A short, hard-hitting piece by PCR last week:
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2023/05/25/insouciant-americans-have-doomed-america-to-tyranny/

Posted by: Scorpion | May 28 2023 14:01 utc | 1

Sputnik is running a live update thread on the second round of the Turkish presidential election here: https://sputnikglobe.com/20230528/live-updates-turkiye-goes-to-vote-in-presidential-election-run-off-1110645630.html

Posted by: West of England Andy | May 28 2023 14:26 utc | 2

https://eng.mil.ru/files/%20Briefing%20by%20Chief%20of%20Nuclear,%20Chemical,%20and%20Biological%20Protection%20Troops%20General%20Lieutenant%20Igor%20Kirillov%20on%20U.S.%20military-biological%20activity.pdf

This topic interests me mucho but cannot open the link even using China VPN. Can any kind soul please get a different link or suggest how I might access (had terrible case of Lyme Disease for 20 years, partly because 'the science' all doctors say they follow had a made-up simulation of how fast it could spread from Lyme Connecticut based on the typical annual migration of a tick (something like 3 yards) making it therefore impossible for anyone where I was living to contract it and so it was never tested for nor diagnosed. Only in recent years has this fallacious theory been put to rest.

Because as it happens just about every land-roaming creature including birds who feed on the ground or nest in trees have been bitten by ticks and then spread the pathogens to their offspring. That means nearly all cats, dogs, rats, mice and songbirds in North America (and now also Mexico). Lyme Disease was in part developed on Plum Island, a biowarfare lab using ex-Nazi scientists among others. There was a leak at some point - mentioned the papers. One of the main vectors being studied was ticks. If some of them got out and infected some birds who flew to Lyme and elsewhere nearby and those birds were in turn bitten by local ticks on the mainland who infected more birds.... well, so it goes. Though a bacterial infection (with viral cocktail chasers) like covid it is hard to treat because it is not an entirely natural organism, though I think with Lyme it's more the hybridization of bacterial and viral pathogens - combining swine flu derivatives in with borrelia spirochetes or some such - which make it hard for immune systems to handle.

Anyway, I simply cannot download the file and would very much like to.

Posted by: Scorpion | May 28 2023 14:35 utc | 3

There is a lengthy (2h) interview with Maria Zakharova by a German journalist, unfortunately it is only available in German but he just published the transcript which can be easily translated in the browser:

https://www.anti-spiegel.ru/2023/der-komplette-text-des-interviews-mit-maria-sacharowa/

It's quite worthwhile...

Posted by: Zet | May 28 2023 14:38 utc | 4

This whole Ukraine and Taiwan fiasco is just a means to an end; to get the Third World War going so that the REAL rulers of the world (the Rothschilds, Rockefellers etc.) can get their One World Government. And global communism. You'll own nothing and be happy, as Schwab says. They'll take cash out and microchip every single one of us. Then, if you try to protest, they'll freeze your bank account and you can't even buy food, or anything else for that matter. Then, we will be their slaves. Leaders from both sides (West and East) are in on this "New World Order" plan. They just act like they're enemies, to fool people. And they're succeeding at that. Even the barflies here seem to completely miss the big picture, and cheer on Russia/China even though they're not really the good guys (well, the leaders aren't. Normal people are just normal people.).

Here's a good article to read: https://tinyurl.com/2p8re79x

Posted by: just somebody | May 28 2023 14:39 utc | 5

thank you b! and thanks to the many posters who contribute to moa..

the simplicus and indian punchline articles are a good overview of where we are with the ukraine nemesis now...

@ juliania - have you read crime and punishment? i was thinking of reading that next..

Posted by: james | May 28 2023 15:03 utc | 6

@ Zet | May 28 2023 14:38 utc | 4

thanks.. there is an option to read it in german or english shown at the top of my screen.. this is for others to know.. i am reading it in english now, without need of putting it into a translator..

Posted by: james | May 28 2023 15:05 utc | 7

The Pentagon has resumed the reporting of (some) overseas military deaths, what they call "casualties," on its "news releases" web site. There are two current reports on two non-combat deaths in Kuwait. One army death was here under Operation Spartan Shield, which "builds partner capacity in the Middle East to promote regional self-reliance and increase security." The other Kuwait death was here under Operation Inherent Resolve, a multinational military formation established by the U.S.-led international coalition against the Islamic State with the stated aim to "degrade and destroy" the organization.

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 28 2023 15:12 utc | 8

Re: Posted by: just somebody | May 28 2023 14:39 utc | 5

Makow's site makes me nervous, if for no other reason than that he pokes various taboos in the eye. Could be good thing; could be deliberate provocation.

That said, there is something compelling about the narrative portrayed in the article, namely that the West-Bad versus East-good narrative is being deliberately engendered so that at some point Good-East can rescue the world from the evil capitalist West and we can all submit to a more equitable and multi-polar NWO free from the evils of private property, personal responsibility, common law, individual and collective sovereignty / self-government and all the rest of it.

But THAT said, there was a good comment following the article:

Paul S said (April 22, 2019):

I don't think this is an issue of "two" NWOs, East and West. I think it's rather an issue between (a) an ancient, Eurasian transcontinental "Silk Road" model of commerce, which this article calls the "East"; and (b) a more modern sea-faring model of commerce which has been dominated by the "Island Nations" of the US and UK for the past 500 years or so, which this article calls the "West".

Until the development of large-scale railway systems in the late 19th century, the "Island Nation" model of commerce remained relatively safe, but starting in the early 20th century, the "Island Nations" began to compete directly w/ Eurasian countries -- principally Russia and China -- for dominance in the commercial trade routes connecting Western Europe and the Far East owing to the expansion of railroads throughout Eurasia. This concept was first formalized by Halford MacKinder and is known as the MacKinder Principle, or the Eurasian Heartland Model.

The Eurasian Heartland Theory was probably the principle geopolitical driver for most events that occurred in the 20th century, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. For instance, WWI can be seen as an expression of this conflict, with one of the principle flash points that ignited WWI being the British desire to disrupt completion of the Baghdad-Berlin Railway, an early attempt to resurrect the Silk Road. Today, these attempts to resurrect the Silk Road and bypass the Island Nations is gaining traction with projects like China's Belt and Road Initiative.

I don't think the "Synagogue" is scripting things to "invert" East and West, I think instead -- and predictably -- the "Synagogue" simply backs whoever it thinks it can make the most money off of, with the other guy being the "bad" guy.

For a long time, the Western "Island Nations" had this backing and enjoyed the good publicity that went with it. As the Silk Road model becomes more economically viable, I would expect this backing and publicity to gradually invert.

The resistance to merging "East" and "West" doesn't necessarily originate just with the Western view of themselves as being "morally superior" .. the Chinese see nothing whatsoever that is desirable about being gay, or transgender, or running a "democracy" the way Americans have done, nor do they see anything "morally superior" about any of this.

One Chinese gentleman I know recently told me that when translated into Chinese, the U.S. Constitution reads more like a serial killer's manifesto than a model for responsible governance -- the only way to translate concepts like "individual liberty" into Chinese is to use terms associated w/ criminal misconduct.

Slavic peoples as well have an ancient enmity, and an ancient hatred against the Western nations grounded in their hatred of the Latin Church, and which dates back in time literally to the Etruscans and the Founding of Rome.

Westerners have long since forgotten this history, but in the East they're no doubt watching the collapse of Western Europe with no small amount of Schadenfreude -- and possibly even plotting to retake territory that was lost to Western nations in the distant past. These are far bigger, and far more insurmountable "barriers to merging" then "Western morality" -- which is largely non-existent, and is easily changed and easily purchased (for a cheap price) where it does exist.

The Western, especially American, model of "morality" is grounded on an Enlightenment view that it's OK to separate Church and State. While it's great to permit private citizens to worship however they please, the State itself needs to have some moral guidance over and above what a bunch of attorneys think is "good and right".

Had America kept itself on a more-or-less Christian course, things might be different today, but this is no longer possible and the self-destruction of American is today a given, regardless of what any 'Synagogue" is doing or scripting.

It certainly appears that Western elites are hell-bent on bringing the West down for whatever reason, so they are steadily undermining it on multiple fronts - moral, political, social, economic, military, religious, self-demonizing and so forth, all of which is clearly the result of planning and organized implementation. The article's East-good West-bad NWO theory better explains it than the more popular 'they are all stupid' explanation (which is no doubt generally true as well, but discounts very smart elements, ultimately deluded and stupid they still may be from a wiser perspective). I personally do not buy the current dominant narrative that East and West are two opposing forces; there seems to be a global force as well working within both sides towards some sort of end involving global regime change.

Posted by: Scorpion | May 28 2023 15:15 utc | 9

Posted by: Scorpion | May 28 2023 14:35 utc | 3

It's a powerpoint presentation.
Here you go:
https://eng.mil.ru/files/Briefing%20by%20Chief%20of%20Nuclear,%20Chemical,%20and%20Biological%20Protection%20Troops%20General%20Lieutenant%20Igor%20Kirillov%20on%20U.S.%20military-biological%20activity.pdf

There was an extra space there ".../files/%20Briefing..." instead of ".../files/Briefing..."

Posted by: CPY | May 28 2023 15:18 utc | 10

fyi

The End of US Hegemonism in West Asia - International Manifesto Group

~ 2 hours - great line up - grab a pot of coffee and a few snacks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzWprhtT39I

Just streamed a few hours ago -

Posted by: Don Firineach | May 28 2023 15:36 utc | 11

Posted by: CPY | May 28 2023 15:18 utc | 10

Thxs. But same. Access denied.

Posted by: Scorpion | May 28 2023 15:41 utc | 12

Scorpion@3
As I was reading your @1 I was actually being bitten by a tick-must have migrated from the dog- which I managed to extract alive.
Where did you contract Lyme?

Posted by: bevin | May 28 2023 15:46 utc | 13

I strongly recommend the Fiona Hill lecture noted above and which formed the main focus of the Gillespie opinion piece in Irish Times [has it received any other mentions in western_MSM ??]

Fiona Hill, fellow at the Robert Bosch Institute and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, writes about the Rest's rebellion against the United States in this year's Lennart Meri Lecture delivered at the Lennart Meri Conference 2023.

More than a year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the brutal war Vladimir Putin ignited has transformed, as major regional conflicts often do, into a war with global ramifications. This has not, as Vladimir Putin and others claim, become a proxy war between the United States or the "collective West" (the U.S. and its European and other allies) against Russia. In the current geopolitical arena, the war is now effectively the reverse—a proxy for a rebellion by Russia and the "Rest" against the United States. The war in Ukraine is perhaps the event that makes the passing of pax Americana apparent to everyone.

Read on for full lecture:

https://news.err.ee/1608977948/fiona-hill-ukraine-in-the-new-world-disorder

Posted by: Don Firineach | May 28 2023 15:54 utc | 14

@bevin

Key marker is a spreading red Bulls-eye at site of bite - but not everyone gets this marker - I did and went on 3 week antibiotic quickly - others not so lucky as if it gets into system very difficult both to diagnose and treat ...

Dogs can pick up the ticks from brush and hedges forest etc and also suffer from it ..

Thank the US dodgy-bio program

Go see doc on Monday.

Posted by: Don Firineach | May 28 2023 16:01 utc | 15

Posted by: just somebody | May 28 2023 14:39 utc | 5

Utterly ridiculous. The NWO or OWG that the Schwabbs are talking about isn't friggin communism. In communism the workers own everything, FFS. When they say you will own nothing and be happy what they are saying is that you'll rent everything on a subscription model, aka rentier finance capitalism run amok. Examples already abound. Look at how Microsoft and Adobe sell (rent) access to their software (which they now call a "service") or how Uber and Lyft drivers come to "own" (they rent) their cars. Too many others to name. Stop it with the red baiting already.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 28 2023 16:11 utc | 16

Scorpion @ 3 on Plum Island theory of Lyme Disease

The scourge of Lyme disease is natural, not from a weapons lab. Complex ecology intersecting with human colonization and land use are involved. https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/29/books/books-of-the-times-germ-for-lyme-disease-also-has-its-own-story.html

Posted by: mjh | May 28 2023 16:17 utc | 17

To those having trouble with the mil.ru link on the migratory birds/avian influenza. I tried from all over the world including Turkey and b's link which appears to point to a PDF doesn't work. Here's the HTML version. Too long to excerpt/quote here.

https://eng.mil.ru/en/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12468459@egNews

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 28 2023 16:18 utc | 18

@ bevin | May 28 2023 15:46 utc | 13

Remove tick, including head. Clean well. Apply topical antibiotic immediately. If adverse symptoms appear with time, then seek professional help. Most tick bites in most people if treated immediately like above do not cause problems. Resist scratching if itch occurs.

~~

I’d like to re-recommend Ben Norton’s recent interview with Michael Hudson about his most recent book, The Collapse of Antiquity. I just picked up a copy yesterday.
If you are by chance here Juliania, the conversation addresses the roots of the split in Early Christianity, which I am sure you know all about but which may be handy reference for you to share with others. I will miss your excellent contributions.

The Arc of Time: Pro-Creditor History
May 25, 2023
https://michael-hudson.com/2023/05/the-arc-of-time-pro-creditor-history/

Posted by: suzan | May 28 2023 16:19 utc | 19

James , I recommend House of the dead by 
Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I like it a lot more than Crime and punishment. It’s not as depressing as it sounds. Really gives an interesting sample of Russian culture.

Posted by: Bartholomew Cubbins | May 28 2023 16:19 utc | 20

The Fiona Hill piece is interesting as a kind of barometer to measure some Deep State thinking. She seems to be trying to make a path between the few realists left in the foreign policy community thus filling a clear vacuum in Washington for those not infected by neoconservatives who live in absurd fantasies of world domination. She touches all the bases of the absurd Western Narrative of evil Putin's "senseless" war against Ukraine totally ignoring the obvious facts as "misinformation." These types always say that Russia had no reason to attack Ukraine and then explain that it attacked Ukraine to re-establish the Russian Empire and so on. Having said all that she's clearly resurrecting realism out of the clear and obvious failure of US policy and thus the neocons. This is an important step and gives people like Mearsheimer and Sachs some breathing room in official Washington and it's about time.

It's possible that the next administration (even if Biden "returns") will ease out the current fanatics in the administration. I believe one reason for Putin's go-slow approach in Ukraine is to hope that the fanatics will lose power in Washington so that diplomacy involving multi-polar national actors and a normal world that does not feature Cold War II.

I think part of the reason that there is a gradual revival of realism is that the need for Cold War II is no longer in play since both the right and left agree that Russia/China are "enemies" and "we" are losing that CWII. The ruling elites have already, through 9/11 and COVID established much stronger State power so there is no need to go further because we risk outright revolt if more stupid policies are continued. We know that this war has had the virtue of creating a "need" for increased military spending (in the US most military spending is fraudulent so the gravy train will continue). The West has already established a sort authoritarian uni-party in the US and Europe that sings with one voice and can enforce that one-voice so it is in the interest of the Deep State to stop creating more tension--it is in time for a little thaw at least in the USA that is falling apart with increases in mental illness, lower lifespans, the stress of woke-ism and so on.

Posted by: Chris Cosmos | May 28 2023 16:27 utc | 21

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/634991

Invoke Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty to withdraw the UK from (NATO).

[...]

1,842 signatures

[...]

At 10,000 signatures, government will respond to this petition
At 100,000 signatures, this petition will be considered for debate in Parliament

Posted by: Browser | May 28 2023 16:37 utc | 22

Posted by: bevin | May 28 2023 15:46 utc | 13

I was living on Cape Breton Island 1999-2000 running a Celtic music venue I set up on a lovely highland property with a very large, flat meadow. I used to walk through the long grasses and over streams etc. every day up and down the property which was about a mile long. Last in August I came down with a wicked flu which passed after ten days or so but then a couple of weeks later had extremely painful back ache and then a few months after that suffered from occasional partial paralysis of the legs. One night I stumbled out of the car, then fell, then had to drag myself by the arms up the three steps to the front door. Symptoms change, worsen, improve but over fifteen years seeing doctors in Nova Scotia not a single one suggested a test for Lyme.

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/29/books/books-of-the-times-germ-for-lyme-disease-also-has-its-own-story.html
Good example of why NYT is not worth reading any more. The Plum Island story is well documented. The only leap is whether or not any ticks spread the pathogens they had been doctored with. The Establishment is never going to admit they did anything. If you are truly interested, then read the book on it. https://www.amazon.com/Lab-257-Disturbing-Governments-Laboratory/dp/0060011416. Ultimately, it doesn't matter though whether it is entirely natural or not. What does matter is that it is surprisingly hard to deal with. This is a sober book by a Doctor who got it and found a way - not without great difficulty - to manage it. https://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Lyme-Practical-Solutions-Chronic/dp/0982322526

Some people can fight off the infection with their immune system. However, many have taken antibiotics several / too many times in their lives - for example I was given them every time I had a dental infection before work on the teeth which of course - I later learned - made me more susceptible to more such infections in the figure requiring more antibiotics etc. Antibiotics get rid of dangerous pathogenic infections but also weaken the entire immune system since they don't discriminate between good and bad elements in the microbiome. So many people exposed to tick bites in general but those with Lyme Disease in particular, don't do so well fighting off the pathogens.

Moreover, borrelia is a spirochete bacterium with three modalities or forms: the base form is a very small corkscrew shape which can tunnel into any type of tissue including the blood-brain barrier diaphragm where it is out of reach of immune system defenses. (It likes heart, kidneys, liver, muscles, nerve tissues, brain etc.) If antibiotics are administered it can roll into a tight ball and remain dormant like that for unknown time (possibly decades). And the third form is a biofilm which is a complex organism almost comprising millions of the bacteria grouped together; inner members have functions different to members on the outside. The biofilm form can resist antibiotics as well I think. In any case, though sometimes if caught quickly a strong does of doxycyclene can do the trick, often the bacteria will roll up and wait and then come out a few months later. Many Lyme D specialists say the condition is manageable (mainly with low inflammation diet and reduced stress) but not definitively curable.

I was bitten two other times. Once in Maryland around 2014 after which I had a terrible fever. And once in Mexico by a tick who started chewing into my thigh. I could feel its little teeth sawing away whilst I was sitting in the restaurant. Although we removed it within 20 minutes of this starting, I ended up with a one-inch depression in the thigh muscle which two years later is still there, though less so. (Scary!) That tick may or may not have had Lyme Disease pathogens in it, but the doctor who came to the hotel to treat me said that LD has entered Mexico for sure. Why not? The birds fly North to South all the time. It's all over Germany and France.

Best of luck, Bevin. If it gets bad, read Rawls book and change your diet. Then go spend a month by the ocean and bathe twice a day in it. Fresh air, sunshine, ocean, fresh fish. Even if you don't have it or don't get cured will have a great time anyway!!

Posted by: Scorpion | May 28 2023 16:42 utc | 23

Remove tick, including head. Clean well. Apply topical antibiotic immediately. If adverse symptoms appear with time, then seek professional help. Most tick bites in most people if treated immediately like above do not cause problems. Resist scratching if itch occurs.

Posted by: suzan | May 28 2023 16:19 utc | 19

Sober advice.
But few professionals will be able to help.
And also many people get Lyme from aphid form bites. The insect is so small at that stage as to be generally unnoticeable. And contrary to the medical literature, a majority of people infected don't get a noticeable 'bulls-eye' rash after being bitten and so never realize they have been bitten at all. Even full-form ticks can bite and you don't realize it. The one in Maryland that got me was noticed by a friend when I took my shirt off to swim. It was on my shoulder blade close-in enough to the neck that I couldn't see it (except in a mirror). Even though I could see it, I couldn't grasp it or feel it. (They are very well designed!) I used the ill-advised cigarette method to dislodge it (not knowing anything about ticks at that point) but it only takes them a few minutes to inject the pathogens.

It's a very tricky thing.

Posted by: Scorpion | May 28 2023 16:52 utc | 24

Related article about bird flu - US biolabs in Ukraine etc:

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/russia-claims-they-collected-evidence-avian-flu-pathogens/

Posted by: Scorpion | May 28 2023 17:01 utc | 25

Turkey’s Erdogan wins re-election as president: State media

The incumbent went into the tense second round of voting with strong momentum to win a third presidential term.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/28/turkey-presidential-election-results-3

Posted by: Don Firineach | May 28 2023 17:20 utc | 26

@Posted by: Scorpion | May 28 2023 15:15 utc | 9

Very insightful comment, Scorpion. I am 100% with you on that this can't all be because our leaders are simply stupid, even though that is also true. These Rothschild-type folks are obviously pulling the strings, as they have for quite some time. They're behind both previous world wars too. This comes from an insider Jew way back in the 50's, Benjamin Freedman, who knew what was up and decided to speak up against them, to warn American Christians what was happening. You can find his speech on the internet if you're interested. Well, he's one. Of course there are many, many others too. First world war brought us League of Nations, the second United Nations, and now this upcoming third world war will bring us One World Government. That has been their goal from the beginning, so over 200 years ago, I think. Certainly for more than a hundred years, at least, if you read the Protocols.

Also what Makow gets right is the false messiah part. That part is also in the Protocols. It's also told in the Bible. So the false messiah will tell people to take the mark of the beast, which is the microchip. They just need to get rid of cash and then we're screwed. We're literally living in the Biblical End Times. These things will happen inside 10 years, I think. And when they do, Jesus is going to come back. Hey, at least we get our savior. But Armageddon too.. And reading the Book of Revelation, my understanding is that aliens are going to also be part of that war. It says in Book of Revelation Chapter 16 that "kings of the earth AND the whole world" will take part in Armageddon. It specifies this planet and then the rest of the world. What else could it mean other than aliens? Aliens most certainly are already visiting this planet, and I'm certain some people high up in our governments know a lot more than they let on considering them. But if you've been following this topic, they're starting to come out and admit there are UAP's they cannot account for, and the internet is full of videos of UAP's/UFO's. Yes, the aliens are already here. I could tell you more but I don't think you would believe me, so maybe it's best for me to keep quiet. Let's just say, the world is in for a big shock in the coming years.

Posted by: just somebody | May 28 2023 17:22 utc | 27

Just come across this news: The Chinese government is moving to heavily regulate debt collectors, who have been accused of violence and harassment of debtors.

China’s largest debt collection agency is shutting down.

Btw, does this make CPC/China government look like to join hands with banksters to creat some sort of "New World Order" as "just somebody"@5 predicated or worried?

It is understandable that Americans/Westerners who'd like to hold on traditional values feel frustrated and even hopeless about their $$$-bought corrupt politicians and governments.

However, it is far too easy to feel defeatism rather than review what's fundmentally wrong with the system, i.e. 1% ruling elites wrote/write the constitutions, controls the setting-up of the so-called "democracy" voting process, financing their hand-picked candidates and using their media to (mis)lead the plebs to give their "sacred right" of voting selection, which in fact is just ticking one hand-picked candidate vs another, to maximise their profits at the expense of the plebs.

To change the system fundmentally would require lots of working, organising and sacrificing. Unfortunately, people are not incling to do the hard work.

Posted by: lulu | May 28 2023 17:30 utc | 28

@Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 28 2023 16:11 utc | 16

Yeah well, that's the sugar-coated version you hear when communism is mentioned. That's how you sell the concept to the masses. In reality it's all about control. Namely, to take your freedoms and rights away. Have you seen even ONE communist regime, where the workers actually owned the means of production and were better off for it? I haven't. The people are poor, with a handful of elites enjoying a life of luxury. That's what communism in reality is, and that is why the global elites want it for us all. To control the people, and take everything away from them. To those ends, communism works far better than capitalism. In capitalistic system, you're free to make yourself. Under communism, the state dictates what you can or cannot do. You cannot start your own business in a communistic system, but you can under a capitalistic one. I'm not saying capitalism is perfect, far from it, but communism is so, so much worse and we can look at history and see that for ourselves. I take it you're a communist :)? On paper it sounds good, as you said "workers own the means of production", but in reality it *never* works that way.

Posted by: just somebody | May 28 2023 17:48 utc | 29

Lindsey Graham: "The Russians are dying... it's the best money we've ever spent."

How can the American voters have continuously voted this psychopath warmonger as US senator for 20 years?!

Posted by: lulu | May 28 2023 17:51 utc | 30

@Posted by: lulu | May 28 2023 17:30 utc | 28

Well, the conspiratorially thinking individual as I am, what immediately springs to mind is again what Scorpion also noted and what was in the link I posted in my message. That is, that they're making the West look bad and the East the good guys. This would play exactly into that. They want you to see them as the good guys. If you look at China, they have a god damn social credit score system that's straight from 1984. Does that sound very good to you? Your every move is being watched over there.

I think they're playing us. Make us think they're good, when in reality they're everything but. If China is so virtuous and innocent, why do they have such a social credit score system as they do? Even Schwab is praising China and saying others should follow their lead. Think about that for a moment..

Posted by: just somebody | May 28 2023 17:52 utc | 31

And of course, the real puppet masters are not the political leaders, but as you said the 1% ruling elites (well, actually they're more like the 0,000001%). And this goes for both West and the East. It's the Rothschild-class. They own the world. That's just the sad reality. Back in 1910 they owned 1/4th of the whole worlds wealth, by now it's more than that. Of course it's all very well hidden, you wouldn't want people to know that you own the world if you owned it, would you? Especially if you're a monster, as these people are. I'm 100% certain that they're the "Beast" from the Book of Revelation, along with the world leaders they own. The "Beast" has 7 heads and 10 horns, and they're kings, the Bible says. So the Rothschild types + the world leaders are the "Beast". Pretty soon they'll introduce their own messiah, who will tell people to take the mark of the beast (that is, the microchip that acts as your wallet) and at the same time they take cash out, as they're already trying to do. And then there are the CBDC's too.. All so that they can control us more effectively.

Posted by: just somebody | May 28 2023 17:59 utc | 32

Erdogan wins .. expected, but still a major turd in the punch bowl for the West.

Posted by: Ghost of Zanon | May 28 2023 18:02 utc | 33

Thanks for all the tick advice, Don and Suzan in particular.. I have the bullseye, I think it was all removed, still kicking and wriggling, I did apply Polysporin.

re Dostoevsky I recall, half a century ago, being greatly impressed by The Idiot. But Gogol's Dead Souls beats all.

Posted by: bevin | May 28 2023 18:13 utc | 34

Happy Memorial Day weekend to all who live in the Empire.

About 50% votes counted, the present tally is closer than I would've thought:

https://www.dailysabah.com/

Posted by: Oriental Voice | May 28 2023 18:15 utc | 35

@bevin #34

3 weeks of doxycycline immediately - and maybe 10 days of amoxycillin after that ..

Bulls-eye - you have it. Kill it ...

Posted by: Don Firineach | May 28 2023 18:39 utc | 36

Again, the perceptive quality of Alastair Crooke is very apparent in his al-Mayadeen column, "The Middle East Stabilises, Against the Backdrop of a Great Unravelling":

The US stands aloof and disconsolate in the wake of the diplomatic revolution in the Middle East ... President Assad, after 12 long years of struggle, has been legitimised within the Arab sphere, and is returned as a normal, sovereign state for most of the world.

But a new mood has arisen: Anger is building across the world. To those that have been vilified, sanctioned and attacked in the name of the ‘Rules-based Order’ the message is clear: You are not alone; many peoples are voicing their anger and discontent. The divisive ‘with us’, or (be treated as extremist threat), if ‘against us’ dogma is being overthrown. US foreign policy is crumbling across the Middle East, and in Asia, Africa and South America.

In his speech, President Al-Assad spoke of the opportunity this wave of discontent and anger has provided to the Region to revise its dispositions – away from Western dominance and intervention:

“Today we are facing an opportunity to change the international situation that appears in the form of a unipolar world, a result of the dominance of the West, who lacks all ethics and principles … This historic opportunity requires the Arab World to reposition itself and invest in the positive atmosphere of reconciliation that preceded today’s summit”, Al-Assad added, referring to recent diplomatic initiatives which resulted in Saudi Arabia’s resumption of diplomatic ties with Tehran and Damascus.

President Al-Assad also stressed the need to consolidate Arab culture in the face of “modern liberalism, which targets the innate affiliations of man and strips him of his morals and identity”.

This latter point by Al-Assad -- ‘the cultural danger’ associated with contemporary woke liberalism -- is noticeably becoming a global theme, as states emphasise the wish to manage lives in their own way of being. [Italics Original]

Crooke then moves on to show little has changed within Occupied Palestine versus the bigger changes within the Region. After explaining again Zionism's internal contradictions and how they threaten it from within, he turns his gaze and closes:

America’s own structural contradictions of a hyper-financialised economy, sucking the substance from its real-economy host -- of a society living in trembling fear of a hospital bill; of despairing to put their children through college with its exorbitant fees; and a political system in near constant paralysis, a zero-sum confrontation -- are self-generated and are not external ‘demons’ (except perhaps, in the depths of the unconscious psyche).

Here is the contrast: The Region is shaking itself free from the divisions and schisms of the past. Western ‘great powers’, however, are sinking deeper into theirs. This confluence is systemically unstable: it represents an imbalance, and likely will lead to a period of sustained turmoil.

Indeed, stepping back as Crooke suggests to look at the Big Picture is both helpful and healthy as the Global Fracture continues apace. Helpful because solidarity can be seen escalating and healthy because that provides motivation and reassurance that the correct path is being followed.

For those who haven't yet, I highly suggest the latest Geopolitical Economy Hour, paying attention to Mick Dunford's contributions. Something new and grand is afoot that's being integrated with a longstanding philosophical way/path whose goals are societal balance and thus harmony, which is opposite of the clearly failed Greco-Roman Zero-sum system the West is based upon that's at the root of the Global Fracture. The world's discovered There IS an Alternative and is actively working to overthrow the dysfunctional and replace it with what's seen as functional for the majority.

Posted by: karlof1 | May 28 2023 18:46 utc | 37

If the alternative is China-style mass surveillance and social credit score systems, no thank you. Then again, no thank you also to the current status quo of the West. Both systems, frankly, suck.

Posted by: just somebody | May 28 2023 18:55 utc | 38

If the alternative is China-style mass surveillance and social credit score systems, no thank you. Then again, no thank you also to the current status quo of the West. Both systems, frankly, suck.

Posted by: just somebody | May 28 2023 18:55 utc | 39

Here are the pictures of Boris in Texas you have all been waiting for. I was hoping for a Stetson and cowboy boots but you can't have everything.

https://www.statesman.com/picture-gallery/news/2023/05/23/texas-gov-greg-abbott-former-u-k-prime-minister-boris-johnson-meeting-tour-visit-state-capitol/11941165002/

Posted by: dh | May 28 2023 19:17 utc | 40

I've been following this Aussie expat's travelogs through Russia on and off, he is apolitical and sticks mostly to subways, mega markets, mega malls, fast food, and expos. Russia apparently has a ton of markets and malls all super nice and stuffed, I've never seen such enormous well stocked stores in the EU or USA, Russians are into very wide isles and open space not all cluttered every sq ft maximized so it makes it even more appealing. All fascinating to someone who grew up in the cold war and still imagines Russia struggling to catch up.

What you see in these travelogs is a Russia more than on the rise, but risen, with prosperity at least on par with the west - "neoliberalism with Russian characteristics" - IOW old school Keynesian growth. And, like China certainly one reason the west had to slap them down. Can't have anyone out there shining a klieg light on the failures of austerity driven financialized capitalism.

Anyway, I found this industrial expo very revealing, it took China milliseconds to step into a lucrative business that the EU arrogantly stormed out on. I think most of these very expensive, very high profit machines replaced mostly German ones, so you bet Germany is in a recession and it's going to be a life long one. Russia will become a global showcase for Chinese vehicles of all types which I bet are as good and a lot cheaper than European and USA ones.

BTW many of these Chinese vehicles are made in partnership with Germany - a backdoor for Germany to avoid sanctions or more losses yet to come when the USA forces Germany out of China?

One day the war will end, people from Europe will return to Russia and find it filled with all sorts amazing Chinese cars, buses, and trucks. Instead of containing China the Ukraine fiasco will be where Chinese vehicles break out into the developed world market.

I Went to a Russian TRUCK Expo in 2023

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | May 28 2023 19:23 utc | 41

When Lindsey Graham met Zelensky he said the Russians are dying, that indicates America is spending money successfully.

What a f**king thing for a leading Empire politician to say!!! So, it's Empire's goal to kill Russians, and they think doing so with Ukrainian lives is the ideal way of accomplishing such. The ones in the Empire who say this kind of things get elected time and again. That means their constituents think precisely in the same terms. What af**ked up nation this Empire has become.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | May 28 2023 19:56 utc | 42

@ juliania - have you read crime and punishment? i was thinking of reading that next..

Posted by: james | May 28 2023 15:03 utc | 6

Yes, james. That's the classic text handed to Edward Snowden at the Moscow Airport to read. I think you will enjoy it more. The ending, anyway ;)

Posted by: juliania | May 28 2023 20:32 utc | 43

" Latest Headlines Digest - The West's Tone Drastically Shifts - Simplicus"

Nitpick, b - that should be "Simplicius" with a second "i" after the "c". Just a typo, of course.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | May 28 2023 20:56 utc | 44

@Lyme

In the German forest report "Waldstandsbericht" from few years ago.
There, I was surprised to read that a large number of "forest workers" (sensu lato) have immunity towards both encephalitis and Lyme.

Living myself in a forest I've got several hundreds of tick bites over the years (reddish or not depends from the time line and allergic reaction, doesn't say anything about either germs) - I think this is more of the same panic, and the well adversed jab "against ticks" is from, you guessed it, Pfizer.

Posted by: BG13 | May 28 2023 21:22 utc | 45

Posted by: just somebody | May 28 2023 17:48 utc | 29, 31, 38, 39

My point was merely that what Klaus Schwab was advocating there was most definitely not communism or anything like it. He's pushing for an (AI and app based) hyper-capitalist rentier model for the future economy. It's already happening, as I noted.

I also don't really care to get into debates on what alleged communist countries have and haven't done right in part because not even the USSR had Marxian style communism. It has been referred to as a placeholder for when the workers would fully assume control of their own government, or something along those lines (from a Chomsky speech I saw). I'm not a studied hard core Marxist; rather I'm a rather moderate left-socialist who would like to see a new New Deal here in the USA and to claw back control of our government from Wall Street, billionaires and the Military Industrial Surveillance Police Complex. I'm of the opinion that worker rights in the US, after a couple of decades in ascendance, began to erode precisely according to the timeline of the downfall of the USSR.

Re: your other comments, especially the part about social credit and the like. I posted this to the penultimate Ukraine thread. You think when this comes to the USA that it will be used to enact communism? That's laughable. They're aiming for digital information totalitarianism, quasi-apartheid and full control and surveillance of our lives, for profit and so that the undesirables can be contained, silenced or eliminated via whatever means TPTB have at their disposal. If we want to get all conspiratorial, something like a new pandemic for example.

Anyway, here it is. What they are hoping to implement in Ukraine is already being talked about for 'domestic' use. The UK I believe has the most CCTV cameras and facial recognition technology in the world. This isn't about "east" and "west" though, it's about finance-as-a-service rentier capitalists eliminating the last barriers to their complete penetration into every part of every market, using all the new fangled technologies. IOW, you're wasting your time worrying about China and who "looks bad" when comparing civilizational models.

https://www.racket.news/p/transcript-america-this-week-may-ba6

I recommend reading the whole (very long) conversation, but here's a relevant excerpt.

Matt Taibbi: This is a video that comes to us by way of The Grayzone and Max Blumenthal, Aaron Maté, and Anya Parampil. There was an event in Washington and Anya describes it as this way, “It was key officials and Samantha Power from USAID, were in Washington, celebrating how the Ukraine war kicked off “a new age” of “e-governance,” alongside the executive chairman of Visa, they were openly describing the sacrifice of Ukrainian civilians on the altar of Western finance and tech. The event is dedicated to promoting DIIA, Ukraine’s state in a smartphone, that digitizes med records, banking, biometric data, and all aspects of life into a singular app.” And DIIA by the way, is the Ukrainian word for, to be, or being, it’s conceived as an everything app.

Walter Kirn: So they aimed high with this title. It’s the human existence app.

[....] Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV0VfYcWR3s [....]

Matt Taibbi: The Grayzone folks describe being at this conference and they keep talking about how the American officials are so excited by the proof of concept of DIIA. And remember, DIIA is a hybrid creation of USAID, Visa, and Google. There’s a joke in there that somebody, one of the speakers uses as a joke to warm up the crowd, the idea that AI is going to destroy humanity. Then there’s a revelation that similar e-gov apps are being launched in other countries, like Estonia, Zanzibar and Colombia. Samantha Power excitedly says, “Something remarkable is happening in Ukraine as we speak.” Then they play a video about the DIIA app: what it sounds like, and what it looks like. Obviously this is in English, there’s a Ukrainian analog... I went and looked at it later. But this English language video, the piece of it, just by itself, there’s so much to get into here-

Walter Kirn: Firstly, what’s the audience for this presentation?

Matt Taibbi: Visa executives, the Vice Prime Minister for innovation, Mykhailo Fedorov from Ukraine, Kara Swisher was there. Again, Samantha Power.

Walter Kirn: These are a combination of aspiring developers and Ukrainian officials and American diplomats.

Matt Taibbi: With USAID, you always have to give an asterisk, like Barry Bonds’s home runs. But yeah, so they roll this video and man, if this doesn’t remind you of a certain sci-fi movie, I don’t know what to do. But let’s take a listen.

DIIAA narration, a woman’s voice: Aimed at rebuilding the liberated and soon to be occupied Ukrainian cities. State mortgage, military, medics, teachers, and scientists can apply for the state mortgage right in the app. E-Enemy, a chatbot that helps any citizen safely transfer info about the location of Russian troops, names of collaborators, and enemy movements to the armed forces. Numerous attacks of Russian army destroyed a number of TV towers. To provide Ukrainians with uninterrupted access to information, we launched DIIA Radio and DIIA TV, so that even under blackouts, millions could feel present, and added the in-app army of drones game to help Ukrainians both distract and donate to the common purpose. Has the enemy launched cyber-attacks on Ukraine? Of course, they have, and they failed.

Even when the world is falling apart, our main task is to protect the people. Together we can build a stronger one.

Matt Taibbi: So, DIIA is a snitching app. They have E-Enemy in there.

Matt Taibbi: On this “State-in-a-smartphone” concept. This happened in stages. The prior president, Petro Poroshenko, introduced something called ProZorro, between 2014-2016, this was designed to be a .gov app that centralized contracting and some other things, improving transparency. And then it was Zelensky who came along and created this concept of the “Ministry of Digital Transformation” in 2019, and that’s when they coined the phrase, “A digital state in the smartphone,” where you could fight corruption and manage complex administrative hurdles, “with one click.” This became possible thanks to the DIIAA app, meaning “action” in Ukrainian. It goes into how in addition to all the civilian uses of this, they began to develop, after the war started, some other features for this app. This is from an agency called GlobSec:

Therefore, in the first days of the war, the Ukrainian government launched the chatbot E-Enemy, a called E-Enemy, designed for Ukrainian citizens to report the Russian military and its equipment’s movements, and inform the Ukrainian government about the collaborator’s activities. The chatbot activity gained over 370,000 visits, most revealing hostile groups. Moreover, the DIIA application offered the option to donate to the Ukrainian Army, a financial assistance program for businesses affected by the war… for damaged properties, a migrant card, assistance, consultations for displaced people, and an e-document for those crossing the border without documents, quickly became available in the application, and this way, a mobile phone could confirm people’s identity even when the physical copy of the document was lost.

So, it’s your whole life in the phone, and it’s a way to report on those who are enemies to the cause in Russia… I don’t know, Walter, this reminded me of the “Would you like to know more?” commercials in Starship Troopers.

Matt Taibbi: Also, it’s a little bit like the DHS program that we talked about just a couple of weeks ago, where obviously, they have more cause to do it in Ukraine, but creating an app... And they talked about the intersection with cybersecurity agencies and developing this stuff. You just start to wonder about the possibilities of this technology.

Walter Kirn: Luckily, we’re never going to have anything like this in America…

Matt Taibbi: (laughs)

Walter Kirn: That makes me feel good. Just because we developed it, and just because it has the convenience of putting an entire state in a smartphone, doesn’t mean we will ever be subjected to it. And I feel great for the Ukrainians, that they’re in this fashion ahead of us. E-Enemy, first of all, I think of that as the opposite of Tinder. If Tinder, the thing that we have in America, allows us to identify potential mates or friends, intimate friends, this allows us to find adversaries everywhere and report them. Maybe have them disappear from view, I don’t know what happens to your E-Enemy after you’ve registered them. I don’t know if it’s a-

Matt Taibbi: I think some reporting needs to be done on that. Yeah.

Walter Kirn: Is it a three strikes thing? Do three people have to identify you as an enemy before the drone comes or does only one person? So, let’s look at the other things. The attempt to get people into looking for troops and enemy aircraft and so on, I guess is just a modern version of the spotting that we were asked to do in America in World War II.

In a lot of ways this app, though sinister, only concentrates things that populations at war seek to do all the time, which is spot threats, identify traitors, loose lips sink ships, maybe call out people who are talking too much about state secrets. But it also, what was interesting, has all of these domestic everyday capabilities. So you apply for a mortgage on the same platform that you turn in traitors and spies. And that is, I think, the innovation here. In this banality of evil fashion, make a financial app, PayPal or Venmo or e-trade, absolutely adjacent to your militarized side of things.

So, it really integrates the civilian soldier and the aspiring middle-class homeowner into one piece of software. I imagine that if you lose your phone, only death could be more disturbing. Because they talk, in this, about how this thing replaces other documents and allows you to go on as an identified individual, should you lose papers and so on. And it seems that what you’ve got is a surrogate soul, really, surrogate body, and a surrogate identifier, besides your own face.....CONTINUES

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 28 2023 21:37 utc | 46

Welp. I tried to reply to just somebody but I'm logged into a Turkish proxy server (monitoring the election forgot to log out).

Just had a VERY long comment disappeared. Need to take my own advice and use a word processor or text editor from now on. Hopefully b catches it and re-appears it.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 28 2023 21:38 utc | 47

@ bevan, Don, Scorpion and independent selves:

Sorry to hear your troubles, you may want to check out author Maria Treben and her herbal remedy books: God's pharmacy is most well known.

Health Through God's Pharmacy

Her Swedish Bitters - tincture has been a godsend, many ready prepared versions are available in europe.

a reputable seller:
https://fundaciondulcerevolucion.com/?product=hierbas-amargo-sueco-maria-treben-700-ml

Herbs such as Thyme have high concentrations of Vitamin K1 and K2 with powerful anti-inflammatory properties and ability to add temporary fortification to the immune system...more importantly Thyme is a natural antibiotic with far fewer complications of lab variants.
Such herbs reach maximum potency around 1000m to 1600m above sea level, making the herbalists of Eastern Pyrenees very popular through history, Tuixent of particular renown, and personally extraordinarily helpful in early 2020's. Anti-inflammatory activity of naphthoquinones, including vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) and vitamin K2s (menaquinones), are of much scientific interest due to their very low toxicity.

"July 23, 2021 - Vitamin K2 is poised to emerge...as one of the most important supplemental nutrients... following the latest research on its role in immunity and COVID-19"

I don't know if you're open to such things, the books however make fascinating reading, best wishes.

Posted by: Mercury | May 28 2023 21:39 utc | 48

Posted by: just somebody | May 28 2023 18:55 utc | 38

Since I don't really feel like typing the whole thing out again, here's the link. TL/DR version of my comment is: Time to stop worrying about China because everything you fear is already on its way here.

https://www.racket.news/p/transcript-america-this-week-may-ba6

Let me know if there's a paywall and I will consider re-excerpting it here for you.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 28 2023 21:39 utc | 49

Posted by: Mercury | May 28 2023 21:39 utc | 47

There are some good vitamin K supplements out there as well. Of course it's always best to get it from natural sources (leafy greens, cruciferous veggies and the herbs you mentioned), but I happen to be taking it for a blood disorder that causes low platelets (one of the reasons I wasn't as worried about clots from the "vaccines" at the time). The ones I use are from Life Extension or Bronson and they contain Vitamin K2 MK7 / Vitamin K2 MK4 / Vitamin K1. Had no idea people were using it for immunity, etc.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 28 2023 21:43 utc | 50

Posted by: dh | May 28 2023 19:17 utc | 40

Haha. I was in Austin on Friday and half a day yesterday. I thought I smelled something extra rotten in the air.

________________________________________________________________________________

Bevin, I think some tick species are more likely to carry Lyme Disease than others. Did you preserve it and go online to figure out which type it is? I wouldn't worry too much about it unless you see the trademark bullseye pattern (doesn't always occur as another pointed out) or experience symptoms of illness in the coming days or week. Hopefully it turns out to be nothing.

There's also another condition that is caused by a tick bite and I believe it was first identified in Australia. Some people, in some cases months or years after being bitten, develop an allergy to red meat that can be quite severe. The condition was only recently documented.

Re: The prevalence (or not) of Lyme - One of my siblings went to college in Connecticut and was convinced that they had Lyme for a long time. Electric shocks, hot flashes, severe pain and fatigue. It turns out to have been a condition similar to multiple sclerosis that caused lesions on their spinal cord. I think that they were tested up to 10x for Lyme over the years and one false positive delayed getting the proper treatment for a long time.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 28 2023 21:50 utc | 51

Posted by: just somebody | May 28 2023 17:48 utc | 29

I think Vietnam and China have both implemented tenets of communism pretty well. Of course we'll never know what Cuba (or to a more socialist rather than communist approach) Venezuela *could have done* if not for Uncle Scam's boot on their neck, in Cuba's case for the last 60+ years. But given the relative successes they've had in spite of it, and if allowed to participate in the world economy freely, I would bet you money they'd be doing great and very few people from either country would be flocking to the US southern border.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 28 2023 21:53 utc | 52

Sorry about monopolizing the latter part of this thread, but I did want to share one last thing.

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-democratic-partys-crucifixion?

Just an excerpt.

Taibbi ran into a buzzsaw of orchestrated character assassination. The Democratic members of the committee rarely let Taibbi speak. They delivered vicious and insulting diatribes. Here is a clip of Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, along with Sam Seder and other hosts at The Majority Report, attacking Taibbi.

“I expected there to be hostility in the questioning, but what happened in that hearing was amazing, even to be involved with as a spectator,” he said. “Rather than engage with the material of the Twitter Files reporting on any level, even negatively, it was pure character-assassination. The ranking member called us a direct threat to people who oppose us. We were ‘so-called journalists.’ We were the lapdogs and scribes of Elon Musk. We didn’t believe in Russian interference. We didn’t respect authority. I had a tin-foil hat I was told to take off by one member. It was one member after the other creating clips of video that were replayed on MSNBC and CNN later that night. That was how people got the news about that hearing.”

“We grew up in an atmosphere where the Democrats were always the champions of free speech, more so than the Republicans,” Taibbi told me. “Through the 70s, 80s, 90s and even the early 2000s. Suddenly, on this issue, it was wall-to-wall hostility. There wasn’t a Dennis Kucinich or Bernie Sanders type who stands out from the crowd. There are no dissenters in the ranks of this party anymore.”

“The old school ACLU-like liberals, they’re just gone now,” he said. “There’s this new movement that doesn’t believe in countering bad speech with better speech. They believe in closing it off and shutting it down. That’s what the Twitter Files were about. That’s why there was so much hostility.”

Taibbi was informed there were problems with his 2018 tax return. The IRS said it had sent him letters about the issue, but Taibbi had not received any letters and the IRS refused to produce copies. He also had electronic confirmation from the IRS that his 2018 tax return had been received.

It was only when Congressman Jordan wrote to the IRS asking for clarification that Taibbi became aware of the files the IRS had amassed on him. These included information taken from search engines and commercial investigative software such as Anyhoo, Consumer Affairs and LexisNexis. They had his voter registration records, whether he possessed a hunting or fishing license, whether he had a concealed weapons permit, his telephone numbers, articles he had written and articles written about him.

“Why would an IRS agent need to know anything about my professional history or about controversies that I’ve been involved with or things that I had written about?” he asked. “That seems pretty dubious.”

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 28 2023 21:57 utc | 53

I'm very much interested to hear each of Jimmy-4's, Norwegian's, and upsetter's individual response to my post regarding Gonzalo Lira, here.

Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | May 28 2023 22:48 utc | 54

Mercury@47
Thank you for your kind suggestions. My wife and I are both very open to herbal and other traditional remedies.

Tom Q and the others including Don, thank you all for your thoughtfulness. I believe that the tick was removed in time, was not engorged and the sound left does not, I am assured, look like a Bullseye. Having experienced, so far, no other symptoms I will leave it at that for the moment.

Ahgaib, many thanks for the sincere and thoughtful responses to a passing predicament which I only mentioned because Scorpion, who has had real Lyme problems happened to have been posting when I discovered the tick.

(The following is a weird personal digression. Perhaps a symptom.)
For some reason I have always believed that it was at Lyme (Regis) that I saw the return of the Amethyst when I was a four year old. In fact it was in Devonport, where Michael Foot was the MP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucd4on4NT8I
I wonder whether Chris Hitchens, who actually lived there I believe, was part of the crowd.

Posted by: bevin | May 28 2023 22:50 utc | 55

@ bevin:

If it's any consolation, I've been bitten by ticks hundreds of times (was an avid outdoorsman for most of my youth) and have never contracted Lyme's Disease. Never even worried over it, in fact. Unless I'm mistaken, it's a very rare thing to contract and most people here have probably only ever heard of someone suffering from it on an episode from some TV medical drama.

Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | May 28 2023 22:57 utc | 56

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 28 2023 21:57 utc | 52

thanks for posting this. I knew the democratic congress critters had attacked Taibbi, didn't realize the extent to which the press (and whatever Sam Seder and the Majority Report is, among others) had slavishly followed the party line. no surprise, exactly what they did to Assange.

Posted by: pretzelattack | May 28 2023 23:09 utc | 57

Posted by: pretzelattack | May 28 2023 23:09 utc | 56

Yeah Hedges always makes sure to bring up Julian Assange as he does in that article further down. On that tangential note, I am disappointed in how INfrequently Taibbi does.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 28 2023 23:25 utc | 58

@Pacifica Advocate | May 28 2023 22:57 utc | 55

Most unhelpful comment - the exception does not disprove the rule - and it is relatively recent and now spreading rapidly ...

And yes, I picked it up - bullseye and all - treated early but had symptoms for quite some time ... I know a few people who were not diagnosed for years and it has wrecked their lives ...

Research here: Johns Hopkins Medicine Lyme Research Centre ...

https://www.hopkinslyme.org/

Once upon a time jogging in Southern Africa also picked up Tick Typhus - wrecked for weeks but again spotted it, had been warned about it, and antibiotics worked. It caused havoc for many soldiers in WWII in the more exotic environs of the conflict and untreated may lead to "ticker" (pun intended) probs in later life ...

Posted by: Don Firineach | May 28 2023 23:33 utc | 59

Good Substack piece on the raving Anti-anti-Semites and their use of accusations of anti-semitism for narrative control.

https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/the-anti-anti-semitism-follies

As anyone who ever followed Pink Floyd knows, Roger Watters has always dressed up as the delusional wannabe dictator named....you guessed it....Pink Floyd.

I had no idea how big this non-story had gotten. The German police are investigating a costume he's worn for the better part of 40 years, on stage and as depicted in the film "The Wall" as glorifying Hitler, when it actually does the exact opposite. This situation is f*cked and I can't see it ending well for any of us.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 28 2023 23:33 utc | 60

Kevork Almassian

joins up with Katie Halper, Aaron Mate and Hekmat Aboukhater to yarn up Syria:

The foreign policy of the psychopaths in Washington DC toward Syria

Thirty seven minute utoob.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 28 2023 23:45 utc | 61

Two peer-reviewed papers just published, between them show how the Covid spike can cause cancer, and that all-cause mortality can be attributed to the vaccines. Florida attorney Jeff Childers yesterday devoted his news roundup to a review of both papers, translating some dense material into a very readable view, written to a lay understanding.

One paper, from Germany, offers data that implicates the vaccines in the surge in all-cause mortality. The other paper, Childers suspects, is a limited hangout designed to obscure the hard truths of the German paper:

HOLOPHARMAKON - Saturday, May 27, 2023 - C&C NEWS

Two new studies published this week on the same day. The Biochimie study described three separate, complex systems by which the covid proteins could promote cancer growth. The Cureus study described massive excess deaths in Germany in 2021-22, and suggested an astounding possible reason for them.

Both studies are peer-reviewed. Both studies are lengthy and highly-footnoted. Both studies were very carefully written. Both are remarkable.

But one of the studies is a limited hangout, a psyop that gives us a little bit of new, truthful information, information intended to distract us from the horrifying implications of the other study.

Childers is very much an active part of the fight back against the pandemic authoritarian overreach, and posts his daily Coffee & Covid roundup of pertinent news on Substack. He's always worth reading, I find, but this article is a keeper that I highly recommend to anyone interested in the unfolding picture of vaccine damage to the human body, and the accumulating mountain of hard evidence showing this.

Posted by: Grieved | May 28 2023 23:46 utc | 62

James - crime and Punishment is one of my favorite books, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. The Idiot is also good.

Would love to read your thoughts about it after you've read it.

Cheers.

Posted by: David F | May 28 2023 23:53 utc | 63

Ticks and the removal thereof:

REMAIN CALM!! gently place one drop or dab of tea tree oil on the tick.

DO NOT DISTURB or they will pump their joy juice into the bite.

They begin to suffocate, they withdraw asap and kark it.

If tea tree oil is empty, a drop or gentle dab of kerosene on a cotton bud (or diesel) will get them outa there real fast and no more venom. Tweasers removal crushes the tick, forces venom out into your wound and generally seriously aggravates the entire process.

If you are covered in them and have hundreds scrambling about in your hair, just brush hair with something fine bristle even a suede brush then immediately shower with tea tree shampoo or a shampoo with many drops of tea tree oil added. Hot wash clothing and add tea tree oil to the detergent. If hot wash absent then stuff all clothing a black plastic bag and leave in the sun for a few daytime cycles shake occasionally.

To sort the itch use sprouts of bracken crushed in a plastic bag then soaked in a small bottle of methylated spirits and next day dab that on itchy spots. Good for leach, ant bites too.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 29 2023 0:05 utc | 64

I have wanted to put together a small summary to show that the pandemic, the vaccines, and the last 20 years at least of viral outbreaks around the world, are all part of the same thing, namely that everything to do with the pandemic must be understood as a military operation. Pentagon, CIA and assorted other mafias are running this show, and have been all along.

Let me offer the bottom line first and then supply the collateral.

~~

Dr. Robert Malone worked with DARPA or equivalent for 2 decades, involved in developing the mRNA delivery system for the vaccine payload. He describes the standard narrative of citing a world filled with dangers, biological terrorism and such. And in such a world, the US military want the ability to immunize their personnel against whatever disease has just ravaged a locality in the world, in order to go in on the ground.

Now, we can readily see what this really means. Just as there are no independent terrorists in the world apart from state actors, there are also no particular viral outbreaks that aren't contrived by, mainly or perhaps wholly, the USA.

So we can see the military wanting to hit a target with a specific disease, and then send in immune soldiers to plunder, probably under some fiction of "peacekeepers" or whatever. Either way, the gold will of course be the first thing taken out. And this is the dream, I suggest, I surmise, that they've been working on for at least 2 decades

~~

So this is why the US "collection of mafias" - as Ayatollah Khamenei so brilliantly perceived the western power structure - is determined to get the mRNA platform to work right, just as they continue working on custom-tailored diseases for different geo-targets, as the Russians continue to show to the world.

It's obvious that the mRNA as currently developed is a pathetic failure, and that those of us who are unjabbed are the control group as this experimentation plays out. I suppose as they proceed they'll measure excess mortality against their calculus of acceptable loss until they get what they want.

Next up, probably, they'll double down, and the next wave will presumably be much more deadly, maybe the avian flu cited up-thread. The key is that the US has never hesitated to kill its own population in experiments, and is not abashed now. Ordinary lives mean nothing to any of the mafias, and in today's thinking it's even a bonus if millions are culled along the way to the result they seek.

So that's my very crude summary, my hypothesis. Let me supply some links in a following post.

Posted by: Grieved | May 29 2023 0:49 utc | 65

test:
https://sputnikglobe.com/

Posted by: Grieved | May 29 2023 1:10 utc | 66

@ Grieved | May 29 2023 1:10 utc | 65

Here's the collateral.

Robert Kennedy has shown how the vaccines were never made by big pharma but actually by military contractors under Pentagon direction:

https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1624475671027130370

And here he has a long talk with Sasha Latypova, an expert on pharma and regulatory corruption, touching also on the military involvement. I don't know if Rumble will post here so go there and add this to the URL (this one's optional but fascinating):

v2df7hg-militarized-healthcare.html

~~

The pandemic response was run by the military, as Debbie Lerman and Jeffrey Tucker show in two articles at Brownstone:

https://brownstone.org/articles/governments-national-security-arm-led-the-covid-response/

https://brownstone.org/articles/what-is-cisa-and-why-does-it-matter/

~~

Two pieces by Robert Malone put the thinking together from the military side:

https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/mrna-vaccines-the-cia-and-national

https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/psywars-fifth-generation-warfare

And one can see in these two articles, half a year apart, a small slice of the great change in Malone as his former acceptance of the benign mission of the security state has been shattered by the abuses of this pandemic response.

~~

And finally, Russia's on the case too, as b cites in his own links, and as we've seen on previous reports, and as shown in this one from Sputnik:

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230412/us-working-on-universal-genetically-engineered-bioweapon-russian-parliamentary-investigation-1109381193.html

~~

Okay, so it's a crudely arranged thesis but it makes more sense to me than anything else. Khamenei's "collection of mafias" lets it all work for profit and control for collegial parties of interest, while still being a hegemonic domination play.

It's basically just an imperialist ransacking operation, riding roughshod over the world with the final weapon in the arsenal, and one that the hegemon can still afford, and that may still prevail over humanity.

Posted by: Grieved | May 29 2023 1:14 utc | 67

Posted by: Grieved | May 29 2023 0:49 utc | 64

Just saw an article the other day where they were talking about using mRNA technology for cancer and other stuff, I think using stem cells, but I could be mis-remembering. I gotta say, if - God forbid - I did ever come down with cancer, I'd probably be desperate enough to try just about anything. Same for family.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2023 1:21 utc | 68

@ just somebody | May 28 2023 17:52 utc | 31
re: ".. . a god damn social credit score system [in China]"

from the web: Inherent in Confucianism is the value of filial piety, which demands respect and obligation to aging parents, honoring the family name, and an emphasis on group harmony rather than individual identity.

The Chinese are not like westerners, and that's the way it is.

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 29 2023 1:26 utc | 69

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 29 2023 1:26 utc | 68

Would just like to add to your comment for the education of that self-styled China know-nothing expert that the social credit system is totally misreported in the West. It is humanely and respectfully operated to the benefit of Chinese society and my wife and other Chinese people fully support it. I know that because I have asked them and they have told me so.

Posted by: Walt | May 29 2023 1:49 utc | 70

@ Don Bacon | 68

Inherent in Confucianism....

Confucianism is what we in the Collective West would call "Humanism," as in "The practice of humane respect for and humane treatment of all people irrespective of class, race, or religion."

There isn't a huge moral or cultural fissure between the Chinese and "The West" that can be laid down at the feet of "Confucianism." Most of the really ugly things we understand about "Confucianism" were distortions introduced by the Ming dynasty via "Neo-Confucianism", which many people don't realize was a dynasty created by a literal bandit thug who fought his way to domination over all of China and then set about raising a family which was little more than a group of bandit thugs for its entire period of rule.

Both Confucianism and Daoism--which strongly influenced Confucius, the man--strongly emphasized the idea of guaranteeing the just treatment of all people as if they were family. This was during the early period of human history when there was no such thing as a "Police State"; no real concept of money; and when the concept of "The State" was little more than a King collecting "taxes" via a portion of the commodities produced in the areas the King ruled in order to feed, clothe, house, and arm the populace during periods of drought, disaster, or war.

And let us not forget that the Chinese station of "Emperor" was created to end the constant warring between the various Kingdoms and houses that ruled over the vast area of China. It was an attempt to establish peace among peoples who were spending an awful lot of time killing each other over land and resources.

Even a cursory look over Chinese history during the 20th century--and then looking back over the long history of China--amply shows that when the Chinese leadership breaks down at the national level there always emerges a group of regional states that immediately set to warring against one another. The topography of China generally guarantees that these states emerge in the same 6 to 10 regions each time. The last time this happened--during the Chinese civil war--the violence started up in the late 1800s and by 1900 had fully engulfed China (the Boxer Rebellion) and then continued on for another 60 years.

So China suffered a full 60 years of constant warring before peace could be re-established.

I fully expect something like that to happen in the US, eventually. Perhaps in my lifetime, even. Once it does, there will be a strong philosophical reckoning that will likely curse the emergence of Evangelical Christianity and react strongly against it, just the same as Confucianism was a Humanist reaction against the religions of its day.

Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | May 29 2023 1:57 utc | 71

Walt | May 29 2023 1:49 utc | 69--

If you have the time, would you listen/read what Mick Dunford says about China in this recent podcast, China builds global alternative as US-led financial order decays, and share your response, please. Thanks!

Posted by: karlof1 | May 29 2023 2:07 utc | 72

james
Look at the Helmer review of Turgenev's Father and Son.
https://johnhelmer.net/reading-turgenev-in-time-of-war-against-russia/
Then there is Lenin's favourite book: Oblomov by Goncharov.

Posted by: bevin | May 29 2023 2:20 utc | 73

@ Bartholomew Cubbins | May 28 2023 16:19 utc | 20

thank you!

@ bevin 34/72

thanks bevin.. i do want to read the gogol book in particular.. i just have to find a copy.. i am so cheap, it has to be 2nd hand! fathers and sons looks interesting, but i am not ready for that...

@ juliania | May 28 2023 20:32 utc | 43

because these 2 dostoevsky books i read the past year have been so great i am inclined to take yours and bartholomews suggestions before the gogol book..

@ David F | May 28 2023 23:53 utc | 62

okay.. that settles it, lol.. thanks david!

thanks everyone.. apologies if i missed a post... had a busy day today..

Posted by: james | May 29 2023 2:57 utc | 74

i highly recommend the link @ Zet | May 28 2023 14:38 utc | 4 that zet shared... it can be read in english, by choosing the english option on the top right corner area.... here is zets link again.. if people in germany are reading this type of literature, i can see a lot of unhappy people in germany knowing they have been had and that their gov't is pulling a fast one on them...

The complete text of the interview with Maria Sakharova

Posted by: james | May 29 2023 3:04 utc | 75

James , you can get the etext to the gogol book at librivox.org for free. I downloaded the Dead Souls audio book from there today {free}. I listen to books , some of them over and over many times.

Posted by: Bartholomew Cubbins | May 29 2023 4:16 utc | 76

James
librivox.org also has several Dostoevsky books. I am currently listening to Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche for the umpteenth time. Some narrators are good some not but they are volunteers so I can't complain .

Posted by: Bartholomew Cubbins | May 29 2023 4:25 utc | 77

@james | May 29 2023 2:57 utc | 73
"i do want to read the gogol book in particular.. i just have to find a copy.. i am so cheap, it has to be 2nd hand!
fathers and sons looks interesting, but i am not ready for that..."

Hey cheap james, that Dead Souls book bevin recommended @ 18:13 utc | 34 is available at the Internet Archive
as are most all of the Russian authors' books. Dead Souls
Some don't like reading online but I find it no problem. Int. Archive is a fabulous resource.

@almost everyone else: - Wonderful thread, thanks. Threads like this are what makes MoA a great bar, not so much shoot-em-up talk.

Posted by: waynorinorway | May 29 2023 4:30 utc | 78

Grieved #1:14 utc | 66

Great thesis and thank you very much.

No protesting now! Honest Government Ad | South Australia Protest Law

If you think you can take to the streets to protest Government sane, wise, caring, socially responsible, vax mandates and lockdowns when the next University of North Carolina freedom virus escapes... think again.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 29 2023 5:03 utc | 79

Posted by: karlof1 | May 29 2023 2:07 utc | 71

Thanks very much for that interesting link with additional thoughtful contributions from Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson. They begin by discussing the quandary that the USA is in by virtue of requiring an input of resources and finding themselves in the position, as Dunford says, of having had a credit card for so long with no limit and no repayment date, but which is now being spurned largely owing to reckless thefts of assets from various unfavoured nations.

Dunford gets going on China at 30 minutes in. He states that China has initiated three postwar phases, one obviously in 1949, then reform and opening in the 1970s of which I am well aware because I now live near the spot where it actually kicked off, which was the district of Shekou close to Hong Kong in Shenzhen, when China Merchants negotiated a couple of acres for factory development in 1978. But then he goes on to say that a new third era began in 2017.

What does this era consist of and aim to achieve? It is a rejection of neo-liberalism and the introduction of a new development path which is a people-centred, not a capital-centred economy. China is still, he says, a middle income country but collective prosperity is the ultimate goal. The quality of life is to be improved by sustainable and green development, and technological self-reliance in the face of increasing coercive tendencies among other nations. While not seeking to impose its philosophy on other nations it seeks to set an example towards a multipolar world.

Well so much for what they said, you heard all that, what I suspect is that you want me to comment on is what is it actually like, being here? Let me turn the clock back first to the 1950s when I was growing up in south Wales. With each passing year my father earned a little more, we acquired for the first time domestic equipment such as a washing machine, a television set, a ruin of a second hand car, and eventually in 1960 a brand new car. The UK then had world class industries: nuclear, aircraft, motor and motor cycles...

I first came to China in 2007. My company in England had started to receive supply enquiries from China and I was curious. They were all coming from this place called Shenzhen which I had never heard of. I had to look it up on a map. I went there and visited a few companies. Their manufacture was of poor quality and they depended upon low tech components. I gained a few contracts. Meanwhile, the surrounding area looked a bit seedy and run down. Many of the local people seemed badly dressed. Nevertheless I sensed the need to be involved, founded a local subsidiary and up to 2020 I returned about 50 times, and watched the explosive growth of the city into a metropolis of about 18 million people with each time, or so it seemed, extensive new developments which had not been there the time before, and an echo of the UK all those years ago as people became more wealthy as evidenced, for example, by their dress, a proliferation of car ownership and upmarket stores and malls.

And the green, sustainable, people-centred aspect? I shot a lot of video and stills over the years so the contrast is demonstrably palpable. In many of the scenes there was heavy pollution: all gone now. The air is much cleaner as all the buses and taxis are electric, as increasingly are the private cars, some Teslas but mainly BYD and others of Chinese manufacture, and there seems to be a new make on the road every week. There are no petrol driven motorcycles, only electric (which carelessly ridden in huge numbers are actually a menace to pedestrians). There are more than a thousand parks in Shenzhen, again with seemingly a new one each week. But perhaps it is the health aspect that best invites comparison.

There is no doubt that China got it absolutely right on the Covid issues. Clamping down in Wuhan at the outset when death rates were high gave a couple of years’ breathing space in which it was to all intents and purposes absent and non-mRNA vaccines were readied. When it came back albeit in a less lethal but more infectious form we had to put up with localized lockdowns at the expense of productivity and frequent testing, which was efficiently organized to waste minimal time. Then finally it was judged safe to let it rip, everyone who hadn’t had it (which was almost everyone) got it last December with minimal effect to my immediate knowledge, and now it is no longer an issue. China’s death rate overall per million was 4 compared to the west’s typically in excess of 2,000. QED.

Finally on health, a personal note. In 2017 at home in UK I started to get shaking fits and the NHS told me it was a bladder infection. I was prescribed antibiotics and on a few repeat experiences, further medication. On I think the fourth occasion I was in Shenzhen. I went to the local people’s hospital to ask for medication but within 40 minutes I was talking to a urologist. I was run through various tests that morning, and at 2 pm that day I was told that it was virtually certain that I had prostate cancer. This was confirmed back in the UK and after a wait of almost year I had radiography there, but that failed in 2021 and I am now as a permanent resident on constant medication in China which has kept me cancer free to this day.

Well I’ve taken up enough space today, but just one more observation. In the embryo industry I visited in 2007, China is now the world leader by volume of production, and it is our company’s main market amounting to some 70% of turnover.

Posted by: Walt | May 29 2023 5:17 utc | 80

Posted by: james | May 29 2023 3:04 utc | 74

Thanks james. I really didn't notice that post and your recommendation made me actually click.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2023 5:21 utc | 81

Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | May 28 2023 22:48 utc | 53

There's no denying Lira is a Euro-Supremacist supporter of Pinochet and likely many other right-wing evil fucks.

For that I have zero respect for him.

But if he was truly unable to leave Ukraine and stayed there as a result, even if he continued his rather mild criticism, then he has all my sympathy and you seem to be arguing from a nasty position of "because this guy is an odious scumbag in that he disagrees with me on one thing, he deserves even the most inhumane treatment he can get so fuck him (and by extension anyone like him in either capacity)" with which I completely disagree. Don't get me wrong. I see the poetic irony/justice in someone who cheerled Pinochet from a safe geographic and historical distance getting swept up themselves in a similar totalitarian erasure. I just can't be happy about it on a human level.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2023 5:26 utc | 82

December 15, 2021 Russia hands the US and NATO countries a proposal of a new relationship.
Basically, the Russian message was: either use these documents as starting point for serious talks between US and Russia, or face military reponse.
The reasonable approach would have been to let US and Russian diplomats talk it over. “Jaw Jaw is better than War War”.
Instead, the US chose to read these documents as a recipe for war: let us do everything the Russians say is unacceptable to them, and provoke a military response.

So here we are, a year later. Russia is systematically grinding down the Ukrainian army.
What do we do when Ukraine is finished as a fighting force? Do we escalate, and send in NATO troops? Do we send in the diplomats? Or do we wait, while the rest of the world moves forward without us?

Posted by: Passerby | May 29 2023 6:45 utc | 83

@Walt, #79:

Thank you for an informative and endearing piece of personal account of your life from 2007 to date. Sounds to me like you appreciated that part of your life :-), and if indeed so I am glad for you. Hope what Shenzhen healthcare did for you will persist for the rest of your life on earth.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | May 29 2023 8:16 utc | 84

Posted by: Oriental Voice | May 29 2023 8:16 utc | 83

Well thank you, I am happy that it was of interest. I have said some of those things before but they bear repetition because of all the disinformation spread by people (some creeping in here) who think they know about China but have never been here and get their "facts" from biased western sources. I don't have to elaborate.

China certainly changed my life and I can recommend it to those seeking a change of habitat, though it's not easy to accomplish now. Nearing the end of the performance I am enjoying my best times here and would not go back for a minute.

Posted by: Walt | May 29 2023 8:53 utc | 85

uncle tungsten: Thanks for the link to the “honest government ad” by The Juice Media. I must, however, register my disappointment in that operation, which regularly and mercilessly pilloried the Scott Morrison government but continues to treat the Albanese gang with apparently benign neglect.

Posted by: malenkov | May 29 2023 10:21 utc | 86

Posted by: malenkov | May 29 2023 10:21 utc | 85

I always liked Juice media ads because they were funny and starred Ellen Burbidge......

https://www.ellenburbidge.com

What disappointed is that they were not equidistant but partisan - real satire needs to be a plague on all their houses

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | May 29 2023 10:31 utc | 87

malenkov #10:21 utc | 85

I must, however, register my disappointment in that operation, which regularly and mercilessly pilloried the Scott Morrison government but continues to treat the Albanese gang with apparently benign neglect.

Agreed. Perhaps they all live in the same yellow submarine cult. Keating at least knows how to kick the yankee poodles.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 29 2023 10:49 utc | 88

Paul Greenwood # 10:31 utc | 86

OOOps just spotted yours. Unfortunately the down under land is occupied by a majority of dutiful cult worshipping, forelock tugging, pissheads. Sad.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 29 2023 10:54 utc | 89

What do we do when Ukraine is finished as a fighting force? Do we escalate, and send in NATO troops? Do we send in the diplomats? Or do we wait, while the rest of the world moves forward without us?

Posted by: Passerby | May 29 2023 6:45 utc | 82

We lie and pretend, just like before. Other countries have policies, we have theatrical productions, so much cheaper, think of all the money saved.

Posted by: Bemildred | May 29 2023 11:09 utc | 90

Posted by: Walt | May 29 2023 5:17 utc | 79

Sounds like Los Angeles in the 50s. Good luck to you, you deserve it.

Posted by: Bemildred | May 29 2023 11:17 utc | 91

Posted by: Don Firineach | May 28 2023 16:01 utc | 15

here in germany we get our dogs immunized against borellien (tick fever). unfortunately no immunization for humans. but lucky dogs!

Posted by: dykalg | May 29 2023 11:23 utc | 92

Cheers Walt for a superlative statement that blows away the ‘fog’ of gaslighting that was being promulgated through this thread.

As it is what you described as happening in China’s development over the last 50 years is what’s in store for the Collective Global South over the next 50 years. Africa will be the most populated continent in a hundred years with some 4 billions , they will be turning out the most engineers and new science. It is to be looked forward to, not threatened by, for our collective humanity and life on and off Earth.

It is their escape from slavery, resource theft and environmental ecocide, including the worlds oceans which is at the root of the ‘control’ fetish in the Old Imperialist Mind.
They really need a well controlled local population that will agree to put their boots on these distant lands and peoples to continue their centuries long plunder and piracy. They need to destroy the environment such it can be used as a food weapon to starve billions.
Yup they are that insane, the unipolarists and their many minions most who don’t understand their role in that misanthropy.

The multipolarists know how to defang the Bastards once and for all. Build Real roads and Railways and Airports and cheap reliable transportation. Then the Sea Power controller Pirates will have no longer anything valuable to plunder.

The Pirate Bankers will have to rely on the rents only of their local populace - the ones living in a self delusion of freedom, wealth, civilisation… they won’t even notice the only revenue that is being earned will be from the Chinese, Asian and African tourists coming to visit the castles and cities built upon their ancestors enslavement. These locals will be locked in to their parishes, chipped and pinned and unable to function elsewhere because the chip will not work outside their designated prison! These controls are already well in place - daily checking of credit scores have been very much inculcated into peoples lives for at least the last 20 years!

Posted by: DunGroanin | May 29 2023 11:26 utc | 93

@dykalg | May 29 2023 11:23 utc | 91

Lucky dogs!

Posted by: Don Firineach | May 29 2023 11:47 utc | 94

[89]

Do we escalate, and send in NATO troops?

Obviously....send in NATO troops whoever they are. Not aware NATO has any troops as such.......but US National Guard will do.......get them bloodied........be good for them to be eviscerated and fertilise Ukrainian soil............

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | May 29 2023 11:52 utc | 95

Ominous :

"Spain’s PM calls snap election after conservative and far-right wins in local polls"

"Pedro Sánchez says Spanish people need to ‘clarify’ what they want after ruling socialists suffer losses in regional and municipal elections"

Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | May 29 2023 13:37 utc | 96

Thanks a lot for the link to Believing Impossible Things from Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism, b.

As ludicrous as she makes it sound, the Yankees really do believe all their own Alice In Wonderland hogwash.

Posted by: Hoarsewhlsperer | May 29 2023 13:46 utc | 97

How Monetarists really think - read this deep dive as they see this as the crux of the issue.

https://monetaryflows.blogspot.com/

The issue the monetarists suffer from is an aggregation issue. If you hold £100, nobody knows if you are saving that or intending to spend it. What we really need is the amount of bank liabilities that have materially changed their ownership tag over a period of time. Then we would know what 'Vt' is. But we don't have that, so monetarists try to guess - assuming all M is in motion if it fits in a particular classification. Hence all the M1, M2 nonsense. Those categorisations are wrong. Plain and simple.

I don't have to spend a demand deposit. It can sit there for months. I don't even need to 'optimise' it, because unlike economists my life doesn't revolve around a belief in interest rates ruling everything. I just keep it there because I like the size of it, or I'm scared of the
future. Or a bit of both.

Montersists say nothing really - other than lamenting
that we can't work out what money is locked in place and which is in circulation because we now have interest payments on demand deposits and time deposits that can be cashed on demand.

The monetarists are stuck in the 1960s. Finance has evolved so that nothing is locked in place - which means you can't manipulate it to speed up and slow down the economy.

Instead we need to leave the market for money to private sector to sort out, much as we do the market for tomatoes, and shift the stabilisation policy to the market for labour - where we can do something to speed up and slow down the economy.

Monetarism is a busted flush due to financial liquidity innovation.

Monetarism tries to convince you with a gold standard, fixed exchange rate money story that money growth = inflation. When in fact every inflation episode in human history was caused by the supply side even this one we are living through.

When the economy was closed down and the supply side was affected and created bottlenecks it makes things more expensive. Which means you need more $'s to purchase goods and services than you did before. So an argument could be made that the inflation adds to the increase in the money supply. But nope, Monetarism sees government spending as the devil and completely ignores all " other" types of spending.

Ignores completely that all " other " types of spending face the exact same skills and real resources constraints as government spending does.

Suffer from a psychosis that bank lending can replace government spending whilst ignoring 2008. They think they are taking power away from the state and ignore who they handing that power over to.

Crypto libertarians suffer from the same illness. Want to take us all back to the days when the big landowner owned the town and the sheriff and the church he built. Rent seeked from everybody living and working in the town. While the Sunday service told everybody to be happy to be poor and that they were lucky to have a job.

Posted by: Derek Henry | May 29 2023 13:49 utc | 98

@ Tom_Q_Collins | 82

First, thank you for the courtesy of the answer.

Second, this:

...you seem to be arguing from a nasty position of "because this guy is an odious scumbag in that he disagrees with me on one thing, he deserves even the most inhumane treatment he can get so fuck him (and by extension anyone like him in either capacity)" with which I completely disagree.

I have quite literally stated that I hope he isn't being tortured, I hope he is still alive, and that I sincerely believe that he's only being detained by people who are allies of the patriarchs of the family he married into.

But let's switch that around: should I give two shits about the fate of a person who, at the hands of people I despise, may well be tortured or murdered--and let us not forget this this is a guy who goes around promoting Hitler, Holocaust Denial, and argues that every person born in Africa or with "rather dark skin" is a sub-human animal? A guy who literally moved to Ukraine because he and his wife embraced its Neo-Nazi values? A guy who is CLEARLY an opportunist who will sell out his adopted family and "political audience" to make the quick buck?

Unless I'm in a position to swoop in like some superhero and rescue that guy/gal from that fate--and then edumacate the idiot about his transgressions--then I do sincerely argue: no. I am under no moral, ethical, nor even the most complex rules of social etiquette obliged to worry over that person's fate. Moreover, I think that anyone fretting themselves over Lira's fate, right now, is mostly doing so because he fraudulently portrayed himself (as he has done in so many other areas) as an "enemy of Ukraine's Nazis", whereas I STRONGLY suspect that he was working as a "limited hangout" with his operation intended to recruit more people into the Nazi cause and to support Ukraine.

Just think: he had Judge Napolitano, Larry Johnson (the guy who was literally the first website to float the "Obama was born in Indonesia and isn't a real American" bit), and how many others using him as a source to share knowledge of the "situation in Ukraine". As a limited hangout, he was wildly successful in his work right up until he was "captured"--which, IMHO, was likely also staged.

I mean, you go back a few months in this guy's Twitter feed and you see openly Nazi stuff posted about ethnic Africans, other dark-skinned peoples, religions other than Christianity, homosexuals--you name it, this guy had the Bigot Button pressed down hard. More to-the-point: Lira made his game on 4-Chan--notorious for being a Nazi hideout, and has made his entire career as an "Internet Celebrity" based off of his followers, who mostly come from that Nazi background.

But let me not stop there. There is also this:

But if he was truly unable to leave Ukraine and stayed there as a result, even if he continued his rather mild criticism, then he has all my sympathy and...[here I fully, morally, ethically agree with you]. Don't get me wrong. I see the poetic irony/justice in someone who cheerled Pinochet from a safe geographic and historical distance getting swept up themselves in a similar totalitarian erasure. I just can't be happy about it on a human level.

I have literally come out on multiple posts where I said:

A) I hope he's not being tortured
B) I hope he's not dead
C) I hope his family's safe
and also--most importantly--
D) I think he's a fraud, and
E) I don't think he nor his family are in any danger.

I sincerely believe Lira has been "working for the Nazis" this entire time.

For instance, the post where he turned against Ritter was one where Ritter pointed out that no, in fact the NATO weapons systems being provided the Ukraine were actually killing Russians.

Lira had posted a video telling his followers that all those systems were being destroyed by Russian long-range missiles.

Would it not have been a great coup for the Ukrainian government if it had repelled the Russian onslaught without the use of Western equipment?

That's something a True Believer would think, if they were handling Lira as an asset.

Would it not be detrimental to "The Message" if Ritter came online and started critiquing Lira from an evidence-informed perspective?

That's something a True Believer would think, if they were handling Lira as an asset.

Would Judge Napolitano and Larry Johnson not be attracted by Gonzalo's Twitter and other (i.e.: 4-chan) followers?

I'm sure neither of those guys have any idea what sort of filth resides on 4-Chan.

Long-story-short: Gonzalo Lira is an open Nazi who has been masquerading as an honest journalist, these last 10 months.

I despise liars and narcissists. I do not feel any need to apologize for despising Gonzalo Lira.

Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | May 29 2023 13:52 utc | 99

The monetarists are stuck in the 1960s.

The assumptions they apply to their money story are wrong. Why Friedman had to use a helicopter drop to mislead and say money growth causes inflation.

https://realprogressives.org/money-growth-does-not-cause-inflation/

Yet, millions of Americans and people all around the world think it is true. Why is that is explained beautifully in this very short below

https://m.youtube.com/watchv=BN9O75DleFY&pp=ygUkVGhpcyBpcyB3aGF0IG1pbmQgY29udHJvbCBsb29rcyBsaWtl

By the very same editors who lie about Ukraine.

Posted by: Derek Henry | May 29 2023 14:12 utc | 100