Dec 062020
 
 December 6, 2020  Posted by at 10:31 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,


Pablo Picasso Absinthe Drinker 1901

 

Large-Scale Covid19 Vaccination Campaign Kicks Off In Moscow (RT)
The Vaccine Race is a Race Against Capital Flight (Luongo)
US COVID Deaths Projected To More Than Double To 410,000 By January (R.)
Florida Requires Labs To Report ‘Cycle Threshold’ Of COVID-19 Tests (JTN)
COVID Will Drive Global Debt To $200 Trillion By End Of 2020 – S&P (RT)
Bernie Sanders Mocks Those Who Believe The Deep State Exists (Greenwald)
The President Can Pardon Himself, But That Does Not Mean He Should (Turley)
Rep. Mo Brooks’ Challenge To Electoral College Certification (JTN)
Budgets, Vetoes, Values, Defence … Division And Dithering Shame The EU (O.)
UK Urged To Follow Denmark In Ending North Sea Oil And Gas Exploration (O.)

 

 

Vaccines and autoimmune

 

 

 

 

 

 

First (though admittedly, China is a mystery).

Large-Scale Covid19 Vaccination Campaign Kicks Off In Moscow (RT)

A wide-ranging anti-coronavirus vaccination campaign began in Moscow on Saturday, with thousands signing up for shots online, in the Russian capital. Frontline workers were given first priority, as previous indicated. Those wishing to participate have to sign up online before receiving their initial dose of Sputnik V at one of the city’s 70 specialist clinics. The vaccine consists of two separate injections, the second jab must be administered 21 days after the first one. The whole procedure, which includes the time needed to cool down the formula after it’s removed from the freezer, takes less than an hour, officials said. Injections are administered to people aged between 18 and 60 that present no chronic health conditions. Those who have had respiratory infections, like flu or common cold, less than two weeks ago, are not eligible. Pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers are also barred, for now.


On Friday, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin wrote on his blog that 5,000 people had signed up for the vaccine in five hours after online registration was launched. He said they were doctors, care workers, and teachers, who were “risking their health and lives the most.” Vaccination is free for Russian citizens. Senior health official Alexey Kuznetsov announced that Sputnik V’s maximum commercial price will be 1,942 rubles ($26) for both injections. President Vladimir Putin authorized the start of a large-scale vaccination campaign on Wednesday. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said all of Russia’s regions would roll out their campaigns next week. Meanwhile, select groups of doctors and nurses had already been getting the vaccine, with the priority given to those on the frontline against Covid-19. The vaccination began in some army units as well.

Read more …

Expect horror stories about Russian vaccines.

The Vaccine Race is a Race Against Capital Flight (Luongo)

The ruble rose sharply versus the dollar this week, collapsing below the critical 76 level to close this week below 74. More evidence that with Putin’s announcement of Sputnik V vaccine distribution starting Russia the markets are looking for a home where capital can have a prayer in hell of being treated well. Because that will most certainly not be the case in Europe. The only reasons the euro is rising in on political instability in the U.S. and the lack of forward budget thanks to the veto by Hungary and Poland. Because while the euro may be breaking out versus the dollar the bellwether bond markets in Europe, namely German bunds, are rising in yield.

While this isn’t a bear market in any sense since the selling hasn’t overwhelmed ECB buying, it’s also hard to determine if that would ever happen given just how much of the European sovereign debt market the ECB actually owns now. Investors in the West are trying to beat the COVID-19 narrative, pinning their hope of economic recovery on the vaccine restoring normality. But if there is one thing I’ve noted over and over again over the past ten months, it is that the goal posts for normality keep getting moved. Remember 15 days to flatten the curve? Now it’s a 100-day mask mandates with state-by-state full lockdowns. Anyone thinking that we’ll ever return to anything resembling the old world is terminally naïve.

The race for global capital begins now with Russia’s roll out of Sputnik V by the millions of doses. It doesn’t matter if the vaccine works or it doesn’t. Pfizer’s doesn’t. What matters is what excuses politicians can make to fit their agenda. Putin wants to make Russia a destination for global capital, keeping Russia open for business. Russia pushing Sputnik V out the door this quickly is forcing the West’s hand. They wanted bigger lockdowns for longer. Asia will stay open while the West plays games resetting its system. They are really angry at the Russians for being good at math and science.

That is why the race for the vaccine is actually the race for global capital in the end. Because the rollout of the vaccine asymmetrically around the world will be followed by where watching where the capital will flow to. Russia will be one of those places along with everyone they sell it to and everyone they do business with. COVID-19 is a litmus test of governments. Investors are looking around now looking for where the political risk really lies over the next decade. Sanctions, threats and capital controls can only slow the outflow but it can’t stop it.

Read more …

Winter is a bigger factor than most acknowledged.

US COVID Deaths Projected To More Than Double To 410,000 By January (R.)

U.S. deaths from the coronavirus will reach 410,000 by the end of the year, more than double the current death toll, and deaths could soar to 3,000 per day in December, the University of Washington’s health institute forecast on Friday. Deaths could be reduced by 30% if more Americans wore face masks as epidemiologists have advised, but mask-wearing is declining, the university’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said. The U.S. death rate projected by the IHME model, which has been cited by the White House Coronavirus Task Force, would more than triple the current death rate of some 850 per day.

“We expect the daily death rate in the United States, because of seasonality and declining vigilance of the public, to reach nearly 3,000 a day in December,” the institute, which bills itself as an independent research center, said in an update of its periodic forecasts. “Cumulative deaths expected by January 1 are 410,000; this is 225,000 deaths from now until the end of the year,” the institute said. It previously projected 317,697 deaths by Dec. 1. The model’s outlook for the world was even more dire, with deaths projected to triple to 2.8 million by Jan. 1, 2021. The United States, which has the world’s third largest population, leads the planet with more than 186,000 COVID-19 deaths and 6.1 million coronavirus infections.

[..] The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues forecasts only four weeks in advance, and its latest estimate is for 200,000 to 211,000 dead by Sept. 26. But the institute said with so many Americans still refusing to wear masks, there remains “an extraordinary opportunity” to save lives. “Increasing mask use to the levels seen in Singapore would decrease the cumulative death toll to 288,000, or 122,000 lives saved compared to the reference scenario,” it said. “Mask use continues to decline from a peak in early August. Declines are notable throughout the Midwest, including in some states such as Illinois and Iowa with increasing case numbers,” the report said.

Although U.S. infections have declined to around 45,000 per day from a peak of around 70,000 per day in July, COVID-19 was the second leading cause of death, the institute said. That would place it behind only heart disease, having surpassed cancer as a cause of death in the United States.

Read more …

How much sense can you make?

Florida Requires Labs To Report ‘Cycle Threshold’ Of COVID-19 Tests (JTN)

The Florida Department of Health is requiring that all labs in the state report the critical “cycle threshold” level of every COVID-19 test they perform. In a press release this week, the department said that, regarding COVID-19 tests, “cycle threshold (CT) values and their reference ranges, as applicable, must be reported by laboratories to FDOH via electronic laboratory reporting or by fax immediately.” “Cycle thresholds” are the level at which widely used polymerase chain reaction test can detect a sample of the COVID-19 virus.


The higher the number of cycles, the lower the amount of viral load in the sample; the lower the cycles, the more prevalent the virus was in the original sample. Numerous epidemiological experts have argued that cycle thresholds are an important metric by which patients and the public can make an informed decision about how infectious and/or sick an individual with a positive COVID-19 test might be. However, health departments across the country are failing to collect that data.

Read more …

Keep rates low or else!

COVID Will Drive Global Debt To $200 Trillion By End Of 2020 – S&P (RT)

The world’s appetite for borrowing is growing with global debt expected to reach the next milestone of $200 trillion as early as this year, according to ratings agency S&P Global. That will reportedly account for 265 percent of the world’s annual economic output, amounting to a 14-point rise as a percentage of world GDP. The dramatic surge was triggered by both the economic plunge due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the extra borrowing that governments, firms and households have had to fall back upon, the New York-based agency said. “Global debt-to-GDP has been trending up for many years; the pandemic simply exacerbated the rise,” the report reads.


Despite mounting debt and a series of defaults over the coming year, the S&P doesn’t expect a major crisis any time soon. “The projected 14-percent surge in global debt-to-GDP in 2020 is unlikely to cause a near-term debt crisis, provided economies recover, vaccines are widely distributed, interest rates remain very low, and borrowing behavior moderates,” the agency said. The global debt-to-GDP ratio will reportedly ease back to 256 percent within two years, as soon as the world economy gets back on its feet after the pandemic. “We expect the debt growth of corporates, governments, and household to ease as they tend to after recessions,” the report reads.

Read more …

Bernie never recovered from the smears.

Bernie Sanders Mocks Those Who Believe The Deep State Exists (Greenwald)

That Putin wanted Tump to win was one of the leading themes used by Democratic-Party-allied media outlets to attack Trump, rendering it crippling for Sanders to be similarly tied to Moscow, particularly given the perception that Putin would help Sanders because the Kremlin judged him to be the weakest candidate against the GOP president. Indeed, The Post article explicitly drew the Sanders/Trump comparison (emphasis added): The disclosure of Russian assistance to Sanders follows a briefing to lawmakers last week in which a senior intelligence official said that Russia wants to see Trump reelected, viewing his administration as more favorable to the Kremlin’s interests, according to people who were briefed on the comments. . . .

The prospect of two rival campaigns both receiving help from Moscow appears to reflect what intelligence officials have previously described as Russia’s broader interest in sowing division in the United States and uncertainty about the validity of American elections. Reflecting his 2020 strategy of trying to appease the Democratic establishment in lieu of his more successful 2016 strategy of proudly positioning himself as its adversary, Sanders by this point had repeatedly echoed the maximalist conspiracy theories about Trump and Russia, leaving him with little room to maneuver once this Cold War tactic was predictably deployed against him. After suggesting the leak to The Post was intended to harm his campaign, he had no other options beyond sputtering with faux-toughness about how he would show Putin who was boss.

In other words — both prior to the leak and after — Sanders repeatedly validated rather than scorned the CIA’s Russia narrative (just as he did with the equally cynical Bernie Bro attacks). So it put him in a defensive crouch for the rest of the campaign, unable to explain why Putin — Public Enemy Number One among the Democratic Party base — was trying to help him win.

Read more …

“..it would be as constitutional as it would be wrong.”

The President Can Pardon Himself, But That Does Not Mean He Should (Turley)

It seems the subject of Donald Trump, like necessity, is the mother of invention, at least when it comes to legal analysis. From bribery statutes to constitutional provisions, legal experts routinely and unfailingly conclude that Trump or his family can be prosecuted or impeached for an endless array of misdeeds. Even theories denied by the Supreme Court are seen as valid when used against Trump. Now the same certainty has been declared on whether Trump can grant himself a pardon. One of the longest standing debates in constitutional law is dismissed as ill-informed by some of the same experts. His role as a catalyst for clarity was apparent in an interview by Harvard professor Laurence Tribe.

After host Lawrence O’Donnell said he believed a president could give himself a pardon, Tribe proclaimed such a view is “incoherent and incompatible” as a constitutional matter. The declaration likely surprised few on MSNBC. Tribe has been an outspoken critic of Trump, whom he has denounced as a “terrorist,” and he has supported a wide array of criminal and constitutional claims against him. These views are popular as are Tribe’s increasingly personal diatribes, including vulgar attacks on Republican leaders and even a false attack on Attorney William Barr for his Catholic faith. For the record, I have maintained that a president can grant himself a pardon. I held that position before Trump took office. I also believe a president can be indicted in office.

The reason is the same: The Constitution prohibits neither a self-pardon nor a presidential indictment. This is not the first time that Tribe and I have disagreed. Two decades ago, we testified together at the impeachment hearing of President Clinton. At that time, Tribe was far more restrictive in his legal and constitutional interpretations, declaring that lying under oath in the Clinton case would not be an impeachable offense. While a federal court and Democrats agreed that Clinton knowingly committed perjury, Tribe insisted that a president could commit perjury in certain circumstances and not be impeached. Thus, a president can commit a felony for which thousands have been incarcerated, including those prosecuted by his own administration, but he should not be removed from office for the same act.

[..] The stronger argument against a presidential self-pardon is not the textual one raised by Tribe but, simply, that the Constitution should be read to include a principle against self-dealing. Yet presidents regularly engage in all forms of self-dealing, from nepotism to favoritism to cronyism, without a hint of constitutional difficulty. Bill Clinton not only appointed his wife to head a major federal commission on health care but pardoned his own half-brother. The Framers did not bar such forms of self-dealing any more than they barred self-pardons. This is why Trump can pardon himself, and why he should not do so. Just as I denounced Clinton for abusing the pardon powers, I believe such a step by Trump would be an even greater abuse. In other words, it would be as constitutional as it would be wrong.

Read more …

Dec 8 and Dec14 are arbitrary dates. Only Jan 20 is cast in stone.

Rep. Mo Brooks’ Challenge To Electoral College Certification (JTN)

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) faces an uphill battle if he challenges the Electoral College and backs President Trump on Jan. 6, when Congress is scheduled to certify Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential race. Brooks said this week he has been sharing his plan with fellow House members in hopes of invoking the 12th Amendment and helping Trump win. At least one senator must partner with Brooks to trigger a vote on an electoral challenge, and Brooks told Fox News Radio on Thursday, “We have some leads for United States Senators who may do it.” Under the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, in a contingent election no candidate wins a majority of Electoral College votes, and the election is thrown to the U.S. House of Representatives.

There, each state’s delegation has one vote, and a candidate must receive the votes of a majority of state delegations to win. Because of the calendar, the new Congress is the one that decides, not the outgoing one. In the new Congress, there are more states with Republican delegations than Democratic ones, so in that scenario, Trump would win. “Thank you to Representative Mo Brooks,” Trump tweeted Thursday morning after news of Brooks’ intention broke. “Ask your senators and congressman if they will object to any Electoral College certification of Joe Biden on January 6,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch tweeted Nov. 23. It’s unlikely, however, that Brooks would be able to successfully invoke the 12th Amendment if he can’t get a majority of both the House and the Senate to support his efforts.

Brooks said he doesn’t think he needs a majority. Legal experts disagree, arguing that while a single member of the House and Senate can raise an objection, majorities in both the House and the Senate would have to approve it for any electoral votes to be tossed out. This would not happen under a Democratic-controlled House. “They are misunderstanding the law,” says election law expert Hans von Spakovsky. The procedures for the counting of Electoral College votes in Congress are set forth in 3 U.S.C. 15, according to von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission and manager of the Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative.

“What it says is that an objection can be filed to the certification of votes from the states when they are being counted in the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, if it is signed by one member of the House and one member of the Senate,” he told Just the News. “However, the Senate and the House then each have to stage a vote on the objection, which obviously will not go forward unless a majority of senators and a majority of representatives approve of the objection.”

Read more …

Poland and Hungary are becoming a very big problem for Europe.

Budgets, Vetoes, Values, Defence … Division And Dithering Shame The EU (O.)

It’s all happening at once for the EU. Fundamental problems and disputes, long fudged, postponed or ignored, are simultaneously coming to a head. Is this a union of shared values or of economic interests? Who pays the bills? How is Europe best defended when the US cannot be trusted? What about Turkey? And then there’s “bloody Brexit”. Little wonder some are predicting a nervous collapse. These fraught issues and more will converge at this week’s “doomsday” EU summit, presaging greater-than-usual fractiousness. But if it is as inconclusive as many previous gatherings, the European project faces serious trouble. Implementation of the €1.1tn, seven-year EU budget and €750bn Covid recovery fund cannot sensibly be delayed much longer. Yet two states – Poland and Hungary – are blocking the way.

Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s rightwing populist leader, and Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland’s prime minister, jointly declared last week they would veto the budget if it retained “rule of law” criteria requiring adherence to EU-defined standards of judicial independence. Both governments are in long-running disputes over what Brussels views as their illiberal, “un-European” policies on judges, media freedom and women’s and gender rights. They reject what they call “politically motivated” meddling. The fact that the row is blocking timely pandemic relief shames the EU. If it cannot unite to fight this unprecedented human emergency, voters will ask, then what can it do? Even the experienced German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who holds the EU presidency, is flailing as the French and others insist they will not bow to authoritarian diktats.

This dispute, plus ongoing tensions over the cost of an expanded budget now UK contributions are ending, prompted an intriguing intervention last week from António Costa, the Portuguese prime minister. Portugal assumes the EU presidency next month, and is staring aghast at the can of worms it’s inheriting. Costa’s proposal was suitably radical: effectively split the EU in two, and thus save it, by recognising irreconcilable internal differences. This variation on the old idea of a two-speed or two-tier Europe would be based not on geography but on values, Costa suggested. It would separate the so-called “frugal” states – the Netherlands, Austria and Nordic countries concerned about high spending and fiscal transfers – plus east European states opposed to rule of law mechanisms and migrant quotas – Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic – from the remainder.

“Basically, it is whether the EU is a union of values or whether, on the contrary, it is primarily an economic instrument,” Costa argued. Countries opposing further integration would benefit from “variable geometries” while others like France, and southern states such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, could pursue their version of ever closer union. It’s a brave idea that Costa, reportedly with French backing, will pursue at a special spring summit in Lisbon. Yet it has a major flaw. Germany, the EU’s chief paymaster with a current net budget contribution of €12.8bn, gives lip service to EU integration and solidarity. But it has a deeply ingrained horror of underwriting the profligacy and pipe-dreams of indebted fellow eurozone members.

This same German reluctance hinders Emmanuel Macron’s ambitions for a unified “global Europe” to match the US and China: Berlin fears it will end up footing the bill, financially and politically. When France’s president called again last month for a sovereign European defence strategy, Germany’s defence minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, slapped him down. “The idea of strategic autonomy for Europe goes too far if it nurtures the illusion that we could ensure Europe’s security, stability and prosperity without Nato and the US … Germany and Europe cannot protect themselves without America’s nuclear and conventional power. This is simply a fact,” she said. Macron was furious.

Read more …

Not going to happen.

UK Urged To Follow Denmark In Ending North Sea Oil And Gas Exploration (O.)

Britain must end all oil and gas extraction in the North Sea as a matter of urgency if it is to maintain its position as a credible climate champion. That was the stark warning issued by green campaigners yesterday in the wake of last week’s decision by Denmark to halt its exploration for new North Sea reserves as part of its commitment to cut carbon emissions and tackle climate change. The Danish decision is an embarrassment for Boris Johnson who announced last week that Britain would take a lead in the battle against global heating by cutting national carbon emissions by 68% by 2030, a rate faster than any other major economy. However, the UK has not announced plans to end exploration in the North Sea for new gas and oil fields or to halt extraction there – despite the established link between global warming and fossil fuel extraction and burning.

By announcing its North Sea ban last week, say campaigners, Denmark has undermined Johnson’s attempt to portray himself as a world climate leader next Saturday when he is scheduled to co-host a virtual Climate Ambition summit of world leaders. “If the UK is to be a real global climate leader, it must follow Denmark’s lead by stopping issuing new oil and gas exploration licences and delivering a managed phase-out of oil and gas extraction,” said Ken Penton, UK climate campaigner for the international NGO, Global Witness. “This must include funding a just transition for oil and gas workers and their communities to ensure they can benefit from the new green economy and do not suffer the fate of UK coal miners and their communities.”

The Danish government voted on Thursday to cancel the country’s next North Sea oil and gas licensing round, 80 years after it first began exploiting its hydrocarbon reserves. Denmark’s 55 existing platforms, spread across 20 oil and gas fields, will be allowed to continue extracting fossil fuels but the decision to end the hunt for new reserves will guarantee an end to Denmark’s fossil fuel production.

Read more …

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle December 6 2020

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
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  • #66461

    Pablo Picasso Absinthe Drinker 1901   • Large-Scale Covid19 Vaccination Campaign Kicks Off In Moscow (RT) • The Vaccine Race is a Race Against Ca
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle December 6 2020]

    #66466
    Basseterre Kitona
    Participant

    Winter is a bigger factor than most acknowledged.

    Agreed that weather is a significant driver in respiratory illnesses like the seasonal cold outbreaks. But it also appears to be a little more nuanced than : winter bad, summer good. Any weather that drives people indoors to small spaces, tight quarters with others (homes, offices, etc.) increases the speed of an outbreak. Hence the summer spikes in the US south with their heavy reliance on Air Conditioning. The sweet spot seems to be about 75–85°F or 24–29°C where people can comfortably open windows and freely circulate inside & outside. Funny though…nobody is referring to the virus outbreak as an issue of environment.

    Masks are still totally useless. Outside in the street with air flowing about, unlikely to catch a virus from someone else unless they literally sneeze or cough in your face. Indoors, the bigger factor is your proximity to others. If your spouse becomes infected and you spend more than 10 minutes speaking in close proximity, then you are likely to become infected too regardless of whether or not you are wearing masks. It’s like farting…in a room, everyone will smell even if you are wearing pants, but outside it’s barely noticeable.

    #66467
    Dr. D
    Participant

    We see over and over from Day One — Diamond Princess evil experiment — that happens all the time one spouse gets it and the other doesn’t. No one bothers to look, ask, study why. Masks still considered great psychological torture medicine, despite all real studies, all legal disclaimers, and all common sense.

    Fauci finally slapped his tiny head and said, “O M G people! I just remembered! I’ve been taking super doses of Vitamin C and D all this time! Did I forget to mention?” And as usual, he only says things once the public forces him to as which the wind blows. Still isn’t actively recommending it though — obviously that would stop killing people, and we don’t want that.

    Nursing Homes? Not that I know of. No visitor policy, so you know, UN-designated torture of unlimited solitary confinement in violation of all human rights? But no actual procedures that might save someone, like Sanitarium model. Applause! 1 Year later and we’ve learned not a thing! We’re still killing more people than Cuomo! You can’t make this up! Remember kids: Andrew Cuomo killed more people than Osama Bin Laden. Stunning and brave. A model for all. The best in the world according to Fauc-U.

    “First (though admittedly, China is a mystery).”

    What? No China has 1B people and is wide open in every possible way, and has zero cases. They said so on the internet. No vaccine, no hospitals, no masks. And no questions. No one in the whole planet’s media is at all curious about this. Fauci doesn’t stand up and say, “Whatever China’s doing: we should do it!” You know: unless it destroys all human rights and transfers all business, all wealth, all power on the planet to Bezos and the Walton family.

    “US COVID Deaths Projected To More Than Double To 410,000 By January (R.)”

    NBC posts article today, “COVID Eclipses Heart Disease as the Leading Cause of Death”!!! Of course, having no curiosity and being dumber than “Idiocracy,” they fail to mention that’s because we now have no Heart Disease deaths. The ‘Rona: it’s the miracle cure! It cures the Flu! It cures cancer! It cures heart disease! …Now somebody want to explain that to me?

    Yes, IF IT REPLACES ALL OTHER FORMS OF DEATH – including car accidents and poisonings, which we already have on record – then yeah, it certainly WILL double to half-a-mil. And the world will be safer than ever, as all-in death rates don’t budge.

    Again: explain how we have a pandemic with no death rate. Are we saving 410,000 lives somewhere else you’re not talking about? Or are you both really bad at math, and don’t know how to use a “telephone” to ask for a “statement” from the dissenting viewliteral Doctors and Scientists? Like John Hopkins. Like Denmark. Like Holland. Like Sweden. Like France.

    “Florida Requires Labs To Report ‘Cycle Threshold’ Of COVID-19 Tests (JTN)”

    After us screaming about it for 6 months, they finally start discussing this terrible, unusable, impracticable test right before they start jimmying the cycles to prove the vaccine works. Ding!

    rendering it crippling for Sanders to be similarly tied to Moscow,”

    Exactly as Jimmy Dore said the day it happened. “They Attack him from RIGHT” (i.e. to complain about Communism – which Russia isn’t– and the LACK of new wars, censorship, and new slave markets for brown people) And here we are, just like he said: censorship silencing the LEFT, far-LEFTISTS are being purged again this weekend, the furthest Right, most-disturbed psychotic conspiracy-theory neocons are put in charge of BidenWar™ (but they wear lipstick, so: happy!!) Democratic Socialists are drummed out of the new cabinet, marginalized out of the party now that they’ve been useless idiots for corporatists. And they didn’t WITHHOLD their vote, FORCE concessions, uphold free speech, or as he would say, start a new “People’s Party” to bring the DNC to heel. Now the real Left is being wiped out, annihilated, by the DEMOCRATS, for 3 ½ years, until the next election, when like Lucy they’ll DO THE EXACT SAME THING and screw their Progressive base again. Because: Republicans. It’s their fault we’re so bad!

    The game not played well. It bugs me. Get your People’s Party, get a real candidate who gives real things and you’ll win. …Problem is, as a populist he’ll have most of Trump’s platform and will be arch-enemies with NeoCon/NeoLib billionaire DerpState insiders. RussiaRussiaRussia. Orange Man Bad. That’s not an attack on HIM, that’s an attack on YOU, you idealist far-left Populists.

    And Bernie is their poster child. Saying things, then rolling over like a b—ch in 60 seconds. Being against millionaires until 60 seconds after he is one. Allowing the obvious, open election fraud in Iowa primaries – 4 years after open, obvious – and Reported/Leaked – fraud in California 4 years earlier. Without a peep. Supports Biden’s war and slave markets. Support Hillary and WWIII. He want change so bad he’ll do ANYTHING…except fight for it. Anything except raise his voice and file a suit. Jill Stein has more b-lls than him, at least she filed in Detroit. It’s embarrassing.

    The President Can Pardon Himself, But That Does Not Mean He Should (Turley)”

    Don’t think so: the Supreme Court would have something to say about this. You can be the court that tries yourself, the Judge that passes your own sentence? See what I mean? But politics is just made up. It’s not real. Like law, it’s just some things we made up and is only what we can enforce and get away with.

    How is Europe best defended when the US cannot be trusted?”

    Oh, so you ARE sucking on our trillions to pay for your free health care while we get none. I thought that was a myth.

    Anyone have a spare conspiracy theory? All mine seem to be coming true.

    “This variation on the old idea of a two-speed or two-tier Europe would be based not on geography but on values,”

    He’s not wrong, but there are three Europes, or four. Or Five.

    1) Frugal
    2) Eastern
    3 Southern (Italy, Greece, Spain)
    4) Britain
    5) aaaaaaaand never discussed, because words-mean-only-what-I-want-them-to, RUSSIA.

    Then you’ve got several Europes INSIDE each Europe. Migrants and Muslims in France and Sweden. Radical Progressive vs mildly Traditional. Religious vs Irreligious. Rule of Law vs Whatever-we-want. Liberal (State) vs Conservative everywhere. And no money, no military, no language, no Federals, and no credibility.

    Good luck. You’ll need it.

    “Britain must end all oil and gas extraction in the North Sea as a matter of urgency if it is to maintain its position as a credible climate champion.”

    Britain is credible about anything ever? First I’ve heard of it. But yes, that would be true, and no, it’s not going to happen. What’s amazing is they’ve been lying every second of every day for 20, 30, 40 years about it and no matter how much they don’t do anything, approve more drilling and approve glyphosate over universal objections, everyone still eats it up.

    But go ahead and don’t have oil if you want. That only means you will have no money, no power, no social programs, and you won’t have heat in the winter. Russia will, and they’ll sell it to you so you can live easy on your conscience. Just like poisoning all of Asia, using open slave labor and mass-murder to make your beautiful hipster iPhones and Tesla batteries. “It’s not a crime if I subcontract the mass murder!” Ask any Scrooge.

    Clearly Progressives are not going to stop killing yellow and brown people in my remaining lifetime.

    #66469
    zerosum
    Participant

    Its an elephant!
    Pull the wool over someone’s eyes,
    To hoodwink or deceive someone.

    #66470
    John Day
    Participant

    What is “winter”? It is not just colder weather, inducing people to stay inside, in unventilated rooms, together. Winter is also (northern hemisphere) the time of minimal solar exposure to human skin, so minimal vitamin-D. Vitamin D is critical for normal immune function, and it is slow to build and slow to decline in human bodies, lagging sun exposure by something like 6 weeks (my educated guess).
    Take vitamin-D 5000 units per day. Double that for 1-2 months if you are just starting.

    “It’s the vitamin-D, stupid​!​”​ (Take 5000 units per day long term if you weigh over 100#. Double that dose for a couple of months if just starting.)​
    Conclusions The previous studies, reporting a vitamin D blood level impact, compared COVID-19 severity between different patients populations and so can hardly discriminate whether the vitamin D blood level is a real factor of covid-19 severity or only a marker of another weakness being the primary severity factor. In contrary, the date of the boost is an intrapopulation observation and can thus only be triggered by a parameter globally affecting the population, i.e. the sun UV daily dose decreases. This result evidences that low vitamin blood D level is a contributing factor of COVID-19 severity.
    https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.28.20221176v4

    #66472
    John Day
    Participant

    I can’t really recall how much of this you already saw here, brothers and sisters. I’m trying to limit it.
    https://www.johndayblog.com/2020/12/secret-warfare.html

    Chief Medical Officer Says Canadians Who Refuse Vaccine Won’t Have “Freedom to Move Around”
    Williams acknowledged that “we can’t force someone to take a vaccine,” but when on to explain how people who didn’t take it would have their freedom of mobility severely restricted.
    “What we can do is to say sometimes for access or ease of getting into certain settings, if you don’t have vaccination then you’re not allowed into that setting without other protection materials,” said Williams.

    Chief Medical Officer Says Canadians Who Refuse Vaccine Won’t Have “Freedom to Move Around”

    This is a remarkably intelligent and even-handed look at western political economy since the late 1800s, but the conclusion makes a point.
    The COVID-19 pandemic has upset the earlier uneasy coexistence of accepted “truth” and the occasional revolts against it. What was considered a radical economic populist agenda just six months ago has won: Budget constraints are ignored or even not deemed to be constraints anymore. Economies have slowed dramatically due to lockdowns and fear of illness, and the state is now expected to revive them using state funding, debt creation, and welfare programs. Central banks have embarked again on large-scale money creation to push the economy over the deflationary precipice and avoid collapse.
    Despite the unprecedented scale of state intervention, the recovery from the novel coronavirus lockdowns is slow and partial. Immense difficulties lie ahead. No wonder, then, that the cultural-political differences have become even more vicious. Nonetheless, we are nowhere near an explosion comparable to the interwar years. This is not 1933. Rather, we are in the fateful last years of the belle epoque, the underlying contradictions of which led to an unexpected eruption of the Great War in 1914. This situation bears an uncanny resemblance to the world described by Thomas Mann in The Magic Mountain—an impending sense of doom, of the end days, combined with an epidemic.
    Just as then, we have three major sources of conflict. First, an underlying Great Power competition between China and the US. Second, the unsustainability of the mixed economy in the context of the large increases in debt and aging populations.

    A Loss of Direction and the Rise of Populisms

    Ellen Brown, Why The Fed Needs Public Banks (Well, the public needs them more…)
    The reason the Fed is not well suited to the task is that it is not allowed to make loans directly to Main Street businesses. It must rely on banks to do it, and private banks are currently unable or unwilling to make those loans as needed. But publicly-owned banks would. Several promising public bank bills were recently introduced in Congress that could help resolve this crisis.

    Why the Fed Needs Public Banks

    Do You Really Think the Empire Will Sacrifice the Dollar to Further Enrich Billionaires?
    (Well, it might happen when the empire is distracted.)
    As for stock markets–the devil take the hindmost.
    http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2020/12/do-you-really-think-empire-will.html

    #66473
    Noirette
    Participant

    Here are the UK Gvmt. instructions for health professionals re.:

    COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine BNT162b2 Created by BioNtech and Pfizer

    Excerpts (quotes):

    This medicinal product does not have a UK marketing authorisation but has been given authorisation for temporary supply by the UK Department of Health and Social Care and the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for active immunization to prevent COVID-19 disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus in individuals aged 16 years of age and over.

    No interaction studies have been performed.

    Animal reproductive toxicity studies have not been completed.

    It is unknown whether /vaccine/ is excreted in human milk.

    It is unknown whether /vaccine/ has an impact on fertility.

    In the absence of compatibility studies, this medicinal product must not be mixed with other medicinal products.

    PDF gov. doc. https://bit.ly/3qvxJ5P

    —————————————-

    Ivermectin is effective for COVID-19: meta analysis of 22 studies

    https://ivmmeta.com

    Posted for info, I haven’t read it carefully, so idk.

    #66475

    They can’t raise interest rates but they need inflation- isn’t that what the UBI will do? I can’t think of a better way to open the doors to rampant inflation than by flooding the nation with mega billions of dollars- and the recipients will actually spend them on stuff.

    By the way- thanks, Huskynut, for your comment yesterday. It only encourages me. ; )

    #66476
    John Day
    Participant

    Thanks for the Ivermectin meta analysis Noirette.

    #66484
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    Anyone have a spare conspiracy theory? All mine seem to be coming true.

    How about this one: The mRNA vaccines are a primer.

    #66497
    WES
    Participant

    It seems like everybody thinks government deficit spending is positive!

    However governments produce nothing. They can only take something from productive people. (You can’t take from unproductive people because they produce nothing that you can take.)

    So printing money steals value from existing money owners.

    O.K. so you take something from productive people. Obviously this will make productive people less productive going forward because they have less to be productive with. (They might also decide not to work so hard going forward too!) This ends up hurting everybody in the long run as the pie keeps getting smaller.

    Again, how is bigger government positive?

    #66499
    WES
    Participant

    my parents said know:

    When you see governments printing money like crazy and then people spending the money on “goods” as quickly as they can, rather than save the money, then you are seeing concrete signs that the people have lost “trust” in the value of they government’s money!

    By then it is too late to protect yourself.

    #66524
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ WES:

    Excellent principle of understand you wrote there.

    ^&*

    Wow. Looks like the offer they made Bernie not to be refused runs deep. Or he’s a uncommonly sick kind of creep. I prefer to think the former.

    ^&*

    @ WES again:

    Big government is the inevitable result of the cancer known as human governance. As long as the population grows, so does the government. Both population and government become crazier and less functional as size expands.

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