Mar 022021
 
 March 2, 2021  Posted by at 10:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,


Pablo Picasso Acrobat 1930

 

“Did You Agree To This? Everybody’s Locked Up” – Edward Snowden (ZH)
Coronavirus Crisis Unlikely To Be Over By The End Of The Year – WHO (G.)
WHO Panel: Hydroxychloroquine Should Not Be Used To Prevent COVID-19 (Hill)
Data On Long Covid In UK Children Is Cause For Concern, Scientists Say (G.)
A Return To Normalcy Seen In November (K.)
Party Like It’s 1984 (Jim Kunstler)
US, EU Set To Impose Sanctions On Russia (NBC)
Duckworth Calls For Russian Bounties Intelligence To Be Declassified (Hill)
Stefan Halper’s Role In Crossfire Hurricane Larger Than Previously Known (ET)
Halper Reports Reveal Wider-Ranging Operation To Spy On Trump Campaign (JTN)
Bernie Sanders Vows To Force Vote On $15 Minimum Wage (Hill)
Joe Biden Says His Hands Are Tied On $15 Minimum Wage. That’s Not True (Sirota)
Finance As Culture (Luttig)
Mob Justice May Be Poetic Justice, But Cuomo Deserves Due Process (Turley)
Cuomo Swears He Always Kept Mask On While Sexually Harassing Women (BBee)
Odyssey Banned for Violence, Sexism; Is this the End of World Classics? (GR)

 

 

Update: as you may notice, we’re experimenting with ads a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Word!

“Did You Agree To This? Everybody’s Locked Up” – Edward Snowden (ZH)

A new video montage of recent interviews with former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden exposes how the global COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns – which have been particularly severe and far-reaching in Western countries like the UK, Canada, and in a number of major US cities – coupled with the already immense power of Silicon Valley and its allies in the national security state, has served to keep individuals and entire populations ‘gated off’ from one another. “This is just the beginning,” Snowden warns of these unprecedented times. “All of these things today have consequences which we are not informed about.” “I would say this is sort of unusual… we’re all spread all over the world in different rooms, everybody’s locked up… but for me this is how I’ve always lived.”

He narrates that so much of our life is “intermediated by the screens.” Increasingly our lives are “intermediated by these screens. We spend less time outside and more and more time staring into glass or through glass to connect with that larger world – something beyond ourselves.”Ultimately he poses the following questions as a warning in the video entitled, “Edward Snowden 2021: The Most VICIOUS HONEST 10 Minutes of your LIFE!”… “Increasingly it feels something distinct from us, something apart from us – something that we are witnessing rather than participating in. Ask yourself: Is this your will? Is this what you want? Did you agree to this? Is this consistent with the vision of the future you want to see?

Snowden continues, “The institutional powers of our day… which have assumed for themselves some mandate – whether to conduct business, whether its to govern the lives of others, whether it’s to make war, .. these institutional powers don’t seem to particularly care about your answer to that question: is this what you wanted? Is this OK? Did you agree to it?” The answer is frequently “you don’t have a choice” as to whether you agree or not… “because they have the gun, they have the baton. And Facebook would say ‘Click OK to continue’ – and if you don’t you can’t do anything…”

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the “virus is very much in control”…

Coronavirus Crisis Unlikely To Be Over By The End Of The Year – WHO (G.)

Despite the spread of Covid-19 being slowed in some countries due to lockdowns and vaccination programs, it is “premature” and “unrealistic” to the think the pandemic will be over by the end of the year, the World Health Organization’s executive director of emergency services has said. Speaking at a press briefing Geneva, Dr Michael Ryan said while vaccinating the most vulnerable people, including healthcare workers, would help remove the “tragedy and fear” from the situation, and would help to ease pressure on hospitals, the “virus is very much in control”. “It will be very premature, and I think unrealistic, to think that we’re going to finish with this virus by the end of the year,” Ryan said.


“If the vaccines begin to impact not only on death and not only on hospitalisation, but have a significant impact on transmission dynamics and transmission risk, then I believe we will accelerate toward controlling this pandemic.” The number of new global infections rose last week for the first time in almost two months. Reported cases increased in four of the WHO’s six regions: the Americas, Europe, south-east Asia and the eastern Mediterranean. “This is disappointing, but not surprising,” said the director general of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We’re working to better understand these increases in transmission. Some of it appears to be due to relaxing of public health measures, continued circulation of variants, and people letting down their guard.” He said while vaccines would help to save lives, “if countries rely solely on vaccines, they’re making a mistake”.

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Meawhile in Greece…

A Return To Normalcy Seen In November (K.)

Greek authorities’ main concern is now the timeline for a return to normalcy, after a year of the pandemic. The economy cannot withstand many more months of lockdowns and increasing coronavirus fatigue is gripping the population. Experts say the return to normalcy will happen when “herd immunity” is achieved. For that to happen, they say, 70% of the population must be vaccinated. Then, of course, there are questions of how long the immunity lasts, whether the disease will recur, and so on. According to a team of researchers at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki who have developed a Covid-19 risk evaluation model, the vaccination of 70% of the population, and thus herd immunity, will be achieved in November, provided there are 1 million vaccinations per month.


Under this caveat, the percentage of the vaccinated population, now standing at 9%, will reach 30% at the end of May, 38% in June, 46% in July, 54% in August and 62% in September. By the end of May, a “wall of immunity” for the most vulnerable groups – the elderly and those suffering from serious underlying diseases – will have been built, the researchers say. “[The wall] doesn’t mean complete freedom but at least means the likelihood of lockdown becomes remote,” says Dimosthenis Sarigiannis, professor of environmental engineering at Aristotle University.

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Ok, let’s see the trials.

WHO Panel: Hydroxychloroquine Should Not Be Used To Prevent COVID-19 (Hill)

The anti-inflammatory drug hydroxychloroquine should not be used to prevent COVID-19, according to a new recommendation from the World Health Organization. Multiple clinical trials of more than 6,000 people showed the drug had no meaningful effect on death or admissions to the hospital in people who had no prior exposure to COVID-19. The trials showed a “moderate certainty” that not only did hydroxychloroquine have no meaningful effect on laboratory confirmed COVID-19 infection, it also probably increased the risk of adverse effects.


The WHO’s recommendation was published in The BMJ, a medical journal. A WHO expert panel is studying different drugs that could be used to prevent COVID-19 infection, and the hydroxychloroquine recommendation is the first that the panel has published. “The panel considers that this drug is no longer a research priority and that resources should be used to evaluate other more promising drugs to prevent COVID-19,” the WHO said in a statement. The recommendations are meant “to provide trustworthy guidance on the management of COVID-19 and help doctors make better decisions with their patients,” the WHO said.

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No word on how many children are affected. If it’s just five, maybe they should tell us.

Data On Long Covid In UK Children Is Cause For Concern, Scientists Say (G.)

Scientists have warned that emerging data on long Covid in children should not be ignored given the lack of a vaccine for this age group, but cautioned that the evidence describing these enduring symptoms in the young is so far uncertain. Recently published data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has caused worry. The data suggest that 13% of under 11s and about 15% of 12- to 16-year-olds reported at least one symptom five weeks after a confirmed Covid-19 infection. ONS samples households randomly, therefore positive cases do not depend on having had symptoms and being tested.

With schools in England poised to reopen on Monday – Prof Christina Pagel, a member of the Independent Sage committee and director of clinical operational research at University College London – in a Twitter post suggested that although emerging data on long Covid in children was uncertain, it should not be ignored, particularly given there was no licensed vaccine for these age groups, and there probably won’t be until the end of this year or early next year. Although children are relatively less likely to become infected, transmit the virus and be hospitalised, the key question is whether even mild or asymptomatic infection can lead to long Covid in children, said Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London.

[..] Some children are initially asymptomatic or have mild symptoms but then it might be six or seven weeks before they start experiencing long Covid symptoms, which can range from standard post-viral fatigue and headaches to neuropsychiatric symptoms such as seizures, or even skin lesions. At the moment there is no consensus on the scale and impact of long Covid in adults, but emerging data is concerning. For children, the data is even more scarce. Recent reports from hospitals in Sweden and Italy have generated concern, but this data is not from national trials – they are single-centre studies – and include relatively small patient numbers, said Sir Terence Stephenson, a Nuffield professor of child health at University College London.

Stephenson was awarded £1.36m last month to lead a study investigating long Covid in 11- to 17-year-olds. “I don’t have a scientific view on what long Covid is in young people is – because frankly, we don’t know,” he said.

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Of course, steers and cows are easier to push around than bulls, and the technology for transforming bulls into steers — or men in to eunuchs — is not that complex or nuanced..

Party Like It’s 1984 (Jim Kunstler)

Chalk up a fatal blow to The Patriarchy. That avatar of toxic masculinity, Mr. Potato Head has been dumped into the same humid chamber of perdition where the ghosts of Nathan Bedford Forrest, Theodore Bilbo, and Phyllis Schlafly howl and squirm — liberating the billions of potatoes world-wide from the mental prison of binary sexuality. The move by Hasbro (bro? really??) may yet disappoint the legions in Wokesterdom as a-bridge-not-far-enough while they await the debut of Transitioning Potato Head, complete with play hormone syringe and play scalpel, so that the under-six crowd can begin to map out their own gender reassignments without the meddling of Adult 1 and Adult 2, formerly known as Mommy and Daddy.

Was it mere coincidence that the action in Toyland happened the same week that one Rachel Levine was grilled in hir Senate confirmation hearing for the post as Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services? The hearing tilted toward transphobia when Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) asked zie, a little too aggressively, if they were in favor of pubescent children opting for sexual reassignment in opposition to xyr parents. The nominee, who hirself transitioned from “male” to “female” in 2011, answered that transgender medical issues are “complex and nuanced.” True (perhaps). And probably more than a Senator who transitioned from ophthalmologist to politician might appreciate.

Such are the great preoccupations of American leadership in these late days of empire. Are their any “historic firsts” left for Progressives to achieve in the march to a transhuman nirvana? An “undocumented” president? Animal representation in the House and Senate? A-I “entities” qualifying for public office — Governor Smartphone? Let’s face it, the pitiful old school humans in charge of things for so long are making a hash of our affairs. A cash register could probably do a better job as Chairman of the Federal Reserve than the always-waffley Jerome Powell. And a MacBook Pro might make a better president than Joe Biden in the brief daily operational hours before his managers a “call a lid.” We’d have to come up with some new personal pronouns for them, of course.

Pundits and observers-of-the-scene have warned us that all this artificially-generated turmoil over the sex-of-things is but one part of the prelude to a “Great Reset” in which people the world over are to be herded into corrals of ultra-regulated behavior. Of course, steers and cows are easier to push around than bulls, and the technology for transforming bulls into steers — or men in to eunuchs — is not that complex or nuanced. The question is: will enough American men submit to castration, either chemical, financial, political, or literal? Maybe not.

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Oh, cut it out already.

US, EU Set To Impose Sanctions On Russia (NBC)

The U.S. and the European Union are expected to impose coordinated sanctions on Russia as early as Tuesday for the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his arrest and detention that followed, three sources familiar with the planning said. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not otherwise authorized to speak to the media. The sanctions will be the first to target Moscow since Joe Biden became president and opened a comprehensive review of U.S.-Russia policy, including the Kremlin’s actions against Navalny, interference into the U.S. election, the Solar Winds hack and reported bounties offered to Taliban-linked groups to target U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The Trump administration declined to take action against Russia for the attempted assassination of Navalny.

The U.S. is expected to use legal authorities to impose sanctions on Russia for its use of a chemical nerve agent against Navalny in August, said a senior administration official, a congressional aide and a Western diplomat. Toxicology tests conducted in Germany, France and Sweden and by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons found that Navalny was poisoned with a novel form of the Novichok nerve agent in violation of the international Chemical Weapons Convention. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the attack. Upon his return to Russia in January, Navalny was arrested and sentenced to more than two years in jail. He has been transferred to a penal colony. The E.U. has taken action against Russia for poisoning Navalny, restricting travel and freezing the assets of six Russians in October, but this week’s sanctions would be the first issued under the E.U.’s new human rights regime.

E.U. Foreign Minister Josep Borrell told the Atlantic Council last week that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had asked the E.U. to coordinate with the U.S. on the new sanctions. The E.U.’s procedural vote to formally adopt the sanctions will close at noon Tuesday Brussels time. “I wouldn’t want to speak to any measures that we may have coming, but suffice it to say that we have coordinated very closely,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Monday about the cooperation between the U.S and the E.U. Price did not elaborate on the timing of the sanctions but added, “We’ve been working on it as an urgent challenge.” An investigation by U.N. experts released Monday found that the attack against Navalny falls within a wider trend, observed over several decades, of arbitrary killings and attempted killings of Russian citizens and government critics, both within Russia and extraterritorially.

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I said cut it out!

Duckworth Calls For Russian Bounties Intelligence To Be Declassified (Hill)

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) on Monday called for the Biden administration to declassify intelligence related to reports that the Kremlin offered bounties to Taliban forces for targeting U.S. troops in Afghanistan. “While any intelligence assessment on this matter is understandably sensitive, the American public, and Gold Star Families in particular, have a pressing need to know if there is any truth to these claims,” Duckworth wrote in a letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines first obtained by Politico. “I believe such a finding may be presented while protecting classified information.” The intelligence, first reported last year, was dismissed as a “hoax” by then-President Trump.

Last September, Gen. Frank McKenzie, who oversees U.S. troops in Afghanistan, said the military was still investigating, adding that the report “has not been proved to a level of certainty that satisfies me.” Haines has been tasked with reviewing intelligence on recent Russian activity, including the alleged bounty initiative. In her letter, Duckworth asked for Haines to publish an unclassified report to “provide urgently needed transparency on this grave matter.” Duckworth, a veteran who lost both legs in Iraq, was one of the leading voices calling for action in response to the report last year. In July, she led a letter from Senate Democrats asking to see the then-president’s intelligence briefings relating to the alleged bounties.

“Despite my persistent attempts to bring transparency to these alarming reports, the Trump administration failed to provide an official response to basic questions: did the United States Government or our partners assess the likelihood of the existence of the GRU bounty payment activity, and did the United States Government find evidence indicating correlation or causation between GRU bounty payments and deadly attacks on U.S. troops by Taliban-linked militants?” Duckworth wrote in the letter on Monday, referring to Russia’s secretive military intelligence agency.

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Always thought his role was quite substantial.

Stefan Halper’s Role In Crossfire Hurricane Larger Than Previously Known (ET)

Newly released FBI documents shed light on two meetings between FBI Agent Stephen Somma and FBI source Stefan Halper, providing further insight into the wide scope of the FBI’s investigation into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign—and the active role played by Halper, who acted as a confidential human source (CHS) for the FBI. Although Halper was not considered an official CHS for the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation prior to these meetings, Somma had known Halper since 2011, according to the Department of Justice Inspector General’s report on FISA Abuse. Additionally, Somma had served as Halper’s handler from “2011 through 2016” as part of Somma’s “regular investigative activities.”

The FBI’s meetings with Halper on Aug. 11 and 12, 2016, were done at the proposal of Somma, who said he “lacked a basic understanding” of political campaigns. Somma said that he selected Halper because he knew that Halper had been “affiliated with national political campaigns since the early 1970s” and “might have information about, and potentially may have met, one or more of the Crossfire Hurricane subjects”—Trump campaign advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos and Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Somma said that he did not initially tell Halper that there was already an open FBI investigation or who the subjects were, nor, he told the IG, did he tell Halper of the conversation between Papadopoulos and Australian diplomat Alexander Downer, which was the FBI’s claimed reason for opening Crossfire Hurricane.

Somma was proven to be prophetic, as Halper already had direct knowledge of two of the three people considered subjects of Crossfire Hurricane. And Halper would later fashion a meeting in London with Papadopoulos, the one person he didn’t already know. Halper also managed a meeting with Sam Clovis from the Trump campaign. Additionally, based on the FBI documents obtained by Just The News, it appears that Halper was responsible for pushing Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as a “person of interest” to the FBI with what appears to have been a false story that the FBI failed to immediately verify—and then later failed to correct as the story gained traction in the media during a crucial period of the Trump presidency.

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Problem remains: who will investigate the investigators?

Halper Reports Reveal Wider-Ranging Operation To Spy On Trump Campaign (JTN)

Once-secret reports show the FBI effort to spy on the Trump campaign was far wider than previously disclosed, as agents directed an undercover informant to make secret recordings, pressed for intelligence on numerous GOP figures, and sought to find “anyone in the Trump campaign” with ties to Russia who could acquire dirt “damaging to Hillary Clinton.” The now-declassified operational handling reports for FBI confidential human source Stefan Halper — codenamed “Mitch” — provide an unprecedented window both into the tactics used by the bureau to probe the Trump campaign and the wide dragnet that was cast to target numerous high-level officials inside the GOP campaign just weeks before Americans chose their next president in the November 2016 election.

Among the revelations, the memos make clear that: Almost immediately after the FBI opened a Russia collusion probe on July 31, 2016 narrowly focused on the foreign lobbying of a single Trump campaign aide named George Papadopoulos, agents pressed Halper for information on more than a half dozen other figures, including future Attorney General Jeff Sessions, foreign policy adviser Sam Clovis, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, economic adviser Peter Navarro, future National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and campaign adviser Carter Page. Halper provided significant exculpatory evidence to the FBI — including transcripts of conversations he recorded of targeted Trump advisers providing statements of innocence — that was never disclosed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that approved a year of surveillance targeting the Trump campaign, and specifically Page.

While current FBI Director Chris Wray has insisted the bureau did not engage in spying on the Trump campaign, Halper’s taskings include many of the tradecraft tactics of espionage, including the creation of a fake cover story (he wanted a job at the Trump campaign), secret recordings, providing background on targets, suggested questions to ask and even contact information for potential targets. But the memos’ most explosive revelations are the sheer breadth of the FBI’s insufficiently predicated dragnet targeting the Trump campaign, and the agents’ clearly stated purpose of thwarting any Trump campaign effort to get dirt from Russia that could hurt his Democratic rival.

“The Crossfire Hurricane investigative team is attempting to determine if anyone in the Trump campaign is in a position to have received information either directly or indirectly from the Russian Federation regarding the anonymous release of information during the campaign that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton,” one of the early FBI electronic communications (ECs) from Halper’s undercover work stated. Ordinarily, FBI counterintelligence investigations that target Americans legally must be predicated on specific allegations that narrowly focus the bureau’s spy powers on limited targets to avoid unnecessary infringement of privacy and civil liberties. But the Halper documents reveal a large, unfocused FBI search with little substantiation of alleged wrongdoing, and significant evidence that undermined the core allegations, experts told Just the News.

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Bernie vs Ol’ Joe.

Bernie Sanders Vows To Force Vote On $15 Minimum Wage (Hill)

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says Democrats should “ignore” the recent ruling of the Senate parliamentarian and is vowing to force the Senate to vote this week on an amendment to set the federal minimum wage at $15 an hour. Sanders on Monday declared he would not back down on his signature wage initiative after Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled last week that a provision setting the federal minimum wage at $15 an hour would not be eligible under special budget rules Democrats are using to avoid a filibuster while passing their coronavirus relief bill. “My personal view is that the idea that we have a Senate staffer, a high-ranking staffer, deciding whether 30 million Americans get a pay raise or not is nonsensical.


“We have got to make that decision, not a staffer who’s unelected, so my own view is that we should ignore the rulings, the decision of the parliamentarian,” Sanders told reporters. Sanders added, “Given the enormous crises facing this country and the desperation of working families, we have got to as soon as possible end the filibuster.” “We cannot have a minority of members define what the American people want,” he said. Sanders said he will force a vote on an amendment raising the federal minimum wage this week. “To the best of my knowledge, there will be a vote on the minimum wage, and we’ll see what happens,” he said. “I intend to offer the bill that will raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and we’ll see how the votes go.” “If we fail in this legislation, I will be back,” he warned. “We are going to keep going. “We are going to raise that minimum wage very shortly to $15 an hour,” he said.

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LBJ did it.

Joe Biden Says His Hands Are Tied On $15 Minimum Wage. That’s Not True (Sirota)

When a Republican is president, Democratic politicians, pundits and activists will tell you that the presidency is an all-powerful office that can do anything it wants. When a Democrat is president, these same politicians, pundits and activists will tell you that the presidency has no power to do anything. In fact, they will tell you a Democratic president cannot even use the bully pulpit and other forms of pressure to try to shift the votes of senators in his own party. A tale from history proves this latter myth is complete garbage – and that tale is newly relevant in today’s supercharged debate over a $15 minimum wage. In that debate so far, we have seen Democratic senators prepare to surrender the $15 minimum wage their party promised by insisting they are powerless in the face of a non-binding advisory opinion of a parliamentarian they can ignore or fire.

That explanation is patently ridiculous and factually false, so Democratic apologists are starting to further justify the surrender by suggesting that even if the party kept a $15 minimum wage in the Covid relief bill, conservative Democrats such as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema would block it anyway. The White House itself is now falling back on the idea that it doesn’t have the votes to do much of anything, insinuating that Joe Biden – who occupies the world’s most powerful office – somehow has no power to try to change the legislative dynamic. And this spin is being predictably amplified across social media. [..] it is laughable and preposterous to argue that a newly elected president has zero power to even try to shift the dynamic.

And yet, whether you call this all deliberate deception or learned helplessness, this fantastical myth of the Powerless President will inevitably be used to shield Biden from criticism for abandoning his pledge to fight for a $15 minimum wage. The apologism is particularly absurd because unlike his predecessor Barack Obama, who was a relative newcomer to politics, Biden’s major selling point was that he knows “how to make government work”. The guy explicitly pitched himself as the best Democratic presidential candidate by suggesting that in an era of gridlock, he knows how to make the Democratic agenda a reality and Get Things Done™, like master of the Senate Lyndon Baines Johnson. That’s where LBJ himself comes in to destroy the narrative that Democratic presidents in general – and Biden specifically – are inherently helpless.

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Memes “R” Us.

Finance As Culture (Luttig)

In practice, what does financialization look like? We’ve all heard the institutional narrative. The US stock market has nearly tripled in the past 10 years. The FIRE sector (finance, insurance, real estate) now accounts for 20% of US GDP, versus 10% in 1947. S&P buybacks nearly doubled in the 2010s. IPOs grew 2.5x in 2020. But financialization is no longer purely institutional; it has seeped into our culture. A combination of low interest rates, a historic tech bull run, and the resulting torrent of fomo has tethered us to our monitors to watch candlestick charts. The financialization of culture has manifested in two primary ways: lottery culture and equity culture. We’ve always had lottery culture, in which people trade assets hoping to make money without understanding or conviction of their fundamental value.

In the summer of 1929, for example, Joe Kennedy’s shoe shine boy gave him stock tips, signaling the market peak. But lottery culture has exploded in the past few years. Robinhood has achieved its vision of democratizing access to financial markets, boasting over ten million monthly active users and exponential growth. Retail investor trading as a percentage of stock market volume has more than doubled since 2010. When “stocks only go up”, people realize the stock market is a casino with much better payouts. Gamified trading has tethered us to our phones and bank accounts. Through GameStop, even protest became financialized. At the peak of the GameStop saga, millions of Americans owned GME, arming themselves against hedge funds.

This was part protest, part nihilistic hail mary to get rich. The number of subscribers to the wallstreetbets (WSB) subreddit certainly spiked in 2021, but the exponential compounding for years beforehand implies a degree of inevitability. Memes took lottery culture to new heights. Stocks popular among a retail audience, like Apple, have historically traded at higher multiples than others in their category. Tesla accelerated the divergence between retail excitement and fundamentals: TSLA revenue grew 50% over the past two years, but meme culture helped its market cap grow by 12x. GameStop completed the meme-fundamentals duality: investors don’t even pretend that the company’s fundamentals will ever substantiate its market cap.WSB revealed where Robinhood culture was headed all along: a nihilistic lottery. It was historically viewed as a disorganized and degenerate mob, but the mob has evolved into a laser-focused and motivated militia.

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So do the people who died in care homes.

Mob Justice May Be Poetic Justice, But Cuomo Deserves Due Process (Turley)

In 2012, Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before at Northwestern University Law School to announce President Obama’s “kill list” policy, under which he reserved the right to unilaterally order the death of any American deemed an imminent threat. After all, Holder explained, “the Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process.” The response was as chilling as the message: The audience of judges, lawyers and law students applauded an attorney general who just told them that any of them could be killed tomorrow on the president’s order. Some of us denounced the “kill list” policy, which foreshadowed what has become a campaign against due process. In our hair-triggered culture of Twitter attacks and “canceling” opponents, due process is treated as hopelessly arcane and inconvenient.

Our political discourse must now be tweet-worthy — less than 280 words — and delivered in a news cycle measured in minutes. Due process, like free speech, is rarely valued until its loss becomes personal. Take Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.). Cuomo advanced his political career by positioning himself at the front of every mob pursuing political rivals, as during Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing. Before hearing the defense of now-Justice Kavanaugh, Cuomo described the allegations against him by Christine Blasey Ford as presumptively true. He not only effectively called Kavanaugh a rapist, without any due process, but demanded that Kavanaugh take a polygraph as a condition to be believed. Cuomo was not alone. Many Democratic leaders insisted that “women must be believed” when raising sexual harassment allegations and declared Kavanaugh guilty before hearing any testimony.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) dismissed due process concerns for Kavanaugh, adding: “When we talk about … due process and justice, it must focus on the victim.” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said Kavanaugh was not entitled to a presumption of innocence and that men should “just shut up” and accept the allegations. Last year, when Lindsey Boylan’s allegations went public, I wrote a column asking if Cuomo would presume himself guilty, absent a polygraph. Now, after Boylan added details of Cuomo’s alleged kissing and propositioning her, many are struggling with his (and their) prior positions against due process. While CNN, MSNBC and other networks blacked-out the story or barely covered it, others — including many on the right — have declared Cuomo to be guilty and dangerous.

Cuomo deserves due process, despite loudly denying it for others. Simply because Boylan made the allegations is not proof of guilt. Both sides have a right to be heard — not a right to be believed solely on their word. Due process allows us to determine who is a victim — not, as AOC suggested, to vindicate one party as the declared victim. [..] Of course, as Gov. Cuomo has learned, one can lead a mob one day only to be pursued by the mob on the next. It would be easy to leave him to the mob and call it poetic justice, but that is not justice of any kind. Cuomo should receive all of the due process he denied to others — not because he deserves it, but because he embodies the costs of ignoring it.

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He’ll be arrested any day now.

Cuomo Swears He Always Kept Mask On While Sexually Harassing Women (BBee)

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo apologized this weekend for his long-standing habit of sexually abusing young women he holds power over. And while that all sounds quite bad, Governor Cuomo did make it clear to the public that he always wore a mask and socially distanced during these interactions– a fact that has some folks saying he should get off free. “I have the greatest respect for my employees,” Cuomo explained during a press conference. “Especially the girls—we’ve got a lot of young girls on staff who do a really good job.” Cuomo paused for a moment and seemed to wink at someone offscreen.


“And I can guarantee you right now, sure I might be a sexual predator, but not once did I remove my mask, never once broke the six-foot rule during conversations with my girls– at least in 2020. Isn’t that right, Kelly?” Cuomo went on to explain how some of his sexual jokes may not have landed with the women since they couldn’t see his facial expressions. He also claimed that the women may have misheard him since his words were muffled by his mask and they were standing so far apart. “Do I regret making those comments?” Cuomo asked as he stood up to leave the press conference. “No. Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got some strip poker, er– I mean poker, to play.”

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Ban the Bible!

Odyssey Banned for Violence, Sexism; Is this the End of World Classics? (GR)

Odyssey, Homer’s classic of world literature written in the time of Ancient Greece, was recently banned in Lawrence, Massachusetts for portraying ideas that do not conform to modern norms of behavior. The move, reported recently by the Wall Street Journal, appears to stem from a “social justice” movement, created by Twitter users, called #DisruptTexts. Its proponents believe that any world literature that does not portray the norms that they hold today in terms of gender roles, violence and racial equality must be banned in the interest of shaping a new generation that will not be allowed to come into contact with concepts that they consider repugnant — or even just outdated.

Penelope, sitting at her loom patiently for twenty years while hubby Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan War, is not the model of female behavior that teachers who espouse this new type of book banning want their students to emulate. But not only do they not want their students to emulate these behaviors — they want to ban books that contain they want to ban books that portray violence, traditional gender roles and racism, making sure that future generations will never learn about the many adventures of Odysseus and his companions as they made their way across the sea, fought against Troy and wended their way back home after twenty years away.

Books such as this, which provide a treasury of historical references and form the basis of educated peoples’ understanding of the Classical world, naturally contain violent images of battle and strife and portray the social milieu of the day. Until recently, however, teachers would focus on the tremendous literary and historical merit of the world of Homer and other ancient writers, leaving their students to come to their own conclusions as to whether or not they would like to wage warfare or alternatively sit at home weaving while the husband is away at battle.

[..] But the politically-correct rush to judgment, which began in recent years with the banning of American classics such as Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and even more recent works such as How to Kill a Mockingbird — for the use of the n-word — has come back to bite society now that the floodgates have been opened. Originally, the pendulum swung the other way, and it was conservative Americans who were originally guilty of banning books — despite the freedom of speech and expression explicitly enshrined in the Constitution. The first book to be officially banned in America was Thomas Morton’s “New English Canaan,” published in 1637.

A massive, three-volume work, it contained not only Morton’s insightful observations about Native Americans, but also — raising the ire of those who had settled Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay Company — a biting satire of the Puritans. As the centuries went on, it wasn’t just political positions that drew the ire of book banners, it was more often portrayals of sex that attracted the eye of censors and caused works of literature to come under scrutiny. And the list of banned books in America is shamefully long, including Peyton Place,The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, The Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple, James Joyce’s Ulysses, Beloved, and The Lord of the Flies.

Read more …

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle March 2 2021

Viewing 25 posts - 1 through 25 (of 25 total)
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  • #70391

    Pablo Picasso Acrobat 1930   • “Did You Agree To This? Everybody’s Locked Up” – Edward Snowden (ZH) • Coronavirus Crisis Unlikely To Be Over By T
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle March 2 2021]

    #70392
    Polder Dweller
    Participant

    Odyssey Banned for Violence, Sexism; Is this the End of World Classics?

    When will they ban (or burn) Fahrenheit 451?

    #70395
    zerosum
    Participant

    Pablo Picasso Acrobat 1930
    A better name, “The Ostrich”
    The head is in the same place as the majority of people.
    ———-
    Imaginary goal posts.
    Therefore, the gov. is justified in spending/printing money

    Experts say the return to normalcy will happen when “herd immunity” is achieved. For that to happen, they say, 70% of the population must be vaccinated.
    ——
    “Take my word. I would not lie”, said WHO
    Ok, let’s see the trials.

    • WHO Panel: Hydroxychloroquine Should Not Be Used To Prevent COVID-19 (Hill)
    ——
    Where is the lie?
    Senators made the rules. Senators can change the rules.

    • Bernie Sanders Vows To Force Vote On $15 Minimum Wage (Hill)
    • Joe Biden Says His Hands Are Tied On $15 Minimum Wage. That’s Not True (Sirota)
    ————–
    Why ban books from the majority of people that cannot read, or do not want to read, cannot write complete sentence on their smart phones and cannot do critical thinking

    #70396
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    So what’s with white Republicans who @ 56% are unsure/will not take the vaccine? Their Golden One put all his chips on the vaccine strategy; he counts this as one of his great successes. Apparently he and Melania were vaccinated privately before leaving the WH? Can someone please explain the disconnect when it comes to his “followers” not following?

    NOTE: I am a white “Democrat” who is not getting vaccinated.

    #70397
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    You gotta LOVE Edward Snowden. He is a hero. A man of integrity – he walks the talk. Smart. Kind Heart. Brave too.

    RE: “I would say this is sort of unusual… we’re all spread all over the world in different rooms, everybody’s locked up… but for me this is how I’ve always lived.”

    Here in rural Northern CA, our lockdown was mild since we are blessed with very few people and miles of trails, mountains, and forests. However, ALL all of my many commitments and soul focused diversions – such as YOGA classes, committee meetings, Board meetings, the Art Center and Gallery (where I work), bars, restaurants – were completely “closed down”. Therefore I found myself FREE. Very FREE. And I have LOVED every moment.

    This is NOT how I have always lived. It has been an opportunity to live like my more introverted friends who throughout, were no longer feeling guilty for not being more engaged. Am admiring Snowden for musing about how everyone is suddenly “living like he’s always lived”. I want him to know that it has had a positive impact on some people. As things ramp back up – as they must, I am so much more thoughtful in my choices, where I focus my energies, and how I do my work. More detachment, less attachment to outcomes. Am certain that staying positive in the PRESENT is the key. BEing PRESENT in the present is a present.

    #70398
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    They can’t lock down our HEARTS.

    Interactions can be facilitated without screens. Find your own WAY to connection. At home, at work, in your community.

    The power is in you. Change yourself first. And when you do, your world will change around you.

    Click ok to continue.

    #70399
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Data On Long Covid In UK Children Is Cause For Concern, Scientists Say (G.)
    “Recently published data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has caused worry. The data suggest that 13% of under 11s and about 15% of 12- to 16-year-olds reported at least one symptom five weeks after a confirmed Covid-19 infection.”

    A recent letter in the British Medical Journal BMJ gives more context about these “long covid” symptoms, and points out the lack of a “comparator group” in that data. Some of the reported symptoms are in line with, or lower than, the prevalence in the general population.

    The Office for National Statistics (ONS) prevalence of 12.9% (primary school age) and 15% (secondary school age) of long covid are widely quoted. So how much should parents and their children worry, and does this worry warrant vaccination?

    The ONS figures need context. Our understanding is that they represent the proportion of children who—within five weeks of a positive covid-19 test—have one of the following symptoms: fatigue, cough, headache, loss of taste or smell, myalgia, sore throat, fever, shortness of breath, nausea or vomiting, diarrhoea, or abdominal pain. For some of these symptoms the ONS reported prevalence is as follows: fatigue 3.5%; cough 4%; headache 5.3%; loss of taste or smell 2%; myalgia 1.7%. These seem in line with or lower than the population prevalence—for example, cough reported in an unselected cohort of 7670 children aged 1-18, or headache and fatigue in children from a representative Finnish cohort. Given current high levels of family and community stress we would expect the prevalence of some of these symptoms to be higher.

    The prevalence estimates being discussed need a comparator group, and to be interpreted with much more caution, especially given the lack of a dedicated case definition for children. Specifically, we need to know how many survey participants (by age) without covid-19 had similar symptoms.

    https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n520

    #70400
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Here’s a guy kissing his own *ss.

    ““Did You Agree To This? Everybody’s Locked Up” – Edward Snowden (ZH)”

    They will do this ‘til you stop them. And torture your kids. Or better, have you do it in Toronto. “I love you! Now get in this iron box with an iron mask.” “It puts the lotion on it’s hands…” — Mommy Dearest.

    “the better to transfer wealth up the pyramid to those at the top, and in addition gift vast amounts of money to itself and its cronies. Now they are “going for broke” as the debt bubble has become so monstrous that it is running away, so they are creating money at a prodigious rate – which is why the stockmarket keeps going up – in full awareness that before too much longer the whole thing will fly apart as the debt bubble explodes, interest rates will spike uncontrollably, there will be a short-lived rally in the dollar before it reverses and plunges into the abyss, stockmarkets will plunge as credit markets lock up, and the world goes Mad Max – and once this happens it will happen very, very fast. In the meantime, while they create fantastic amounts of money, they are averting the hyperinflation that this would otherwise cause by killing the economy with lockdowns, so that there is no money velocity, and they are therefore able to buy up distressed assets at firesale prices and also colonize the world by pumping trillions of dollars through foreign Central Banks – you won’t hear much about that though. Quite often you see long-winded articles trying to explain why the lockdowns are ineffective, but these innocent (or misguided) writers completely miss the point, which is that the lockdowns are not about containing the virus – you don’t lock up healthy people, you lock up sick people – but have much more nefarious objectives which are, as mentioned above, to kill the economy to slow the velocity of money to zero so that the Central banks can print money at prodigious rates and literally “buy up the world” with the added bonus that they damage people’s health and make them more desperate, so that they are more likely to submit…” Clive Maund

    Look on the bright side though: they did it because they couldn’t get Hillary Clinton’s war!

    “A convenient scapegoat for a complete financial collapse could of course be a massive cyberattack and – just by coincidence you understand – the NWO have been running simulations of massive cyberattacks for some time notably Cyber Polygon 2020, with a big one scheduled for this coming July, which could, like the prophetic Event 201 in NYC in October 2019, presage just such an event, which would further the Great Reset agenda” –Maund

    Event 201? Naw, Cleetus, that Mr. Gates is just super-duper lucky that he did the exact simulation in that exact month. Totally unrelated. And Gates owns farmland. Because he expects supplies to stay strong, prices to go down, and he’s just that kind of nice guy.

    “When you have the bulk of the population believing that their personal comfort, safety and wellbeing is of paramount importance, you have a population of unprincipled spineless cowards. Now, there is an old but true saying that for evil to flourish, all that is necessary is for good people to do nothing. Well, good people (and not so good) have been doing nothing, or not a lot, for a long time now, and while good has been taking its ease, evil, which is tireless and always looking for an opening, has seized power and gained total control” –Maund

    ” Coronavirus Crisis Unlikely To Be Over By The End Of The Year – WHO (G.)”

    Says the people who were wrong about everything so far, and the reporters who reported it wrong each of 365 days. That’s who I listen to! If they had it right, they’re crazy and wrong!

    “WHO Panel: Hydroxychloroquine Should Not Be Used To Prevent COVID-19 (Hill)”

    I rest my case. What Science are they using for this?

    “Data On Long Covid In UK Children Is Cause For Concern, Scientists Say (G.)”

    I rest my case. So far as reported a year later, zero kids had COVID. So who are they referring to?

    “US, EU Set to Impose Sanctions On Russia (NBC)”

    NBC, not being news, doesn’t seem to realize A) it won’t happen, and B) they won’t care. That is, nobody cares about Russian sanctions. They only lose a customer as Moscow buys from China instead. I mean, you thought the U.S., U.K. actually made anything? What would they buy from us? Obesity and pron?

    “Duckworth Calls For Russian Bounties Intelligence To Be Declassified (Hill)”

    I assume Duckworth, being an idiot, doesn’t realize it was all a lie, like everything else released by the Letter agencies over the last 50 years.

    Hey, did you catch BBC and Reuters not only being PAID by British MI6, but actually spend their time BIDDING ON CONTRACTS for them? That is, not Reuters being “salted”, “fooled” by Bellingcat and other totally transparent mouthpieces, hiring known CIA liars like Brennan, no. Reuters reads the BID for open misinformation, influence, and espionage from MI6, then accepts the contract and gets paid as a major source of income. That is, there is no journalism at all. It’s completely espionage and election-tampering. P.S. that’s been true always. They just released 50-year old FOIA records where Reuters did this in the 70’s against the Soviets. They released a press issue “Yes, that was then, it was different times, we don’t do that anymore…” aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the next day Reuters is shown to be still doing it, i.e. constantly lying, being totally anti-truth, every day, more than ever.

    And BBC too. Of course! They’re the ones pulling the RIDICULOUS Syrian gas hoax, the somehow, impossibly-more-ridiculous Skripal hoax, the even more transparent Steele hoax, and every other story they’ve ever printed, like the no-polar-bears and no-snow-in-10-years hoax. Lies lies lies lies. But they are British, after all. Hoax Hoax Hoax Hoax Hoax. Lies and more lies to create yet another war, as every war I can think of came from the British.

    Speaking of:
    Stefan Halper’s Role in Crossfire Hurricane Larger than Previously Known (ET)”

    …As if ANYONE on the whole planet didn’t already know this, and about the British. And then there’s TIME Magazine that SAID, openly, they rigged the election. And using the Steele/Halper/MI6 election-tampering material. I say nuke London so they’ll support democracy and remember not to do that anymore. That’s what they said to Russia, right?

    “Bernie Sanders Vows to Force Vote On $15 Minimum Wage (Hill)”

    Bernie never met a power he wouldn’t roll over for. Sadly. As in: Jimmy Dore ALREADY wanted to force the vote on M4A over Pelosi, and they said “Over our dead bodies”. But they care so much about this. Right.

    It’s still lucky $15 won’t get out since it will spark inflation, destroy the poor and make the rich stock holdings wildly richer (and me), but I wouldn’t call it a GOOD thing. They’ll just destroy the poor slower. You know, like in Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore…

    “Odyssey Banned for Violence, Sexism; Is this the End of World Classics? (GR)”

    Yes, AntiFa and the Left are already banning books like a coven of lemon-sucking Church ladies. They Burned books all summer. So tell me a time when the people burning books…and burning ethnic neighborhoods in cities…were the good guys? I’ll wait.

    They say they’re burning black neighborhoods to help black people, but they’re just finishing off Black Business so Feinstein can “Build Back Better.”

    Your war map missed the United States. Gun violence in every DNC gun-banned city, 30,000 deaths from opioids alone overseen by the DEA, AMA, and approved by Congress, 177,000 soldiers and police, 114,000 soldier suicides, 45,000 citizen suicides, 67,000 drug overdoses, 70,000 approved prescription drug deaths, 21,000 infant mortality, worse than Cuba. These are all preventable and re-approved and expanded with each year of my life. …Should I go on?

    Susmarire: Um, because they’re not Trump-bots at all like the media claims and mostly think for themselves? Why on earth WOULD you think they should do what he says? Liberty people are not followers. Of anyone. They’re Independents. That’s both their strength and their weakness. But to me that reads like a non-sequitor. Joe doesn’t want $15 wage, so why don’t 53% of his Democratic base immediately agree with him? See? Of course they don’t. The idea itself is odd.

    #70401
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Moon of Alabama deleted this comment from a CV19 article he had the other day. I don’t see whats so inflammatory about it considering some of the others he lets thru. Dr. D and i are of the same mind:

    What if you never corrected the problems from the 2008 GFC and you couldn’t admit it? Perhaps after a decade of 0% interest rates, you started to raise them again to build “confidence” in the system. Then in December of 2018 the smallish reductions to your balance sheet and raising rates to the astronomical level of 2.5% blows the system up again. The market crashes and beginning in 2019 you start to lower rates again. But lowering the rates doesn’t help anything because the system is drowning in debt and you can’t liquidate it except for the lowest of classes who you care nothing about, but liquidating it to fix the system would destroy your base of power. Then in the fall of 2019 the REPO market begins to go critical, but!!!!! you can’t start up QE and bailouts again, not in the fall of 2019. What would you blame it on? Orange man bad? Wouldn’t be enough you need something more. So suddenly in the spring of 2020 you get covid and the lord has dropped a reason into your lap to print print print baby! Who would blame you? The pandemic is so bad you just have to print even more money then in all the years since 2008 combined. Power is everything to the people who “rule” the world. Do you think something like this is beyond them?

    #70403
    Rototillerman
    Participant

    That map of armed conflicts was very interesting. How many of us would have correctly identified our southern neighbor Mexico as a country with a major war and 10,000+ deaths in the past year? Not me. I thought that the Chiapas conflict was only simmering these days, so is the author of that map counting the drug war casualties?

    #70404
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    @Mr House: “Moon of Alabama deleted this comment from a CV19 article he had the other day. I don’t see whats so inflammatory about it considering some of the others he lets thru.”

    Thank you for posting it here.

    I think you have a valid question, and it is not inflammatory in the slightest. When someone (or a group of someones) can’t stand to even look at the question you are asking, that means they don’t have an answer and you’re making them uncomfortable. Hence our rampant cancel culture.

    #70405
    WES
    Participant

    So the WHO is openly lying again and nobody seems to notice!
    The WHO said there is no proof that hydroxychlorquine “prevents” you from being infected with covid-19.
    No, hydroxychlorquine is used to safely “treat” you if you get covid-19!
    A big difference if you understand the meaning of words!

    #70406
    WES
    Participant

    The $15 minimum wage.

    joe told his rich backers nothing will change.

    joe has never supported the $15 minimum wage.
    joe has opened the border to let people flood in to ensure there is plenty of cheap labor available.
    These people compete for low paying jobs against poor Americans keeping wages low.

    AOC and Bernie are playing their assigned theatre roles by providing joe the neccessary cover.
    Clearly they don’t believe in the $15 minimum wage either.

    #70407
    WES
    Participant

    Just in case you are wondering why so many unaccompanied children are suddenly crossing the border these days now that joe is here, wonder no more!

    It is all about money!

    Trump unsuccessfully tried to shutdown these church businesses but congress wouldn’t let him. Trump certainly reduced the flow of children and therefore the churches’ revenues.

    You see for each child that crosses the border, churches running orphanages receive $60,000 per year, from the US government, to look after the children until they reach 18 years of age. Yes it is a multi hundred million dollar business for these so called churches!

    Studies have shown that these so called churches spend less than $7,000 per child per year. That leaves a lot of money for administration! And annual kick backs to uniparty congress!

    It has been documented that these so called churches pay bounties of up to $15,000 for each child smuggled across the border by the cartels!

    Now you know why the border is wide open these days.

    #70408
    WES
    Participant

    So the WHO says the endemic isn’t likely to be over by the end of the year.
    Of course not!
    That would reduce the power of the WHO and the money they receive in their Swiss bank accounts!
    This endemic will never be over!

    #70409
    Bill7
    Participant

    Trying to remember who it was, here, saying “lockdowns™ work!.. masks work!..”, not so very long ago, while a few erstwhile readers and commenters gently- or otherwise- dissented..

    Yep- those devices and instrumentalities *sure do* work: to destroy mental health; to destroy civil society, proper; to destroy the productive capacity of the Citizenry; but who could have ever known all that ??

    And now: more masks (what today’s mask quotient? 3.84 at 2pm PST, I heard), but that’s subject to [eternal] revision..
    vaccines without end; surveillance without end; an elite-created tech-Hellscape without end-

    Good thing we can count on the online Left™ (heh!) to Stand Up for us when it matters.

    #70410
    WES
    Participant

    I see joe has pulled Neera Tanden’s nomination for budge director!
    This appointment was meant as a finger to Bernie Sanders who is the Senate’s Budget chair!
    Guess who is Bernie’s biggest critic? Why yes! Neera Tanden!
    joe really likes Bernie! AOC too! Their $15 minimum wage too!

    #70411
    WES
    Participant

    Bill7:

    Actually I think the deep state are pissed off that their facial recognition systems haven’t been working very well of late, with everyone wearing masts!

    #70412
    Bill7
    Participant

    Hoping that the ‘Why Lockdowns Work’ piece gets re-posted here, so we can all be the wiser, ten months later- I looked for a link to the original, but (oddly) could not find it.

    To be clear, I oppose its author’s position; did then, for many reasons, and do even more now.

    #70413
    Bill7
    Participant

    WES: I think the losses you mention are outweighed, for “our betters”, by the plusses: utter submission by the Many; conformity in the face of much confounding evidence; and the general negative-conditioning built into doing as the Few wish, over time..

    A prescient short story that I wish was *not* one of my favorites, but it is – ‘The Door’, by E.B.White:
    https://www.classicshorts.com/stories/door.html

    #elite-constructedDarkAge2021

    #70415
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    I second the question about Mexico being in a major war. I last vacationed there 30 years ago. There was no major war. I’ve been there and seen one. But I did see Huey helicopters parked in an open field used in drug raids. Senator Ted Cruz took an aborted tour of the war zone a couple weeks ago. The Establishment cannot admit that a major war is ongoing within the Americas with Drug Cartels. They finance Wall Street. The USA is a major market. Plus, this is how the connected earn their bribes and bonuses.

    If drums start beating for a war in the Americas, then the Corporate/State Generals will have to start talking about winning “hearts and minds” and “pacification” – not just in Mexico but the Elite will include the seditionists in “El Norte” (the 75 million MAGA voters and roughly 40 million Progressives). There is no way Canada can avoid collateral damage.

    #70416
    Bill7
    Participant

    ‘Why Lockdowns Work’, 4 May 2020:

    Why Lockdowns Work

    #70417
    WES
    Participant

    Bill7:

    My way of dealing with the insanity of the world is to point out the contradictions and laugh! Otherwise I would go insane!

    #70468
    Topcat
    Participant

    The percent of people refusing to take the vamped up cancer therapy mRNA masquerading as a ‘vaccine’ is a litmus test in itself; for gullibility.

    The Pathocratic Oligarchy just wants to know who will do what.

    They are laughing at the plebs by floating triple masks and anal swabs.

    Pretty soon, you’ll be asked to stand on your head and spit wooden nickels. And 93% of the Democrats will jump at the possibility.

    Sweet, as the saying goes;

    You can’t tell the Players without a score card! hahahaha

    Dr Fauci-faust will appear and tell the public that ‘the science’ has told him, like an Oracle at Delphi, that rubbing your stomach in a circular motion while patting your head will protect you from certain Covid ‘variants’!

    Yes

    #70491
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    I meant this Picasso…

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