. and U.S. Sanctions, Targeting Economy Cont. reading: U.S., EU Profess Support For Belarus Then Launch A War Against Its People June 21, 2021
The War On Afghanistan Is Lost But The U.S. Still Tries To Keep A Foot In Its Door
The Afghan government forces the U.S. had trained are quickly losing the fight against the Taliban. The U.S. has promised a complete retreat from Afghanistan. But it has now a plan to keep a foot in the door by staying in control of Kabul's international airport. That plan is likely to fail. When the Soviet troops left Afghanistan the government forces they had supported held out for three more years. Then the Soviets cut off all while the U.S. continued to support the various Pashtun warlords and Mujahedin. Without Soviet resupply the government forces had to give up. Now the U.S. occupation forces are leaving the country. But the government and the forces they are leaving behind are much less prepared to survive than the ones the Soviets had backed. The speed at which the Taliban are now taking over lets me assume that it will take only a few month until the Afghan government forces collapse completely. Afghanistan has about 400 districts. The Taliban already controlled for some time more than 50% of the countryside but had usually refrained from taking the district centers. That has now changed. Between May 1 and June 14 this year the Taliban took control of 34 districts in Afghanistan. During the last week they added a dozen more, 4 of those on Sunday alone. Remarkably a lot of the districts the Taliban took were not in primarily Pashtun regions but in the north where the population is often Uzbek, Tajik or from other ethnic minorities. Before the U.S. invasion those populations were often anti-Taliban. Cont. reading: The War On Afghanistan Is Lost But The U.S. Still Tries To Keep A Foot In Its Door June 20, 2021
The MoA Week In Review – OT 2021-047
Last week’s posts at Moon of Alabama:
— June 19, 2021
Debunking A ‘Chinese Defector’ Story
It is sad to see how much Col. Pat Lang’s intelligence judgment has deteriorated. Here he goes crazy over a story of an alleged Chinese high level defector who allegedly brought all kinds of materials with him:
Lang took the defector story from Zerohedge.com which took it from Redstate.com where managing editor Jennifer Van Laar made it up by mixing her fantasies, a Freebacon report about Chinese students returning to the U.S. and a rumor about a defection reported by Spytalk:
The rumor is false. How do I know? I copied “vice minister of State Security, Dong Jingwei” into Google Translate with the output language set to Chinese (simplified). That results in this string: “国家安全部副部长董经纬”. The big Chinese search engine is Baidu.com. After pasting the string into Baidu it delivered these results: June 18, 2021
U.S. Excluded China From International Space Projects – It Built Its Own
There was a time when the U.S. was open to international cooperation in space. It gained prestige and influence from these projects. But fear of competition from China and Russia have led to attempts to exclude these countries from international projects. In May 2011 Congress banned scientific cooperation with China:
The European Space Agency as well as NASA were at that time favoring future cooperation with China on the International Space Station and on a planned Mars mission. Since then other laws and sanctions have made the continuing cooperation with Russia on the International Space Station more difficult. Banned from international space projects in which the U.S. is involved China went its own way. Ten years later it put a lander on the far side of the moon where the rover Yutu, the jade rabbit, is now pounding moon stones in his mortar to look for the elixir of life. Last year China sent Tianwen, Heavenly Questions, and another rover named Zhurong, a god of fire, to Mars. It landed there in February:
A week ago Zhurong, the fire god, took a selfie and sent it back to earth: Cont. reading: U.S. Excluded China From International Space Projects – It Built Its Own June 17, 2021
Reflections Of A Man And His Picture
On April 14 I learned that old time Moon of Alabama commentator anna missed, also known as Jack Chevalier, had died two weeks earlier. I wrote about it in
 2008 9″x 16″x 1″ oil paint and glass pellets on wood by anna missed bigger In May Jack’s wife, Kelly, contacted me:
Open Thread 2021-046
News & views … June 16, 2021
Summit Summary
The results of the Putin-Biden summit today in Geneva seem to be thin. The meetings were expected to last for 4 to 5 hours but ended after little more than 2 hours. During his press conference President Vladimir Putin said that the talks were constructive. He lauded Biden as very experienced politician and said that they had two hours of face time. There were a few results:
A joint statement by both sides about Strategic Stability has been posted in Russian on the Kremlin site (machine translation):
That is a very important result and the upcoming talks will be interesting. The U.S. will have to end its Missile Defense Program if it wants limits on any of the new strategic weapon types Russia has introduced. But the summit did not bring any further breakthroughs or new deals. Putin answered at length several reporter questions about the Ukraine, human rights and the Arctic. He responded to critical questions by using legitimate whataboutism to reflect the issue onto the U.S. side. On an aggressive question about Navalny by a U.S. journalist Putin explained that U.S. law designates Russia as an “enemy” and that the U.S. finances groups in Russia like Navalny’s. He is a foreign agent. On top of that Navalny’s organization has called for illegal demonstrations and riots. That made his organization an extremist one that now must be dissolved. Putin mentions that the participants of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol storming are now processed as criminals even as they only had political demands, were unarmed and mostly not violent. On another question about alleged Russian political unpredictability Putin responded by listing all the arms control agreements the U.S. has left as well as the U.S. led coup in Ukraine which was executed even after then President Yanukovych had agreed to all opposition demands including new elections. The press conference of the U.S. side has as of now not begun. Altogether there was much less drama but also fewer results than the many previews had presumed. June 15, 2021
U.S., UK Information Warfare Behind Regime Change Drive In Belarus
 Protesters in Minsk – bigger The at-times fiery protests that raged across Belarus throughout 2020 had largely fizzled out by the time local activist and seeming neo-Nazi Roman Protasevich was dramatically arrested in May this year. Now, the country has been catapulted back to the top of the mainstream news agenda, with new life breathed into controversial self-appointed President Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s hitherto unheeded calls for Western leaders to recognize her as the legitimate Belarusian leader. True to form though, not a single mainstream outlet has deigned to mention that for many years prior to the unrest’s eruption, London and Washington had funded, trained, and promoted the very elements that took to the streets in opposition to President Alexander Lukashenko. “Not Worth People’s Blood”In April 2019, the RAND Corporation—a U.S. government think-tank—published a report, Extending Russia: Competing from Advantageous Ground. It outlined “a range of possible means to extend Russia,” defined as “measures to bait Russia into overextending itself” in order to “undermine the regime’s stability.” Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data from Western and Russian sources, this report examines Russia’s economic, political, and military vulnerabilities and anxieties and then “analyzes potential policy options to exploit them—ideologically, economically, geopolitically, and militarily” along with “the likelihood that [these policy options] could be successfully implemented.” Cont. reading: U.S., UK Information Warfare Behind Regime Change Drive In Belarus
Putin Teaching A Journalist And Other New Bits Around Ryanair Flight 4978
There are some new bits about the Ryanair flight 4978 which on May 23 landed in Belarus after having received a bomb threat. To recap:
The false narrative continues to be told by 'western' media. It has led, as its originators hoped, to the introduction of new sanctions against Belarus. The case came up again during a recent interview by NBC with the Russian President Vladimir. The transcript and video are available here: Cont. reading: Putin Teaching A Journalist And Other New Bits Around Ryanair Flight 4978 June 14, 2021
Corruption Is Profitable. But Does It Have To Be This Profitable?
Aduhlem, a drug that is supposed to slow Alzheimer's effects, had failed to show efficacy in two trials. It showed some reduction of plaques in the brain which may or may not be significant. Ten of the eleven advisors of the Federal Drug Administration voted "no" when asked if there was enough evidence that the drug is useful. One voted "uncertain". Last week the FDA approved the drug and claimed that the plaques reduction effect is somewhat meaningful. Three of the advisors resigned. The cost per patient per year for the drug will be some $56,000. There are some 6 million people in the U.S. with Alzheimer's. Medicare and Medicaid, which will have to pay for the drug because it is FDA approved, will have to bear the costs. The company which makes the drug, Biogen, will gain ginormous profits from it. As will physicians who prescribe the drug, administer the infusions and bill 6% of the drug's price for it. The above is a portrait of a deeply corrupt system in which all incentives are set in the wrong direction. Now, corruption in national medical systems is not unusual and can be found all over the world. But what I find astonishing with the U.S. system is how little money companies like Biogen actually have to pay to get deals done that will make them billions. The man who pushed for the FDA approval was no other than President Joe Biden. As the American Conservative, linked below, writes:
How cheap is that? Within the next few years Biogen will make a million times more money than it paid to Joe Biden's campaign. Couldn't he have asked for 10%, 1% or an already cheap 0.01%? It would still have been a great deal for the company. But Biden is so downright cheap that he sold out for 0.000001% of Biogen's gain. What a lowlife. —
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