Sep 142020
 
 September 14, 2020  Posted by at 9:11 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Edvard Munch Love and pain 1895

 

“A Harris Administration Together With Joe Biden” (AZC)
America’s Color Revolution (Paul Craig Roberts)
Biden Says Stay in Mideast, Increase Military Spending (Antiwar)
Wiped Phones Obstruction Of Justice, Worst Sort Destruction Of Evidence (RCP)
Trump Signs New, Expanded Executive Order To Lower US Drug Prices (R.)
State Dept Reported Burisma Paid Bribe While Hunter Biden Served On Board (JTN)
The Fed’s New Framework: This Time Is Different (Zentner)
Oracle Emerges As Likely US Partner For TikTok (JTN)
Beijing’s Mass Surveillance Of Australia And The World (ABC.au)
The Rise of Ultra-Processed Foods (Conv.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taleb: Retrospective bigotteering

 

 

What a most curious thing to say. Where does that come from? Is it equal to “A Pence Administration Together With Donald Trump”?

“A Harris Administration Together With Joe Biden” (AZC)

Pointing to Arizona’s high coronavirus losses, Kamala Harris urged the state’s residents to register and vote for an administration committed to its health and business needs. In a five-minute virtual speech Saturday cast as a conversation with Latina small business owners, the senator from California said she and her running mate, Joe Biden, will create manufacturing incentives, roll back tax cuts that went to the wealthy and preserve health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act. “For everyone on this call, Joe and I understand that your business is the heartbeat of your community,” Harris said. “As part of our Build Back Better agenda, we will need to make sure you have a president in the White House who actually sees you, who understands your needs, who understands the dignity of your work and who has your back.”


Harris’ speech is a reminder of the key role Hispanic voters are expected to play in helping win Arizona, a battleground for the White House. The Biden-Harris ticket is expected to win most Hispanic votes, but polling suggests they are doing so in numbers smaller than Democrat Hillary Clinton did in her losing 2016 campaign. Harris said a Democratic administration, which she called “a Harris administration together with Joe Biden,” would provide $100 billion in low-interest loans and investments for minority-owned businesses, a $15,000 tax credit for first-time home-buyers and allow government-run health insurance to compete with private insurers.

Read more …

“Trump, isolated in his own government, will be cut off from Twitter, Facebook and from the print and TV media.”

America’s Color Revolution (Paul Craig Roberts)

Russiagate was a coup that failed, followed by the failed Impeachgate coup. Faced with Trump’s reelection and the realization that upon reelection Trump will be able to deal with the treason against him, the Deep State has decided to take him out with a color revolution. The evidence of a color revolution in the works is abundantly supplied by CNN, MSNBC, New York Times, NPR, Washington Post and numerous Internet sites funded by the CIA and the foundations and corporations through which it operates, all of which are committed to Trump’s ejection from the Oval Office. The American public does not realize the extent to which the institutions of a free society have been penetrated and turned against freedom. All of these media organizations are establishing the story in the mind of Americans that Trump will not leave office when he loses or steals the election and must be driven out.

Emails are arriving from readers in the UK and Europe reporting that the British and European media are at work preparing the acceptability of the CIA’s color revolution against President Trump. It is taken for granted by both media and politicians in Europe and the UK that Trump cannot win reelection because he (1) is a Putin agent, (2) abuses the power of his office, (3) represents racist “Trump Deplorables,” (4) is a womanizer—“grab them by the pussy,” (5) is responsible for America leading the world in Covid-19 cases and deaths, (6) doesn’t support NATO (a sinecure for many Europeans), (7) is an outsider and not a member of The Establishment and “is not like us,” (8) “has orange hair” (orange is considered a low class color). You can add your own to the list.

The scenarios for what the American, British, and European media assume to be a necessary color revolution to drive Trump from office are: • Trump loses the election, refuses to leave office and must be dislodged or democracy is lost. • Trump wins the election by fraud and must be dislodged or democracy is lost. The scenarios do not accommodate Trump actually winning the election by the vote of the people. That outcome is outside the possibilities. According to the media, Trump can only lose or steal the election. With Antifa and Black Lives Matter now experienced in violent protests, they will be unleashed anew on American cities when there is news of a Trump election victory. The media will explain the violence as necessary to free us from a tyrant and egg on the violence, as will the Democrat Party. The CIA will be certain that the violence is well funded.

Trump, isolated in his own government, which has failed to bring charges against the Obama regime officials who tried to frame the President of the United States and drive him from office—Barr and Durham represent The Establishment, not the President or law—will be cut off from Twitter, Facebook and from the print and TV media. All Americans and the world will hear is that Trump lost and must go or Trump won by vote fraud and must go. It will be impossible for Trump or anyone to refute the charges.

Read more …

“The priorities, as are so often the case for the US, are fighting Russia, who Biden identified as a “near-peer” power. The US spends more than ten times the amount on its military annually that Russia does, and it is unclear in what way they are a “near-peer.”

Biden Says Stay in Mideast, Increase Military Spending (Antiwar)

Former Vice President Joe Biden gave some of his first foreign policy-related positions in an interview with Stars and Stripes on Thursday, saying the “forever wars have to end” while seemingly ruling out any full-fledged withdrawals, arguing the US still has to worry about terrorism and ISIS. Biden said the ongoing US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria are so complicated he can’t promise a withdrawal. He also suggested he may increase military spending even beyond its current record levels as he shifts focus to what he believes should be the military’s priorities. The priorities, as are so often the case for the US, are fighting Russia, who Biden identified as a “near-peer” power.


The US spends more than ten times the amount on its military annually that Russia does, and it is unclear in what way they are a “near-peer.” Either way, Biden intends to shift the focus toward unmanned drones and cyber-warfare, and suggests that is likely to boil down to not just a shift in where money is spent, but likely an increase in spending as well. “First thing I’m going to have to do, and I’m not joking: if elected I’m going to have to get on the phone with the heads of state and say America’s back,” Biden said, saying NATO has been “worried as hell about our failure to confront Russia.”

Read more …

Sidney Powell.

Wiped Phones Obstruction Of Justice, Worst Sort Destruction Of Evidence (RCP)

Sidney Powell, the attorney for Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, appeared on FOX Business and denounced the Mueller team for having their phones wiped before the DOJ inspector general could view their contents. “I wrote about it in an article in 2018 complaining that Rosenstein and Mueller allowed the Strzok/Page cell phones from the special counsel operation to be destroyed, and I demanded that the IG seize the other phones then and collect all the evidence off of them,” Powell said Thursday. “And then the IG lets this happen. All of those phones should have been seized while at the end of the special counsel operation while they were still doing it, and they should have nailed every one of them.”


Powell on Strzok: “Peter Strzok is a liar. Peter Strzok is the one who altered the 302 multiple times in conjunction with Lisa Page until he added statements that were not reflected in the notes of the two agents that interviewed General Flynn.” “And both agent Strzok and agent Pientka who interviewed him knew at the time he was telling them the truth. That’s why Flynn was never re-interviewed. They didn’t even warn him about a 1001 statement, and they didn’t let him look at the transcript like they do with every other witness.” “They treated him differently than anyone else they ever interviewed for anything. They schemed and planned to interview him in such a way he did not even know he was the subject of the interview or investigation and they did that deliberately, violating all the rules in the process.”

Read more …

Got to love this from Big Pharma:

“a reckless attack on the very companies working around the clock to beat COVID19.”

Trump Signs New, Expanded Executive Order To Lower US Drug Prices (R.)

President Donald Trump signed a new executive order on Sunday aimed at lowering drug prices in the United States by linking them to those of other nations and expanding the scope of a July action. “My Most Favored Nation order will ensure that our Country gets the same low price Big Pharma gives to other countries. The days of global freeriding at America’s expense are over,” Trump said in a Twitter post. The latest step, coming less than two months before the Nov. 3 presidential election, would replace a July 24 Trump executive order. It extends the mandate to prescription drugs available at a pharmacy, which are covered under Medicare Part D. The July version focused on drugs typically administered in doctors’ offices and health clinics, covered by Medicare Part B.


Specifically, it would pay a price for a drug that matches the lowest price paid among wealthy foreign governments. Medicare, the government healthcare program for seniors, is currently prohibited from negotiating prices it pays to drugmakers. It also requires issuing new federal rules, a complex process that might not be done by Election Day. Determining prices paid by other countries could be challenging as negotiations between governments and drugmakers often are kept confidential. The industry’s largest trade group – the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA – denounced Trump’s move as “a reckless attack on the very companies working around the clock to beat COVID-19.”

Read more …

Will this go away?

State Dept Reported Burisma Paid Bribe While Hunter Biden Served On Board (JTN)

Just eight months after Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter joined the board of Burisma Holdings, U.S. officials in Kiev developed evidence that the Ukrainian gas company may have paid a $7 million bribe to the local prosecutors investigating the firm for corruption, according to interviews and State Department memos. State officials believed the alleged bribe was paid between May and December 2014 and got confirmation from one prosecutor. They argued the bribe amounted to a “gross miscarriage of justice that undermined months of US assistance” to fight corruption in Ukraine, contemporaneous memos show. The concerns were eventually reported to the FBI, although it is not clear whether the allegations were ever investigated more fully, according to current and former U.S. and Ukrainian government officials.

The anecdote, buried in five-year-old diplomatic files, provides a fresh illustration of the awkward, uncomfortable conflict of interest State officials perceived as they tried to fight pervasive corruption in Ukraine under Joe Biden’s leadership while the vice president’s son collected large payments as a board member for an energy firm widely viewed as corrupt. The concerns first came to a head in January 2015, the memos show, about eight months after Hunter Biden was named to Burisma’s board and after two major corruption investigations — one in Ukraine and the other in Britain — were opened against the gas firm.

George Kent, then a State Department official newly sent to the U.S. embassy in Kiev to lead anti-corruption efforts, was concerned the bribery allegations surrounding Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema were credible enough that he sought a meeting with one of Yarema’s deputies to demand action, according to State Department memos. His concern was triggered when Yarema took action over the Christmas 2014 holidays to undercut both the British and Ukraine investigations of Burisma and its founder Mykola Zlochevsky, and the U.S. embassy received word a $7 million bribe had changed hands, State memos show. The Feb. 3, 2015 meeting involved Kent, one of Yarema’s top deputies, Anatoliy Danylenko, as well as the DOJ’s liaison in Ukraine, Jeffrey Cole, memos show. It was arranged by Andrii Telizhenko, an English-speaking mid-level Ukrainian government official long trusted by the Obama administration in Kiev and Washington to facilitate contacts between the two countries.

“No problem, works for us. I’ll get you the names soonest. Likely George and Jeff Cole. Will confirm later,” U.S. embassy official Gregory W. Pfleger wrote Telizhenko in a lengthy Jan. 31, 2015 email chain that arranged the location, date and attendees for the meeting for three days later. Pfleger had forwarded Kent’s resume to the Ukrainians since he was new to the embassy, and Telizhenko reciprocated by forwarding a biography for Danylenko, the memos show. U.S. officials familiar with the meeting, as well as one eyewitness, told Just the News that Kent strongly confronted Danylenko, insisting the U.S. had strong reason to believe that Burisma officials made a multimillion dollar bribe to Yarema’s office between May 2014 when Hunter Biden joined the board and December 2014.

[..] A few days after the meeting, Yarema abruptly stepped down Feb. 10, 2015 as the chief prosecutor of Ukraine after just a few months in the job.

Strzok believes

Read more …

From Morgan Stanley’s chief economist Ellen Zentner. I must assume these people believe in their own gibberish, as well as the Fed’s.

The Fed’s New Framework: This Time Is Different (Zentner)

On August 27, Chair Powell and the Federal Open Market Committee made history, rolling out a new inflation-targeting framework. I believe that the central bank is now more likely to achieve its desired inflation target in the current cycle. If it does, this new framework may well be Chair Powell’s legacy. The Fed replaced its old symmetric 2% inflation target with a flexible average inflation-targeting framework. It emphasizes that the Fed will target an inflation overshoot in recoveries following inflation shortfalls during downturns. This has important implications for economic and policy outcomes over the medium term. Most specifically, under Powell’s leadership the Fed has now solidified a more dovish path than in previous recoveries.

Under the new outcome-based approach, the Fed needs evidence of inflation before raising rates, rather than simply forecasting that it will rise. Had this policy framework been in place in the last cycle, with inflation and unemployment evolving exactly as they did, the Fed might have delayed lift-off to as late as 2018, with its overall policy stance more accommodative for longer. It’s not just policy outcomes that are likely to differ. A change in monetary policy dynamics is likely to feed through to inflation expectations, which are relevant to price- and wage-setting. This would make it more likely that the Fed can achieve its inflation targets over the current cycle and that average 2% inflation outcomes are attainable over time.

To be sure, the change in the Fed’s framework makes us even more confident that inflation will be structurally higher over this cycle and beyond. How quickly the output and employment gaps close in this cycle will play a major role in determining when the first rate hike comes. Moreover, we believe that to demonstrate their commitment to the new strategy, policy-makers won’t rush to raise rates at the first sign of success. The longer-term simulations we laid out in Life After Covid suggest that the kind of labor market and inflation conditions the Fed would want to see sustained could be in place for the Fed to consider raising rates by the first half of 2024, sooner should the V-shaped recovery continue to run ahead of expectations.

Long before the first rate hike, the Fed should see the necessary conditions to start taking its foot off the gas. Working backwards, we think the Fed will want to end its asset purchases around a year before the first rate hike. This suggests that asset purchases would stop in early 2023, but tapering is likely to come in mid-2022. Chair Powell has time and again displayed an affinity for long-dated forewarning of Fed action to market participants, so starting to slow the pace of asset purchases around mid-2022 means we should get guidance that tapering is on the horizon by the December 2021 FOMC meeting.

Read more …

I thought they weren’t going to sell at all?!

Oracle Emerges As Likely US Partner For TikTok (JTN)

Oracle emerged Sunday evening as the likely U.S. partner for the popular social video app TikTok after Microsoft Corp. announced its bid had been rejected by the Chinese app’s owner. “ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft,” the U.S. software maker announced in a blog post. “We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests. To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement. Microsoft’s rejection left Oracle as the lone remaining U.S. suitor. The Washington Post, quoting an anonymous source, reported Sunday night that ByteDance had chosen Oracle as TikTok’s U.S. technology partner.

Read more …

China emulates the CIA?!

Beijing’s Mass Surveillance Of Australia And The World (ABC.au)

A Chinese company with links to Beijing’s military and intelligence networks has been amassing a vast database of detailed personal information on thousands of Australians, including prominent and influential figures. A database of 2.4 million people, including more than 35,000 Australians, has been leaked from the Shenzhen company Zhenhua Data which is believed to be used by China’s intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security. Zhenhua has the People’s Liberation Army and the Chinese Communist Party among its main clients. Information collected includes dates of birth, addresses, marital status, along with photographs, political associations, relatives and social media IDs.

It collates Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and even TikTok accounts, as well as news stories, criminal records and corporate misdemeanours. While much of the information has been “scraped” from open-source material, some profiles have information which appears to have been sourced from confidential bank records, job applications and psychological profiles. The company is believed to have sourced some of its information from the so-called “dark web”. One intelligence analyst said the database was “Cambridge Analytica on steroids”, referring to the trove of personal information sourced from Facebook profiles in the lead up to the 2016 US election campaign.

[..] The database was leaked to a US academic based in Vietnam, Professor Chris Balding, who until 2018 had worked at the elite Peking University before leaving China citing fears for his physical safety. “China is absolutely building out a massive surveillance state both domestically and internationally,” Professor Balding told the ABC. “They’re using a wide variety of tools — this one is taken primarily from public sources, there is non-public data in here, but it is taken primarily from public sources. “I think it speaks to the broader threat of what China is doing and how they are surveilling, monitoring and seeking to influence… not just their own citizens, but citizens around the world.” Professor Balding has returned to the United States, leaving Vietnam after being advised it was no longer safe for him to be there.

It was also a grave risk taken by the person who leaked the database to him, who contacted him as he started publishing articles about Chinese tech giant Huawei. “We’ve worked very hard to make sure that there are no links between me and that person, once I realised what had been given to me,” he said. “They are still in China. But hopefully I think they will be safe.” Professor Balding gave the database to Canberra cyber security company Internet 2.0 which was able to restore 10 per cent of the 2.4 million records for individuals. Internet 2.0’s chief executive Robert Potter said Zhenhua had built the capacity to track naval vessels and defence assets, to assess the careers of military officers and catalogue the intellectual property of China’s competitors. “This mass collection of data is taking place in China’s private sector, in the same way Beijing outsources its cyber attack capability to private subcontractors,” Mr Potter told the ABC.

Read more …

Awfully simplistic, but a good reminder that this stuff makes your body, and your immune system, much weaker. The last thing you want with a virus like this going around is chronic inflammation.

The Rise of Ultra-Processed Foods (Conv.)

Humans (and our ancestors) have been processing food for at least 1.8 million years. Roasting, drying, grinding and other techniques made food more nutritious, durable and tasty. This helped our ancestors to colonise diverse habitats, and then develop settlements and civilisations. Many traditional foods used in cooking today are processed in some way, such as grains, cheeses, dried fish and fermented vegetables. Processing itself is not the problem. Only much more recently has a different type of food processing emerged: one that is more extensive, and uses new chemical and physical techniques. This is called ultra-processing, and the resulting products ultra-processed foods.

To make these foods, cheap ingredients such as starches, vegetable oils and sugars, are combined with cosmetic additives like colours, flavours and emulsifiers. Think sugary drinks, confectionery, mass-produced breads, snack foods, sweetened dairy products and frozen desserts. Unfortunately, these foods are terrible for our health. And we’re eating more of them than ever before, partially because of aggressive marketing and lobbying by “Big Food”. [..] We found that more ultra-processed foods in the diet associates with higher risks of obesity, heart disease and stroke, type-2 diabetes, cancer, frailty, depression and death. These harms can be caused by the foods’ poor nutritional profile, as many are high in added sugars, salt and trans-fats.


Also, if you tend to eat more ultra-processed foods, it means you probably eat fewer fresh and less-processed foods. Industrial processing itself can also be harmful. For example, certain food additives can disrupt our gut bacteria and trigger inflammation, while plasticisers in packaging can interfere with our hormonal system. Certain features of ultra-processed foods also promote over-consumption. Product flavours, aromas and mouthfeel are designed to make these foods ultra-tasty, and perhaps even addictive.

Read more …

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle September 14 2020

Viewing 34 posts - 1 through 34 (of 34 total)
  • Author
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  • #63222

    Edvard Munch Love and pain 1895   • “A Harris Administration Together With Joe Biden” (AZC) • America’s Color Revolution (Paul Craig Roberts) • B
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle September 14 2020]

    #63223
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Someone asked me if I had plans for the fall; it took me a moment to realize they meant “autum”, not the collapse of civilization…

    LOL hilarious!
    …not to mention, spot on…

    Edvard Munch Love and pain 1895

    Interesting, many things implied, but little revealed; actually a lot reavealed depending on where your imagination takes you; a wild ride with no stop signs…

    #63224

    That painting somehow has also become known as The Vampire. Not Munch’s doing.

    #63225
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    That painting somehow has also become known as The Vampire. Not Munch’s doing.

    Sure. Not surprised…
    …that’s why I posted:…a wild ride with no stop signs

    For many, too many, reality is a giant cinescope projection screen…
    …and the insanity, ongoing, matches all of the distorted projections being offered 24/7/365…
    Long live the matrix…the cosmic ghost of the moment………….

    #63227
    zerosum
    Participant

    The devil/lies are in the details
    “Specifically, it would pay a price for a drug that matches the lowest price paid among wealthy foreign governments. “
    —–
    Quote:
    There is no proof of wrong doing – Biden

    Lawyers and accountants enablers wrote the clauses in the laws
    Politicians made the laws.
    Politicians follow the laws

    #63229
    sumac.carol
    Participant

    V.Arnold -I wonder now if concrete specific comments are even worth making anymore -we are so far gone. Your high-level observations seem to be right for the time, and beautiful to read.
    Off to grab more grapes…

    #63230
    zerosum
    Participant

    circle of life
    Too much water – Sally – flooding
    Not enough water – West Coast – burning
    Disruptor – C19 – Plans
    ——
    From the day we arrive on the planet
    And blinking, step into the sun
    There’s more to be seen than can ever be seen
    More to do than can ever be done

    Some say eat or be eaten
    Some say live and let live
    But all are agreed as they join the stampede
    You should never take more than you give

    In the circle of life, it’s the wheel of fortune
    It’s the leap of faith, it’s the band of hope
    Till we find our place on the path unwinding
    In the circle, the circle of life

    Some of us fall by the wayside
    And some of us soar to the stars
    And some of us sail through our troubles
    And some have to live with the scars

    There’s far too much to take in here
    More to find than can ever be found
    But the sun rolling high through the sapphire sky
    Keeps great and small on the endless round

    #63233
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    @V.arnold: always appreciate your riff on the art posted here. “A wild ride with no stop signs” captures your experience of this piece, and it is very cool. The artist’s title – Love and Pain sets up the intense contrast in color. The layered, rich blue colors – in the man’s clothing and in the background – create an “aura” as they envelop the couple. The sienna and red orange hair falls in a web-like spray framing the interaction. The couple’s embrace and the shapes it creates – the square “nest” where his head comes to rest, and the woman’s arm being the strongest element and the placement of the lightest white/cream/peach lights. For me the embrace is the focus of this piece. The appearance of sunrise/sunset colors on the left side create an energetic opening. Is Love blue and pain red/sienna or is Love red/sienna and pain blue?

    Too bad the vampire WORDS were applied to this piece (by the artist’s friend). With the addition of that framing you go in a whole different direction. Interesting how that works…as we know.

    #63234
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    @zerosum: a very moving piece. Thank you for sharing. Assuming it is your original creation?

    #63235
    zerosum
    Participant

    it’s happening again! ….. lying

    ” oversampling – including more Democrats and left-leaning independents than Republicans and right-leaning independents in surveys in order to make it appear as though a candidate is doing better than they actually are.”

    #63236
    zerosum
    Participant

    Susmarie108

    Below the dashes, is the song “Circle of Life” by Elton John
    ( I assumed everyone knew it and did not give proper credit.
    I thought that it was appropriate.)

    #63239
    dermotmoconnor
    Participant

    Retrospective Bigotteering is catchy, but is a repackaging of ‘Presentism’ (another ‘ism’, haha!!!)
    Tim O Neill (taking down the execrable ‘Swerve’ book, in an analysis that is beyond the comprehension of the enlightened youngsters:

    http://armariummagnus.blogspot.com/2013/01/stephen-greenblatt-swerve-how-world.html

    QUOTE:

    The “Whig interpretation” of Butterfield’s title was summed up in his essay as “studying the past for the sake of the present” as opposed to “trying to understand the past for the sake of the past” (Butterfield p. 13). Butterfield criticised most of the English historians of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries for a blatant tendency toward “dividing the world into the friends and enemies of progress”. Anything that historians like Macauley and Acton saw as moving toward things of which they approved (liberalism, Protestantism, democracy, industry, “progress”) was judged as “good” and written of approvingly. Anything that could be seen or painted as not doing so was judged as “bad” and its agents or proponents became the villains of the historian’s story. At the heart of the Whig interpretation was the historiographical fallacy of “Presentism”: the idea that what we have now is (mostly) good and wise and intelligent and all of the past has been a stumbling and wandering path progressing towards our wonderful and oooh-so-right present.

    This presentist perspective lent itself nicely to some other ideas many Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century historians (and many current popular history writers) rather liked. The idea of history being propelled by a series of “revolutions” and “rebirths”, where stagnant or retrograde tendencies are swept aside by a sudden wave of brilliant new developments was one. And the “Great Man” was another – the idea of a single, titanic intellect or personality who, by his sheer brilliance, changes everything largely by being “before his time” and therefore a force dragging the stupid sluggards of the past toward the glorious, sunlit uplands of the present (eg Galileo, Newton, Darwin).

    Butterfield elegantly critiqued these ideas, arguing that they don’t actually illuminate history but, rather, completely distort it. He wrote:

    The total result of this method is to impose a certain form upon the whole historical story, and to produce a scheme of general history which is bound to converge beautifully on the present – all demonstrating throughout the ages the workings of an obvious principle of progress, of which the Protestants and whigs have been the perennial allies while Catholics and tories have perpetually formed obstruction. (Butterfield, p. 11)

    #63241
    John Day
    Participant

    Thanks Everybody, and I mean “Everybody” for the last 5 posts and comments.
    I’ve just spent a couple of hours catching up.
    The novel-coronavirus seems to have been established in the US and in Europe before it was discovered in Wuhan last December.
    It could well have come from Wuhan, or as well from Ft Detrick, Maryland, or other national bioweapons labs.
    The patterns are tht 90% of infections are not represented by test results, meaning they are mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic, and we know that those predominate in younger people without comorbidities like diabetes, hypertension and obesity.
    Populations have been getting sampled in various ways, like blood donors, and some rural free-testing weekend events, but the results are mostly not revealed.
    College football is big in the US, and big in Texas. UT, Austin had it’s first football game of the season, hosting under 15% of stadium capacity. They required UT students to be tested for COVID, before being issued a ticket. Over 1000 submitted to testing, and about 9/5% tested positive.
    https://www.texastribune.org/2020/09/13/university-texas-coronavirus-college-football-longhorns/
    I presume they had little to no symptoms. UT Austin is a large university, and many students are “attending” remotely this fall, but this is a high rate of positives in those attending in person. I have heard from a friend at UT Student Health that there are a lot of positives. I have asked her if she can find out if this was rapid-testing (she can ask some of the students who had it, and got referred to Student Health, perhaps) or PCR nasal swab. The rapid testing has few “false positives”. so it’s mainly infectious people who test positive.
    We sort of know that the virus has been permeating the 18-39 year old group in the southwest US this summer. This is kind of a slice of that. All the students who got over it, already, would not show positive, especially if a rapid antigen-test was used. (Dr.B. just said “rapid test” was used)
    What are the implications of almost 10% of a sample of college students in Austin Texas having the novel coronavirus on one particular day, when they didn’t really feel sick?
    My mind is going down a lot of rat-mazes with that question.
    In Austin, we have seen a tiny, tiny dribble of positive tests over the past 6 weeks or so. Testing fell off, and the percent positive rate on tests in Austin continues to fall, though it’s a little over 8% for Texas as a whole. There is lots of mask-wearing and compliance in Austin, especially among the educated working class here.
    Most of these students don’t come from Austin. They are probably fairly representative of Texas and smarter than average.
    They want to attend a college football game in person (something I never did, or felt like doing at UT)
    They might be a little more extraverted than average, but college football is completely normal here.
    Did they get more sun, more vitamin-D this summer? I suspect they were average in sun exposure.
    About 9.5% of Texas college students, from all across the state, in a sample of about 1200, at the start of the fall semester tested positive for novel coronavirus on one day.
    I’ll take that as roughly representative of young adults across Texas last week.
    I’m just going to say that I think the virus has completely pervaded Texas, if that sample is anywhere close to representative, and I don’t see how it can be very far off.
    Sure, there are people who have not yet been exposed, but I think this means that most people are getting exposed at some level every week, if not most days.
    Texas may just continue to see a tapering of positive test results, hospital admissions and deaths, going towards Halloween. If this is the case, then almost nobody will be scared of the “No-mask-costume”. https://www.texastribune.org/series/coronavirus-texas-cases-san-antonio/
    I’m not changing anything I am doing. I’m masking in public buildings, wearing PPE at the clinic, and taking 5000 units of vitamin-D daily. I’m just watching this with a whole lot of interest.
    Dr Fauci says it’s going to be a long, tough winter of holing up. Does he think so? Is he just telling us that? Is that the plan for us to follow? Who benefits? Who suffers?
    What’re you going dressed-as this Halloween?

    #63242
    Dr. D
    Participant

    I’ve heard they’re doing two things: I mean besides printing $3 Trillion since March. They’re changing inflation set-up, yes, to allow inflation first. But more importantly, they’re setting sort of a tether peg. That is, if it’s been too low for months (according to them, who have chauffeurs shop and drive for them, living on free government health care in free, open government gyms) they will allow it to equalize. That is, if it’s 2% below target for 6 months, they’ll let it run 2% above target for 6 more months before acting. Two problems: one, inflation tends to zero-bound, but can more rise freely in the other direction. The other, a drop might be 1%, but a rise could easily be 10%.

    Inflation tends to run on expectations, which are psychological and fact-free. Would you pay 100% rate on money? Sound high? What if you could invest and make 500% a month? Sound like free money now? That’s what we see in unhinged 3rd world economies that radically increase poverty, violence, and desperation with the radical income-gap increase between those who have a nickel to invest, and those who don’t. …You know, like now, but on turbo.

    Second thing: they have indicated they are suppressing rates at all points on the curve. That is “Financial Repression”, or better known as “Theft”, FROM the workers and savers (you) TO the reckless and speculative insider parasites. Why? To cause that inflation that would kill all the poor folks, as above. This is their Congressional mandate: kill poor folks! You know, like the CDC, SEC, ACA, all that. More, they are going to suppress all rates IN ALL INSTRUMENTS, as they can’t have the “normal” result: buying Treasuries but allowing junk bonds like Tesla go to 1,000% interest. They are already buying every company, every stock, every bond, every mortgage, everywhere. Crazy? Like Japan for 30 years who now owns nearly 100% of Nikkei?

    So, going to hide? Standard, boring, predictable, textbook inflation and currency collapse/swap. Whoodaknood? I mean except the 1988 Economist, 40 years ago. Other than being published on the cover of the world’s biggest economic magazine, and discussed in papers steadily since then, raged online since 2001, then revisited in 2008, nobody could figure it out.

    Anyway, we’re waiting for the TIPS to show, and the last blocks to fall into place. For when? How about when the U.S. is a worldwide joke for having no election, no President, the generals deciding, Congress arresting each other, States seceding, and cities on fire? Can hurt faith in the currency then?

    So: chop wood, carry water.

    Whig interpretation is the “straight-line” theory of existence. As opposed to the circular, seasonal, cycles theory. This is Progressiveism writ large. Has a nice fallacy in that the very existence of the “new thing” inherently means it is good, better, and we ourselves are proven superior by it. It is after all, the culmination of all evolution. Doesn’t really work out that way in practice. It may or may not be a circle, but it’s at least a spiral, a cyclical motion that has a direction.

    #63243
    zerosum
    Participant

    I told ya so
    The novel-coronavirus seems to have been established in the US and in Europe before it was discovered in Wuhan last December.
    I read the same report.
    Since day 1, I have been saying that I did not believe that the virus could travel “faster than a speeding bullet” to all those senior care homes around the world.

    #63244
    Mr. House
    Participant

    This is why i love the automatic earth. Here i can question the narratives i’ve been told about the virus and not be banned and screamed at. The longer this goes on Rona smells of TDS

    #63245
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Almost like we got color revolutioned or something

    #63246
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ Dr. D,

    I am not very good financials but it sounds like most of us are being flushed down the toilet. No moose today but I did cut down a tree that had its top broken off.

    Seen an awesome Caribou today and when I say awesome I mean I was in awe.

    #63247
    Mr. House
    Participant

    “The novel-coronavirus seems to have been established in the US and in Europe before it was discovered in Wuhan last December.
    It could well have come from Wuhan, or as well from Ft Detrick, Maryland, or other national bioweapons labs.
    The patterns are tht 90% of infections are not represented by test results, meaning they are mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic, and we know that those predominate in younger people without comorbidities like diabetes, hypertension and obesity.”

    So what is the simplest explanation for the “authorities” response then?

    #63248
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Call me crazy but I have just been reading the news quite a bit these last four years and I have gotten the feeling that Putin is currently the best leader in world.

    #63249

    You’re new here Mike. but I’ve been saying that for a very long time. There’s well over 12 years of Automatic Earth, eat your heart out.

    #63251
    John Day
    Participant

    Mr House said (initially quoting my comment):
    “The novel-coronavirus seems to have been established in the US and in Europe before it was discovered in Wuhan last December.
    It could well have come from Wuhan, or as well from Ft Detrick, Maryland, or other national bioweapons labs.
    The patterns are that 90% of infections are not represented by test results, meaning they are mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic, and we know that those predominate in younger people without comorbidities like diabetes, hypertension and obesity.”

    So what is the simplest explanation for the “authorities” response then?

    A: My read is that “authorities” are seeing how much “order” they can impose in a pandemic scenario, when they have enough information to know that it is 10X milder than what they portray. There is a power struggle underway among our owners, and they want us to stay in the chutes, while they shoot it out.

    #63252
    Mr. House
    Participant

    “My read is that “authorities” are seeing how much “order” they can impose in a pandemic scenario, when they have enough information to know that it is 10X milder than what they portray. There is a power struggle underway among our owners, and they want us to stay in the chutes, while they shoot it out.”

    Thats not the simplest but i agree that is part of whats going on currently. I still think it was an excuse to bailout themselves again. Another excuse to keep rates at zero for another decade. Then again most people have no idea what interest rates are except for their credit card. I think the world could be coming up with a new monetary system while we all shelter in place.

    #63253
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Then again, what if they aren’t fighting and its all theater?

    #63254
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    @John day and Mr.House: it doesn’t matter, they are sure they own us. They demand another round of WINNING via bailouts and wild stock market upswings.

    “I think the world could be coming up with a new monetary system while we all shelter in place.” There are potentially good things emerging. My friend Charles Hugh Smith (Of To Minds) is on the leading edge with practical, actionable solutions. His new book is a roadmap to helping us connect the dots – and build a future that works for all.

    In his own words:

    “In this book I connect the dots of my own life experiences to show how a sustainably fair way of organizing human activity would work. In telling my story, I’m also telling our story, because we all share our limited-resources world and the same aspirations for fairness, belonging, getting ahead and a say in our future.

    Those of you who read my 2015 book A Radically Beneficial World are already familiar with my proposed alternative system, one that is voluntary and self-organizing: the community labor integrated money economy (CLIME).

    This is an arrangement that would actually work for all of us–and our world–because it treats everyone equally and is designed for DeGrowth, i.e. wise, frugal use of our planet’s resources, rather than the current arrangement’s insane goal of endless growth of consumption and inequality (and debt to fund the consumption) on a finite planet.”

    #63255
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    Correction of typo: Of Two Minds

    #63256
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ Susmarie108
    I enjoyed what you wrote. I grew up in a town where everyone was basically equal. It often seems to be forgotten but we do have a tax system that is able to reclaim the super wealth of the wealthy. Why this is a no go in the USA is perhaps because it is run by the super wealthy. But some of my ideas are tax the wealthy until they have 1 million or less in the bank. Of course you would need a functional government for that but it is a way out.

    #63257
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    sumac.carol
    Susmarie108

    Thank you for your kind words.

    Call me crazy but I have just been reading the news quite a bit these last four years and I have gotten the feeling that Putin is currently the best leader in world.

    You’re not crazy; you’re making a correct observation, IMO.
    When all is said and done; the U.S. demonstrably has the worst and the numbers, tragically, prove it to be true…

    #63258
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    @michaelreid:

    RE: “Seen an awesome Caribou today and when I say awesome I mean I was in awe.”

    Thank you for the report. Good to know that there are still a few healthy creatures on the planet. I look at this year’s deer and my heart breaks. They are thin and their numbers down significantly. It is obvious that our forests are no longer providing the nutrition they need – and then there is the lack of rainfall….and smoke….am in the mountains of Northern CA 4 hours north of San Francisco.

    #63259
    John Day
    Participant

    @Mr House: You asked for a simple explanation of what’s going down, brother. Of course they have to change the money again. Of course they want central bank cryptocurrency and something lossy and digital to coerce and bleed the rest of us. I don’t think this is all going to work out for them this time. Russia and China want GOLD again.

    @Susmarie108
    : Hehe, heh, heh. I’ve already got a checkbook and envelope here to get that new book from MY friend, Charles Hugh Smith, and I’m gonna send extra again, too 🙂
    He’s got some good stories about being a haole kid in Hawaii in there.

    Oh, I got today’s post up, with lots of news about how our owners are doing things and stuff. I don’t think history is going to go well for the owner class, so I continue to expand my agricultural projects. Up next for this winter work season is the Banana Grove. Picture of garden with work starting on banana-grove-extension. You will already have seen a fair amount of this, brothers and sisters…
    https://www.johndayblog.com/2020/09/covid-goes-to-college.html

    #63260
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    John Day
    You can actually grow bananas there? If so, and you have a choice, stay away from cavendish; they have many problems…and far from the most delicious… 😉
    We’re (99% my wife) growing about 35 plants (bananas) comprising 4 different types, nam wah, hok mok, kai gai, and a type called lady fingers. Sorry, other than lady fingers, I only know the Thai names… 🙂

    #63261
    John Day
    Participant

    Sawat-di Krap, V.Arnold,

    Yep, I have 6 dwarf Cavendish, 5 apple-banana (my favorite) and an ice-cream-banana. I’m trying this all out, and they should tolerate the winters in Yoakum. They seem to tolerate San Antonio and Houston, and Yoakum is a bit more temperate than either, being a bit farther south, and 60 miles from the gulf of Mexico.
    “First, get a yield”, quoth Permaculture.
    Lady Finger Bananas look promising, but I don’t know if I can get any: https://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Lady_Finger_Bananas_14422.php
    Apple Bananas: https://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce/Apple_Bananas_2050.php
    Ice Cream Bananas:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Java_banana

    #63262
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    John Day: “What are the implications of almost 10% of a sample of college students in Austin Texas having the novel coronavirus on one particular day, when they didn’t really feel sick?”

    A positive rapid (antigen) test means that there is an active infection. (“Positive results are usually highly accurate” for the antigen tests, says the FDA.

    The implications depend on just how long an active infection lasts (even when asymptomatic).
    The CDC is now saying (FWIW) that if someone is “retested within 3 months of initial infection, they may continue to have a positive test result, even though they are not spreading COVID-19.” So there can presumably be a three-month period where someone tests positive for an active infection, even if asymptomatic or recovered.

    The implications are significant, but not as bad as if an active infection would test positive for only 6 weeks or so. Too bad the students who were tested didn’t also get the antibody test, to show how many had been infected more than 3 months ago.

    #63263
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    @ John Day
    Lady Finger Banana plants can currently be obtained at Willis Orchard, and probably from some other sellers.

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