Ref Afghanistan
How come we haven't heard of Mr Prince yet?

Posted by: Mina | Sep 5 2021 14:11 utc | 1

based on some data
Short market study [order of magnitude]
If I don't screw my math
2020
Achieved Target clients 7 billion
Impulsive purchase [fear] 2 billion in 18 months
Miscellaneous government financial assistance
>>> Turnover achieved in excess of 100 billion

2021 and Future [disambiguation

Target clients 3 billion[westerners]
Routine purchase [mandatory] Six billion a year. Government aid policy[regulation]
Extension of mRNA patents
Turnover projected in excess of 200 billion a year

That’s as much as the turnover of the weaponry industry in the United States

Why would you expect them to be less evil?

Disambiguation

Never ending booster shots are being introduced in Israel, where citizens must either accept the injection or have their vaccine passport revoked
Prof. Salman Zarka, Israel’s COVID-19 health czar since July [2 months] redifined in August vaccination as 3 injections.

Admitting that vaccines will never stop COVID, and claiming that life will never return to normal, Zarka added “This is our life from now on, in waves.”
This weekend, he “called for the country” to prepare for their “fourth doses of the” Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, as the third booster shot is already predicted to fail.
Zarka says that the virus will not be beat and a fourth dose will soon be required. Given that that the virus is here and will continue to be here.
#

Posted by: Odenwälder | Sep 5 2021 14:12 utc | 2

The big Pharma corps are as financialized as Boeing had become, so it is not surprising that they to follow Rove's PR BS while in reality creating defective products

Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Sep 5 2021 14:53 utc | 3

Gruff - This is a re-post from a previous thread because I wanted to make sure you and a few others saw it.

You make a lot of assumptions about me. I never once in my life advocated for sending our youth overseas to kill people. In fact I was by far a minority is opposing both the Iraq war, the Afghanistan war and every other intervention the US has undertaken in my lifetime.

Why do most people join an all volunteer military? Some are duped, ie patriotism. Some are psychopaths and enjoy rape and murder. Some are too stupid to succeed in our capitalistic society. And some want to get a house or an education out of it, ie free education or a very favorable loan for a house in exchange for service, or free lifetime healthcare and a sweet retirement.

I would like to see a military that stays at home and defends our country from foreign invasion. In that case we could talk about honor and duty.

I honestly don't understand how you came to the understanding from this conversation that I expected soldiers in country to disobey orders and become peaceniks. Poor reading comprehension?

A person who joins because they want a house or a free education, free healthcare, or a pension; are these people not doing this for money? Does that not make them mercenaries?

How can anyone grow up here and still think the military is used for anything but plundering other nations?

The ones at fault here are those kid's stupid ass parents who didn't teach them not to fall for cheap propaganda. What kind of morally degenerate mother fucker commits murder because someone told them to. As I pointed out early in this conversation, that is socially unacceptable behavior in every context except the military and will get you locked up for the rest of your life in civilian society.

ps gruff - This conversation was about the united states military, not soldiers in general. Do try to keep up.

To others who still want to hold Smedley up as a principled man, let me ask this. According to his own admission he was a hired goon for 33 years. When exactly did he come to this realization? After 10, 20, 30 years? On the last day of his 33rd year he finally realized the error of his ways?

Ok, well then, its all good. You are forgiven for all the people who have died due to your actions, the 1000's or 10,000's or 100,000's of thousand who are dead because of your actions, they forgive you to, you truly are a great and admirable man. I salute you sir!

Do none of you folks have a moral compass?

Lets pretend he single-handedly prevented a coup. He also wrote an essay denouncing the military's actions. So when we look at the cosmic scale of his lifetimes actions we have: thousands and thousands of immoral actions on one side of the scale, and two on the other side of the scale. That seems balance out just fine.

I stand corrected, he is an admirable man, and I am an asshole.

Posted by: David F | Sep 5 2021 15:03 utc | 4

Good graphics for excess deaths in all US states and all world countries.

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-tracker

Posted by: Michael Weddington | Sep 5 2021 15:39 utc | 5

‘It Will Divide Europe’: NATO Chief Fumes Over Concept of European Army

How should we view rising tough voices against China in Europe: Global Times editorial

With the US becoming a less reliable ally, Britain needs to make friends in Europe

I remember two decades ago there was a lot of hype with the creation of the Euro. It was clearly and unequivocally expected that the European Union would become a superpower on par with the USA in some decades. The EU was China before China was China (with the difference there was enthusiasm about the fact in the West).

After one decade of a somewhat promising start (but below the hype), it became clear there was no chance the EU would ever come even close to the USA in terms of geopolitical power. The watershed moment came in the 2008 crisis, where it suffered more than the USA itself: it was clear it was a province of the American Empire, not an equal partner. The last nail on the EU's coffin came with Greece's collapse of 2011 (a continuation of the fallout of the 2008 crisis), which put to rest any serious imperialist ambitions of Germany. Brexit (2016) represented the collapse of the EU in itself, materialized in concrete terms (loss of a member, loss of population and territory to the American Empire).

The situation in Europe continues to deteriorate. My opinion is that the EU (European Peninsula) will tend to become more and more like SE Asia: a geopolitically important/strategic area with a lot of leverage, but peripheral nonetheless; as a result, we should expect a correspondent shift of style in European foreign policy: from an ambitious (imperial) one to a "throw one superpower against the other in order to achieve balance and stability in the region" one, as is already traditional in SE Asia.

Europe will tend to be increasingly thorn in half by the one-and-a-half superpowers, USA and China (I still don't consider China to be a true superpower yet, it is still a 3rd World country at heart, but it can get there if it continues to follow the socialist path).

--//--

More Western Marxist/Social-democrat masturbation, this time brought by the one an only The Nation:

What’s Left of Communism in China? Capitalists, once detested, are now welcomed into the Chinese Communist Party. by Jérôme Doyon

Those "edgy" post-2008 Western leftists/socialists think they're cool with their "China is to our right" speeches, but this is actually old news: when the Bolsheviks existed and did the Revolution in Russia, they were completely despised and mocked by the German Social-Democrats. The Bolsheviks were considered to be butchers of Marx, an oriental version (therefore a bastardization) of Marxism. They considered Lenin a freak, a chimera from the mixture of Marxism with the backwards condition of feudal Russia. It has vanished from History, but Bolshevism was the original "Socialism with ________ characteristics" (in this case, Russian), it was considered an intrinsically Russian interpretation of Marx. Russians were not even considered to be Western by the German Social-Democrats (and French, and British, etc. etc.), to them, the Russians (Bolsheviks) were essentially monkeys; Bolshevism being an abortion of Marxism.

It would be only after 1923 - after the revolution attempts in the West failed spectacularly - that Comintern (Third International) would consolidate itself and the Russian model would be considered as the "universal" formula of Marxism/Communism. But leftist/Marxist Westerners like to erase the first two decades of the 20th Century so they can keep proselytizing to fascinated rich college students and selling books while enjoying their cushy university jobs.

--//--

World Insights: U.S. poorer, more militarized, more polarized 20 years after 9/11 attacks, say scholars

Not gonna lie: the 21st Century has not been kind to the American Empire so far.

--//--

Good News: There’s a Labor Shortage.

Fool's Gold. This "aggregate demand" circular logic is Keynesian propaganda, and has no empirical backing.

Yes, when labor shortage is sudden (e.g. during a plague, as is the case now), wages go up (by how much, it depends on a myriad of factors, specially the scale of the shortage). But, overtime, wages tend to stagnate and then get depressed in purchase power terms - even when the labor shortage increases. That's the case of Japan, which has essentially full employment for decades now but see wages actually decreasing in purchase power terms.

This happens because time is a true factor in any social system, specially capitalism. When things happen slowly and gradually, capitalism gains power of prediction, which allows it to perfectly adapt to the situation through the simple process of insurance and passing the extra costs to the final consumer. In the labor market, that means increased automation: the capitalist senses those workers are not coming back, so he has time to automate, even if slowly and gradually.

Time and frequency is extremely important in capitalism. A natural catastrophe is only a natural catastrophe for capitalism when it is not predicted; when it is predicted, it becomes a feature, part of the "cost of production".

--//--

Is Zelensky the new Saakashvili? Western armchair revolutionaries are now making the same mistake in Ukraine they did in Georgia

My opinion is that Ukraine has become Afghanistan but with an accelerated metabolism. The Ukrainians have managed to do in five years what it took the Afghani 30 years.

Russia will not allow that giant turd from the Black Sea to prosper in its shady and crazy plans.

--//--

West to hoard 1.2bn doses of spare vaccines by year’s end, analysis says, as pressure mounts to share with poor & outdo China

You know how the great empires fall: pressure from without, pressure from within, at the same time.

Europe has barely 50% of its adult population fully vaccinated; USA has just reached 70%. They're now having to stop vaccinating their own peoples to try to compete with China in the "vaccine diplomacy" wars.

Meanwhile, the Delta variant will continue to devastate the West's economy.

--//--

New take on the fall of the USSR:

Khasbulatov named the real culprit of the collapse of the USSR

Khasbulatov blames the food shortages caused by the Perestroika for the fall of the USSR.

He has a point: statistically, food shortages (famines) are the main cause for revolutions, revolts, collapses et al. It was an acute food shortage followed by a famine that caused the French Revolution, just to give an example.

Posted by: vk | Sep 5 2021 15:55 utc | 6

That CNN article is remarkable.

When b wrote about the Chinese governments latest measures I remained undecided. On the one hand additional regulation stiffles economic growth. On the other hand the negative social impact of certain developments might outweigh that growth. Both arguments are valid as such. It depends on the concrete circumstances. Since I neither know the the situation in China in detail nor the precise effects of the measures taken I obstained from judgement and just observed.

But it know seems that a majority of Western economic analysts agree wirh the Chinese government and assess that the Chinese economy had been underregulated up to now. There arw free-market fanatics like George Soros who disagree but that seems to be a minority opinion.

Posted by: m | Sep 5 2021 16:08 utc | 7

Bactria. Some might find this interesting.

https://youtu.be/k0pddroJqt8

Posted by: dh | Sep 5 2021 16:29 utc | 8

Reuters main headline is this:

Leader of Afghan hold-out region says he is ready to talk with Taliban

Sept 5 (Reuters) - The leader of the Afghan opposition group resisting Taliban forces in the Panjshir valley north of Kabul said on Sunday he welcomed proposals from religious scholars for a negotiated settlement to end the fighting.

Not sure what to make of it, but my first thought was that it is a ploy with the US in the background.

Which combo of the following is it?:

1) Something is better than nothing for the hold-outs

2) They want to be legitimized by being recognized as a force at some negotiating table

3) They want the Taliban to appear as intransigent and an obstacle to peace for Afghanistan

4) The US wants a foothold - a supporter of a legitimate faction in Afghanistan

Posted by: librul | Sep 5 2021 17:11 utc | 9

jack @ 22

Oh do fuck off!

Speaking as someone who has had the delta variant of Covid as well as my mother and sister. And I’ve had the J&J vaccine.

That doesn’t stop from from seeing that the radical social and economic changes for the benefit of a tiny elite and the expense of the majority.

Jesus when even the Atlantic has to question whether trading ones freedoms to live in the safety of a police state is worth it then you realise just how drastic those changes have been.

Australia Traded Away Too Much Liberty

Posted by: Down South | Sep 5 2021 17:18 utc | 10

thanks b for all your hard work and sharing here... thanks also to the many fine posters who grace the pages here...

covid certainly is a reflection of the divisiveness in the world today, no matter how one views it.. it's like the great divider! i only wish people could state their piece and go about peacefully in all of it.. the part about people attacking others is the part i have a hard time with... everyone has a viewpoint.. we can be magnanimous enough to let that be, but some seem intent on clobbering others over the head with their new found realization/s and looking at all this in a very black and white manner.. it really isn't all that black and white... there is a lot going on and it is easy to get thrown off with new information as it becomes available... personally i think it is too soon to say what is going on here, but we still have to move forward and make decisions in spite of the lack of knowledge which might become available at a later date... i am focusing more on music at the moment.. i find it more therapeutic and of a healing nature.. sorry for not keeping up with the posts and commentary...

Posted by: james | Sep 5 2021 17:25 utc | 11

@ Mina 11
. . .some core issues in a recent video (such as why not doing a serology ...antibodies. .)

Yes, the anonymous people getting COVID aren't all the same. There's the known pre-existing conditions, of course, but there are also other factors, many of which can be learned from blood testing. We can't assume everyone is the same when a large portion of the US citizenry don't exercise, neglect a proper diet, are stressed out, and are way overweight. It's known that physical activity is critical to cardiovascular health, but many Americans avoid it.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 5 2021 17:55 utc | 12

Great descriptor in the Michael Tracey piece, describing perpetually outraged western politicians as “performatively aggrieved”.

Performative aggrievment continues in Canada over the Chinese detention of two Canadians on espionage charges, linked to the ongoing extradition proceedings of Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou. This past week saw the first details of the substance of the charges against them - namely that they had been photographing and disseminating images of Chinese military installations, described as “second-tier state secrets.” It was suggested the men had been under some form of surveillance for an extended period of time. An unnamed western diplomat told Reuters that the charges were “without foundation”, although it was unclear if this was because there were no such photographs or whether the images did exist but occurred through innocent circumstance.

Canada’s own troglodyte foreign affairs columnist T Glavin cleared up that ambiguity today by stating it was the latter - i.e. the imagery “is reported to consist of images of military aircraft that show up in photographs he’d taken at airports”. Canadian officials continue to insist the detainment of the two men is tantamount to “kidnapping” and “hostage diplomacy”. The Federal Conservative leader vows, should he form a government, that the entire senior leadership of China will suffer “Magnitsky” sanctions as Canada will challenge Lithuania to assume the mantle of loudest barking lapdog.

The above seems clarification that the two Canadians were involved in some low-level espionage which did not warrant arrest but rather surveillance, and were placed in custody as a form of leverage after the detainment of Wanzhou. This rather undercuts or adds shades of grey to Canada’s official narrative. It is also notable that when the actual details of the US extradition case are outlined in the Canadian media, usually after several days of defence proceedings, online commenters on sites such as CBC frequently express bewilderment on how this whole mess has been allowed to go this far.

Posted by: jayc | Sep 5 2021 17:56 utc | 13

"To deny the most incontrovertible evidence conceivable means at this point I don't believe you actually believe what you say you do and am forced to believe you're simply a sadistic nazi who wants their plans to come to fruition."

Posted by: Normal | Sep 5 2021 14:26 utc | 7

Well said Normal, i agree.

Posted by: Per/Norway | Sep 5 2021 18:00 utc | 14

Did you know that GP's in the UK now get £10 more per shot given to 12-15 year olds. That makes £22.50 each time. Sordid isn't it. Oh, and "parental" confirmation is not required either.
**

Never trust self-proclaimed "leaders";
Thanks b, for the link to Loach and the film Perfidy. plus the details of Owen Jones in the article by Asa Winstanley / Electronic Intifada

After the March 1944 German invasion of Hungary, Kasztner, a local member of the Zionist leadership, worked directly with the Nazis.
He agreed to help maintain calm in the Hungarian Jewish community, particularly the 20,000 Jews of Kasztner’s native town of Kluj. The Nazis wanted to ensure there was no repeat of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in Poland the year prior.

The Jews of Kluj were concentrated in a ghetto prior to deportation, and were told a tale about “Kenyermeze,” a work camp in a German-occupied area where they would supposedly be sent and kept alive.

But this was a deadly lie: The trains were actually taking people to Auschwitz, the death camp in occupied Poland, where the Nazis murdered 12,000 Hungarian Jews per day.

Almost half a million Hungarian Jews were ultimately exterminated.

The "ability" of certain people to want a "super race" devoid of the old, insane, infirm or disobedient, reminds me of Schwab and Gates.

The use of "anti-semitism" by Starmer to eliminate all Palestinian supporters in the Labour Party, means that it should be renamed more appropriately as "LaboursLost".
***

I just watched a vid of 15+ French "police" beating up two women, who actually had every right to be there as the area was not a forbidden one. I wonder if finally the Taliban will not be more reasonable? Although some cases have been seen of the "installation of discipline" in Talibaland.
Why should brutality have become the custom here in Europe?

(I daren't mention Police Brutality in the States)

Posted by: Stonebird | Sep 5 2021 18:03 utc | 15

Afghanistan is a private plantation with a private financial network?

Afghanistan’s Shadow Financial Network... “Sarai Shahzada”
Highly recommend this article as it provides good insights into the financial history about Afghanistan.

“Money is certainly on the Taliban’s mind... By 2002, the World Bank described Afghanistan’s banking sector as “physically destroyed, technologically outdated, and operationally nonfunctional.”... During the Taliban’s rule from 1996 to 2001, Sarai Shahzada became the hub of all money-related matters in the country... By 2010, 17 banks were operating in Afghanistan. Bank holdings increased from $261 million in 2004 to $4.26 billion in mid-2010. Then, scandal hit: That year, it was discovered that Kabul Bank, a private bank, was siphoning funds to its executives and Afghan government officials, revealing the weak oversight of the country’s banks. Although the banking sector remained afloat, its reputation was tarnished, and banks became more conservative in their lending... on the exchange market in 2019 revealed that the volume of Sarai Shahzada’s loans is roughly double that of commercial banks. “

Any nation with a private monetary system is a private plantation, such as Japan, UK, U$A, EU,...

Are you living in a private plantation or sovereign nation?

Posted by: Max | Sep 5 2021 18:07 utc | 16

The debates on this site, which are generally courteous, tend to become quite inflammatory when it comes to COVID-19.
People need to be reconciled. Only science can.

My research has shown that in my country, people who have been vaccinated are much more likely to trust President Emmanuel Macron than people who have not been.

The conclusion is irrefutable: yes, mRNA vaccines change human DNA, to the point of genetically programming a significant number of citizens to vote for a very bizarre entity.

Q. e. d.

Posted by: Leuk | Sep 5 2021 18:13 utc | 17

At james 25: Well said. Definitely a bit of 'methinks he doth protest too much' on Covid issues in particular. (Could be shes, too, I suppose.) There's no doubt that the whole project is another profit set-up for one of the prominent sectors of our corporatocracy. On the other hand there's a lot of narrative/anecdote in the denials of epidemiological effects.
At jayc 27: I think that you've cornered the truth(s) on this matter.
At Stonebird 29: A nice summation of some interesting details.
As usual, thanks to b for keeping the difficult-to-find information coming to us. And thanks to most commenters, too.

Posted by: PAUL SPENCER | Sep 5 2021 18:35 utc | 18

Over the past two weeks, I have seen several stories in US media about the growing threat of terrorism in the Sahel. It's true because the number of deaths from jihadist violence in the Sahel has climbed up by a lot since 2020. France is also in the middle of pulling back thousands of troops. The US media stories are trying to encourage the US to step up in the Sahel.

I think this is one of the few military interventions that is a good idea. The people of the Sahel don't want to live under jihadist violence and several West Africa states have since the start of the year (Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, etc) have seen border incursions in their countries by the jihadists. Someone needs to stop them from destabilizing West Africa and the situation from getting even worse in the Sahel.

Posted by: rebellion | Sep 5 2021 19:03 utc | 19

Some paper from RUSSTRAT - russian think thank about covid and situation around it. Worth to read. Beside Izreal it's worth to check also data from Vietnam, country which was doing very well before got high rate of vaccination.

Posted by: Alex | Sep 5 2021 19:09 utc | 20

https://russtrat.ru/en/reports_/10-august-2021-0117-5448

Posted by: Alex | Sep 5 2021 19:09 utc | 21

The Atlantic has become straight yellow journalism gutter press. MSNBC always was. Only reason to read that drivel is the reason that Soviet citizens used to read Pravda.

Posted by: oldhippie | Sep 5 2021 19:20 utc | 22

@ James
Once upon a time music was an unifying antiwar puzzle.
https://youtu.be/MHgfertaduI
Even if not  apaisant.

In so a divided world we miss Frank craziness
One of the last
https://youtu.be/UFtHqDrJ-fA

And one of the first
https://youtu.be/UFtHqDrJ-fA

Posted by: Odenwälder | Sep 5 2021 19:27 utc | 23

Why aren't people dropping like flies from one of the most fearsome of pandemics in the history of the world (to hear the daily MSM drumbeat)? Does no one wonder how the unvaxxed and unmasked Taliban took over an entire country in mere weeks? It is amazing how people have so readily sacrificed their finances, freedoms and bodies on words rather than personal experiences.

Posted by: zakukommander | Sep 5 2021 19:36 utc | 24

The issue with COVID today is its politicization and the censorship that results from this (not to mention the often inconsistent policies of governments).

Matt Taibbi interviews an ivermectin critic (David Fuller) who was censored on YouTube for presenting two videos on the topic.
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/meet-the-censored-ivermectin-critic

Fuller has no idea why the videos were censored or even later reinstated upon challenge.

Journalism and democratic scientific debate are seriously compromised in this politically polarized and greed based, profit-mongering world. COVID is just one example of this corrupt anti-knowledge, anti-science effort. There should not be any censorship of source based scientific issues.

Democracy and the scientifc approach to knowledge and understanding require and open discussion of ideas. There is no room for dogma.

Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Sep 5 2021 19:38 utc | 25

@Posted by: rebellion | Sep 5 2021 19:03 utc | 33

When Libya still existed as a strong and independent nation there were few issues in the Sahel and no US bases. Libya gets taken out and "terrorists" suddenly arise that require US and French intervention. This is classic imperialist behaviour, create a crisis that requires your intervention - just like in Syria. Some readings that should remove any naivete about French and US imperialist motives.

"Arab Spring, Libyan Winter" Vijay Prashad
"The Dying Sahara: US Imperialism and Terror in Africa" Jeremy Keenan
"Tomorrow's Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa" Nick Turse

Some reasons have to be manufactured to keep up the funding for AFRICOM and Africa is the new economic battlefield between the West and China, and the West is losing.

"China-Africa Friendship will Remain as Firm and Stable as Mountains" Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjb_663304/zwjg_665342/zwbd_665378/t1847002.shtml

Posted by: Roger | Sep 5 2021 19:50 utc | 26

Stonebird @ 29

Watching videos of demos these past months there has been a worldwide move towards police beating on women. And on old women. And on old well dressed women, who would otherwise qualify for a bit of class privilege. Class privilege does still exist in some contexts, if I plead that we should respect elders or show deference on basis of sex I must be a right wing white supremacist troglodyte. I have seen what you saw in France, Germany, UK, Italy. No one notices. No one complains. After all these demonstrators are killing grandma. And if you have to beat and maim grandma to protect grandma so be it. And who better to be judge jury and executioner than the police.

Bullies and thugs led by sociopaths. Same mindset as journalists and politicians. Any who would support the journalists or the politicians will applaud the police and their truncheons.

Posted by: oldhippie | Sep 5 2021 19:50 utc | 27

Cesare at 3 asks "Where's the data?"
That is easy to answer "Censored".
The reason Americans are so divided over the vaccine passport issue is that some of us resist a police state, and the other half are still so programmed from 5 years of TDS propaganda that they turn this into a "You must love Trump if you don't want the GMO jab" thing, which is as wildly inaccurate as most of the other propaganda points they spew, since it was Trump who initiated Operation Warp Speed.
So in order to prove how much they hate Trump, they roll up their sleeves for the clotshot, dance happy jigs when an unvaxxed person dies, and call for apartheid, concentration camps and forced inoculations for the unclean.
Some people don't want to move into a totalitarian police state, no matter what the stated excuse or rationale. Those are the ones censored, banned and excoriated by the Establishment and their acolytes.

Posted by: wagelaborer | Sep 5 2021 20:03 utc | 28

@rebellion 33
re: I think this is one of the few military interventions that is a good idea.

Military intervention alone is never a good idea. That's been fully demonstrated. In the Sahel, the days of permissible French colonialism are over.
. . .from European Council:

. . .only by rethinking approaches to politics and governance within Sahelian states can we hope to improve the outlook for the region, and ensure that the Sahelian and international soldiers who died there did not do so in vain.. .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 5 2021 20:13 utc | 29

Some numbers on video: Youtube supposedly get 700000 hours uploaded every single day.
I have said before: the beauty of the internet is that people will generate the content to occupy each other, but the offshoot of this is that this also creates inevitable growth of memes.
If Youtube watched every single video, every single day with people doing 10 hours of work each - it would require 70000 employees. Google could certainly afford that, but then again, why bother when they can create "AI" so that a few hundred would do the work?

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 5 2021 20:13 utc | 30

A man of 45 with no serious health issues has a vanishingly small chance of dying from muh coveed anyway so what is the point of taking a shot that clearly was of no use to him to begin with?

Posted by: whut | Sep 5 2021 20:20 utc | 31

Oh wait, I know why! Politics and fear!

Posted by: whut | Sep 5 2021 20:21 utc | 32

I'm sorry folks. The pandemic has ruined all open threads for over year now. And ruined the reputation of a number of formerly highly respected posters here. And that is although b is giving his very best to provide us with reliable information.

It's hopeless. Just two points proving that we are taking religion here but not science:

Comment #1 tries to lure you to a Utube clip of a lawyer(!) who makes a living from the morons in the German anti - Corona movement. A guy who has lost all his credibility and is now struggling not to lose his license.

Second: Gunshot">https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/gunshot-victims-horse-dewormer-ivermectin-oklahoma-hospitals-covid-1220608/">Gunshot Victims Left Waiting as Horse Dewormer Overdoses Overwhelm Oklahoma Hospitals, Doctor Says

lol

It's unbelievable..

Posted by: Cemi | Sep 5 2021 20:28 utc | 33

I'm sorry this is the unprocessed link. Let's hope I don't ruin the formatting

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/gunshot-victims-horse-dewormer-ivermectin-oklahoma-hospitals-covid-1220608/

Posted by: Cemi | Sep 5 2021 20:31 utc | 34

This might be interesting. There's been a change in the rules--
First it was, Taliban prove to us you're pure as the new-driven snow and you may get your money.
Now it may be, US give us our money if you want your people.
We'll see, as mother used to say.
. . .news report
GOP Rep. McCaul says 6 planes with Americans onboard are stuck at Afghanistan airport in 'hostage situation' with Taliban

Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 5 2021 20:32 utc | 35

33 "I think this is one of the few military interventions that is a good idea."

Congratulations. You have been successfully programmed. As a proxy force, the various sunni jihadi strains are the path finders. Where they go the US is always close behind. China has been doing too much business in Africa. Doing nasty things as well, like building roads bridges and railway lines.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 5 2021 20:37 utc | 36

In this country, anyone who is skeptical of the vaccines is painted as an idiot, a bumpkin science denier, and worse...political opposition to Bai-Dong the usurper. There is a suspicion that they are all Trump Cultists, even though he is the one who put the vaccines on a fast track and recommends everyone get jabbed as many times as possible. Of course there is some cognitive dissonance there, but that's propaganda for you! The reality is, most of us who do not want the stab have a better understanding of what this pandemic has really been like, and we are better able to make our own risk assessment based on a year and a half of mortality data. Those who are not in a risk category by age or underlying health issue should not be taking this treatment. Many of those in the risk groups are not even able to take the vaccines because of their health, so there they are still...dying unvaccinated in the ICU. But to listen to some of the more hysterical true believers this has been like the rapture! A 12 year old and a 16 year old are walking home masked from school and one is taken away by the Lord covid! And the sad part...I'm not really exaggerating that much. This whole episode has brought to the surface the deep moral and spiritual sickness at the base of our society. Does it surprise anyone that a country where half the population still believe a sitting President was a foreign agent would lose their shit when confronted with (extremely overblown fears about) their own mortality? And the same elites who pushed that BS on us, now push a vaccine as some sort of miracle drug that will save the planet! LMFAO!! Because, yes, there is a profit motive behind this push, but the real issue is credibility. The State wants a political victory over the virus. That is why natural immunity and nature working as nature always has simply can not be allowed!

Posted by: nook | Sep 5 2021 20:51 utc | 37

https://www.rt.com/usa/534011-ivermectin-horse-dewormer-doctor-debunked/

Posted by: nook | Sep 5 2021 20:55 utc | 38

nook @ 5

Immunosenescence. Look it up. The demographic at risk is not learning new tricks. Their B cells and T cells will do what they learned when younger and they won’t do anything else. It is therapeutics or nothing. Vaccinees in early 70s have some chance of some benefit from vaccination. Past that the chances get very slim.

Posted by: oldhippie | Sep 5 2021 21:25 utc | 39

oldhippie@56

True. There are some people who may still benefit from a vaccine in the risk groups, but once your immune system is failing there isnt much you can do. My mother is 75 and my brother took her for a stab. No bad reaction so far, but I warned her about the risks and the fact is she has some auto immune disease that is attacking her white blood cells. I have serious doubts about whether the vaccine will even work for her.

Posted by: nook | Sep 5 2021 21:31 utc | 40

Wow sad to tweet you posting that crap about Osama planning 9/11. Come on B, you can’t tell me you don’t understand the 4th grade physics involved here, after 20 years you’ve never looked into 9/11? The government’s story defies physics, there is like 1000 facts that show this was an inside job, do you need me to send some info on this cause you’re coming off as very unintelligent posting these lies.

Posted by: JamesC | Sep 5 2021 21:45 utc | 41

Don Bacon @51--

Part of the deal with Vietnam at the end of the war was for the Outlaw US Empire to pay reparations to Vietnam and Vietnam would then repatriate the remaining POWs in its control. Nixon then Ford reneged on the reparations, and thus the POWs remained to become the basis for numerous Hollywood films about their rescue that NEVER provided the reason WHY they were still held. Carter tried to rescue the hostages, failed and ended up paying. The same might again happen, but the Taliban at least have a very credible explanation as to why the planes remain grounded--US Terrorists smashed all the vial equipment at the airport for safe landings and takeoffs and have lots of pictures as proof.

////

The other point I wanted to make today is related to the Global Times editorial vk linked to above and is further explained in this article: "European Parliament clamors for tougher line on China" proving it's completely under the control of the Outlaw US Empire as like a dog it obeys its Master's Voice. Russia's policy in dealing with the same crap is to engage with clearly friendly nations while leaving the door open for the EU to regain control of itself. I suspect China will do the same as money talks while bullshit walks. How much longer before the Baltic states are depopulated leaving only Russian speakers? How much of their navies will they commit to the coming battle in the South China Sea?

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 5 2021 21:53 utc | 42

How do the Taliban manage to kick a corrupt, bloated, diseased, deluded empire's ass during a plague?????

that's b/c the virus itself is the ultimate CRISIS ACTOR, don't you know? it's fake. totally. that's why people go to their local hospital and everything seems "fine."

don't let those global excess death counts fool you. crisis actors, all of them. and manipulated figures. making it up as they go along.

and fleeing, i mean abandoning, Bagram AFB as part of the "US must contain China & Iran" strategy? pure genius. it only took 20 years of war and occupation to see it, but that does not in any degree change how genius leaving Bagram AFG was. we'll show those mullahs and commies yet!

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Sep 5 2021 22:04 utc | 43

JamesC @58--

I suggest you reconsider your comment. Look at the context within which b linked to that bit of Establishment Narrative--"The U.S. Foreign Policy 'Establishment' Is Incredibly Dumb." It's "Dumb" because it listens and acts upon lies of its own making. And that Narrative needs to be reinforced big time as the 20th anniversary approaches. Magic Bullets that change direction and are still capable of penetrating flesh and a building never touched by anything falls within its own footprint. Oh, and just what was destroyed in Building 7 and the Pentagon--evidence of trillions of dollars in White Collar Crime. As with JFK's assassination, b knows what lurks behind 911; but as with JFK and RFK, there's really no further point in discussion as the vast majority of barflies know the real score on all three plus MLK.

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 5 2021 22:09 utc | 44

My research has shown that in my country, people who have been vaccinated are much more likely to trust President Emmanuel Macron than people who have not been.

The conclusion is irrefutable: yes, mRNA vaccines change human DNA, to the point of genetically programming a significant number of citizens to vote for a very bizarre entity.

Q. e. d.

Posted by: Leuk | Sep 5 2021 18:13 utc | 31 THE SAME GOV'ts told us not to take LSD because it damaged your chromosomes....changed your DNA. When did it suddenly become beneficial?

Posted by: Eggs Benedict Arnold | Sep 5 2021 22:33 utc | 45

Another interesting aspect of the UK that I've noticed is that they have the bizarre habit of quoting and mentioning Churchill as if he was the main character of WWII and the founder of the liberal post-war consensus, when in fact he was neither. In fact, he was a minor figure outside the the Conservative elite of the UK.

But I think that, in this aspect, the British are not alone. I've heard rumors that the French do the same with de Gaulle, where they paint him as essentially the savior of France, commanding the French resistance like a regent from London, and then descending from the Heavens to rebuild France (when, in reality, it was one of the most dirty behind-the-scenes negotiations between the French elites in the nation's history).

Posted by: vk | Sep 5 2021 23:34 utc | 46

karlof 59

>Afghanistan
-- reportedly the planes have been held for days at the Mazar-i-Sharif airport in northern Afghanistan
An email from the State Department to members of congress -- and viewed by CBS -- acknowledged that charter flights are still on the ground at the Mazar-i-Sharif airstrip and have permission to land in Doha "if and when the Taliban agrees to takeoff.
When reached for comment on Sunday regarding McCaul’s claims, a State Department spokesperson told The Hill that it does not have the “reliable means to confirm the basic details” of charter flights leaving Afghanistan because the U.S. no longer has personnel on the ground, air assets in the country or control of the airspace over Afghanistan or anywhere else in the region.
As I recall, Taliban told the U.S. NOT to evacuate all embassy personnel. The evacuation fiasco continues. .

>China
The EU parliament can huff and puff about hurting China with a 'harder line,' but any control of commercial trade might be hard for them.
COVID is hitting at China's border, but . . .almost a millon 20' container equivalents China-Europe 2021
. . .Sep 2 China news
China-Europe freight train trips hit 10,000 by end-August

China-Europe freight train trips have taken a robust growth momentum since the start of 2021, with the total number surging 32 percent year on year to reach 10,030 by the end of August, data from the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. showed Thursday.
During the period, the freight trains carried approximately 964,000 20-foot equivalent unit containers of goods, growing 40 percent from the same period in 2020.
This was the sixteenth straight month that trips made by China-Europe freight trains had exceeded 1,000, said the company, adding that the total number of train trips has surpassed 10,000 two months earlier than last year. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 5 2021 23:36 utc | 47

Posted by: Leuk | Sep 5 2021 18:13 utc | 31 "...My research has shown that in my country, people who have been vaccinated are much more likely to trust President Emmanuel Macron than people who have not been..."

Perhaps your research has shown that in your country, people who trust Emmanuel Macron are much more likely to have been vaccinated than people who have not.

Posted by: William Haught | Sep 5 2021 23:39 utc | 48

Former Australian PM, Paul Keating alway had a way with words and ideas. Here is an example that escaped the paywalled AFR, courtesy of John Menadue:

https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/the-morrison-government-is-provoking-china-to-please-america-20210902-p58o9i

I didn't always agree with Paul Keating.

Posted by: Paul | Sep 5 2021 23:40 utc | 49

@Posted by: vk | Sep 5 2021 23:34 utc | 63

Memories of Churchill and de Gaulle evoke memories of time past when both countries were major powers rather than the deeply diminished entities that they now are. So many English movies and tv shows go back to WW2 and earlier to evoke the "greatness" of the small island off the coast of Europe.

Posted by: Roger | Sep 5 2021 23:49 utc | 50

@ my 64

Aug 26, Kyodo News
Taliban asks U.S. to retain embassy in Kabul, guarantees security

The Taliban, which has gained almost complete control over Afghanistan, has asked the United States to retain its embassy in Kabul after the U.S. military pullout by Aug. 31, according to a Taliban official and diplomatic sources.
"We would like the U.S. to remain in Afghanistan very much," a senior Taliban official told Kyodo News in confirming that the Islamist group has conveyed that position to Washington. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 5 2021 23:52 utc | 51

Posted by: Mina | Sep 5 2021 20:20 utc | 46

The enemy of good is perfection. If we to wait for the perfect solution how many more dead would be acceptable? Of course with the vaccine Pascal's Wager applies since one of the non-vaccine choices is an outcome nobody really wants.

Posted by: One Too Many | Sep 6 2021 0:07 utc | 52

Don Bacon 68
It would surprise me if those planes have been denied permission to land at whatever airport their intended airport is.
I don't know that a control tower is required for takeoff in an area with virtually no air traffic. It could also be that the passengers are simply part of the US brain drain operation.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 6 2021 0:15 utc | 53

Colonel Cassad has a summary of the situation in the Panjshir Valley

Events in Panjshir are drawing to a close

1. The Taliban are already in full swing fighting for Bazarak (some even argue that Bazarak has already been taken, but so far there are no photos and videos). So for now, the city can be considered contested. But taking into account the general superiority in forces, in the morning we will most likely see a video from there.

2. Massoud's deputy and his spokesman (who broadcast thousands of Taliban killed and captured), as well as two other high-ranking military personnel, were killed today. The information has already been confirmed.

3. The Taliban rejected Massoud's proposals for an armistice, saying that in the current realities it makes no sense to talk to Massoud. The train left. As early as a week ago, Massoud could count on sitting in the Afghan government without Saleh. Now the likelihood of this is almost impossible.

4. In Panjshir, Pakistan is accused of providing air support to the Taliban offensive. Taliban propaganda in response is distributing the alleged documents of the Indians killed in Panjshir. Both sides seem to be lying. And not only on this occasion.

5. The whereabouts of Masud and Saleh are still unknown, sources in Panjshir claim that Saleh has been evacuated to an unknown location in the province. Pro-Taliban sources claim that they have already fled to Tajikistan. The Taliban say local residents should lay down their arms and no one will touch them. The official amnesty announced at the end of August applies to them as well. Questions will be to Masud, Saleh and a number of other people who started the Panjshir defense.

6. On Facebook and Twitter, Indian Couch Hundreds have already won the war against the Taliban in Panjshir against Pakistani bots. The forces of Saleh and Massoud could not support this success in real life.

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Sep 6 2021 0:18 utc | 54

MoA Comments should be renamed, 'All Covid, All The Time".

Posted by: Robrt | Sep 6 2021 0:18 utc | 55

Thanks Alex for the link. That's why I come here. For the few open minded commenters. And to one day donate to b in Bitcoin.

Posted by: Jezabeel | Sep 6 2021 0:20 utc | 56

@71 Indian Couch Hundreds fighting Pakistani bots. Colonel Cassad has a wicked sense of humour.

Posted by: dh | Sep 6 2021 0:42 utc | 57

These people are patient and persistent and their voices will be heard in a court of law. The narrative is unraveling, the cracks are everywhere. "Danger Will Robinson!" https://www.lawyerscommitteefor9-11inquiry.org/9600-2/

Posted by: thecelticwithinme | Sep 6 2021 0:55 utc | 58

The U.S. has frozen nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank and stopped shipments of cash to the nation

Sep 5, 2021 -- NYTimes
U.S. Citizens and Afghans Wait for Evacuation Flights From Country’s North

Around 1,000 people, including dozens of American citizens and Afghans holding visas to the United States or other countries, remained stuck in Afghanistan for the fifth day on Sunday as they awaited clearance for the departure from the Taliban. The holdup reflects the challenges of foreign governments working with the group, which has yet to form a government.
Negotiations to allow the planes to depart, involving officials of the Taliban, the United States and Qatar, have dragged on for days, leaving the evacuees in an increasingly precarious limbo, according to representatives of organizations trying to get them to safety.
The plight of the passengers hoping to leave the country from the airport in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif mirrors that of thousands of people who were unable to board planes from Kabul, the capital, after Taliban militants took the city on the eve of the U.S. troop withdrawal. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 6 2021 1:17 utc | 59

@75 thecelticwithinme

Wow, there's some heavy hitters in that lineup - many thanks for the heads up.

I think I may sign up for that - it'll be archived for a week after the live stream so with luck I can download it.

Posted by: Grieved | Sep 6 2021 1:20 utc | 60

AP: Taliban stop planes of evacuees from leaving but unclear why . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 6 2021 1:22 utc | 61

Thanks b for linking to the Responsible Statecraft article about the 9/11 trap and subsequent foreign policy blunder. It is very well written and researched.

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/09/03/9-11-wasnt-the-pearl-harbor-of-our-generation/

The article reminds me of a Bismark quote I read somewhere.

President GW Bush was no Bismark.

When told about the troubles and the prospect of war with Denmark over Schleswig Holstein, I don't know if it was the First Danish - Prussian War or the Second war, Bismark was, reportedly, asked if he would send the army. Bismark replied, 'no, I will send the police.'

Incidentally a number of Danish families subsequently migrated to New Zealand and established themselves around the town of Dannevirke, Hawkes Bay [of course no one can pronounce it as it was originally pronounced]

Australian barflies may recall the late Queensland Premier, Sir Joh Bjelkie-Petersen, who migrated to Australia from this region in NZ.  

The US and it's fawning allies were 'sucked in' deliberately. The architects of their own destruction, by attrition and hubris.

Posted by: Paul | Sep 6 2021 1:34 utc | 62

b, thanks for that Full Translation of the Li Guangman piece, "Everyone Can Sense That a Profound Transformation is Underway!"

I think the courage and initiative of China is admirable, that it would regard the importation of US popular culture as a toxin to repel. That culture was once a fun and liberating thing, but it has now turned to poison as it destroys US culture - and China is cutting the channels of influence that the old culture created.

It seems to me very wise of China to perceive this threat, because it took us much longer to see it this way in the US - the full madness of the woke preciousness paralyzing the country's discourse - but I suppose the US version of it has become so ludicrous that it's easier for outsiders to see the full rottenness inherent in it.

I had fun reading Li's piece. As he recounted the punishments for the movie stars with their tax evasion, I was reminded of an old New Yorker cartoon by Bernard Schoenbaum that I've always loved:

All along I thought our level of corruption fell well within community standards

Posted by: Grieved | Sep 6 2021 2:34 utc | 63

911 was an inside job.
FUS murdered 3000 of its own citizens in order to launch the fraudulent wot.

The rest are just details.

Meanwhile...
Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Arthur Sinodinos

China is a larger threat than 911 terrorism,

Be afraid, very afraid.

Posted by: denk | Sep 6 2021 2:35 utc | 64

Might be worth a read for some?

https://www.oligotherapeutics.org/facts-about-mrna-vaccines-and-the-decades-of-research-that-went-into-creating-them/

Posted by: vetinLA | Sep 6 2021 2:38 utc | 65

denk

Sinodinos The man who can't remember. Just sitting there looking like the cat that got the cream and pleased with himself. The NSW ICAC was good until the money trails led to Canberra.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 6 2021 2:41 utc | 66

Soon as the skid marks in the underwear leads to Canberra, the trump card called national interest kicks in.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 6 2021 2:44 utc | 67

Peter AU1 83

China’s increased coercion is a far greater threat to the US and its allies than another September 11-style attack, says a recently retired four-star general who was in the Pentagon when terrorists crashed into it almost 20 years ago.

If gen James “Mike” Holmes concur, it must be
true eh ?

Be afraid...... :-)

Posted by: denk | Sep 6 2021 3:01 utc | 68

After decades of blatant lies told to the American public, and our MSM and "religious" leaders refusing to rebut those lies, what you end up with is a public that will believe anything, no matter how stupid, and unlikely.

Don't ya' love it when a plan comes together?

Posted by: vetinLA | Sep 6 2021 3:06 utc | 69

BBC gas attack lies were exposed by Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlet right from the beginning.

GEROMAN at twitter is acknowledging their on the spot journalism.

These great journalists and their colleagues who called this BS out are celebrities of the real world. Our thanks go to them all.

Scroll down GEROMAN for reports on the continuing defeat of the Afghanistan western puppets and their Guaido theater troops in Panjshir valley.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 6 2021 3:10 utc | 70

@ Grieved | Sep 6 2021 2:34 utc | 80 with the normalization of corruption cartoon and encouragement to read the Full Translation of the Li Guangman piece that b linked to...thanks.

What the Li Guangman piece said to me was that China is going into nation wide cultural war mode and our civilization war between private/public finance will take on new meaning. The example China is setting in all areas will take over the world narrative and the comparison will not be pretty. The West will scream that China is godless but their social results say that the West does not practice what it preaches so mightily and secular government which was the original ideal of (E Pluribus Unum) America really can and has worked for three quarters of a century for China.

Many Americans are already resonating with the regulatory and enforcement efforts that China is making so this should be quite interesting to watch as the West loses control of the narrative contextualization. China is showing what the West needs to do to provide a workable society for the many instead of the few.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 6 2021 3:13 utc | 71

More to my comment at 88

It will be interesting to see if we read any more about China's Opening Up efforts....what will the new direction in China be poeticized to encourage?

I expect we will know soon enough. I don't think China likes to be in war mode and so this phase should be moved though directly....rubber, meet road!!!

Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 6 2021 3:26 utc | 72

vetinLA #82

Thank you for that but for now I have one question. Where in that report was there a link to the bio-accumulation data?

If mRNA has been the goto decade old research miracle as outlined in that report, why no discussion of bio-accumulation, fetal consequences, birth studies, metabolic analysis of impacts on manamal organs. So many years of work and one giant blind spot. The macular degeneration of vaccine science.

I am reminded of DuPont and C8 and all those 'reassurances'.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 6 2021 3:27 utc | 73

The 3D map does not seem quite right.

Bagram is shown as being next to Kabul. Isn't Bagram in the Shomali Plains downstream from the Panjshir River?

The Salang Pass is shown West of the Shomali Plains. I thought it was South of the Plains.

Posted by: jiri | Sep 6 2021 3:42 utc | 74

@ 80, 88

...from Li Guangman on changes in China. . .
It marks a return from “capitalist cliques” to the People, a shift from “capital-centered” to “people-centered.” . .We need to bring all forms of cultural chaos under control and build a vibrant, healthy, virile, intrepid, and people-oriented culture.

...from Stanford Univ, on Confucianism. . .
Confucianism, the teachings of Confucius during 500 BC, has played an important role in forming Chinese character, behavior and way of living. (Eliot 2001; Guo 1995) Its primary purpose is to achieve harmony, the most important social value.
Confucianism strongly emphasizes:
Mercy
Social order
Fulfillment of Responsibilities
This is achieved by everyone having well defined roles and acting towards others in a proper way.
Central Ethical Principal
“Ren” is the central ethical principle, and is equivalent to the concepts love, mercy, and humanity. It is best explicated by Confucius in the following statement: “Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself.” This ethical principle is further strengthened by the Buddhist tradition that merit is accumulated by doing merciful acts, which leads to a better next life through reincarnation. . .here

. . .in other news, from Washington. . .
U.S. Senate backs bill to clamp down on China-funded Confucius Institutes

Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 6 2021 4:05 utc | 75

ut @90 asked; "Where in that report was there a link to the bio-accumulation data?"

Got me ut. Maybe a further search might reveal such info. I would assume that the data on "down the road" effects would have been part of the study, but as you know, our corporate "studies" are always suspect.

That's the world we all live in today. When"profits uber alles" are a business model, skepticism reins supreme.....

Posted by: vetinLA | Sep 6 2021 4:09 utc | 76

45 min podcast by Thom Hartmann on why American conservatives hate Government:

https://dl.thomhartmann.com/private/podcasts/2021_0906_thp-090621-hour1.mp3

Posted by: vetinLA | Sep 6 2021 4:22 utc | 77

45 min podcast by Thom Hartmann on why American conservatives hate Government:

https://dl.thomhartmann.com/private/podcasts/2021_0906_thp-090621-hour1.mp3

Posted by: vetinLA | Sep 6 2021 4:22 utc | 78

Below is a Xinhuanet posting that reads strange to me

"
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Beijing on Sunday unveiled measures including the opening of thousands of new stores in the next five years to build itself into an international consumption center city.

In an implementation plan for this goal, issued by the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau, the city said it will carry out specific projects including those focusing on new consumption landmarks, new brands, digital consumption and the development of cultural, tourism, sports, education and medical consumption.

Over 3,000 first, innovation and flagship stores of brands from both at home and abroad are expected to open by 2025 in Beijing. The capital will also build about 10 cluster areas featuring domestic time-honored brands and incubate more than 100 new consumption brands.

Through five years of efforts, Beijing will basically become an international consumption center city with global influence, competitiveness and reputation, said Yan Ligang, head of the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau.

In July, China approved Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Chongqing to take the lead in building international consumption center cities.
"

Why is Beijing aspiring to be a consumption center instead of a cultural center? I am getting mixed signals here.....

Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 6 2021 4:24 utc | 79

Below is a Xinhuanet posting that shows the connection between China and Pakistan is significant

"
ISLAMABAD, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- A number of energy projects set up under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) have been providing one-third of Pakistan's total energy supply, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said.

During a weekly press briefing on Thursday, the spokesperson said that the CPEC has played an important role in addressing the energy shortage in Pakistan, adding that in addition to energy supply, CPEC's energy projects have created more than 26,000 working opportunities over the past several years.

Talking about the projects in Balochistan, Ahmad said that power and water desalination plants being built under the CPEC will prove to be transformational for the people of Balochistan.

"A 300 MW power project is already under construction in Gwadar," he said, adding that the implementation agreement for 1.2 million gallons per day desalination plant and the Memorandum of Understanding on grant for solar generators from China for south Balochistan were signed during Prime Minister Imran Khan's visit to Balochistan in July.

Once operational, the projects will transform the lives of local people, he added.
"

Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 6 2021 4:30 utc | 80

@ psychohistorian

My theory is Xi Jinping is trying to strengthen Northern China, especially Beijing, against Shanghai in order to consolidate financial powers in the North.

Posted by: Smith | Sep 6 2021 4:34 utc | 81

psychohistorian

Soft power. People that have visited or dealt with China often have a different perception of the place. Like those English footy fans that went to Russia.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 6 2021 4:34 utc | 82

Food for Western CCP groupies thought: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaBg06osKXY

Posted by: Antonym | Sep 6 2021 4:42 utc | 83

From global times.
"But unfortunately, under US hegemony, its allies might not be able to refuse irresponsible US requests. Qatar now is a key hub for the massive US airlift out of Kabul and a first point of landing for Afghan refugees and was the largest hub for the evacuations of some 100,000 Afghans in the final days of the 20-year US military mission, according to Arab Weekly and VOA."

US is now trying to build a Tehran embassy hostage type situation. Those plane loads supposedly trapped in Afghanistan, it's a good bet they have been denied permission to land at their destination airport.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 6 2021 4:55 utc | 84

Antonym 100

psychohistorian "Why is Beijing aspiring to be a consumption center instead of a cultural center? I am getting mixed signals here.....'

Having people actually go to china counters the type of propaganda you put up.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 6 2021 5:08 utc | 85

Brexit (2016) represented the collapse of the EU in itself, materialized in concrete terms (loss of a member, loss of population and territory to the American Empire). vk | Sep 5 2021 15:55 utc

Perhaps is some period of 20th century the concept of American Empire was not well crystalized, and EU was not included among subservient entities to USA. I dimly recall that even Canada could be argued as being something more than an entity that follows every American whim, instead having some external policies of its own (they retain some internal policies that do not follow American traditions, say, Royal Mounted Police).

In short, in respect of the degree of devotion to American Empire, it is hard to see a tiniest difference between Britain (and the rest of EU) before or after Brexit. Neither it is the case that the Empire could economize before Brexit by having but one embassy for all EU countries, only to be forced to have two separate embassies -- I guess that there is even a separate American embassy in Montenegro.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Sep 6 2021 5:08 utc | 86

@Robrt | Sep 6 2021 0:18 utc | 72

MoA Comments should be renamed, 'All Covid, All The Time".

Some are desperately peddling the covid-911 agenda on behalf of the agenda.

Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 6 2021 5:11 utc | 87

Owen Jones of the grauniad is a promoter of the Holocaust. In his posts he has provided cover for the perfidy of Rudolf Kasztner and the elite jewish associates of the SS and the Hungarian genocide against Jewish people. It is worth this small extract from b's initial link:

After the March 1944 German invasion of Hungary, Kasztner, a local member of the Zionist leadership, worked directly with the Nazis.

He agreed to help maintain calm in the Hungarian Jewish community, particularly the 20,000 Jews of Kasztner’s native town of Kluj. The Nazis wanted to ensure there was no repeat of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in Poland the year prior.

The Jews of Kluj were concentrated in a ghetto prior to deportation, and were told a tale about “Kenyermeze,” a work camp in a German-occupied area where they would supposedly be sent and kept alive.

But this was a deadly lie: The trains were actually taking people to Auschwitz, the death camp in occupied Poland, where the Nazis murdered 12,000 Hungarian Jews per day.

Almost half a million Hungarian Jews were ultimately exterminated.

To ensure there was no rebellion, Kasztner’s men told the Jewish community that they would be safe. Fake postcards and letters from “Kenyermeze” were distributed or read by his group assuring the Jews in Kluj that all was well. Thinking they were being deported to labor camps, Jews in Hungary mostly did not resist.

As Ben Hecht writes in Perfidy, his 1961 book on the affair, the Jews of Kluj were guarded in their ghetto by fewer than two dozen Nazi and Hungarian guards. They could have easily overcome them and escaped to safety across the Romanian border, just three miles away, had Kasztner told them what fate he knew really awaited them.

But Kasztner had personally negotiated a deal with senior Hitler aide and Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann. Kasztner knew where the “resettlement” trains were actually headed, but remained silent.
“A success for Zionism”

In exchange for deceiving his community, the Nazis agreed to let Kasztner select a group – mostly fellow Zionists, friends and family – who would be permitted to escape Hungary on a train to Switzerland. The idea was that the elite group would join the Zionist settler-colony in Palestine.

Zionists and Nazis both agreed on the goal of removing European Jews from Europe.

Here is the decision of the judge in the trial that finally led to the undoing of Rudolf Kasztner, the very definition of 'perfidy'

Ken Loach is a hero and a person of the utmost integrity.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 6 2021 5:32 utc | 88

Norwegian

This is an open thread so a topic you obviously have an interest in. The megalith stone - perhaps more a culture than an age? I am not into the supernatural, rather human history before writing and recorded history. something that got me curious the other day was in Australia where there are no megalith sites, gold was never used or had any value. Same north america. I am not sure about southern Africa.
Polynesians were thought to have originated from Taiwan about 3000 years ago and populated the pacific islands across to Easter Island. Did people of an earlier age follow that rout across?

The poorer quality stone work above the megalithic stone work in places in south America ... in Australia at one site in the north, there is a sudden change in style of paintings. The indigenous people there recognize all their own but did not know who did the earlier ones. The change was carbon dated to 11000 years ago.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 6 2021 5:39 utc | 89

Alleged coup in Guinea, West Africa (paywall) yesterday (not Papua New Guinea).

Special Forces Colonel Says He Has ‘Seized’ Guinea’s President
If the coup is successful, it will mark the third time in five months that a West African nation has suffered a takeover.

Interestingly, coup leader, Colonel Doumbouya, has colonialist/imperialist background:

Colonel Doumbouya is a former member of the French Foreign Legion. According to videos posted online by Guinean news media, he received training at Flintlock, the U.S. military’s biggest annual exercise in Africa.

Why now? Could involve "economic warfare" between China and Australia.. China replacing Australian sources for food with American ones. Why not dump Australia as major source of iron ore so Australians learn you don't piss on your major customer?

China's opportunities and risks in Africa's giant iron ore field
Guinea region holds world's largest untapped reserves but lacks infrastructure
Simandou, a 110-kilometer range of hills deep in the hinterland of Guinea in Western Africa, boasts the world's largest untapped iron ore reserves. They could reshape the global supply chain of the critical ingredient of steel, the world's second-most traded commodity behind crude oil.

Some background here and here.
Or it could be that the military also want to get their share of the loot.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Sep 6 2021 6:10 utc | 90

Australia's ambassador to the US, always a neocon:

"Washington | Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Arthur Sinodinos, says China’s coercion in the Indo-Pacific is now a bigger threat than September 11-style terrorism and that the strategic ANZUS alliance will be stronger in coming months as both countries hasten military and economic tie-ups to counter intimidation from Beijing...."

Coercion! Intimidation! Another case of PROJECTION:

".....Australia and the US both wanted to be part of “surgically identifying and pushing back on what are clearly coercive actions which are being taken by a state to enforce a particular outcome on another state”.

They have learnt nothing from their adventurism and serial foreign policy blunders, yet they still talk about 'our values.'

Posted by: Paul | Sep 6 2021 6:12 utc | 91

Does IKEA have a store in Afghanistan?

I just had another look at the video posted by former Vice President Amrullah Saleh on September 3, allegedly from the Panjshir Valley. The bookshelf in the background is attached to the wall with plastic-covered angle brackets in the exact IKEA style. I do not think the bookshelf is anywhere near the Panjshir Valley and neither was Saleh.

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Sep 6 2021 6:15 utc | 92

@Down South #24

Australia Traded Away Too Much Liberty

Keep yer knickers on DS!

The yank journalist in question above is some dickhead Californian rabbiting on about "liberty and freedom" ... and they do have problems with liberty over there, being the totalitarian homeland of the slowly collapsing Anglo-American Empire with their 911s and Neocons and forever wars and adoration of the military and oligarchic control of the executive and etc., etc. But what the flying fuck does that have to do with Aus? Apart from we've been 'all the way with LBJ' since at least WW2 when our blokes were machine gunning the bastards in the Sydney and Melbourne train stations?

There's no bill of rights in the Aus constitution and even if there was the 51(vi) Defence Power would override it along with any other of your supposed rights, implied or explicit. The government of the day just has to have the wider support of the populace and thus the High Court to do as it wills.

As Cromwell said, "being comes before well being!" ... and such is liberty for a Dominion of the British Commonwealth!

So can we all just get on with the public vaccination programme to protect our oldies and hospitals as soon as possible and stop with all this hysterical yankee BS? How's that for a bit of plain Aussie common sense DS?

Posted by: Zeug Gezeugt | Sep 6 2021 6:26 utc | 93

Petri Krohn 109

I'm not sure that it means much. Would have been a lot of flat packs shipped in during the US occupation. Makes one look studious and thoughtful when surrounded by books, though for it to be really good the bookshelves need to go up to the ceiling. I guess they were doing the best they could under wartime conditions.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 6 2021 7:18 utc | 94

So the new German ambassador to China suddenly dies for unkown reasons at the age of 54. That's a lot of sudden death of ambassadors recently...

The German ambassador to China, Jan Hecker, dies

Posted by: vato | Sep 6 2021 7:32 utc | 95

Ajay Goyal interviews John Helmer On Australian Lockdown. Mr. Helmer is currently in lockdown in Victoria Australia and not enjoying the facsists running the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWZG2iU5nJ0

Posted by: Tom | Sep 6 2021 8:02 utc | 96

My appologies to those who decry any information on the COVID debacle appearing on MOA, but Jonathan Cook illustrates the problem with this COVID issue clearly with the latest decision of the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation, the British government’s official advisory body on vaccinations.

The issue is about postponing the vaccination of children because of uncertain science.

https://www.unz.com/jcook/on-child-vaccines-the-experts-are-suddenly-reluctant-to-follow-the-science/

"The British government appears to be furious. Ministers who have been constantly demanding that we “follow the science” are reportedly ready to ignore the advice – or more likely, bully the JCVI into hastily changing its mind over the coming days."
...
"What sensible view should we, the public, take when that “scientific” consensus suddenly solidifies – possibly as soon as next week – behind exactly what the politicians are demanding."
...
"“Follow the science” is a mantra designed to shut down all critical thinking about how we respond to the pandemic – and to justify censorship of even well-qualified dissenting scientists by corporate media and their social media equivalents."

Yes, the hypocrisy here has a peculiarly fetid odor, but where politcal power and corporate interests come into play, this sort of stench is commonplace - Afghanistan debacle is a different but similar sort of doublespeak.

Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Sep 6 2021 8:03 utc | 97

Ghost Ship 107
The very first sentence tells me all I
need to know...'Coup in Africa GUinea'

Gotta be a FUKUS regime change.

Oz hubris arise from its confidence that China is a captive market for Aussie iron ores.
China is banking on the Guinea mines to break out of this stranglehold, Beijing even promise to build a rail road exclusively to ferry the iron ores from the hinterland to the coastal ports.

Somebody must be chuckling to themselves in Canberra/Washington.

This is how THE five liars 'compete' with China, standard FUKUS MO,.

Posted by: denk | Sep 6 2021 8:23 utc | 98

It’s all over in less than a week in Panjshir - what has happened to the fight to the death CIA operative Saleh? He must be worth a lot - $ 12 Billions at least 🤣

“
Parisa Hafezi
@PHREUTERS
·
42m
#Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tells news conference: #Panjshir, the last hideout of the "escapee enemy" is captured
@Reuters”

So with peace and internet and electricity restored and Airports functioning- what more is there left to do.

A peace and reconciliation exercise is my bet.

Let’s them start with the CIA quislings.

Posted by: DG | Sep 6 2021 8:31 utc | 99

Posted by: Rêver | Sep 6 2021 8:17 utc | 116

Yes, the consistent examples of incompetence, mismanagement and miscommunication seem to be a pattern found in wars against countries, "terrorists" and viruses, but also in the production of airplanes, military technology and vaccines, as well as in the handling of the economy and diplomatic relations. In fact, there are most probably the symptoms of massive corruption.

Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Sep 6 2021 8:32 utc | 100