lewrockwell--2020-03-13--The Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic: The Real Danger Is ‘Agenda ID2020’

It seems , the more there is written about the causes of the Coronavirus – the more the written analyses are overshadowed by a propaganda and fear-mongering hype .
Questions for the truth and arguments for where to look for the origins and how the virus may have spread and how to combat it , are lost in the noise of wanton chaos .
But isn ’ t that what the “ Black Men ” behind this intended pandemic want – chaos , panic , hopelessness , leading to human vulnerability – a people becoming easy prey for manipulation ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ pandemic ” – when there is not the slightest trace of a pandemic .
A pandemic might be the condition , when the death to infection rate reaches more than 12 % .
In Europe , the death rate is about 0.4 % , or less .
Except for Italy which is a special case , where the peak of the death rate was 6 % ( see below for further analysis ) .
China , where the death rate peaked only a few weeks ago at about 3 % , is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ declining , while China is taking full control of the disease – and that with the help of a not-spoken-about medication developed 39 years ago by Cuba , called “ Interferon Alpha 2B ( IFNrec ) ” , very effective for fighting viruses and other diseases , but is not known and used in the world , because the US under the illegal embargo of Cuba does not allow the medication to be marketed internationally .
WHO has most likely received orders from “ above ” , from those people who also manage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sic ) of the European Union and her member countries , those who aim to control the world with force – the One World Order .
This has been on the drawing board for years .
The final decision to go ahead NOW , was taken in January 2020 at the World Economic Forum ( WEF ) in Davos – behind very much closed doors , of course .
The Gates , GAVI ( an association of vaccination-promoting pharmaceuticals ) , Rockefellers , Rothschilds et al , they are all behind this decision @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see below .
After the pandemic has been officially declared , the next step may be – also at the recommendation either by WHO , or individual countries , “ force vaccination ” , under police and/or military surveillance .
Those who refuse may be penalized ( fines and / or jail – and force-vaccinated all the same ) .
If indeed force-vaccination will happen , another bonanza for Big Pharma , people really don ’ t know what type of cocktail will be put into the vaccine , maybe a slow killer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years – or a disease that hits only the next generation – or a brain debilitating agent , or a gene that renders women infertile … .
all is possible – always with the aim of full population control and population reduction .
In a few years ’ time , one doesn ’ t know , of course , where the disease comes from .
That ’ s the level of technology our bio-war labs have reached ( US , UK , Israel , Canada , Australia… ) .
Claire-ity 25 % Vitamin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , at this point only a hypothesis , but a realistic one , is that along with the vaccination – if not with this one , then possibly with a later one , a nano-chip may be injected , unknown to the person being vaccinated .
The chip may be remotely charged with all your personal data , including bank accounts – digital money .
Yes , digital money that ’ s what “ they ” are aiming at , so you really have no control any more over your health and other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ earnings and spending .
Your money could be blocked , or taken away – as a ‘ sanction ’ for misbehavior , for swimming against the stream .
You may become a mere slave of the masters .
Comparatively , feudalism may appear like a walk in the park .
It ’ s not for nothing that Dr. Tedros , DG of WHO , said a few days ago , we must move towards digital money , because physical paper and coin money can spread diseases , especially endemic diseases , like the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ come ?
– Or for things already here ?
– In many Scandinavian countries cash is largely banned and even a bar of chocalate can be paid only electronically .
We are moving towards a totalitarian state of the world .
This is part of Agenda ID2020 – and these steps to be implemented now – prepared since long , including by the coronavirus computer simulation at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore on 18 October 2019 , sponsored by the WEF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation .
Bill Gates , one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , especially in Africa – is also a huge advocate of population reduction .
Population reduction is among the goals of the elite within the WEF , the Rockefellers , Rothschilds , Morgens – and a few more .
The objective : fewer people ( a small elite ) can live longer and better with the reduced and limited resources Mother Earth is generously offering .
This had openly been propagated already in the 1960s and 70s by Henry Kissinger , Foreign Secretary in de Nixon Administration , a co-engineer of the Vietnam @ @ @ @ @ @ @ semi-clandestine bombing of Cambodia , a genocide of millions of unarmed Cambodian civilians .
Along with the CIA-Kissinger engineered coup on 9/11 , 1973 , in Chile , killing the democratically elected Salvador Allende and putting the military dictator Pinochet in power , Kissinger has committed war crimes .
Today , he is a spokesman ( so to speak ) for Rockefeller and their “ Bilderberger Society ” .
Two weeks after the computer simulation at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore , Maryland , that “ produced ” ( aka simulated ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the COVID-19 virus first appeared in Wuhan .
By now it is almost certain that the virus was brought to Wuhan from outside , most likely from a bio-war lab in the US .
See also this and this .
What is the infamous ID2020 ?
It is an alliance of public-private partners , including UN agencies and civil society .
It ’ s an electronic ID program that uses generalized vaccination as a platform for digital identity .
The program harnesses existing birth registration and vaccination operations to provide newborns with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ GAVI , the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization , identifies itself on its website as a global health partnership of public and private sector organizations dedicated to “ immunization for all ” .
GAVI is supported by WHO , and needless to say , its main partners and sponsors are the pharma-industry .
The ID2020 Alliance at their 2019 Summit , entitled “ Rising to the Good ID Challenge ” , in September 2019 in New York , decided to roll out their program in 2020 , a decision confirmed by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Their digital identity program will be tested with the government of Bangladesh .
GAVI , the Vaccine Alliance , and “ partners from academia and humanitarian relief ” ( as they call it ) , are part of the pioneer party .
Is it just a coincidence that ID2020 is being rolled out at the onset of what WHO calls a Pandemic ?
– Or is a pandemic needed to ‘ roll out ’ the multiple devastating programs of ID2020 ?
Here is what Anir Chowdhury , policy advisor of the Bangladesh government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ !
Does Mr. Anir Chowdhury know what he is getting into ?
Back to the Pandemic and the panic .
Geneva , the European seat of the United Nations , including the headquarters of WHO , is basically shot down .
Not unlike the lock-down that started in Venice and later expanded to northern Italy until a few days ago – and now the lock-down covers all of Italy .
Similar lock-down may soon also be adopted by France – and other European vassal states to the Anglo-Zionist empire .
Numerous memoranda with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Geneva are circulating .
Their key message is – cancel all mission travel , all events in Geneva , visits to the Palais des Nations , the Geneva Cathedral , other monuments and museums .
The latest directives , many agencies instruct their staff to work from home , not to risk contamination from public transportation .
This ambiance of panic and fear – outstrips any sense of reality , when the truth doesn ’ t matter .
People can ’ t even think any more about the causes and what may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( anymore ) , when you refer to Event 201 , the coronavirus simulation , the Wuhan Military Games , the closing last August 7 , of the high-security biological war lab at Fort Detrick , Maryland… .
what could have at one point been an eye opener for many , today is sheer conspiracy theory .
The power of propaganda .
A destabilizing power – destabilizing countries and people , destroying economies , creating hardship for people who may lose their jobs , usually the ones who can least afford it .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ increasingly important to remind people that the outbreak in China was targeting the Chinese genome .
Did it later mutate to transgress the ‘ borders ’ of Chinese DNA ?
When did that happen , if it happened ?
Because at the beginning it was clear that even the infected victims in other parts of the world , were to 99.9 % of Chinese descent .
What happened later , when the virus spread to Italy and Iran , is another issue , and opens the way to a number of speculations .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the virus circulated in sequence – so as to destabilize countries around the world and to confound the populace and media , so that especially nobody of the mainstream may come to the conclusion that the first strain was targeting China in a bio-war .
( ii ) In Iran , I have a strong suspicion that the virus was an enhanced form of MERS ( Middle East Respiratory Syndrome , man-made , broke out first in Saudi Arabia in 2012 , directed to the Arabic genome ) – which was somehow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spray ? )
– with the goal of “ Regime Change ” by COVID19-caused death .
Its Washington ’ s wishful thinking for at least the last 30 years .
( iii ) In Italy – why Italy ?
– Maybe because Washington / Brussels wanted to hit Italy hard for having been officially the first country to sign a Belt and Road ( BRI ) accord with China ( actually the first was Greece , but nobody is supposed to know that China came to the rescue of Greece , destroyed by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members , mainly Germany and France ) .
( iv ) The hype about the high death to infection rate in Italy , as of the time of this writing : 10,149 infections vs. 631 deaths = death rate of 6.2 ( comparatively Iran : 8042 infections vs. 291 deaths = 3.6 death rate ) .
The death rate of Italy is almost double that of Iran and almost ten-fold that of average Europe .
( Are these discrepancies the result of failures in the establishing reliable data pertaining to “ infections ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ below ) .
Why ?
– Was is Italy being affected with virus panic ?
Was there a much stronger strain introduced to Italy ?
The common flu in Europe in the 2019 / 2020 season , has apparently so far killed about 16,000 ( in the US the death toll is , according to CDC between 14,000 and 32,000 , depending on which CDC website you look at ) .
Could it be that among the Italian coronavirus deaths there were also common flu victims , as the affected victims are mostly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ symptoms are very similar between coronavirus and the common flu , and nobody questions and checks the official authorities ’ narrative ?
Maybe not all the coronavirus strains come from the same laboratory .
A journalist from Berlin of Ukrainian origin , told me this morning that Ukraine is host to some 5 high security US bio-war labs .
They test regularly new viruses on the population – yet , when strange diseases break out in the surroundings of the labs , nobody is allowed to talk about it .
Something similar , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , where there are even more Pentagon / CIA bio-war labs – and where also new and strange diseases break out .
21st Century C 500 mg ... Buy New $ 4.98 ( $ 0.05 / Count ) All of this makes the composite picture even more complicated .
Overarching all is this super hype is profit driven , the quest for instant profit , instant benefits from the suffering of the people .
This panic making is a hundred-fold of what it ’ s worth .
What these kingpins of the underworld @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world , perhaps miscalculated , is that in today ’ s globalized and vastly outsourced world the west depends massively on China ’ s supply chain , for consumer goods , and for intermediary merchandise – and , foremost for medication and medical equipment .
At least 80 % of medication or ingredients for medication , as well as for medical equipment comes from China .
The western China dependence for antibiotics is even higher , some 90 % .
The potential impacts on health are devastating .
During the height of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for everything was almost shut-down .
For deliveries that were still made , merchandise vessels were regularly and categorically turned back from many harbors all around the world .
So , the west has tricked itself into a shortage-of-everything mode by waging a de facto “ economic war ” on China .
How long will it last ?
– Nobody knows , but China ’ s economy which was down by about half , has rapidly recovered to above 80 % of what it was before the coronavirus hit .
How long will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ backlog ?
What is behind it all ?
– A total crackdown with artificially induced panic to the point where people are screaming “ help , give us vaccinations , display police and military for our security ” – or even if the public despair doesn ’ t go that far , it would be easy for the EU and US authorities to impose a military stage of siege for “ health protection of the people ” .
In fact , CDC ( Center for Disease Control in Atlanta ) , has already @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health emergency ” .
Along with forced vaccination , who knows what would be contained in the cocktail of ‘ ’ mini-diseases ” injected , and what their long-term effects might be .
Similar to those of GMOs , where all sorts of germs could be inserted without us , the commons , knowing ?
We may indeed be just at the beginning of the implementation of ID2020 – which includes , forced vaccination , population reduction and total digital control of everybody – on the way to One World Order – and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as the PNAC ( Plan for a New American Century ) likes to call it .
A windfall for China .
China has been purposely targeted for “ economic destruction ” , because of her rapidly advancing economy , an economy soon to overtake that of the now hegemon , the US of A , and because of China ’ s strong currency , the Yuan , also potentially overtaking the dollar as the world ’ s main reserve currency .
Both occurrences would mean the end of US dominance over the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in more than 80 countries , has crashed the stock markets , a decline of at least 20 % over the last few weeks – and rising ; the feared consequences from the virus of an economic slow-down , if not recession , has slashed petrol prices within about two weeks almost in half .
However , without China ’ s central bank interference , the Yuan ’ s value vis-à-vis the dollar has been rather stable , at around 7 Yuan to the dollar .
That means , the Chinese economy , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trust around the globe .
Advice to China – buy all the US and European corporate shares you can at current rock-bottom prices from the stock markets that collapsed by a fifth or more , plus buy lots of oil futures .
When the prices recover , you have not only made billions , probably trillions from the west , but you also may own or hold significant and influence-yielding amounts of shares in most of the largest US and European corporations – and will be able to help call the shots of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , one little silver lining oscillating at the horizon full of dark clouds .
It could miraculously be an awakening of consciousness of a critical mass that could put an end to it all .
Although , we seem to be far from such a miracle , somewhere in a hidden corner of our brain , we all have a spark of consciousness left .
We have the spiritual capacity to abandon the disaster path of western neoliberal capitalism , and instead espouse solidarity , compassion and love for each other and for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only way to break the gridlock and doom of western egocentric greed .

It seems, the more there is written about the causes of the Coronavirus – the more the written analyses are overshadowed by a propaganda and fear-mongering hype. Questions for the truth and arguments for where to look for the origins and how the virus may have spread and how to combat it, are lost in the noise of wanton chaos. But isn’t that what the “Black Men” behind this intended pandemic want – chaos, panic, hopelessness, leading to human vulnerability – a people becoming easy prey for manipulation?
Today WHO declared the coronavirus COVID-19 a “pandemic” – when there is not the slightest trace of a pandemic. A pandemic might be the condition, when the death to infection rate reaches more than 12%. In Europe, the death rate is about 0.4%, or less. Except for Italy which is a special case, where the peak of the death rate was 6% (see below for further analysis).
“WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction”-@DrTedros #COVID19 — World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 11, 2020
China, where the death rate peaked only a few weeks ago at about 3%, is back to 0.7% – and rapidly declining, while China is taking full control of the disease – and that with the help of a not-spoken-about medication developed 39 years ago by Cuba, called “Interferon Alpha 2B (IFNrec)”, very effective for fighting viruses and other diseases, but is not known and used in the world, because the US under the illegal embargo of Cuba does not allow the medication to be marketed internationally.
WHO has most likely received orders from “above”, from those people who also manage Trump and the “leaders” (sic) of the European Union and her member countries, those who aim to control the world with force – the One World Order.
This has been on the drawing board for years. The final decision to go ahead NOW, was taken in January 2020 at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos – behind very much closed doors, of course. The Gates, GAVI (an association of vaccination-promoting pharmaceuticals), Rockefellers, Rothschilds et al, they are all behind this decision – the implementation of Agenda ID2020 – see below.
After the pandemic has been officially declared, the next step may be – also at the recommendation either by WHO, or individual countries, “force vaccination”, under police and/or military surveillance. Those who refuse may be penalized (fines and / or jail – and force-vaccinated all the same).
If indeed force-vaccination will happen, another bonanza for Big Pharma, people really don’t know what type of cocktail will be put into the vaccine, maybe a slow killer, that acts-up only in a few years – or a disease that hits only the next generation – or a brain debilitating agent, or a gene that renders women infertile …. all is possible – always with the aim of full population control and population reduction. In a few years’ time, one doesn’t know, of course, where the disease comes from. That’s the level of technology our bio-war labs have reached (US, UK, Israel, Canada, Australia…). Claire-ity 25% Vitamin... Buy New $9.99 (as of 04:46 UTC - Details)
Another hypothesis, at this point only a hypothesis, but a realistic one, is that along with the vaccination – if not with this one, then possibly with a later one, a nano-chip may be injected, unknown to the person being vaccinated. The chip may be remotely charged with all your personal data, including bank accounts – digital money. Yes, digital money that’s what “they” are aiming at, so you really have no control any more over your health and other intimate data, but also over your earnings and spending. Your money could be blocked, or taken away – as a ‘sanction’ for misbehavior, for swimming against the stream. You may become a mere slave of the masters. Comparatively, feudalism may appear like a walk in the park.
It’s not for nothing that Dr. Tedros, DG of WHO, said a few days ago, we must move towards digital money, because physical paper and coin money can spread diseases, especially endemic diseases, like the coronavirus. A precursor for things to come? – Or for things already here? – In many Scandinavian countries cash is largely banned and even a bar of chocalate can be paid only electronically.
We are moving towards a totalitarian state of the world. This is part of Agenda ID2020 – and these steps to be implemented now – prepared since long, including by the coronavirus computer simulation at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore on 18 October 2019, sponsored by the WEF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Bill Gates, one of the chief advocates of vaccinations for everybody, especially in Africa – is also a huge advocate of population reduction. Population reduction is among the goals of the elite within the WEF, the Rockefellers, Rothschilds, Morgens – and a few more. The objective: fewer people (a small elite) can live longer and better with the reduced and limited resources Mother Earth is generously offering.
This had openly been propagated already in the 1960s and 70s by Henry Kissinger, Foreign Secretary in de Nixon Administration, a co-engineer of the Vietnam war, and main responsible for the semi-clandestine bombing of Cambodia, a genocide of millions of unarmed Cambodian civilians. Along with the CIA-Kissinger engineered coup on 9/11, 1973, in Chile, killing the democratically elected Salvador Allende and putting the military dictator Pinochet in power, Kissinger has committed war crimes. Today, he is a spokesman (so to speak) for Rockefeller and their “Bilderberger Society”.
Coronavirus Outbreak, a Global Public Health Emergency?
Two weeks after the computer simulation at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, that “produced” (aka simulated) 65 million deaths (!), the COVID-19 virus first appeared in Wuhan. By now it is almost certain that the virus was brought to Wuhan from outside, most likely from a bio-war lab in the US. See also this and this.
*
What is the infamous ID2020? It is an alliance of public-private partners, including UN agencies and civil society. It’s an electronic ID program that uses generalized vaccination as a platform for digital identity. The program harnesses existing birth registration and vaccination operations to provide newborns with a portable and persistent biometrically-linked digital identity. GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, identifies itself on its website as a global health partnership of public and private sector organizations dedicated to “immunization for all”. GAVI is supported by WHO, and needless to say, its main partners and sponsors are the pharma-industry.
The ID2020 Alliance at their 2019 Summit, entitled “Rising to the Good ID Challenge”, in September 2019 in New York, decided to roll out their program in 2020, a decision confirmed by the WEF in January 2020 in Davos. Their digital identity program will be tested with the government of Bangladesh. GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, and “partners from academia and humanitarian relief” (as they call it), are part of the pioneer party.
Is it just a coincidence that ID2020 is being rolled out at the onset of what WHO calls a Pandemic? – Or is a pandemic needed to ‘roll out’ the multiple devastating programs of ID2020?
Here is what Anir Chowdhury, policy advisor of the Bangladesh government program, has to say:
“We are implementing a forward-looking approach to digital identity that gives individuals control over their own personal information, while still building off existing systems and programs. The Government of Bangladesh recognizes that the design of digital identity systems carries far-reaching implications for individuals’ access to services and livelihoods, and we are eager to pioneer this approach.”
Wow! Does Mr. Anir Chowdhury know what he is getting into?
Back to the Pandemic and the panic. Geneva, the European seat of the United Nations, including the headquarters of WHO, is basically shot down. Not unlike the lock-down that started in Venice and later expanded to northern Italy until a few days ago – and now the lock-down covers all of Italy. Similar lock-down may soon also be adopted by France – and other European vassal states to the Anglo-Zionist empire.
Numerous memoranda with similar panic-mongering contents from different UN agencies in Geneva are circulating. Their key message is – cancel all mission travel, all events in Geneva, visits to the Palais des Nations, the Geneva Cathedral, other monuments and museums. The latest directives, many agencies instruct their staff to work from home, not to risk contamination from public transportation.
This ambiance of panic and fear – outstrips any sense of reality, when the truth doesn’t matter. People can’t even think any more about the causes and what may be behind it. Nobody believes you (anymore), when you refer to Event 201, the coronavirus simulation, the Wuhan Military Games, the closing last August 7, of the high-security biological war lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland…. what could have at one point been an eye opener for many, today is sheer conspiracy theory. The power of propaganda. A destabilizing power – destabilizing countries and people, destroying economies, creating hardship for people who may lose their jobs, usually the ones who can least afford it.
Also, at this time it becomes increasingly important to remind people that the outbreak in China was targeting the Chinese genome. Did it later mutate to transgress the ‘borders’ of Chinese DNA? When did that happen, if it happened? Because at the beginning it was clear that even the infected victims in other parts of the world, were to 99.9% of Chinese descent.
What happened later, when the virus spread to Italy and Iran, is another issue, and opens the way to a number of speculations.
(i) There were various strains of the virus circulated in sequence – so as to destabilize countries around the world and to confound the populace and media, so that especially nobody of the mainstream may come to the conclusion that the first strain was targeting China in a bio-war.
(ii) In Iran, I have a strong suspicion that the virus was an enhanced form of MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, man-made, broke out first in Saudi Arabia in 2012 , directed to the Arabic genome) – which was somehow introduced into government circles (by aerosol spray?) – with the goal of “Regime Change” by COVID19-caused death. Its Washington’s wishful thinking for at least the last 30 years.
(iii) In Italy – why Italy? – Maybe because Washington / Brussels wanted to hit Italy hard for having been officially the first country to sign a Belt and Road (BRI) accord with China (actually the first was Greece, but nobody is supposed to know that China came to the rescue of Greece, destroyed by Greece’s brothers, the EU members, mainly Germany and France).
(iv) The hype about the high death to infection rate in Italy, as of the time of this writing: 10,149 infections vs. 631 deaths = death rate of 6.2 (comparatively Iran: 8042 infections vs. 291 deaths = 3.6 death rate). The death rate of Italy is almost double that of Iran and almost ten-fold that of average Europe. (Are these discrepancies the result of failures in the establishing reliable data pertaining to “infections”, see our observations pertaining to Italy below).
Why? – Was is Italy being affected with virus panic? Was there a much stronger strain introduced to Italy?
The common flu in Europe in the 2019 / 2020 season, has apparently so far killed about 16,000 (in the US the death toll is, according to CDC between 14,000 and 32,000, depending on which CDC website you look at).
Could it be that among the Italian coronavirus deaths there were also common flu victims, as the affected victims are mostly elderly with respiratory preconditions? Also, symptoms are very similar between coronavirus and the common flu, and nobody questions and checks the official authorities’ narrative?
Maybe not all the coronavirus strains come from the same laboratory. A journalist from Berlin of Ukrainian origin, told me this morning that Ukraine is host to some 5 high security US bio-war labs. They test regularly new viruses on the population – yet, when strange diseases break out in the surroundings of the labs, nobody is allowed to talk about it. Something similar, she says, is happening in Georgia, where there are even more Pentagon / CIA bio-war labs – and where also new and strange diseases break out. 21st Century C 500 mg ... Buy New $4.98 ($0.05 / Count) (as of 12:17 UTC - Details)
All of this makes the composite picture even more complicated. Overarching all is this super hype is profit driven, the quest for instant profit, instant benefits from the suffering of the people. This panic making is a hundred-fold of what it’s worth. What these kingpins of the underworld, who pretend to run the upper world, perhaps miscalculated, is that in today’s globalized and vastly outsourced world the west depends massively on China’s supply chain, for consumer goods, and for intermediary merchandise – and, foremost for medication and medical equipment. At least 80% of medication or ingredients for medication, as well as for medical equipment comes from China. The western China dependence for antibiotics is even higher, some 90%. The potential impacts on health are devastating.
During the height of the COVID-19 epidemic China’s production apparatus for everything was almost shut-down. For deliveries that were still made, merchandise vessels were regularly and categorically turned back from many harbors all around the world. So, the west has tricked itself into a shortage-of-everything mode by waging a de facto “economic war” on China. How long will it last? – Nobody knows, but China’s economy which was down by about half, has rapidly recovered to above 80% of what it was before the coronavirus hit. How long will it last to catch up with the backlog?
What is behind it all? – A total crackdown with artificially induced panic to the point where people are screaming “help, give us vaccinations, display police and military for our security” – or even if the public despair doesn’t go that far, it would be easy for the EU and US authorities to impose a military stage of siege for “health protection of the people”. In fact, CDC (Center for Disease Control in Atlanta), has already designed harshly dictatorial directives for a “health emergency”.
Along with forced vaccination, who knows what would be contained in the cocktail of ‘’mini-diseases” injected, and what their long-term effects might be. Similar to those of GMOs, where all sorts of germs could be inserted without us, the commons, knowing?
We may indeed be just at the beginning of the implementation of ID2020 – which includes, forced vaccination, population reduction and total digital control of everybody – on the way to One World Order – and global financial hegemony – Full Spectrum Dominance, as the PNAC (Plan for a New American Century) likes to call it.
A windfall for China. China has been purposely targeted for “economic destruction”, because of her rapidly advancing economy, an economy soon to overtake that of the now hegemon, the US of A, and because of China’s strong currency, the Yuan, also potentially overtaking the dollar as the world’s main reserve currency.
Both occurrences would mean the end of US dominance over the world. The coronavirus disease, now in more than 80 countries, has crashed the stock markets, a decline of at least 20% over the last few weeks – and rising; the feared consequences from the virus of an economic slow-down, if not recession, has slashed petrol prices within about two weeks almost in half. However, without China’s central bank interference, the Yuan’s value vis-à-vis the dollar has been rather stable, at around 7 Yuan to the dollar. That means, the Chinese economy, despite COVID-19, is receiving still much trust around the globe.
Advice to China – buy all the US and European corporate shares you can at current rock-bottom prices from the stock markets that collapsed by a fifth or more, plus buy lots of oil futures. When the prices recover, you have not only made billions, probably trillions from the west, but you also may own or hold significant and influence-yielding amounts of shares in most of the largest US and European corporations – and will be able to help call the shots of their future endeavors.
There is however, one little silver lining oscillating at the horizon full of dark clouds. It could miraculously be an awakening of consciousness of a critical mass that could put an end to it all. Although, we seem to be far from such a miracle, somewhere in a hidden corner of our brain, we all have a spark of consciousness left. We have the spiritual capacity to abandon the disaster path of western neoliberal capitalism, and instead espouse solidarity, compassion and love for each other and for our society. That may be the only way to break the gridlock and doom of western egocentric greed.
Reprinted with permission from GlobalResearch.ca.


lewrockwell--2020-03-13--Julian in the Dock

Julian in the Dock

Julian Assange ’ s extradition hearing has had very little media coverage .
Even The Guardian and The New York Times barely mentioned it , though these newspapers made a fortune publishing Assange-provided cables .
Unless you had been looking for it , you wouldn ’ t even know that on February 24 to 27 , the first stage of Assange ’ s extradition hearing was being adjudicated in the secretive Woolwich Crown Court embedded within the huge Belmarsh Prison nicknamed “ British Gitmo ” .
Luckily for us , Ambassador Craig Murray , the indomitable truth fighter , went @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the rain , underwent searches and discomfort , and wrote an extensive report ( 12,000 words ) on this travesty of justice that went under the name of a ‘ trial ’ .
His reports leave nothing out , from the threatening atmosphere to the sinister legal arguments .
He captured the menace and the abuse bordering with public torture , and delivered it to the world , something that none of the journalists on the payroll of the mass media had been allowed to do .
Here are some insights from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with other sources .
The Court is designed with no other purpose than to exclude the public , on an island accessible only through navigating a maze of dual carriageways , the entire location and architecture of the building is predicated on preventing public access .
It is in truth just the sentencing wing of Belmarsh prison .
The judge , the Magistrate ( or District Judge ) Vanessa Baraitser is a modern version of the Hanging Judge George Jeffreys , a female Judge Dredd .
She is the chief villain by all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tolerating but exceeding the demands of the prosecution .
The lawyers acting for the prosecution did request some niceties if only for the trial to appear fair .
Baraitser had no such pretensions .
She went straight for the jugular .
If she could , she would hang Assange right away .
When Google Met WikiLeaks Assange , Julian Best Price : $ 4.99 Buy New $ 1.99 This Jewish lady is surrounded by mystery : she has left no trace upon the Internet .
A newly born child has more Internet presence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ such a blank slate could be achieved nowadays without the active assistance of the Secret Services .
Ambassador Murray writes : “ Ms Baraitser is not fond of photography – she appears to be the only public figure in Western Europe with no photo on the internet .
Indeed the average proprietor of a rural car wash has left more evidence of their existence and life history on the Internet than Vanessa Baraitser .
Which is no crime on her part , but I suspect the expunging is not achieved without considerable effort @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be a hologram , but I think not .
Holograms have more empathy.
” John Pilger saw Baraitser in action during the previous round of Assange hearings in October 2019 .
He wrote : “ I have sat in many courtrooms and seen judges abuse their positions .
This judge , Vanessa Baraitser shocked all of us who were there .
Her face was a progression of sneers and imperious indifference ; she addressed Julian with cruel arrogance .
When Assange spoke , Baraitser contrived boredom ; when the prosecuting barrister spoke , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s barrister described the CIA spying on him , she didn ’ t yawn , but her disinterest was as expressive .
Her knee in the groin was to announce that the next court hearing would be at remote Woolwich , which adjoins Belmarsh Prison and has few seats for the public .
This will ensure isolation and be as close to a secret trial as it ’ s possible to get.
” It turned out to be practically a secret trial .
There were MSM journalists , but “ not a single @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arguments today has been reported anywhere in the mainstream media.
” On the first day , James Lewis QC for the prosecution tried to drive a wedge between Assange and the media .
He claimed that in no way are mainstream outlets like The Guardian and The New York Times threatened by this trial , because Assange was not charged with publishing the cables but only with publishing the names of informants , cultivating Manning and assisting him to attempt computer hacking .
The mainstream outlets are not guilty of any crimes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Judge Baraitser didn ’ t accept this vegetarian approach .
She thirsted for blood .
She referred to the Official Secrets Act 1989 , which declares that merely obtaining and publishing any government secret is an offence .
Surely , Baraitser suggested , that meant that newspapers publishing the Manning leaks would be guilty of a serious offence ?
Lewis agreed with the judge and admitted that indeed , the mainstream journalists also are guilty , fully denying what he said in his opening statement .
In the end , none of this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reported on this exchange , as it wasn ’ t inserted into the daily press release .
The MSM journalists used only these prepared texts , so convenient for copying and pasting into their own reports .
The main argument of the defence was that the motive for the prosecution was entirely political , and that political offences were specifically excluded under the UK/US extradition treaty .
For a normal human judge , that would suffice to dismiss the case .
But Baraitser had a trick up her sleeve .
Although the US/UK @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was only the Treaty , and this is not an international court , she said .
That exemption does not appear in the UK Extradition Act .
Therefore political extradition is not illegal in the UK , as the Treaty has no legal force on her Court .
With such a judge , who needs the prosecution ?
The defence quickly demolished the judge ’ s devious rationalisations by pointing out that every extradition must satisfy two standards : ( 1 ) that of the UK Extradition Act , and ( 2 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in question .
Both are necessary ; no man can be extradited to a specific country without consulting the specific treaty .
The UK Extradition Act sets the ground rules .
It is the relevant extradition treaty that sets out the conditions by which a prisoner might be extradited to a specific country .
The Act allowed for a political extradition , and if the specific extradition treaty allowed it , the prisoner could be extradited .
But this specific , namely US/UK extradition treaty does not permit political extraditions .
Ergo , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Indeed a sixth-grade student could follow this simple logic .
However , the dastardly Ms Baraitser kept repeating her claim that the Act does not forbid political extradition .
We do not know what black spots hidden in the murky past of Judge Baraitser required that her history be blotted out by MI5 ’ s dark adepts , but I harbour a suspicion that this Jewish lady has had some field practice in the Jewish state , where judges invariably find the accused goy liable and guilty , and every torture is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ preoccupation seemed to be in arranging Julian ’ s suicide – or at least dishearten him to the point where his death by throttling might be explained away as suicide .
He certainly seemed to be dispirited .
The distinguished psychiatrist Professor Michael Kopelman provided a psychiatric assessment of Assange to the court : “ Mr Assange shows virtually all the risk factors which researchers from Oxford have described in prisoners who either suicide or make lethal attempts .
… I am as confident as a psychiatrist can ever be that , if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ become imminent , Mr Assange would find a way of suiciding.
” These words are especially poignant today , as it was reported that Manning attempted to commit suicide being locked up since last May at a detention centre in Alexandria , Va for steadfast refusal to bring evidence against Assange .
The US/UK Deep State is a vengeful vicious beast that wants to punish Assange and Manning for revealing its nasty secrets .
It is only the “ whistle-blowers ” who accused Trump and exonerated the Thief of Ukraine Biden that are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deeper into black despair , Baraitser enforced the regime of strict isolation on the prisoner .
Assange had been kept in a bulletproof glass cage , unable to hear or to exchange notes with his lawyers .
“ I believe – wrote Craig Murray , – that the Hannibal Lecter style confinement of Assange , this intellectual computer geek , is a deliberate attempt to drive Julian to suicide.
” Julian is cruelly mistreated .
When his Spanish lawyer left court to return home , on the way out he naturally stopped to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his fingers through the narrow slit in the glass cage .
Assange half stood to take his lawyer ’ s hand .
The two security guards in the cage with Assange immediately sprang up , putting hands on Julian and forcing him to sit down , preventing the handshake .
On the first day of trial , Julian had twice been stripped naked and searched , eleven times been handcuffed , and five times been locked up in different holding cells .
The lawyer for the defence , Fitzgerald , asked the judge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rough mistreatment .
The Baraitser stared down Fitzgerald and stated , in a voice laced with disdain , that he had raised such matters before and she had always replied that she had no jurisdiction over the prison estate .
You might make a recommendation , suggested Fitzgerald , they usually listen to judge ’ s remarks .
Even the prosecution counsel James Lewis stood up to say the prosecution would also like Assange to have a fair hearing , and that he could confirm that what the defence were suggesting was normal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The WikiLeaks Files : T ... WikiLeaks Best Price : $ 4.18 Buy New $ 6.95 Edward Fitzgerald made a formal application for Julian to be allowed to sit beside his lawyers in the court .
Julian was “ a gentle , intellectual man ” and not a terrorist .
Baraitser replied that releasing Assange from the dock into the body of the court would mean he was released from custody .
That is obviously nonsense .
Again , the prosecution counsel James Lewis intervened on the side of the defence , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would not work anywhere outside Israeli courts in the occupied West Bank .
Lewis said that prisoners , even the most dangerous of terrorists , gave evidence from the witness box in the body of the court next to the lawyers and magistrate .
In the High Court prisoners frequently sat with their lawyers in extradition hearings , in extreme cases of violent criminals handcuffed to a security officer .
Baraitser replied that Assange might pose a danger to the public .
It was a question of health and safety .
Health and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be unprecedented in British justice , and it should reserve a special place in hell for Ms Baraitser .
Why should she keep Assange in that box , unable to hear proceedings or instruct his lawyers , when even counsel for the US Government does not object to Assange openly sitting in the court ?
He is brought handcuffed and under heavy escort to and from his solitary cell to the armoured dock via an underground tunnel .
In these circumstances , what possible need is there for him to be repeatedly strip- @ @ @ @ @ @ @ permitted to shake hands or touch his lawyers through the slit in the armoured glass box ?
It is a torture session , not a hearing .
And the hearing , or rather the torture will continue in May , – if Julian is still alive .
This article was first published at The Unz Review .

Julian Assange’s extradition hearing has had very little media coverage. Even The Guardian and The New York Times barely mentioned it, though these newspapers made a fortune publishing Assange-provided cables. Unless you had been looking for it, you wouldn’t even know that on February 24 to 27, the first stage of Assange’s extradition hearing was being adjudicated in the secretive Woolwich Crown Court embedded within the huge Belmarsh Prison nicknamed “British Gitmo”. Luckily for us, Ambassador Craig Murray, the indomitable truth fighter, went there, waited in line for hours in the rain, underwent searches and discomfort, and wrote an extensive report (12,000 words) on this travesty of justice that went under the name of a ‘trial’. His reports leave nothing out, from the threatening atmosphere to the sinister legal arguments. He captured the menace and the abuse bordering with public torture, and delivered it to the world, something that none of the journalists on the payroll of the mass media had been allowed to do. Here are some insights from his report in my free rendering augmented with other sources.
The Court is designed with no other purpose than to exclude the public, on an island accessible only through navigating a maze of dual carriageways, the entire location and architecture of the building is predicated on preventing public access. It is in truth just the sentencing wing of Belmarsh prison.
The judge, the Magistrate (or District Judge) Vanessa Baraitser is a modern version of the Hanging Judge George Jeffreys, a female Judge Dredd. She is the chief villain by all descriptions of the trial, not just tolerating but exceeding the demands of the prosecution. The lawyers acting for the prosecution did request some niceties if only for the trial to appear fair. Baraitser had no such pretensions. She went straight for the jugular. If she could, she would hang Assange right away. When Google Met WikiLeaks Assange, Julian Best Price: $4.99 Buy New $1.99 (as of 01:25 UTC - Details)
This Jewish lady is surrounded by mystery: she has left no trace upon the Internet. A newly born child has more Internet presence than this middle-aged woman. I doubt such a blank slate could be achieved nowadays without the active assistance of the Secret Services.
Ambassador Murray writes: “Ms Baraitser is not fond of photography – she appears to be the only public figure in Western Europe with no photo on the internet. Indeed the average proprietor of a rural car wash has left more evidence of their existence and life history on the Internet than Vanessa Baraitser. Which is no crime on her part, but I suspect the expunging is not achieved without considerable effort. Somebody suggested to me she might be a hologram, but I think not. Holograms have more empathy.”
John Pilger saw Baraitser in action during the previous round of Assange hearings in October 2019. He wrote: “I have sat in many courtrooms and seen judges abuse their positions. This judge, Vanessa Baraitser shocked all of us who were there. Her face was a progression of sneers and imperious indifference; she addressed Julian with cruel arrogance. When Assange spoke, Baraitser contrived boredom; when the prosecuting barrister spoke, she was attentive. When Julian’s barrister described the CIA spying on him, she didn’t yawn, but her disinterest was as expressive. Her knee in the groin was to announce that the next court hearing would be at remote Woolwich, which adjoins Belmarsh Prison and has few seats for the public. This will ensure isolation and be as close to a secret trial as it’s possible to get.”
It turned out to be practically a secret trial. There were MSM journalists, but “not a single one of the most important facts and arguments today has been reported anywhere in the mainstream media.”
On the first day, James Lewis QC for the prosecution tried to drive a wedge between Assange and the media. He claimed that in no way are mainstream outlets like The Guardian and The New York Times threatened by this trial, because Assange was not charged with publishing the cables but only with publishing the names of informants, cultivating Manning and assisting him to attempt computer hacking. The mainstream outlets are not guilty of any crimes, having only published sanitised cables.
But Judge Baraitser didn’t accept this vegetarian approach. She thirsted for blood. She referred to the Official Secrets Act 1989, which declares that merely obtaining and publishing any government secret is an offence. Surely, Baraitser suggested, that meant that newspapers publishing the Manning leaks would be guilty of a serious offence?
Lewis agreed with the judge and admitted that indeed, the mainstream journalists also are guilty, fully denying what he said in his opening statement. In the end, none of this role-play mattered since none of the media reported on this exchange, as it wasn’t inserted into the daily press release. The MSM journalists used only these prepared texts, so convenient for copying and pasting into their own reports.
The main argument of the defence was that the motive for the prosecution was entirely political, and that political offences were specifically excluded under the UK/US extradition treaty. For a normal human judge, that would suffice to dismiss the case. But Baraitser had a trick up her sleeve. Although the US/UK Extradition Treaty forbade political extraditions, this was only the Treaty, and this is not an international court, she said. That exemption does not appear in the UK Extradition Act. Therefore political extradition is not illegal in the UK, as the Treaty has no legal force on her Court. With such a judge, who needs the prosecution?
The defence quickly demolished the judge’s devious rationalisations by pointing out that every extradition must satisfy two standards: (1) that of the UK Extradition Act, and (2) the specific Extradition Treaty with the country in question. Both are necessary; no man can be extradited to a specific country without consulting the specific treaty. The UK Extradition Act sets the ground rules. It is the relevant extradition treaty that sets out the conditions by which a prisoner might be extradited to a specific country. The Act allowed for a political extradition, and if the specific extradition treaty allowed it, the prisoner could be extradited. But this specific, namely US/UK extradition treaty does not permit political extraditions. Ergo, Assange could not be extradited by law.
Indeed a sixth-grade student could follow this simple logic. However, the dastardly Ms Baraitser kept repeating her claim that the Act does not forbid political extradition. We do not know what black spots hidden in the murky past of Judge Baraitser required that her history be blotted out by MI5’s dark adepts, but I harbour a suspicion that this Jewish lady has had some field practice in the Jewish state, where judges invariably find the accused goy liable and guilty, and every torture is tolerated or even encouraged.
Her main preoccupation seemed to be in arranging Julian’s suicide – or at least dishearten him to the point where his death by throttling might be explained away as suicide. He certainly seemed to be dispirited. The distinguished psychiatrist Professor Michael Kopelman provided a psychiatric assessment of Assange to the court:
“Mr Assange shows virtually all the risk factors which researchers from Oxford have described in prisoners who either suicide or make lethal attempts. … I am as confident as a psychiatrist can ever be that, if extradition to the United States were to become imminent, Mr Assange would find a way of suiciding.”
These words are especially poignant today, as it was reported that Manning attempted to commit suicide being locked up since last May at a detention centre in Alexandria, Va for steadfast refusal to bring evidence against Assange. The US/UK Deep State is a vengeful vicious beast that wants to punish Assange and Manning for revealing its nasty secrets. It is only the “whistle-blowers” who accused Trump and exonerated the Thief of Ukraine Biden that are protected.
In order to push Assange deeper into black despair, Baraitser enforced the regime of strict isolation on the prisoner. Assange had been kept in a bulletproof glass cage, unable to hear or to exchange notes with his lawyers. “I believe – wrote Craig Murray, – that the Hannibal Lecter style confinement of Assange, this intellectual computer geek, is a deliberate attempt to drive Julian to suicide.”
Julian is cruelly mistreated. When his Spanish lawyer left court to return home, on the way out he naturally stopped to shake hands with his client, proffering his fingers through the narrow slit in the glass cage. Assange half stood to take his lawyer’s hand. The two security guards in the cage with Assange immediately sprang up, putting hands on Julian and forcing him to sit down, preventing the handshake.
On the first day of trial, Julian had twice been stripped naked and searched, eleven times been handcuffed, and five times been locked up in different holding cells. The lawyer for the defence, Fitzgerald, asked the judge to interfere and save Julian from this rough mistreatment.
The Baraitser stared down Fitzgerald and stated, in a voice laced with disdain, that he had raised such matters before and she had always replied that she had no jurisdiction over the prison estate. You might make a recommendation, suggested Fitzgerald, they usually listen to judge’s remarks. Even the prosecution counsel James Lewis stood up to say the prosecution would also like Assange to have a fair hearing, and that he could confirm that what the defence were suggesting was normal practice. But bloodthirsty Baraitser flatly refused. The WikiLeaks Files: T... WikiLeaks Best Price: $4.18 Buy New $6.95 (as of 06:20 UTC - Details)
Edward Fitzgerald made a formal application for Julian to be allowed to sit beside his lawyers in the court. Julian was “a gentle, intellectual man” and not a terrorist. Baraitser replied that releasing Assange from the dock into the body of the court would mean he was released from custody. That is obviously nonsense. Again, the prosecution counsel James Lewis intervened on the side of the defence, for Baraitser’s notion of law would not work anywhere outside Israeli courts in the occupied West Bank. Lewis said that prisoners, even the most dangerous of terrorists, gave evidence from the witness box in the body of the court next to the lawyers and magistrate. In the High Court prisoners frequently sat with their lawyers in extradition hearings, in extreme cases of violent criminals handcuffed to a security officer.
Baraitser replied that Assange might pose a danger to the public. It was a question of health and safety. Health and safety, forsooth! Such cynicism may be unprecedented in British justice, and it should reserve a special place in hell for Ms Baraitser.
Why should she keep Assange in that box, unable to hear proceedings or instruct his lawyers, when even counsel for the US Government does not object to Assange openly sitting in the court? He is brought handcuffed and under heavy escort to and from his solitary cell to the armoured dock via an underground tunnel. In these circumstances, what possible need is there for him to be repeatedly strip- and cavity-searched? Why is he not permitted to shake hands or touch his lawyers through the slit in the armoured glass box?
It is a torture session, not a hearing. And the hearing, or rather the torture will continue in May, – if Julian is still alive.
This article was first published at The Unz Review.


Rueing the Sherpa

As hysteria about Coronavirus spreads – faster than the disease and possibly more dangerous than the disease – I ’ m really regretting having sold my dual-sport Kawasaki KL250 Super Sherpa ( the Lesser Known Kaw ) a few years ago .
A motorcycle that can go off road – can go places even a jacked-up 4×4 truck can ’ t – is the perfect tool for dealing with Hut !
Hut !
Hut !
WuFlu “ checkpoints ” and national prison “ lockdowns ” pretexted and justified by what may prove to be a contrived panic , contrived for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ the enemies of freedom ” supposedly struck – was messy and too local .
If you weren ’ t in NYC or DC it was abstract .
But a continental plague or fear of the same is just the ticket for penning in the cattle , with the cattle lowing and mooing to be led to saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety , as per H.L .
Mencken ’ s axiom about government .
I ’ d rather look out for my own saaaaaaaaaaafety than trust it to – of all things – the government .
That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your debit card and PIN number ; see what your balance is tomorrow morning .
This is exaggerated – but only a little .
Remember Katrina – and how “ helpful ” the government was then .
Amazon.com Gift Card i ... Best Price : null Buy New $ 25.00 No matter your political persuasion , realize and come to grips with the hard cold fact that you and yours will be on your own if things get ugly .
It is much better to rely on yourself – and your friends and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of relying on the government , that lice-infested nest of indifferent incompetents , grifters , power-trippers , fools and knaves who not only think they know best but will use guns to convince you that they do .
Which is why I miss the Sherpa , a small dual-sport ( on/off-road ) motorcycle Kawasaki made in the early 2000s , which was the era of the apogee of motorcycle design , just as ten years or so earlier was the apogee of car design – if you wanted a car with all the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ without all the crap ( e.g.
, “ assistance ” technology and such ) that modernity has become .
The little Kaw had more range on 2.5 gallons of gas than any electric car has now – because its single-cylinder engine only needed a gallon to travel 80-100 miles , which is twice as far as any hybrid car .
Two or three five gallon jugs of gas stored in my shed means mobility for weeks – months – if there ’ s no more gas available at the station .
Even if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ m still mobile .
A dual-sport/dirt bike can get to places – and away from places – you can ’ t get to ( or get away from ) on four wheels , even if you have a 4×4 .
A truck , no matter how much ground clearance it has , is too wide for the woods unless there ’ s a trail and any trail can be blocked .
A dirt bike doesn ’ t need a trail .
Everywhere is its trail and good luck following a dirt bike @ @ @ @ @ @ @ too .
Most armed government workers aren ’ t – and the few that are ride big on-road bikes that are much less useful for travel than your own two feet when the pavement turns to grass turns to rutted muddy earth .
The Sherpa would give me the option to break left – or right – and into the Woods at the first sight of a Corona “ checkpoint ” and the ability to put real distance , quickly , between myself and armed government workers sent to enforce a “ lockdown.
@ @ @ @ @ @

As hysteria about Coronavirus spreads – faster than the disease and possibly more dangerous than the disease – I’m really regretting having sold my dual-sport Kawasaki KL250 Super Sherpa (the Lesser Known Kaw) a few years ago.
A motorcycle that can go off road – can go places even a jacked-up 4×4 truck can’t – is the perfect tool for dealing with Hut! Hut! Hut! WuFlu “checkpoints” and national prison “lockdowns” pretexted and justified by what may prove to be a contrived panic, contrived for just that purpose.
Nahhnlevven – when “the enemies of freedom” supposedly struck – was messy and too local. If you weren’t in NYC or DC it was abstract. But a continental plague or fear of the same is just the ticket for penning in the cattle, with the cattle lowing and mooing to be led to saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety, as per H.L. Mencken’s axiom about government.
I’d rather look out for my own saaaaaaaaaaafety than trust it to – of all things – the government. That would be like giving a meth addict your debit card and PIN number; see what your balance is tomorrow morning. This is exaggerated – but only a little. Remember Katrina – and how “helpful” the government was then. Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $25.00 (as of 11:14 UTC - Details)
No matter your political persuasion, realize and come to grips with the hard cold fact that you and yours will be on your own if things get ugly.
Or rounded up.
It is much better to rely on yourself – and your friends and family. Do not make the mistake of relying on the government, that lice-infested nest of indifferent incompetents, grifters, power-trippers, fools and knaves who not only think they know best but will use guns to convince you that they do.
Which is why I miss the Sherpa, a small dual-sport (on/off-road) motorcycle Kawasaki made in the early 2000s, which was the era of the apogee of motorcycle design, just as ten years or so earlier was the apogee of car design – if you wanted a car with all the bullet-proof reliability, minimalist maintenance of modernity without all the crap (e.g., “assistance” technology and such) that modernity has become.
The little Kaw had more range on 2.5 gallons of gas than any electric car has now – because its single-cylinder engine only needed a gallon to travel 80-100 miles, which is twice as far as any hybrid car. Two or three five gallon jugs of gas stored in my shed means mobility for weeks – months – if there’s no more gas available at the station.
Even if the power gets cut off, I’m still mobile.
Well, I was.
A dual-sport/dirt bike can get to places – and away from places – you can’t get to (or get away from) on four wheels, even if you have a 4×4. A truck, no matter how much ground clearance it has, is too wide for the woods unless there’s a trail and any trail can be blocked. A dirt bike doesn’t need a trail. Everywhere is its trail and good luck following a dirt bike unless you’re on one, too.
Most armed government workers aren’t – and the few that are ride big on-road bikes that are much less useful for travel than your own two feet when the pavement turns to grass turns to rutted muddy earth.
The Sherpa would give me the option to break left – or right – and into the Woods at the first sight of a Corona “checkpoint” and the ability to put real distance, quickly, between myself and armed government workers sent to enforce a “lockdown.”
Read the Whole Article
The Best of Eric Peters


lewrockwell--2020-03-13--Suddenly Everyone Is a Corona Expert

Suddenly Everyone Is a Corona Expert

In 2008 , I ran for federal office in Illinois .
I had the opportunity of spending every day speaking to voters .
It was an affluent and well-educated district , the most affluent and well-educated in all of Illinois .
Favorite places to campaign in the mornings were the commuter rail stations .
Everyone there had a minute or two to spare as they waited for the train .
I observed a phenomenon that I wouldn ’ t have believed had I not observed it .
Every day of the week , including Thursday mornings , I would hear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people I saw .
By Thursday night , the weekend news cycle would start .
A story would break , an idea would get disseminated .
Friday , it would catch on a little more .
Saturday and Sunday , it would be all over the networks .
And by Monday , people would be radical and opinionated supporters of some idea that they literally didn ’ t know a thing about four days earlier .
Be Ready for Anything : ... Daisy Luther Best Price : $ 10.45 Buy New $ 9.69 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clockwork .
And again , these weren ’ t grade school dropouts I was talking to .
There ’ s an aspect of confirmation bias that marketers have long understood as significant : the more education you have , the more successful you ’ ve been inside a system , the less likely you are to see contradictory information from unfamiliar sources as valid .
Also , the less likely you are to approach the ideas presented to you by a trusted source in a circumspect fashion .
Basically , if you ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most of what ’ s fed to you , as long as it ’ s fed to you by the right people .
And the news doesn ’ t just have a way of getting people opinionated , it has a way of making one feel educated , almost expert on a topic .
Gary Johnson , bless his heart , appeared on TV during the 2016 election not knowing , gawd forbid , what Aleppo , Syria was .
Few Americans know what Aleppo is .
Many who are honest with themselves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because of Gary Johnson .
The great gaffe though was that he didn ’ t know Aleppo during a media educational blitz on Syria .
Every well-heeled and educated person in America was quickly learning all the most important three to five talking points about Syria that the echo chamber media deemed important , allowing them to feel educated enough on the topic , but as anyone who actually knows the topic would realize : actually quite ignorant of it all .
Nearly all Americans were ignorant .
Some were self-certain in their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gary Johnson made the mistake of being openly ignorant and unaware of the latest propaganda being used to manufacture consent .
He could hardly have done a better job proving himself an outsider worthy of derision .
If you aren ’ t up to date on all the latest propaganda then you are clearly not in the know .
And Gary Johnson , barely notable to more than 1 or 2 % of voters , became known immediately by every know-it-all New York Times , New Yorker , and Weekly Standard reader .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ recite the most important three to five talking points like it were the Gospel .
How dare he !
The three to five talking points of every important topic is distributed weekly in the technocrat ’ s bible – The Economist .
The Economist appears to have tremendous breadth and depth of knowledge .
But that appearance has serious limitations .
I ’ ve never once been impressed by The Economist ’ s coverage of a topic I knew intimately , and have long disliked the pretentious title of a publication that is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ technocrat learns everything he or she needs to know in its pages in order to sound smart to those who don ’ t know any better and to be able to uphold the status quo with certainty while actually knowing very little .
That is The Economist : not only the anti-economist but also propagandistic anti-thought snippets for the people who have had some of society ’ s most costly resources poured into developing their minds .
Having witnessed years of propaganda every weekend since 2008 , after which people suddenly care with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knew nothing about the previous Thursday , the appearance of experts on the coronavirus is no surprise .
Virtually no one knows anything about this topic that they didn ’ t get from a sensationalized media source , and 75 % of that , at the very least , is second- or third-hand information from the least reliable , least independent , most biased of sources : a government .
Not just any government , the Chinese government .
SARS ( 2002 ) is still being figured out .
MERS ( 2012 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being figured out .
It ’ s possible it will never be fully understood .
Yet three months into the WuFlu/Wuhan Corona/Covid-19 outbreak every know-it-all in my life is suddenly a corona expert ?
It ’ s all the same nonsense .
Some stuff we just don ’ t know .
That means live your life as best you can , hope for the best , prep for the worst , love the people close to you , be mindful of them , and don ’ t let some know-it-all con you into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they know as little as you do , but while your mistakes might impact the few loved ones around you , their mistakes may impact billions .
The Prepperu2019s Blue ... Tess Pennington Best Price : $ 11.98 Buy New $ 18.98 Medically , the establishment helped encouraged ideas that didn ’ t pass the sniff test : like unwashed hands being used by doctors to birth babies , lobotomies , X-rays to treat ringworm of the scalp , the Tuskegee patients thinking they were receiving medical care and being allowed to develop @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , thalidomide , standard episiotomies , standard hysterectomies , using nasty , dirty amalgams in dentistry and then topping it off with mercury , the swine flu vaccination debacle of 1976 , asbestos in talcum powder .
This list can be much longer .
Every example on the list received the affirmation of lots of experts and caused harm to lots of overly trusting people .
Being able to make a mistake that may impact billions : That ’ s a power no one deserves .
The more they claim to know , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The more they need to insist to people that they know , the less likely they are to actually know .
Most of us have pretty good BS detectors .
Trust your BS detector .
Now , more than ever , as more people get fearful , as the media stokes that fear , as the grocery store shelves get more empty , as the government steps in to say they are here to help , the more vital it is than ever to trust your BS detector .
When it comes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ probably the only one who is actually motivated to protect your own interest .
No matter how bad it gets , and no matter how much anyone claims expert status about a topic , you ’ re the only one who deserves credit for being the expert on you , and the only one who deserves permission to be “ the decider ” for you .
The Best of Allan Stevo

In 2008, I ran for federal office in Illinois. I had the opportunity of spending every day speaking to voters.
It was an affluent and well-educated district, the most affluent and well-educated in all of Illinois.
Favorite places to campaign in the mornings were the commuter rail stations. Everyone there had a minute or two to spare as they waited for the train.
I observed a phenomenon that I wouldn’t have believed had I not observed it.
Every day of the week, including Thursday mornings, I would hear what was on the minds of the people I saw. By Thursday night, the weekend news cycle would start. A story would break, an idea would get disseminated. Friday, it would catch on a little more. Saturday and Sunday, it would be all over the networks. And by Monday, people would be radical and opinionated supporters of some idea that they literally didn’t know a thing about four days earlier. Be Ready for Anything:... Daisy Luther Best Price: $10.45 Buy New $9.69 (as of 07:15 UTC - Details)
Weekend-after-weekend, this would occur, like clockwork. And again, these weren’t grade school dropouts I was talking to.
There’s an aspect of confirmation bias that marketers have long understood as significant: the more education you have, the more successful you’ve been inside a system, the less likely you are to see contradictory information from unfamiliar sources as valid. Also, the less likely you are to approach the ideas presented to you by a trusted source in a circumspect fashion.
Basically, if you’ve got a PhD, you eat most of what’s fed to you, as long as it’s fed to you by the right people.
And the news doesn’t just have a way of getting people opinionated, it has a way of making one feel educated, almost expert on a topic.
Gary Johnson, bless his heart, appeared on TV during the 2016 election not knowing, gawd forbid, what Aleppo, Syria was. Few Americans know what Aleppo is. Many who are honest with themselves only remember the name of the city because of Gary Johnson. The great gaffe though was that he didn’t know Aleppo during a media educational blitz on Syria. Every well-heeled and educated person in America was quickly learning all the most important three to five talking points about Syria that the echo chamber media deemed important, allowing them to feel educated enough on the topic, but as anyone who actually knows the topic would realize: actually quite ignorant of it all.
Nearly all Americans were ignorant. Some were self-certain in their great knowledge, despite their ignorance. Gary Johnson made the mistake of being openly ignorant and unaware of the latest propaganda being used to manufacture consent.
He could hardly have done a better job proving himself an outsider worthy of derision. If you aren’t up to date on all the latest propaganda then you are clearly not in the know. And Gary Johnson, barely notable to more than 1 or 2% of voters, became known immediately by every know-it-all New York Times, New Yorker, and Weekly Standard reader.
How dare he not be able to recite the most important three to five talking points like it were the Gospel. How dare he!
The three to five talking points of every important topic is distributed weekly in the technocrat’s bible – The Economist. The Economist appears to have tremendous breadth and depth of knowledge. But that appearance has serious limitations. I’ve never once been impressed by The Economist’s coverage of a topic I knew intimately, and have long disliked the pretentious title of a publication that is practically anti-economics. But reliably, the technocrat learns everything he or she needs to know in its pages in order to sound smart to those who don’t know any better and to be able to uphold the status quo with certainty while actually knowing very little.
That is The Economist: not only the anti-economist but also propagandistic anti-thought snippets for the people who have had some of society’s most costly resources poured into developing their minds.
Having witnessed years of propaganda every weekend since 2008, after which people suddenly care with passion on Monday morning about things they knew nothing about the previous Thursday, the appearance of experts on the coronavirus is no surprise.
Virtually no one knows anything about this topic that they didn’t get from a sensationalized media source, and 75% of that, at the very least, is second- or third-hand information from the least reliable, least independent, most biased of sources: a government. Not just any government, the Chinese government.
SARS (2002) is still being figured out. MERS (2012) is still early in the process of being figured out. It’s possible it will never be fully understood. Yet three months into the WuFlu/Wuhan Corona/Covid-19 outbreak every know-it-all in my life is suddenly a corona expert?
Give me a break.
It’s all the same nonsense.
Some stuff we just don’t know. That means live your life as best you can, hope for the best, prep for the worst, love the people close to you, be mindful of them, and don’t let some know-it-all con you into their grand schemes. Chances are, they know as little as you do, but while your mistakes might impact the few loved ones around you, their mistakes may impact billions. The Prepperu2019s Blue... Tess Pennington Best Price: $11.98 Buy New $18.98 (as of 02:20 UTC - Details)
Medically, the establishment helped encouraged ideas that didn’t pass the sniff test: like unwashed hands being used by doctors to birth babies, lobotomies, X-rays to treat ringworm of the scalp, the Tuskegee patients thinking they were receiving medical care and being allowed to develop advanced syphilis in the name of research, thalidomide, standard episiotomies, standard hysterectomies, using nasty, dirty amalgams in dentistry and then topping it off with mercury, the swine flu vaccination debacle of 1976, asbestos in talcum powder. This list can be much longer. Every example on the list received the affirmation of lots of experts and caused harm to lots of overly trusting people.
Being able to make a mistake that may impact billions: That’s a power no one deserves. The more they claim to know, the less likely they are to know. The more they need to insist to people that they know, the less likely they are to actually know. Most of us have pretty good BS detectors. Trust your BS detector.
Now, more than ever, as more people get fearful, as the media stokes that fear, as the grocery store shelves get more empty, as the government steps in to say they are here to help, the more vital it is than ever to trust your BS detector.
When it comes down to it, you’re probably the only one who is actually motivated to protect your own interest. No matter how bad it gets, and no matter how much anyone claims expert status about a topic, you’re the only one who deserves credit for being the expert on you, and the only one who deserves permission to be “the decider” for you.
The Best of Allan Stevo


lewrockwell--2020-03-13--30,000 Soldiers Arrive in Europe Without Masks

The United States are demonstrating their power by organising the largest transfer of their troops in Europe on the occasion of the Defender Europe 20 exercises .
This country , which only a few years ago sacrificed its soldiers without warning in its nuclear tests , is taking no precautions for its soldiers faced with the corona virus epidemic .
The United States have raised the alert for the corona virus in Italy to level 3 – ( « avoid non-essential travel » ) , and taken it to level 4 for Lombardy and Veneto ( « do not travel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for China .
The airline companies American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have cancelled all their flights between New York and Milan .
US citizens who are travelling to Germany , Poland and other European countries are at alert level 2 , and must take « increased precautions » .
But there is a category of US citizens which is exempt from these standards : the 20,000 soldiers who have begun to arrive from the United States to the ports and airports of Europe for the Defender Europe 20 exercises , the greatest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the last 25 years .
With those who are already present , approximately 30,000 US soldiers will be participating in the execises in April and May , alongside 7,000 others from the 17 member countries and partners of NATO , including Italy .
The first armoured unit arrived from the port of Savannah , USA at Bremerhaven in Germany .
A total of 20,000 pieces of military equipment are arriving from the USA at six European ports ( in Belgium , Holland , Germany , Latvia and Estonia ) .
13,000 others are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the US Army Europe , mainly in Germany , Holland and Belgium .
Secret Empires : How th ... Schweizer , Peter Best Price : $ 5.99 Buy New $ 11.07 These operations , explains the US Army Europe , « require the participation of tens of thousands of soldiers , military personnel and civilians from numerous nations » .
At the same time , the majority of the contingent of 20,000 soldiers arrive from the USA , landing at seven European airports .
Among this number are 6,000 from the National @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Florida , Montana , New York and Virginia .
At the start of the exercise in April – explains the US Army Europe – the 30,000 US soldiers « will deploy throughout the European region » in order to « protect Europe from any potential threat » , with a clear reference to the « Russian menace » .
General Tod Wolters – who commands US forces as well as the NATO forces in Europe , as Supreme Allied Commander – assures that the European Union , NATO and the United States @ @ @ @ @ @ @ improve the infrastructures » .
This will allow military convoys to move quickly along the 4,000 kilometres of transit routes .
Tens of thousands of soldiers will cross the frontiers to perform exercises in ten countries .
In Poland , US soldiers will arrive in twelve training areas , equipped with approximately 2,500 vehicles .
US paratroopers from the 173rd Brigade based in Venetia , and Italians from the Brigade Folgore based in Tuscany , will go to Latvia for a joint launching exercise .
Defender Europe 20 is being carried out in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deploying a major combat force in Europe from the United States » .
It is taking place according to times and procedures which make it practically impossible to submit tens of thousands of soldiers to the sanitary standards set up to deal with the coronavirus , and prevent their contact with local inhabitants during their rest periods .
Furthermore , the US Army Europe Rock Band will be giving a series of free concerts in Germany , Poland and Latvia , which are sure to attract a large public .
The 30,000 US @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the European region » , are thus exempt from the preventative standards set up to deal with the coronavirus crisis which , on the other hand , do apply to civilians .
The assurance given by the US Army Europe suffices : « we have the coronavirus under surveillance » and « our forces are in good health » .
At the same time , no-one is considering the environmental impact of a military exercise of this scale .
US Abrams tanks will be taking part – each of them weighs 70 tonnes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and consumes 400 litres of fuel for 100 kilometres , producing heavy pollution in order to achieve maximum power .
In this situation , what is the reaction of the European Union and national authorities , and what is the WHO doing about it ?
They are covering their faces with maskes , not only to cover their mouths and noses , but also their eyes .

The United States are demonstrating their power by organising the largest transfer of their troops in Europe on the occasion of the Defender Europe 20 exercises. This country, which only a few years ago sacrificed its soldiers without warning in its nuclear tests, is taking no precautions for its soldiers faced with the corona virus epidemic.
The United States have raised the alert for the corona virus in Italy to level 3 – (« avoid non-essential travel »), and taken it to level 4 for Lombardy and Veneto (« do not travel »), the same level as for China. The airline companies American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have cancelled all their flights between New York and Milan. US citizens who are travelling to Germany, Poland and other European countries are at alert level 2, and must take « increased precautions ».
But there is a category of US citizens which is exempt from these standards : the 20,000 soldiers who have begun to arrive from the United States to the ports and airports of Europe for the Defender Europe 20 exercises, the greatest deployment of US troops in Europe in the last 25 years. With those who are already present, approximately 30,000 US soldiers will be participating in the execises in April and May, alongside 7,000 others from the 17 member countries and partners of NATO, including Italy.
The first armoured unit arrived from the port of Savannah, USA at Bremerhaven in Germany. A total of 20,000 pieces of military equipment are arriving from the USA at six European ports (in Belgium, Holland, Germany, Latvia and Estonia). 13,000 others are provided by the stocks that were pre-positioned by the US Army Europe, mainly in Germany, Holland and Belgium. Secret Empires: How th... Schweizer, Peter Best Price: $5.99 Buy New $11.07 (as of 07:25 UTC - Details)
These operations, explains the US Army Europe, « require the participation of tens of thousands of soldiers, military personnel and civilians from numerous nations ». At the same time, the majority of the contingent of 20,000 soldiers arrive from the USA, landing at seven European airports. Among this number are 6,000 from the National Guard of 15 States : including Arizona, Florida, Montana, New York and Virginia. At the start of the exercise in April – explains the US Army Europe – the 30,000 US soldiers « will deploy throughout the European region » in order to « protect Europe from any potential threat », with a clear reference to the « Russian menace ». General Tod Wolters – who commands US forces as well as the NATO forces in Europe, as Supreme Allied Commander – assures that the European Union, NATO and the United States European Command, have worked together to improve the infrastructures ». This will allow military convoys to move quickly along the 4,000 kilometres of transit routes.
Tens of thousands of soldiers will cross the frontiers to perform exercises in ten countries. In Poland, US soldiers will arrive in twelve training areas, equipped with approximately 2,500 vehicles. US paratroopers from the 173rd Brigade based in Venetia, and Italians from the Brigade Folgore based in Tuscany, will go to Latvia for a joint launching exercise.
Defender Europe 20 is being carried out in order to « increase the capacity of deploying a major combat force in Europe from the United States ». It is taking place according to times and procedures which make it practically impossible to submit tens of thousands of soldiers to the sanitary standards set up to deal with the coronavirus, and prevent their contact with local inhabitants during their rest periods. Furthermore, the US Army Europe Rock Band will be giving a series of free concerts in Germany, Poland and Latvia, which are sure to attract a large public.
The 30,000 US soldiers, who will « deploy throughout the European region », are thus exempt from the preventative standards set up to deal with the coronavirus crisis which, on the other hand, do apply to civilians. The assurance given by the US Army Europe suffices : « we have the coronavirus under surveillance » and « our forces are in good health ».
At the same time, no-one is considering the environmental impact of a military exercise of this scale. US Abrams tanks will be taking part – each of them weighs 70 tonnes, with armour-plating made of depleted uranium, and consumes 400 litres of fuel for 100 kilometres, producing heavy pollution in order to achieve maximum power.
In this situation, what is the reaction of the European Union and national authorities, and what is the WHO doing about it? They are covering their faces with maskes, not only to cover their mouths and noses, but also their eyes.


lewrockwell--2020-03-13--How Black Swans Are Shaping Planet Panic

Is the planet under the spell of a pair of black swans – a Wall Street meltdown , caused by an alleged oil war between Russia and the House of Saud , plus the uncontrolled spread of Covid-19 – leading to an all-out “ cross-asset pandemonium ” as billed by Nomura ?
Or , as German analyst Peter Spengler suggests , whatever the averted climax in the Strait of Hormuz has not brought about so far “ might now come through market forces ” ?
Let ’ s start with what really happened after five hours of relatively polite discussions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into a de facto OPEC+ meltdown was quite the game-changing plot twist .
OPEC+ includes Russia , Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan .
Essentially , after enduring years of OPEC price-fixing – the result of relentless US pressure over Saudi Arabia – while patiently rebuilding its foreign exchange reserves , Moscow saw the perfect window of opportunity to strike , targeting the US shale industry .
Shares of some of these US producers plunged as much as 50 % on “ Black Monday.
” They simply can not survive with a barrel of oil in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s where this is going .
After all these companies are drowning in debt .
GLOBALISTAN : How the G ... Escobar , Pepe Best Price : null Buy New $ 3.99 A $ 30 barrel of oil has to be seen as a precious gift/stimulus package for a global economy in turmoil – especially from the point of view of oil importers and consumers .
This is what Russia made possible .
And the stimulus may last for a while .
Russia ’ s National Wealth Fund has made it clear it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ billion ) to cover a budget deficit from six to ten years – even with oil at $ 25 a barrel .
Goldman Sachs has already gamed a possible Brent crude at $ 20 a barrel .
As Persian Gulf traders stress , the key to what is perceived in the US as an “ oil war ” between Moscow and Riyadh is mostly about derivatives .
Essentially , banks won ’ t be able to pay those speculators who hold derivative insurance against a steep decline in the price of oil .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Covid-19 spreading across nations that are visibly unprepared to deal with it .
Moscow must have gamed beforehand that Russian stocks traded in London – such as Gazprom , Rosneft , Novatek and Gazprom Neft – would collapse .
According to Lukoil ’ s co-owner Leonid Fedun , Russia may lose up to $ 150 million a day from now on .
The question is for how long this will be acceptable .
Still , from the beginning Rosneft ’ s position was that for Russia , the deal with OPEC+ was “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way ” for American shale oil .
The consensus among Russian energy giants was that the current market setup – massive “ negative oil demand , ” positive “ supply shock ” and no swing producer – inevitably had to crash the price of oil .
They were watching , helplessly , as the US was already selling oil for a lower price than OPEC .
Moscow ’ s move against the US fracking industry was payback for the Trump administration messing with Nord Stream 2 .
The inevitable , steep devaluation of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what happened post-Vienna essentially has little to do with a Russia-Saudi trade war .
The Russian Energy Ministry is phlegmatic : Move on , nothing to see here .
Riyadh , significantly , has been emitting signs the OPEC+ deal may be back in the cards in the near future .
A feasible scenario is that this sort of shock therapy will go on until 2022 , and then Russia and OPEC will be back to the table to work out a new deal .
There are no definitive numbers , but the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ % of Russia ’ s GDP ( it used to be 16 % in 2012 ) .
Iran ’ s oil exports in 2019 plunged by a whopping 70 % , and still Tehran was able to adapt .
Yet oil accounts for over 50 % of Saudi GDP .
Riyadh needs oil at no less than $ 85 a barrel to pay its bills .
The 2020 budget , with crude priced at $ 62-63 a barrel , still has a $ 50 billion deficit .
2030 : A Letter to My @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pricing .
Aramco says it will be offering no fewer than 300,000 barrels of oil a day beyond its “ maximum sustained capacity ” starting April 1 .
It says it will be able to produce a whopping 12.3 million barrels a day .
Persian Gulf traders say openly that this is unsustainable .
It is .
But the House of Saud , in desperation , will be digging into its strategic reserves to dump as much crude as possible as soon as possible – and keep the price war full tilt .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the top price war victims are an industry belonging to the American protector .
Saudi-occupied Arabia is a mess .
King Salman is in a coma .
Every grain of sand in the Nefud desert knows Jared of Arabia Kushner ’ s whatsapp pal MBS has been de facto ruler for the past five years , but the timing of his new purge in Riyadh speaks volumes .
Princes Mohammed bin Nayef , the king ’ s nephew , and Ahmed bin Abdulaziz , his younger brother , are now really in detention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was and remains Langley ’ s top asset .
When Saudi regime spin denounced “ Americans ” as partners in a possible coup against MBS , that word needed to be read as “ CIA.
” It ’ s just a matter of time before the US Deep State , in conjunction with disgruntled National Guard elements , comes for MBS ’ s head – even as he articulates taking over total power before the G-20 in Riyadh next November .

Is the planet under the spell of a pair of black swans – a Wall Street meltdown, caused by an alleged oil war between Russia and the House of Saud, plus the uncontrolled spread of Covid-19 – leading to an all-out “cross-asset pandemonium” as billed by Nomura?
Or, as German analyst Peter Spengler suggests, whatever the averted climax in the Strait of Hormuz has not brought about so far “might now come through market forces”?
Let’s start with what really happened after five hours of relatively polite discussions last Friday in Vienna. What turned into a de facto OPEC+ meltdown was quite the game-changing plot twist.
OPEC+ includes Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Essentially, after enduring years of OPEC price-fixing – the result of relentless US pressure over Saudi Arabia – while patiently rebuilding its foreign exchange reserves, Moscow saw the perfect window of opportunity to strike, targeting the US shale industry.
Shares of some of these US producers plunged as much as 50% on “Black Monday.” They simply cannot survive with a barrel of oil in the $30s – and that’s where this is going. After all these companies are drowning in debt. GLOBALISTAN :How the G... Escobar, Pepe Buy New $3.99 (as of 03:45 UTC - Details)
A $30 barrel of oil has to be seen as a precious gift/stimulus package for a global economy in turmoil – especially from the point of view of oil importers and consumers. This is what Russia made possible.
And the stimulus may last for a while. Russia’s National Wealth Fund has made it clear it has enough reserves (over $150 billion) to cover a budget deficit from six to ten years – even with oil at $25 a barrel. Goldman Sachs has already gamed a possible Brent crude at $20 a barrel.
As Persian Gulf traders stress, the key to what is perceived in the US as an “oil war” between Moscow and Riyadh is mostly about derivatives. Essentially, banks won’t be able to pay those speculators who hold derivative insurance against a steep decline in the price of oil. Added stress comes from traders panicking with Covid-19 spreading across nations that are visibly unprepared to deal with it.
Watch the Russian game
Moscow must have gamed beforehand that Russian stocks traded in London – such as Gazprom, Rosneft, Novatek and Gazprom Neft – would collapse. According to Lukoil’s co-owner Leonid Fedun, Russia may lose up to $150 million a day from now on. The question is for how long this will be acceptable.
Still, from the beginning Rosneft’s position was that for Russia, the deal with OPEC+ was “meaningless” and only “cleared the way” for American shale oil.
The consensus among Russian energy giants was that the current market setup – massive “negative oil demand,”positive “supply shock” and no swing producer – inevitably had to crash the price of oil. They were watching, helplessly, as the US was already selling oil for a lower price than OPEC.
Moscow’s move against the US fracking industry was payback for the Trump administration messing with Nord Stream 2. The inevitable, steep devaluation of the ruble was gamed.
Still, what happened post-Vienna essentially has little to do with a Russia-Saudi trade war. The Russian Energy Ministry is phlegmatic: Move on, nothing to see here. Riyadh, significantly, has been emitting signs the OPEC+ deal may be back in the cards in the near future. A feasible scenario is that this sort of shock therapy will go on until 2022, and then Russia and OPEC will be back to the table to work out a new deal.
There are no definitive numbers, but the oil market accounts for less than 10% of Russia’s GDP (it used to be 16% in 2012). Iran’s oil exports in 2019 plunged by a whopping 70 %, and still Tehran was able to adapt. Yet oil accounts for over 50% of Saudi GDP. Riyadh needs oil at no less than $85 a barrel to pay its bills. The 2020 budget, with crude priced at $62-63 a barrel, still has a $ 50 billion deficit.
Aramco says it will be offering no fewer than 300,000 barrels of oil a day beyond its “maximum sustained capacity” starting April 1. It says it will be able to produce a whopping 12.3 million barrels a day.
Persian Gulf traders say openly that this is unsustainable. It is. But the House of Saud, in desperation, will be digging into its strategic reserves to dump as much crude as possible as soon as possible – and keep the price war full tilt. The (oily) irony is that the top price war victims are an industry belonging to the American protector.
Saudi-occupied Arabia is a mess. King Salman is in a coma. Every grain of sand in the Nefud desert knows Jared of Arabia Kushner’s whatsapp pal MBS has been de facto ruler for the past five years, but the timing of his new purge in Riyadh speaks volumes. Princes Mohammed bin Nayef, the king’s nephew, and Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, his younger brother, are now really in detention.
The CIA is fuming: Nayef was and remains Langley’s top asset. When Saudi regime spin denounced “Americans” as partners in a possible coup against MBS, that word needed to be read as “CIA.” It’s just a matter of time before the US Deep State, in conjunction with disgruntled National Guard elements, comes for MBS’s head – even as he articulates taking over total power before the G-20 in Riyadh next November.
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