Why would the dumb Georgians want to join a Club that is now in fast collapse?
The answer is that actual not-dumb Georgians DON’T.
They don’t need or want to join the dillusion.
They don’t need or want to turn into the basket case that is ‘to the last Ukranian.’
Which is about destroying the Ukranian population so it can not be part of EurAsia Economic Union.
These little suffering countries are lynchpins in that global crossroads.
Control of which allows control of energy, resources and transport east to west and south to north.
The EU has been hamstrung
The German Economy was the bulwark of the Euro as a stable/Alt Reserve currency and means of controlling the EU economies. It’s planted politicians and media and old nazi dynasties have been forced to collude in its self destruction for the Shapeshifter Masters.
The German Economy was the bulwark of the Euro as a stable/Alt Reserve currency and means of controlling the EU economies – so it must be hobbled to destroy the EU.
‘Nina 🐙 Byzantina
@NinaByzantina
Dec 1
We’ve got another dictatorial mini-Zelensky on our hands! 🤣 First, Zelensky cancels elections in Ukraine 🇺🇦 and stays on as President indefinitely. Now Georgia’s 🇬🇪French-born President, French ex-diplomat, and ex-NATO staffer Salome Zourabichvili decided to stay past her presidential term because the newly reelected Georgian leadership put its EU talks on hold in light of Europe’s alleged threats. These are the people who incessantly lecture us about democracy! Hilarious!!
BBC News (World)
@BBCWorld
Dec 1
Georgia’s pro-EU president vows to stay ‘until someone is legitimately elected’ bbc.in/4gdcejj
Dec 1, 2024 · 10:06 AM UTC‘
Just as the CIA’s Mockingbird operation didn’t get dissolved after being revealed – it got bigger and better – so that every single mainstream media across the CW is staffed at senior levels and peppered throughout by ‘journalists’ recruited and trained from a young age. Like Laura Keunsberg the senior ‘face’ at the BBC. Or Rachel Maddows and just about every ‘anchor’ and political and defence editors.
The old adage of the U.K. foreign Policy – keep the Germans Down, the Russians Out and the Yanks In’ – appears to have turned to ‘abandon ship! And shoot the horses’, break everything and head for the safety of the North America’s!’
That spooky fake ‘Georgian’ is just another traitor installed by Money and illegality.
A spy, mole, agent of the Collective Wastes DS, long and identifiablly connected to the spooky ziofascist oligarch owned and run Worldwide SIS’s.
The Clintons were too. Bush Snrs CIA field agents In Arkansas.
All Blairites then and now are in the U.K.
Macaroon, Shultz, Baerbock … Most Greens and all the ‘rightist’ parties across Europe.
Every single deluded Baltic muppet. Etc.
Many ‘populist’ politician that came from nowhere – crying about sovereignty and immigrants and Muslims and always supporting the Ziofascists – New and Old.
In the U.K. Farage the Ukipper and whatever spots he is sporting today and ‘Tommy Robinson’ of the English and Irsrael Defence League! The left/right agit-prop agents.
Europes got plenty. US had one big one.
They get massive media coverage with undisclosed secret funds and social media support and are led by personalities, not ground up local politicians.
Picked for good looks and media friendly makeovers.
Trained so they all sound the same and speaky English to each other, when the U.K. has LEFT THE EU!
(Because yanks don’t understand any other language and stick to Anglo-Saxon )

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 2 2024 11:39 utc | 104

Yes, I know the impactors we saw in the videos were at ludicrous temperatures, but there is no way that they traveled through the atmosphere for more than a few seconds like that, regardless of any advances in materials science. It is not just a matter of the impactors burning up in the atmosphere, but more importantly their shedding of kinetic energy as heat, and thus slowing down to uninteresting speeds. That did not appear to happen to any appreciable degree, so the impactors must have been carried by vehicles that passed through the atmosphere without the normal hypersonic heating and been released shortly before impact.
Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 2 2024 13:16 utc | 105
Yeah, I have been wondering since then, how they had them going that fast at the point of impact. No ideas I find convincing yet.

Posted by: Bemildred | Dec 2 2024 13:49 utc | 106

Georgia is currently shaken by street protests against the government’s decision to postpone talks on EU membership until 2028. Thomas Röper and Dominik Reichert are covering the events on Anti-Spiegel TV. Current demonstrations are ugly, the pro-European protesters throwing stones, bottles, fireworks and aiming laser pointers at police. Police is responding with water cannons and rubber bullets. Dominik Reichert was hit by one, suffered a skull fracture and is now recovering in a Georgian hospital.
Demonstrations escalated after some German entity (I think it was the ambassador) openly called for a revolution on their Facebook page. German Bundestag member Michael Roth (SPD) appears to be one of the chief instigators, lately spending much of his time in Tiflis. Quite a few US based NGOs are also involved, one of them consisting of self-appointed election observers – they filed a suit citing alleged irregularities in the recent parliament elections at a Georgian court.
So we are witnessing an attempted color revolution aimed at steering Georgia away from Russia and towards the West. The Baerbock branch of German politics is eager to show to their US masters that they are mastering the technique of plotting coups.
Such actions are typically financed by the Soros foundation. Donald Trump is strictly opposed to Soros, and Elon Musk called Soros an enemy of humankind. So, once again, we’re living in interesting times.
However, when talking of Elon Musk, we should be aware that his desired source of cheap lithium, a country called Bolivia, that suffered a US-instigated coup in 2019, is again being destabilized, and efforts are underway to get rid of former president Evo Morales, who recently survived an assassination attempt. I could write just as much as on Georgia, but I need a break…

Posted by: grunzt | Dec 2 2024 14:11 utc | 108

@ grunzt | Dec 2 2024 14:11 utc | 108
Indeed Musk and Soros may hate each other, but that doesn’t mean they’re not on the same team.

Posted by: malenkov | Dec 2 2024 15:21 utc | 110

Pay close attention to the length of the luminescent trails of the projectiles. The trails are short. Short trails are indicative of some type of engineered ablation.
Posted by: too scents | Dec 2 2024 14:05 utc | 107

The impactors break out of cloud cover.
Cloud cover was said to be @600m.
100..120ms for 600m is 6 to 5 km/s terminal speed.

Posted by: MAKK | Dec 2 2024 16:42 utc | 112

@ grunzt | Dec 2 2024 14:11 utc | 108
thanks for the update from germany and involving germany… ever since georgia put a lid on the ngos, the ngos have been screaming blue murder.. stands to reason… kudos to the georgia leadership.. lets hope they can get rid of the french born president viper when her time is up – very shortly – dec 29th i think… sh refuses to step down… she’s another not very silent trojan horse..

Posted by: james | Dec 2 2024 17:10 utc | 114

Posted by: too scents | Dec 2 2024 17:24 utc | 115
Adding … the short trails could also be a photographic artifact of the electronic rolling shutter of the surveillance cameras. That also speaks to the speed and implies that the plasma trail is even shorter.

Posted by: too scents | Dec 2 2024 17:29 utc | 116

https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-337-the-stakes-in-the-struggle?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=192845&post_id=152442806&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=2rylou&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Another person who thinks they magically know what Trump will not really do what he says, but useful introduction, highlighting the contradiction between a program of maintaining dollar dominance or rebuilding US manufacturing to the immediate post-WWII dominance. I will note that Tooze and his sources here don’t seem to realize that the economic history of Trump’s first term argue against his ability to even build infrastructure. It was Biden who attempted to pursue the policy.(One of many Trumpian announced policies Biden adopted.) Typically that was too little, too late, the IRA/CHIPS are the equivalent of bandaid with a grandfatherly pat on the head and a cookie. Build Back Better was more plausible but it’s a question whether Biden even meant it.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 2 2024 17:41 utc | 118

Posted by: too scents | Dec 2 2024 17:29 utc | 116
I don’t think the short trails indicate anything in particular, but he is right that ablation control is an issue; but that depends on where they (the impactors) are released, and we really don’t know with the cloud cover (convenient); and the Russians did get not get into that. I’ve been wondering if it has a boost phase on the way in, and reducing drag and friction (“ablation control”) seems very likely (to me) to be part of the solution. Too many unknowns, which is why I decided to shutup.

Posted by: Bemildred | Dec 2 2024 19:36 utc | 120

too scents ( Dec 2 2024 7:14 utc | 98 & 99 ) and William Gruff ( Dec 2 2024 13:16 utc | 105 ) and others:
Yes, MIDAS then DSP then also SBIRS; started with the thermal hotspot coverage used as part of nuclear launch detection and it’s been around for a long time, it likely won’t be enough to detect much more than “some kind of” launch having taking place and getting the location information of the launch (to bomb).
Detecting a significant static hot spot (launch site) is much easier than detecting a relatively much cooler and smaller moving heat source, especially when it is at high or extremely high speed.
It is not radar and probably not all that good (consider the recent Iranian launches against “Israel” as an example).
They do have the synthetic aperture over the horizon radars dotted here and there in various countries like Canada and Norway and so on but those are limited as well.
All in all any of it is unlikely to be enough to make much sense of a much smaller thermal signature blip from a mobile Oreshnik launch somewhere deep in Russia going to somewhere else deep in Russia nor are they likely to be able to follow any exhaust trail or similar going at very high speed in whatever direction.
I think it would be a reasonable guess or possibility that they knew nothing at all, however my main point is/was that it is an assumption (big or small) to think that the US had to know.
Anyway it’s only my opinion and could be entirely wrong… would be nice to know for sure of course but if I did I would likely be in jail! 😀
Somebody could try asking the US DoD or the POTUS 😛
(..or the Russians but they are even less likely to answer).
Thank you for the replies, I hope I’m not being annoying or overly stubborn.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Dec 2 2024 20:07 utc | 122

c1ue | Dec 2 2024 20:49 utc
Not going to stop rip-off, we agree on that part.
Best little guy can do is to make clear audit trail of invention, put the invention into public domain via Creative Commons or the like – which precludes the rip-off people from claiming the invention for themselves, and it retains some rights on behalf of the inventor / creator.
That’s about it. Elon Musk basically did this with his E-car IP. His strategy was to give away the IP, build the industry, and “innovate faster than everyone else”. Which is basically what he did. He also raised money faster than everyone else.
So his strategy was less IP protection than it was IP creation-rate and funding raising-rate.
Back to creative commons. No, you’re not going to stop the dedicated rip-off people, but you’ll slow them down a little, and you’ll slow down the casual appropriation (not the pros) some.
In my case, I _want_ people to use the IP I create. I want to avoid someone else appropriating it and building a moat around it, extracting rents. And if I make a few dollah along the way, that’s cool.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Dec 2 2024 21:19 utc | 124

“…The shamelessness is demonstrated by inviting Victoria Nuland, the leading coup-maker in Kiev, on the board of directors of NED….”
shameful.
https://x.com/Glenn_Diesen/status/1863542252120780954
Glenn Diesen @Glenn_Diesen
The “non-governmental organisations” (NGOs) that organise anti-government protests and support coups in places such as Ukraine and Georgia are funded by the US governments and aligned with US intelligence agencies (often staffed by “former” CIA officials)
– NED was established by President Reagan in 1983 so intelligence agencies could manipulate civil society in the open (hide in plain sight) by doing so under the guise of promoting human rights
– There is a sea of evidence of how NED functions as a branch of the CIA, yet they are never held accountable by the media and thus become increasingly brazen
– The shamelessness is demonstrated by inviting Victoria Nuland, the leading coup-maker in Kiev, on the board of directors of NED. None of our journalists think this is strange
– While the media is silent as the grave, there is plenty of academic work on how these organisations operate: https://westminsterpapers.org/article/id/115/

Posted by: michaelj72 | Dec 2 2024 21:27 utc | 126

Posted by: denk | Dec 2 2024 17:44 utc | 119 and others
Yes of course. This is or should be already known.
The US is overflowing with “useful idiots” and the Megalomaniac Psychopaths who are driving the bus. All sides of Politics and Corporate types involved, of course, we all know that right. (?)
My basic point is always, knowing about it makes no difference to anything. We have no agency or power to influence anything nor anyone. But by all means observe and make a record for future historians – that is all people like us can do.
That and action a humble plan for a ‘new world’ wherever we live to arise from the ashes in the distant future once this conflagrations is over. Hopefully most of the evil psychopaths will be killed in the process and not only the innocents.

Posted by: Michael | Dec 2 2024 21:32 utc | 128

nteresting. You’ve described VA-111 ‘Skval’, a Russian underwater missile.
Posted by: Passerby | Dec 2 2024 21:48 utc | 129
Yes, similar, in that respect, and in two quite different media. In the high atmosphere, maybe the air at Mach 10 doesn’t look too different from water at maybe 60 knots.
Who says there is nothing new in the world.

Posted by: Bemildred | Dec 2 2024 22:20 utc | 130

regarding germany… here is an excellent 48 minute video from nov 30th worth watching if you are interested in this topic..
Germany Deindustrialising & Subordinated – Sevim Dağdelen, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen

Posted by: james | Dec 3 2024 0:40 utc | 132

re: persiflo | Dec 1 2024 19:30 utc | 46
Can you please provide a link or more information on how to access the Jean-Pierre Petit article called “How Russian Hypersonics Work”? I cannot locate it using a Google search.
thanks

Posted by: Perimetr | Dec 3 2024 2:52 utc | 134

@ too scents who corrected my late night stupidity…thanks….no excuse

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 3 2024 3:06 utc | 136

Back in History to 1977 …. before the Iranian Revolution fwiw …. has much really changed much at all in the US position – and it is prepared to do to maintain it’s grip on power?
Oil Imperialism and the US-Israel Relationship
Noam Chomsky interviewed by Roger Hurwitz, David Woolf & Sherman Teichman

QUESTION: Is there a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East?
CHOMSKY: Yes. There’s been a very consistent U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, at least since the Second World War, whose primary concern has been to ensure that the energy reserves of the Middle East remain firmly under American control. The State Department noted in 1945 that these reserves constitute “a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history.”1
Basically it is a policy meant to keep Saudi Arabia, which has by far the largest known stores of petroleum, under American control. This has been quite explicit since World War II. In fact, during the war the government tried to expel Britain, and later France, from the region. There were forms of chicanery used to achieve that end, which was achieved, certainly, by the formation of ARAMCO [Arabian American Oil Company] in 1947.
Given U.S. control over Western Hemisphere resources, the United States thus effectively controlled the major energy reserves of the noncommunist world, with all that implied with regard to the organization of international society.2 A number of years later, the American position in the Middle East was extended. Following the CIA-backed coup in Iran in 1953, American oil companies controlled 40% of Iranian oil. By the mid 50s, American dominance of the region and total dominance of Saudi Arabia was virtually complete.
American penetration of the Saudi economy and military has been extensive. There are now about 30,000 Americans in Saudi Arabia, mostly ARAMCO employers. U.S. exports to Saudi Arabia and Iran amounted to $28 billion each in 1976, with sales to Saudi Arabia projected to reach $4.8 billion in 1977.
QUESTION: How deeply are we involved?
CHOMSKY: A Senate Foreign Relations Committee report estimated that by 1980, there may be 50,000-60,000 Americans in Iran, many engaged in military training.
Furthermore, OPEC [Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries] investments in the West, with the U.S. share doubling to 44% in early 1970, have relieved balance-of-payments problems and “help explain the dollar’s strength” and “the recovery of the American stock market earlier this year.”3 Saudi Arabian investment in U.S. Treasury Bonds is unofficially estimated at $5 to $10 billion, though it is a closely guarded secret.4
QUESTION: Could you comment on the approach that says that U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East isn’t credible unless we have an independent energy policy?
CHOMSKY: That’s based on a complete misunderstanding. Suppose the U.S. had 100% of its own energy right here. That wouldn’t affect in the least American desire to control the Middle East because we want to make sure that nobody else has access to those cheap resources of energy. One of the ways the U.S. keeps control over Europe and Japan is by having a stranglehold on their energy supply. Therefore, if there was a solar energy or shale breakthrough, giving the U.S. its own energy supply completely independent of Middle East oil, we still would want to ensure control over that region as long as Middle East oil remained cheap and accessible.
Back in 1945, the Western Hemisphere was, by a large margin, the largest producer of oil, with most of it coming from the U.S. or the Caribbean. Nevertheless, the U.S. was absolutely insistent on kicking the French out of that tiny share they had of Saudi Arabian oil. In fact, the U.S. pressed to get Europe and Japan to shift to an oil-based economy after the Second World War, in part as a way of ensuring American control over them. Europe and Japan both have coal, but it is better for the U.S. if they are dependent on a foreign, American-controlled source of energy. In a sense, the major potential enemies of the U.S. are Europe and Japan. Russia is another world. They control their own empire and we can’t do much about it at this point. But Europe and Japan are potential threats. They are the areas where most of the American investment is, so they have to be controlled by the American government.
The real fear of the U.S., which is occasionally voiced quite explicitly (for example in Kissinger’s “Year of Europe” speech in April 1973), is that Europe could become a system comparable to the U.S. in strength and that it would then set up the kind of bilateral arrangements with the Middle East and North Africa that we regard as an American prerogative. If this ever happened, the U.S. would in fact be a second class power in the world.
After the energy crisis erupted, Kissinger again (in January, 1974) warned against the development of bilateral arrangements with the oil producers, although the United States did not refrain from extending its own bilateral arrangements. The Washington Conference of February 1974 brought the EEC [European Economic Community] powers into line on this issue.
In a recent study for the Harvard University Center for International Affairs, Robert Lieber reviews the failure of France’s attempt to organize an independent European policy in the face of German-American agreement “on the need for an agreed code of conduct limiting bilateral deals.” The problem facing the EEC powers was that “to follow the French position meant a serious breach with the United States, which the Germans and then the British found intolerable. In the end, given America’s energy resources, its economic strength (particularly its limited vulnerability to international resource and financial problems), and its superpower military political standing, the Atlantic approach seemed to offer payoffs in dealing with tangible problems which the French-led policy simply could not deliver.”
Simply put, American pressures to conform to U.S. “global interests and responsibilities,” strongly backed by Germany, could not be resisted. Lieber further notes that “it was widely observed that the U.S. had benefited from the crisis both economically (through her multinational oil companies and the weakening of rival economies) and politically (by the reassertion of her leadership) … the crisis left the U.S. more dominant and the community weakened in its influence on issues of security, finance, and economics because of its lack of a single voice.”

https://chomsky.info/197703__/

Posted by: Michael | Dec 3 2024 5:11 utc | 138

Posted by: Michael | Dec 3 2024 5:27 utc | 139
Chomsky denigrates all people who rightly question 9/11, and USS Liberty, and JFK, and RFK, so I am no longer very interested in his long-winded pilpul bullshit. He is quite obviously fake opposition.

Posted by: naBisco | Dec 3 2024 5:59 utc | 140

Posted by: naBisco | Dec 3 2024 5:59 utc | 140
Too bad so many people with critical minds use the ‘litmus test’ philosophy. Chomsky is crucial to grasping so many things, but he’s also a creature of and subject to the parameters and ramifications of his (and our) real life intellectual and economic environments. If Noam REALLY spoke his mind on EVERYTHING, he’d be living (or dying) under an overpass, bro.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 3 2024 6:06 utc | 142

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 3 2024 6:06 utc
Well thats true. He has set many people on the right course. I am sometimes that guy who demands perfection when I know damn well that perfection is the enemy of the good.

Posted by: naBisco | Dec 3 2024 6:17 utc | 144

regarding germany…
Posted by: james | Dec 3 2024 0:40 utc | 132
—

“Manipulation is unacceptable”: Beijing did not appreciate the diplomatic efforts of the German Foreign Minister
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian at a briefing following the visit of Annalena Burbock to Beijing asked representatives of the German media to leave the hall. He said that there will be no joint final press conferences.
The diplomat also added that the Chinese authorities consider all possible German accusations against China and manipulations on the Ukrainian issue unacceptable.
machine translated
https://t.me/divgen/59226

Posted by: too scents | Dec 3 2024 6:22 utc | 146

he was the lead author of the US nuclear command protocols.
Posted by: Badjoke | Dec 3 2024 7:23 utc | 147
The things people and bad conspiracy theorists will swallow. If he was even within 1000 miles of that document, and I seriously doubt it, the only qualified thing Chomsky could have done was as a young linguist check the grammar was clear, and spellcheck of some text. Whoopie.
So much for evil deep state intel asset Chomsky. ROFL

Posted by: Michael | Dec 3 2024 7:44 utc | 148

Posted by: Michael | Dec 3 2024 7:44 utc | 148
It was in his bio on the MIT website.

Posted by: Badjoke | Dec 3 2024 8:02 utc | 150

Does anyone have any news on Imran Khan ?

Posted by: Featherless | Dec 3 2024 12:28 utc | 152

Maybe the films of Bong Joon-ho and the series Squid Game have suddenly morphed into reality, though actually the makers of those films were highlighting the harsh, dark reality of S.Korean life.
Beats me, there has been no news of unrest or turmoil in the news, no street protest or riots. Anyone here have any insights? Martial law seems superfluous, S.Korea seems to me to be a one party corporate state like Japan, so this tells me their owners, the USA, are up to something, which they always are. Or, the DPRK is up to something, place your bets but over the last 80ys the provocations have all been on the USA side, so that’s the even odds bet.

South Korean president declares martial law, accusing opposition of anti-state activity
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law Tuesday vowing to eliminate “anti-state” forces as he struggles against an opposition that controls the country’s parliament and which he accuses of sympathizing with communist North Korea.
“>https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-yoon-martial-law-997c22ac93f6a9bece68454597e577c1

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Dec 3 2024 15:31 utc | 154

Some current posts from the Masno TG site. If this is all true they are definitely up to something nefarious – the full court press on Russia, Trump coming down on its BRICS allies, military ones first, Syria, Iran, DPRK:

Access to South Korea’s parliament blocked after president declares martial law, members unable to enter – Yonhap
South Korea’s top military commander has reportedly declared that all media outlets in the country are now subject to military censorship.
Police Commissioner convenes emergency executive meeting.
The leader of the ruling Civil Power Party, Han Dong Hook, called the declaration of martial law by the South Korean president a mistake. This was reported by the Yonhap news agency
“National Assembly, local councils, and political party activities prohibited,” – Park An-soo, Martial Law Commande
“All medical personnel, including residents, to return to their original jobs within 48 hours,” – Park An-soo, Martial Law Commander.
“Violators of Martial Law Decree can be arrested without a warrant,” – Park An-soo, Martial Law Commander.
“>https://t.me/Novichok_Rossiya_2/16709

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Dec 3 2024 15:40 utc | 156

Korean peninsula, the three strategic allies of Russia. Makes yah wonder, don’t it?
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Dec 3 2024 15:44 utc | 157
—————————
Somebody is lighting the powder keg in TW, SCS, ECS, and ….Korean Peninsula.
It could also means ====> target China.

Posted by: denk | Dec 3 2024 16:01 utc | 158

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Dec 3 2024 16:18 utc | 159
—————–
the Trump camp is gunning for China
He might even really end the Ukraine war to concentrate on the Chinese.
But we shall see.

Posted by: denk | Dec 3 2024 17:09 utc | 160

Posted by: too scents | Dec 3 2024 17:18 utc | 161
————–
WW2 was the antidote for the Great Depression

Posted by: denk | Dec 3 2024 17:27 utc | 162

Starmer apologizing the the British People about the immigration experiment
“This Happened On Purpose”
https://x.com/i/status/1862533342949675120

Posted by: ld | Dec 3 2024 19:30 utc | 164

Congressional investigation concludes:
The Origins of the Coronavirus Pandemic, Including but Not Limited to the Federal Government’s Funding of Gain-of-Function Research
COVID-19 ORIGIN: COVID-19 most likely emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The FIVE strongest arguments in favor of the “lab leak” theory include:
1. The virus possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature.
2. Data shows that all COVID-19 cases stem from a single introduction into humans. This runs contrary to previous pandemics where there were multiple spillover events.
3. Wuhan is home to China’s foremost SARS research lab, which has a history of conducting gain-of-function research at inadequate biosafety levels.
4. Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) researchers were sick with a COVID-like virus in the fall of 2019, months before COVID-19 was discovered at the wet market.
5. By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced.
https://oversight.house.gov/release/final-report-covid-select-concludes-2-year-investigation-issues-500-page-final-report-on-lessons-learned-and-the-path-forward/

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 4 2024 0:22 utc | 166

The Diamond cartel has had a nice little run. It is coming to an end.

De Beers capitulates on diamond strategy with big price cuts
De Beers has cut diamond prices by more than 10% across the board as the world’s biggest producer abandons attempts to put a floor under the slumping market.
The diamond industry has been struck by one of its deepest and most prolonged slumps in decades. What started as a post-pandemic slowdown has spiraled as inflation hit customer purchases, before a collapse in China’s luxury market further eroded demand. Man-made diamonds have also continued to undermine prices.
As rough diamond prices in the secondary market — where traders and manufacturers buy from each other — have steadily dropped through most of the year, De Beers attempted to hold the line. The unit of Anglo American offered its customers more flexibility and the right to refuse goods rather than lowering prices.
Yet on Monday, the company capitulated on that position at its final sale of the year. De Beers cut prices by 10% to 15% for most of the goods it sells, according to people familiar with the situation. That’s the first major price cut since the start of the year and a historically large reduction.
A spokesman for De Beers declined to comment.
continues ==> https://www.seattletimes.com/business/de-beers-capitulates-on-diamond-strategy-with-big-price-cuts/

Mass production of single crystal diamond wafers for the semiconductor industry and the automation of faceting machines are driving nails into the diamond trade coffin.
Expect the sellers to shriek “but this one is special”.

Posted by: too scents | Dec 4 2024 8:04 utc | 168

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 4 2024 0:22 utc | 166
—————-
Do you buy in all that ?

Posted by: denk | Dec 4 2024 13:58 utc | 170

what authorities described as a targeted attack that sent reverberations across the city and corporate boardrooms globally.

UnitedHealth Executive Fatally Shot in NYC on Investor Day
. Suspect fled after early morning attack in midtown Manhattan
. Thompson is CEO of company’s insurance division, its biggest
December 4, 2024 at 3:05 PM GMT+1
Brian Thompson, a longtime UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive, was fatally shot in midtown Manhattan early Wednesday morning in what authorities described as a targeted attack that sent reverberations across the city and corporate boardrooms globally.
Thompson, 50, was shot in the chest before 7 a.m. outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where the largest US insurer was hosting its investor day.
The alleged shooter remained at large as of mid-day Wednesday and the New York Police Department said the investigation was ongoing.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the initial police probe revealed “this was not a random act of violence. It appears as though this is a targeted murder,” he said, seeking to reassure the city’s residents, businesses and tourists.
“We want to just really calm New Yorkers, and particularly the business executives, that again, this was not what appears to be just a random act of violence. This seemed to have been clearly targeted by an individual, and we will apprehend that individual,” he said.
continues ==> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-04/unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-fatally-shot-in-manhattan

In Manhattan an armed and dangerous Accelerationist is at large.

Posted by: too scents | Dec 4 2024 17:23 utc | 172

LIVE: French Parliament Ousts PM Barnier’s Govt in No Confidence Vote
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20241204-live-french-government-faces-collapse-as-historic-no-confidence-vote-approaches
“France’s government voted to oust the government of French PM Michel Barnier in a non-confidence vote late on Wednesday….Follow our liveblog.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 4 2024 19:51 utc | 174

It hasn’t been a particularly pleasant last couple of weeks for people who prefer peace to war & who were disappointed by the Lebanon truce which contained all the expected failings such as the zionist genociders can remain in the south but residents cannot, that was compounded by the horror of headchoppers being resuscitated in Syria by Turkiye & the great satan.
The antics of the french & south korean politicians provided an entertaining distraction but for me the best news was the execution of one of the criminal minor-minds who oversaw the murderous amerikan scam known as ‘the healthcare system’.
This at last is a sign, or rather a small indication that at least some amerikans have had enough and will if necessary push back.
Yeah terrible that it cost a life etc, but how many thousands of lives were taken just in 2024 by this bloke’s decisions to maximise profits for the corporation above their duty to policy holders?
I scanned NYT coverage before and already they are making claims as to the probable ‘mental instability’ of the executioner, who for all we know may be a perfectly sane individual who is angry at a corporate decision which took the life of a loved one. That is sanity not insanity.
So the fact the executioner hasn’t been grabbed yet leads me for one to hope he isn’t ever, at least that way without a perp the media won’t be able to spin yarns which question his/her sanity, position on the ‘spectrum’ or alleged randomness of the action.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Dec 4 2024 20:40 utc | 176

If other people can express their doubts about 9/11, the Liberty, JFK, and RFK and live to tell the tale, why would doing the same endanger Chomsky’s life?

Posted by: Lysias | Dec 4 2024 22:04 utc | 178

Just dropped by at the open thread to ask for a drink, the world is way out of joint for my liking.
Too many things don’t add up…

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 5 2024 1:57 utc | 180

Learn about “rare earth elements”. Don’t ever call lithium or gallium or germanium “rare earths”, they aren’t. Just trying to up the background knowledge of the bar a bit…
https://www.energy.gov/fecm/rare-earth-elements

Posted by: naBisco | Dec 5 2024 5:06 utc | 182

alleged randomness of the action.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Dec 4 2024 20:40 utc | 176
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The NYPD is investigating the possible message — which appears to include the words “deny,” “depose” and “defend” — written on live rounds and shell casings left behind by the masked assassin after he shot Thompson, 50, several times at about 6:46 a.m. before fleeing, the sources said.
excerpted from ==> https://nypost.com/2024/12/05/us-news/unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompsons-assassin-may-have-left-message-on-bullets-used-in-murder-sources/

Posted by: too scents | Dec 5 2024 6:20 utc | 184

Wouldn’t it be edifying? A public-opinion survey on the question:
Did Brian Thompson deserve execution?

There are more than 200 million Americans who rely on private health insurance, but once they become seriously ill, they are often tossed aside, left with crippling medical bills and unable to receive adequate treatment. Exorbitant medical bills account for about 40 percent of bankruptcies. Many of those driven into bankruptcy because of medical bills had medical insurance.
The revenue of six largest insurers — Anthem, Centene, Cigna, AVS/Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealth — have more than quadrupled from 2010 to $1.1 trillion. Combined revenues of the 3 biggest — United, CVS/Aetna and Cigna — have quintupled.
These corporations, in moral terms, are legally permitted to hold sick children hostage while their parents bankrupt themselves to save their sons or daughters. That many die, at the very least premature deaths, because of these policies is indisputable.
Nothing absolves the killer of Thompson, but nothing absolves those who run for-profit health care corporations that embrace a business model that destroys and terminates lives in the name of profit.

https://scheerpost.com/2024/12/04/chris-hedges-the-killing-of-brian-thompson/

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 5 2024 8:00 utc | 186

Sorry for the bold format error. My bad.

Posted by: Michael | Dec 5 2024 9:22 utc | 188