does WHO end the sovereignty of states over pandemi-responce? many people think, this is dangerous, because the WHO is corrupted thanks the modern PPP-plage…
https://www.who.int/news/item/01-12-2021-world-health-assembly-agrees-to-launch-process-to-develop-historic-global-accord-on-pandemic-prevention-preparedness-and-response

Posted by: PCR ist die pandemie | Mar 3 2022 12:40 utc | 4

Paralympic games kick in. Some funny mascot they have there.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202203/1253769.shtml

Posted by: Arioch | Mar 3 2022 12:57 utc | 6

Not much discussion about Faucism these days.

Posted by: librul | Mar 3 2022 13:30 utc | 8

Posted by: librul | Mar 3 2022 13:30
It’s true. The narrative is controlled by what is happening in Ukraine. Meanwhile some data from the trials came out last days but not clear enough what’s in there. I guess 50.000 pages takes a while to analyse.
Where I am in Greece the fines for the 60+ who haven’t been vaccinated yet started coming on those unfortunate souls. 7.500 doctors and nurses are still out of the NHS because they refuse to be vaccinated and they face losing their jobs completely because of their vax status.
In the US the demented President kept on about the need to get the vaccines.
At this point I don’t know what is the meaning of that,
At the same time even the countries who take back the mandates are insisting that digital id s are necessary for some reason – health or whatever
I know this is a thread not about Ukraine but I just wanted to add that the deeply corrupt Ursula is playing a very dangerous game. This woman is really something

Posted by: DG | Mar 3 2022 13:43 utc | 10

@librul #9
Durham is doing what any good investigator should do: follow the actual evidence, prosecute those who are clearly guilty from said evidence and try to flip them against their bosses.
Whether the flips or the evidence extends to the top depends on the cohesiveness/fear of retribution and opsec, respectively, of the group in question.
In this case, it is very likely institutional obstruction can be added to the mix.

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 14:03 utc | 12

A 90 odd page doc from Pfzer has been released. 90 pages in alphabetical order of side effects encountered with the new, mRNA therapies. I feel sorry for those who were duped. On a side note, Doug Ford’s daughter let Canada know, that while her dad pushed mandated vaccines for all Ontarians, he and most of his staff are not vaccinated.
Grifting Latchico.
Cheers M
while the exponential rise in doctor blood requests have been mostly centered on micro clotting and Troponin tests(myocarditis), they are now seeing a huge rise in tests for tumors.

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Mar 3 2022 14:19 utc | 14

@Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 14:03 utc | 12
Agreed
—
Wonder if Bernie Sanders will ever come into the John Durham investigation tangentially?
As you may recall, Bernie Sanders had the Sword of Damocles over his head.
This is why he was so submissive and allowed the DNC (Hillary’s DNC) to
screw him in the primaries and at the convention. It was up to Bernie supporters
to bring the lawsuit against the DNC.
While the weaponized (corrupt) FBI, etal were investigating Trump and Russiagate they were also
investigating Bernie Sanders. Trump was fodder for 24/7 news while the Bernie
investigation didn’t even make back page news.
They found the dirt on Bernie that they needed and thus he was owned.
His wife had crossed a legal line when she applied for a mortgage for
a school that she was involved in.
How complicated is a mortgage application? It took the FBI more than two years
to conclude that Bernie’s wife had done nothing wrong and the investigation
was dropped. Suspiciously, they dropped the investigation immediately
after the Nov 2018 midterm elections.
Bernie was a dog on a leash. It was unnerving to hear him speak publicly about
the Russiagate nonsense. Bernie, ostensibly, bought into Russiagate hook line
and sinker and was a enthusiastic promoter.
But back to my original question. Will John Durham’s investigation of the FBI
tangentially uncover evidence of corruption in the motives of the FBI
in investigating Bernie Sanders? Or even corruption in the manner in which the
investigation was closed.

Posted by: librul | Mar 3 2022 14:31 utc | 16

@Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Mar 3 2022 14:19 utc | 14
I feel sorry for those who were duped. [by Pfizer]
I got the J&J. Hope that fares better.
I still feel duped, though,
because of the way we were all corralled into
getting the vaccine c/o limited options.
I do not know that I could have done anything differently.
We were blocked from getting ivermectin, thus options were
limited. If I had been a bachelor I would have toughed it
out with covid and gone without a vaccine. But no way was I going to
give covid to my wife, so I got the vaccine.
As it turned out my wife caught covid (tested positive, Feb 1, 2022) and
her symptoms were very mild. It must have been Omicron.
I tested negative the day after she tested positive.

Posted by: librul | Mar 3 2022 14:46 utc | 18

A bruised and grumpy take on Canadian politics this morning. I guess we’d call this a victory for diplomacy??
I suggest we are seeing a horse-trade right here:
A Canadian diplomat speaks pro-Russian publicly—
“No fly zone over Ukraine would need Russia’s buy-in, Canada’s UN ambassador says”
https://globalnews.ca/news/8655761/ukraine-russia-no-fly-rae-un/
Deputy PM Freeland announces that Belarus and Russia will lose nation state status as trading partners and a 35 percent tariff on all imports will be introduced. Yes, they’re getting the North Korea treatment can we please shuttle Freeland off to her pre-ordained post in Ukraine and end this humiliation?? (Deep sigh. Patience. Diplomacy.)
Also unvaccinated or not Ukrainians will be given expedited immigration to Canada, one stream for temporary residents, one for permanent. Team Trudeau seemed to successfully weed out most takfiris (and dangerous disease carriers) from the 25,000 from Syria he promised to welcome to Canada in 2015. Let’s hope they can repeat that here.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canada-announces-trade-action-against-russia-more-lethal-aid-and-new-immigration-streams-for-ukrainians-1.5803845
And now that the convoy is shut down, Team Trudeau seems firmly at the helm again. Less room for domestic Canadian political shifts (although it was interesting while it lasted!)
From a military view, Canada is sending lethal aid to Maxim and the boys from that Global News video. Anyone dressed in camo who shouts Glory to Ukraine! I guess?? Rocket launchers, hand grenades, Carl Gustaf anti-tank thingies (which La Presse did a report on)
https://www.lapresse.ca/international/europe/2022-03-02/le-canada-fournira-des-armes-anciennes-mais-efficaces.php
GPS tracker planted on car for possible theft in Quebec (probably wishful thinking but)
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/police-open-investigation-after-laval-man-finds-gps-tracker-on-his-car-1.5802725
Who are these Russian nationals anyway? Tourists?
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/plane-carrying-russian-nationals-grounded-in-n-w-t-says-infrastructure-minister-1.5803656

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Mar 3 2022 15:02 utc | 20

Mass Formation Psychosis has moved seamlessly from Covid to Ukraine…

Posted by: gottlieb | Mar 3 2022 15:10 utc | 22

Bruised Northerner | 20
“And now that the convoy is shut down, Team Trudeau seems firmly at the helm again.”
Alright, but will he get his budget through?

Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Mar 3 2022 15:16 utc | 24

@Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 15:06 utc | 21
Why do you think Bernie has anything to do with the Clinton astroturfing against Trump?
Bernie used his credibility and access to the media
to be a Spokesman for Russiagate, Inc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=813a573KiFc

Posted by: librul | Mar 3 2022 16:11 utc | 26

@librul #26
He did, but Bernie is well known for supporting the Democrat party in most areas and not rocking to boat.
I’d more believe he was/is a “useful idiot” re:Russiagate than a primary or secondary conspirator.

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 16:18 utc | 28

One final comment, speaking of Canadian policy and immigration. I do feel guilty about the efficiency of this country in skimming off the cream from countries who fall under duress. Where the USA may yearn for tired, poor, huddled masses, Canada looks for well-educated, upwardly mobile, community builders. While we strip a society of these folks (including their complete extended families), I find my conscience nagging me. … I’m not sure what the alternative is (actually I know exactly what the alternative is and it’s to be avoided), but I can’t make myself feel warm inside about it.

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Mar 3 2022 16:27 utc | 30

@Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 16:44 utc | 31
It is not always easy to remember the full list of trolls here,
but you are most definitely one of them.
Do Not Feed The Trolls

Posted by: librul | Mar 3 2022 16:53 utc | 32

Coal prices at 2008 high

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 17:31 utc | 34

US average gas prices: $3.728 at the moment AAA gas prices 3/3/2022

Current Avg. $3.728
Yesterday Avg. $3.656
Week Ago Avg. $3.543
Month Ago Avg. $3.413
Year Ago Avg. $2.737

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 18:05 utc | 36

When overflowing with mutual esteem, whales salute more hominum. – Moby Dick
why try to communicate with something whose life has no value? the constant demonization of official enemies serves one purpose: to make diplomacy, communication, impossible. We don’t talk to dogs, do we? no, we use them and shoot them.
“Let us all squeeze ourselves into the very milk and sperm of human kindness.” lots of sperm on your national Pequod. Spartan men. Spartiates. men grown from the blood spilled on the ground. you can make men, sodbusters and such, the old fashioned way. but real men, march on tehran kind of men, are born of blood and soil. not blood and water.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Mar 3 2022 18:24 utc | 38

@rjb1.5 #37
You are so full of shit, it isn’t even funny.
If there is one area that I have deliberately not commented on – it is the tactical details of what is (or is not) happening in Ukraine.
But then again: you have shown yourself to be full of shit in every other area you have commented on – I can hardly be offended that your shit cannon swung my way.

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 18:40 utc | 40

@YY, #1:
zilch, for non-ukraine….
Why of course! Paralympics hasn’t started yet; COVID lingo is just about exhausted; politicians inside/outside the beltway have grown so fat that they have stopped fucking each other or each other’s other halves. So what else is there to talk about. If not for Ukraine, b was actually looking at the prospects of a sabbatical.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Mar 3 2022 18:52 utc | 42

Oedipus –
Many, my children, are the tears I’ve wept,
And threaded many a maze of weary thought.
Thus pondering one clue of hope I caught,
And tracked it up…
One clue might lead us far,
With but a spark of hope to guide our quest.
“one” with “many” cannot square. (a la the riddle of the Sphinx?)
My sire no more to me than one who is naught? (ie, a big zero, a nobody)
——-
One of the central images of the West is a man on a cross. An antisemite from Oz made this big foreign language film about Romans crucifying a Jew and Christians loved it. See? Jesus. loves. you. now you can be there.
But when Madonna says, “crucifixes are sexy because there’s a naked man on them,” she offends millions, if not billions, by reminding them that their savior hero was naked.
so curious. in the thousands of representations to themselves over millenia now, Jesus cannot be shown naked by these christ potatos. that’s not the 1st thing on a person’s mind in 1st c. BCE Jerusalem or Rome or anywhere, seeing someone being brutally executed. but just look at that opus dei mel gibson movie. they love the whips and thorns and the pounding nails and throw in whole lots of stuff just for fun that’s not even in that book they supposedly revere. stuff the Romans themselves never dreamed of. kind of upsets the spirit of piety and reverence to see how the religious stew is made, doesn’t it? the wiener upsets the sauce.
how can a person be more than one thing? iron and clay?

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Mar 3 2022 19:10 utc | 44

gottlieb and c1ue, get together. you can have even more sperm between you! ah, i’m not going to bow before the self-image you manufacture here. i talk to people in mainland China all the time. somebody’s lying. it’s not China. i talk to people walking around whose fear is people like you, on the other side of the world, but who have no immediate fear of anyone around them.
quite unlike anywhere else in the world, except in the blindness which you help to manufacture. “seeing you will see, and not see” because you don’t listen.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Mar 3 2022 19:20 utc | 46

@rjb1.5 #46
Your insults might be insulting, if you weren’t such a moron.
I don’t get insulted when morons say things, any more than I get insulted by yappy mini-dogs barking when I pass by their owner’s door.
Ultimately, your inability to coherently express ideas which other people can agree with, or even intelligently debate, means that you are simply too stupid and or crazy to see your own gross limitations.
From what I’ve seen of your posts, I think 60/40 crazy/stupid, but I’d be willing to discuss that with other sane people.

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 19:32 utc | 48

c1ue | Mar 3 2022 19:32 utc | 48
“Xinhua is not reporting something different than the WHO, Reuters, NYT or anyone else except you about Hong Kong.”
i’m not sorry if that insults you. something incoherent in that sentence?
yes, it’s you. that’s the contradiction.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Mar 3 2022 19:43 utc | 50

there’s no arguing with someone who says every government from Cuba to Japan and from Canada to Australia is lying about the same thing at the same time. anyone disagreeing is caught in “mass psychosis.”
oh wait. excepting Trump. Modi. BoJo. Bolsonaro. those heavy hitters.
they all agree that this fiction called the economy is worth more than something that actually exists called public health. the same calculus made re Ukraine. bitcoin is worth more than breath, gold than grandma. those who succeed under the economy are not going to let little old reality interrupt their partying on this shipwreck of fools, are they?
you don’t even notice fewer people rowing the slave ship. cuz who cares about them?

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Mar 3 2022 19:54 utc | 52

we will never know how much energy the US has expended manipulating countries like Korea not to follow their neighbor China and adopt a uniform health policy re the virus.
still hard to imagine how the governments of Korea, up to this point anyway, gain something by both agreeing on the severity on the coronavirus, if it’s fake, manipulated, what have you. they only do so because it’s something that transcends the conflict, which cannot be allowed. because it’s real. like when a storm hits the DMZ.
like sunshine. and rain. it’s the reality that unites them, a part of it. the virus cannot be allowed to be the truth. because then, N and S Korea don’t exist. what exists is the truth: their unity, not the fake conflict forced on them.
people who live gambling off the stock market cannot allow people to unite under what is their truth, the truth: their sickness.
wargames are so much funner. i can play them even in my iron lung. i can play them as a quadriplegic, with an eyelash. i blink my eye thus, and bye bye coronavirus.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Mar 3 2022 20:24 utc | 54

I don’t typically spend much time in the comments but thankful I dove in today, if only to witness rjb’s delightful yet concise prose. Clue’s (or clueless?) dodging replies were icing on the cake. Here’s hoping that the end of the USD as global reserve currency plays out quickly with as few casualties as possible. Might be foolish, but so is everything else on this planet!

Posted by: BigBoogerBill | Mar 3 2022 21:23 utc | 56

@45 Oriental Voice | Mar 3 2022 19:14 utc
I wasn’t saying it to be cruel, or to gloat – I understand that many people were forced to jab, who also knew that it was undesirable. And my situation was one of the lucky ones. I was only thinking in terms of breaking the psychosis, walking the narrative back and showing where the true harm was.
I sympathize with all the people I’m aware of who took the jab, and don’t yet understand what a danger they encompassed. I won’t take any joy in helping to show that, but the enemy is the narrative.
~~
The pandemic gets more in focus, the further we move beyond it – part of the reason that much of the blowback hasn’t occurred yet. I was replaying it just today in my mind, and thinking that Omicron is something very close to what should have occurred instead of Delta.
Delta occurred first in the places and just after the first large vaccine trials. It seems pretty clear that, just as virologists and vaccinologists had warned, the vaccines were skewing evolution for the Delta variant to take hold.
It occurs to me that if there had never been any kind of vaccine from anyone, something like Omicron is exactly what should have taken over next – something milder, and something infectious enough to catch all these damn people who were isolating and masking up.
As it was, we have strong suspicion that Omicron was lab-concocted to follow the typical evolutionary pattern, and precisely to counter the vaccine-driven variants, and a pandemic now out of control, and with a virus being shepherded to Antibody-Dependent Enhancement. I offer up thanks to whatever force accomplished that.
~~
I remember the early days, when scientist Brett Weinstein was passionately urging that the virus could be driven to extinction with the correct measures, principally including early treatment with known remedies, and tight focus on vulnerable groups.
The two forbidden concepts: Great Barrington and IVM/HCL.
It could have been driven to extinction. But there were other drivers at the wheel.

Posted by: Grieved | Mar 3 2022 22:20 utc | 58

**”NFL Becomes First US Sports League To Abandon All COVID Protocols”**
Fauscism is collapsing.

Posted by: librul | Mar 3 2022 23:01 utc | 60

Posted by: Grieved | Mar 3 2022 17:42 utc | 35
Actually, Grieved (happy New Year!) thalidomide didn’t rock the nation, the US that is, as the FDA was actually doing its job back then and it wasn’t allowed to be prescribed for pregnant women to alleviate early pregnancy symptoms as it was elsewhere. But otherwise, you are right on track – mainstream media is acting very troll-like.

Posted by: juliania | Mar 3 2022 23:48 utc | 62

Tucker Carlson, the darling of FUS ‘wn‘, had another VIP on his show,
Elbridge Colby.
Colby who ?
Never heard of the Colby doctrine ?

Escalating Taiwan tensions into a conflict gives America a chance at winning, unlike a Cold War arms race
.
the US can push China into a limited conflict over Taiwan, with the media painting China as the bully and the US as the white knight. Done right, the skirmish would unite the rest of the world’s countries against China and on to the American side.
……
China “must be permitted to strike as indiscriminately as possible,”
the US not to provide potential civilian targets with air defences, collateral damage will whip up the public anger against China necessary to winning a war,”

If only Zelenskyy had read the Colby doctrine he wouldnt be in this mess.
It isnt too late for the walking collateral damages gang in TW .
https://johnmenadue.com/strategists-admit-west-is-goading-china-into-war/

Posted by: denk | Mar 4 2022 2:05 utc | 64

Posted by: Grieved | Mar 3 2022 22:20 utc | 58:
I wasn’t complaining about your post #35 :-). I was actually supplementing your point of governmental peddling of vaccination being the pain on us ordinary people. It was unfortunate that I was one of those who had no choice but to comply with the vaccine requirement for travel purposes. Prior to taking the Pfizer jab, I actually followed the ‘for’ and ‘against’ arguments here at MOA, and was deciding not to take the mRNA jab. If Sinovac or Sinopharm was available here in the US, I would have taken those. But anyway, seeing c1ue’s post about Pfizer now published side effects of their medication, it triggered my lament and hot a nerve of my trip experience.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Mar 4 2022 4:07 utc | 66

The ERA OF UNTHINKABLE EVENTS is upon us. The West – through arbitrary and lawless use and abuse of its financial power – has basically destroyed itself. Yes, it’s still flexing its muscles in front of a mirror, unaware of a poisoned Russian dagger sticking out of its back. The final outcome is already certain, and it won’t be pretty.
Right as we speak, every country that has its monetary reserves parked in western banks is in panic, brainstorming on the ways of extracting and converting them to precious metals or even non-precious ones like copper, nickel and lithium. China and Gulf Arabs – whose “inside money” can be confiscated at whim (I could come up with 10 plausible reasons within a minute without breaking a sweat) must be running with their hair on fire. Expect at first gradual, then parabolic rise in the price of platinum, the most undervalued metal of them all, which historically sells at double the price of gold, but these days is priced at half of it. Fourfold appreciation just to reach the norm.
On top of reserves conversion, people will think twice before buying western industrial goods, from iPhones to airplanes. All of these are extremely politicized and can be turned into scrap of metal and plastic in a blink of an eye.
This is the beginning of a very fast denouement for all western currencies. What now looks like Russia’s disaster will soon be seen as Putin’s masterstroke.

Posted by: Venom | Mar 4 2022 5:57 utc | 68

S & P has decided which companies are in and which companies are out. Australian critical minerals mining companies and a couple of gold miners are in.
There are a few surprises.
$Multi Million$ Air New Zealand is out. The NZ government is lazy, bloated and incompetent.
https://mafinancial.com/investors/announcements/ma-financial-group-admitted-to-spasx300-index/

Posted by: Paul | Mar 4 2022 8:00 utc | 70

Advice to barflies in these incredible times,
You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
“…Keep a clean nose
Watch the plainclothes
You don’t need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows…”
Note Alan Ginsburg [AKA, Baba Ram Das] in the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGxjIBEZvx0
ttps://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobdylan/subterraneanhomesickblues.html
Bonus Bob Dylan’s 115th dream:
https://www.youtube

Posted by: Paul | Mar 4 2022 10:12 utc | 72

US gas prices from AAA (American Automobile Association)

Current Avg. $3.837
Yesterday Avg. $3.728
Week Ago Avg. $3.572
Month Ago Avg. $3.423
Year Ago Avg. $2.745

$0.265 change in 1 week = ~7.4% increase

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 4 2022 11:05 utc | 74

Also unvaccinated or not Ukrainians will be given expedited immigration to Canada, one stream for temporary residents, one for permanent.
Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Mar 3 2022 15:02 utc | 20
Ukraine has one of the lower vaccination rates, well under 50%. However, mortality is not very large compared with other European countries. Nevertheless, isn’t like accepting pestilent ships to ports, or unvaccinated truckers crossing from Alberta to Saskatchewan (or Manitoba? I am hazy how to order provinces on the prairie, or why there is “t” in Saskatchewan, was it Saskatschewan originally?).

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 4 2022 12:22 utc | 76

WOW! They are deliberately goading China into war!
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/03/03/former-secretary-of-state-mike-pompeo-calls-on-u-s-govt-to-recognize-taiwan-as-independent/
Now, why would they do such a thing? And why now?
Because the clock is ticking and they are running out of time. US national security reports say that China will dominate the globe by the end of this decade. This is desperate, last chance behavior.
Pravda is reporting that the US has Britain talking with Russia because the US needs to focus on China. This would explain recent dumb remarks about ‘fighting two wars’ (they can’t manage one). It would explain why Biden seems superficially interested in Ukraine war.
I think the whole picture is coming together.

Posted by: Eighthman | Mar 4 2022 12:43 utc | 78

If anyone is waiting for the responsible parties of the 1/6 clown show to be called to account, quit waiting. When you act in the interests of the 1%ers, anything is legal. Our Govt. has, for quite some time now, been bought and paid for.

Posted by: vetinLA | Mar 4 2022 15:40 utc | 80

Oh and the rjb1.5? Hasn’t even hit 1 year anniversary yet.
People who read MoA regularly and for years know who the regular posters are.

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 4 2022 15:50 utc | 82

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Mar 4 2022 16:09 utc | 83
“… ass clowns who’ve posted little or nothing but bullshit for over 2 years about the coronavirus. or for trusting the 1/6 of the global population not obsessed with the totems and fetishes of covid denialists.”
Might get interesting in case your case can be explained in human understandable language. What is a “covid denialist“? A person that questions that there is an illness Covid-19? Never met such a person, never heard of that.

Posted by: Hausmeister | Mar 4 2022 16:26 utc | 84

Yes, other events are occurring, this describes one of them and additional background, “It’s acid irony that Pompeo is implicated by Taiwan island’s outage:”
“Taiwan experienced a power outage across the island without previous warning on Thursday morning, leading to the suspension of water services for millions of residents, the halt of high-speed rails, blackouts in hospitals and other serious incidents such as people being trapped in elevators. Just two days ago when regional leader Tsai Ing-wen met with people in business and commerce circles, she assured them that stable power supply would be maintained. This is the third power outage in Taiwan since the start of the week. No wonder some netizens on the island ridiculed the DPP authority by saying that DPP is ‘generating electricity with lies.’
“Since Tsai took office in 2016, Taiwan has undergone five serious power outages across the island. Blackouts of various sizes are countless. But this time, the power outage came at a particularly ‘bad’ time, as the DPP authority has been busy in recent days to receive Mike Pompeo, as a ‘distinguished guest from Washington,’ with drums and gongs. In order to woo the “worst secretary of state in history,” Tsai racked her brains, prepared a ceremony to award him a special honor and planned to livestream it on the internet. She has tried to create the momentum for the awarding ceremony on social media platforms, but an unexpected power blackout made her post overwhelmed by netizens’ anger, forcing her to cancel the live broadcast. Pompeo was also caught up in traffic confusion caused by the outage….
“Taiwan’s per capita GDP has exceeded $30,000, but the actual feelings of the residents on the island are quite different from what the figure is supposed to embody. Taiwan has suffered serious water, electricity, land, labor and talent shortages, and the people on the island have been plagued by high-speed rail failures and serious fire incidents caused by aging infrastructure, huge deficit in social welfare, and rapidly rising prices. Now even the basic livelihood materials are often in short supply, and eggs and toilet papers could become the targets of panic buying. In sharp contrast, Shanghai has a population roughly the same size as that of Taiwan with a per capita GDP of $25,000. Although Shanghai’s figure is slightly lower than Taiwan’s, it’s unimaginable that Shanghai will be hit by shortages of supplies, power outages and water cuts that are similar to what Taiwan has repeatedly suffered.”
Like its mentor the Outlaw US Empire, Taiwan’s falling apart due to its Neoliberalcon policies. In Asia, ignoring the needs of the people is very bad politics and thus governance that doesn’t get tolerated for long.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 4 2022 16:58 utc | 86

This article touts China’s “Whole Process” democracy versus the Outlaw US Empire’s “vetocracy”, “China’s whole-process people’s democracy effective, a contrast to US ‘vetocracy’, as China’s annual legislative cycle goes into motion. I completely agree with the commentary in the following excerpt. The Chinese are very fortunate:
“Zhu Lijia, a professor of public management at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Global Times on Friday that ‘the most important characteristic of socialist democracy is the democracy of participation and of consultation. People take part in formulating, consulting and supervising this process, which has much significance.'”
If the USA had such a system, all the tragedy its forced onto the world since 1945 would never have occurred as citizens would have focused on improving their own condition and following the Constitution’s admonition that the Union be perfected instead of an Empire enforced upon the planet.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 4 2022 17:16 utc | 88

Attended a pretty interesting event today:
Digital Currencies: The US, China and the World at a Crossroads
The Hoover Institute is a right leaning think tank embedded on campus in Stanford University. Condoleeza Rice is a director and opened the 2 hour seminar
The seminar was about CBDCs: central bank digital currencies. Not cryptocurrencies but specifically the e-cny China has been trialing for quite some time, as well as the counterparts which many other nations’ central banks are either contemplating or planning to roll out.
There were no more than 70 people attending, but it was pretty high powered. They included: the former CEO of Libra, an ICANN Cybersecurity board member/CISA director, a former undersecretary of Homeland Security, a representative from MITRE etc.
The speakers covered major topics related to a 200 page report as titled in the link above.
Speakers included:
Sigal Mandelker
General Partner, Ribbit Capital
Former Under Secretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, also ex Justice Department
Raghuram Rajan
Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution
Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance
Booth School of Business, University of Chicago – also ex Chief Economist at the IMF and the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India
Yaya Fanusie
Chief Strategist, Cryptocurrency AML Strategies
Adjunct Senior Fellow, Center for a New American Security – ex CIA terrorism finance/money laundering analyst
Stuart Levey
CEO
Diem Networks US – also the first Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence within the United States Department of the Treasury
and a bunch of UChicago boys (professors).
Too much to cover in a post, but the key interesting points (IMO):
1) The US is clearly very concerned about China, the e-cny and CBDCs in general. There was heavy focus on how CDBCs could be used for social control as well as privacy intrusion (ironic given Canada recently), but there were many instances where different speakers directly alluded to the fact that US power directly arises from its dominance of the existing financial international financial system.
Mandelkar in particular noted that of the 72 poorest nations in the world, China is the largest lender to 51 of them. Note how this is an example of how China is displacing the role the IMF/World Bank have dominated since the end of WW2.
2) There is also concern operationally. The e-cny is being rolled out “internationally” in the sense that the PBOC is going to enable its usage in Hong Kong to seamlessly allow holders of e-cny to seamlessly make payments in HKD. Fanusie above noted that CBDCs are a treasure mine of data and that China’s being the first to widely deploy CBDCs (albeit still on a “trial” basis) meant that they would reap the data and then have the capability to use said data to iterate and improve, even as the US doesn’t even have an e-dollar yet and won’t for several years.
3) Rajan in turn talked very brilliantly about the various options which CBDCs can take form in – ranging from China’s techno-tyranny/social control method to what Rajan called “techno-democracy”. And that CBDCs are such that it could be possible to use them because that form can theoretically allow cross-border controls in data flow and fiscal policy. However, he noted several things:
a) it is still not clear if the CBDCs actually bring significant benefits – either in cost reduction or other areas outside of social control. Not that they definitely don’t – simply that there was no data so far.
b) Rajan also specifically pointed out (which I’ve seen elsewhere) that CBDCs ultimately are in competition with the private financial sector – and the private financial sector is at a huge disadvantage. In China’s case – CDBC rollout and impact on private finance is a plus because China/PBOC/CCP were losing control over the finance parts of the economy to Ant/Alipay, Tencent etc. Mandelkar noted that Alipay had 1.3 billion users worldwide right before their failed IPO.
However, other speakers noted that a weakening of the private financial sector was considered undesirable in the US.
c) Rajan also specifically called out stability risks with CBDCs.
4) While there were a couple of speakers/audience members clearly in favor of “moving fast and breaking things”, it seemed pretty clear that the general consensus was to be involved in CBDC architecture discussions internationally but not to roll out an e-dollar before “getting it right”.
5) Cryptocurrencies were not a primary focus on this seminar but were peripherally touched on many times throughout. Essentially the difference is that China is seeking to maintain a very monolithic control over its financial system via the PBOC whereas the US seeks to split control between the Federal government: Federal Reserve, Treasury etc vs. private sector (banks etc). China by its very nature is able to discuss and then plan and implement because there are so few people who actually need to be on board whereas the US is so fragmented that anything like the e-cny is very challenging. One of the speakers pointed out that there is literally no federal money transmission law in the US – all money-transmission regulation is at the state level (!)
The overall impression I got was one of disguised fear.
Mandelkar, Levey and Fanusie. among others, spokes multiple times about how CBDC rollout and the e-cny and China in particular posed a huge threat: if a significant part of the world’s financial system started using the e-cny, the dollar would suffer in direct contrast and with it – the United States’ ability to impose sanctions and so forth (in the name of democracy and freedom of course).

Posted by: c1ue | Mar 5 2022 0:35 utc | 90

Quick Canadian political update
PM Trudeau heads to Europe (UK, Latvia, Germany and Poland) Will meet with BoJo and Rutte together, and separately with The Queen (hello – Head of State)
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/politique/2022-03-04/guerre-en-ukraine/trudeau-se-rendra-en-europe-la-semaine-prochaine.php
Deputy PM Freeland – on why the invasion of Ukraine is personal for her
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/why-russia-s-invasion-of-ukraine-is-personal-for-chrystia-freeland-1.5806555
I followed some media coverage of the negative feedback she received for posting on Twitter a picture of herself at a pro-Ukraine rally in Toronto, holding a very special black-and-red scarf. Why all the negativity, man?? It’s because a classic KGB disinformation smear is to accuse Ukrainians and Ukrainian-Canadians of being far right extremists or fascists or Nazis.
https://globalnews.ca/news/8658329/chrystia-freeland-scarf-photo-ukraine/
Whew! 30 seconds of firm talk from Canada’s Defence Minister, Anita Anand. She gets results, that’s why she’s in this cabinet post.
https://twitter.com/AnitaAnandMP/status/1499534953343852550

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Mar 5 2022 1:16 utc | 92

Re
Colby doctrine

Let the chicom kill those TW, the more the merrier, it’d be our PR

There’s nuthin new about it.
It has been standard CIA/MI6/ASIO [FUKUSA aka AUKUS] MO since time immemorial…
Foment unrest, provoke bloodshed, blame the victim.
Exhibit A
TAM
TIBET
XINJIANG
HK
Exhibit B
Haiti/Venezuela [1]
The only thing new is these ‘defense‘ analylists are now shamelessly broadcasting it to all and sundry, and they wear it like a badge of honor…

those chicoms, we are very transparent , we abhor secrecy in our open society

hehehhe
———
Every time FUKUSA [AUKUS] manufactured a crisis, the usual suspects of AP, AFP, Reuters, BBC, …would descend on Beijing to grill the Chinese FM.

Why dont u call this an invasion ?
Why aint u joining the sanction on Russia ?
Why dont u ask your buddy Putin to lay it off ?
blah blah blah

They thought they had Hua Chun YIng cornered.
LOL
Except Hua, like Tiger Yang of Alaska fame, aint gonna take this shit no more…

Where are u mofo when FUKUSA were running amok invading hundreds of defenseless countries since ww2 ?
Who started this shit in Ukraine ?
Confucius sez
Ask he who tie the bell on the tiger’s neck to untie it
U wanna stop the bloodshed ?
Why dont u gents ask those mofoking arsonists who started the fire and are now pouring kerosine on the flame ?

That’d show them, these western presstitutes !
heheheh
[1]
http://cleveland.indymedia.org/news/2004/02/9156.php

Posted by: denk | Mar 5 2022 3:57 utc | 94

EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
COUNCIL OF EUROPE
STRASBOURG
Mr John CLEARY
c/Eusebio Navarro, 12
35003 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
SPAIN
FOURTH SECTION
ECHR-LE11.0R(CD1)
KMR/msu
Application no. 24316/03
CLEARY v. the United Kingdom 25 Nov 2003
Dear Sir,
I write to inform you that on 13 November 2003 the European Court of Human Rights, sitting as a committee of three judges (M. Fischbach, President, R. Maruste and E. Fura-Sandstrom) pursuant to Article 27 of the Convention, decided under Article 28 of the Convention to declare the above application inadmissible because it did not comply with the requirements set out in Articles 34 and 35 of the Convention.
In the light of all the material in its possession, and in so far as the matters complained of were within its competence, the Court found that they did not disclose any appearance of a violation of the rights and freedoms set out in the Convention or its Protocols.
This decision is final and not subject to any appeal to either the Court or any other body. You will therefore appreciate that the Registry will be unable to provide any further details about the Committee’s deliberations or to conduct further correspondence relating to its decision in this case. You will receive no further documents from the Court concerning this caseand, in accordance with the Court’s instructions, the file will be destroyed one year after the dispatch of this letter.
Yours faithfully
For the Committee
F. Elens-Passos
Deputy Section Registrar

Then, just to be certain I was buried alive, they changed the rules so that isolated individuals such as myself could no longer apply to the Court.

Posted by: John Cleary | Mar 5 2022 9:36 utc | 96

– John Mearsheimer is quite clear. There will be a “conflict” between the US and China somewhere in the future. He thinks that this is a matter of “Great Power Politics”. The US (which is in terminal decsent but people in the US aren’t willing to accept that yet) simply can’t allow a rival (e.g. China) to emerge. These words “Great Power politics” have made it into the news headlines since the conflict began in the Ukraine.
– The thoughts of John Mearsheimer are – more than once – not to my liking (I certainly do not like a lot of things from the US Empire) but – at least – he is brutally honest. And then one has to concede that he more than once right instead being wrong about e.g. US foreign policy/policies.

Posted by: Willy2 | Mar 5 2022 15:04 utc | 98

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/03/04/september-11-victims-want-the-us-to-seize-and-sell-iranian-oil/
More chaotic craziness in the US that could derail any agreement with Iran – over something they had nothing to do with. Sorry about that $4 gasoline.

Posted by: Eighthman | Mar 5 2022 16:56 utc | 100