Oct 212020
 


Pablo Picasso Self portrait 1972

 

‘Nonpublic Information’ Debunks Letter From ’50 Former Intel Officials’ (ZH)
Rudy Giuliani Files Police Report On Hunter Biden For Child Endangerment (JTN)
Hunter Biden’s Laptop Probe Referred to FBI, Delaware State Police Say (NW)
10 Tea Leaves Pointing To ‘Surprise’ Trump Victory (Del Beccaro)
Trump: Hunter Emails No Russian Plot, Tulsi Gabbard No ‘Russian Asset’ (RT)
Secret Service Travel Logs Match Details in Alleged Hunter Biden Emails (ET)
Hunter Biden Arranged White House Meeting for Elite Chinese Group (NR)
US Schools Report $6.5 Billion in Undisclosed Foreign Gifts and Contracts (ET)
No, Our Democracy And Freedom Are Not On The Line This Election (Rasmussen)
DOJ Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google Draws Bipartisan Praise (ET)
Senate Panel Delays Vote To Subpoena Twitter, Facebook CEOs (Pol.)
Facebook Workers ‘Ashamed’ By Censorship Of Hunter Files Reporting (NYP)
Meet Your -Chinese- Facebook Censors (Ahmari)
Studies Point To Big Drop In COVID-19 Death Rates (NPR)
Moscow Will Begin Mass Vaccination Against COVID19 In December (RT)
Nassim Taleb On Capitalism, Entrepreneurs, And The Pandemic (BI)

 

 

It’s Hunter season.

 

 

 

 

I think Tyler has the timeline a bit wrong. Tucker didn’t say this “Hours before Politico reported the existence of a letter signed by ’50 former senior intelligence officials'”, he said it on October 16 (maybe even 15?!) , and the letter was published the 19th.

‘Nonpublic Information’ Debunks Letter From ’50 Former Intel Officials’ (ZH)

Hours before Politico reported the existence of a letter signed by ’50 former senior intelligence officials’ who say the Hunter Biden laptop scandal “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” – providing “no new evidence,” while they remain “deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case,” Tucker Carlson obliterated their (literal) conspiracy theory. According to the Fox News host, he’s seen ‘nonpublic information that proves it was Hunter’s laptop,’ adding “No one but Hunter could’ve known about or replicated this information.” “This is not a Russian hoax. We are not speculating.”

Meanwhile, the Delaware computer repair shop owner who believes Hunter dropped off three MacBook Pros for data recovery has a signed work order bearing Hunter’s signature. When compared to the signature on a document in his paternity suit, while one looks more formal than the other, they are a match. Going back to the ’50 former senior intelligence officials’ and their latest Russia fixation, one has to wonder – do they think Putin was able to compromise Biden’s former business associate, Bevan Cooney, who gave investigative journalist Peter Schweizer his gmail password – revealing that Hunter and his partners were engaged in an influence-peddling operation for rich Chinese who wanted access to the Obama administration?


Did Putin further hack Joe Biden in 2011 to make him take a meeting with a Chinese delegation with ties to the CCP – arranged by Hunter’s group, two years they secured a massive investment of Chinese money? The implications boggle the mind. Here’s the clarifying sentences from the ’50 former senior intelligence officials’ that exposes the utter farce of it all: “While the letter’s signatories presented no new evidence, they said their national security experience had made them “deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case” and cited several elements of the story that suggested the Kremlin’s hand at work. “If we are right,” they added, “this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.”

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A 14-year old relative. Most damning is that Joe knew about it.

Rudy Giuliani Files Police Report On Hunter Biden For Child Endangerment (JTN)

Rudy Giuliani, one of President Trump’s private attorneys, has reported to Delaware police concerns that materials on a laptop purportedly tied to Hunter Biden contained evidence of possible child endangerment. Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney and New York City mayor, confirmed Tuesday night he went Monday to a local police department in Wilmington to report his concerns of children endangerment and sexual exploitation. Giuliani told Just the News that former New York Police Department commissioner Bernard Kerik joined him when he delivered photographs and text messages to the New Castle County Police Department. “I told them other details about what appears to be an inappropriate sexual relationship,” he said in an interview. “They told me it would be investigated.”

Law enforcement officials in Delaware told Just the News that Giuliani’s concerns have been forwarded to the state Department of Justice. A spokesman for New Castle County police referred reporters to the state Justice Department. A spokesman for the state agency did not immediately return a call or email seeking comment. A senior federal law enforcement official told Just the News on Tuesday night that the FBI is in possession of the laptop and that the bureau concurs with Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe’s assessment that the laptop is not part of Russian intelligence operation, as some Democrats have alleged. That official declined to discuss the contents of the laptop.

[..] Giuliani said the materials he gleaned from the controversial laptop — which a Delaware computer shop owner alleges was left with him by Hunter Biden — gave him concern for the welfare of a minor girl. Giuliani declined to identify the alleged minor victim or who was in the photos. “There are many texts which I gave to them that point out that family was concerned about the safety of the child,” Giuliani said. “I will tell you the evidence I gave them states it was reported to Joe Biden. What did he do about it?“Giuliani dismissed suggestions that filing a police report as Trump’s private attorney two weeks before Election Day should be deemed political. “The conduct falls under the mandatory reporting requirements for child endangerment,” Giuliani said. “If I was the U.S. attorney or the mayor or Bernie was still the commissioner, it would have been a crime for us not to report what we had.”

Giuliani

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After they’ve had it for a year?! Yeah, that should work…

What the FBI is investigating is not the contents of the emails, but the RussiaRussia claims the Dems launched.

Is Giuliani’s report now also with the FBI?

Hunter Biden’s Laptop Probe Referred to FBI, Delaware State Police Say (NW)

The Delaware state police have passed on an inquiry concerning the laptop purportedly belonging to Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, to the FBI.On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani told Newsmax that he handed over the laptop that he claims belongs to Hunter Biden to the Delaware state police on Monday. “In light of ongoing questions about the credibility of these claims and multiple reports that the FBI is investigating their veracity, law enforcement is referring this matter to the FBI,” a Delaware State Police spokesperson told Newsweek. The Delaware State Police also confirmed that they are not in possession of the laptop.


Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff accused each other of politicizing intelligence on Monday over emails allegedly found on the laptop. More than 50 former senior intelligence officials signed a letter on Monday detailing their belief that the laptop “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” After Schiff called revelations stemming from the laptop a Kremlin “smear” campaign, Ratcliffe on Monday insisted that the laptop “is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign.”

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Some good points.

10 Tea Leaves Pointing To ‘Surprise’ Trump Victory (Del Beccaro)

1. Pennsylvania Voter Registration. American presidential elections are decided by the Electoral College as President Trump and Joe Biden both know. In 2016, Pennsylvania and its 20 Electoral College votes were key to President Trump’s victory. He won Pennsylvania by a slim 44,292 votes out of nearly 6 million. That November, the Democrats had nearly a 900,000 voter registration advantage over the Republicans. That number is now down to a 700,000 registration advantage and has narrowed to 100,000 in the last year.

2. Florida, too. In 2008, Democrats held nearly a 700,000 thousand voter registration advantage and Barack Obama carried the state by 236,148 votes. By 2012 that advantage slipped to 558,272 registrations and Obama won there by 74,309 votes. In 2016, Democrats had a 327,483 registration advantage and Trump carried the state by 112,991 votes. Now the Democrats’ voter registration advantage is down nearly 200,000 to just a 134,242 thousand lead, which Politico called a “historic low.”

3. Latinos for Trump. Trump could well receive a historic level of support from Latino Voters in 2020. In Florida, a NBC/Marist poll had Trump leading among Latinos 50% to 46% over Biden, whereas, in 2016, Hillary won among Latinos in Florida 62% to 35%. That would be a 15% swing toward Trump if it held up on Election Day. After the first debate between Biden and Trump, a Telemundo poll showed Trump winning the debate overwhelmingly 66% to 34%. Snap media polls tend to reflect the sentiment of their viewers. Thus, it is no surprise that CNN viewers said Biden won the debate. The fact that Telemundo viewers decisively picked Trump as the winner, along with polls like those cited above in Florida, portend Trump getting the highest ever Latino support of any Republican presidential candidate.

4. African Americans For Trump. In September, according to polling done by Rasmussen, Trump’s approval rating among African Americans reached 45%. Keep in mind that President Trump only received 8% of the Black vote in 2016. If Trump received just 16% of the Black vote this November, let alone an even higher number, that would all but secure states like Michigan for Trump.

5. Biden the Tax Increaser. Candidates who promise tax increases, or have a history of supporting tax increases, tend to lose versus those pushing for tax cuts. President Jimmy Carter lost to challenger Ronald Reagan, Walter Mondale lost to President Reagan, Michael Dukakis lost to George H.W. Bush 41 and then 41 lost his reelection after his tax increase became a reality. George W. Bush beat Al Gore and then John Kerry. Barack Obama promised to reduce taxes and he beat John McCain who was not a tax cutter. Obviously, President Trump offered tax cuts while running against, and beating, Hillary Clinton. Joe Biden, on the other hand, is pushing for the largest tax increase in history.

6. Enthusiasm Matters. As the New York Post has reported, “just 46 percent of Biden voters in a recent Pew poll said that they strongly support him, compared to 66 percent of Trump’s base.” That is a 20 gap. In 2016, Trump had only a 13 point gap over Hillary. That increase of 7% bodes well for Trump, not Biden.

7. Early Voting in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio. National polling from Pew Research indicates that “55% of voters who plan to cast their ballot in person before Election Day support Biden, compared to 40% who support President Trump.” However, in the key battleground states of Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin the early voting indicates that “registered Republicans are returning ballots at about the same rate as registered Democrats.” The parties are even in Michigan, Democrats up 2% in Wisconsin and the Republicans up 2% in Ohio.

8. American Voters Are More Satisfied in 2020 than they were in 2016. A new Gallup poll shows that 56% of Americans say they are better off now than they were four years ago. That could well be the telling in this case given that just four years ago marked the end of the Biden vice presidency. Why would voters return to Biden if they are happier now than when he was in office?

9. Party Identification. According to Gallup, by the end of September, when the polling firm asked voters this question, “In politics, as of today, do you consider yourself a Republican, a Democrat or an independent?” the answer came back as follows: 28% said Republican, 27% said Democrat and 42% said independent. That is meaningful because many of the polls giving Biden the lead appear to be sampling more Democrats than Republicans – sometimes by a wide margin. Also, in 2016, Gallup had Democrats up 32% to 27% but, as we know, Trump still won.

10. Voters Think Trump Will Win. In the Trump era, there has been a lot of talk about whether Trump supporters feel free to tell pollsters that they are supporting the president’s reelection. Some experts point to polls asking voters who they believe will win the election to be a truer indication of candidate support. Once again this bodes well for President Trump as a “Gallup poll shows only 40% of Americans think Biden will win the election; 56% predict a Trump victory.”

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Good comparison.

Trump: Hunter Emails No Russian Plot, Tulsi Gabbard No ‘Russian Asset’ (RT)

Donald Trump has compared Rep. Adam Schiff’s claim that Hunter Biden’s alleged leaked emails are part of a Russian disinformation plot to Hillary Clinton calling Democrat Tulsi Gabbard a “Russian asset” similarly without evidence.During a Tuesday Fox News interview, Trump addressed Schiff’s evidence-free claim that the Hunter Biden email leaks, which detail his alleged dealings in Ukraine and China, were coming “from the Kremlin.” The leaks were published by the New York Post last week. “It’s just crazy,” Trump said of the theory, referring to the Democratic congressman as “Shifty Schiff” and a “sick” man, who was purposefully obfuscating the issue.


“Thank god we have John Ratcliffe,” Trump added, pointing out that the director of national intelligence refuted the speculation on Monday. During his own sit down with Fox, DNI Ratcliffe said that there was “no intelligence” to support Schiff’s position, and accused the politician of “politicizing” intelligence. The president recalled similar accusations made by his failed 2016 rival Hillary Clinton, who previously implied that the Green Party’s former nominee Jill Stein and Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard were “Russian assets.” “This was like Tulsi Gabbard and Jill Stein, when Hillary Clinton said it about them… that they were agents of Russia,” Trump noted, adding, “They were not agents of Russia, they never spoke to anybody from Russia.”

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13 days left to go.

Secret Service Travel Logs Match Details in Alleged Hunter Biden Emails (ET)

Secret Service logs obtained earlier this year by Senate investigators include dates and locations matching those discussed in the emails allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.The alignment of the dates in the emails and the Secret Service protective detail logs is significant because the authenticity of the emails, first published by the New York Post last week, is the subject of heated debate. The FBI, which purportedly obtained Hunter Biden’s laptop in December last year, has not yet officially confirmed that it is in possession of the device and whether the emails are genuine.

In one alleged email, written after midnight on April 13, 2014, Hunter Biden wrote to Devon Archer, his business partner, that he will be traveling to Houston the next day. Secret Service logs obtained by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs show a trip by Biden on April 13-14, 2014. In another alleged email, Vadim Pozharskyi, a top executive from Ukrainian gas firm Burisma, wrote to Biden and Archer on May 12, 2014: “Following our talks during the visit to the Como Lake and our further discussions, I would like to bring the following situation to your attention.” While the email doesn’t cite a date for the trip, Secret Service logs include a travel entry for Biden on April 3-6, 2014.

In another alleged email, Archer wrote on May 12, 2014, that he is with Biden in Doha, Qatar. Secret Service records include a trip by Biden to Doha, Qatar, on May 11-14, 2014. The alignment in dates and location was first spotted by the staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Finance committees. Notably, some of the alleged Hunter Biden emails included discussions of Biden’s travel after he allegedly declined a Secret Service detail. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) penned a letter to the director of the Secret Service on Oct. 20 asking for records after the date when Biden purportedly stopped receiving a Secret Service detail.

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And associates.

Hunter Biden Arranged White House Meeting for Elite Chinese Group (NR)

In November 2011, an elite group of Chinese Communist Party members and billionaire cronies of the repressive regime in Beijing secured a meeting in the White House, said to be with Vice President Biden and other Obama administration officials, through Hunter Biden’s associates. News of the meeting has been broken by Peter Schweizer and Seamus Bruner. Schweizer, who has spent years tracking Washington’s web of money, influence and access, is the author most recently of Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends, which focuses on the Biden family — among other intriguing money trails on both sides of the political aisle. Schweizer and Bruner have obtained the cooperation of Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Bevan Cooney, who is serving a federal prison sentence for a fraud scheme.

Another Hunter Biden business partner, Devon Archer, was also convicted (and has had his conviction reinstated by the Second Circuit federal appeals court after a trial judge in the Southern District of New York set it aside). Hunter Biden was featured in the evidence but not charged. Cooney has given the investigative journalists access to his email account, which contains years of correspondence with Biden, Archer, and others. The authors have begun writing reports published at Breitbart, and Schweizer has also been interviewed about it on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program. Obviously, those are very pro-Trump venues, so it is worth noting that solid reporting Schweizer did on the Clinton Foundation (the subject of his book Clinton Cash) was closely examined and relied on by the New York Times.

[..] Based on Cooney’s emails, the authors report that in November 2011, Hunter Biden’s business associates arranged meetings at the Obama White House for a delegation of the “China Entrepreneur Club.” Established in 2006, the CEC is led by high officials of the Chinese Communist Party, some government officials (including diplomats), and billionaire business executives with close ties to the regime. This visit to the White House is said to have included a meeting with then–Vice President Biden. In discussions among themselves, Hunter Biden’s associates reportedly made it clear that they anticipated cashing in on business prospects that were expected to arise from providing the Chinese contingent with high-level access to the Obama administration.

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Balding

US Schools Report $6.5 Billion in Undisclosed Foreign Gifts and Contracts (ET)

American Universities failed to report $6.5 billion in foreign gifts and contracts, an investigation by the Department of Education found. Federal law requires schools to disclose substantial foreign gifts and contracts to the Department of Education (DOE) twice a year. Many have for years failed to do so, while others severely underreported the income. The deluge of the financial disclosures poured in as the department opened investigations into 12 elite universities. Universities reported receiving a total of more than $19.6 billion in foreign gifts and contracts from 2014 to 2020, including nearly $1.5 billion from China, almost $3.1 billion from Qatar, and more than $1.1 billion from Saudi Arabia, according to historical DOE data and most recent figures posted on its new online reporting portal.

Carnegie Mellon University reported receiving almost $1.61 billion in foreign gifts and contracts, the most of any university. Harvard tops the list in terms of total funds received from China, reporting nearly $116 million. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos unveiled the findings of the investigation at an event on Oct. 20, alongside officials from the Justice Department and the State Department. “The threat is real, so we took action to make sure the public is afforded the transparency the law requires,” DeVos said. “We found pervasive noncompliance by higher-ed institutions and significant foreign entanglement with America’s colleges and universities.”

The vast majority of the foreign funds went to America’s largest and most prestigious universities, which have received billions of dollars through a bevy of intermediaries, according to a report released by the DOE on Oct. 20. All of the institutions involved are in the meantime dependent on tens of billions of U.S. taxpayer subsidies while operating largely “divorced from any sense of obligation to our taxpayers or concern for our American national interests, security, or values,” the DOE report states. For the first half of 2020 alone, U.S. universities retroactively reported $2 billion in foreign gifts and contracts. One school, which isn’t identified in the report, failed to report $760 million in foreign funding. University officials told the DOE they were “dumbfounded” by the reporting error. Another unnamed school failed to report $1.2 billion in foreign gifts and contracts.

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“82% of senior citizens think that this is the most important presidential election of their lifetime. Think about that.”

No, Our Democracy And Freedom Are Not On The Line This Election (Rasmussen)

One of the things that never fails to amaze me as a pollster is the absolute intensity that accompanies the final weeks of a presidential campaign. A poll I conducted recently for HealthInsurance.com found that 82% of senior citizens think that this is the most important presidential election of their lifetime. Think about that. That’s what senior citizens are saying. These are voters who were around when the Berlin Wall went up and the Cold War was being fought in a space race. The civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, Woodstock and Watergate were part of their life experience. And yet, now, they say this year — 2020 — is the most important presidential election of their lifetime.

Of course, you don’t need a poll to sense the intensity that some activists and voters bring to the election season. Supporters of both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden regularly assert that the nation will never recover if the other side wins. Our democracy or our freedom will be lost. This shouldn’t surprise me. It happens every four years. But it catches me off guard because I don’t agree with the assessment. America will survive another four years of Donald Trump as president or the first four years of Joe Biden as president. There will be differences, of course, because elections matter. They have consequences. But it’s important to remember that politicians aren’t nearly as important as they think they are. They don’t determine the nation’s agenda or decide the fate of the nation.

The culture leads and the politicians lag behind. It’s also important to remember that American society isn’t nearly as polarized as American politics. That’s the good news. Still, it seems like a good time to review the data and assess where we are as Election 2020 draws to a close. The place to start is with a number that partisan activists find impossible to believe. My polling shows that 14% of voters — 1 out of 7 — are not fully certain how they will vote. That number includes some who currently support Trump or Biden but could change their mind. It also includes some who are currently leaning towards a third-party candidate. Historically, many such voters end up deciding at the last minute to reluctantly vote for one of the major party candidates. And, there are a few who just don’t like the choice before them.

In a sense, this group of uncommitted voters might best be described as voters who want both Trump and Biden to lose. While most are unlikely to change their mind, the possibility remains that something might happen to cause a late break in either direction. As a result, with two weeks to go, it’s best to consider a range of possibilities. Biden and the Democrats are ahead at the moment, but victory is not assured. I’ll start with the best-case scenario for the Republicans. If the race gets a bit tighter, Election 2020 will be a toss-up with the presidency determined by a few key states — places like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. It will seem like four years ago with one big exception: This time around, extensive mail-in voting means we wouldn’t know the winner for weeks. And, we also wouldn’t know who controls the Senate, the results in a couple dozen House races, and who has control of a few state legislatures.

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I thought they would only agree on going to war.

DOJ Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google Draws Bipartisan Praise (ET)

Lawmakers in the House and Senate praised a Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit against Google over allegations that the tech giant used its power to preserve its monopoly. “Today’s lawsuit is the most important antitrust case in a generation,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said in a statement after the filing. “Google and its fellow Big Tech monopolists exercise unprecedented power over the lives of ordinary Americans, controlling everything from the news we read to the security of our most personal information. And Google in particular has gathered and maintained that power through illegal means.” The lawsuit drew bipartisan support. House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.) said in a statement that the lawsuit was “long overdue.”

“The Subcommittee’s investigation uncovered extensive evidence showing that Google maintained and extended its monopoly to harm competition,” he said in a statement. “It is critical that the Justice Department’s lawsuit focuses on Google’s monopolization of search and search advertising, while also targeting the anti-competitive business practices Google is using to leverage this monopoly into other areas, such as maps, browsers, video, and voice assistants.” Cicilline said in early October in a House antitrust subcommittee that Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple all wield monopoly power. “It’s Google’s business model that is the problem,” he said. “Google evolved from a turnstile to the rest of the web to a walled garden that increasingly keeps users within its sights.”

The suit, filed in a Washington federal court, asserts that Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., has tried to maintain its status as a gatekeeper to the Internet by using a number of interlocking businesses to shut out competitors, thereby securing itself as a monopoly. The DOJ claimed the Silicon Valley firm uses billions of dollars from its own advertisements to pay carriers, browsers, phone companies, and other entities to maintain Google as a default search engine. “Absent a court order, Google will continue executing its anticompetitive strategy, crippling the competitive process, reducing consumer choice, and stifling innovation. Google is now the unchallenged gateway to the internet for billions of users worldwide,” the DOJ lawsuit alleged, resulting in negative consequences for advertisers, consumers, and upstart companies that “cannot emerge from Google’s long shadow.”

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“One way or another, either voluntarily or pursuant to subpoena, they will testify and they will testify before the election,” Cruz said.”

Senate Panel Delays Vote To Subpoena Twitter, Facebook CEOs (Pol.)

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday postponed plans to vote on subpoenas to compel the CEOs of Twitter and Facebook to testify on allegations of anti-conservative bias after some panel Republicans expressed reservation about the maneuver. President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have scorched the two social media companies in recent days over their handling of disputed New York Post reports alleging ties between Joe Biden and his son’s business interests. GOP Judiciary leaders had announced plans to hold a markup Tuesday on whether to subpoena Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify on allegations the company’s decisions on user posts stifle conservative viewpoints, which Twitter denies. Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) later said the planned vote would also target Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The panel announced Monday it will now consider whether to authorize the subpoenas at a high-profile executive session Thursday where it is separately expected to approve Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. The committee said in a statement it will continue to negotiate with the companies “to allow for voluntary testimony” by the CEOs, but that if an agreement is not reached the panel will move ahead with a vote on the subpoenas “at a date to be determined.” The subpoenas would require the tech moguls to testify on the alleged “suppression and/or censorship” of the New York Post reporting and on “any other content moderation policies, practices, or actions that may interfere with or influence elections for federal office,” according to a document released by the committee Monday.

Judiciary staff has indicated internally that plans for the vote were delayed in part due to some GOP panel members wavering on whether to support the action, according to one Senate GOP aide, who spoke anonymously to discuss private negotiations. Republican officials have also expressed trepidation about how quickly the committee has moved to vote on the subpoenas, the aide said. A committee spokesperson did not immediately offer comment on the matter. But they’re not off the hook yet: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who chairs Judiciary’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, told reporters he’s expecting the committee to hear testimony from both Dorsey and Zuckerberg “shortly” whether they come willingly or not. “One way or another, either voluntarily or pursuant to subpoena, they will testify and they will testify before the election,” Cruz said.

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“But we didn’t have problems circulating leaked Trump tax or any other s–t surrounding Trump or COVID.”

Facebook Workers ‘Ashamed’ By Censorship Of Hunter Files Reporting (NYP)

“Facebook is almost an arm of the Democratic Party — an arm of the far-left wing of the Democratic Party.” So said the former Facebook insider as we sat down for an interview at a Midtown restaurant Friday afternoon.A gloomy rain had left the joint deserted, yet the man across the table from me spoke in hushed tones and looked over his shoulder in between remarks for fear of retaliation. Yet he felt he had to speak out, because staffers are “intentionally trying to swing people further to the left,” as he had put it in an e-mail requesting the meeting. I already knew that, of course. It was a Facebook communications manager, Andy Stone, who on Thursday announced the firm was reducing circulation of The Post’s still-undisputed reporting on the Hunter Files — an employee who happened to work for Democratic lawmakers before joining the tech giant.

What the Facebook insider wanted to impress upon me, however, was how Facebook’s partisan tilt is common knowledge inside the firm.He had the secret chats to prove it. Facebook employees who wish to speak freely take to Blind, an anonymous social network for the tech industry, where workers at major firms like Uber, Google, Twitter and the like trade gossip and occasionally blow the whistle on malfeasance. To gain access to the Facebook network on Blind, a user must sign up using his or her Facebook work e-mail address. The posters, in other words, are verified Facebook employees (and ex-employees in a few cases). So what do Facebook workers think about the company’s handling of our story? The comments speak for themselves: “[Facebook] employees want Trump to lose,” wrote one user. “If that means rigging [the platform] against him, they don’t care.”


The post garnered 29 “likes” from other employees. “I was shocked that Facebook did this,” said another. “We kinda called [brought] this on ourselves. So much for ‘we are not the arbiters of truth.’ ” That comment garnered 15 “likes.” Still other comments: “Facebook bets that Biden wins the election. So an effort to jump on the bandwagon.” “Yeah this one is unconscionable. I’m ashamed.” “Imagine if we censored some leaked Trump stuff. It would be the #1 upvoted question tomorrow for Mark [Zuckerberg company-wide]’s Q&A.” Another employee wrote a detailed critique: “Why do people hate Facebook everywhere? Here’s one reason. Freaking one-sided decision. The comms Twitter account [Andy Stone’s] was definitely left-leaning, and it’s a talking point, as well. No proper response to comms feedback. Don’t want to be the what-if person. But we didn’t have problems circulating leaked Trump tax or any other s–t surrounding Trump or COVID.”

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AI.

Meet Your -Chinese- Facebook Censors (Ahmari)

China is one of the most censorious societies on earth. So what better place for ≠Facebook to recruit social-media censors? There are at least half a dozen “Chinese nationals who are working on censorship,” a former Facebook insider told me last week. “So at some point, they [Facebook bosses] thought, ‘Hey, we’re going to get them H-1B visas so they can do this work.’ ”The insider shared an internal directory of the team that does much of this work. It’s called Hate-Speech Engineering (George Orwell, call your office), and most of its members are based at Facebook’s offices in Seattle. Many have Ph.D.s, and their work is extremely complex, involving machine learning — teaching “computers how to learn and act without being explicitly programmed,” as the techy Web site DeepAI.org puts it.

When it comes to censorship on social media, that means “teaching” the Facebook code so certain content ends up at the top of your newsfeed, a feat that earns the firm’s software wizards discretionary bonuses, per the ex-insider. It also means making sure other content “shows up dead-last.”Like, say, a New York Post report on the Biden dynasty’s dealings with Chinese companies.To illustrate the mechanics, the insider took me as his typical Facebook user: “They take what Sohrab sees, and then they throw the newsfeed list into a machine-learning algorithm and neural networks that determine the ranking of the items.” Facebook engineers test hundreds of different iterations of the rankings to shape an optimal outcome — and root out what bosses call “borderline content.”

It all makes for perhaps the most chillingly sophisticated censorship mechanism in human history. “What they don’t do is ban a specific pro-Trump hashtag,” says the ex-insider. Instead, “content that is a little too conservative, they will down-rank. You can’t tell it’s censored.”

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They don’t appear to know why.

Studies Point To Big Drop In COVID-19 Death Rates (NPR)

Two new peer-reviewed studies are showing a sharp drop in mortality among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The drop is seen in all groups, including older patients and those with underlying conditions, suggesting that physicians are getting better at helping patients survive their illness. “We find that the death rate has gone down substantially,” says Leora Horwitz, a doctor who studies population health at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine and an author on one of the studies, which looked at thousands of patients from March to August. The study, which was of a single health system, finds that mortality has dropped among hospitalized patients by 18 percentage points since the pandemic began. Patients in the study had a 25.6% chance of dying at the start of the pandemic; they now have a 7.6% chance.

That’s a big improvement, but 7.6% is still a high risk compared with other diseases, and Horwitz and other researchers caution that COVID-19 remains dangerous. The death rate “is still higher than many infectious diseases, including the flu,” Horwitz says. And those who recover can suffer complications for months or even longer. “It still has the potential to be very harmful in terms of long-term consequences for many people.” Studying changes in death rate is tricky because although the overall U.S. death rate for COVID-19 seems to be dropping, the drop coincides with a change in whom the disease is sickening. “The people who are getting hospitalized now tend to be much younger, tend to have fewer other diseases and tend to be less frail than people who were hospitalized in the early days of the epidemic,” Horwitz says.

So have death rates dropped because of improvements in treatments? Or is it because of the change in who’s getting sick? To find out, Horwitz and her colleagues looked at more than 5,000 hospitalizations in the NYU Langone Health system between March and August. They adjusted for factors including age and other diseases, such as diabetes, to rule out the possibility that the numbers had dropped only because younger, healthier people were getting diagnosed. They found that death rates dropped for all groups, even older patients by 18 percentage points on average.

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How embarrassing for the West if this works.

Moscow Will Begin Mass Vaccination Against COVID19 In December (RT)

Moscow will receive its first large batches of the coronavirus vaccine in November, and mass vaccination in the Russian capital will begin in December and January, according to its Mayor Sergey Sobyanin. Sobyanin, who has run Europe’s largest city since 2010, believes that mass vaccination will be “the final victory over the pandemic.” Writing on his blog, the mayor explained that the high number of infections in Moscow is due to the city’s huge population and the significant number of tests being conducted. On Monday, confirmed cases in the capital hit 367,629, a quarter of the country’s overall number (1,415,316), despite officially having around only eight percent of the population.

In the same blog post, Sobyanin highlighted that he does not yet see a necessity to introduce “extreme” measures in the city, such as a curfew and a ban on movement, but did not rule out other less stringent measures. The main aim is to interrupt the spread of the infection, while not affecting the economy or depriving people of work, he wrote. “Ultimately, we are not making a choice between good and bad,” the mayor said. “All decisions are bad. We have to choose the lesser of two evils. But if we do nothing today, then tomorrow we will have to take tougher, more radical, and more unpleasant measures.” Last week, the capital introduced extra restrictions regarding nightlife, with those attending bars and clubs after midnight being forced to scan a QR code for the purpose of track-and-trace.

Moscow is currently hosting the third phase trial of the country’s homegrown Covid-19 vaccine, called Sputnik V. The mass post-registration testing of the vaccine, which was produced by the city’s Gamaleya Institute, involves 40,000 volunteers – a quarter of whom will receive a placebo.

Read more …

“I’m quite pessimistic in the days ahead” – on the likelihood of a spike in coronavirus infections as people spend more time indoors this winter, exacerbated by a lack of systematic testing.”

Nassim Taleb On Capitalism, Entrepreneurs, And The Pandemic (BI)

1. “There are two kinds of people. People who when they hear that there’s a problem, they go into their basement, start crying, have an emotional support group, do some praying, and wait for the government to save them. Others who take their fate in their own hands and try to say, ‘Hey, life gave me a lemon, let me make lemonade out of it'” – on the best way to react to a crisis. 2. “There are ways you can be ahead. You just have to fight” – on the subject of adapting to the pandemic. Taleb gave the example of a gym owner pivoting to installing home gyms, and a waiter making more money as a delivery driver.

3. “Capitalism is a wonderful mechanism to convert individual human greed into collective virtue.” 4. “Governments are good at doing things that look important but are not necessarily effective.” 5. “We’re spending $1 trillion on fighting illusory enemies with very complex nuclear stuff, but you can’t do something as basic as test people when they want to board a plane” – criticizing the government response to the pandemic. 6. “I’m quite pessimistic in the days ahead” – on the likelihood of a spike in coronavirus infections as people spend more time indoors this winter, exacerbated by a lack of systematic testing.

7. “Millennials think that joining an NGO is a great way to save the world. I say no. Start a company, that’s how you improve mankind. We did not pull 2 billion people out of poverty thanks to NGOs and bureaucrats, we pulled them out thanks to capitalism, by generating economic growth.” 8. “A soldier can fail without any shame to the country. We should interpret the failure of entrepreneurs as something that is helping the planet” – on the need to encourage entrepreneurs and remove the stigma of failure.

Read more …

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle October 21 2020

Viewing 30 posts - 1 through 30 (of 30 total)
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  • #64650

    Pablo Picasso Self portrait 1972   • ‘Nonpublic Information’ Debunks Letter From ’50 Former Intel Officials’ (ZH) • Rudy Giuliani Files Police Re
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle October 21 2020]

    #64651
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “CASES!!!”

    Deaths: CDC. 50. That’s 10 per state. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_dailytrendsdeaths

    10 WHOLE PEOPLES? Oh Noes. 10 ÷ 330M = 0.00015%

    What does NY say? “New York has shown that even if you’re extremely old, that is, over 75, unless you have one or more of the comorbid “nasty” conditions the odds of you being killed by Covid are nearly zero. A literal four people over 75 without any of those conditions in New York have died.” https://github.com/nychealth/coronavirus-data/blob/master/deaths/deaths-by-underlying-conditions.csv

    NY has 16 MILLION people. 4 ÷ 16,000,000 = 0.000025% Shark territory.

    We have cases of aches and pains, of slight headaches, of PMS, but like Covid we don’t care because those don’t kill you either. The death rate is barely off the bottom. Wisconsin spikes!!! Yeah, that was like 10 additional deaths. I think they can handle it. A single hospital ward could handle it.

    But why stop when we can ‘round up the Jewwwwws? Amitrite? There’s still a few black businesses that haven’t handed their life savings to Jeff Bezos. Can’t stop now.

    https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/Rampant-shoplifting-leads-to-another-Walgreens-15654730.php

    Lack of law and order + accused racism = businesses in poor and brown neighborhoods close and leave food, drug, and banking deserts. …That they later blame on racism, and keep that wheel of killin’ black folks going. Like Chicago! #1 besides Baltimore. Anyway, close marginal neighborhood stores, move their business online to Bezos, who like FB, Twitter, give like-kind election donations to the party that destroys the people and mails their gold teeth to billionaires.

    “How did Germany let that happen?” Like this, you dopes. With a library of books they don’t bother to research and read. National Democratic S O C I A L I S T S used weirdo race and race theory to destroy the people and unite power of the insider state and palatial billionaires, erasing all resistance. Their Brown shirts attacked common folks like black protestors and gay Asians in the streets in DEFENSE OF BILLIONAIRES like Bosch and Thyssen. They made billions and were later protected by Grandpa Bush and the “Businessman Coup” crowd when picking bombing targets. I don’t understand how mass white people, beating, smashing, and shuttering black businesses and neighborhoods doesn’t cause more alarm. Doesn’t ring a bell with someone, somewhere.

    “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped.”

    Oh and if the Patriot Act weren’t enough (enthusiastically re-affirmed by both parties) the same Left is now calling for an end to the Constitution altogether. Yeah, we know, we saw that coming 30 years back. Who needs that pesky Bill of (Human) Rights? It’s so supportive of minorities and the disenfranchised to no longer have any written legal protection at all. I’m sure it’ll all work out.

    So let’s see: Beating opponents? Check. While in uniform of their organization? Check. Legally protected when committing open felonies? Check. Burning books? Check. United with billionaires? Check. Oppressing and destroying minorities and minority businesses? Check. Censorship? Check. Want to outlaw guns and public discussion? Check. Ability to speak determined by race? Check. Promise to end human rights and create a state based on race? Check. Want that state to be all-powerful, controlling all aspects of human life? Check. Violent warmongers overseas? Check. High-level personalities calling opponents “Maggots” who “need to be removed from society”? Check. Said uniformed people say they will shoot their own moderates against the wall? Check. Say they’re on the side of pure love for their people? Check.

    Don’t know what you need, people. Maybe to read a book.

    So who would be the opposite of such group? A group that opposed censorship and book burning, supported due process and human rights, that didn’t define people according to an #antiScience, unscientific belief in “race”, that wanted the state to stay in a corner and not be all-powerful, that allowed and protected people’s property and didn’t run or interfere in the economy, that wanted to withdraw troops back home, that wanted to charge anti-trust laws to billionaires and cut off government contracts, and was in support of gun rights to counterbalance the violence of the state. Now who would that be? Can’t figure it out.

    Cornell failed to disclose $1.2 BILLION. [in gifts and donations]”

    I’m sure Russia, with the GDP of Italy, is super on-top of that gift/bribe/payoff list. Uh huh.
    Newbie
    https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/heraldextra.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/e6/5e658815-3f35-505a-a5e0-104d2db1bdf8/5c1804803db48.image.jpg

    “No, Our Democracy and Freedom Are Not On The Line This Election (Rasmussen)”

    Meh. They kind of are. Always. But point taken. The world didn’t just magically all change 3 years ago. It’s been since Wilson or even Lincoln to get this level of overreach and corruption.…and you don’t just get to walk away from that. We’re paying for it now and we’re not done yet. Paying for not following the Constitution, the LAW, that our fathers set up and we agreed to.

    Rassmusen posted this yesterday, Oct 19, so he also knows his argument here is a lie, and he knows all about the “10 Tea Leaves” better than we do. Articles from Pollsters yesterday: “We’re not at all sure. Anyone who thinks we do is wrong, we’re super-duper unsure!” Uh-huh. According to you with Biden up by 12 and a 90% chance of winning by the same pollsters. That sounds pretty certain to me. You’re just lying, CYA, and talking out both sides of your little weasel snout.

    Why not? It’s impossible to be discredited. For that a nation needs to have shame.

    “Senate Panel Delays Vote to Subpoena Twitter, Facebook CEOs (Pol.)”

    As 100% expected. Twitter, Google and the oligarchs ARE the U.S. government, as per 1935, so why would the uni-state subpoena the uni-state? “Should I investigate myself? I consulted with myself and after long deliberation decided I was innocent and should not investigate myself. Wikipedia agrees!”

    Cut off the government. You the people, are the only viable counterweight, although the States might help.

    “Facebook is almost an arm of the Democratic Party — an arm of the far-left wing of the Democratic Party.”

    Yes, but keep your wits. They are ALLOWED to be. Papers, including the NY Post possibly from the 1st article (Hamilton was a famous partisan) are biased and partisan. The only difference is that they have government-sanctioned monopoly status and special legal carve out. That special carve-out is the only thing that prohibits Facebook from such censorship. So if they are a publisher, fine. Then you can sue them for Libel. If not, they are a platform and can’t censor. The End.

    So much for ‘we are not the arbiters of truth.’

    Yes, but newsflash: even the NY Times is not the arbiter of truth. Even if they weren’t lying every day, every story, the POINT of free speech is to get “reports”, and then over time identify who is credible and what is happening. The NY Times may even mean well and mis-report UN OPCW, Novachok, Presidential taxes, RussiaRussia, WMD and ties to al-Qaeda, Osama-lives-in-Baathist-Iraq, incubator babies, Vietnam, baby-eating Huns, and the USS Maine. …Doesn’t seem very likely though does it? Each paper, person tries to present the truth as they see it and over time we come to know what the truth actually was. Even a war reporter watching bullets fly doesn’t really know the total picture.

    How much less so Facebook, before each side has presented their case? Apparently they know in 60 seconds, without asking. They are God! Or Zuck and Dorsey are part of a weirdo cult that THINKS they are gods. Of light. The Morning Star. If they weren’t, they would think they are men, and failable.

    I don’t know; you don’t know: that’s why we’re talking; to figure it out. In the “open marketplace of ideas.” You know: the Enlightenment. Where “All men are created equal” and “Endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights” just as speech, having opinions, and self-defense. Dorsey is not God. Zuck isn’t even human: he’s an android. Watch his testimony, it’s hilarious as well as famous.

    “I’m quite pessimistic in the days ahead” – on the likelihood of a spike in coronavirus infections”

    A spike that kills nobody and does nothing. Since July. Oh noes. Whole world has to change now! We MUST end Human Rights! And remember, FL governor says Covid will only end if Biden is elected. The ‘Rona knows!!!

    convert individual human greed into collective virtue.”

    Greed is never a virtue, by definition. However, people wanting to work for stuff don’t have their work, the hours of their life stolen, and can trade with others who also do work. It could even be voluntary and not include government and market mass-murder and violence!

    At the same time –STOPPING—humans from working and trading — that is, any other form besides “capitalism” — REQUIRES violence. Massive, violent, ceaseless violence. That also totally fails and breeds its own sub-violence. It’s called the “Black Market” and no human society on earth has ever conquered it.

    Isn’t it too tragic that people want to work and improve themselves and you can’t stop them? Almost can’t sleep nights knowing someone, somewhere, is being productive and sharing.

    #64652
    John Day
    Participant

    Looks like Picasso dropped some bad acid in 1972…

    #64653
    Basseterre Kitona
    Participant

    They don’t appear to know why.

    • Studies Point To Big Drop In COVID-19 Death Rates (NPR)

    Hmmm…seems to me now that the virus has spread everywhere and nearly everyone has likely been exposed to it, that by now the people most susceptible to death by corona virus have already died and thus deaths are dropping.

    Kind of like how a storm knocks out all the weak branches and makes a big mess. Yet another storm a week later barely leaves a mark.

    Also, yeah, doctors have improved their treatment results too.

    #64654
    zerosum
    Participant

    Yesterday, I went hunting. I called. 5 does came out of the bush.
    The buck would not come out of the bush. Went home empty handed.
    ——–
    No foreign students means no foreign revenues then this report comes out.
    https://www.theepochtimes.com/investigation-prompts-schools-to-report-6-5-billion-in-undisclosed-foreign-gifts-and-contracts_3545741.html

    Education Secretary Betsy DeVos unveiled the findings of the investigation at an event on Oct. 20, alongside officials from the Justice Department and the State Department.

    “Accordingly, for decades, foreign state and non-state actors have devoted significant resources to influence or control teaching and research, to the theft of intellectual property or even espionage, and to the use of American campuses as centers for propaganda operations and other projections of soft power.”
    For the first half of 2020 alone, U.S. universities retroactively reported $2 billion in foreign gifts and contracts. One school, which isn’t identified in the report, failed to report $760 million in foreign funding. University officials told the DOE they were “dumbfounded” by the reporting error. Another unnamed school failed to report $1.2 billion in foreign gifts and contracts.

    The educated elites can write beautiful, motivated articles that can direct the changes of our social structures and yet, continuously make “reporting errors” that benefit their revenues.

    Who should go to an elite university?
    Hint
    Looks like Picasso dropped some bad acid in 1972
    ———-

    #64655
    zerosum
    Participant

    Does C19 prefer food bank line ups or voting lineups?

    #64656
    zerosum
    Participant

    Improve the GDP/economy/travel industry by
    1. giving me a $2,000 travel voucher and
    2. make the $C on par with the $U.
    3. Sell Canadian oil and products to USA priced with on par dollars

    #64657

    Looks like Picasso dropped some bad acid in 1972…

    At age 81, I’m not sure. He had devoted a lot of his time to “crossing the barrier” between 2D and 3D. He probably was never satisfied. But he was one of the most prolific painters ever, he kept at it. And he never just did something, it’s not like any kid could have done it.

    As the first self-portrait in this series (Debt Rattle Oct. 16) shows, he was already a very good painter at age 15. That included his mastery of color, not a given for any painter. Rembrandt was an early master at that. And when you’re that good so young, what do you do, repeat the same thing over and over for the rest of your life? Pablo did not. And he died fighting 2D.

    #64658
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    Here’s a little something for you pandemic-deniers: Staff at overwhelmed Wisconsin hospital urge people to take coronavirus seriously

    Your denial of the seriousness of this crisis while hospitals in my home state are being overwhelmed really reminds of high-school kids who think they have the world all figured out because they just read Atlas Shrugged.

    #64659
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    This Picasso painting reads like a graphic translation of aging. We are the sum of our parts. On our way out we see it was only an abstract creation of our own mind?

    Oh yeah, all right
    Are you going to be in my dreams
    Tonight?
    And in the end
    the LOVE you take is equal to the LOVE you make.

    #64660
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    I think we need the whole Beatles song today.

    The End – written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

    Verse 1]
    Oh yeah, alright
    Are you going to be in my dreams
    Tonight?

    [Drum and Guitar Solos]

    [Instrumental break 0:20-1:32]
    Love you, love you
    Love you, love you
    Love you, love you
    Love you, love you
    Love you, love you
    Love you, love you
    Love you, love you
    Love you, love you
    Love you, love you
    Love you, love you
    Love you, love you
    Love you, love you
    Love

    [Verse 2]
    And in the end
    The love you take
    Is equal to the love you make

    #64661
    John Day
    Participant

    https://www.johndayblog.com/2020/10/power-transition.html
    I think that the overlord class is now forced into some fevered negotiations regarding the transfer of power in the US. They should really be negotiating now, because it has been effective gridlock for almost 4 years, and it was not working right even before that.
    No group currently has decisive power in the US, so the US cannot act decisively, as it degrades further and further. There has been a deep state holding action, aligned with most Democrats and the Bush/Romney Republicans, denying executive power to the elected weirdo-in-chief. Trump has had the bully pulpit and has used it dramatically.
    Trump has shown himself to be an adequately weird match for these weird times.

    A lot of people have not accepted the inevitability of weird times yet. The elites know, though.
    Current flows of wealth into the US are from outside. The US produces expensive weapons, food, upper-tier electronics production machinery, airplanes and oil and gas. Manufacturing of commodities is offshored, except mattresses, refrigerators and washing machines, which are big, bulky and expensive to ship overseas.

    Wealth comes to North America for dollars, the global reserve currency. A digital central bank currency is being openly developed, and central banks across the world have secured national gold, both some at home, and some in financial centers, for practical reasons in a reset. The rest of the world is tired of having wealth extracted by the reserve currency. The Saudis got “protection” for the deal to only sell oil in $US. They still get that. Is that enough to support a reserve currency these days?
    The US military supports the dollar by destroying countries that sell their oil in other currencies, like Iraq and Libya. The US military is just a bit behind in destroying Iran and Venezuela. It sure is making life hard in those countries, but they are not yet destroyed. Iran seems fairly indestructible lately.
    https://iranian.com/2020/10/18/there-wont-be-an-iran-october-surprise/

    Poppy Bush is dead, and the CIA was his team. He reorganized it after the Church hearings, did the secret deal with Iran (in Paris) to assure that Iran would not send the hostages home to President Carter, who was concurrently secretly negotiating with Iran. Bush got into the White House with Reagan, and ran the Iran Contra drugs for arms for military parts to Iran for hostages deal. Bill Clinton provided the landing site in Arkansas for the CIA planes full of coke. Bill became a team-player.
    There is a lack of deep state executive power right now. Cheney is still important, but he has an external cardiac assist pump, and he is not a family member like Poppy was, just a retainer.
    Dubya and Jeb are not up to the job, are they?

    The empire needs to negotiate a step-down to a multipolar world.
    China, Russia and Iran are waiting patiently as the strategic situation shifts ever more in their favor. Israel will have to deal with Russia and China, and give up on totally destroying Iran.
    Asia still needs the US as a counterbalance to China. Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, India and Indonesia all benefit from the limits the US places on Chinese power. Paying some tribute to the US to keep from paying a ot more to China is a good investment for them.
    There is a good case for a multipolar world, where the great powers are in dynamic balance, and great wars are avoided. The US needs an executive to function in that dynamic, and it has no executive, just a Mexican standoff, where numerous parties have their fingers on triggers to kill other parties, so gridlock.

    Hunter Biden’s laptop has kiddie porn, they say. It has kiddie porn starring Hunter Biden on drugs, they say. The FBI’s top kiddie-porn investigator signed for Hunter’s laptop. That’s confirmed.
    “In an interview this evening with Newsmax TV, former NYC Mayor and current attorney to President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani announces he has turned over Hunter Biden’s laptop hard-drive to Delaware State Police due to pictures of underage girls and inappropriate text messages.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rudy-giuliani-turns-over-alleged-photos-underage-girls-hunters-hard-drive-delaware-police

    Tomorrow is the last presidential debate, and Donald Trump can either feed Joe Biden into the wood-chipper, or hold him there head first, gazing into it.
    Joe is not a player in this game. Joe is a piece being played. Joe is unelectable. He’s off the board.
    Donald is a player in US electoral politics, set to win the presidency again, and he’s the only clear player to be empowered to play for the empire, on the world stage, at this point.
    Trump’s role will be to negotiate the multipolar world order.
    Nationalism and specific alliances of interests have outmaneuvered the “New World Order” that Poppy Bush spoke so glowingly of. We just can’t afford to be consumed by that big, sloppy blob.

    For the moment, Giuliani is playing all the chips from Hunter Biden’s laptop with relish. Murdoch is publishing the sleaze and dirt, so the media stonewall is broken.
    Facebook and Twitter are still ruled by one man each, who can make decisions, negotiate, and command critical changes, which will be duly carried out.
    Google is being sued, and the direction the wind is blowing is to remove the power concentrated in big tech founders. Who gets it next?

    People Need to Reclaim the Internet

    Other than Giuliani, who is advancing as a knight, and Murdoch, protecting his moves, Nancy Pelosi is a player, capable of negotiations, who we can watch. If Nancy is not attacking, she is negotiating terms of surrender, for at least some parties, like the Clintons and Podestas. Obama is playing, but he’s invisible. He may be in charge of the comeback of the Democratic Party, or at least a defensive line of damage control. Representing Poppy Bush’s Deep State interests, I nominate Bill Barr as the piece to keep your eyes on. He got on with Poppy when he was still in high school and rose all the way through the CIA’s ranks as it became whatever it is today. He knows who is who, and where the bodies are buried. If he brings indictments out against mid to upper mid-level deep state players, after the debate, but before the election, that will be writing on the wall for the deep state, that a change of command is taking place, and they should fall in line appropriately.

    This is moving fast. If I am wrong we will know within 2 weeks. If I am right, it will unfold on this timeline, which is the timeline of the elections. If I am right, then the US may start rebuilding before the collapse is at it’s depths. That would be a lot better, nd we could avoid civil war.

    #64662
    Bill7
    Participant

    Odd that the coroni deathNdestruction™ is always- but always!- somewhere else. But yeah, we should *definitely* give up our civil liberties to fight it; after all The Authorities will give ’em back just as soon
    as possible (heh!).

    I haven’t had the dreaded coroni; no one I know, has; no one I know, knows *anyone whatever* who has had it
    here on the central coast of California.

    -Bill7

    #64663
    Mr. House
    Participant

    “I haven’t had the dreaded coroni”

    I’m still rather sure i had it at the beginning of feb this year. My dad who is mid 60’s thinks he had in at the beginning of Jan. Once again, i want to know, when was the virus first here? Its a much bigger deal then most think, because if it was here last fall, we didn’t notice.

    #64664
    Mr. House
    Participant

    As mark twain said ” their are lies, damned lies, and statistics”

    Seeing how 50% of the country got swept up in Russiagate, which if people actually followed politics year in and year out, instead of 2.5 months around an election, they’d know the a classic Clinton tactic is to accuse your enemy of what you yourself has been doing. Which with each new factoid that emerged from russiagate seemed to prove. Most of the evidence we saw stated the clintons were in bed with the russians, but 50% of the country was using reason. Is that same percentage once again not using reason with regards to the virus? Seems like it to me.

    #64665
    John Day
    Participant

    There are a lot of eyes in that Picasso self portrait, and a tongue that looks like it won’t work.
    I’m not saying Pablo made a mistake anywhere, including dropping acid. It’s like everybody knew the Beatles had dropped acid when they came out with Revolver.

    #64666
    John Day
    Participant

    This looks important going forward, and consider the author:

    The Two Undersides to Geo-Politics


    Mark Warner, Democratic Vice-Chair of the U.S. Senate intelligence committee, sees the threat from China in stark terms: Beijing intends to control the next generation of digital infrastructure, he says, and, as it does so, to impose principles ‘that are antithetical to U.S. values’. “Over the last 10 to 15 years, [the U.S.] leadership role has eroded and our leverage to establish standards and protocols reflecting our values has diminished,” Warner laments: “As a result others, but mostly China, have stepped into the void to advance standards and values that advantage the Chinese Communist party”.

    All signs point to China wielding more influence over global technological standards. Yet equally certain is that the backlash from Washington is building. Should the U.S. become more confrontational, it could lead China to accelerate a move towards parallel alternatives. This could ultimately result in a bifurcated arena on industrial standards.

    #64667
    Mr. House
    Participant

    If 99% of people survive their bout with covid, would you notice it? Now if the media screams about it everyday for months, like they did about russiagate, would you notice it?

    #64669
    Geppetto
    Participant

    Know thyself

    #64670
    Geppetto
    Participant

    Yo Dr. D.

    you wrote:

    …..”And remember, FL governor says Covid will only end if Biden is elected. ”

    Sarcasm right? You can’t be talking about Ron DeSantis? Citation por favor.

    #64671
    Arttua
    Participant

    ” Supporters of both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden regularly assert that the nation will never recover if the other side wins.”
    “They are both partly right but miss the larger point namely, that it is unlikely that either oil supply or demand will ever return to 2018 levels on a sustained basis.

    World Oil Growth is Dependent on U.S. Tight Oil https://www.artberman.com/2020/09/03/stop-expecting-oil-and-the-economy-to-recover/

    “Strangely enough, the limit we seem to be reaching with respect to fossil fuel extraction comes from low prices. At low prices, the extraction of oil, coal, and natural gas becomes unprofitable. Producers go bankrupt, or they voluntarily cut back production in an attempt to force prices higher. As the result of these forces, production tends to fall. This limit comes long before the limit that many people imagine: the amount of fossil fuels in the ground that seems to be available with current extraction techniques.”
    Fossil Fuel Production Is Reaching Limits in a Strange Way

    “Population growth, particularly among 1st world and Asian working age populations, will decline / decelerate (respectively) and the likely decline in births will be greater than projected above. Energy consumption will almost surely grow far less than projected above with a fairly good potential for outright decline”

    “So, it’s the growth of the working-age population in the developed world that is critical for the growth of money within a fractional reserve system.”
    I care who wins the election, but I don’t think it will make much of a difference as we are in the greater depression, and politicos don’t know or will admit it.

    #64672
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    Arttua: You give me a reason to acknowledge the lovers parting “cartoon” dots (featured above) – whose business is graphing the detachment of wages from productivity.

    Agree that the Greater Depression is the elephant in the room (for the moment). One more factor playing into the mix is the divergence of wages and productivity that started in the 70’s. This issue alone would have made the future of paying work grim – now add in Covid – and you hit a wall. The growth of the working-age population WORKING is not gonna happen organically unless we reorganize the Way money is created and earned/distributed. No matter who wins the election, they will be making a hard pivot to addressing the economic needs (demands) of the people.

    #64673
    Geppetto
    Participant

    Arttua:

    I made my annual shoulder season jaunt out to the desert last week to ride my MTB. I usually try and put Phoenix at the beginning or the end of the trip. My 92 year old father lives there.This year Phoenix came first. East from central Cal to Bakersfield ,over Tehachapi, Barstow, Parker to Interstate 10 and into Phoenix. Get all my easting done in one sitting. It’s a brute of a drive but I have a good seat and good sound, lots of time to observe and think. Phoenix! Holy crap! The amount of electricity and fossil fuel that is burned there is unfathomable. I learned that they have one of the largest Nuclear power plants in the nation. They need it. The amount of growth and activity there is astounding.
    Where do the get the water?! The automobile is very central to the development plan by my observation. Gas is very cheap by Cali standards,$2.20/gal. Sprawling suburbs under construction. Next stop was Sedona. I love Sedona. This year I have never seen it so busy. I normally dry camp out beyond Boyington canyon. Not this year; the Sprinter Van, motor home/5th wheel crowd has discovered my spot! Found some solace on my fav trails but everywhere it was just packed with peeps. Motel in Flagstaff, up early and north. I love Moab but I know that if the weather is good Moab can be packed with any of the recreational groups. My little voice told me not to do it. Took 89A towards the river and Lees Ferry. I know a good hike there and a good campground. Foiled again! Tons of Peeps and a full camp ground on a Wednesday morning!! I’m think good boondocking at Gooseberry mesa and good riding too. Up from the river , across the Kaibob down towards Hurricane, but money is being poured into road repair coming down into Hurricane, got caught up in a long single lane pilot car scenario and missed my turnoff by 15 miles. There was so much construction chaos I decided to press on to St. George get a lap on some nice trails I know near town. By the time I got to St. George the temp was in the mid 90’s and there was no way an old geezer was gonna suffer riding a bike in that. Screw it! Pedal down! Honey I’m headed home. Las Vegas, what can I say ? You have to see it in the day light to get the full scope of it. Phoenix with a Picasso flair? Sprawl to the north up the valley that takes you breath away and not in a good way. Highways between Las Vegas and Cali have been upgraded and in excellent repair. 4 lanes hauling ass all the way! 15 hours in the saddle. The nicest place on the whole trip was sitting in my chair watching the stars with my pup at 11pm the same day.

    What I think I observed:

    Maybe 12 people east of the coastal Cali counties to Arizona and Utah are voting for Biden. Sarcasm ok? Haha!

    The amount of commerce that is being conducted is far beyond what the MSM is telling us.
    Interstate truck traffic was astounding, non stop in all directions. I’ve been out there 15 times in the last 10 years and I have never seen it like it was. Major truck stops are jammed. I saw coming north up Tehachapi pass (a bottle neck because of the grade) after sunset on Thursday literally hundreds of semi trucks laboring up the pass. Bumper to bumper 3 lanes wide.

    All in all even in the most conservative settings peeps are wearing masks and practicing social d. Honestly, I see more over 70 year old maskless renegades in my very liberal county than I did anywhere in Arizona. It was about flattening the curve right? I think most peeps are doing their part for that. And of course the curve is flat right!

    There is no way the population is declining! Maybe the rate of growth but overall, as world meters shows 9 billion by ..2060? The economy I saw is booming. Stuff is happening!

    Fossil fuel use declining? Ha! The recreational and hospitality industry is thriving. It is currently dependent on free and easy individual transport. I suppose in the the post carbon fueled vehicle world trains may sustain it but it might not work with electric cars…not sure?

    Twitter, Facebook….blogs are definitely not reality on the street. I think that Instagram is a more accurate reflection of *normal* peeps lives. Mostly pics not so much blah blah blah. Again that’s just MHO

    We are the machine people. I am a machine people. Who we are. Technology dependent and fully integrated. I don’t hate myself. Sorry if you do. Coming thru Las Vegas in a giant traffic jam at 2:30 in the afternoon I was wondering about Clarks 2001. The apes woke up to the obelisk, stood up to stroke it and the next day the mass of the bone club became a thing. Evolution. Evolution with some seeding of genetic material or ideas(!) …..or….. just plan dropped of on the planet. hahahahaha!

    To me the biggest stress and chaos inducer is the ‘pace’ of activity in these high population areas. We have to learn to breath…slow….wait and see. I am surly guilty of not doing well at that myself. 15 hours in the saddle…DOH!!!

    None the less, to me, it’s still a wild, crazy and brutally beautiful world!

    Ciao

    #64674
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    “Capitalism is a wonderful mechanism to convert individual human greed into collective virtue.” N. Taleb

    I’ll pair that with “Money is deferred reciprocal altruism.” (Robert Wright) as a nice-sounding even well-intended bit of self-deception.

    Both authors are bright fellows from whom I’ve learned much, but no one’s right all of the time.

    &*(

    People don’t need to reclaim the internet. They need to give it up. Shoot their TV. Oh well. The looming war already in progress will do that for us.

    &$%

    It’s funny reading these remarks whereby people politicize a viral pandemic because it has been politicized by a media they scorn (rightly) as a tool of politics. It’s like a contagious disease about a contagious disease about a contagious disease.

    Infinite Regression

    #$%

    Here’s the beef: The End

    #64675
    Mr. House
    Participant

    “It’s funny reading these remarks whereby people politicize a viral pandemic because it has been politicized by a media they scorn (rightly) as a tool of politics. It’s like a contagious disease about a contagious disease about a contagious disease.”

    Everything is fake, we live in an epoch of fraud. Anything for power Comrade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    #64676
    Mr. House
    Participant
    #64677
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    The world seems to be going into a mess in a hurry. It feels very ungrounding. I don’t what to think anymore. I don’t know what is truth and I don’t know what is lies. Maybe I should disconnect from the matrix.

    #64678
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Has anyone read the new Dimitri Orlov post? His thoughts drift where mine have been since Feb.

    “Suppose you were one of the evil geniuses who run the global economy. Of course, you would want to continue running it in a stable, secure, profitable manner in spite of any problems that might crop up now and again. You would want to solve these problems swiftly and efficiently without drawing any undue attention to yourself and your evil ways. What, then, would you currently see as the major problems crying out for a swift, preemptive solution, and how should you address them?

    First, you’d note that there is a major problem developing with the world’s energy supply. This has been endlessly predicted since the mid-1990s, but various technological advancements and geopolitical maneuverings have pushed the final crisis off by two decades. But now the final crisis is getting closer and closer. New resource discoveries have fallen so far behind production that there is no hope of ever catching up. The last great hope for the US and the world, which was fracking, is now failing, having never made much of a profit. Most of the companies involved have either gone bankrupt or are about to. Renewables, in the form of electricity from wind and solar, have proven to be too expensive and disruptive for electric grids because of their intermittency coupled with the impracticality of storing large amounts of electricity. Geopolitical gambits, such as trying to topple Venezuela’s government and steal its oil, or to sanction Russia into behaving like a gas station with its economy in shreds, have all failed. Energy returned on energy invested—a difficult to calculate but ultimately decisive measure of the feasibility of any energy venture—is continuing to decline.

    Being an evil genius rather than just some ignorant amateur armchair pilot, you would be fully cognizant of the fact that failure to do something to balance fossil fuel energy supply against demand would cause global economic collapse. Since the advent of coal-based industrialization, economic growth has always been accompanied by a proportional increase in the use of fossil fuels. But further such increases now appear to be impossible. The existing global economy relies on credit to sustain production, and on continuous growth to remain creditworthy. In this scheme, the only alternative to continuous economic growth is economic collapse. And so you start looking for ways to rebalance the energy equation by shutting down parts of the global economy while allowing others to continue to grow. Since nobody is particularly eager to stampede toward the abattoir, your task is to find a way to mislead them into doing so voluntarily, supposedly for their own good.

    The next question to decide is which industrialized nations are ready for the meathook. You would observe that certain countries have been continuously living beyond their means. They have been endlessly borrowing money far in excess of their economic growth potential and their ability to ever repay the debts they are now taking on is precisely nil. Chief among them is the United States, which has been living on borrowed time for decades now and whose mammoth debt dwarfs all previous excesses combined. Coupled with the gradual loss of reserve currency status by the US dollar and the concomitant loss by the US of the exorbitant privilege of printing money as needed, this has placed the US at the epicenter of the inevitable financial collapse. You would interpret the REPO panic of August 2019, when interest on overnight loans that used US federal debt as collateral spiked to 10%, as a crack in the carefully maintained Potemkin village façade of the US financial system.

    Turning attention to the fiscal situation in the US, you’d notice that the US is no longer able to finance its ever-growing budget deficits by borrowing from abroad because foreigners who are now net sellers of US debt instruments. You are shocked to discover that the US government is now borrowing close to half of what it spends, accumulating short-term debt twice as fast as it could possibly hope to repay it, and nonchalantly planning to roll it over into more short-term debt while borrowing even more in the years to come. An image comes to you of a particularly bullheaded bull standing in the middle of railroad tracks and attempting to stare down an oncoming train.

    Being a financial genius, you know all there is to know about pyramid schemes, and you readily identify this state of affairs as a pure pyramid scheme. Since pyramid schemes all fail, and since they tend to do so more or less instantaneously, you start looking for a way to front-run its collapse in order to maintain control of the situation. Your main short-term objective would be to avoid a worldwide panic by placing the global economy into something like a medically induced coma, feeding it an intravenous drip of free money. This pause would give you an opportunity to make some necessary changes, some of them cosmetic, some quite dramatic. “

    #64679
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ Mr. House, you guys need to remake yourselves, beautiful people in your country despite the social paths. I wish you well

    #64698
    Bill7
    Participant

    Mr. House: thanks for the Orlov piece. He’s well worth a small donation to get all his writing, some of which
    has been spot-on, in my view; such as his stating that each countries’ elites are using the “pandemic” cover
    to implement more drastic and country-tailored, draconian restructurings. We’re in a New Dark Age, folks..

    -Bill7

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