Naked Capitalism reports:
“Lehman Event” Looms For Europe As Energy Companies Face $1.5 Trillion in Margin Calls

…
Now to the energy company derivatives mess. As an OilPrice story below explains, European companies are facing a ton of margin calls on energy bets gone bad. It will be some time before the press can ferret out how much of this was sensible hedges gone bad, stupid hedges gone bad, and speculation gone bad. Sadly, officially sanctioned speculation, also called “Treasury as a profit center” is common in large companies.
Now that headline $1.5 trillion in margin calls is not simply attention-getting. It also will take priority. Governments will not allow energy companies to fail in the middle of energy shortages. They will also not allow large-scale defaults on derivatives contracts because, as we saw in the financial crisis, banks are often the losers. In 2007 and 2008, they were directly the losers by too often holding CDOs whose market value went to zero. With the energy company trades gone bad, the chain might be longer (the bank could have ordinary loans to the sick energy company, could have loans to a rich investor or hedge fund that has an energy company default on a trade, or the bank could have a commodities trading operation and have its books blow up because some positions it thought were hedged suddenly aren’t due to counterparty failures).
The point of this discussion is that the energy derivatives blowup has the potential to be a systemic crisis. It’s also the energy-related crisis that will hit first. Therefore it will also be first in line to get rescue money. It will compete with and take precedence over funding of real economy bailouts.
…

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/09/lehman-event-looms-for-europe-as-energy-companies-face-1-5-trillion-in-margin-calls.html

Posted by: too scents | Sep 8 2022 11:59 utc | 3

Queen under medical supervision at Balmoral after doctors’ concerns

Is UK about to move one step closer to being a republic.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Sep 8 2022 12:32 utc | 5

Posted by: too scents | Sep 8 2022 11:59 utc | 3
I bet a lot of those “energy companies” are BANKS
Mercouris noted in a Duran segment yesterday, that the Weimar hyperinflation was preceded by a national production strike in which German citizens were to be subsidized by the Weimar government
Actually 1923 was a bad year – it was when Britain withdrew its Occupation Forces from Germany and France + Belgium decided to be stupid and occupy The Ruhr cleaning Germany had not delivered resources claimed as Reparations.
A General Strike started which the Berlin Republic (it is called Weimar because the government took refuge from the violence in Berlin)…….and there was a Communist Uprising in Dortmund and a Putsch in Munich (got Hitler into Landsberg Prison)…….
Germany had funded WW1 out of current spending without War Bonds counting on Reparations from defeated enemy (as 1870 France) to bail themselves out………..
It was 1923 when the Rentenmark was introduced withHjalmar Schacht helped by Montagu Norman of Bank of England stabilised the situation…….until 1929 Crash which took everything down

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 8 2022 12:44 utc | 7

Silly lighthearted OT concerning the hyperinflation of the name Paul.
A few possibilities (mix and match or add your own and trawl away for as many Pauls as you can catch!):
· Paul the octopus the 2nd (very distinguished!)
· Paul the ten billionth (on point)
· Paul/Pavel/Paolo/Pavlov from Paulopolis (seems legit)
· Pluripaul (maybe a little bit sad?)
· Ordinary Paul, Extraordinary Paul, Paul potential, Potent Paul, HyperPaul, Super-Paul, Paul Paul, etc. (anything goes Paul)
· Beyond the Paul (ooh! Clever)
🙂
By the way the world is in the middle of a Gary drought and Willy deficiency (no!) with some loss of Ians, so maybe some Pauls could choose something non-Paulian?

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Sep 8 2022 13:31 utc | 9

I bet a lot of those “energy companies” are BANKS
@Paul Greenwood | Sep 8 2022 12:44 utc | 7
—
As Yves Smith notes companies are speculating with their treasuries, rather than prudently hedging.

Posted by: too scents | Sep 8 2022 13:58 utc | 11

Maroon uses passive sense in his End of Abundance proclamation.
Perhaps he should take some credit.

Posted by: jared | Sep 8 2022 14:23 utc | 13

Seems the queen of England is working on the Quexit…

Posted by: Nico | Sep 8 2022 14:27 utc | 15

Seems the news on the Quexit was premature, based on a fake BBC site.

Posted by: Nico | Sep 8 2022 14:36 utc | 17

What a shock, clueless is in trying to play the energy scam as victim, before their latest run at the public purse has even been dragged into the light.
Since the market value of fossil fuels has been greatly enhanced by the US & Euro government, clueless seeks to blame anyone but energy corps by saying quite falsely that governments are “very much pushing the fossil fuel industries (and all other energy consuming industries) effectively into production strikes..” right at a time when (i) the englander government is about to make it legal for the fossil fuel megaliths to commence fracking and (ii) the amerikan administration is busy attaching a series of boons vis a vis subsidies for drilling & exploration to the energy industry courtesy of Joe Manchin to the so-called stopgap spending bill, that straight after Manchin already picked up billions for fossil fuel corporations in the crudely mis-named ‘Inflation Reduction Act’.
Speaking of inflation, that is one thing we can be certain will occur when successive governments, led by the englander mob, decide to pay ‘subsidies’ outright to these self same energy corporations on the corporations’ promise that these funds will be used to offset murderous energy bill increases as all energy corporations whether they sourced their fossil fuels from Russia or not will seek to screw consumers across the planet.
We already know what the effect will be, it will be the same as the effect of the horrific CARES act Biden passed last year when practically the totality of amerikan fortune 500 corporates were given trillions of dollars in compensation for the pandemic, rather than paying that money directly to citizens. The result was massive fraud & zilch ‘trickle down’ followed by massive inflation as the stock market rose significantly. This valued corporations at far more than their value to earnings ratio should reflect. Consequently & paradoxically, those corporations faced with a decreasing market thanks to the pandemic, upped the cost of goods and services for their remaining business; in effect triggering the inflation which the entire world is now suffering.
The same will occur this time which is why paid energy shill clueless is trying to get in first by painting the perpetrator as victim.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Sep 8 2022 14:41 utc | 19

@ Posted by: farm ecologist | Sep 8 2022 14:16 utc | 12
The “one size fits all” phrase used by the guy you’re replying to is very common in GOP messaging. I wouldn’t accuse that guy of being a GOP operative, but he clearly listens to them. Do a google search with keywords ‘”GOP” “one-size-fits-all”‘, without the containing apostrophes, and you can see how often GOP operatives use the phrase to describe any centralized policy. It’s not even “politicization” at this point, it is sheer political partisanship, or perhaps a single-minded devotion to the single liberty the bourgeoisie cares to consistently defend, and which public health measures must often disrupt: free commerce.
These people do not understand cybernetics or systems theory. They do not understand why you need a centralized controller which can direct primary, local, operations when those operations begin to disregard the organization’s system-level strategy. A “one size fits all” approach is exactly what you need when there’s a system wide threat, like a pandemic, which can disrupt your primary operations and which your primary operations can do nothing about on their own, least of all when they’re antagonistic competitors in a free marketplace (what boss is going to shut down production over a disease without being made to?)
It might have been you that said it in the last thread, but I agree with the sentiment voiced by someone here that allowing covid to become endemic is one of the working class’s biggest defeats of this century. And to see conservatives cheer it on? Disturbing, disgusting, contemptible.

Posted by: fnord | Sep 8 2022 14:45 utc | 21

Is UK about to move one step closer to being a republic.
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Sep 8 2022 12:32 utc | 5
No Ghost Ship, it will be time for Spaniel.

Posted by: deal | Sep 8 2022 15:05 utc | 23

I heard that Queen Elizabeth has “died” but they are keeping her on life support till the entire family arrives at Balmoral castle

Posted by: Kadath | Sep 8 2022 15:21 utc | 25

farm ecologist@22
It doesn’t matter whether Darwin was wrong- as he often was, by his own admission- he was shrewd enough to understand, from his own observations of public health failures in the England he lived in, what the consequences of mass defiance of quarantines would lead to.
Those urging us to take our chances with the virus, make no effort to protect ourselves from its spread and take no precautions to prevent its transmission to others, however vulnerable they might be, are the quintessence of irresponsibility. They know themselves that they do not know that their theories are correct and that there is a real chance that what they deny exists. But instead of taking precautions and respecting the safety of others they engage in childish sophistries and throwing all caution to the wind dare disease to do its worst-on other people, including the very old and the very young, the malnourished and the lonely.
Were it not simply folly it would be criminal. Indeed on Justice Holmes’ definition of the offense of the man who cried “Fire!” in a crowded theatre it is criminal.

Posted by: bevin | Sep 8 2022 15:25 utc | 27

well it seems after appointing lizz truss qe2 is so horrified she is dying.
that was in fact a very sad picture. qe2 looking shrunken.
trouble in the UK brewing

Posted by: watcher | Sep 8 2022 15:31 utc | 29

Mummy has not passed away but her health deteriorated dramatically after having to ‘entertain’ that silly little pallid dwarf masquerading as the peasant’s new Prime Minister. I can confirm that our security detail at Balmoral are checking the CCTV footage to discern whether said pallid dwarf slipped something into Mummy’s tea as she was temporarily distracted by having to pull away two of her beloved Corgis who were behaving most inappropriately. Camilla and her human tampax, Charlie, believe Putin is behind this, the doddering old fools. Anyhooo, toddle-pip, tally-ho and chin up!
P.S has anyone got Ghislaine’s phone number, I’ve lost it….

Posted by: Prince Andrew | Sep 8 2022 16:00 utc | 31

i think the thing that gets me about covid is there was / is no room for different viewpoints, or how people are unwilling to accept alternative viewpoints on all this… for most people it seems went nuts over covid- either following the gov’t position or being very opposed… there were those in the middle that just wanted to get along and wanted more info before being forced into making decisions on it all… and it seems to me the gov’t was pushing the vaccines indiscriminately and treating those who opted not to get the vaccines as some kind of rejects.. i found that very distasteful… it is hard for me not to view the gov’ts in collaboration with the big pharma corps… that is one other thing that i can’t shake…. all in all the actions of the canuck gov’t reflect the actions of the canuck gov’t with regard to ukraine… it is all very one sided and hard to accept.. as a consequence people are left to their own devices to figure things out as the gov’t is of no help for the most part..

Posted by: james | Sep 8 2022 16:03 utc | 33

Yet another Global Times editorial positing the Outlaw US Empire isn’t fit to lead anyone, “A US not safe for own citizens is not qualified to lead the world”. I find it very hard to disagree with that premise as the brutal reality tells us:

Eliza Fletcher, a mother of two, went for her regular early jog but never made it back to her kids. She was abducted and murdered. The tragedy in Memphis, Tennessee, triggered a public opinion storm in the US. Meanwhile, quite a few voices suggest that she shouldn’t have been jogging at 4:30 in the morning.
This is what social order looks like in the US – going out in an “inappropriate” time, one could get killed.
In a TV program aired on Tuesday local time, Fox News host Tucker Carlson commented, “An American citizen should be able to live or walk anywhere in America without being raped or murdered for it, period. That is the baseline requirement for civilization. It’s called order.”
Unfortunately, that is not what the US has right now and Americans seem to have forgotten this “baseline requirement.” There are too many violent crimes, and people have, to some extent, gotten used to it, taking the situation as a part for their normal lives. That’s why many people’s first reaction is suggesting that Fletcher should have chosen a different time, different route, taken precautions to defend herself, and some even said that she should have used a treadmill.
This is why Carlson lamented that “everyone knows the rules” – one should go to safe places in safe period of time – otherwise, “you run the risk of being raped and murdered. That’s how things work in this country. So, adapt. Accept it. Move on.” He also warned that the entire country will be Memphis if Americans don’t put a stop to this insanity.
This is the US. On the outside, it is still a highly developed country. But on the inside, parts of the US look like Somalia, Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times. More and more common people who live in the US simply do not feel safe anymore. As Carlson put it, the US lost the baseline requirement for civilization, or order. [My Emphasis]

The editorial then gets into the epidemic of mass shootings, one of which occurred just after Flecther’s murder in Memphis. And as economic conditions deteriorate further, the violence will escalate.

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 8 2022 16:06 utc | 35

Posted by: deal | Sep 8 2022 15:05 utc | 23
Only Republic England has ever had was 1649-1660 and it is the only form I would accept – Lord Protector like Oliver Cromwell

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 8 2022 16:09 utc | 37

@ Posted by: james | Sep 8 2022 16:03 utc | 33
The “government position” in the United States was schizophrenic from the start. It wasn’t until partisan lines became clear that Republicans could run on a “do nothing” covid response, and the Republicans are in power in enough places to sabotage and undermine public health measures where they’re not in power. The Democrats, though, quickly but quietly followed the Republicans. Many states did not issue stay at home orders at all. Most states rescinded their stay at home orders after merely a month. No state had a stay at home order longer than three full months, and those states which had them longer than a month did not enforce their orders stringently enough to make a difference. A stay at home order is worthless, anyway, if people are still traveling to and from states where there are no such orders and community spread goes unabated.
Of course the government collaborated with pharmaceutical companies to develop and deploy vaccines. There wasn’t exactly a choice in that regard, as they’re the ones with the R&D and manufacturing capacity to actually push development and deployment through. Should the pharma companies have been nationalized? I’d be in support of that. Good luck finding conservatives in favor of that though! The fact of the matter is that the US pandemic response is indicative of its priorities, and the priorities of the US and its vassal states is the unrestricted expansion of commerce for its own sake. Useful idiots like Nemesis may drape themselves in religious reactionary garb from time to time, but what the real concern of the covid denialists, like the climate change denialists, is to keep business as usual going indefinitely. Unfortunately, “business as usual” generates pandemics, it generates ecological catastrophe, and it will be put an end to either by human beings consciously changing our lives for the better, or by mother nature taking its course.

Posted by: fnord | Sep 8 2022 16:12 utc | 39

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 8 2022 2:36 utc | 305
I’m going to try to post this one last time. The last three have been eaten up by a combination of my own proxy (for use in pirating content like movies), b’s policing of proxies (for good reason, given the recent issues), and my kill switch partnered with WordPress’s relatively ancient commenting software.
So you referenced “statism” as some sort of pejorative. Aren’t you a hard core Catholic? Isn’t the Catholic church a veritable state in and of itself and always has been?
What’s your preferred peaceful outcome insofar as how civilization would be organized within countries like the USA and blocs/former blocs like the EU if thing come to pass in your preferred way?
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Sep 8 2022 7:48 utc | 339
In the Catechism for the Catholic Church, you will find the teaching that basically, Catholics view gov’t as a necessary evil and where we should tolerate it only as much as it is needed. Therefore, it is simplified to say though very correct that for us, it is God, Family, Country, in that order.
There are definitely Catholics who align themselves with the decrees of the state to the exclusion of a primary relationship with God. These people have been encouraged by our current Pope who shockingly told us Catholics that we would be sinning against our faith to refuse the vaccine. Au contraire! Shoehorning our faith into alignment with the state is perhaps the biggest tipoff from this Pontificate that they are globalist-aligned (iow, “infiltrated”).
Up until recently where Pope Frank finally conceded that NATO was the instigator of this conflict, I had not seen nor heard one positive ruling from the Pope that reflected the true-teachings of Christ, other than milquetoast decrees to love the migrant, which I do but only so far in that it is tempered by the knowing that the migrant is an ignorant agent of globalism, itself.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 8 2022 16:15 utc | 41

@Bob | Sep 8 2022 16:07 utc | 36
Meanwhile …

Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 8 2022 16:18 utc | 43

@ karlof1 | Sep 8 2022 16:06 utc | 35
The conservatives want to put more people in prisons. The US already has the highest incarceration rate in the world – higher than “totalitarian” Cuba, the DPRK, PRC, and so on. States like Oklahoma and Louisiana have higher incarceration rates than the USSR at the height of the Gulag system. And it is used for a similar purpose: undermining wage costs by allowing companies to use what is effectively slave labor in their production processes. This generates revenue for the state and superprofits for industrial capital. Incarcerated workers, of course, can not unionize or organize. They can just be shot and corralled like cattle, and the public, already trained by demagogues like Tucker Carlson to fear convicts, will have little sympathy for them.
All of the calls to abate violent crime through incarceration or punishment are calls to undermine the working class’s standard of living, even putting aside the fact that extraordinarily high incarceration rates in America have not reduced crime one iota and likely contributes to violent crimem as criminals, who are majority non-violent, are discriminated against upon release, immiserating them further and motivating them to return to crime where at least there’s some dignity and a higher income. There’s more dignity in selling drugs than flipping burgers for a minimum wage that’s eaten up by the cost of just driving to work!
It is true that violent crime is a sign of decline in the US, but the decline will not be abated by more sadism. It can only be abated by class struggle and the victory of the working class against the jailers, the bureaucrats, the capitalists, the bosses in general. Don’t be misled!

Posted by: fnord | Sep 8 2022 16:23 utc | 45

@ fnord | Sep 8 2022 16:12 utc | 39
thanks.. i was mostly thinking of the canuck gov’t.. the usa gov’t response was truly wonky or schizophrenic as you say… as for pharmas being nationalized – i’d be in support of that as well.. i agree with much of what you say… again my main issue was with the level of intolerance towards others that i felt was an unnecessary part of this thing.. people got very polarized on the topic… it looks like that was intentional as sad as it is to say this…. and i can’t rule out all the conspiracy theories about the reset and etc. etc. either… it seems to me national govts have been captured by the corporations and it is much as michael hudson says on where we are with late stage capitalism where people get eaten.. we need leaders and we don’t have them..

Posted by: james | Sep 8 2022 16:30 utc | 47

@farm ecologist #12
You said

the frequently stated notion that basic research scientists’ findings are unreliable because they personally profit from “big research grants” is frankly absurd.

I agree not all scientists are corrupted, but you have the proportions completely inverted.
An academic who isn’t published, doesn’t get tenure.
An academic who doesn’t follow the largely liberal worldview of Western academia, similarly is not going to be successful.
This isn’t a random view. Do a little research and you will find all manner of articles like this or this or most recently this
Your view of what academics and scientists actually go through in order to have jobs is clearly unrealistic.
As for COVID and China:
There are many aspects to this situation which will only play out over time.
For example:
Did you know China has foregone all mRNA vaccines? The vaccines China administered to its people – along with massive lockdowns and what not – are Sinovax, not the Western types. They have expressed interest but have not followed this interest up with even literally a single deployment…
Secondly, it has never been clear to me that COVID was ever going to be eradicated. Unless the entire world goes under the CCP or equivalent – it is simply impossible that China-type measures would ever hold up anywhere including Europe.
And finally: to try and cite the role of “science” in COVID policies is frankly risible. Those “in charge” have flip-flopped this way and that, repeatedly, and for self-admitted “non science” motives.
Where again is your faith in science coming from?
Science is done by people; people act on motives; and very few people are immune to societal, institutional and/or demographic stampedes…

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 8 2022 16:35 utc | 49

@46 farm ecolo
I simply disagree.
The U.S., with its poor bodily-health, both rampant obesity and diabetes, did not need more illusions of government being able to spare us all responsibility, but many, including you, are asking for still just that.
You are instilling false-hopes by telling them they will never get this endemic respiratory virus when even Fauci himself has said it is endemic and everyone will get it.
Sweden did fine with little-to-none lockdowns and mandates.
The healthy and the young should have been left unmolested for the virus to work its way through. That’s the best we can do with a respiratory virus. No big-bro needed, announcing curfew via flying drones through the neighborhoods.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 8 2022 16:36 utc | 51

Posted by: james | Sep 8 2022 16:32 utc | 48
If only we could turn the clock back to the beginning of the decade…

Posted by: farm ecologist | Sep 8 2022 16:39 utc | 53

@ Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 8 2022 16:36 utc | 51
Is Fauci supposed to be some guy “the left” likes? I know libs treated him like a superhero, but Fauci also oversaw the failed (ongoing) AIDS pandemic response. He has been widely maligned by leftists for his failure in that regard, as AIDS primarily affects poor and marginalized communities. Many religious reactionaries have even gotten AIDS because their leaders told them it was the gay plague and that they should never use contraception (even though condoms, like face masks, effectively prevent the spread of disease).
Sweden did poorly. Relative to its neighbors that did have lockdowns, it did exceptionally poorly. It continues to do poorly.

The healthy and the young should have been left unmolested for the virus to work its way through.

This is an excellent way to make sure your healthy population does not remain healthy for long. Imagine saying this with the Epstein-Barr virus, which is now known to cause multiple sclerosis. This same logic applied to chicken pox by my grandparents’ generation resulted in all kinds of old age maladies today. Allowing a virus to “work its way through” the healthy population also means inevitable exposure for the unhealthy – they’re all treated at the same fucking hospitals!

Posted by: fnord | Sep 8 2022 16:47 utc | 55

@54 fnord
According to this article, Sweden did very well:

A disaster or a success?
Let’s look at excess mortality as a key example. This metric takes the total number of deaths and compares this figure with pre-pandemic levels, capturing the wider effects of the pandemic and accounting for incorrect reporting of COVID deaths.
Although Sweden was hit hard by the first wave, its total excess deaths during the first two years of the pandemic were actually among the lowest in Europe.
The decision to keep primary schools open also paid off. The incidence of severe acute COVID in children has been low, and a recent study showed that Swedish children didn’t suffer the learning loss seen in many other countries.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 8 2022 17:01 utc | 57

@ too cents 50
All three are very powerful- in the eyes of impressionable children. Now I’m orf to Balmoral to stop Camilla getting her grubby little mitts on all the decent family silver. Chocks away!

Posted by: Prince Andrew | Sep 8 2022 17:02 utc | 59

@ Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 8 2022 17:01 utc | 57
Compare Sweden to the much poorer Cuba, or to the PRC, where in both instances lockdowns were practiced from the province to neighborhood levels. Sweden to this day has higher weekly covid deaths than Cuba has monthly, and more daily cases than Cuba has weekly. The countries surrounding Sweden very quickly adopted Sweden’s “DGAF” approach, so I don’t think there’s a qualitative difference that would emerge as statistically significant in a quantitative analysis. The only countries with the governance institutions capable of administering public health today are the extant Stalinist countries (although the most re-enthralled to global commerce, like Vietnam, have given up themselves) and this is precisely because they have instituted planned economies with substantial welfare states – for all else that may be wrong with them, they at least have that going for them.

Posted by: fnord | Sep 8 2022 17:09 utc | 61

“…I am not an Easterner who comes with a greater willingness to sacrifice the self to the decree of the state…” NemesisCalling@32
No you’re not an easterner. Or for that matter a westerner. You are a reactionary spouting the tired orientalist ideas that barely survived the C19th.
There are few ideas more revolting than the idea that Asians are sub-humans with little respect for life and a readiness to die for “King and Country” when ordered to do so.
History teaches us differently- the People’s Republic in China was the fruit of the largest and most desperate popular struggle for freedom every waged. It was consummated by millions of country people living on the edge of subsistence and in defiance of the most vicious imperialist powers. So widespread and diffuse were the thousands of struggles woven into the revolution that they depended almost entirely on local initiative, spontaneous activity and leadership, constantly replaced, thrown up in the heat of battle.
You demean us all when you jeer at half of the species as automatons under the control of bullies. Such is the reality of the ‘western individualism’ that now takes the political form of neo-liberalism. It celebrates the inhumanity of an elite looking down on the people who actually do the work.

Posted by: bevin | Sep 8 2022 17:25 utc | 63

@61 fnord
But I will also say you misunderstood the point of saying “Sweden did better than its neighbors.”
The point is that there should have been demonstrable proof that moderate restrictions would have made a real difference on excess mortality. The fact that Sweden had almost no lockdown mandates, or mask-mandates, and did not demonstrate a correlation with excess death, throws water on the argument as-a-whole that lockdowns/restrictions help. Very revealing.
But you want us to dispense with this example and go full-retard?

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 8 2022 17:27 utc | 65

English news channels reporting that Queen Elizabeth is dead, she died this afternoon now the months of tv shows documentaries on her life, quick pass the sick bucket.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Sep 8 2022 17:34 utc | 67

NemesisCalling | Sep 8 2022 2:36 utc | 305
farm ecologist | Sep 8 2022 14:16 utc | 12 and others
China’s response to SARS-CoV-2, or any suspected biological threat was based on first-hand, WW2 experience.
Even as an “outsider” to the affairs of “insiders” as regards decision-making, IMO it is certain that:
1. At highest, scientific levels, Chinese health authorities have extensive knowledge of the whys and purposes of Japanese WW2 activities in China re chemical and biological warfare against Chenese [and others] to enable domination of China…[that ended in overall failure].
2. China ever since WW2 continues as a prime target for any race-selective weapons that might enable the overwhelming force needed to dominate China [since Japan already tried to produce and did use such weapons and some leaders of infamous Battalion 731 ended up working at Fort Detrick, Maryland].
3. With the discovery of DNA about 1953 as source of encoding human body characteristics, successive dixcoveries leading to ability to read and manipulate DNA* have made it probable and likely that controlling DNA will produce such a weapon described in #1, above.
*extracting, cutting, separating, identifying, inserting units, amplifying units, along with enzyme and other tech already developed.
4. After WW2, China needed to prepare a workable defense to a biological weapon.
5. It was always clear that use of any such “country-wide” weapon depends on transmission/spread of it to overcome any localizing limitations.
6. It was obvious that in the absence of any IMMEDIATE and effective treatment of victims, the single remedy remaining was to stop the transmission/spread. I.e., ISOLATE IT.
THerefore, it is obvious STOP THE SPREAD was chosen as the prime remedy in any bio-emergency having no immediate remedy, whether biological or chemical.
7.The discovery in Wuhan of a spreading, possibly deadly, biological agent set-off #6, above, as a worst-case response…regardless of errors about time and place and origin [what was the agent, when was first release, where, accidental or deliberate, etc]. STOP THE SPREAD.
China demonstrated to the world that ISOLATION via MASS LOCKDOWNS is workable, albeit was done as a crude, first attempt with lots of valuable lessons learned re logistics of coordination and food and water and individual medical care, etc.
As to Chinese not also using alleged treatments like Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, etc…If I was Chinese, I might wonder why the USAans did not prescribe Ivermectin? or hydroxychloroquin? etc. Hmmm? Then I might wonder if the USAans did use Ivermectin, etc….in select cases..very select…very special…as in who would know the whole truth? Outsiders?
Ever since WW2, worst-case was a suspected attack by bioweapons that threatened their population’s existence. Chinese worked their established plan as befits their caring for their population. Congratulations are due.

Posted by: chu teh | Sep 8 2022 17:42 utc | 69

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 8 2022 16:35 utc | 49
Just to be clear – what I wrote applies to hard sciences. Academic success or failure in certain areas of the Humanities/Social Sciences could well depend on ones ideological bent, as you suggest.

Posted by: farm ecologist | Sep 8 2022 17:49 utc | 71

For the first time in 4-5 months, I am able to read sputniknews.com again without any VPN.

Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 8 2022 18:06 utc | 73

Gotta give props to Hardeep Singh Puri for maintaining a vanity site so he can post the CNBC interview himself. An urbane diplomat-with-attitude in the manner of S. Jaishankara.
On the other hand, Hadley Gamble (interviewer) is a stooge—didn’t do background, hard of hearing, and programmed with one (1) question utterly unrelated to Vostok, INS Vikrant, QUAD, The Pandemic, and mf patent waivers.

Posted by: sln2002 | Sep 8 2022 18:14 utc | 75

Which one of you “woke” slayers attended this event? Confess!

Posted by: sln2002 | Sep 8 2022 18:49 utc | 77

i agree with tucker carlson…. some will think the recipe to fix this is more guns, no doubt… on an important level i don’t know how the usa digs itself out of this hole it finds itself in… more foreign wars? lol… some sort of distraction is needed i tell ya!

Posted by: james | Sep 8 2022 16:14 utc | 40
Yes, james, more guns no doubt. No more foreign wars needed. All the equipment US sent to it’s wars are now coming back home to police the populace. Remember the MRAP?
I recall one California small town, with one deputy, got two of the shiny ones. Go figure.
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2014/April/Pages/RepurposedMRAPsFindNewLifeinPoliceAgencies.aspx

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Sep 8 2022 19:26 utc | 79

I will now go back to NOT posting replies, particularly to this post. I will not enter into any “debate” on these 5 points as they are beyond debate. The WEF-cabal and Harari are not hiding their intentions for “useless” or “meaningless” people (his words, not mine).
Be well, be wise.
Posted by: Old canadian | Sep 8 2022 18:50 utc | 79
Thanks for your post and those 5 points.

Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 8 2022 19:34 utc | 81

NemesisCalling | Sep 8 2022 17:54 utc | 72
JC | Sep 8 2022 18:06 utc | 74 and others
Updating WW2 Japan bio- and chemical warfare. I saved this link:
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202208/1273071.shtml
Just last month this data appeared. The link may have come from MOA.

Posted by: chu teh | Sep 8 2022 20:02 utc | 83

Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 8 2022 19:30 utc | 80
Yes indeed thanks on your data. Also your data from yesterday on another thread is also helpful…
Scorpion | Sep 7 2022 20:28 utc | 207
…though re masks, effectiveness depends on what type of mask. Airborne droplets can be loaded with virus particles. Some masks, properly worn and cared for [to disinfect before re-use] are definitely effective at reducing the probability of infection and reducing ingested viral load associated with “large ” particles, such as spittle, in either direction.
[minimal “load” of viral particles are more likely to be handled by a body’s immune system….which is curious because I never saw any testing for how many Sars-CoV2 virus particles can be easily tolerated.
BTW, 3M Company N95 and P100 [etc] types of electrostaticly-treadted, spun-polypropylene were invented by a Chinese scientist Dr. Tsai [originaly from Taiwan?]…
https://utrf.tennessee.edu/information-faqs-performance-protection-sterilization-of-face-mask-materials/

Posted by: chu teh | Sep 8 2022 20:48 utc | 85

Biden Administration approves $450 million F-16 fleet sustainment programme to Pakistan.
India is not at all happy. It reminds them they are a very junior member of the Quad.

Posted by: regale | Sep 8 2022 20:57 utc | 87

Stonebird | Sep 8 2022 20:25 utc | 84
Thanks for the link. Australian contract documents would be interesting to see but no doubt classified. Morrison secretly appointed himself health minister and then signed a as is where is type contract with American 737 max.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Sep 8 2022 21:06 utc | 89

Peter AU1 | Sep 8 2022 21:06 utc | 89
As you can see, the vaxx was not “made” in just a week or over a weekend.
Planned obsolescence – 737 – us.
****
Odd day today
****
I saw this afternoon about ten minutes of French TV. Horrifying (I do NOT watch TV). Drag queens explaining makeup, “feelings”, etc. This is what is watched, about 16h00 in the afternoon, by “housewives? They played for families afterwards. Jeez.
***
The Shah Banou (Widow of the Shah of Iran), has decided to make a “comeback” and set up a new opposition party in Iran. Or is this the US trying to reintroduce a Monarchy, to whom they promised Nuclear power?
****
Now that Morrison is deposed – whatever happened to him?

Posted by: Stonebird | Sep 8 2022 21:27 utc | 91

Greenwald starting a daily show https://twitter.com/rumblevideo/status/1567867363403366400
I view this in the context of a war between mainstream and alternative media, which is partly marketed as a war against disinformation. I won’t say the opposite, there is a component of sincere concern about people’s minds being filled up with stupid ideas, and in part that is even justified, but there is also the problem that beliefs align with interests and then we have to look at plain competition with the mainstream and about the power to control what people think.
And then Matt Taibbi remarks somewhere that the Joe Rogan show attracts more viewers than anything by CNN. So one should ask how this will evolve. Will alternative news draw people away from mainstream news? Will the mainstream start support more suppression and censorship? Am I overlooking the obvious thing which will actually happen?

Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | Sep 8 2022 21:48 utc | 93

Scorpion | Sep 8 2022 21:18 utc | 90
re Masks…re SArs-CoV2 my own preference now is any type [without exhaust valve!] and worn when not easy to keep 6′ distance…along w Iver, Zinc and D3 supplements.
By this time, i am fairly sure of some exposure to the virus already and thus enhanced immunity. I generally follow advice from FLCCC website devoted to the subject. Agreed that data from .gov is so full of hidden agendas and other unhelpful intentions as to be the product of summer-interns.
Of the people, by the people and for the people…turned into sarcasm. Heard a reference to .gov “goal of 2% limit on inflation” as being .gov terrorism.

Posted by: chu teh | Sep 8 2022 22:03 utc | 95

https://www.sinkyforhearts.co.uk/2022/09/08/boris-johnsons-emotional-tribute-to-queen-elizabeth-ii/
“Boris Johnson has said the death of the Queen will leave a “void” and that “this is our country’s saddest day”.
“As is so natural with human beings, it is only when we face the reality of our loss that we truly understand what has gone,” he said in a statement posted on Twitter.
He concluded his statement with praise for the Queen’s son, who now becomes King Charles III.
The former prime minister wrote: “This is our country’s saddest day. In the hearts of every one of us there is an ache at the passing of our Queen, a deep and personal sense of loss – far more intense, perhaps, than we expected.
“In these first grim moments since the news, I know that millions and millions of people have been pausing whatever they have been doing, to think about Queen Elizabeth, about the bright and shining light that has finally gone out.
“She seemed so timeless and so wonderful that I am afraid we had come to believe, like children, that she would just go on and on.
“Wave after wave of grief is rolling across the world, from Balmoral – where our thoughts are with all the Royal family – and breaking far beyond this country and throughout that great Commonwealth of nations that she so cherished and which cherished her in return.
“It is only really now that we grasp how much she meant for us, how much she did for us, how much she loved us.
“As is so natural with human beings, it is only when we face the reality of our loss that we truly understand what has gone.”
‘She spread her magic around her kingdom’
He went on: “As we think of the void she leaves, we understand the vital role she played, selflessly and calmly embodying the continuity and unity of our country.
“We think of her deep wisdom, and historic understanding, and her seemingly inexhaustible but understated sense of duty.
“Relentless though her diary must have felt, she never once let it show, and to tens of thousands of events – great and small – she brought her smile and her warmth and her gentle humour – and for an unrivalled 70 years she spread that magic around her kingdom.
“This is our country’s saddest day because she had a unique and simple power to make us happy. That is why we loved her.
“That is why we grieve for Elizabeth the Great, the longest-serving and – in many ways – the finest monarch in our history.
“It was one of her best achievements that she not only modernised the constitutional monarchy, but produced an heir to the throne who will amply do justice to her legacy, and whose own sense of duty is in the best traditions of his mother and his country.
“Though our voices may be choked with sadness, we can still stay with confidence the words not heard in this country for more than seven decades.
“God Save The King.”

Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 8 2022 22:20 utc | 97

So a few years ago I played an Xbox game called The Division, Tom Clancy TM. Third person looter shooter w
Some squad play. Anyways. One night in chat someone asks about ideas to make game better. I suggest an option to log in as an NPC, to turn up the Realism. Anyways this morning there was this.
https://decrypt.co/109203/nft-game-consultant-says-poor-people-could-be-npcs
There was also a story about new science and how processed foods were killing us the same way the adverse reactions to the coerced flu shots were.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/ultra-processed-foods-linked-to-heart-disease-cancer-and-death-studies-show

Posted by: Tannehouser | Sep 8 2022 22:53 utc | 99