Open (Not Ukraine) Thread 2023-50
News & views (not related to the war in Ukraine) ...
And a 'told ya so':
- Cuba - U.S. Diplomats Retreat In Horror ... Because ... 'Crickets' - Moon of Alabama - Oct 27, 2017
- Fake News Reports Blamed Cuba, Russia And China ... - The Culprits Were Crickets - Moon of Alabama - Jan 7, 2019
- 'Havana Syndrome' - CIA Can Not Rule Out That Cuban Crickets Chirped in Russian - Moon of Alabama - Jan 20, 2022
- ‘Havana syndrome’ not caused by energy weapon or foreign adversary, intelligence review finds - Washington Post - Mar 1, 2023
...
Posted by b on March 1, 2023 at 17:12 UTC | Permalink
next page »As a bit of a train buff myself this item on Sputnik caught my attention: https://sputniknews.com/20230301/president-putin-opens-up-biggest-underground-circle-line-in-the-world-1107907236.html
Despite an extensive sanctions campaign against Moscow waged by Western countries, Russia is actively developing and modernizing its infrastructure.Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin convened on Wednesday to launch the Big Circle Line of the Moscow Metro. The new underground line is one of the most ambitious metro projects in history: it includes 31 stations and spreads to whopping 70 kilometers (43 miles) of railroads, which makes it the longest circle subway line in the world.
"The Big Circle Line will significantly change the entire transport system of the capital city, relieving many highways, becoming a good incentive for the development and improvement of adjacent urban areas, making the life of the metropolis, its residents and guests more convenient and dynamic," Putin stressed.
The Moscow metro’s Big Circle Line is the world's largest metro construction project, which includes 31 stations and is 70 kilometers long.
There’s a bit more background on the project here: https://metrorailtoday.com/news/moscow-metro-launches-worlds-longest-metro-circle-line-big-circle-line-11
Posted by: West of England Andy | Mar 1 2023 17:41 utc | 2
A post from a commentator on another thread mentioned that the New Zealand cricket team playing the second test against England in Wellington had become only the second team to win a test by one run in all of cricket history, and only the fourth to win after 'following on', which is the manner in which a team is forced to repeat their innings after a low score in the previous one - an innings being that of the entire team having been 'got out' due to the loss of the 10th player.
I'm commenting on this here as the earlier comment called attention to one star player on the Black Caps team - his name happens to be Wagner. He's an attack bowler, so the name fits.
Here are the scores for each innings :- Eng 435/8 out, so they 'declared' -thought they had enough runs to win; NZ 209, everyone out so were asked to 'follow on'; NZ again, 483; Eng 256 all out.
I looked for a link to the commentary for all four innings. Here is what I found, for any who may be interested:
https://sports.ndtv.com/cricket/live-commentary/
new-zealand-vs-england-2nd-test-wellington-
nzen02242023213913
And yes, I'm a fan. ;)
Posted by: juliania | Mar 1 2023 18:01 utc | 3
And yes, I'm a fan. ;)
Posted by: juliania | Mar 1 2023 18:01 utc | 3
So it seems like God is a cricket fan too. After all the Bible starts with: 'In the big inning...' .
Posted by: waynorinorway | Mar 1 2023 18:08 utc | 4
Posted by: juliania | Mar 1 2023 18:01 utc | 3
I was watching live TV coverage of that and it was very tense towards the end. I thought England could win if Ben Foakes had stayed in, but once he was out they were relying on Leach and Anderson, neither of whom are in the team for their batting prowess...
As for Test match cricket generally, people either ‘get it’ or they don’t and if they don’t there is no point in trying to explain it, especially to today’s ‘instant gratification’ generation!
Posted by: West of England Andy | Mar 1 2023 18:17 utc | 5
I honestly had not seen b's references before I came here to attempt my cricket explanation - just noticed there was an open thread up and in I swung.
Posted by: waynorinorway | Mar 1 2023 18:08 utc | 4
Thanks for that (I think)! It's a bit like a college friend telling us that a high school music teacher would sing:
This is the Marche Slav
It was written by Tchai-kov-sky
It describes the feelings of the people
In a time of war....
Gotcha back!
Posted by: juliania | Mar 1 2023 18:26 utc | 6
i know nothing about crickets, or the game of cricket...it is all a mystery to me! but i am sure the cia is an authority on it all, lol..
Posted by: james | Mar 1 2023 18:36 utc | 7
Posted by: West of England Andy | Mar 1 2023 18:17 utc | 5
Thanks, Andy. The first time I was back in New Zealand (after a long absence) was in the Hadlee era - my parents had a big colour tv, so I got hooked. Where I was staying I only had radio, and that cemented the passion - ah, the commentary! Yes, it was a close match, and England had won the first one so the pressure was on. And though it's hard for me to connect these days, many of the players I've followed in the past are still on the team - not that far back of course, but there was a time I could listen in online . . . those were the days, my friend!
Posted by: juliania | Mar 1 2023 18:41 utc | 8
Posted by: GoFast | Mar 1 2023 18:41 utc | 8
"It only hurts the top dogs."
You can relax then.
Posted by: David F | Mar 1 2023 19:05 utc | 10
GoFast | Mar 1 2023 18:41 utc | 8
I'm actually wondering about the "abilities" of those "Linky" electrical control grids.
ie. Installations (In france they are called Linky) They "talk" to each other via microwaves, all the time, and relay electrical consumption instantly. We are immersed in a permanent microwave environment - day and night.
At the moment they are said to be only used for gathering information about the habits of the occupants. Could they also be used as broadcasters towards the inhabitants? One theory has it that in the case of graphene in the blood, they could be used to give "instructions". A bit on the wild side as theory. Your explanation for a real result on neurogical processes, opens up the possibility of a larger and deliberate process that has not yet been used.
I'm just asking from curiosity as the obvious Governmental pressure seems vastly out of scale to the desired effect. (Ie. multiple telphone calls over a period of nearly a year, attempts to simply enter and install without asking etc. threats that it is "obligatory" etc. Simply to change an electrical counter?
If there hadn't been a one-way lock on the front door, at least four groups would have entered without any right to do so. ALL the outside electrical boxes in the area were changed.
Posted by: juliania | Mar 1 2023 18:41 utc | 9
Ah, Richard Hadlee, yes, probably one of the great all-rounders of the era. Not the out-and out quickest bowler, but generated deceptive movement with the ball that bamboozled batters. When he was batting he could turn a game from a poor position to one of competitiveness, even strength.
That’s one of the things I find about cricket, acknowledgement and respect for outstanding players is universal, regardless of any national preferences.
Posted by: james | Mar 1 2023 18:36 utc | 7
It’s hard to explain the fascination in words, it can become a totally absorbing experience, where nothing else matters for the few hours the game is on.
A clumsy way of putting it is to paraphrase a well-known saying, in Test match cricket there can be hours when nothing happens, then minutes when hours happen...
Posted by: West of England Andy | Mar 1 2023 19:14 utc | 12
Diplomats/country/people so far removed from actual life on this planet. Glory be the day they reveal their N-P-K values and finnaly give back.
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Mar 1 2023 19:27 utc | 13
Trolltard: "I can't believe... ! Surely the effects would be more widespread if that was the case."
Believe it, Trolltard. Like your handlers at the CIA, you NAFO (Nazis And Fairies Organized?) freaks are uniquely qualified to lose your shit and go mindlessly hysterical over purely mundane things that healthy humans don't even think twice about. You "generalized anxiety disorder" and "impostor syndrome" freaks are not just thin-skinned; you have no skin at all. The tiniest of imagined "microaggressions" leave you running for your "safe spaces" writhing in emotional agony. Literally anything outside your experience, such as an insect that makes noise, can upset your delicate equilibrium and trigger a psychological breakdown. The delusional morons at the CIA are even more primed for panic and hysteria at the most trivial of provocations.
Do keep in mind that these are people who truly believed the Russians flipped the 2016 elections in the US with a couple thousand dollars worth of Farcebook ads. Anyone stupid enough to believe that Russiagate nonsense is more than stupid enough to imagine they are being zapped by super-secret Soviet brain rays and start with the psychosomatic symptoms when they are actually just hearing crickets.
Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 1 2023 19:56 utc | 14
Anytime the Amerikastan government goes (big) out of its way to make an effort, know its a cover up. They are too many examples to even bother recalling them (Russian election meddling). To learn of the huge circus that was put on to investigate crickets and migraines is a head scratcher. Amerikastanis I truly great circus ringmasters.
Posted by: Gankanas | Mar 1 2023 19:57 utc | 15
Sweden and Finland want to join NATO.
If you are a Swede who has seen what happened to SAAB motor cars under American managent, or a Finn who has seen what happened to Nokia mobile phones under American management - What do you think will happen when you put your army under American management?
Posted by: Passerby | Mar 1 2023 20:03 utc | 16
james@7
You couldn't be more wrong: cricket (even bodyline) and the CIA are in different universes.
Opport Knocks@14
Surely "b" is right in suggesting, what I firmly believe, that there was absolutely no reason for the US to complain. There was no 'secret weapon' aimed at them. It was all made up.
Canada's role in the affair confirms it- the US was looking for an excuse to make trouble with the Cuban government. And Canada automatically confirmed that its Boss had been telling the truth.
Posted by: bevin | Mar 1 2023 20:05 utc | 17
"Sweden and Finland want to join NATO." Passerb@20
Their respective governments do.
I very much doubt whether the proposal would be approved by a referendum. Certainly not one in which the implications of the move- joining an alliance in which life and death decisions can be taken by people like the Estonian Prime Minister or the Poles- were debated in public.
Posted by: bevin | Mar 1 2023 20:10 utc | 18
I dunno about those harmless crickets. SOMETHING happened to derange Blinkey, Jakey, and the rest of the diplomatic staff.
Posted by: c | Mar 1 2023 20:41 utc | 19
Posted by: David F | Mar 1 2023 19:05 utc | 11
You win this stupid thread.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 1 2023 20:47 utc | 20
Sociopathic gobshites and dumbfucks
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/china-needs-to-accept-u-s-is-a-leader-ambassador-burns-says-164164165750
Nicolas Burns, US Ambassador to China, said that Washington was not seeking confrontation with Beijing but that..."[China needs to accept] that the U.S. is staying in the [Asia-Pacific] region, we're the leader in this region"
Posted by: Irish | Mar 1 2023 20:49 utc | 21
The US state and media has a long history of making stuff up (Gulf of Tonkin, the "missile gap" with the USSR, "authoritarian" leader who are actually democratically elected and/or serving their people, Gaddafi's "rape squads", Serbian "ethnic cleansing" and "rape camps"), blowing up their own stuff/people to start a war (the Battleship Maine in Havana harbour to start a war with Spain, USS Liberty attacked by the Israelis with the plan to blame it on Egypt etc., and the plans for Operation Northwoods, also perhaps the controlled demolition of the Twin Towers and Building 7).
They also have a long history of keeping things that go against the approved narrative away from the knowledge of the general population (extensive use of biological warfare in the Korean War, the extensive human rights abuses in Vietnam - many, many "My Lais", the OPCW whistleblower scandal, the mass surveillance of US citizens, extensive CIA involvement in drug cultivation and trafficking, the massive human rights abuses of Saudi Arabia at home and in Yemen, the relative success of Cuba in serving its population vs. other Central American nations, the high approval ratings of Putin and Xi). Under Obama the prosecution of whistleblowers was intensified and the secret drone murder program and covert warfare in general massively expanded.
This is why I don't trust a damn thing that the US govt and media, and Western govt and media in general, says. Even when there may be some truth involved its usually wrapped in propagandist bullshit. The Western claims about the "sickness" of US officials in Cuba smelled to high heaven from day 1. The propaganda level is now at Cold War levels and going higher, we live in 1984 with the Winston Smiths manipulating the news of today and rewriting history to fit the currently accepted narrative.
Its why I keep coming back to Moon of Alabama even with the regular invasions of trolls, as there are many posters who provide glimpses of the truth beyond the Western matrix.
NAFO phony (NAFOny?): "...rebuttal of everything I didn't say..."
The phony said: "...Surely the effects would be more widespread..."
Why would locals panic over crickets? They grow up hearing crickets, rather than growing up in bug-sprayed gated communities with manicured lawns (and no bugs). Indeed, why would anyone who wasn't a paranoid freak with "generalized anxiety disorder" and "impostor syndrome" and who believed to [insert appropriate pronoun here] core that the Cubans are "out to get them" confuse crickets for secret Soviet brain rays? Only pathetic fools like the CIA and their NAFO trolls here are delusional and cognitively damaged enough to believe that foolishness. CIA and NAFO mental disorders are actually not that widespread outside those occupations (the work self-selects damaged individuals) so why would psychosomatic illnesses from hearing crickets be widespread among the general population?
Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 1 2023 20:54 utc | 23
Passerby #20
If you are a Swede who has seen what happened to SAAB motor cars under American managent, or a Finn who has seen what happened to Nokia mobile phones under American management - What do you think will happen when you put your army under American management?
They will all be issued with swats and pesticide spray plus rolls of fly mesh instead of barbed wire.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 1 2023 21:11 utc | 24
aye, myself & me #30
Reiner Fuellmich interview with Barrie Trower, one can learn how they've been controlling minds with them since then.
Go to rumble and search for the above interview. You might wanna move somewhere else.
Ahhh yes THAT Reiner Fuellmich :/
Whatever happened to his Nuremburg trials for covid vaxes and bio lab leakers. Nothing. So he moves on to some other exotic decoy trick.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 1 2023 21:16 utc | 25
Scott Ritter on Chinese Weather Balloon Hysteria (7 min)
https://youtu.be/watch?v=S3sj0c1audI
Posted by: Browser | Mar 1 2023 21:31 utc | 27
The mad machine is marching.
Will China accept to be dictated economic and foreign relations by Washington ?
Will China humble itself in front of the US ?
It’s so gross, as if the real purpose was to provoke China.
Financial sanctions (on Russian scale) means the breaking up of globalized order. Who imagine China will deliver goods without being paid ?
If this ends up with a dual US-centric and China-centric opposite economic bloc, which one the rest of the world will choose ?
It's a huge gamble tearing globalization appart.
Posted by: Saracen's Head | Mar 1 2023 21:33 utc | 28
I am thoroughly revising my chapters on the history and political economy of China , the US and Russia, before I start flogging the book to publishers. I am putting them on my substack in digestible chunks. I will link to each as its get published on my site. Hopefully, they will provide some useful background to the Cold War II that we are in. Here is the first chunk China: from the Shang to the Century of Humiliation
"Why just Canadian and American spooks?"
Because like you they are more stupid, delusional, and more prone to hysteria than spooks from elsewhere. Nobody else thinks the Cubans are "out to get them". Most people going to Cuba don't go there from day one as sworn adversaries aiming to overthrow the Cuban state, so they are not primed for paranoia. Only US and Canuck spooks do that.
There were no microwave beamers scrambling people's brains. That is just infantile and delusional Hollywood nonsense. If there were microwave emissions strong enough to do anything they would be trivially easy to detect and the sources would be found immediately, so no magic mind rays of either Soviet or American origin.
It really was just mass hysteria among your handlers in Langley that was triggered by crickets and their own unhinged imaginations.
Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 1 2023 21:53 utc | 30
I have been watching the 10-year government bond rates across Europe and they do seem to have put in a higher low and now ready to set a higher high. With inflation still well above the 10-year rate and that inflation already "sticky" and about to be exacerbated by reductions in European consumer energy subsidies (e.g. retail energy bills going up by 50% in April in the UK) a new higher high may very well be set. This is incredibly toxic for the European economies as their interest rates were set so low for so long and haven't had the scale of jump that the US has had (the 10-year could easily go to 5%+ in the US).
Germany: Below one percent interest rates from 2014 to 2019 and then negative interest rates from 2019 to the end of 2021, now 2.71% and going up.
UK: Near zero interest rates during the COVID emergency, now 3.84% and going up
Italy: Near zero interest rates during the COVID emergency, now 4.57% and going up
Spain: Near zero interest rates during the COVID emergency, now 3.68% and going up
Germany is the standout with incredibly low, even negative rates, for seven years. That is a lot of years for an economy to become dependent upon incredibly cheap debt (part of the reason for the big jump in property prices in Germany in the past decade) and with such a low base the "rate shock" will be exacerbated. The inflation rate is expected to be 8.7% in Germany in February, which means massively negative real interest rates and the need to raise them significantly higher.
The ECB base rate, to which all European nations are yoked to through the single currency is set at only 3% and forecast to rise to 3.5%. Thats with an overall EU inflation rate of 10%! What we can assume is that the ECB rate will rise higher than 3.5%, but still not enough to deal with inflation. The mix will be stagflation, with a new European debt crisis thrown in. All the more reason for Russia to stretch out its war in Ukraine and keep squeezing the European economies. We could easily have a rerun of the 1970s stagflation in Europe with the "misery index" (unemployment rate plus inflation) rising to high levels.
Maybe this has already been linked but if not here is Andrei of the Saker blog's final YouTube goodbye, he also had a YouTube channel that he rarely used. It's a very good comprehensive video, covers a lot of ground and worth watching:
Vineyard Saker Q and A with readers final
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhZf5blHMMs
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Mar 2 2023 0:25 utc | 32
"...It could be non-digital light signals sent over fibre optic cables...."
What kind of retard thinks that would be audible, much less damaging to people's brains?
Oh, it's the NAFO (North American Fatties Online?) troll we are dealing with. That's an exceptional kind of stupid.
A "hypothesis" isn't just some smelly chunk you pull out of your ass. It takes a little work before some ignorant notion that pops into your vacuous cranium rises to the level of a hypothesis.
It was crickets. The people you worship were sufficiently stupid to freak out to the point of exhibiting psychosomatic symptoms over crickets. Deal with it.
Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 2 2023 0:39 utc | 33
One doesn't need a crystal ball to work out what is happening in Europe. The basis of any empire is the super-exploitation of the common people of the Metropolis. Lowering their living standards and dispossessing them of their wealth produces the capital needed to prime the pump of empire- to build and man the shipping, to fill the ranks of the armies, to establish garrisons and colonies.
The notion that Empires benefit the populace is a-historical. The poor are the first victims of imperialism.
And, when the empire contracts and less and less of its wealth finds its way back to the metropolis, the greatest impact of the world's failure to keep the rich 'in the state to which they have grown accustomed' falls on the working people, the propertyless and the poor. This is what is happening now, and has been for twenty years in the UK and Europe and in north America.
Predictably lower living standards will be blamed on the Ukraine war -"Putin did it!"- and the cake that our modern Marie Antoinettes will be offering will be the assurance that their sacrifices have been made for Freedom and Democracy.
There is no mystery in this-it is all quite evident and obvious to anyone who is following events. What we do not know is what the consequences are likely to be- there will be anger, disillusion and an appetite for change. There will be orators on soap boxes at the street corners (real or virtual) but there will be pied pipers too seeking out clients.
The new world struggling to be born is looking for a midwife in a society in which abortionists outnumber them.
Posted by: bevin | Mar 2 2023 0:59 utc | 34
Left-wing darling Lula forges ahead.
New ZH article:
Title: Brazilian President And WEF Member Lula Da Silva Pressures Population Into Total COVID Vaccination
He's a WEF darling.
Like most lefties.
And people keep getting fooled by the aspirational rhetoric....
meanwhile ignoring what they actually do once in power....
Posted by: deliriumtremens | Mar 2 2023 0:47 utc | 45
I understand that the tinfoil hat offers sufficient protection.
Posted by: Walt | Mar 2 2023 1:32 utc | 36
So the main topics today are (a) crickets (b) cricket (c) balloons.
About (c), what puzzles me is why Biden Administration did not issue medals yet to still anonymous heroes who prevailed over this menace. Americans can sleep soundly again, but they do not know who saved them -- apart from masterful tactics of Biden. First, lull the enemy into complacence -- let it fly over USA from Idaho to South Caroline (or was it North), make the short work of it when it relaxes with USA behind it, and when emboldened numerous followup arrived, tra-ta-ta-ta! All dead.
But how we can explain the lack of medals?
About (a), I like the theory than many American and Canadian diplomats in Havana had pre-damaged brains.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 2 2023 2:06 utc | 37
Having lived in a building with crickets, I can assure everyone from firsthand experience that crickets are, on their own, quite enough to drive people insane and make them desperate to leave.
Posted by: Dalit | Mar 2 2023 2:19 utc | 38
James @ 7:
The only cricket-related issue that the CIA may claim any expertise -if that is the right term - on, is trying to keep former Pakistani allrounder and captain Imran Khan away from politics.
Posted by: Jen | Mar 2 2023 2:49 utc | 39
@Stonebird | Mar 1 2023 19:09 utc | 12
Humans should be used to it by now. After all the nuclear power source at the center of the solar system has been producing enormous quantities of microwaves for billions of years.
There are a lot of things to worry about, but unless you live in front of a radar antenna, or talk to yourself on a powered up 90s flip-phone, this is not one of them. In the US about half as many people die of brain or upper spine tumors a year (from all causes) as die in firearm related deaths (ditto), and we don't worry about the former, so why be concerned about the latter?
Posted by: Hermit | Mar 2 2023 3:04 utc | 41
@45 deliriumtremens | Mar 2 2023 0:47 utc
Thank you for the Hawkwind clip. That was a brilliant piece of work, and I had never encountered it before. I'm a fan of both the band and the actor.
I loved the comment at YouTube: "For 7 mins it was a near perfect world"
Posted by: Grieved | Mar 2 2023 3:04 utc | 42
The second part of Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson’s Geopolitical Economy Hour presentation on de-dollarization is available. They cover only three of the last five questions on their de-dollarization talk agenda, so more next time, in a fortnight. Transcript available. Hosted Ben Norton at Geopolitical Economy dot com.
RADHIKA DESAI: Today we are continuing our discussion of de-dollarization. As many of you know we have structured our discussion around some ten questions, and last time we dealt with the first five.1 What is money?
2 What is the relation between money and debt?
3 Is money a commodity?
4 What is the theory of how the dollar serves as world money?And then because this theory so much relies on the sterling system we discussed the sterling system.
5 What is the sterling system?
What was this real basis not gold but actually empire etcetera.And then we decided that in this show we will discuss the next five questions which are,
6 How did the sterling system end?
7 What really happened between the world wars?something on which Michael has written an enormous amount and he knows a great deal.
Then we will discuss the dollar system between 1945 and 1971 which is the year when the dollar’s gold link was broken.8 How did the dollar system actually function during this time[1945-1971]?
Because we are always told that this was the time when everything was hunky-dory and the dollar system was fine until 1971; but the reality is quite different.
And then we are told that after the dollar’s gold link was broken, that this was not somehow some kind of a great disaster. On the contrary, the United States kind of pulled a fast one on the rest of the world and managed to get the dollar to function as the world’s money without the burden of linking it to gold. Is that really the case?
9 What really went on [after 1971]?
And then we finally come to the crisis of today.
10 What are the main dimensions? What are the forms that de-dollarization takes?
Posted by: suzan | Mar 2 2023 3:09 utc | 43
Crickets, ballooney, soon they'll be afraid of their own shadows. Indeed, there aint no rest for the wicked.
Posted by: Robert Macaire | Mar 2 2023 3:43 utc | 44
Cicadas not crickets, much louder, very noisy bug, common in Cuba.
As for scrambled egg brain, directed micro wave devise common in spy craft. The Russians perfected one. In Moscow, didn't matter who stayed at the US embassy there, they kept getting really sick. Took uncle Sam a while to figure it out.
Cheers M
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Mar 2 2023 3:53 utc | 45
uh oh!
from G. Doctorow's most recent:
"I have been immersing myself in Russian news, which in the past couple of days has included an assortment of separate items, or faits divers as the French would have it, which are frankly ominous when taken all together. Why ominous? Because they fit the description of WWIII that the most recent Russian talk shows say has already begun and is about to transition from hybrid war to hot war.
A couple of days ago Russian news showed images of six Yars ICBMs rolling into Moscow on their self-propelled launchers. Yars, to those who are not familiar with the Russian missile families, are the backbone of the present ground-based Russian strategic nuclear strike force. They date from 2007 and their numbers are listed in the now scrapped New Start arms limitation treaty. These solid fuel three stage rockets have a range of 12,000 km and carry multiple warheads (MIRV). Each launch unit on wheels weighs 100 tons and their route into town was carefully selected accordingly. But what are they doing in Moscow?.....
Then today Russian news informed us that a United States “Doomsday Plane,” as it is known on the street, officially a Boeing E-4 Advanced Airborn Command Post capable of supervising military operations in case of nuclear war, has landed earlier today in Iceland on its way to Europe. To Europe? Why is a Doomsday Plane going to be stationed here unless a nuclear scenario is being worked out by the US and Allied forces?....."
Posted by: michaelj72 | Mar 2 2023 4:37 utc | 46
@aye, myself & me | Mar 2 2023 1:12 utc | 49
A microwave oven causes heating by vibrating water molecules. Infrared does something similar but less selectively.
You really shouldn't allow physics to worry you so much.
Book recommendation: Science for the Citizen by Lancelot Hogben. Look for the 1956 fourth edition or later. It is the most accessible adult science book ever written.
Posted by: Hermit | Mar 2 2023 4:56 utc | 47
Oh the comments ... an exquisite treat. Induced a much needed belly laugh. Thank you kindly, one & all. :)
@ Roger | Mar 1 2023 20:52 utc | 28 & Mar 1 2023 21:42 utc | 38
@ bevin | Mar 2 2023 0:59 utc | 46
Well said. Roger, thank you kindly for the link. Cheers.
@ Opport Knocks | Mar 1 2023 21:27 utc | 35
Any foreigner stationed in Cuba (and I live with one) ...
Oh, you're in Cuba ? How are you finding the Cricket/s ?
Hermit | Mar 2 2023 3:04 utc | 56
Thanks for the reply, but the question is actually quite personal. They want to install four linkies together, at a distance of about one metre from my head when I am asleep, the other side of an interior wall. (Due to using old empty chimneys for modern installations such as electricity and telephone, fibre ops etc.)
Maybe I need a tin-foil hat when in bed?
@ Stonebird | Mar 2 2023 7:30 utc | 65 with the reported close frequency proximation....
I suggest finding out what frequencies they transmit/receive on, figure out what size wire mesh would attenuate the signal, acquire and decorate creatively.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 2 2023 7:44 utc | 51
psychohistorian | Mar 2 2023 7:44 utc | 64
For the moment they have not been able to get access. (Yes, I can be a very difficult person sometimes), however the new decorations idea has possibilities.
Sounds like a Faraday cage?
****
To those who mentioned long distance transmission, there is the genuine (probably, but widely reported) case of the Scotsman who could listen into the BBC when alone in a lonesome valley and without a radio. They finally worked out that his metallic teeth fillings were acting as "sympathetic aerials", by having him repeat what he heard from the BBC News with someone standing next to him with a radio to check word for word. (Long time ago, 40's-50's). I have no idea if this would have been "Long" or "short" wavelengths.
Iran is exercising freedom of navigation rights at American shores:
The government of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has allowed a flotilla comprised of two Iranian warships to dock in Rio de Janeiro, ignoring mounting pressure from the United States to bar them.The Iranian Navy's Makran and Dena warships, which together form the Islamic Republic's 86th flotilla of military vessels, berthed in Rio on Sunday, the port authority was quoted by Reuters as saying in a statement.
Vice Admiral Carlos Eduardo Horta Arentz, the deputy chief of Brazil's Naval Staff, approved the Iranian ships to dock in Rio between February 26 and March 4, following Lula's recent visit to Washington.
On January 28, Rear Admiral Hamzeh Ali Kaviani, the Iranian Navy's second-in-command, had said that the vessels were sailing along Latin America's western shores and were to drop anchor in Rio within a few days.
source: https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/02/27/699019/Iran-warships-dock-Brazil-Rio-de-Janeiro
This is BIG news. Can you imagine the fear and loathing spewing about in the USA right now? The hegemon will be anxious that they will launch cricket balloons.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 10:36 utc | 53
Biden kicks US poor into the gutter. Sends $ billions to Ukraine. What a mean, low life sob.
Even though inflation remains at a 40-year high, US President Joe Biden has terminated a program that provided extra food money for over 40 million of the poorest Americans.The elderly, the disabled, students, poor children and the working poor are now forced to find an average of nearly $100 more every month to spend on food. With sanctions on Russia still massively backfiring across the West, grocery prices have increased more than 11% over the last year.
The expansion of so-called “food stamps” was both popular and successful, leading to an immediate 10% reduction in the overall poverty rate and a 14% drop in child poverty.
Experts on food insecurity contend that food aid to the poor has been insufficient, and that was long before the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program started seeing cuts.
Without government involvement, citizens can only turn to charities for help. In states which have prematurely stopped the expanded food aid food banks are already reporting a 40% increase in the number of visitors.
Last year, the ruling Democrats voted to end the pandemic’s expansion of Medicaid, the federal program which provides a bare minimum of health care for the poor. At the end of this month, at least 15 million people will also lose their health insurance.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 10:48 utc | 54
Stonebird #52
Be sure to well connect two or more earth wires to the wire screen and run them to a secure earthing rod in the ground. If you are in a dry environment a slow water drip near the earthing rod will assist.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 10:55 utc | 55
Xi-Lukashenko meeting carries on 'unbreakable friendship'Chinese President Xi Jinping warmly received the visiting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Beijing on Wednesday, the main day of the latter's three-day state visit to China, a continuation of friendship after the two nations upgraded their bilateral relations to an all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership in September 2022.
Following friendly talks which Belarus media disclosed went on "much longer than planned," the two heads of state signed a joint statement on the main principles of developing exemplary relations of all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership between Belarus and China in the new era.
A big package of documents on cooperation in various areas was signed as part of the two heads of state's meeting, including economy and trade, industry, agriculture, customs, science and technology, health, tourism, sports and interregional cooperation.
More here: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202303/1286483.shtml
Posted by: West of England Andy | Mar 2 2023 14:45 utc | 56
Here's one for the brainwashed anticommunists, Vijay Prashad on the Health Care system built by the German Democratic Republic in the worst of conditions-a country devastated by war and crippled by international sanctions.
".... “Socialism Is the Best Prophylaxis,” comes from a statement made by Dr. Maxim Zetkin (1883–1965), the son of the communist and international women’s rights activist Clara Zetkin (1857–1933).
"Zetkin’s words became a widely propagated slogan in the DDR and the leitmotif for the public health care system that the DDR sought to build with and for its population, emphasising that health care must be preventative, or prophylactic, and not reactive, or merely concerned with treating illness and injury after they occur.
"Truly preventative care did not reduce health to medical treatment but focused on the general well-being of the population by continuously improving living and working conditions.
"The DDR recognised that health must be understood as a social responsibility and a priority in all policies, from workplace safety to women’s universal access to reproductive care, nutrition and check-ups in kindergarten and school, and the need to guarantee holidays for the working class.
"Zetkin’s quote also highlights how preventive care can only be realised by a system that eliminates the profit motive, which inevitably results in the exploitation of care workers, inflated prices, patents on life-saving medication, and artificial scarcity.
"The DDR created a network of medical institutions that worked to improve diet and lifestyle as well as to identify and treat ailments early on rather than wait for them to develop into more severe illnesses.
"All of this had to be built in a heavily sanctioned country where the physical infrastructure had been destroyed by the war and where many doctors fled to the West (largely because roughly 45 percent of German physicians had been Nazi Party members, and they knew that they would be treated leniently in the West while they would likely be prosecuted in the DDR and in the Soviet Union).
"The DDR’s commitment to comprehensive health care was based on the idea of social medicine (Sozialhygiene), developed by the founder of modern pathology Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902) to examine the socio-political determinants of health, and on the Soviet Semashko “single payer” health care system, developed by Nikolai Semashko, people’s commissar for health in the Soviet Union from 1918 to 1930.
"Among the key aspects of the DDR’s health care system detailed in our study are polyclinics and the community nurse system. When a person in the DDR felt sick, that person would go to a polyclinic, which would be located within their neighbourhood or workplace.
"Any person could walk into the polyclinic, inform the staff of their ailment, and see a doctor, who would, in turn, direct them to one of the clinic’s many specialist departments (such as internal medicine, oral medicine, gynaecology, surgery, paediatrics, and general medicine).
"Medical professionals were publicly employed and remunerated and could thus focus on healing the patient rather than on prescribing unnecessary tests and medicines simply to overbill insurance companies or the patients. The different medical professionals and specialists who worked in a single polyclinic consulted each other to find the best course of treatment. Furthermore, on average, 18-to-19 doctors worked in each clinic, allowing for extended hours of operations...."
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/03/02/east-germany-the-true-test-of-a-civilization/
Posted by: bevin | Mar 2 2023 17:09 utc | 57
Last night, sleeping, I tuned into a clairvoyant wavelength, as one can sometimes do. Apparently I was in contact with a superior being who was explaining to his subjects the state of affairs of his own time period in the future;
***
“When humans found they could change people genetically with vaxx’s, the Old world Directors decided to make human beings lay eggs. This would be largely more productive as women made the best workers, and would be able to concentrate more when deftly using their hands. It would be cheaper too, as laying eggs would free them from a long pregnancy. The old World directors thought of using incubators but these used up too much electricity. So, as men had become useless, they were left to “brood” on their misfortune and to sit on the eggs until they hatched. To do this they were put in cages so they could cluck together happily while waiting.
As the directors needed to increase the human food supply, it was a simple matter to increase the size of insects that were available to eat. Meat had run out a long time ago. The insects best adapted for this purpose were us crickets and cicadas. We became as big as horses ….. so being hungry, we naturally ate the Horses…. and nearly everything else we could find. Which unfortunately only left us, them and the pigs.
By then they had reduced the surface of the planet to a flat layer of solar panels. To save electricity and to save space, it was decided to build Aztec-style step pyramids made of solar Panels. Which is where we are today. Luckily they remembered to add steps up the dark side, so we have been able to conduct the obligatory rituals that allow the sun to rise every day in the morning.
I, Jiminy Cricket, of a noble Cicada taxonomy, now invite you to take part in our pre-dawn ritual breakfast, of eggs and bacon, with a side plate of that almost extinct delicacy, a tomato. When the sun is able to rise, we will be able to rub our thighs together in a gleeful cacophony, welcoming the CIA, The Cicada Intercontinental Ambassadors, to their rightful place among us…..
***
Unfortunately, at this point the cat woke me up, so I was unable to ascertain if they had cooked the eggs sunny-side up.
Lavrov at G-20 FM's Meeting in India opened with the following remarks some of which IMO are crucial:
Dear colleagues,We are grateful to our Indian friends for their warm welcome and effective leadership of the G20 and for strengthening its ties with the countries of the global South. We join in our condolences to the Governments and peoples of Turkey and Syria in connection with the devastating earthquakes.
We agree with New Delhi's call to build a common future for humanity, which is especially important in the context of the growing geopolitical confrontation. We share the practical tasks set by the Indian Presidency – strengthening multilateralism and overcoming crises in the global economy.
I would like to apologize to the Indian Presidency and colleagues from the countries of the global South for the obscene behaviour of a number of Western delegations that have turned the work on the agenda of the G2015 into a charade in an attempt to shift their responsibility for failures in economic policy to others, primarily to Russia. It is funny that representatives of those countries whose leaders admitted that since <> they had sabotaged the UN Security Council resolution and pumped Ukraine with weapons for the war against Russia tried especially hard.
Aggressive Russophobia looks especially wild when you remember that never have the Western members of the G20 lamented at its meetings about the many hundreds of thousands of victims of Washington's adventures in the Middle East under the pretext of threats to national security ten thousand miles from the US borders.
We see no alternative to the only legitimate world order embodied in the basic principles of the UN Charter. We would like to emphasise its core principles – the sovereign equality of states, strict adherence to international treaties, including universal conventions on the rights of national minorities, which were trampled by the Kiev regime to the applause of its Western masters. Russia has consistently opposed attempts to destroy the supporting structure of international law and its replacement by voluntaristic "rules" and "double standards."
The emergence of a polycentric world requires the recognition of civilizational diversity and mutual respect for interests. It is necessary to abandon the flawed logic of domination, dictate and sanctions. We welcome the rise of new centres of influence in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
Integration processes continue in the regions of the Eurasian Economic Union. Prospects are opening up for combining its potential with other multilateral associations and initiatives on our common continent – the SCO, the BRI, AND ASEAN. To this end, we intend to actively use the possibilities of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin's initiative to create a broad integration contour , the Greater Eurasian Partnership.
We will strive to democratize economic governance. We support the membership of the African Union in the Group of Twenty. We are in favour of increasing the role of developing countries in the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, and for the elimination of the Western monopoly in environmental and human rights organisations.
We observe the degradation of international economic relations provoked by the West, their transformation into weapons, including in the energy sector. Shocked by the unpunished sabotage against the Main Gas Pipelines of Nord Stream in the zone of responsibility of NATO and the EU. We insist on an honest and prompt investigation of this act of terrorism with the participation of Russia and other interested parties. We stand for ensuring energy security and access of all needy countries to energy resources at affordable prices, eliminating unfair competition. The promotion of the Green Agenda and the successful energy transition should be carried out without imposing costly models on countries with expensive technologies that carry an additional burden at the expense of national socio-economic development plans. Illegitimate sanctions, any form of violation of the freedom of international trade, market manipulation, arbitrary imposition of price ceilings and other attempts to appropriate other people's natural resources must be thwarted.
It's time to stop playing the food card. The causes of the crisis are in the actions of the West, which at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic printed trillions of dollars and euros, feverishly buying up food reserves around the world. Today, the lion's share of grain supplies from Ukraine goes at dumping prices for fodder to the European Union, and not to the poorest states. The export of Russian agricultural products is being openly hindered around the world, no matter how much EU representatives convince everyone of the opposite, who are no strangers to telling lies. Consignments of gratuitous cargoes of Russian fertilizers, in particular for Africa, are still blocked in European ports. The West shamelessly buries the well-known humanitarian initiative of the UN Secretary-General.
Against this background, Russia is diversifying economic ties and expanding trade with negotiable partners. We participate in the creation of a gas distribution hub in Turkey. In July, we are holding another Russia-Africa summit. Within the framework of BRICS, the SCO and the EAEU, we are committed to the formation of reliable transport corridors, independent payment systems, and the expansion of settlements in national currencies.
We will continue to make a significant contribution to ensuring economic stability. We are open to an equal dialogue in the G20. We hope that the Delhi summit in September this year will at least partially offset the risks created by the Selfish Policy of the West.
Hello barflies.
May I be able here to start a discussion on the best blogging platforms currently available to start your own?
I am most interested in Absolute Freedom of Speech/Thought but understand that threats of violence and encouraging self-harm is a no-go.
IOW, I guess I am looking for an outlet to be able to dump my writing without fear of the Talmudists sweeping-in to censor thought.
Any discussion on the subject would be very-much appreciated. I am looking at substack and wordpress, currently. Thoughts?
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Mar 2 2023 18:36 utc | 60
I've translated Lavrov's G20 presser and combined it with the remarks I posted above which can be read here.
////////
NC @60--
I looked at Substack and it seems the best choice given the spectrum of opinion presented there.
Thank you, karlof1.
I had thought that substack had the most buzz and b seems to link a lot to its authors.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Mar 2 2023 21:10 utc | 62
bevin #57
Another of your welcome delights bevin. Thank you.
I was reminded of Ken Loach film Spirit of '45.
Therein are great interviews with English folk and medical professionals and the creation of the National Health System and the rush of access to broadly available and affordable medical care for the majority.
Sound and adequate funding of public health is a right of all people and a primary responsibility of all elected people.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 21:25 utc | 63
karlof1 #61
I looked at Substack and it seems the best choice given the spectrum of opinion presented there.
Sound of many hands clapping...
Thank you.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 21:27 utc | 64
karlof1 #59
Thank you, Lavrov is good with words. Those are mighty fine words to read and to see Russia finally setting out the terms and detailed designs for a world of respectful human relationships is a great way to start my day.
Its good news week :)
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 21:51 utc | 65
Land of the free does it again. Always in your best interests:
Washington State to make it illegal to question vaccines?It might soon be illegal to question "vaccines" in WA state.
Check out this new proposed legislation.
During the January 24, 2023 working session and public hearing on HB 1333, the ADL representative defined “extremist views” as including those that challenge whether masks and vaccines work. However, this interpretation is NOT codified in the bill which does NOT define what is covered.
PBS Newshour already aired a 6 1/2 minute segment on this bill (when it hadn’t even gone through committee in the House yet) calling it “Model Legislation for the Nation.”
Source: https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/more-vaccines-higher-infant-mortality
Report from a peer reviewed medical journal.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 21:58 utc | 66
Orban sure is a square peg in the EU round hole.
Hungarian Prime Minister Orban's idea of calling for a European NATO without the US is unlikely to go down well with Washington. Orban suggested this in an interview with Switzerland's Weltwoche.
HO HO That will be well received by Blinken's idiots. He is also sending 10 of his useless Migs to Ukraine and the final 11th one to a museum.
Orban has a sense of humour.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 22:06 utc | 67
ooops that Orban report on nato is from anti-spiegel.ru
Translator from german needed.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 22:08 utc | 68
The godfather of capitalism (or is that Doge) has a banking problem.
The one thing a depositor never wants to hear from a bank that is holding his or her life savings is that it has doubts about its “ability to continue as a going concern.” Unfortunately, those very words appeared in a filing made yesterday by Silvergate Capital with the Securities and Exchange Commission – which pretty much guarantees that the ongoing run on deposits at Silvergate will continue with an added sense of urgency.Silvergate Capital is the owner of the federally-insured and taxpayer-backstopped bank, Silvergate Bank, which decided several years back that it would be a cool idea to become the go-to depository bank for crypto companies. One of those outfits was Sam Bankman-Fried’s now collapsed house of fraud. Accounts at Silvergate Bank included Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange, FTX; his hedge fund, Alameda Research, which prosecutors say looted his FTX crypto exchange customers; and North Dimension, a fake company promoting itself as an online seller of mobile phones, when it was actually laundering money for Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto enterprises, according to federal prosecutors.
Once the word got out about Silvergate’s ties to FTX and Bankman-Fried, a bank run ensued. On November 11, when FTX announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Silvergate CEO, Alan Lane, released this statement:
“In light of recent developments, I want to provide an update on Silvergate’s exposure to FTX. As of September 30, 2022, Silvergate’s total deposits from all digital asset customers totaled $11.9 billion, of which FTX represented less than 10%. Silvergate has no outstanding loans to nor investments in FTX, and FTX is not a custodian for Silvergate’s bitcoin-collateralized SEN Leverage loans. To be clear, our relationship with FTX is limited to deposits.”
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 22:23 utc | 69
Chas Freeman in a current interview on China:
Chas Freeman: We Must Change America to Avert War - Schiller Institute
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Mar 2 2023 22:54 utc | 70
Two Indicted Masterminds of the FTX Fraud Were Clients of Big Law Firm Sullivan & Cromwell
That is the banner headline in this report at Wall Street on Parade.
Warren Buffett called crypto 'rat poison squared" :))
On January 17, Sullivan & Cromwell law partner Andrew Dietderich filed a declaration in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware that acknowledged – after much prodding by the U.S. Trustee – the more than 20 legal engagements Sullivan & Cromwell had been involved in with Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Group before it filed for bankruptcy on November 11, 2022. According to the declaration, the law firm’s legal work began 15 months prior to the collapse of the firm. (See our previous report, Sam Bankman-Fried, BlockFi and Sullivan & Cromwell: A Viper’s Nest of Conflicts and Intrigue.)This does not look good for the 144-year old law firm because the Securities and Exchange Commission is now charging that FTX was a fraud from the very beginning and Sam Bankman-Fried illegally used FTX customer funds from the very beginning. Making the situation even more dicey for Sullivan & Cromwell, its former law partner, Ryne Miller, was employed as General Counsel at FTX US as this fraud was expanding.
Raising reputational risk not only to Sullivan & Cromwell but also to the federal court system, none of the above information stopped the presiding judge in the FTX bankruptcy case, Judge John Dorsey, from signing an order making Sullivan & Cromwell the lead law firm overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings of the more than 100 companies involved in Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto house of cards. Sullivan & Cromwell has already billed more than $20 million in legal fees in the bankruptcy case along with more than $239,000 in expenses – including more than $20,000 for “Conference Room Dining” and “Meals – Overtime.” (See Judge John Dorsey Has Effectively Privatized Justice in the FTX Bankruptcy Case.)
Yes I did post this a few days ago but it is a vital context here today so that we can grasp the enormity of this hemorrhage in trust.
The vampire squid has its tentacles wrapped around the testicles of the USA banks like we saw back in 2008. Here is a quote from the report in my post at #69:
Another way that Silvergate apparently met the run on the bank was to obtain $4.3 billion in advances from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco – a program meant to support housing for the poor. (See Four Crypto-Friendly Banks Are Being Bailed Out with Billions from a Federal Housing Program.)There were more troubling phrases in Silvergate’s revelations to the SEC yesterday, such as the fact that Silvergate can’t file its annual report for the full year of 2022 (Form 10-K) on time; it needs more time to “record journal entries.” Equally troubling was the phrase that “its independent registered public accounting firm” needs more time “to complete certain audit procedures, including review of adjustments not yet recorded and the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.”
You can read Silvergate’s full statement to the SEC at this link.
In after hours trading yesterday, following the news of Silvergate’s statement to the SEC, its stock price fell by another 30 percent. Based on its closing price at 4 p.m. yesterday, it has lost 90 percent of its market value over the prior 12 months.
Silvergate has other troubles as well. It’s under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice; it’s being sued by multiple plaintiffs seeking class action status; and Reuters reported in February that another crypto exchange kingpin, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, had suspiciously moved $400 million at Silvergate Bank.
message to self - plant potatoes, make sauerkraut, hatch chickens...
Good luck westies ;)
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 22:56 utc | 71
Dr John Campbell forced to apologise yet again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3vY2LyQn1A
Brave soul that he is and all the more strength to his arm for calling a leach out as bad medicine.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 23:00 utc | 72
uncle tungsten @ 71
Fascinating, thanks. It's going tits up like 2008 only this time they won't tell you, but you'll find out anyway when you're out on the street begging for a dollar for a cup of coffee.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Mar 2 2023 23:18 utc | 73
BIG news on the pyramid front and the success of the muon scan project at the Great Pyramid. New chambers proven and one has been endoscope filmed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tp2uOFGK7s
Another great day for good science.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 23:38 utc | 74
LightYearsFromHome #73
"begging for a dollar for a cup of coffee."
I am unlucky enough to have to pay five times that for a coffee at the store. Home coffee is maybe a dollar thankfully. I love fresh ground coffee the rest is just freeze dried boot polish.
It will be interesting to watch the economic fallout through these days. If the westies have lost the plot with their frankenstein capitalist model then the multipolar world order and new alliances outside of the $US will experience a rush of members from across the non-westie world.
I must look at data on trade volumes between nations as we have to recognise that the USA does not make so much stuff any more and a crash there may be not so bad for some other westies (UK excluded) other than banks being burned. Nationalised economies on the horizon perhaps?
It could save us from military adventurism led by the USA.
I look forward to China being saved from strenuous military response to repeated insults and provocations.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 23:49 utc | 75
uncle tungsten @75--
Thanks for your replies! I get whole bean French Roast coffee in 2-pound bags for $10, which lasts about one month for the two of us.
If you haven't yet, I can't suggest strongly enough that this fourth episode of the Desai/Hudson show be read/watched. I was able to get a few questions related to it answered today during the quarterly Patreon Zoomcast with Hudson that I intend to write an article about which I hope to finish tomorrow that requires the prior knowledge that show provides.
Uncle Tungsten and karlofi.
re coffee. Buy the green beans- at half the price of roasted. Roast them yourself in a skillet on an open flame. Just roast enough for a few days- roast coffee deteriorates very quickly.
You can tell by the colour if they are done
Its easy, if it wasn't and if it didn't taste much better, I wouldn't do it. My wife came back from Cuba where she'd seen coffee growing peasants doing it. We've done it ever since
Posted by: bevin | Mar 3 2023 0:47 utc | 77
So Iran has found some lithium deposits:
Iran discovers world’s second largest lithium reserve
Think of all the people this will have in a tizzy. The Izzies will have a cow.
This should help out Eurasia if the S. American sources get embargoed.
Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 3 2023 1:01 utc | 78
I always keep my (roasted) coffee in the freezer, if I have room, beans or ground. Keeps it from going rancid. YMMV. Most important thing, sometimes I think only thing, with coffee is 'fresh', not gone rancid, although how it is roasted means a lot. But even crappy roasted beans, if fresh, will beat the pants off anything that has been oxydized and gone "off".
Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 3 2023 1:13 utc | 79
bevin @77--
Interesting about green beans. Thanks!
/////
Today's Patreon Zoom meeting with Dr. Hudson from my perspective was very dull. What he did say was further evidence related to the sort of Anti-Human Obama is/was and how that played in the recent mayoral election in Chicago. Those comments should be on the transcript which will eventually be published at Hudson's website. He also had scathing words about Gen. Douglas MacArthur and how he furthered Fascism in Japan after WW2. My questions related to dedollarization were partially answered and anticipated what he and Desai will talk about in their next episode in ten days. I gained enough to write an article on the overall topic related to current events. The #1 concern remains the same as in 1944--imbalances between economies/nations and how to solve them equitably/democratically, in the current case between China and much of the RoW, whereas in 1944 the problem nation was the nascent Outlaw US Empire.
But there are other problems besides just removing the dollar as the international currency and those are the institutions controlled by the Empire, not just IMF and World Bank but all the various settlement banks located within the Empire or its vassals. This provides some excellent examples. Yes, I have a plan.
As I said, today's meeting was boring for me primarily because I already know Hudson's personal history and much of what he's already written about, but I know that's untrue for most, so I grin and bear it as there's always some tidbit that I never heard before. He did say that his new book, The Collapse of Antiquity, should be out beginning next week. He did disclose his daily routine and what news sources he reads, Moon of Alabama being one, so b ought to be proud. Hopefully that will make the transcript. That's it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Metro#Statistics
Posted by: West of England Andy | Mar 1 2023 17:41 utc | 2
For subway/train buff, the statistics of Moscow Metro are interesting, offering damning contrasts with New York subway, unlike the latter, the Moscow Metro is at par with largest and most up-to-date system.
Number one, timetable fullfilment 99.96%. If you rely on Moscow Metro, you have 1/2500 chance of being late.
Number two, check the projected completion dates of expansion project. Big Circle line, in blue, is mostly dashed line on the map you can see, initial stations were completed in 2018, and the final completion was pencilled for 2023. And it DID happen. And this is not the only infrastructure project in Russia, or a foreign project of RosAtom that is completed on time -- and within budget.
Number three, Moscow metropolitan area keeps expanding, and it is not just administration, schools and offices, but a lot of industry as well. Keeping it together, requires infrastructure, and road congestion, including divided highway, is reputed to be nighmarish. But the subway runs the same brisk speed from before dawn till midnight (?) and ON TIME, and it is well connected to local buses, so any longer ride is best done on subway.
St. Petersburg also has extensive subway system, other cities, not so much, but that does not mean that they lack public transit.
Of course, with new technologies and in industries more affected by sanctions, this is not always the case.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 3 2023 2:37 utc | 81
Anyone know about a condition that turns fingernails, teeth, whites of eyes, and earlobes into a slight sheen of blue? My wife has been going to the doctors for over two years trying to figure this condition out. Today, she went to the dentist who noticed the blue sheen on her teeth, did some quick investigating and is guessing it's a hemoglobin blood issue. Needless to say, I'm going to be pissed if the dentist turns out to be correct. Making me wonder about my doctors, they're still stuck on investigating it as a dermatology issue... Any info or tips about this condition will be appreciated. Thanks in advance fellows!
Posted by: nathan in WA US | Mar 3 2023 3:33 utc | 82
London No2Nato No2War event:
The anti-Nato event they tried to stop (33 min)
https://youtu.be/watch?v=MtNmgyOpINI
Posted by: Browser | Mar 3 2023 4:42 utc | 83
[email protected] symptom, so odd, I'm almost afraid to ask, is she vaxxed?If not it's ruled out off the bat, but if she is, there is a ninety page Manufactures adverse affects PDF floating round, it may be in there.
I know someone who's read most of the adverse affects doc so I'll ask them anyway.
Cheers M
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Mar 3 2023 5:03 utc | 84
Regarding "Havana Syndrome": These accusations were, from the very first, obviously a case of popular hysteria magnified by national security delusions. What is slightly interesting to note is that in all Western media outlets, none was more enthusiastic at promoting it than the BBC. I feel certain that the BBC had a desk dedicated to pushing the story. On average they produced a new hysteria amplifying story on the subject once every three weeks. This went on for more than a year. The fact that their last story promoting the idea that Cuba had some Bond villain like microwave weapon was just before the Russian SMO (and no more after that) shows that it's likely the same propagandists are too busy with their new focus to keep pushing up the Havana Syndrome nonsense.
6 Dec 2020
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55203844
17 July 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57875322
25 August 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58322593
9 Sept 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-58396698
9 Sept 2021
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09vfr0l
21 Sept 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58632145
24 Sept 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58675144
9 Oct 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58852437
13 Oct 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58893344
13 January 2022
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59986297
20 January 2022
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60068483
2 Feb 2022
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60237839
Posted by: promptcritical | Mar 3 2023 5:44 utc | 85
"Anyone know about a condition that turns fingernails, teeth, whites of eyes, and earlobes into a slight sheen of blue?"
Posted by: nathan in WA US | Mar 3 2023 3:33 utc | 82
Yes, look up Appalachian Blue People:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Fugates
Posted by: promptcritical | Mar 3 2023 5:48 utc | 86
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 23:00 utc | 72
Dr John Campbell forced to apologise yet again.
....................................................
Sad to see him swallowing whole and regurgitating the US media recycling of the China Virus propaganda, highlighted by b a couple of days ago (The Context Of The New Anti-China Campaign, Feb 28). He was going well before on the vaccine damage story, but that was difficult to sit through.
Posted by: Walt | Mar 3 2023 5:52 utc | 87
FYI: Some very sad tidings:
Living on a Deadline in the Nuclear Age. Some Personal News From Daniel Ellsberg
Dear friends and supporters,I have difficult news to impart. On February 17, without much warning, I was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer on the basis of a CT scan and an MRI. (As is usual with pancreatic cancer – which has no early symptoms – it was found while looking for something else, relatively minor). I’m sorry to report to you that my doctors have given me three to six months to live. Of course, they emphasize that everyone’s case is individual; it might be more, or less. ...
Posted by: JMF | Mar 3 2023 10:13 utc | 88
G20 in India:
"External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar highlighted “abnormal” state of ties and need for peace on the LAC in Thursday’s talks with Chinese counterpart Qin Gang"
Reply:
"Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in talks with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar called on India to look at relations “in the context of once-in-a-century changes in the world” and to put the border issue “in the proper place”, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday."
My translation: the border demarcation conflict between the two Asian giants since 73 years is of secondary importance to the CPC compared to the US animosity since 2 years vs the PRC.
If the PRC wants India's support it should settle the border now! Surely a reasonable compromise can be found, which would benefit both sides. The only ones who like this old sore are the (ex?)colonial powers.
Posted by: Antonym | Mar 3 2023 10:20 utc | 89
Posted by: Antonym | Mar 3 2023 10:29 utc | 90
Roscosmos tested the first krypton-powered electric rocket engine for the Sphere project
The SPD-70M engine was tested at OKB Fakel, demonstrating its stable operation and reliable launch parameters.
The engine meets all the requirements for the Project Sphere spacecraft!
Traditionally xenon has been used as the working substance for plasma engines. But in recent years its price on the market has increased, which has intensified scientific research for the use of more affordable propellants. A possible alternative - krypton, the cost of which, according to various estimates, 5-10 times less than xenon. At the same time it is possible to obtain acceptable parameters of plasma engines.
In December 2022 Roscosmos began research work (https://www.roscosmos.ru/38580/). The task is to investigate the possibility of using alternative working bodies to xenon in electric rocket engines
Posted by: hankster | Mar 3 2023 10:53 utc | 91
Whenever the subject of 'Havana Syndrome' comes up I am reminded of a time when many of the mob in our department came down with a disease which some actually wondered may be contagious, RSI or repetitive strain injury.
It didn't affect us at all in the territory, we were just too busy steering our fellow citizens into the myriad of job & training vacancies that kept coming at us nearly as fast as the swathes of blow-ins from 'down south' were arriving in the Top End.
However 'down south' was another matter where a deliberately created 'recession' was driving thousands a week outta work and onto the dole.
The weird thing was that we were no less busy, often busier in fact but our southern colleagues were overwhelmed by a seemingly hopeless task of finding many many unskilled and semi skilled workers employment, a situation that was eventually resolved with a vast assortment of on the job & off the job training programs - that is another issue, the fact was our colleagues were dropping like flies as some offices experienced as many as 24 out of 30 staff being placed on leave as they came down with RSI. Of course many in the boss class claimed they were shirkers but as a national delegate for the union representing more than 80% of the staff employed by the union, I got involved and quickly discovered that apart from a few bludgers the vast majority were experiencing some type of inflammation & great pain. It didn't take a Carl Jung or Sigmund Freud to work out that these cases were greatly contributed to by the stress & feelings of helplessness many staff were experiencing. This was proven once we looked at the cases compared to unemployment rates regions were suffering. It was close to a one to one co-relation.
Not that the bosses ever acknowledged that, however as changes were made so that staff had actually viable solutions via education and training to offer their customers the RSI rates receded.
All of this is a long way round explaining what is prolly going on with state & cia staff working in many nations.
Blind Freddie has for close on 10 years been able to see that amerika's attempts to bulwark the amerikan empire have been a huge fail; for one reason or another (switching to vaping is a probable initial cause) a handful of state/cia staff came down with A HREF="https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/tinnitus">tinnitus , others learned of it and the stress they were feeling working for a corrupt, criminal & failing enterprise (the amerikan empire) has caused many of 'em to psychosomatically contract the same condition.
For me that explanation which is supported by contemporaneous reality is the most likely 'cause' of Havana syndrome.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Mar 3 2023 11:09 utc | 92
bevin #77
Thank you. I will charcoal roast some as soon as I find a source.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 3 2023 11:12 utc | 93
Walt #87
My post was tongue in cheek. He dumped hard on the mask science when he could. A few months ago he blew the whistle loud and clear on the Boston University gain of function paper published late 2022.
One must respect that John Campbell is an educator with a global audience among his 2.5 million subscribers. His continued presence on utoob is vital across Africa and many other continents. His service as a living medical encyclopedia has no peer. He won't sacrifice his immense human benefit and nor should he.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 3 2023 11:32 utc | 94
Posted by: Debsisdead | Mar 3 2023 11:09 utc | 92
Very good explanation, Debsisdead. It gets to us all.
Posted by: juliania | Mar 3 2023 11:44 utc | 95
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 3 2023 2:01 utc | 80
Thanks, karlof1. I understood the first part of this latest Hudson/Desai talk a bit better than I did their previous ones defining money as debt, because there was that practical example of lend-lease and the hidden obligation to that which affected, as I poorly understand, the demise of sterling, and gave the US such an advantage, a real advantage,after the war. The general perception, I think, was that the US was being generous because the war was affecting everyone, that Britain's actual participation in the war, with physical losses, was freeing the US which was less affected, so that balanced out and was a win-win for the US.
I have to say I am very reluctant to give up that view. Gonna think about it some more as I try to go back to sleep ;)
Posted by: juliania | Mar 3 2023 12:30 utc | 96
Walt #87 My post (Mar 2 2023 23:00 utc | 72) was tongue in cheek.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 3 2023 11:32 utc | 94
I'm glad you clarified that Unc. I read that before my 2nd eye was open this morning and
felt like challenging. So OK, and thanks for posting the link. Campbell makes a sincere
apology with no half-stepping. In admitting he was wrong he rightly points out what I think
is a take-away quote, 'That's how science progresses'.
Posted by: waynorinorway | Mar 3 2023 12:53 utc | 97
Posted by: West of England Andy | Mar 1 2023 17:41 utc | 2
I do note however Siemens is in breach of contract on supply of high-speed trains claiming Sanctions prohibit delivery............not just compressors.......
So it looks like CRRC is getting ever more business as Europe retires..........
https://blog.bizvibe.com/blog/top-10-largest-rolling-stock-companies
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Mar 3 2023 13:15 utc | 98
juliania@96
Fight that instinct towards generosity! In capitalist society it has no place.
The story of the Second World war is rather simple: the British Empire paid for its economic costs, the Red Army won it at enormous human cost. And Wall Street lent the money at interest which it collected in full. America went back to work.
The story of Keynes at Bretton Woods meeting, in Harry Dexter White, the real face of the US ruling class is instructive. It took the economist a while to work it out but it soon became evident that, underneath the bonhommie and courtesy, the US felt that it had Britain exactly where it wanted it, ready to pay though it could only do so by sacrificing its industry, its working class and its colonies.
There was only one alternative for the British and that was revolution- throwing off the leadership of the right wing Labour government and pushing the reform agenda through to its logical conclusion, not just nationalisation but workers control. And, most important, a reversal of Britain's role in suppressing communist uprisings across Europe and entering into a defensive alliance with the Soviet Union.
Had that been done (and there was almost no chance that it would have been attempted, or was even seen as a possibility) there would have been no NATO, the Soviet Union would have had the "thaw" its people, and the Red Army, desired with such fervour. No longer encircled and threatened it would have reversed course and rebuilt the ultra democratic soviets, Europe would have had the socialism that its people wanted, the empires would have been dissolved.
The lives of tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of victims of anti-communism of post war imperialism would have been saved, their productive value preserved, the world a far, far better place.
The satrapy that is so evident today in the relations between the UK and the USA began in the War. It was confirmed by the British government's refusal to act on behalf of the people by refusing to tax them with the wartime debt (which in most countries, Germany for example, was written off). Once that step was taken the history of the era was written: the UK would become Wall Street's subordinate, debt collector, enforcer, and its ruling class its pensioner.
That was the end of British history.
Posted by: bevin | Mar 3 2023 14:32 utc | 99
Note for Nathan, or anyone that still follows the madness.
In the Pfizer data dump for vaxx "side affects", there is a section on hemoglobin issues, one issue being, were the subject has a 'blue tinge'.
Open sourced from Pfizer for anyone wishing to fact check.
So Nathan, if your spouse is jibbed, that may account for her condition.
Cheers M
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Mar 3 2023 14:52 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
unfortunately reporting on Cuba's crickets will only produce more crickets. i mean, some new evidence just emerged in the Jon Bonet Ramses case...and it's on the runway!
i like to watch these "traveling around US homeless camps" videos and have a good laugh. at the audience for these videos. it's not possible to grasp the misery and degradation, the hostility and cruelty, the filth, moral and physical, everywhere. and the pretense, put on by churches and bureaucracies, that this society gives the tiniest shit. kids who've been physically disabled because they've spent so much of their lives, by the age of 18 or 20, hunched over, scanning for a coin, a butt, a bottle, a lotto ticket, a bill, a piece of food, on the sidewalk or in the trash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vc6CHRrtH8
(not endorsing any of the opinions, just the video, speaks for itself)
and people do not think they breathe this filth in the air, drink it their water, eat it in their food, watch it on their TVs, and learn it in their schools (where did you learn that if you don't brag about yourself and perform in certain ways, you don't deserve to eat? not from your classmates, from your teachers.)
nope. people are too smart to have this society's diseases permeate and saturate every molecule of their being. whereas the truth is people look the other way, incl about covid, because the trash and filth and degradation and humiliation of this culture is INSIDE THEM.
people incapable of grief, who haven't lost anything themselves, and consider themselves sophisticated because they don't care about a child losing his grandma to covid. (but you care about kids being 'groomed'! lol. what a bunch of horseshit.)
like that blind dude said, they've got us all living
just enough
just enough
for the city...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc0XEw4m-3w
think you care how america looks to a blind person?
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Mar 1 2023 17:40 utc | 1