Microsoft employs full time security personnel.
They oversee/oversaw the security of physical infrastructure as well
as that of employees like Bill Gates.

The job of bodyguarding Bill Gates would include the vetting
of people that attempt to get close to Bill. Someone failed
when they permitted Jeffrey Epstein, the creator of a honey trap, to ingratiate himself with Bill Gates.

Bill Gates met with Jeffrey Epstein even after Epstein had been found guilty of
soliciting prostitution from minors, and the two met together many times over several years!

The head of Bill's security would have known about Epstein and his dangerous history.
He is protecting one of the wealthiest billionaires on the planet and
he would have resources, contacts, within the FBI, Justice Department and even the CIA at his
disposal to assist in vetting people. Certainly.

Certainly, in fact the head of security *was* CIA. And not a minor figure there either.
Once CIA, always CIA.

Prior to becoming head of security at Microsoft, Mike Howard (not to
be confused with Michael Howard at Microsoft) was a station chief for the CIA,
he had a 22 year career with the CIA. Once CIA, always CIA.

The CIA had to **want** Bill Gates to become involved with the creator of a honey trap
or else you have to conclude that they were grossly incompetent.
Incompetence is ever the most convenient fallback excuse and cover story.

Posted by: librul | Dec 19 2021 14:29 utc | 1

I posted this on the thread about Omicron but since this is an open thread I will re post it here because I think it’s very important in order to understand the machinations behind the covid policies

“ The latest Sage papers have been published, envisaging anything from 200 to 6,000 deaths a day from Omicron depending on how many more restrictions we’ll get — up to and very much including another lockdown. Earlier today I had an unexpected chance to ask questions of Graham Medley, the chair of the Sage modelling committee.

He's a professor at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) which last weekend published a study on Omicron with very gloomy scenarios and making the case for more restrictions. But JP Morgan had a close look at this study and spotted something big: all the way through, LSHTM assumes that the Omicron variant is just as deadly as Delta. ‘But evidence from South Africa suggests that Omicron infections are milder,’ JP Morgan pointed out in a note to clients. Adjust for this, it found, and the picture changes dramatically:

“
Bed occupancy by Covid-19 patients at the end of January would be 33% of the peak seen in January 2021. This would be manageable without further restrictions.
So JP Morgan had shown that, if you tweak one assumption (on severity) then — suddenly — no need for lockdown.

Why was this scenario left out? Why would this fairly-important and fairly-basic fact on Omicron modelling not presented by Sage modellers like Professor Medley to ministers — and to the general public? I was thrilled for the chance to speak to him on Twitter. It was kind of him to make the time (he’s still going, as far as I can make out). The Spectator data hub has a page devoted to past Sage modelling vs actual, and I wanted to make sure I was not being unfair to Sage in my selection or presentation of those charts.

The latest Sage paper-drop — the 6,000-deaths-a-day one — refers to ‘scenarios,’ not predictions. Professor Medley emphasises the distinction: saying something could happen is not saying that there's a realistic chance of it happening. But then why do Sage modellers publish some scenarios and not others?”

Pls read the whole tweeter thread

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-twitter-conversation-with-the-chairman-of-the-sage-covid-modelling-committee

Posted by: DG | Dec 19 2021 14:39 utc | 2

Posted by: librul | Dec 19 2021 14:29 utc | 1

Is it possible that participating in social activities was ENHANCING the security of the guest, perhaps with some minor price like a short list of things to avoid? At it was fun to boot!

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 19 2021 14:59 utc | 3

Some news from unimportant countries (with two important neighbors). Google search "Poland discovery", and you get two interesting hits on top.

First, a large number of dinosaur tracks were DISCOVERed in Poland. Frankly, and need to read about it, perhaps the tracks lead to or from some important institutions.

Second, the ruling coalition advanced an important law, namely clarifying the conditions for TV broadcast licenses. Applicants have to be own, in the majority, by companies from European Economic Zone, kind of EU+. Until now, the shareholders in control could be owned by other companies that are from the outside of the zone, and that is now disallowed. Motivation that was cited is to prevent hostile governments to control TV broadcasters in Poland.

The law was passed in Sejm (confusingly, translated Diet in English), rejected in Senat, but according to Polish rules, the rejection can be rejected after one month, and this is what happened this week. Now only President's signature is remaining. The President is strongly associated with Sejm majority. There may be strong pressures on the Presidents, so the outcome is uncertain.

The Discovery part in this story is that there is only one company that would loose TV broadcast license as a result. Its news program is MOST POPULAR in Poland. And it is fully owned by a single company from outside European Economic Zone: Discovery Channel from USA.

The law could be unnecessary if the independent council in charge of TV licenses would not extend the license of TVN. This council took a lot of time to decide, extending the license in 3-1 vote. The single vote against was by a professor who is a member of two Roman Catholic lay knightly orders (I did not find his photo showing him armed and mounted, perhaps they dress like that only in gatherings not open to the public).

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 19 2021 15:51 utc | 4

Posted by: DG | Dec 19 2021 14:39 utc | 2

Podcast of UnHerd with Freddie Sayers interviewing SA scientist Pieter Streicher:

Pieter Streicher interview

“When measuring the virulence of any variant, it is more important to study records of hospitalisations and excess deaths. By these measures, Omicron is resulting in hospital admissions well below the previous wave in South Africa, and needing far less interventions like ventilation or supplemental oxygen. Excess deaths look likely to follow this pattern.“

Very good charts/graphics. One of the early commenters mentioned that Pieter was talking about the Gompertz curve which
shows that waves peak fairly quickly then erode regardless of any interventions you put in place.

As soon as I finished watching that I opened a new window to Yahoo home page and saw an article saying that Omicron was more transmissible and not any milder than Delta. Somebody's lying.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Dec 19 2021 15:52 utc | 5

RE: the balloux article on covid I would like to emphasize the part about two types of protection. For my working hypothesis I like to use a 'beermat' or postcard model of the fortress with an inner protection wall and an outer wall. The vaccine boosts the inner wall protection thoroughly but the outer wall only gets a minor and temporary boost.
The outer wall here is the upper respiratory tract. The inner wall is represented by the lower lungs. Since the path for contagion(they call it vectors) is the virus breaking through the outer wall multiplying and then spreading out again you cannot expect vaccines to be effective on the long term there. They are ill suited for that purpose. It would be very wrong however to extrapolate effectiveness rates for the outer wall to the inner wall. That has to be measured separately.

There is a consequence of this for group immunity: on the long term the virus remains epidemic since it freely breaks through the outer walls, but just because it remains epidemic , because it remains ubiquitous, you can get a long time maintenance (frequent boosting) of the inner walls and the virus becomes relatively innocent over generations, much more so than if the outer wall protection was good, since the latter would mean long periods without boosting.

Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | Dec 19 2021 16:00 utc | 6

About Omicron. South African data are inconclusive because of confounding factors, and Danish data are inconclusive because of the small number of cases, 37 hospitalization. In case of sharp dependency like "no vaccinated cases", 37 is a good number, but for "mostly milder symptoms", it is too small.

What is strange is the lack of British data that scientists of Nature magazine could analyze. As we know, England had a lot of Omicron cases and it has a much larger population than Denmark. Is something wrong in the British data collection? There were some stories of contracts for COVID-19 information systems given to cronies and bungled.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 19 2021 16:03 utc | 7

reply to 1

I haven't seen anyone comment on a potential loss of leverage or control by Western authorities because of societal change. Blackmail because of being gay has largely evaporated. Epstein is dead and the leverage there seems limited to exposing underage females.

OTOH, bribes involving cryptocurrency probably will increase.

Posted by: Eighthman | Dec 19 2021 16:04 utc | 8

Posted by: waynorinorway | Dec 19 2021 15:52 utc | 5

I think that a lot of ppl are lying

I also have noted that the ppl who bought into the “measures are here to protect public health” narrative they don’t wanna hear nothing positive re: covid … like natural immunity works or that immunity after recovery might be as protective as the vaccines. They just demand more measures, more vaccinations, more boosters and more segregation for the unvaccinated. There is a mass psychosis going on or something. Odd.

Posted by: DG | Dec 19 2021 16:06 utc | 9

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03794-8

Nature seems to have normal analysis in briefings, with all necessary caveats. We can cautiously conclude that not all of us are doomed --> 1% hospitalization rate in Denmark, and the patients seem to be still alive (all?).

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 19 2021 16:10 utc | 10

I also want to recommend rapid covid tests. people think 'oh, they are like 90% reliable which is not very good but better than nothing', but I would claim that if you use them for the right purpose, namely to make sure right before an event whether you might infect someone, then they are much better than that: when you are infectuous the virus concentration in the sample will necessarily be higher, and when you are superspreading it will be much higher still. Therefore the ability to detect infectuous people is higher than 90% and the ability to detect very infectuous people is still higher. That makes it an excellent access check. You may be infected and pass the test but chances you will then infect someone else are minimal.

Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | Dec 19 2021 16:26 utc | 11

England had a lot of Omicron cases and it has a much larger population than Denmark. Is something wrong in the British data collection?
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 19 2021 16:03 utc | 7

Of course there is! The data doesn't go in the right direction. Therefore it is silenced.

Posted by: BM | Dec 19 2021 16:27 utc | 12

Interesting read by Engdahl

It’s looking increasingly likely that the US Federal Reserve and the globalist powers that be will use the dramatic rising of inflation as their excuse to bring down the US financial markets and with it, crash the greatest financial bubble in history.

The enormous inflation rise since the malicious political lockdowns and the trillions of dollars in emergency spending by both Trump and Biden, coupled with the continuation of the Fed’s unprecedented near-zero interest rate policies and asset purchases of billions in bonds to keep the bubble inflated a bit longer– have set the stage for an imminent market collapse. Unlike what we are told, it is deliberate and managed.

Will Fed Crash Global Financial Markets for Their Great Reset?

Posted by: Down South | Dec 19 2021 16:28 utc | 13

Interesting read
The EU’s Case for Lockdowns and Blackouts – Hoping to Contain Inflation (to Save the Euro)

Posted by: Down South | Dec 19 2021 16:46 utc | 14

Right on time, and as predicted, Covid rears its ugly head AGAIN, destroying Christmas, murdering Santa Claus, and spreading fear and sorrow throughout the land.

Hilarious!

Posted by: gottlieb | Dec 19 2021 16:47 utc | 15

"The COVID-9/11 pandemic is over. With the failure of Omicron to capture the imaginations of only the most unimaginative midwits, the question now is how do we move forward from here. While we can rejoice that the threat to life and limb from COVID-9/11 may be effectively over, there is still the threat in its name to our liberty and sanity from those who profit most from the fear of the virus."
https://tomluongo.me/2021/12/18/finding-strength-along-post-covid-fury-road/

Posted by: Kiza | Dec 19 2021 16:49 utc | 16

Britain and its allies are "highly unlikely" to send troops to defend Ukraine if Russia invades the country, the UK's defence secretary has said.

"We shouldn't kid people we would," Ben Wallace told the Spectator magazine. "The Ukrainians are aware of that."

UK troops will not be deployed to Ukraine to defend against Russia

Posted by: Down South | Dec 19 2021 16:52 utc | 17

>>>>: DG | Dec 19 2021 14:39 utc | 2

JP Morgan

I would rate JP Morgan as slightly more trustworthy than the CIA. I rate the CIA as a bunch of lying shits, so why should anyone trust JP Morgan? Because they are a private enterprise who has no axe to grind? LOL. Nah, it's hardly surprising people are conned so easily.

LSHTM assumes that the Omicron variant is just as deadly as Delta

At the time the LSHTM made that assumption and included that in a scenario, it was a perfectly valid one to make.

‘But evidence from South Africa suggests that Omicron infections are milder,’ JP Morgan pointed out in a note to clients.

JP Morgan is assuming that what happens in South Africa with the Omicron variant will be replicated across the world. Until there is more evidence, nobody, including JP Morgan, knows for sure, and if they have got it wrong then given the incompetence of western regimes a lot more people will die. So, it's better to be on the safe side and ignore JP Morgan for the moment until more evidence is available.
If the death rate in China had been achieved by the UK there would have been about two hundred dead as opposed to about 147,000 while in the US there would have been about a thousand dead as opposed to about 827,000.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Dec 19 2021 16:54 utc | 18

Robert Kennedy Jr. on The War Room: US Intelligence Agencies and Military Were Involved With The Wuhan Lab Research
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/robert-kennedy-jr-war-room-us-intelligence-agencies-military-involved-wuhan-lab-research-video/

Ghislaine Maxwell Trial: Evidence from Jeffrey Epstein’s Safe Went Missing Following FBI Raid
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/ghislaine-maxwell-trial-evidence-jeffrey-epsteins-safe-went-missing-following-fbi-raid/

Posted by: Kiza | Dec 19 2021 16:55 utc | 19

DG @9 Very insightful observation; I have noticed the same phenonmenon in the corner of the imperial "homeland" where I live. In fact, this behavior brings to mind something the inestimable Glen Ford (PBUH) once wrote: "Americans aren't a particularly bloodthirsty people, but they do seem to have a high tolerance for spilling other peoples' blood."
It's comforting to know there are still sane and sober thinkers such as yourself, DG (and Norwegian, Blue Dotterel, old hippie, librul, Grieved, and others); gives me hope that humanity might eventually put itself on the path to cultural maturation, rather than the oblivion that is staring at us right in the effing face.
Thanks for the reports b, and I hope you're feeling better. Have nice holidays everybody.

Posted by: robjira | Dec 19 2021 16:55 utc | 20

Posted by: DG | Dec 19 2021 16:06 utc | 9
"I think that a lot of ppl are lying"

Yeah, I should have added to my somebody's lying comment and it ain't Pieter Streicher.
Just the way the Yahoo headline was phrased tells you.
'...more transmissible and not any milder' directly translates to 'be more afraid than ever'.

And as Posted by: c1ue | Dec 19 2021 15:56 utc | 157 in the Omicron Update thread
"And we'll see another variant next year - I'll bet money on it."

I agree. I'll bet the farm - except for the pitchforks. I'm sharpening them for the liars.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Dec 19 2021 16:56 utc | 21

LONDON (AP) — The United Kingdom’s central bank on Thursday became the first in a major advanced economy to raise interest rates since the coronavirus pandemic began, as banks controlling monetary policy around the globe shift their focus from stimulating the economy to combating soaring consumer prices that arrived during the recovery.

The moves come despite the threat that the new omicron variant of COVID-19 poses. The European Central Bank took a much more cautious approach than the Bank of England, but it also decided the economic recovery was strong enough for it to start carefully dialing back some of its stimulus efforts over the next year.

The U.K. bank was joined by Norway, which hiked its benchmark interest rate in the face of troublesome levels of inflation. Central banks typically raise rates to fight inflation and lower them when economies are weak, as they were during the pandemic. They have also used bond purchases to drive down market rates for borrowers during the pandemic, aiming to help businesses limit staff cutbacks or avoid bankruptcy.

The U.S. Federal Reserve also decided this week to speed up its exit from pandemic crisis support as inflation reached a 40-year high of 6.8% in November, putting it on a path to start raising interest rates as early as the first half of next year. The eurozone’s inflation rate is 4.9%, highest since statistics started in 1997, though the central bank says much of that is temporary.

UK raises interest rates as central banks focus on inflation

Posted by: Down South | Dec 19 2021 17:12 utc | 22

Posted by: Down South | Dec 19 2021 17:12 utc | 23, 13, 14

Well, they can crash the markets themselves now, and try to retain control, or have it done for them very soon. I think their hand is being forced. Anyway, that is what I expect. It's either that (deflation) or inflation, and the powers that be hate inflation.

Posted by: Bemildred | Dec 19 2021 17:22 utc | 23

@perimetr ,post22 , I think the writers in your article could read my beermat model to help them getting their priorities right. If a vaccine achieves a 5 to 10 fold reduction in hospitalizations that means it is doing a pretty good job and claiming 'vaccines don't work' is a gross distortion. A medical expert can point out the downsides and should express reservations about using a vaccine which will do some actual damage, but a policymaker should be able to say that some damage is acceptable, certainly in the short run.

Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | Dec 19 2021 17:23 utc | 24

Piotr Berman | Dec 19 2021 16:03 utc | 7

The UK figure I have seen is 85 hospitalizations and one death.

"Doomed, doomed, we are all doomed. Very, very, very slowly doomed".
*

Of course the age, cormorbidities, "by, with or from" Covid of the single person..... has not yet been released.

Posted by: Stonebird | Dec 19 2021 17:32 utc | 25

TASS, Russian press agency, on JCPOA talks. I must stress that in diplomatic/polite political speech, praising something is often "aspirational", a polite way of saying that this is what you wish.

He said that the Russian delegation understood all the difficulties of the talks and the results of the seventh round have lived up to expectations. "The bottom line is that no one was seeking to damage the results of the previous six rounds," Ulyanov noted.

Following a lengthy tug-of-war, other participants in the talks, including European partners, have accepted quite a lot of the amendments to the document on nuclear issues suggested by the Iranian side. "Other participants in the talks demonstrated a respectful attitude to the new elements of Iran’s position. It was important, and we achieved it," he said.
----------
On the other hand, Alexander Mercouris worries that the situation is sliding toward an open war, as advocating by many in Washington, those many projecting wishes of "the most essential ally ever", if imperfectly. The sale of additional and improved refueling tanker planes to Israel was delayed, by two years, and our valiants FOI advocate a series of very visible exercises exhibiting readiness to actually attack Iran. There were more resolute warmongering campaigns in the past.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 19 2021 17:35 utc | 26

A blessed Old Calendar feast of Saint Nicholas to all!

I read the advice on RFKennedy's 'malfeasance' piece. No, not a grifter. No checking was done but as you b, mention above,testing was advised, plus the 'advice' on the sayso of Kennedy's wife (as far as I know she didn't write the book). Here's what Kennedy actually said:

...When Politico asked him about the apparent hypocrisy at his shindig, Kennedy blamedhis wife—Curb Your Enthusiasm star Cheryl Hines. “I guess I’m not always the boss at my own house,” Kennedy told Politico’s Daniel Lippman. He added that tests and vaccines statuses weren’t checked at the door. Kennedy’s anti-vaccine group, the Children’s Health Defense, more than doubled its revenue in 2020 to $6.8 million, according to an AP investigation.

[My bolds]

The book is profitable for a reason. And many copies were distributed free of charge -- I know because we got one that way. I rate the book as I do Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" - and if this gets me banned, I'm sorry to leave, will continue to read b's informative offerings, and encourage all to do so.

Posted by: juliania | Dec 19 2021 17:42 utc | 27

The study – published by Discovery Health, a healthcare provider responsible for 3.7 million patients in South Africa – also shows that vaccines are not as effective against omicron, which poses a higher risk of “breakthrough infections”.

Epidemiologists have warned that data from a few more weeks is needed to corroborate these preliminary conclusions, especially considering the average age of people involved in the study is 34 – and younger people generally tend to have mild symptoms.

However, the report’s conclusions do appear to mirror that of real-life datasets in other regions. In the UK, for instance, just 10 people are known to have been admitted to hospital with omicron so far, despite the variant first being detected here almost three weeks ago.

A comparison of the first three weeks of some Covid variants’ spread in South Africa shows a stark difference in admissions. For every 1,000 infections in the country, there were 131 beta hospitalisations, 101 delta admissions and just 38 omicron admissions.

However, Dr Ryan Noach, the chief executive of Discovery Health, said he and others “remain concerned that health systems could still be overrun, frankly, because of the sheer volume of cases” caused by omicron.

If omicron infects four times the number of people as beta or three times the number of people as delta, then the number of admissions for omicron will be similar to those for beta and delta respectively.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Dec 19 2021 17:59 utc | 28

Re Hospitalizations for Omicron cha-cha-cha...

Hopefully after all this time, all this information, and all this 'science' folks know how to treat themselves early if they suspect the onset of symptoms, as opposed to waiting at home doing nothing until they're on death's door, which continues to basically be the official medical guidance in the USA. Hopefully after all this time, folks will heal themselves in spite of their 'representative' government, a wholly owned subsidiary of Big Pharma.

Posted by: gottlieb | Dec 19 2021 18:15 utc | 29

Posted by: juliania | Dec 19 2021 17:42 utc | 28

Thank you! Given that the day of St. Nicholas The Miracle Maker is on December 6, your wishes are a bit late to those of us who use Gregorian calendar, but it is our, gregorians' fault that we did not made our wishes earlier.

When I was in elementary school, it was a tradition that each child would buy a modest gift for another child in the same class selected by lottery -- Communist government was egalitarian, so it adopted a pre-Marxist celebration for its purposes. Association of St. Nicholas with reindeer and Christmas is an invention of capitalists pigs from The Netherlands.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 19 2021 18:16 utc | 30

thanks b.... clearly people want to talk about covid and the latest hit - omicron - as witnessed by this comment thread! at the moment, i have nothing to add to it..

Posted by: james | Dec 19 2021 18:19 utc | 31

@ juliania | Dec 19 2021 17:42 utc | 28 with the seasons greeting and value comparison of the Robert Kennedy Jr. book with the Shock Doctrine

The best of the season to you as well

I value what the Shock Doctrine book tells us about the financial rape of South America and what is happening in the more "advanced" countries now as well. If the Robert Kennedy Jr. book is comparable in value as you write, I only hope it is more effective than the Shock Doctrine in waking up the zombies of our world.

Enjoy the holidays with your family and best to all barflies at MoA

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 19 2021 18:24 utc | 32

Perimetr @ 22, thank you for a very understandable explanation of what some reputable science currently reasons to be the case with the current vaccination programs. I will simply emphasize the word 'currently', in making my further point that just as can be determined in any scientific proceeding from Galen to now, names can be given to processes within the human body and workable remedies tested over time achieved, no question, but it will always leave out a lot about what is actually happening within us, just as drawing a 'straight line' in geometry is in actuality always an approximation. And much, much more needs to be learned concerning natural immunity; we have only 'discovered' so far the tip -- of the iceberg that it is.

Science loves its new ability to analyze microscopic functions and play with genes. This is a similar situation as the early discoveries about radiation. I can remember myself that machines were made for stores selling shoes - you could put your foot inside one so that the bones of the foot were seen - a process highly dangerous to the customer (and probably to store workers as well.) We are in that situation with respect to the spike protein, it seems to me. And a huge ongoing experiment has affected all our families, including that of RFK,jr. It's affecting mine as well. We cannot but speak out!

Posted by: juliania | Dec 19 2021 18:31 utc | 33

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Dec 19 2021 16:54 utc | 18

The redeeming feature of JP Morgan is that it is not Goldman Sachs, I am not sure what would be my pick between GS and CIA as a more destructive organization.

On the bright side, American sanctions, if your country is affected by them, prevents the use of services of Goldman Sachs (and JP Morgan), which is softening the blow.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 19 2021 18:32 utc | 34

Piotr Berman @ 31, you are welcome, and thank you for your posts! Of course, calendars are always approximations, but I rather like the slight separation gradually increasing between the astronomical calendar of the day and the uninterrupted succession of feasts from the time the church calendar came into being. There's now a 13 day interval, close enough for folk music as they say. The observance of Easter in Orthodox churches fits better with Old Calendar timings even as it is a moveable feast both east and west. And when I worked in a greenhouse, I once filled my car after the regular Christmas with leftover poinsettias, brought them home and filled my chapel - no room for people except on the threshhold!

I enjoy complexity, anyway - vive la differance!

Posted by: juliania | Dec 19 2021 18:48 utc | 35

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 19 2021 18:24 utc | 33

A comment of Shock Doctrine (doctrine, not the book). Several years ago I read a funny reader's comment in Virtual Poland. Balcerowicz was employed by then President of Ukraine as an economic advisor, being widely regarded as the architect of shock therapy in Poland. A comment was, as I recall, "I hate Banderowcy to the bone, but Balcerowicz? Even Banderowcy are human, there should be SOME limits." (Banderowcy = followers of Stepan Bandera, their heroes massacred a lot of Poles, ca. 100 thousands, hard to give precise number as it happened in a chaos of war.)

I read that shock therapy (transition from Communism) was somewhat softened in Poland, because a large sector employed in small farms. The poor people could survive on potatoes and apples that remained cheap and ubiquitous through the hyperinflation and shortages, and together, "this diet is rather complete, very good for heart disease, although it creates a risk of anemia".

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 19 2021 18:50 utc | 36

Thank you, psychohistorian! I will say that there is still community in festivities extending from this Sunday to western Epiphany which approximates Old Calendar Christmas - Old Calendar just extends the season, which can't be bad. It's for the children, after all. In Santa Fe Christmas Eve we used to walk up and down streets of lights being candles inside paper bags - even that was done in my little town a few years in a row - I would come home from work - magical to see. It's a lot of work though and weather can be a factor. Farolitos they are legitimately called, and my daughter still walks them in her neighborhood in Albuquerque. Down there they call them 'luminarias' but that's incorrect - they are little lights; luminarias are the small bonfires of juniper wood some communities in New Mexico still do
on feasts.

No covid, james --- you can read this one ;~)

Posted by: juliania | Dec 19 2021 19:04 utc | 37

How could I forget to thank our esteemed host for his postings and the MoA bar for another year....thanks Bernhard!

Piotr Berman | Dec 19 2021 18:50 utc | 37 with the Shock Doctrine response

I live in the Willamette valley and see too many mono crops....but the hazelnuts nuts are good....I don't think the valley produces a balanced meal for locals but I also hope not to see that level of FOOD need.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 19 2021 19:04 utc | 38

In August of this year our own “Dr Fauci” Salim Abdool Karim predicted that:

South Africa expects a fourth wave of coronavirus infections to start on Dec. 2 and to last about 75 days, Salim Abdool Karim, former chairman of the government’s ministerial advisory committee on Covid-19, said.

The government is assuming that the wave will follow a similar pattern to that of the third wave and that there will be a new variant by then, he said in a Government Technical Advisory Centre conference.

South Africa Sees Covid-19 Fourth Wave Starting in Early December

Posted by: Down South | Dec 19 2021 19:05 utc | 39

Chronicles of Democracy.

Former commander of the ground forces of Poland Waldemar Skshipczak in an interview with wPolityce said that the Polish soldier Emil Chechko, who fled to Belarus, should be shot in the head.

P.S. Btw, do not confuse: Poland, where a former high-ranking military man wants to shoot an escaped soldier is a "democracy", and Belarus, where they demand to arrest the escaped Tikhanovskaya is "authoritarian regime".

Posted by: alaff | Dec 19 2021 19:16 utc | 40

Something did break. Whole of germany is full of protest against vax mandate. Finally the spiral of silence is turning around. This is the way E. Noelle Neumann did call it. The goverment can only push to a certain point, till there is created a loud minority. She guesses this is 20% of the people. When this minority is pushed to far in the corner, people become courage again and speak their mind publicly. Germany reached that tipping point. Only in german speaking countries so far they tried to implement vax mandate. This will not work. I was on the street in 89. trust me, it is exactly the same atmosphere. This mandate is not enforceable. Else it would get very, very violent.

This from Reitschuster.de. I guess the biggest winner of the covid media war in germany

Posted by: rico rose | Dec 19 2021 19:27 utc | 41

Posted by: james | Dec 19 2021 18:19 utc | 32

A brief respite for james and other ‘music heads’ tired of Covid talk:

Sweet Georgia Brown

James, not long ago I passed on Theme for the Eulipians by Roland Kirk.
This is from the same album. Check out the stick work, eh?
Also, I get a kick from the conversation – “What road? I’m talkin’ ‘bout the street, brother!”

Myself, I'm weary of the medical/science side of Covid talk, too. It's way beyond the ability of most of us to
understand, even if we could get good info. But the political side is ongoing and, while that too is confusing,
if you are not concerned about it, you are negligent.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Dec 19 2021 19:32 utc | 42

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 19 2021 19:04 utc | 39
Hello to everyone in Canby. Class of '65. Go Cougars!

Posted by: waynorinorway | Dec 19 2021 19:35 utc | 43

brazil
Here is a link on Brazil that details imperial tactics which show how countries and power groups are leveraged into the Empire's web.

This Feb. 2021 story details how Brazilian hacker Walter Delgatti broke open the joint CIA, State Dept./Brazilian oligarch operation to depose and neutralize the left in Brazil: "lawfare", the use of the judicial branch to gain or retain power. During the 1900s Mafiosi bragged about how many New York, Miami, Chicago judges they owned. Lawfare is basically the same thing only stretched into elite, CIA loaded universities where young ambitious natives are groomed and the sent back "home", a la Brazilian judge Sergio Moro. Delgatti is a self described "nobody" and his story is both revealing and compelling, also pointing to why the Empire is unable to hold power: Dilma was deposed (impeached) and Lula was imprisoned (his wife died of a stroke due to the stress) but the whole plot has been blown open, leaving Bolsonaro exposed. Also, Delgatti is not happy with the Intercept and wonders why Glenn Greenwald didn't reveal more of the documents he shared with him for free.
"Delgatti said that he now has mixed feelings about Greenwald and the Intercept. “I only sent the Intercept 57 gigabytes of the conversations from Lava Jato and after this, Glenn refused to take any more of it. He said, ‘no. What I already have is already going to give us enough material for 1 year of articles. It’s a lot of stuff. I have a year’s worth of articles,’ and he didn’t want any more of it. I had a lot more information and he didn’t want it. Now, he has released very little of what he received. To this day I don’t understand why."
There's also a long video in Portuguese which I didn't watch because I wouldn't understand it.

https://www.brasilwire.com/lava-jato-hacker-walter-delgatti-speaks/

Posted by: migueljose | Dec 19 2021 19:40 utc | 44

Updates for cold beer cheer.
Gazprom has booked the minimum gas transit possible for the Yamal pipeline towards the EU. Pipeline operating at about 5% capacity.
"Ted Cruz’s bill to sanction Nord Stream 2, obtained by @politico today, requires sanctions to be imposed within *15 days*…and makes any presidential waiver subject to the 2017 Russia sanctions law, which allows Congress to vote to re-impose the sanctions.
Needs 60 votes to pass". Vote in January.

Now all it needs is someone singing "baby it's cold outside," and getting the reply "no it isn't, it is colder in here".
**

US; "It was our honor to showcase our changed mission at Al Asad Air Base. We have ended our combat mission and look forward to our partnership as invited guests of Iraq."
A troop movement without moving any troops. Iraq no longer will have to pay "protection fees" just "education" fees (at least I think that is what they say they are there for.) to "Advise, Assist and Enable? Do they think a change in name will be good enough?

Parallel to that, the US is possibly trying to "hunker down" in the Northeast of Syria. It stopped a regular Russian convoy - no new news about that.

Posted by: Stonebird | Dec 19 2021 19:44 utc | 45

Sunday, December 19, 2021
Breaking News: Putin Is Finshed, Russia Is Drafting The Articles of Surrender To Germany.

http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2021/12/breaking-news-putin-is-finshed-russia.html

Posted by: powerandpeople | Dec 19 2021 19:46 utc | 46

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 19 2021 18:50 utc | 37

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41133092

When we visited Chechia and Hungary a few years ago, our eyes were opened to the fact that in one, shock therapy was largely avoided or mitigated whereas in the other, less so. The paper above compares to Poland directly the Czech Republic but I cannot excerpt without actually typing it out due to it being a scanned graphic. I'm sure you're aware of this, but maybe it will edify others.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 19 2021 19:54 utc | 47

@rico rose | Dec 19 2021 19:27 utc | 42

Something did break. Whole of germany is full of protest against vax mandate.

Thanks for that report! Great news, even if inevitable!

Posted by: Norwegian | Dec 19 2021 19:55 utc | 48

aha. Here's a complete PDF of the paper discussing the difference between transitioning from communism toward social democracy as it was carried out in Poland vs. Czech Republic.

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/281b/7e6dbecc24bafea9a8f81336e1b820256981.pdf

This excerpt is but a tiny attempt to summarize Chechia's approach.

The social-democratic or rather social-liberal vision that prevailed in the Czech Republic immediately after 1989 had both a short-term and a long-term component. In the short term, the policy planners intended to cushion the effects of the economic transformation through a range of transitional measures. Many of these were laid out in the “radical” strategy document prepared by Klaus and Dlouhý in early 1990. In the long run, a thorough reconstruction of the social welfare system was envisaged that “would motivate individuals and social groups into action, would lead to social independence and responsibility of the citizen and of whole social groups for their own social situation” [Miller et al. 1993: 7]. The goal was to create a welfare state based on liberal principles that would be compatible with a market economy and support political democracy.

In Poland there was less and of shorter duration price (and importantly, rent) controls among other short and long-term strategies.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 19 2021 20:00 utc | 49

Bjørn Andreas Bull-Hansen

They hate us

Posted by: Norwegian | Dec 19 2021 20:02 utc | 50

For James and anyone else wanting to get away from the COVID stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvidNzCImCA

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 19 2021 20:14 utc | 51

Most Scientific Comment of the Day right here.

That border crossing between Bulgaria and Turkey looks pretty much like one between BC, Canada and Washington State, USA before Canadian Thanksgiving weekend to me. (Yep, I’ve been in it, cross-border shopping in Bellingham where I meet more Canadians than Americans while doing so. It’s nice actually, fellow citizens are friendlier in another country.) I’m not sure that should be taken as concrete evidence of Turkey’s demise.

About the airborne thing… I believe there may have been some concern somewhere (like in the national defence arena) about water-borne transmission.

Chief Public Health Officer Tam takes direction from this super-creepy board, I remember this from early in the pandemic, I think it’s the National Advisory Committee on Immunization… But really, all those board members care about is the health of Canadians.

I had the distinct impression that the Canadian government didn’t think the rapid tests which were available to them worked properly. Maybe there was some kind of board behind that one too.. although now they are being distributed. Now that 81+ percent of the population is vaccinated.

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Dec 19 2021 20:19 utc | 52

R Kennedy blaming his wife is priceless. what he does is someone else's fault. I can see why people love him.

2021 Covid death count:
China: 2
US: 800k plus.

The self-anointed Resistance (tm) is a joke.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Dec 19 2021 20:37 utc | 53

Fabio Vighi, whose great article was posted in the comments some weeks back, has written extensively on the relationship between financial and monetary central bank policy and the role of the pandemic in it. This one from October is a great variation on his theme. Perhaps it is high time we began thinking about the pandemic as a stage-managed event starring: the BIS, Fed, Fauci, the co-opted MSM, and (the best supporting actor award goes to) a flu variant. The main story is, as Vighi lucidly shows, is late-stage capitalism's financialization woes. For the long historical view I recommend:

Jason Moore and Giovanni Arrighi, "Capitalist Development in World Historical Perspective", chapter 4 in Phases of Capitalist Development: Booms, Crises and Globalizations (2001) pp.56-75.

I think you can get the chapter here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304750373_Capitalist_Development_in_World_Historical_Perspective

The table on p.65 is illuminating. The prediction of the authors in 2001 was that the US imperialist incarnation of capitalism (1945-?) would implode in a financialization phase in the 2020s. They seem right so far...

Posted by: Patroklos | Dec 19 2021 20:44 utc | 54

b, was you right with the "Peng affair"?

Link to RT New post

Saluti
Roberto

Posted by: Roberto | Dec 19 2021 21:14 utc | 55

More interesting news:

Deputy General Secretary of the Baath Party Khilal al-Khilal (Syria) and the head of the Donetsk Republic public movement Aleksey Muratov (DPR) signed an official agreement on interaction and cooperation in Damascus. The DPR delegation in Syria was represented by a number of high-ranking officials. The signing ceremony was also attended as guests of honor by several deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

A new stage in the formation of the republics of Donbass as a subject of international law.
I think in the foreseeable future (sooner rather than later) we will witness the opening of official diplomatic missions of the DPR and LPR in a number of countries.

Posted by: alaff | Dec 19 2021 21:14 utc | 56

Interesting addendum

@1 I posted about the head of Bill Gates' security department, Mike Howard,
someone that had at times been Gates' personal bodyguard.
He was head of security during the period Bill Gates was interacting with
Jeffrey Epstein.Prior to working for Microsoft he was CIA and had risen to
the title of Chief of Station.

I found it of interest that before joining the CIA (for 22 years)
he had been a police officer in Oakland, California.
Mike Howard's father was Black and his mother Japanese.
He went from the Oakland Police Department to the CIA.

Barflies may not know the details but they have certainly heard
of the allegations of the CIA or their operatives, like the Contras, running drugs
to poor Black neighborhoods in California, including Oakland.

The crack cocaine epidemic hit Oakland after Mike
Howard had left (1980) the Oakland police department, so he didn't
witness that horror show.

Drug running by the CIA, or it's operatives, allegedly began before the crack epidemic.
The allegations against the CIA don't end there. And, perhaps, you know much more
about them than I do.

At any rate, Mike Howard must have a unique perspective.

His experience at the CIA includes, in his own words,
[time at the]"Directorate of Operations or DO as we called it back then.
It was the clandestine arm of the CIA and where the espionage activities took place."

This is how Mike Howard tells his own story:
https://www.worldauthors.org/interview-with-author-mike-howard/amp/

Posted by: librul | Dec 19 2021 21:24 utc | 57

The crackpot christian/zionist warmongers of the Captive Nations are the architects of their own decline. Like sorry losers everywhere, they typically blame their enemies du jour for the misfortunes and sorrows they have led their respective countries into.

"The main global game now is Russia-China relations: the ability of the United States to control or influence the world order is fading fast.

Russian and Chinese leaders seem currently relaxed about East-West summitry as Western security elites desperately play catch-up, trying to shore up their faltering global status.

Five Eyes audiences are being sheltered from the truth of what is happening out there in the larger world. It is easy for even discerning and well-read readers in Australia to be trapped within clinging webs of false Western narratives about what is going on in Russian and Chinese relations with each other and with Western countries.

Washington’s democratic and military intelligence elites — fearful of the continued attractiveness of Trump revanchism at home — are trying desperately to resurrect the Russia and China bogeymen as unifying liberal-imperialist state narratives. Recently they have been pushing the narrative of Russian aggressive intent towards Ukraine and of China’s genocide of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, military threats to Taiwan and human rights abuses in Hong Kong.

In the complacent way of declining empires, Washington elites are indifferent to the unifying effect of their ham-fisted and provocative diplomacy on their defined adversaries. More and more, Washington reminds me of Byzantium..."

https://johnmenadue.com/russia-and-china-sit-together-to-watch-the-decline-of-the-west/

Posted by: Paul | Dec 19 2021 21:52 utc | 58

DG #2

Pls read the whole tweeter thread

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-twitter-conversation-with-the-chairman-of-the-sage-covid-modelling-committee

Thank you that was an excellent way to choke on my coffee. Here is a scenario whereby 'science' as applied by Professor Medley and his team of 'experts' arrive at conclusions:

The good professor Graham Medley, chair of the Sage modelling committee, professor at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) stood in the shade of the tree and marveled at the perfection of the object he had just discovered on the ground. Its symmetry and golden colour, its absolute perfection and geometric precision brought him to the realisation that either a god or a fairy had gently placed it there for him to examine and ponder its origins. Knowing that fairies were an less likely scenario due to absence of direct evidence, he declared that a god had made a miracle. He was almost certain of it.

As he was about to walk off into the sunlight another leaf fell on the ground right in his path. He was now certain that he had all the evidence and his scientist colleagues all agreed and they published a paper to the glory of god.

That twitter conversation was revealing, and that professor has no hiding place from ridicule unless there is a very clear caveat in the paper's abstract and introduction. Somehow I doubt that such caveat exists in a direct form.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 19 2021 22:02 utc | 59

@Kiza16 imagine the surprise at learning Tom Luongo is a halfwit, referring to our fascist leaders as commie. lord save us.

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Dec 19 2021 22:02 utc | 60

Norwegian | Dec 19 2021 20:02 utc | 51

The majority of people that need to watch this won't. Those that do will most probably misunderstand it.

As he says in the video, if you have not woken up to what is going by now, you probably never will.
All that is happening around the world is not about a virus,not about a vaccine, pro/anti vax, these are just a means to an end.
A distraction.

Do people not see what is happening in Australia, New Zealand and most European countries?
It doesn't seem to concern 'B' or most of the commentators.

Posted by: ted001 | Dec 19 2021 22:04 utc | 61

My Twitter conversation with the chairman of the Sage Covid modelling committee (by Fraser Nelson of The Spectator)

An illuminating discussion with Professor Graham Medley (the Chairman of the UK SAGE Covid Modelling Committee) which reveals that Covid models are not impartial but are produced to enable the UK Government to make the decisions they want; specifically, the scenarios the Government needs to justify restrictions but NOT the equally plausible scenarios which would indicate that there is no need for restrictions.

Posted by: ADKC | Dec 19 2021 22:34 utc | 62

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Dec 19 2021 22:02 utc | 60

Re Kiza @ 16
https://tomluongo.me/2021/12/18/finding-strength-along-post-covid-fury-road/

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. I've called Luongo on his "commie"
fetish and he replied rather lamely to me. However, he covers a world of financial data, understands a lot of it better than I do and he provides coverage that is useful and succinct.

I don't read most of the opinions on MOA and avoid some posters automatically, but I cruise daily for links to information everyone posts regardless of my opinion of their opinions because they may find something of interest to me I wouldn't have found on my own.

Posted by: pogohere | Dec 20 2021 0:06 utc | 63

NYT alarms that non-RNA vaccines do not protect against Omicron. On rare occasion when NYT writes on a science topic I know about, there is 50-50 chance that it is heavily garbled. Someone tells a story to a journalist, and the latter is "stenographing" to the best of his/her ability, and the results is variable.

Two quotes brought my attention

only the Pfizer and Moderna shots, when reinforced by a booster, appear to have initial success at stopping infections, and these vaccines are unavailable in most of the world.

which contrasts with

A preliminary effectiveness study in Britain found that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine showed no ability to stop Omicron infection six months after vaccination.

So why people get boosters? I took it because it was explained to me that six month after Pfizer jab I loose the effect. Thus one can suspect that the alarming conclusion -- you are doomed, ye Chileans and Englanders -- is based on comparison between recent and not recent jabs. For a "fair" comparison we would need to compare results in several groups: recent Pfizer/Moderna, six month + Pfizer/Moderna, and the same for antibody based vaccines. Then overlay with traces of asymptomatic infections that are widespread -- with variable frequency -- and helpful.

My suspicion is that given a messy state of raw stats and obvious propaganda efforts (we believe in RNA vaccine, we believe in traditional vaccines), it is hard to trust "popular science" at this time. Perhaps the best advise is to spend summer in bars and similar places where people jostle, talk a lot and shed their viral loads with abandon, building immunity during the time when we are least susceptible to dangerous infection symptoms, and ride on that immunity through the cold months. Which I did not do, to my late regrets. Actually, perhaps one should study the diagrams of the "waves", what temperature and humidity range is most protective of our respiratory system.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 20 2021 0:19 utc | 64

@ Canadian Cents & karlof1

I have forwarded parts of you recent conversation to friends in the Philippines.Thanks for your scholarship. Here is the latest news.

I am reliably informed that Ferdinand Bong Bong Marcos Jr is a very popular and strong 'people power' candidate in the 2022 Philippines presidential elections to be held May 9, Bong Bong's Vice- Presidential running mate is the daughter of current President Duterte. In the Philippines, the President and vice president are elected separately. Marcos Jr apparently enjoys wide support among younger people and with some older people, who look back at the time his dictator father ruled with nostalgia.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/10/26/opinion/columns/negative-attacks-vs-marcos-name-making-bongbong-inevitable/1819759

There is a concerted Asia wide media campaign against Bong Bong. There have been outrageous allegations and bizarre rumours. He would not be the choice of the US embassy, comfortably located on the shores of Manila Bay, near Philippine Navy Headquarters and the well guarded US founded Manila Yacht Club.
.
"....Given his family’s history, Philippine presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr may have reason to resent the United States..."

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/16/asia/duterte-marcos-philippines-vice-presidency-intl-hnk/index.html

President Duterte remains popular because he resolutely stamps out blatant official corruption, which costs and penalizes the average Filipino. Filipinos are divided by President Duterte's ruthless campaign against methamphetamines. Some, even family members, applaud the ruthless extra judicial execution of 'shabu' dealers because that rids the family of a thief and a handicap.

Meanwhile,
Multi millionaire boxer Manny Pacquiao has denied discussing his presidential aspirations with his US boxing promoter, Bob Arum. Pacquiau lacks popular credibility. Often TV celebrities actually donate to worthy causes and poor people while Pacquiao only talks about it.

" Manny Pacquiao said he did not discuss any plans about running for president with his former longtime promoter Bob Arum.
Pacquiao’s comments came after Arum told WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman in a video conversation that the Filipino boxing legend and senator plans to run for president..."

https://sports.inquirer.net/396060/pacquiao-denies-discussing-running-for-president-with-arum

I am told the most likely challenger to Bong Bong is the Yellow team but to complicate matters:

The Yellow team turns Pink!

"Current VP Leni Robredo is running as an independent candidate – a clear sign she has not given up on her mission to unite the opposition in 2022. She even shed LP’s yellow political color during her candidacy launch on Thursday, October 7. Robredo faced the nation donning a pink face mask and a blue blouse with a huge pink ribbon clipped on her chest....

https://www.rappler.com/nation/elections/video-robredo-runs-president-as-independent-2022/

I am staggered by the many billions recently spent on sophisticated military equipment in a country that has far better uses for spending billions. The tourist industry has collapsed.

US and Australian meddling and corruption is assured. People fear these two misquents have plans to turn the country into the world's next proxy battlefield. There are many people of Chinese descent in the Philippines and, BTW, some great Chinese restaurants.

There is generally good social cohesion in the Philippines. Outrageous traffic incidents that would usually provoke road rage in the West are calmly tolerated and accepted by all. Filipinos have evolved a way to live with each other in harmony, despite the obscene disparity of wealth. You can see a Rolls Royce driving past a homeless person sleeping in the street. Despite inequality, people are remarkably happy with their lot. There are a number of very good universities and a workable public health and medical system. I wish Filipino people peace and fear political assassinations promoted by the usual suspects for the usual reasons. There are plenty of compradores, willing to serve non nativist interests waiting in the wings.

Posted by: Paul | Dec 20 2021 0:21 utc | 65

>>>>: Piotr Berman | Dec 19 2021 18:32 utc | 35

On the bright side, American sanctions, if your country is affected by them, prevents the use of services of Goldman Sachs (and JP Morgan), which is softening the blow.

They have ways and means to get around any sanctions.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Dec 20 2021 0:23 utc | 66

https://www.rt.com/news/543710-chile-president-socialist-election/
>Former student protest leader Gabriel Boric has defeated conservative Jose Antonio Kast in Chile’s presidential election, becoming the nation’s youngest leader in modern times.
>Kast conceded defeat on Sunday with Boric holding a sizable lead – at around 55% to 45% -- with more than two-thirds of the votes counted. Boric, 35, has pledged to expand Chile’s social programs, nationalize the pension system and raise government revenue through taxes on the massive mining companies that operate in the country.
Great news for Chile. It seems S. America as a whole is turning left, the US is sent packing!

Posted by: Smith | Dec 20 2021 0:33 utc | 67

Whole of germany is full of protest against vax mandate.

rico rose | Dec 19 2021 19:27 utc | 42:   Good.   Let's hope it spreads globally.

Posted by: Ian2 | Dec 20 2021 0:50 utc | 68

It's obvious, and not just because it's Keith's birthday, that only antibodies from Keith Richard's plasma can save humanity. Happy 77th birthday Keith.

https://fivegunswest.blogspot.com/2020/11/only-antibodies-from-keith-richards.html

https://fivegunswest.blogspot.com/2016/12/happy-birthday-keef-richardsthe-quality.html

Posted by: FiveGunsWest | Dec 20 2021 0:52 utc | 69

b,

   Everything-Microsoft is Tainted

@1 & @57 I showed that the CIA has had for years a "skeleton key" to all of Microsoft's infrastructure.

A member of the "clandestine arm of the CIA where the espionage activities took place" took employment
with Microsoft and was eventually given responsibility for the security of all of Microsoft's infrastructure.

Posted by: librul | Dec 20 2021 1:04 utc | 70

Chile
Posted by: Smith | Dec 20 2021 0:33 utc | 68
" Great news for Chile. It seems S. America as a whole is turning left, the US is sent packing!"
Thanks Smith. As you posted, Boric won big. Kast already conceded graciously and spoke favorably about Boric. https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Historic-Win-for-Gabriel-Boric-in-Chile-Presidential-Elections-20211219-0010.html

I'm also hopeful but skeptical. Boric is young and is considered center left. However, the Chilean people are not the same as the U.S. people or Canadians or Europeans. Will they push him hard toward Latin American BRI, public sector growth? I hope so. They might.
This article is uncertain.

https://orinocotribune.com/chilean-stalemate/

Posted by: migueljose | Dec 20 2021 1:08 utc | 71

Given my limited knowledge of languages, I have a rather restricted sample of governmental stupidity, mostly USA, UK, Poland and Ukraine (perhaps I should read more about Russia, alas, opposition is too shrill to believe, and "proposition" is too affirmative). Of those, UK may be not singularly stupid, but it has a distinct style, which includes very stupid savings.

Many wasteful regulations were removing in the Kingdom. For example, suppliers of refrigerators (fridges?) have largest freedom to compete anywhere in the world, and cut costs. This lead to the development of unique self-exploding fridges(?). I leak of refrigerant (frigant?) to the main chamber can accumulate, and when you open, the spark from cost-efficient light bulb housing can detonate the flammable gas. But my knowledge of physics is insufficient to explain why, uniquely in the world, British fridges can explode when they just stand there and there is no particular reason to generate sparks in the main chamber. Self-exploding fridge, together with innovative combustible building cladding lead to a famous Grenfell fire. [Complicated story, the aluminum cladding was not THAT flammable, but explosion from within the building did the trick, which still would not produce massive loss of life without a pile of additional stupidities; in USA buildings burn with some regularity, so there are many regulations and inspections to make the fires less lethal].

Now UK suffers particularly large natural gas prices and electricity prices. One aspect is that while on the Continent the levels of NG in storage is "alarmingly low", in UK there is basically no storage. 70% was removed in 2017 to save costs. I read about it today, so I found this link. In conclusion, the entire world can sleep safer knowing the the prime minister of UK can launch a nuclear attack any time he/she feels like it -- perhaps as a cost saving measure?

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 20 2021 1:09 utc | 72

Posted by: juliania | Dec 19 2021 18:31 utc | 34

thanks for all your comments juliania!
I'm reading RFK jr's book, just started last night. I reluctantly got the J&J last March, still don't know what to think about the vaccines but so far I've been surprised at Kennedy's book, lots of sources, lots of claims, too early for me to tell but after 50 pages I'm impressed. We'll see... but I'm pretty sure I will not be a supporter of Faucci!

Posted by: migueljose | Dec 20 2021 1:16 utc | 73

@45 migueljose

That's a wonderful story about Delgatti - thank you.

One has to wonder, yet again, about Greenwald and the Intercept. He sat on all that date and only published a fraction of it, in his news reports.

And he did the same with Snowden's data, or so I believe.

You could argue that the effect was made in each case with what was released, but with Delgatti we now see that Lula's defense team has way more data than Greenwald (still only 20% of the whole), and is working that data to achieve positive results towards a democratic society.

What might some such team have done with the 97% (or whatever it was) of unpublished data from Snowden that the Intercept sat on? I suppose we shall never know.

Anyway, the point is that the similarity between the two episodes, and with the same actors, suggest a compelling story of its own.

Posted by: Grieved | Dec 20 2021 1:52 utc | 74

Dr. Francis Boyle, the guy who wrote the law concerning F24 labs (bio-weapon research), is convinced it IS a bio-weapon.

My only question is; Was it released accidentally, or on purpose?

We'll NEVER know.....

Posted by: vetinLA | Dec 20 2021 2:25 utc | 75

re alaff | Dec 19 2021 19:16 utc | 41
Thanks for your gem which I discovered amongst the unending, pointless covid hysteria, it gave me a laugh whilst wondering yet again what the fuck is wrong with Poles, why is it that they never fail to select the most blockheaded corrupt arseholes as their leaders?
The idiot general who reckons Poland is at war with Belarus reminded me of Poland's idiot leaders in the 1930's who according to William Shirer in his excellent Berlin diary drove the USSR into the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact in 1939.
Molotov the Soviet Union's foreign minister had spent two years asking, finally begging Britain & France to make Poland see reason. That is a treaty of alliance aimed at defending Poland from Nazi attack couldn't be entered into with Poland whilst the Poles refused to allow one of the allies (USSR) to enter Poland if the Nazis attacked Poland. That there was no point to the treaty because as the world saw later in 1939 when the nazis did attack Poland, neither england nor france could get there to help and if the treaty had been agreed to under those conditions, then the USSR forces couldn't either, they would have to wait on the border until the nazis got close enough to the Poland-Soviet border to be fought from within the USSR territory, an insane thing for the USSR to do as it would inevitably cause the nazis to attack the USSR.

Maybe the englanders didn't sell the advantages of Molotov's deal to the Poles too well, after all one of the reasons Poland & england had got so close was that the englanders had been using Poland as a base to launch terrorist attacks on the USSR from for the previous 20 years, so they didn't want Polish & Soviet allies getting so close that the Poles spilt all the beans on englander perfidy.

However, the Poles should have objectively judged which side their bread was buttered irrespective of england. Cos the upshot was that the Soviet leadership decided that if the stupid poles didn't see the danger they did and their best bet in lieu of a england, france soviet alliance was to try and placate the nazis for as long as it would take to build sufficient tanks, planes & ships to resist them.

They got close, if the Nazis had been delayed until 1942 from attacking the USSR it is likely that the lives of at least 20 million Soviet citizens would have been saved. Trouble was france & england were such a pushover for them that a. hitler and co were ready before the USSR was.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Dec 20 2021 2:49 utc | 76

@ juliania | Dec 19 2021 19:04 utc | 38... thanks juliania... have a wonderful christmas holiday - i know you celebrate at a different time with a different calendar!

@ waynorinorway | Dec 19 2021 19:32 utc | 43... thanks man! i caught the last rashad roland kirk you shared.. this one is great with a tap dancer no less! i got the opportunity to do a few gigs with a tap dancer a few years ago..he was great! very spontaneous and in the moment with us improvising in a jazz context.. it was an outdoor summer gig and he definitely stole the show.. not sure if you knew that was a tap dancer with kirk... tap dancing made a bit of a comeback the past 10 years, but i don't see enough of it...

@ Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 19 2021 20:14 utc | 52... funky tune... i never heard of her before.. thanks!

i just got back from a sunday afternoon gig playing the charlie brown christmas music that vince garaudi wrote for that special that aired in 1965 i think...

here is my thing at present with covid.. i am doing gigs here in canada while the media is pumping up the fear.. needless to say, the turnouts aren't as good as they would ordinarily be! friday show had maybe 20 people.. saturday was better at about 60.. today's show was pretty good - maybe 50 people in parksville, which is basically a retirement community.. i am playing a restaurant tomorrow night in victoria and a christmas show this wednesday - fundraiser for a food bank.. they i play a new years eve gig in tofino.... i hate the vaccine passport mandate.. people should be allowed to choose, but here in canada it is all about protecting the public health care system... maybe there is some truth to this.. it is hard for me to know.. but i can tell you for a fact that talking about covid isn't changing any of this any time soon by the look of it.. i wish talking made a difference... i am hopeful things will be better in 2022... this time i hope i am right! it is affecting my livelihood as a public performer... fortunately i am doing well financially since we own our house.. younger musicians are having a much tougher time of it for sure... thanks everyone..

ps - finished reading hannah arendts book - eichmann in jerusalem.. great book for the insights it has into humanity..

Posted by: james | Dec 20 2021 3:06 utc | 77

Posts being deleted.
It’s his blog, but jfc.

Posted by: Cadence Calls | Dec 20 2021 3:11 utc | 78

Perimeter #76

So immediately prior to the wuhan military games, China national disaster people held a three day chemical attack rehearsal. We know that from earlier publications.

I suggest that Chinese security establishment has been fully aware of the USA shenanigans from early days and allowed it to proceed on the basis of not revealing the depth of China espionage and perhaps turning the game back on the perpetrator well before the wuhan games.

Certainly the dearth of publishing over those two years reveals a major oddity in scientific behaviour. I cannot see China security establishment being blindsided easily.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 20 2021 3:24 utc | 79

Abut that 'China threat' !

I think the Germans were the ones who floated the yellow peril scare.
The pommies and gringos lapped it up with relish and became its chief promoter until this very day.

The sentiment are wide spread in the five liars domain, from the elites down to the plebs, following are just some of the more outspoken ....

Tip of an iceberg.

Jack London

China’s population must be seven hundred millions, eight hundred millions, nobody knew how many millions, but at any rate it would soon be a billion. There were two Chinese for every white-skinned human in the world… There was talk of all countries putting bounties on children to increase the birth rate, but it was laughed to scorn by the arithmeticians, who pointed out that China was too far in the lead in that direction.

Where have we heard that before? Smugly, China’s Emperor basically told the world, “Come and get us!” The Western nations set aside their differences and mobilized. The mission was for containment.
Biological warfare did the dirty work—a pretty grim end.

After Western nations repopulated the desolate land that was China…

[1]

Bertrand Russell

Socialism, especially international socialism, is only possible as a stable system if the population is stationary or nearly so. A slow increase might be coped with by improvements in agricultural methods, but a rapid increase must in the end reduce the whole population to penury, ... the white population of the world will soon cease to increase. The Asiatic races will be longer, and the negroes still longer, before their birth rate falls sufficiently to make their numbers stable without help of war and pestilence. ... Until that happens, the benefits aimed at by socialism can only be partially realized, and the less prolific races will have to defend themselves against the more prolific by methods which are disgusting even if they are necessary

[2]

Churchill

I think we shall have to take the Chinese in hand and regulate them. I believe that as civilized nations become more powerful they will get more ruthless, and the time will come when the world will impatiently bear the existence of great barbaric nations who may at any time arm themselves and menace civilized nations. I believe in the ultimate partition of China—I mean ultimate. I hope we shall not have to do it in our day. The Aryan stock is bound to triumph.

[3]

Prince Philips

If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels.

[4]

Aussie Nobel Laureate

Nobel Prize-winning Australian microbiologist Sir Macfarlane Burnet secretly urged the Australian government in 1947 to develop bio-weapons for use against the ‘overpopulated countries of South-East Asia.’

The Anzuk, QUAD, five eyes, nine eyes, 14 eyes, 41 eyes , CANZUK, were needed to contain the yellow horde.

Now we have FUKUSA [aka AUKUS],
THE ultimate yellow men buster.
!

[1]
https://www.returnofkings.com/180627/writer-jack-london-accurately-predicted-the-rise-of-china

[2]
Asiatic is the code word for chinaman.
When u read about Asiatic people being insulted/bashed up/killed in FUKUS/OZ/CANADA/NZ , that means another bunch of chinaman just bite the dust.

[3]
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/12/18/chinese-aggression-is-just-china-responding-to-us-aggression/

[4]
The royal family's disdain for 'slitty eyes chicoms' are well known.
Prince Charles once pointedly snub HU JIn Tao during a state visit.
No prize for guessing who'r his target for depopulation,

Posted by: denk | Dec 20 2021 3:26 utc | 80

Migueljose #45

Thank you, I too find greenwald behaviour disturbing on this issue. I will concede he has his life to live and is likely acutely aware of his vulnerability regarding the evil surrounding him. Events outpaced the security constraints here though.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 20 2021 3:36 utc | 81

Posted by: Grieved | Dec 20 2021 1:52 utc | 77

Thanks Grieved for the response on the Brazilian hacker who blew open the Lula case which I believe Biden was involved in because Biden was the one who went to Brazil to issue the ultimatum to Dilma before they impeached her.

Anyway, your follow up thought on Greenwald: "One has to wonder, yet again, about Greenwald and the Intercept. He sat on all that date and only published a fraction of it, in his news reports.

And he did the same with Snowden's data, or so I believe."

Bingo! Can't prove anything but my memory is-- as you said-- that Greenwald did the same thing to Snowden too.

The story I linked is old-- Feb, 2021-- so more is probably coming out and at the same time Lula appears to be gaining ground. He's very astute: he's a street fighter and an organizer. If he prevails I believe many of the mysteries will be solved and revealed.
Here's a deeper dive into Biden's dirty trail that reveals the ugly tactics he, Obama and their oligarch bosses used on Dilma and Lula.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/joe-biden-latin-america-policy-more-obama-style-coups/272720/

Posted by: migueljose | Dec 20 2021 3:37 utc | 82

Super intersting dialectic going on, as ususal. I am waiting for my copy of Robert Kennedy junior's book to arrive. In the mean time, I have been finishing States of Emergency by Kees van der Pijl.

States of Emergency - Clarity Press

Professor van der Pijl breaks it down.
"Ever since large parts of the world in March 2020 in the name of public health, there has been a growing public suspicion that some sort of global seizure of power and social tranfromation is being implemented."

I think many of the fellow barflies might find his analysis interesting.

To any old school punks,

Merry Crassmass

Posted by: lex talionis | Dec 20 2021 4:22 utc | 83

Saker has just put up a post that begins by referencing by link b's stellar Dec 18 post on Russia's security demands. I was just re-reading that along with comments and find these remarks by Norwegian worth another emphasis:

"...Russia has already done something out of the left field. The two draft documents presented to the Americans and published widely for the whole world to see will force the US to 'negotiate' in some way or another. The US has already accepted that the documents exist and that they will be discussed. Trying to ignore them will be very difficult and will expose the US/NATO hypocrisy in front of the whole world. Maybe the Chinese have suggested a Sun Tzu move like this.

Of course, this would not be possible without the "out of left field" event that happened in March 2018 when Russia announced the existence of hypersonic weapons. Since then, the relative advantage of Russia in this area has only increased."
Posted by: Norwegian | Dec 19 2021 9:11 utc | 94

My bold, as I had earlier overlooked the timing bolded. I also remember March as a significant confluence of events during WW2 in North Africa where my father and uncles were stationed. Others can perhaps advise as to what was happening in Russia then, as it might perhaps give us some sort of timeline for the current unfolding of events.

Posted by: juliania | Dec 20 2021 4:36 utc | 84

Posted by, Piotr Berman @ 73
 who wrote:
"Given my limited knowledge of languages, I have a rather restricted sample of governmental stupidity, mostly USA, UK, Poland and Ukraine (perhaps I should read more about Russia, alas, opposition is too shrill to believe, and "proposition" is too affirmative). Of those, UK may be not singularly stupid, but it has a distinct style, which includes very stupid savings."

The UK is not alone, here's some stupidity from Australia. given your limited language ability, the clip fortunately comes with subtitles, they are in Queensland after all, note the Queensland police uniforms:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RlCXet0BHI

These days the Democracy Manifest Man could be arrested for much less than simply eating a succulent Chinese meal.

Posted by: Paul | Dec 20 2021 5:36 utc | 85

RFK is a grifter ? How’s that ?

Posted by: Featherless | Dec 20 2021 5:42 utc | 86

@88 juliania

Over at Saker, take a look at the Dmitry Orlov article there too. He makes it clear that to his mind, this is not the starting point of negotiation. These are the terms of surrender.

Recall the Debaltsevo cauldron in the Ukraine, when NATO special forces and illegals were surrounded by NAF soldiers, and the massacre was at hand. Russia had won. And Russia said: "We won. These are the terms of surrender."

The terms of surrender were the Minsk agreement - a formidably robust contract that has held the conflict frozen to this day, with US and NATO completely deadlocked, now and forever. No one can find the way around this.

~~

Similarly, Russia is now saying to the US: "We won. These are the terms of surrender." And they are the agreements that Russia has just published publicly...

..publicly - as Saker points out in his analysis - so that, "you can propagandize your domestic populace all you want to save face, but the entire world will now bear witness to this surrender."

And recall another thing that Orlov and Saker have both taught us about the Russians: the first offer from them always contains the kindest and best terms. If you force them to repeat the offer, the terms are always tougher.

And note that this time, Russia has even foreshadowed this - something it would not usually do, but it knows it deals with simpletons - and said that if these terms are not accepted, Russia will respond with counter-offensives. Russia will raise the stakes for the next offer.

But these are the terms of surrender.

Everything else, all the words, all the gestures, all the postures - these things are just the squeaking of mice.

~~

The US will surrender. Watch it happen. Russia has won - for the reasons Norwegian showed in the comment you highlighted. The Pentagon has seen the weaponry arrayed against it. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no way to evade, nothing left, except to bow to the inevitable, to surrender to reality.

And Putin told them in 2007 at Munich that this is what Russia would do if they did not pay heed.

The war had already been declared by the west. Russia acknowledged the war in 2007. Russia won the war in 2018. The terms of surrender have been presented, here at the end of 2021.

In 2022, the US will capitulate, NATO will begin to withdraw from Russia's borders. Agreements will be drawn and signed. And the Russian submarines will withdraw from the coasts of the US. And the missiles will withdraw from the Caribbean and Central America. And the ministries of the world will take note.

~~

There will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth - beware the spittle, if you value your shoes ;)

Posted by: Grieved | Dec 20 2021 6:08 utc | 87

@90 Featherless

Don't be offended. I did the same double-take. You have to note the formatting - this falls within a section of satire in which b presents some absurdities from the mainstream jackals.

RFK is not being demeaned - quite the opposite. The attacks on him by the mainstream are being ridiculed by b.

All is good. RFK is still our hero, quite unstained. And I am glad, and be at peace.

Posted by: Grieved | Dec 20 2021 6:12 utc | 88

@82 uncle tungsten (and #86 Perimetr) - immediately prior to the Wuhan military games, China national disaster people held a three day chemical attack rehearsal

We have links for the Event 201 but I don't have collateral for the Chinese attack rehearsal - as a favor, do you have sources for this?

I'll go searching, and I don't ask people to work on my behalf, but it would place such a linchpin into the framework of events to have this that it seems crucial to be able to show it.

I'm increasingly trying to figure out the position of China in this pandemic situation.

I trust that nation above all others in this world to make good and clean, human sense. But increasingly also, as the planned aspects of this pandemic - or at least, shall we say, the previously gamed aspects - become more clear, I want to know what China knew and thought and suspected and planned - or even agreed, if it comes to that - about this world-shattering event that touched every damned being in the whole world.

Posted by: Grieved | Dec 20 2021 6:32 utc | 89

@ Grieved | Dec 20 2021 6:08 utc | 91 with the summary of the Russian position with which I agree

What I want to add was that after "...Russia won the war in 2018.", the West launched a Hail Mary bio-chemical attack that has not had the results hoped for.

And I want to add the perspective that the China/Taiwan war is being fought simultaneously and it could peak before the Russian demands....

Anyway, good summary of the spinning plates.

Anecdotal report from US
In 1985 I trained union fork lift truck drivers to talk to computers as part of the receiving part of an inventory management system. One of those drivers, who I also taught computer rudiments to, is 88 years old and we still sends humor back and forth to each other....almost weekly, at least.

Ollie is Christian and occasionally sends over the top religious stuff but today I get two messages from him two, the first about the rise of India including having global corporate leadership positions and the second about how China has taken over financial control of the world by having Chinatowns as well as foreign nationals everywhere.

I was thinking that there would be a time w/o the internet but the elite rely on it too much to push their propaganda for that to happen except for scare purposes.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 20 2021 6:51 utc | 90

@Perimetr

I deleted a bunch of your bullshit corona comments.

Stop posting such nonsense here or you will get banned.

b.

Posted by: b | Dec 20 2021 7:25 utc | 91

Some barflies may be interested in some recently discovered trivia.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the Lioness of Longleat:

"In this same 1985 period, Ghislaine also became involved with “philanthropy” tied to her father’s business empire by hosting a “Disney day out for kids” and benefit dinner on behalf of the Mirror Group for the Save the Children NGO. Part of the event took place at the home of the Marquess and Lady of Bath, a gala that was attended by members of the British Royal family. It’s worth noting that the Marquess of Bath at the time was an odd person, having accumulated the largest collection of paintings made by Adolf Hitler and having said that Hitler had done “great things for his country.” The same evening that the Ghislaine-hosted bash concluded, the Marquess of Bath’s son was found hanging from a bedspread tied to an oak beam at the Bath Arms in what was labeled a suicide....." 

https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/12/investigative-reports/meet-ghislaine-daddys-girl/

Alexander Thynn, the 7th Marquess of Bath partial obituary,  The Telegraph:

"Lord Bath was mainly known for his interest in pantheism and sex. He had studied painting in Paris, and from 1969 the covering of Longleat’s walls with his murals was one of his most publicised obsessions. These ranged from the “Paranoia Murals” (which include an autobiographical scene featuring a wolf-like father-figure battling it out with a dragon-like mother over an unborn foetus) to the erotic fantasies of the “Kama Sutra room”, featuring depictions of a variety of sexual couplings, triplings and quadruplings. Lord Bath liked to show visitors around these himself.Lord Bath was also a collector of women. Downstairs, visitors could marvel at “Bluebeard’s Gallery”, a spiral staircase on whose walls he had mounted a series of three-dimensional portraits in oil and sawdust of all the women he had known (in the biblical sense), with the date of first meeting to the left of each face and the date of painting to the right.Popular legend had him spending his days in flagrante with a resident harem of young beauties. The reality was rather different, though no less remarkable. Throughout his life, Lord Bath had three or four mistresses – or what he called “wifelets” – at any one time. They came in all shapes and sizes, including a black model, a Chinese artist, a 17-year-old from Sri Lanka, a Wessex housewife and Jo-Jo Laine, former wife of the pop musician Denny Laine. Some lived in cottages on the estate; none ever sued him and only one ever bore him a child.There was also an official wife, Anna Gael, a Hungarian model whom he had picked up outside a Paris cinema when she was just 15. She lived in Paris and visited Longleat once a month."

The death of the 7th Marquess of Bath, BBC:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-13797011 

Posted by: Paul | Dec 20 2021 7:26 utc | 92

Anyway, the point is that the similarity between the two episodes, and with the same actors, suggest a compelling story of its own.

Posted by: Grieved | Dec 20 2021 1:52 utc | 77

Greenwald is what I call controlled opposition, PMC, which means that he has always made sure to protect himself before he does anything progressive, unlike say Snowden or Assange. Yeah, he cut a deal and set himself up, and now he is progressive as can be, but we still have not seen all the stuff Snowden gave him. And that was what needed to be done. And I think that is what Greenwald sold to get that cushy gig at Intercept, and that is what protects him now. Same category as Bernie or Chomsky.

Posted by: Bemildred | Dec 20 2021 7:31 utc | 93

@83 denk - quoting Phillip: "If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population"

You illustrate well the combination of forces arrayed against us.

But what if there were forces arrayed on our side? What might they be?

~~

I was watching the latest Dark Horse, to bathe in sanity if nothing else, and many of the things they discuss are things I could quote here - but maybe one should just go watch the podcast and then the following Q&A.

They were talking about Omicron, and its characteristics. And Weinstein mentioned a concept he had heard - not thought of or even endorses but wanted to share it as interesting - that Omicron seems to have been frozen for a year since its last traceable ancestry, and then reappeared with 30 mutations. So could it actually have been released from a lab by some "white hat" agent with the purpose of ending this pandemic?

Because Omicron is potentially perfect to solve our situation, if it transmitted everywhere, but only gave everyone a mild case of the disease, but that this was enough to confer naturally acquired immunity - so that the prevalence of Omicron out-competed Delta and the others, so they went extinct, and the human race got better from this virus, and the plague ended.

It would be as if Omicron were the perfect vaccine, and yet a contagious vaccine, a transmissible vaccine, one that conferred immunity at low cost of health or even discomfort, and drove out the more virulent strains, and brought the human race into peace from this hell.

So that's a thought.

~~

But who would be this "white hat" agent, and how could they dare to take such a risk, that the Omicron solution itself, although beneficial in its beginning, could also mutate into something less friendly?

The Omicron could act as a contagiously spreading vaccine to end the pandemic, shutting it off perhaps as simply as it seemed to have turned on - with an Alpha that came out of nowhere with no evolutionary ancestry - and that would be a concept wouldn't it?

A lab could do all that.

~~

And I note those concepts. But also when I think of the forces combined against us, with a prince of the royalty wishing to reincarnate as a deadly virus to diminish us, I also think of the opposite of this.

And now you must bear with me, or quit, because I'm going very left field.

~~

Because I think of the opposite wish, the wish to benefit humans and indeed all living beings.

I think of the Bodhisattva in the Buddhist universe, who prays only to be the cloud that rains on the being who is parched, to be the shade for the being overheated by the sun, to be the food for the being suffering from hunger, the pennies for the pauper, the solace for the abandoned, the guide for the lost - whatever a caring soul can be to help another soul in distress, and to end suffering through the gift of oneself.

I truly don't have words good enough for those aspirations - they are sublime from their realized sources - but they are real, and there are those who wish to be such things in this universe. The wish exists, and we all have it in us - even the Prince, who got it backwards.

All of which is to say that I found it astonishing to think that Omicron could actually benefit us - and I accept the reasoning that explains how it could be the end of the pandemic for the world.

But also I was cast irresistibly into the knowledge that if such a thing were possible, the motivation and wish exists in abundance in this universe for such a goodness to occur.

Yes, the speculation could be wrong. Or it could be right and still be part of a whole scheme, planned from front to back. But it could also be - why not? - a matter of good forces intervening in the morass of bad forces, with some relief, the rain cloud in the desert, whether we deserve it or not, simply from the act of caritas, simply because we suffer, and there are those who cannot abide this without offering all they have to alleviate the pain.

~~

And on the chance that any readers might be in despair and burdened, and longing for the lightness as a thought such as this, I decided to offer it.

Posted by: Grieved | Dec 20 2021 7:36 utc | 94

@ted001 | Dec 19 2021 22:04 utc | 61

Do people not see what is happening in Australia, New Zealand and most European countries?
It doesn't seem to concern 'B' or most of the commentators.

It seems you are right. Now why would that be the case?

Posted by: Norwegian | Dec 20 2021 7:41 utc | 95

@juliania | Dec 20 2021 4:36 utc | 88

Thank you for reposting that. It is important to evaluate the Russian initiative with some other perspective than the one dimensional perspective that now totally dominates the 'western' world. Both the Russians and the Chinese are known to play the long game, they are far more sophisticated than the bullies in the US and western Europe.

The surprise in March 2018 set the stage for the current initiative because the Russians have real military power to back their very reasonable demands, and the Russians are not known to be bluffing. Still, a peaceful way out is offered, using the whole world as observers to the US response. That is challenging the ridiculous image of "the shining city on the hill" that the US americans are painting for themselves and are trying to sell to the world. You either live up to that image or you put that image in the trash can.

The russians have established an immense moral and political pressure on the US, backed by real force. The question is how the raving lunatics will react.

Posted by: Norwegian | Dec 20 2021 8:14 utc | 96

@Grieved | Dec 20 2021 6:08 utc | 87

The war had already been declared by the west. Russia acknowledged the war in 2007. Russia won the war in 2018. The terms of surrender have been presented, here at the end of 2021.

That's a pretty good summary for the world to recognize!

I also agree with the rest of your post, thanks.

Posted by: Norwegian | Dec 20 2021 8:25 utc | 97

Grieved | Dec 20 2021 7:36 utc | 94

thank you for those words. I would have very much liked to have met you. I can imagine spending time over a glass of whiskey or a bowl and talking about what might be or could have been.

I am becoming ever more jaded and believe that it is nearly impossible to better the world. the evil bastards are very well organized and the general public too incurious to ever call them out on their bs.

still, who knows? maybe there will be a savior.

Posted by: dan of steele | Dec 20 2021 8:37 utc | 98

migueljose | 45
(+ others)
Greenwald.
I have always “handled with caution” since Snowden.
Greenwald vacuumed up a lot of material, then promptly did absolutely nothing with it.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 20 2021 8:39 utc | 99

I From my phone, apologies for inept skills.

Piotr, thanks for your continuous humourous posts.

Re Piotr Berman | Dec 19 2021 18:32 utc | 35

JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.

Having worked briefly for both in the early 90s I can say that Golden Sachs was then a leading well-run partnership that treated their employees well and gained loyalty in return.

Best cafeteria on Wall Street, other company employees cherished the chit to have lunch there. No kidding.

Now it is no longer a partnership and much much bigger.

JP Morgan is a old school bank with a terrible culture, and communications affect the market and decision makers.

They both suck but JPM sucks bigly.

Posted by: jonku | Dec 20 2021 8:46 utc | 100