It’s saddening to take a trip on Twitter.
You see how full it is of feces in barely human shape who, while on no-one’s payroll, function as automata: in the specific, as pro-Globohomo bots.
They are like loudspeaker: the Masters of the Discourse, by means of their totally owned celebrity/media/”politicians” systems, input in them what it serves their interests best to have spread, and they spread it.

The fact that this “people” use slurs, violent images and rhetoric, and hate speech all the time suggests that they are mentally ill wrecks. This doesn’t prevent the amount of co-ordinated noise they output from being useful to the Masters, still.
They hugely hinder any truth-telling try. Twitter helps them, by moderating only insults and violent speech that targets some protected, specific, group. Otherwise, foul talk and invitations to violence are fine.

Posted by: klklklklklklk | Jan 15 2023 14:30 utc | 1

Not everything is in black and white.
Two wrongs do not make it right
Every conspiracy theory passing by on the internet contains 98% lies, 1% I got you again ha,ha the final 1% says tou have been trolled fool.

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”

― Abraham Lincoln

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jan 15 2023 14:43 utc | 2

Posted by: klklklklklklk | Jan 15 2023 14:30 utc | 1

https://youtube.com/watch?v=D_tXQo1yz0o

Enjoy

Posted by: Vikichka | Jan 15 2023 15:11 utc | 3

Excellent as always. The articles on Covid, particularly "Let Them Eat Plague!" are invaluable and could help save many lives.
We have needed another good aggregator for some time MoA Week in Review has become another reason for bookmarking this site.

Posted by: bevin | Jan 15 2023 15:17 utc | 4

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”

― Abraham Lincoln

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jan 15 2023 14:43 utc | 2

In the US, if you're part of Big Government/Media/Pharma/Military, you can fool enough of the people enough of the time to get away with just about anything. The past three years have proven that beyond all doubt.

Posted by: Michigan Dude | Jan 15 2023 15:23 utc | 5

Posted by: Vikichka | Jan 15 2023 15:11 utc | 3

I admit that it made me smile. Laugh, almost.
Very good one.

Posted by: klklklklklklk | Jan 15 2023 15:28 utc | 6

Twitter helps them, by moderating only insults and violent speech that targets some protected, specific, group. Otherwise, foul talk and invitations to violence are fine.

Posted by: klklklklklklk | Jan 15 2023 14:30 utc | 1

Yep. I was blocked again after making a politically incorrect response to John Brennan's defense of Anthony Fauci. It was nothing worse than what Elon Musk had said about him.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Jan 15 2023 15:41 utc | 7

@ Opport Knocks | Jan 15 2023 15:41 utc | 8
after making a politically incorrect response

Yes. . .with me and Facebook it was "don't meet community standards" rather than "politically incorrect." They dressed it up a little bit. Our comments must all fall in line with what our masters want. But I go back to Edward Abbey, an anarchist: "No man is wise enough to be another man's master. Each man's as good as the next -- if not a damn sight better."

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 15 2023 15:56 utc | 8

Posted by: klklklklklklk | Jan 15 2023 14:30 utc | 1

A coarse & dehumanizing diatribe is the civilized and healthy response?

Posted by: Elmagnostic | Jan 15 2023 16:03 utc | 9

Re: Zionists.

An hour ago I tuned in to DW News. Apart from the obligatory Ukraine bullshit, DW were blowing the whistle on Bibi's latest publicity stunt. He wants the Knesset to pass a law limiting the power of tbe "Israeli" Supreme Court. If the move is successful it will allow a simple majority of Knesset Members to overule Supreme Court decisions.
I'm hoping Bibi gets his way because then "Israel" can change its name to "Fuckwits R Us".

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 15 2023 16:03 utc | 10

thanks b... i agree with @ oldhippie | Jan 15 2023 15:19 utc | 5... your position of no debate must be based on some germany legal thing..

Posted by: james | Jan 15 2023 16:23 utc | 11

The US is fixated on the South China Sea and the nasty communist Chinese who claim many islands in the Spratlys and dredge up fake islands. How dare they! But there's never any mention of the communist Vietnam's Spratly holdings which are three times what China claims in numbers and are expanding.

from AMTI:
Vietnam’s Major Spratly Expansion

Vietnam has accelerated and expanded dredging and landfill work at several of its outposts in the Spratly Islands in the second half of 2022, creating roughly 420 acres of new land this year and bringing its total in the last ten years to 540 acres. The work includes expanded landfill work at four features identified by AMTI earlier this year and new dredging at five additional features. The scale of the landfill work, while still falling far short of the more than 3,200 acres of land created by China from 2013 to 2016, is significantly larger than previous efforts from Vietnam and represents a major move toward reinforcing its position in the Spratlys.. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 15 2023 16:30 utc | 12

Almost every policy decision that comes out of this government is brewed up in the many think tanks that serve (or are served by) policymakers. Here's a nod to them:
https://folkpotpourri.com/thanks-to-tanks-of-thought/

Posted by: Ozark Grandpa | Jan 15 2023 16:39 utc | 13

Yep. I was blocked again after making a politically incorrect response
Opport Knocks | Jan 15 2023 15:41 utc | 8

Yes. . .with me and Facebook it was "don't meet community standards" rather than "politically incorrect."
They dressed it up a little bit. Our comments must all fall in line with what our masters want.
Don Bacon | Jan 15 2023 15:56 utc | 9

You want to talk about Twitter and Facebook after what oldhippie asked @oldhippie | Jan 15 2023 15:19 utc | 5 ?
Seems insincere to me.

Oh, nevermind. b has just erased oldhippie.
But bevin's post is still up.
I wonder how long the comment @james | Jan 15 2023 16:23 utc | 11 will last.
Or this one.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jan 15 2023 16:40 utc | 14

@ my 12
Speaking of the South China Sea, the US continually repeats the fabricated lie that the China Communist Party, which the rest of the world calls China, claims most of the South China Sea as their own territory, as defined by the "nine-dash line." But China has made no such claim. Beijing occasionally displays the nine-dash line, which comes from the Nationalist China days, just to shake the US apple tree. It works! The US complains about something but can't do anything! Reminds me of the paper-weight Quad.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 15 2023 16:44 utc | 15

@ waynorinorway | Jan 15 2023 16:40 utc | 14

even without taking a side, it seems very strange b's approach here.. i wish he would offer some clarity on it all..

Posted by: james | Jan 15 2023 16:46 utc | 16

Thanks b!

Your Week In Review is one of the high lights of my week.

Posted by: Jörgen Hassler | Jan 15 2023 16:52 utc | 17

"Doesn't meet community standards" is always the way they do censorship, it will now slowly creep from social media into everyday life, starting with your place of employment...

it's fascism being ushered in under the guise of democracy, which is exactly how fascism has always started.

Posted by: Oldcutlas | Jan 15 2023 16:58 utc | 18

Back on the backwater thread again. A long time ago I found two foot long pike luxuriating in a backwater of the River Ouse in a garden in Canterbury. So.maybe the big fish live in the tributary streams.

I confess to a certain obstinacy which means that if I have planned a certain project for the day but my wife gives me different instructions, I do neither all day. A whole day wasted in general reflections.

Similarly , when you come into zislam, you want to tell everybody what a wonderful.pearl you have found. But you gobdown the mosque and the mufti in charge of the Deobandi movement in Britain is telling you how the South Asians will fight the English to death when they stronger physically and economically, then you realise you have absolutely nothing in common with them.

I still have nothing in common with them 25 years later . Oh you came here to get rich, eat meat , and then kill us. Oh and vote for Tory Fascist governments that fight wars against Muslim countries too.

Well tbh I find the subject of Ukrainian Nazism some kind of gentle distraction from the fate of Britain when the South Asian communities we invited here as a kind of reparation for colonial evils, are going to massacre us like pigs or sheep without distinction.

The longer the South Asians live here and the more of them displace Local communities, the more I realise that the British government is on the side of our opponents. Britons are being very badly squeezed economically. An average family in a small house is paying £900 per month energy bills 12 months a year owing to our government's decision to make war on Russia in Ukraine. Rent is standing at £800 per month for the smallest terraced house available. Wages remain the same.

If the Nazi Tories don't get us the Patriarchal Islamic State supporters will.
Death looks more interesting in a totally bonkers world. The South Asians want to win political.power , economic power, psychological power, through education and superior mental and political abilities.

Are we still going to be massacred when South Asians rule our world. It happened before when the British Celts were destroyed by the invading Anglosaxons, Vikings and Normans. And it is happening now.

Posted by: Giyane | Jan 15 2023 17:04 utc | 19

james @ 16

That was pretty much my purpose in posting. Not llooking to needlessly annoy our host.

Posted by: oldhippie | Jan 15 2023 17:05 utc | 20

Usually leaders are imposed on us by the ruling class but every now and then, usually in time of crisis, the people send up a leader. Tomorrow, in the USA, we are asked to remember one of those up-from-the-people leaders, Martin Luther King. He spoke from his heart and his heart was in the same place as millions of black people. When white people began looking at him as their leader too, he had to be taken out. Ghandi was sent up by the people as was Castro. Perhaps the greatest of the leaders who were sent up by the people was Mao. This phenomenon comes from a basic instinct, I think. It's like when a hive of bees decides to swarm or a herd of buffalo to stampede. The Russian people sent up Lenin and Trotsky, and maybe Putin today. The USA people tried and failed to send up Huey Long and Bernie Sanders. Thirty years ago the Haitian people sent up Bertrand Aristide, who was taken out by Bill Clinton. Today the people of Haiti are trying to send up another leader.

Posted by: Chas | Jan 15 2023 17:05 utc | 21

Posted by: james | Jan 15 2023 16:46 utc | 16

Yeah, I understand that he could be in a situation where he can'r even say that he can't explain things.
I've been in a similar spot and it's frustrating on all sides.
Schrödinger's cat type stuff or maybe conundrum to be more accurate.
But the policy is Not clear, despite some saying it is clear or saying that there is nothing to debate.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jan 15 2023 17:05 utc | 22

thanks guys... lets hope it is as waynorinorway describes it.. cheers..

Posted by: james | Jan 15 2023 17:15 utc | 23

this is a recording that i like... ''this is brian jackson''.. upbeat positive vibe.. the guy worked with gil scott heron a long time ago..

this is brian jackson the whole album is great... contemporary r and b basically..

Posted by: james | Jan 15 2023 17:18 utc | 24

Switzerland, for the US, is an aggravating symbol of non-alinement (no EU & NATO) which is representative of sovereign opponents to the "rules-based" US hegemony. Just look at how Sweden and Finland were turned! They 'saw the light.'

But try to leave no stone unturned--
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met yesterday with Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis in Washington, D.C. Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Cassis discussed opportunities for continued bilateral and multilateral cooperation, including on assistance for Ukraine and the need to hold Russia accountable for its brutal war. Secretary Blinken congratulated Switzerland on joining the United Nations Security Council this month for a two-year elected term.. . .here

What carrots and sticks are being used on Switzerland? One can only guess. I'd love to see the messages to the US ambassador over there. The US ambassador to Switzerland is Scott C. Miller. Ambassador Miller is an LGBTQ rights activist and philanthropist. Previously, Ambassador Miller served as an account vice president at Switzerland-based UBS Wealth Management in Denver, Colorado.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 15 2023 17:20 utc | 25

@waynorinorway 22

Interesting to see your discussions being blocked by German laws or other taboos.

Craig Murray was imprisoned for saying things about the Alex Salmond trial, while mainstream journalists were much less discrete than him.

I come to the conclusion that journalism on these huge platforms terrifies the PTB simple because of the huge reach of the audiences and huge duration of the comment's availability.

Posted by: Giyane | Jan 15 2023 17:29 utc | 26

Japan has been turned from a pacifist nation to a Pentagon puppet.

from the Pentagon:
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada signed documents that will further strengthen the U.S.-Japanese Security Alliance today at the Pentagon.
The two men met for bilateral talks in advance of President Joe Biden meeting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House tomorrow. That meeting caps what some in Washington are calling the month of "Japanuary" where leaders from both nations discussed Japan's new national security strategy, national defense strategy and plans to double Japan's defense spending by 2027. . .here

Japan has already displayed its US obeisance by spending billions on the mistake-jet. Japan has begun deploying F-35As to be used against China and Russia, with plans to acquire a total of 147 F-35s, including 105 units of the air force variant, as one of its mainstay fighter jets.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 15 2023 17:31 utc | 27

Thank you, b.

Today is the first Sunday of the Orthodox Christian New Year (which began on Friday). It is also the Sunday before Theophany, which feast will be on Thursday, celebrating the Baptism of Christ and thereby blessing all the waters of the world. Today is my father's birthday. It is as well my name's day, which is the name I use here. Big day for me, all together.

I have spent the week reading an important essay written some time back by the now Archbishop Golitsin of the Western diocese, which I happen to reside in. It has many things to say about the history of Orthodoxy, beginning and ending with an example from Mount Athos: a question concerning the relevance of an austerity committed hermit's presence from time to time at a sumptuously decorated church lower down on that mountain, the ancient Greek monastic holy mountain. How is it that he, abstaining from such opulence, is comfortable in such a place?

I won't repeat Bishop Golitsin's thesis - I am not sure I agree entirely with it as a suitable paradigm for contemporary Orthodoxy in the west, but it has much relevancy for the state of the world at present. And I do very much agree with the bulk of his explanation - it follows what we in my little church practised and advocated when it had its existence for twenty years in Santa Fe.

It has always fascinated me that each of the four Gospel writers begins in a different way. With the new year first Sunday, we begin with Mark, who appropriately himself begins, like Handel's "Messiah", with Saint John in the wilderness:

"Comfort ye, O Jerusalem,
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
And cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished;
and her iniquity is pardoned!"

This Sunday, Mark says that all of Judea and all of Jerusalem have come to the Jordan to be baptized.

I do think that these things are relevant to our current concerns. The influence of empire on church affairs features in the essay I reference, since a contribution is being made by that church in the conflicts we face on this forum. I will give my link to it below for any who are interested.

Posted by: juliania | Jan 15 2023 17:34 utc | 28

Here is the essay I referenced at 28 above. (The pdf is in two parts.)

https://www.marquette.edu/maqom/Liturgy.pdf

and

https://www.marquette.edu/maqom/Liturgy2.pdf

Posted by: juliania | Jan 15 2023 17:40 utc | 29

Thanks again for the headline deep dives b! One that's missing from your 'other issues' is the Excess deaths insurance companies have been reporting. Where would you place that one? Under Covid?

Curiouser and curiouser! Indeed...

Posted by: nathan in WA US | Jan 15 2023 17:45 utc | 30

@19

The same mufti , Sheikh Riayad ul Haq, speaking in Centrsl Mosque Birmingham 25 years ago completely astonished me by saying that although adultery within the South Asian Mudlim community was unthinkable he was lenient on Muslim men having sexual relations outside the Muslim community.

That leniency was I think in recognition of a civilisational pay-back for the British Raj's sexual abuse in India, which has remained a taboo discussion even 75 years later.

I only raise the issue because the Muslim community will listen to any piece of libellous gossip given them by MI5 about new Muslims like me and they also spy on us relentlessly.

The British ptb insured converts to Islam during the Raj and still persecutes us today. Not because they hate Islam but because of a British instinct to divide and rule anything that moves.

The first lesson in all dealings with the British is to learn not to be divided and ruled

Posted by: Giyane | Jan 15 2023 17:49 utc | 31

The price cap of oil is working and Moscow wouldn't seem to have found any solution by now but comply with this, as CBR would desperately need yuans and rupees. Western officials might cap prices of other products like coal or copper and lower the cap price of oil, considering Moscow couldn't do anything about this.

Moscow had a massive budget deficit for 2022.

This war was poorly thought-out, Moscow exhibited its economic, technological and military flaws in front of the whole world while pretended for years to be a regional power that could be a key player in the dedollarisation. Even its former vassals like Astana, Baku and Yerevan wouldn't fear or respect Moscow at this point. Westerners might be delighted in what is happening.

What Moscow has to claim to be relevant now is its permanent seat in the united nations security council and its nuclear weapons but seems like Washington and its vassals are going to try to 'fix' this.

Posted by: Malwen | Jan 15 2023 17:51 utc | 32

Not strange imo James.
OH, in his post, cherry-picked, decrying corporate mis and disinformation while ignoring what he has repeatedly refused to see and acknowledge — that anything other than respiratory failures come not from SC2 infections (even when presented with voluminous clinical evidence to the contrary) but solely, exclusively, from the TM injected spike protein code jab (which are horridly problematic for a spectrum of reasons for the public even beyond the medical*). In the deleted post he also said b prohibits all debate on this topic even whilst b posts these articles for debate.
IOW OH appeared to be impetuously, rudely, attacking ourbarkeep, not debating. But it is a touchy and emotional topic for many people. Plus there are now messy disputes about the contracts between some European governments and big pharma corps.

—

The “let them eat plague” is an excellent review imo.

—

A review of the literature on long covid was recently published which I post a link to here since psychohistorian asked earlier for such info.

“Long COVID: major findings, mechanisms and recommendations”
January 2023

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-022-00846-2

—

Posted by: suzan | Jan 15 2023 17:54 utc | 33

@ my 27
speaking of F-35--
Program-wise, the F-35 system after 22 years of development the Pentagon has failed to conduct operational test and evaluation, which means it can't be approved for full production. That also means that any system corrections must be added to the one thousand plus planes delivered at that time, adding that cost to the operating costs now at a record level of $42,000 per flight hour.

Meanwhile the Pentagon has prioritized delivering half-baked mistake-jets to foreign sales to get the profits from: Japan $134M unit cost, UK at $160M and Germany at $240M each for some examples. What a scalping! And foreign sales have (on paper) worsened US combat capability.

The GAO has recently reported that: Ongoing headaches with F-35 fighter jets are rippling through the rest of the US military's combat aircraft fleet. . . The F-35 program has been plagued by years of delays, cost overruns, and technical glitches. Those problems have prompted the Pentagon to extend the service lives of older combat jets. Extensions keep jets flying but don't guarantee they will meet future needs, a government watchdog says. Years of delays, cost overruns, and technical glitches with the F-35 have put the Pentagon in a dilemma. If F-35s aren't fit to fly in sufficient numbers, then older aircraft such as the F-16 must be kept in service to fill the gap. . .here and here.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 15 2023 18:04 utc | 34

oldhippie @ 20: sorry to have missed your initial post (I've taken great solace in your comments over the past years; they've provided some reassurance that nuance and reason aren't completely extinct). I recall you made a similar allusion to legal considerations in the open thread of, I think a couple weeks back. It really can't be denied that Germany has resurrected their old time police-state apparatus over the past nearly 3 years now, and they've certainly had plenty of company in that within the Empire. Anyway, my respectful gratitude to you for your insightful comments.

james @ 24: very cool jam; I will definitely check out the rest of the album. I hadn't heard Brain Jackson before; many thanks for the word.

And thanks for all the sheise you do/put up with, b; any thoughts on the slow-mo rapprochement between Syria and Turkey? Perhaps part of Turkey/Erdogan realizing that the future is in the example being/has been set by Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Cuba, et al (i.e. standing up to the bully)?

Posted by: robjira | Jan 15 2023 18:11 utc | 35

"no sign shall be given this wicked generation except the sign of the prophet Jonah."

here's two witnesses to the truth of this statement:

there are many others, but Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.

both followed the covid protocols advised by their doctors, their lives were saved by modern science and current understanding of covid, they went into and were swallowed by the great sea of death...and came back bigger pieces of lying walking dog shit than ever. ocean vomit. actions wholly embraced by the ruling classes of the whole world now, excepting countries under sanction regimes, like Cuba.

"war is the art of deception." that's why people set traps for themselves without knowing it. indifference to what the coronavirus is doing to the elderly and disabled is just such a trap. even now, i see a self-blinded Oedipus cast out upon what he both despised but what nourished him and will do so in the future: the earth and woman's maternal love.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jan 15 2023 18:12 utc | 36

it's fun 3 years into an epidemic that has seen lifespans in the US drop 3 years on average (zero years for the ruling class; 10 plus years for native americans) to see people do the work of the ruling class for them simply by the way you talk about disease. nobody does body counts any more.

and convince yourself that you are not a product of this thoroughly diseased society because of how smart you are. you are too clever to be infected by your breeding and environment. oh no, you are too educated to be another diseased cell, a monad incapable of self-reflection, in a dying body.

mandrake, what % of the human body is water? what % of water in the US is unsafe to swim in? to drink? when I was a kid growing up in the Permian Basin with all that sweet Texas crude and pure and natural gas around, the city water everywhere was unsafe to drink. thank god my mom had a brain and cared and had won the lottery whereby she could afford fresh water for her goddam family, but what did that mean for the water supply at school two blocks away? (won the lottery? yes, b/c women's labor isn't paid shit. my mom got nothing from this society by protecting us from its horrors.)

"I see men as trees". not as technicians in a lab or Amazon drones. not as cyborgs attached to their phones and cars and insulin drip. Jotham's parable of the trees: loss of self thru bullshit competition, whose conclusion is that the garbage everywhere is the fuel for the destruction of the city built on war. "why should I leave my natural sweetness in order to hold sway over others?" to do so is to cultivate nothing but thorns and briars.

Dr Matteus (a pseudonym, btw, cuz Amerikkka! fuck yeah!!!!) at wsws has faithfully reported the facts on the ground of covid since day 1. there's two articles up now on UV lighting and viral transmission indoors, which, as far as they go, are valuable (and hey, the USAF is listening, so it's "military-grade intelligence", lol.)

However, the conclusions he draws are similar to saying the answer to global warming is more air-conditioning. why should people spend 90% of their time indoors? how is indoor air-purification and quality/comfort control going to work when the air outside is unbreathable? how does that work for India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Brazil, etc.? it doesn't. Matteus is fascinated, deluded, by the fantasy that technology can and will solve all our problems. He can't see that modern industry is a war against all, poisoning everything.

"I see men as trees."

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jan 15 2023 18:14 utc | 37

Chas 21

"The Russian people sent Lenin and Trotsky...".
Today, Russians recognize Stalin as the most popular politician of all time.
As for Trotsky, the exact opposite is true. Negative level of Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
Ordinary people have an expression of speech: "Lie like Trotsky." Moreover, the word "lie" is pronounced in the lowest and vulgar sense.

Posted by: Nebo Sinee | Jan 15 2023 18:17 utc | 38

If b continues to post articles containing links about a topic that barflies are barred from discussing, then I think it would behoove him to delete from the homepage the following:

Laureate
Serena Shim Award
for uncompromised integrity in journalism

Posted by: David Levin | Jan 15 2023 18:23 utc | 39

@ Malwen | Jan 15 2023 17:51 utc | 32
The price cap of oil is working and Moscow wouldn't seem to have found any solution by now . . .this was poorly thought-out. . .blah blah.

Russia's position has been to sell oil at the open market price, not on any prescribed price. In fact the Urals' open market price is now $53 compared to the EU $60 cap. The drop from the average Urals price of $71.10 recently was not because Russia observed the price cap - which Moscow has said is illegal and threatened to cut oil output in response - but due to a general downward trend in global oil prices over the period. . . .here and here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 15 2023 18:24 utc | 40

I would caution readers to get off the criticism of the best blog on the market today.
(This from somebody who has been booted off MOA twice but has come back twice.)
Ain't nuthin' perfect in this world.
Anyhow, getting back to the caution, I have, far in the past, been on the Truthout blog where there was suddenly lots criticism of the blogmeister(s). Remember that, anyone? I cautioned then, that keep this up and the blog will be history. That served to be true.
Running a blog requires total commitment, and when patience quits so does the blog.
One can only take so much.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 15 2023 18:34 utc | 41

I just got fired from a contract tutoring gig i've been working part-time at, for 5 years now. why? cuz i wanted to develop a learning module for ESL students around the subject of "problem gambling". Students cannot learn about drugs from the drug pushers who run the country that doesn't eat food, so gambling as an "addiction" is a metonym for other forms of addiction, the goal being students gradually, slowly will understand how their society makes addicts of them to control them while running every molecule of life through various forms of organized gambling. medicine, education, food, housing, clothing, sleep, warmth, access to a phosporus match and a cup of water, all run by sharks.

the 1st part would be a very straightforward, non-ironic look at the discourse of "problem gambling", as presented by state and federal public health agencies.

the 2nd part would be to read the opening of Balzac's "la peau de chagrin".

the 3rd part would be to reexamine "problem gambling" from Balzac's perspective. look at sports gambling, the public lottery, and on up to running society via the stock market. look at his description of the demonism just in the opening scene and see how it compares with the official scrubbing and baptizing and whitewashing of this unfathomable social ill, propped up thru the official bureaucratese of "public health."

and ultimately to get students to abandon their plans to go be little stem cells or lawyers and study literature. or music. or very useless astronomy, purely for inspiration. the artist exists cuz official discourse is utter bullshit.

alas, students won't be so eager to take on a pile of debt or be so gullible to believe that Harvard or whoever gives a shit about them...and teacher won't get paid, for no longer teaching kids to lie to adults. sigh, can't eat honesty.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jan 15 2023 18:38 utc | 42

James & others: there are no legal restrictions in Germany whatsoever when discussing Covid stuff, nada, zilch. So my guess is that b just does not want to have those „there‘s no covid“ discussions here and I agree with him. Just my 2 cents… maybe we can just live with it and don‘t bring it up every couple of threads…

Posted by: Zet | Jan 15 2023 18:38 utc | 43

@rjb1.5 | Jan 15 2023 18:38 utc | 42
. . . i wanted to develop a learning module for ESL students around the subject of "problem gambling".

Wow, I've done ESL (English as a Second Language) several times in my life and never got far beyond hello, how are you and my name is. Your students must have been quite literate in English already?

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 15 2023 18:56 utc | 44

Brian Jackson was the brilliant and neglected (by some) musical partner behind the brilliant and acclaimed Gil Scott-Heron, he did a large part of the composition and arrangements, Scott-Heron was more the idea and lyrics guy and the front man that everyone came to see. It was a historic musical partnership from a historic time of great American creativity. If unfamiliar everything from 1970-1980 is essential.

Scott-Heron died young but maybe Jackson will live to see the Chinese kick whitey off the moon.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Jan 15 2023 19:04 utc | 45

New Michel Hudson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6adqdNCSVhU

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Jan 15 2023 19:05 utc | 46

This is a report from Iranian PressTV so it might be false, but the accusation certainly deserves more attention. The indignation on the use on biological warfare during the Korean war by the Americans has been suppressed for more than half a century. I wouldn't put it beyond the American-Saudi-Israel coalition to use biological weapons in Yemen https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/01/12/696177/Yemen’s-medical-experts-accuse-Saudi-led-coalition-of-using-biological-weapons-in-war

Posted by: Ramon In MX | Jan 15 2023 19:08 utc | 47

Canada’s relationship with the F-35 goes back some years. The Harper government was keen on a big purchase, but the concept never got past the committee stage due to the cost involved and also the basic unsuitability of the plane to Canada’s distinct geography. When the Conservatives were finally out of office, it seemed the F-35 was finally a dead letter, and the concept of a major buy really never came up since then.

So the sudden announcement some months ago of the complete reversal of this policy almost literally came out of nowhere as the ridiculous expense and basic unsuitability of the plane remain huge issues. There was no indication at all of any process which might have resulted in a rational basis for the reversal. The Trudeau government seemed to have just woken up one morning and decided this was the price of vassalage and moved forward. There was no public discussion or debate, and as far as I am aware the Canadian MSM has barely broached the topic other than to report the decision to go ahead

It is one of those things which indicate the “normal” functioning of bourgeois democracies has entered new territory, certainly since covid.

Posted by: jayc | Jan 15 2023 19:09 utc | 48

On the final covid article, folk can go to the comments on it, as there are not many - there is one which I do agree with. I won't reproduce it, easy enough to go there and thanks to b for the opportunity.

I am in sympathy with b, as I face the very same situation as per the official Orthodox church, so my differences with same, not being part of that, are muted. I hope to avoid needless controversy whilst supplying information about the ideal Church rather than any public institution of same.

Posted by: juliania | Jan 15 2023 19:18 utc | 49

Thanks for keeping the bar open, b!

In terms of the F.U.D. cycle / mass formation / game of many names - we are approaching the part where they offer a singular solution. I wonder what it will be? The way the news reels are running it all reads as preparation for more war, although I'm not convinced that's a pill the western masses are quite ready to swallow. So maybe a round or two of something else first...

And wow something I've never seen before: a fairly straightforward post from rjb1.5? Don't give up!

Posted by: Rae | Jan 15 2023 19:19 utc | 50

@ jayc | Jan 15 2023 19:09 utc | 48
re: the basic unsuitability of the plane to Canada’s distinct geography.

Yes, an important consideration when considering air flight over vast unpopulated expanses is: How may engine do you have? The F-35 has only one, the largest hottest engine ever put on a fighter jet.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 15 2023 19:25 utc | 51

The first I heard Gil Scot-Heron was the song “B-Movie” as it played through the PA in between acts at a Clash concert in Vancouver 1982. I was mesmerized by the spoken words analyzing the Reagan administration and the repeated refrain - “this ain’t really your life, it ain’t nothing but a movie”, but had no idea who the artist was. About a year later, visiting a friend, an LP he put on somehow reminded me of this particular song and as I was describing my experience with the mystery number, it suddenly started playing through my friend’s stereo and I could at last associate both the artist and the album.

Scot-Heron’s final years were extremely unfortunate, and should not happen in an appropriately functioning society. He had another song called “Work For Peace” which was a sort of sequel to “B-Movie”, that was also great (these tracks should be easily found on Youtube). The Brian Jackson period wasn’t quite as “funky”, but produced a lot of great music for sure.

Posted by: jayc | Jan 15 2023 19:43 utc | 52

my bottom line is i am very appreciative of moa and b for hosting this.. that is as much as i am going to say.. thanks everyone..

Posted by: james | Jan 15 2023 19:48 utc | 53

@suzan | Jan 15 2023 17:54 utc | 33

There are farm boys and then there are pharm girls, such as yourself.

Posted by: majoab | Jan 15 2023 19:50 utc | 54

As I was measuring my cat, to see how many skins I would need to make a half decent Neanderthal covering after being bombed back to the stone age, he made clear that in a nuclear holocaust, cats would be survivors. They have built in weapons, teeth and claws, permanent warm covering, and a natural ability to save energy by sleeping in a warm clothing cupboard near a radiator until food is presented to them.

Now what will happen in all those Bunkers (to which I have not been invited) during a long nuclear winter? Not much to watch on the tele I suppose, and keeping motionless for a period of months to save food and energy lacks entertainment value and might lead to soggy bottoms.

There must be several sizes of Bunker for those named as “save-worthy”, and multiple places that may seem to be “secure” in the southern hemisphere. All because of the old saying “get down and get under” when you see a nuclear explosion. What the BBC really meant was – “get down under”. Ie. in Australia, NZ, For the Israeli IDF in Argentine, for the Bushes in Patagonia and under the stairs for Pelosi. Alternative Bunkering may be planned in urbanized countries, under corporate headquarters, Banks, the Pentagon, Cheyenne mountain or some odd places in the UK hinterland like Bradford or near Cheltenham. These are all massive.

The Swiss are more fortunate having already a good system of tunnels left over from WWII, and like the Russians have built more as a matter of routine.

Now, if all those who are TRULY scared of being nuked asked for shelters, I wonder what would be the response?
***

…..the cat is demanding a second course so I may stop here. Noblesse oblige.
***

PS. No Bunker is going to help if the unexplained death trends continue to increase. Unfortunately the owners have decided that silence (yours and mine) is the better part of discretion. There are quite a few lines of imminent disaster converging on humanity all at once. Sickness, war, famine, and mental and physical bankruptcy (the modernized 4 horsemen in SUV's), and the realization that the 1% may not need us, but we may not like going quietly either.

Posted by: Stonebird | Jan 15 2023 19:55 utc | 55

Hey, anybody here remember those creepy apocalyptic murals displayed at the Denver International Airport? Or, how about that Luis Jimenez “Mustang” sculpture at the DIA, better known as "Blucifer"?

Yeah, me neither.

Posted by: majoab | Jan 15 2023 20:06 utc | 56

Stonebird @ 55

I'll only add one thing, make sure your bunker is big enough to swing a cat in.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Jan 15 2023 20:12 utc | 57

majoab: I see them frequently. Point?

Wanna talk about the underground “detention centers” too?

Posted by: malenkov | Jan 15 2023 20:16 utc | 58

Latest from Meyssan ...

The world order already changed in 2022
by Thierry Meyssan

excerpt:

It is a constant of History: changes are rare, but sudden. Those who bear the brunt of them are generally the last to see them coming. They perceive them only too late. Contrary to the static image that prevails in the West, international relations have been turned upside down in 2022, mainly to the detriment of the United States, the United Kingdom and France, often to the benefit of China and Russia. With their eyes riveted on Ukraine, Westerners do not perceive the redistribution of the cards.

It is rare for international relations to be shaken as they were in 2022. And it is not over. The process that has begun will not stop, even if events disrupt it and possibly interrupt it for a few years. The domination of the West, both the United States and the former colonial powers of Europe (mainly the United Kingdom, France and Spain) and Asia (Japan), is coming to an end. No one obeys a leader anymore, including the states that remain vassals of Washington. Everyone is now beginning to think for themselves. We are not yet in the multipolar world that Russia and China are trying to bring about, but we are seeing it being built.

skip ... In ten months, the rest of the world, that is, the overwhelming majority of it, has opened its eyes. If, on October 13, 143 states followed the Western narrative and condemned the Russian "aggression" [3], they would no longer be in the majority in the UN General Assembly to vote this way today. The vote, on December 30, of a resolution asking the UN’s internal tribunal, the International Court of Justice, to declare Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories an "occupation" is proof of this. The General Assembly is no longer resigned to the Western disorder of the world.

11 African states, previously in the orbit of France, have called on the Russian army or a Russian private military company to ensure their security. They no longer believe in the sincerity of France and the United States. Still others are aware that Western protection against jihadis goes hand in hand with Western covert support for jihadis. They are publicly concerned about the massive transfer of weapons destined for Ukraine to jihadists in the Sahel or to Boko Haram [4], to the point that the US Department of Defense has appointed a monitoring mission to verify what happens to the weapons destined for Ukraine, as a way of burying the problem and preventing Congress from interfering in these dark schemes.

In the Middle East, Turkey, a member of NATO, is playing a subtle game between its US ally and its Russian partner. Ankara realized long ago that it would never join the European Union and, more recently, that it was no longer expected to restore its empire over the Arabs. It is therefore turning to European states (such as the Bulgarians, Hungarians and Kosovars) and Asian states (such as Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) with a Turkish culture (and not a Turkish language like the Chinese Uighurs). As a result, Ankara is reconciling with Damascus and preparing to leave the West for the East.

China’s arrival in the Gulf at the Riyadh summit has turned the tables in that part of the world. The Arab states saw that Beijing was reasonable, that it was helping them to make peace with their Persian neighbours. Yet Iran is an age-old ally of China, but China defends it without letting it get away with its excesses. They have measured the difference with the West who, on the contrary, have not stopped since 1979 to divide and oppose them.

India and Iran are working hard with Russia to build a transport corridor that will allow them to trade despite the Western economic war (presented in the West as "sanctions", although these are illegal under international law). Already Mumbai is connected to Southern Russia and soon to Moscow and St. Petersburg. This makes Russia and China complementary. Beijing is building roads in Eurasia from East to West, Moscow along the longitudes.

-------------------

full article here https://www.voltairenet.org/article218636.html

Posted by: crone | Jan 15 2023 20:19 utc | 59

The only thing more annoying than the endless COVID discussion is the endless COVID *meta*discussion: talking about talking about COVID.

On a somewhat related note, what I’d most like to see is a list of banned users. It’s not always easy to tell who has been disappeared as opposed to who chose to disappear.

Posted by: malenkov | Jan 15 2023 20:21 utc | 60

Regarding whatever happened to Germany´s former alleged democracy, or idilic exmaple of "The Garden", take a look at crowded delegation of assistants to the imminent Davos Summit to be celebrated on January 16-20th, and take your own conclusions...

*Olaf Scholz Federal Chancellor of Germany
*Robert Habeck Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action of Germany
*Christian Lindner Federal Minister of Finance of Germany
*Hubertus Heil Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of Germany
*Karl Wilhelm Lauterbach Federal Minister of Health of Germany
*Wolfgang Schmidt Head of the Federal Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Tasks of Germany
*Joachim Nagel President, Deutsche Bundesbank (Central Bank of Germany)
*Jennifer Morgan State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action of Germany
*Jens Spahn Member of the Federal Assembly of Germany (Bundestag)
*Jörg Kukies State Secretary, Federal Chancellery of Germany
*Lars Klingbeil Co-Leader, Social Democratic Party (SPD), Germany
*Omid Nouripour Party Co-Leader, Alliance 90/The Greens, Germany

One would say only Annalena is missing...

Btw, I had no idea Germany has a ministry for "Special Tasks"...wondering which these tasks will be....

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Jan 15 2023 20:26 utc | 61

In the interests of diversity of opinion, I would like to add this Covid link to the discussion, onlt in part because the author is also in Toronto where

https://bombthrower.com/they-promised-safe-and-effective-we-got-sudden-and-unexpected/

As for any new variants, if you follow either the recommended preventative or early treatment protocols, you have nothing to worry about. The added bonus is it works for all colds and influenza.

https://www.canadiancovidcarealliance.org/

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Jan 15 2023 20:26 utc | 62

Not to beat a dead horse ...

but a blog, this 'bar' in particular is not a town hall ...

if the blog owner bans the letter 'Y' - that's oka with me! Sorta like being in b's home when we come here... right? You wouldn't think of insulting your host would you?

House Rules are not open for discussion. Period.

Take your egos and your own views about that which will not be mentioned ... elsewhere.

Posted by: crone | Jan 15 2023 20:28 utc | 63

…especially because the endless COVID metadiscussion is almost invariably a painfully transparent attempt to flout the ban on COVID discussion.

Posted by: malenkov | Jan 15 2023 20:37 utc | 64

Not an opinion on Covid...

Excellent as always. The articles on Covid, particularly "Let Them Eat Plague!" are invaluable and could help save many lives.
We have needed another good aggregator for some time MoA Week in Review has become another reason for bookmarking this site.

Posted by: bevin | Jan 15 2023 15:17 utc | 4

Is USU or Comrade Dremel a reliable analysis source ? Or just Goalkeepers.

Just have a look on what is supposed to be "The Really Marxist" position on Russia-Nato war in Ukraine

The conflict in Ukraine can only be properly understood as a competition between two imperialist blocs vying for the resources of Ukraine, as an inter-imperialist proxy war between the U.S. Empire and its satellites (predominantly) and the Russian Federation. To emphasize one side over the other is to miss out on the fact that the people of Ukraine are stuck in a game of tug of war, the results of which will be to their detriment regardless of outcome. That Zelensky is a comprador — a fascist puppet of Western imperialism — must be understood so we do not support the Ukrainian people’s domestic oppressors or foreign overseers; that Putin is an imperialist with imperialist aims reigning chaos and destruction on Ukraine must be understood so that we do not lend support to the (other) international oppressor of the Ukrainian people (and the domestic oppressor of the Russian people alike). Both are war-mongers hell-bent on escalation and destabilization, risking world war in the process.

https://unity-struggle-unity.org/on-the-inter-imperialist-character-of-the-russo-nato-conflict-in-ukraine/

Posted by: Weimar | Jan 15 2023 20:44 utc | 65

One of the substacks I enjoy most is by Aurelian who reveals in his latest post that he enjoys philosophy including of the Buddhist ilk. It is of possible interest to some here because of how some of what he examines in this piece (and in the book he reviews therein) involves rigorously examined (by many over a millenium) refutations of the materialist perspective so dominant today in our current individual, political and social contexts - and which are evidencing so much unfortunate dysfunction as is often here discussed.

If the current geopolitical conflict in Ukraine and beyond is going to yield any benefit then it must not only tear down the most pernicious aspects of the current 'liberal' world order but also then fashion something better, something not just a shiny new version of the same global ghoul. The sort of examinations offered by Aurelian and Jay L Garfield - whose work is reviewed - are the sort of thing more people need to consider as background philosophical research to help inform us as we - hopefully - go through and beyond the current crucible of conflict to later 'build back better' indeed albeit in ways which hopefully the Branch Davosidiotins will find anathema.

https://aurelien2022.substack.com/p/and-now-for-something-completely

Now it occasionally happens that a book comes along which sets out things you have been thinking over many years with exemplary clarity. Jay Garfield is a distinguished western philosopher, and expert on David Hume, who has for a generation now has lectured and written in parallel on Buddhist philosophy. In particular, he’s a translator and commentator on Nagarjuna’s Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, a text of an intellectual purity and rigour which would have impressed Wittgenstein (whom he greatly resembles, by the way). And I had just been reading Garfield’s Losing Ourselves: Learning to Live Without a Self. It’s not an easy book, and it’s light-years removed from the usual New Age claptrap, but it’s that rare thing: a serious work of philosophy for a popular audience like you and me. So I decided to review it for de Boer’s competition, and to my surprise and pleasure, it was placed runner-up. The review is now on-line on his site, and you can read it here if you are so inclined.

His referenced review: https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/lose-yourself-get-a-life?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

I haven't yet read a Jay L Garfield book, but I'll take a crack at his latest soon...

Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 15 2023 20:46 utc | 66

"The domination of the West, both the United States and the former colonial powers of Europe (mainly the United Kingdom, France and Spain) and Asia (Japan), is coming to an end. No one obeys a leader anymore, including the states that remain vassals of Washington."

Perhaps. given that when a politician opens its mouth, it claims to be doing what it is doing "for the greater good" and because of what a paragon of self-sacrificing family values (=nationalism) virtue it personally is, according as creed, custom and above all occasion demand, indeed, such a hero that if you don't put your kids on the battlefield, the dear leader would put its,

in other words, since political speech is simply another form of advertisement, and, as Hamlet said, a "politician is one who would circumvent God", no matter who is speaking, what is being repressed by such "end of history" triumphalism?

i don't know...purchase of F35's? does it look like empire is ending to you?

perhaps. empire isn't always even empire, is it? why sometimes it is a "republic". if the goal is not to win but keep on fighting, Ukraine might be more of a thoroughbred than Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Yugoslavia, Haiti...combined...

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jan 15 2023 20:46 utc | 67

Related to Covid, and each one´s personal fears and worries, I think everyone is free of panicking and worrying by whatever he wants, even to the extent of not wanting to go out any more if that is his desire, but I do not think that people who never cared one iota about their health through decades, eating fast food, smoking and drinking while passing most of hours in front of the TV, and thus are prone to believe in miraculous things that could save their menaced lives without them having to do any effort to take care of themselves, have any right to pretend that the whole of humanity must be inyected with experimental meds, when there are other people who taken the trouble of caring of themselves during all their lives and thus enjoy a robust immunitary system, or health capital.

It is the same as with savings and earnings.

Why those who have worked through all their lives and took care of their economy would have to share the product of their work with people who are not willing to do any job but do not mind selling their votes in exchange of a subside ?

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Jan 15 2023 20:47 utc | 68

Transcript of first Hudson/Desai talk on multipolarity and other topics includes links to video and podcast. Most barflies are likely unaware that Desai publish a book ten years ago on this topic and a preview of it can be read at this link, Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire.

Here's an excerpt from the outset of the talk, Hudson speaking:

Behind it all, of course, is the military threat, as you were saying, in Ukraine. But it turns out there isn’t really any military threat by the United States. Not only have the U.S. and NATO run out of normal military arms, but America really can’t mount a land war anymore.

There will never be another Vietnam. There will never be the United States invading another country, or Europe invading any other country, because you’ll never get a population willing to be drafted, since the anti-war movement.

And without that, America has only one military leader against other countries: the hydrogen bomb. There is nothing in between a targeted assassination attempt and an atom bomb.

That basically is what has enabled other countries, for the first time, to break away. They couldn’t do this back in the 1970s, when Radhika and I were first noticing it, because at that point, Indonesia and the Caribbean and Latin America didn’t have the critical mass to go it alone.

Now they do have the critical mass to go it alone, thanks to Russia, China, Iran, India. They are able to go it alone.

Escobar at his VK also has some words about Brazil and has promised another column soon:

VERY IMPORTANT

CIA front posing as think tank gives away the game on next CIA moves in Brazil

Straight from the lion’s mouth - I won’t name names.

"The risk of large, disruptive and potentially violent protests will be particularly acute if members of Bolsonaro's family are investigated or prosecuted in connection with the Jan. 8 events. Given the slow-moving nature of judicial investigations in Brazil, this dynamic could also play out FOR YEARS (caps mine) - with allegations and detainments occurring periodically, followed by surges of protest activity.”

FOR YEARS is exactly the CIA Plan A: Brazil mired in latent civil war.

On "measures to curb the ability to coordinate violent activity online”, the CIA seems to know, for sure, that support from the centrist bloc is "unlikely to extend to broader efforts to halt the spread of contentiously defined 'fake news’ - and is even less likely to extend to the HIGHLY POLARIZING ITEMS (caps mine) on Lula’s agenda, "which include reducing Amazon rainforest deforestation and increasing social welfare spending.”

So for the CIA "fake news” is “contentious”: of course, that’s what they peddle all across the Global South, and only the Empire can define what is fake.

And “ highly polarizing items” is code for "he can’t go there": NO reduced deforestation (if it hurts "American interests") and NO "increase in social welfare spending”.

Otherwise the CIA will organize “new surges of protest activity”.

There it is. In your face. They don’t even need to disguise it.

Brazilians can’t say they have not been warned.

What I see is desperation rising within Washington as the utmost is being done to pressure BRICS into severing the R from its being, but South Africa, India and Brazil rae having none of that--not even with Bolsonaro running Brazil was the Outlaw US Empire able to get its way. In the near future, I see the CIA branded as the International Terrorist Organization it's been since its birth and a firming of the RoW's resistance to and fight against it--recall the main security aspects of the SCO and CSTO is anti-terrorism--and those entities are coming closer to merging now that the BRI has merged with the EAEU.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 15 2023 20:48 utc | 69

crone | Jan 15 2023 20:19 utc | 59
rjb1.5 | Jan 15 2023 20:46 utc | 66
sorry my comment was in reply to yours.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jan 15 2023 20:48 utc | 70

Cannot paste the link, but if you go to the Aurelian substack his latest article is about a book review of author Jay L Garfield's latest which gets into some of the materialism-versus-non-materialism issues via rigorous examinations (over more than a millenium) of philosophers like Nagarjuna.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jan 15 2023 20:51 utc | 71

Don Bacon | Jan 15 2023 17:31 utc | 27

Japan has already displayed its US obeisance by...

Count the times! Did you catch this gem from President Joe Biden's and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's meeting in Washington on Friday?

After a meeting in Washington, Kishida and Biden said any use of nuclear weapons by Russia in Ukraine will be seen by both countries as an act against the entire humankind with no justification

2+2=5

Posted by: john | Jan 15 2023 20:54 utc | 72

suzan @ 33

Waited a few hours. Not debating issues here. Just meta. Personal defense.

If I recognized myself at all in your diatribe I would be concerned. I don't and I am not.

I don't discuss spike protein issues on this forum. It is a very long discussion and very technical. My impression of other commenters here is they are stuck somewhere in the first 6 months of 2020 and are never going to look at spike.

I will also not discuss protein folding, prions, endoplasmic reticulum stress. It would be pointless.

The article you vigorously endorse is not remotely consonant with your stated views in your same post. That poorly written article is nothing but FUD.

Posted by: oldhippie | Jan 15 2023 20:58 utc | 73

"Doesn't meet community standards" ...

What is the meaning of Standard?

According to https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/standard

Could be
: something established by authority, custom, or general consent as a model or example : CRITERION

Yes but, IYF:
: a conspicuous object (such as a banner) formerly carried at the top of a pole and used to mark a rallying point especially in battle or to serve as an emblem

Just Affirmative Manufacturing Consent

Posted by: Weimar | Jan 15 2023 20:58 utc | 74

Don Bacon | Jan 15 2023 18:56 utc | 44
college bound. but the goal obvs is to teach the parents and teachers too. at the level of toefl or ielts. or gre. gotta put honey around the rim of the medicinal cup, amirite?

unfortunately from my own life history, i've spent too much time around this "recovery/ behaviorial therapy" b.s. but not gambling. so it's kind of fascinating in that it's not "filthy" like a healthy heroin addiction. or being a "wine connoissewer". (and just what did the bipolar do before the age of cheap credit and the easy shopping spree? asking for a friend...) anyway, a society that runs on real estate property values doesn't give a shit about homelessness. it's something to be gambled with, and from the profit, "non-profits" get funded to try to sweep up some of the mess.

all relevant for capitalism's response to the coronavirus. they are very happy to just gamble with another social catastrophe.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jan 15 2023 20:59 utc | 75

majoab | Jan 15 2023 19:50 utc | 54

;)

Posted by: john | Jan 15 2023 21:00 utc | 76

Don Bacon | Jan 15 2023 18:56 utc | 44
btw, i only picked this balzac text, en francais, cuz the local library is throwing out texts in order to make room for the next stephanie meyer's "mormon mummies meet the hunger games" novels. no book burnings needed. just replace your very nice but dated norton critical ed "heart of darkness" with...insert fantasy novel about children transitioning...they will never ask either mommy where all the elephants went...

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jan 15 2023 21:03 utc | 77

Probably the most important Alt Media new fangled round table by otherwise disparate denizens and actual participants in recent history format. Sergai Karanogivov , I apologise for not getting the name right.

I can’t really give any sufficient summary. I don’t have that skill. But as a taster, when I hear a comment such as :

‘..it was when Europe turned away from Christianity in 2002..is when this was inevitable..’

The shock? recognition? Appreciation ? on Alex and Glenn’s faces , of a great truth slapping them in the face like a fish, of even the most erudite, modern analysts like them, meeting something even they have missed! Stunning.

Please watch. An unmissable medium being the message moment. I am watching it third time now and will do again. It’s as near as Truth as anything.

https://t.me/thedurancom/12945

Posted by: DunGroanin | Jan 15 2023 21:07 utc | 78

From my own personal experience, b is a very reasonable person and has made it pretty clear that the COVID thing is no longer an acceptable topic on HIS blog. What else are we learning about it in comments here that we cannot find (and discuss) via other forums? It's turned out to be a divisive topic here at MoA leading to a lot of over-the-top spam that drowned out what could have been reasoned discussion. Apparently "we" weren't capable, and I'm fine with the moratorium on the topic. Sometimes I find myself wishing there was a heavier hand in moderating the anti-Jew commentary as there are places like Unz to find that kind of talk under loose moderation. But anyway, that's my unsolicited 2 cents.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 15 2023 21:07 utc | 79

Kishida and Biden said any use of nuclear weapons by Russia in Ukraine will be seen by both countries as an act against the entire humankind with no justification

2+2=5

Posted by: john | Jan 15 2023 20:54 utc | 71

Attack on humankind is simply amusing. Now, an attack on mankind would be troublesome.

BTW, Japan will attack mankind with 1 million tons of radioactive fukushima wastewater any day now. It would be great if someone stopped them.

Posted by: Vikichka | Jan 15 2023 21:10 utc | 80

Posted by: Chas | Jan 15 2023 17:05 utc | 21

Speaking of Martin Luther King, and probably because tomorrow is the holiday in the USSA, I found this pretty disturbing and inaccurate take on him over at Unz Review.

https://www.unz.com/article/mlk-russell-kirk-and-the-ignominy-of-modern-conservatism/

Apparently this idiot author doesn't understand that conservatives (and Southern conservative Democrats at the time) had MLK Jr. under constant FBI surveillance and subject to countless sabotage operations and attempts at such. But I'm sure they had him assassinated because he was just another nobody who meant nothing at all in the struggle for civil rights.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 15 2023 21:19 utc | 81

https://youtube.com/@TheBarricade

Interesting channel on Eastern EU politics run by local activists (a Bulgarian and a Romanian). English language.

e.g.

How did socialist state education work in Eastern Europe?

Posted by: Browser | Jan 15 2023 21:19 utc | 82

'Let them eat plague!' is an excellent Marxist critique but it's by no means the only one. The premise of the article is that capitalism was threatened by COVID, or rather by the social response it properly demanded. You either have labour and capital flow mobility (good for global capital) or you have shutdowns (good for society). Ultimately, it argues, the world has chosen to minimise the danger to prevent interruptions to the growth of global capitalism. This, says the author, is criminal negligence for the sake of profit. 'So what's new?' says the Marxist.

I consider myself a Marxist when it comes to historical explanation, but this interpretation is not the only one from that perspective. For example, just as we can see that the primary beneficiaries of the Ukraine war are the MIC and its financiers/stockholders, it could also be argued that a 'pharmaceutical-industrial-complex' was growing increasingly desperate between 2015-2019 in a western world where flu shots were in decline and no other crises presented themselves to maintain their business model. There is, for example, no money in malaria research (or any other diseases of the global South). SARS-CoV-19 was, and continues to be the gift that keeps on giving—Don Draper could not have come up with a better campaign to move a product (Pfizer has reputedly made $75B+ from it). Sell Moderna now and buy Raytheon because Ukraine is serving the same function for the MIC as COVID did for the PIC.

Another argument parallel to this is the 'controlled demolition' idea: the US phase of historical capitalism was (and is) in its dying stages, typified by the disappearance of manufacturing (i.e., the creation of value) and the turn to finance and rent-seeking (i.e., the parasitism on real value created elsewhere). Part of this parasitism is the Petrodollar regime, another is the expansion of private debt through credit deregulation (this allows the working poor to imagine they're middle class by ceding increasingly larger portions of their income to lenders). The US knows it cannot maintain it because future wars can only be won by industrial powers—so how to reindustrialise the mainland USA?

Many have therefore argued that retooling the economy will bring serious social unrest. The working classes have already been made compliant by easy credit and will easily choose to give up unionism rather than lose their mortgages. But state apparatuses need retooling too. In this view, the pandemic offered trial-runs for forced social transformation including the creation of moral panic around public gathering, protests and other expressions of social solidarity. Anywhere humans gathered to talk and be social was demonised and black-banned. This makes state-managed economic engineering a lot easier.

I believe these two latter interpretations make better sense than 'Let them eat plague!' for two reasons:

1. Historically, capitalism was (and is) in crisis. In its prior 3 historical phases, capitalism's crisis has hitherto taken the form of financialisation. It's right at the sharp end of this now—a point well made by Michael Hudson. As manufacturing declines in profitability capital flows divest from medium-to-long term industry and reinvest in parasitism—toll roads, parking costs, healthcare, housing loans, etc. At some point, however, this will need resetting because finance is unstable, debt even more so, and real power will be ceded to those who actually make and do things (like Russia, China etc)—unless you can restore your manufacturing and energy sector dominance. The US is currently attempting this by sabotaging and dismantling European manufacturing and reassembling it at home. War too is good for business and the working-class (WW2 was the culmination of the New Deal), and finally the COVID scenario showed that biopolitical control over the population can be established through fear and compliance. In fact, the indeterminacy of the virus made it an ideal vector for this control because it existence and character is unverifiable to 99.9% of the population. All that remains is narrative. The article therefore assumes a static and caricatured timeless 'capitalism', but in fact we need to be historians first and realise that regimes of surplus expropriation within historical capitalism differ markedly in different epochs.

2. The second reason is that the article assumes an orthodox relationship between science and nature, that is, an active autonomous nature and a passive dependent science. A virus appears, climate change occurs, seal levels rise, etc., and we respond. Capitalism, so it goes, responds in a way that compromises the interests of 99% of the population and the welfare of the natural world. This is true to some extent. But we now also live in a world where 'nature' too is governed by capital. Viruses do not 'just appear' but are crafted in commercial laboratories. It is assumed in the article that capital's interests are served by maintaining the status quo. Historically, however, we know that capitalism's strength is its dynamism. It makes money from wars, but it can also make the wars for that end. If there is no market, create one. Thus, a capitalist science takes the initiative by shaping scenarios before they emerge. One of our contemporary crises is therefore not simply about how to tackle the 'real' but the disappearance of the real into an endless sequence of simulacra: it really doesn't matter if the virus is real so long as it seems real.

Anyway these thoughts will probably be deleted.

Posted by: Patroklos | Jan 15 2023 21:20 utc | 83

@Posted by: Stonebird | Jan 15 2023 19:55 utc | 55

Indeed, as I use to say to the gullible, or directly payed, apostles of the imminent climate apocalypse, if to save the planet for you it is necessary that I have all the fruits of long tiring decades of work requisitioned by idle governmentes and big corporations and in exchange my life must turn to pre-industrial era and I must be condemned to die of pure disgust, or if I do not agree to that kill myself through slow suicide through meds or fast by euthanasia, to hell with the globe...

Mine is the same position as that of Putin of the worth of a world without Russia...Like him, I do not swallow any of the reasons given for such a sacrifice on my part...mainly because of they are debunked by quite an increasingly growing bunch of prestigious scientists...

After all, there are intelligent life out there left...Everything is not lost...

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Jan 15 2023 21:45 utc | 84

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Jan 15 2023 21:45 utc | 83

bullshit. there is not an "increasing band of prestigious scientists" debunking agw. it is the opposite. what you have is an architect, and some geriatric physicists who haven't published anything in years repeating themselves constantly, but they can't back up their opinions with research, even when funded.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Jan 15 2023 21:48 utc | 85

Here Pepe lacks any kind of perception to correctly qualify what the CIA was doing in Brasilia.

Maidan? Ha. Laughable.

It was January 6 version 2.0. And what this means is that the bad guys took a bunch of midwit conservative patriots, spun them up, and placed them in a petri dish where no actual damage would ever take place.

This was a public relations op. And it's too early to say how this bodes for the good guys yet.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jan 15 2023 21:49 utc | 86

South America:

Washington, Guaidó and the Billion-Dollar Circus - Venezuelanalysis
----------------------------------------------------------
That article is an old one, dated Jan 11th 2022 at 10.35am.

This is the more updated info on the puppet...so long baby...
https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15676

Posted by: notlurking | Jan 15 2023 22:00 utc | 87

Aaron Mate has a stellar interview with Brian Jackson Nov 28 2021 on Pushback podcast, available wherever quality podcasts are found

Posted by: TDeL | Jan 15 2023 22:02 utc | 88

That Pepe Escobar spent 7-10 days in his native Brazil over the new year holiday surely disqualifies him from making any such statement according to one who has no such qualifications.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 15 2023 22:18 utc | 89

Karlof1

And? There are a ton of Americans who don't know anything about January 6th or its motivations for such an ensarement.

Your Acolyte can be wrong/unperceptive. It doesn't mean he's a total retard and I am not calling him one.

If the CIA wants to do a Maidan, it will make sure it is viable, as it was in Ukraine. This was not a true effort for revolution but one for another purpose for which Pepe lacks the ability to see through at this point. Something stinks about it, karlof1.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jan 15 2023 22:26 utc | 90

@Posted by: pretzelattack | Jan 15 2023 21:48 utc | 84

Well, so far three years ago, what you call "geriatric physicists" had what was called the best "clinical eye", if not for having seen a lot of patients through their long working years....btw, one of the most sacrified and long careers in the world...

It was through the Covid Era that young upstarts who run after funding to have their articles published and their research funded that we started to consider that a newbie could have a more accurate assesment of a disease than an experimented one. This has gone through the same process our leaders have, giving place to the phenomena of the ubiquitous "Young Leaders of Davos", with Schwab even bragging on air that he infiltrated the governments through these past years..

Anyway, the art of medicine as we knew it was finished through the past three years, like many other things like the chart of rights, freedom of expression and movement, or freedom to accept being treated with a med.
The liberal exercise of such art is being curtailed through amendments to the Doctors Ethical Codes by the Official Colleges as we talk, so that to fit the new WHO "Pandemic Treaty" requirements on ending freedom of prescription or treatment and subordinating any doctor and health worker in the world to WHO´s directives, this reaching even neighborhood consultory levels.

Priorities of national health systems spending will be as well subordinated to WHO decissions fro the signatories of the treaty.

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Jan 15 2023 22:28 utc | 91

@ Patroklos | Jan 15 2023 21:20 utc | 82

awesome post patroklos.. thanks..

Posted by: james | Jan 15 2023 22:46 utc | 92

juliania @28

Happy name's day!

May peace prevail on earth.

Posted by: lulu | Jan 15 2023 22:54 utc | 93

Nemesis,

Even if the Brazil riots were a Jan 06 V2.0 that doesn't negate anything Escobar is saying. You have to read the full piece linked by b at The Cradle in addition to the VK note that karlof1 provided. His conclusion which talks about CIA "militants" on the prowl is key to understanding not just what went down at the palace/parlaiment, but also what is to be expected during Lula's tenure; namely, sabotage on small, medium and large scale of his policies especially ones geared at reducing the clearing of the rain forest by the beef industry, strengthening the social safety net and eradicating poverty especially among the indigenous communities. That is to say nothing about oil, which Escobar discusses in sufficient detail that it should be obvious a Venezuela like 'armistice' (if one can call constant sabotages and coup attempts) will be the prevailing dynamic so long as he's in power.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 15 2023 22:54 utc | 94

Patroklos | Jan 15 2023 21:20 utc | 82

Historically, however, we know that capitalism's strength is its dynamism. It makes money from wars, but it can also make the wars for that end. If there is no market, create one. Thus, a capitalist science takes the initiative by shaping scenarios before they emerge.

Capitalism is a religion, an abstraction that has accumulated many variations to rationalize its behaviour. Capitalism is NOT a Science!

Posted by: Mann Friedman | Jan 15 2023 22:56 utc | 95

Another point about what happened in Brazil being another "Maidan" - it suffices to point out that the same CIA fomented actors and tactics were there, but no open US government presence like McCain, Nuland, etc. Of course this is precisely because Brazil isn't a means to any direct end like "bleeding Russia dry", but rather a longer term project to pull that country away from the BRICS architecture that will begin to dominate in the Global South - or at least cripple any ability of Russia, China or Iran from setting up shop in one form or another in Brazil.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 15 2023 22:57 utc | 96

@93 tom

On pepe's blog, most comments seem to be demurring from pepe's narrative here. Go ahead and type in Lula and January 8th into a search bar and every disgusting fishwrap in the U.S. including the WaPo is firmly behind Lula in calling out this "far-right insurrection."

This is no honest attempt to undermine Lula. This is quid pro quo in Lula's favor. And if Lula is paving the way for Brics to seriously challenge dollar hegemony and by extension the U.s. empire, it begs the question why would the Cia punt on this issue if Lula is such a threat and work with the dude.

Seems ominous to me.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jan 15 2023 23:01 utc | 97

Ghost of Mozgovoy | Jan 15 2023 21:45 utc | 83
"I have all the fruits of long tiring decades of work requisitioned by idle governmentes and big corporations..."

unfortunately to have a conversation about our society is to confront decades of resentment from someone who hasn't internalized the theft of labor that is capitalism. "I worked hard all my life" is the life story of every person who does something called work. 90% of this work is totally unnecessary. so please get over your cosmic resentment about work. you don't own anything. you ain't no Harriet Tubman.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jan 15 2023 23:07 utc | 98

In fact, the indeterminacy of the virus made it an ideal vector for this control because it existence and character is unverifiable to 99.9% of the population
Posted by: Patroklos | Jan 15 2023 21:20 utc | 82

Mostly agree with your post except for the assumption above. As a sentient human I am quite capable of discerning the difference between regular flu and the SC2. I've had both and I can easily assert that cv2 is real and different to regular flu and a health risk for many reasons, just from my own unvaxxed experience and observing the virus in friends both vaxxed and unvaxxed.

Am I then part of the tiny .1% ? I don't think so. Denial of the virus is the main stupidity of the political western "right wing". Acceptance of it as a purely inevitable natural phenomena is a mistake of the left. imo.

China got it right in my opinion: its real, it's probably bio warfare and they didn't use it as a pretext to control their population despite the negative press.

I could be wrong but I suspect b's objection to this dialogue in general is the brain dead mostly USA ians who come on here flags waving to insist its all a grand conspiracy. Americans have never been much good for nuance. There can be a conspiracy of big pharma (has been for a century) at the same time as a real bio threat.

If those posters would cease and desist with their politically motivated tin foil, maybe b would be more open to a dialogue here. But that's just speculation. As it stands they show up here and take over any intelligent conversation with their parochial US centric tropes, utterly tone deaf to the fact that there is a very big non US world out here.

Posted by: K | Jan 15 2023 23:11 utc | 99

Patroklos | Jan 15 2023 21:20 utc | 82
another thought is that you've concocted a number of false contradictions.

Tom Q Collins above mentioned beef in the Amazon. you are stating that public gatherings were prohibited? not at the slaughterhouses and not at the auto plants. not at the war machine. and now not anywhere.

anyway, whatever. it doesn't matter what people think since it has zero relationship to how they act. we analyze ourselves into positions where we don't have to do anything and pat ourselves on the back for cleverness. hey, look! something new in Russia....oh, a cute dog got rescued in Selma, just in time for MLKj day...

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jan 15 2023 23:15 utc | 100