Sep 212020
 


Ray K. Metzker Europe 1961

 

Leak Shows Biggest Western Banks Finance Cartels, Terrorists & Mobsters (ZH)
Can We, Like, Stop Praising Sweden Now? (MB)
How COVID-19 Spreads (CDC)
People Not Rushing Back to Movie Theaters (NBCW)
Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky Home Targeted In Supreme Court Protest (Fox)
The War on Populism: The Final Act (CJ Hopkins)
Hunter Biden Is “Riding The Dragon” (ZH)
Biden’s Foreign Policy Advisors Loyal to Israel, Defense Contractors (CP)
Down the 1619 Project’s Memory Hole (Quillette)
JK Rowling’s Books Burned or Banned Around the World (Turley)
World’s Richest 1% Cause Double CO2 Emissions Of Poorest 50% – Oxfam (G.)
Ilargi: Why Trump Will Win (Yves Smith)

 

 

US new deaths lowest since July 5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biden 200 million

 

 

Lots of questions. My first and immediate one was: would this have been leaked to Assange if he had been available, and not to, of all places, BuzzFeed? Second: will the journalists and publishers (BBC et al) involved, now be treated the same way Assange has? There will be much more on this, but do keep watching out for criminal investigations. That will say a lot.

Leak Shows Biggest Western Banks Finance Cartels, Terrorists & Mobsters (ZH)

In what looks like one of the biggest leaks of private banking records since the Panama Papers, Buzzfeed News has published a lengthy investigation into how the world’s biggest banks allow dirty money from organized criminals, drug cartels, and terror groups like Al Qaeda and the Taliban to flow through their networks. The “FinCEN Files”, as Buzzfeed calls them, offer “a never-before-seen picture of corruption and complicity.” A lengthy investigation by Buzzfeed and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – the same group that handled the Mossack Fonseca leaks – Instead of combating financial crime, the current system of requiring banks to report all suspicious transactions to FinCen simply allows money laundering to flourish, while ensuring that any enforcement will be of the ‘whack-a-mole’ variety.

“These documents, compiled by banks, shared with the government, but kept from public view, expose the hollowness of banking safeguards, and the ease with which criminals have exploited them. Profits from deadly drug wars, fortunes embezzled from developing countries, and hard-earned savings stolen in a Ponzi scheme were all allowed to flow into and out of these financial institutions, despite warnings from the banks’ own employees. Money laundering is a crime that makes other crimes possible. It can accelerate economic inequality, drain public funds, undermine democracy, and destabilize nations — and the banks play a key role. “Some of these people in those crisp white shirts in their sharp suits are feeding off the tragedy of people dying all over the world,” said Martin Woods, a former suspicious transactions investigator for Wachovia.

Laws that were meant to stop financial crime have instead allowed it to flourish. So long as a bank files a notice that it may be facilitating criminal activity, it all but immunizes itself and its executives from criminal prosecution. The suspicious activity alert effectively gives them a free pass to keep moving the money and collecting the fees. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, is the agency within the Treasury Department charged with combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes. It collects millions of these suspicious activity reports, known as SARs. It makes them available to US law enforcement agencies and other nations’ financial intelligence operations. It even compiles a report called “Kleptocracy Weekly” that summarizes the dealings of foreign leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin. What it does not do is force the banks to shut the money laundering down.”

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Let’s.

Can We, Like, Stop Praising Sweden Now? (MB)

I don’t expect the virus psychos to listen but here is the chart, courtesy of Greg Jericho at The Fake Left:

Sweden and EL Trumpo, hand in hand. Unleash the virus and unleash the economic decline.

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CDC update. Seemed easier as a pic. Do they still have any credibility left? You know, after Redfield’s “Act for one Man and one Mask”?

How COVID-19 Spreads (CDC)

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Common sense. Works better than any lockdown.

People Not Rushing Back to Movie Theaters (NBCW)

About three quarters of the country’s movie theaters are open, but Americans are not going back in significant numbers in the COVID-era, even with new films coming into the marketplace weekly. The biggest movies continue to limp along. According to studio estimates Sunday, Warner Bros.’ “Tenet” earned $4.7 million in its third weekend from nearly 2,930 locations, Disney’s “The New Mutants” added $1.6 million in its fourth weekend, “Unhinged” brought in $1.3 million and Sony’s rom-com “The Broken Hearts Gallery” picked up an additional $800,000 in its second frame. And newcomers aren’t faring any better. The faith-based “Infidel,” which stars Jim Caviezel, did the best with $1.5 million from just over 1,700 theaters.


This weekend also saw the limited release of two adult dramas, IFC’s “The Nest,” with Jude Law and Carrie Coon, and Bleecker Street’s “The Secrets We Keep,” with Noomi Rapace. Both played in under 500 theaters across the country and neither got much more than $200 per location. “The Nest” earned an estimated $62,000 from 301 locations and “The Secrets We Keep” brought in just under $90,000 from 471 theaters. “There’s no question that this is an extraordinarily challenging marketplace, especially for North America,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s senior media analyst. “This is a slow roll out. It’s going to take some time.”

Read more …

Stay away from people’s homes and families.

But what curious details in the article, feels like a small town daily:

“After facing the towing of her vehicle, the woman went inside the store and bought a six-pack of beer but police arrested her anyway, the report said. The arrest prompted other protesters to start chanting, and one member of the crowd kicked a glass door and damaged it, the newspaper reported. Other protesters agreed to move vehicles that were blocking traffic on a nearby street, following a police request.”

Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky Home Targeted In Supreme Court Protest (Fox)

At least one protester was arrested Saturday after a group of about 100 people gathered outside the Kentucky home of Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell. The Senate majority leader is a key figure in determining whether a nominee appointed by President Trump will succeed the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court before Election Day. “Ruth Sent Us,” and “No Ethics No Shame,” read some of the signs carried by crowd members in Louisville, local FOX station WDRB-TV reported. “Hey-hey, ho-ho, Mitch McConnell has got to go,” others chanted. Reports were unclear on whether McConnell was at home in Kentucky or in Washington on Saturday.


In addition to the impending battle over the court vacancy, McConnell, 78 – a member of the Senate since 1985 — also faces a reelection fight on Kentucky’s November ballot. One protester was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and improper parking, after police determined she used a pharmacy parking lot without planning to patronize the store, the Courier Journal of Louisville reported. After facing the towing of her vehicle, the woman went inside the store and bought a six-pack of beer but police arrested her anyway, the report said. The arrest prompted other protesters to start chanting, and one member of the crowd kicked a glass door and damaged it, the newspaper reported. Other protesters agreed to move vehicles that were blocking traffic on a nearby street, following a police request.

2016/2020
https://twitter.com/i/status/1307877608487628802

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“..our protagonist is GloboCap (i.e., the global capitalist empire), or “democracy,” as it is known in the entertainment business.”

The War on Populism: The Final Act (CJ Hopkins)

So, it appears the War on Populism is building toward an exciting climax. All the proper pieces are in place for a Class-A GloboCap color revolution, and maybe even civil war. You got your unauthorized Putin-Nazi president, your imaginary apocalyptic pandemic, your violent identitarian civil unrest, your heavily-armed politically-polarized populace, your ominous rumblings from military quarters … you couldn’t really ask for much more. OK, the plot is pretty obvious by now (as it is in all big-budget action spectacles, which is essentially what color revolutions are), but that won’t spoil our viewing experience. The fun isn’t in guessing what is going to happen. Everybody knows what’s going to happen. The fun is in watching Bruce, or Sigourney, or “the moderate rebels,” or the GloboCap “Resistance,” take down the monster, or the terrorists, or Hitler, and save the world, or democracy, or whatever.

The show-runners at GloboCap understand this, and they are sticking to the classic Act III formula (i.e., the one they teach in all those scriptwriting seminars, which, full disclosure, I teach a few of those). They’ve been running the War on Populism by the numbers since the very beginning. I’m going to break that down in just a moment, act by act, plot point by plot point, but, first, let’s quickly cover the basics. The first thing every big Hollywood action picture (or GloboCap color revolution) needs is a solid logline to build the plot around. The logline shows us: (1) our protagonist, (2) what our protagonist is trying to do, and (3) our antagonist or antagonistic force. For example, here’s one everyone will recognize: “A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.”

In our case, the logline writes itself: “After America is taken over by a Russian-backed Hitlerian dictator, the forces of democracy unite to depose the tyrant and save the free world.” Donald Trump is our antagonist, of course. And what an antagonist he has been! As the deep-state spooks and the corporate media have been relentlessly repeating for the last four years, the man is both a Russian-backed traitor and literally the resurrection of Hitler! In terms of baddies, it doesn’t get any better. It goes without saying that our protagonist is GloboCap (i.e., the global capitalist empire), or “democracy,” as it is known in the entertainment business.

Now, we’re in the middle of Act III already, and, as in every big-budget action movie, our protagonist suffered a series of mounting losses all throughout Act II, and the baddie was mostly driving the action. Now it’s time for the Final Push, but, before all the action gets underway, here’s a quick recap of those previous acts. Ready? All right, here we go …

Read more …

Full 40 minute movie. is Hunter’s basement the one below Joe’s?

Hunter Biden Is “Riding The Dragon” (ZH)

In the lead-up to the November election political investigator and author Peter Schweizer, who currently heads the Florida-based Government Accountability Institute, has unveiled a bombshell exposé presenting damning evidence of Hunter and his father Joe Biden’s shady and hidden financial dealings with China. Directed by Matthew Taylor, whose prior works include Clinton Cash and Creepy Line, the 41-minute film entitled “Riding the Dragon: The Bidens’ Chinese Secrets,” details a pile of corporate records, financial documents, legal briefings as well as court papers which tie Hunter’s firm with a major Chinese defense contractor, namely Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC), and multiple other PLA linked companies.


“It’s a relationship that grew while Joe Biden was vice president of the United States and shortly after he was appointed the point person on U.S. policy towards China,” Schweizer, who narratives the film, described upon the documentary’s release earlier this month. “This new firm started making investment deals that would serve the strategic interests of the Chinese military.” “It’s the story of the second most powerful man in the world at the time and how his family was striking deals with America’s chief rival on the global stage, the People’s Republic of China,” he added.

Read more …

“Biden’s campaign is so beholden to AIPAC that they have adopted racist tropes to define Palestinians, the same tropes used to justify apartheid policies.”

Biden’s Foreign Policy Advisors Loyal to Israel, Defense Contractors (CP)

When Donald Trump was elected president, the foreign policy apparatus that Barack Obama’s administration built did not disappear. The power brokers went to think tanks and lobbying firms, cashing in on the uncertainty with help from defense contractors and other corporations. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s potential foreign policy would likely be a continuation of Obama’s aggressive approach with the use of extrajudicial killings and jailing of asylum seekers. Advisors have made clear that Biden would have no intention of making military aid to Israel conditional on Israel’s human rights abuses of Palestinians. Michèle Flournoy, a front-runner for Biden’s pick for Secretary of Defense, is already considered something of a glass ceiling breaker as the highest-ranking woman to have served as a Senate-confirmed Presidential appointee in the Pentagon.

In 2011 the Washington Post described her as “tall and slender with a regal manner” and “known for being extremely poised and rarely showing emotion.” In 2018, Flournoy co-founded WestExec advisors with Biden foreign policy advisor Antony Blinken, Former Deputy Secretary of State. Blinken, who is also a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and global affairs analyst at CNN, is on leave from the firm to focus on the presidential campaign. The firm is a group of senior national security professionals who advise corporations, including former CIA deputy director David S. Cohen and Dan Shapiro, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel. WestExec does not disclose its clients, but according to the American Prospect, they work with Israeli artificial intelligence company Windward.

In July, as part of the Democratic National Committee, Shapiro called on members to oppose a measure to condition U.S. aid to Israel so “no US aid may be used to facilitate annexation or to violate Palestinians rights.” The measure was rejected by a wide margin. “While we understand that those concerns have not been addressed to the full satisfaction of all parties, we believe we have taken significant and overdue strides while sustaining the unity of our Party,” Shapiro said. Vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris has drawn criticism in the past for her relationship with the Israeli government. In May 2019, she met with representatives of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) from California in her Senate office after saying she would not attend the conference. Her campaign communications director said at the time that “her support for Israel is central to who she is.”

In 2017, Harris visited Israel, where she was photographed speaking with two members of the Israel Defense Forces in front of a Raytheon Iron Dome missile defense battery. She visited a cybersecurity development program run by the Israeli Defense Forces, the Israeli National Cyber Bureau in the Prime Minister’s Office, and Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Finally, she met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem the day after he had announced a plan to deport 40,000 African asylum seekers. She told AIPAC the same year: “[The] first resolution I co-sponsored as a United States senator was to combat anti-Israel bias at the United Nations and reaffirm that the United States seeks a just, secure, and sustainable two-state solution.” Abed Ayoub, the legal director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), told the Middle East Eye: “Biden’s campaign is so beholden to AIPAC that they have adopted racist tropes to define Palestinians, the same tropes used to justify apartheid policies.”

Read more …

Rewriting history is not as easy as it may seem.

Down the 1619 Project’s Memory Hole (Quillette)

The history of the American Revolution isn’t the only thing the New York Times is revising through its 1619 Project. The “paper of record” has also taken to quietly altering the published text of the project itself after one of its claims came under intense criticism. When the 1619 Project went to print in August 2019 as a special edition of the New York Times Magazine, the newspaper put up an interactive version on its website. The original opening text stated: The 1619 project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.

The passage, and in particular its description of the year 1619 as “our true founding,” quickly became a flashpoint for controversy around the project. Critics on both the Left and Right took issue with the paper’s declared intention of displacing 1776 with the alternative date—a point that was also emphasized in the magazine feature’s graphics, showing the date of American independence crossed out and replaced by the date of the first slave ship’s arrival in Jamestown, Virginia. For several months after the 1619 Project first launched, its creator and organizer Nikole Hannah-Jones doubled down on the claim. “I argue that 1619 is our true founding,” she tweeted the week after the project launched. “Also, look at the banner pic in my profile”—a reference to the graphic of the date 1776 crossed out with a line. It’s a claim she repeated many times over.

But something changed as the historical controversies around the 1619 Project intensified in late 2019 and early 2020. A group of five distinguished historians took issue with Hannah-Jones’s lead essay, focusing on its historically unsupported claim that protecting slavery was a primary motive of the American revolutionaries when they broke away from Britain in 1776. Other details of the project soon came under scrutiny, revealing both errors of fact and dubious interpretations of evidence in other essays, such as Matthew Desmond’s 1619 Project piece attempting to connect American capitalism with slavery. Finally back in March, a historian who the Times recruited to fact-check Hannah-Jones’s essay revealed that she had warned the paper against publishing its claims about the motives of the American Revolution on account of their weak evidence. The 1619 Project’s editors ignored the advice.

Throughout the controversy, the line about the year 1619 being “our true founding” continued to haunt the Times. This criticism did not aim to denigrate the project’s titular date or the associated events in the history of slavery. Rather, the passage came to symbolize the Times’s blurring of historical analysis with editorial hyperbole. The announced intention of reframing the country’s origin date struck many readers across the political spectrum as an implicit repudiation of the American revolution and its underlying principles. Rather than address this controversy directly, the Times—it now appears—decided to send it down the memory hole—the euphemized term for selectively editing inconvenient passages out of old newspaper reports in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984.

Without announcement or correction, the newspaper quietly edited out the offending passage such that it now reads: The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.

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Rewriting history 2.0. Harry Potter meets George Orwell. It feels an eternity ago that I wrote “No More Washington or America”, about once you get started, there is no end.

JK Rowling’s Books Burned or Banned Around the World (Turley)

In Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore told the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.” Many are learning the truth of that line written by famed author JK Rowling as self-described progressives burn her books or ban them from shelves because she personally holds an opposing view of gender. Much like the boycott movement of Chick-Fil-A over comments by its CEO, people are seeking to punish Rowling through attacks on her literature. We previously discussed the embracing of art destruction as analogous to book burning, but now actual book burning is being embraced as a weapon of the woke.

A TikTok series show people around the world burning copies of Rowlings’ books. In one video of a burning pile of books by TikTok user @elmcdo, a voice is heard saying “You have to stop using ‘death of the author’ as an excuse to have your cake and eat it too. While the reader’s perspective is an important part of interpretation and meaning, it is impossible to completely divorce a work from its creator. The positive impact that J.K. Rowling’s work had on millions of readers does not negate how her hateful lobbying has affected the trans community.” That sums up the logic of every book burner in history. You cannot read a book because of the views or religion or identity of the author. It is better to burn the book to protect society.

Then there is Rabble Books and Games in Maylands, Perth. The owner owner Nat Latter proudly declared on Facebook that he had removed all fo the Harry Potter books from bookshelves to guarantee “a safer space for our community.” So you can buy a Rowlings book by having it retrieved from behind the back room like pornography. It is a form of censoring by making it more difficult to buy some books rather than others because you disfavor authors with opposing views. Latter seems to relish the role of a book censoring book seller: “Whilst stocking a book isn’t an endorsement (good grief, that would be a minefield), and we will always take orders for books that aren’t in stock, there are more worthy books to put on the shelf, books that don’t harm communities and won’t make us sad to unpack them.”

Does Latter also hide works with opposing views on gender from the Bible to the Koran to classic novels? Indeed, why not pull all of the work of authors like Hemingway and others for their views of women or race relations or other issues? Book sellers used to be people who wants to be gateways to knowledge and a world of different ideas and values. Now readers are being protected from even seeing the name of an author who personally holds opposing or offensive views. [..] These actions only prove again what Albus Dumbledore said (and J.K. Rowling wrote): “Dark times lie ahead of us and there will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right.”

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Not in the least surprising. The poorest half, 3.5 billion people, are good for just 7% of emissions.

World’s Richest 1% Cause Double CO2 Emissions Of Poorest 50% – Oxfam (G.)

The wealthiest 1% of the world’s population were responsible for the emission of more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the poorer half of the world from 1990 to 2015, according to new research. Carbon dioxide emissions rose by 60% over the 25-year period, but the increase in emissions from the richest 1% was three times greater than the increase in emissions from the poorest half. The report, compiled by Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute, warned that rampant overconsumption and the rich world’s addiction to high-carbon transport are exhausting the world’s “carbon budget”.

Such a concentration of carbon emissions in the hands of the rich means that despite taking the world to the brink of climate catastrophe, through burning fossil fuels, we have still failed to improve the lives of billions, said Tim Gore, head of policy, advocacy and research at Oxfam International. “The global carbon budget has been squandered to expand the consumption of the already rich, rather than to improve humanity,” he told the Guardian. “A finite amount of carbon can be added to the atmosphere if we want to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. We need to ensure that carbon is used for the best.”

The richest 10% of the global population, comprising about 630 million people, were responsible for about 52% of global emissions over the 25-year period, the study showed. Globally, the richest 10% are those with incomes above about $35,000 (£27,000) a year, and the richest 1% are people earning more than about $100,000.

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Yves posted my essay from yesterday at Naked Capitalism, with this interesting comment. I know some people here feel poorly treated at NC, but I never have, and Yves and I have had a solid relationship for 12 years or so.

Ilargi: Why Trump Will Win (Yves Smith)

Yves here. As Financial Times columnist Lucy Kellaway said: “The good thing about someone else’s prejudices is that they either confirm your own, or they make you cross – either of which is a blessing in these bland times.” Here Ilargi reveals a bias…but not, as some might suggest, of being pro-Trump, but of seeing this Presidential election as being personality-driven. I doubt that is correct, which is one of the many factors that makes this contest too difficult to call despite Trump lagging in polls. Historically, marketers did not like “psychographic” market segmentations because they would cross demographic and geographic lines, which made it difficult to target prospects cost-effectively.

With the Internet creating social media outlets that cater to people with particular views, like lovin’ gunz or believing in Russiagate, suddenly that sort of segmentation is not only viable but may actually be attractive. As readers know well, Sanders was running on policy, not personality. As one friend said, Sanders has all the charm of your cranky Jewish uncle telling you to take your feet off the coffee table. Under prodding, he did make some small efforts in his 2020 campaign to seem less scold-y by smiling more and telling a bit of his life story. And as readers also know, Sanders had strong support among young voters. The Democratic party leadership beat Sanders not by having better policies or a more appealing a candidate, but by using what amounts to machine politics: rallying different voter blocs that are loyal to the party either by design or default.

The extension of the machine policy mindset is the Democratic party strategm of invoking tribalism. This is particularly effective because their core, the professional-managerial class, is so convinced of its right to rule via merit that it is almost incapable of seeing itself as a class (see Thomas Frank’s Listen, Liberal for a brilliant description of its ethnography). But its shadow side, in Jungian terms, of the PMC is its stereotype of the white working class. In their minds, this uneducated, undisciplined lot is getting what it deserves, and having them have influence is an affront to the proper ordering of society. Hillary’s “deplorables” remark was no accident. Time recapped what she said:

“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” Clinton said. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.” She said the other half of Trump’s supporters “feel that the government has let them down” and are “desperate for change.” “Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well,” she said. What is the subtext of Hillary’s remark? That Trump’s voters are lower income and less educated. The less educated part is correct, the lower income is not.

[..] What about the general election? A few weeks ago, the American National Election Study — the longest-running election survey in the United States — released its 2016 survey data. And it showed that in November 2016, the Trump coalition looked a lot like it did during the primaries…many of the voters without college educations who supported Trump were relatively affluent. It isn’t hard to imagine that higher income/less educated voters would resent the preening of the credentialed elites and would find Trump’s total lack of respect for what they hold dear to be attractive. But the gods look to have handed Biden a gift with the timing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death. It’s galvanizing Democratic Party donations and will probably persuade some voters who weren’t terribly keen about Biden to go to the effort of voting for him.

Read more …

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle September 21 2020

Viewing 34 posts - 1 through 34 (of 34 total)
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  • #63511

    Ray K. Metzker Europe 1961   • Leak Shows Biggest Western Banks Finance Cartels, Terrorists & Mobsters (ZH) • Can We, Like, Stop Praising Swe
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle September 21 2020]

    #63512
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Ray K. Metzker Europe 1961

    Wow, great photo; the step shot with the head is brilliant… 😉

    #63514
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    Well, since mail-in voting was brought up in today’s series of articles, I’ll describe my experience with mail-in voting during Wisconsin’s primary. To put it simply, I didn’t like it at all. For one thing, I needed a witness to filling out my ballot, and it would have to be someone not so nosy as to insist on knowing who I was voting for. My next-door neighbor in my apartment building is a nice person (despite bringing bed-bugs into this building, which isn’t entirely her fault, as Milwaukee has a hellacious bed-bug problem and this aging structure was probably going to get those critters sooner or later) and was glad to be my non-nosy witness. But being the self-sufficient loner I’ve always been, it was just awkward asking someone I didn’t really know for help with something as simple as voting.

    What I really disliked was how very, very tiny you have to write on the front of the envelope for the ballot before you send it in. I had to practice pen-printing letters that very, very tiny on another piece of paper, or else I wouldn’t have been able to do so successfully.

    But what really turned me off on mail-in voting was what happened with the mail-in votes here in Wisconsin. I know my vote was counted because our state’s “MyVote” website records me as having voted in the spring primary. (I made sure I got my mail-in voting done as early as I could manage.) But after the primary, whole big sacks of uncounted ballots were discovered after the primary at one or more Wisconsin post offices. And I don’t think it was any sort of political skullduggery. It was almost certainly just a case of the USPS being insufficiently competent to handle this new phenomenon of so very many people voting by mail on account of the pandemic. This would certainly qualify as a example of what people mean when they disparagingly say, “as efficient as the Post Office”.

    So this general election, when I write-in vote for the Green Party candidates that state Democratic Party used political skullduggery to keep off the ballot, I will probably use the early voting method at City Hall that I have used since the 2004 election, back when I was still voting for Democrats as a matter of faith. I think that should be okay now that mask-wearing is widely accepted and mandated. The City Clerk’s office will probably also have sanitizer on hand for use before and after you fill out your ballot. I’m less keen on voting at polling stations on Election Day on account of so many poll-workers being senior citizens, many of them over 80.

    #63515

    We should get a collection of people’s voting experiences, in-person, mail-in, absentee, past and present, and throughout different states. Something tells me there’d be a lovely overall story to tell.

    Something also tells me it will be a terrible mess, and there are people on various sides who like it just like that.

    #63517
    Dr. D
    Participant

    This was allowed to be leaked to insider-bulwark because they’re up to something. Stealing money out of these banks, swapping the currency probably. BuzzFeed were the non-journalists that they finally got to float the transparently-fake Steele dossier, and being transparently fake, AND posted by non-journalists because even back then no real journaist would touch it, of course everyone then credited it, re-posted it on Yahoo, then became fact in Wikipedia via “factogenisis” and started the Mueller investigations that, being Federal, actually have rules of evidence and found nothing. …NOT reported in BuzzFeed or Wikipedia, ‘natch. Anyway, I trust BuzzFeed like I trust PolPot. It’s probably true, but totally on accident to promote a different thieving, rapacious lie.

    “Airborne viruses … are most contagious and easily spread”

    Google: “protective procedures for airborne viruses” and tell me what you find. “Airborne” is not one but TWO levels up from what we’re doing out in public, which is unscientific security theater. That means total respirator 100% of the time, N95 MINIMUM, and swapping all gloves, all gowns, AND all masks, a dozen times a day.

    In other words, what we’re doing is a joke that does nothing, stops nothing, and as Fauci said in March, is MORE dangerous because it lulls people into complacency. But luckily nobody under 80 dies and if I got it, it would add 3 years to my life so who cares? Play “Let’s Pretend” all you like. Shirts-R-Masks R magic and work for you, so leave me out of your unscientific authoritarian fantasies.

    “police arrested her anyway,”

    So, so obvious that any police can shut this down in 10 minutes, any time. Inappropriate, perhaps, but so were her violent harassing actions. They are simply taking her out of service to cool her jets and get sprung by the judge later. Annoying but virtually harmless. There are so many riots, so many murders, it gets lost in many cases protesting several Pharmacies this week — one for asking shoplifters to give stuff back — that protesters are actively preventing people from getting their prescriptions. You know: like when BLM stopped people from reaching the ER. Nice! Killin’ some folks. Our method AND goal, so it’s a win either way. Look: don’t. And don’t go to people’s houses: protest their office. (Pro Tip: “Protests” are peaceful; violence, harassment, and arson are crimes.)

    The War on Populism: The Final Act (CJ Hopkins)”

    As I said in yesterday’s comment, they are simply fast-forwarding to Generals arresting Generals and Civil War. Nobody cares what the voters think. …I mean if you hadn’t noticed in the 3 decades before now.

    Down the 1619 Project’s Memory Hole (Quillette)”

    Black history professors are even against this non-fact non-history. But if you want 1984, Winston, the NY Times is all in for you. They haven’t published the truth since Gulf I.

    JK Rowling’s Books Burned or Banned Around the World (Turley)”

    You cannot be woke enough. After ramming Dumbledore into being gay (really no legit plot purpose) over a world opposed, now that we’ve moved 100 years to the left in 6 months, she’s gyno-Hitler. Like under Stalin, doesn’t matter what you did or who you killed for the Party a month ago, now you get shot too. You’re Next. This is true for BLM (now openly as violent or more than Antifa; 90% of riots were BLM) demanding random people raise the fist and say “Black Lives Matter.” So they’re like, “Sure, BLM, whatever.” Aaaaaand they smash your truck anyway. This is after showing up and punching random people and journos in Philly. Not good enough. You have to say it MOAR. Harder. You have to LOVE it! …Or maybe like Rowling they’ll just come for you and kill you anyway, cause: fun! Power! The means and the goal all in one.

    …And all this because a) Rowling — a woman AND an impoverished welfare recipient — wrote a book where the killer has to be SOMEBODY, and that killer wasn’t a straight, white, Christian man, and b) she is trying to defend women’s spaces and women’s rights. Rights to be safe. From men. Because Men and Women are things she claims exist.

    “the gods look to have handed Biden a gift with the timing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.”

    Probably not, it seems they both can and will legally install Ginsberg’s replacement before the election. There will be nothing to fight for then. The “rules” concerning this are exemplified in Garland. There was a split party President and Senate before an election. Obama presented a judge anyway. The Senate, not avoiding the case, held a vote and voted against Garland, as is their right, law, and duty. Pretty normal stuff. Right now, President and Senate are in the same party and doing the same thing: presenting a judge and voting on them. Otherwise, what’s the use of elections, or a deadline in which you leave office? You’re supposed to do your job and represent your ideas until the day you relinquish power to your successor. But since they haven’t yet conceded ’16 and vowed to never concede ’20 under any scenario, maybe they need a remedial.

    “Born to Prevent War, United Nations at 75 Faces Deeply Polarized World”

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/born-prevent-war-u-n-75-faces-deeply-polarized-world-n1240582

    Apparently like all experts, they have utterly failed. Perhaps we should stop funding and disband them? You know, like NATO?

    “911 Call Goes Unanswered for 90 Minutes in Portland as Boy is Held Hostage with Knife”
    https://www.lifezette.com/2020/09/911-call-goes-unanswered-for-90-minutes-in-portland-as-boy-is-held-hostage-with-knife/

    Of course they will still show up at tax time, like all good 3rd world countries. Or if you defend your life because they refuse to.

    Try to internalize: You’re on your own. And IF the government comes, they will arrest YOU, not the violent offender. Like when people threaten to kill you on your own property: if you don’t let them kill you with joy on your face you’re a dangerous criminal guilty of “brandishing” within your own home. Several cases over the last week. Maybe the police never showing up is the best case.

    So…you wanted no police? (Actually, no, almost no one in the whole U.S. actually supports this nonsense. Just a tiny fringe. Even the supposed “hunted” black community wants MORE police, just behaving better.) The Left doesn’t want no police either: you can’t have a massive government bullying everybody without a massive police force. No: THEY want to be the police. To replace all police. As “Community” police. Wearing Brown Shirts. Or Black in this case. Caring, oh so much. You know, like in the Chaz where a day after they set up their police, they shot two black children with 300 bullets then walked up and said “S—t man, you’re still alive?”

    In any case, since this didn’t work and NOBODY wants no police. NOBODY wants riots, they’re moving to Army-on-Army civil war with an election that’s pre-contested months before it even happens.

    Hasn’t happened, we may not even be sure of the final candidates, but we already know it’s rigged. And it’s rigged by the guy trying to keep the 250 year rules the same and have voter confirmation NOT the guys who have unlimited mail-in voting with 20,000 fake Chinese IDs, where election officials in PA quit because they made legal NO signature verification at all. Obviously, that side is all for election integrity and changing the rules every 10 days doesn’t suggest rigging at all.

    P.S., Sainted U.N., above, is involved in election rigging. You know, beyond funding illegal immigrants (note word: “illegal”) to cross the border on catch-and-release a while ago. So when they say there was “election rigging”, know they’re right! By the U.K. with Steele, Australia with Downer, Ukraine with support and certain releases, Saudi with huge campaign donations, the U.N., certain Hungarian billionaires, Chinese fake IDs and money-channeling. Everyone on earth EXCEPT icy nation that bridges both Europe and Asia.

    Therefore, we report that they are the ONLY nation election tampering, and the only nation we investigate. That’s just common sense.

    #63520
    zerosum
    Participant

    Today’s important word.
    segmentation
    Its hard to gather a big crowd to demonstrate/party/revolt/protest/agree/disagree for a cause because the web has divided our attention 1,000 of ways.
    Let me count some of the ways.

    1. The stock markets are pretending to be falling just like the banks are forced to shut the money laundering down and cut off a lucrative source of profit/power.
    2. How covid19 is spread. Toilet seats are not mentioned by CDC because it would further segment the readers.
    3. • People Not Rushing Back to Movie Theaters (NBCW). The War on Populism is building toward an exciting climax. • Hunter Biden Is “Riding The Dragon” (ZH).
    4. “The gods look to have handed Biden a gift with the timing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.”( Hummm maybe the gift is being handed to Trump)
    5. mail-in voting
    6. Let’s not forget the divider in chief, Trump.
    LATESTS pronouncement – “Our pharma will sell medicine cheaper than any countries”
    7. truth vs lies

    #63521
    Mr. House
    Participant

    I don’t dislike NC, i still read the comments. I’m just not allowed to comment. Yves loves to block people, and if you ever read any of her comments when she comes down from the mountain, they are exceptionally rude and elitist.

    #63522
    Mr. House
    Participant

    She understand the PMC because she is the PMC to the core.

    #63523
    Mr. House
    Participant

    A comment from NC on your post yesterday


    voteforno6
    September 21, 2020 at 8:02 am

    I have my doubts. Trump supporters are very loud, and very obnoxious in their support. I’ve been hearing stories of people who live in conservative areas who are afraid of putting up Biden signs, because they don’t want their property to be vandalized by Trump supporters.

    I don’t think that yard signs is a very good measure of how much support a candidate has – just look at the Democratic primaries.”

    Hahaha we really must be mirrors of each other, so what does that say about those of us who withdraw from the circus? Maybe because i live in the city i see it this way, but its the exact opposite of what that commenter posted. The best part, this well rounded person doesn’t even know from first hand exp. They heard from someone that Trump supporters are loud and obnoxious. I live in the city and i would never tell anyone here i was voting for trump in a million years, if i were to vote, which i will not. Haven’t voted since 2008.

    #63524
    Mr. House
    Participant

    This was an excellent article i read saturday. Think i lost a friend on facebook after i posted it.

    https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/03/the-rise-of-the-ruth-bader-ginsburg-cult

    #63525
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/senate-report-biden-ukraine-accusations-drop-within-days

    The report will come days before the first presidential debate between President Trump and Joe Biden, and will likely provide Trump with plenty of fresh ammunition. Biden, meanwhile, will be able to trot out Trump’s latest sexual assault accusation, to which Trump will be able to trot out Biden’s.

    a vain attempt to resuscitate a conspiracy theory

    it doesn’t matter what the GOP probe concludes about the Bidens and Ukraine – it’s ‘unbecoming of a Senator’ to investigate at all.
    COMMENTS
    No proof of wrong doing – Biden

    NOBODY wants this shit coming out. BOTH parties were playing this game and they all know it. How many senators’ kids or other family members are sucking down million dollar salaries sitting on the boards of various foreign companies? Probably a lot of them. I mean, who doesn’t want free, easy money?

    Regardless of what’s in the report you won’t hear SHIT about this on the news, not even Fox. This stuff hits way too close to home.

    Due to Biden state of mind, a new quote, “I don’t recall” defense that everyone on both sides will believe.

    Prediction:

    Nobody will notice. Anyone who accidentally stumbles on the report will read lots of ‘should, could, if, would’ and other weasel words that signify a senseless murder of electrons. It will imply a lot, offer evidence for little, and nobody will ask for the extradition of anyone. Like Hillary’s email server, only wiped even cleaner.

    #63526
    zerosum
    Participant

    Old news for TAE
    The corporate media has carried water for the billionaires and America’s Financial Aristocracy for decades. (No surprise, given that the vast majority of America’s media / social media is owned by the billionaires and Financial Aristocracy. Why bite the hand that feeds you, especially when the risk of losing your career is so high?)
    http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-bill-for-americas-50-trillion.html

    #63527
    Dr. D
    Participant

    From somebody out West, central Washington:

    “By the way, all these fires are not just from climate change. In the 1930’s, the acreage burned per year in the American west was a lot more. But those were lower-intensity fires, because the land had always been allowed to burn freely. Only with the fire suppression policies of the late 20th century, did we build the massive dry biomass that is feeding these monster fires.”

    Or you could control burn as the natives have done for 10,000 years. Nope! Not environmental, I guess.

    Translation: “Experts” caused this problem with their clever “helping.” That is, legal orders from above overriding rural folks who actually live on the land with wildfires. For the love of God, stop “helping” before everybody dies of it.

    #63528
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    SWEDEN

    It is interesting to note that the UK and Spain have had severe lockdowns but have more deaths per million than Sweden. Economically it shows that the impact on the their economy is three times worse than Sweden, which is not trivial. Also, it does not include the deaths caused BY the lockdowns which would significantly increase the deaths per million..

    Sweden could have done better. Most deaths were in care homes but the residents probably get very little sunshine and so are probably low in vitamin D. I have never read about vitamin D supplements being given in care homes anywhere. Also, a rational appraisal of treatments would show that zinc+HCQ is worth trying with little risk, but it appears Sweden did not bother pursuing this.

    The elephant in the room is Japan, which also has had no lockdowns but with minimal deaths. Japan, Korea and China all seem to have minimal deaths. The common element seems to be the drinking of green tea. There is a component of green tea, EGCG, which works in a similar way to HCQ in facilitating the absorption of zinc by cells.

    I have recently started taking capsules of green tea extract equivalent to 9 grams of green tea, plus a zinc supplement. No idea if it works but it is everyone for themselves with regard to C-19!

    #63529
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Just an idea, but perhaps, just perhaps, we’ve all been gaslighted by the media

    #63530
    Mr. House
    Participant
    #63531
    ezlxa1949
    Participant

    I get a strong sense of déjà vu when reading news reports from the US these days. It’s the Red Guards all over again.

    #63532
    John Day
    Participant

    Another busy Friday, Saturday and Sunday overtook me. I worked at the clinic and the Yoakum homestead, then had a family gathering for son’s slightly belated birthday party back in Austin.
    The blog is just a long essay today, adapted from a letter to people in my Buddhist meditation group.
    johndayblog.com/2020/09/irrational-actors.html

    I’ve had to revisit the battlefield of masks and social-distancing vs civil-liberties in America again.
    I wear masks for practical medical reasons.
    I also understand that the pandemic response is being manipulated by financial/power elites to keep pawns from effectively taking their own side in the current elite power struggle.

    This elite power struggle is one fundamental cause of the partisan divide in American society.
    These divides happen in history when essential resources become scarcer.
    The threats are not as they are presented in the media. Pawns (our status) are being manipulated to support one or another elite oligarchic faction.
    Pawns are not supposed to take the side of “other” pawns, which would disrupt the power structure.
    Pawns provide meat, blood and work.

    We might call the battling elite factions “nationalists” and “globalists”. All terms are flawed and inaccurate, but these names will do.
    The Military-Industrial-Deep-State-Complex is so overarching, that it’s elimination is not part of the power struggle; out of the question.
    Which faction will control the narrative is the issue, globalists or nationalists.

    There is really not enough swag for all of the elites and swag is projected to decrease and decrease and decrease, both domestic swag, and especially swag from the periphery of empire, since the projected “unipolar world” is clearly not feasible, and has been evidently infeasible for at least a decade. Unipolarity both has momentum, and is crumbling at all the edges.

    The push to accelerate the “new world order” project of global financial/military empire, jumped a level as the Soviet Union began collapsing in the late 1980s. Unipolar Empire was seen as a fait-accomplis.
    Progression to absolute “unipolar power” was disrupted by the resurgence of both China and Russia,
    Multiple failures of the imperial plans of conquest were clear by 2010. Obama (factotum) could not do what Bush II (factotum) could not do.
    General Wesley Clark famously explained the “7 countries in 5 years” plans that the Pentagon already had ready to go as a working plan at the time of 9/11/01. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNt7s_Wed_4

    A faction in the military-“security” complex arm of the empire has been seeing this aggressive agenda perform badly for those 19 years.
    This hidden faction might be called “rationalists”, since they are not altruistic or compassionate, but foresee a greater collapse of imperial power if there is not accommodation for the reality of a multipolar world.
    Zbigniew Brzezinski, essentially the author of unipolarity, gave up on it well over a decade ago: file:///C:/Users/John.MEADOWS/Downloads/697895.pdf

    The cooperation of the pawns-at-home is necessary for the empire, which “America” has become, but the wholehearted participation of the top 10% is really necessary. They are the technocrats, specialists, “experts”, managers, factota and “compliance officers”.
    That is what is currently contested. The “American” economy and national budget have been funded, at least 40%, by external inputs from the “ROW” (rest of world), which are expected to fall off rapidly, and even reverse course in the next presidential term. That’s a poisoned-chalice for the next president. The ROW will not keep buying every dollar printed, as the structure of global trade/finance changes dramatically.
    “Reversing flow” means increased American export of goods/services, as dollars “come back to America”, and Chinese goods don’t.
    That means more dollars-in-circulation and less cheap stuff at Wal-Mart, which means massive consumer price inflation.
    “Stagflation” can be dealt with by “basic income” (increase the dole), job programs and minimum wage increases. Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan had to do stuff after the last devaluation of the dollar, when Nixon defaulted on the gold standard in 1971.
    It’s going to be worse. There will have to be some new default on the dollar. In 1971 (after DeGaulle sent a French destroyer to New York to get France’s gold) Nixon quite exchanging foreign-held dollars for US gold, due to dollars/gold bleeding out through external expenditures in Indochina, during the Vietnam war. This was determined to be the inevitable case in around 1967 by Michael Hudson.

    This is a complex, overarching view of “the western empire”, and the current inflection point in world-history.
    From this vantage, it is easier to see the factions whose fear is most focused upon viral pandemic, and whose fear is most focused upon tyranny coming home to roost.

    Jacobin, last year, had this good “left-nationalist” (if I may) read of the truism that “you can’t have democracy at home and empire abroad”.
    https://jacobinmag.com/2019/04/left-internationalism-anti-imperialism-foreign-policy
    Bernie Sanders is presented as basically an honest left-nationalist (2019) who said in 2016, “Henry Kissinger is no friend of mine”, a profoundly strong political statement against imperialism.

    There is desperation in the waning left-imperialist (unipolar world) elite faction, actual desperation. Flailing, extreme moves reflect desperation, not strength. Power-elite desperation is extremely dangerous to life forms.
    The real risk is that Yemen comes to Oregon and New York. The imperial policies ignored in the heartland of empire can be used against the heartland of empire in elite desperation. History shows this.

    Right-nationalists are acutely aware of this threat being positioned by left globalists, and brought up to speed by riots that destroy national production infrastructure (“American businesses”). The left-globalists have been in power since at least Bush I (imperialist-deep-state), and it has been an unbroken succession until Trump-the-disruptor, whose backers remain hidden from public view, for the most part. He does appear protected. He is alive, unlike John Kennedy, who was inadequately protected.
    (Nixon was acutely aware of what happened to Kennedy, and would not directly do business with the CIA. Nixon was “peacefully removed”. Nixon followed Kissenger’s counsel, at any rate.)

    Texas Tribune, which I review daily for Texas coronavirus details, has this graph, emblematic of the falling percent positive rate of SARS-CoV-2 tests, falling hospitalizations, falling case numbers and falling deaths since late July. All are now at June levels and falling steadily, despite ongoing relaxation of building capacity restrictions.
    https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2020/texas-coronavirus-cases-map/?_ga=2.41562978.1993687369.1600622294-1037324414.1591643250

    The week before last, 3 weeks into the semester, a snapshot of UT students showed 8% SARS-CoV-2 positivity rate on fairly random sampling, presumably asymptomatic, or minimally symptomatic students, wanting football tickets.
    Approximately 3,000 UT-Austin students who purchased football season tickets were required to take COVID-19 tests Friday and test negative before they could attend the game. The same precautions, however, were not required of the thousands of other fans.
    Among the 1,198 students who got tested, 1,103 were negative and 95 were positive, John Bianco, a spokesperson for the university’s athletic department, said in an email.
    https://www.texastribune.org/2020/09/13/university-texas-coronavirus-college-football-longhorns/

    This means novel-coronavirus is just going through the young adult population rapidly and without event, like an ordinary coronavirus.
    There is not an attempt in Texas to curtail that process.
    Without fanfare, Governor Abbot has followed a policy of linking public isolation measures and masking to hospital acuity, the limiting factor. This keeps the spread of virus through non-nursing-home populations at the maximum that will not overload hospitals.
    Nursing homes and hospital inpatients have been in a specially-isolated category of high-vulnerability.
    This managed-encouragement-of-herd-immunity was publicized with those words, but has been really consistent since early May, when it was adopted with politically-approved words.
    This article presents this policy objective as new. It’s not new.
    Analysis: Texas reopenings tied more to COVID-19 severity than to spread
    Leaving behind their focus on the spread of the coronavirus, Texas leaders now say hospitalizations will guide their decisions on how to regulate social distancing at businesses and cultural centers.
    https://www.texastribune.org/2020/09/18/texas-reopening-coronavirus/

    There have been 2 competing theoretical models of the spread of novel coronavirus, particularly US spread, which is different from countries outside of North America, due to the fact that all 4 previously existing strains of coronavirus were already endemic in the US/North-America, unlike any other region in the world, where 1-3 strains were endemic.
    The two theories are:
    1) This is a new virus. Nobody is immune. Herd immunity will be reached at 70-80% population infection.
    2) This is a variant of a family of viruses, broadly endemic in the US, to which family-immunity exists at a significantly high level in many segments of the population, as well as innate-immunity in almost all who are under 30 (means stopping the virus in nasopharynx , before it spreads to lungs and bloodstream). Herd immunity will be reached somewhere between 20-25% population infection rate.

    It should be clear to expert analysts by now that the zero-immunity model has been grossly inaccurate, overestimating deaths by a factor of 3-4 times, which is most in keeping with the second model. I believe (based on available information) that this modeling divergence has been clear at the levels of US decision makers since late June, and especially clear since late July.
    Political positions already staked-out, cannot be changed for political reasons, but may be pushed less hard (Tony Fauci is a case in point).

    We are all flying with imperfect data, but the balance of data is tremendously clearer than it was in spring. One must pick a model upon which to act. Some people have much more pressure to take actions, while facing operational risk, than to others.
    (As little as I think of the moral integrity and political stances of Greg Abbot, I must openly admire his rationality in making political decisions this year. Allowing the strip clubs to re-open recently as “restaurants” galls me.)

    It is almost impossible for most people to hold 2 opposing views as equally valid in their minds. It takes way too much processing capacity.
    It locks-up the computer. It creates painful “cognitive dissonance”.
    As a protection against cognitive-dissonance, people “split the alternatives”, once they have chosen-a-side. All that was difficult, which argued against the side they chose, for political/social or rational reasons, becomes minimized, disparaged, to comfort their mind, and allow their operational capacity to be applied to daily problems, as usual.

    There is a wide range of cognitive styles inherent in any gene-pool of any society. A small percentage of outliers benefit the gene pool in times of business-not-usual, by considering “contrarian” or “avant-garde” or “independent” analysis of available information about trends, changes, constraints and “reality”. (This is a population-genetics model. Science is “not-completely-real”, but that’s an issue regarding “useful models”.)

    Anthropologists and historians take an approach which does not necessitate being on a side, but looks at the flows, currents and turbulence of human relationships with other humans and the changing environment, especially as the environment is more, then less able to support human population’s growth. That kind of viewpoint seems easy for me, partly because I personally serve all strata of society, and I have that 5% kind-of mind that is happy enough to hold concepts in abeyance, while forgetting names of people and things.
    (I’ve got a visual-flows-oriented kind of brain, and empathy. I have apparently always had these characteristics, according to mom, and as grandparents used to inform me.)
    We all have to pick-what’s-better daily, but I was always mostly motivated by, “how’s that thing work?”.

    Using the rational-actor political model, the camps of pawns are pushed to be more afraid of viral-pandemic, or loss-of-autonomy, through global-imperialism.
    Each rational actor discounts the position of the other, due to splitting-of-alternatives, to the point of seeing the other as irrational, incomprehensible, or “bad”.

    Elite players do not need to believe what they propound.
    They are fighting battles in a power-struggle. They use the weapons at hand.
    For some, it may be easier to believe what they say, but many lie without any discomfort or cognitive dissonance at all.
    (When Karl Rove infamously bragged about “creating reality”, he flashed that hand.)

    There are different paths to the talent of pathological-lying, though some are apparently born with it.
    Some operators, managers and factota for the elites are not “live-players”, but merely taking orders.
    They will usually “believe” what makes their jobs easiest.
    The live-players who operate them know that and try to make their work easier for them with comforting lies.
    It can be hard to tell live players from factota in the short term. Some US presidents have been factota.
    (I think one Bush was a live player, an the other was a factotum, for instance.)

    I hope this is useful. It may or may not be useful.
    All players are “rational” in this model. There are myriad “understandings” , which are all incomplete models. Some models serve the user, and other models serve the upper-level “live-players” to manipulate the model-user.
    The longer any model is in operation, the more information will be available to assess it’s utility to any class of users.

    Caitlin Johnstone:
    If you understand that America has a two-headed one-party system designed to shrink the spectrum of acceptable debate down to arguments about how oligarchic agendas should be facilitated rather than if they should, what you see is a single entity threatening to take away your civil liberties if you don’t support it. A single establishment threatening to punch you with its right hand if you don’t let it punch you with its left.
    What is the correct response to such a situation? Is it to give the two-headed monster what it wants? Is it to give your energy to supporting the same establishment which is threatening to take away your civil rights?

    RBG Death Means Two-Headed Uniparty Will Threaten Americans With Removal Of Civil Rights

    Most people HATE cognitive dissonance.
    Not everybody, though…
    I think Buddha could sit with it.

    Physicist: The Entire Universe Might Be a Neural Network
    https://futurism.com/physicist-entire-universe-neural-network

    #63533
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Excellent write up JohnDay. Probably the most truthful summary i’ve read since this all began. Its real, its not nearly as bad as it was made out to be and we’re all just stuck in the middle of an elite power struggle.

    #63534
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Also, it was a line of thinking like what you just posted that got me blocked at NC. Though it wasn’t nearly as well written as yours. You aren’t allowed to question the narrative over that way. Which is disappointing because i was thrilled in 2016 when those people would call a spade a spade. I think they took pressure since then, propornot and now toe the line.

    #63535
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    @JohnDay … what a succinct summary. Exceptionally well written: “This elite power struggle is one fundamental cause of the partisan divide in American society. These divides happen in history when essential resources become scarcer. The threats are not as they are presented in the media. Pawns (our status) are being manipulated to support one or another elite oligarchic faction. Pawns are not supposed to take the side of “other” pawns, which would disrupt the power structure. Pawns provide meat, blood and work.” Thank you!!! Saving it to read later when I lose sight of what’s going on. 😉

    Mr House: gotta agree with you on NC. It’s unfortunate how much the commenters have been beaten into accepting the NC narrative (or banished from the kingdom altogether). A lot of what made the site good was the variety of perspectives. Now I barely skim the comments. Not worth it. I also stopped donating.

    #63536
    zerosum
    Participant

    In a few words, Operation was a success.
    TAE regulars do not have cataracts
    As a result, I hope we will all remain off the field of battle.

    #63537
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    @JohnDay: Thank you! It’s a shame you have to do real work…your writing is quality.

    #63538
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    JohnDay really did do a fine thing above, didn’t he?

    #63539
    ₿oogaloo
    Participant

    I still stop by and read the articles at NC, but I only rarely read the comments anymore. I posted a few times in the past, but then I was blocked after I posted comments critical of MMT. I donated a couple of times during past fundraisers because I think they do a good job overall. But still, it’s a bit odd to keep receiving requests for money from a site where I am not even allowed to post. As long as I ignore the comments, I still think NC is a great blog. Many of the posts I agree with. For those that I disagree with, I usually concede that they made some good points that made me think . . .

    #63540
    Mr. House
    Participant

    “From this vantage, it is easier to see the factions whose fear is most focused upon viral pandemic, and whose fear is most focused upon tyranny coming home to roost. ”

    I agree with this, but oneside is saying yes do what you will mommy and daddy government because i’m scared of the virus. While the otherside says wait wait wait, lets think about this before we take any drastic actions. Is it possible for both sides to be wrong?

    #63541
    Mr. House
    Participant

    “I still stop by and read the articles at NC, but I only rarely read the comments anymore. I posted a few times in the past, but then I was blocked after I posted comments critical of MMT.”

    Thats one of the best parts, they block you for things they can’t even prove. MMT may or may not work, no ones viewpoint should be blocked. Back in March and April, heck even May, i think it was acceptable to yell at me when i would say the virus isn’t as bad as we’re making it out to be. They would respond just wait a few months, everytime like clockwork. Then in August i’d had enough, wish i could find the long stretch of comments, basically a pile on me followed by being blocked from posting anymore. They even deleted one of my comments, because you know scientists aren’t people (they’re just a step below the gods) and would never lie for money or power.

    #63542
    John Day
    Participant

    Thank You, Mr House, Upstate NYer, ThomasjKenne, and madamski. I seek to be of service.
    This was mostly written to two members of my Buddhist meditation and practice group, who are both working with “the other”, actively and sincerely working…
    I hope it is useful. You encourage me.

    #63544
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    I am hampered by being a year younger than Joe Biden, politically incorrect, and raised in the USA in 1950s. The New York Times instead of 1619 should have crossed off 1932 and replaced it with 1981 the year when the oligarchs retook control of the US federal government away from the American people.

    In the chart of Economic decline verse Covid deaths; clustered with USA and Sweden with even worse economies are Chile, Italy, UK and Spain. All this is ignored by corporate media because they are nations with neoliberal free market governments that no longer serve their people. The highest death rate per million is Belgium which is without a government. Six of the nine worst nations are members of the EU. Why are India and Brazil with large populations and deaths second and third to the USA and especially China with the largest population in the world that has controlled the virus and its economy has rebounded been left off the chart? Likely to avoid indicating what deep pile of crap the USA is in right now. The two headed/one body political party is incapable of fixing it. In 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic, an economic depression, inequality, the endless wars, and climate change (Gulf Hurricanes and Western Firestorms that are killing people, destroying towns and widespread toxic air) are impacting all Americans all at the same time.

    #63545

    There we would all be be, having a delightful party*, with clusters of folks having lively discussions that frequently jumped from cluster to cluster; some ducking out in pairs; some amusing themselves with less sociable diversions; and suddenly some jerk would jump up and announce “LET’S play charades!”

    All my life, I have dreaded hearing the word “let’s” more than almost any other word in the English language.

    *Of course, there are no parties anymore.

    #63546
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    I must chime in and thank Dr John for that fine piece; U.S. politics really is a two headed serpent…
    Thanks Caitlin Johnstone for that visual…

    #63559
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    I have noticed that Covid isn’t really quite as bad as so many feared back in March and April. For one thing, none of my co-workers at the grocery store or anybody in my smallish apartment building that I know of has become sick with it, and back in March, I really thought somebody would by now. One Facebook friend who was a school-acquaintance back in the eighties became ill with it while visiting DC, but she recovered as one might from a severe bought of the flu. As I said in another comment recently, its main manifestation in Milwaukee has been putting overweight, older (and presumably poor) black men in the hospital.

    So here’s what I see right now: Covid seriously targets the elderly, poor people with co-morbidities, and people who live in cities with very polluted air. There is also a significant handful of younger and otherwise healthy people whose immunological allotment from the genetic lottery fails to protect them from getting severely walloped by Covid. Reading the accounts of their affliction with the virus on Twitter is…beyond harrowing. And also personally worrying to me as a 53YO type 2 diabetic. (I’m on oral meds which get a little boost in keeping my blood-sugar under control from a small amount of basal [once-a-day administered] insulin.) But I recognize at this point that it’s not the Spanish Flu.

    However, because it targets poor people with health problems the way it does, it hits big industrialized countries with extreme wealth inequality (the United States, Brazil, India) especially hard. I think it really is an indictment of how America treats its people of least account that we have less than five percent of the worlds population but lead the world in actual cases per capita. And the ueber-capitalist way our society is set up really set us up for Covid catching us with our proverbial pants down around our ankles. As a knee-jerk bleeding-heart libtard cuck, this just makes me livid to even think about it too much. And as a former matter-of-faith Democratic voter, it makes me even more determined than ever to be “done with Dems” knowing full well they will never, ever to anything substantive to alleviate this utterly disgraceful situation.

    So all we can do for now is wear face-masks in crowded indoor settings and public transportation in order to afford some measure of protection to the most vulnerable among us. Those who find this to be some measure of encroaching totalitarianism really need to get a grip and grow the fuck up.

    #63568
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    Thank you John Day for the focused, reasoned, and relevant piece.

    You are here for us – and that comes through in your writing.

    Perhaps we should dust off our meditation cushions?

    #63613
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ John Day

    I have saved your substantial comment for more complete exploration, reflection and possibly sharing

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