Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
June 10, 2021

Open Thread 2021-044

News & views ...

Posted by b on June 10, 2021 at 14:18 UTC | Permalink

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I will add that on nakedcapitalism.com's Friday Links comments section (which is still on the front page) if you scroll down nearly to the bottom of comments you will find a post by IM Doc with following discussion resembling my and John's comments here - that is where I found the link I posted on the first page at 95, and my own comment is there as well. IM Doc's opening comment is worth reading.

My thought is that taking the US vaccine is rather like being exposed to the virus itself. A healthy person can hopefully be able to deal with the spike protein, as they would with an encounter with the virus itself. But any weaknesses would be exploited to some extent by the spike protein. I'm not a virologist so that's a layman's interpretation of what is occurring. Others can correct me on that.

Some of the comments advised skipping to relevant parts of the discussion. My feeling is that it needs to be listened to in its entirety.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 13 2021 0:37 utc | 101

@ Posted by: oldhippie | Jun 12 2021 20:18 utc | 100

The fact that the State has to put the property to sale in order to get just the money (and only the part it's due to it) matters a lot to the capitalist system. It is immaterial if the sell was fair or not.

When the State sells the property, that means said property is going - through the free market - to the hands of a third person, a private person. The capitalist system them guarantees the State is kept at the minimum necessary for its existence and that all property (capital) remains in the free market. The State will never accumulate insurmountable wealth through taxation. It may become "bloated" (because taxation becomes too high and budgetary deficits too high), but it will never compete with its capitalist class.

In this sense, the modern capitalist State is completely different from the Roman "State", where the imperial estates only became bigger and more overwhelming to the senatorial and gubernatorial elites as time progressed. The capitalist State will never own everything just because it has monopoly over taxation (as it has monopoly over violence) - the most taxation can do is to become pesky and irritant to the taxed masses (and even cause some revolts or even "revolutions"). That means capitalism will never annihilate itself because the State will eventually overtax its capitalist class.

What will lay the foundations of socialism within the guts of capitalism will not be the State, but the formation of private monopolies/oligopolies. It will be the likes of Wall Street, Goldman Sachs and Apple - and not the White House - that will give birth to socialism (Alien style).

Posted by: vk | Jun 13 2021 1:23 utc | 102

for the record i believe this is the 3 hour and 16 minute video juliania is referring to earlier in the thread on the topic of the mrna vaccine and ivermectin..

How to save the world, in three easy steps.
Dr. Robert Malone is the inventor of mRNA Vaccine technology.
Mr. Steve Kirsch is a serial entrepreneur who has been researching adverse reactions to COVID vaccines.
Dr. Bret Weinstein is an evolutionary biologist.
Bret talks to Robert and Steve about the pandemic, treatment and the COVID vaccines."

i've watched an hour so far.. good stuff.. thanks juliania..

Posted by: james | Jun 13 2021 1:50 utc | 103

Below is a quote from a BBC post about what the G7 are doing that is Orwellian it its language

"
G7 leaders seeking to rival China have adopted a plan to support lower- and middle-income countries in building better infrastructure.

President Joe Biden said he wanted the US-backed Build Back Better World (B3W) plan to be a higher-quality alternative to a similar Chinese programme.

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has helped finance trains, roads, and ports in many countries.

But it has been criticised for saddling some with debt.

In a statement at their summit in the English county of Cornwall, the G7 leaders said they would offer a "values-driven, high-standard and transparent" partnership.

However, details of how the G7 plan will be financed remain unclear. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the group was not yet at a stage to release financing for its initiative.

The US has been particularly critical of China's so-called "debt diplomacy".
"

Can we point out the Orwellian projection here easily enough?

The world's nations are overburdened with empire's version of "debt diplomacy" and they are calling China for it....precious and pathetic at the same time.

The shit show continues until it doesn't....everybody who wants to see the shit show stop, raise your hand.....thanks.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 13 2021 1:57 utc | 104

By coincidence, this came out today:

Private Inequity: How a Powerful Industry Conquered the Tax System - The I.R.S. almost never audits private equity firms, even as whistle-blowers have filed claims alleging illegal tax avoidance.

Lawmakers have periodically tried to force private equity to pay more, and the Biden administration has proposed a series of reforms, including enlarging the I.R.S.’s enforcement budget and closing loopholes.[...]

[...]

The private equity industry, which has a fleet of almost 200 lobbyists and has doled out nearly $600 million in campaign contributions over the last decade, has repeatedly derailed past efforts to increase its tax burden.

[...]

The industry makes money in two main ways. Firms typically charge their investors a management fee of 2 percent of their assets. And they keep 20 percent of future profits that their investments generate.

That slice of future profits is known as “carried interest.” The term dates at least to the Renaissance. Italian ship captains were compensated in part with an interest in whatever profits were realized on the cargo they carried.

The I.R.S. has long allowed the industry to treat the money it makes from carried interests as capital gains, rather than as ordinary income.

For private equity, it is a lucrative distinction. The federal long-term capital gains tax rate is currently 20 percent. The top federal income tax rate is 37 percent.

The loophole is expensive. Victor Fleischer, a University of California, Irvine, law professor, expects it will cost the federal government $130 billion over the next decade.

If you want to understand how the American Empire really works, see no further than the loopholes in its Law. That's where the soul of America is encoded in documented form.

Posted by: vk | Jun 13 2021 3:02 utc | 105

WIV set up with US 'help,'
gof partnered with UNC 'assistance',
NOW their 'mentors' cry foul...

covid came from the WIV

i Hope the chicoms learn their lesson, if it isnt too late already..
Beware of gringos bearing gift.

https://www.sgtreport.com/2021/05/a-good-example-of-how-not-to-investigate-the-wuhan-lab-origin-theory/

Posted by: denk | Jun 13 2021 4:50 utc | 106

Not much time lately for reading and listening, but thought I'd pass this along...

Posted by: john | Jun 13 2021 8:28 utc | 107

vk @ 102

Marx wrote extensively about the primitive accumulation. He was thoroughly aware that it happens by plunder, pillage, theft. It happens by directly hurting people. That part of capitalism never stops, never recedes.

You have decided that anything happening in the real world that does not neatly fit your stupid theories is “immaterial”.

Posted by: oldhippie | Jun 13 2021 12:54 utc | 108

Thank you so much, james @ 103. I know the video is long, and the temptation would be to hit the high points, but it is very effectively moderated, so better to take it in stages as you are doing, than just to skip over the 'in between'. Kudos to all three participants.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 13 2021 21:29 utc | 109

Thanks john @ 107. It's an uphill fight on the issue, one which will only turn the tide as it becomes the subject of those lawyerly ads about touted pharmaceuticals - a practice which the 'rules of the road' currently attempt to prevent. Will that attempt be as successful as the student loan debacle? I think it is equally, if not more, important that it not be.

Thanks for swimming against the stream. It's the only way to be able to sleep at night, in my view; and if you have grandchildren...to leave them a legacy in what you have supported. Small it may seem, but mighty oaks from little acorns grow.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 13 2021 21:44 utc | 110

@ Posted by: oldhippie | Jun 13 2021 12:54 utc | 108

But the capitalist primitive accumulation didn't happen through taxation. It came through colonialism and slave labor.

Posted by: vk | Jun 13 2021 22:00 utc | 111

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