RE: The Kenosha Kid trial and FBI attempts to predjuidice it:
The fact the ever-increasingly openly corrupt FBI felt that not only did they need to keep hidden, til the very last minute, the very existence of this video, but that they additionally felt they needed to oh-so-conveniently “LOSE” the high-resolutio version, suggests that the video is a lot more favorable to the Defense than the prosecution would like.

Posted by: Contra-Conspiraloon | Nov 4 2021 14:21 utc | 4

Grieved linked to this on the dying tail of the week in review thread and it needs to be shared on this new thread for people to read: “The Manufacture of Decline” by Patrick Lawrence.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 4 2021 16:17 utc | 6

A day after the US military declared “no misconduct” in the drone incineration of seven children, the ICC announces a probe of Venezuela for “crimes against humanity” for building homes and establishing food programmes for its citizens in the face of siege-like U.S. economic sanctions. Oh wait…no, the claim -first presented to the court by members of the Lima Group, which supports the sanctions and defies international law by demanding regime-change in Venezuela – is that Venezuelan security forces engaged in torture and extrajudicial killings. The Marduro government is cooperating in the court’s “probe” – which is not yet, contrary to reports in the western media, a “case”.
The Associated Press reports the ICC chief prosecutor “said he was aware of the political ‘fault lines’ and ‘geopolitical divisions’ that exist in Venezuela. But he said his job was to uphold the principles of legality and the rule of law, not settle scores…Human rights groups and the US-backed opposition immediately celebrated the decision. Since its creation two decades ago, the ICC has mostly focused on atrocities committed in Africa.”

Posted by: jayc | Nov 4 2021 16:29 utc | 8

@ 6 karlof1… thanks for that… i have been away the past few days! good article… i quote – “Do Americans think there is no price to pay for this kind of self-deception?” the same can obviously be said for canada, uk and the rest of the western non leadership at this time..
i am curious if blinken has chimed in on assange.. does anyone know what kind of platitudes he expresses in this direction??? the usa is so full of shite, it gets very tiring reading all the bromides coming out of these con artists or worse… that the media carries water for them regularly shows why so many people turn off the media.. they are also full of shite and unwilling or unable to call a spade a spade..
gulag usa..
that was my response from reading @ 3/4 Contra-Conspiraloon…. how are shares in the penitentiary corporations?? have we gone down to 2 strikes and yer out yet??
the 2 day break was nice.. went out to tofino and saw very big waves and some surfers too.. being on the west coast is exhilarating.. the road there not so much!

Posted by: james | Nov 4 2021 16:44 utc | 10

here’s a great phrase to convey the utterly psychopathic mentality of the bourgeoisie, attributed to the gratefully dead Z-pig Brzkinzski: “give the Soviets their own Vietnam.” the US takes its revenge for its own defeat out on the Soviets via Afghanistan, all to the cost of millions of lives and ecological devastation and…and…
good thing these same people are running the “environmentalism” and the “human rights campaigns.” I feel safer.
DeSantis/Youngkin 2024!

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Nov 4 2021 16:55 utc | 12

British Medical Journal Covid 19 Investigation: Researcher blows whistle on Pfizer Vaccine Trials
https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2635

Posted by: Gulo | Nov 4 2021 17:49 utc | 14

LA port shipping delays getting worse this week?
Maritime Executive update on shipping congestion

Despite the increasing efforts to increase the movement of containers through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, yesterday, November 2 the San Pedro Bay again tied a record set two weeks ago with 44 containerships waiting beyond the anchorage. Another 33 containerships are in anchorages with a total of 104 vessels of all types waiting for space at the two ports’ terminals. Another 41 vessels, including 19 containerships, are due to arrive before the end of the week with the Marine Exchange of Southern California saying the trend remains stable in the near term.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 4 2021 17:59 utc | 16

@ lex talionis | Nov 4 2021 16:45 utc | 11…
thanks for posting it again.. i was going to back and look for it, but this is easier! i will watch it in the next few days.. cheers james
here is is again for anyone interested.. Ukraine: The Everlasting Present -> Documentary dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence

Posted by: james | Nov 4 2021 18:24 utc | 18

Lex…yup watched most of the film via rt documentaries. Jolly good…concise…well done…needs to be archived. Does explain the historical context and delusional Ukraine politicians. Perhaps they are finally beginning to realise the hopelessness and desperation of their as situation. Lots of staff changes last couple days….might mean something or not…just the usual circus?

Posted by: Jo | Nov 4 2021 19:52 utc | 20

karlof1 #6 and Grieved
Thank you for a fine link to savour.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 4 2021 20:03 utc | 22

USA allegedly to offer legal protection $ to foreign “journalists” under CIA cutout USAID program.
Note the mention of Julian Assange in the final, grammatically incorrect, sentence. They didn’t even proofread it.
Also no statement as to whether the program would apply in countries “allied” with Washington.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211104-us-to-cover-costs-for-journalists-under-legal-pressure

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 4 2021 20:47 utc | 24

Pfizer released their financial report over the third quarter of 2021. Comparisons are with Q3 of 2020:
– Eliquis (bloodclots) + 19%
– Vyndaqel (neuropathology and myocarditis) + 42%
– Various oncological products +9% to + 34%
https://investors.pfizer.com/events-and-presentations/event-details/2021/Pfizer-Quarterly-Corporate-Performance–Third-Quarter-2021/default.aspx
Just imagine to run a business where you make big bucks selling a medicine that doesn’t exactly work, then bribe the politicians to put the blame on the people who didn’t take it, and then make a fortune selling drugs to people who suffer the adverse effects of your failed medicine.
Bingo

Posted by: DG | Nov 4 2021 21:24 utc | 26

juliania #23

The observation in the Nature study that the Chinese vaccine “mimics infection” is alarming. Someone more knowledgeable than I can comment on whether the two observations on the different vaccines mean the one is safe for the healthy (who can repair damage?) while the other for the rest of us.(??)

All vaccines are designed the do exactly that: mimic infection. They predispose the mammal to immediately detect viral assault and have a prompt metabolic response triggered as soon as possible. Overwhelm the attacker before it reproduces to an overwhelming assault.
The study compares vaccinated people with those who were naturally infected to examine the consequences. It is helpful when considering post covid (long covid?)consequences and perhaps supportive responses and could apply equally to post vaccinated people.
One of the alarms regarding mRNA vaccines is the durability and potential risk from long term spike proteins lurking about in various organs etc. There are some responses that can be considered to mop these up and that is definitely a worthy research as we enter a calmer, thoughtful stage of societal response. Once the mega corporations of the west have harvested their billions we may be left in peace to harvest our herbs.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 4 2021 21:37 utc | 28

In addition to “The Manufacture of Decline” linked @6, we have its complement, “The U.S. Moral Superiority Complex Is Accelerating Its Decline”:
“There is no doubt that the optics of one of the greatest foreign policy disaster in American history damaged the reputation of the U.S. both at home and overseas and that’s why we should expect new and more aggressive initiatives to harden American soft power and tighten control of the narrative through underhand methods.
“Carefully crafted narratives are crucial for the U.S. because it is selling the world a failed model of development. Trumpeting it as inclusive, gender equal, green and sustainable is like putting lipstick on a pig, it looks grotesque. Managing perceptions, denigrating alternative civilizational and economic models, and demonizing the competition is no longer working, an increasingly large segment of the world population is developing stronger antibodies to the virus of American propaganda. That’s why traditional soft-power tools — trade, legal standards, technology — are increasingly being used to coerce rather than convince.”
“After the Afghanistan disaster former French ambassador to Israel, UN and U.S. Gérard Araud shared his dismay on Twitter: ‘The absence of self-examination in the West is seen elsewhere with disbelief. Wars waged by the West have recently cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians for no result and we still lecture the world about values. Do you have any idea about how we are seen abroad?'” [My Emphasis]
Much of what the author writes is already well know to most barflies, but I’ll admit it’s good to see it appear in print elsewhere:
“While the U.S. allocated resources to the destruction and destabilization of sovereign countries, and ignored the widening income gap at home, their main competitor, China, lifted millions of its citizens out of poverty and kept building state-of-the-art infrastructure at home and abroad, that is projects that make a tangible difference in people’s livelihoods. No wonder concealing the truth has become a matter of national security.
“Democrats openly admit their intent to co-opt Silicon Valley to police political discourse and silence the bearers of inconvenient truths. They effectively sowed the seeds for a future where everything and everyone can be(come) a national-security threat. Glenn Greenwald revealed that Congressional Democrats have summoned the CEO’s of Google, Facebook and Twitter four times in the last year to demand they censor more political speech. They explicitly threatened the companies with legal and regulatory reprisals if they did not start censoring more. Pulling the plug on dissenting opinions and de-platforming people who challenge the dominant discourse makes a mockery of free speech, one of the rights that the U.S. claims to be defending when it selectively condemns alleged violations of human rights in other countries. Increasing censorship is also an indication that control of the narrative both at home and overseas has become vital for the U.S.” [My Emphasis]
I’d only add that the Ds have been in power 2/3s of the time since GHW Bush announced the rise of The New World Order, whereas the continuity of policy proves that it’s not the Ds but the Duopoly, although the Ds are clearly far more aggressive than the Rs. Caitlyn Johnstone was 100% correct about the need to delegitimize the Establishment Narrative.
There’s much more to excerpt and highlight, but I’ll submit to b’s request and end my review here although it’s barely a third done. Don’t forget the complement linked @6, and lumping them together with Alastair Crooke’s last 4-5 essays would also be appropriate.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 4 2021 22:07 utc | 30

An example of the impact of the Bezzle shrinking: Cisco in 2000 vs today
Cisco in 1999/2000 was supposed to be the first $1T market cap stock – their market cap today is $240B. Their earnings in 2020: $12.2B revenue, $2.6B income.
Compare with Cisco in 2000 was over $500B, closer to $600B or $700B at peak even as their revenue and earnings were a fraction of 2020: revenue $3.9B, income $415M.
Note that Cisco today is during a late stage bubble as well, so the $240B market cap is unquestionably inflated as well.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 4 2021 22:24 utc | 32

I went over to the Marci Wheeler-Emptywheel-site to check whether she had any apologies to make for years of embroidering the Russiagate nonsense.
Of course she had nothing about it. She is too busy nowadays persecuting Julian Assange:
“.. Assange’s team has spent the last nine months spinning wildly about topics other than US prison conditions. They did so, first, by falsely claiming that an article in which Siggi Thordarson reaffirmed one of the most damning things he said about Assange would doom the case against Assange, even though as a co-conspirator, Siggi is unlikely to be called as a witness. More recently, Assange’s team has embraced an article showing that CIA Director Mike Pompeo was unable to pursue a variety of measures to attempt to thwart the release of (still substantially unreleased) stolen hacking tools, even though the article proves that Assange lied wildly in his extradition hearing about when and why the US government changed its understanding of his actions and further shows that the US didn’t charge Assange in the face of Pompeo’s pressure, but only did so when Russia attempted to exfiltrate Assange…”
So it was Russia again!! And planning Assange’s assassination was totally justified!
What a disgrace the Democrats and their propagandists are.

Posted by: bevin | Nov 4 2021 22:35 utc | 34

German Member of the European Parliament Martin Sonneborn leaks uncensored Pfizer contracts
https://twitter.com/martinsonneborn/status/1455836782587748352?s=28
p.62: 10 Nanograms of DNA per shot are allowed in the “mRNA” vaccine, corresponding to 5 x 10^10 small DNA fragments. Genomic integration possible.
German top geneticist establishes a sentinel program for genetic ailments after vaccination:
“Adenoviral Vector DNA- and SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-Based Covid-19 Vaccines: Possible Integration into the Human Genome – Are Adenoviral Genes Expressed in Vector-based Vaccines?” Virus Res. 2021 Sep; 302: 198466.
doi: 10.1016/j.virusres.2021.198466

Posted by: BelleDelphine | Nov 4 2021 22:58 utc | 36

@GEROMAN at twitter is worth a visit.
More of the tribes around and in Marib city have defected to join the nationalist resistance to Saudi Arabia and the USUK war crimes in Yemen. Geroman reports the battle for the city will commence in the next day or two unless of course the entire population choses peace and escapes from the evil Bone Sawman and his mullahs.
Just below that report is one of the best Karen hysterics I have ever seen on a US flight. Watch it with a wine or beer ready. Mirth is good for the spirit and there is heaps here.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 4 2021 23:33 utc | 38

Posted by: juliania | Nov 4 2021 20:29 utc | 23
The observation in the Nature study that the Chinese vaccine “mimics infection” is alarming.
___________________________________________________________________
Why would that be alarming? That is what vaccines are designed to do. Mimicking infection is how vaccines generally work. Ideally the mimicked infection from vaccination produces only mild adverse effects.
This article is not suggesting that certain at-risk people should not take the vaccine. It is recommending that certain at-risk people should be watched closely when vaccinated because the vaccine can have some of the same negative effects as covid (although maybe not as severe).
What amazes me is that so few people grasp that SARS2 targets the weaknesses in modern (particularly western) living. If you have a weak heart, or are overweight, or have high blood sugar, or high blood pressure, or don’t spend much time outdoors in the sunshine and get covid19 you may be in serious trouble when you get covid19. Those are all conditions created by lifestyle choices. If you have made the life style choices that create those conditions then you have much to worry about from covid19, but if you have not you are not so vulnerable.
My personal belief is that SARS2 is not a man made virus. Instead it is an accident that has just been waiting to happen for a long time. If it is man-made then it was made by someone who opposes what modern people are doing.

Posted by: jinn | Nov 4 2021 23:52 utc | 40

Michael Hudson’s The Zero Hour interview on his 3rd edition of Super Imperialism. I suggest watching the video as the transcript is very muddled, but still readable. He’s more explicit than ever in saying the Outlaw US Empire is in essence a Financial Gangster. Here’s Richard Eskow’s reaction to Hudson’s description of what’s really happening:
“People like Obama and his administration present themselves as technocrats. But what you’re describing is really a ferocious and passionately held ideology, it seems to me, as well as people behaving out of self-interest. People like this — let’s not be partisan about it. This is ideological extremism to me. This is people saying the dollar rules and I rule the dollar and you do what I say, and that’s the way it should be.” [My Emphasis]

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 5 2021 0:27 utc | 42

bevin | Nov 4 2021 22:35 utc | 34… i did the same a few days ago.. i was curious if she is still ranting about january 6th.. the women and her site has completely lost the storyline… all i can say is i hope the intel agencies are paying her well, although with craziness like that, i am not sure it is a wise investment either! for someone who showed good analytical skills in the past – maybe 5- 10 years ago, she really has gone down into the gutter the past 5 or more years.. sad to see…

Posted by: james | Nov 5 2021 1:02 utc | 44

How can 84% of Chicago Public Schools students graduate when only 26% of 11th graders are proficient in reading, math?
https://wirepoints.org/how-can-84-of-chicago-public-schools-students-graduate-when-only-26-of-11th-graders-are-proficient-in-reading-math-wirepoints-quickpoint/
Long Live the Chop: Poetic Justice & Karma for the MLB and Robert D. Manfred 
https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/long-live-the-chop-poetic-justice
Latest UKHSA report shows Vaccinated accounted for 82% of Covid-19 Deaths & 65% of Hospitalisations in England over the past 4 weeks
https://theexpose.uk/2021/10/22/england-82-percent-covid-19-deaths-vaccinated/

Posted by: Dogon Priest | Nov 5 2021 2:33 utc | 46

@ DP 46
How can 84% of Chicago Public Schools students graduate when only 26% of 11th graders are proficient in reading, math?
How many of the high achievers in your community became successful because of proficiency in reading and math? . . .I claim not many, when industry, creativity, leadership, people-skills, salesmanship and many other various factors are important to becoming successful in life. . .But hey, reading and math are easy to test, and enable the establishment to call the poor readers and the algebra haters “failures.” . . So that answers your question.

Posted by: d | Nov 5 2021 2:51 utc | 48

@49 psychohistorian
Please keep us posted on anything you may learn of those negotiations. We live in an interesting slice of these interesting times – a moment of importance.
Last we talked it was over an article that I wish we all had time to read properly, but it basically said the time is coming that the attack against the ordinary person has spent its maximum force and may now be regrouping – and that this is when the counterattack by the oppressed will begin.
Now the Administration launches the OSHA offensive, to begin January 1 against businesses. The line of absurdity has been crossed, and the lawsuits have begun, claiming that this is unconstitutional. Thus, the opening salvos.
I never saw so clearly how – in comparison with the rest of the Five Eyes – the 2nd Amendment shields us from outright massive violence from the State. Although actually I’ve seen this all my life, quite clearly, as I’m sure have you.
~~
They pushed this thing to see what barriers they could breach, and they made tremendous headway. It seems important now that when they get pushed back we retake all that lost ground and much more.
More union strength would be good. New unions would be wonderful.
Yes, I know the task is practically impossible, on paper. But reality starts from the ground, not from the drawing board. And from the ground, I’ve seen people organize in unity without one scrap of paper, and prevail in getting a better life, purely from natural instinct.
But, organization would surely help – I wonder who’s out there now, organizing?
Of it all, only solidarity matters.

Posted by: Grieved | Nov 5 2021 4:03 utc | 50

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 5 2021 0:55 utc | 43
Those of us who teach classical literature will prefer to go to Herodotus (6.129) for the story of the suitors of Agariste. The account and its source deserve better. The wiki entry is a 19th-century interpretation (at best) with all of its Dorian vs Achaean nonsense. Not sure why tyrant is in inverted commas (Kleisthenes of Sikyon was a turannos). There are infinitely better versions of the nature of Athenian democracy and the role of its elite than the History Channel version offered, and that’s quite apart from the absurd suggestion that “Athenian democracy is the precursor of contemporary democracies”. IMHO people should be careful peddling nonsense in comments. One risks opening one’s mouth to remove all doubt.

Posted by: Patroklos | Nov 5 2021 5:27 utc | 52

Grieved @50:
Of it all, only solidarity matters.
Solidarity comes from collective resolves. Collective resolves arises from collective knowledge of the true situation. At ground level, collective knowledge of the situation is so confused that some voted for dope and some voted for snake oil salesman. No one seem to know what they are for nor what they oppose. How do we gather the forces for the push back? I’m much less of an optimist than you are.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Nov 5 2021 6:26 utc | 54

I do agree though that to effectively push back, solidarity matters. But how to show solidarity at ground level? I propose that next November, we don’t vote. When less than 10% of eligible voters bother to vote, I think the message is truly loudly delivered. Let them politician scramble for an explanation to carry on their vavaging of the nation, notice would have been served as to what comes next.
What comes next of course should be a 10 fold replay of January 6, 2021.
Now, some would say with 10% voting, bad guys will get into office. Well, what do we really have to lose? Are there any candidates in races that you would really wish to have won in the past 40+ years? Ain’t it the consensus here in the bar that all them politicos are bad apples?
Better than town meetings, better than caucuses, better than writing to editors, collective refusal to vote would deliver the loudest message.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Nov 5 2021 7:06 utc | 56

Iran Azerbaijan Armenia border issues and the influence of Turkey and Russian interests discussed in a very good report by Agha Hussain at the Cradle here.
This brings into focus the strategic trade routes serving Indian export goods to Iran, through both Azerbaijan to Russia and on to EU and Armenia through Georgia and across the Black sea to Bulgaria and even Turkey if there is a good enough reason for it. These are components of the local transport web that is under development and a moderator of conflict in the South Caucasus.
A taste of the intrigues being examined:

Iran views the major role Israeli armaments played alongside Turkish ones in the Azerbaijani victory as having boosted Israel’s status in Baku’s strategic calculus as a reliable extra-regional backer for the latter’s more assertive posture in the Caucasus.
Tehran wishes to forestall nearby states from so perceiving cooperation with Israel as a vector for power in the Caucasus, especially considering its own notable lack of impact on the Nagorno-Karabakh war. In this endeavour, Azerbaijan is at present both an ideal and urgent target.
Iran interprets various Azerbaijani regional goals as serving Israeli interests and now opts to use the threat of escalation and region-wide rivalry with Azerbaijan to make it take this interpretation seriously. Doing so will allow Iran to directly obstruct or challenge these goals with the result that Baku agrees to cut back its dealings with Tel Aviv.
This approach is presently being applied to the planned ‘Zangezur Corridor’ between Azerbaijan and its autonomous Nakhchivan enclave via Syunik province in south Armenia.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 5 2021 8:56 utc | 58

ooops link to The kingdom’s tough choices: between MbS and a hard place.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 5 2021 9:15 utc | 60

Posted by: Grieved | Nov 5 2021 4:03 utc | 50
(Re psychohistorian | Nov 5 2021 3:26 utc | 49)
“Please keep us posted on anything you may learn of those negotiations.”
Yes, please do. My former partner was a nurse at Kaiser. They worked her into exhaustion and she came home totally
spent, a factor in my saying ‘former’. Nurses are heroes, especially the ones speaking out and taking action.
Grieved, the second part of your post #50 is most important. The bar spends a lot of time referencing the actions of nations
and politicians – current events if you will – not so much about ‘what is to be done?’. That question is fundamental.
“Yes, I know the task is practically impossible, on paper. But reality starts from the ground, not from the drawing board. And from the ground, I’ve seen people organize in unity without one scrap of paper, and prevail in getting a better life, purely from natural instinct.”
It is almost impossible, but practically it is possible. We must believe that!
“Of it all, only solidarity matters.”
Solidarity means working with everyone to your left and to your right against everyone who is on top of you. I think
it’s worth another look at William Gruff’s post #177 in the Some Musings on ‘Wokeness’ thread of Oct. 21, 2021.
If you get past the gruff, huff and puff, there’s some good thoughts there.
I’ll leave this link and a quote from it for those who are caught up on their reading and want more:
What is to be done?
“The most modest demand, if the ruling class is unable or unwilling to fulfil it and provided the people are
sufficiently organized to say, well, in that case, we’ll fulfil it ourselves, can become revolutionary.”

Posted by: waynorinorway | Nov 5 2021 10:18 utc | 62

@19 librus
“The government” doens`t have an indemnity agreement with Pfizer. The US government has.
The contract with the EU doesn`t contain an indemnity clause. (One of the few things that von der Leyen did right.) Pfizer is liable for all adverse effects of it`s vaccine and can be brought before court in the EU for any such issues.

Posted by: m | Nov 5 2021 10:56 utc | 64

More signs of what is to come: fertilizer prices spiking (again)
CEO of fertilizer company warns

“I want to say this loud and clear right now, that we risk a very low crop in the next harvest,” said Svein Tore Holsether, the CEO and president of the Oslo-based company. “I’m afraid we’re going to have a food crisis.”
Speaking to Fortune on the sidelines of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Holsether said that the sharp rise in energy prices this summer and autumn had already resulted in fertilizer prices roughly tripling.
…
“To produce a ton of ammonia last summer was $110,” said Holsether. “And now it’s $1,000. So it’s just incredible.”

So now we know food price inflation is not going to abate. We are already seeing shortages as the lockdown induced shocks to the food supply system have distorted “eat-out” supply chains vs. “eat-in” supply chains. The ports are backed up, so don’t expect imports to substitute.
And then there’s this:
US Farmers can’t export due to port problems

“We’re at the mercy of foreign shipping companies,” said Roger Isom, president and CEO of the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association and the Western Agricultural Processors Association. “We’re in a game, somebody changed the rules on us and we have no way to correct it.”
California is the nation’s biggest supplier of tree nuts — almonds, walnuts and pistachios. Most of them are sold to other countries, totaling more than $8.1 billion in exports in 2019, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
But last month, Isom said more than 80% of scheduled shipments were canceled. Processors have resorted to paying much more to ship their products to other ports, sending pistachios and walnuts by train to Texas and Maryland and flying bales of cotton to Peru.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 5 2021 13:42 utc | 66

This is important:
Canadian Professor of Ethics and Ancient History on Vaccine Mandates

In the fall of 2019, I was a professor of ethics and ancient philosophy; I taught students critical thinking + the importance of self-reflection, how to ask good questions and evaluate evidence, how to learn from the past and why democracy requires civic virtue.
…
“The right to determine what shall or shall not be done with one’s own body, and to be free from non-consensual medical treatment, is a right deeply rooted in our common law.” These aren’t my words; they are the words of Justice Sydney Robins of the Ontario Court of Appeal.
With very few exceptions, each person’s body is considered inviolate in Canadian law, and this is the underlying ethos of the Nuremberg Code, a promise to humanity that we would never again endorse uninformed, non-voluntary medical decision-making, even for the patient’s own good, even for the sake of the public good.
By definition, vaccine mandates are coercive immunization strategies: in the absence of coercion — the threat of a loss of employment, for example — people would voluntarily agree to do what the mandate is trying to achieve!
…
In emergencies, the Parliament and provincial legislatures have a limited power to pass laws that violate certain Charter rights for the sake of the public good. But, to justify those violations, vaccine mandates would need to meet a very high threshold: COVID-19 would, for example, need to be a highly virulent pathogen for which there is no adequate treatment, and the vaccines would need to be demonstrably effective and safe.
The current state of affairs in Canada meets neither of these criteria.
Consider these facts:
1) COVID-19 has an infection facility rate not even 1% that of smallpox (and it poses even less risk to children)
2) a number of safe, highly effective pharmaceuticals exist to treat it (including monoclonal antibodies, Ivermectin, fluvoxamine, Vitamin D and Zinc), AND
3) The vaccines have reported more adverse events (including innumerable deaths) than every other vaccine on the market over the last 30 years.
In light of these facts, I have so many questions:
Why are the vaccinated granted vaccine passports and access to public spaces, when the Director of the CDC has stated that the COVID-19 vaccines cannot prevent transmission?
Why is vaccination the ONLY mitigation strategy when emerging evidence (including a recent Harvard study) shows no discernible relationship between the vaccination rate and new cases?
Why does our government continue to withhold Ivermectin as a recommended treatment when the U-S National Institutes of Health supports it, and when the state of Uttar Pradesh in India distributed it to its 230 million people, reducing its COVID death rate to almost zero? How has India surpassed Canada in Health Care?
Why are we about to vaccinate 5 year olds when COVID poses to them less risk than the potential vaccine reactions AND while there is NO effective monitoring system for the vaccines?
Why are we focused on the narrow benefits of vaccine-induced immunity when real-world studies show natural immunity is more protective, more potent, and more enduring?
Why do we shame the “vaccine hesitant” and not the “vaccine adamant”?
“Why,” as a nurse recently asked, “do the protected need to be protected from the unprotected by forcing the unprotected to use the protection that did not protect the protected in the first place?”

I have said many of the very same things, repeatedly, in posts here on MoA.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 5 2021 14:16 utc | 68

Yesterday marked Russia’s Unity Day with Putin in Sevastopol at the brand new memorial dedicated to the end of Russia’s Civil War. Quite an impressive complex judging from pics:
“The monument presents a sculptural composition with two male figures at the centre symbolising the two opposing sides in the Civil War. Above them rises a statue on a pedestal representing Mother Russia that calls on its sons to be reconciled. The bottom of the monument carries the inscription: ‘We are a single people, and we have only one Russia.’ This is where the eternal flame is burning.”
Putin’s speech was short but with a note of defiance aimed at those wanting to destroy Russia:
“National Unity Day marks a dramatic, life-changing period in the history of our country. In the early 17th century, Russia found itself on the brink of losing its sovereignty and could have disappeared from the European and world maps forever. However, the people of Russia did not let this happen. They came together in a volunteer army led by Minin and Pozharsky to defend their homeland, chase out the invaders and traitors, restore a strong state, and stop sectarian strife. They took on the task of saving the country and paved the way for Russia’s revival and strengthening….
“The memorial complex in Sevastopol shows that Russia remembers and loves all its devoted sons and daughters no matter what side of the barricades they once were on, and that our country has recovered its historical unity.
“It is of course here, in Sevastopol, in Crimea, that one gets the keenest sense of this live, indissociable bond. Sevastopol and Crimea are now with Russia and will stay with it forever, because this was the expression of the sovereign, free and uncompromising will of our entire people. [My Emphasis]
I’m sure many Ukrainians listened to Putin’s speech wondering when the Motherland will come to save them.
Also yesterday, a meeting of the Supreme State Council for The Union State met to sign a series of important documents with Lukashenko presiding:
“I would also like to make a request to my good friend and colleague: Mr Putin, if you have the opportunity, at least via Crimea’s leadership, would you please pass on the most sincere greetings from Belarusians to Crimea’s residents and wish them good health and courage amidst these difficult times. They must understand that they are not alone, we stand next to each other and will support and help each other during this challenging period.”
Quite a bit of substance is relayed by Putin and Lukashenko, and I’m pleased I read the entire transcript, otherwise I’d have missed out on some very important context related to the new monument Putin dedicated, which I’ll share:
“Vladimir Putin: Yes, I am indeed in Sevastopol today to mark National Unity Day as well as to attend the unveiling of this monument. It is a great statue I think, and I recommend everyone to see it. And the story itself is quite exciting, I mean the people depicted – the Berens twin brothers as far as I know – looking so valiant and handsome. One of them joined the ‘red’ side and commanded the navy in the Russian Federation, and the other – the White Movement naval forces. Both were admirals, and they never saw each other again after one of them emigrated from Russia. Both died without ever seeing each other again. It is an interesting story, and I hope that this symbolism – the twins, two naval commanders standing side by side on this pedestal – truly reflects a return to the unity of the multiethnic Russian nation.”
What former member of the Soviet Union will be next to join the Union State? Perhaps the two Donbass Republics.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 5 2021 15:53 utc | 70

So one year on, things are getting much hotter in the Horn of Africa again, and massive floods and crop failures is S. Sudan.
State Department urges US citizens to leave Ethiopia
UN says 800,000 people affected by floods in South Sudan

Posted by: Bemildred | Nov 5 2021 16:57 utc | 72

@ spudski | Nov 5 2021 17:02 utc | 73 with the Michael Hudson quote….thanks
As I and others have written at the bar for years, the one change that the bottom needs to demand of the top in our society is the elimination of private finance entirely as it has proven to provide no intrinsic value to society, only an unequal/unjust society.
All this BS we are reading here about some complex way to save ourselves is more obfuscation of and misdirection about the core tenets of the Western form of “social organization” with global private finance. This form of social organization, of which many of us are “clients” is in a civilization war with China who is maintaining a form of social organization that has finance be publicly owned and controlled at the core.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 5 2021 17:13 utc | 74

spudski @ 73, I too thank you for the Michael Hudson article. I will add to what he says that the very first ‘tell’ for Obama ought to have been that he did not accept the government provided assistance to his campaign, preferring to go with private contributions. I didn’t see it myself; I voted for him first time he ran, thinking his issues were different from Bush. I was wrong
But now I know. Here’s a bit more from Professor Hudson’s article:
“… If the world is polarizing between the One Percent and the 99 Percent, between creditors and debtors, monopolists and consumers, where is the middle ground? The Chinese have a proverb: “He who comes to a fork in the road and tries to go two roads at once will get a broken hip joint.” Being a moderate means not interfering with the economic trends that are polarizing the U.S. economy between the rentier One Percent at the top and the increasingly indebted 99 Percent…”
Having broken my own hip through my own foolishness five years back, this made me laugh out loud. Fool me once…
Can’t we make accepting the modest amount of assistance to campaigns that is governmentally affordable mandatory???
Think what that would do.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 5 2021 17:24 utc | 76

Recommended read of the day:
Xi Jinping’s Speech at a Ceremony Marking the Centenary of the Communist Party of China
–//–
@ Posted by: Oriental Voice | Nov 5 2021 17:24 utc | 77
Not in practice. The explanation is very complex and would require a fairly advanced knowledge of dialectics, but, long story short, the fluctuations caused by taxation and patterns of consumption and production are minimal in a consolidated capitalist world.
–//–
@ Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 5 2021 17:13 utc | 74
Your rationale (and, for that matter, Michael Hudson’s) is wrong. The only reason the Western peoples think private finance is the main enemy is because that’s the dominant capitalist sector in the West nowadays. The SE Asian peoples must probably think industrial capital is the main enemy, Latin American peoples think it is agrarian capital that is the main enemy etc. etc.
The main point is: capitalism in general is the enemy.

Posted by: vk | Nov 5 2021 17:32 utc | 78

@75 Cont’d–
Hudson’s essay is a polished version of the points he outlined in his interview with Paul Jay. IMO, somebody will make a few pennies marketing a T-shirt emblazoned with “I’m not a Donor; I’m a Voter.” Hudson sees no hope from Rs and given reality has written off Ds:
“The current Democratic impasse shows that no progress can be made without changing the institutional structure of American politics. It seems that the only way to do this is to make sure that the Democratic Party loses so irrevocably in 2022 and 2024 that it is dissolved enough to enable the Progressives to revive the near corpse.”
Lots of third parties exist at the state level and run candidates for congressional and state offices. IMO, that’s where voter effort ought to be directed for 2022 and beyond. Somehow the oligarchic Duopoly must be cut down to the point where it no longer has any clout. The only solution I see is some form of Populist revolt that backs third parties as was done during the two previous eras of Populist Revolt–The Gilded Age and Great Depression. Oh, and that populist resistance/revolt arose in the flyover states by many who were radicalized Rs. Nowadays, both Ds and Rs are radicalized; so it’s time to destroy the ID Political barricade and stand together as humans with very similar needs that aren’t being fulfilled by government because of the Oligarchy.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 5 2021 18:08 utc | 80

Juliana @ 23
Thank you.
uncle tungsten’s quick response is completely correct in its first part. Mimicking nature is the strategy. Think Edward Jenner and smallpox. His answer was spreading nature to more places than it would ordinarily go.
Second part of uncle tungsten a bit queasy. Yes, there are possibilities for mitigating vaccine harm, and that must be explored. But once damage is done much of that damage will remain. Damage to the heart muscle is permanent. Brain damage is permanent. Vascular damage is mostly permanent.
First step is gathering information. Which has become difficult. Peter McCullough is the worlds most published cardiologist. A year ago he had eight groups of initials after his name. He is down to four. And is worried he will
lose the initials ‘M.D.’ Younger and less distinguished doctors are keeping quiet in situations where their clinical observations are needed.
McCullough is stating the spike protein in vaccine damaged myocarditic hearts is two orders of magnitude greater than it appears with ordinary and severe covid infection. The clinical observations are truncated. We really do not know how long either the mRNA or the spike proteins persist. We do not know why some vaccinated patients react strongly and others seem unaffected. There are outliers like Thomas Borody who says he has treated 6000 covid patients with zero mortality and zero long covid. Syed Haider says the same with 4000 patients. Is anyone following up with these clinicians? Of course not.

Posted by: Oldhippie | Nov 5 2021 19:16 utc | 82

Following up myself @81
That would be the same Thomas Borody who cured peptic and duodenal ulcers. Someone at this bar suffered ulcers earlier in life, Borody is the reason you are comfortable (and alive) now. Australia let Borody practice medicine for most of the pandemic, he was just too big to mess with. They are messing with him now.

Posted by: Oldhippie | Nov 5 2021 19:23 utc | 84

https://sebastianrushworth.com/2021/11/05/covid-how-long-does-vaccine-based-immunity-last/
Is it only a problem of Wuhan strain based vaccines or can we say that mRNA vaccines do not provide herd immunity versus the classical Sinovac?

Posted by: Tom2 | Nov 5 2021 20:18 utc | 86

@Oriental Voice #77
@vk #65
Indeed, let’s put just a few examples where policy affects profits directly:
1) Taxes. More taxes, less profit.
2) Lockdowns. Can’t operate, no profit.
3) Affirmative action. Not a minority? Greatly disadvantaged federal/state government business unless a multinational corp.
4) Government programs: PPP, Medicare drug policies, etc.
5) Import tariffs.
The real world is different than the nice model put forward by Marx. Just because he presented some interesting concepts doesn’t make his work inherently valid or even usable outside of politics.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 5 2021 22:01 utc | 88

On the ‘Let’s Go Brandon!” phenomenon this is good:
https://tinkzorg.wordpress.com/2021/11/02/2740/

Posted by: Patroklos | Nov 5 2021 22:53 utc | 90

Ellen Brown has a posting up at her web site about the NAC (natural asset company) financialization of nature with the link below
Conservation or Land Grab? The Financialization of Nature
The God of Mammon idolization is spreading the financialization cancer further over/through society…..will it be stopped?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 5 2021 23:06 utc | 92

@ Posted by: c1ue | Nov 5 2021 22:01 utc | 87
Taxes do not lower profits. It all depends on what the State spends those taxes. For example: more taxes in the USA means more profits to the MIC.
Indeed, some sectors of capitalist exploitation can only exist with the direct consumption (taxation) of the State.
If the State spends taxes build a road, the company hired to build said road will profit from those taxes. Those taxes means money-capital in the hands of the road building company.
The only scenario where taxation lowers profitability is when the State spends it on the Welfare State. The Welfare States makes labor power more expensive to all capitalist sectors at the same time, therefore lowers the social profit rate.
Higher salaries (and bribes) for politicians also don’t hurt profitability, because those politicians will spend this money on luxury items and estates, therefore boosting the luxury sector’s profit rate. The same logic applies to retired people (who will spend their money on the tourism sector and the medical-pharmaceutical sector).
This same logic applies to what you denominate “affirmative action” and government programs.
The existence of the State is absolutely necessary to capitalism. Without the State, the Free Market cannot exist, because the Free Market presupposes a neutral arbiter to set the rules of the Free Market in the first place.
The pandemic is a natural disaster of epic proportions. Economic theory does not apply to such events.
Import tariffs often represent a loss for the foreign capitalist sector, but in retribution of an abnormally high profit rate of the domestic capitalist sector. Capitalism survives either way.

Posted by: vk | Nov 5 2021 23:32 utc | 94

@89 Patroklos – On the ‘Let’s Go Brandon!” phenomenon this is good: The Decisive Battle – Malcom Kyeyune
I agree this is good. This is the long essay I decried in an earlier thread for being so long (at 4,000 words). I said it was a shame that such an excellent point was made with so many words.
I think I must now eat some crow. The essay is long-winded, but its excellence makes it worth reading. All of the points made by the author are good. So I’m going to share some of his best parts with some abridging.
~~
First, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was a desperate gambit that failed:

The Americans are furious, yes, but they don’t seek the quick and decisive battle the Japanese are hoping for. Instead they simply wait, and wait, and wait, focusing on the land war in Europe while building ships and preparing plans for when they will eventually take the war to Japan … If the Americans make this war about production and manpower, Japan will crumble … it has in fact already lost the war the second the Americans refuse to follow the script the Japanese had – quite naively – laid out for them.

Kyeyune likens this gambit to the stroke made by the woke class and the opponents of Trump. This class threw all of itself into defeating Trump in 2020, and assumed therefrom that the deplorables were defeated:

Every sector of America’s ”knowledge worker” caste came together from the middle of 2020 up to the election … and it worked perfectly – Joe Biden was [elected]…and [the opponents] were swiftly denounced as terrorists and traitors to the nation. [The Woke] scored a perfect victory, just as the Japanese scored a perfect victory at Pearl Harbor. In 2016, the ”forgotten people” of America had, incredibly, used the power of their votes to narrowly push Trump over the finish line. In 2020, the very much not forgotten people of America’s urban cores and prestige institutions gathered all their might and routed the deplorables from the field.
Or so they hoped.

What happens now?

In a world where nobody is actually convinced by the media, the fact that you control the media doesn’t actually help you. The ”email job caste” of America has a war machine that has already been maxed out. There are no reserves of fence-sitting journalists that can be drafted to fill in the holes and somehow make the message control more far-reaching or effective than it already is. There are no huge reservoirs of apolitical, unwoke university professors that can be drafted into talking some more sense into the chuds. What we all saw in 2020 represents, to some fairly significant extent, the full scope of the political, social and economic power of team blue in America today. And that team took its best shot in 2020, only to find out in 2021 that all that power has now decisively failed to settle any issues or end any conflicts in America. Team red is still there, and like the ”sleeping giant” that was America in 1941, they are now slowly waking up and starting to use their own power, on their own terms, in order to fight back

It’s Kyeyune’s perception and description of these details that make the essay so powerful. His comparison with Pearl Harbor is brilliant, and honors the true strategic scale of what is happening.

In 2020, the HR manager and CRT commissar pulled off their own little Pearl Harbor attack on the trucker and the pilot … But when the trucker now refuses to go to work over Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates, and the pilot openly mocks the power and legitimacy of the media and the credentialed classes over his airplane intercom, the utter hopelessness of the woke position is increasingly made manifest. They had hoped for a decisive battle, after which the ”forgotten people” would go back to being forgotten. Instead, the email job caste of America now finds itself locked into a hopeless conflict against people whose work and toil they rely on, but who do not need them to anything close to the same degree…there’s no more media that can be used. Censorship on social media platforms has failed to stop the spread of forbidden thought and subversive opinion, but there aren’t any big platforms left that didn’t partake in some way in 2020. The power that’s been used thus far has not been enough, but it’s increasingly unclear where the email job caste will get more power from.

As you can see, Kyeyune’s writing is very readable. If you have the time, it’s worth reading all of the essay. It took me a lot of words just to do it justice, but I couldn’t have done it in less.

Posted by: Grieved | Nov 6 2021 0:14 utc | 96

Little chat about that submarine still, even with public notice that various officers have been canned for the incident. Enquiring minds…

Posted by: Bill | Nov 6 2021 1:12 utc | 98

@Geroman reports that the governor of Marib has fled to Turkey 12 hours ago. If so it will be a rapid collapse of the Saudi traitor class and victory for the Yemen patriotic resistance and its liberation of Marib city.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 6 2021 1:58 utc | 100