Breaking Points has the segment Matt Taibbi EXPOSES Hubris Of Censoring Dr. Bret Weinstein.

Matt Taibbi provides his perspective to Krystal and Saagar on the censorship of Bret Weinstein by big tech companies and the media in general.

I don’t know how people will react to this segment, but it is one of the reasons why I think it is so silly to go after Matt Taibbi for turning into a right wing whatever some people are claiming. I have already posted about ivermectin. I see some flaws in the proponents’ arguments, but agree with Saagar, Krystal, and Matt that nobody knows enough to rule it out or to rule it in. It should be something we can talk about and investigate.

The flaw I have seen in the pro-Ivermectin story is the claim that India has been distributing it, and therefore has avoided the Covid-19 pandemic. It seems to me that recent events have shown that India is having serious problems with the pandemic. I would like to see Ivermectin proponents address this issue. Since we are not allowed to talk about this issue, we are not going to get an answer to this question. There may be a good answer, but we are not allowed to hear the answer to judge for ourselves.

I saved what I have written on Facebook elsewhere on my computer in case FB decides I cannot publish this. Turns out they did allow me to post it, but I am also publishing it on this blog in case Facebook does eventually disappears it from my Facebook page.

YouTube has the video A Conversation with Chris Hedges: Corporate Totalitarianism. The intro in the post of that video is somewhat long, but I am going to include it all here.

Chris Hedges, writer and commentator, was a member of the Pulitzer-winning team reporting on global terrorism for The New York Times. Hedges received an individual award from the Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. An online columnist and the host of an Emmy-nominated television show, Hedges has been a war correspondent for The New York Times, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The Christian Science Monitor, reporting from Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has written 12 books including the bestsellers “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America” and “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle” and “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt,” His book “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” was a National Book Critics Circle finalist and his most recent book is “America: The Farewell Tour.”

Hedges talks about the rise of corporate power and the danger of fascism around the globe, based on personal experience as well as academic scholarship. He has been a teacher inside the American prison system for the past ten years; a reporter on the front line at violent coups and successful revolutions in foreign countries for the preceding two decades; and an ordained Presbyterian minister and competitive boxer in earlier years. Hedges is a graduate of Harvard University and has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University and the University of Toronto.

Chris Hedges lays it all out in ways many of you may not have heard before.

As a reader of part of his last book “America: The Farewell Tour”, I appreciated an explanation of why he wrote it. I was half-way through his chapter on the pornography industry when I realized that I just could not stomach reading anymore. I stopped reading, and put the book away somewhere in my house where I will never see it again. Since then I have been a little skittish about posting things from Chris Hedges. This lecture is something I think is highly worth listening to.

Nassim Taleb’s Unofficial News Site has the post Nassim’s Keynote Speech at the CoinGeek Conference 2021. On YouTube it is part of CoinGeek Zurich – Livestream – Day 3. It is not what I would call a keynote speech, but more of a panel discussion with moderator.

I agree with Nouriel Roubini and Nassim Nicholar Taleb.

Central Bank Digital Currency should have zero transaction fees at point of use. If this is the way it is implemented, then things like bitcoin will have no market advantage. Without being fully digitized, the USA dollar already supports tens of trillions of dollars in financial activity. That is proof enough of feasibility. What will be the advantage of things like bitcoin compared to CBDC? It is too bad that Nassim and Nouriel didn’t make that point in such simple words as I have used here.

If the CBDC was forbidden to be used to conduct economic warfare by the country of the central bank, then it would have no disadvantages over the current non-government digital transaction settlement systems.

A single, world-wide unit of account has an advantage of doing away with currency exchanging, but it loses the flexibility a country has with its own sovereign currency. At the moment, I cannot picture a world-wide government being created that would have the financial flexibility to deal with the needs of individual countries (or parts of the world). That is not to say that it would be impossible. It is just beyond my imagination at the current time.

The Empire Files has the video CIA Stories: The CIA is Born.

Abby Martin introduces the first installment of a new Empire Files series about the CIA explaining why the agency was created, and how it became the most nefarious criminal organization in the world, with CIA expert Douglas Valentine.

Global Institute for Sustainable Proeperity – GISP has the podcast #105 Sam Levey: Krugman, Bond Markets & BS Jobs.

Patricia and Christian talk to MMT scholar and Deficit Owl Sam Levey about recent press coverage of MMT and the late David Graeber’s Bulls**t Jobs.

Even I learned some nuances about MMT. There is one problematic issue that stood out for me. Sam claimed an algebraic formula where the variable C appears on both sides of the equation. I know I have debunked this before because the C on each side of the equation does not stand for the same thing, and cannot be cancelled out. I think I wrote about how the correct equation could be written when Joe Firestone made a similar mistake. I can’t find this previous article anywhere on my blog.

Institute for New Economic Thinking has posted Calculating the Cost of COVID.

Inflation? Expanding digital currencies? What’s next in this brave new world?

Jens Nordvig (Founder & CEO, Exante Data) describes what he saw as the pandemic unfolded, and where it might be taking us.

More non-ideological analysis of what is going on. It is not an attempt to predict the future. I like reporting the news rather than trying to predict the news.

Institute for New Economic Thinking has the article China and the Supply Chain: A Comment on the June 2021 White House Review By James K. Galbraith.

Contrary to rhetoric from Democrats and Republicans, the U.S. has an economic interest in trade and peace with China.

A very calm and even handed analysis of the situation. It would do a world of good if more people in the USA understood this.

The Blockchain Debate Podcast has the episode on Central Bank Digital Currency.

Motion: The US urgently needs to catch up on Central Bank Digital Currency (Robert Hockett vs. Lawrence White)Motion: The US urgently needs to catch up on Central Bank Digital Currency (Robert Hockett vs. Lawrence White)

Good discussion of central bank digital currency issues. Larry White kept talking about the loanable funds model of private bank lending before being challenged by how private bank lending is currently conducted.

I think the discussion lends credibility to my idea of saying that private banks create promises of money compared to the central bank creating actual money. I think that is less confusing than talking about exogenous money and endogenous money or real bills. I am not proposing any new theory, just some change in terminology.

Marketwatch has the article After China causes bitcoin to crater, threat of new U.S. regulations loom over crypto market, experts say.

The world’s most popular cryptocurrencies took it on the chin Monday after the Chinese government continued its regulatory crackdown on bitcoin miners and companies that provide payment services for crypto-related transactions.

Could some sense be returning to the field of cryptocurrencies?

VMware has posted the article Cybercrime is everywhere and citizens are caught in the crossfire.

Ransomware attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure are headlining the nightly news. Within the past month, an attack on the U.S. fuel company Colonial Pipeline by ransomware group DarkSide caused gas shortages along the East Coast and a ransomware attack on the world’s largest meat processor JBS by cybercriminal gang REvil underscored a dire threat to the global food supply chain. The impact of cybercrime is being felt in our physical world and citizens are caught in the crosshairs of these attacks.

This is a little more information from a source that I trust somewhat. They name two particular criminal organizations, DarkSide and REvil, that I intend to research to see if I can find the connection to any country that is enabling them. I have asked VMware if they have any countries in mind that are enabling these two bad actors.

According to the Wikipedia article DarkSide (hacking group), the article suspects Russia, but does not claim to have proof. An opinion I have not seen in the oligarchs’ news mafia, not that I have been looking for an objective report.