I thought trump would win 2020, as I predicted that biden’s campaign would be swiftboated by the case of Biden family corruption in Ukraine and by Biden’s creepy groping videos. I was naive to not anticipate that the MSM would conspire to shut down those stories.

Posted by: mastameta | Dec 2 2021 10:33 utc | 103

RE: Posted by: Hoyeru | Dec 1 2021 23:16 utc | 48
“at their own game, using Game Theory. “
Mr. von Neumann like Mr. Brzezinsky was a stranger in a strange land working his passage, and hence he was careful not to undermine his “assets” which he realised were compromised, but remained appreciative of the half-lives of “Game theory”, whilst Mr. Brzezinsky dressed “strategies” of the Second Polish Republic and presented them as being his own productions.
A common factor in facilitating the endeavours of both Mr. von Neumann and Mr. Brzezinsky was the “target audiences’” beliefs.

Posted by: MagdaTam | Dec 2 2021 12:43 utc | 105

@2
Well james, at least you got one post in before the thread went Covid/fascism – and thanks.
I’ll see your Silver and raise you a Rahsaan Roland Kirk:
Posted by: waynorinorway | Dec 1 2021 17:59 utc | 5
——-
re: poor James and the drag of ignoring covid/fascism & and Aussie concentration camps….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX8szNPgrEs
You and he can stick your head in the sand or wake up, choice is your’s.
Some of us prefer not to permanently stick our heads in the sand though…..

Posted by: Just Sayin’ | Dec 2 2021 13:51 utc | 107

stonebird claims:
The trickery was in someone else using that vote, knowing that the real person would not appear. (or at least assuming it).
______________________________________________________________________
In most states anyone can download a list of names of people who voted in the 2020 election. If there is any evidence of people listed as having voted but in fact did not vote you would think the evidence would be produced and your story would be more than just a rumor on the internet.
The few cases of voter fraud that surface every election are generally of the form of someone lying about their eligibility to vote. They lie about being a citizen or lie about not being a felon.

Posted by: jinn | Dec 2 2021 14:16 utc | 109

Yet another spike into the coffin of the idea that vaccines have any real effect on a vaccinated person catching COVID:
Lancet article on the epidemiological relevance of COVID-19 vaccinated

High COVID-19 vaccination rates were expected to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in populations by reducing the number of possible sources for transmission and thereby to reduce the burden of COVID-19 disease.
Recent data, however, indicate that the epidemiological relevance of COVID-19 vaccinated individuals is increasing. In the UK it was described that secondary attack rates among household contacts exposed to fully vaccinated index cases was similar to household contacts exposed to unvaccinated index cases (25% for vaccinated vs 23% for unvaccinated). 12 of 31 infections in fully vaccinated household contacts (39%) arose from fully vaccinated epidemiologically linked index cases. Peak viral load did not differ by vaccination status or variant type [[1]].
In Germany, the rate of symptomatic COVID-19 cases among the fully vaccinated (“breakthrough infections”) is reported weekly since 21. July 2021 and was 16.9% at that time among patients of 60 years and older [[2]]. This proportion is increasing week by week and was 58.9% on 27. October 2021 (Figure 1) providing clear evidence of the increasing relevance of the fully vaccinated as a possible source of transmission.
A similar situation was described for the UK. Between week 39 and 42, a total of 100.160 COVID-19 cases were reported among citizens of 60 years or older. 89.821 occurred among the fully vaccinated (89.7%), 3.395 among the unvaccinated (3.4%) [[3]].

Oh, but Delta! Omicron! say the faithful.
Utter bollocks, say I.
COVID is established in the human population, and therefore ongoing mutations are inevitable. To thus say that a mutated COvid-19 was unexpected and unpredictable is idiocy or incompetence of the highest degree.
I have said, from the start, that COVID is never going away and that any and every strategy to deal with it must take this into consideration.
The “all-in” vaccine strategy pretty clearly is a failure in terms of “controlling” COVID spread. I am not particularly impressed with the concept of other means either – contact tracing etc. We don’t contract trace the regular flu because the cost of “preventing” the seasonal flu deaths is simply too high. Not the least bit clear that COVID’s higher death rate changes that calculation.
We are in the co-evolution phase with COVID – it will continue to mutate for transmissibility even as the human population is winnowed of those most vulnerable to it.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 2 2021 14:31 utc | 111

Germany to announce nationwide Covid lockdown for the unvaccinated.
Merkel said today 2/12/21 that mandatory vaccinations are considered from next February on.
This is getting better by the minute.
I’m afraid that they are not spontaneously coming up with these policies to fit the curves; they’re manufacturing the curves to fit the pre-planned policies.

Posted by: DG | Dec 2 2021 15:20 utc | 113

@jinn #110
Can you post 3 or 4 such links? I am curious as to what information is posted, where and by who.
I don’t think, however, that a list of “who” voted is anywhere near as useful as you think in detecting fraud.
How many people, who don’t vote, check to see that they didn’t vote? I’d suspect that number is zero.
Secondly, a fraud which inserts new votes (i.e. votes which are additive to the “correct” count) are only half as useful as votes which flip from one side to the other. A 0.5% shift of votes in one party to the other constitutes a 1% shift in actual relative vote balance. The only way to detect this is by checking what people believe they voted for vs. what they’re recorded as voting as.
To be clear – I don’t see Dominion machine or whatever style fraud being terribly likely. A random sampling by a 3rd party – calling up people who voted and checking their recollections vs. the voting record – would trivially and cheaply detect such fraud – and this has been done. It is a trivial mathematical exercise to determine how many people should be randomly sampled in order to have a strong chance to detect such fraud. Law enforcement or election monitoring/management folks should be trivially do this.
There are many ways by which fraudulent votes can effectively be untraceably made. A classic one is the nursing home where all the residents are voted by a “representative”. There is also classic vote buying.
The problem I have with the “stolen” election memes isn’t that I’m saying fraud didn’t occur – it does.
The problem is that fraud occurs on both sides for varied reasons with varied methods. Significant vote fraud has to be emergent from the stew.
That’s why I am more believing of systemic bias than outright fraud.
Mail-in ballots are absolutely more fraud-enabling; but it isn’t clear that the resulting increased fraud is only one way.
However, if turnout is the primary factor benefiting Democrats – mail-in ballots absolutely and unequivocably increase turnout regardless of fraud levels. The fraud is thus relatively unimportant.
The same can be said for lax voter registration rules. “Easy” voter registration in the form of same day/on-site registration is pretty clearly beneficial to Democrats. Ditto ID rules.
Yes, both are fraud-enabling, but it really doesn’t matter if fraud goes up or not.
At the same time, it is 100% clear that people pushing on these issues, one way or the other, are not actually concerned about fraud or fairness or whatever – they are pushing because they know they benefit from implementation of a given practice (or disallowing).
Thus it should be democratically decided practices that are used; the one part of the “stolen election” view that is valid is that the many changes, across the country, made in the 2020 election were certainly never even discussed publicly, much less voted on.
The good news is that the Secretary of State position in many states and municipalities is no longer a sinecure position for party hacks; Trump and Trump supporters are actively engaging in these – which forces the legacy Republicans and Democrats to do the same.
I can only hope that this leads to better represented democratic practices.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 2 2021 15:27 utc | 115

@DG | Dec 2 2021 15:33 utc | 117
Well, thank you! But the attention and gratitude should go to Bjørn Andreas Bull-Hansen for his videos with excellent analysis on a personal human level of what is happening. It is possible to subscribe to his blog and be notified of new videos that way, without being logged in to YouTube. But if you subscribe via YouTube you might see him swimming in the icy fjord soon, he has promised to do it when he reaches 500 000 subscribers, and it isn’t that far off. This also tells us that there are many who share his and our views.
I find his words to be a reference of sanity in an ever more insane world, where several former well respected analysts have turned out to be representatives of the tyrannical and evil machine, abusing basic human rights.

Posted by: Norwegian | Dec 2 2021 15:53 utc | 117

jinn | Dec 2 2021 14:16 utc | 110
“In most states anyone can download a list of names of people who voted in the 2020 election. If there is any evidence of people listed as having voted but in fact did not vote you would think the evidence would be produced and your story would be more than just a rumor on the internet.”
I think this evidence is what they are trying to find.
Since votes are secret, only each individual would be able to confirm if they voted one way or the other. BUT since tallies are made of total votes cast, the individual would not know from the published results, if their personal vote had been correctly counted. More so if the person “voting” had never voted, and had no reason to suspect that he “had” done so, by “someone” taking his place.
**
The key here is the practicality of vote “justifying” (identification of voter with vote), if the person doubled is unaware of his participation. If they didn’t vote they didn’t care then and they are unlikely to make efforts to find out now.

Posted by: Stonebird | Dec 2 2021 16:26 utc | 119

phiw13 | Dec 2 2021 9:51 utc | 102 thanks! listening now… i might have heard this fellow before.. are they american or british? sounds american, but i remember hearing some group from the uk doing something similar a few years ago… yes – a bit like late coltrane.. they seem to be going for that vibe and coming from that background… it is hard to replicate mccoy tyner, jimmy garrison, elvin and coltrane, but they are doing a great job of it! it is like an intersection between free jazz and inside jazz and coltrane was definitely on the cutting edge with regard to this. in fact, elvin left the band due this, and the addition of a 2nd drummer of course.. he did play with ravi after ravi’s dad was gone though… thanks for sharing! great stuff!
@ Bemildred | Dec 2 2021 14:12 utc | 109… thanks for saying all that, much better then i could! you are exactly right…

Posted by: james | Dec 2 2021 17:11 utc | 121

C1ue wrote:
Can you post 3 or 4 such links? I am curious as to what information is posted, where and by who.
___________________________________________________________
If you are asking about voter lists, why don’t you google “voter lists”? Of the millions of results you will get I’m sure you will find at least one that caters to your biases.

Posted by: jinn | Dec 2 2021 17:19 utc | 123

As promised, here’s Lavrov’s answer about Minsk-2’s viability via machine translation:
“Question: How do you assess the possibility of official Kiev’s implementation of the Minsk agreements? Is there a possibility of the Russian Federation imposing sanctions on Ukraine for non-compliance with the Minsk agreements?
“Sergey Lavrov: In principle, we are against unilateral sanctions. In the case of Ukraine, they would be one-sided. Ukraine itself ‘sanctioned’ many of our citizens, individual enterprises. These enterprises do not contribute to Ukraine’s GDP. At the same time, economically mutually beneficial ties continue perfectly. No one is outraged. They resent situations that can be ‘dispersed’ in the media space without any damage to themselves. This is a specific feature of Ukrainian leaders. In response, we also took the necessary measures against inveterate, noted Russophobes who are daily noted on the media platform with unacceptable statements.
“As for the prospects for the implementation of the Minsk agreements, we are trying to achieve their implementation. Ukraine, in my opinion, is already a lost case in terms of the implementation of the UN Security Council humanitarian resolution [Thus citing the UN Genocide Convention in Putin’s recent decree]. We heard President Zelensky in the first weeks and months of his rule say that the Minsk Agreements are bad and must be preserved in order to continue western sanctions against the Russian Federation. All. It’s not better to say to sign what you’re really worth. Numerous statements by the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers, The Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Defense, the commanders of the joint forces operations, the commander of the armed forces of Ukraine – the Minsk agreements are outdated. [Garbled by machine translation]
“Recently, the newly baked A.Y. Reznikov, who was Deputy Prime Minister, then worked in the Contact Group, and now became The Minister of Defence, said that this is a political document, it cannot be considered as some kind of international legal obligation. Then how to evaluate the UN Security Council resolution? They say that this document is outdated, it was adopted by the previous administration, we need something new: the Americans, the British to attract, and everything will be fine. At the same time, legislative preparations are underway to destroy the Minsk agreements, at least as far as Ukraine’s obligations are concerned. I am referring to the laws on language and education that have already been adopted (which directly discriminate entrify the Russian language). There, at first, the Ukrainian language was brought to a priority place in comparison with all other languages of national minorities. Subsequently, as we expected, an exception was made for the languages of the European Union. Russian turned out to be the only one completely discriminated rather not only in the field of education, but also in everyday life. So, for example, in a store you can just run into a criminal case if you turn to some obstinate seller or saleswoman in Russian language, and they will not like it.
“Now the most important law is being prepared. President of Russia Vladimir Putin has repeatedly drawn the attention of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron to the law on the peculiarities of the state policy of the transition period, which simply negates the Minsk agreements. Where there should be a universal, unconditional amnesty for all participants in the events (when there were hostilities), lustration is recorded and criminal prosecution of the leaders of these two regions, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, is directly prescribed. Instead of organizing elections and including a special status of Donbass in the constitution, it is written that a civil-military administration will be created there (without any elections). It is written that the armed forces of Ukraine need to restore the territorial integrity of the country. After the troops are sent there, they will announce that a civil-military administration has been created, and it will be possible to forget about the status, and about the elections, and about everything else. Our President, in a conversation with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, raised this issue several times. They assured that they would do everything to prevent this law from being adopted. But the process is underway. The Ukrainians sent this law to the Council of Europe, the Venice Commission, which, despite the position outlined by our members of the Commission that the law directly contradicts the Minsk agreements and the relevant UN Security Council resolution, did not take this argument into account at all. They were looking at it in terms of legal technique. As a result, they wrote that here it is necessary to correct, and here it is a little changed, and so everything. We were forced to make public my correspondence with colleagues from France and Germany. These are very specific things that have been put on paper. They were offended. But they couldn’t say anything on the merits. For many years, we have been promised to influence Kiev to make it intelligible, but nothing happens. On the contrary, Kiev is becoming more and more arrogant in its aggressiveness towards the Minsk agreements, towards the Russian Federation and in its attempts to provoke the West to support its bellicose aspirations. Let everyone know what is really happening, what our so-called partners promise us and what they are actually succeeding in. But we’re never going to break down, and we’re never going to say, ‘That’s it, I’m dead, I’m dead.’ Let them say this, and we will demand the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions.” [My Emphasis]
There were other questions of importance to Russia’s development and security, but the Ukraine and NATO issues are entwined and by far the most serious with Russia accused of plotting Aggressive Warfare while Kiev at the insistence of the Outlaw US Empire/NATO actively does so daily. However, the entire session was a showcase of Lavrov’s amazingly wide range of knowledge and involvement in Russia’s affairs, foreign and domestic, that puts other nations ministers on a lower level.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 2 2021 17:24 utc | 125

@Idiocrates #119
2008 was caused by NINJA mortgages no longer getting paid, in turn causing counterparty fails all the way to the MBS’s they were packaged into.
2019 – where were the foreclosures? Who are the counterparties failing to deliver?
Nor is your statement that money printing is the cause (and according to the original article, the effect), particularly useful.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 2 2021 17:26 utc | 127

@jinn #124
I ask for examples of the lists you reference precisely to understand where you get your views from.
Secondly, it is not clear to me that you understand the difference between an official government voter list as opposed to Democrat or Republican voter lists or some other organization’s voter lists.
I’ve seen national level Democrat and Republican voter lists – they are junk. Out of date, full of data entry and data combination errors, etc etc – they are primarily used for fundraising purposes via junk mail.
Actual state/local voter lists, on the other hand, could theoretically be more accurate.
It is far from clear that these are open to the public, however, and also what is contained in them hence my question to you.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 2 2021 17:30 utc | 129

Norwegian @125–
Thanks for your reply! I’m saddened that I must be the one to post all that, but IMO it must be done by someone.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 2 2021 17:37 utc | 131

@Posted by: MagdaTam | Dec 2 2021 12:43 utc | 106
A message circulating on Telegram by allegedly Michael Yeadon accounts for the whole operation so called “Great Reset” informing us we are already at well advanced phase 5, with next phase 6 culminating in February-March 2022…
As they despair and thus accelerate pace without even any care in showing themselves so openly, I saw myself yesterday inclined more to look for rentals in an overseas country tham in commenting any more..Stefan Zweig odyssei is occupying my thinkimgs these days as soon as I wake up and when going to sleep…
Some here we can not even trust medical services….There are people willing even to die at home than to risk being intubated by their haters….
Do you have any advice with regard where to go before the circle strongly closes and the key thrown to the deep sea?
Amongst the measures included in the plan are, forbidding of any medication, vaccines yearly of every six month rationing of food and application of “Codex Alimentarius”, devalorization of money, elimination of debts and loans, rescue of bankrupted banks with customers bank accounts, requisition of propieties and lands, full digital identity, from birth certificate, identity card, driving license, sanitary card, to new digital portfolio and wallet, jailing and removal of opposition starting with leaders, all this under martial law which is about to fall…
Why the escape of three healthy teenagers who had tested negative from a “Resilience Camp” ( in neolanguese..) in Australia would had caused a disaster at global escale? Is it because they could had warned us about something?
Why do you think the Russian go along with this?

Posted by: Black bread | Dec 2 2021 17:41 utc | 133

Norwegian | Dec 2 2021 15:53 utc | 118
“ Well, thank you! But the attention and gratitude should go to Bjørn Andreas Bull-Hansen for his videos with excellent analysis on a personal human level of what is happening. It is possible to subscribe to his blog and be notified of new videos that way, without being logged in to YouTube.”
I did all of the above, especially the YT thing because I wanna see him swim in the fjord 😝

Posted by: DG | Dec 2 2021 18:20 utc | 135

@Posted by: Grieved | Dec 2 2021 2:58 utc | 75
This has been the Fed playbook since the 1987 crash, when the “Greenspan Put” was inaugurated. It removes the Schumpeterian creative destruction required to cleanse excess capital and risk-seeking from the economy, so every bubble gets bigger as the players take more and more risk – early 1990s bond market debacle, Russian debt-default, Asia crisis, LTCM, dot.com bubble crash, 2002/2003 short-term paper crisis (big corporations started being unable to sell short-term bills to finance their working capital, so the Fed dumped interest rates starting the 2000s housing bubble), GFC, 2018 small crash, Covid. Without this the deregulation and financial concentration wave would have smashed to a halt in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Could be said to have started even earlier with the Mexico debt bailout (all losses taken by the Mexicans and the US treasury rather than the banks), and there was also the S&L crisis at the end of the 1980s (full of criminality that was never dealt with, and the bad players all walked away with their ill-gotten gains as the US treasury and depositors swallowed the losses – also removed a whole segment of competition for the big banks).
At the end 2019 the levels of debt and risk were so high, the very small tightening was threatening to crash things so the only way forward was more money to the banks, in the form of repos in the 4th quarter of 2019 (Fed buys assets from the banks for new money) and then outright cash purchases of distressed assets (mortgage backed securities, corporate bonds, high yield bonds etc from March 2019). Covid provided a very nice cover. Same playbook as the 2008 GFC, complete non-transparency so that the Fed can buy illiquid assets well above fair-value and give money to the “chosen” ones so that the end result is greater concentration of wealth through both the socialization of debt (private debt swapped for public debt and public money) and socially selective pain (householders, unemployed etc.).
I thought that 2008 was the end of this process, but the Fed has managed to engineer one more party. Now we have near zero interest rates and so much debt that even a small interest rate rise would crash the financial and housing markets. I am sure that the Fed is working on the next steps, a good bit of inflation would be useful – real negative interest rates without having to cut nominal rates below the politically and economically explosive zero bound. Problem is that the population at some point becomes unable to pay even small bits of capital and interest on their massive debts. The last phase in Japan in the early 1990s was multi-generational mortgages, in the US just prior to 2008 interest only “claimed” income mortgages. maybe one last blow off before another hangover period and more Fed largesse for its friends while the mass of the population sinks into debt servitude and second/third world standards of living.
Interesting how gold keeps getting smashed down in an environment that resembles the 1970s stagflation. If more of that money gets out into the real economy (instead of inflating financial assets and housing) inflation won’t be so transitory. Of course, the US statistics bureau will use its usual magic to keep the published inflation numbers well below reality to hide the reality of the continual reduction in the living standards of the mass of the US population that has been going on for four plus decades.

Posted by: Roger | Dec 2 2021 18:40 utc | 137

Posted by: Norwegian | Dec 2 2021 11:20 utc | 105
My grand uncle … was imprisoned. These memories are very real.
Not very many degrees of separation from the Nazi occupation for most here in Norway. The US has
never been touched by that kind of terror. (9/11 not even close!) For the past 12 years I’ve been researching
the resistance here in the north (Operation Martin & Baalsrud) and frequently walk by the place where 8 were
gunned down chained together and kicked into a mass grave, some still alive. Yes, it’s still real.
We are once again subject to similar ideologies.
Agreed. This time they’re coming with stealth rather than storm-troopers. But they are coming.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Dec 2 2021 18:44 utc | 139

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 2 2021 17:37 utc | 132
I’m saddened that I must be the one to post all that, but IMO it must be done by someone.
Cheer up karlof1. Your work is noble. Your voracious appetite for researching and your splendid analyses that you pass on is prolly taken for granted a lot of the time but I’m certain I speak for many in saying that what you do is greatly appreciated.[My emphasis, heh]

Posted by: waynorinorway | Dec 2 2021 19:11 utc | 141

karlof1 | Dec 2 2021 17:05 utc | 121
Well done for your continuing efforts to keep us informed. Thanks a lot as I actually rely on them.
*****
I must say that Lavrov must sometimes get the impression that he is talking to a blank wall. Nobody in the EU or US commanditariat appear to be listening.
*
The Donbass situation is that the NATO goons want to “advance” eastwards but now cannot, without actually stepping into what could be a nasty fight (for them). But they have to “move” if they want any more financial goodies in their christmas stockings.
*
The EU “gave” another €600 million, to the Ukes for something or other. No doubt that will follow the trail to tax havens in Delaware and London as usual. EU, trying to be an inhuman imitation of an generous grand parent? So they have arrived at continued payments ad infinitum, and they won’t be able to stop.
*
The US is all “talk and threat, but don’t get your feet wet”.
*
Ukraine (or at least Zelensky), wants so much to be a big guy but nobody will talk to him, especially Putin. His position gets more uncertain every day as long as he cannot get Russia to do what ever he wants (Fight, give him gas, give him paper money for transits). His forces are now getting cold feet as the weather gets colder.
***
BUT, but, but, Russia won’t budge, and the others know it. Putin can and will wait. His troops are in adapted warm quarters and insulated tents. Machines are snow tested and there are lots of them he can move around, which will force the Ukes to move camps and redig defenses continually.
***
Negotiation is the only way “forward” for NATO and all the others. I wonder how long it will take for them to realise it?
**** ***
A bit grimmer. There is a video taken by thermal camera showing Ukrainians (troops?) ambushing 30-40 unarmed refugees trying to cross the Belarus-Ukraine border. They shot about 15+ (not clear) and then one person at least, went round finishing off those that weren’t dead from the first shots. Some managed to run away.
Now, I have no confirmation that this was authentic or not, but it does fit a pattern.

Posted by: Stonebird | Dec 2 2021 20:00 utc | 143

Subject ADKC | Dec 2 2021 6:11 utc | 91 response to S Brennan’s 56 post:
========================
THE TAIWANESE ARE NOT HAN CHINESE
Lin Jianliang, Ph.D. in Medicine
Editor, Voice of Taiwan
[long copy of linked article deleted – b.]
http://www.sdh-fact.com/essay-article/418/

Posted by: S Brennan | Dec 2 2021 20:11 utc | 145

Posted by: cirsium | Dec 1 2021 23:04 utc | 47
Yes indeed, if the recent words of mandatory vaccination from the great German whore Von der Leyen does not ring alarm bells for many, following the proclamations of Austria 🇦🇹 (and now Germany) then I do not know what can possibly wake people up.
Though, as a wiser man than I has said, many of you got your two shots, and are still wearing a mask and nothing has changed.
How stupid do you feel..??
You don’t feel stupid at all.
Why…??
Because you’re stupid… Really Fucking Stupid.

Posted by: MadMax2 | Dec 2 2021 20:56 utc | 147

My latest article, “Diplomatic Events and Other Musings as We Await the Coming Propaganda Show” expands upon my recent comments and coverage of the many recent diplomatic efforts by Russia. I’m also thinking about generating a new meme since that’s what appears to be the en-vogue thing to do nowadays:
Who wants another war for Christmas or at any other time?
Or perhaps:
If you want another war, just vote for either D or R and they’re sure to deliver.
Improvements are certainly welcome. IMO a counter-narrative must be mounted and memes seem to be the method.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 2 2021 21:05 utc | 149

@Posted by: S Brennan | Dec 2 2021 20:11 utc | 146
Finding someone from Taiwan who says (s)he is Taiwanese and not Chinese does not mean Taiwanese is not Chinese. You can always find someone for that. In today’s Taiwan, you can even find a lot of such people after more than two-decades systemic brainwash by Lee, Chen, and Tsai regimes since late 1990s. Do you know that the current president of Taiwan Tsai’s father’s tomb stone was carved with the origin of Tsai’s family, which is a city in China mainland. This is a typical Chinese tradition to trace back the family’s (very) origin. Lin Jianliang can be whatever he wants to be, including being a traitor. Another Chinese tradition is that one can be anything but a traitor. Well, Lin wouldn’t care about that since he is a Taiwanese, not a Chinese.
In addition, the source of the article http://www.sdh-fact.com is also a little interesting. It seems a Japanese web site. There are people in Japan that would like Taiwan to be separate from China very much. These people usually also want to restore the past Japanese imperial glory.

Posted by: LuRenJia | Dec 2 2021 21:22 utc | 151

Thanks to Stonebird, waynorinorway, and DG for their thanks! The recent massive burst of activity plus my needing to be active elsewhere has made reporting more taxing. For example, I omitted some things about China I might get to later today but really needed to focus on the Russian activity. The efforts b puts into exposing the propaganda is of course very important. Here’s what I thought was a crafty little gem of a comment to Pepe Escobar’s note about Lavrov’s Stockholm efforts:
“It’s hard to read Lavrov’s words and not see desperation, as in Last Chance to Avoid a Major War and all that would entail. Europe seems numb as if it’s been bitten by a spider that’s zombified its ability to act in its own interest and not become cannon fodder for the Outlaw US Empire and the cabal of Neoliberal Oligarchs that control’s it.”
I must again make reference to Alastair Crooke’s latest that I link again:
“But do the U.S. practitioners of meme-politics, absorb and comprehend that the stance by Russia-China – in riposte – is not some same-ilk counter-mobilisation done to ‘make a point’? That their vision does stand at variance with ‘the rules’? Do they see that their ‘red lines’ may indeed be ‘red lines’ literally? Is the West now so meme-addicted, it cannot any longer recognise real national interests?
“This is key: When the West speaks, it is forever looking over its shoulder, at the domestic, and wider psychic impact when it is ‘making a point’ (such as practicing attacks by nuclear-capable bombers as close to Russia’s borders as they dare). And that when Russia and China say, ‘This is our Red Line’, it is no meme – they really mean it.” [My Emphasis]
IMO, Crooke’s on a roll between his last 6 essays and appearance on Going Underground.
But IMO, here’s the core of the problem as I wrote a few days ago–Biden say one thing while Blinken and Sullivan say another. Today, Lavrov met with Blinken, but prior to that he said this:
“The Russians say that they believe the Minsk agreement should be implemented. The Ukrainians say the same thing. Well, I think if that were to happen, that at least would resolve the problem in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.” [My Emphasis]
The bolded sentence is an out-and-out lie as the Ukraine’s Rada has legislation ready that would “erase” its signature, plus all the other anti-Misnk2 activities Lavrov just finished describing to the Russian Senate yesterday I reported on!! If Blinken said the same to Lavrov, I wouldn’t blame him from leaving the scene without uttering one word.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 2 2021 21:50 utc | 153

Now that we are all in a Nina Hagen mood I remembered her step father Wolf Biermann and a song of his:
“Die kalten Frauen, die mich streicheln
Die falschen Freunde, die mir schmeicheln
Die scharf sind auf die scharfen Sachen
Und selber in die Hosen machen
In dieser durchgerissnen Stadt
Die hab ich satt!
In dieser durchgerissnen stadt
Die hab ich satt!
…
Btw the farewell to Merkel was a bit scary to watch.

Posted by: DG | Dec 2 2021 22:25 utc | 155

Posted by: S Brennan | Dec 2 2021 20:11 utc | 146:
Taiwanese and Chinese: no shared ethnicity
China’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan Island is not predicated on residents of Taiwan claiming themselves as being Chinese in ethnicity. If they did their claim would have been refuted long ago since Li Tenhui’s presidency because he thinks Taiwanese are more Japanese than Chinese. China’s claim is based on historical facts, and on China’s own view of how this world is constituted.
Taiwan was taken by force by Japan. China of that era was too weak to reclaim it. Then Chiang Kaishek retreated to Taiwan as a consequence of the civil war. With American backing, both aerial and naval, China was still too weak to push the issue and had to abide its time. But all along, China insists on sovereignty claim over the land and vow to take it back one day, without specifying which day.
Things now have changed, drastically so. China has the military as well as economic power to take back Taiwan any time it wants. Only thing stopping it from doing so is its wish for absence of bloodshed and communal confrontation after the reclamation, and that there is really no urgent need to do so. Now, if America or Japan begin to establish military threat against China on Taiwan, the table would have been turned and I guarantee you Taiwan government would cease to exist within a day. Only that China would have to expend effort in rebuild and governance going forward from that point on. But what must be done will be done. There is not a thing that America or Japan can do to stop that. They are not powerful enough to stop China today, unlike say as late as 10 years ago when they still could give China enough pain for China to have to weigh and reconsider.
It’s not just America and Japan. You throw in NATO, Australia, India, Asean, all lackeys of America that you can think of into alliance, it doesn’t make a flip of difference. China is simply too powerful today to be denied Taiwan if it so wants it.
After taking Taiwan China will liberate Ryukyu too, besides confronting America, western Europe and Japan for what they did to China and Chinese between 1840 and 1949. This will all happen in the next half century.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Dec 2 2021 22:52 utc | 157

Taiwan is 95.4% Han Chinese according to taiwan.gov.tw.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 2 2021 23:27 utc | 159

Re: kartoschka | Dec 2 2021 17:29 utc | 129
I have purchased Ivermectin from this site in India, it is not unreasonably priced and takes about three weeks to arrive.
Medypharma website, India Ivermectin.

Posted by: Perimetr | Dec 2 2021 23:40 utc | 161

@ Grieved,
Thanks for the Fabio Vighi article, ‘A Self- fulfilling Prophesy: Systemic Collapse and Pandemic Simulation’
I don’t remember who posted the Bull-Hansen video ‘Will you Fight” I enjoyed it so much I’m reposting it, thanks:
https://bull-hansen.com/2021/11/21/will-you-fight/
o0o
Bravo, academics fighting back worldwide against lawfare and semantics.
“In a significant challenge to Israel lobby efforts, a major Canadian academic association has rejected a definition of anti-Semitism that conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish bigotry.
The Canadian Association of University Teachers, which represents more than 70,000 academic faculty and staff around the country, voted on a motion to oppose the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) so-called definition of anti-Semitism during its annual conference last week”:
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/major-canadian-academic-group-rejects-israel-lobbys-anti-semitism/
o0o
“On the first of October, the University of Bristol fired Professor David Miller, a world renowned expert on the Israel lobby, the Zionist movement and Islamophobia. They did not give an explicit reason for the sacking, claiming only that Miller “did not meet the standards of behaviour we expect from our staff.”But it is surely no coincidence that Miller’s sacking came after a year of particularly intense campaigning by the Israel lobby, which had called for him be fired for his anti-Zionist views. Indeed, the Israel lobby has been after Miller for years, incessantly smearing him as “anti-Semitic.”
https://www.juancole.com/2021/12/apartheid-universities-propaganda.html
o0o
“Universities are particular sites in which silence over Palestine is enforced. In recent weeks, I have come to a fresh appreciation of the density and violence of this enforced silence. The silence, as I have recently encountered it, is of three kinds: silence imposed, silence chosen and silence conceded. Together, these silences are as eloquent about the current state of the struggle for Palestine on campus as they are about the nature of academic professionalism in 2021.”
https://arena.org.au/universities-and-palestine-three-kinds-of-silence/
o0o
“A lawsuit is challenging Georgia’s anti–BDS law after filmmaker Abby Martin was barred from speaking at Georgia Southern’s Savannah campus”:
https://www.atlantajewishtimes.com/georgia-anti-bds-law-challenged/

Posted by: Paul | Dec 3 2021 0:27 utc | 163

Grieved #75
Thank you for the diamond pulled from the dust.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 3 2021 1:19 utc | 165

This is important: Studying Studies: Relative Risk vs. Absolute Risk

In December 2016, an exciting headline from the AAAS1 made the news: “Cholesterol-fighting drugs lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease.”
The article reports on an observational study2 of 399,979 statin users published in JAMA Neurology. Investigators examined the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) among subjects who were “high-exposure” (i.e., high or frequent users)3 versus “low-exposure” statin-users. Reportedly, among women who were high users of statins, the incidence of AD was 15% lower. Among men, the rate was 12% lower.
The lead author of the study, Julie Zissimopoulos, is quoted as saying, “We may not need to wait for a cure to make a difference for patients currently at risk of the disease. Existing drugs, alone or in combination, may affect Alzheimer’s risk.”
…
Taking the study at face value, and ignoring issues like healthy user bias, side-effects, unintended consequences, to name but a few,4 it is suggesting that when you are about 75 years old, you have a 2% risk of developing AD by the time you reach 80. But if you take a lot5 of statins, your risk for developing AD is 1.5%. Your odds go from 2-in-100 to 1.5-in-100.

This is exactly the bullshit that is being paraded around as science, regarding COVID, as I type this.
Yes, COVID is a serious disease with measurably more death outcomes than influenza.
The question is whether any given practice – whether it is vaccination, lockdowns, masks, whatever – has a measurable impact on the absolute risk.
The graph I posted on imgur in the COVID thread, for example, shows that there does not appear to be any form of reduction in COVID deaths – either quantitatively or qualitatively – since mass vaccination has been touted (and largely achieved).
Note that this is top level data.
A 60% vaccination should absolutely have a visible and measurable impact on both the shape and height of said death curves should vaccination truly make a visible difference.
Yes, there are more infections in 2021 than 2020 but the relative deaths vs infection ratio is pretty much identical.
And note that I’m not saying vaccines do nothing; what I am saying is that the impact of vaccines in “saving lives” vs. COVID is clearly not so dramatic if its impact on the overall numbers is so hard to see.
A 6x decrease in risk of dying combined with a 60% vaccination rate should drop deaths per COVID infection by 50% overall (i.e. 60% that would have “normal” COVID death rates should have 1/6 as many = 10% as many deaths vs “unvaccinated” COVID infected people = a drop of 50% overall).

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 3 2021 1:53 utc | 167

Until they face the fact that covid is a threat only to the elderly and infirm, no amount of pleading will avail. The whole world is being consumed by psychosis.

Posted by: Norb | Dec 3 2021 3:08 utc | 169

Grieved | Dec 2 2021 2:58 utc | 75
I’ve taken a shot at delineating the thesis of A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Systemic Collapse and Pandemic Simulation
By Fabio Vighi|Aug. 15th, 2021
I worked at not injecting anything into it while rearranging it to crystallize what I believe is the essence of the article. Enjoy (I hope):

2019: THE MOSTLY SILENT CRASH
In 2019, the world economy . . . was suffocating under an unsustainable mountain of debt. the demand for credit had to be
slowed.
In Sept ‘19 repo [overnight loans between, e.g., day-trading speculators] interest rates spiked to 10.5% in a matter of hours.
Only an induced economic coma would provide the Fed with the room to defuse the time-bomb ticking away in the financial sector.
TURN OFF THE ENGINE
Restructuring the financial architecture through extraordinary monetary policy was contingent on the economy’s engine being turned off.
Several trillions of newly printed cash have been created with a few clicks of a mouse by central banks and injected into financial systems, where they have in great part remained. The aim of the printing-spree was to plug calamitous liquidity gaps.
The bottom line is that all this cash cannot be allowed to flood the real economy, for the latter would overheat and trigger hyperinflation. And this is where the virus continues to come in handy.
THE VIRUS IS THE CURE FOR THE FINANCIAL DISEASE
Capital heads for financial markets because the labour-based economy is increasingly unprofitable . . for
. . .the three biggest investment funds in the world: BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street Global Advisor. These giants, . . .are major shareholders in around 90% of listed companies. Gravitating around them are transnational institutions. . . the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, the Trilateral Commission, and the Bank for International Settlements, whose function is to coordinate consensus within the financial constellation.
Masses of increasingly unproductive consumers are being regimented and cast aside . . . and need to be expelled from production . . .due to unprecedented acceleration in technological automation.
Mr Global no longer knows what to do with unproductive consumers.
Together with the underemployed and the excluded, the impoverished middle-classes are now a problem.
March 2020 lockdowns had to be imposed. . . to cease the demand for credit and stop the contagion.
If the military industry needs wars, the pharmaceutical industry needs diseases.
Why have all Covid treatments been criminally banned or sabotaged?
What is needed are respiratory or vascular diseases in the elderly and immunocompromised population. . . intensive care units in ‘advanced’ countries had already collapsed in the years preceding the arrival of Covid . . . public health systems had already been demolished, and thus prepared for the pandemic scenario.
A state of emergency is declared. . . in turn causing the clogging up of hospitals and care homes (at high risk of sepsis), the application of nefarious protocols, and the suspension of medical care. . . .
The PCR test is the driving force behind the pandemic. The more cycles you make, the more false positives (infections, Covid-deaths) you produce, as even guru Anthony Fauci recklessly admitted when he stated that swabs are worthless above 35 cycles. Now, why is it that during the pandemic, amplifications of 35 cycles or more were routinely carried out in laboratories all over the world?
Thanks to the sensitivity of the swab, the pandemic can be turned on and off like a tap,
Variants. . . iterations of virus. Their purpose is to increase the ‘case count’ and therefore prolong those states of emergency that justify central banks’ production of virtual money aimed at monetizing debt and financing deficits.
The virus is still needed by senile capitalism, whose only chance of survival depends on generating a paradigm shift from liberalism to oligarchic authoritarianism.
The novelty of our era is that the ‘locked-down society’ is the model that best guarantees the reproducibility of the capitalist machine, irrespective of its dystopian destination.

Posted by: pogohere | Dec 3 2021 3:35 utc | 171

from BBC
Israel’s prime minister has urged world powers to immediately end nuclear talks with Iran, after it decided to start using advanced machines to enrich uranium at an underground plant. Naftali Bennett warned the US that Iran was “carrying out ‘nuclear blackmail’ as a negotiation tactic”.. .here
from World Jewish Congress
In Tehran alone there are 13 active synagogues, five Jewish schools, two kindergartens and a 100-bed Jewish hospital. . . There are active communities in several other cities, including Shiraz, Isfahan and Kermanshah, with institutions of their own. .. .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 3 2021 4:04 utc | 173

Thanks to all those who have commented on the Fabio Vighi article, I found the contributions helpful – especially from Roger who seemed to know it all along. And pogohere @171 – thanks for that work, it seems pretty good. Also, I see Black bread is in the thread, and it was you who first linked this essay here – so please take a bow.
And thanks also to the commenter who offered thanks for it back in that original thread – that brought it to my attention. We often skip things except as others cite them, and this is a most valuable act – it’s the only way we survive, isn’t it, by holding hands and helping each other across the street.
~~
After the financial stage is set, then, we come to the pandemic itself. This is where the ground gets tricky because it edges close to the “denialist” territory, where one can get demonized pretty easily.
But we must go there, and thankfully we now have Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s book about Fauci, which we have all heard about by now.
Here’s a very useful summary of a large piece of the book:
Fauci and the Great AIDS Swindle – Laurent Guyénot • November 27, 2021
Guyénot calls his own essay a partial review of the Kennedy book. He chose to focus on the AIDS crisis because it’s less familiar to many of us.
What he reveals in his essay is utterly damning of Fauci, and Bill Gates, and all the regulatory bodies. As Guyénot unveils the story of AIDS in the US, using Kennedy’s facts and citations, we see crystal-clear parallels with what we’ve been watching for the last two years.
The stunning revelation is that the playbook for today’s pandemic response has long existed. It was used for AIDS, and it forms part of a criminal enterprise of self-enrichment that hesitates not one whit to murder children, torture animals, imperil mass populations, and deceive all the channels of communication.
The current pandemic is not a new play. Every element, down to the rotten PCR tests (also used back then to find AIDS where none existed), has been in existence for a long time.
So. The rabbit hole.
That’s as far as I’m going tonight, and it’s further than I intended, but the quality of comments so far in this thread compels it.
~~
I recommend Guyénot’s article. It’s almost 6,000 words, but it’s a pretty gripping read. From this, you’ll have a partial take on Kennedy’s historic expose of the organized medical criminality that afflicts us all – and most importantly you’ll have the template, the dynamic of how this “disease discovery – emergency response” play works. The ones of the past are identical to the one in play now, and the machine is well oiled, and even features the same operators.
I think if one reads the Guyénot piece, and refers back to the timeline and reasoning of the Vighi piece, one will have a very accurate idea of where we are, and how deeply we truly are caught up in deception, and the theft of our wealth and our health.
~~
I also think that one will not sleep easily after reading these two pieces. But it seems that we must know our enemy if we are to stand a chance of fighting him and prevailing over him.
And it seems we must fight. Someone asked in a recent Dark Horse, where is there to flee to, in the world. Bret said that, for the first time ever in history, there seems nowhere to go. Essentially, we have to stay, and fight.

Posted by: Grieved | Dec 3 2021 4:44 utc | 175

@ Grieved | Dec 3 2021 4:44 utc | 175 who wrote
”
And it seems we must fight. Someone asked in a recent Dark Horse, where is there to flee to, in the world. Bret said that, for the first time ever in history, there seems nowhere to go. Essentially, we have to stay, and fight.
”
Thanks for your ongoing expansion of this conversation. I am about half way through reading The Dawn of Everything – A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow. I write this because there is insight and such in this book that may help with our discussions…..I would try and share more but my Covid affected brain says don’t even try yet.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 3 2021 5:01 utc | 177

@129 kartoschka
I meant to answer you and suggest reading the FLCCC recommended protocols – there are more easily available alternatives for those who cannot obtain ivermectin:
https://covid19criticalcare.com/covid-19-protocols/i-mask-plus-protocol/
You can choose the German version from that page. Note the two protocols: the prophylactic suggested protocol to ward off the disease, and the treatment protocol (to be taken immediately whenever one suspects one has symptoms).
If I were unable to get ivermectin I would supplement with Vitamin D and Zinc, also Quercetin and Vitamin C, and the Melatonin they suggest. And I would start adding the Nigella Sativa to my food (black cumin seed) – it tastes okay. All of these things should be easily available to you.
Also I would look into gargling and the nasal lavage (if your parents would do such a thing). And perhaps increase Nitric Oxide in the body too.
The Dandelion plant is helpful, and in the US I can find a green tea that contains both the leaves and the root. Tastes good, and is the perfect excuse for honey.
I do believe ivermectin is the simplest answer but an effective immune system that can fight off a virus is really the best answer of all – and in the absence of that medicine, the combination of answers here would cause no harm and should be very helpful.
~~
Also, read everything uncle tungsten writes here about traditional remedies 🙂

Posted by: Grieved | Dec 3 2021 5:47 utc | 179

@ tucenz | Dec 2 2021 23:29 utc | 160… thanks! that’s a cool bit of genre blending! i enjoyed it… new zealand… fascinating…
@ phiw13 | Dec 3 2021 0:51 utc | 164… thanks! i gather the music scene in chicago is very rich… old hippie sometimes comments on it and we have talked about it a few different times, but i don’t know these players! there was a group out of the uk with very similar influences i recall hearing a few years ago… cheers..

Posted by: james | Dec 3 2021 6:22 utc | 181