Taloqan falls under taliban control.
5 provincial capitols fall under Taliban control in 3 days.
Embassies are urging US and UK citizens to leave Afghanistan immediately.

Posted by: Passer by | Aug 8 2021 14:01 utc | 3

Biden blinked first:
US business pushes Biden for a China trade deal: Trump era tariffs on Chinese imports are fuelling record US inflation and threaten Biden’s chances at 2022 mid-term elections
–//–
Recommended read:
Questions mounting over deleted early COVID-19 data and layoff of analyst in Florida, hinting on possible cases before Wuhan

Genomic sequencing of COVID-19 has proved that the virus might have emerged in several parts of the world in late 2019 and early 2020, not only in Wuhan, Yang said.
[…] Among the 171 early patients in Florida, none reported travel to China, and 103 reported no travel at all, The Palm Beach Post reported in May 2020.
[…] Regardless of the public’s worries and doubts, the Florida government stayed secretive about its epidemic information. It didn’t explain why there had been a possible local spread of COVID-19 prior to the Wuhan outbreak, or why it deleted the data of the 171 early patients, US media reports said.

–//–
On the insuperable contradictions of capitalism:
The eviction moratorium mess exposes the decay in American politics

And fourth, the episode is a reflection of the cartoonish divisions of U.S. society into us vs. them. Not every landlord is rich and unfeeling. Not every renter in arrears is helpless and good. Indeed, the moratorium protects renters earning nearly up to $99,000 per year — and twice that for married couples who file joint tax returns.
[Opinion by the Editorial Board: There’s plenty of money to avoid evictions. States just have to spend it.]
It’s a free country, and Americans can subscribe to a belief that property is theft if they want to. But the law says otherwise. People are allowed to purchase real estate and to rent their property for money. There is no moratorium on mortgage payments for landlords. Their bills come due every month.
This brings us back to the first point: competence vs. posturing. As a society, we decided through our elected officials to cushion the impact of the pandemic on renters and landlords. Huge sums of money have been appropriated for that purpose. The task of government bureaucracies is to distribute that relief to legitimately needy renters so they can pay what they owe.
Instead we have a bureaucracy, the CDC, depriving property owners of contractual protections month after month — while members of Congress and the administration maneuver to blame the Supreme Court for future evictions.

Very rare editorial intervention in this final part of the opinion piece. However, for this alleged “plenty of money”, see the first article linked in this comment (“Biden blinked”). The USD Standard is not so strong as the American experts thought it was.
–//–
A Pyrrhic Victory in a Broken Senate
I don’t understand this strategy adopted by the American Left. Biden never hide from anybody the fact that he’s from the moderate faction of the Democratic Party. He’s never hidden the fact he’s anti-socialist and that one of his missions is to stop the rising of the Democratic Socialists (who are not really socialists, but that’s a long story).
Now, imagine you’re a moderate, getting pressure from the Left in your own party (and also the Congress, because of the Squad). What’s your first instinct? Put bipartisanship above everything else so that you can cockblock the progressive agenda from your own party, of course! That means no infrastructure bill, no Green New Deal, no nothing.
This is not a Pyrrhic victory. This is an outright victory for the moderates. The only ones fooling themselves in this story are the Democratic Socialists.
NOTE: the headline changed today, probably at the request of its own author. The original headline was probably a censorship attempt by the NYT Editorial Board, with the aim to make a more favorable view of Biden.
–//–
Is Putin trying to revive Gosplan?
Putin orders to approve plan for delivery of national development goals
–//–
Oh, my…
Is capitalism just a phase? China struggles with the math

Markets, viewed through this metaphysical lens, are mere tools to be deployed as needed by the shapers of history. That’s a contrast with capitalist countries where markets and the laws that govern them are regarded, often with reverence, as something outside of ourselves, to which participants have no choice but to conform. “You can’t buck the market,” in the words of the U.K.’s free-market priestess, Margaret Thatcher.

Metaphysics the area of Philosophy that analyses what, by logic, cannot be investigated by science (e.g. what is God? Does God exist? What’s the meaning of life? What’s existence?). The author used the word wrongly, as the point he wants to make is that the “markets” are a natural, observable and measurable category (therefore scientific). I think the word he intended to use was “ontological”, as Ontology is the analysis of the thing as it really is, not the thing as it appears to be (Phenomenology).
Either way, the market is not a natural category. The natural category – which is indeed “eternal” – is exchange. Exchange in philosophy is any relation between equals. The market requires exchange through money, and we know money is not natural, but historical.

This dichotomy implies some differences in behavior by China — such as, dare we say, unilaterally declaring that successful industries employing tens of thousands of people shouldn’t exist, at least as for-profit entities listed on foreign stock markets. And then hastily convening talks with investment banks and fund managers to try to limit the damage once the fallout has spread to the rest of the market.
The market reaction was entirely rational and predictable. Equity value can be viewed as a function of dividends (or cash flows), growth and the required rate of return. The higher the return that investors demand, the lower the value. The “equity risk premium” is a nebulous concept to pin down numerically, but the logic is clear. The higher the risk of a company or market, the higher the return that investors should demand to compensate them. A market that suddenly erases an entire industry’s profits is, ipso facto, riskier than one that doesn’t. In that light, investors were right to mark down Chinese equities relative to other markets.
Marx’s universal laws of history may have the last laugh; it’s too early to tell, as Zhou Enlai is reputed (wrongly) to have said about the French Revolution. In the meantime, the laws of mathematics are proving quite immutable, too.

But, if the “markets” precede capitalism, then proving the “markets” are here to stay does not save capitalism. You could have (and will have) socialism with market – specially in its early phases. The USSR had free market dominating its economic landscape until at least 1926, and remained alive until well into the first Five-Year Plan (1928-1933). Even then, the USSR continue to engage in the international markets, specially with imports of high technology.
So, the author’s error is making the postulate capitalism=markets. Indeed, that’s a common misconception of many liberals I hear since I was a child. Westerners who grew up during the Cold War think exchange will suddenly stop if capitalism ceases to exist – that’s obviously a grotesque distortion of reality.
And Mathematics doesn’t have “laws”. They’re the only natural sciences that does not have a foundation. Instead, they have a constellation of axioms that does not close the system. Some (a minority) even say Mathematics is not a science, but merely a tool of science or the language of science.
–//–
One more to the “freedom of religion as a weapon against the Godless Reds” collection. As a bonus, this article also throws to the table another collapse theory of China: that a glorious religious restoration will destroy the Atheist Communists:
There’s a religious revival going on in China: China’s atheist Communist Party is allowing certain religious practices and has stopped criticizing Confucius teachings
–//–
From the Bezos Blog:
Private fortunes shouldn’t be abolished. But our society shouldn’t be this unequal, either. WaPo Editorial Board.
The only way to keep both is through perpetual growth where the new excess wealth is distributed more proportionally to the bottom than to the top. But then, extending this logic to the infinite, that would mean full equality would be achieved, therefore abolishing private fortunes (if everybody is rich, nobody is rich).
The WaPo Editorial Board is trying to calm down the masses with cheap (and utopian) morality.
–//–
Is Taiwan Next? In Taipei, young people like Nancy Tao Chen Ying watched as the Hong Kong protests were brutally extinguished. Now they wonder what’s in their future.
What’s the future the girl envisaged? Her family and her ilk ransacking Beijing in a triumphal conquest?
–//–
Commemorating anniversary of the August Storm, FSB releases new documents:
FSB for the first time declassified evidence of Japan’s preparation for war with the USSR
The most striking feature of the Soviet campaign against Japan was the reversal of fortunes for the Red Army. Contrary to the Western campaign, the war against Japan was swift, meticulously planned, highly automated (i.e. much less human resources intensive), much more precise and much more effective. All the myths erected during the war in Europe (that the Red Army simply threw men to die until they achieved victory, that the Red Army was technologically backward) evaporated during the liberation of China. The human losses for the Red Army were minimal, its commanders were in top form and had the time and resources to do what they wanted to do, and the Japanese were overrun (i.e. they retreated slower than the Soviets advanced, therefore there wasn’t even the opportunity to encirclement or gruesome position warfare).
In some weeks, Japan’s magnum opus – the Kwantung Army – turned to dust. And to think that, some decades earlier, the Kwantung Army was so powerful and so prestigious that it de facto formed a parallel State in Manchuria, which not even the Prime Minister was capable of fully control. A classic case in History of “how the mighty have fallen”.

Posted by: vk | Aug 8 2021 14:45 utc | 5

Covid fatigue, b?
I appreciate that when life gives you nothing but questions, it seems reasonable to pursue silence on the matter.
You were indeed wise to cut your losses.
Hard to stand on the wrong side of history when so many are finally speaking up and standing in the streets, the action that so many of us secretly long for our own people.
But perhaps the resolve will be built in you yet to speak out once again, but this time on the other side. I hope to be in the streets with you at that time. And with any others who have come through that passage to land themselves among those for whom the powerful stand in their way…same as it ever was.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Aug 8 2021 15:07 utc | 7

Dear Nemisis Calling
“ITS NOT REEEEEL”
lol
sad to see you are still here

Posted by: ld | Aug 8 2021 15:40 utc | 9

the most interesting paper is this one https://arxiv.org/abs/0710.3415 which speaks about the origin of intertia, inertia is a topic that has been hand waved away by modern physics.
Posted by: JOSE RAMON | Aug 8 2021 15:28 utc | 8
Yeah. I lke that. Dark Matter has always seemed like the modern version of “The Ether” to me, an obvious fudge factor. An orgy of speculation. Perhaps electro-magnetism will have more to say about Astrology

Posted by: Bemildred | Aug 8 2021 16:00 utc | 11

more more fake claims about Covid risks to justify lockdown
it is now obvious Pandemic was a nation state propaganda . employed, it seems, to achieve lock down goals which offered fantastic opportunty for the Oligarch to increase their wealth at the expense of everyone else.
It also laid bare the secret relations that exist between the various nation states, and it tested the ability of franchise central to apply pressure in and between the nation states, it revealed the how deeply the private for-profit vested interest have permeated the upper echelons of the nation states and how global, multi-nation state private enterprises function, when profit opportunities present.
The propaganda of pandemic by the nation state system, demonstrates that nation state franchise central is calling the shots… I think it will be proved that the pandemic was a propaganda program designed to restrict human economic activity, because much of it was highly competitive and gaining on certain nation state franchise owners, The Pandemic seems to have been a last ditch effort to overcome the failure of past virus vaccines candidates to achieve human market approval for mRNA patents. The Pandemic seemed also be designed to test the capacity of franchise central to command its 256 nation state system to march to a central tune?
Now it is clear, how approval will likely come about without adequate clinical trial data. I predict it will be based on the fact that patented mRNA vaccines were tested by government supervised and paid for distribution programs on millions and found to kill only a certain few<=which will be declared to be acceptable.. That is the same way injecting nuclear materials in the human body for Positron Emission Tomography examination was approved, it had been used by so many scientist for so long without incident of any kind (note no one ever had a problem) , so it was approved [1989, i think] without clinical trials.

Posted by: snake | Aug 8 2021 16:49 utc | 13

Posted by: vk | Aug 8 2021 14:45 utc | 5
Your link to the supposed Gosplan proposal is dead. This is it:
https://tass.com/politics/1323385
Don’t be surprised if the plan includes the proposal by Shoigu to transfer government bodies to Siberia and the construction of at least three or even better five new cities with specific socioeconomic goals.
Everybody is going East, the times of “Going to California” by Led Zeppelin, those glorious days are long gone.

Posted by: Paco | Aug 8 2021 17:37 utc | 15

@NemesisCalling | Aug 8 2021 15:07 utc | 7
Thanks.

Posted by: Norwegian | Aug 8 2021 17:44 utc | 17

Dark matter and, even more, dark energy remind me of epicycles and ether.

Posted by: lysias | Aug 8 2021 17:54 utc | 19

I guess Erdoğan did a rain dance, and has been temporarily saved.
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/fires-nearly-end-thanks-to-rains-massive-efforts-166901

Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Aug 8 2021 18:08 utc | 21

I happen to be taking fenofibrate as a prescribed drug.
There are obviously alternatives to these dubious vaccines.

Posted by: lysias | Aug 8 2021 18:12 utc | 23

Tukhachevsky had a similar theory during the Russian Civil War. He reasoned that the Red Army would be the first army in the history of mankind that gains strength during an offensive because with each piece of land captured there would be masses of workers and peasents flocking to the red banner.

Posted by: m | Aug 8 2021 18:31 utc | 25

Use of Mass Hypnosis in Conditioning the sheeple.
If you want to know why all those people around you are blindly follow instructions like wearing a mask, then this guy explains the use of mass hypnosis by Governments.
He is a professional hypnotist and appears very good at his profession.
The first part explains the techniques used, the time it took to get the population into a receptive state (it started earlier than you think), How to choose the easiest targets to hypnotise and then use them to influence another’s behaviour. the use of “ritual” (mask wearing and/or “hand clasping”), and the use of other coercive means to fortify the base message.
I found his Scottish accent a bit diffficult. The second part gives many examples, usually of violently red and yellow UK ads, which is a bit repetetive. But is a professional breakdown of the methods used. Much of part two can be skipped (except maybe the last frame “look into my eye”).
https://www.bitchute.com/video/k4UU9UTgZO5N/
*
Note that in France the TV has moved on and now has massive ad campaigns with “Jab => Good times => jab => good times => jab……” etc. Perfect photoshopped complexions and skins (for the close up of the injections). Smiles, blue sky,…..
This is less to push TV watchers to get “jabbed”, as most will already be pierced. It is more to confirm the “choice” made by the Gawkers who will then create peer pressure on others (family etc).
***
PS The “hand holding” ritual reminds me of religion ::::)
****
launchonwarning | Aug 8 2021 18:14 utc | 24
You mean all those blankets of snow and sheets of ice up north are really KKK-ists lying down?

Posted by: Stonebird | Aug 8 2021 18:54 utc | 27

vk @ 5 hi, we disagree in that I think a historian is a perfect person to research the history behind the Covid controversy.
I also think fact checkers can also be scientists and good at it. I am a technology strategist and software developer. IE a project manager. I am curious what Brett’s wife says in her article.
Weinstein and Heather? gives provide a very good social commentary from an elite academic perspective and he is a bit disconnected for it. If you can get past that they both have important things to say.
Mind you, you could say the same about Sam Harris, Dawkins, and many other left academic voices. They mean well overall.
I have been anti-academia and media for most of my life. Present company accepted. Thanks once again for your post.

Posted by: David G Horsman | Aug 8 2021 20:13 utc | 29

Alex Mercouris has a more nuanced view and description on the Russian position with regards to Taliban than presented by b: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0krdgq02As

Posted by: Kouros | Aug 8 2021 20:19 utc | 31

Dark matter is not a scam. It may be wrong, but that’s not the same thing at all. Dark matter is a placeholder hypothesis that some sort of matter is responsible for the gravitational fields responsible for well-evidences phenomena, such as the orbital velocities of clusters in the outer portions of many galaxies. The effects that the various dark matter hypotheses are very well attested but they have nothing directly to do with the inflationary universe models. Dark matter, as referenced in the phrase “cold dark matter” in referring to cosmological models has to do with the estimates of the density of mass in the universe…but these are based on the kinds of measurements that prompted the dark matter hypotheses. The assumption of dark matter was *not* the premise for such models. It can’t be, because there is no agreement on *the* dark matter. Neutrinos are well-established to be “dark,” but they are “hot,” i.e., move at high velocities. The equation of the cosmological constant with the energy density of the vacuum may be the commonest understanding in such models, but even that is not certain.
The unpopularity of MOND is not a scam, either, though maybe it is possible something like MOND may in the end found to be a true description. The thing there is, MOND doesn’t accept general relativity. The problem with that is not defying authority, it is that GR explains gravitational lensing, a well-attested phenomenon. And GR explains things like the observed extended half-lives of cosmic muon radiation, which indicates time is passing more slowly for such muons due to their relativistic velocity. But if you insist on daily examples, the GPS system relies on GR to compensate for the effects on the passage of time for satellites, due to their differing position in the Earth’s gravitational field. How can GR be wrong? MOND doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of physics, and to many seems like a mathematical quirk, whose predictions were built into a formula but will ultimately fail because the math doesn’t describe anything causal (“real,” if you will.) Newton’s law of universal gravitation seemed to describe everything but it too was ultimately found to fail. Newton bragged that he didn’t attempt to make up a cause. But the notion that stuff just happens without causes has not been the path to success in science, historically speaking.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Aug 8 2021 20:52 utc | 33

Kouros @31 :

Alex Mercouris has a more nuanced view and description on the Russian position with regards to Taliban than presented by b: “>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0krdgq02As

Relevant section starts at ~10 mins. Alexander M refers not only to the Tass article b referenced from 5th Aug, but another from the 6th Aug, which quotes from a more senior Russian official, who says that negotiation will be required from both sides to avoid a terrible civil war. Mercouris believes that the “Cannot take Kabul” quote is really a message to the Taliban to negotiate, although I don’t really see his working WRT that quote, even though the overall position – urging both sides to negotiate does make sense, and also chimes with what we understand China has also being saying to the Taliban.
Mercouris also nods to MoA for b’s connection of Sheberghan to General Dostum, and goes onto give some further background of this character.

Posted by: Ash Naz | Aug 8 2021 22:31 utc | 35

If it was learned that the universe is like a Russian doll
would it be vilified by the MSM?
BaBushKa Dolls – a nested universe. One black hole nested within another within another…infinitely and eternally until Kingdom Comes.

Posted by: librul | Aug 8 2021 22:41 utc | 37

On the Taliban rush to victory.
The constant yabbering at the Taliban to be ‘reasonable’, to ‘negotiate’ with the Kabul ‘government’ is nauseating on one hand and perhaps tactical on he other.
Taliban victory over a faked up, tool of global capitalist plunder in Afghanistan is the same as the Ho Chi Minh victory to unify Vietnam. There were weasel words then too imploring restraint. To hell with that crap, stare at North/South Korea for an hour or two to see how the savages from the global capitalist west continue to gouge at the wound. Ditto the bleating about Hong Kong or the Chinese island of Taiwan.
This Taliban may be no different from the previous manifestation or they might be very different in unforeseen ways. Time will tell. Revolutionary movements evolve rapidly in some aspects and remain fixed in others. Consider Cuba or Vietnam or Russia or China. A longer view of history is helpful so as to avoid succumbing to pearl clutching editorial blather and obfuscation.
The Taliban revolution to unify Afghanistan and restore self determination in some form other than plunder and slaughter by the global capitalist private finance elite is unfolding, there is no time for weasel words here, there is only time for unity and national sovereignty. Hopefully the outcome will lead the country to something better than having a permanent base of US murderers on their land like in Germany, Japan, England, Australia, Europe.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Aug 8 2021 23:03 utc | 39

Why Trump really lost the 2020 elections:
Chinese trade data shows the failure of the US’ decoupling push

According to statistics released by the Chinese customs on Saturday, China’s trade with the US surged by 40 percent year-on-year to $404.6 billion in the first seven months of 2021. China’s exports to the US surged by 36.9 percent in US dollar terms, while imports from the country hiked by 50.4 percent. Currently, the US is China’s third largest trading partner.

The American far-right must stop inventing excuses for their humiliating defeats in during these last months. There’s only a limit to the people’s patience with this kind of farce.
–//–
US urged to drop ideology-driven epidemic work amid Delta variant rampage
–//–
Highly recommend the read:
China’s crackdown on the three mountains
The debate Mr. Roberts brings is identical to the debate that happened in the USSR from 1926-1929. During the NEP period (1923-1926), all the numbers and statistics pointed to the direction that the USSR would succumb to capitalism. The despair among the Bolshevik intellectuals can be mostly seem during the writings of 1924, when the free market was the strongest, and the proletarian the weakest. It was during the same period – 1924-1926 – that the capitalist powers and the remaining Mensheviks and Whites in exile in Germany and France were the most enthusiastic with a rapprochement with the USSR: expectations of the fall of the first-ever proletarian state were extremely high. The economic situation was dire, people hungry and homeless. The original proletariat that made the Revolution was largely dead or dispersed by the end of the Civil War. All the numbers indicated that the USSR was dead by 1924.
We still don’t know for sure how the USSR survived the NEP period. Many still claim it was a miracle. Bourgeois economists obviously don’t know how. The bewilderment of the bourgeois economists led to the birth of Keynesianism in the 1930s (Keynes was originally intrigued why the USSR was untouched by the 1929 crisis). The only explanation historians can come out with is that the Tsarist Empire not only collapsed, but evaporated, during WWI. As a result, the possible counter-revolutionary elements in the USSR – the Tsarist officers controlling the Red Army, the speculators in the black market (nepmen/bagmen) and the rich (kulak) and middle peasants – could never imagine a world where the Bolsheviks were not in power. To put it simply, the Bolsheviks enjoyed absolute legitimacy to rule the entire Russia. As such, they had the time and the latitude to cede and advance, to shape Russia to their will.
Whatever the Bolsheviks did after 1926-1927, it worked. By 1931, unemployment had already disappeared, industrial growth exceeded all expectations, and the private sector was decimated, substituted by a fully State-organized system of distribution, and agriculture was well into the path of collectivization and modernization.
So, about China, I would say this: the numbers may be worrying, but they’re still not irreversible. I think the CPC deserves another vote of confidence, after barely escaping self-destruction in 1989. Either way, all we can do is wait.

Posted by: vk | Aug 8 2021 23:27 utc | 41

Canadians (james, bruised northerner…) probably know about Patrick Armstrong and maybe add their opinions but I like him. Here, he opens up the U.S. “wargame” disasters from Vietnam forward… all were ignored by ambitious young officers who wanted promotions and ran away from their disasters until they retired with fat pensions, leaving us peons with the mess, especially the vietnamese, Salvadorans, Cubans, Iraqis, Afghanis etc.
“Forward to 2002 and a very large and complicated exercise simulating a US attack on – not named, but obviously – Iran. The retired USMC general playing Red – a no-nonsense experienced soldier who didn’t believe technology was the answer to everything (especially the projected wonders that the wargame granted to the American side), scorned business-school buzzwords like “network-centric” – thought outside the box and used low-tech weaponry. When the US high-tech took out his communications, as he knew they would, he went silent – his communications were by motorcycle dispatch riders, coded messages in Friday prayers and similar old-school techniques. He fired more missiles that the Blue side could handle and sank most of the invasion force and finished off the rest with swarms of small boats. “The whole thing was over in five, maybe ten minutes“. The invasion force was brought back to life, the rules were modified to reduce the defenders’ abilities – the Red force commander was on the point of destroying the reconstituted landing forces – and the US side “won”. He walked out when he decided that the game was too rigged for him to bother doing anything; as he said in a report: “this whole thing was prostituted; it was a sham intended to prove what they wanted to prove.”
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/08/08/can-they-learn-another-us-wargame-defeat/

Posted by: migueljose | Aug 8 2021 23:33 utc | 43

What the oligarchs need is for the rat’s in the rat race to get back on their little tread mills and start pumping their little legs and stop worrying about dying from infectious diseases.
Posted by: vapor | Aug 8 2021 18:08 utc | 22
Yep, get back to work you fearful morons, we need the $. F your health.
“The Taliban revolution to unify Afghanistan and restore self determination in some form other than plunder and slaughter by the global capitalist private finance elite is unfolding, there is no time for weasel words here, there is only time for unity and national sovereignty. Hopefully the outcome will lead the country to something better than having a permanent base of US murderers on their land like in Germany, Japan, England, Australia, Europe.”
Marman @ 41 said;
“One cannot negotiate with evil anymore than one can negotiate with cancer. It must be destroyed.”

Posted by: vetinLA | Aug 9 2021 0:40 utc | 45

The “great reset” is nothing more, nothing less, than big $ following the latest mantra ” never let a crisis go to waste”…

Posted by: vetinLA | Aug 9 2021 0:48 utc | 47

Lurk @ 39 announced to the bar, the report on the Dandelion “We found effective inhibition of protein-protein interaction between the human virus cell entry receptor ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2 spike, including five relevant mutations, by water-based common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) extracts.” <==this is exactly what I said in the beginning was needed <=not a vaccination to activate immune response, but something to block the ACE 2 Receptor the Virus S1 ligand attaches to.. here it is all over the world free for the taking, .. no pharma, no MSM propaganda, no government mandate, no lock down, nothing, just the yellow Dandelion.. bet Clinical trials will never be allowed. by the nation state system? How about that.. ? but what effort will it take to get the message out?

Posted by: snake | Aug 9 2021 2:14 utc | 49

@ migueljose | Aug 8 2021 23:33 utc | 42.. thanks migueljose… i liked this qoute from armstrongs article –
“You know, we get involved in these wars and we don’t know a damn thing about those countries, the culture, the history, the politics, people on top and even down below. And, my heavens, these are not wars like World War II and World War I, where you have battalions fighting battalions. These are wars that depend on knowledge of who the people are, with the culture is like. And we jumped into them without knowing. That’s the damned essential message of the Pentagon Papers.”
@ Paul | Aug 9 2021 2:59 utc | 49… thanks paul… i see my link didn’t come thru! thanks for reposting it properly… cheers..

Posted by: james | Aug 9 2021 4:13 utc | 51

@ Grieved | Aug 9 2021 5:10 utc | 51 who wrote
”
Interesting how the Indians like this heavier dose up front, and watch it last for a month, while the US people are going with the lower dose, but weekly.
This is the only unknown left: what’s the ideal dose? That’s a pretty cool solitary unknown to have left, if that’s all you don’t know, in the middle of a pandemic.
”
I agree that prophylaxis dosage ranges by age/weight seem unclear yet but I also haven’t seen any description of how to ramp dosage up or start administering Ivermectin if Covid infection is present.
If I can be a one note Samba about public/private global finance then please join me at the MoA bar in standing up for what you believe and doing your best to educate and inform fellow barflies regarding Ivermectin and Covid

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 9 2021 5:48 utc | 53

Lurk #39
What a delightful find. Thank you very much. Perhaps that is why I never get the regular flu and never take a jab for it. I love that tea.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Aug 9 2021 6:34 utc | 55

This is an article which describes how vulnerable people in the UK were killed during the Covid-19 pandemic:
Planned Euthanasia Does Not Constitute Healthcare – No Matter How Hard You Clap For It
What the article indicates is deliberate policy of euthanising the vulnerable via denying care, restricting care and inappropriate care.
Extracts:
“The UK government not only created the legislation to enable healthcare providers to increase the risks to the most vulnerable, they fully understood those risks. They had previously identified them in training exercises and had extensively modelled those risks.”
“During an allegedly unprecedented health crisis the UK government removed the NHS duty to assess a patient’s health status (and conditions) before discharging them from hospital. They then issued instructions compelling the NHS to discharge as many patients as possible.”
“An August 2020 study by the Queen’s Nursing Institute found the following practices commonly operating in Care Homes during the spring 2020 outbreak. We should note the element of compulsion: “Having to accept patients from hospitals with unknown Covid-19 status, being told about plans not to resuscitate residents without consulting families, residents or care home staff…..21% of respondents said that their home accepted people discharged from hospital who had tested positive for Covid-19…..a substantial number found it difficult to access District Nursing and GP services….25% in total reporting it somewhat difficult or very difficult during March-May 2020.” ”
“Once the vulnerable were trapped in abandoned care homes, which were knowingly understaffed, the remaining, unprotected staff were then left to deal with both their own safety fears and the mounting mortality. The government decided this was an opportune moment to suspend all safety inspections in both hospital and care settings. This was supposed to “limit infections,” although every other decision they made appeared to increase them. Yet again, ending inspections raised the mortality risk for the most vulnerable.”
“At the same time, Do Not Resuscitate (DNAR) notices were being attached to vulnerable people’s care plans, often without their consent or even their knowledge. This coincided with a massive increase in orders for the potentially life ending medication midazolam….In March 2020 the NHS purchased the equivalent of two years worth of supply.”
“….the UK government encouraged widespread adoption of the Clap for Carers, often referred to as “clap for the NHS.” During lockdowns, as the whole nation was told to self isolate indoors and avoid all unnecessary congregation, between the 26th March and the 28th May, we were “allowed” to simultaneously congregate on the streets and show our appreciation by clapping, banging pots and pans and ringing bells….Meanwhile vulnerable people were being discharged into unsafe care homes where access o medical care was withdrawn and essential social care removed. Clapping for this was obscene. The government clearly used this ploy both as a distraction and as propaganda. This does not suggest that doctors, nurses and carers do not deserve our support. Any medical professional or carer who blows the whistle is almost certainly making a career ending decision.”

Posted by: ADKC | Aug 9 2021 8:02 utc | 57

I wonder how many vax enthusiasts have read this little missive, published online on December 4, 2020.

Posted by: john | Aug 9 2021 8:52 utc | 59

Posted by: vk | Aug 8 2021 23:27 utc | 40
I think the problem with Michael Roberts and other marxist economist is that they are way too focused on economic policies of former and existing socialist state. Marxism and its economic school of thought rooted in materialism and indeed economy is the basis of its. However making economic forces the sole determinant of human society is unwise to say the least. How is that any different from classical liberal economy thought that posits human rationality as the main driver of economic activity? This is not wrong, but it failed to considers that each society and culture have different sets of value and therefore different categories of what they considered as rational.
This is why Michel Roberts seems bewildered and confused about what is China. Sure, the economy is capitalist but he can’t say that with a straight face considering other part of PRC economic policy alone that makes it different from developing, capitalist state (he must be acutely aware the failure of Indian state). He is wise to not to recognized that and withhold his judgement, unlike many of commenters in his blog that staunchly anti-capitalist to the point they can’t see a Marxism beyond its economic formulation. What they and Michael Roberts ultimately failed to acknowledge is social(-econimic one might say) policies of former and existing socialist state. In relation to being too economic determinant, it’s no wonder bourgeoisie economist failed and confused over USSR successful survival of the NEP era: they failed to consider whatever the social policies the Bolsheviks enacted at that period.

Posted by: Hangar | Aug 9 2021 10:36 utc | 61

Posted by: SumGuy | Aug 9 2021 10:44 utc | 61
Yup, it’s like when I walk in my bank (bunch of loan sharks with insane fees and policies, trying to scam you every single step) and there is donation jar with some good cause note attached to it.
Must keep little peoples focus away from big things they are doing behind yer back.

Posted by: Abe | Aug 9 2021 11:06 utc | 63

Zionist regime’s collapse a reality, will materialize in near future: IRGC chief commander → https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2021/08/09/664080/Salami-IRGC-Ziyad-al-Nakhalah-Ismail-Haniyeh-Iran-Palestine-resistance-Israel (I’m putting the link in full because this blog is automatically discarding every comment with a Presstv.ir link)

During the meetings, the Iranian commander congratulated the Palestinian resistance movements on their achievements in the recent Israeli aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip, saying, “In view of undeniable realities on the ground, we believe that the collapse and fall of the Zionist regime is far beyond a mere aspiration and is a reality, which will be realized in the near future.”

I agree with the commander’s assessment. Israel is already dead as a Zionist project. All the evidence, numbers etc. point to the direction Israel has already exhausted itself as a historical actor. It will continue to exist because it is a geopolitical reality, but only as a normal, minor nation-state, which happens to be a Jewish theocracy.
–//–
US falling further behind China in STEM PhDs: New study shows Chinese universities will produce nearly twice as many STEM PhD graduates than US by 2025
–//–
US deserves to be called world’s biggest anti-pandemic failure, report says
West lecturing China on ‘co-existing with virus’ a disguised attack
Most Westerners – including many commenters here in this blog – are still in denial. I think the best path to recovery is to first admit you’re a failure, and repent your sins and mistakes.
Stop spreading these crazy theories that the COVID-19 is a hoax or a bioweapon. Admit the Western civilization utterly failed to fight the pandemic. Apologize. The start building again. That’s how you all educated your children, so it’s only fair to walk the walk.
–//–
The U.S. government is designed for failure. And, a new study shows, it’s getting worse.
I agree with the author’s diagnosis.
–//–
China for the fist time topples USA in an Olympics outside China:
[Official] Olympic Medal Count
China finished with 41 golds, one ahead the USA.
Just as a curiosity (because anything other than gold doesn’t matter), the USA finished with 40 golds, 41 silvers and 33 bronzes, 114 medals total, while China finished with 41 golds, 38 silvers and 27 bronzes, 106 medals total.
China still finished well below its all-time record, when it pulverized the competition with 49 golds in Beijing 2008.

Posted by: vk | Aug 9 2021 14:54 utc | 65

Zionist regime’s collapse a reality, will materialize in near future: IRGC chief commander

During the meetings, the Iranian commander congratulated the Palestinian resistance movements on their achievements in the recent Israeli aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip, saying, “In view of undeniable realities on the ground, we believe that the collapse and fall of the Zionist regime is far beyond a mere aspiration and is a reality, which will be realized in the near future.”

I agree with the commander’s assessment.
–//–
US deserves to be called world’s biggest anti-pandemic failure, report says
By many comments here, I can observe that the West is still in denial about its absolute failure in fighting the pandemic.
Be in denial how long you want, just don’t pollute this forum with your crazy conspiracy theories.
–//–
China finishes ahead the USA for the first time in an Olympics outside China.
China finished first with 41 golds – one ahead the USA.
Not that it matters, but, as a curiosity, the USA finished with 114 medals total, eight ahead of China (106).

Posted by: vk | Aug 9 2021 15:08 utc | 67

I will take my butthurt worldview away for a bit until b clears out the zerohedgers.
Sad to see this forum ruined. I am sure he wants us to battle them with science but I have lost three near and dear people (one just last week) and I am too weary to bother. I shall return another day and leave the battle up to the other barflies

Posted by: ld | Aug 9 2021 15:40 utc | 69

BM @Aug9 15:48 #68: … He needs to be read critically.
You could say the same thing about Magnier. They both make use of anonymously whispered “sweet nothings”.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 9 2021 15:57 utc | 71

BM @68–
I suggest if you disagree so vehemently that you go to Pepe’s VK space and post your comment.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 9 2021 16:04 utc | 73

Peter Lee:

A political faction that has been identified as dangerously disruptive and expendable is being purged.

What has really happened is that the establishment has effectively sidelined populist Movements on both the Left and Right by installing faux populist leaders. To call these compromised Movements a “political faction” strains credulity. Grassroots discontent is easily undermined because the establishment is so good at playing them with in-the-tank media and pundits.
Pundits that can’t/won’t see this are part of the problem.
Deliciousness: b’s snarky label: ‘woke watch’.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 9 2021 16:14 utc | 75

@Id… what i have noticed is for some of the posters here it has become a ”one topic only ”where a certain type of fundamentalism and zealousness takes over… they have their own cheering section @17 and etc, and the concept of framing any of it in a neutral or dispassionate manner appears impossible… and of course we get the drive by posts @ 64 by people who never post here which any regular will pick up on immediately…. i just basically ignore it all, but i know it’s hard for everyone to do!

Posted by: james | Aug 9 2021 16:16 utc | 77

Here’s a law I’d endorse, “Bring back firing squads? Corruption in Russia’s military-industrial complex should be punishable by DEATH, says space agency head”:
“The punishment for corruption in Russia’s military-industrial complex should be made much tougher, with the possibility of death by firing squad. That’s according to Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, the country’s space agency.
“Speaking to the popular YouTube channel Solovyov Live, Rogozin explained his view that corruption in this field is not only theft of state funds but also the theft of security.
“’When I still worked in parliament, I publicly stated that, in my opinion, corruption in the military-industrial complex should be punished by firing squad, not by imprisonment,’ Rogozin said, noting that his opinion has not changed in the time since.”
When I think of the many hundreds of billions skimmed by the MIC that get dumped back into Congressional and Presidential selection campaigns, I’m very much in favor of that punishment for corruption, but we’d need a non-corrupt enforcement agency for any investigation and arrests to occur, which are unlikely to happen–just look at Russiagate and the level of corruption it unveiled without one prosecution.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 9 2021 16:20 utc | 79

STJ @ 33: about satnav [GPS, glonass etc] and relativity:
Just to fill in some detail. The sats carry very accurate atomic clocks onboard which is the key to navigation by triangulation. The satnav receiver that you use calculates its own position by means of radio signals from the sats.
These signals carry information about the sats’ respective position in 3D space and the timestamps of the respective signals. Knowing how long each signal takes to reach the receiver at the speed of light, the location can be calculated easily.
The problem is the accuracy of the clocks due to relativity effects. This includes effects due to BOTH general and special relativity. In brief, the special relativity causes the clocks to run about 7 microseconds slower per day, than the same clock on earth—due to the difference in relative speed between the two.
The effect from GR is bigger and is due to gravity as you said. The sats’ greater distance from the pull of earth’s gravity causes them to run more quickly, about 45 microseconds per day. The sum total of the clock error is 45 – 7 = 38 microseconds per day.
That would mean a cumulative position error of about 10 km each day. Obviously satnav cannot function without both SR and GR! Thanks Einstein! 😺

Posted by: Gordog | Aug 9 2021 17:15 utc | 81

@Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 9 2021 15:59 utc | 72
So true, and they will also have access to the excellent Russian STEM graduates. My own STEM hiring experience is that the latter work much, much harder in university and are a degree-equivalent higher that Western graduates (e.g. a Russian BSc. = a Western MSc.). The material strength of the West is declining, with wokeness now even invading STEM (metaphysics has no place in science) and undermining the scientific method. I really don’t want to be treated by a “woke” doctor:
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/what-happens-when-doctors-cant-speak?r=k31m8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy
At the same time China is focused on upgrading its STEM abilities well beyond the West.
@Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 9 2021 16:14 utc | 75
It saddens me that people don’t get the incredible ability of elites to co-opt and blunt social movements, seeing AOC or Trump as true revolutionaries when they are in fact co-opted/controlled opposition. When a real threat comes along you can see the all-court press to finish them asap – the 1960s and early 1970s were full of assassinations and political imprisonment (and bribery and co-option for others – “gold or lead”) because there was a real threat. The elites have honed their skills to co-opt or sideline in the past four decades, but they still hold lead as an option – and have/are increasing the tools of domestic authoritarianism so that they will have them when required. Just like US foreign policy, say “uncle” or get sanctioned/coup’d/invaded/killed.

Posted by: Roger | Aug 9 2021 17:41 utc | 83

BM @ 70: About Escobar’s Myanmar article:
Just read the piece. I agree with you on the drug issue, and China’s supposed ‘blessing’ of this activity.
This seems pretty bizarre to me. I just don’t see the CPC as anything other than zero tolerance on the drug trade. Very curious indeed that Escobar would state such a thing.
On the Rohingya thing, I also fully agree with you. This was a wholly western- manufactured fake ‘crisis’ in the R2P mold.
To be fair to Pepe on this one, he just mentioned it in passing.
I wouldn’t be so harsh on him overall. Nobody gets everything right, every time. Most of the time Pepe offers up good stuff.
Even in this piece there is a lot of insightful info I didn’t know, about Myanmar’s internal dynamics.

Posted by: Gordog | Aug 9 2021 18:24 utc | 85

@34 Dr.George
You’ve pointed out one of the many ways that the Chinese government could have sprung the CFO. They don’t seem to be overly concerned about her freedom. It could be that they had conflicts with the Huawei management. It could be they were in on this with the US and its puppy. Some theater: company does business with Iran, so jail the CFO. Just another of the goofy things we see that makes no sense.

Posted by: Platero | Aug 9 2021 18:43 utc | 87

This is significant: Eric Topol starting to question just how effective vaccines are

Wallace-Wells starts with the expected Covid vaccine death reduction of 90% or at least, per another expert, 75%. That means Covid fatalities should be 25% or lower relative to last year…which is not where we are. Instead, from Wallace-Wells:
But at the national level, at least for the moment, the reduction of mortality risk seems to be considerably smaller. In the worst of the winter surge, the country was registering 250,000 new cases per day; at its peak, that surge was killing roughly 3,000 Americans each day (often a bit above, but with a few dips below). Today, we have a bit more than 100,000 new cases each day, though the numbers are still rising as part of the Delta wave. If we had reduced mortality risk by 75 percent, that would mean about 300 daily deaths. If we had reduced it by 90 percent, it would mean 120. Instead, in our seven-day average, we just passed 500.
Things may be even worse than that, though. In general, epidemiologists expect a lag of a week or two, perhaps more, between case peaks and death peaks… comparing case data from even one week ago with today’s death data reveals an even grimmer picture: about 75,000 cases per day then yielding the current average of 500 deaths, suggesting the mortality rate had fallen by less than half since winter. If you work from two-week-old data, it suggests that the mortality rate had hardly fallen at all. Applying the winter ratio to the case load from July 24 would predict an average of 600 daily deaths. On Friday, there were 763.
And Topol:
Just looking at the U.K. and Israel, which had been our guideposts, I thought we would keep the hospitalizations pretty darn low — maybe a fourth of where we’d been in prior waves. And deaths 10 percent of prior waves. But we’re not doing that at all. If you look at the log charts of the U.S. and the U.K, you’re starting to see some real separation for death. It’s certainly going in the wrong direction, and it had been tracking incredibly closely, until recently.
Weaker effectiveness of vaccines. The bold is Wallace-Wells, per the original, and Topol, in regular type, in response:
What I just can’t understand is why all three things are all moving up together so rapidly. Given everything we’ve seen in other countries and everything we think we know about the vaccines, even if cases rose dramatically, we’d expect much lower rates of hospitalization and death. But we’re not.
It’s like we didn’t have vaccines. Or worse. I was just putting this talk together and I made the same observation. I’m looking at the four waves, and, as you know, in the monster wave, we got to 250,000 cases per day. And at that time we had 120,000 plus hospitalizations [per day]. About half. What’s amazing is, we’re at about 120,000 cases now, and we’re over 60,000 hospitalizations.
It’s the same ratio.[pre-vaccine vs. post vaccine/50% fully vaccinated]
Yeah. So when I look at that, I say, what happened to the vaccines?
Topol also pointed out these results were all that much attributable to low vaccination rates in certain states. Florida, for instance, is the standout mortality state yet is has an average, not low, vaccination rate. Los Angeles County, an early and continuing high infection/death area, has a higher vaccination rate than the US overall. He returns to that issue later:
I mean, one of the worst signals that I’ve seen is San Francisco. San Francisco is like Vermont, they’re even a little higher than Vermont for fully vaccinated — it’s 70 percent of the population of San Francisco county and it’s going through a very substantial hospitalization spike, unlike Vermont.

If the vaccines don’t even significantly help reduce the hospitalization and/or ICU levels, then the value is even more questionable for those who are not high risk for COVID.
And on that note: Saturday’s COVID hospitalization and ICU numbers (Friday data) was 4000-ish and 1000-ish.
Today we’re at 5686 and 1258. This is more than the peak in July 2020 for hospitalizations.
ICU is lower at at the moment (2000-ish in July 2020), but both curves are still going up.

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 9 2021 19:37 utc | 89

Scotch Bingeington | Aug 9 2021 19:07 utc | 88
Thanks, but it was not exactly the one I saw. It is possibly better! It will take a bit of time to read, so I rapidly shot to the summary below. It also talks about Vascular leakage in one of the segments I skimmed through.
Main points as follows.
“Pfizer’s animal data clearly presaged the following risks and dangers:
•blood clotting shortly after vaccination, potentially leading to heart attacks,
stroke, and venous thrombosis
•grave harm to female fertility
•grave harm to breastfed infants
•cumulative toxicity after multiple injections
With the exception of female fertility, which can simply not be evaluated within the
short period of time for which the vaccines have been in use, all of the above risks
have been substantiated since the vaccines have been rolled out—all are manifest in
the reports to the various adverse event registries [9]. Those registries also contain a very considerable number of reports on abortions and stillbirths shortly after vaccination, which should have prompted urgent investigation.”
I was hesitant about saying that the desired outcome is dangerous for the majority of people, but the post by ADKC | Aug 9 2021 8:02 utc | 57, about what appears to be the deliberate murder of many people in the UK, confirms that it is a reality. One that is going to -is already – from your post, become brutally clear in the future.
Empty hospitals have been filmed in many countries already and the co-incidental deaths from untreated problems have also been remarked upon. (Cancer included).
It is going to take some time for the majority of the population to reach the logical conclusion that someone (probably) wants them dead.

Posted by: Stonebird | Aug 9 2021 20:01 utc | 91

Gordog @85–
I directly questioned Pepe at his VK space where he linked that article about CPC’s linkage to Triads, which would include the Drug Trade. As of 1330 Pacific, he hasn’t elaborated.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 9 2021 20:29 utc | 93

Karlof, thanks!
Let us know if any response from Pepe.
Thanks for the EUP news on Belarus. Wow! The west has gone full retard!

Posted by: Gordog | Aug 9 2021 21:21 utc | 95

Alastair Crooke’s Weekly Essay begins with these opening paragraphs:
“’The retreat of the West began with the fall of communism in 1989′, the political philosopher, John Gray, writes. ‘Our triumphal elites lost their sense of reality, and in a succession of attempts to remake the world in their image [… they have brought about] the result that Western states are weaker, and more endangered than they were at any point in the Cold War.’ [Gray’s words come from this essay.]
“The West’s decomposition, Gray outlines, is not only geo-political; it is cultural and intellectual. Western countries now contain powerful bodies of opinion that regard their own civilisation as a uniquely pernicious force. In this hyper-liberal view, which is heavily represented in higher education, Western values of freedom and toleration are now understood to be little more than code for White racial domination.
“Whether Western élites are now capable of transforming their vacuum-sealed zeitgeist is questionable. Rather, the underlying, deeply moralising approach of this hyper-liberalism limits discourse to moral stances that are simplistic, held to be self-evident, and morally-impeccable. Arguing realpolitik pros-and-cons today is not far from being a prohibited enterprise. Indeed, shifts in the global strategic paradigm, or indeed of the wider challenges that it faces, are not addressed in any serious fashion. For, that would demand a realism and a strategic grasp, which mainstream western opinion-leaders reject as defeatist – if not immoral.”
“The U.S. Metro-élite has converted cultural attainment into economic privilege and vice versa. It controls what Jonathan Rauch describes in his new book, The Constitution of Knowledge, as the epistemic regime—the massive network of academics and analysts who determine what is true. Most of all, it possesses the power of consecration; it determines what gets recognized and esteemed, and what gets disdained and dismissed.
“Just to be clear, this dynamic is on course to become the biggest dividing line in global politics – as it already is in U.S. and EU politics. It is getting worse both in the U.S. and Europe, and it is going to leach out into geo-politics. It already has. ‘It’s not what you want; but it’s coming anyway’. And if the long drift of history is any guide, it will bring increased tensions and the risk of war.” ​[My Emphasis]
That seems to be sufficient enough to further discuss how Wokeism is a very destructive form of “Hyper-Liberalism” that abandons several core values of traditional Liberalism as I wrote several weeks ago–tolerance, open-mindedness, and empathy. Liberalism lacking those values is more akin to Neoliberalism than a hyper form of Liberalism–hyper in my mind meaning carrying such values over the top.
The problem with accepting Gray’s thesis is the West’s downfall began prior to the USSR’s with its adoption of Neoliberalism initially as a form of Neocolonialism then as TINA mode of Capitalism made into policy by Reagan/Thatcher and run by Mobster Alan Greenspan. That Greenspan merits special treatment by Crooke at his essay’s end ought not be surprising.
Gray’s opening paragraphs leads me to ask where he went to university and what sort of grades he got for he’s extremely confused:
“The end result of their attempt to export their system of government is that Western states are weaker and more endangered than they were at any point in the Cold War.”
But just what is that system–is it what’s within Constitutions or is it what’s decided by Financial Oligarchs behind closed doors and beyond public influence? And jus what sort of political-economy are we discussing–what worked for most industrialized nations during their take-off or World Bank/IMF imposed structural adjustment “development” plans that are ultimately Neocolonial because they’re Neoliberal. Just where was Government For the People, Of the People and By the People attempted?!
Look at the West. It consists of the Outlaw US Empire, the Outlaw Anglo Empire, the Outlaw EUP, and those Empires’s military bloc, NATO. All have lost their Liberal façade and are becoming a form of quasi-totalitarianism. More than ever before, I expect this years UNGA Debates to be very acrimonious as the Outlaws qualify as such because of their repeated violations of the UN Charter.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 9 2021 22:18 utc | 97

Recovery fund for flood-devastated German regions could cost €20 to €30 BILLION, state governor says
€30 Billion!? Are Germans made of gold or something?

Posted by: vk | Aug 9 2021 23:20 utc | 99