thanks for the additional reading links b… judging by the first two comments – there is a lot of lying going on!

Posted by: james | Jul 23 2023 15:03 utc | 3

The author of Germany down the rabbit hole obviously found a rabbit hole of his own. An 0,3 percent GDP contraction QonQ is by definition a recession, but it hardly qualifies as “an economy in free fall “.

Posted by: Jörgen Hassler | Jul 23 2023 15:15 utc | 5

@ Jörgen Hassler | Jul 23 2023 15:15 utc | 5
i just finished reading the politico article.. i recommend it.. it confirms much of what our regular poster roger has articulated on the german car market and a whole lot more… it is a sobering read, especially if you live in germany..

Posted by: james | Jul 23 2023 15:31 utc | 7

THE MASK IS OFF (Why Ukraine Will NEVER Be a NATO Member)
This one is excellent.
Opposing War: No Disclaimers Required
This one really shows how feckless what passes for the left in the US is at the moment. He’s going to go out on a limb and say Russia was provoked. Wow! What soldier for truth.
But, despite the Nazi plan to annihilate every man woman and child in the Donbas, this brave soul can’t say the SMO was justified.
Then closes by asserting the moral equivalence of Putin and Zelinsky! Total crap.
That’s like saying the Nazis and Soviets we’re morally equivalent, which is actually the thesis RC hack Timothy Snyder was pushing in the run up to the Maidan coup, carried out by Ukronazis on behalf of US imperialism. See Bloodlands.
Follow such “anti war leftists” and you’ll end up supporting Nazis.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jul 23 2023 17:07 utc | 9

@ Jörgen Hassler | Jul 23 2023 15:15 utc | 5
i just finished reading the politico article.. i recommend it.. it confirms much of what our regular poster roger has articulated on the german car market and a whole lot more… it is a sobering read, especially if you live in germany..
Posted by: james | Jul 23 2023 15:31 utc | 7
————————————————–
@ Jörgen Hassler
It is the long term that needs to be considered. Manufacturing, especialing car manufacturing has been the engine driving the German economy.
Die ‘Rust Belt am Rhein’ from Politico, July 13:
BA recent survey of 128 German auto suppliers by the VDA, an industry group, found that not a single one planned to increase their investment in their home market. More than a quarter were planning to shift operations abroad.
Volkswagen announced it would invest roughly €1 billion in an electric vehicle center near Shanghai. BASF is planning to be mostly gone with a 10B Euro investment in China.
If Germany sneezes, the EU will catch a cold. Great article.

Posted by: Acco Hengst | Jul 23 2023 17:19 utc | 11

@ Jörgen Hassler | Jul 23 2023 17:13 utc | 10
thanks jorgen… i live in canada and i read things, but it is hard for me to know the reality on the ground which is why i appreciate you sharing your perspective here.. at the same time i think the energy costs are a huge factor and must feed into the developing challenges germany is going to be dealing with moving forward.. as @ Acco Hengst | Jul 23 2023 17:19 utc | 11 points out and which moa poster roger has discussed in an ongoing manner – the german car industry is in trouble with no end in sight… at any rate – thanks for sharing your perspective on this here..

Posted by: james | Jul 23 2023 18:24 utc | 13

6, re Frank “It makes me wonder is this naivete, stupidity or bad faith.”
Frank lost it a few years back, either Trump syndrome or scamdemic. This has happened so many times with so many people that “naivete, stupidity or bad faith” seem to need a fourth option. For someone to participate in a witch hunt, which of those applies? I wish I could figure this out.

Posted by: oracle | Jul 23 2023 18:54 utc | 15

PRESENT-DAY EUROPE, by Lothrop Stoddard – The Unz Review
British reluctance in 1914 to negotiate peace with Germany led to much grief

Posted by: snake | Jul 23 2023 19:22 utc | 17

I suspected something like that, the Germans are impressive compared to the Texas gulf coast I am used to!

Posted by: qparker | Jul 23 2023 19:33 utc | 19

CLUSTER ammunition fired over LONDON Tower Bridge would be s “fine” answer to Mr.President Sunak’s approach ..-or what else to discuss, beside the Koran burnings worlwide?
So, Mr. Blinken, get strip-off your legs, show Yor cock like Mr. Z.!, get naked nowadays!

Posted by: spare_truth | Jul 23 2023 20:07 utc | 21

Thanks to b again for providing so much information on this Week in Review agenda. I notice that the July 22 topic – “The US Wars Against Russia and China…are not included in the list, though the subject of a ‘green China’ is appended. Before I go to read those articles, here is a fragment of karlof1’s comment at 94 on that thread:

“…Xi’s Global Security Initiative says a big NO! to hegemony and thus the ‘global order’ will be rebuilt by Russia, China, RoW on the basis of the UN Charter …”

The question b had raised in that thread was: “Why [is] the US doing this harm to itself instead of following Brzezinski’s and Kissinger’s advice?”
The subject of Kissinger’s visit to China was addressed in comments, and also in the previous Open Thread (not Ukraine) of July 20. I raise b’s question here again as I want to repost an extract with link from the July 20 OT(not Ukraine) next as it poses the question from the Chinese perspective.

Posted by: juliania | Jul 23 2023 21:26 utc | 23

Here is that extract I mentioned above:

@juliania, #72:
Thank you so much for your esteem response. I agree with you that the ancient Greek values I know of, handed down to us through the poetic history accounts, was different from those of what is embodied in the west of today. I sense the absence of ethnic oriented prejudices of in those days. Rivalries, some of which ethnicity based, yes. But hatred, or the penchant for dominance over others, wasn’t there then. Not in Greece. Written accounts are meager, but what there is paints a different picture of how the Romans treated Carthage.
Your analogy to Iliad, of what you perceive as Nixon and Kissinger’s objectives in their rapprochement with China, triggered some interesting philosophical thought in my mind. It is natural and inevitable that different cultures and/or ethnicities would compare themselves with each other, especially among those viewed as being equal in grandness and depth. The Chinese, Hindi/Aryan, Greek, Persian, Arabian, etc. cultures come to mind. They were all brilliant and deserving of emulations. But there is then a dichotomy: One may seek to expand/spread one’s own culture/ethnic norms through dominance over others, or one can resort to compete peacefully. Especially now that it is at a juncture that seems to highlight two dominant cultures in particular, one from the East and the other the West. From all public expressions and manifestations, it seems the East mantra is to plead for peace while to compete, the West is stating in clear terms that it will either be my way, or the highway. The Roman way!!! The West says: we’ll strangle you every which way, in technology, economy, trade, what have you, if you don’t bow and kiss our feet. And they are putting this sentiment into actions: forming cliques to wear you down in wars (using dupes who seem to be willing to serve as cannon fodders); destroying markets chains to deprive you of what seem to be your needs; stir chaos/destructions/internal strife (capitalizing on their nascent soft-power); or even outright war!!! when it is perceived that the Roman wannabes have the apparent military advantage. They did it to the American Natives, the Arabs, the Persians, the Blacks, the Viets, the Koreans, the…… They had many successes! Now they are onto Russians, and later to include the Chinese. Will they succeed again or always? Or will they fall off cliffs/run into stonewalls??? We shall see!
China is pleading for peace. China doesn’t want to fight and kill compatriots in Taiwan/Xizang/Xinjiang. But China is resolute in not wanting their nation to splinter and weaken either. China is pleading for cooperation on global fairness, weather management, multilateral economic growth, global harmony and well beings, the so-called multipolarity. I’m sure that’s the message Xi Jinping and Li Qiang urge Kissinger to take back to America. Would The Empire think this over and put aside their Roman mentality???
Posted by: Oriental Voice | Jul 21 2023 22:16 utc | 77
This Global Time editorial is worth a read. It states China’s take on this Kissinger visit very plainly:
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202307/1294854.shtml
Posted by: Oriental Voice | Jul 21 2023 22:53 utc | 78

Posted by: juliania | Jul 23 2023 21:29 utc | 25

Posted by: bevin | Jul 23 2023 14:40 utc | 1
I’m curious. Did Counterpunch ever allow comments? I seem to remember that being the case in the past. It’s no wonder that St. Clair has turned them off these days. They don’t respond to Twitter messages either when attempting to get them to issue corrections to their articles. I wonder if they have a Facebook presence where they would find it hard to avoid criticisms in comments, but I no longer use that shitty platform so I wouldn’t know.
On that topic: https://www.honest-broker.com/p/how-web-platforms-collapse-the-facebook

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 23 2023 21:48 utc | 27

I will simply add to the extracts above that as I reflected on Homer’s ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’ an important distinction and why China’s attitude to visitors reminds me of them is that the Greeks then believed it was fundamentally important to greet a stranger with generosity since one could never know if by so doing one was entertaining a god in disguise. From the link to the Global Times article provided, that is the Chinese attitude as well.
It’s not rocket science, but it is how best to behave towards one another.

Posted by: juliania | Jul 23 2023 22:26 utc | 29

This is it for me today:
Those three China links b has provided intermesh – thank you b!

Posted by: juliania | Jul 23 2023 23:02 utc | 31

@ DunGroanin | Jul 23 2023 22:31 utc | 30
An interesting article from Jonathan Cook, thank you. He walks a very tight wire, citing great familiarity with John Campbell’s videos, and yet professing not to know what’s causing the excess death phenomenon throughout the (westernized) world.
But I understand that wire, and it works fine for his thesis – namely, that the true mystery is why governments and institutions are immovably reluctant to investigate, or even acknowledge, this “pandemic” of deaths. And this wave of death is vastly greater than any we saw from Covid, even with the now-admittedly false labeling of cause of death as Covid when other causes were the true case.
So…why? Why does government fail to investigate something that is by now in-the-face obvious?
Because, observes Cook, they are frightened – scared to death of what they might find.
~~
They are scared in a visceral way of what will be revealed if they open Pandora’s Box by acknowledging the excess deaths. And what will be revealed is what has come out of the original Pandora’s Box which THEY themselves opened in 2020 and 2021 – the massive disaster of the vaccines.
~~
We – in the USA at least – learned during the pandemic that we were completely on our own. No government or institution or system would care about us, let alone care for us.
Thus it is that we have also learned the truth on our own. No accomplice media, accessory to this mass crime, nor any federal agency, nor any medical or commercial or technological institution will even today tell us the truth, or admit to facts that we are seeing every day now.
They are all scared that if they open the lid of this tsunami of disaster that is happening right now, today, and with no end in sight – if they open the lid even a fraction, all hell will break loose.
And we, the people in the USA and elsewhere, see that lid raising on its own anyway, from the sheer pressure of reality. What happens when that lid blows?

Posted by: Grieved | Jul 24 2023 0:37 utc | 33

more…re Grieved | Jul 24 2023 0:37 utc | 33
Cook in his article asks why officialdom refuses to see the excess deaths that all of their official systems are recording, all at a magnitude of total disaster by anybody’s arithmetic.
He doesn’t answer the question, but it’s a fair point to make simply to ask it. It takes courage just for that.
~~
Ed Dowd has both asked and answered this question, and I drew my conclusion above from his, namely that governments are scared to address the excess deaths because the first hammer-blow of guilt will fall straight on their own heads.
Here’s a quote from his superb book, Cause Unknown, speaking of the Danish government:

“The Danish authorities are stopping the vaccine for people under 50 because they see this same alarming data that you’re seeing in these pages.Undeniably, something new is causing excess deaths among the young. Though admitting mass vaccination is the culprit would be very difficult for any government, it would be the truth.
“On Wall Street, we’d call Denmark’s recent decisions a tell, or a tone change.
“So, when we see a huge tone change by the Danish government, what they are actually communicating is that the vaccine doesn’t work, kills some people – and they know it.”

I have cited this book, but only now finally ordered it and I’m halfway through reading it. I recommend it unreservedly, earnestly in fact. It’s a brilliant book.
~~
The format is innovative, and the proofs and citations are done in a way I’ve never seen before, with QR codes imprinted next to each statement and screenshot of news stories about “sudden deaths,” and an invitation to scan and verify each story as true, and each claim.
It’s a superbly “easy” book to read, with charts that speak well for themselves, and stories to make your head reel and your heart to ache. It’s “easy” to read this book, but it’s appallingly hard to take in what it tells. What it shows above all is the sheer magnitude of this event. I’d never seen it all put together like this and made so real. The scope of this phenomenon of excess deaths is vast.
It looks like a coffee table book, with a photographic jacket, and filled with page upon page of screenshots and composites – and most of the faces are bright and strong, and young and vigorous – above all, happy – and all of those people are dead. Sudden, unexpected, dying in their sleep, or on stage, or on the field. Young teens, dying in their sleep.
~~
Never in history has this phenomenon been seen, without its cause being urgently sought out and its eradication attempted.
But no one in authority wants to know.
The lid is blowing, and probably slowly at first, then all at once.

Posted by: Grieved | Jul 24 2023 1:01 utc | 35

Grieved | Jul 24 2023 1:01 utc | 35–
During my stay at OHSU, I was asked a handful of times if I wanted a Covid vaccine. I declined and answered the only Covid vaccine I’d want is not allowed by the US government, which elicited a surprised look, which prompted me to say Sputnik-V, the outstanding Russian vaccine. In two cases, the dialog continued with me saying I beat Covid with a medication used in Bangladesh and India, and that’s how everyone in my household that got it beat Covid–including one who was previously vaccinated. I thank you for continuing to follow the issue you commented about as it’s clearly important and we in the West aren’t going to get an answer until the Towers of Big Pharma are stormed and their secrets revealed. The Fugitive‘s plotline is at the foundation as it’s all about greed combined with Malthusianism, and that specific story’s been around for decades.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 24 2023 2:20 utc | 37

“During the pandemic, the challenge for each of us was to maintain critical distance: spurning both the tribalism of those insisting Covid was a hoax and the counter-tribalism of those who demanded complete acquiesence to a corporate-political agenda dictated by Big Pharma under the mantle of “Follow the science”. “
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2023-07-18/people-dying-greater-numbers/
Posted by: DunGroanin | Jul 23 2023 22:31 utc | 30

This comparison is broken. Instead of citing “tribalism … hoax,” Cook should have acknowledged the numerous physicians, scientists, and other highly qualified individuals who attempted to rationally voice evidence-based concerns but were denounced or censored by governments or their allies (such as in Big Tech).
Some posters above have noted that Cook might well be in a delicate position. I can appreciate that, but I don’t see it as a reason to withhold what seems a valid criticism of what he wrote.

Posted by: David Levin | Jul 24 2023 2:25 utc | 39

@ karlof1 | Jul 24 2023 2:20 utc | 37
That’s a good story – thank you, brother. So glad you are alive and well in this world.
Agree on The Fugitive and suggest even more so on The Constant Gardener – I read the book long before the movie and I will always remember Le Carre’s afterword. It was the most lawyer-vetted page you can imagine and Le Carre used all of his writing skill to avoid charges of defamation while making it very clear that the ruthless depravity of Pharma that he illustrated in his novel didn’t even come close to the reality.
I often pondered the difference, and what’s clear to me now is the element of collusion. The most vicious hoodlum can be one level of scary – but when that hoodlum has the entire establishment on its side, taking a share of the profits and putting out smoke to cover it at every turn, that’s some kind of scary that’s an order of magnitude greater.
Like the difference between Scarface and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Posted by: Grieved | Jul 24 2023 3:17 utc | 41

Seymour Hersh and
It makes me wonder is this naivete, stupidity or bad faith.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jul 23 2023 15:26 utc | 6
You raise good points here. If I may be so bold, I think it helps to understand / accept that no matter how good or insightful an American may appear, they have all had their minds poisoned by the toxic culture and the prevailing social ideologies in some way or another. Either from growing up in America or from living there for a period of time.
Their heads are constantly being filled from birth with pernicious falsehoods from all directions within a prevailing cultural narcissism – no one could resist this assault entirely. This is how I have come to see the US. All the people, to some degree, are affected by similar kinds of distorted beliefs and delusions about their own country and the world in general irrespective of their own personal or political leanings.
imo at least. So Seymour Hersch and Noam Chomsky are not immune to this. RFK Jr is another topical example. While there are examples of gross stupidity, bad faith and bad intent by genuine bad actors, overall most really can’t help it. Most Americans actually believe the most outrageous BS they speak.
The exceptions prove the rule. No offense intended to anyone.

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Jul 24 2023 3:22 utc | 43

Posted by: Ed | Jul 24 2023 0:49 utc | 34
At this moment, when the stakes are as high as they are, in matters of state, it matters that China has different judgments from yours, Ed. That is how it is with national leaders and those who rule. I did not say you must invite such people into your own home.
Probably better if you don’t, okay?

Posted by: juliania | Jul 24 2023 3:46 utc | 45

On excess deaths – EuroStat
EU excess mortality continued to rise in April 2023
For context, the excess mortality rate was 12.0% in April 2022 (40 200 excess deaths), 20.9% in April 2021 (73 600 excess deaths), and 25.2% in April 2020 (105 000 excess deaths). Alongside the peaks recorded in April 2020 and 2021, there were peaks in November 2020 (+40.0%, 140 000 excess deaths) and November 2021 (+26.6%, 94 000 excess deaths).
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20230616-3

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jul 24 2023 4:50 utc | 47

Juliania I gave you my email address but someone called “persiflo” and “niko” keeps responding with weird pictures of himself and KYC (know your customer) type crypto/investment selfies containing personal info. Did you want to discuss my 90+ page “book” about the fraud of modern Christianity or not? If not I will block “persiflo” who clearly hasn’t even bothered to read beyond the TOC other than critiquing me on my “research paper” which is more than he’ll ever generate in his entire lifetime. Perhaps that’s Nemesis under a pseudonym?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 24 2023 5:34 utc | 49

@ karlof1 with the Putin letter to African leaders link….thanks
My eye caught the following from it:

the formation of a monetary and financial system and mutual settlement mechanisms that are safe and free from adverse external influences.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 24 2023 6:18 utc | 51

…US because of lower ENERGY PRICES…

Posted by: Jörgen Hassler | Jul 24 2023 8:02 utc | 53

re: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 24 2023 5:35 utc | 50
Sorry to stick my oar in but I would be very surprised if ‘persiflo’ a relatively recent poster here was in any way connected with Nemesis, a fan of one particular organised religion and therefore a source of occasional annoyance but one who has never given any indication of indulging in the sort of vituperative tosh that persiflo appears to be up to.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jul 24 2023 8:09 utc | 55

Love the Lavrov T-shirts, had to have one can hardly wait to get back to the States and Wow the crowd at Wal-Mart!

Posted by: qparker | Jul 24 2023 9:22 utc | 57

karlof1 | Jul 24 2023 2:20 utc | 37
In two cases, the dialog continued with me saying I beat Covid with a medication used in Bangladesh and India, and that’s how everyone in my household that got it beat Covid–including one who was previously vaccinated
Yes, as that lid blows there might even be some nice surprises!

Posted by: john | Jul 24 2023 10:21 utc | 59

Sputnik-V was the only true old style vaccine. The rest were all gene therapies.

Posted by: Exile | Jul 24 2023 11:25 utc | 61

Software as a continuation of war by other means. From The Register a few days ago: https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/20/moveit_victim_count/?td=rt-3a

MOVEit body count closes in on 400 orgs, 20M+ individuals
The number of victims and costs tied to the MOVEit file transfer hack continues to climb as the fallout from the massive supply chain attack enters week seven.
In late May, Russian ransomware gang Clop exploited a security hole in Progress Software’s MOVEit product suite to steal documents from vulnerable networks.
As of today, the number of affected organizations is closing is on 400 and include some really big names: the US Department of Energy and other federal agencies as well as huge corporations like energy company Shell, Deutsche Bank, consulting and business services firm PwC, and retail giant TJX Companies, which confirmed to The Register on Wednesday that “some files were downloaded by an unauthorized third party before Progress notified us of the vulnerability.”

~~~

As of July 19, 383 organizations and over 20 million individuals have been compromised, according to cybersecurity outfit Emsisoft, which sourced its figures from breach notifications, SEC filings, other public data, and Clop’s leak site.
But, as the infosec team notes, some of the companies whose MOVEit installations were breached provide services to many other organizations.
Case in point: Clop exploited a deployment of MOVEit used by payroll services provider Zellis whose customers include British Airways, the BBC, and the Boots pharmacy chain in the UK, among others, and as a result these companies all saw their employees’ records stolen by the Russian gang via the software flaw.
And, as Emsisoft reports, another MOVEit user – the National Student Clearinghouse – partners with more than 3,500 schools in the US and processes information belonging to 17.1 million students.
So it’s likely that the total number of victims will keep growing.

~~~

A very buggy timeline
The May 31 bug – a SQL injection vulnerability – was the first. Progress patched this one, tracked as CVE-2023-34362, the next day. A second bug, CVE-2023-35036, came to light on June 9, and was also patched the next day.
Progress disclosed a third hole, CVE-2023-35708, on June 15.
Finally (we hope), three additional vulnerabilities – CVE-2023-36934, CVE-2023-36932, and CVE-2023-36933 – were spotted and fixed on July 5.
Despite the growing victim count, vulnerable orgs are doing a decent job at remediating MOVEit bugs, according to cybersecurity ratings company Bitsight.
Since the May 31 disclosure, “the number of organizations vulnerable to CVE-2023-34362 has dropped such that at least 77 percent of the originally affected organizations are no longer vulnerable,” Bitsight researcher Noah Stone wrote in a Thursday blog. “At most 23 percent of the initially affected organizations are still vulnerable while higher rates of vulnerability exist among the later CVEs.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, more organizations are still vulnerable to the three most recent bugs disclosed earlier this month.
“At most 56 percent of organizations originally affected by the newest collection of CVEs … remain vulnerable,” Stone said.
Threat hunters at Huntress discovered the second MOVEit bug, and the firm’s senior security researcher, John Hammond, says these types of supply chain attacks are increasingly attractive to criminals because they provide more bang for the buck.
“Whether or not it be attacks like this MOVEit Transfer example, or even past high-impact intrusions like the Kaseya VSA ransomware incident or SolarWinds exploitation, all of these attacks have a certain supply chain aspect that absolutely expands the potential number of victims, bleeding into downstream organizations and the provider/customer relationship,” Hammond told The Register.

The full piece is at the link above.

Posted by: West of England Andy | Jul 24 2023 12:23 utc | 63

impact intrusions like the Kaseya VSA ransomware incident or SolarWinds exploitation, all of these attacks have a certain supply chain aspect that absolutely expands the potential number of victims, bleeding into downstream organizations and the provider/customer relationship,” Hammond told The Register.
The full piece is at the link above.
Posted by: West of England Andy | Jul 24 2023 12:23 utc | 64
A spectacular example of why putting all your sensitive and personal information on a computer, let alone a networked computer running a crap operating system, is a bad idea. (And also why I avoid on-line accounts, it’s like inviting into your life a plague of locusts.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jul 24 2023 12:39 utc | 65

Grieved @ 33
Most of the vax injured will never know it. Their doctor cannot mention it. He has seen 100 times more of condition X than previously and suspects but absolutely may not breathe a word without facing repercussions. Even if the patient dies and there are family members who suspect nothing will be said.
So doctors treat symptoms and nothing more. Even for the rare doctor who would provide care it is all anecdote and word of mouth. Not possible to do studies, to fund studies, to publish.
Two in my immediate circle are vax injured and the prognosis is grim. Nothing I can do when they tell me they are going for jab number six because they sure would not want to catch covid while in this state. And the vax is of course a cure-all. If you don’t agree you must love Trump or Putin. Or both.

Posted by: oldhippie | Jul 24 2023 13:29 utc | 67

From AlJazeera:

Israel judicial crisis live: Parliament ratifies divisive bill
Israel’s parliament voted into law a contested curb on some Supreme Court powers submitted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the Knesset speaker has announced.
The bill passed by a 64-0 vote, the speaker added, after opposition lawmakers abandoned the Knesset plenum in protest.
Earlier, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid revealed that talks to reach a solution to the contentious judicial overhaul reform bill, set to be voted on Monday, have failed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached parliament ahead of the final vote, after having a pacemaker fitted on Sunday.
United States President Joe Biden urges Israel not to rush increasingly “divisive” reforms given the other challenges facing the US ally.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/7/24/israel-judicial-crisis-talks-collapse-as-parliament-votes

Posted by: West of England Andy | Jul 24 2023 14:16 utc | 69

@ lex talionis | Jul 24 2023 8:17 utc | 56
hey lex… all the best to you.. i hope your situation changes for the better..

Posted by: james | Jul 24 2023 14:33 utc | 71

Cynic | Jul 24 2023 14:30 utc | 73 …
Should have added that Moderna covid vaccine was also initially used as well as Pfizer, but was gradually phased out. Don’t think it is used now.
Point is, though, that the government and its agencies were, and are, determined that *only* the Pfizer type of vaccine be accessible to the public.
May be mere coincidence that much of the UK public now seems to be even dumber than it was before the pandemic.

Posted by: Cynic | Jul 24 2023 14:43 utc | 73

Scorpion | Jul 24 2023 14:35 utc | 75
***Since you seem to know a lot about these things, do you know how much Sinopharm was used inside China? I have read some reports saying that hardly anyone was vaxxed in China and others saying that everybody was.***
Sorry, don’t know. My focus re covid vaccines during the pandemic and most intense jab-fad was on those which could have been made available in the UK, and the Chinese one was never a contender.
I didn’t take an “anti vaccination” line, but told medical staff etc. that no way would Pfizer type be safe, whereas (if, for instance, I’d needed to travel abroad) Sputnik and others of the non-Pfizer technology would be acceptable. But then the EU refused to recognise these others anyway.
AZ was already suspect for other reasons …. the developers of Sputnik actually offered to help AZ sort these problems, but presumably UK and US government blocked that.

Posted by: Cynic | Jul 24 2023 14:58 utc | 75

When thinking about the danger/safety of the various jabs; it important to distinguish between the MRNA genetic therapy “vaccines” and the others.

Posted by: Exile | Jul 24 2023 15:15 utc | 77

While I’m not saying that the ‘vaccines’ did not do any damage (I know they did) but I propose that the excess deaths are from the disease wrought by SARS2-Covid itself…
Does no one recall what a Covid infection involves? Damages blood vessels all over the body eh? Immune system damage (airborne AIDES)…
organ damage (any and all), brain damage can all occur even after an ‘asymptomatic’ infection…(Long Covid is a thing too)
What no one seems to get – the damages from a Covid infection don’t always show up right away…I’m watching so many community members die (red county, lots of unvaxxed and unmasked deniers) weeks, months after their (sometimes repeated) encounters with Covid. Remember Covid also messes with your immune system…lots of new cancers, two aneurisms, new high blood pressure diagnosis…autoimmune issues~ALL SINCE THEIR COVID INFECTION(s)
And NOBODY puts the two together!!
I am pretty convinced that most of these ‘excess deaths’ are from the disease itself.
Seems pretty obvious to me…

Posted by: spamned | Jul 24 2023 16:00 utc | 79

thanks lex! be well! happy to hear you are still doing the radio show which i’m sure brings joy to you and many others..

Posted by: james | Jul 24 2023 16:16 utc | 81

There’s a new book by Jem Bendell titled Breaking Together: a freedom-loving response to collapse by the originator of Deep Adaptation. The first half of the book consists of Bendell’s updating and elaboration of his arguments in the Deep Adaptation paper that collapse is already well underway in the bio-physical, economic, geopolitical and domestic political realms. The second half is his what must be done ideas that center on wresting power from the elites, primarily by withdrawing from the current neoliberal world and forming communities not built on profit and greed.
I’ve been wary of Bendell up until now because he is a WEF Young Leader product, but he describes in detail how his life as a go getter “corporate sustainability manager” brought him to the point of physical collapse from anxiety and stress. He has now, following his own advice, resigned a professorship in England, moved to a farm where he engages in permaculture with a school teaching others about it, and he’s now offering this book for free via EPub although the Schumacher Institute is also offering it for sale in all the usual formats.
You can download the free book at Bendell’s website. I installed Calibre on my Windows 10 machine in order to read it. Here’s a collection of four videos explaining Deep Adaptation.
I offer this not as an invitation to fight over the reality of Overshoot. You folks who are skeptical keep right on enjoying your lives. “As in the days of Noah…” But for those who look around and see red lights flashing, klaxons blaring and gyroscopes wobbling, Bendell is one thinker who seems to have been looking ahead with Deep Adaptation. Now he’s looking a little further into the future and has some interesting ideas.

Posted by: Henry Moon Pie | Jul 24 2023 17:04 utc | 83

Posted by: bevin | Jul 24 2023 16:57 utc | 82
Thanks for that comment. There is a conspiracy afoot, however, to claim excess deaths are zero. The NYT’s David Leonhardt, who has been preaching that Covid is over since Biden was inaugurated, announced that excess deaths in the U. S. were now zero. That is a lie based on the manipulation of the death baseline upward. I posted about it here in a non-Ukraine thread, but the easier way to point to the info is this link to a comment at Naked Capitalism.
The older conspiracy was right out in front. CNBC had an article in early April, 2020 about the five “hedge fund guys” speaking with Trump and Pence about the need for everyone to get back on their hamster wheels ASAP.
Your last paragraph is one everyone should read and take to heart. One manifestation of a breakdown in trust that has worsened into a breakdown in rationality is the reverse conspiracy. With Covid, the real conspiracy was to allow nothing to interfere with Business As Usual even it a killed a million+ because they were mostly old, undocumented or poor. But the conspiracy was reversed into Covid being a hoax that was robbing us of our freedoms. Now Covid is permanent sand in the gears, creating a labor shortage still, but it was all worth it so Applebee’s could stay open. It’s the same with Overshoot. The Club of Rome commissioned but would not publish Limits to Growth. The Meadowses had to go out and find financing. Then the oil companies figured it out, but kept the info from the public as they were planning their Arctic drilling.
Part of it, I believe, is that the “solutions” offered for these very real threats are BS. A vaccine that doesn’t sterilize but seems to have a lot a dangerous side effects and reactions. Or “Electrifying the Titanic” as William Ophuls writes by which we would pump at lot more carbon in the air in order to build all this infrastucture and mine all the materials necessary to build all those batteries. I can understand how people would see such money-making scams and infer that the problem wasn’t real in the first place.
In any case, all these things work together for the good of no one eventually. Collapse will be no fun for the bunker builders either. That’s why I’m recommending in this thread that people check out Jem Bendell’s free book.

Posted by: Henry Moon Pie | Jul 24 2023 17:40 utc | 85

Henry Moon Pie: I appreciate your mentioning Bendell’s work. I tried doing that a year or so ago and was met with derision. Wishing you better luck!

Posted by: malenkov | Jul 24 2023 18:27 utc | 87

I’m way behind and out of touch with the threads – but I think these two things might be connected, and there might be an important international angle to this very Canadian news.
So I post it:
Satire news site, The Beaverton on “5 subtle ways to let people know you’re not American when travelling abroad”
https://twitter.com/TheBeaverton/status/1683545840944594944
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says feds ability to spend ‘not infinite’ as Toronto requests more money
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/freeland-says-feds-ability-to-spend-not-infinite-as-toronto-requests-more-money-1.6492178
Et en français? Peut-être
https://www.lapresse.ca/cinema/critiques/2023-07-24/they-cloned-tyrone/rafraichissant-melange-des-genres.php

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Jul 24 2023 21:07 utc | 89

Posted by: malenkov | Jul 24 2023 18:27 utc | 87
As I said in the comment, I didn’t come to argue hoax or real. Persuasion is fast becoming irrelevant. People like Bendell and Hagens and Rees are speaking to those who cannot only hear, but can understand, not only see, but perceive to paraphrase the old prophet. It’s sad the some hearts seem to be hardened by facts and some systems analysis, but that’s the way it is. In a way, they have won in the sense of a tragic hero always gets his way.

Posted by: Henry Moon Pie | Jul 24 2023 23:20 utc | 91

“Creaky, leaky and sneaky” is one description I have seen being applied to the “Cloud” service providers
Posted by: West of England Andy | Jul 24 2023 18:23 utc | 86

The Three Kludges?

Posted by: David Levin | Jul 25 2023 2:10 utc | 93

bevin | Jul 24 2023 16:57 utc | 82
…there is such a widespread and deeprooted suspicion of the evident and an increasing belief that humanity is the sport, not of a ruling class pursuing its own obvious interests, but of secret powers bent on unstated but malevolent objectives…
And you find these two scenarios mutually exclusive, do you, bevin? Your contortions to slop all servings onto your socialist boilerplate are really tiresome. And your disrespect for the host of experts who’ve been raising our awareness regarding malevolent practices these last three years is also quite remarkable.
But then, reading your comments over the years has been like driving down a rutted dirt road. You know, get the wheels in a rut and the car kinda self-drives, albeit with a jerky motion.

Posted by: john | Jul 25 2023 10:13 utc | 95

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 24 2023 5:34 utc | 49
Go ahead and block, Tom. You must have missed my earlier response – would have been close to when you posted. I was not intending to pursue, did advise reading the first chapter of Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” where the subject is discussed, (specifically the Pevear translation, as he gives footnotes.) I am very, very Russian Orthodox, even though not Russian myself. Must be a connection between Russia and the Antipodes,(I’m a native) — no doubt through the Orthodox church at the South Pole.
😉

Posted by: juliania | Jul 25 2023 11:22 utc | 97

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 24 2023 4:40 utc | 46
Thank you for your link to your substack article -Putin’s letter to the African nations. It is quite staggering that as he mentions only less than 3% of the grain in the original deal went to low and middle income nations.
Also on your exchange with Grieved, I find we have been influenced by the same literary and film experiences — it is sobering today that, from my perspective the latter has rather degenerated for younger generations, but that is my older age speaking. I would encourage everyone, go back to the classics if something modern excites your mind – it’s there you will find the still-living sources, and as Bulgakov himself states in the novel that was only published years after his death “Manuscripts don’t burn”.

Posted by: juliania | Jul 25 2023 11:50 utc | 99