Jan 192021
 
 January 19, 2021  Posted by at 10:26 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Claude Monet The house at Yerres 1876

 

The Zeitgeist Wants What the Zeitgeist Wants (Kustler)
Can Joe Biden Succeed Where Barack Obama Failed? (Sirota)
McConnell, Schumer Close In On Power-Sharing Agreement (CNN)
Critics Reject $1.9 Trillion Biden COVID Plan As ‘Liberal Wishlist’ (JTN)
Hillary, Pelosi Wonder if Trump Spoke to Putin on Day of Capitol Riot (BB)
Kremlin Joins EU Officials In Denouncing Big Tech Censorship (JTN)
Germany Weighs Up Mandatory FFP2 Masks In Shops And On Transport (G.)
Evolution of Antibody Immunity to SARS-CoV-2 (Nature)
Washington State Partners With Starbucks For Vaccine Distribution (F.)
EU-US Relations Under Biden Won’t Be The Same As Before Trump (EN)
Trump Announces 200 Statues To Be Built For ‘American Heroes’ (JTN)
My Letter to President Trump (Joe Lauria)

 

 

The internet, our greatest tool of emancipation, has been transformed into the most dangerous facilitator of totalitarianism we have ever seen. The internet is a threat to human civilization.
– Julian Assange

 

 

 

 

“He’ll be great in the war room, I’m sure.”

The Zeitgeist Wants What the Zeitgeist Wants (Kustler)

The hypothetical Biden Administration is shaping up to be something like a four-year-long séance, a conjuring of apparitions wailing out talking points in a darkened room. The actual location of the inaugural event remains a mystery, or even if it will be an event, maybe just a pre-recorded video concoction of Mr. Biden’s greatest hits of 2020. Check and see if he’s wearing the same necktie from beginning to end. If a hologram is inaugurated, does that make the land-mass between Montauk and Santa Barbara a post-structural figment? The “president-elect,” made an ectoplasmic appearance Sunday talking up “science,” the Democrat’s mental life-preserver, and then shuffled offstage in an apparent fog of confusion as the Ritalin wore off. He’ll be great in the war room, I’m sure.

The mystery surrounding DNI John Ratcliffe’s long overdue report on foreign interference in the election cleared up only a little with the release of a letter sent January 8th to the Senate Intelligence Committee. In it, citing a side report from Intel Community Ombudsman Barry Zulauf, Mr. Ratcliffe refers to “undue pressure being brought to bear” on analysts by CIA management to craft their conclusions according to political loyalties. In other words, once again the CIA appears to be playing games with the American people and can’t be trusted. Isn’t that reassuring?

Meanwhile, The New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC have turned into a nonstop gloat-fest anticipating the punishments to be dished out by progressive Wokesterdom against anyone who ever entertained a thought about or uttered the phrase “stolen election.” They can kiss their livelihoods goodbye. Their college degrees will be revoked by such bastions of free thinking as Harvard. Their websites will be liquidated. Senators and congresspersons must be thrown out of their seats. They’ll be reduced to squatting on filthy blankets at the entrance of the Walmart begging for spare change, or hauled off to re-education camps where NPR lawyers with riding crops preside over their therapeutic struggle sessions, beating the wrongthink out of their hides. For Democrats, vengeance is a dish to be served piping hot. Would you like flies with your shit sandwich?

Ha ha ha. CNN doesn’t like competition. “There are people on YouTube for example that have a larger audience than daytime CNN.” Note the link to ISIS ingested into the conversation. Dangerous people.

Read more …

Obama is very closely behind Biden.

Can Joe Biden Succeed Where Barack Obama Failed? (Sirota)

Twelve years after Joe Biden was sworn in as the vice president of hope and change, hope is in short supply and the need for change is even more acute. Progressives have a rare opportunity to enact their agenda—but they will need to play the kind of hardball they have backed away from in the past, because Biden continues to send conflicting messages. For every promise of transformational change, he signals a desire to appease a Republican Party intent on destroying his presidency. The stakes could hardly be higher: One out of every thousand Americans has died from a lethal pandemic, with no end yet in sight. The economy is officially still humming along, but millions face eviction, bankruptcy and hunger. Even U.S. democracy is under unprecedented siege by an insurrectionist movement encouraged by the outgoing president and his loyalists in Congress.


The path forward is difficult to envision amid the fog of culture war, political war and the threat of actual, real-life civil war. But it is clear that Biden is at a crossroad and still unsure which way to go. He can follow his boss, Barack Obama, who pursued bipartisanship, comity and compromise—accommodating corporate power. Or he can break toward the path of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who did battle with oligarchy, stood down fascism and welcomed the hatred of the rich. One thing he cannot do is try to go in both directions. The lesson of the Obama administration is that you can have appeasement or transformative progress, but you almost certainly cannot have both.

Read more …

The boys are back in power.

McConnell, Schumer Close In On Power-Sharing Agreement (CNN)

The top two Senate leaders are nearing a power-sharing agreement to hash out how the evenly divided chamber will operate, with Democrats in charge of setting the schedule but both parties likely to hold an equal number of seats on Senate committees, according to sources familiar with the talks. The negotiations between Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell have been built largely around how the Senate operated the last time the body was split 50-50: When George W. Bush initially became president in 2001. Final details are still being sorted out between the two leaders, sources said.


Similar to those rules, set in January 2001, Schumer and McConnell aides are discussing allowing bills and nominations to advance to the Senate floor even if they are tied during committee votes, something that could become common given that each party is expected to have the same number of seats on committees. Democrats will hold the chairmanships of the committees, giving them power to set the agenda, and Schumer will be granted the title of majority leader since Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will cast tiebreaking votes on the floor. The full chamber still has to ratify these procedures, but that is expected to occur once Schumer and McConnell have finalized their agreement.

Read more …

No DC without pork. Tons of it.

Critics Reject $1.9 Trillion Biden COVID Plan As ‘Liberal Wishlist’ (JTN)

Critics of President-Elect Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-related spending plan say the proposal goes far beyond coronavirus relief into subsidizing teachers’ unions and prioritizing taxpayer money to be spent on non-white, non-male-owned businesses rather than taking a color- and gender-blind approach. Biden’s proposal comes in addition to the $900 billion passed by Congress and signed by President Trump last month, and on top of the $2.9 trillion stimulus package passed in the spring of 2020. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a self-described “democratic socialist” called Biden’s plan just a “first installment.”


In an interview with the “Just the News AM” television program, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) called the plan “another multitrillion dollar liberal wishlist” that she opposed. “I just hope that President-Elect Biden looks to work with Republicans, rather than just really bowing to the far left, the AOC wing of the party where I think there’s gonna be a lot of pressure to do that,” Stefanik said, alluding to the bloc led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Though the Biden plan carves out $70 billion for COVID-related vaccines, therapies and testing (this is on top of the $42 billion passed last month), critics of the plan say that the vast majority of the rest of the funding is more focused on income redistribution to advance long-term Democratic social policies.

Read more …

It’s a disease. There’s no cure.

Hillary, Pelosi Wonder if Trump Spoke to Putin on Day of Capitol Riot (BB)

Failed Trump challenger Hillary Clinton said she would “love” to see President Donald Trump’s phone records to see “whether he was talking to Putin the day that the insurgents invaded our Capitol” on January 6, making the remarks during a bonus episode of her podcast You and Me Both released Monday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) appeared as the featured guest on the bonus episode and discussed the series of events that occurred on January 6 — the day protesters breached the U.S. Capitol as Congress gathered to certify the electoral vote. Clinton, one of the central champions of the debunked Trump-Russia collusion narrative that dominated the first years of Trump’s presidency, revealed her own suspicion that Trump could have been in contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the day of the protest.

“We learned a lot about our system of government over the last four years with a president who disdains democracy and, as you have said numerous times, has other agendas,” Clinton said. “What they all are, I don’t think we yet know. I hope historically we will find out who he’s beholden to, who pulls his strings. I would love to see his phone records to see whether he was talking to Putin the day that the insurgents invaded our Capitol,” Clinton continued, also placing blame on Trump’s “enablers,” “accomplices,” and “cult members” — a likely reference to his supporters, whom she famously referred to as “deplorables” during her 2016 campaign. “Do you think we need a 9/11-type commission to investigate and report everything that they can pull together and explain what happened?” Clinton asked the speaker, who responded, “I do.”

“To your point of who is he beholden to, as I’ve said over and over, as I said to him in that picture with my blue suit as I was leaving, what I was saying to him as I was pointing, rudely, at him: ‘With you, Mr. President, all roads lead to Putin,’” Pelosi told Clinton, referring to the January 6 events as a “gift to Putin” as he “wants to undermine democracy in our country and throughout the world.” “And these people, unbeknownst to them, maybe, are Putin puppets. They were doing Putin’s business when they did that at the incitement of an insurrection by the president of the United States,” she added.

Hillary Pelosi Putin

Read more …

What does Hillary think?

Kremlin Joins EU Officials In Denouncing Big Tech Censorship (JTN)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday joined calls from European Union officials to reign in the censorship power of Big Tech. In a Moscow news conference, Lavrov characterized the tech giants as extra-governmental entities that impose their own rules on public discourse. “Let’s hope that American society will not let its elites use blatant censorship, flagrant infringement of the Constitution and international commitments in its struggle against one other,” Lavrov said in the Jan. 18 news conference. “If it fails to cope with this problem, we all should be ready to face the consequences of such a failure of the American state, and these consequences would be very serious for the global arena.”

Russia’s top diplomat made his comments in the wake of high-profile social media platforms Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram abolishing accounts belonging to President Donald Trump. Although Facebook and Instagram have restored some elements of the president’s accounts, Twitter has not. The platform leader, Jack Dorsey, has disregarded public outcry against Twitter’s seemingly capricious enforcement of its terms of use, and has upheld the ban against Trump. The social media censorship moves against Trump and others last week brought cries of alarm from the European Commission, which is the executive branch of the European Union. A commission official, Prabhat Agarwal, reportedly spoke out Jan. 11 in a meeting with fellow lawmakers.

“It is no longer acceptable in our view that platforms take some key decisions by themselves alone without any supervision, without any accountability, and without any sort of dialogue or transparency for the kind of decisions that they’re taking,” said Agarwal, who leads a commission e-commerce unit. “Freedom of expression is really a key value in this.” [..] “Recent events, including those in the United States, [pertain] to a situation when half a dozen people who have created their technological empires do not even want to know what rights they have in their countries,” Lavrov said. “They themselves define their rights on the basis of so-called corporate norms and they don’t care a bit about the constitutions of their nations. We have clearly seen this in the United States, and this, of course, causes serious concern.”

Read more …

Took just one year.

Germany Weighs Up Mandatory FFP2 Masks In Shops And On Transport (G.)

Germany is weighing up following Austria and Bavaria’s lead in making it compulsory to wear full protective filter masks on public transport and in shops, as the country remains on high alert about the impact of possible coronavirus mutations. The Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, announced on Sunday that wearing single-use filtering facepiece respirator, or FFP2, masks would become mandatory on public transport and in shops from 25 January, as the Alpine state moves to extend its national lockdown until 7 February.

In Germany’s largest and southernmost state, Bavaria, a similar requirement for trains, trams, buses and supermarkets came into force on Monday, though the new rule will not be policed until 24 January and allows for exemptions for bus drivers, ticket inspectors and children under the age of 15. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the heads of the country’s 16 federal states are expected to discuss following the Bavarian blueprint at a summit on Tuesday in spite of a recent reduction of infection rates. A night-time curfew and new remote-working requirements could also accompany an expected extension of the lockdown into February.

When fitted properly, FFP2 masks promise to filter out at least 94% of particles but are also more expensive, usually retailing at between €2 and €5 per mask. If FFP2 masks were made mandatory before suppliers are unable to meet the new demand, prices are expected to rise further. Some virologists warn a new compulsory mask rule could end up being counterproductive. “In theory, the move to more professional masks is welcome,” said Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit, a German virologist and Professor of Arbovirology at the University of Hamburg. “But I’d be wary of simply copying the Bavarian model without considering the possible downsides.

Read more …

Antibodies evolve along with virus mutations.

Evolution of Antibody Immunity to SARS-CoV-2 (Nature)

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected 78 million individuals and is responsible for over 1.7 million deaths to date. Infection is associated with development of variable levels of antibodies with neutralizing activity that can protect against infection in animal models. Antibody levels decrease with time, but the nature and quality of the memory B cells that would be called upon to produce antibodies upon re-infection has not been examined. Here we report on the humoral memory response in a cohort of 87 individuals assessed at 1.3 and 6.2 months after infection. We find that IgM, and IgG anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD) antibody titres decrease significantly with IgA being less affected.


Concurrently, neutralizing activity in plasma decreases by fivefold in pseudotype virus assays. In contrast, the number of RBD-specific memory B cells is unchanged. Memory B cells display clonal turnover after 6.2 months, and the antibodies they express have greater somatic hypermutation, increased potency and resistance to RBD mutations, indicative of continued evolution of the humoral response. Analysis of intestinal biopsies obtained from asymptomatic individuals 4 months after the onset of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), using immunofluorescence, or polymerase chain reaction, revealed persistence of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acids and immunoreactivity in the small bowel of 7 out of 14 volunteers. We conclude that the memory B cell response to SARS-CoV-2 evolves between 1.3 and 6.2 months after infection in a manner that is consistent with antigen persistence.

Read more …

Testimony to the lack of organization in the US? Or just Corporatism 2.0?

Washington State Partners With Starbucks For Vaccine Distribution (F.)

As states across the U.S. struggle to administer enough coronavirus vaccines, Washington has picked an unusual partner to help speed up the process: Starbucks. Starbucks, which is based in Seattle, will assign several employees to work on “operational efficiency, scalable modeling and human-centered design expertise and support,” Gov. Jay Inslee announced Monday. Starbucks locations will not serve as vaccination sites, but the company said it will use its technology and logistical “expertise” to help with site selection and “optimize vaccination sites with design principles and solutions focused on efficiency to thruput.” Starbucks is part of a larger public-private partnership announced Monday to help Washington’s vaccine distribution, which includes Microsoft for technology assistance, Costco pharmacies for vaccine delivery and local unions to help staff and train volunteer vaccinators.


The goal of the partnership is to boost its distribution efforts, which like many states has been moving slowly amid logistical and supply challenges. States are already partnering with private companies with pharmacies, such as Walmart, Kroger, CVS and Walgreens, for vaccine distribution, but the Starbucks partnership is unique to Washington, and it’s among the first to involve a company without a clear link to healthcare. “Starbucks is not a healthcare company, but we do operate 33,000 stores at scale, serving 100 million customers per week,” said Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson at a press conference. “And we have a world-class team of human-centered design engineers who are working under the direction of the state and healthcare providers, like Swedish, Kaiser Permanente and others, with Microsoft and many other businesses to help support the creation of vaccination centers that can scale.”

Read more …

Ironically, the banning of Trump by the Silicon Valley Kings will play a large role in these relations.

EU-US Relations Under Biden Won’t Be The Same As Before Trump (EN)

EU-US relations will not return to how they were before Donald Trump came to power, according to the European Commission’s top trade official. Sabine Weyland, the EU’s director-general for trade, was speaking at a videoconference for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration as the US’ 46th president on Wednesday. “There will be no nostalgia. We are not going to go back to the global order of previous days. The world today is not the same as it was ten or even five years ago,” Weyland said. Weyland’s words suggest four years of hostility towards Europe from Donald Trump’s administration have left a mark.


Nevertheless, Brussels is looking for closer cooperation with the US. It wants to focus on core priorities, like fighting the pandemic and its economic fallout, tackling climate change, and finding common ground on digital and trade policies. Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics said that even with Trump out of the picture, American interests are still what counts most in Washington. “The Biden administration somewhat disappointingly is not just going to reverse all the tariffs,” Posen explained. “They will certainly stop escalating them and they will stop some of the more ridiculous tariffs that were put on allies with national security excuses. But there will be some attempt by the Biden administration to extract things in return for reducing the tariffs.”

Read more …

Not the Onion.

Trump Announces 200 Statues To Be Built For ‘American Heroes’ (JTN)

President Donald Trump announced the names on Monday of more than 200 statues to be built as part of his plan for a new “National Garden of American Heroes.” He said the new garden will demolish the “reckless attempt to erase our heroes” that occurred during last year’s protests and riots that occurred following the death of George Floyd, according to the Washington Times. The list of names is headlined by author Harper Lee, actor Jimmy Stewart, abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, baseball star Roberto Clemente and explorer Christopher Columbus. “In the peace and harmony of this vast outdoor park, visitors will come and learn the amazing stories of some of the greatest Americans who have ever lived,” Trump said in a new executive order, which lists all of the names.

The announcement came on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Both King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, made Trump’s list. Trump left himself off of the list despite being nominated by several people as part of the selection process, government officials said last year. He first announced the list of names to be honored last summer as Black Lives Matter protests were occurring across the nation and statues recalling American history, such as Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, were being torn down. Trump’s decision to implement this “National Garden of American Heroes” was a counter to the statues of “American heroes” being destroyed and removed last summer.

His original list of 31 names received criticism for being too short and lacking diversity, as it consisted mainly of white men. Trump’s new list is much longer and much more diverse, including Native Americans, women and other minority groups. Whether this idea will be moved forward rests in the hands of President-elect Joe Biden as he takes office this week. He could completely eliminate Trump’s proposed list, alter the list of names or push it forward as is.

Read more …

Please.

My Letter to President Trump (Joe Lauria)

Dear President Trump,

You are right in many ways that the news media have become the enemies of the people and the friends of the powerful who treat the people as enemies. As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black wrote: “In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government.” The role of the press is to keep powerful officials accountable to the electorate. The one journalist who has achieved this above all in recent years is the Australian Julian Assange. He is languishing in a British prison for exposing the powerful in the interests of the people. It is within your power to set him free. Please pardon him, Mr. President.

Joe Lauria

Tucker Assange Kiriakou

Read more …

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle January 19 2021

Viewing 33 posts - 1 through 33 (of 33 total)
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  • #68563

    Claude Monet The house at Yerres 1876   • The Zeitgeist Wants What the Zeitgeist Wants (Kustler) • Can Joe Biden Succeed Where Barack Obama Faile
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle January 19 2021]

    #68564
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Claude Monet The house at Yerres 1876

    Wowee zowee!!! I love it; simply gorgeous…

    The internet, our greatest tool of emancipation, has been transformed into the most dangerous facilitator of totalitarianism we have ever seen. The internet is a threat to human civilization.
    – Julian Assange

    Bingo! 100% correct…
    Hey Trump; pardon/free Assange, goddamnit !!!!

    #68565
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Addendum re: pardon Assange…
    It will be the greatest thing you (Trump) ever did, in your whole, wasted, life…

    #68567
    zerosum
    Participant

    Its not a lie. Its virtual. Therefore, don’t worry about the cost.

    The Zeitgeist Wants What the Zeitgeist Wants


    1. The actual location of the inaugural event remains a mystery, or even if it will be an event, maybe just a pre-recorded video concoction of Mr. Biden’s greatest hits of 2020.
    2. First up, the Dems promise, will be an executive order granting amnesty to an estimated 11-million illegal immigrants,
    3. the rules for claiming asylum. That will surely be welcome news to the millions of Americans whose jobs, livelihoods, and businesses have been destroyed by Covid-19 lockdowns.
    4. …. information at hand. Does the president have it or not? Something is going to drop in the hours ahead. Will it be consequential? Will it correct anything that’s gone wrong? Or will it just drive the country closer to civil war?
    —–
    the Biden plan …. is not a budget …. is a virtual wish list …. is a ton of pork
    ——-
    Its all virtual, including money, including value
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/futures-jump-ahead-yellen-hearing-hong-kong-stocks-soar

    traders awaited a speech by Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen in which she’s expected to call for expansive government action to bolster the U.S. economy.
    (Print more)
    —–
    More virtuality
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/01/18/hillary-clinton-wonders-trump-spoke-putin-day-capitol-riot-i-would-love-see-his-phone-records/
    Hillary Clinton Wonders if Trump Spoke to Putin on Day of Capitol Riot: ‘I Would Love to See His Phone Records’
    ——–
    Its only virtual. Its irrelevant. Ask Canada and Iran.
    (Only one president at a time. Trump was not a real president)
    Biden and the boys, can speak to any foreign power before he is sworn in as president.
    Biden is a virtual president.)

    ——
    USA shot itself in its virtual foot
    …. A virtual revolt

    “The role of the press is to keep powerful officials accountable to the electorate. The one journalist who has achieved this above all in recent years is the Australian Julian Assange. He is languishing in a British prison for exposing the powerful in the interests of the people. It is within your power to set him free. Please pardon him, Mr. President.”

    #68568
    Dr. D
    Participant

    China Imports Of Corn, Wheat Hit Record High Amid Soaring Food Prices

    If they don’t capture America as colony, they die. DNI just said they captured the election. Any questions?

    The Left-Right thing written in several of those articles is just false. Biden is putting in corporatists and NeoCons. The Progressives are getting shafted. But neither is he compromising with “Republicans”, or uniting with 80Million citizens, as widely-applauded 2nd Impeachment shows.

    How does this all work? Because there’s no Left, Right, “Far-Right” (there is no “right” there is only “Far-right”) or Progressives, (as AOC just proved with rejecting M4A and embracing Pelosi) There are insiders and outsiders. Insiders AT the pig trough, and people bled white filling the pig trough FOR them. With the blood and hours of their lives. There are Populists and Establishment. Populists believe in “Democracy”, and Establishments do not. Etc. These lines are similar to the former ones but different enough that if you use the old vocabulary nothing you say from that point will make any sense.

    …As all on purpose. Because their job is to PREVENT the news, not report it. You don’t own a paper to make money, as the animation shows, nobody cares about that, you own a paper to SELL FAVORS, that’s your income, to trade influence, promote some pals, extort others into line, because CNN and all have proven there is no money whatsoever in News. So if they “lose money” every year for 20 years, can you tell me why they keep pouring money in? Because, duh, they’re not “losing money”, they are laundering it. Money goes out on CNN, NYT, WaPo’s etc bottom line, stock price, while the owners of CNN, NYT, GET money in backroom payoffs, insider trading influence peddling for government contracts. Like Amazon/CIA totally unsecure mega-billion server deal and WaPo. In the exact matching amounts? For reals?

    They report to STOP the news and the baffle the people to keep away from knowing what’s really going on. Because knowledge is power, so we need to remove and pollute your knowledge so you keep not having any strategy and power.

    Speaking of news destroying knowledge with lies, “insurgents invaded our Capitol”

    Shows what they think of us. “Insurgent” has meaning. Not a very clear one, like their new favorite “stormed” which has no meaning at all, but some meaning.

    How do you “Invade” your own country? The citizens of the country “invaded” the Capitol? By visiting it? How does that work? Are we not allowed there? An “insurgent” intends to overthrow the government by non-procedural means. But the “government” here is established by contract law in the Constitution. How do people who were following the Constitution and law, asking questions, following free assembly, free speech, constitute an attempt to overthrow the law they are supporting and following?

    One wit put it better:

    “Wait. So white supremacists stormed the capitol to overthrow the white supremacist government but were stopped by the white supremacist police and are now being tracked down by the white supremacist FBI?

    Either I’m confused or y’all story don’t add up.”

    So they, the “Insurgents” “Stormed” the capitol in a “violent Coup attempt” with selfie sticks, weren’t armed, had no plan, were not coordinating with any other group, government, military, or other, wandered off bored without even being opposed, in order to overthrow…themselves and their own President?

    Riiiiight.

    Yet this is reported every day. Using this rhetoric that by definition is inaccurate and transparently, patently false, by their sympathizers as well as by opponents. ‘I feared for my life” – AOC. From a fellow congresswoman she was bunkered with, actually, not the crowd; as apparently in the delusional fantasyland Democrats live in all Republicans are armed, all are white supremacists, and all kill…I dunno, anyone? Everyone? Congresspeople? They can find. …And the fact that this never, ever happens, that net GOP rednecks have overwhelming arms for +100 and no gays, no blue or brown people are killed, year after year, lifetime after lifetime, never computes for a second to question ego and say, “Huh. Maybe this can’t logically be true.” “Maybe if they wanted this, in 100 years they would have done…something. Anything. Ever.” Maybe all the blue and brown people are getting killed overwhelmingly, almost exclusively, in BLUE CITIES: Baltimore, D.C., Chicago, L.A., N.Y., N.J., Detroit.

    N O P E . It’s a Congresswoman she’s sitting across from the AOC feels should be shot. I mean: she feared for her life, right? Isn’t that the standard? She had the feelz, so let’s get to shootin’.

    I’m sure there must be one, but you’re right: It seems there is no cure. 100 years of peace, 100 years of proof, even the actual event, right before their eyes, make no impression on the hall of mirrors and reflection, projection, called the Ego. What can I point at when you can’t see anything but your own mind?

    “Congress needs to establish an investigative body like the 9/11 Commission to determine Trump’s ties to Putin so we can repair the damage to our national security and prevent a puppet from occupying the presidency ever again.”

    I know you’re senile, miss, but we already did this. It was called the Mueller Report.

    But I’m in favor. We start today with the President. Right now! We’ll calling “Hunter Season: Special Investigation into the Biden Occupation.” Target: $1 Billion and counting. Catchy, right?

    But what did I say above? All words are mirrors, projections. There is no level of hypocrisy or illogic that can break the glass of illusion and return sight. That is to say: I, Ego, am infinite good and all I do it right and sensible, and YOU, any restraint on Ego, however small or meaningless, are pure Evil, and must be utterly destroyed, animal, vegetable, and mineral, until you are not even remembered and cease to exist altogether in the feelings of Ego.

    That’s why law. They permit NO restraint. NO law. NO order. NO rules. None. And with it no reason. As above with the march-overthrowing-themselves. No logos. No science. They are following no natural laws. “We’re and empire now and we create our own reality.” Want your enemy to be something? Just report it. Want to attack someone? Just say you have the troops and will be met with open arms and home by Christmas. Don’t like the smaller-than-wanted christmas card they sent? Now they’re a racistnaziwhitesupremacistrussiabotinsurgent. Easy!

    What we’re fighting is simple madness. Insanity. Either we stop them from jumping off a cliff in Russiaphenia psychosis, or they handcuff us together and jump anyway. And note, in these conditions, logically you should just kill the patient and save the town. Emotionally, as humans, in compassionate humanity, we the good guys will never do that, but make all and every attempt to save them instead. Because I care, I must stop them, and it’s not easy to face pure madness and utter, unrestrained violence.

    But “that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

    “Germany Weighs Up Mandatory FFP2 Masks In Shops And On Transport (G.)”

    Well at last that’s at least plausible and scientific. However, Italy already revolted and is opening up, so there’s no chance this can happen unless you break Europe into a hard North and South.
    …And P.S. it wouldn’t stop COVID anyway, so thankfully it’s not dangerous.

    Cuomo, having failed to deploy his vaccine, and half his nursing home staff and patients refuse to take it, now blames the U.S. Government and wants more vaccine. …Because he can’t use what he has…just like those ventilators, the hospital ships, and everything else he’s touched. Well, shows he’s a top politician, and Democrat: “It’s somebody else’s fault!”

    That didn’t happen.
    And if it did happen, it wasn’t that bad.
    And if it was that bad, that’s not a big deal.
    And if it is a big deal, that’s not my fault.
    And if it was my fault, I didn’t mean it.
    And if I did mean it…
    You deserved it.
    Amen.

    (Repeat as required.)

    #68569
    zerosum
    Participant

    More virtual Yellen – wish list
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/rabo-back-yellen-future
    “But right now, with interest rates at historic lows, the smartest thing we can do is act big. In the long run, I believe the benefits will far outweigh the costs, especially if we care about helping people who have been struggling for a very long time.”
    Yet if helping people who have been struggling for a long time is the goal then USD1.9 trillion is nowhere near enough.

    #68570
    zerosum
    Participant

    DHUUUU!
    If Biden, on his first day in power, can, (with an executive order), grant amnesty to an estimated 11-million illegal immigrants, why can he not grant a pardon or amnesty to Snowden And Assange
    Why is everyone afraid to petition Biden?
    Why is nobody petitioning Biden?

    #68571
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Because Biden isn’t President? Because no one thinks he’s a live human being with free agency either before or after Jan 20?

    #68572
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Is there still chance for the Assange?

    Year later, site commentators and me included are still alive. Some of us could have sworn that had something like mild Covid symptoms. In the family, on my wife’s side, there were a few cases, that were over in a few weeks with no “deadly virus casualties” but more like “time not to visit untie and uncle since they have cough and fever” of our past. Excessive Covid-talk legitimizes over the board induced fear, IMAO of course. As mentioned, we all did what we had been doing our entire life – being reasonably cautious in the “season” and maintaining basic hygiene, given that we are also, again reasonably, healthy..

    Painting like today’s, done in a single breath, is nothing more like stepping stone or warm up for the “real work”, thus not his best. Equivalent of writer’s 1000-word-a-day-no-matter-what. Actually, power of the “brand” make one take a second look.

    #68573
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    CNN spot
    Okay, so you’re saying that you will combat extremism by preventing extremist voices. Chicken and egg.

    CNN is supposing that echo chambers *cause* extremism…sure, echo chambers can fan discontent into extremism, but the root causes are disenchantment with the status quo: economic disparity, lack of meaningful work, dissolution of family, cultural, and community bonds, the emphasis in capitalism of always needing products to find fulfillment, poverty, a dearth of opportunity, difficulty in obtaining basic healthcare, unhealthy foods, lack of connection with the natural world, etc., etc.

    Propaganda cannot fix social ills. Prozac can’t either.

    #68574
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Accepting the unacceptable is intolerable, but if you don’t accept it, then WTF ?

    American political activity for the past 4 years has been a psycho screaming chaos of enormously important questions for which all possible answers are just totally fucking off the wall horrible, no matter what is your preferred political tribe, nor how deep you care to dig (or not). Did I say America ? I meant to say the world.

    Neither WW2 nor the American Civil War compare usefully to the current level of confusion and anxiety. At least back then the issues were fairly clear-cut : For the Civil War the issues were States’ Rights , Secession and Slavery. For WW2 the issues were : Quasi-Semi-Democracy vs Officially Legal Tyranny , and the issue of inalienability of human rights vs humans as rulers’ chattel.

    Oh, to have our problems be so simple once again. But wait ! They are still that simple . In fact the issues are not just as simple, they are literally the same issues as they were back then : human rights, sovereignty, self defense, slavery, and the rights of rulers vs the rights of the ruled.

    So what changed ? Why do our modern problems feel so much more complicated now as compared to then ?

    That’s easy : Sheer fucking numbers of people, and the unexpected emergence of totally unforeseen technology.

    In 1860 the world’s population hovered around a billion and today it’s SEVEN TIMES that many. Back then espionage was sketchy , slow, very hard to staff, and constrained by the sheer laboriousness of the tasks. Today people carry cell phone spies in their pockets by the billions, and digest the information with super-computers and psychology driven AI software. A billion dollars can be sent half way around the world in less time than it would take an old time banker to start loading it onto a horse drawn wagon.

    We have no systems provenly tested to deal with that, and you gotta know that humans have tried them all. So it’s not the issues that are new. It is the parameters and logistics and capabilities that are new.

    For example, governments have always spied on their people and always will. And people try to evade that spying, as they always have. Neither of those things are new, nor will either of them ever go away (because human beings shall compete. Period !) What has changed is ultra high technology that enables a far smaller number of spies to dig far far more deeply into far far far more people’s business.

    The reason Assange and Snowden are prisoners (thankfully they avoided execution or assassinations) is that they enabled the populace to counteract . . . to some small degree . . . the exorbitant advantage that technology was providing to government. The reason that government is working so ferociously to censor and control the Internet is that the Net has been giving a pretty darned big advantage to the populace. Rulers use the word “populist” as a bad word. Rulers view Freedom of Speech and Communication as a clear and present danger. As well they should, because it is. So there ya are. Plain and simple. Just not easy.

    It’s pretty obvious that the way to fight back is to use the technology itself to circumvent the obstacles and vulnerabilities which government is now using technology to depower us. In other words : use tech to not be spied on (like Snowden did). Use tech to bypass their attempt to censor free speech (like Assange did). Use tech to let everybody else know about it (like both of them did.)

    Ironically , but not at all surprisingly, it’s the bad guys themselves who ensure that the bad guys will be defeated. They accelerated a fight which had previously been fairly stably balanced. That was dumb, because the fight can never go away nor be excessively won nor excessively lost. The fight is baked into the structure of the frigging Universe itself for crying out loud ! Individuals (and groups of individuals, too) must compete in order to survive. Period . Thinking that they could tip the scales enough to significantly change the balance for very long was just plain stupid.

    If you build a machine that can rule the world then the individuals (and groups) of the world will compete to see who gets to run the machine. Duh !

    By taking away our freedom of speech , assembly , self defense and free movement the bad guys are inadvertently creating increased demand for those very same things. And in that manner the bad guy’s are being the proactive agents of their own undoing. Had they not threatened to take the things that I cherish, then I would not now be demanding more of those very things. Nor would I be calling for the thieves to be rolled up and stored somewhere unpleasant for a while.

    #68575
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    The Cartel aka The Deep Swamp is now officially a Breakaway Civilization.

    MAMA! (Make America Mexico Again)

    Got bananas?

    #68576
    Noirette
    Participant

    Vaccines for Corona. << Creepy Section >>

    1. On 14 Jan. 2021, The French Gvmt. published a new directive. Ppl who are afflicted with Down’s Syndrome (Trisomy 21) are now lodged in the same category as those aged 75 + (plus med personnel under various criteria) and so have ‘priority’ for being vaccinated.

    In France, a consent form must be signed before being vaxxed, this is clearly problematic not only for ppl with uni degrees (say) but also for handicapped ppl who are entirely dependent on what they are told by their carers. They are advised to contact local health authorities and so on (?!)

    I needn’t draw the parallels.

    link > Gvmt. website in F https://bit.ly/3c1RZHk

    2. Israel is touted in the MSM as being a vaccine champion, as concerns the numbers ‘vaccinated.’ One article from Haaretz giving some nos, hmm: https://bit.ly/35VNlHd

    More disturbing:

    Israel Reveals the Patients’ Data It Gives Pfizer as Part of COVID Vaccine Deal

    quote: … Israeli Health Ministry obscured portions of the contract relating to commercial information such as the amounts to be paid to Pfizer … Israel has committed to provide Pfizer with a large amount of data on its coronavirus vaccination campaign but not information that would identify individual recipients of Pfizer’s vaccine, according to the contract the government signed with the pharmaceutical company and the Health Ministry made public on Sunday…

    https://bit.ly/35UKnCU

    The Israel vaccination program is a medical ‘trial’ under another name?

    #68577
    John Day
    Participant

    80 year old NY woman on ventilator for COVID did not stay on vent or in ICU after “miracle drug”, ivermectin.

    New York Supreme Court Judge Order: Give The Patient Ivermectin As Court Battle Leads to Ivermectin for Successful Treatment Against COVID-19

    Ms. Smentkiewicz’s son told journalist Herbeck that “we did a lot of research, we read about Ivermectin…the results sounded very promising, and we decided we had to try something different.” Thereafter the son told the Buffalo News journalist, “we pressured the doctor in the ICU to give it to her. He finally agreed.”

    By Jan 2, the hospital doctor approved the first dose of the anti-parasite drug, according to court papers. The result: “a complete turnaround.” Apparently, within 48 hours, she was taken off the ventilator and transferred out of the ICU, reports the Buffalo News based on a review of court documents. However, once she was transferred to a different wing of the hospital, the doctors there refused to administer the drug, and the woman’s condition quickly worsened. Her son Michael declared, “We were astounded when they refused to give her any more doses.”

    #68578
    teri
    Participant

    @ V Arnold;

    Today, the Trump administration filed an appeal against the UK decision not to extradite Assange. I must imagine that means that Trump has no intention of pardoning Assange.

    Trump is an asshole and a terrible human being. I have no idea what he has done for anyone that makes him popular – unless one is very wealthy and/or hates all forms of functioning government that serves the commons. Spent his last day in office still trying to extradite Assange and writing some more executive orders, which haven’t been revealed to the public yet.

    US Files Appeal in Assange Case

    #68579
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Teri
    Trump is an asshole and a terrible human being.

    Yes indeed; on both counts…

    #68580
    WES
    Participant

    Teri:

    I hate to pop your bubble Teri , but Trump has never had control of the DofJ or FBI!

    Congress decided who could be AG! Sessions, Barr both deep state plants!

    Your anger should be directed at the folks who control the DofJ!

    Uniparty figures like Mitch, Nancy, Chuck, etc!

    #68581
    WES
    Participant

    Teri:

    You are entitled to not like Trump and I can accept that, no problem.

    Right now the uniparty, deep state, etc. folks are laughing that they have managed to convince you that Trump is solely responsible for jailing Julian, not them!

    I have written before on the TAE why Trump is unlikely to pardon Julian. The reason is very simple. The deep state have threatened Trump and his family if he does pardon Julian! I will also say Biden will not pardon Julian nor will Harris because they are deep state!

    As for Trump having control of the DofJ and FBI please remember who spent the last 4 years trying to find a crime, not finding a crime, inventing crimes so they andcongress could impeach Trump? Yes the DofJ and the FBI and the CIA! Does that sound like Trump having control? What did Barr do on his way out the door?. Yes, stab Trump in the back! Like the State dept!

    If you want a single person to blame try Mitch! He alone is the one who decided who he would confirm as AG! Mitch also decided all of Trump’s other cabinet ministers too! Notice how they all stabbed Trump in the back too? Why because Trump was an outsider! Not one of them!

    Trump has never had any motive to jail Julian but the deep state sure has motive! They cannot let Julian prove that Russia didn’t hack the DNC, the whole foundation for Congress’s RussiaRussiaRussia narrative against Trump! (Remember poor Seth Rich paid the ulimate price for leaking the DNC!.) Now it Julian’s turn to die!)

    Hate Trump but please put the blame for Julian’s jailing aquarely 8where it truely belongs!

    #68582
    zerosum
    Participant

    @ WES
    You said everything that I was going to say. (Of course, in a fewer words) 🙂

    repost from:
    January 4, 2021 at 11:19 pm
    From the horses mouth
    Why is nobody giving the link?

    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-charged-18-count-superseding-indictment
    Thursday, May 23, 2019
    Press Release Number:
    19-575
    WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Charged in 18-Count Superseding Indictment
    Charges Related to Illegally Obtaining, Receiving and Disclosing Classified Information

    First Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Doherty-McCormick, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kellen S. Dwyer, Thomas W. Traxler and Gordon D. Kromberg, and Trial Attorneys Matthew R. Walczewski and Nicholas O. Hunter of the Justice Department’s National Security Division are prosecuting the case.

    Attachment(s):
    Download Assange Superseding Indictment
    Download Remarks from the Briefing Announcing the Superseding Indictment of Julian Assange

    https://www.justice.gov/agencies/chart
    ORGANIZATIONAL CHART
    https://www.justice.gov/component-contact-information
    https://search.justice.gov/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&affiliate=justice&sort_by=&query=Matthew+R.+Walczewski+%2BAssange

    (Everyone interested can do a search of the names, just like I did)

    #68583
    WES
    Participant

    I see Hillary and Nancy are ramping the RussiaRussiaRussia narrative!

    Back in the 1980s we heard the same USSR narrative too!

    Then in 1983, I went to work in a bunch of Siberian coal mines for 6 months!

    It was like going back in time, to say the 1940s – 50s!

    If I went into Russia fearing the Russians, I came out not fearing them at all!

    After living in Russia, I soon realized that their domestic economy was in total shambles! That is why I was there! To try and save them from themselves! Needless to say, I failed!

    Russia could produce plenty of guns and secret police, but could not produce enough butter, or food, or toilet paper for it’s people!

    So, yeah, I stop worrying about the Russians after that!

    P.S. There are simply not enough Russians, to do everything the uniparty says the are doing!

    #68584
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Now that Donald Trump is leaving the massacre I guess all of us who liked him are the only sitting ducks left in sight.

    #68585
    WES
    Participant

    Zerosum:

    What is even more interesting are the 3 previous heads of the Department of Justice’s National security division!

    Dana J Boente
    Edward O’Callaghan
    Mary B McCord

    These 3 played starring roles in DofJ, FBI, CIA, and Congress’s efforts to impeach Presdent Trump!

    These are the who’s who of the deep state!

    #68586
    WES
    Participant

    D Benton:

    Well, if we are sitting ducks we are indeed dead!

    However, if 9we constantly paddle around, it will make it that much harder for them to shoot us!

    #68587
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Teri:

    I hate to pop your bubble Teri , but Trump has never had control of the DofJ or FBI!

    I didn’t see anywhere that Teri said he was in control of either department.
    Just speaking to his character; he’s (Trump) an asshole…and I concur…

    #68588
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Well D Benton and Wes,

    You’re right.
    It’s the 11th hour.
    The military abandoned its Commander in Chief.
    President Trump’s withdrawal will not beget him kind treatment from his persecutors. And that treatment is guaranteed to be excessive as all Narcissistic reaction tends to be.

    #68589
    WES
    Participant

    V Arnold:

    Teri says “Trump administration” to appeal Julian verdict!

    Can’t get more clear than that!

    When Trump is long gone, Julian will still be in jail or dead!

    The deep state will be deeply content!

    P.S. I still have my fingers crossed for Julian!

    #68590
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    The Assange Appeal is Trump’s deal to keep the Trump family out of jail.
    Virtue signaling at it’s most perverse.

    #68591
    WES
    Participant

    Dr. D. Rich:

    I seriously doubt Trump had any say in the appeal!

    Look who is running the DofJ’s national security division!

    It sure ain’t Trump!

    For sure the swamp needs to prevent Trump from pardoning Julian!

    #68592

    Senate guy asking Yellen (today) if $15/hr won’t kill what’s left of small business…
    “People need help and this will give it to them.” (paraphrase)
    There seems to be a pattern here.

    If it was me, it wasn’t bad. If it was bad, it wasn’t me.
    Today’s “healthy” personalty.

    The DNC doggies are all in a whirl
    Those mangy old mutts
    Think that Russia’s a SQUIRREL!

    Hillary. I don’t even…

    Brace for impact.

    #68593
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Shit.
    Gina Haspel resigned.
    She should be arrested, tried and punished instead.
    The fix is in.

    #68594
    ₿oogaloo
    Participant

    Now is the time for the Populist Deplorable wing of the Republican Party to leave and form a new party. Yes, blow up the GOP. Tell Mitch McConnell to go pound sand. I hope dissolution is inevitable. The sooner it happens, the better.

    And if they can find the right leadership, and the right PR managers, maybe, just maybe, they could create an identity that is more “Populist” and less “Deplorable”. Maybe, just maybe, they could join forces with the trampled down Populist Progressives in the Democratic Party — who should have learned by now that the Democratic Party will never be democratic. Leave the Democrats to self-destruct with nothing left but the Neoliberal and Identity Politics faction.

    This is my hope.

    #68595
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Forget the article about Gina Haspel.
    Read the comments.
    Something is afoot.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cia-director-gina-haspel-announces-resignation-day-biden-enters-office

    #68596
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    In the USA, private public partnerships never work. Higher profits and the public good are contradictory. The neoliberal cult says only markets determine value but they keep trying again and again to cut into the stream of public money. The US Vaccine partnership will likely fail too from the virus becoming endemic, jab reluctance, and mutations. Since there are no long-term studies on mRNA vaccines, the emergency injection of millions of Americans should have been treated as a very large testing trial and extensive reporting of adverse effects and efficacy required. Israel apparently still has a working government for members of its state religion. With 50 states injecting the vaccines as they want, this is impossible. US Corporations today get away with billions of dollars for vaccines, stock buy backs, bonuses, and manslaughter.

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