james #202
Thank you. My research on this started out intending to discover number and location of CBW test and development labs in Italy. No luck so far on the Italian front. I recall there is a CBW lab close to the city of the coronavirus outbreak there. but that was near the 2020 commencement.
A tune for your day.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 26 2021 0:36 utc | 203

@ uncle tungsten..204… thanks!

Posted by: james | Nov 26 2021 1:35 utc | 205

@librul | Nov 25 2021 17:20 utc | 180

Couldn’t we all use a purification ceremony.

Indeed, there is much to learn from the east. Thanks for the follow up.

Posted by: Norwegian | Nov 26 2021 6:12 utc | 207

Posted by: D.G | Nov 25 2021 22:09 utc | 198
Is there a memo I missed about b doing what HE thinks is right about HIS blog?
Well, I don’t think anyone who’s disagreed with b’s decision denies his right to operate the way he thinks is best.
Of course he should do what he thinks is best, I’m just happy to be able to express my opinion to him for consideration.
Are powers thinking of throwing Him into jail too?
Man, that’s a scary thought isn’t it? But just a couple years ago who would have thought censorship would be supported so strongly. (I’m not referring to this vk/MoA affair, but the bigger picture, things like Strategic Culture, social media, etc.) That’s why I ended my @129 with, ‘let’s truck on there’s work to be done’ and agree with you, ¡No Pasaran!
Re your comments about Craig Murray and Independence. Yeah, I hope he hasn’t taken too much of a hit on his health and comes out swinging.
Happy to see posts by Gruff without ‘gruffiti’ and c1ue/Patroklos smoothed.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Nov 26 2021 6:58 utc | 209

Ottawa declines Boeing’s bid to replace Canada’s aging fighter jet fleet
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/boeing-fighter-jets-1.6262851
Since b brought up Boeing in the Week in Review, I thought I’d post that.
So now it’s down to 2 competitors: the super-expensive F-35 of Lockheed Martin, and the much more reasonably priced though not as reasonable as the price for Finland, Gripen of Saab. Recently there were protests across Canada over paying $19 billion for fighter jets.
https://bc.ctvnews.ca/b-c-senior-holds-14-day-fast-to-protest-federal-government-s-planned-purchase-of-88-fighter-jets-1.5400533
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/protesters-at-parliament-hill-push-for-a-stop-to-the-purchase-of-88-fighter-jets

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Nov 26 2021 10:26 utc | 211

Well, Canada could buy a bunch of those new Checkmate Su-75’s for a lot cheaper. Mind you that would defeat the whole purpose of fattening up Western weapon companies.
——
To echo a previous poster’s observation : I often feel, in the « meat » world, surrounded by clueless and irascible idiots. It’s refreshing to come here and be surrounded by folks who are more knowledgeable than myself, who generally also have a higher standard for civility and discussion from different viewpoints.
Thank you b, for your articles, and for the forum. Thank you also, fellow barflies. I really appreciate this bar.

Posted by: Featherless | Nov 26 2021 12:22 utc | 213

Thanks to the one who cited the article on the Kennedy assassination; that was interesting. I had looked in vain for an article on the subject’s anniversary, but only came up with: “8 weird facts about president Kennedy’s limousine”

Posted by: Platero | Nov 26 2021 14:09 utc | 215

This is important:
The Left’s COVID failure

Neoliberalism relies on extensive state intervention just as much as “Keynesianism” did, except that the state now intervenes almost exclusively to further the interests of big capital – to police the working classes, bail out large banks and firms that would otherwise go bankrupt, etc. Indeed, in many ways, capital today is more dependent on the state than ever. As Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan note: “[A]s capitalism develops, governments and large corporations become increasingly intertwined. … The capitalist mode of power and the dominant-capital coalitions that rule it do not require small governments. In fact, in many respects, they need larger ones”.
…
Ultimately, any form of government action should be judged for what it actually stands for. We support government intervention if it serves to further the rights of workers and minorities, to create full employment, to provide crucial public services, to rein in corporate power, to correct the dysfunctionalities of markets, to take control of crucial industries in the public interest. But in the past 18 months we have witnessed the exact opposite: an unparalleled strengthening of transnational corporate behemoths and their oligarchs at the expense of workers and local businesses.
…
Another Left-wing fantasy that has been shuttered by reality is the notion that the pandemic would usher in a new sense of collective spirit, capable of overcoming decades of neoliberal individualism. On the contrary, the pandemic has fractured societies even more – between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, between those who can reap the benefits of smart working and those who can’t. Moreover, a demos made up of traumatised individuals, torn apart from their loved ones, made to fear one another as a potential vectors of disease, terrified of physical contact – is hardly a good breeding ground for collective solidarity.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 26 2021 14:45 utc | 217

Featherless, I think Saab might take exception at being called a Western weapon company that needs fattening? Surely Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and others don’t need (allow?) another competitor?
Norwegian, thanks for the warning although by the looks of it, that message has already been delivered and efforts are still being made to inch us towards a Saab purchase. Of course, the next challenge is that if that purchase were to happen, these jets would have to be successfully constructed and delivered. Whenever anything naval is under construction that tends to be a problem. I have noticed the military source other items from Lockheed Martin in the past couple of years, leading me to wonder if they are attempting to buy LM off (a frequently employed method here in Canada!) Heck, we can’t even purchase new hand guns around here.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/tribunal-tells-federal-government-to-restart-military-pistol-purchase-favouritism-alleged

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Nov 26 2021 14:54 utc | 219

uncle tungsten @ 199
Your queries are largely asked and answered. For an overview I will suggest Karl and Dan Sirotkin. Karl created and for decades managed the genomics database everyone uses. His son is approximately a journalist and popular audience writer.
Of course these questions have been asked. Scientists are not idiots. The problems is that scientists who come up with the wrong answers are not funded. In current climate scientists who come up with wrong answers will be personally attacked and eviscerated in the public square.
Secondary problem is that no one reads. No links today, I will imagine that the uncle tungsten persona is in fact a reader and you can figure it out from here if you try.

Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 26 2021 15:06 utc | 221

That’s Democracy™ the US brand not democracy the form of government. The USA is capitalist country where money has more rights than people and they support some of the most autocratic regimes on the planet.

Posted by: grumpygus | Nov 26 2021 17:03 utc | 223

A few days ago I opined that Africa would become the greatest BRI beneficiary. Here are a pair of Infographics depicting how Africa has benefited to-date from China, first and second. Along with the graphics is this article announcing Xi’s participation in what’s become a major forum between China and Africa:
“On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that President Xi will attend the opening ceremony of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and deliver a keynote speech by video link in Beijing on November 29.
“State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao will attend the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the FOCAC in Senegal. Ahead of the conference, Wang will visit Senegal at the invitation of Senegalese Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall.
“This year’s FOCAC in Dakar, capital of Senegal, will be another gathering of the friendly China-African family since the last one in Beijing in 2018, and is also the largest-scale diplomatic event jointly held by China overseas since the outbreak of the COVID-19, aiming to deepen China-Africa relations, further carry out the consensus reached at the Beijing forum, and project the future direction of bilateral cooperation for the next three years and even longer term, Director-General of the Department of African Affairs of the Foreign Ministry Wu Peng told a press conference on Friday.”
Also announced was the publication of a White Paper documenting “the successes of China-Africa cooperation in the new era and offer a perspective on future cooperation between the two sides.
“The white paper, titled ‘China and Africa in the New Era – A Partnership of Equals,’ is also the first white paper released by the Chinese government that comprehensively introduces China-Africa cooperation and also the first white paper outlining China’s achievements on cooperation with a specific region.”
This article provides a synopsis of the White Paper, while the Paper can be accessed via this link. The following discussion makes it clear that the Outlaw US Empire pays attention to China’s diplomatic calendar:
“‘China-Africa cooperation has become a banner for South-South Cooperation and international cooperation with Africa. In the new century, especially after FOCAC was established in 2000, the practical cooperation of the two sides have developed rapidly,’ Wu Jianghao said, noting that China has built more than 80 large-scale electricity infrastructure in Africa, more than 130 medical facilities, 45 stadiums, and more than 170 schools, and helped train more than 160,000 people in Africa….
“The white paper and information on Wang Yi’s visit to Senegal was released just days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up his Africa tour and amid Western media’s hype of China-US competition in the continent. But Liu Haifang, executive director of the Beijing-based Center for African Studies and associate professor at the School of International Studies of Peking University, said that China’s move does not target any third party.
“‘The US factor was not our consideration in cooperating with Africa, and expansion of China–Africa cooperation is based on their own logic and practical needs. Even if the US did not step into the continent, China would continue cooperating with African countries, which is complementary,’ Liu said, noting ‘such complementary cooperation cannot be simply taken away by any third country….’
“Even today, the US has still failed to win much trust from African countries, as one of the major purposes of Blinken’s African trip was to get rid of the traumatic effect former US President Donald Trump made to the continent during his term, Liu said.
“A recent report by well-known African pollster Afrobarometer shows that China ranks first in terms of external influence in Africa, with 63 percent of Africans saying the economic and political influence of China in their country is ‘somewhat positive’ or ‘very positive,’ and 66 percent perceiving China’s economic and political influence in Africa as positive.”
The massive difference in emphasis is easy to see as Blinken could only promise $80 million to start a new “Prosper Africa Build Together Campaign,” while the Infographic shows China’s total direct investment in all industries in Africa stood at $2.59 Billion from January through September 2021, and will easily top the $3 Billion mark for the year. I should also note that the vast majority of Chinese Peacekeepers, 80% or 30,000+, are deployed in Africa as the first Infographic shows. And I’d be remiss not to remind barflies that China’s initial overseas military base is in Djibouti on the strategic Horn of Africa.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 26 2021 18:05 utc | 225

Paul @ 209 – thanks. I am sorry to hear that about Auckland. I lived in the suburbs before Tamaki Drive was spoiled by all the high rises, and as for Auckland itself…well, I liked it better when it had tram cars running down the middle of Queen Street and my grandmother and I had crumpets and coffee in the Queens Arcade after a picture show before catching the bus home. Long gone, those days…I could never afford to live there now.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 26 2021 19:11 utc | 227

c1ue @218 – Pertaining to this from your last quote:-

“… demos made up of traumatised individuals, torn apart from their loved ones, made to fear one another as a potential vectors of disease, terrified of physical contact – is hardly a good breeding ground for collective solidarity.”

I suspect there are many who find themselves at odds with loved family members on this issue, chiefly with respect to decisions made depending on information available to them, past experience, etc. I find it very traumatic myself. But if we truly love one another, there are positive ways to address the trauma, and I think ‘collective solidarity’ is even more possible than when we didn’t have to think about our relationships. There’s plenty of common ground; the main thing is to keep on loving. Don’t break ‘the ties that bind’; guess who will most profit if you do.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 26 2021 19:24 utc | 229

Hoot of an interview by a pompous BBC twit out to lecture the Belarus President.
“As soon as Putin sits down and talks with Alexei Navalny, then I will instantly meet Svetlana Tikhanovsky for talks.”

Posted by: Dim sim | Nov 26 2021 21:58 utc | 231

oldhippie #222
Thank you. That got results.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 26 2021 22:05 utc | 233

Here’s an essay that leaves me stroking my beard because I’m only aware of a portion of what the writer’s proposing: “The Rittenhouse Case and the Symbolism of the Stasi: Are We Ready Again to Destabilize the Enemy of All Time?”
The title both repelled and enticed me and I’ll likely reread it for there’s some intriguing ideas promoted. I’m curious what additional eyes and minds will write regarding their reading and thinking about the content.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 26 2021 23:33 utc | 235

oldhippie #222
On Dan Sirotkin: He is almost entirely unbelievable and then some.
From Tech TiMES:

Dan Sirotkin’s LinkedIn profile shows all of the established person’s achievement, education, and work experiences. Sirotkin previously attended Harvard University and completed a Bachelor’s in Political Science, but the year completed was not posted on LinkedIn.
Sirotkin’s claim of attending Harvard is also unverified by anyone else, the university, and even his colleagues, and people still question this claim of the author. According to his LinkedIn job descriptions, Dan Sirotkin did a stint in prison but is unclear whether he is a convicted felon.
The first job listing on Sirotkin’s profile shows that he was a former correctional janitor for the Montgomery County Government for three years from 2015-2017. Sirotkin’s next two jobs are for Season 52 and Cafe Mozart as a Food Server or waiter before facing termination after his criminal records are discovered.
Currently, Dan Sirotkin is a Writer for the website, Harvard To The Big House, an opinion and columns blog site that he leads and authors.

From Harvard to the Big House:

Following 9/11, Dan Sirotkin began his career with the NSA, where he put his Harvard degree to use working on some of their most sensitive and salient missions threatening America – or at least the ones that could also secure many hundreds of billions of dollars worth of funding.
He finished his career in Counterterrorism, where he produced analysis on one of the deadliest terrorist groups in the world, despite the fact that his Arabic language skills were only about as good as those as a severely learning-disabled preschooler.
This “Ask Me Anything” post on Reddit explains the backstory behind the book he left the NSA to write, Tremble the Devil, which was first released in 2006 and argued that the most dangerous threat facing America wasn’t terrorists attacking us from the outside – but instead an inevitable socioeconomic implosion due to the racial inequities perpetuated by the various policies that have bulwarked inequality throughout almost all of our history, most recently the War on Drug’s destruction of the black family
And after setting the youngest American ever to win wrestling gold on his course to Rio before heading off to the state prison in 2014, where his first cellmate would happily offer to murder him many times. Dan was finally released in 2018, and began his new exciting career as a waiter at various area restaurants all poorly managed enough to have become desperate enough to be forced into hiring a notorious ex-con.

I have read some of Sirotkin’s material at the latter but methinks his imagination coupled with his ego reduces his believability. If this character is running his father’s genome database I would not believe anything without multiple independent proofs.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 27 2021 0:18 utc | 237

aquadraht @239–
Thanks for your reply and assessment. I was under the impression that many of the terrorist “gangs” operating within Europe were CIA/NATO/MI6 creations designed to commit FF ops to discredit anything leftist. I hope a few more chime in. Thanks again!

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 27 2021 1:04 utc | 239

Apologies MediaTek is apparently a Taiwan company. I guess they’ll be forced to set in the US now.

Posted by: Dim sim | Nov 27 2021 6:16 utc | 241

Posted by: james | Nov 26 2021 0:08 utc | 202
Small world, we’re thousands of kms. away but probably bumped into each other at the Ponty concert. More subdued that the other shows, that type of music is not as charged for a live show, but I enjoy Ponty, especially a live jazz recording in France, nicely accompanied by an old sounding organ with the foot bass, listen to this take on Just Around Midnight, a European version of good ol’ Thelonius.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQCoMBNOa9o

Posted by: Paco | Nov 27 2021 11:19 utc | 243

@juliania #230
I agree there are constructive ways, but likely not the same way you think.
One of the outcomes of Brazilianization is the diffusion of anger into hopelessness or apathy.
I’d prefer misplaced anger over that.
Nor am I the least bit impressed by people “going along to get along”.
While it is possible to win people over by example – there is simply not enough prolonged contact between many/most people in modern society for that the occur. That is the irony of a community like MoA – it is in many ways more stable than many Americans experience these days (I won’t speak for other people I’m other countries).
I personally have found that staying completely focused on the issues at hand, never backing down and forcing others to put thought and energy into backing up their beliefs brings far better discovery than “playing nice”.
YMMV

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 27 2021 17:18 utc | 245

waynorinorway | Nov 25 | 188
Temporary suspension and if needed a 3 strike rule (one time oops or warnings too) are absolutely the way to go.
Make it a 90 day suspension if you want to make a stronger point.
The Intercept uses one week bans. I should know.

Posted by: David G Horsman | Nov 27 2021 17:44 utc | 247

karlof1 @ 12
“”…Putin last week took a major step towards absorbing the war-torn breakaway Donbass regions. And yet, bizarrely, nobody noticed.”
Well, of course I noticed, wrote an article about it that 600 others have read and a few shared.”
Yes thanks karlof keep up the good work.

Posted by: David G Horsman | Nov 27 2021 18:19 utc | 249