Jan 312020
 
 January 31, 2020  Posted by at 10:50 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


Walker Evans Waterfront in New Orleans. French market sidewalk scene 1935

 

WHO Declares International Health Emergency Over Coronavirus Outbreak (RT)
Spate Of Anti-Chinese Incidents In Italy As Two Cases Of Virus Confirmed (G.)
Hillary Clinton Refuses To Be Served Tulsi Gabbard’s Defamation Lawsuit (NYP)
Major Blow For Democrats At Trump Trial (BBC)
Warren Questions Roberts ‘Legitimacy’ Without Trial Witnesses (Fox)
Was The Bolton Leak Too Perfect? (Turley)
Simon & Schuster Won’t Back Down On John Bolton’s Memoir (NYP)
Steele Trump-Russia Dossier Was “Completely Fabricated” (SHTF)
UK Brings Down Curtain On EU Membership After 47 Years (Ind.)
Ambassador Warns That Trump Will Put US Firms First In UK Trade Talks (G.)
Welcome To The Trump Recession (Ind.)
Justice Department Drops Demand For Jail For Flynn (Turley)
Government and Media Are Prepping America for a Failed 2020 Election (Webb)
Greece Plans To Build Sea Barrier Off Lesbos To Deter Migrants (G.)

 

• 2019nCoV death toll rose from 170 to 213 today. (deaths over past seven days: 15, 15, 25, 25, 26, 38, 43)

• 9,821 confirmed cases worldwide, 98 abroad, the rest in China

• 25,060 probable cases

• 15,238 new suspected cases

• 102,427 Chinese under observation

• Recovered: 171

 

 

Jim Bianco posted these graphs tracking mortality and infections, respectively:

 

 

WHO is as late as China and the US. Maybe that’s why they’re complementing China: that way their own failure gets obscured.

WHO Declares International Health Emergency Over Coronavirus Outbreak (RT)

The World Health Organization has declared a “public health emergency of international concern” over the outbreak of the 2019nCoV, or the Wuhan coronavirus. The international body didn’t recommend travel and trade restrictions. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the coronavirus “a previously unknown pathogen, which has escalated into an unprecedented outbreak” at a press conference on Thursday, but said the WHO was not recommending restrictions of trade or travel with China, where the virus originated. Tedros pointed out that the declaration was “not a vote of no confidence in China,” but made out of concern for other countries, with “weaker” healthcare systems.


China’s response to the outbreak has been “very impressive,” the WHO chief added. “So is China’s commitment to transparency and to supporting other countries.” China is actually setting a new standard for outbreak response. While the majority of coronavirus cases have been registered in China, the WHO confirmed there were 98 confirmed cases elsewhere in the world – including eight cases of direct transmission in Germany, Japan, Vietnam and the US. The “vast majority” of cases outside of China have either traveled to Wuhan or been in contact with someone who has, the WHO officials noted. “The only way we will defeat this outbreak is for all countries to work together in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation,” Tedros said. “We are all in this together, and we can only stop it together.”

Read more …

Inevitable. Wait till the first people start dying in countries such as Italy.

Spate Of Anti-Chinese Incidents In Italy As Two Cases Of Virus Confirmed (G.)

Chinese people in Italy have been the target of racist abuse as paranoia mounts over the spread of the deadly coronavirus, as the first two cases of the virus were reported in Rome. Two Chinese tourists tested positive for the virus and are being treated at Rome’s Lazzari Spallanzani national institute for infectious diseases. The couple are reported to be from Wuhan and arrived in Milan on 23 January. The prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, said on Thursday night that there was “no reason for panic or alarm”. He added that close checks were being carried out trace the tourists’ movements in Italy in order “to absolutely avoid any additional risk”.

Flights between China and Italy have been stopped, Conte said. There have been several incidents of xenophobia and calls to avoid Chinese restaurants and shops amid the coronavirus outbreak. Roberto Giuliani, the director of the Santa Cecilia Conservatory, one of the oldest music institutes in the world, was criticised by colleagues on Wednesday after telling students from China, Japan and South Korea not to come to class until after a doctor visits their homes to ensure they have not contracted the virus. Similarly, another music institute in Como told students returning from China after the lunar new year to stay at home for 14 days.


Fears over coronavirus have affected Chinese populations in other countries too. On Wednesday the mayor of Toronto condemned racism against Chinese Canadians. There have also been reports of anti-Asian racism in the UK. In France, Chinese residents have been sharing their experiences using the hashtag #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus (I am not a virus). Other episodes reported in Italian media include two Chinese tourists being spat at by a group of children in Venice, and three Chinese tourists being insulted in a restaurant in Turin.

Read more …

Not unexpected. If Hillary would sue Tulsi, would her Secret Service detail do the same?

Hillary Clinton Refuses To Be Served Tulsi Gabbard’s Defamation Lawsuit (NYP)

Hillary Clinton has now twice snubbed a process server attempting to deliver the defamation lawsuit filed against her by Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, according to Gabbard’s attorney. “I find it rather unbelievable that Hillary Clinton is so intimidated by Tulsi Gabbard that she won’t accept service of process,” the congresswoman’s attorney, Brian Dunne, told The Post. “But I guess here we are.” Dunne said their process server first attempted to effect service at Clinton’s house in Chappaqua on Tuesday afternoon — but was turned away by Secret Service agents.


The agents directed the server to Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall, who on Wednesday claimed at his Washington, DC, firm, Williams & Connolly, that he was unable to accept service on Clinton’s behalf, said Dunne. Gabbard sued the former secretary of state for $50 million last week for calling her a “Russian asset.” Clinton has refused to retract the statement. Dunne said his team was weighing next steps.

Read more …

Schiff will carry this straight into the election. But they have to find a viable candidate. Schiff, Hillary, Bloomberg?

Major Blow For Democrats At Trump Trial (BBC)

US Democrats have been dealt a major blow in their efforts to call witnesses at President Trump’s impeachment trial. They needed four Republicans to vote with them to allow witness testimony, but one of the few wavering senators said he would not support the measure. Lamar Alexander said the Democrats had proved Mr Trump acted inappropriately but it was not an impeachable offence. The announcement paves the way for the possible acquittal of the president by the Senate as early as Friday. The Democrats had especially wanted to call former National Security Adviser John Bolton who reportedly said Mr Trump told him directly that he was withholding US military aid to Ukraine until it agreed to investigate his rival, Joe Biden.

In a statement late on Thursday after a long question-and-answer session at the Senate, Mr Alexander, who represents Tennessee, said the Democrats had proven that Mr Trump’s actions were “inappropriate”. But the 79-year-old said: “There is no need for more evidence to prove something that has already been proven and that does not meet the United States Constitution’s high bar for an impeachable offence.” He added: “The question then is not whether the president did it, but whether the United States Senate or the American people should decide what to do about what he did. I believe that the Constitution provides that the people should make that decision in the presidential election that begins in Iowa on Monday.”


[..] Each side is expected to present closing arguments in Friday’s session, before the Senate votes on hearing witnesses. If the vote were to end in a tie, it would mean that the motion had failed unless US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the trial, decided to break it, which is unlikely.

Read more …

A pivotal moment yesterday for me: Roberts reads question that says some claim Trump didn’t pay Giuliani, so who did? Schiff comes on, says he doesn’t know, but still takes the full 5(?) minutes to repeat for the 1000th time his schtick about Ukraine.

Warren Questions Roberts ‘Legitimacy’ Without Trial Witnesses (Fox)

Chief Justice John Roberts seemed visibly irritated when Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., formally asked a question during President Trump’s impeachment trial Thursday that referenced him and questioned the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and Constitution in relation to the proceedings. In accordance with Senate rules, the chief justice of the United States must read aloud the questions posed by senators to the impeachment managers and the president’s counsel. Roberts formally recognized Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate, who then submitted her written question to a clerk. Roberts read her question from the card — which referenced him.

“At a time when large majorities of Americans have lost faith in government, does the fact that the chief justice is presiding over an impeachment trial in which Republican senators have thus far refused to allow witnesses or evidence contribute to the loss of legitimacy of the chief justice, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution?” Roberts read from the card handed to him by the clerk. When he finished reading the question — explicitly posed to the House Impeachment managers — Roberts pursed his lips and shot a chagrined look.


After a moment, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the lead impeachment manager, appeared at the dais to answer the question — standing mere feet in front of Roberts. Schiff appeared to try to distance himself from Warren’s question, offering a short answer to the question before speaking at length about a tangential exchange. “I would not say that it leads to a loss of confidence in the chief justice,” Schiff said, adding that Roberts has thus far “presided admirably.”

Read more …

Nice take: ” It felt like the sudden discovery of a gun near the victim at the scene of a police shooting.”

Was The Bolton Leak Too Perfect? (Turley)

It was the seeming Perry Mason moment of President Trump’s impeachment trial. Just after the White House team presented its defense denying any quid pro quo over Ukrainian aid, former national security adviser John Bolton jumped up from the gallery to scream, “He did it!” Not really, but close. A few hours after the start of the president’s defense, details from Bolton’s forthcoming book leaked, including his account of Trump asserting that $391 million in military aid would be withheld until Ukraine announced investigations into the 2016 election and the Bidens. If that seems a tad contrived for either an episode or an impeachment, that is because it is.

In responding to a defense built around Trump’s insistence that his call was “perfect,” this leak was perfect to a fault. Perfect timing. Perfect content. It was so perfect that there is little doubt that the Senate is being played. The leak happened at the exact time that it would inflict the most damage on the defense and throw the trial into disarray. It occurred hours after the White House team gave opening statements that seriously undermined critical points made by the House managers, including the assertions that Trump never previously raised corruption in other countries or that this type of hold on aid was uncommon. It felt like the sudden discovery of a gun near the victim at the scene of a police shooting.

That does not mean the leak will not succeed. The disclosure about Bolton’s book could well make the difference in securing the four Republican votes needed to obtain witnesses. But it could also succeed too well if it leads senators to plunge into the unknown of calling witnesses such as former vice president Joe Biden or his son Hunter. There are already indications that the leak may have secured the four votes for witnesses, while even Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) has said the Senate may need to subpoena the book draft itself.

[..] Trump has never denied asking for the investigations, but insisted that they were meant to deal with his concerns over ongoing corruption in Ukraine. Moreover, the first of the two investigations could not be a basis for impeachment. Trump asked for assistance in investigating allegations into the 2016 election — matters that were currently being investigated by U.S. Attorney John Durham. It is the Biden investigation that raises legitimate questions, but it comes down again to a question of intent. Finally, the leak refers to the freeze on the funds but does not indicate that Trump was prepared to hold the aid past the deadline at the end of September. (It was released on September 11th.).

Read more …

It has lost all relevance though. Good luck.

Simon & Schuster Won’t Back Down On John Bolton’s Memoir (NYP)

Despite the uproar surrounding John Bolton’s new memoir, publisher Simon & Schuster is standing firm on its intended March 17 publication date. An S&S spokesman declined to make an official statement amid blowback from President Donald Trump, saying only that there is “no change” in the publication date for “The Room Where it Happened.” Trump has called for his former national security adviser’s memoir to be blocked, claiming that it contains classified material.


The yet-to-be-published manuscript played a central role in Senate impeachment discussions this week after the New York Times late Sunday reported that Bolton’s claims that Trump told him in August 2019 that he was withholding $391 million in aid to Ukraine until he had a promise that the powers that be there would launch investigations into Joe Biden, whose son had ties to Ukraine. Trump on Monday denied he said it. “If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book,” he said. Bolton lawyer Charles Cooper said he does not believe “The Room Where It Happened” contains classified material but is pushing for an expeditious decision from the National Security Council on its content — even as it remains possible for Bolton to be called to testify in the Senate impeachment trial.

Read more …

I forgot to include this in earlier Debt Rattles, but it should be read. We must wonder, and investigate, how the dossier became the pillar on which Russiagate rested when it was such obvious nonsense.

“Some of the most glaring mistakes were those such as treating one particular source as an expert in three entirely different fields or making up the existence of the Russian consulate in Miami, Florida. The source in question starts out as a middle-manager at the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow, but is later described as an expert on cyber warfare, and later yet as an expert on money-laundering by Russian immigrants in the US, West explained.”

Steele Trump-Russia Dossier Was “Completely Fabricated” (SHTF)

In some not so surprising news, a spy expert has come out saying what most of us already knew: the Steele dossier was completely “fabricated.” Nigel West, one of Britain’s leading experts on espionage, was hired to examine the dossier written by his friend Christopher Steele. He concluded it was all manufactured falsehoods. West, hired to examine the dossier back in 2017, quickly concluded that “there is… a strong possibility that all Steele’s material has been fabricated,” according to the Sunday Times. “Steele’s scandalous document, which claimed extensive ties between the then-US President-elect Donald Trump and the Kremlin, was published by BuzzFeed in January 2017 and quickly became the cornerstone of “Russiagate.” Media talking heads insisted that much of it had been corroborated. In fact, nothing was.” –RT

It took West a long time to come out with the information that the dossier was an utter fabrication. It isn’t clear why he waited so long to reveal what most already knew anyway. Even the FBI director at the time, James Comey, described the dossier as“salacious and unverified” in testimony to Congress. But the fact that this dossier was “unverified” did not stop Comey from signing an application for a FISA warrant that the Bureau used to spy on the Trump campaign via one of its advisers, Carter Page. Steele himself was paid purely above-board, of course: by Fusion GPS, which was a client of the law firm Perkins Coie LLP, on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, at the direction of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.


West told RT that he was surprised Steele made such obvious errors in the dossier. Some of the most glaring mistakes were those such as treating one particular source as an expert in three entirely different fields or making up the existence of the Russian consulate in Miami, Florida. The source in question starts out as a middle-manager at the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow, but is later described as an expert on cyber warfare, and later yet as an expert on money-laundering by Russian immigrants in the US, West explained. “On the face of it, it looked inherently improbable that this single source was as proclaimed.”

Read more …

Hardly any celebrations. What happened?

“A light display beamed onto the frontage of No 10 will be visible only to a few journalists and security staff inside the black gates of Downing Street. And a pre-recorded video message risked going unseen by TV viewers, due to a spat with broadcasters”

UK Brings Down Curtain On EU Membership After 47 Years (Ind.)

Britain brings down the curtain on 47 years of European Union membership on Friday with little in the way of official ceremony to mark the historic moment. Some 1,317 days after the 2016 referendum vote to Leave, the formal departure from the 28-nation bloc will take place at 11pm UK time – midnight in Brussels. Boris Johnson, who served as the figurehead of the Vote Leave campaign and last Friday signed the withdrawal treaty after its passage through parliament, said the day would signal “the dawn of a new era”. But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said that the country stood at “a crossroads” with many of the most important decisions about its future relations with the EU and the wider world yet to be made.

And Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, is expected to say that Scotland is being taken out of the EU against the wishes of the “overwhelming majority” of its people, in a speech setting out the next steps in her battle for an independence referendum. Downing Street made clear the prime minister will not be making any public appearance to celebrate the moment of withdrawal. After chairing cabinet in Sunderland – the city whose vote for Brexit was the first sign of Leave’s victory on referendum night – the prime minister will return to London to attend an evening reception with staff behind closed doors. A light display beamed onto the frontage of No 10 will be visible only to a few journalists and security staff inside the black gates of Downing Street.


And a pre-recorded video message risked going unseen by TV viewers, due to a spat with broadcasters who objected to No 10’s insistence of filming the footage itself rather than following the normal practice of inviting in a pool camera from one of the television companies.

Read more …

Who could have predicted that?

Ambassador Warns That Trump Will Put US Firms First In UK Trade Talks (G.)

Donald Trump will put the interests of corporate America first and demand that the NHS pays higher prices for US drugs in a free-trade deal with the UK, the outgoing British ambassador to Washington has told the Guardian. Kim Darroch, in his first interview since his resignation from his post in July, from where he spearheaded attempts to grow trade with the US, insisted that Trump would reward his backers in drug firms and farming communities by opening up British markets, while questioning where the UK’s gains would be found. The former British envoy, who left Washington after a leak of his confidential cables to London, said it was doubtful whether the UK had the resources for parallel negotiations with the US and the EU, a strategy championed by Downing Street as a way to give British negotiators leverage in Brussels.


Darroch, who said that similar warnings on the US’s trade demands had been made to No 10 during his tenure in Washington DC, also said it was “impossible” for a deal to get through Congress by the end of 2020 and that it appeared to be “a narrow and rocky path to get to where they [the UK government] want to be”. He said: “I know what the US will be pitching for when they negotiate a free-trade deal with us. They will pitch for massively greater access for agricultural products. People talk about chlorinated chicken – it is a lot more than that. Farmers in America vote for Trump, pretty much all of them vote for Trump … “They also want us to pay the same for American pharmaceuticals as they pay in their own market. Do they want us to pay more for their pharmaceuticals? Do the pharmaceutical companies want to use this leverage? Of course they do.”

Read more …

Dems’ final weapon? For now the article feels contrived.

Welcome To The Trump Recession (Ind.)

Donald Trump won’t have to run his re-election campaign amid a 2020 recession — but numbers now emerging are bad enough, and their shape is bad enough, to show he won’t be running a Morning in America campaign either. New government data Thursday showed the economy’s GDP grew at a 2.1 per cent annual rate in the fourth quarter — the second straight quarter at that tepid number, closing out the weakest year of Trump’s presidency. Worse, the slowdown is aimed straight at Trump’s base, including a decent-sized manufacturing recession. It’s based directly on the failure of Trump’s policies. And the details belie the idea, popular in Washington, that consumer confidence is high and that such confidence begets confidence in the president.

Let’s walk through this fairly complicated argument one step at a time. First, the economy really didn’t do well in the last nine months of 2019, even if the stock market thinks it did. Thursday’s report marks the third straight quarter where the economy grew at 2.1 per cent or less, since the second quarter of the year saw only 2.0 per cent growth. Forecasts for the first half of 2020 are a little worse: Consulting firm IHS Markit expects first-quarter growth at a 2 per cent annual rate, and High Frequency Economics thinks it could go as low as 1.2 per cent as Boeing attempts to solve its 737 Max safety issues. “Welcome to 2016, when it was one quarter after another of roughly 2 per cent growth,” said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.


“We have had three consecutive quarters right about that level. And sifting through the data, there is no reason to think that will change significantly in one direction or the other.’’ The details, though, are nastier than headline numbers. Consumer spending grew only 1.8 per cent annualized, down from 3.2 per cent in the third quarter — which Naroff attributes to slowing income gains. Private investment — investment was supposed to surge because of a 2017 tax cut focused on corporations and small business owners — was down 6.1 per cent. Imports were way down — which propped up short-term growth, given the technical details of how economists measure growth. But exports of manufactured goods were also down.

Read more …

They got scared. Time for Sidney Powell to go into full attack mode. Go after Comey, McCabe, Strzok.

Justice Department Drops Demand For Jail For Flynn (Turley)

The Department of Justice has dropped its demand for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to serve time under his plea agreement. Flynn was attempting to withdraw his plea after the Justice Department set out in what was an overtly vindictive campaign against him in court. The Flynn case remains a troubling matter for those who have followed the Russian investigation. He pleaded guilty to a false statement that seems relatively minor in comparison to false statements made by Justice officials like Andrew McCabe or leaks by figures like James Comey. Only a few weeks ago, the Justice Department was demanding up to six weeks of jail time. Some of us have questioned the case for years. Prosecutors threatened to go after Flynn’s son and to bankrupt him if he continuing to assert his innocence. Flynn broke with his prior lawyers and accused them of giving him poor advice.


He now maintains that he did not lie to two FBI agents in 2017. His recent filings slam the process and the charges. He wrote “One of the ways a person becomes a 3-star general is by being a good soldier, taking orders, being part of a team, and trusting the people who provide information and support. Lori and I trusted Mr. Kelner and Mr. Anthony to guide us through the most stressful experience in our lives, in a completely incomprehensible situation. I have never felt more powerless.” The position of the Justice Department seemed wholly at odds with other cases, including the light sentences received by individuals sentenced as part of the Russian investigation. He was also the subject of a bizarre hearing with Judge Emmet Sullivan where he was accused of things outside of his charges or the record. He is due to be sentenced on Feb. 27.

Read more …

US intelligence has taken over, writes Whitney Webb.

Government and Media Are Prepping America for a Failed 2020 Election (Webb)

[..] what is particularly odd about this narrative surrounding imminent “chaos” and meddling in the upcoming 2020 election is the fact that, not only have the instruments of said meddling been named and described in detail, but their use in the election was recently simulated by a company with deep ties to both U.S. and Israeli intelligence. That simulation, organized and run by the Israeli-American company Cybereason, ended with scores of Americans dead, the cancellation of the 2020 election, the imposition of martial law and a spike in fear among the American populace.

Many of the technologies used to create that chaotic and horrific scenario in the Cybereason simulation are the very same technologies that U.S. federal officials and corporate media outlets have promoted as the core of the very toolkit that they claim will be used to undermine the coming election, such as deep fakes and hacks of critical infrastructure, consumer devices and even vehicles.


While the narrative in place has already laid the blame at the feet of U.S. rival states China, Russia and Iran, these very technologies are instead dominated by companies that are tied to the very same intelligence agencies as Cybereason, specifically Israeli military intelligence. With intelligence agencies in the U.S. and Israel not only crafting the narrative about 2020 foreign meddling, but also dominating these technologies and simulating their use to upend the coming election, it becomes crucial to consider the motivations behind this narrative and if these intelligence agencies have ulterior motives in promoting and simulating such outcomes that would effectively end American democracy and hand almost total power to the national security state.

Read more …

They’ll simply use another route, another island.

Greece Plans To Build Sea Barrier Off Lesbos To Deter Migrants (G.)

The Greek government has been criticised after announcing it will build a floating barrier to deter thousands of people from making often perilous sea journeys from Turkey to Aegean islands on Europe’s periphery. The centre-right administration unveiled the measure on Thursday, following its pledge to take a tougher stance on undocumented migrants accessing the country. The 2.7km-long netted barrier will be erected off Lesbos, the island that shot to prominence at the height of the Syrian civil war when close to a million Europe-bound refugees landed on its beaches. The bulwark will rise from pylons 50 metres above water and will be equipped with flashing lights to demarcate Greece’s sea borders.

Greece’s defence minister, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, told Skai radio: “In Evros, natural barriers had relative [good] results in containing flows,” referring to the barbed-wire topped fence that Greece built along its northern land border with Turkey in 2012 to deter asylum seekers. “We believe a similar result can be had with these floating barriers. We are trying to find solutions to reduce flows.” Amnesty International slammed the plan, warning it would enhance the dangers asylum-seekers and refugees encountered as they attempted to seek safety.


“This proposal marks an alarming escalation in the Greek government’s ongoing efforts to make it as difficult as possible for asylum-seekers and refugees to arrive on its shores,” said Massimo Moratti, the group’s Research Director for Europe.“The plan raises serious issues about rescuers’ ability to continue providing life-saving assistance to people attempting the dangerous sea crossing to Lesbos. The government must urgently clarify the operational details and necessary safeguards to ensure that this system does not cost further lives.”

Read more …

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle January 31 2020

Viewing 38 posts - 1 through 38 (of 38 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #53248

    Walker Evans Waterfront in New Orleans. French market sidewalk scene 1935   • WHO Declares International Health Emergency Over Coronavirus Outbre
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle January 31 2020]

    #53249

    • First two 2019nCoV cases in UK

    • First human-to-human transmission in US

    #53250
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    • First two 2019nCoV cases in UK

    • First human-to-human transmission in US

    As someone fairly new to the numbers; this looks grave indeed. For the first time, I’m concerned…

    #53251
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    LOL Calvin and Hobbes; hell no; we’ve done none of it…

    #53253
    Dr. D
    Participant

    You know, for a nation that wants war every time, every where, especially against Russia…

    “EU Army Ambitions Crushed as German Troops Forced to Use their Own Cars in War Drills”
    “RT News said only about one-fifth of Puma infantry fighting vehicles were operational in mid-2019, which is one of the top reasons why combat troops had to use non-military vehicles for transportation during drills.”

    Probably too busy shooting the eyes out of French women. On the plus side, here’s a nation that actually IS holding bake sales to fund its military while providing health care to all, so…#Winning. Priorities.

    Brexit is now going to blow a far bigger hole into that budget, though. And what was that? Britain would collapse, Pound would vanish, Cats and Dogs living together, mass hysteria if they left? Yes, just like HAVING the vote, just like WINNING the vote, just like WINNING the PM, just like having the NEXT vote, just like setting the date, …nothing has happened. It was all lies, totally fake, made up, scary nonsense to make you submit to losing your nation and laws.

    Okay, we’ll see what happens, but so far, every thing the Remainers and Labour has said has been 100% untrue. Will anyone ever notice? Will it ever matter? Probably not. Facts have no purpose here, only feelings. And I feel like if I give up more jobs, more power, import more poor, illiterate people, and paid higher taxes, only then would we get rich. It’s obvious. #Truthiness.

    “Ambassador Warns that Trump Will Put US Firms First in UK Trade Talks (G.)”

    And Europe is so bad it’s STILL better than the E.U. At least they won’t be bankrupted, starved, and sold to China like Greece.

    Here’s a telling headline: “U.S. Peace Plan Gives Israel All It Wants, which Could Be the Worst Thing for It” O Rly?

    So you’re saying that giving Israel all they wanted has backfired, just like giving them a decapitating Iranian strike has? Funny that. And it was brokered by compromised idiot son Kushner, which keeps him happily out of the way? And oh wait: isn’t Trump a racist Nazi that hates Israel and Jews like his daughter and son-in-law? #Facts Citizen of #Oppositeland

    Chinese people in Italy have been the target of racist abuse”

    So, people from China have a Chinese virus, and it’s “racist” to say that people from the center of the outbreak are more likely to have it than people from Iceland or Genoa? “Racism: 1: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” I don’t see anything about “primary determinants” or “inherent superiority” in that someone got the flu. But “The Guardian”; so unable to use a dictionary as well as google.

    How about if the outbreak is in Texas, we look at Texans? Is that too hard? A: yes. Because it is #Logic, my arch ‘enemy of the state.’

    his account of Trump asserting that $391 million in military aid would be withheld until Ukraine announced investigations”

    Meanwhile, Bolton received $100,000 from a Ukrainian oligarch when it all started. Still reminiscing of sending him to outer Mongolia though. That was hilarious.

    Welcome to the Trump Recession (Ind.)”

    Don’t quit your day job and become a journalist, Independent. There’s nothing like a recession going on, nor one hovering. We’re just flatlined same as the last 20 years, and maybe 1-2% off the mat, or possibly just a shift of 1-2% from coastal cities to non-blessed areas. Possible? Sure. The economy is a zero with a fabricated stock market. But anything out there, especially as they indicate, present-tense? Not that I can find. Hopes and Dreams, man. Like everything, we make it up, say it, and hope it happens for us. When it always, always doesn’t, we are never discredited and just make up some more. Like Krugman and Bernanke.

    Government and Media Are Prepping America for a Failed 2020 Election (Webb)

    They’re on that Civil War as Bernie organizers promised, and hopefully a race war, as kept artificially boiling since the 70s, and attempted now to force open fighting in controlled Virginia. Don’t see it though. Look at the self-control exhibited by the gun owners there, compared to the ridiculous and unsupportable acts of Richmond. What will happen is they’ll just get rolled over and lose the election, hard as it is to take being socked in the teeth each day and not respond except legally and with overwhelming restraint. Not too different with the constantly-attempted race war. Race relations are actually improving, Trump’s approval is increasing, blacks as example with Kanye are getting more conservative, and not coincidentally as interracial marriage, households, children, etc, rise each year. None of that will be reported – ever, they’ll die a thousand deaths before it leaves their lips – so you can’t see it unless you live here.

    That simulation, organized and run by the Israeli-American company Cybereason,”

    Sort of like that Bill Gates simulation, eh? Amazing how many simulations then immediately appear in real life. Like I said, though, this cannot happen unless one side owns the government, and the other side is armed and steadfast. They don’t own the government, and double for being totally, almost hilariously divided amongst themselves.

    The first U.S. transmission, in Chicago, sounds hazardous until you realize the gal came home and kissed her husband: of course he got it. And did he die, or get the sniffles? He’s still alive so far, so…

    #53254

    LOL Calvin and Hobbes; hell no; we’ve done none of it…

    We’ve lost track of what’s important. We grow up thinking the word applies to things that affect huge amounts of people. But what’s more important than kindness?

    #53255
    neoh
    Participant

    A picture tells a thousand words. dried fruit .05/lb. Walmart (poorer quality now about $5.00/lb (10000% ?)

    #53256
    zerosum
    Participant

    Note to the few commenters TAE:
    Yesterday, the best comment are on page two.

    #53257
    zerosum
    Participant

    When the elites start fighting get off the battle field.

    • Was The Bolton Leak Too Perfect? (Turley)
    • Simon & Schuster Won’t Back Down On John Bolton’s Memoir (NYP)
    • Steele Trump-Russia Dossier Was “Completely Fabricated” (SHTF)

    ———-
    Warning to Canadians who want/approve the new trade deal with the USA
    You are going to lose big time.
    (Theft of natural resource and overcharging of pharmaceutical. Destruction of your social/economic system.)

    • Ambassador Warns That Trump Will Put US Firms First In UK Trade Talks (G.)
    “They also want us to pay the same for American pharmaceuticals as they pay in their own market. Do they want us to pay more for their pharmaceuticals? Do the pharmaceutical companies want to use this leverage? Of course they do.”

    ——-
    “Government and Media Are Prepping America for a Failed 2020 Election (Webb)”
    Advise to all the Hillaries:
    Does failed mean not the same as yesterday?
    Its going to be different. Accept the change.
    Impeachment is not the answer to your mental condition.

    #53258
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    When I expressed concern to my Chinese immigrant friend for the mounting danger from the rising hysteria, here’s her response, eloquent and simply elegant:
    “We are not afraid, dare to face everything”

    #53259
    zerosum
    Participant

    Updates: are on youtubes
    Go look at the videos.
    Coronavirus: how China builds two hospitals at top speed at the heart of the virus outbreak

    Tell me if its all propaganda.
    Could your gov. be able to accomplish this.
    Will our society have a better response

    #53260
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    ” “Racism: 1: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” ”

    It contributes to the pile of Things That Drive Me Nuts that racism has been defined this way. This is not a definition of racism, this is the definition of racial bigotry. But then, we’ve been calling Semitic Arabs anti-Semites for over half a century or more, so why not?

    It’s like listening to a room full of first-graders cussing each other out with words they heard Daddy use last night (watching TV and yelling at the talking heads):

    “You’re a mother fucker.”

    “Oh yeah? Well you’re a fathermucker.”

    Nobody seems to know what the words mean anymore.

    ***

    “Still reminiscing of sending him to outer Mongolia though. That was hilarious.”

    Indeed. Add that Bolton wears a lousy imitation of Stalin’s mustache cuz, I guess, he doesn’t have the guts to do the full Hitler job. And that, after a probably very brief spate of sales, Bolton’s new book will probably hit the remainder bins faster than you can say, ‘Aw, shit. This is so lame.”

    (Don’t mind me, y’all. I’m on mild opiates per recovery from my latest sinus searing. Add a massive dose of IV steroids to a guy who can’t even take Advil without risking a major bleed, and I’m wired like a paper moon in a 30s musical.)

    “Race relations are actually improving”

    I agree but tenously. Black and white relations have benefitted from interracial marriage and a We’re All One Big Diverse Rainbow campaign of cotton candy nonsense spun over the very real underlying injustices that brought about the various “XYZ rights” movements of the 60s and 70s, but while the mixed marriages produce a lessening of the old starkly drawn racial divide, I can feel, here in Portland’s decrepit-before-even-born urban utopia, the kind of subliminal tension that can rapidly send people to opposing camps in a single employment crisis.

    Which is not to say at all that the manipulators aren’t fomenting racial discord even as they wave their blowup diversity unicorn squeaky toys.

    Teach Your Dog Social Tolerance AND Freshen Its Teeth!

    There’s a growing passive-aggressive demeanor between the perceived races here. With China being the epicenter of a looming flu epidemic, all the Asiatics who are, how shall I say it, like the New White People (NWP) in the Pacific Northwest (Pac NW), will probably find that those almond eyes peeking over a face mask concealing that uncanny ability to smile like a Cheshire cat on mushrooms, are greeted with growing body language hostility and a certain dimming of the currently de rigeur false enthusiasm toward people of undisguisable ethnic difference. Meanwhile, those face masks won’t conceal that said almond eyes aren’t smiling back; they’re either anxious or angry. I’m enjoying best I can this Universal Family of Mine show while it last. Which is not very much, really, but one obtains pleasure as one can.

    As for Hispanic/white relations out here: it is glaringly hostile albeit quiet and tight-lipped. White people aren’t allowed to do menial labor requiring prolonged exposure to the outdoors, significant physical exertion, and Hispanics (and , it seems, blacks) are significantly absent in Portland’s non-yuppie sector of the Euromerican employment sector, the tipping economy.

    Which is gonna crash hard when people are serving food wearing face masks, or employees are forced to discard same while getting sick.

    ***

    Kung flu. The Oscar awards this year should be telling. All that kissy-kissy cheeky-cheek stuff should be noticeably reduced, even absent, by then. Backstage, people will be wearing masks, I suspect, and squirting liquid bandage and saline sprays up their noses while gargling Airborne and chugalugging vitamin/zinc kool-aid.

    +++

    So there’s no evidence that Trump peed the bed in Moscow with a bunch of hookers, but there is evidence that we were told so by a gaggle of sawed-off buck-tooth liars who, to quote a former sociopathic boss’s favorite politically incorrect insult, “wouldn’t recognize the truth if it walked up and smacked them in their dick-suckers”. I learned a lot from that man. An ethical sociopath who spent the latter 60s<>late 70s working flat joints (scam booths) in the Everyone’s A Winnah! walkways of the already dying country/state fair carnival industry, an industry dominated by Real! Live! Gypsies! who knew more about the foolish underside of human asocial consciousness than Vladimir Putin and W.C. Fields combined, he knew stuff.

    It kind of pissed him off that I was smarter than him, who was used to being the smartest guy in the room, and was so naively trusting that his manipulations just back-fired on him.

    He was stunned to find himself calling me and begging me to come back to work for him after I walked off the job when he tried his standard prison/gypsy domination tactics.

    Back to Trump hookers: the Steele dossier was SO stupid. If they wanted to discredit Trump, all they had to do was treat him with unenthusiastic respect and let him talk. This is a case where I see plain stupidity/craven banal evil running the show with no hidden agenda but the one they so poorly hide, that grows more visible everyday.

    It was succinctly described here recently how America hit its domestic peak oil sometime in the 60s (or very early 70s? my memory is performing Alzheimer Neural Epidemic Test Drills of late). As a second-string Boomer born in 1956 (9 months after Einstein died; I’m sure metempsychosis placed his soul into my fetus, so there!), I was raised on American Peak Culture, something especially evinced by those glorious Rogers and Hammerstein musicals. I’ve been crudely hammering my digital Steinway to achieve a rudimentary performance of the miraculous musical number below, also a cinematic miracle of humane considerations enacted by deft performers:

    A Hundred Million Miracles

    A voice in the back of my foggy brain says I might have shared the above already. Oh well. At least I remember that I already shared a shot awhile ago of the enchanted evening shown below. Both song and image bear repetition:

    balloons

    But this one, even sans balloons, is the best. Look Bawss! De plane!!!! We’re going to Pedophile Island! I love to watch!

    ” alt=”No Ballons” />

    And now, my daughter Chelsea will perform the Miracle of Changing Dynasties! If you approve, vote for me! If you don’t approve, vote for me too!

    Closing image: Nancy Pelosi as Cruella Deville. Hillary Clinton as Poseidon’s evil sister, Ursula, from The Little Mermaid

    #53261
    zerosum
    Participant

    News reporters are in short supply.
    Too may are printing before verifying if its true.

    #53262
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “Tell me if its all propaganda.
    Could your gov. be able to accomplish this.
    Will our society have a better response”

    I believe it could. Not as fast as claimed by the PR soothies preceding the actual work, but amazingly fast. Also, China has the benefit of numerous almost empty brand-new “hungry ghost” towns:

    Hospitals and Hospices Awaiting Equipment and Patients

    China is an amazing nation with amazing people. Like Russia, they’re still crawling from their mid-20th century nightmare rubble, with China still poised for a major tumble as their economy does something similar to the USA’s. But, unlike the USA, they’ve been building actual infrastructure along with their mostly empty housing megaliths unlike USA’s increasingly empty Fishcer-Price building block toy neighborhoods for toy people that we now rely on China to manufacture for us like everything else/ (Look, hun! The DNA Store has a special on blonde Asiatics with blue eyes! Guaranteed Made in China!)

    I Shared This Already, Too, Right?

    #53263

    Any questions?

    First Coronavirus Case Reported In New York

    I dare you, wait till tomorrow morning, and then go try and buy a face mask in NYC.

    #53265
    Dr. D
    Participant

    That didn’t take long: an hour? Assassination attempt on “The Donald” at Mar Lago.

    That is just non-peachy. So expected.

    Didn’t happen/not related/nothing to see here.

    #53266
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    One wonders if it was a real or staged incident. Deciphering meaningful reality from nonsensical surreal bullshit in the news is becoming harder than making sense of the Book of Revelations.

    I say staged, or a genuine angry kamikaze type. Not anything remotely professinal in terms of actual assassination attempt, it seems.

    Pavane

    #53269
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    A post split up to hopefully bypass the bots who are again mortified that I dare use the edit function to fix an especially glaring typo:

    Actually, there are a million wraparound your neck scarves in our fair country. They wrap around faces really well.

    And gloves don’t have to be latex and disposable to shield your hands. Really. There’s this stuff called leather. You can clean it periodically with anything from saddle soap to vinegar (vinegar is great stuff). Oil ’em up first, and replenish the oil as seems wise.

    And heartily decline to shake hands, a stupid custom from ancient times when we also liked to swore oaths of fraternal solidarity by reaching down and grasping the other fellow’s testicles while swearing an oath.

    After all, China makes all our face masks and latex gloves, right?

    Chuck Barris was maybe onto something with his protective gear, but the Unknown Comic kniows what’s most important in preventing infection and contagion:

    Sackface

    Either way, it’s our cherished goal to bop until we drop, diseased or not:

    Keeping the C-Jam Blues alive for another generation or three

    +++

    #53270
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Yeah! The rest, which in this case is a case of ending with the beginning (because, like Grandpa Funk said, the way to trick robots is to walk in backwards like you’re going out, a line Robin possibly cribbed from a Pete Townsend song I’ma inflict on you cuz it has known flu-fighting properties):

    Keep Me Turning

    I’m sure I posted it before. Seems to be I’m going through a replay stage of my life… but I’m too head-addled to actually write fiction (which is a novel about an 84-year old man in love with a 72-year old woman with Alzheimers, ironically).

    +++

    I told my wife yesterday to stock up on cheap Vitamin D while we can. I think tonight’s the night.

    Face masks are not the only approach. Saline spray to keep your sinuses moist in public sp[aces, particularly indoors where AC/heat dries the air then thou. Moist sinuses are rich in moving snot that keeps the pathogens from getting under the skin. Snot is full of antyibodies per part of its major functions.

    But don’t blow your nose, snorkle it back down your throat and swallow, preferably with water you keep with you, always, everywhere. Preferably from your notoriously oh so toxic public water from the tap (most of which is just fine and better for you than any bottled aqua velveeta). Blowing your nose drives pathogens toward yopur skin. Snorkling it back sends it into your stomach, the acidic hellhole that destroy all but actual stomach pathogens.

    Burp!

    Also, virgin coconut oil makes excellent snot-friendly coating to fortify all this, I would think. I use it every day to keep my nose less bleedy than it would otherwise be, and it’s hard to imagine much getting through it.

    Mouth-breathing happens, so use saline spray down your oral soap hole frequently when you’re Out There.

    Keep those entry passages moist and moving.

    As for face masks,if its good enough for the Sand People, it’s good enough for me:

    Sandy

    #53271
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “Blowing your nose drives pathogens toward yopur skin”

    Meaning mucus membranes in your sinus.

    #53272
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    :”but I’m too head-addled to actually write fiction (which is a novel about an 84-year old man in love with a 72-year old woman with Alzheimers, ironically).”

    From opiates and a head full of mounting snot per post-op recovery. I don’t have Alzheimers but I do tend to burn out my bearings being such a hyper-mental mutant.

    I’ll have slowed down by tomorrow and will give y’all some rest. I promise.

    #53273
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I note how Hillary’s refusal to be served papers, regarding a case whose cause is a statement she indisputably made and certainly worth hearing in court since being accused of liking russia is, after all, an impeachable offense, serves to defang the complaints we’ll hear regarding obstruction of witness by the Dems vs the GOP.

    Keep those heads glued to their increasingly undetachable screens. Anything but let people see how bad things are, and especially keep them from thinking about what Jeffrey Epstein means.

    I tend to agree with those who believe we’re headed toward a coup d’etat. Probably more cryptic than not, disguised as a hung election, maybe, and one that most definitely does not harm Donald or kin cuz no one wants to trigger that dead man switch of kompromat he has somewhere, including shots of Hillary peeing on American flag balloons while whipping 101 Dalmatians.

    #53274
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    FInally (I got hamsters in my head, y’allz!), I leave us be with a little known forgotten gem of hope after darkness:

    Morning Rain

    Danny Kirwan was so good, so very good. (Lead guitar on this song.)

    (falls over, eyes glazed…)

    #53275
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    ” alt=”No Ballons” />

    Sorry. It offends me that I forgot to include the html for this perfectly deranged image, so here goes again:

    No Ballons

    #53276
    ezlxa1949
    Participant

    With so much of SE Australia burning to ashes, with a major fire burning out of control near Canberra (my home), and the national mood becoming quite depressed over the scale and extent of the devastation, the US antics with Trump and the others seem distantly, strangely irrelevant. I for one am totally bored with it all.

    But amid all of this I observe Britain escaping from the European frying pan only to fall into the US fire. The Empire has a new province to plunder and denude of assets. Prize-winning idiots, the lot of them.

    #53277
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    The 2020 election is doubt. But not from corporate (Imperialist) Democrats. In almost four years they have been a incompetent stumbling crazy bunch who could only shot themselves in both feet.

    Although the USA is about as isolated from China as a nation can be today, one patient zero can start a city wide epidemic. Especially if the Wuhan Coronavirus stays contagious with no symptoms. If the virus is as fatal as the Spanish Flu, it will kill hundreds of millions of people. A Quarantine is guaranteed to generate cabin fever, fear and Chinese scapegoats.

    China has been taken out of the global economy for at least a year. This is the economic equivalent of the shut off of oil from the Middle East.

    Although Donald Trump has turned his cheek twice, he is building two new bases on Iran’s border and refuses to end the occupations of Syria and Iraq.

    The ongoing mini-World War III with Iran and the Coronavirus Pandemic both at the same time. Oligarchs in their stocked Boltholes will terminate the kabuki elections among deplorable survivors in November.

    #53278
    WES
    Participant

    Zerosum:. Yes the Chinese can build a hospital in short order.

    However you might not be so inspired if you knew how they do it. Basically they conscript every male in the area! My wife saw a message from a local Chinese woman saying her elderly father was being forced to work long hours on building this hospital. When these people can’t continue, they force replacements.

    Also diverting enormous resources to building a building does nothing to help fight the spreading virus! It is nothing more than a “Oh, look at the squirrel!” we are doing something even if it is the wrong thing to be doing! Aren’t we great!

    Imagine if these same enormous resources where used to help deal with the virus instead what could have been done to help the local people?

    Instead of building a new building, how about setting up beds in existing large buildings to immediately help the local people? And direct outside medical personel to staff these temporary emergency hospitals?

    No, of course not! That might actually work! That is just too easy!

    Let’s continue with the communist party’s 3 monkeys policy!

    #53279
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Being an inherently diabolical advocate, I’ll say that the Chinese are basically as humanly foolish as any race, and the symbolism of a new hospital going up zip fast can be inspiring, while conscripoted work forces have their morale boosting virtues also. Like the Russkies, the chinese people are coomfortable with hard times in a manner of reassurance. They’ve survived incredibly hard times and it made them stronger. Moderately hard times are like a diet regiment with a workout routine: getting back in shape.

    As far as actually containing the virus: let’s get serious. We and they can’t control our banking systems, things entirely under our purview. No way we can contain those shape-shifting genii, the coronaviruses, whether we manufactured them or not.

    I am like the Russians and Chinese. Abundance leads me to extravagant excess (mostly giving money away; it’s so much fun) and diminished focus, while hard times focus me like a sharpened pencil.

    Remember: this epidemic is something REAL, a product of nature, however lab-preocessed it may be, and we are helpless before nature. It’as not a product of politics or human imagination. It’s a virus we were dumb enough to fuck with, although I can’t say for certainty that our lab follies are what caused this outbreak.

    Every attempt to control nature leads to short-term victory then long-term failure. This virus gonna kick our vbutts, and that’s good, cuz like my maternal grandma, Nanny Ruth liked to say, “Some mules you have to talk to on the hind end with a stout hickory stick.” If its true for plain old mules, it thrice as true for dumb asses like ourselves.

    This is a time for us to help ourselves and not worry about what the big systems are up to: they’re of little consequence in times like this. When the volcano blows, Pompei is no longer a political city but a place in which to attempt survival somehow. Planetary Surface Reality 101 refresher course.

    #53280
    WES
    Participant

    Zerosum:. Regarding Canada signing the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

    You are 100% Correct!

    Due to Trudope being in China’s pocket, the bulk of the trade agreement was written by the US and Mexico!

    Trudope wanted more Chinese stuff put into Canadian produced cars, the opposite to the US and Mexico!

    Trudope boycotted further trade talks per instructions from US speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats, and US Chamber of Commerce.

    So the US and Mexico continued bilateral trade talks until reaching an agreement.

    Being polite neighbors, Mexico informed Trudope 48 hours before they were going to sign the US-Mexico trade agreement!

    Trudope had 2 bad choices created solely of his own making! Sign or be left out!

    He signed in 36 hours!

    To this day most Canadians have no idea what happened because Trudope controls the media.

    #53281
    WES
    Participant

    I haven’t paid too much attention to DC’s political fake Impeachment threatre.

    When it comes to having witnesses appear, both sides are playing chicken big time!

    Neither side really wants witnesses because it would expose the involvement of both sides in their Ukraine money laundromat!

    So far the dumb people seem to be preferring real fake soap operas that they don’t have to take seriously!

    #53282
    lasttwo
    Participant

    Tulsi is the best most entertaining person in this campain not to mention a person of integrity. thinking about Clinton the dragon queen running away from a process server is worth telling a pollster you would vote for her I hope she stays in and keeps preaching the anti war message as long as possible. please tell the pollster shes the one.

    #53283
    zerosum
    Participant

    @ WES

    I’m told that wisdom comes with age.
    I glad not to be making decisions.
    🙂

    Also, like the slot machines,95%, if the coronavirus takes 5% of the population, it will be years, if ever, before the remaining 95% will be able to get over the trama.

    #53284
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Russian Space Age Elevator Music

    It just seemed to fit.

    #53285
    WES
    Participant

    Bosco:. One thing I can vouch for personally, is the incredible stupidity of communist beaurocrats!

    Yes, our western beaurocrats are incredibly stupid too.

    What gives the communists the upper edge is their communist system!

    The communist system makes good people look bad!

    Saw this first hand working in a Siberian coal mine in 1983!

    #53286
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I worked briefly in a tunnel-digging operation in late 70s Chicago. Huge central sewer main. The digging machine was, I think, 36′ across. No bureaucrats as normally thought of were necessary, just bosses, management. Which is, of course, bureaucracy, but we like to think of bureaucrats as white collar paper-pushers.

    Anyway, the guys in charge were West Virginia coal miners. Dumber than the rocks they tunneled through. Almost got me killed playing a practical joke. I was gonna deck the fuc ker but the guy who got me the job, held me back, said something about weird stringent laws concerning violence in mines or something.

    Glad he did. I know now that I might well have killed the fucker. Didn’t know at that time how accessible my inner sociopath can be.

    Communists, capitalists, you name it: make an organization of human beings working ensemble in some kind of ideologically defined way (including the ideology of “let’s make some money if we can”, everyone’s favorite doxology), and it will be uselessly fucked up. Only thing that works in our culture is print a bunch of money and wave it in front of our noses. Money is the only leader people will reliably and reasonably follow. We’re cattle. Actually, more like ants. Social insects who follow the $$$ pheromone chemtrail wherever it leads us.

    When the dollar collapses, the social collapse in Euromerica will be breath-takling, yea, often even one’s last breath.

    We have no social cooperation skills other than go to school, get a job, watch some commercials cuz you have to if you want to enjoy diversion via the Magic Screen, and buy what those commercials tell you.

    Like Harlan Ellison said (paraphrase alert since the internet currently doesn’t remember the original altho it did a year ago): “Americans? Hopeless. Corporate purchasing machines. It’s the tyranny of the stupid.”

    You can’t have a democracy run by blind followers, especially of a system that actively discourages voter turnout because smaller herds are easier to roundup and herd.

    Reason Russia runs as well as it does now is because it’s a relatively benevolent dictatorship.

    All systems make people look bad unless directed by a powerful shepherd.

    #53289
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Walker Evans Waterfront in New Orleans. French market sidewalk scene 1935

    What a great photo! What’s not to love?
    It’s all there, in that one shot…
    …tomorrow will come soon enough…

    #53305
    Dr. D
    Participant

    WES: That was a sad thing. I have no idea what’s up with Canadians lately. Distracted? Disconnected? Maybe they have the rural-urban disorder on steroids, and makes sense: if things are pretty good in T’ronto, must be good in St. Johns’, amirite? They’re not. They were strong on community, and that seems all but missing lately. But I’m not there and the disorder seems quite subtle.

    But electing a Minister-in-blackface? Are you kidding me? And Virginia too, no less. Is which side of the aisle ironic or expected here, it’s always the opposite in history.

    Zero: I don’t know about that. It seems a genuine mystery that there is so little trauma afterwards for the Plague or the Spanish Flu. I’ve looked because it seems illogical. I think like war, when it’s a shared experience its somehow digested far better than being alone, in chemo, where only one friend drops by. That is hard to take. When everybody does it, everybody understands. And sadly, there is generally benefits for wars, pandemics, etc, AFTER, like the Renaissance-Middle Class was. So therefore the psychopaths at the tops say, “Why wait? If it’s so good, like market collapses I organize and short, why not CAUSE this wonderful effects AND kill a bunch of people and repossess their wealth? It’s only logical.” Rules for Radicals. Why, you lunatic? Because we’re HUMAN and that’s not what HUMANS do. We keep the sick, the weak, the elderly alive for NO logical reason, but for a HUMAN reason. Because we have a conscience, something you wouldn’t understand.

    That may be the anti-ant pheromone. We’re a mixed bunch: body-mind, trapped here where mind or spirit will get you killed and we do it anyway. Why?

    #53346
    John Day
    Participant

    Thanks everybody.
    Catching up after a whole lot of work Friday and a lot of gardening-without-internet Saturday.

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