Jun 252020
 
 June 25, 2020  Posted by at 11:39 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,


Thomas Eakins Walt Whitman 1891

 

Strzok’s Newly Discovered FBI Notes Deliver Jolt To ‘Obamagate’ Evidence (JTN)
Flynn Dismissal Order ‘Thoroughly Demolishes’ Dissenting Judge’s Opinion (ZH)
Julian Assange Accused In US Indictment Of Conspiracy (Fox)
State, Local Gov’ts Need Billions More In Aid To Avert 4 Million Layoffs (MW)

 

 

Ever since I began reporting on the new coronavirus, I have pointed to trendlines as the reason to publish graphs and numbers on a daily basis. They make it possible to see how things develop. And what I see lately scares the heebees out of me. The trendlines tell us that things are getting worse, fast, while at the same time everyone pretends that they’re ready to re-open their societies.

I’ve said from the start that lockdowns can only be temporary, because we are social beings, but also that you need to use a lockdown wisely. Very few societies have, though.

In a few days’ time we will cross 10 million global confirmed cases, and 500,000 deaths. There is a lot wrong with the way these numbers are tallied, but they’re the best we have. And yes, these two “milestones” indicate a case fatality rate of 5%. Now, I can hear the protests all the way over here, and I don’t think a 5% rate is real, but even just one tenth of that, an 0.5% rate, is pretty terrible.

Yes, there are many more infections than those 10 million, no doubt, but there are also a lot more deaths than half a million. And by the way, that is a lot of lives lost, we should never forget that. Moreover, both the cases and the deaths just keep on coming, and there is no end in sight to that.

If things continue along current trendlines, we will in all likelihood observe how the end to the lockdowns does a lot more economic damage than the lockdowns ever did. Several US states already ring alarm bells over their healthcare facilities threatening to be overwhelmed.

And what about Brazil, Mexico, India and more? What will happen in Europe now all countries there are opening up, claiming that they have it all solved? There are many many millions of jobs in the west that are gone forever, and I can’t see countries being prepared to deal with that.

Be careful out there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Worldometer reports new cases for June 24 (midnight to midnight GMT+0) at + 172,383.

 

 

New cases past 24 hours in:

• US + 38,621
• Brazil + 40,021
• Russia + 7,790
• India + 23,229

 

 

 

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

 

 

From Worldometer:

 

 

From COVID19Info.live:

 

 

 

 

A lot is being said about the “newfound” Peter Strzok notes from the Jan 4 2017 meeting with Rise, Yates, Biden, Comey, Obama. I think this part has more meaning than any other.

Strzok’s Newly Discovered FBI Notes Deliver Jolt To ‘Obamagate’ Evidence (JTN)

The real impact of the notes may be on the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation of the Russia investigators, where U.S. Attorneys John Durham and Jeff Jensen are determining whether the FBI or others committed crimes in deceiving the courts or Congress about the evidence in the now-discredited Russia collusion allegations. A former senior FBI official told Just the News that Strzok’s notes about the White House meeting are a red flag that the Comey-led bureau may have been involving itself illegitimately in a political dispute between the outgoing Obama administration and incoming Trump administration. “It was a political meeting about a policy dispute, and the bureau had no business being involved,” Former Assistant Director for Intelligence Kevin Brock said. “No other FBI director would ever have attended such a meeting.

“Comey is quoted in the notes as saying the Kislyak call appeared legit. At that point he should have gotten up and left the room,” Brock added. “The FBI had no business being represented in that meeting. It did not have a counterintelligence interest any longer.”

A second impact of the notes could be on the campaign trail. A few months ago, Biden claimed he was unaware of the Flynn probe as he was leaving the VP’s office. I know nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn,” he said. He then clarified his denial. “I was aware that … they asked for an investigation,” Biden said. “But that’s all I know about it, and I don’t think anything else.” If Powell’s interpretation of the notes is correct, Biden was knowledgeable enough to suggest a possible pretext for continued investigation, the Logan Act. And he eventually unmasked one of Flynn’s intercepted phone calls a week later.

https://twitter.com/Techno_Fog/status/1275803339738021890

Read more …

Is this a deliberate mess?

Flynn Dismissal Order ‘Thoroughly Demolishes’ Dissenting Judge’s Opinion (ZH)

Missouri appellate attorney John Reeves has weighed in on today’s decision by the US Court of Appeals for DC ordering Judge Emmett Sullivan to grant a DOJ request to drop the case against Michael Flynn. The opinion, authored by one of the three judges on the panel, Neomi J. Rao, “thoroughly demolishes” a dissenting opinion by Judge Robert Wilkins – who Reeves thinks was so off-base that he “shot himself in the foot” when it comes to any chance of an ‘en-banc review’ in which the Flynn decision would be kicked back for a full review by the DC appellate court.

[..] In all my years of appellate practice, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a non-US Supreme Court appellate opinion that so thoroughly demolishes a dissenting opinion as this one. Judge Rao could not have done better in writing the opinion, and it should be required law school rdg. In addition, Judge Wilkins’ dissenting opinion is so off-the-mark that I believe he has shot himself in the foot for purposes of en banc review–in other words, he has ensured that otherwise-sympathetic judges on the DC Circuit will vote against en banc review. Judge Rao comes out swinging by holding that its earlier opinion in Fokker “foreclose[s] the district court’s proposed scrutiny of the government’s motion to dismiss the Flynn prosecution.” p. 7.

In relying on Fokker, Judge Rao explicitly rejects Judge Wilkinson’s argument that Fokker’s holding is dicta (that is, non-binding). She holds Fokker “is directly controlling here.” p. 14. Keep in mind that Fokker was written by Chief Judge Srinivasan, an OBAMA appointee. Judge Srinivasan does NOT want Fokker’s legitimacy undermined, no matter his politics. Judge Wilkins’ dissent implies that Fokker was wrongly decided, and that it conflicts with other federal appellate courts. See p. 23 of 28. Judge Srinivasan will NOT be impressed by this argument in deciding whether to grant en banc rehearing. Fokker does not create a split. Judge Rao goes on to emphasize that while judicial inquiry MAY be justified in some circumstances, Flynn’s situation “is plainly not the rare case where further judicial inquiry is warranted.” p. 6.

Rao notes that Flynn agrees with the Govt.’s dismissal motion, so there’s no risk of his rights being violated. In addition, the Government has stated insufficient evidence exists to convict Flynn. p. 6. Rao also holds that “a hearing cannot be used as an occasion to superintend the prosecution’s charging decisions.” p. 7. But by appointing amicus and attempting to hold a hearing on these matters, the district court is inflicting irreparable harm on the Govt. because it is subjecting its prosecutorial decisions to outside inquiry. p. 8 Thus, Judge Rao holds, it is NOT true that the district court has “yet to act” in this matter, contrary to Judge Wilkins’ assertions. p. 16. “[T]he district court HAS acted here….[by appointing] one private citizen to argue that another citizen should be deprived of his liberty regardless of whether the Executive Branch is willing to pursue the charges.” p. 16. This justified mandamus being issued NOW.

Read more …

https://twitter.com/MrsC_Assange/status/1276031301036896256

Julian Assange Accused In US Indictment Of Conspiracy (Fox)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sought to recruit hackers at conferences in Europe and Asia who could provide his anti-secrecy website with classified information, and conspired with members of hacking organizations, according to a new Justice Department indictment announced Wednesday. The superseding indictment does not contain additional charges beyond the 18 counts the Justice Department unsealed last year. But prosecutors say it underscores Assange’s efforts to procure and release classified information, allegations that form the basis of criminal charges he already faces.

Beyond recruiting hackers at conferences, the indictment accuses Assange of conspiring with members of hacking groups known as LulzSec and Anonymous. He also worked with a 17-year-old hacker who gave him information stolen from a bank and directed the teenager to steal additional material, including audio recordings of high-ranking government officials, prosecutors say.

Assange’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, said in a statement that “the government’s relentless pursuit of Julian Assange poses a grave threat to journalists everywhere and to the public’s right to know.” “While today’s superseding indictment is yet another chapter in the U.S. Government’s effort to persuade the public that its pursuit of Julian Assange is based on something other than his publication of newsworthy truthful information,” he added, “the indictment continues to charge him with violating the Espionage Act based on WikiLeaks publications exposing war crimes committed by the U.S. Government.”

https://twitter.com/SomersetBean/status/1276063923641282560

Read more …

What’s going to happen to all the people who end up without jobs?

State, Local Gov’ts Need Billions More In Aid To Avert 4 Million Layoffs (MW)

A new private sector report is warning anew of continuing damage to the economy if Washington doesn’t deliver several hundred billion dollars in budget relief to states and local governments amid the coronavirus pandemic. But Wednesday’s report by Moody’s Analytics, a private sector economic research firm, could also help illustrate a path for bipartisan agreement in Congress on next month’s fifth, and possibly final, COVID-19 response bill. The study warns that doing nothing to address the economic perils of state layoffs and cutbacks could cost 4 million jobs. But it also says that significantly less money is needed than what’s being called for by House Democrats, who passed almost $1 trillion in help for cash-poor states and local governments as part of a sweeping $3.5 trillion rescue package last month.


The Democratic bill combines $500 billion for state governments — as requested by the nation’s governors — and $375 billion for local governments, many of whom were left out of earlier relief efforts. The Moody study says that level of spending — rejected out of hand by Republicans — is likely beyond what’s needed. “The scope of aid being requested is certainly unprecedented in size and warrants significant scrutiny,” Moody’s says. “For example, the $1 trillion in aid recently approved as part of the house’s HEROES Act would be enough to raise the eyebrows of even the most aggressive advocates of fiscal stimulus.”

Read more …

 

 

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Frederick Douglass about Abaham Lincoln:

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle June 25 2020

Viewing 33 posts - 1 through 33 (of 33 total)
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  • #60431

    Thomas Eakins Walt Whitman 1891   • Strzok’s Newly Discovered FBI Notes Deliver Jolt To ‘Obamagate’ Evidence (JTN) • Flynn Dismissal Order ‘Thoro
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle June 25 2020]

    #60432

    Did Walt Whitman ever write anything racist? Anyone know? How about Thoreau?

    #60433

    The Worldometer screenshot is yesterday’s, and I’m away from my Mac, so I can’t change it right now. Sorry for that.

    #60434
    zerosum
    Participant

    “Be careful out there!”
    …. use a lockdown wisely.

    Seniors, that I know, have wisely changed their socialization activities to minimize their contacts.
    I take a vitamin D before or after contact with the grandkids. Its might be a placebo or it might work.
    In any case its soothing.

    The trend, USA, at the top of the trend, is meeting my expectations.

    Navel-gazing is suppose to help to change a persons actions that are detrimental to one-self.

    “what about Brazil, Mexico, India and more?”
    USA does not lie.
    Countries with lower numbers than the USA are lying.
    /sac
    ——–

    #60435
    Carlos Jimenez
    Participant

    Last night driving back home from work on ‘miraculously’ light traffic freeways since Covid, I thought of the plethora of biz that are not coming back and how longer the perpetual growth system can keep the Wile E. Coyote moment of levitation.
    In this neck of the woods it seems, for quite some time but for Covid turning into a sort of the Antonine plague: the $ 1bn David Beckham stadium is going to go ahead, with a sister development by the Graham family. Elsewhere and anywhere in SoFlo you can’t swing a cat without hitting expressway expansions, cranes and luxury high rises going up along with the rental condo ‘communities’. To whom they shall rent, idk. An arrangement without a future, Kunstler would mutter. And I nod too.

    The low fatality rate of Covid, might never turn into the plague that Marcus Aurelius had to run the empire over but the ominous increase of infections without a foreseeable end might just be the stake that goes through the heart of the ‘growth machine’ and leaves millions of hapless unemployed
    without food and shelter, in concrete jungles… A worst prospect than the virus itself.

    It’s becoming apparent to me that the economy will go down with or without a lock down. It’s an interesting time to live. In an earth ship bereft of any frontiers the only outcome may be a brutal contraction for the ages. Yet, slaves to industrial society we are. For who’s gonna mind the 400 ticking time bomb-nuke plants ’round the world without a complex society?

    We are called Homo sapiens and science is our god. What a joke.

    #60436
    Enginer
    Participant

    As I noted yesterday, the summer heat, driving people back into air conditioned spaces with recirculated air is counterproductive in eliminating the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
    It was called to my attention that areas where less people have access to air conditioning – Greece, some poor areas in Africa – many others, are less-affected by Covid-19.
    “Open the windows!”

    #60437
    lasttwo
    Participant

    Dont remember anything racist in Walden. given these times a quote of his comes to mind. True before the pandemic and even more so after.

    “I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”

    Just want to give a thumbs up to Steven McNeil and the way Nova Scotia handled the virus – 0 cases now for a couple of weeks. He never wavered in the message. “Stay the blazes home” Even have to give Justin some credit. message stayed the same and they both listened to the science. Mistakes were made certainly but overall I would give them high marks. I feel sorry for the people in the states the president waviering back and forth like a fart in the wind. A tale of leadership and putting others first instead of self first. . I just hope Justin can stay strong in keeping the border closed. What we need is a wall – a beautiful wall and we should make America pay for it. – oh wait I must have fallen on my head.

    #60438
    zerosum
    Participant

    Only in the USA
    https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/24/texas-coronavirus-testing-sites/
    Lawmakers from both parties urge Trump administration to keep funding seven coronavirus testing sites
    The federal government plans to cease funding for the sites at the end of June.

    BY ABBY LIVINGSTON JUNE 24, 2020

    WASHINGTON — Elected officials from both parties joined together in recent days to push back against the Trump administration’s intention to stop funding seven Texas coronavirus testing sites at the end of the month.

    At issue are federal plans to stop funding sites in Houston, El Paso and Dallas on June 30, as first reported by Talking Points Memo. The sites are a small piece of a much longer list of sites across the state run by private entities, local governments and the state. But the lawmakers are calling for the federal government to keep funding them as the number of Texans testing positive for the virus soars in Texas, particularly in the Houston region.

    “Without FEMA’s supplies, fiscal aid and personnel, these sites may no longer be able to serve our communities. … FEMA’s removal in this moment would be harmful and irresponsible,” they added. “We urgently ask you to extend FEMA’s presence at these testing sites through August 30, 2020.”

    ” ….urge Trump administration to keep funding “

    #60439
    John Day
    Participant

    Boscohorowitz said:
    “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!”
    This evokes the conundrum of what to do with people who have no gainful work to do, or what they may decide to do themselves, as well as what those who lose their employment may choose to do or whether they will remain idle and decay over time.
    People don’t necessarily RETURN to productive work, nor do they necessarily make the transition from paid compliance tasks to innovative and creative production of real food, goods or services.
    The pandemic of measles and smallpox, which destroed native populations of the Americas and the Pacific Islands opened the door for immigrants to fill the gap, and immigrants did.
    If many people North America are unable to make the transition to something like subsistence farming without air conditioning, then history says the neighbors who grew up like that will take their places.
    It’s well underway in Texas, in my lifetime. I did grunt work summer jobs in the 1970s, and there were other young college and high school students and young and middle aged back guys doing basic warehouse, kitchen and construction work then, too,
    Not lately… Austin got a makeover. All of the productive and blue collar jobs have gone to Spanish speakers, who went through hell and high water to get here and work for less than Americans, and work hard, and do good work. We’re putting a serious drain on Mexican talent.
    In a little over 40 years, there has been a wholesale transition in the local labor force, and it has been pretty steady for the past 10 – 20 years, just some older back hoe operators retiring, and forement retiring, being replaced by native Spanish Speakers.
    Is this “white fragility” or “black fragility”? The children of these immigrant workers are pretty similar in their work proclivities to the white and black kids they attend school with. Some work with Dad; not so many.
    The demographic transition in the US was offshoring of productive work and blue-collar initiative, and it’s replacement with private prisons for the masses who had no work, and slipped into crime. (YOU, Out Of The Gene Pool!) Those who could jump through more and more and more hoops, and keep complying with more and more and more detailed regulations, could maintain their employment, even in fields, such as medicine, which used to be dynamic, full of talent and initiative, and competition to find the new best cure, treatment or solution. The way the AIDS pandemic was engaged was very innovative, fast moving, and the most talented doctors got big followings of patients by constantly advancing the “cutting edge” of diagnosis and treatment to keep the gays alive for a cure tht would come. It basically did come, and some of those guys from the 1980s are still alive on their highly effective antiretroviral treatments.
    The difference today is that Dr Fauci is running the whole US response to this leaked bioweapon, which the US, China and Canada, so presumably the UK, too, all had.
    No individual medical initiative will be systemically tolerated, even if treating doctors all across the world, even in the US, are doing so, and there is substantial evidence of benefit.
    We may just be subject to replacement if we can’t aggregate our collective feces.

    John-grows-vegetables

    #60440
    John Day
    Participant

    Ilargi,
    Thanks for adopting the Texas Covid hockey-stick graph.

    #60441
    zerosum
    Participant

    John Day
    I hope that the lack of federal money, and resources, for testing is not affecting you and your patients.

    #60442
    zerosum
    Participant

    No money – no testing – no health care – bankruptcy
    I did a search for an article from Zero Hedge
    “Catastrophic Financial Challenges” – 42 Hospitals Closed, Filed For Bankruptcy Due To COVID Pressures

    Here is what Google gave – About 2,670 results (0.42 seconds)
    A lot of web pages reported the same info from Zero Hedge
    Everybody wants or needs money.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/catastrophic-financial-challenges-42-hospitals-closed-filed-bankruptcy-due-covid
    The American Hospital Association (AHA) warns, in a new report, that “hospitals and health systems face catastrophic financial challenges in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

    From soaring COVID-19 costs to canceled services to plunging hospital revenue to purchasing personal protective equipment to reimbursement landscape challenges to decreasing patient volumes, many of these factors have triggered a recent bankruptcy wave and or closures of hospitals across the country.
    AHA said the virus pandemic has created a cash crunch for many hospitals. These medical facilities are expected to lose upwards of $200 billion between March 1 and June 30, or about an average of $50.7 billion per month. U.S. nonfederal hospitals are expected to lose approximately $161.4 billion in revenue over the four months, due to canceled services (including nonelective surgeries and outpatient treatment).
    Becker’s Hospital CFO Report provides a complete list of hospital bankruptcies or closures since January 1. These hospitals collectively operated 42 facilities.
    (read more ….)

    #60443
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “Not lately… Austin got a makeover. All of the productive and blue collar jobs have gone to Spanish speakers”

    True here in Portland, too, altho not as much.

    “(YOU, Out Of The Gene Pool!)”

    U funnee man. 🙂

    “John-grows-vegetables”

    My tribal name is Robin Makes the Coffee.

    Elected officials from both parties joined together in recent days to push back against the Trump administration’s intention to stop funding seven Texas coronavirus testing sites at the end of the month.” (itals mine)

    It seems Trump feels that reportage of rising covid in his core state will hurt his reelection prospects?

    ***

    In which many things are made adamantly concrete, including the fact it isn’t really happening until the banjo kicks in:

    That freak was swaingenn…

    In which is it further demonstrated that even the banjo steps back when the bass decides things need to get down (3:16):

    Goat Rodeo

    ***

    “For who’s gonna mind the 400 ticking time bomb-nuke plants ’round the world without a complex society?”

    Some of those time bombs may falter from neglect, but I suspect most of them will be managed and worked hard. Energy is energy. Russia isn’t going to collapse from covid, and Russia has an expanding nuclear industry. I think the expertise to maintain existing nuke plants will be available.

    #60444
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    It occurs to me in an Alfred E. Newman epiphany that I don’t recall reading here, or thinking myself, that perhaps the main logic behind official responses to covid is the same as most official responses to anything in recent years: cover up as many glaring official blunders and dire official crimes as possible.

    We all know that was what drove the Impeach Trump spectacle.

    To cite a little known Brain Wilson song:

    I Guess I’m Dumb

    #60445
    John Day
    Participant

    @Boscohorowitz, “You funny , man”: about for-profit-prisons and offshoring being a form of eugenics.
    YEAH
    http://www.johndayblog.com/2020/06/no-individual-initiative.html
    I​t’s the end of an error… :-)​
    The Depression Dominoes Are Topplin​g​, Charles Hugh Smith
    ​ ​Once you allow your economy to become dependent on extremes of debt, leverage, inequality, legalized looting, monopoly, pay-to-play politics and speculative asset bubbles, a depression is inevitable.
    ​ ​The pandemic lockdown will be blamed for the Greater Depression, but the lockdown only toppled all the dominoes that were already lined up. The lockdown would have been survivable if the economy hadn’t been over-indebted, over-leveraged, burdened by insanely high costs, stripmined by greedy monopolies, dependent on stock market fraud, destabilized by extreme inequality, corrupted by political pay-to-play and addicted to speculation.​..
    ​ It’s worth recalling that every dollar of debt is someone else’s asset and the source of their income. So when the defaults and bankruptcies sweep through the financial system, they’ll obliterate all the “wealth” of those holding bundled student and auto loan securities, mortgage backed securities, corporate bonds, and destroy the income streams these trillions in debt generated.​..
    ​ Once you allow your economy to become dependent on extremes of debt, leverage, inequality, legalized looting, monopoly, pay-to-play politics and speculative asset bubbles, a depression is inevitable. The only question is “when,” and that’s been answered, though nobody wants to hear it: 2020 and beyond.
    https://www.oftwominds.com/blogjune20/depression-dominoes6-20.html

    ​Defund the messenger:
    COVID Testing Sites to Lose Federal Funding Even as Fauci Calls for More Testing
    ​https://truthout.org/articles/covid-testing-sites-to-lose-federal-funding-even-as-fauci-calls-for-more-testing/
    ​This article fails to comprehend that needing a vaccine twice per year is twice as good for business!
    ​Chinese study: Antibodies in COVID-19 patients fade quickly
    https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/06/chinese-study-antibodies-covid-19-patients-fade-quickly

    ​File under: “All bleeding stops”:
    (Governor Abbot is keeping bars and strip clubs open but advising hospitals to stop doing elective surgery because they are getting too full.)
    Texas is on the verge of a Covid crisis: Houston’s largest hospital’s ICU is 97% full as daily cases surge to record highs and expert predicts ‘herd immunity may be the only way to stop the virus’
    ​ ​Texas Medical Center in Houston said 97% of its ICU beds are occupied, and its normal occupancy rate is 70% to 80%
    It has an emergency plan to increase the number of ICU beds from 1,462 to 2,649, but expect they will all fill up in just two weeks
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8457009/Texas-verge-Covid-crisis-Houstons-largest-hospitals-ICU-97-full.html

    ​New York wants Texans to quarantine for 2 weeks, now.
    ​https://nypost.com/2020/06/24/ny-nj-connecticut-to-impose-quarantine-for-travelers-from-florida/

    “The Despair Is Smoldering in Society”
    ​ ​Millions of Americans have seen their wages stagnate for decades, even as the wealthiest have grown fantastically rich. Economists Angus Deaton and Anne Case believe the health-care system is partly to blame, and the coronavirus is highlighting the broader dangers American society is facing.
    https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/what-s-wrong-with-america-the-despair-is-smoldering-in-society-a-7db32b9d-cea0-425e-b417-51eab17d7aff

    ​The Onion, ​ MENLO PARK, CA—In an effort to curtail the organization’s outsized influence, Facebook announced Monday that it would be implementing new steps to ensure the breakup of the U.S. government before it becomes too powerful. “It’s long past time for us to take concrete actions against this behemoth of governance that has gone essentially unchecked since its inception,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
    https://www.theonion.com/facebook-announces-plan-to-break-up-u-s-government-bef-1844121902

    #60448
    zerosum
    Participant

    ” obliterate all the “wealth” of …”
    I disagree ….. I’ve been saying … Its a jubilee for the selected elites.
    Otherwise the system crashes and the elites will not allow that kind of destruction upon themselves.

    #60449
    lasttwo
    Participant

    Money for the sake of money is a sickness of the mind. If one has gained even a modicum of wisdom, at some point happiness comes from knowing when enough is enough. The mentally sick people are now running and ruining the world. We place them on pedestals. Would we place gluttons or perverts on pedestals so why the greedy. Just saying

    #60452
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    @zerosum re: jubilee

    There’s only so much ‘real’ wealth to go around. That presents a dilemma: Do you bribe your underlings in dollars that will soon be worthless, or do you start paying them in a more portable currency and trigger a panic? Only some of the elites will get to keep their Patagonian National Parks.

    #60453
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “Otherwise the system crashes and the elites will not allow that kind of destruction upon themselves.”

    THe system will crash, jubilee or not. THat large a bubble has a life of its own. Money veolocity will go Sargasso. The elites are as fucked as anyone, but being obtuse self-absorbed privilegati obsessed by covering their ass while stuffing their faces, they don’t see it.

    Oh, they’ll pull a jubilee, I would think. It just won’t work. It will be like standing in a giant’s toilet and pulling the flush handle.

    #60454
    zerosum
    Participant

    thomasjkenney
    right “Only some of the elites will get to keep their Patagonian National Parks.”
    Now look at the following. This is how the money is given to trickill up to the selected elites

    https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/benefits/emergency-student-benefit.html
    Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB)
    The Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) provides financial support to post-secondary students, and recent post-secondary and high school graduates who are unable to find work due to COVID-19.

    https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/findajob/resources/cesb
    Job searching while receiving the Canada Emergency Student Benefit

    https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/benefits
    /emergency-student-benefit/cesb-statistics.html
    Total unique applicants
    578,850
    Total dollar value of CESB paid
    $ 1.28 billion

    Two birds with one stone.
    Where are the students going to spend this money?
    The money needs to be given to the students, by the government, to save the capitalists.

    #60455
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “Only some of the elites will get to keep their Patagonian National Parks.”

    I say more like the younger lieutenants of said elites. WHo wants to feed a useless old fuck when his power is gone? HIs money, old or new, is useless at that point. The world wants young strong backs, certain kinds of expertize, reliable water, lots of timber, tillable soil under a moderate climate, reliable defense methods that don’t involve blowing up the stuff you want to defend or commandeer…

    The elites inability to manage affairs for anyone’s benefit but their short-term own, makes them useless to anyone including themselves when the consequences of their destructive selfish nonsense can no longer be forestalled or passed on to others.

    Why does everybody opbsess on the creeps in alleged charge so much?

    THey’re fucking useless to us, and focusing on them renders us useless to our children and grandchildren.

    There is no longer even thinking/acting inside/outside the box: the box is gone. There is just thinking/acting.

    #60457
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    ALso, this inane obsession we have with money. Money long ago became primarily a weapon of mass destruction that has destroyed human civilizatin even as it grew it to enormous globalized size.

    (“The LOVE of money is the root of all evil,” said a Jewish wag. Not money, the love thereof.)

    Anyway, it’s like obsessing over having enough nuclear weapons in a post-nuclear apocalyptic world.

    This is not just another political milieu. This is the end of an empire that makes Rome or even Khanate China appear both tiny and sticks’n’stones primitive. This is a fall of a very large body (7.7 billion people) from a very large height.

    We are obviously not running out of money. W are running out of things. If not so, we’d be complacently performing our drone duties for Pharaoh like a mule pursuing a carrot held before its nose. The rich would become increasingly wealthy/powerful and it would be much like Orwell predicted with his infamous bootheel remark.

    But we ARE running out of things in a system designed to be ruled and exploited by the elites via selling things to us and taking a bite out of every manufacture and transaction.

    I don’t mean to be mocking, but it seems almost superstitious, this blind faith we have in the creeps allegedly in charge. Whether we’re trusting sheeple or skeptical wolves, virtually everyone seems hypnotized by Pharaoh as something like unto God.

    I’ve seen pictures of Trump and Soros. Gates and Musk, Pelosi and Lindsey Graham. Not gods. Not even impressive humans except Nanci was cute in her day and has an impressive rack.

    #60458
    zerosum
    Participant

    “THey’re fucking useless to us, and focusing on them renders us useless to our children and grandchildren.”
    – Said the rifraf
    The elites are in hiding.
    Who we see are their highly paid, specialized, dependent, slavish, university educated, drones.

    #60460
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Now you’re venturing into the mystical, quaasi-Biblical: “No man can look on the face of God and live.”

    You’ve crossed over into bogeyman territory.

    Putin is very elite. He is nobody’s drone although he has to cooperate, i.e., make himself useful in a broad enough way, not to be majorly challenged.

    He rules by the sword via an electoral process of middling integrity (better than ours, I’ll wager). He isn’t hiding. He’s taking photo-ops bare-chested on horseback.

    Elites have no special power. Hiding means one cannot stand the light of day. Hiding is not a show of strength.

    Some will hang onto some of what they’ve got. I daresay most of Russia’s oligarchs will hold onto theirs, because Russia is not running out of nearly so many necessary things as we are. (Also, after some initial disruption, global climate change will probably be their friend.)

    But Russia is out of the crash loop. Russia already did its jubilee after its crash, has paid off those debts necessary to retain street cred, told the Euromerican banking establishment to piss off, and is in far better shape than any other nation to go through this amazing historical extinction event in relative comfort. It’s oligarchs are not hidden, and no one p;ulls their strings from some inviiiiisiiiible power like Mental Moonbeam Magic.

    This worhip of mere fat cats is ludicrous unless one wants to make a mystery cult about some superpower they alone possess. (Which is possible. David Icke may be right.)

    #60463
    lasttwo
    Participant

    Could not agree more. !!!! they are miserable wankers who never learned the basic concept of society. A 4 year old knows it if he has any kind of upbringing. – Robbie Roberson new it , put it in a song – Take what you need and leave the rest. Sickness of the mind or/and raised by nannies and no moral compass. Can you imagine if, when you were 5 years old ,you walked into kindergarten and took all the toys. In my hood you would have had the snot beat out of you, by the other kids until you woke the fuck up.

    #60466
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Houston’s largest hospital’s ICU is 97% full as daily cases surge to record highs and expert predicts ‘herd immunity may be the only way to stop the virus

    However, herd immunity may be impossible because…

    Chinese study: Antibodies in COVID-19 patients fade quickly
    “A new study from China showed that antibodies faded quickly in both asymptomatic and symptomatic COVID-19 patients during convalescence, raising questions about whether the illness leads to any lasting immunity to the virus afterward.”

    Sweden has been trying unsuccessfully for months:

    Sweden’s ‘herd immunity’ hopes are fading as only a small fraction of the population has coronavirus antibodies. Just 6.1% of the population of Sweden had developed coronavirus antibodies by late May.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-hopes-fade-for-swedens-herd-immunity-experiment-2020-6

    #60467
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Too funny. If we don’t want to be cyclically ravaged by a steadily mutating flu virus, we may have to learn to actually eat simply and healthilyy, and work mostly outdoors as in yore.

    A question: any ideas on whether a rapidly mutating virus, in response to which our bodies seem to fail at producing lasting immunity, allowing this rapid mutater to git us agin an agin, will itself become more adept at defeating what antibodies our bodies produce? Darwinian adaptation making the virus stronger in relation to us.

    #60468
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    SInce it occurred to me just now, and some folks here are interested in these things, anyone notice that the literal version of the Noachian Flood has God exterminating nearly all wildlife because humanity is a shit stain?

    I believe there were post-glacial floods in the Mediterranean (I’m from Missoula flood territory, so I’m very familiar with the kinds of mega-floods glacial dams can create), as some researchers hypothesize. And physics and the geological record make it plain that a global flood couldn’t and didn’t happen.

    It amazes me how people interpret this weirdly grand old holy book with such credulous literalism. Most people didn’t even know there was a global world back then thoose myth were written into record. The Mediterranean WAS the world to them. I can certainly conceive of some Noah building a bunch of vessels and putting in breeding pairs of animals become symbiotic with the people. And glacial floods do indeed kill an awful clot of life. Hell, they tend to sweep the soil down to bedrock.

    But I’m amazed and appalled at how most of Xtianity never seems to think of the appalling injustice and cruelty of God wiping out almost all of an entire planet’s biosphere because He doesn’t like how his favorite monkey people are acting.

    #60469
    zerosum
    Participant

    boscohorowitz
    Good question.
    Crystal ball fogged up before revealing the answer.
    🙂

    #60470
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    “A question: any ideas on whether a rapidly mutating virus, in response to which our bodies seem to fail at producing lasting immunity, allowing this rapid mutater to git us agin an agin, will itself become more adept at defeating what antibodies our bodies produce? Darwinian adaptation making the virus stronger in relation to us.”

    Since you asked for ideas (not expertise), I’ll take a shot. The mutations which are deadlier to the host may tend to die out sooner (along with the hosts). The coronaviruses which are “kinder” to humans (like those which cause the common cold) may stick around a long time, continuing to mutate.

    Regarding COVID-19, “It’s important to realize that overall, the mutation rate of this virus is not particularly high (in line with other coronaviruses, actually). But they do accumulate; there’s a fearful amount of viral replication going on out there, and not all of it goes perfectly. A single patient may have several mutational strains going at the same time as the virus replicates, and there’s been a report of a person who turned out to be infected simultaneously by two strains with different geographic origins, which is bad luck.”

    “…a virus spreading through a population may be going through a long series of consecutive founder events/bottlenecks, punctuated by bursts of replication once a new host is infected, each time with new possibilities for random-error mutations and selection pressure from the host’s defenses. Factor in the extreme speed with which the viruses can replicate when they get the chance, and you have a literal example of the phrase “evolution in action”, right in front of your eyes.”

    https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/04/21/watching-for-mutations-in-the-coronavirus

    #60471
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “Crystal ball fogged up before revealing the answer.
    🙂”

    MOuth-breather. 😉 Gotta hold your breath in suspense if you want an answer.

    #60472
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    ““It’s important to realize that overall, the mutation rate of this virus is not particularly high (in line with other coronaviruses, actually).”

    THanx for fixing that misinformation of mine.

    “The mutations which are deadlier to the host may tend to die out sooner (along with the hosts). The coronaviruses which are “kinder” to humans (like those which cause the common cold) may stick around a long time, continuing to mutate.”

    It’s the MIddle Way (not too lethal, not too benign) that seems most apt to produce long wicked fat tailed evolutionary developments, it seems.

    #60473
    WES
    Participant

    Different Strzoks for different folks. (Hope you know he is Iranian just like his half Iranian girlfriend!)

    One thing Strzok’s note has in common with James Comey’s memos, Andrew McCabe’s memos, and Susan Rice’s memo to self, is they all appear to be legal cover your ass (CYA) memos. They are meant to provide legal distancing should things go wrong!

    Why did they all do CYAs in the last minutes of Obama’s administration?

    Well that is because “dumb” James Clapper, “infected”, them, Obama, and Biden, at a January 5th meeting at the White House, by bringing in a paper trail of the spying they were doing into the meeting!

    Being mostly lawyers, they all instantly knew they needed plauseable deniability of this “infection” which they all knew was illegal!

    None wanted to be set up by the others of being the “bag holder”!

    No honor amoung criminals who knew they were criminals!

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