Vaccine Passports Banned By The Spain’s Supreme Court - https://secretra.com/politics/5014-vaccine-passports-banned-by-the-spains-supreme-court.html

Posted by: Serig | Aug 29 2021 20:04 utc | 1

As aa proof that they are fully coordinated and have the same masters, have you noticed that environmentalists say nothing about the pollution of the seas with masks, swabs, vials and plastics linked to the plandemic?

Greta, where are you when you are needed!

Posted by: Asha K. | Aug 29 2021 20:12 utc | 2

I think this is a very good up close look at how the empire operates in other countries.

The Anatomy Of US Interventionism In Bolivia & Latin America: Interview

Posted by: arby | Aug 29 2021 20:15 utc | 3

#Breaking: Israel no longer considers people who have received 2 Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines "vaccinated." As of September 1, only 3x vaccinated are considered immune.

https://twitter.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1431972367719411718

You can’t make this s**t up.

Posted by: DG | Aug 29 2021 20:20 utc | 4

China's Thorium reactor. According to the location given in this piece, Wuwei, it not far up the road from the supposed missile silos of recent fame.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/china-set-to-begin-first-trials-of-molten-salt-nuclear-reactor-using-thorium-instead-of-uranium/ar-AANP0qt?ocid=BingNewsSearch

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 29 2021 20:25 utc | 5

According to the digital newspaper Acta Sanitaria, "vaccines have not improved the situation of Covid19 in Spain, one of the countries in the world with the highest number of vaccinated", since current data on the pandemic are worse than a year ago....

https://t.co/IX6b04H5AI?amp=1

Posted by: Asha K. | Aug 29 2021 20:32 utc | 6

As nazism unleashes its ugly head again in Europe, it is worth remembering today the forgotten liberators of Paris, General Leclerc´s 9th Company, composed by exiled Spanish republicans...

They had a place of honor in the parade along De Gaulle and were always remembered in France...

https://twitter.com/arqueoleg/status/1431664563645206538

Posted by: Asha K. | Aug 29 2021 20:44 utc | 7

thanks b... i am interested to read the snowden article... thanks for all your work here..

Posted by: james | Aug 29 2021 20:45 utc | 8

karlof1 left an article near the end of a previous thread - pepe escobar.. i thought it was good... thanks karlof1..

Blowback: Taliban target US intel's shadow army

Posted by: james | Aug 29 2021 20:50 utc | 9

Why does Twitter hate 'the Jews'? Some guy named Berenson was kicked off the platform merely for tweeting about scientific studies coming out of Israel that do not support the "Vax or Else" 24/7 hysteria coming from the fear-mongers in the USA. Stop the Jew-Hate Twitter!

Posted by: gottlieb | Aug 29 2021 20:58 utc | 10

Re: Is Washington sabotaging the JCPOA talks?
...from the link. . .
The proposal for the fuel bank comes from two die-hard opponents of the JCPOA, Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bob Menendez, and they proposed it earlier this year in a transparent attempt to sabotage the Biden administration’s negotiations. The report that the administration is apparently taking their proposal seriously is a very bad sign for the talks.

This a a good thing, because the JCPOA is/was illegal and not fair to Iran.
UN Charter, Article 2
The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles.
1. The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.

"All its Members" certainly includes Iran which dates from the sixth century, as the Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great fourteen hundred years ago. . .Compare that to the US complainer, two hundred forty-five years old.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 29 2021 21:18 utc | 11

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/08/28/gree-a28.html

"Very few people call for a prohibition on the use of automobiles or “radical reductions” in speed limits, Greenwald argues, even though car crashes kill large numbers of people. In the same way, he implies, people should stop advocating for aggressive public health measures to stop the pandemic, even though it is killing large numbers of people.

First, in terms of numbers, the pandemic is actually killing far more people. More than 100 people die in automobile accidents every day in the US. By comparison, 1,290 people died from COVID-19 on Thursday, and over 1,000 people have died every day this week," etc.
---------
Of course automobiles and the culture that goes with them are far, far more deadly to life on this planet than any virus could ever possibly be. quite unlike cars, covid springs from nature so 100% of deaths by car are unnecessary.

try telling that to a "scientific Marxist." that gasoline smell smells like victory. unlike the secondary effects of the virus, on the economy, etc., the secondary effects of cars are not even worth considering. all the dead animals, the asphalt, the diabetes, the etc., etc., etc.

i've been forced to go to the local hospital regularly since Dec 2020. In a sea of 1000 cars at the medical complex, there's one "no smoking" sign for every 15 cars. This is a perfect example of the use of scientific authority in the US: machines good, plants bad. It is "science" that instructs us that inducing a change of state into a poison so that we can zoom off to WalMart or the job is ok, indeed, how could we live without it, but smoking a peace pipe?

that "very few people call" for the elimination of car culture shows how truly fucked we are.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Aug 29 2021 21:23 utc | 12

Re: Covid-19 - Fluvoxamine

Is it not hilarious that a generic drug used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder turns out also to be a potential treatment for Covid-19? My question is this: does it act on the virus or the germophobic hysteria that turned a seasonal respiratory illness into the Black Death? We could all use a little calming down...

I can see the advertising now: "Flu-like symptoms? Feel like it's the end of the world? On the edge of complete neurosis? Take Fluvoxamine! Tackles the virus and chills you the f*** out in one simple tablet. Get some serious perspective today!"

But seriously, what's worse the real or the imagined? Or is the hallmark of our epoch that they are both now hopelessly entangled...

Posted by: Patroklos | Aug 29 2021 21:26 utc | 13

On Afghanistan, i noticed that British and Australian media is more warmongering than even US media. They are going crazy about it. They fear this as a sign of decline of the West.

Its like hyenas fearful that without their master's empire they will be nothing.

Posted by: Passer by | Aug 29 2021 21:30 utc | 14

@ gottlieb | Aug 29 2021 20:58 utc | 10... good promo for the guy if he is trying to start up his own substack or whatever...

it suggests a few possibilities, but definitely nothing to do with being jewish,lol.. - Alex Berenson has been ACTIVELY trying to get suspended so he can cry victim and continue to grift through his substack. He finally succeeded at something.

fwiw, i don't follow this kind of stupid shit, but you aroused my curiousity..

Posted by: james | Aug 29 2021 21:33 utc | 15

that is a quote from someone else on the twitter machine saying what he thought - not me... classic he said, she said stuff, lol...

Posted by: james | Aug 29 2021 21:34 utc | 16

well written and informative article on charlie watts... he seemed like a truly stand up guy...

Charlie Watts Is a Jazz Drummer: The Lost ‘Rolling Stone’ Interview

Posted by: james | Aug 29 2021 21:38 utc | 17

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Aug 29 2021 21:23 utc | 12

And everything you say is true for just about everything else as well, especially pollutants, particulates, not to mention drone strikes... those Raytheon munitions need a warning: "These bombs may be harmful to children."

All the more reason to take Fluvoxamine! It will stop all that nervous questioning and finger-tapping——and it cures Covid-19! Bonus! Order today and we throw in a free set of steak knives (just don't self-harm).

Posted by: Patroklos | Aug 29 2021 21:38 utc | 18

@james

What an introvert that guy was. Really hated speaking to strangers. Only comfortable sitting on his drummer's throne. I liked his group ABC&D of bookie: 2P,B & D.

Posted by: Platero | Aug 29 2021 22:06 utc | 19

james @ 15

Yes, quite the snark was my comment. And perhaps his previous statements (I don't know them) set him up for a self-inflicted (and desired) fall. On the other hand - the information revealed in the tweet wasn't any kind of a conspiracy theory, but the reported results of science. One must ask - and we often do here - why the hardball tactics when the facts don't match the desperate narrative. It certainly is not about public health. So what is it?

cheers james, always enjoy your contributions.

Posted by: gottlieb | Aug 29 2021 22:08 utc | 20

The UFO's Greived has been peddling on Pfizer just isn't there in the real world. People on this forum and people I know have had it and if side effects were anywhere near as numerous as some of those registered or otherwise qualified US quacks have been saying all would now a number of people who had bad side effects.

On the more sane side, it does have some side effects, perhaps more so than other western vaccines. It is a new technology and long term effects are unknown.

Looking at worldometer stats, death rates in US and Isreal with are following the closely behind the infection rate as they have always done.

Reduced severity of disease in only for a couple of months after the second shot and looks like a fresh shot is needed every 2-3 months. Pot of gold for US big phama which has the US west as its captive money supply er clients.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 29 2021 22:27 utc | 21

I meant to include UK stats in that. UK stats are different to US and Israel. The death numbers are not closely following the new infection numbers. Deaths are very low. Brits been more recently vaccinated? I don't know why the difference.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 29 2021 22:31 utc | 22

According to the Italian News Channel TG1 Milan is hosting a Grenfell Towers redux, complete with the exterior of the high-rise ablaze from top to bottom and flames gushing out of the windows.

In the 1960s and 70s strict building regulations made such catastrophic high-rise fires impossible in most countries.
Are NeoLiberalism, corruption and de-regulation as wonderful as our slutty politicians promised they'd be?

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 29 2021 22:32 utc | 23

Has anyone posted this or commented about it here or @ TheSaker or Saker Community?

Supposed to be first-hand accounts of the Maidan operatives that were loyal to Mikheil Saakashvili

If this is for real? (seems that way to me, too bad I only know English), has translations I have to rely on.

If so, I wonder why it was not removed by J'tube or Shadow banned before I downloaded a copy a while back. I was surprised to find it searching "The hidden truth about Ukraine - Part 1" gives a result with parts one and two as the first two results.

The hidden truth about Ukraine - Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR1NFI6TBH0
The hidden truth about Ukraine - Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0rR2Fh1zWI
@ InsideOver J'tube channel

Sounds relevant not only with regard to 02/18/14, but 09/11/01, and 08/26/21 as well as to how false flags can be pulled off. The answer to the bad-faith, supposedly rhetorical trick declarative question, "The conspiracy would involve too many people and someone would squeal for such events to happen" is that like Maidan (if the above videos are the real scoop) even most of the few people at the very top most likely do not know the real mission (under the cover of ostensibly providing "security" or performing Jared's specialty on the '90s TV series now on Heroes & Icons "The Pretender") until the last nanosecond when it is far too late.

Also, why would a link to VK (VKontakte, ВКонта́кте) block comments on Moonofalabama from being posted?

Posted by: William Haught | Aug 29 2021 22:58 utc | 24

...as well as to how false flags can be pulled off...
rather in the sense of how false flags are pulled off.

Posted by: William Haught | Aug 29 2021 23:03 utc | 25

speaking of false flags. . .

DOD Identifies Marine Corps, Navy and Army Casualties - including
Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee. Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss was assigned to 9th PSYOP Battalion, 8th PSYOP Group, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.

PSYOP
Attack adversaries using a combination of conventional and nonconventional methods and means rather than relying only on conventional military forces. Nonconventional methods and means might include clandestine or covert actions, operations in combination with irregular forces, or the nonconventional use of conventional capabilities. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 29 2021 23:29 utc | 26

Meanwhile in India, Modi's popularity rating just fell from 66% to 24% in the course of one year, and that's according to India Today, a rag so pro establishment that the former Vajpayee regime gave its owner Aroon Purie a medal for "journalistic excellence" or something, and so right wing that it screwed and hooted like a rabid baboon in 2003 for India to join in the invasionof Iraq. Also, people asked will be wary of Modi's lynch mobs and propensity for using false police charges and/or tax evasion cases as vengeance, so many of them will lie and say they support Modi when they don't. The actual popularity rating can be assumed to be significantly less than that, maybe 10% or less.

https://scroll.in/latest/1003082/narendra-modis-popularity-fell-from-66-to-24-in-one-year-india-today-survey

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Aug 30 2021 0:15 utc | 27

Thank you b for the link to fluvoxamine as a Covid treatment. I found it intersting as they trialled it against hydroxychoraqine but not ivermectine.

At the very tail end of that report there is this reference:

The fight to discover new treatments isn’t over, either. When I talked with Mills, he was excited about research in the UK finding that steroid inhalers — another cheap, widely available medication — reduced Covid-19 hospitalizations. Mills is also in the process of enrolling patients for a study of both steroids and fluvoxamine, to see whether the benefits are greater when patients take both drugs. “We go from having no drugs for early treatment that are cheap and widely available to having two,” he told me. “What does it look like if we use them together?”

Both of these are recommended in the FLCCC home kit for both prophylaxis and treatment.

But I was intrigued to find the origin of these corticosterone inhalers and for those who trust the herbs today this entire corticosterone tribe derives from the Ayurvedic medicine knowledge and practice.

The plant Justicia Adhatoda is the source herb. Always an Ayurvedic goto for respiratory and a myriad of other ailments. Centuries if not millennia old remedy. Found a little on cultivation here. I ordered a plant from my trusty nursery as it is a regular but out of stock just now. It is as common as batsh!t as they say. Only order by the latin name and do not purchase the Brazilian Malabar Nut as these are NOT the Indian plant.

For those who have a kit on hand and are clinically averse to chewing leaves and flowers etc then there is bisolvon tablets and packs of Justicia teas online. Keep well barflies.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Aug 30 2021 0:51 utc | 28

The triple vaxxed are turning on the doubled vaxxed. Meanwhile here in NZ we are still signing people up to the never ending Pfizer train to nowhere.

Posted by: Jezabeel | Aug 30 2021 1:25 utc | 29

James #9

Thank you for that blowback link. Great report.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Aug 30 2021 2:26 utc | 30

Covid19 update from India.
Kerala one of the most jabbed states has also highest infection rates in India. It is also most literate state and hence perhaps not using ivermectin at all. UP one of the backward states used ivermectin liberally and brought daily infection rates to two digits whereas Kerala is having daily infection rates around 30000, 3/4th of of total infections in India. With PM solely concentrating on jabbing as many people as possible without testing for existing infection/antibodies anything may happen, including more deadly variants. The good news is that most of the people have natural immunity and hence infection rates are coming down allover India
Rao

Posted by: R M Rao | Aug 30 2021 2:27 utc | 31

well written and informative article on charlie watts... he seemed like a truly stand up guy...

Charlie Watts Is a Jazz Drummer: The Lost ‘Rolling Stone’ Interview

Posted by: james | Aug 29 2021 21:38 utc | 17

Charlie Watts: He Swung Like A Donkey's Nuts

https://fivegunswest.blogspot.com/2021/08/charlie-watts-he-swung-like-donkeys-nuts.html

Posted by: Ruben | Aug 30 2021 2:42 utc | 32

When pineapple express met Afghan Kush, their offspring was openly sold in Colorado.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Aug 30 2021 2:45 utc | 33

I have now finished watching Michael Hudson's Global Financial Empire 2 available from his web site.

I think karlof1 is correct is thinking that the coming SCO meeting could represent a significant statement by the opposition of empire after hearing Michael talk about how that organization and the BRICS can form a base around which to instantiate an alternative to the global cabal of private finance folk and their jackboot fronts like the BIS, SWIFT, World Bank, IMF and the US Fed among other countries Central Banks.

I like how Michael brought up the barbarism or socialism characterization which is more accurate than my clash of "civilizations" description......just studied my dictionary a bit and I think the term that best describes the efforts of China and the rest of that axis is their attempt to civilize the Western world.....to civilize is to bring out of savagery and barbarism which, IMO, fits like a word glove in this case....grin

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 30 2021 2:51 utc | 34

@DB 11
I think you meant sixth century BCE, which would correct the math to 2600, not 1400.

Yes, Iran with 7 millennia of history and 2600 years as a prime.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Aug 30 2021 2:58 utc | 35

The stab is the new Afghanistan. Twenty years and 10000 booster shots later will it jump on a helicopter and go back where it came from?

Posted by: Natural immunity rea | Aug 30 2021 2:59 utc | 36

I’ve been using Apple’s computers since 2002 and their smartphones since 2010, but their recent moves are forcing me to look for alternatives.

The first thing that raised my eyebrows was the banning of all apps containing an image of the Confederate flag, basically outlawing a part of real U.S. history. At the same time, the apps featuring the German Nazi flag weren’t banned (not that I would want this, but where’s the consistency?).

Then came the banning of all apps containing an image of Pepe the Frog, following SPLC’s announcement that Pepe was a “hate symbol”—a ridiculous claim which Apple uncritically accepted as true. Basically, some unknown dipshits at some U.S. NGO can at any moment proclaim any symbol or image “hateful”, without following any adversarial legal process, and Apple would prevent me, a Russian citizen, from buying apps featuring that symbol or image.

Then Apple refused to implement end-to-end encryption for iCloud because of FBI’s complaints.

Then Louis Rossmann made me aware of the lengths Apple goes to prevent independent repair shops from repairing Apple’s devices, making all their rhetoric about being “green” ring hollow.

Then the new macOS 11’s system processes and system apps started to ignore user’s firewall and VPN settings, contacting Apple’s servers directly instead—something that could only be prevented by setting up a separate firewall on one’s router, which of course wouldn’t work out of home (I’m told they have fixed this, but I refuse to upgrade because I have lost any trust I had in them).

Then they banned Parler, basically saying that the only social apps allowed on their platform (otherwise known as my phone) are those whose moderation teams censor users according to the desires of U.S. “Democratic” Party and U.S. “liberal” mainstream media.

Now Apple is deploying a neural network trained on a government-provided child pornography dataset to all iOS devices (and soon macOS devices), turning them into spies that inspect every image before it is uploaded to iCloud and contact Apple if anything untoward is found, which then contacts the authorities. Obviously, this will be expanded to videos uploaded to iCloud, then to all images and videos (not just those uploaded to iCloud), and ultimately to a continuous 24/7 processing of signals from your phone’s cameras and microphones. Even assuming one agrees to such an intrusive system “to protect the kids” (I don’t), there are many problems with it. For example, on iOS, it is possible to snap photos without unlocking the phone, so anyone can grab your phone, snap photos of child porn from the screen of another device, and ruin your life.

I have looked at the state of Linux phones (PinePhone, Librem 5), and the system software isn’t ready yet, and even if it was, there are very few third-party apps. It seems that the only feasible option at the moment is to buy a Google Pixel phone such as Pixel 4a and install GrapheneOS on it. GrapheneOS is based on Android Open Source Project, but removes all Google’s spyware and hardens system security, while still being able to run most of Android apps. Yandex Navigator, Yandex Taxi and most Russian bank apps run on it without problems. Push notifications work if one installs Huawei Mobile Services. Hopefully, GrapheneOS expands to phones made by other companies.

Posted by: S | Aug 30 2021 3:14 utc | 37

I recall someone suggest a book about russophobia, and if possible a curt explanantion why Britain is anti-Russia would be great.

Posted by: awaiting approval | Aug 30 2021 3:16 utc | 38

@ RWR 31
Kerala one of the most jabbed states has also highest infection rates in India. . .

Kerala (SW India, below Mumbai) is also a communist state with good public health services. And Kerala is well-labeled 'heaven on earth.' . .Go there if you can, travel around the state, when this disease fades.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 30 2021 3:19 utc | 39

How to acquire natural immunity. India was a little short of firewood for the project, but looking at worldometers they seem to have achieved it.
https://www.planetcustodian.com/over-50-scary-images-depicting-filth-of-varanasi-and-river-ganges-that-went-viral-in-china/8134/

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 30 2021 3:25 utc | 40

S Why not a Huawei phone

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 30 2021 3:38 utc | 41

@ S | Aug 30 2021 3:14 utc | 37 regarding the Apple Enclosure process

You are lucky to live in Russia because you will be able to get the China viable alternatives to Apple/Linux (MS not worth mentioning) earlier than us in the US/West.

Trustable equipment and OS is coming, IMO, sooner than the networks to connect them to. And that conflict is part of the bigger global attempt to civilize the West so that the savagery and barbarism of the private system of finance are not insinuated into every part of our interactions for control.

I am one of those that believes that humanity can live as a species more in harmony than conflict with each other and the world/universe we live in. I am pleased to see the energy by China and your Russia to change the trajectory of our species away from the savagery and barbarism of the West...thanks!

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 30 2021 3:52 utc | 42

Peter AU1 #41
Awesome camera and the Huawei phone works too.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Aug 30 2021 3:52 utc | 43

Below is a Xinhuanet posting

"
BEIJING, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a phone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday, exchanging views on the situation in Afghanistan and China-U.S. ties.

During the conversation, Blinken said that at a critical moment when the U.S. military withdrawal and evacuation from Afghanistan is nearing the end, Washington believes that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) should speak in a clear and unified voice to show that the international community expects the Taliban to ensure the safe evacuation of foreign citizens and the Afghan people's access to humanitarian assistance, and to guarantee that Afghan territory cannot become a hotbed of terrorist attacks or a safe haven for terrorism.

Wang said that the situation in Afghanistan has undergone fundamental changes, and it is necessary for all parties to make contact with the Taliban and guide it actively.

The United States, in particular, needs to work with the international community to provide Afghanistan with urgently-needed economic, livelihood and humanitarian assistance, help the new Afghan political structure maintain normal operation of government institutions, maintain social security and stability, curb currency depreciation and inflation, and embark on the journey of peaceful reconstruction at an early date, he said.

Facts have proved again that the Afghanistan war never achieved the goal of eliminating terrorist forces in Afghanistan, Wang said, adding that the hasty withdrawal of the U.S. and NATO troops is likely to offer an opportunity to various terrorist groups in Afghanistan to resurge.

Wang urged the United States, on the premise of respecting Afghanistan's sovereignty and independence, to take concrete actions to help Afghanistan combat terrorism and violence, instead of practicing double standards or fighting terrorism selectively.

The U.S. side clearly knows the causes of the current chaotic situation in Afghanistan, Wang noted, adding that any action to be taken by the UNSC should contribute to easing tensions instead of intensifying them, and contribute to a smooth transition of the situation in Afghanistan rather than a return to turmoil.

Blinken expressed his understanding of and respect for China's concerns on the Afghanistan issue.

On China-U.S. relations, Wang noted that the two countries have recently conducted communication on such issues as the situation in Afghanistan and climate change.

Dialogue is better than confrontation, and cooperation is better than conflict, Wang said, adding that the Chinese side will consider how to engage with the United States based on its attitude towards China.

If the U.S. side also hopes to bring bilateral relations back on the right track, it should stop blindly smearing and attacking China, and stop undermining China's sovereignty, security and development interests, Wang said.

The U.S. side should take seriously the two lists China has put forward to the United States during the talks in Tianjin, as well as the three basic demands as bottom lines that China firmly upholds, Wang said.

Wang noted that China resolutely opposes the so-called investigation report on COVID-19 origins produced by the U.S. intelligence community recently.

Politicizing origins tracing is a political burden left by the former U.S. government, Wang said, adding that the sooner the U.S. side unloads this burden, the easier it will get out of the current predicament.

China once again urges the United States to stop politicizing the COVID-19 origins tracing, stop putting pressure on the World Health Organization, and stop interfering with and undermining the international community's solidarity against the pandemic and the global scientific cooperation on origins tracing, Wang said.

Blinken said the United States has no intention of blaming any country for the origins tracing of COVID-19. As major countries, both the United States and China have responsibility to provide all necessary information, thoroughly investigate the origins of the virus and avoid the recurrence of a pandemic. The United States is willing to stay in touch with China in this regard.
"

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 30 2021 4:21 utc | 44

Below is another Xinhuanet posting but this one I will comment on after it

"
WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Gita Gopinath, chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has warned that emerging markets cannot afford a repeat of the "taper tantrum" market disruption that occurred in 2013 as the U.S. central bank prepares to withdraw monetary stimulus.

"They (emerging markets) are getting hit in many different ways, which is why they just cannot afford a situation where you have some sort of a tantrum of financial markets originating from the major central banks," Gopinath said Sunday in an interview with the Financial Times.

Gopinath's comments came after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Friday that the Fed could start tapering asset purchases this year if the U.S. economy evolved broadly as anticipated.

While highlighting the economic pressures on low and middle-income countries, Gopinath warned of the potential fallout should inflation become a more pernicious issue in the United States and force a sudden move to tighten monetary policy.

"We are concerned about a scenario where you would have inflation come up much higher than expected, and that would require a much quicker normalization of monetary policy in the U.S.," she said, adding central bankers needed to provide "super clear communication" on a frequent basis about their policy path forward.

Emerging market assets sold off significantly amid a sudden push higher in U.S. Treasury yields in 2013, when then-Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke first mentioned the idea of tapering the Fed's pace of asset purchases.

"Emerging markets remain vulnerable to tapering by the Federal Reserve, as less support for the U.S. economy could tighten financial conditions across the globe," Jonathan Fortun, economist at the Institute of International Finance, said in a note earlier this month.

"Despite the bleak outlook, we believe that contagion risk is less severe than during the EM (emerging market) sell-off in 2018 or during the 2013 taper tantrum," Fortun said, noting the importance of emerging market policy credibility will be paramount in the months ahead, especially if interest rates rise.

The Fed has pledged to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at the record-low level of near zero, while continuing its asset purchase program at least at the current pace of 120 billion U.S. dollars per month until "substantial further progress" has been made on employment and inflation.
"

Two points
1. The IMF is warning emerging markets not to increase their spending on the public....because this is war and the slave nations must be kept in line.

2. The US Fed is evidently buying US treasuries to the tune of 120 billion a month now which was only 80 billion until recently but still is a sick version of MMT where the debt is socialized but profits on the process are privatized.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 30 2021 4:34 utc | 45

When Pepe did his piece on Pashtuns never growing opium he refused to print this piece: https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2021/08/27/pepe-escobar-is-full-of-st/

I'm a fan of both Pepe and Ronald Thomas West. I think Ronald has more real hands on experience having been operative from Vietnam on. Wonder why the saker wouldn't publish my comment.

Posted by: Mohandas Templeton | Aug 30 2021 4:38 utc | 46

@21 Peter AU1

You mean you don't know anyone? Dude.

~~

(And yes, that means I do)

I guess you'll have to rely on the official reports of adverse effects from Pfizer, including deaths in the thousands. I would offer some links but frankly the last few threads are saturated with links to good scientific reporting. Feel free to read some and use that lovely critical thinking that I admire you for.

I am sincerely glad to hear of your well being - I hope you know that's very sincerely true - and I'm rooting for you to feel how lucky you are, given the crap-shoot that it is, that jab.

Posted by: Grieved | Aug 30 2021 4:39 utc | 47

@46 Mohandas Templeton - I'm a fan of both Pepe and Ronald Thomas West.

Well I'm a fan of one of them. The difference of course is that Pepe Escobar doesn't plant a paragraph at the very beginning of his thesis attacking the object of his criticism in ad hominem terms without at least some substantive argument. No one's going to read past that initial shit-throwing attack, and it's a miracle that I even respond to you, but I'm feeling fey.

There's journalism. And there's Ronald Thomas West. The two seem not to coincide.

Posted by: Grieved | Aug 30 2021 4:48 utc | 48

Muslim Shirzad, former Senior Presenter for Political Shows at Afghan TV channel TOLOnews, posts names of the victims of the U.S. rocket strike:

Muslim Shirzad @MuslimShirzad - 19:48 UTC · Aug 29, 2021

9 killed by U.S rocket attack today in Kabul, who are they?

1: Zemaray, Interpreter
2: Naseer, Army officer
2: Zameer, Shopkeeper
4: Faisal, Student
5: Farzad, Student
6: Ayat, 2 years old
7: Sumaya, 2 years old
8: Armin, 4 years old
9: Binyamen, 3 years old

photos

Posted by: S | Aug 30 2021 5:10 utc | 49

uncle tungsten 43
Huawei phones are certainly good. Do you use Hongmeng (Harmony OS), or Android?
Personally, I am using old Samsung (S4 mini) with LineageOS and minimal apps (phone, camera, browser, ebook reader, calendar, clock utilities, and a few more, mostly from F-Droid repository). No play store, no gapps.

Posted by: aquadraht | Aug 30 2021 5:12 utc | 50

@awaiting approval:

I recall someone suggest a book about russophobia, and if possible a curt explanantion why Britain is anti-Russia would be great.

Guy Mettan’s Creating Russophobia: From the Great Religious Schism to Anti-Putin Hysteria.

Perhaps you will also find these two pieces interesting:

• Deconstructing Russophobia (Catherine Brown, June 6, 2014)
• Russian Actor Vassily Livanov MBE’s Open Letter to the People of Britain (Catherine Brown, July 6, 2018)

Posted by: S | Aug 30 2021 5:26 utc | 51

@Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 29 2021 22:32 utc | 23

According to the Italian News Channel TG1 Milan is hosting a Grenfell Towers redux, complete with the exterior of the high-rise ablaze from top to bottom and flames gushing out of the windows.

Posted by: Norwegian | Aug 30 2021 5:46 utc | 52

Posted by: S | Aug 30 2021 5:26 utc | 51

Thank you, I certainly remember the name Guy Mettan, but I misremembered the book, something 20th century.

Posted by: awaiting approval | Aug 30 2021 5:59 utc | 53

In Australia the back room geniuses from marketing have worked out that having a steady parade of government and opposition politicians, chief medical officers and police giving speeches on TV about the Covid situation in their state or territory followed by a sales message, almost issued as an order, 'get your vaccination', is not working.

People are sick of looking at politicians they don't like and being talked down to. If that is the product they are selling, I don't want to buy either.

Given that politics is show business for ugly people and Australians have a basic contempt for dishonest politicians already, the geniuses from marketing have now recruited health workers to front TV and deliver the same message by repartition.

At least they are not so ugly and tainted by sneaky political agendas.

Meanwhile in Aotearoa:

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/nz-woman-dies-after-suffering-rare-side-effect-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine

Posted by: Paul | Aug 30 2021 6:13 utc | 54

Paul
I'm thinking more of the political geniuses. Australian medical worked closely with China and new what was coming in the way of covid. Government have perhaps a little more than half heatedly kept it at bay but made no other plans. No dedicated quarantine facilities for travelers from overseas, many Australians not even being allowed back that were out of the country when this kicked of, and then covid constantly escaping from their half assed hotel quarantine causing more lock downs. no plans from the early stages for the production of vaccine, at first relying on the oxford vaccine coming through but no way to produce, then begging for scraps from US big pharma which it seems are the only political correct vaccines.

Now the delta variant is off and running and I think that will go though country like a bushfire on a hot windy day. We were in a position to go through in far better shape than US or Europe and the fuckers simply locked down and put their heads in the political sand.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 30 2021 6:49 utc | 55

@Peter AU1:

Why not a Huawei phone

I’d love to get a Huawei phone instead of a Google phone, but apparently they don’t implement some advanced hardware/firmware features required by GrapheneOS for its high level of security. Ordinary Android is significantly less secure and privacy-protecting than iOS. I want to preserve the strong security and privacy of iOS, run an open-source OS to protect privacy from the OS vendor (iOS only protects privacy against third-party apps and websites, while Apple increasingly treats itself to an all-you-can-eat buffet of user data) and have access to a wide variety of apps. Only de-Googled AOSP distributions (“ROMs”) fit the bill, of which GrapheneOS is considered the most secure.

Posted by: S | Aug 30 2021 7:11 utc | 56

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 30 2021 6:49 utc | 55

It is sheer incompetence again. I am sure you know, quarantine is a federal government responsibility according to the constitution, for what that's worth. The Commonwealth government are too mean and lousy to spend money so now the states have to fork out but they are mean and lousy too.

Now NSW has over 1200 new cases daily.

Luckily for NZ it always had so few intensive care beds per head of population and it had no choice so it locked down very early and hard in the pandemic. Now with the new variant it has fifty something new cases today and a tougher lockdown than Victoria. NZ can't afford to build new dedicated quarantine facilities. Thousands of Kiwis are stranded overseas too.

Airlines have cut right back or cancelled the rout altogether, so it's a moot point.

If the vocal tourist lobby in Oz or NZ want business as usual let them put their hands in their collective pockets and build some quarantine facilities.

Posted by: Paul | Aug 30 2021 7:17 utc | 57

Paul 57

Plenty of military facilities along top in the middle of nowhere. Doesn't take long to put up portables. Mining camps are self contained villages with all the mods, many all portable. Need more? commandeer them off the the yanks. They got a lot of very large security fenced sites out in the bush few know about.

Town where I grew up, there was an old quarantine station at a remote point on the harbor. The government had no problems doing it back then.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 30 2021 7:32 utc | 58

Peter ref UK stats,
i noticed it too and i think it shows that adenovirus works better (also at the collective level)
on top of that the uk rolled its vaccination campaign under strict lockdown measures. this should be the normal way to do things to avoid pressure and vaccine escape as was said by many specialists

Posted by: Mina | Aug 30 2021 7:39 utc | 59

@awaiting approval #53

A good article that mentions three books:

Three Books on the History and Nature of Russophobia Help Explain Russiagate (Koen Swinkels, May 11, 2020)

• Guy Mettan. Creating Russophobia: From the Great Religious Schism to Anti-Putin Hysteria (2017)
• Andrei P. Tsygankov. Russophobia: Anti-Russian Lobby and American Foreign Policy (2009)
• Stephen F. Cohen. War with Russia? From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate (2018)

There’s also this one:

• Dominic Basulto. Russophobia: How Western Media Turns Russia Into the Enemy (2015)

And even this one, which may be of most interest to you:

• John H. Gleason. The Genesis of Russophobia in Great Britain (1950)

Posted by: S | Aug 30 2021 7:40 utc | 60

Mina "adenovirus"

I thought UK was getting Pfizer? I take it by adenovirus they are getting a different vaccine?

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 30 2021 7:53 utc | 61

Cheers S for the additional resources.

And everybody thats mentioning Huawei phones, they branched off with the sister company, forming the Honor brand, due to US sanctions.

Posted by: awaiting approval | Aug 30 2021 8:14 utc | 62

UK is mainly AZ even after SA said it didnt work with xxx variant

Posted by: Mina | Aug 30 2021 8:26 utc | 63

61 Peter
UK is mainly Astrazeneca (Oxford University), home grown one. Az has received a lot of bad press due to incidents, but in RT I learnt that the rate of fatalities is lower than with the MRNA vaccines. Az would be my third choice after Sputnik V and Sinopharm, which are not approved in the West.

Posted by: aquadraht | Aug 30 2021 8:31 utc | 64

Snowden points out the rationale for monitoring user data on the iphone: with end to end encryption we can't monitor the data on the servers anymore so guess we'll have to do it at the endpoints then.

As usual with the four horseman of the infocalypse, once have used the emotionally compelling example to install the whole infrastructure , most of the work is done and small decisions and small operations are enough to upgrade the monitoring. Easy as changing permissions scheme.

Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | Aug 30 2021 8:44 utc | 65

"Australia's first legal collection of native "magic" mushrooms could provide medical options to treat severe depression, alcohol and drug addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the fear experienced at the end of terminally ill people's lives."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2021-08-30/magic-mushroom-research/100413396

One of the beneficiaries of the Australian government's generosity is Cresco Pharma, dual listed on the ASX and TSX. Cresco were very vocal at first but now info on the millions is hard to find.

Australia's first legal collection of native "magic" mushrooms could provide medical options to treat severe depression, alcohol and drug addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the fear experienced at the end of terminally ill people's lives.

https://www.cresopharma.com

https://www.thecannabisinvestor.ca/creso-pharma-updates-investors-on-transformational-psychedelics-acquisition/

I guess giving millions th a marijuana and hallucianic drug company wouldn't be a good look for PM, Pastor Morrisons core constituency, the Hillsong Church crowd.

Although the Hillsong crowd don't mind about their founder accused of historic child sex crimes and his son, the current Pastor Brian, on concealing child sex charges.

Good links hard to find. Try Crikey!

Posted by: Paul | Aug 30 2021 8:45 utc | 66

Thanks mina and aquadraht.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 30 2021 8:48 utc | 67

PeterAU1. Britain got Pfizer vaccine a month before the AZ vaccine but the vast majority of over 40s have been vaccinated with the latter. The under 40s are getting Pfizer because of clotting concerns with AZ. With respect to your earlier comments about vaccine reduced effectiveness I take part, along with several million fellow Brits in the Zoe COVID study. This involves daily self reporting on symptoms and vaccs status. Results have been published in the last week that show Pfizer is losing effectiveness quicker than AZ and both are expected to be down to 50% after 9 months. However this loss of effectiveness is primarily to infection. The protective effect against hospitalisation and death is holding up much better.

Nearly 90% of over 16s have now been vaccinated and I suspect that is the main reason for the current difference with US death rates.

Posted by: Phil Espin | Aug 30 2021 8:57 utc | 68

More on Pastor Morrison's 'mates' from the Betoota Advocate:

https://www.betootaadvocate.com/world-news/report-hillsong-founder-brian-houston-just-a-homophobic-version-of-vince-mcmahon/

Even Trump wouldn't allow Pastor Scotty to bring Pastor Brian to the White House.

Posted by: Paul | Aug 30 2021 8:59 utc | 69

aquadraht #50

Thank you for the inquiry. The Huawei I refer to is a relatives phone. Its a fabulous android bought before the hongmeng release. I use Sony android as it had the best signal sensitivity and suited remote area or marginal signal cover localities. When purchased many years ago it led the field in signal sensitivity and transmission strength and Samsung was the only close competitor. iPhones were at the bottom of the pile but I don't use their stuff at all. I have not looked at that performance data for newer phones. When the Sony karks it I will grab a Huawei hongmeng or maybe Xiaomi. I will compare the performance data then but I wont bother looking at the 'blue tick' label as it is meaningless those days and these too.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Aug 30 2021 9:10 utc | 70

Paul
And I thought Scotty was a Catholic. A while since I read crikey. Will have to bookmark them and keep up on the local stuff.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 30 2021 9:16 utc | 71

Re Pfizer, they were early on the market which is valuable but now their argument for a booster shot has a too large financial component:make more money while we still can before we are crowded out by the competition. If pfizer is weak on how long it lasts and on 'breakthrough infection reproduction factor' , so on dampening epidemics, then it still has value but there is probably better stuff out there already and it could be in the more traditional designs. It could also be that their early production upscaling was problematic but they don't like to say so.
In any case we need to reach the stage of 'tolerable epidemics' where we all have sufficient immunity to get us through each year without too much damage. Reproduction factors will be too high for endemic.

Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | Aug 30 2021 9:23 utc | 72

Mina @ 63

The vaccines are heavily politicised in South Africa.

So far only US vaccines are in use. AZ was dismissed as ineffective yet we sold it to the African Union , a decision that was slammed by medical professionals in SA:

Medical scientists slam sale of AstraZeneca vaccine to African Union

Now the AZ vaccine is making a come back

South African is aiming to reintroduce the AstraZeneca vaccine as it has proven efficacy against the Delta variant of the coronavirus, the country’s new Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla announced on 6 August.

Russia offered us 15 million free doses of Sputnik V and the government turned it down.

Sinopharm has been approved but it is not in use,

Posted by: Down South | Aug 30 2021 9:34 utc | 73

Phil 68

Thanks. Very few if any that have taken part in those schemes or others that have perhaps just been vaccinated have put in input here, perhaps due to the UFO/contrail/anti vax types.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 30 2021 9:48 utc | 74

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 30 2021 9:16 utc | 71

The Opus Di Catholic was, failed priest, PM, Tony Abbott.

Pastor Scotty comes from "the shire, the southern beaches area.

Tony Abbott is from the northern beaches area of Sydney. Two different tribes.

By the way, former PM John Howard was a Methodist who converted to Anglican, then the majority religion in Australia. That's the old Church of England.

All of them are convinced Zionist stooges.

Posted by: Paul | Aug 30 2021 10:15 utc | 75

@rjb1.5 #12
It is worse than that.
70K+ Americans have died in each of the past multiple years from opioid overdoses. In sum, very possibly more overall deaths than COVID so far. Yet there is no outlawing of these, mostly because the deaths are red state.

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 30 2021 10:22 utc | 76

@S #37
Open source security is a myth.
Paul Vixie was one of the 2 people who, years ago, publicly stated that open source was more secure.
Back then, there were a few million lines of code, and there were a decent number of people reviewing them.
Today there are tens to hundreds of billions of lines of code - and the vast majority have never been looked at except by the original coder. Vixie retracted his statement about open source security.
Secondly, no cell phone is secure. Every single cell phone in existence requires software supporting the telco. This software includes the requirement for automatic updating.
Yes, Apple is intruding into more egregious nonsense but the tech is straight out of anti-virus software. And yes, the only reason the AV guys haven't joined the child pron scanning bandwagon is...? Oh right, if they really scanned everyone for child pron - they would be deluged by garbage. Machine recognition of images is still shyte, the number of false positives would be enormous, not least because many/most web sites/browsers upload pics into temporary storage on disk for faster performance. <-- yes, browsers can also be used to scan for child pron.
The only modicum of security with cell phone use is anonymity: burner phones and new phone numbers every 1-3 months, and even then geofencing.

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 30 2021 10:30 utc | 77

More on Pastor Morrison's 'Shire' and the 2006 race riots on video, now back on the net, briefly.

A unique hour long documentary look into the Australian 'bogan' mindset:

https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/riot-and-revenge/13406944

Posted by: Paul | Aug 30 2021 11:04 utc | 78

Posted by: S | Aug 30 2021 5:26 utc | 51

S, for a totally fresh approach, try this (it's in French):

https://www.dedefensa.org/article/glossairedde-de-lantirussisme

Posted by: Alberto | Aug 30 2021 11:05 utc | 79

Paul 75

Yeah, I read Abbott's piece in the bulletin about his time at the seminary at about the time he was coming to power - if that's what it is called in this country. He reckoned the priests were wrong and thought he could soar to the right hand of god. What a fruitcake to have running a country... but then his offsiders who are no different are running the country now.

I think most of the Abbott cabinet were catholic but starting to remember something about Morrison being a singalong. It would've been around the time of MH17 I stopped looking into these clowns as I then realized power in oz was higher up the food chain.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 30 2021 11:07 utc | 80

Patroklos@13

Only patients admitted with covid19, and who were being treated with psychiatric medications and was only observed, further clinical studies required.

*A Reduced risk of intubation or death.

Intubation is traumatic experience for the patient, and hard on medical staff. Requires some level of calming down, medication, and restraining of the patient.

👇 for you;
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-021-01021-4

Posted by: DebzAu | Aug 30 2021 11:12 utc | 81

Posted by: awaiting approval | Aug 30 2021 3:16 utc | 38

awaiting approval, if you can read (or translate) French, you should try this:

https://www.dedefensa.org/article/glossairedde-de-lantirussisme

Posted by: Alberto | Aug 30 2021 11:29 utc | 82

OT breaking 60 years too late,for the historians here:

"Buried footage 'Ax Handle Saturday' racist attack is unearthed after more than 60 years" | Daily Mail Online

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9934975/Buried-footage-Ax-Handle-Saturday-racist-attack-unearthed-60-years.html

"The video shows the attack from different angles. At the 16-second mark, the video shows an aerial view of white men swinging ax handles at a black man.

The graphic footage continues with white men ganging up on black people, punching him and knocking them to the ground while white police officers watched."

Posted by: David G Horsman | Aug 30 2021 11:38 utc | 83

@awaiting approval #53

IMO, you should also test a non-western source like Andrei Fursov...Try these videos, although the guy talks very fast and you will have to stop sometimes and way back to catch all ( as happens to me...)
He sometimes mentions books too....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUSqRI_iWnw&ab_channel=LuizEduardoRefinettiMarsi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvf5zY2Qq84&ab_channel=mengutimur

Posted by: Asha K. | Aug 30 2021 11:49 utc | 84

@ 21 & 47

Well I don’t know any with major side effects either. And pretty much everyone I know is vaccinated. Some of that can be explained by the simple refusal to acknowledge that any instance of ill health could possibly be connected to the vax. The vax is perfect. The vax is God. But still no examples of any health problems even possibly related to what we read about online.

The entire discussion the past two years would have been completely different if everyone had family members and loved ones who were dropping dead. That is not occurring. Everything covid occurs at a remove. It is like a separate parallel universe.

Posted by: oldhippie | Aug 30 2021 11:58 utc | 85

oldhippie | Aug 30 2021 11:58 utc | 85

The entire discussion the past two years would have been completely different if everyone had family members and loved ones who were dropping dead. That is not occurring. Everything covid occurs at a remove. It is like a separate parallel universe.

Posted by: Norwegian | Aug 30 2021 12:26 utc | 86

The American Pravda (WaPo + NYT) is on a roll today. I'll just post the headlines because it would be a waste of time to read any of them:

Stop the Doomsaying. U.S. Credibility Will Weather Afghanistan. - by Dennis B. Ross (NYT)

The defeat in Afghanistan per se really doesn't do anything to American soft power. It's the context in which this defeat happened that matters. Western Europeans and the Japanese don't give a fuck about what the USA does and does not do in its wars, all they care is if it can preserve and protect capitalism.

Recent events indicate capitalism has lost its dynamism and is waiting for a new miraculous industrial revolution to happen.

It’s Now or Never. Biden Must Stop Putin’s Beloved Pipeline. - by Mark Temnycky (NYT)

Treating geopolitics like a board game is easy when you're in the insulated island of prosperity in D.C. or New York City. But tell to the German people they don't deserve a 50% cheaper gas to their face.

America’s Military Is Too Big for America’s Good - by Jeremi Suri (NYT)

The author is actually advocating for a redirection of funding from the military to the CIA - its constellation of NGOs included - and other institutions linked to economic and political sanctions ("other organizations and agencies"). It's not that simple: propaganda needs brute force to back it up; they form a dialectical unit: the more brute force an empire has, the more the power of persuasion of its propaganda warfare.

Unless, or course, the author intends to give an intellectual patina to what essentially is an absolute decline of the American Empire.

Who’s to blame for the deaths of 13 service members in Kabul? We all are. - by Max Boot (WaPo)

Getting philosophical won't make the L feel any better.

Advancing democracy abroad requires defending it at home - by E.J. Dionne Jr. (WaPo)

The message of the author is clear: after we (the American Empire) solve our problems at home, we will come back at you (the rest of the world) with a vengeance. The rest of the world will pay for the humiliation it is imposing on the Empire, that's the promise of Mr. Dionne, Jr.

Democrats should seize this chance to reshape the safety net. But not all they propose makes sense. - by the Editorial Board of the WaPo

Well, this explains why all the nonsense in the headlines above.

Posted by: vk | Aug 30 2021 12:55 utc | 87

aquadraht@64

I read this months ago, and to find today used AstraZeneca in search bar - @ Dancing With Bears website.

Extract starts with President Putin.

"A month later, on December 26, the President again presided (also virtually) at a ceremony for  an international agreement on co-production and marketing of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19.  “In Russia,” said the chief executive of AstraZeneca, “we have a long-lasting partnership with R-Pharm, and we are good friends with Alexei [Repik] and the R-Pharm team. We decided to transfer the technology to R-Pharm because of the advanced technology core and biopharmaceutical capabilities in Russia. They have developed these capabilities over a number of years, and more recently, importantly, with the support of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. This is another good example of collaboration between organisations and companies. I would like to congratulate the Russian scientists at the Gamaleya Institute and also the Russian Direct Investment Fund for developing the world’s first registered COVID-19 vaccine.”

*More Recent news
Australia now developing a vaccine like the Russian one.

Posted by: DebzAu | Aug 30 2021 13:28 utc | 88

Thanks to RM Rao @ 31, that is an encouraging assessment. I hope that some of the variants that may be forming there can contribute positively to the overall taming of the virus. Best wishes.

Posted by: juliania | Aug 30 2021 13:33 utc | 89

China cultivates 2-meter-high ‘giant rice,’ ‘dream coming true’ moment for deceased ‘father of hybrid rice’

Posted by: vk | Aug 30 2021 13:41 utc | 90

"Greta, where are you when you are needed!"
Asha K. @ 2
"How dare you!!! HOW DARE YOU!"
Lol. I couldn't help myself. It's what I do.

Hopefully you all know I am quoting Greta and also a hilarious guy. Did I mention good looking? You can probably tell from my voice. Anyways...

I am actually trying to help Avi Lewis if I can. By turning the resource based debunking of the "green new" deals in all their variants into an actual, achievable plan or platform. There a few people running the numbers to see what we can actually do with the resources available globally. As it stands any opponent can make him look foolish. Not good.

I can't wait for the optics on the fact that 50% of that energy in the solution has to come from these new small plants combined with deep earth waste storage. Russia stands to make a lot of money there.

We will have big advances if not break throughs in battery storage but not likely something you can use in a car. They need to think outside the box where electric vehicles are concerned. However low carbon energy achievable.

There is always a catch. The amount of mining we are going to have to do going forward is enormous. Twice the amount if not triple. If we don't come up with better solutions there the plant is going to become very polluted in a lot of areas.

How dare I forget Greta... Greta is a good example of child exploitation for a cause. I don't feel the need to debate her or critique her speeches. For once it's not some "babies in incubators" lie, but it's important to have a talk about the adults involved. IE wtf? What are the up to?

At the same time it would be a blatant fallacy to suggest any of this disproves her message. Attack the argument, not the messenger, albeit an annoying little kid with a tendency for over acting nursing a latent case of narcistic personality disorder. I blame Mom. What a cu******* oops. I would look to where comedians draw a line on "socially acceptable" to mock, even if most of them suck these days. Punching down is not considered classy.

"How dare you!" Lol. It's like having a jingle stuck in your head all day. You hate it. You don't want it. But you can't get rid of it......... that's it. For now on. On this site. I'm going to say that every time someone says something really offensive. Don't forget. ;-) How dare you forget!

So Lewis was involved with the Leap Manifesto which well predates The Green New Deal with Naiomi Klien, a canadian writer. Everyone around Greta seemed actually charged up.

What I noticed is The Intercept (TI) was quite involved with Greta. You would know it's a Democrat rag funded by an oligarch. Omar or something. So there seems to be a New York crowd and this is Jeremy Scahill's focus and may be related to Glenn Greenwald's departure. The point I am leading to is they appear to practice activist journalism and this should be a different type from the "adversarial journalism" the lay claim to.

What really convinced me of this was TI's involvement with bringing Great over to speak at that little party they put on about climate change. As expected, these are social and professional circles and not some Illuminati NWO conspiracy. I am not bothered by it, but it was very noticeable.

This is civil society at work here. That seems important. Chomsky would get it. Fascists are typically very refined in this regard. And so often the majority of participants are not nefarious in any regard. Surely this is often true kids joining the army or police. So what I see is broad consensus in most places as opposed to conspiracies. More accurately they are occurring concurrently but the former is essential to the later.

If you are to avoid becoming evil, allowing that you might awful things to defeat evil, you have to allow for some nuance. That's my goal. I have zero hostility to that crowd. They seem like well intentioned incompetent people doing what they can. Oh well.

When you are dealing with the good, they can be unskilled, maybe ignorant, perhaps badly propagandized. What can you do? Well I could approach green deal saying "science is debunking you" or I could say "based on expert analysis here's what your best plan might be." The left is always eating itself and that is the opposite of "solutions oriented" thinking.

I am going to (I hope) help Avi because he got flagged by my project. I decided to continue any old business from social media. Who the hell in politics goes around waving a (green) manifesto. Well, Avi apparently. It's even old business for him from what I can see currently.

As a person, I couldn't care less about the proof for global warming because as a person my main concern has always been pollution, not climate change. Hopefully it's obvious that freaking out about that later serves the former? In theory anyways. Now if global warming is true that just that much worse. We need to change.

You folks, and our host of course, are great analysts and I have really enjoyed spending on this site. Thanks a bunch. I am finished all of my social media online activity but I am going to keep coming here because it's just that good a community. Peace and love.

Posted by: David G Horsman | Aug 30 2021 14:39 utc | 91

Excuse my broken engrish. I have a disability. How dare you mock my disability protected terrible writing. How dare you!

Posted by: David G Horsman | Aug 30 2021 14:48 utc | 92

Parwan Detention Facility near Bagram

I'm still trying to track down the claim that the Taliban released ISIS prisoners. I noticed how squirrely the Pentagon phrases it because they know that U.S. reporters will misunderstand them. Here is their Bizzaro english statement: 'Al Qaeda and and ISIS prisoners were released from prisons after the Taliban took over'.

Here is normal English: 'The Taliban released Al Qaeda and ISIS prisoners' but the Pentagon did not say that.

Are they talking about Parwan? I have no idea.

Posted by: Christian J. Chuba | Aug 30 2021 14:51 utc | 93

Is it not hilarious that a generic drug used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder turns out also to be a potential treatment for Covid-19? My question is this: does it act on the virus or the germophobic hysteria that turned a seasonal respiratory illness into the Black Death? We could all use a little calming down...
Posted by: Patroklos | Aug 29 2021 21:26 utc | 13

Touché Patroklos!

Posted by: BM | Aug 30 2021 15:29 utc | 94

Norwegian @ 86

Thank you.
You are a Norwegian living n Norway? I look up the numbers for Norway and google tells me 156,000 cases and only 814 dead. Only half a percent die in Norway? How has that been achieved. And how is the death toll so low? Here in Cook County with a slightly smaller population (5.15 million versus your 5.4) we have 11,000 dead. From front page news we are part of same civilization. Any insight?

Posted by: oldhippie | Aug 30 2021 16:49 utc | 95

"Australia now developing a vaccine like the Russian one."

Good news, for sure.

But the Russian vaccine is not an mRNA-- very good, but not the best.

Posted by: Duncan Idaho | Aug 30 2021 17:01 utc | 96

Americans live a very unhealthy lifestyle, like Covid was designed for them.

Posted by: SwissArmyMan | Aug 30 2021 17:17 utc | 97

@David G Horsman #91
It is a myth that battery technology can improve to the extent that utility scale storage is affordable.
Energy storage is a scale problem unlike say, IT which is information. Information scales directly with physical processes - a 1 or 0 on a transistor is equivalent regardless of the transistor size.
However, a kilowatt-hour is a kilowatt-hour. Solar PV uses enormous device sizes because what matters is the #electrons generated by light; the improvements that have been made are minor - extending the ranges of light from which electrons can be captured and tuning the processes to be cheaper than what is required for modern tech-level processes, but there is very much an upper limit defined by the intersection of technology cost vs. energy output: you can have more efficient cells but you can't have cheap ones.
Battery tech is the same - plus the extra bonus of energy storage is that energy density = potential bombs. Consider the still ongoing cell phone battery fire situation - these are ~2000 milli-ampere hours of power. Electric buses and Teslas catching fire involve ~80 to ~400 Kwh = 40 to 200 times more than a cell phone (1 mAh = 1 Wh)
Now scale these up by literally millions of times - that's what utility scale storage entails.
San Francisco, a city of ~900K people, consumes 18000 MWh per day = 225K Tesla capacities, thus 1 week of San Francisco storage would require 1575000 Tesla capacities.
All these articles are pure Uber style marketing BS by companies trying to raise valuation and/or funding.

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 30 2021 17:22 utc | 98

@c1ue #77:

Open source security is a myth.

As usual, you start your “debunking” with a grand pronouncement that is false.

Today there are tens to hundreds of billions of lines of code - and the vast majority have never been looked at except by the original coder.

One does not need to inspect all code of all apps ever written for a platform to verify its security. If the firmware, the bootloader, the kernel, and a few critical libraries are secure, then the software system is secure (one also has to ensure that the hardware is secure, but that’s a different topic). On a properly designed system, even if an app has a vulnerability, the attacker at most gets access to the data of this particular app, not other apps or the system itself. There are also some system software techniques to make it more difficult or impossible to exploit certain types of coding bugs in apps, e.g., hardened malloc.

Secondly, no cell phone is secure. Every single cell phone in existence requires software supporting the telco.

This is exactly what the open-source movement aims to solve long-term. No binary blobs. All firmware for all chips inside a device, including the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip and the baseband chip, must be open-source. It’s a long road to get there. PinePhone and Librem 5 current (partial) solution is to use USB modems (so the modems are not on the system bus and can’t listen in on the traffic) and hardware kill switches.

Posted by: S | Aug 30 2021 17:27 utc | 99

@oldhippie #95
Norway is a highly not-dense, extremely socialist economic infrastructure, petro-state.
Low density = very few people living next to or even near each other = low viral loads when transmitting COVID as compared to say, New Yorkers.
Cook county has a population density of 5526 per square mile, Norway has a population density of 8.74 per square km = 22.7 per square mile.

A better comp would be Wyoming - 6 people per square mile population density. Wyoming has had 835 COVID deaths, 73467 COVID cases vs. a population of 577737.
Norway's population is 5467005, has had 157643 cases and has seen 814 COVID deaths.
So the good news is that max Scandinavian lockdown, huge tracts of land vs. people and petro-state infrastructure has prevented more cases (so far) and has roughly half the mortality rate of Wyoming.
The bad news is that unless Norway locks down its borders forever, COVID is going to come anyway.
Former stars of COVID response: Vietnam, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand etc are all seeing outbreaks because COVID is here to stay.

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 30 2021 17:33 utc | 100