Jun 242020
 
 June 24, 2020  Posted by at 12:09 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Dorothea Lange Arkansas flood refugee family near Memphis, Texas 1937

 

80% of COVID19 Cases In The US Went Undetected In March (CNN)
What the US Stock Market Looks Like Minus APPL, MSFT, AMZN, GOOG, FB (WS)
Putin Reviews Military Parade On Eve Of Vote That Could Extend His Rule (R.)
‘The Skripal Case And The Decline Of Russia’s Spy Agencies (G.)
Johnson And May Ignored Claims Russia Had ‘Likely Hold’ Over Trump (G.)
Siberia Is On Fire And Off The Charts (Canary)
Bayer Pays $10 Billion To Settle Thousands Of Monsanto Glyphosate Lawsuits (ZH)

 

 

It’s still a bit of a battle to get started again, as you can see, but we’ll get there. All day yesterday for instance my head was much more occupied with the banning of Mark Twain and Harper Lee than with corona. But I already wrote about To KIll A Mockingbird.

 

 

Worldometer reports new cases for June 23 (midnight to midnight GMT+0) at + 162,994 .

 

 

As Texas, where our resident GP is located, continues to surge:

 

 

 

 

 

From Worldometer yesterday evening -before their day’s close-:

 

 

From Worldometer:

 

 

From COVID19Info.live:

 

 

 

 

 

 

But how about now?

80% of COVID19 Cases In The US Went Undetected In March (CNN)

A new study suggests that as many as 8.7 million Americans came down with coronavirus in March, but more than 80% of them were never diagnosed. A team of researchers looked at the number of people who went to doctors or clinics with influenza-like illnesses that were never diagnosed as coronavirus, influenza or any of the other viruses that usually circulate in winter. There was a giant spike in these cases in March, the researchers reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine. “The findings support a scenario where more than 8.7 million new SARS-CoV-2 infections appeared in the U.S. during March and estimate that more than 80% of these cases remained unidentified as the outbreak rapidly spread,” Justin Silverman of Penn State University, Alex Washburne of Montana State University and colleagues at Cornell University and elsewhere, wrote.

Only 100,000 cases were officially reported during that time period, and the US still reports only 2.3 million cases as of Monday. But there was a shortage of coronavirus testing kits at the time. The team used data collected from each state by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for influenza-like illness. The CDC uses this data to track the annual seasonal flu epidemic. It asks doctors to report all cases of people coming in for treatment for fever, cough and other symptoms caused by influenza. “We found a clear, anomalous surge in influenza-like illness (ILI) outpatients during the COVID-19 epidemic that correlated with the progression of the epidemic in multiple states across the US,” Silverman and colleagues wrote.

“The surge of non-influenza ILI outpatients was much larger than the number of confirmed cases in each state, providing evidence of large numbers of probable symptomatic COVID-19 cases that remained undetected.”

Read more …

Makes me think of playing Monopoly.

What the US Stock Market Looks Like Minus APPL, MSFT, AMZN, GOOG, FB (WS)

The market capitalization of the five largest stocks combined – the “Giant 5:” Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Facebook – rose to a new record today of $6.18 trillion. Since their combined low point on March 16, their market capitalization has soared by 51%. That’s an increase of $2.1 trillion in a little over three months. Since January 2017, my Giant 5 index has soared by 164% (market cap data via YCharts):

So how big did they get? The overall stock market capitalization, as measured by the Wilshire 5000 Market Cap Index tracking 3,451 US-listed companies, ticked up to $31.8 trillion, up by 41.6% from its low on March 23. Today, the “Giant 5” accounted for 19.4% of the total US stock market capitalization, as measured by the Wilshire 5000, a new record. On January 3, 2017, the Giant 5 had accounted for 10% of the Wilshire 5000. In the three months since the crash in March, the share of the Giant 5 has soared from abound 16% to 19.4% today (Wilshire 5000 data via YCharts):

Let’s take the five largest stocks out of the largest stock market in the world, with 3,451 companies, and see what’s left over. What’s left over is now valued at $25.7 trillion. It’s up by 28.4% from the March 23 low, and while that’s till strong for a three-month rally, it’s a far cry from the 51% for the Giant 5. And here is the thing: All these companies combined, minus the “Giant 5,” are way below their peak in February 2020, and below a whole bunch of other dates before then, and below where they’d first been in at the end of January 2018. For the entire rest of the stock market – all its winners and losers combined – minus the “Giant 5” the period since January 2018 was a very rough and unpleasant ride to nowhere. It declined 1%. You would have been better off putting your money in one of those despicable freaking savings accounts:

Seen the other way around: If you had shorted on January 26, 2018, the entire stock market minus the “Giant 5,” you would have had a wild unpleasant ride and made 1%. But if you had shorted the “Giant 5” over the same period, you would have lost 70%. This is how dependent the stock market, and broad portfolios reflecting it, have become on the Giant 5. It’s not that there aren’t a bunch of other companies that have gained as much or more than the Big 5 in percentage terms – there are – but in dollar terms, and in weight in the market, they just don’t measure up to these five giants. Apple and Microsoft both are now worth over $1.5 trillion. Amazon is at nearly $1.4 trillion, Alphabet at $1.0 trillion. These are gigantic valuations. They also speak of an immense concentration of power in a single company.

Read more …

Russia holds its parade to honor the victims of WWII. The western press needs to make that look sinister. As Putin simply calls for cooperation. He must have sinister reasons for doing so.

Putin Reviews Military Parade On Eve Of Vote That Could Extend His Rule (R.)

President Vladimir Putin reviewed a spectacular Red Square military parade on Wednesday, a patriotic display critics said was designed to lift his lower-than-usual ratings on the eve of a nationwide vote that could extend his rule until 2036. Putin watched as intercontinental ballistic missile launchers trundled past, nuclear-capable bombers flew overhead, and columns of tanks and over 14,000 troops, including some from allies like China, marched past under hot sunshine. The parade, to mark the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s World War Two victory over the Nazis, was postponed from May 9 because of the novel coronavirus outbreak, but critics said it was still irresponsible to go ahead with it.

The Kremlin dismissed that assertion, saying new daily infections, though still in the thousands, were on the wane, especially in the Russian capital, the original epicentre of the outbreak, and that all safety precautions were taken. Volunteers gave masks and gloves to those watching on Red Square and ordered them to sit two seats apart. Putin, flanked by veterans, did not wear a mask, but people around him had been tested for the coronavirus, including veterans quarantined at a resort outside Moscow beforehand. Thousands of people thronged Moscow’s streets to watch tanks roll through the city on what was a public holiday. Putin struck a conciliatory tone towards the West, despite complaining beforehand about what he called attempts by some European countries to rewrite history.

He said Moscow would never forget the contribution made by the Soviet Union’s wartime allies, including their opening of a second front in 1944. Putin also made an indirect reference to his desire for the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to hold a summit to try to tackle the world’s problems. “We are open to dialogue and cooperation on the most current international questions,” said Putin. “Among them is the creation of a reliable and general system of security, which the complex fast-changing modern world needs. Only together can we defend it from new dangerous threats,” he said.

Read more …

“A Chain Of Stupidity” is what Assange smearer Luke Harding sees in Russia’s intelligence. But the smart folks at Atlantic Council-sponsored Bellingcat will save us from their stupidity. By claiming that Assad conducted chemical attacks on his people. By claiming that Russia downed MH17.

‘The Skripal Case And The Decline Of Russia’s Spy Agencies (G.)

A man named Eliot Higgins was following events in Libya, too – not from the front line, but from his home in the east Midlands. Specifically, from his sofa. It was a safer place to be – and, as it turned out, as good a perch as any from which to analyse the conflict, and to consider questions that, in the heat of battle, were interesting, but seemingly unanswerable. Questions such as: where did the rebels get their arms? Higgins recalls growing up as a shy “nerd”. According to his brother Ross, Higgins was an obsessive gamer and early computer enthusiast. He liked Lego, played Pong on an antediluvian 1980s Atari and was a fan of Dungeons and Dragons. He spent hours immersed in the online roleplay game World of Warcraft, where participants pooled skills and collaborated across virtual borders. His instincts were completist: he wanted to finish and win the game. This would prove useful later on.

Higgins tried for a career in journalism and enrolled on a media studies course in Southampton. It didn’t work out, and he left without a degree. Next, he earned a living via a series of unlikely administrative jobs. One day Higgins logged on to the Guardian’s Middle East live blog. Libya was the centre of international attention. Higgins made his own contributions to the comment section of the Guardian blog, using the name Brown Moses – taken from a Frank Zappa song. The blog often featured videos uploaded by anti-regime fighters. There was fierce debate as to whether these images were authentic or bogus.

One such video showed a newly captured town. The rebels claimed it was Tiji, a sleepy settlement with a barracks that had been recently bombed by Nato jets, close to the border with Tunisia, and on the strategic main road leading to Tripoli. There was a mosque, a white road and a few little buildings with trees around them. The video showed a rebel-driven tank rolling noisily down a two-lane highway. There were utility poles. Higgins used satellite images to see if he could identify the settlement and thereby win the discussion. The features were sufficiently distinctive for him to be able to prove he was correct: the town was Tiji. “I’m very argumentative,” he says. It was the first time he had used geolocation tools. He realised he could collect user-generated videos and later work out exactly where they had been filmed.

Read more …

Ah, Harding has a new book out and that needs to be promoted. So let’s use the Steele Dossier for that. Its credibility hasn’t survived Mueller, but who in Britain knows that? Just throw in that Russia especially hates Britain, that’ll do it.

Johnson And May Ignored Claims Russia Had ‘Likely Hold’ Over Trump (G.)

Boris Johnson and Theresa May ignored claims the Kremlin had a “likely hold” over Donald Trump and may have covertly funded Brexit, the former spy Christopher Steele alleges in secret evidence given to MPs who drew up the Russia report. In testimony to MPs, the MI6 veteran accused the government led by May and in which Johnson was foreign secretary for two years of turning a blind eye to allegations about Trump because they were afraid of offending the US president. Steele first presented a dossier about Trump to senior UK intelligence figures in late 2016, who he says took it seriously at first. But, he writes, “on reaching top political decision-makers, a blanket appeared to be thrown over it”.

“No inquiries were made or actions taken thereafter on the substance of the intelligence in the dossier by HMG [Her Majesty’s government],” Steele says in the critical document. The allegation is contained in a short summary of a larger file of information presented in August 2018 by Steele to parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC), inquiring into Kremlin infiltration into British politics and public life. Steele accuses May’s government of selling British interests short by not taking matters further: “In this case, political considerations seemed to outweigh national security interests. If so, in my view, HMG made a serious mistake in balancing matters of strategic importance to our country.”

The Russia expert concluded: “A prospective trade deal should never be allowed to eclipse considerations of national security.” Steele’s confidential testimony is revealed for the first time in a book by the Guardian journalist Luke Harding, Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and Russia’s Remaking of the West, to be published next week.

Read more …

Siberia has an extreme climate. But it’s now even more extreme.

Siberia Is On Fire And Off The Charts (Canary)

Scientists have expressed concerns about the implications for the rest of the world after a heatwave in Russia’s Siberia region. On Saturday, the thermometer hit a likely record of 38C – or 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit – in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk in Russia’s Sakha Republic. The World Meteorological Organisation said it is looking to verify the temperature reading, which would be a record for the region north of the Arctic Circle. The increasing temperatures in Siberia have been linked to wildfires that grow bigger and more severe every year, as well as the thawing of the permafrost.

University of Michigan environmental school dean Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist, said: “The Arctic is figuratively and literally on fire – it’s warming much faster than we thought it would in response to rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and this warming is leading to a rapid meltdown and increase in wildfires. “The record warming in Siberia is a warning sign of major proportions.” Much of Siberia had high temperatures this year that were beyond unseasonably warm. From January through to May, the average temperature in north-central Siberia has been about 8C above average, according to the climate science non-profit organisation Berkeley Earth.

Siberia is in the Guinness Book of World Records for its extreme temperatures. It is a place where the thermometer has swung by 106C (190 degrees Fahrenheit), from a low of minus 68C to 38C.

Read more …

Very scary people, the lot of them.

Bayer Pays $10 Billion To Settle Thousands Of Monsanto Glyphosate Lawsuits (ZH)

After decades of widespread use as company scientists played down research showing a definitive link between the product and growing rates of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, Monsanto parent company Bayer has agreed to pay up to $10 billion to settle claims that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, causes cancer. Citing people familiar with the matter, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that the company has agreed to settle tens of thousands of glyphosate-related lawsuits in the US for between $8 billion to $10 billion. Of that number, $2 billion is considered a “reserve” which can be used to settle future claims. The rest will be used to settle all of the lawsuits pending in the United States from users of the controversial weed killer, the number of active lawsuits against the Roundup purveyor recently numbered more than 50k.


Talks for an out of court settlement have been ongoing since last summer. Last year, scientists evaluated a batch of existing studies and determined that Monsanto’s ubiquitous weed-killer Roundup and its active ingredient glyphosate increased cancer risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) by 41%, according to a research published in February 2019. Back in 2018, a San Francisco Jury awarded $289 million in damages to a former school groundskeeper, Dewayne Johnson, who said Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller gave him terminal cancer. That award consisted of $40 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages.

Read more …

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle June 24 2020

Viewing 35 posts - 1 through 35 (of 35 total)
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  • #60379

    Dorothea Lange Arkansas flood refugee family near Memphis, Texas 1937   • 80% of COVID19 Cases In The US Went Undetected In March (CNN) • What th
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle June 24 2020]

    #60380
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Humans are going through a period of insanity.
    Usians are especially ill, with an organic psychosis; 90+% infected.
    …and there is no cure except time…
    …and there may not be enough time left…
    Some few countries, with their cultures intact, are finding ways to deal with this malaise…
    The west will likely fail and succumb…the majority of Asia will survive, but possibly not thrive, as it has in the past.
    Cycles, we’ve never understood cycles over the long term…
    Exceptionalism is a fatal condition, never ending well.
    Reality is the life raft; grab it while you can………..

    #60381

    WES,

    Interesting comparison yesterday, which I just now saw, between 2010 and 2020. Worth diving deeper into. Sources?

    #60383
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Thing about both Mockingbird and FInn is that they’re unique masterpieces of rare order. Both are close to plotless, especially Mockingbird. Both pull readers in effortlessly, altho Finn struggles with the transition from river-rafting to the Duke and Dauphin second half. Both books make you think without being overtly polemic.

    Remember how HUck eluded capture by pretending his family was dyng of smallpox? See? Covid-relative.;)

    #60384
    John Day
    Participant

    This pertains to last night’s comments about the race of Jesus of Nazareth, “not white”, but almost certainly “Caucasian” as the American public school and immigration systems could classify him.
    He lived in Nazareth, a fishing village on the Mediterranean, and likely spoke Greek, at least for business.
    The main thing about Jesus was not the melanin content of his skin, but that what he said was what he got crucified for. You had to be a threat to the Roman power structure, “troublemaker” to earn crucifixion.
    It took a couple hundred years to rewrite his story to what would serve as the religion of the Roman Empire.
    Jesus taught “Gospel”, “good news”, which was broadly understood to be debt repudiation for all, the “Jubilee”. That’s why he got killed after chasing the “money changers” out of the temple with a whip, about a week after that, the best history can tell.
    Economic Historian, Professor Michael Hudson has the story:reece was in a civil war over “jubilee” about then. Guess which side lost.
    https://michael-hudson.com/2017/12/he-died-for-our-debt-not-our-sins/

    #60385
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I like the Taleb quote about freedom/academia.

    Credentials. Here’s an example of credentials: USDA CHOICE. (for those outside USA, that is a standard of meat quality as certified by the USA Dept of Agriculture.

    #60387
    John Day
    Participant

    Texas has a large population, and Houston has a very large population with coronavirus spreading rampantly. It’s hot enough in Houston for people to want to be inside in the AC, what I’ll call “the Phoenix effect”, where people clump indoors in summer, not just winter. Houston cases may soon be surpassing New York. I’m keeping my eye on Houston. San Marcos, home of Texas State University and tubing on the San Marcos River is having a big surge in cases. This is the prototypical Texas party-college town. Nice place. My 2 younger kids are grads in Engineering and Math.
    https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/22/texas-coronavirus-cases-hospitalizations-austin-houston-dallas/

    #60388
    zerosum
    Participant

    From John Day
    …. continued
    Rewritting history

    He died for our debt, not our sins


    He died for our debt, not our sins
    By Michael Hudson

    (https://renegadeinc.com/ )
    Will, one day, Having “Renegade bookmarks”, ( “Rewritting history”), be as bad as having porn bookmarks?
    ——

    #60389
    zerosum
    Participant

    @ John Day
    I read your link.
    I would presume to think that you have a concern about your kids getting the convid19 since they are part the the group, that I’m reading about, that are now getting the convid19.
    Good luck.
    “It’s hot enough in Houston”
    I thought that covid19 cases was expected to go down in the summer.
    Due to my “senior moments”, I could not tabulate the number of forecasts that had to be changed.
    I’m sure that more forecast will have to be changed.

    Since the USA health system is the best in the world, any country reporting less infections and deaths than the USA is lying.

    #60390
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Don’t worry about Twain : really they’re just banning reality itself. It conflicts with their ego, so you know which one will have to change. Me? Or should I destroy everything on earth, past, present, and future? The choice is clear…

    “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which — I — am always Right.” – George Orwell, “1984”

    Daily new cases = daily new testing. Hey, does this mean that with every test the denominator gets larger so the death rate gets smaller? Why yes it does. Texas! Panic! Rates rising (due to testing). Rate? 0.007% (2.2k : 30M)

    Since Putin knows who started WWII, he’s warning us against making the same mistake (again). But don’t worry: the West will never learn. Why should they? It’s your sons who die, not theirs.

    Did the Guardian really just say information and journalism is the same and equal whether you’re on the ground in battle or on your sofa reading Twitter? Yes they did. Because they’re The Guardian. Sure saves a lot of money on sending people places and having them know things! You know, where you talk to people, confirm things, call them on the phone? OMG, don’t you TXT? Bored already.

    P.S. The Guardian ran a bunch of bogus pics, pretty much constantly, I’m thinking of the ones done on a movie set in Egypt pretending to be Syria. Like ISIS, blue-checkmark approved! Totally supported while the people calling out fake chlorine and fake WHO were banned.

    “Johnson and May Ignored Claims Russia Had ‘Likely Hold’ Over Trump (G.)”

    So the gist of the article is that BoJo and May were totally, completely right? And the claims of MI6 were totally, completely wrong? Because Mueller and 100 congressional committees found nothing in 4 years of trying?

    Steele, who said under oath his data was completely, hilariously unverified and was doing your garden-variety every-year election-tampering of British interests in all elections worldwide, claims May should have looked further into his fabricated election-rigging stories. I agree. In order to fire and/or prosecute Mr. Steele and all of MI6 for attacking an ally. I’m thinking the room next to Skripal, since they, and he, and their handler were all close pals. Coincidentally.

    Remember, they’re at it again, with a British org calling on crooked-by-certified NBC journalists activists to get one side’s election banned from the internet. With friends like these…

    Speaking of, so yesterday Twitter says it’s a violation of service to enforce the rules. Yes. We know you feel that way. You haven’t enforced the rules fairly since you were born, or since 230 was written. The only crime is enforcing the law. In this case the speaker was the president, and the law was saying that it’s is indeed a federal crime to secede from the Union. How dare you!

    Bonus? Twitter says, “This violates our terms of service but we kept it visible in the public interest.” No. No you didn’t. Because they opened their mouth, it is therefore a lie. You kept it up because a Federal Judge has already heard the case and told you you could NOT remove the President’s posts, because they are a de-facto public platform and service. You can’t remove them even if you wanted to without civil or criminal prosecution. But keep jabbering away your nonsense and pretend threats. Hey, wouldn’t that be “editorializing” and therefore grounds for removing 230 protection?

    Ah, if only someone would enforce the law. Say, whose job is that anyway? Who’s the top policeman?

    #60391
    zerosum
    Participant

    WAR
    TARIFFS is a weapon of modern warfare
    INTEREST is an ancient weapon for modern warfare
    SIEGES, SHUNNING, ISOLATION, continue to be modernize for modern warfare
    The US DOLLAR IS STILL A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION
    TAXES on APPL, MSFT, AMZN, GOOG, FB (WS) is a trickle down weapon on the rifraf
    covid19 is a weapon of Mother earth

    US Draws Up Plan To Slap Tariffs On $3.1 Billion In European Goods

    #60392

    Lincoln County, Oregon, has exempted non-white people from a new order requiring that face coverings be worn in public — to prevent racial profiling. (NY Post June 23)

    Fauci on masks- People had bandanas, gingham, and sewing machines back in March, too.

    I look for them when I go out-
    Sometimes it takes a while.
    But when I see one I return
    That happy gracious smile.

    #60393
    John Day
    Participant

    @Zerosum, “The Kids Are Alright”, all responsible adults, MD in San Antonio, COVID Ward, Engineer in Dallas, Engineer in Ft Worth, Mathematician in Rochester, coming soon to Austin for PhD in Statistics.
    We’re all taking vitamin-D and avoiding bars, churches, gyms and riots. We’ll all catch the virus some day, but it’s OK because we eat lots of fresh vegetables, and we all have our hydroxychloroquine, zinc, vitamin-C and NAC in-hand….

    #60394
    John Day
    Participant

    Oh, about cases going down in summer. They go up in enclosed spaces with lots of people. In hot summer weather people congregate in AC, indoors, and party. Houston is a fairly wild city. I went to Med School there. Lotsa’ places you want to avoid in Houston. Tough gangs of many colors and mean cops.

    #60395
    Arttua
    Participant

    Academic freedom, David Graber, Debt the first 5000 years, was fired from Yale for his involvement in Occupy Wall Street.

    #60396
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    The transition from resource-rich globalization to resource-poor balkanization>tribalization is in progress. Nothing will stop this short of a miracle. Monolithic Orwellian police statism has already happened and is in major decline, it being an artifact of globalization.

    Personally, if we are to ban books, I think we should ban the works of Ayn Rand and George Orwell. Ayn because she was a sociopathic fruitcake, George because his dystopian vision of human society assumed Modernism’s belief in an infinite supply of energy by which Pharaoh could ever expand and tighten his control.

    Ancient Egypt was a water empire. Modern Euromerica ia a fossil fuel empire. It’s been a long long time since slaves dragged bricks to the pyramid building complex. Large monolithic totalitarianisms are great fun for scaring the shit out of oneself but they are so done, so 20th century. 1984 is 36 years behind us. Slavery and oppression will have to constantly downsize with the general positively entropic flow.

    Regional plantations based on feudal peasantry seem to be the first step on our voyage backward through the history of human civilization. The descent of man. A Second Fall, if you will. Before moving to Portland I spent almost 30 years in Spokane. Spokane lies NE of the Inland Northwest grain belt and Hanford Nuclear Reservation. A downwinder, I was, breathing lots of Round-Up and radioactive fumes. Makes a man tough. 😉

    Just south of Spokane ends the Palouse, a plateau of ridiculously fertile soil hence the wheat fields. I watched McMansions (and 1 or 2 real mansions) get built on 10-100 acre parcels (about 7-70 football fields). Perfect size for plantations although I highly doubt any of the doctors and lawyers who bought these parcels think that way at all. They like the tax write-off, luxury views, and the notion of turning those acres into vineyards.

    But those who manage to hold on to these properties will probably provide their children with the basic requirements of a plantation… if they can hold onto it when ammunition becomes a primary form of currency.

    This assumes, of course, an absence of thermonuclear rain, which is always the biggest invisible elephant in the room, the one we rarely talk about.

    It’s a Muthafucka

    What to do?

    On Being Wrong

    Tactical!

    This desert bombshell was named Priscilla:

    bom

    So was this bombshell:

    Priscilla Queen of the Desert

    #60397
    John Day
    Participant

    @Dr.D
    Rapidly rising new infection rates are lagged by hospitalizations a week later and deaths a week after that. We all agonized about those things here in March, right.
    The Texas percent positive on testing is around 9%. It never got below 6% that I know of. Mine started at 25-30% and is now around 15%. The people I test often have positive family contacts these days.
    I’m personally hopeful that it will turn out to be a GOOD thing to have a lot of cases in outdoorsy young people in Texas this summer. I’m really, truly hoping that. It could be, but we won’t really know until Valentine’s Day, will we?
    The potential positive is that this pool of spreaders will get saturated early (soon) and then not do much spreading next winter. My personal experience in Texas, with my patients, is that vitamin-D levels peak in the summer. It also stands to reason.
    This is the best time to get coronvirused if you don’t take vitamin-D, which most people don’t. That should lead to minimal casualties-per-case this summer.
    Again, we’ll have to see cases level off before we see how bad it is per case.

    #60398
    John Day
    Participant

    In a major victory for Michael Flynn, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ordered Judge Emmet Sullivan to grant the Justice Department’s request to dismiss the case against the former Trump National Security Adviser. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/appeals-court-orders-flynn-judge-dismiss-case

    #60399
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    btw, the latter link is a terrific song. Here it is live with a top band and a sexy stretchout:

    Finally Live

    #60400
    John Day
    Participant

    @Boscohorowitz, Yeah, a plantation. I’m making my one-man-weekend-worker-half-acre-Mexican-avocado plantation in Yoakum. I’ve put in my own seed-money and sweat-equity. We’ll see how it goes.

    On Egyptian-water-imperialism-in-decline https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/06/egypt-is-facing-two-wars-how-will-sisi-decide.html#more

    #60401
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    The irony of donning blackface makeup to avoid wearing a mask tickles my funnybones.

    JohnD: it must be hard having to do both parts of the call’n’response work song by yourself:

    She’s a Hoe

    #60402
    zerosum
    Participant

    “Regional plantations based on feudal peasantry”
    I’ve just had the discussion,

    “Land always go up in value. Always good to buy land”

    What was missing in that opinion was
    1. that there must be income to cover the expenses or else you will be forced to sell at a loss.
    2. If there is no income, then the expenses,(taxes, etc.) must be covered from other income.
    3. Selling price of property must cover the accumulated compound expenses
    4. Operation cost of that enterprise on that land, (farming, livestocks, mfg., renting, retail, etc. must be enough to feed everyone, (family, employee etc.) and pay expenses, (gas, electricity, water, etc)
    5. The secret of being a successful “rentier” have not been taught to the rifraf

    #60403

    The Michael Flynn thing will be a very big story going forward. I’ve had an article pending since early May, kid you not, but it keeps on changing and being added to. Flynn is essentially gagged until this is really thrown out, but Sidney Powell will have planned things no matter what. There’s only 4.5 months left till the election, and she will want to charge Comey, Strzok, McCabe, Biden, Susan Rice, Sally Yates and Obama. But summer’s coming, and Capitol Hill is going to close down. Crazy days.

    #60404
    John Day
    Participant

    “Deep State Fixes Stuff ” post is up, but you’ve seen some of it already.
    http://www.johndayblog.com/2020/06/deep-state-fixes-stuff.html

    Fear in the JFK Assassination, Part 1
    (The mystery of how the USMC taught Lee Oswald Russian and Communism)
    ​ ​One of the fascinating phenomena in the JFK assassination is the fear of some Americans to consider the possibility that the assassination was actually a regime-change operation carried out by the U.S. national-security establishment rather than simply a murder carried out by a supposed lone-nut assassin.​..​
    ​ ​ Indeed, if you want a modern-day version of how the U.S. national-security state treats suspected traitors and betrayers of its secrets, reflect on Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning. That’s how we expect national-security state officials to behave toward those they consider traitors and betrayers of U.S. secrets.
    ​ ​Not so with Oswald. With him, we have what amounts to two separate parallel universes. One universe involves all the Cold War hoopla against communists. Another one is the one in which Oswald is sauntering across the world stage as one of America’s biggest self-proclaimed communists — a U.S. Marine communist — who isn’t touched by some congressional investigative committee, some federal grand jury, or some FBI agent. How is that possible?
    Later​, when Oswald ended up in Dallas, his friends were right-wingers, not left-wingers. He even got​ a​ job at a photographic facility that developed top-secret photographs for the U.S. government. How is that possible? Later, when he ended up in New Orleans, he got hired by a private company that was owned by a fierce anti-communist right-winger. ​ ​Why would he hire a supposed communist who supposedly had betrayed America by supposedly joining up with America’s avowed communist enemy, the Soviet Union, and to whom he had supposedly given U.S. national-security state secrets, just like Julian and Ethel Rosenberg had?

    Fear in the JFK Assassination, Part 1 (of 2)

    ​ ​According to the latest Goldman state-level coronavirus tracker, the prevalence of coronavirus symptoms is rising, with the share of patients seeking care with symptoms of Covid-like illness at 3.5%, up 0.4% from 2 weeks ago. Daily confirmed new cases have risen steadily over the past several days to 86 per million, ending a 2-month decline. A big part of this is due to increased testing: indeed, the volume of daily coronavirus tests has risen 23% over the last two weeks, while the positive test rate has risen by 1.3pp to 6.2%. On the flipside, fatalities have declined over the last two weeks (-12% to 1.9 per million), although fatalities lag new cases by multiple weeks
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/latest-state-level-coronavirus-tracker-shows-alarming-trend-reversal

    ​Epidemiologists respond to a poll of when they might “get back to normal” with various activities, like fetching the mail without a mask. Interesting…​
    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/coronavirus-covid19-life-social-distancing-noramlity-chart/

    ​It’s hard to figure out some of these statistics, but higher-home-values probably relates to higher urban density, and high summer temperatures and low winter temperatures both make people congregate indoors. COVID-death-rate-Statistics:
    ​ ​Counties with higher home values, higher summer temperatures, and lower winter temperatures have higher death rates.
    https://www.nber.org/papers/w27391

    #60405
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Let’s enjoy some AMericana:

    Our Town

    #60407
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Hardly known, these guys. Leader of Big Country teams up with Nashville sionger-songwriter. Sadly, Stuart Adamson, BC’s leader, hung hiumself not long after this record’s release.

    The Raphaels

    With superior lyrics like these, for example:

    You don’t mess around with a man in black,
    You will say something wrong that you can’t take back,
    You wll go for a ride in his automobile,
    To a spot in the woods, just over the hill.
    No, you don’t mess around with a man in black.
    You don’t fool around with a woman in red,
    You’ll wake up alone in a cold, barren bed
    And she’ll empty your pockets and tear out your heart,
    And leave you the wounds of a life torn apart.
    No, you don’t fool around with a woman in red.
    Oh, you never make deals with a man named Doc
    Or you’ll have a gun in your hand by twelve o’clock,
    ‘Neath the sodium lights with your heart in your throat,
    Your life won’t amount to a bottle of smoke.
    No, you never make deals with a man named Doc.
    Don’t bring me your tales of temptation and loss,
    The rags of your dreams, your shattered cross,
    You see, I’ve heard your confession, I know just who you blame
    And if you had it all back you’d just lose it again.
    You can’t think on redemption if you aint saved,
    Don’t tell me your tales of temptation and loss;
    Don’t bing me the pieces of your shattered cross.

    #60408
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    @boscohorowitz

    re: the rant – very eloquent! The omnipotence has always been a veneer. It is ridiculously easy to gum up the works…especially for passive/aggressives such as myself.

    re: americana, Amargos – Northern Concerto

    #60409
    zerosum
    Participant

    navel-gazing
    Noun
    An excessive and narcissistic focus on oneself
    An act of meditation or self-introspection
    A consideration for or reasoning
    The act or process of introverting or the quality of being introverted
    Adjective
    Examining one’s own perceptions and sensory experiences

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_thyself
    The Ancient Greek aphorism “know thyself” (Greek: γνῶθι σεαυτόν, transliterated: gnōthi seauton; also … σαυτόν … sauton with the ε contracted), is one of the Delphic maxims and was the first of three maxims inscribed in the pronaos (forecourt) of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi according to the Greek writer Pausanias (10.24.1).[1] The two maxims that followed “know thyself” were “nothing to excess” and “surety brings ruin”.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introspection
    Introspection is the examination of one’s own conscious thoughts and feelings.[1] In psychology, the process of introspection relies exclusively on observation of one’s mental state, while in a spiritual context it may refer to the examination of one’s soul. Introspection is closely related to human self-reflection and self-discovery and is contrasted with external observation.

    #60410
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    ” It is ridiculously easy to gum up the works…especially for passive/aggressives such as myself.”

    HA! YOu made me laugh! A solid old man wheezer! Graci. I go now to enjoy the suggested music.

    #60411
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Wow. Contemporay classical music that doesn’t sound self-consciously ‘postmodern’ or anything but an ongoing exploration of the possibilities of written orchestral music using mostly tonic musical methods. And the guy’s using a recorder impossibly well. But he seems more Spanicana than Americana.

    #60412
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    tonal not tonic. *snicker*

    #60413
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    @bosco re: Spaniard, yes, Catalan at that, and I finally found liner notes for a different recording, states that it is meant to be ‘aterritorial’ to evoke northern scenes from anywhere. It grabbed me as ‘proto-american’ because it is very similar to some works by Villalobos and Ginastera. Perfect time for such chaotic and stirring music, eh?

    From the other end of my americana concept: The Band – It Makes No Difference. My dad had a reel-to-reel, and I discovered ‘Music From Big Pink’ at an early age, about the same time I was also ingesting Niel Diamond, John Denver, Gordon Lightfoot, Three Dog Night, Jimi Hendrix, Earth, Wind & Fire, Joni Mitchell, Switched On Bach, 1812 Overture, the soundtrack from 2001: A Space Odessey.

    When I returned to my car from a (30km trail/gravel) bike ride last night I heard hopeful noises. The location at which I was parked is deep in the woods. There are several summer camps nearby, and the closest was emanating the joyous sounds of piano and singers. Seems the benefits of community outweigh the fear for some.

    #60414
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Regarding the benefits of community: the inability of a deeply hypnotized populace to do anything but what they’re told (and as little of that as possible) precluded the inability of most people to adjust to covid in any but a bipolar way: run inside and hide from the Black Death! vs. Fuck that shit, I’m going swimming!

    All it required was for our bozos-in-charge to tell people to wear face masks, anything, a fucking scarf, practice rigorous hygiene, and some major but simple dietary recommendations while allowing therapies like ancient malaria drugs to be used.

    People could have still gone to church and any other group function that didn’t crowd people next to each other, especially when they’re stupid drunk and seriously dehydrated.

    But that would’ve required there to be some genuine morally mature grownups in significant office, and they seem to have run out of those. It’s like a Marx Brothers movie without a script.

    But that’s the thing about collective sociopathy: it can only agree on who to rob or kill, not much else.

    #60415
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “Slavery and oppression will have to constantly downsize with the general positively entropic flow.”

    While slavery and such will increase per capita, per capita gonna shrink.

    #60475
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Bosco – the analysis of future socioeconomic trends you laid out is why I still hover here at TAE – you may think of taking over Nicole’s former role now she seems a bit off message. I think holding onto the land has a lot to do with keeping stakeholders invested – In the case of my children it goes like this “This carport is so huge because one day your mother and I will infill the sides with straw bales and windows and live in it and who ever takes the nice house we live in now will have access to over 100 fruit and nut trees, no bills except council rates and the bit we pay the motor cycle gang and all you see for free. There is just one catch – you gotta look after us. Also we are grooming some young local families to build in a body corporate structure on our land with shared water and fuel supply (timber)
    I believe with love, trust and solid communication it can be done.

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