Jul 152020
 


Gas prices, Roosevelt and Wabash, Chicago 1939

 

Study Sees Harmful Effect Of Coronavirus Antibodies In ICU (SCMP)
US Base On Japan’s Okinawa Confirms 36 More Coronavirus Cases (R.)
Fundamentally Unsound (Hussman)
‘Jaw-Dropping’ Global Crash In Children Being Born (BBC)
I Still Believe This Will Be #Ourfinesthour (Ben Hunt)
Bari Weiss: Twitter is Editing the New York Times (ZH)
Eric Weinstein Takes Flamethrower To New York Times (ZH)
Banks Stand To Make $18 Billion In PPP Processing Fees From CARES Act (IC)
Trump Ends Preferential Status For Hong Kong, China Vows Retaliation (R.)
Boeing 737 MAX Cancellations Top 350 Planes In First Half Of 2020 (R.)
Qantas Cancels All International Flights Until March 2021 (ZH)
US Mortgage Delinquencies Suddenly Soar at Record Pace (WS)
Judge Rejects $18.9 Million Harvey Weinstein Sex Abuse Settlement (R.)
Damage to the Soul (Craig Murray)

 

 

We seem to have stopped setting new daily records for now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tapper

Sessions

 

 

And why not? Let’s make it more confusing, why don’t we? Most if not all vaccine trials are based on observing increased antibodies.

Study Sees Harmful Effect Of Coronavirus Antibodies In ICU (SCMP)

Antibodies generated by the immune system to neutralise the novel coronavirus could cause severe harm or even kill the patient, according to a study by Dutch scientists. Immunoglobulin G (IgG) is a fork-shaped molecule produced by adaptive immune cells to intercept foreign invaders. Each type of IgG targets a specific type of pathogen. The IgG for Sars-CoV-2, the virus causing Covid-19, fights off the virus by binding with the virus’ unique spike protein to reduce its chance of infecting human cells. They usually appear a week or two after the onset of illness, when the symptoms of most critically-ill patients suddenly get worse.

A research team led by Professor Menno de Winther from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands said they might have found an important clue that may answer why the IgG appears only when patients are ill enough to be admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). The scientists found that the blood from Covid-19 patients struggling for their life on ventilators was highly inflammatory. They observed during a series of experiments that it could trigger an overreaction of the immune system, destroy crucial barriers in tissues and cause water and blood to spill over in the lungs. When Winther and his colleagues compared the blood from Covid-19 patients to those battling other diseases in the ICU, they discovered that Covid-19 patients had a disproportionately large amount of Sars-CoV-2-specific IgG.

These antibodies “strongly amplify pro-inflammatory response”, they said in a non-peer-reviewed paper posted on preprint platform bioRxiv.org on Monday. When Winther applied the pure form of these antibodies directly to healthy blood and tissue cells, nothing happened. But when combined with a giant immune cell called macrophage, which forms when the body senses an infection, the IgGs caused the macrophages to implode, releasing a large amount of inflammatory molecules known as cytokines, causing “striking” destruction, said the researchers.

[..] A Chinese government epidemiologist based in Shanghai said the Dutch paper confirmed “what we suspected for a long time”. Several studies from China have also found the destructive role played by the macrophages in severely ill patients and proposed potential drugs that could suppress the cytokine storm. But the roles of antibodies could be more complex than what have been described, according to the researcher. For instance, it remains unclear whether vaccine-induced antibodies, which are supposed to contain some highly specific neutralising IgGs, will have the same effect in the very early stage of infection.

Read more …

“36 more COVID-19 cases among U.S. military in #OccupiedOkinawa, bringing the current total to 136. This gives the U.S. military a COVID-19 rate 200 times larger than Okinawa Prefecture.”

US Base On Japan’s Okinawa Confirms 36 More Coronavirus Cases (R.)

Authorities have confirmed 36 more coronavirus infections at Camp Hansen on Japan’s Okinawa, taking to 136 the tally at U.S. military bases on the island, Kyodo News said on Wednesday. The outbreak emerged at the weekend, provoking the anger of the prefecture’s governor, who has called into question the U.S. military’s virus prevention measures.

Read more …

Small part of a seemingly endless investor piece.

Fundamentally Unsound (Hussman)

My impression is that while the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 is likely due to accessory proteins of the virus that knock down respiratory defenses, the lethality of COVID-19 (the resulting disease) is largely due to infiltration and retention of highly inflammatory blood cells into lung tissue, that then degrade, perforate, and cross through the alveolar-capillary barrier. The result is cell damage to alveoli (the air sacs that the lungs use to exchange oxygen with the blood) and to vascular linings, so that fatality is driven by the combination of oxygen deprivation and thrombosis. This is not the flu. In recent weeks, we’ve seen rapid outbreaks in Florida, Texas, and several other states, largely in the same places where protective measures like distancing and masks were disregarded. This isn’t really a “second wave.” It’s more like the start-stop profile of local outbreaks that was predictable even in February.

The only surprise is that it has involved entire states, because somehow, well-understood features of epidemiology and cell biology have become subjects of wildly ignorant political debate. Having written on the urgency of containment beginning on February 2, when the U.S. had only 5 cases and zero deaths, watching this predictable, slow motion train wreck has been excruciating. It is increasingly clear that the primary mode of transmission for SARS-CoV-2 is exhaled air from infected individuals. There’s some evidence that toilet bowls and hospital floors also act as reservoirs for expelled viral particles, but unless you’re regularly sticking your hands into toilet bowls or wiping them on hospital floors, the most likely way to acquire the virus is from expelled air.

The half-life of suspended (“aerosolized”) particles in a room without much ventilation is over an hour, and while some masks clearly provide better filtration than others, even cloth and bandana-type masks substantially reduce the number and distance of expelled particles. So even the crudest mask will reduce the viral load to others. A good analysis of a super-spreading event in Washington State at a Skagit Valley Chorale rehearsal concluded, “the risk of infection is modulated by ventilation conditions, occupant density, and duration of shared presence with an infectious individual.” Exactly. Yet even taking basic protective measures for oneself and others seems to be a problem. When people imagine that not wearing a mask in an indoor public place is somehow an expression of their “individual freedom,” or that it’s “hurting the economy,” they’re not only endangering everyone else – they’re also ensuring that much more stringent measures will be necessary later in order to avoid mass fatalities.

It’s exactly the weak, dismissive response – especially early on, but then encouraged almost daily – that has put U.S. fatalities ahead of every other country on Earth. Indeed, researchers at Harvard recently estimated that “Between 70% and 99% of the Americans who died from this pandemic might have been saved by measures demonstrated by others to have been feasible.” Meanwhile, across 22 countries, there’s an 80% correlation between non-wearing of masks and number of deaths-per-million. That correlation is higher than for the percentage of elderly and the percentage with high body-mass index. Containment measures are critical when and where transmission rates are high.

Read more …

A different world.

‘Jaw-Dropping’ Global Crash In Children Being Born (BBC)

The world is ill-prepared for the global crash in children being born which is set to have a “jaw-dropping” impact on societies, say researchers. Falling fertility rates mean nearly every country could have shrinking populations by the end of the century. And 23 nations – including Spain and Japan – are expected to see their populations halve by 2100. Countries will also age dramatically, with as many people turning 80 as there are being born. The fertility rate – the average number of children a woman gives birth to – is falling. If the number falls below approximately 2.1, then the size of the population starts to fall. In 1950, women were having an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime.

Researchers at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation showed the global fertility rate nearly halved to 2.4 in 2017 – and their study, published in the Lancet, projects it will fall below 1.7 by 2100. As a result, the researchers expect the number of people on the planet to peak at 9.7 billion around 2064, before falling down to 8.8 billion by the end of the century. [..] Japan’s population is projected to fall from a peak of 128 million in 2017 to less than 53 million by the end of the century. Italy is expected to see an equally dramatic population crash from 61 million to 28 million over the same timeframe.


They are two of 23 countries – which also include Spain, Portugal, Thailand and South Korea – expected to see their population more than halve. “That is jaw-dropping,” Prof Christopher Murray told me. China, currently the most populous nation in the world, is expected to peak at 1.4 billion in four years time before nearly halving to 732 million by 2100. India will take its place. The UK is predicted to peak at 75 million in 2063, and fall to 71 million by 2100.

Read more …

“We the People? We the Pack.”

I Still Believe This Will Be #Ourfinesthour (Ben Hunt)

Back in early April, I wrote this about our battle with the coronavirus: “There is no country in the world that mobilizes for war more effectively than the United States. And I know you won’t believe me, but I tell you it is true: This will be #OurFinestHour.” Since then, our leaders have totally botched the Covid-19 war-fighting effort. I mean our leaders at every level of government and of every political stripe, and I mean that it has been spectacularly botched. Covid-19 is now endemic within the United States, meaning that it is neither effectively contained nor effectively mitigated. Meaning that it is uncontrolled and uncontrollable. Meaning that tens of thousands of Americans get sick with this disease every day, and between 500 and 1,000 Americans die. Every day.

It didn’t have to be this way. As I write this note, Germany – a large country with a federal political system and the 4th largest economy in the world – is reporting two Covid-19 deaths today. Two. Japan – an even larger country and even larger economy – is reporting one Covid-19 death today. One. But here’s the thing. Yes, our political leaders have been a horror show. God knows I’ve been railing about them for months. But there’s another awful truth at work here. We the people have failed our nation more than the politicians. In fact, I honestly don’t believe we still have a nation. We have a country, of course, but that’s just an administrative thing … here are the borders, here is your social security number, here are the rules for how we do things.

A nation is both less than a country and much, much more. A nation is the meaning of a country. A nation is the embodiment of We the People. It’s not that I think being an American has no meaning. It has a lot of meaning to me. It has a lot of meaning to many people. It has some meaning to almost everyone. It’s that being an American no longer has a shared meaning. [..] I knew that high-functioning sociopath politicians would continue to do their high-functioning sociopath thing, where with one hand they pump out culture-porn telling us that what really matters is our attitude towards Goya beans or Columbus statues, and with the other hand they pump out TRILLIONS of dollars into a money-laundering scheme we like to call “monetary policy”. All while MILLIONS of Americans are getting sick and MILLIONS of Americans are out of a job and TENS OF THOUSANDS of Americans are dead. I just never thought we would embrace this evil – and that’s what it is – in our heart of hearts.

Now this is the law of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky,
And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back;
For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.

That’s from a poem by Rudyard Kipling. I know he’s been canceled, but I don’t care. I think he’s great.

Read more …

I don’t read the New York Times, and don’t know Bari Weiss. From what I see, I don’t believe Weiss is the finest person on the planet. But she confirms why I don’t read the NYT. In early 2016 I noticed them posting 10 mostly flimsy anti-Trump pieces a day, and I thought: I don’t like Trump, but I don’t need you to make up my mind for me, and that’s what you want to do. Question though: why did it take her another 4.5 years?

Bari Weiss: Twitter is Editing the New York Times (ZH)

The internal schism at the New York Times has claimed yet another staffer, as opinion editor Bari Weiss has left the paper and penned a scorching resignation letter denouncing the Times as nothing more than an echo chamber for ‘woke’ activists masquerading as journalists who believe dissent has no place on the platform. “But the lessons that ought to have followed the election—lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society—have not been learned. Instead, a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else”. -Bari Weiss

As a refresher, the Times newsroom erupted in chaos following the decision to publish an Op-Ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK), in which he suggested that the Trump administration should deploy the military to quell violent race-riots gripping the country following the death of a black suspect while in custody of Minneapolis police. An internal schism formed within the Times, with younger ‘woke’ staffers insisting that such ‘wrongthink’ has no place on the platform, while others defended the decision to publish Cotton’s divergent opinion. In the end, the woke mob won; the Times added an editor’s note conveying regret for publishing it – which was accompanied by the resignation of editorial page editor James Bennett (who Weiss writes ‘led the effort’ to reform the paper after the 2016 election).

Which brings us back to Bari Weiss, who came under intense fire by her NYT colleagues after she laid out what was going on in the newsroom in a Twitter thread, which ultimately defended the decision to publish Cotton’s op-ed. In her Tuesday resignation letter, Weiss excoriated the Times. “My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views. They have called me a Nazi and a racist; I have learned to brush off comments about how I’m “writing about the Jews again.” Several colleagues perceived to be friendly with me were badgered by coworkers. My work and my character are openly demeaned on company-wide Slack channels where masthead editors regularly weigh in. There, some coworkers insist I need to be rooted out if this company is to be a truly “inclusive” one, while others post ax emojis next to my name. Still other New York Times employees publicly smear me as a liar and a bigot on Twitter with no fear that harassing me will be met with appropriate action. They never are.” -Bari Weiss

Weiss described the Times as a hostile work environment, and slammed the paper for allowing “this kind of behavior to go on inside your company in full view of the paper’s entire staff and the public.” “Showing up for work as a centrist at an American newspaper should not require bravery,” Weiss writes, adding “But the truth is that intellectual curiosity—let alone risk-taking—is now a liability at The Times.” “Why edit something challenging to our readers, or write something bold only to go through the numbing process of making it ideologically kosher, when we can assure ourselves of job security (and clicks) by publishing our 4000th op-ed arguing that Donald Trump is a unique danger to the country and the world? And so self-censorship has become the norm.

What rules that remain at The Times are applied with extreme selectivity. If a person’s ideology is in keeping with the new orthodoxy, they and their work remain unscrutinized. Everyone else lives in fear of the digital thunderdome. Online venom is excused so long as it is directed at the proper targets.”

Read more …

“That is obviously true but I’m sorry we can’t say that here. It will get me strung up.”

Eric Weinstein Takes Flamethrower To New York Times (ZH)

Eric Weinstein, managing director of Thiel Capital and host of The Portal podcast, has gone scorched earth on the New York Times following the Tuesday resignation of journalist Bari Weiss. Weinstein describes how The Times has morphed into an activist rag – refusing to cover “news” unpaletable to their narrative, while ignoring key questions such as whether Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring was “intelligence related.”

“At that moment Bari Weiss became all that was left of the “Paper of Record.” Why? Because the existence of Black Racists with the power to hunt professors with Baseball Bats and even redefine the word ‘racism’ to make their story impossible to cover ran totally counter-narrative. At some point after 2011, the NYT gradually stopped covering the News and became the News instead. And Bari has been fighting internally from the opinion section to re-establish Journalism inside tbe the NYT. A total reversal of the Chinese Wall that separates news from opinion. This is the paper in 2016 that couldnt be interested in the story that millions of Americans were likely lying to pollsters about Donald Trump. The paper refusing to ask the CIA/FBI if Epstein was Intelligence related.

I have had the honor of trying to support both @bariweiss at the New York Times and @BretWeinstein in their battles simply to stand alone against the internal mob mentality. It is THE story all over the country. Our courageous individuals are being hunted at work for dissenting. Before Bari resigned, I did a podcast with her. It was chilling. I‘d make an innocuous statement of simple fact and ask her about it. She‘d reply “That is obviously true but I’m sorry we can’t say that here. It will get me strung up.” That‘s when I stopped telling her to hang on. So what just happened? Let me put it bluntly: What was left of the New York Times just resigned from the New York Times. The Times canceled itself.

As a separate Hong Kong exists in name only, the New New York Times and affiliated “news” is now the chief threat to our democracy. This is the moment when the passengers who have been becoming increasingly alarmed, start to entertain a new idea: what if the people now in the cockpit are not airline pilots? Well the Twitter Activists at the @nytimes and elsewhere are not journalists. What if those calling for empathy have a specific deadness of empathy? Those calling for justice *are* the unjust? Those calling “Privilege” are the privileged? Those calling for equality seek to oppress us? Those anti-racists are open racists? The progressives seek regress? The journalists are covering up the news?

Read more …

Anyone surprised?

Banks Stand To Make $18 Billion In PPP Processing Fees From CARES Act (IC)

Banks will make out with $18 billion in fees for processing small business Paycheck Protection Program relief loans during the pandemic, according to calculations by Amanda Fischer, policy director at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a progressive economic think tank. That’s money taken directly out of the overall $640 billion pot of funding Congress allocated to the program it created as part of the CARES Act. “If we did it through a public institution, there would be [more than] $140 billion left,” Fischer noted, as opposed to the $130 billion still up for grabs. The Washington Center for Equitable Growth is releasing an analysis of the government response to the pandemic as soon as this week.

The fees compensate the banks for some of the costs that come with processing loans — call center time to handle business owners’ questions, employee hours spent on processing paperwork for both loan and forgiveness applications — and some of the risk they shoulder if any of the loans they extend end up being fraudulent. But there is no credit risk; if business owners who qualified for PPP loans later default, the Small Business Association takes the hit, not the banks. “Basically it’s free money,” Fischer said. For some banks, this money represents a hefty windfall. New Jersey-based Cross River Bank’s estimated $163 million haul would be more than double its net revenue last year. JPMorgan Chase could make $864 million.

The fact that banks are siphoning money off of the relief program is thanks to the fact that the United States had no existing public infrastructure ready to quickly get money out to struggling businesses when the pandemic hit. Fischer characterized it as “a failure of preparedness,” adding, “We should have invested in better systems.” The Small Business Association, which is running the PPP program, has long been criticized for struggling to process emergency relief quickly during past natural disasters. So when the time came to respond to the coronavirus crisis as fast as possible, the SBA was in no position to do it itself, and Congress mandated that the loans be run through banks instead. There weren’t many other options. “It’s hard to build the plane while you’re flying it,” Fischer said.

Read more …

Preferential Status for Hong Kong now equals Preferential Status for China. The US doesn’t have much choice.

It was also fun to read that the WHO team will NOT visit the Wuhan lab.

Trump Ends Preferential Status For Hong Kong, China Vows Retaliation (R.)

President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered an end to Hong Kong’s special status under U.S. law to punish China for what he called “oppressive actions” against the former British colony, prompting Beijing to warn of retaliatory sanctions. Citing China’s decision to enact a new national security law for Hong Kong, Trump signed an executive order that he said would end the preferential economic treatment for the city. “No special privileges, no special economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies,” he told a news conference. Acting on a Tuesday deadline, he also signed a bill approved by the U.S. Congress to penalize banks doing business with Chinese officials who implement the new security law.


“Today I signed legislation, and an executive order to hold China accountable for its aggressive actions against the people of Hong Kong, Trump said. “Hong Kong will now be treated the same as mainland China,” he added. Under the executive order, U.S. property would be blocked of any person determined to be responsible for or complicit in “actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in Hong Kong,” according to the text of the document released by the White House. It also directs officials to “revoke license exceptions for exports to Hong Kong,” and includes revoking special treatment for Hong Kong passport holders.

Read more …

A 737 MAX costs $110 million a piece.

Boeing 737 MAX Cancellations Top 350 Planes In First Half Of 2020 (R.)

Boeing customers canceled orders for 355 of its 737 MAX jets in the first half of 2020, the U.S. planemaker said on Tuesday, as the damage done by the jet’s grounding and the coronavirus crisis to the airline industry continued to mount. The planemaker, which has now been striving to get its once best-selling MAX planes back in the air for more than a year after two fatal crashes led to its grounding, said airlines and leasing companies canceled another 60 orders for the jet last month. Deliveries in the first half of the year also sank by 71% to just 70 planes as customers canceled or deferred shipments due to the collapse in air travel from coronavirus-led travel restrictions.


Deliveries are financially important to planemakers because airlines pay most of the purchase price when they actually receive the aircraft. Boeing said it handed over 10 aircraft in June, up from four planes in May, and six jets in April. [..] After adjusting for jets ordered in previous years but unlikely to be delivered currently, Boeing has now lost 784 net orders this year, rising from a loss of 602 net orders as of May end.

Read more …

Since Rainman, Qantas has been known for its safety.

Qantas Cancels All International Flights Until March 2021 (ZH)

The prospects for a V-shaped recovery in airlines are looking dim. The latest indication of how slow things are getting back to normal in the industry is Australian-based Qantas Airlines pulling all of its international flights off its website this week. The airline is cancelling routes to New Zealand until September 1 and flights to other international destinations have been cancelled until March 28, 2021 – nearly another year away – according to the Daily Mail. “All international and sale flights have been removed from the website until further notice due to the coronavirus pandemic,” a spokesperson for the airline said. “There are some international flights in the system but they are not currently operating.”

Flights are still available through the airline’s partner airlines like Emirates, British Airways and Cathay Pacific. But Qantas wants to prevent new bookings from being made on its own airline. Flights that have already been booked will proceed as planned. The move comes weeks after the airline cut 6,000 jobs, representing 20% of its workforce. The company’s CEO has also predicted that international flights wouldn’t resume until July 2021. “We have never experienced anything like this before – no-one has. All airlines are in the biggest crisis our industry has ever faced,” he said last month. “Revenues have collapsed, entire fleets are grounded and the world biggest carriers are taking extreme action just to survive.”

The decision to halt international flights comes after the airline’s decision to also ground its double decker A380 planes for at least three years and to retire six Boeing 747s. Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said in June that Australia’s borders would probably remain closed for another 4 months.

Read more …

US housing is under serious threat. That’s a serious theat to the entire banking system. Which will be bailed out.

US Mortgage Delinquencies Suddenly Soar at Record Pace (WS)

OK, it’s actually worse. Mortgages that are in forbearance and have not missed a payment before going into forbearance don’t count as delinquent. They’re reported as “current.” And 8.2% of all mortgages in the US – or 4.1 million loans – are currently in forbearance, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. But if they did not miss a payment before entering forbearance, they don’t count in the suddenly spiking delinquency data. The onslaught of delinquencies came suddenly in April, according to CoreLogic, a property data and analytics company (owner of the Case-Shiller Home Price Index), which released its monthly Loan Performance Insights today. And it came after 27 months in a row of declining delinquency rates. These delinquency rates move in stages – and the early stages are now getting hit:

Transition from “Current” to 30-days past due: In April, the share of all mortgages that were past due, but less than 30 days, soared to 3.4% of all mortgages, the highest in the data going back to 1999. This was up from 0.7% in April last year. During the Housing Bust, this rate peaked in November 2008 at 2%: From 30 to 59 days past due: The rate of these early delinquencies soared to 4.2% of all mortgages, the highest in the data going back to 1999. This was up from 1.7% in April last year. From 60 to 89 days past due: As of April, this stage had not yet been impacted, with the rate remaining relatively low at 0.7% (up from 0.6% in April last year). This stage will jump in the report to be released a month from now when today’s 30-to-59-day delinquencies, that haven’t been cured by then, move into this stage.


Serious delinquencies, 90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure: As of April, this stage had not been impacted, and the rate ticked down to 1.2% (from 1.3% in April a year ago). We should see the rate rise in two months and further out. Overall delinquency rate, 30-plus days, jumped to 6.1%, up from 3.6% in April last year. This was the highest overall delinquency rate since January 2016 (on the way down). These delinquency rates are the first real impact seen on the housing market by the worst employment crisis in a lifetime, with over 32 million people claiming state or federal unemployment benefits. There is no way – despite rumors to the contrary – that a housing market sails unscathed through that kind of employment crisis.

Read more …

How sick is that US “justice system”? “..it would leave Weinstein’s victims with typical awards of just US$10,000 to US$20,000, while setting aside US$15.2 million for defence costs..”

Judge Rejects $18.9 Million Harvey Weinstein Sex Abuse Settlement (R.)

A US judge on Tuesday rejected a proposed US$18.9 million civil settlement for women who claimed they were subjected to sexual abuse and workplace harassment by the disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein. US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan said the preliminary settlement would be unfair to women who Weinstein raped or sexually abused, because it treated them no different from women who had merely met him. He also criticised a plan to set aside money to help Weinstein and the board of his former studio pay defence costs. “The idea that Harvey Weinstein could get a defence fund ahead of the plaintiffs is obnoxious,” Hellerstein said at a hearing.


A settlement would have resolved class-action litigation by Weinstein accusers, and New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit accusing Weinstein, his brother Bob Weinstein and their bankrupt Weinstein Co of maintaining a hostile work environment. Elizabeth Fegan, a lawyer representing nine Weinstein accusers, had argued that “all of the women were in the zone of danger” created by Weinstein, justifying class-action treatment. [..] James’ office will review the decision. “Our office has been fighting tirelessly to provide these brave women with the justice they are owed and will continue,” a spokeswoman said. The settlement drew objections from women who said it would leave Weinstein’s victims with typical awards of just US$10,000 to US$20,000, while setting aside US$15.2 million for defence costs. Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer representing six objectors, said he was pleased Hellerstein “swiftly rejected the one-sided proposal.”

Read more …

Talk about a sick justice system.

The format of Craig’s article is a bit hard to rhyme with that of the Debt Rattle. I tried. Do read the whole thing.

‘To have extradition decided on the merits of one indictment when the accused actually faces another is an outrage. To change the indictment long after the hearing is underway and defence evidence has been seen is an outrage. The lack of media outrage is an outrage.’

Damage to the Soul (Craig Murray)

In a truly extraordinary twist, Assange is now being extradited on the basis of an indictment served in the UK, which is substantially different to the actual indictment he now faces in Virginia if extradited. The Assange hearing was adjourned after its first full week, and its resumption has since been delayed by coronavirus. In that first full week, both the prosecution and the defence outlined their legal arguments over the indictment. [..] this is about switching to charges firmly grounded in “hacking”, rather than in publishing leaks about appalling American war crimes. The new indictment is based on the evidence of a “supergrass”, Sigurdur Thordarson, who was acting a a paid informant to the FBI during his contact with Wikileaks.

Thordarson is fond of money and is a serial criminal. He was convicted on 22 December 2014 by Reykjanes District Court in Iceland of stealing over US $40,000 and over 13,000 euro from Wikileaks “Sunshine Press” accounts by forging documents in the name of Julian Assange, and given a two year jail sentence. Thordarson is also a convicted sex offender, and was convicted after being turned in to the police by Julian Assange, who found the evidence – including of offences involving a minor – on Thordarson’s computer. There appears scope to doubt the motives and credentials of the FBI’s supergrass. The FBI have had Thordarson’s “Evidence” against Assange since long before the closing date for submissions in the extradition hearing, which was June 19th 2019.


That they now feel the need to deploy this rather desperate stuff is a good sign of how they feel the extradition hearing has gone so far, as an indicator of the prospects of a successful prosecution in the USA. [..] Then, to our amazement, the prosecution did not put forward the new indictment at the procedural hearing at all. To avoid these problems, it appears they are content to allow the extradition hearing to go ahead on the old indictment, when that is not in fact the indictment which awaits Assange in the United States. This is utterly outrageous. The prosecution will argue that the actual espionage charges themselves have not changed. But it is the indictment which forms the basis of the extradition hearing and the different indictment which would form the basis of any US prosecution.

Read more …

 

 

We try to run the Automatic Earth on donations. Since ad revenue has collapsed, your support is now an integral part of the process.

Thank you.

 

 

Banksy

View this post on Instagram

. . If you don’t mask – you don’t get.

A post shared by Banksy (@banksy) on

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in virustime.

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle July 15 2020

Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #61151

    Gas prices, Roosevelt and Wabash, Chicago 1939   • Study Sees Harmful Effect Of Coronavirus Antibodies In ICU (SCMP) • US Base On Japan’s Okinawa
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle July 15 2020]

    #61152
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Gas prices, Roosevelt and Wabash, Chicago 1939

    Very clever; until one does the math; tax? I don’t know, but at most, that’s what may be saved for buying 6 gals.@ 99 cents, tax included…;-)

    #61153
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Now this is the law of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky,
    And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
    As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back;
    For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack
    .

    That’s from a poem by Rudyard Kipling. I know he’s been canceled, but I don’t care. I think he’s great.

    Well, you can count me in; I love Kipling; the rest be damned….

    #61154
    zerosum
    Participant

    TAE is hitting all the hot spots.
    I missed one
    Hot Spots
    1. Education
    2. Health
    3. MMT
    4. Relationships
    5. Communication –
    Truth and lies, facts and illusions, beliefs and facts, fiction and non-fiction

    #61156
    Mr. House
    Participant

    The burden of truth lies not with myself or you, but with our esteemed governments. Now i’m only 36 but i’m rather certain the government doesn’t generally tell the truth from my short time on earth. Here is an idea, perhaps we are living thru the transition from American Empire to something else as we speak. And our kind world leaders have decided to do it some other way then world war. Do you think they’d just come out and tell you that? Or concoct some other story to keep you distracted and then one day you wake up and they’re like welcome to new world, sorry about the old world.

    #61157
    Mr. House
    Participant

    And all the while, as you were locked up in your house and every independent business went the way of the dodo, and we all argued to boogaloo or not to boogaloo, everything changed for the worse. Based on the actions i’ve witnessed the last 20 years i’m 100% certain the government doesn’t give a F&(# about you unless their is something in it for them. Why does my government spy on its own citizens? What are they scared of? And why has it all been ramping up the last 20 years? Has my country been in a depression since the year 2000, but papered over with money printing and ginned up statistics? I’d say thats a safer bet then buying stocks.

    #61158
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Oh and the cameras didn’t work in Jeff Epsteins suicide proof cell room!

    #61159
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Bush: ‘I’ve Abandoned Free Market Principles To Save The Free Market System’

    #61160
    John Day
    Participant

    Rudyard Kipling was wonderfully talented. I was raised reading Kipling and Mark Twain. Kipling’s patron was , awkwardly, the British Empire. Twain had readers amongst the wealthy, but more independence, because of his wonderful, gentle wit, which always seemed to be directed at somebody just to the left or right of the reader. The reader was a confidant…

    #61161
    John Day
    Participant

    http://www.johndayblog.com/2020/07/new-management.html
    ​I did COVID testing in the parking lot yesterday morning at clinic. I just got the last couple of test results from June 29. 15 day turnaround on test results. You are well, hospitalized or dead by then.
    I had to send 3 people to hospitals from the parking lot, 2 for really low blood oxygen, and a pregnant lady, short of breath, who had just vomited blood. These are the people who sounded good enough on the phone to schedule for a drive-up swab, except one of the low oxygen guys just showed up without scheduling. I know him. He has cancer.
    I dressed back up and went out to see him. We talked. He drove to the hospital with no AC, in 105 degrees.
    I printed some of his labs and notes and called ahead to the ER charge nurse.
    I didn’t make him wait long in the parking lot.
    He’s a nice guy.​ I’d have done the same for a jerk

    ​Charles Hugh Smith asks if America can have a French Style Revolution, a wholesale replacement of ruling elites and institutions. None of the elites can relinquish any privilege of ownership of free stuff, nor prerogative of command, despite obvious incompetence.​ So the drowning elites maintain their chokeholds on each other, and upon us, as we all go down.
    At some point, choke holds break. When?
    If the political system, including corporate ownership, oligarchy, deep criminality and deep-state-coercion cannot function, and is degrading over time, what are the potential inflection points?
    People without food will not obey, and will kill those they see as their overlords before they die.
    Real overlords make them see somebody else, like privileged-white-people a couple of blocks over.
    Someday that illusion goes “POOF”!
    That “POOF” will come around the time the world stops accepting dollars as dollars, and demands stuff for the dollars they have stockpiled, and Americans will not be able to afford that stuff. America exporting , instead of importing will mean about 1/3 as much new stuff for Americans.
    How can that transition be mitigated? Who can do such mitigating? Can you pre-mitigate some things yourself?
    https://www.oftwominds.com/blogjuly20/Bastille-Day7-20.html

    #61162
    Bill7
    Participant

    Mr. House said:

    “And all the while, as you were locked up in your house and every independent business went the way of the dodo, and we all argued to boogaloo or not to boogaloo, everything changed for the worse. Based on the actions i’ve witnessed the last 20 years i’m 100% certain the government doesn’t give a F&(# about you..”

    you betcha.. and the “pandemic”™ is cover for what’s coming for almost all of us.

    Yea, and verily.

    -Bill7

    #61163
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    ANTIBODIES

    I read that about 45% to 65% of the population will be naturally resistant – their body’s defence system will eliminate it without the need to produce antibodies. I also read that many of those with asymptomatic or mild versions of C-19 will not produce antibodies – again, it is dealt with by the body’s natural defence system.

    I also read that antibodies disappear quickly – from two weeks to two months depending on the severity of the infection. This means people can be re-infected. There will never be herd immunity.

    Now it appears that the antibodies can be worse than the disease!

    Vaccines work by stimulating the creation of antibodies. The above suggests that this could either be harmful and/or the effects will only last for a short time. Either way it seems that a vaccine is not a viable solution.

    We are now in the summer months where a normal flu has died out, but this virus is still very active.

    We may be stuck with it for a long time and it could become endemic.

    It seems we need a treatment which prevents antibodies being created, which points to HCQ.

    There is the French approach : taking HCQ as soon as the symptoms manifest. There is also the American approach : treating the disease as soon as the symptoms become serious with HCQ/zinc/AZN.

    There are enough treated patients for a follow-up study to find out what the long term effects were.

    It does seem that HCQ is our only hope, other approaches are either too late or may cause their own problems.

    #61164
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    @John Day – Thanks! You are a wonderful brick in a very stout wall, sir!

    re: the drowning

    It seems more like they have convinced us to keep holding them above water. If we just stop buying all the crap they try to sell us, stop hating who they tell us we must hate, the grip is loosened. Every day now I’m trying to do something different about my life.

    I’ve had several encounters while out hiking/biking where the other party seems desperate for conversation. The isolation is cracking a shell. Folks are more amenable to rational discussion. Less bravado, less contrarianism, more logic. Talk often wraps around to the basics of life like food production, artisan furniture, stuff that fits into Kunstler’s “Made By Hand” schtick.

    My thing is bicycles. I’m really good at building and maintaining them. I have enough Dunning-Kruger to think I can build a bicycle from scratch (wood, bamboo, yucca) if I couldn’t get modern parts. There are a lot of machines that can be built with bicycle-like parts. Therefore, it follows (DK again) that I could probably engineer and build a host of useful machines if the need should arise.

    My thoughts are very diffuse today. I’m rambling, so I’ll stop.

    #61165
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-induced-adverse-reactions-more-half-trial-participants

    So they are planning a bigger trial!

    At least it may also test if antibodies themselves cause problems, eg. death!

    #61166
    Geppetto
    Participant

    Woke up this morning thinking about Dr. John, with a picture in my head of someone with a pillow tied to their face. Hahahah!

    Human Nature:

    https://m.facebook.com/chadgoesdeep/videos/411839819716165/?refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2F1173906902646753%2Fposts%2F3125262590844498%2F&_rdr

    #61167
    redshift
    Participant

    All you need to know about Bari Weiss:

    #61169
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    The US politicians and consultants are performing a pagan ritual instead of embracing science and spending the money to restore the national public health system. The Trump Administration has moved pandemic record keeping from the Center for Disease Control to Health and Human Services. No doubt because the top of the chain knows that the epidemiologists are in cahoots with the FBI agents in the government employees witch hunt against him.

    The fundamental problem is that this magical thinking is divorced from reality. The Wuhan coronavirus is the fifth common cold that kills humans. It would have simply been ignored by the Elite except the sick clog up intensive care units. It is unlikely there will be a lifetime vaccine or it will die out like Spanish flu. Testing, tracing and isolation must be implemented now in the United States. Americans cannot wait for a for-profit vaccine or treatment.

    If not, the consequences are severe. Americans will remain quarantined from the virus free nations of the world. Jet Setters will be banned forever unless they have their own islands, a 727 Lolita Express, plus pay bribes to airport officials, but risk jail time or worse if they ignite a new hot spot. Delta Air Lines is losing billions of dollars invested on overseas airlines and international flights. The company will not be able to unblock center seats in the USA since even with filtered air, super spreaders will infect seat mates. Prices will have to skyrocket to make a profit. Unemployed and uninfected Americans will stop flying. Boeing Commercial Airplanes will fail. Boeing Field, Renton Municipal Airport and Paine Field manufacturing facilities will be the new Rust Belt.

    #61170
    Archie
    Participant

    Very clever; until one does the math; tax? I don’t know, but at most, that’s what may be saved for buying 6 gals.@ 99 cents, tax included…;-

    A penny saved is a penny earned, or so it goes.

    #61171
    Archie
    Participant

    @VV

    I’m thinking there is a “Casablanca” update contained in our current travails.

    #61172
    zerosum
    Participant

    I sure that more than me has had the following thoughts …
    1. Trump thinks he will lose and is in the process of undermining the social/economic system, so bad that the opposition winner will NOT be able to govern.
    2. Only one thing is important for Trump …. when the history books mention his name, that it’s spelled right.

    #61173

    No one will probably read this, but I just got back from the lake after a session on the pontoon to see comet Neowise. We had a very good view of it for being just outside the city. It was plainly visible to the naked eye and magnificent through the binoculars. After a bit of swimming to celebrate the event (along with two spectacular meteors), we got home around 11:45. Absolutely luscious!

    I think what I hate most about masks is that they keep the fear and dread in our faces at all times. They aren’t going away, even if “Covid” does. Silly, doomed humans, embracing their fear and feeding on it like sugar. We sit on the sofa consuming the empty calories of specious safety making us fat, cowardly, and helpless.

    #61174
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    No one will probably read this, but I just got back from the lake after a session on the pontoon to see comet Neowise. We had a very good view of it for being just outside the city. It was plainly visible to the naked eye and magnificent through the binoculars. After a bit of swimming to celebrate the event (along with two spectacular meteors), we got home around 11:45. Absolutely luscious!

    Lucky you. Sounds great…

    But, what follows is as though written by a different person…

    I think what I hate most about masks is that they keep the fear and dread in our faces at all times. They aren’t going away, even if “Covid” does. Silly, doomed humans, embracing their fear and feeding on it like sugar. We sit on the sofa consuming the empty calories of specious safety making us fat, cowardly, and helpless.

    This person is frightened, angry, feeling helpless and projecting fiercely.
    My attitude is opposite in all the points.
    I dislike the masks, but have adapted to this life, as it is today.
    Adaptation is an important, and healthy, human trait.
    Reflect, and count your blessings. Be kind to yourself and re-read that 2nd part carefully; it holds many secrets to your inner being…
    Good cheer and happy trails…

    #61175
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    ^ I do hope the above is taken in the spirit it was offered…

    #61198

    I take it graciously, V. Arnold.
    The public reaction to this virus has made me little crazy. At the lake, NO ONE wears a mask. Everything is normal. There is danger on the lake- every year there are a few drowning deaths, but it doesn’t keep people from the water. They learn to swim. The joys of water vastly outweigh the dangers.
    We are making over the human race in response to a pathogen that simply is not that severe. Humans were never meant to cover their faces- it has long been a sign of an untrustworthy person. Humans were never meant to keep their distance from each other- it is a sign of hostility. And now we are forcing children over 2 to wear masks and stay away from each other. This will damage them severely, and in their later years they will mistrust others and see hostility where there is none. That kind of early programming is difficult to undo. It affects adults as well- I cannot detach the current social tensions from the public health initiatives.
    We are remaking humanity, and it is not a change that is for the better.

Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.