On the ground fact checking Navalny’s acclaimed "Putin's Palace" scam reveals merely a dusty concrete shell with some workmen. “Hookah bar” not found, Putin doesn’t smoke anyway-Moon of Alabama

1/30/21, “Navalny Scam Sells Empty Concrete Shell As ‘Putin’s Luxurious Palace’," Moon of Alabama

[Image: “Video shows that the ‘palace’ is still an empty concrete shell.”]

“In 2010 some minor Russian businessman, Sergei Kolesnikov, who had pissed off people above his pay grade, resettled from Russia to Estonia. To make himself interesting, and likely to get financial support, he made up a story. David Ignatius, the CIA’s resident writer at the Washington Post, picked it up [12/23/2010]:

“You can see the sprawling, Italian-style palace on the Black Sea in satellite photos. There’s a fitness spa, a hideaway “tea house,” a concert amphitheater and a pad for three helicopters. It’s still under construction, but already the cost is said to total more than $1 billion. And most amazing of all, according to a Russian whistleblower named Sergey Kolesnikov, it was predominantly paid for with money donated by Russian businessmen for the use of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The funds have come “mainly through a combination of corruption, bribery and theft,” charges Kolesnikov, a businessman who until November 2009 worked for one of the companies he alleges was investing money for Putin.”

In 2012 BBC Newsnight again picked up the story and made it into a nine minutes long anti-Putin segment.

Putin’s palace? A mystery Black Sea mansion fit for a tsar

“On a thickly wooded mountainside overlooking Russia’s Black Sea coast, an extraordinary building has gradually taken shape. It is alleged to be a palace built for the personal use of Vladimir Putin, with massive and illegal use of state funds. Originally conceived, it is said, as a modest holiday house with a swimming pool, it now boasts a magnificent columned facade reminiscent of the country palaces Russian tsars built in the 18th Century.

The massive wrought-iron gates into the courtyard are topped with a golden imperial eagle. Outside are formal gardens, a private theatre, a landing pad with bays for three helicopters, and accommodation for security guards.”

At the end of 2020 the ‘Putin’s palace’ story was recycled to promote the rightwing Russian nationalist and anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny. Navalny was at that time in Germany’s Black Forrest area where he recovered from an alleged poisoning. A studio was needed to produce a video about the ‘palace’.

A German producer couple who had recently opened a TV-studio received a request. As the German daily Badische Zeitung reported (my translation):

“Early December a request arrived via email from a U.S. production company in Los Angeles. There was talk of a documentation. It was looking for adequate locations, people and equipment in southern Germany. The German producers did not know the company, even though they have good contacts in L.A., but the request made a very professional impression.”

The studio was rented to create the ‘palace’ material for the Navalny campaign.

“The studio was actually only rented for just under a week, but the filmmakers liked the location with its atmosphere and the cinematic possibilities so much that the shooting was extended to a total of two weeks and parts of the 20-person international crew from Berlin, where actually a last shoot was planned before the flight to Moscow came to Kirchzarten.”

On January 17 Navalny flew back to Russia and was immediately arrested for having violated his probation in a case where he had been sentenced for funneling a company’s money into his own pockets. On January 19 Navalny’s anti-corruption campaign FBK uploaded a two hour long polemic in which Navalny repeats the decade old claim that there is a palace at the Black Sea that is actually owned by Putin. But none of the many documents he provides proves that Putin is in any way involved in the project.

There is indeed a palace like building at the Black Sea coast but its purpose is unclear. The floor plans, which Navalny shows in the video, let one presume that it is a luxury hotel for very exclusive guests. The second floor plan shows 11 bedrooms of which four are exclusive suites.

Source: Katya Kazbeck – bigger

Navalny also shows computer generated pictures of what he claims is the extremely luxurious interior. He also claims that there are some exclusive vineyards attached to the ‘palace’.

Navalny points to one room on the plans mockingly as a ‘room where they put their mud’. The word ‘mudroom’ does not exist in Russian but is a rarely used English expression for an entranceway. That suggests that the script he was reading from was originally written in English and then badly translated into Russian.

Lots of western media have picked up on Navalny’s exaggerated descriptions. Time writes:

“As for the palace’s interior, FBK produced visuals based on descriptions and photos from workers at the residence. Using architectural plans that listed Italian furniture brands, they inquired with the manufacturer about the appearance and cost of the products. “Each couch was the cost of a small flat on the outskirts of Moscow, and if you took all the furniture from the reading room you could buy a decent flat in London,” says [Maria Pevchikh, head of the investigations department at FBK]. It’s not clear how often Putin frequents the residence. According to FBK, all but essential staff are dismissed when he visits. Several sources told FBK that Putin takes “select” guests including world leaders to the palace for the “real fun”, after meetings in his official residence in Sochi, which the independent investigative news site Proekt has confirmed, says Pevchikh.”

Julie Cassiday, a U.S. professor for Russian language, remarks in the Moscow Times:

“Navalny’s careful reconstruction of the interior of Putin’s palace shows the full extent of the Russian president’s love of expensive kitsch. In addition to a curiously named aqua-discotheque, the ground floor houses a cocktail lounge, movie theater, spa zone, four separate hot tubs, and a two-story swimming pool.The first floor takes us to Putin’s personal gym, game room, casino, home theater, and hookah bar (cleverly equipped for pole dancing, should the need arise), and the top floor contains a series of opulent bedroom suites.

According to “A Palace for Putin,” the Russian president has abused his power not merely by stealing his country’s wealth, but by squandering it on furniture and fixtures so gaudy and overpriced that they make Liberace look like an arbiter of good taste.”

How embarrassing. For those authors.

The enterprising Russia journalist Maksim Iksanov actually went to the ‘palace’ and talked with the people working there. His video shows that the ‘palace’ is still an empty concrete shell with dozens of workers busy with drilling into concrete walls and setting up basic installations.

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“It’s not clear how often Putin frequents” the construction site. Or what source “told FBK that Putin takes “select” guests including world leaders” to admire the concrete walls. Or why a non-smoker like Putin would insist on having a hookah bar.

Besides that obvious nonsense one has to ask why it would take Putin so long to build a ‘palace’. Kolesnikov said the project started in 2005. Sochi was prepared for the Olympics in just six years. The bridges to Crimea were built within five years of its liberation and the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg, which Putin in 2001 ordered to rebuild, was re-opened in 2003. It is the Russian president’s official summer residence but also open to the public. When Putin says something should be build it will be build on time and not take sixteen years to end up as an empty concrete shell.

As for the ‘palace’ Navalny describes. It seems to have always been a hotel project. It had run into financial trouble. It several times changed ownership and its construction was at times stopped for years. The Russian construction mogul Arkady Rotenberg now claims to be the current owner of the ‘palace’:

“[Rotenberg] added that he intends to use the location as an apartment hotel, once it is finished.“I like the hotel business…and have been involved in it for several years now,” Rotenberg said, adding that he owns several ‘objects’ throughout Russia. He explained that the site in question has a troubled financial history, but he nevertheless acquired it a few years ago, putting faith in its “gorgeous” coastal location, near the resort town of Gelendzhik.”

As Rotenberg is a good friend of Putin -they know each other since their youth- Navalny will of course claim that Rotenberg is only the front man while Putin is the real owner of the place.

I doubt that many Russians will believe such nonsense. Putin is known to spend his holiday’s with outdoor activities. He does not seem to be indulged with luxury. Nor is there any evidence that he is willing to take bribes. The U.S. certainly tried and failed.

The CIA, or whatever service helped Navalny to produce the nonsense, should take more care with the details. The golden imperial eagle that was supposed to top the gate in the 2012 BBC story still does not exist at all but was photoshopped into the BBC and the Navalny’s footage. Unfortunately it was the wrong one:

“Ruslana Boshirova Альянс пианистов @ValLisitsa – 19:26 UTC · Jan 29, 2021

In case one needs further proof that the whole “investigation” was a sham. The mock-up gate, crowned with the double-headed eagle, conspicuously absent in real life, but passed for a real deal by unscrupulous Navalny team,

has Montenegro coat of arms eagle, not Russian one.”

Posted by b on January 30, 2021 at 19:04 UTC | Permalink

 

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Canadian physician knows crimes against humanity are easy if done gradually. As in: It’s just 2wks to slow the spread. It’s for your safety. It’s just the summer. It’s just the winter. It’s just 1-2yrs. It’s just voluntary isolation centres. It’s just policed mandatory isolation centres. It’s just free speech

1/29/21, Canadian physician Kulvinder Kaur MD on twitter

“It’s just 2wks.

It’s for your safety.

It’s just the summer.

It’s just the winter.

It’s just 1-2yrs.

It’s just voluntary isolation centres.

It’s just police-enforced mandatory isolation centres.

It’s just free speech.

It’s just freedoms.

It’s just liberties.

It’s for your safety.”

Above, 1/29/21, Kulvinder Kaur MD, on twitter

Above, March 20, 2020, “15 Days to Slow the Spread,” sign held by Fauci.

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Added: March 16, 2020, Trump issues nationwide social distancing guidelines for “15 days to slow the spread:”

Above, March 16, 2020, Trump issues nationwide social distancing guidelines

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Added: Trump issues federal social distancing guidelines for “15 days to slow the spread,” says schools “can accelerate the speed of the coronavirus:”

March 16, 2020, “Factbox: Trump issues guidelines on ’15 days to slow the spread’,” Reuters

“- If someone in your household has tested positive for the coronavirus, keep the entire household at home. Do not go to work. Do not go to school. Contact your medical provider.

– If you are an older person, stay home and away from other people.

– If you are a person with a serious underlying health condition that can put you at increased risk (for example, a condition that impairs your lung or heart function or weakens your immune system), stay home and away from other people.

– Even if you are young, or otherwise healthy, you are at risk and your activities can increase the risk for others. It is critical that you do your part to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

– Work or engage in schooling from home whenever possible.

– If you work in a critical infrastructure industry, as defined by the Department of Homeland Security, such as healthcare services and pharmaceutical and food supply, you have a special responsibility to maintain your work schedule. You and your employers should following CDC (Centers for Disease Control) guidance to protect your health at work.

– Avoid social gatherings in groups of more than 10 people.

– Avoid eating or drinking in bars, restaurants, and food courts – use drive-thru, pickup or delivery options.

– Avoid discretionary travel, shopping trips, and social visits.

– Do not visit nursing homes or retirement or long-term care facilities unless to provide critical assistance.

– Practice good hygiene: Wash your hands, especially after touching any frequently used item or surface. Avoid touching your face.

– Sneeze or cough into a tissue, or the inside of your elbow.

– Disinfect frequently used items and surfaces as much as possible.

– School operations can accelerate the speed of the coronavirus. Governors of states with evidence of community transmission should close schools in affected and surrounding areas. Governors should close schools in communities that are near areas of community transmission, even if those areas are in neighboring states. In addition, state and local officials should close schools where coronavirus has been identified in the population associated with the school. States and localities that close schools need to address childcare needs of critical responders, as well as the nutritional needs of children.

– Older people are particularly at risk from the coronavirus. All states should follow federal guidance and halt social visits to nursing homes and retirement and long-term care facilities.

– In states with evidence of community transmission, bars, restaurants, food courts, gyms and other indoor and outdoor venues where groups of people congregate should be closed.”

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Added: April 6, 2020, Trump says, “30 Days to Slow the Spread”

April 6, 2020, Trump says, “30 Days to Slow the Spread”

 

 

 

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Biden and Kerry: US taxpayer funded “climate” efforts must place “particular focus on the Russian border”-wsws, Jonathan Burleigh

Biden “climate plan” says $10 billion needed to improve climate resilience of US military bases around the world, $10 billion in damages to bases in 2019 from “extreme weather.” John Kerry climate group, American Security Project, says US “climate” efforts must maintain “particular focus on the Russian border.”

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Added: Activists stopped noticing endless US wars, switched focus to climate. NY Times page 1 Nov. 1969 headline, college kids may switch from protesting US wars to protesting environmental issues: Nov. 30, 1969, “Environment May Eclipse Vietnam as College Issue; ‘Environmental Crisis’ May Eclipse Vietnam as College Issue," NY Times, Gladwin Hill, page 1

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1/28/21, “The Biden climate plan, Part 2: Preparation for war,” wsws.org, Jonathan Burleigh

“Kerry and the American Security Project [ASP]”

“Kerry has indeed devoted considerable attention to climate change throughout his career. However, this interest is not unrelated to his decades of political service to the needs of US imperialism. In 2005, he co-founded the non-partisan American Security Project (ASP), which describes itself as “a leading organization detailing the threats posed by climate change” from a national security perspective.

ASP hailed Kerry’s appointment, highlighting, “Three urgent and important issues that the National Security Council should take up immediately after the new Biden Administration takes office to begin to reduce the threats that climate change poses to security are: (1) military base resilience, (2) reorienting foreign aid and [US taxpayer] military assistance to support climate security, and (3) preparing for the security challenge of a melting Arctic.” In other words, the focus is less on reducing the impacts of climate change and more on ensuring that the US war machine responds effectively as the world [allegedly but in any case not because of the US] warms.

Each of these points figures prominently in Biden’s climate plan, illustrating that the ASP’s hopes are well-founded that Kerry would help the administration pursue these priorities.

The Biden climate plan includes the following passages, apparently paraphrasing the ASP report. Biden will (1) “[i]nvest in the climate resilience of our military bases and critical security infrastructure across the U.S. and around the world, to deal with the risk of climate change effects.” Both documents use almost identical language, noting roughly $10 billion [US taxpayer dollars] in damages to US bases from extreme weather in 2019. (2) “rally a united front of nations to hold China accountable to high environmental standards in its Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure projects,” and (3) “use the Arctic Council to put a spotlight on Russia’s activities in the Arctic, standing firm with council partners to hold Russia accountable for any efforts to further militarize the region.”

The ASP argues that China is using climate and energy as a tool to gain influence in regions such as South America, the Pacific, and West Africa, and that the US should do the same, using the “soft power tool” of  climate aid [as 48 million Americans lived in poverty as of 2014, well before many US state and local governments ordered mass closing of businesses and, worse, ordered schools closed, forcing many women to have to quit their jobs and return home to care for children].

The ASP report concludes, “The U.S. should use the new tools of the [US taxpayer funded] Development Finance Corporation to direct climate and energy aid to countries that are both threatened by climate change and strategically important.” Biden’s climate plan includes similar language on both the South China Sea and the Belt and Road initiative….

Biden’s climate plan calls for mobilizing the US-dominated Arctic Council “to put a spotlight on Russia’s activities [what about starving children in the US?] in the Arctic, standing firm with council partners to hold Russia accountable for any efforts to further militarize the region.”

In explaining what this would mean in practice, the ASP states, “the U.S. military should actively participate in Arctic joint exercises, and publicize US military deployments to the region, with particular focus on the Russian border.” In other words, a Biden administration will bring the reckless methods of militarized “freedom of navigation exercises” from the South China Sea to Russia’s Arctic coast….

Highlighting the militarist and essentially right-wing role of Kerry’s approach to climate change, in 2019 he co-founded an organization called World War Zero, dedicated to “uniting scientists and entrepreneurs, four-star generals and youth activists, popular artists and global leaders, Democrats and Republicans” to fight climate change. Prominent members of this organization include former Republican governors Arnold Schwarzenegger (California) and the John Kasich (Ohio), as well as actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

Aside from a goal of net zero emissions by 2050 and calls for people who support climate action to stop fighting each other, the organization has essentially nothing concrete to say….

In truth, there can be no serious talk of addressing [alleged excess CO2 in Communist China] climate change while the world’s imperialist powers prepare for global war, led by the anti-Russia and anti-China hawks of the Biden administration. The only way a capitalist Earth can limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is through a nuclear winter. Biden’s proposed militarized climate policy only raises the odds of such an outcome. 

China currently leads the world in carbon emissions, with 30 percent of the total compared to 15 percent for the United States. This is an inevitable outcome the development of world capitalism, not a specifically Chinese affair. As a central element of the globalization of production, China has emerged as the manufacturing hub of the world. Targeting China and forcing it to reduce its emissions would, under global capitalism, only lead to corporations shifting production to other countries, while destroying jobs in China and driving down wages and living standards for workers all over the world.”…

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Added It’s estimated that in Iraq, just one of countless US military aggressions, that 250–600 million tonnes of CO2 were created from 2003-July 2010:

July 8, 2010, “What’s the carbon footprint of…the Iraq war?” UK Guardian, Mike Berners-Lee, Duncan Clark

“In addition to all its other impacts, the Iraq war has caused a huge amount of carbon pollution.”

 

“A huge cloud of smoke rises up from a blaze on Iraq’s key oil export pipeline to Turkey. Photograph: Maxim Marmur/AFP/Getty”

 

“The carbon footprint of war: 690 million tonnes CO2e: a ‘limited’ nuclear exchange. 250–600 million tonnes CO2e: the Iraq war since 2003.”

“The direct human costs of wars are so great that it might seem flippant to think about their environmental impacts. But modern armed forces are rapacious consumers of energy and kick out vast quantities of carbon emissions that may contribute towards human harm well beyond the battlefield.

All carbon footprints are virtually impossible to pin down accurately, and this is especially the case for something as complex and chaotic as war. Indeed, the best that can be done in this case is to give some very crude numbers to provide a sense of scale.

Perhaps the only academic estimate of the carbon footprint of an atomic war concluded that even a ‘small nuclear exchange‘ of just fifty 15-kilotonne warheads would cause 690 million tonnes of CO2 emissions through the burning of cities – more than the current annual emissions of the UK.

But a war doesn’t need to be nuclear to have a large carbon footprint. At the time of writing the financial cost of the US military operation in Iraq since 2003 has been estimated at $1.3 trillion, with a further $600 billion anticipated for the lifetime healthcare costs of injured troops. Extrapolating from the carbon intensity of the health and defence industries in the UK, it’s possible to have a rough stab at converting this expenditure into carbon. This approach suggests that the US military operation in Iraq may have clocked up around 160–500 million tonnes of CO2e, plus a further 80 million tonnes for the healthcare of troops.

Add on a few per cent to both numbers to include the coalition forces and, say, another 1% for the footprint of the much more poorly resourced insurgency, and we might be looking at 250–600 million tonnes – roughly equivalent to everyone in the UK flying to Hong Kong and back between one and three times. And that’s excluding the direct emissions from explosions.

The war-and-carbon discussion starts to get distinctly uncomfortable (and methodologically just about impossible) at the point where we start factoring in the indirect emissions impact caused by the human and economic impacts of the war. In the nuclear example, the report in question estimates 17 million deaths – equivalent to around one-quarter of the UK population. Looked at in the starkest and simplest possible terms, if each of these people had a typical UK footprint, then the carbon saving of their ceasing to exist might make up for the direct emissions from the war in just a few years. In other words, mass annihilation turns out to be an effective way of curbing emissions-though of course it also defeats the object.”

• This article is adapted from How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything by Mike Berners-Lee.

 

 

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Embarrassment for knee jerk “blame Russia” for cybercrime crowd. Emotet busted in Ukraine with 50kg of gold bars. Warmonger Wikipedia published misinformation blaming Russia. Israel’s likely involvement will be kept secret by US-Moon of Alabama

1/27/21, “More Cyber Crimes, Attributed To Russia, Are Shown To Have Come From Elsewhere," Moon of Alabama

“Earlier today police in Europe took down the Emotet bot-network: 

First discovered as a fairly run-of-the-mill banking trojan back in 2014, Emotet evolved over the years into one of the most professional and resilient cyber crime services in the world, and became a “go-to” solution for cyber criminals.Its infrastructure acted as a mechanism to gain access to target systems, which was done via an automated spam email process that delivered Emotet malware to its victims via malicious attachments, often shipping notices, invoices and, since last spring, Covid-19 information or offers. If opened, victims would be promoted to enable macros that allowed malicious code to run and instal Emotet.

This done, Emotet’s operators then sold access on to other cyber criminal groups as a means to infiltrate their victims, steal data, and drop malware and ransomware. The operators of TrickBot and Ryuk were among the many users of Emotet.

Up to a quarter of all recent run of the mill cyber-crime was done through the Emotet network. Closing it down is a great success.

Wikipedia falsely claimed that Emotet was based in Russia:

“Emotet is a malware strain and a cybercrime operation based in Russia.[1] The malware, also known as Geodo and Mealybug, was first detected in 2014[2] and remains active, deemed one of the most prevalent threats of 2019.[3]”

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However the Hindu report linked as source to the Russia claim under [1] only says:

“The malware is said to be operated from Russia, and its operator is nicknamed Ivan by cyber security researchers.”

“Is said to be operated from Russia” is quite a weak formulation and should not be used as source for attribution claims. It is also definitely false.

The operating center of Emotet was found in the Ukraine. Today the Ukrainian national police took control of it during a raid (video). The police found dozens of computers, some hundred hard drives, about 50 kilogram of gold bars (current price ~$60,000/kg) and large amounts of money in multiple currencies.

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Since the 2016 publishing of internal emails of the DNC and the Clinton campaign attribution of computer intrusions to Russia has become a standard propaganda feature. But in no case was there shown evidence which proved that Russia was responsible for a hack.

The recently discovered deep intrusion into U.S. companies and government networks used a manipulated version of the SolarWinds Orion network management software. The Washington borg immediately attributed the hack to Russia. Then President Trump attributed it to China. But none of those claims were backed up by facts or known evidence.

The hack was extremely complex, well managed and resourced, and likely required insider knowledge. To this IT professional it ‘felt’ neither Russian nor Chinese. It is far more likely, as Whitney Webb finds, that Israel was behind it:

“The implanted code used to execute the hack was directly injected into the source code of SolarWinds Orion. Then, the modified and bugged version of the software was “compiled, signed and delivered through the existing software patch release management system,” per reports. This has led US investigators and observers to conclude that the perpetrators had direct access to SolarWinds code as they had “a high degree of familiarity with the software.” While the way the attackers gained access to Orion’s code base has yet to be determined, one possibility being pursued by investigators is that the attackers were working with employee(s) of a SolarWinds contractor or subsidiary. 
…
Though some contractors and subsidiaries of SolarWinds are now being investigated, one that has yet to be investigated, but should be, is Samanage. Samanage, acquired by SolarWinds in 2019, not only gained automatic access to Orion just as the malicious code was first inserted, but it has deep ties to Israeli intelligence and a web of venture-capital firms associated with numerous Israeli espionage scandals that have targeted the US government.
…
Samanage offers what it describes as “an IT Service Desk solution.” It was acquired by SolarWinds so Samanage’s products could be added to SolarWinds’ IT Operations Management portfolio. Though US reporting and SolarWinds press releases state that Samanage is based in Cary, North Carolina, implying that it is an American company, Samanage is actually an Israeli firm. It was founded in 2007 by Doron Gordon, who previously worked for several years at MAMRAM, the Israeli military’s central computing unit.
…
Several months after the acquisition was announced, in November 2019, Samanage, renamed SolarWinds Service Desk, became listed as a standard feature of SolarWinds Orion software, whereas the integration of Samanage and Orion had previously been optional since the acquisition’s announcement in April of that year. This means that complete integration was likely made standard in either October or November. It has since been reported that the perpetrators of the recent hack gained access to the networks of US federal agencies and major corporations at around the same time. Samanage’s automatic integration into Orion was a major modification made to the now-compromised software during that period.”

The U.S. National Security Agency has ways and means to find out who was behind the SolarWinds hack. But if Israel is the real culprit no one will be allowed to say so publicly. Some high ranging U.-S. general or official will fly to Israel and read his counterpart the riot act. Israel will ignore it just as it has done every time when it was caught spying on the U.S. government.

With more then half of Washington’s politicians in its pockets it has no reason to fear any consequences.”

Posted by b on January 27, 2021 at 15:32 UTC | Permalink

 

 

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On January 22, 2021, Pres. Joe Biden spoke the truth: nothing can alter the trajectory of the virus’ spread. (Now that Trump is gone, oligarchs can be honest)-Angelo Codevilla, American Greatness

“And so it happened, on January 22, Joe Biden spoke the truth: nothing that anyone could do can alter the trajectory of the virus’ spread.”

1/26/21, “Dismounting the COVID Tiger,” Angelo Codevilla, American Greatness

“The oligarchy’s chosen method of “reopening” after the pandemic shows that it intends to attempt to validate the harm it did over the previous year. Will it work?”

“Riding fear of COVID-19, our oligarchs persuaded millions of Americans to join in masked pantomime, to deliver themselves to something like house arrest, and to blame Donald Trump for their troubles. But as much as the oligarchs enjoyed COVID powers and dreamt of segueing them into a “new normal,” they knew that America could not be locked down forever.

They especially knew, were they to unseat Trump and become responsible for the country, their charges that he had failed to stop the pandemic would come back to haunt them. “Why can’t you stop it?” would be the natural question they would have to face as the virus did what airborne viruses do: [not kill, but] spread. Hence, after January 20, dismounting the COVID tiger, albeit gingerly, became the order of the day.

And so it happened, on January 22, Joe Biden spoke the truth: nothing that anyone could do can alter the trajectory of the virus’ spread. 

A few grumbles notwithstanding, there was silence from very same media and “experts” who had accused Trump of responsibility for hundreds of thousands of deaths because he had not implemented a nationwide test-trace-and-quarantine system. The futility of such measures in preventing an infectious disease from running its course once it has entered a population was as obvious in 2020 as in 2021. But then, denying it served the oligarchy’s prosecution. Affirming it now serves its defense.

Already on January 16, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that his state could not wait to reopen until herd immunity had been reached naturally or through a vaccine, because

“If we wait, there will be nothing left to open.” 

Across the country, some of the Democratic mayors and governors who had most vigorously imposed COVID-19 restrictions hastened to remove them, even though the number of “cases” is higher than it was in April. By the third week of January, California Governor Gavin Newsom revoked his December stay-at-home order along with a 10 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew he had imposed in the face of rising case numbers. One reason for Newsom’s move may be the fact that just over 1 million Californians have signed a petition to force a recall election.

But there is a larger reason why the ruling class seems intent on distancing itself from responsibility for the COVID restrictions. The oligarchs and their press agents

had argued the COVID troubles were 100 percent Trump’s fault, and defeating him would alleviate them.

Preserving the lockdowns is unsustainable politically. But lifting the restrictions in the apparent face of rising cases risks uncovering the fact that COVID was less a plague than a [genocidal] political ploy. To repeat President Biden’s true statement of how little government can do with regard to COVID is an indictment of the entire oligarchy’s conduct since March [2020]. It exposes that conduct as political predation with deadly consequences for millions. Hence, dismounting the COVID tiger in a way that preserves the powers it gained for the oligarchy requires some prestidigitation.

Fortunately for the oligarchy, there is a way of making sure that each lightening of restrictions dovetails nicely with a drop in the number of “cases.” How is that? Because vaccines notwithstanding, the “softness,” the very plasticity of the number by which the oligarchy scared the hell out of America in 2020, makes it possible, presto magico, gradually to ease the fear. 

In April, I explained in these pages how changing definitions of the term “case” made it possible to substitute the oligarchy’s agenda for COVID’s reality in the minds of Americans. The same dishonest process can be used in reverse.

The reality is that we do not know how many people have been infected with COVID-19, and the standard PRC test only muddies the waters. On Inauguration Day, the World Health Organization, after consultation with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, issued a two-part directive intended to reduce the number of what it calls “false positive” COVID cases that clarifies only the corrupt political nature of everything surrounding the pandemic.

Throughout 2020, doctors and hospitals had been encouraged—if not pressured—to label as COVID any set of symptoms that looked remotely like it (explaining why cases of influenza almost disappeared from the United States last year [2020]). Now the WHO asked them to make sure that in order for a case to be labeled COVID, symptoms must also match positive results of the standard PCR test.

Simultaneously, the WHO strongly suggested that those who administer the PCR test reduce the number of cycles through which samples are processed. Through 2020, most jurisdictions in America had run samples through 40 cycles. Running that many cycles radically increases the chances of a positive result. This not only inflated the number of “cases,” but it also attributed hospitalizations to COVID-19 rather than to other causes. It led to patients being treated as if they had COVID rather than for what really ailed them, and attributing deaths to COVID that in fact were not. 

The new guidance guarantees that, in the coming months, the number of “cases” will drop. The oligarchy will credit the reduction to its wise management. Loosening its grip gradually, it will claim benevolence and prudence. By thus dismounting the COVID tiger,it will try to validate the [genocide] harm it did over the previous year.

There being nothing especially artful about this stratagem, and most Americans not being utterly stupid, its success depends exclusively on the media’s near-unanimous complicity in it. That unanimity, however, may be getting harder to maintain. Not only is the binding objective—getting rid of Trump—no longer there, documents are surfacing that show the material complicity between Anthony Fauci, the oligarchy’s fountain of authority in all matters COVID-19, and the development of the virus itself. Covering for that level of professional incompetence and corruption may be a bridge too far, even for today’s media.”

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