News & views (not related to the war in Ukraine) …
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February 23, 2023
Open (Not Ukraine) Thread 2023-44
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In light of some UK supermarkets rationing certain vegetables, Liz Truss is reportedly disappointed Lettuces are once again gaining national attention.
Posted by: Jax | Feb 23 2023 14:50 utc | 1
The worm’s still wiggling.
Idaho Lawmakers Seek to Criminalize Injecting of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines
Posted by: john | Feb 23 2023 14:52 utc | 2
Washington’s vassals were kinda struggling by sanctioning Russia that weighed 2% in the global economy. For EU, Russia was its fifth trade partner with over two hundred billion euros of goods and natural resources.
Now, Washington would want to sanction China that weighed 18% in the global economy.
Posted by: Minerai | Feb 23 2023 15:02 utc | 3
I sometimes feel ashamed of being tempted by solipsistic thoughts. It’s gotten all so insane, I keep telling myself, “no, It can’t be that smart or other people in charge that stupid”. And Yet….
Isn’t there any “expert” in the mass media who ever warns, “the US/EU will run out of resources and Russia will win in attrition. After that, inflation and recession will force the US to cut everything such as troops, weapons, bases – because they have no choice amidst de-dollarization, Game Over For US Hegemony”
Surely some NeoCon or corrupt retired military with defense investments sees this. It requires nothing greater than the sort of intelligence needed to play the board game “Risk”. I’m obviously having a dream and I’ll wake up soon.
Posted by: Eighthman | Feb 23 2023 15:10 utc | 4
OECD weighted 46% of world’s economy.
BRICS weighted 31% of world’s economy.
Posted by: Minerai | Feb 23 2023 15:13 utc | 5
Two links that are repeats from previous posts and deserve further consideration…
Demicracy Now on Vice President imvoking war crimes against Russia’s conduct in Ukraine:
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/2/20/reed_brody_war_crimes_russia_ukraine
This article is titled and worded oddly: “U.S. Limits Power…” of the ICC
//
REED BRODY: Well, of course, I mean, the U.S. position on justice is — you know, on international justice is riddled with double standards. Look, the U.S.’s principal objection to the International Criminal Court is not that they’re investigating Africans or they’re investigating these people; the U.S.’s principal objection is that the ICC purports to investigate crimes committed by citizens of [nonparty states]. So, the U.S.’s big objection is that the ICC could, and was, until it was deprioritized by the prosecutor, investigate alleged U.S. war crimes in Ukraine. U.S. is not a party, but — excuse me, Afghanistan. U.S. is not a party, but Afghanistan is. The ICC, similarly, is investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by Russian forces, even though Russia, like the United States, is not a party to the ICC, but is allegedly committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on the territory of a state, Ukraine, which is a party.
//
The Vice President declares crimes from position of the international criminal court with its roots in the reconciliations of the Holocaust…
But it’s a court to which the U.S. is steadfastly not a party. In history of WWII, and ever since, we see ourselves as above international law. In that era we operated an industrial base led by notorious anti-semites, one of which, named Henry Ford, used to send profits from his European operations to Hilter for birthday present, with signed greetings.
But the practical reason we aren’t a party is because we would be brought up on charges for our own conduct, which we justify by observing our leadership must transcend international law…
And our ideological adversary Russia is also not a party.
But of course, how can you conduct war if you are against crime?! No matter if you think Russia is justifiably resounding to provocation doesn’t change that the response is murderous, and whomever you root for you are rooting for murder so take that to bed with you.
But as an American, what about U.S. conduct?
We handle the open cognitive dissonance of our stance on the ICC with the political view is that in order to lead, we cannot be held accountable for our own actions under law because true freedom is above the law! Given the central tenet of our creed, which we are a nation of laws and no man is above the law. This is the Presidential position.
Note the this latest vice presidential declaration, which is one typical of the US long history of Presidential war mongering, comes from a woman, who is a of line of peoples historically of color!
The duplicity functions as a shield for questioning how our policy inflaming the international tensions that lead to war crimes… (see link below)
…While the journalistic messengers who reveal the internal records of such policy are outcast as pariahs…
…And the President on one hand brags of conducting flagrant acts international terrorism which on the other hand he denies as outlandish.
AND THIS SPECIFIC INSANITY IS BY THE DEMOCRATS— WHILE THE REPUBLICANS BUSY MARCHING AS LIBERTARIANS ARE DOING EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER TO DESTROY THE DEMOCRACY THAT GIVES THEIR PARTY ANY MEANING AT ALL
This next link, a repeat posted here in MoA comments yesterday, cements the Orwellian character of our policy by exposing the immense pyramid of activity overtly intended to wreck the affairs of other nations:
Overextending and Unbalancing Russia: Assessing the Impact of Cost-Imposing Options | RAND
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10014.html
—One must question if this this fake, but—
RAND is the post Manhatten Project, JFK-era U.S. Cold War think-tank that gave us A Beautiful Mind and Mutually Assured Destruction
(vis. Dr. Strangelove)
The pragmatic planners of empire ask… How do we hurt others while maximizing our advantages?
The language in the intro is amazing:
//
Today’s Russia suffers from many vulnerabilities—oil and gas prices well below peak that have caused a drop in living standards, economic sanctions that have furthered that decline, an aging and soon-to-be-declining population, and increasing authoritarianism under Vladimir Putin’s now-continued rule. Such vulnerabilities are coupled with deep-seated (if exaggerated) anxieties about the possibility of Western-inspired regime change, loss of great power status, and even military attack.
[Go on…]
Despite these vulnerabilities and anxieties, Russia remains a powerful country that still manages to be a U.S. peer competitor in a few key domains. [!]
Recognizing that some level of competition with Russia is inevitable, RAND researchers conducted a qualitative assessment of “cost-imposing options” that could unbalance and overextend Russia. Such cost-imposing options could place new burdens on Russia, ideally heavier burdens than would be imposed on the United States for pursuing those options.
[Things U.S. can do;]
Diminish faith in the Russian electoral system would be difficult because of state control over most media sources. Doing so could increase discontent with the regime, but there are serious risks that the Kremlin could increase repression or lash out and pursue a diversionary conflict abroad that might run counter to Western interests. [OMFG LOL!]
//
Goose and gander. Are are they reviewing Russia or U.S.?
If only we could stimulate something like a great reactor meltdown or chemical spill…? I’m just spitballing here.
Read the report for many key insights.
But before you shoot the messenger, what about RAND on RAND?
//Integrity and Quality Standards
We are committed to the highest level of integrity and ethical behavior. All RAND work—every publication, database, or major briefing—completes a rigorous quality-assurance process.//
https://www.rand.org/about.html
And that’s the way it was February 23, 2023
Posted by: Arrnon | Feb 23 2023 15:22 utc | 6
Shouldn’t Russian government be worried how private military companies might be popping up in Russia while those are illegal and Russian Armed Forces are incompetent ?
https://tass.com/russia/1578565
Posted by: Tricep | Feb 23 2023 15:27 utc | 7
This has been posted in other threads, but since this is the Everything-but-Ukraine one, it’s good to repost here:
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjbxw/202302/t20230220_11027664.html
Larry Johnson said the other day that Putin’s speech was basically mimicking the US declaration of Independence by putting ahead the settlers’ grievances against the British king. Well, this is far more obviously and openly the introduction to a declaration of independence for most of the world against the United States.
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Feb 23 2023 15:30 utc | 8
Latin America rising as the Empire is sinking
a few news items from Orinoco Tribune and Telesur English, both out of Venezuela. The tone of the articles has lately become stronger, reporting more substance in terms of actions taken both to resist and call out U.S. plots as well as a massive amount of initiatives which demonstrate power shifts toward the left locally, nationally, regionally and internationally throughout Latin America. Venezuela is stepping up, big time; Mexico is embracing Cuba even more, AMLO recently announced a campaign on Cuba’s behalf to relentlessly hammer the U.S. on the embargo.
Ecuador– Neolib poster boy and bankster Guillermo (Billy) Lasso is in trouble and he knows it. He tried to snooker the public one more time with a series of referenda loaded with lipstick but the people saw the pig and voted them down and also elected leftist mayors in Quito and Guayaquil, the two largest cities. Lasso admitted defeat and is trying to re-make himself but it’s not working. Former president Rafael Correa looks like he’s making a come-back from Belgium. Both mayors are with him, as are most of the people. Watch for him to make a move back this year. There’s a warrant for his arrest.
https://orinocotribune.com/elections-in-ecuador-unmask-western-media-dishonesty/
Peru
The people’s insurrection is escalating. Puno is the center of resistance, located on the border with Bolivia on Lake Titicaca. This article says if the coup president Dina Boluarte sends troops it will trigger Civil War. Bolivia has their back but they know the U.S. plays dirty– and for keeps– so the stakes are high for Bolivians along with their Peruvian brothers and sisters.
https://orinocotribune.com/peru-indigenous-people-warn-boluarte-of-civil-war/
Bottom line, Peru’s people are not backing down. They know they are risking their lives. They are organizing, standing firm, shutting down the economy and their numbers on the street are growing.
Ecuador is backing Lasso into a corner. Meanwhile, regional solidarity is getting stronger. Imperial players still wield power but they are stressed out big time. Venezuela is growing in stature regionally and projecting very positive pathways of growth involving Russia, China and BRICS.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/China-Russia-Partnership-Never-Targets-Any-Third-Party-China-20230222-0016.html
Posted by: migueljose | Feb 23 2023 15:42 utc | 9
Posted by: Eighthman | Feb 23 2023 15:10 utc | 4
Welcome to the rabbit hole.
Can I offer you a drink….and my advice is at this moment to politely deny.
RISK is truly a beginners board game, but have you ever played 3rd Reich?
Look it up at boardgame geeks if interested – that game is a great history lesson after the fact….
BK
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 23 2023 15:52 utc | 10
Xymphora has a piece up on a report from Daily Stormer. A low-key Chinese delegation to Taiwan has been “warmly greeted” by reps of the new, moron-free, government of Taiwan. Apparently there were about a dozen people in the anti-China protest crowd.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 23 2023 16:20 utc | 11
getting over two weeks of pure hell from covid, I just want to thank everyone who’s run their mouths for now over 3 years about:
bioweapons
ivermectin
vaccine passports
how masks don’t work
the nwo/soros/jew plot
public heath as commie bullshit
“it’s no worse than the flu.”
your expertise in virology
your expertise in epidemiology
your concern for mom, apple pie and the kids
how china is killing its economy
and just how much of a little spokespoodle for the ruling class you really. by the confusion you spread.
and your sincerity doesn’t mean shit.
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 23 2023 16:55 utc | 12
“What is the left known for today? Mostly for Identity politics and climate change activism. What happened to the anti-Wall St and anti-War left? Were they bought out, transformed, defanged, and purposefully refocused for the benefit of the corporate world — by changing their driving ideology into being singularly concerned about racial and ethnic issues, cultural issues, sexual and gender issues, and climate?” From The New Progressive World Order
Posted by: kana | Feb 23 2023 17:22 utc | 13
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 23 2023 16:55 utc | 12
Wow – that covid virus of fear must of messed with your brain…
perhaps, some anger management would be in order.
You got your opinion, I got mine, and I know about fear.
Firsthand, but not like all the soldiers perished at the lines of battle who didn’t make it because fate chose them.
So, the first lesson of anger management is to direct your anger towards the cause of it, but that takes wisdom.
~
that will be $100 please – payment excepted in bitcoin…
Jeesh….what a rant.
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 23 2023 17:28 utc | 14
Russia has done very well at a SWAT competition held in Dubai
Our special forces are the best in the world!
Just look how our guys tear everyone at international competitions. “SWAT” – prestigious competitions in Dubai 60 squads from 40 countries!
Today, on Defender of the Fatherland Day, the Russian teams of the VITYAZ, SOBR, Akhmat detachments took all three places on the podium!
Keep it up! Well done!
Congratulations to the Russian Guard and personally to its Director Viktor Vasilyevich Zolotov and the head of one of the divisions, Yuri Fedorovich Kotov!
From myself, I note that these are not just “athletes”, these are warring special forces, our guys literally a week ago were “behind the ribbon”, and today they take all the first places with almost no preparation!
Russia is the best!
Happy Defender’s Day everyone! Protecting the Fatherland! 🪖🇬🇧
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 23 2023 17:29 utc | 15
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 23 2023 17:29 utc | 15
Trusting your translation, that is telling – is it not?
Just like I saw this contest for rubic’s cube quickness, and all the kids in it (mostly kids) I suspect were on the spectrum…..
Oh boy…..who amongst us trusts the medical establishment – Not I.
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 23 2023 17:37 utc | 16
For the sake of the record per Google translate:
Just look how our guys tear everyone at international competitions. “SWAT” – prestigious competitions in Dubai 60 squads from 40 countries!
Today, on Defender of the Fatherland Day, the Russian teams of the VITYAZ, SOBR, Akhmat detachments took all three places on the podium!
Keep it up! Well done!
Congratulations to the Russian Guard and personally to its Director Viktor Vasilyevich Zolotov and the head of one of the divisions, Yuri Fedorovich Kotov!
From myself, I note that these are not just “athletes”, these are warring special forces, our guys literally a week ago were “behind the ribbon”, and today they take all the first places with almost no preparation!
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 23 2023 17:40 utc | 17
So just to take this to its gory end…the translation you provided was consistent with that, but I think you may have embellished it a bit.
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 23 2023 17:41 utc | 18
Ok, ok, I know….I’m pushing my luck….
maybe I should have scrolled around a bit more, but I’ll say this – I’m not sure I trust Google’s translation…..and evidence backs this up. I don’t trust Google, nor Facebook, nor MS, nor any of em.
bunch of effing liars.
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 23 2023 17:43 utc | 19
one of the things i did over the last weeks was listen to “the hobbit.” get your hard copy before Big Brother edits this story out of existence, incl this poem at the end.
The dragon is withered,
His bones are now crumbled;
His armour is shivered,
His splendour is humbled!
Though sword shall be rusted,
And throne and crown perish
With strength that men trusted
And wealth that they cherish,
Here grass is still growing,
And leaves are yet swinging,
The white water flowing,
And elves are yet singing
Come! Tra-la-la-lally!
Come back to the valley!
The stars are far brighter
Than gems without measure,
The moon is far whiter
Than silver in treasure;
The fire is more shining
On hearth in the gloaming
Than gold won by mining,
So why go a-roaming?
O! Tra-la-la-lally
Come back to the Valley.
O! Where are you going,
So late in returning?
The river is flowing,
The stars are all burning!
O! Whither so laden,
So sad and so dreary?
Here elf and elf-maiden
Now welcome the weary
With Tra-la-la-lally
Come back to the Valley,
Tra-la-la-lally
Fa-la-la-lally
Fa-la!
———
In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength-Isaiah 30:15 (note the pronouns, Amerikkka! now back to chopping those tree downs and fighting over how no one is responsible for the destroyed Ohio River)
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 23 2023 17:53 utc | 20
I sometimes feel ashamed of being tempted by solipsistic thoughts. It’s gotten all so insane
Posted by: Eighthman | Feb 23 2023 15:10 utc | 4
You may get better once you realize the real pandemic is the pandemic of mental illness. Anxiety disorders, Bipolar disorders, Stress disorders, Neuro-cognitive disorders, Obsessive-compulsive disorders, psychotic disorders.
Posted by: Vikichka | Feb 23 2023 18:12 utc | 21
@ Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 23 2023 16:55 utc | 12
May we assume you were vaccinated and boosted? Perhaps your anger should be directed at those who assured you it was “safe and effective”.
Two members of the State of Idaho legislature have introduced a bill making the injection of mRNA vaccines illegal.
https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/idaho-lawmakers-introduce-legislation-to-criminalize-those-who-administer-covid-vaccines/article_1a5162dc-ae30-11ed-beae-570222db92af.html
Dimwits in flyover country, what would they know.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Feb 23 2023 18:20 utc | 22
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 23 2023 16:55 utc | 12
Ahh.. You could have just bought yourself a ventilator.
https://nypost.com/2023/02/21/nyc-sells-224-5m-worth-of-covid-19-supplies-for-just-500k/
Posted by: Vikichka | Feb 23 2023 18:42 utc | 23
#12
Feeling better is good enough
It sounds your expertise is resentment.
Posted by: Dingo | Feb 23 2023 19:14 utc | 24
#4
Never be ashamed of egotistical thought
It has gotten you this far
Posted by: Dingo | Feb 23 2023 19:25 utc | 25
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 23 2023 16:55 utc | 12
Glad that you’re feeling better.
It’s smart to have a healthy distrust of establishment authorities, but many here and elsewhere mistakenly lump scientists in with that group. Genuine scientists seek understanding rather than profit, notwithstanding the small percentage go to the dark side.
I would be curious to know where most covid skeptics fall along the socialist/libertarian axis. Masks do no harm to the wearer and almost certainly benefit the weaker members of society by reducing the spread of disease (poorly designed studies to the contrary should not be given much weight). I am baffled by the resistance to them based on “muh freedumbs”.
The parallels between covid denial and climate change denial are noticeable.
Posted by: farm ecologist | Feb 23 2023 19:38 utc | 26
UK supermarket chains Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Aldi introduced a buying limit of three items per customer on tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
There were times when news like this was about Russia.
Posted by: Passerby | Feb 23 2023 19:52 utc | 27
H5N1
An 11-year-old girl in Cambodia has died of #H5N1, the strain of avian influenza which has spread around the world that has raised a lot of global concern. The girl developed a fever of 39C (102F), taken to a hospital, and died 6 days later.
Survival rate for humans infected with H5N1 is 50%.
https://bnonews.com/index.php/2023/02/young-girl-dies-of-h5n1-bird-flu-in-cambodia/
Posted by: Irish | Feb 23 2023 20:33 utc | 28
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 23 2023 16:55 utc | 12
Ivermectin? The one thing that would’ve helped you if you’d taken it in advance? Like it did for millions of Indians?
At least you didn’t end up banished and locked up in a hospital. Glad you are alive which is the desired end result.
Posted by: nathan in WA US | Feb 23 2023 20:55 utc | 29
rjb1.5 @ 12:
Well now that you’re up and about and can leave your bedroom, be careful of the door hitting the back of your head or the sunlight stinging your eyes.
Posted by: Jen | Feb 23 2023 21:44 utc | 30
It seems that a bill to prevent a CBDC from being used for direct Federal deposit and as a tracking mechanism has been introduced in Congress by U.S. Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN).
https://emmer.house.gov/2022/1/emmer-introduces-legislation-to-prevent-unilateral-fed-control-of-a-u-s-digital-currency
We can’t cut out the middle men 😉
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Feb 23 2023 22:48 utc | 31
What’s this about widespread use of ivermectin in India? I can’t find any information on it using duh Google or Yandex.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2023 23:52 utc | 32
Genuine scientists seek understanding rather than profit, notwithstanding the small percentage go to the dark side.
Posted by: farm ecologist | Feb 23 2023 19:38 utc | 26
The vast majority of scientists studying issues of broad interest (such as COVID and climate change) rely on funds from a government body (such as the deceptively named National Science Foundation) or other entity that has a clearly preferred outcome of those scientists’ research. This can hardly avoiding biasing the scientists in question, rendering them not “genuine” by your definition.
Posted by: David Levin | Feb 23 2023 23:54 utc | 33
Posted by: Jen | Feb 23 2023 21:44 utc | 30
thanks Jen. I am a vulnerable adult with multiple health problems, living with vets and other seniors run by smart asses like you who don’t give a shit about anything.
I was homeless for the first 3 years of the coronavirus. i got a very front run row seat to all the lying and dishonesty everywhere in this society. the scoffing, the mocking, the cynicism, the insistence that you know something you have no clue about when you really you just can’t be bothered, it’s everywhere.
but thank you for your opinions. are you one of the staff members around here, “helping”?
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 24 2023 0:14 utc | 34
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 24 2023 0:14 utc | 34
“first 3 years of the coronavirus”
first 2 years.
WHY DIDN’T I JUST TAKE MY IVERMECTIN???
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 24 2023 0:22 utc | 35
#33
A true point, very well made!
Concern for money over true empirical research & knowledge.
Posted by: Dingo | Feb 24 2023 0:26 utc | 36
Posted by: farm ecologist | Feb 23 2023 19:38 utc | 26
why would you be baffled by anything a human or group or nation would do or say? this whole country eats, breathes, and drinks gasoline. there are PFAs in every molecule in the US. we only got to this place from staggering levels of denial. of reality. of the laws of physics and biology. if we want to know how the capitalist world works, there is no better example than the train wreck in Ohio.
or if this is easier to understand, as reported by the wsws, the homeless man with an IQ of 55 starving to death in a jail cell in Arkansas, a man incapable of self-care or self-harm, starving to death. and no one, not the police, not jail staff, not the medical staff, not the food providers, no one is responsible. just as in Ohio, there is no crime, no lie, they will not commit or tell, w/the full support of the USG, to hide responsibility. for any and everything.
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 24 2023 0:32 utc | 37
Posted by: farm ecologist | Feb 23 2023 19:38 utc | 26
the covid idiots are just part of the shit show scenery, no matter how impressed Jen and co w/themselves.
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 24 2023 0:34 utc | 38
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 23 2023 23:52 utc | 32
Over the past three years you haven’t heard anything about ivermectin being a valid effective treatment??? Or you just hearing what the FDA/WHO says, “Fool, it’s for horses!”. It’s been shown that India and Peru have a much lower covid rate than most countries, due to their using ivermectin as a preventative treatment.
Can’t recall where I saw the extensive well written report. Here are a few other ones:
https://c19ivm.org/
India:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2052297521000883
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-208785/v1
Peru:
https://www.scstatehouse.gov/CommitteeInfo/SenateMedicalAffairsCommittee/FLCCC-Ivermectin-in-the-prophylaxis-and-treatment-of-COVID-19.pdf
fyi google sucks.
Posted by: nathan in WA US | Feb 24 2023 0:45 utc | 39
I was trying to find the article where b correlated covid infections to zip/postal code in the US, but here’s a good sample, from end of Mar 2020. the advice and voice here and at wsws on covid are priceless.
Previous Moon of Alabama posts on the issue:
The Coronavirus – No Need To Panic – Jan 25 2020
Novel Coronavirus Defies Conspiracy Theories As Data Shows Its Coming Decline – Feb 1 2020
The Epidemic Recedes – Number Of New Coronavirus Cases In Decline – Feb 8 2020
Coronavirus – Statistical Change Causes Confusion – New Case Count Continues To Decline – Feb 13 2020
Coronavirus – The Decline Of New Cases Continues – Economic Ripples Begin To Emerge – Feb 21 2020
As Virus Spreads Over The Planet Governments Are Slow To React – Feb 27 2020
Coronavirus – Its Time To Press Your Government To React Faster – Feb 29 2020
Coronavirus – Bad Preparation And Propaganda Increase The Onsetting Panic – Mar 6 2020
Why Is The Coronavirus More Dangerous Than The Flu? – Mar 9 2020
Coronavirus – The Hidden Cases – Why We Must Shut Everything Down And Do It Now – Mar 11 2020
News-Nugget About The Coronavirus Pandemic – Mar 13 2020
The Pandemic Will Cause A Global Depression – We Need Demand Side Measures To Counter It – Mar 16 2020
Coronavirus – A Lockdown Is Not Enough – Mar 17 2020
False Claims About The Novel Coronavirus And How To Debunk Them – Mar 19 2020
Congress Grifters Profit From Crisis – Mar 20 2020
Coronavirus – On Western Government Failures And Possible Therapies – Mar 21 2020
Coronavirus – How To Lift Lockdowns And Why We Should All Wear Masks – Mar 23 2020
More Bits On The Corona Crisis – Mar 26 2020
U.S. Virus Cases Are Off The Scale – But Its People Can Build A Movement From This – Mar 31 2020
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Feb 24 2023 0:56 utc | 40
A need for helping – for me or for others?
That’s about some questions to look-up of the word “Super-Help NGOs” either of ‘me’ to help or for of each others.
What’s ‘me’, as an EU/US or Asian well-equipped guy/woman ?
When I’m calling for help, I need that anyway urgently (eg. due to hunger, water, clothes in winter -25 degrees Celsius in Taiga, or + 48 degrees in desert areas to protect from UV-sun beams).
That’s a normal thing to protect ourselves since, I dont know, since 100 thousands years or more passed.
What’s a real aid that have delivered to a man-kind peoples:
– Water floods (Tsunamies)
– Earthquakes
– what else ..?
Do you now what the above “what else” could mean?
No, you do not, same as me.
What is it, to have been educated to have fear of anything else just mentioned above?
It’s only the fear of being attacked from one of ourselves. And why is it so?
Because we lost the ability to respect each other as we are ..
That’s still a heavy fighting in UKR.
China should deliver more AD-Equipment to RF, RuAF is in a really weakend state of AD-Defense devices still that today!
It’s only a remark, but should be newly planned before of having failed the “New offensive”, or NaziAV-Mercs new counter offense after having got the new New NATOstan weapons.
All seem’s to be new weapon test center on Ukraine, but also a new “test center” for Macron, Baerbocks, ..such Soros guysw .. Do you wait for Snipers, or hope for those .. Madam ‘Baerboeckchen + Scholz .. really waiting ..?
Posted by: spare_truth | Feb 24 2023 1:01 utc | 41
R.I.P., Richard Belzer, Comedian, Actor, and Author of Several Books including ‘Hit List’.
20 february 2023
quote :
” “I think we make fun of the things that scare us the most.
The reason I wrote ‘Hit List’ is the 50 mysterious deaths of witnesses to the JFK assassination. We’re talking about CIA agents, FBI agents, reporters, people who had foreknowledge, or people who spoke too much afterward.
There are those in positions of power who malign the pursuit of justice by intentionally associating the word ‘conspiracy’ with the delirious hallucinations of unbalanced minds. They’re wrong. The real-world definition of conspiracy is simply two or more persons agreeing to commit a crime. In short, they are everywhere, a constant component of daily events throughout our history, and are by no means the restless imaginings of an over-attentive audience.
There is still an active focus on media propaganda in the U.S. by Intelligence agencies to discredit conspiracy theories and solidify the official version of historical events.
A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, ‘This way of settling differences is not just.’ This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
Richard Belzer
Copied and quoted from website –
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2023/02/rip-richard-belzer-comedian-and-author.html
Posted by: Fíréan | Feb 24 2023 1:04 utc | 42
ZH has a posting up with the title
Doctors Bristle At New FDA Authority To Ban Off-Label Uses For Drugs
Yes, it gives them the authority to tell doctors they cannot prescribe Ivermectin for Covid
##########
Also from ZH is a posting with the title
US To Quadruple Troop Presence In Taiwan, Simultaneously Ratchets Pressure Over China-Russia Ties
The quadrupling is
The WSJ details of the question of more troops positioned in Taiwan, “The U.S. plans to deploy between 100 and 200 troops to the island in the coming months, up from roughly 30 there a year ago, according to U.S. officials.”
About the ratcheting pressure another quote
Also on this note, Rabobank writes the following in preview of expected events Friday…
Tomorrow sees the China peace plan for Ukraine. On that note, look at this quote from the Global Times: “Since Kiev is deeply influenced by Washington, which is not interested in an immediate cease-fire but prefers a prolonged conflict to keep undermining Moscow and change the status quo by force, it is really hard to see a feasible formula for peace that both sides can accept. Peace may arrive only after more casualties and damage in the battlefields make at least one side change their mind.” Is that an implied threat to help Russia or resignation? Foreign Minister Wang Yi just underlined China-Russia ties are “rock solid”, and “no matter how the international situation changes, China is willing to maintain the sound development momentum on the new model of major-country relationship with Russia”. The Russians said the two countries favour building “a more just world order, and welcome the rise of the number of states which choose the path of free, sovereign development based on their identity and traditions.”
Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 24 2023 1:32 utc | 43
#42
He shed his mortal coil
It awaits us all with a loving hand
He is not missing much
Posted by: Dingo | Feb 24 2023 1:33 utc | 44
“… It’s been shown that India and Peru have a much lower covid rate than most countries, due to their using ivermectin as a preventative treatment….” nathan in WA US@39
Everyone would wish that you were right. But the evidence just isn’t there.
As to India and Peru how closely do you think that they count the dead? Both are countries where there are huge disparities of wealth and of access to medical care.
Both Boris Johnson and Donald Trump had covid but neither came close to dying because they had first class care, were well nourished and cared for around the clock.
The poor and the most vulnerable had no such luck and they dropped like flies in the care homes and the slums, the mud huts and the unheated, unhygienic shelters of the rural poor.
The tragedy of the pandemic was bad enough but the acceptance by large sections of the population of triage doctrines condemning the weak and the elderly to die, because keeping them alive is unprofitable is a reminder that eugenics is very close to the centre of a culture which, by privileging profit over human lives, tends always towards fascism. “Death to the loser” is the motto of this new world.
Posted by: bevin | Feb 24 2023 3:05 utc | 45
@43 psychohistorian | Feb 24 2023 1:32 utc
So a weasel clause in an omnibus act purports to allow the FDA (one, single government agency) the power to prohibit doctors from prescribing off-label drugs to treat a disease – overturning a practice from the front line of illness treatment that has existed from its very beginning.
This will result in more litigation, from ordinary people who understand the tenets of medical practice, allied with doctors and lawyers who seek to uphold the principle of the Hippocratic Oath.
The war is not over yet. The war has barely begun. Many thanks to the evil side for showing in ever greater relief how its operating assumptions produce consequences that are instinctively repulsive to ordinary people.
Show your evil, o corporate ones, so the people may see you the more clearly when justice is delivered – from the ground, as it always is.
~~
ps…is it necessary to show how a violation of the Hippocratic Oath is wrong, on its merits? Or can we all take this as a given?
There are those who do not take this as a given. What does it say about those?
Posted by: Grieved | Feb 24 2023 3:06 utc | 46
This story by John Kiriakou makes it quite clear not only what the impact of the pandemic was but how little US society, and no part more of it than the Koch sponsored Covid deniers, cared about the deaths. In this case the deaths of people literally under the care of government.
“The first comprehensive study of prisoner deaths during the Covid era shows that deaths in federal and state prisons rose nearly 50 percent during the first year of the pandemic, and in six states, they more than doubled.
“The New York Times reports that deaths in America’s prisons during 2020 showed more than twice the increase compared to deaths in the United States overall, and they even exceeded deaths in nursing homes, which were among the hardest hit sectors across the country.
“The Times found that it was not just the fact that Covid swept through already overcrowded prisons. It was also that prisoners are routinely subjected to substandard medical care. That’s the norm. That, coupled with crowded facilities and an aging inmate population combined to make the worst public health crisis in American prisons since the 1918-1919 Spanish flu pandemic.
“And the states with the highest death rates are the states with the worst prison conditions, the worst medical care and the longest sentences: Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina and West Virginia. In all of those states deaths in 2020 were up more than 100 percent over the previous year.
“As an aside, the federal prisoner death numbers are incomplete. Despite a 2013 law that requires the federal Bureau of Prisons to keep data on deaths, health and safety, the BOP stopped doing that in 2019, citing bureaucratic changes within the Justice Department. Don’t like the law? Just ignore it. Nobody will do anything about it…”
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/02/23/john-kiriakou-covid-the-way-of-death-in-us-prisons/
Posted by: bevin | Feb 24 2023 3:15 utc | 47
@45 bevin | Feb 24 2023 3:05 utc – But the evidence just isn’t there.
One might have expected, after such a claim, that you would present evidence to show that your claim is correct. Instead, you chased a straw man, to say that those who contracted Covid suffered worse according to their social status – which no one would even dream of denying – but never actually showed that ivermectin does not prevent Covid, which is what the statement you contest actually says.
But despite your imputation, the evidence goes all the other way. In plain speaking, you are wrong. So, bravo for your “concern” but a failing score on your relevance to the argument.
~~
And this is life and death, so let’s get very clear what the facts are. Let’s supply some evidence to your attitude (and attitude is all it is, absent evidence).
These links may or may not be allowed, but here are some stories from India [links will follow in separate post – stories should be searchable on title if linking fails]:
1. India’s Ivermectin Blackout – Ivermectin Wins in India [Aug 2021]
2. Role of ivermectin in the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers in India: A matched case-control study [Feb 2021]
3. India Could Sentence WHO Chief Scientist to Death for Misleading Over Ivermectin and Killing Indians [Sep 2021]
4. Indian Bar Association sues WHO scientist over Ivermectin [Sep 2021]
5. Doctors Bristle At New FDA Authority To Ban Off-Label Uses For Drugs [Feb 2023]
This is just a quick scan of my own personal bookmarks – there are many more sources of greater substance that I never bothered to bookmark because I had no need to be persuaded. And there are now actual trials that demonstrate the effectiveness of ivermectin.
Ivermectin is unassailable as an effective prophylactic, treatment and post-infection palliative. There must be hundreds of good sources to validate this by now.
What world of old are people living in not to know this?
Posted by: Grieved | Feb 24 2023 3:29 utc | 48
@49 Grieved | Feb 24 2023 3:29 utc
Links for those headlines:
1. India’s Ivermectin Blackout – Ivermectin Wins in India
2. Role of ivermectin in the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers in India: A matched case-control study
3. India Could Sentence WHO Chief Scientist to Death for Misleading Over Ivermectin and Killing Indians
4. Indian Bar Association sues WHO scientist over Ivermectin
5. Doctors Bristle At New FDA Authority To Ban Off-Label Uses For Drugs [Feb 2023 zero hedge and I think the link will fail]
Again I must state that these are just a few personal bookmarks – they’re not intended to be representative of the general argument that says that ivermectin prevents and treats Covid. But I personally opine that ivermectin does prevent and treat Covid, and I know why, and how it works, and furthermore where to get it.
~~
And as with everyone in this day and age, one must look to one’s own medical care nowadays – for the Hippocratic Oath is surely defiled, and medicine in the west is broken. And soon doctors will not be able to use their front-line gravitas to prescribe off-label treatments. Everything, says the proposed rule, must be on-label. Everything must carry corporate branding.
Is this how anyone wants to live? To be prescribed only corporate brands? And never those treatments proposed by one’s own personal doctor? And taken with informed consent?
Posted by: Grieved | Feb 24 2023 3:43 utc | 49
Strange times.
M$ old terminated soldier “Windows XP X32” continues to live a completely independent life of its own out in the wilds of the world wide net. Its younger little brother “WIN7” has now been despatched to the net wilds. A mystery viral watermark affliction affects only the newer younger variants Win10/11. All because this OS has been ported to any older fully functional X64 M/Bs lacking the latest and greatest “UEFI” bios!
In other news. Science at the dawn of the 21st century detected a new deadly non-virus-based pandemic. Accelerating premature deaths of homo sapiens around the world. Killing millions every year. Even in the relatively low industrial-based supposedly clean air environment of New Zealand. The only relatively common factor is the density of fossil-fueled carbon-polluting transport vehicles used as everyday transportation. The death toll from this non-viral-based pandemic. Has been falsely attributed to the adverse effects of all assorted vaccines.
Who would have thought that 2% of the knowledge sold as the gospel truth by all anti-vaxxers? Gleaned by the same dirty dozen. Extracted from the real world for hidden troll agenda use only. Can lead one up the wrong Darwinian garden path to self-extinction.
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Feb 24 2023 3:52 utc | 50
Professor Arne Burkhardt revealed his findings on covid mRNA vaccines. There’s an unfortunate side effect caused by spike proteins going into all organs, among other to the testes and cause infertility, or very low quality fertility. Approx. 10-15 min mark on the video.
Sudden crash in fertility, and medical agencies just dumping “Covid” into the garbage bin and declaring it a general disease comparable to flu virus wanting to forget all about it? Sure.
https://rumble.com/v290q9s-histopathological-reevaluation-serious-adverse-events-and-deaths-following-.html
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 24 2023 4:08 utc | 51
spy ballooney
now the aussies wanna take down all China made cctv !
A threat to national security !
ffs
Cant the garden keep all that cow dung in house , the mushrooms cant do without it, instead of splattering it all over the place. !
hOW ABOut we talk something real, that actually happened ?
Such as the bugging of the entire Chinese embassy in Oz, 1995 ?
[five liars] global surveillance,
NSA’s hack into Huawei ,
Listening in Merkel’s phone conversation ?
Oz’s bugging of ET delegation during the Timor Leste negotiation ?
Bugging of the entire Boeing 747 prez jet sold to China , including the toilet ?
Pinegap listening in SEA’s leaders conversations, including the wives, ASIO monitoring all top level SEA military communications ?
Oz radar can even detect the model of jets taking off from Changi airport ….yet they told Dr Mahathir,
Sorry , we have nuthin on mh370 ??
Exhibit A
That insatiable [five liars] spy web…
spying on the People’s Republic of China has been one of the National Security Agency’s top priorities since it was established in 1952.
“The methods by which the U.S. can eavesdrop on Chinese communications range to use of undersea platforms — like submarines — to a variety of antenna systems on the ground up to satellites up to 24,000 miles in space,” says Jeffrey T. Richelson, an intelligence historian who has written extensively on the U.S. eavesdropping capabilities. “Overall, its a multibillion-dollar effort, and China is a major target.”
The key to understanding America’s ability to snoop on China is a 50-year-old treaty, called the FUKUSA agreement, linking the espionage activities of the United States, United Kingdom and three other English-speaking nations — Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The technical expertise and the geographic spread of the [five liars] have permitted them to establish a network of spy posts that grew into an awesome spy machine during the Cold War and one that continues today.
https://irp.fas.org/news/1999/06/990602-275397.htm
When it comes to spying, U.S. is as
insatiable as China
BOllocks !
Typical of garden pundits, they had to lie even when supposedly telling the truth.
While [FIVE liars] global spy network is real and well documented., that ‘insatiable Chinese spook’ remains elusive and unsubstantiated fiction conjured up in FUKUSA BS factory.
Posted by: denk | Feb 24 2023 4:19 utc | 52
The vast majority of scientists studying issues of broad interest (such as COVID and climate change) rely on funds from a government body (such as the deceptively named National Science Foundation) or other entity that has a clearly preferred outcome of those scientists’ research. This can hardly avoiding biasing the scientists in question, rendering them not “genuine” by your definition.
Posted by: David Levin | Feb 23 2023 23:54 utc | 33
#33
A true point, very well made!
Concern for money over true empirical research & knowledge.
Posted by: Dingo | Feb 24 2023 0:26 utc | 36
Sorry, I have to call BS on this.
Every grant review panel that I have ever served on has been made up of practicing independent research scientists who assessed proposals based on scientific merit (with potential benefit to society sometimes an ancillary consideration). I have never observed any pressure to favorably rank applications for research funding based on anything else.
Occasionally there are special funding initiatives where research on a particular topic is badly needed, but again it is up to the scientists who participate in these grant review panels which proposals should be prioritized. For obvious reasons, for the past three years there have been special funding pools set aside to investigate the pathogenesis, epidemiology and treatment of covid infections, and the resulting research has helped to bring down fatality rates.
Obviously, the pharma industry is in it for the money and does not conform to the above descriptions. There is a grain of truth in David’s comment that some funding sources could rightly be viewed as suspect, e.g., oil companies funding climate research, but by and large the comment is off the mark and, frankly, insulting.
Posted by: farm ecologist | Feb 24 2023 4:24 utc | 53
Posted by: David Levin | Feb 23 2023 23:54 utc | 33
and the clearly preferred outcome of the corporate captured US government is that the US not do anything effective about climate change, which explains why Biden and Obama increased drilling, cause some of their donors want that. it doesn’t explain why fossil fuel funded scientists warned their employers about their product causing climate change, though.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 24 2023 4:26 utc | 54
Posted by: bevin | Feb 24 2023 3:05 utc | 45
“Everyone would wish that you were right. But the evidence just isn’t there.”
Back in 2011 ivermectin was being called a “Wonder drug from Japan”, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3043740/ , now it’s being derided as being for animals only…quite a turnaround. Wonder why? As for the poor being wiped out, there literally would’ve been mountains of corpses. I haven’t seen evidence of that. Indians have cellphones too and it would’ve been all over the internet. In the US stadiums were taken over and it all turned out to be a giant clown show. The hospitals are still bitching about not enough care beds when they’ve had three years to make it a priority to build more. Seems obvious to me that care is not a priority.
Posted by: nathan in WA US | Feb 24 2023 4:32 utc | 55
Grieved @46–
That’s practicing medicine without a license, something HMOs have been sued many times for.
Fortunately, there remains Andrographis Paniculata, the Aruvedic drug that treated me and my family when we caught Covid along with amped up amounts of zinc, V-D, V-C well beyond what we usually take for normal immune system health. I still have enough to battle it a few more times, although I’d rather not. It was successful in South Asia which is how I came to know it.
quote from ‘The mechanisms of action of ivermectin against SARS-CoV-2—an extensive review’
“Drug repurposing, drug redirecting, or drug reprofiling is defined as the identification of novel uses for existing drugs. The development risks, costs as well as safety-related failure, are reduced with this approach since these drugs have a well-established formulation development, in vitro and in vivo screening, as well as pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles. Moreover, the first clinical trial phases of many such drugs have been completed and can be bypassed to reduce several years of development. Therefore, drug repurposing has the potential to reduce the time frame for the whole process by up to 3–12 years and carries great potential”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41429-021-00491-6/
Posted by: nathan in WA US | Feb 24 2023 5:00 utc | 58
@karlof1 55
Andrographis Paniculata – never heard of it until now. Good info, thanks!
Posted by: nathan in WA US | Feb 24 2023 5:14 utc | 59
@ Grieved | Feb 24 2023 3:29 utc | 48
i think bevin has gone to bed…i am genuinely curious if he comes back tomorrow and gives a response to you.. i haven’t seen any so far when this topic comes up, or gets down to the nitty gritty.. we’ll see…
@ karlof1 | Feb 24 2023 4:57 utc | 55
Andrographis Paniculata…never heard of it..where do you access that?
Posted by: james | Feb 24 2023 5:18 utc | 61
Posted by: Grieved | Feb 24 2023 3:43 utc | 49
“And as with everyone in this day and age, one must look to one’s own medical care nowadays – for the Hippocratic Oath is surely defiled, and medicine in the west is broken. And soon doctors will not be able to use their front-line gravitas to prescribe off-label treatments.”
I was shocked when I realized I’d have to contact someone I know in FL to obtain ivermectin because my doctor would not prescribe it if I asked for it. Ivermectin, one of the most prescribed harmless drugs out there! Broken, indeed.
Posted by: nathan in WA US | Feb 24 2023 5:28 utc | 62
I get the vast majority of my supplements from Piping Rock via mail order. Excellent service. Never had a problem for almost ten years.
This from yesterday is an interesting article on the situation in Turkey. I’ll post the brief commentary at the top of the article, not a long one, and it did not receive many comments at nakedcapitalism.org:
Türkiye After the Earthquake: Why Not to Expect a Change in Russia Relationship
Posted on February 22, 2023 by Conor Gallagher
While Türkiye is still reeling from the Feb. 6 earthquake, NATO is not letting up on its push to peel Ankara away from Moscow.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg was in Türkiye last week to declare that the alliance would send “tens of thousands of tents” and that “in your time of need, NATO stands with Türkiye.” He also continued to insist that Ankara drop its opposition to Finland and Sweden joining the alliance.
Türkiye has demanded that Sweden stop supporting what it considers Kurdish terrorists and made specific requests, including extraditions. Sweden has said it will not meet these demands, and the Quran-burning protests against Türkiye in Stockholm last month almost certainly made it politically untenable for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to agree to any deal….
I’ll add a small segment of the article next.
Posted by: juliania | Feb 24 2023 5:45 utc | 64
I’m somewhat dubious about the following , since the article ends by observing that ties between Russia and Turkey are closer since Russia has been sending aid, mentioned also in Putin’s recent speech to the Duma. Is Erdogan in trouble sufficient to delay the election (apparently not a Constitutionally legal consideration)?
The political fallout from the earthquakes for Erdogan is clear, as Ahmet T. Kuru, Professor of Political Science at San Diego State University writes at The Conversation:
Erdoğan’s party appears concerned that popular anger over handling of the disaster may affect the upcoming elections.
Bülent Arınç, an AKP founder and former speaker of Turkish Parliament, publicly called for the postponement of elections for a year. The Turkish Constitution, however, allows the postponement of elections only during a war. Hence, Arınç defined the Constitution “not sacred” and called for disregarding it.
Erdoğan has a major dilemma. If he allows the elections to take place as planned in June 2023, he is likely to lose them. Even before the earthquake, polling suggested that he would lose against one of three possible competitors in the presidential race.
My own thought would be that in a time of catastrophe such as this, the electorate may well prefer to keep the present government in place.
Posted by: juliania | Feb 24 2023 6:06 utc | 65
Posted by: juliania | Feb 24 2023 6:06 utc | 63
You miss the point where the West is trying to exchange Erdogan for someone US friendly. This has impact on the whole region – Iran, Syria, even Greece as Greece refuses to sent certain weapons to Ukraine as they need them to defend from Türkiye.
Posted by: Vikichka | Feb 24 2023 6:27 utc | 66
Wanna play a fun game?
Count the number of topics the commenters here pretend to be experts in.
Posted by: Old Fart Legion | Feb 24 2023 7:21 utc | 67
Count the number of topics the commenters here pretend to be experts in.
Posted by: Old Fart Legion | Feb 24 2023 7:21 utc | 65
So no different than on TV or in the state departments of western countries?
Posted by: Vikichka | Feb 24 2023 7:35 utc | 68
James @ 59:
In Australia, I can buy andrographis in the form of Armaforce tablets at the pharmacy. Try asking your local pharmacist if s/he stocks something similar. Health food stores may stock andrographis-based tablets too.
You only need one tablet a day. If you take the tablets for a long time, you may get a rash.
Posted by: Jen | Feb 24 2023 8:48 utc | 70
Tom_Q_Collins @ 32:
It is my understanding that doctors in poorer states in northern India used Ivermectin to treat COVID-19. In wealthier parts of India such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the south, doctors used Ivermectin less and relied on vaccines more.
Comparing infection rates between the poorer North (where I think COVID injection uptake was low) and the richer South (where the uptake was higher than in the north) ought to be interesting.
Posted by: Jen | Feb 24 2023 8:54 utc | 71
“We are like CNN, but anonymous!”
good job
Posted by: Old Fart Legion | Feb 24 2023 7:45 utc | 67
Good job to you, sir. It’s up to you to stop being like CNN and be the change you want to see.
Posted by: Vikichka | Feb 24 2023 10:01 utc | 72
Grieved | Feb 24 2023 3:29 utc | 48
Instead, you chased a straw man, to say that those who contracted Covid suffered worse according to their social status – which no one would even dream of denying – but never actually showed that ivermectin does not prevent Covid, which is what the statement you contest actually says
Well, yeah, but then there’s the example of Africa, which being far poorer than most, weathered the pandemic with far fewer infections and deaths than all of the so-called rich countries.
It’s pretty humorous how bevin attributes the survival of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump to their elite status, casually ignoring the fact that the survival rate for covid among generally healthy people of whatever age is something like 99%. This, no doubt, would also explain the survival of bevin, and everyone else around here, though, granted, I think it’s also safe to presume that most all of us have been priviledged since the day we were born.
Posted by: john | Feb 24 2023 10:07 utc | 73
Posted by: Vikichka | Feb 24 2023 10:01 utc | 71
Buddy, I dunno why you think you can “No U” your way out of your own point.
Posted by: Old Fart Legion | Feb 24 2023 10:48 utc | 74
My own thought would be that in a time of catastrophe such as this, the electorate may well prefer to keep the present government in place.
Posted by: juliania | Feb 24 2023 6:06 utc | 63
—
Depends on which of the two is the bigger catastrophe.
Always remember. Erdogan is a staunch Islamist at heart and while earthquakes are just as deadly and dumb, they are not corrupt racists. 🙂
Posted by: Nobody | Feb 24 2023 11:40 utc | 75
@mineral. Yes OECD 46% and BRICS 31%. But as Mark Twain said, lies, damn lies and statistics.
How are those statistics calculated? USD? PPP?
If the US makes a million rounds of artillery rounds for 10 billion and Russia makes 2 million for 5 billion then is US production twice Russias based on cost or is Russias production twice that of the US based on production more important?
Apply that standard and BRICS has a bigger % than OECD of the words economy, plus the BRICS are becoming the BRICS+
Posted by: Neal | Feb 24 2023 12:05 utc | 76
Soft power ==> https://twitter.com/USAmbUN/status/1628915628005543937
Posted by: too scents | Feb 24 2023 13:06 utc | 77
A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing(*):
U.S. frees 2 Pakistani brothers held without charges at Guantanamo Bay for nearly 20 years
(*) – I believe Shakespere wrote something like this in some old play. This whole song and dance we have been doing in Gitmo brought it to mind. It is all just theater, really, posturing, no serious intent at all behind it.
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 24 2023 13:18 utc | 79
Soft power ==> https://twitter.com/USAmbUN/status/1628915628005543937
Posted by: too scents | Feb 24 2023 13:06 utc | 76
Definitely breaking through to new levels of something. We have always been very fond of commerce with Africans, yes.
I guess I am feeling more cynical than usual today.
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 24 2023 13:21 utc | 80
grieved wrote: “Ivermectin is unassailable as an effective prophylactic, treatment and post-infection palliative.”
Unfortunately, there are a plethora of scientific studies published in medical journals that have not reached that conclusion.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa2115869
Treatment with ivermectin did not result in a lower incidence of medical admission to a hospital due to progression of Covid-19 or of prolonged emergency department observation among outpatients with an early diagnosis of Covid-19.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35870876/
The evidence suggests that ivermectin does not reduce mortality risk and the risk of mechanical ventilation requirement. Although we did not observe an increase in the risk of adverse effects, the evidence is very uncertain regarding this endpoint.
Posted by: jinn | Feb 24 2023 13:21 utc | 81
My own thought would be that in a time of catastrophe such as this, the electorate may well prefer to keep the present government in place.
Posted by: juliania | Feb 24 2023 6:06 utc | 63
I would bet on Erdogan too. I can assemble reasons, but nobody will agree. Biden’s ability to screw things up then.
It is in any case an important question, Turkiye without Erdogan, with some western stooge, is going to be much different.
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 24 2023 13:30 utc | 82
Odd times.
As usual, a prez “woman-hating”* hopeful candidate recently fallaciously claimed, “Ohio is mine”. Without providing the usual evidence or facts to back up his case or claims after he turned 16. *more females than males vote in all USSA prez elections post-1980s
In the interim, the NTSB board hearing has found the railway company guilty of causing a preventable derailment in “East Palestine”. The failure was due to a failed collapsed wheel bearing on rail transport car number 23. From the time the train had traveled a mere 30 miles from the yard’s “hot box detector” to the accident scene. Due to poor programming temperature limits. The yard’s, “Hotbox” failed to trigger the proper alert shutdown alarm and red light. As the train slowly exited the train yards automated computer-controlled traffic light zone control.
Contrary to the hopeful candidate’s fallacious claim the USSA Federal Government is fully liable to pay all compensation and clean-up costs from the toxic waste spill site. The NTSB’s ruling means the railway company and insurers are now legally fully liable for all clean-up costs and local compensation payments. Ohio’s compo lawyers are all smiling at the receipt of such good news today. A slam dunk no-brainer easy to win a legal case just landed in their laps. 🙂
In other news, fossil-powered car/truck exhaust and industrial pollution. Continues to remain USSA’s number one silent premature death killer. As Science studies post 2002 amlpy demonsrate.
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Feb 24 2023 14:39 utc | 83
Buddy, I dunno why you think you can “No U” your way out of your own point.
Posted by: Old Fart Legion | Feb 24 2023 10:48 utc | 73
My point is that you are like CNN, only anonymous.
Posted by: Vikichka | Feb 24 2023 15:03 utc | 84
Germany needs to take reparation-minded Poles seriously
Politico.eu FEBRUARY 18, 2023 10:00 PM CET
Shrugging off Poland’s demands may be legally right, but morally, Germany still has a debt to pay, and it must heed these grievances.
…For if it is left to fester, this bitter historical spat may well complicate efforts to secure Russian war reparations for Ukraine, when the time comes.…
——-
I checked Politico.eu, and there was no single item not about the war. One story about NATO preparing for WWIII, not with this title, to paraphrase “we should be ready to quickly send 300,000 troops to a conflict zone, with 100,000 arriving within 10 days, and having enough ammunition to fight for 5 days”. However, a week ago there was a non-war item that puzzles me in extreme. Polish government plays loose with the budget to provide populist benefits (may be sensible) and to rapidly increase armed forces, placing additional funds for that purpose in “extraordinary fund” not included in national budget, that was before yet more ambitious plans after SMO. Perhaps to create an illusion of fiscal responsibility, it requested 380 billion euros from Germany as war reparation, in spite of an old agreement to exchange dropping of such claims for the recognition of huge annexation of German lands — and expelling Germans from those lands.
Now the demands increase to 1.3 trillion. What should be a rational German response? Sensitivity? I would suggest a referendum (in Germany) to approve this 1.3 trillion payment, with wording provided by Polish government, and outlawing any political campaign to reject it… Would that be sensitive enough?
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Feb 24 2023 16:13 utc | 85
“But perhaps more important for Canada, a successful national indoor farmer would provide some hope.”
That’s from the Financial Post.
https://financialpost.com/commodities/agriculture/indoor-lettuce-farmer-goodleaf-wins-funding
At the end of the Week in Review thread, I posted some info on lettuce for Canada, media coverage related to lettuce for Canada, including specifically news that the Bahamas (and the Caribbean) could become a source for lettuce.
https://magneticmediatv.com/2023/02/bamsi-lettuce-project/
Hope for the hopeless (who really should be reaching for a frozen bag of grown locally-grown peas or green beans in February but it’s a global village I guess.)
Alternative sources of hope! Temporary carports (it snows a lot here) in Montréal! Seed swapping (gasp – they still do that?? It’s so 1950 or 1850 or) in Northern Ontario!
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/carports-gardens-montreal-greenhouses-1.6755873
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/local-seeds-ethnic-vegetables-1.6752006
Loads of lettuce related media coverage – this seems to be a cause du jour around here.
Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Feb 24 2023 16:57 utc | 86
Posted by: migueljose | Feb 23 2023 15:42 utc | 9
Thanks again migueljose.
Now you have me reading the Orinoco Tribune where I saw the article today
reporting that the Ecuadorian State Attorney General’s Office will prosecute
former prez Lenin Moreno and many in his family for bribery and corruption.
If guilty a fair punishment would be two days in Belmarsh for every day of Assange’s
confinement, (be it there or anywhere else). Moreno Crime family
Posted by: waynorinorway | Feb 24 2023 17:05 utc | 87
james@59
I make no pretence to expert medical knowledge. My interest is in the politics of this discussion, and, to put it very simply, the various claims that one or another cheap and available remedies prevents people from dying of Covid are all alternative ways of saying “Don’t worry about it. Nothing to see here. Move along.”
Which is exactly what the neo-liberal governments, which hate public health and state healthcare provision, have been telling us when they dared.
The Covid crisis should have led to a massive public reaction in the United States demanding a single payer medicare system, the strict regulation, if not public ownership, of the Big Pharma monopolies and major investment in the infrastructure of the health system, public health.
Instead the net result of the crisis seems to have included a strengthening of the Big Pharma system, no rollback on the de-regulation that occurred, for example, under the GW Bush regime which actually bans attempts to negotiate lower drug prices; a new commitment to deaths in the Third World by refusing to suspend patent rights in order to allow the manufacture of lifesaving medicines.
And, in countries such as the UK and Canada, a full scale assault on publicly funded healthcare spearheaded by a massive US Heath industry, surging with confidence after turning its Covid failures into a financial and political bonanza.
And a major factor in these developments has been the world wide public relations campaign, financed and organised by neo-liberals to deny not only the dangers of Covid, but the existence of pandemics and the need to plan to prevent them in future.
More sinister perhaps is the way that public opinion has been habituated to accept the idea that vulnerable people, the preservation of whose lives would involve much expense, should be allowed to die.
As I believe it was Grieved pointed out, the survival rate from Covid is, given proper medical care, very high indeed, which makes the fact that in places such as Old Peoples Homes the death rates were well over 50%. This was the point that John Kiriakou’s article in Consortium News made regarding prisons in the US.
It is hard to believe that these people did not die as a result of deliberate choices made by those charged with their care. And there is no doubt that millions have died from the virus.
Neo-liberalism is a philosophy in which the deaths of millions of workers and peasants does not matter. All that matters is business- keeping the shops open, keeping the construction sites humming, keeping the slaughterhouses slaughtering. If old people, who might have been kept alive by minimal additional expenditure, financed by slightly higher taxes, die, then all the better: they aren’t producing anything, their pensions die with them, if they can’t afford to live by employing services available in the marketplace, then it is better that they should die.
It is no accident that Canada’s Parliament in the shadow of the famous protest (protest against public health measures) has now come up with the legalisation and state facilitation of suicide in hospital for anyone feeling depressed enough to want it.
I am not denying the possibility that Invermectin may be of assistance, though there are many studies which cast doubt on the claim. In fact it may be that the anti-malarial drug once touted on this site as a sovereign remedy could help. Likewise Vitamin D, sunshine and Vitamin C.
I am lamenting the way in which rational discussion of the pandemic and the danger of future pandemics and the importance of a world wide healthcare safety net, which would include free prescriptions, dental care and hospitals has been derailed by neo-liberalism’s useful idiots who deny that Covid exists, or that it is dangerous or that it might even be a tonic for society to toss the weak overboard.
I note, with disdain and contempt that among the criticisms made of my point of view is a condemnation of old people, and of the post war generation. Genocide begins this way- in the Third Reich it began with the killing of the mentally ill (when opposition to Hitler was seen as mental illness) and autistic children. Here it begins with fools scoffing at the Seniors Homes in Bobcaygeon and Barrie where the old dropped like flies but profits actually increased.
Posted by: bevin | Feb 24 2023 17:48 utc | 88
bevin | Feb 24 2023 17:48 utc | 89
Dunno, bevin. Here in Italy we have free(almost) national healthcare, purportedly one of the best. There is also a reverence for elders so poignant that Italy has become a country of old people. Nativity has gone negative.
Notwithstanding all of that, Italy’s net results from covid were some of the worst in the world. The only massive public reaction was near total adherence to the many draconian measures mandated.
Taxes were already through the roof.
Posted by: john | Feb 24 2023 19:23 utc | 89
@ karlof1 | Feb 24 2023 5:37 utc | 63 // Jen | Feb 24 2023 8:48 utc | 70
thank you both… cheers..
@ bevin | Feb 24 2023 17:48 utc | 89
thanks for your thoughtful reply…. i get where you are coming from and agree with much of what you say… however, i don’t know that people are denying covid exists, so much as questioning what exactly it was and why these alternative methods of dealing with it weren’t considered… maybe i am wrong.. i know some believe that it was a complete set up by the neo liberals – wef and what have you… i know the ventilators used seemed more like a death sentence, then what could have been done in the initial phase of all this.. it is a divisive topic and i am sitting on the fence with regard to what covid was or wasn’t…i can’t tell and i can’t rule out this was a set up to take down a system where we have less freedom, and now more control – vax passes, being just a tip of the iceberg.. it certainly looks like a set up for some – big pharma and etc – to grab more power…. i really don’t know regarding what it was, but i imagine if it was a set up -there will be more on the way… i suppose one could say there will always be some health scare from time to time, but it seems now that there is a vested interest in the world of those who want to take advantage of this – wef, politicians, big pharma and etc. etc.. cheers james
Posted by: james | Feb 24 2023 19:29 utc | 90
Posted by: james | Feb 24 2023 19:29 utc | 91
I would like to suggest this link for those who want to study to purview. There are many places to get info these days and those of us discerning we, some of us, like the rubik cube youngsters, we got the ability to purview much on the web….so if forced to suggest one place to get info, then let me suggest this – and yes I am biased and I admit it upfront.
https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/
If you choose to go down that rabbit hole, then know this:
Not all zionist are jews nor are all jews zionist – so discernment is needed to judge evidence one way or the other and being objective takes an ability to go outside of ones predispositions – and james – I thank you.
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 24 2023 19:35 utc | 91
@ Buffalo_Ken | Feb 24 2023 19:35 utc | 92
thanks ken! i am not sure how far down the rabbit hole i want to go, but thank you regardless…
Posted by: james | Feb 24 2023 23:02 utc | 92
James wrote: ” i really don’t know regarding what it was, but i imagine if it was a set up -there will be more on the way… i suppose one could say there will always be some health scare from time to time, but it seems now that there is a vested interest in the world of those who want to take advantage of this”
My opinion of covid is exactly the opposite of yours. Health scares and vested interests taking advantage of them have been rampant long before covid. If you missed seeing that before covid its because you weren’t paying attention and that is exactly the way the vested interests would like it to always be. The fact that you woke up and realized that the “vested interests” have been gaslighting you about your health is the last thing they wanted.
Covid has become the worst nightmare of Big Pharma’s and the Medical Industrial Complex. Covid has done more to undermine their authority than anything they ever dreamed possible.
You say you don’t know what covid is. Guess what? The doctors and scientists that work for Big Pharma also don’t have a clue.
Posted by: jinn | Feb 24 2023 23:21 utc | 93
@ jinn | Feb 24 2023 23:21 utc | 94
thanks jinn.. fortunately my viewpoint is fluid and it can incorporate your viewpoint as well.. cheers..
Posted by: james | Feb 24 2023 23:31 utc | 94
john wrote: “here is also a reverence for elders so poignant that Italy has become a country of old people.”
Heh, heh. The reason a country like Italy becomes “a country of old people” is because it produces fewer young people. Don’t get me wrong that reason might be rooted in a reverence for elders.
As far as Italy and covid are concerned did you know that 80% of the deaths in Italy attributed to covid occurred after 95% of the adult population was vaccinated for covid. Surely at least a few people in Italy are questioning whether the health authorities know what they are doing?
Posted by: jinn | Feb 24 2023 23:38 utc | 95
john #2
The worm’s still wiggling.
Idaho Lawmakers Seek to Criminalize Injecting of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines
Perhaps the Idaho lawmakers have read the latest translation of psalm cm27874
Or Kings 4:16
Here comes an update to monthly births in Europe:
Now including 22 countries (previously 13)
Time series (from January 2017) complete until November 2022 for 5 countries, and even December 2022 for 16 countries. Data for England and Wales have not changed (I am not aware of any possibility of getting the data for 2022 before October 2023)
For most countries the figures are for live births. Some might include stillbirths but these do not change the overall picture
Updates since first posting (February 22, 2023):
Corrected image for Sweden (was a copy of the Portugal image until then)
Updated data for Scotland (December 2022 less preliminary now)
Updated data for Israel (now including December 2022)
Feel free to dig into the data:
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 24 2023 23:47 utc | 96
And then this gem from WHO is always there for us, the people, and our wellbeing.
MY DEAR WORMWOOD,
I note with great pleasure that humans, when acting as a herd, are able to produce the most elegant expression of what the Enemy calls evil, in a single paragraph. They have this organisation called the WHO, and they commissioned a working group to propose amendments to their International Health Regulations (first published in 2005). The working group came up with this wonderful replacement.
Article 3 Principles
1/ The implementation of these Regulations shall bewith full respect for the dignity, human rights and fundamental freedom of personsbased on the principles of equity, inclusivity, coherence and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities of States Parties, taking into consideration their social and economic development.
Gone is the human being, to be replaced by the States Parties. Gone is respect, to be replaced by principles. Gone is dignity, to be replaced by equity. Gone are human rights, to be replaced by inclusivity. Gone are fundamental freedoms, to be replaced by cold coherence.
And they do not even hide what they did! Enjoy, and learn.
The WHO is not our friend and has other interests these days. Perhaps the World Hoax Organisation is more akin to its corporate intentions?
source: https://cm27874.substack.com/p/what-the-enemy-calls-evil
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 25 2023 0:14 utc | 97
Plastinkin! Thank you Martyanov/smoothiex12 for introducing me to the brothers!
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2023/02/plastinkin-brothers-friday.html
Crank it up to 11!!! 🙂
Posted by: nathan in WA US | Feb 25 2023 0:37 utc | 98
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 25 2023 0:14 utc | 98
“The working group came up with this wonderful replacement.”
That shit has been going on all across the board, from schools all the way up to all gov’t branches. In parallel the security protocol creep continues, PAM was recently released. Minimum access for all…except for the overlords of course.
Posted by: nathan in WA US | Feb 25 2023 0:43 utc | 99
@98 uncle tungsten | Feb 25 2023 0:14 utc
That’s a nice find, thank you.
We were talking here the other day about ChatGPT and AI. Did you happen to read his piece on that? Interesting commentary on the robot, and a distinct parallel with mRNA:
ChatGPT and mRNA [Acts 8:30]
~~
ps..Acts 8:30 and apropos the robot:
30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?”
Posted by: Grieved | Feb 25 2023 2:18 utc | 100