The Evening Blues - 2-1-21
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features soul singer Albert Washington. Enjoy!
Albert Washington - Crazy Legs Part. 1&2
“The future is uncertain but the end is always near.”
-- Jim Morrison
News and Opinion
‘That hurricane is coming’: expert warns US to brace for virulent Covid strain
A leading infectious disease expert predicted on Sunday that the deadlier British variant of Covid-19 will become the dominant strain of the virus in the US and could hit the country like a hurricane.
The worrying forecast came as the total of confirmed infections in the US passed the 26m mark, with the death toll advancing steadily towards the grim milestone of half a million after on Sunday surpassing the total of 440,000, by far the highest in the world according to data gathered by the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus research center.
Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, who served on Joe Biden’s transition coronavirus advisory board after the Democratic victory in the 2020 election, and is director of the center for infectious disease research and policy at the University of Minnesota, warned America to brace for the spread of the virulent strain this spring. “The surge that is likely to occur with this new variant from England is going to happen in the next six to 14 weeks, Osterholm told NBC’s Meet the Press show on Sunday morning.
He urged the new administration to move faster with plans to get as many people as possible in the US vaccinated, at least with their first dose, especially those aged over 65, in order to try and stave off the worst exacerbation by variants of the ongoing crisis.
“That hurricane is coming,” Osterholm told NBC.
Biden team scrambles to find 20m vaccine doses Trump reportedly failed to track
The Biden administration has spent its first week in office attempting to manually track down 20m vaccine doses in the pipeline between federal distribution and administration at clinic sites, when a dose finally reaches a patient’s arm. The Trump administration’s strategy pushed the response to the coronavirus pandemic to individual states and omitted pipeline tracking information between distribution and when the shot is actually administered, Biden administration officials told Politico.
The lack of data has now forced federal health department officials to spend hours on the phone tracking down vaccine shipments, the news website reported.
“Nobody had a complete picture,” Dr Julie Morita, a member of the Biden transition team and executive vice-president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, told Politico. “The plans that were being made were being made with the assumption that more information would be available and be revealed once they got into the White House.”
As of Saturday, 49 million doses of vaccine have been distributed by the federal government, but only 27 million administered by states, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). About two million of those doses are believed to be accounted for by a 72-hour lag in reported administration, Politico reported. That still leaves millions in the pipeline between delivery and patient. At least 16 states have used less than half the vaccine doses distributed to them, USA Today reported this week.
As Fears Grow Over Covid Vaccine Delays, Watchdog Asks: 'Why Are We Allowing Big Pharma's Patents to Artificially Limit Supply?'
With the global coronavirus death toll now over the two million mark and new mutations spreading, the European Union and Britain in recent days have descended into a bitter and potentially destructive fight over vaccine shipments, leading the 27-nation E.U. to threaten export restrictions on vaccines amid growing public anger over production delays and shortages.
"The notoriously tricky manufacturing of vaccines is only part of the problem," the New York Times noted in a Wednesday report on what it called the "vaccine wars" raging in Europe. "Public health experts say the entire global system of buying doses, pitting one country against another with little regard for equity, is unfit to the task of ending a pandemic that respects no borders."
Nick Dearden, director of U.K.-based advocacy group Global Justice Now, warned in a statement Friday morning that the ongoing vaccine dispute between Britain and the E.U. "will be the first of many and could lead the world down a dangerous path" unless "we fundamentally change who controls the supply of vaccines," which have been developed with the help of large infusions of public funding.
"There is a lot of focus on what will happen to the current limited doses, but the bigger question is why are we allowing Big Pharma's patents to artificially limit the supply of these vital vaccines?" Dearden asked. "Every available manufacturer in the world should be producing these vaccines, and governments should be doing whatever it takes to increase manufacturing capacity for the whole world."
As the Times reported Wednesday, "Pfizer informed the European Union and other countries outside the United States this month that it had to drastically cut its vaccine deliveries until mid-February to upgrade its plants in order to ramp up output, adding to the severe supply problems facing the region."
"But it was AstraZeneca's sudden announcement last week that it would cut deliveries in February and March by 60 percent, that really upended European Union vaccination plans," the Times explained. "Many countries had built their strategies around expectations of millions of those doses of that vaccine, which is cheaper and easier to store than others, in the first quarter of the year. AstraZeneca said it was having production troubles at one of its factories."
Instead of allowing "a handful of massively wealthy corporations" to dictate production and decide who receives vaccines first, Dearden argued that governments should immediately suspend patent protections "and work together to ramp up supply now."
In the search for Covid protection, Cormac the 'extremely charismatic' llama may hold a key
Cormac the llama lives a quiet life on a farm in Washington State, totally unaware that his unique immune system may be key to protecting the developing world from Covid-19. “He is an extremely charismatic llama … he’s a pretty cool guy,” says TJ Esparza, a neuroscientist at the Uniformed Services University. He is part of the team attempting to transform Cormac’s nanobody cells into a drug that will coat the inside of human lungs, providing temporary but effective protection from coronavirus particles.
Camelids such as camels, llamas and alpacas produce nanobodies, which are similar to human antibodies but much smaller. The right nanobodies, from the right animal, can essentially nestle over the spikes that dot the surface of a coronavirus particle and prevent them from latching on to healthy cells. Cormac turned out to be the right llama. After he was injected with a harmless pseudovirus five times over the course of a month, a small portion of his blood was taken and his nanobodies isolated. Cormac produced one nanobody strain, from hundreds analysed, that was found to be effective in preventing infection. ...
Unlike mRNA vaccines, nanobody drugs are cheap to produce and extremely stable, requiring no refrigeration, and can be administered through an inhaler rather than an injection. That may make them a particularly useful tool given the huge logistical challenge of producing and distributing millions of vaccine doses at sub-zero storage temperatures.
“You can dry them down into a powder and store them in a warehouse for months or even years, and then add water and reconstitute them and they work just fine … So they would have huge advantages for the developing world,” Brody says. These nanobodies have now been grown and reproduced in a lab, meaning Cormac’s work is done.
Krystal Ball: Media GASLIGHTS On 2k Checks To Cover For Biden's Lies
Biden more likely to bypass Republicans on Covid stimulus aid after lowball offer
Republicans senators made a lowball offer on Sunday to cooperate with the Biden administration on a new coronavirus relief package, increasing the likelihood that the White House will seek to bypass Republicans to fund its proposal. A group of 10 Republican senators led by Susan Collins of Maine pitched Joe Biden a sketch of a relief plan with a reported $600bn total price tag – less than a third of the $1.9tn stimulus package the Biden team has laid out over the last days.
The yawning gap between the two numbers caused some observers to question whether Republicans were really trying to reach a deal – or instead were laying the groundwork for future accusations that Biden had not seriously pursued his promises to try to work with Republicans. Asked about the new Republican offer on the NBC News program Meet the Press, national economic council director Brian Deese said Biden is “open to ideas” but would not be stalled. ...
One signatory of the Republican offer, senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who has announced his upcoming retirement, told CNN that the $1.9tn price tag was too high “at a time of unprecedented deficits and debts”. But moderate Democratic senator Jon Tester of Montana said the twin crises of the pandemic and record unemployment demanded decisive action. “I don’t think $1.9tn, even though it is a boatload of money, is too much money,” Tester told CNN. “I think now is not the time to starve the economy.
Krystal and Saagar: Is Biden Getting ROLLED By GOP On Stimulus Already?
GOP Tries To Gut Survival Checks
A group of Republican senators is pushing to cut the size of the next round of COVID-19 relief checks and significantly limit who’s eligible to receive the payments, as the Biden administration continues to indicate that it would be open to further restricting who’s eligible for survival checks. Last month, President Joe Biden promised that $2,000 checks would “go out the door immediately” if Democrats managed to win the two Georgia senate runoff races and claim control of the Senate. After Democrats pulled off two miracle victories in Georgia, Biden quickly narrowed his pledge to new $1,400 checks, asserting that the $600 checks authorized by Congress in December were a down payment on his plan.
On Sunday, ten moderate Republicans proposed new $1,000 checks instead as part of their own scaled-down coronavirus relief package. Under their proposal, survival checks would go to far fewer Americans than in previous relief bills — only to “families who need assistance the most,” according to a letter they sent to the White House. While the details haven’t been released yet, one Republican involved in the effort, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, told CNN on Sunday that direct payments should only go to individuals earning less than $50,000 and families earning less than $100,000. ...
While early reporting suggests that Democrats are unlikely to go along with the new proposal from moderate Republicans, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia helped kick off the push for limiting payment eligibility, repeatedly insisting that new rounds of relief checks be more targeted even though the payments have been means tested all along.
Biden, meanwhile, indicated last week that he would be open to setting new income limits for the checks, and National Economic Council director Brian Deese reiterated on Sunday that the White House is open to changing the income caps.
Biden promised bold action. Will his efforts to compromise get in the way?
Joe Biden rose to power by promising bold action to confront the numerous crises facing the United States – namely the coronavirus pandemic, a struggling economy and the climate emergency. Over his first two weeks in office, the new president has signed a series of executive orders aimed at following through on those promises. ... But much of what Biden has promised, including a massive coronavirus relief package, cannot be done through executive action. Instead, Democrats will need to get their legislation through Congress, as the party clings to the slimmest of majorities in the House and the Senate.
During his campaign, Biden promised to compromise with congressional Republicans in the spirit of bipartisan unity, but some of the president’s allies are already urging him to abandon that goal and instead advance his agenda by relying solely on Democratic support. Those Democrats argue that the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, has already made clear he intends to obstruct Biden’s agenda, and thus the new president should not waste precious time by trying to win over Republicans in Congress. ...
Much of the debate over Democrats’ strategy in the Senate comes down to the filibuster, a legislative mechanism that effectively allows the chamber’s minority to block bills unless they have the support of 60 members. ... But the new president is not among those Democrats who have called for eliminating the Senate filibuster. ... Asked last week about Biden’s view on the filibuster, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters that the president’s position “has not changed”.
NBC Apologizes For Accurate Reporting on Biden! w/Glenn Greenwald
Iran Says It Will Not Comply With Nuclear Deal Until US Lifts Sanctions
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said on Friday that the Islamic Republic will not give in to the Biden administration’s demands and return to compliance with the JCPOA before the US lifts sanctions. ...
Friday’s comments were Zarif’s second public response to remarks made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday. Blinken said Iran must return to compliance before the US does, something he said was a “long ways” away.
Scrutiny grows over National Guard presence at Capitol
As the National Guard’s deployment to the Capitol enters its second month with no solid end yet in sight, politicians are beginning to question whether the troops are overstaying their welcome.
Pentagon officials have pointed to unspecified threats in justifying their approval to keep about 5,000 Guardsmen at the Capitol through at least mid-March.
Local politicians, while agreeing with the need for the current deployment, have expressed concerns about the security on Capitol Hill becoming permanent, cutting off access around the neighborhood residents have traditionally enjoyed.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have begun openly questioning whether intelligence exists to justify keeping the Guardsmen in D.C., accusing Democrats of using the Guard for show.
“I sit on the Intelligence Committee, but I’m aware of no specific, credible threat reporting — as distinguished from aspirational, uncoordinated bluster on the internet — that justifies this continued troop presence,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) wrote in an op-ed for Fox News this week. “Thus, I believe the rest of these soldiers should also go home to their families and civilian jobs.”
The Assassination of Fred Hampton: New Documents Reveal Involvement of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover
Rubber stamp court shows just how flexible rubber can be:
FBI Gets Away With Russiagate Perjury
How can the American people take the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court seriously when it doesn’t do so itself? That’s our view of Friday’s sentencing of former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who admitted to falsifying evidence submitted to the court for a warrant to spy on onetime Trump foreign-policy adviser Carter Page.
Federal Judge James Boasberg spared Mr. Clinesmith prison in favor of 12 months probation and 400 hours of community service. The judge said the evidence persuaded him that “Mr. Clinesmith likely believed that what he said about Mr. Page was true.”
In their brief, prosecutors made clear how unlikely this is. The evidence of Mr. Clinesmith’s animus toward Donald Trump is considerable. As for being an honest mistake, remember that Mr. Clinesmith changed an email confirming Mr. Page had been a CIA source to one that said the exact opposite, explicitly adding the words “not a source” before he forwarded it. ...
Friday’s sentencing will fuel cynicism about two-tiered justice.
Joe Manchin Goes To WAR With Kamala Over WV TV Appearance
Donald Trump's impeachment defence in disarray as lead lawyers quit
The ability of Republican senators who plan to acquit Donald Trump at his upcoming impeachment trial to pretend to have weighed the case on the merits has been endangered by the mass resignation of Trump’s legal team at the weekend.
The Senate has set a deadline of Tuesday for Trump’s lawyers to submit a preliminary memo laying out his defense. The House impeached Trump earlier this month on a single article charging “incitement of insurrection” – a historic second impeachment of a US president.
According to a schedule hammered out by leaders from both parties, House prosecutors were to respond to Trump’s defense memo, after which arguments were to begin on the Senate floor on 9 February.
But the trial schedule, and its substance, have been thrown into doubt with the departure of five lawyers on Trump’s defense team – apparently the entire team. The resignations were first reported by CNN, which said the lawyers and Trump disagreed over strategy.
A Trump spokesperson told the New York Times that there had been a strategy disagreement but denied it was over Trump’s insistence that his defense center on the wild, false accusations of election fraud that he has been peddling for months.
Is Far-Right QAnon Conspiracy Theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene the New Face of the GOP?
'It's endemic': state-level Republican groups lead party's drift to extremism
In Arizona and Oregon, they rebuked opponents of Donald Trump’s assault on democracy. In Hawaii, they defended followers of the QAnon conspiracy movement. And in Texas, they adopted a slogan with dark historical connotations: “We are the storm.” To understand the future of the Republican party, start with the army of increasingly radicalised foot soldiers who shape it at state level.
Far from responding to the loss of the White House to Joe Biden by tacking to the political centre, local parties appear to be racing to the extreme right by giving safe harbour to white nationalism, QAnon – an antisemitic theory involving Satan-worshipping cannibals and a child sex trafficking ring – and “the big lie” that the presidential election was stolen by Democrats. ...
The Republican party has been drifting towards rightwing populism for years, with notable examples including the Tea Party movement, the nomination of Sarah Palin for vice-president and the total capitulation to Trump.
Moderate Republicans hoped that Trump’s failures at the ballot box – he was the first president since 1932 to lose re-election, the House and the Senate – might generate an “autopsy” similar to that which followed Mitt Romney’s defeat eight years ago and a reset aimed at broadening its appeal.
But recent evidence suggests that state parties are embracing Trumpism with renewed zeal, along with the fantasies of the far-right fringe.
Krystal and Saagar: GOP Civil War ERUPTS As Marjorie Taylor Greene 9/11 Truther Comments Come Out
Amid Broader Concerns Over Biden USDA Nominee, Watchdog Flags 'Disturbing Suppression' of Science by Vilsack
On top of concerns about his close industry ties, corporate-friendly policy record, and alarming civil rights history, President Joe Biden's Agriculture Secretary nominee Tom Vilsack is also facing scrutiny over what one watchdog organization on Friday characterized as "disturbing" evidence that he improperly meddled in and suppressed scientific research during his previous tenure as head of USDA.
Throughout his nearly eight years as former President Barack Obama's USDA chief, Vilsack "routinely interfered with scientific work that big agriculture found bothersome," the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) alleged in a statement Friday, pointing to the direct testimony and survey responses of department scientists.
"Tom Vilsack's record on scientific integrity at USDA was appalling," said PEER's executive director Tim Whitehouse. "Government research documenting what is really going in American agriculture does not need a corporate filter."
One notable example PEER cited is the case of Dr. Jonathan Lundgren, an agroecologist who served as a senior research entomologist and lab supervisor for the USDA Agriculture Research Service during Vilsack's time as head of the department.
In 2015, Lundgren lodged a whistleblower complaint alleging that his USDA supervisors suspended him as punishment for publishing research detailing the harms neonicotinoid insecticides—commonly referred to as "neonics"—cause to monarch butterflies.
"It is USDA policy that political suppression and manipulation of science are not to be tolerated, but it is empty rhetoric," then-PEER staff counsel Laura Dumais, who filed the complaint on Lundgren's behalf, said at the time. "Dr. Lundgren is suffering the proverbial professional death by a thousand cuts precisely because of the implications [of] his scientific work for agribusiness."
To demonstrate that concerns about Vilsack's approach to scientific research were not limited to a few isolated complaints, PEER pointed to a 2016 Office of Inspector General survey showing that around 120 USDA agency scientists believed their research findings had "been altered or suppressed for reasons other than technical merit." ...
PEER's scathing assessment of Vilsack's disregard for scientific integrity came days after a coalition of progressive advocacy groups including RootsAction.org and Food & Water Watch launched a campaign urging senators to block the former USDA chief's confirmation.
Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, is expected to appear before the Senate Agriculture Committee for his first confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
Pelosi's Corrupt Tesla Stock Deal! w/Dylan Ratigan
Dutch Court Orders Shell Oil to Pay for Harm Done to Nigerian Farmers
Global environmental justice campaigners heralded a Dutch court's ruling Friday that Royal Dutch Shell's Nigerian subsidiary must pay punitive restitution to Nigerian villages for oil spill contamination that brought death, illness, and destruction to Nigerian farmers and communities.
"After 13 years, justice!" tweeted Friends of the Earth Europe.
The legal effort seeking accountability for the oil pollution in the Niger Delta, as Agence France-Presse noted, was brought forth by the Netherlands branch of Friends of the Earth, and "has dragged on so long that two of the Nigerian farmers have died since it was first filed in 2008." ...
As Reuters reported,
Friday's decision went a step further than a 2013 ruling by a lower court, saying that Shell's Nigerian subsidiary was responsible for multiple cases of oil pollution.
The appeals judge sided with the farmers in four of six spills covered by the lawsuit and postponed a verdict in the remaining cases, where the lower court had previously found SPDC responsible.
The appeals court "also held the Anglo-Dutch parent company Royal Dutch Shell liable for installing new pipeline equipment to prevent further devastating spills in the Niger Delta region," AFP added.
The devastation, as Friends of the Earth International (FOEI) has previously described, has been vast:
Between 1976 and 1991, over two million barrels of oil polluted Ogoniland in 2,976 separate oil spills. While oil production has ceased, pipelines operated by Shell still traverse the land, creeks and waterways. Leakages—caused by corroded pipelines as well as bandits—mean that the area is still plagued by oil spills.
It is a painful example of corporate impunity that even when the tireless work of communities, individuals, and campaigners achieves some semblance of justice, it is rarely seen through. And nowhere is this more true than for the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta. As Michael Karikpo, from Environmental Rights Action explained to us: "The price for docility in our communities and country is the loss of liberty and sovereignty to rapacious and predatory multinational oil companies like Shell. Our communities must stand up and continuously demand accountability from Shell and the international system that nurtures it."
Describing the scene in 2019 at a few of the sites affected by oil spills in the Niger Delta, FOEI added that the "horror of the vast stretch of black, lifeless landscape stretching out in front of us is something that has to be seen in order to be believed."
Nigerian environmental justice advocate Nnimmo Bassey, in a tweet welcoming the new ruling, drew attention to the late Ken Saro-Wiwa, who, along with other Ogoni rights activists, was executed by the country's military in 1995 after leading an uprising against Shell's ecological damage in the region.
Extraordinary voyage: on the trail of the trillion-tonne runaway iceberg
Polar researchers will this week embark on a remarkable expedition aimed at providing crucial information about the vast iceberg, A68a, that has been spiralling northwards from Antarctica for the last year. A group from the British Antarctic Survey will sail from the Falkland Islands on Tuesday and head towards the iceberg which has been floating in waters off the island of South Georgia for several weeks.
Once on site, they will direct robot submarines to probe the water underneath the vast frozen structure and study how freshwater, melting from the iceberg, is affecting life in the ocean.
Satellite images last week revealed that A68a has now split in two and could be in its death throes. However, it still remains a threat to the surrounding ecosystem. “This iceberg is the size of a large island and the torrents of very cold freshwater emerging from it as it slowly melts could have really adverse effects on the phytoplankton in the waters off South Georgia,” Povl Abrahamsen, the expedition’s chief scientist, told the Observer last week. “And that could have very important repercussions. Essentially we have this gigantic ice cube floating in the ocean and it is cooling and freshening the water around it.
“That raises worries this could affect the base of the ocean food chain. Ecosystems in these cold regions are delicately balanced.”
Marine biologists worry that phytoplankton, microscopic marine organisms that float in the water, could be killed off. This would affect the creatures that feed on phytoplankton such as krill, a type of crustacean. In turn, this could affect populations of seals, penguins and whales which all eat krill and come to South Georgia to feed.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Robinhood Is a Perfect Example of Fintech’s Insidious Power
Three-Card Monte, Wall Street-Style
Will America recover under Biden?
New Covid Cases Plunge 25% or More as Behavior Changes
The American Exceptionalism Of Secretary Of State Antony Blinken
Navalny Scam Sells Empty Concrete Shell As 'Putin's Luxurious Palace'
How the LAPD and Palantir Use Data to Justify Racist Policing
Hilton Valentine, founding guitarist in the Animals, dies aged 77
A decade after junta's end, Myanmar military back in charge
CNBC Melts Down Over GameStop! with Dylan Ratigan
Socialist Group Cheering Censorship Gets Banned From Facebook w/Glenn Greenwald
NASDAQ Chair Compares GameStop To Capitol Insurrection!? w/Glenn Greenwald
Saagar Enjeti: Former SEC Commissioner Likens Redditors To CAPITOL RIOTERS For Destroying Hedge Fund
Funky Academic: Robinhood Debacle Reveals Elite Tyranny
Krystal and Saagar: Melvin Capital Lost HALF Its Value After Reddit Rescued GameStop
A Little Night Music
Albert Washington - Woman Love
Albert Washington - One More Chance
Albert Washington - Tellin' All Your Friends
Albert Washington - Somewhere Down The Line
Albert Washington - If You Need Me
Albert Washington - Turn On the Bright Lights
Albert Washington - Loosen These Pains And Let Me Go
Albert Washington - I'm The Man
Albert Washington - Steal Away
Albert Washington - A Brighter Day
Comments
Some end is always near
Thanks for the finely sieved current sauce
shakin' with crazy legs
evening qms...
the crazy legs are what makes the whole thing work. have a good one!
Good afternoon, Joe. Thanks for the news and blues -
just starting to work my way through it. The first tune was quite a relief, I wondered how a soul singer could do a whole song about Elroy Hirsch.
Melvin Capital, if it really does habitually indulge in naked shorts, should have its corporate charter revoked along with its trading privileges, but, ya know, never happen.
As to the missing 20 million vaccine doses, there is a one word answer in a very short column I just posted. ( https://caucus99percent.com/content/why-vaccine-rollout-such-chaotic-sna... ) And it doesn't bode well for our reaction to that coming "Hurricane" either.
Funny thing about our collective response to Covid-19, with masks, handwashing, social distancing and all that, ordinary everyday flu cases are way down in California, and seemingly nationwide. Amazing what some due care will accomplish, heh https://patch.com/california/castrovalley/s/hen4c/ca-flu-report-17-die-o...
This article: https://patch.com/california/castrovalley/s/hen4c/ca-flu-report-17-die-o... admits that the link to behavioral change is speculative. I'm sure that team "no precautions" has some other explanation, though the governments of two states that adopted and stood by that position from the beginning have stated that they now wish the hadn't and think it was a mistake. We will forever be saddled with the puzzle of how a mere casedemic can kill so many as occurred here lately, but I'll let the euro-experts solve that one.
meanwhile, RIP Hilton Valentine
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Melvin capital is being bailed out
Ken Griffen's Citadel and Steve Cohen's Point72. The Melvin CEO is an alumnus of Cohen's shop and provided significant profits to Point72 in 2019. Good bet that Griffen and Cohen are covering for Melvin to hide their participation.
Cohen is a documented crook. He and Griffen actively supported Trump, a factoid that may be relevant.
And MLB approved the sale of the NY Mets to this crook
"At issue appears to be Cohen’s shady financial dealings in the past. According to the Post, language in the Citi Field lease prevents “'[a]ny Person that has been convicted in a criminal proceeding for a felony or any crime involving moral turpitude or that is an organized crime figure' from leasing Citi Field." Cohen, as you may remember, pleaded guilty to insider trading charges in 2013 and paid $1.8 billion in fines, but never faced jail time.
https://www.nj.com/yankees/2020/10/nyc-mayor-bill-de-blasio-wants-to-sto...
Really high standards there MLB.
evening el...
since melvin capital is the system along with its cronies, no real punishment will come from the system, only tea and sympathy (counted in billions). the good news is that melvin lost half of its value even with the intervention of its cronies. that's an indication to the unwashed masses that if they think about it, they might have some power after all.
heh, i reckon that regarding covid, we the little people are pretty much on our own and whatever measures we can take to protect ourselves are the best things that we can do.
have a great evening!
Good afternoon...
been spitting snow, but at 35 F no accumulation. Bet you have plenty. Noticed Krystal and Saager were remote cause of the snow. You snowed in folks, be careful.
Black panthers provided social services from food to schools to a newspaper. Like MLK, when they started uniting with other working folks they had to be stopped by TPTB. Black folks with guns are not acceptable. The 2nd amendment for my people, not yours. Round and round we go.
The US COVID response sure illustrates the failure of a for profit health care system. With 3000-4000 deaths/day you would think there would be more emphasis on Vit D, zinc, and ivermectin. WHO-sponsored review of ivermectin trials indicates 83% reduction in COVID mortality. The NIH now has it placed in the same category as monoclonal antibodies... accepted but not recommended. Too cheap, available, and generic to be pushed. So it is up to you to tell your doctor you want ivermectin if you have symptoms. It is also an effective preventative drug. Big pharma's reach is long and powerful.
Got in my last tree order for this winter. Should arrive in a couple of weeks. Holes are already prepped and awaiting planting.
Thanks for the music and news js. Everyone have a nice night. Stay warm!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
evening lookout...
we've got a bunch of snow on the ground with a thin crust of ice on top of it. there's another, larger storm that's supposed to sweep through the area and dump fairly heavy snow overnight. we've got about 4 inches now, we could get up to about 6 inches more by morning says the weatherman. ms shikspack's garden is happy about the additional water and i am tired of shovelling.
heh:
but they are still making wads of money, how can they have failed?
have a great evening!
The Ivermectin paper
is a serious paper. It is only a preprint at this point, so it has not been peer reviewed. One must, therefore, be cautious. Interestingly, the effectiveness does not seem to be related to inhibition of viral replication.
au contraire, my friend...
10 min
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsuYdwBXt5g]
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-01577-x
This is just one of the mechanisms whereby viral replication is inhibited by Ivermectin.
We've know about this drug since Apri. Why isn't there a big US RCT when many have been done in India, Bangladesh, Peru, etc? Because there is no profit, so no funding for the study. hey, it just saves lives. TPTB have been throttling info for months. Think how many lives could already have been saved.
Take it from the leading front line doctors...
”FLCCC Response to the NIH:
We are grateful that the Panel has upgraded their recommendation from “against use” to a neutral stance that neither promotes nor discourages use of ivermectin by doctors. A similar neutral stance applies to monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma,both of which are widely used in COVID-19 treatment in the U.S. However, these therapies are objectively inferior to ivermectin in three critical ways:
(sorry the spaces dissappeared...)
1)IvermectinistheONLYoneofthese3therapiesthathasmultiplerandomizedcontrolledtrials(RCT’s)andametaanalysisof RCT’sthatdemonstratestatisticallysignificant:
a.Largereductionsinmortalityrates;
b.Shorterdurationsofhospitalstay;
c.Profoundreductionsintheinfectivityrateinbothpre-andpost-exposureprophylaxisstudies;
d.Fastertimestoclinicalrecovery;
e.Fastertimestoviralclearance.
2)IvermectinistheONLYoneofthese3therapiesthatisgloballyavailable,lowcost,givenorally,requiresnospecialshippingorhandling,andissafetouseinnearlyallclinicalsituations.
3)IvermectinistheONLYoneofthesethreetherapiesthatcanbewidelyusedinbothearlyoutpatienttreatmentaswellasinpreventionoftransmission.
And if you really have an interest, listen to these doctors (22 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6MZSWXr9Vo&list=PLf5bMa9_tvRhOX1m2kZL3i...
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
More on "opposition leader" Alexei Navalny ...
Evening all,
I guess this goes with that MoA link: Katya Kazbek at The Grayzone- Who is Alexei Navalny? Behind the myth of the West’s favorite Russian opposition figure.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if this were true.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TaG7jOlRmI width:500 height:300]
Here's one more clip from Jimmy Dore's interview with Glenn Greenwald.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_tpgGvUUro width:500 height:300]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
evening azazello...
thanks for the links and vids, though i must admit that i had a visceral revulsion seeing that vulgar jagoff brennan posting john lennon's imagine.
i guess death makes an anecdote of us all.
Navalny calls Muslims "cockroaches" in his video.
[video:https://twitter.com/i/status/1354052162570117121]
And Bernie is telling Russia what to do regarding
Navalny. And boy are people hammering him for it and asking why he isn’t speaking up for Assange. Damn good question and one that Bernie refuses to answer. But boy is he towing the party line. Boo.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Good grief Bernie --
You're not running or going to run for POTUS again; so, no need to continue with your Russia bashing nonsense as if that will improve your standing with Hill Dems. They don't and never will like you regardless of how subservient you make yourself to them. Nobody likes a wimp.
OK after snow blowing away 12 inches, not easy w/a mini
blower here's a needed joke
Ok back to biz, first off how the fuck does this happen in the first place and secondly how the fuck do these pigs only get suspended?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/rochester-suspends-officers-who-wer...
Rochester suspends officers who were on scene as 9-year-old girl got pepper-sprayed by police
Thanks for the blues n news Joe! It's looking like another week just like the week before, sigh
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
evening ggersh...
heh, thanks for the joke - good one!
that rochester story is pretty awful. one wonders how long it is going to take to get the police out of the business of intervening in situations where implicit or explicit violence is not needed.
Fintech might just be what
collapses markets around the world.
Wirecard a German company (the Wikipedia entry is factually correct based on publicly available information. A curiosity is that there has been no updates on this scandal since last July. The COO reportedly still on the run (can't imagine why Belarus would shelter him). Sure looks as if burying this thing was the decision of German regulators and Parliament.
The markits have actually crashed already
only 2 things are currently keeping the markit afloat and both are fraudulent. Stock buybacks is one CB's buying stocks(ETF's) is the other. W/out either one the markit breaks w/out both the markit crashes.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
The markets can't crash
so long as the FED and DC keeps funneling (tax cuts and increased deficit spending) gobs of cash to them. (The worst of individual companies can be allowed to collapse. Grabs headlines for a couple of weeks but causes little more than a ripple in the markets.) Emergencies are the fastest and easiest way to open the cash spigots. 9/11 - great for the markets. (KBR-Halliburton was near death's door (won't say more because I was privy to insider info at the time) but that one wasn't allowed to collapse.) The markets take that surplus cash that the core capital markets can't absorb and chases skivvy higher return schemes. When the music stops, the crash ensues, and the FED and DC turn on the printing press. The response to COVID-19 was totally irrational from a public health perspective but has been a boon to the markets - enough so that will remain afloat for a while longer.
evening marie...
i think that what collapses markets will be their internal contradictions. they are not free as advertised, value is entirely detached from fundamentals and price determination has more to do with how much money is coming out of the central bank spigots than anything else.
sooner or later, the behavior of the people gaming the markets to get chunks of that sweet, sweet central bank cash will drive everyone else out of the markets.
Depends on the definition of fundamentals
It varies by industry segment, operating territory, time, and several other factors. A generic analysis of a company and its common stock price isn't for the most part all that telling. It takes years to fully grasp all the ins and outs of an industry and a company in that industry. Stock brokers no longer put that much money into their analysts. As humans, they're subject to a herd mentality and individually have their own biases. Investors aren't much different. Hence, "Enron is the best run company in the country" took hold while the red flags were all over their financials.
That said, a major problem today is that finance is a much too large segment of the US economy. Chasing illusory high returns that will make everybody rich. Not gonna happen.
Thanks as usual for the blues and the news....
Looks like a lot of the same old. As the story unfolds about the GameStop story, things have gotten quite interesting and unfortunately we know who will not suffer as much as the little guy does.
Weather here for the next couple of days is looking very nice and temps are in the 60’s and low 70’s so good time to be out on the bicycle. Today, took a wrong turn but enjoyed the ride as I finally found myself in familiar territory.
Have a check from the government in my mailbox down at the post office that will need to pick up. Of course, I am one of those people they are railing about in the “land of fiscal conservatives when beneficial to them” who will put it in savings and not use it. So I will not put it in savings but send it to the Food Bank in my area and some to Caucus99.
Trying to keep a positive outlook but sure wish the vaccine snafu in Austin would improve and be able to get my shot. Until them, staying close in and hope all are staying well!
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
evening jb...
the gamestop story is interesting to me because there are a lot of people right now fighting over control of the narrative. it will be interesting to see who ultimately wins the spin war and how that affects whatever legislation will ultimately instruct the regulators who will struggle to bestir themselves and ultimately go back to sleep. call me cynical, but the so-called regulatory agencies are captured by the industry and need to be replaced with something else.
glad you're having good weather, i hope that things straighten out soon and everybody can get their vaccines.
Iran . Yes, Again
The "you go first, no you go first" the USA is whining about encapsulates our infantile and willfully absurd behavior towards Iran.
WE dropped out of the Nuclear deal. Not Iran.
Of course they want our assurances that this time we will keep our word. No wonder they require a show of faith.
We are not a country whose word can be relied upon.
Good evening Joe. Good news report. If not much good news. TY
NYCVG
evening nycvg...
yep, the trump/netanyahu administration was a real wake up call for the world in terms of us policy.
there is no reason for any country to take us at our word regarding our agreements, treaties, etc., if when presidential administrations change our whole foreign policy is up for reinterpretation or outright repeal.
the iranians have no reason to trust the us under joe biden that i can see.
The song remains the same as always
Damn them.
How long has Israel been saying that Iran was weeks away from building nuclear weapons? How long has Bibi been in power?
Interesting article and take it fwiw. I’m surprised that we aren’t involved with the coup.
Lots of people are defending democrats and the $1,400 checks. I’m sure that they will defend the $1,000 checks too even if they don’t get one because the cutoff is too low.
.Heh.... They want us to believe that Joe Biden "brought down a dictator" but can't stop Joe Manchin. Lol."
This guy is getting hammered. Hard.
They said $2,000. Not less.
Sam is growing her dawg face already. The puppy look is almost gone. Long and tall. I’ve been teaching her to sit, stay and such in the kitchen where the treats and food are and now when I go in there she goes in too and sits just to be safe in case I’m getting her some food. But it’s usually right in front of my feet.... I don’t know how many times I’ve tripped over her. lol...
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Joementia is MIA
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Excellent!
I’ve tweeted it. Lots of stuff from here gets tweeted.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
The Ozy article
appears to have been posted today but was originally written in December 2019.
McKinney is smart but all too often goes off half-cocked. The Myanmar coup had nothing to do with Ang San Suu Kyi handing the country over to Soros and the IMF - she didn't hold that much power. As the real power in the country remained with the military, news reports are saying the coup is a bit of a head scratcher. Perhaps it's a question of pride; the generals can't deal with the fact that the NLD took 83% in the November elections any better than Trump could deal with twice losing the popular and losing the 2020 election.
A head scratcher for me is the Ozy article header:
Nobel Peace Prizes are a mixed bag: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Okay
I was more interested in the deaths that she is accused of. I’ll admit that I know nothing about any of this and was just posting the news on a coup that happened "right after ours did'. I called it Malaysia last night. lol..see?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Don't take my correction note
to mean that I'm defending Aung San. She's no Nelson Mandela.
evening snoopy...
heh, israel is going to play hardball right now to prove that iran needs to have the bomb in order to allow its people to live free and decent lives.
i'm not fully up to speed on what's going on in myanmar right now, but going on what i know from the past, i have to disagree with cynthia mckinney. aung san suu kyi has for several years done little that the military has not approved. if she had any real morals or respectable beliefs, has set them aside to support the military - including in its oppression of the rohingya - for several years.
it appears to me that the military lost badly in the last election cycle and decided to pull a trump, claiming election fraud. unlike trump, they seem to have the power to impose their will on the people.
hard to believe that people are stupid enough to defend the indefensible. biden made an unhedged promise - it's on tape, and he has reneged. many other prominent and leadership democrats made the same unqualified promise, and they have not made good on it.
there is simply no defense for that sort of thing.
that wall street tool deserves to be hammered. i wonder if there isn't something more valuable that he could have spent his life doing? does he have and regrets?
Thanks for the info on Myanmar
I couldn’t find it on a map with directions. Oh wait it’s close to Turkey isn’t it?
This would be great if they do it. There is no reason not to and it’s way past time. I’m hoping that prices will come down if it happens.
Of course democrats helped republicans on the tax bill. I knew at the time that they would have voted for it if their votes were needed.
This is separate from paygo in the house. This has been law since the 70's according to the Twit.
I feel the same way...
I said so. Oops.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
here this should help you find myanmar (formerly burma).
sounds like dems will have to put some offsetting tax increases in their relief bill. oh darn, i wonder where they could find those? <sound of joe manchin and krysten sinema having heart attacks>
Lol loudly
I knew that country started with a T. So close...
And I was wrong about when the bill was created. 2010 like it says. Now I’m remembering when they passed it we talked about on DK.
Puppy dreams. Arf grr arf I wore her out today. We finally saw the sun.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.