Hero rat that sniffed out over 70 landmines retires The Hill
Fruit flies get ‘hangry’ without food, study shows Sky News
‘Deliberately Patient’ Heisenberg Report. On May’s Job Report.
G7 set to strike deal on global corporate taxation FT
Self-Driving Cars Could Be Decades Away, No Matter What Elon Musk Said WSJ. As NC readers will not be surprised to learn.
#COVID19
Global trends in clinical studies of ivermectin in COVID-19 (PDF) The Japanese Journal of Antibiotics (peer reviewed, published by Japan Antibiotics Research Association). 52 pages, worth the pot of coffee. Or you can skip to “6. Conclusion”:
The effective concentration of ivermectin against SARS-CoV-2 in an in vitro experiment by Caly et al. is as high as 2 μM; in clinical practice, it is necessary to administer tens of times the normal dose in order to obtain such a blood concentration. Therefore, there are opinions from the IDSA98) and others that the therapeutic effect of COVID-19 cannot be expected by the administration of the normal dose of ivermectin. However, in actual medical practice, there are many study reports demonstrating that the administration of a normal dose does indeed show a clinical response. As of the 27th of February 2021, the results of 42 clinical studies worldwide have undergone meta-analysis and concluded that ivermectin is effective in the treatment and prevention of COVID-19. In the UK, a consensus-based recommendation by 75 healthcare professionals from 17 countries around the world has been carried out and submitted to the WHO to further encourage the issuance of guidelines for the use of ivermectin in the treatment and prevention of COVID-19. We must consider why such a discrepancy is occurring.
Indeed! Lots of good data on Merck, too. A continuing theme is that many of the small studies are doctor-initiated, and therefore lack the funding that enables a full-blown RCT. The article comments:
Although these doctor-initiated trial results may appear at first glance to be of a poor quality and biased (to eyes familiar with the results of company-oriented clinical trials in the clinical development of traditional anti-infective agents), physicians involved in these trials are enthusiastic about avoiding bias and need to understand the attitude of seriously assessing the efficacy and safety of a study drug. It must be appreciated that they are truly striving to treat and prevent the onset of COVID-19 in patients, for non-profit motives.
Oh, and if I search for “Ivermectin” on the iOS Twitter app, I get generic Covid hits only, and nothing on Ivermectin. Same with #Ivermectin. On the desktop version, I get Ivermectin hits as expected. This behavior seems curious. Can readers confirm?
* * * The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins Vanity Fair
The Groupthink That Produced the Lab-Leak Failure Should Scare Liberals Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine
Scientists fear future leaks as top-level labs proliferate FT
* * * Anthony Fauci: America’s doctor under siege FT
Anthony Fauci’s Most Revealing Emails From FOIA Request The American Conservative
* * * The New COVID-19 Normal Is Not Good Mike the Mad Biologist
Patterns in COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage, by Social Vulnerability and Urbanicity — United States, December 14, 2020–May 1, 2021 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. From the Abstract: “Outreach efforts, including expanding public health messaging tailored to local populations and increasing vaccination access, could help increase vaccination coverage in counties with high social vulnerability.” From the text: “Outreach efforts, including expanding public health messaging tailored to local populations and increasing vaccination access, could help increase vaccination coverage in high-SVI counties.” Interesting deletion.
* * * California Continues to Record Dozens of Workplace Covid Outbreaks Every Day Labor Notes
Paradigm Lost: Lessons For Long COVID-19 From A Changing Approach To Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Health Affairs
U.S. authorizes Regeneron’s COVID-19 antibody therapy for injection Reuters
China?
Microsoft says Bing’s ‘Tank Man’ censorship was a human error The Verge
Mainland China reports 24 new coronavirus cases on Jun 4 Channel News Asia
White House to discuss supply chain review results, but there’s no ‘magic bullet’ for US reliance on China and other countries, Biden administration says South China Morning Post
Controlling the narrative:
Powerful combo picture has just hit the @AFP wire.
Shows Tiananmen anniversary vigils in Hong Kong's Victoria Park in 1990, 1999, 2004, 2011, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020 and… tonight pic.twitter.com/Gf3Fpwtmdt
— Jerome Taylor (@JeromeTaylor) June 4, 2021
Myanmar
COVID-19 cases jump in Myanmar after outbreak near Indian border Reuters. And hence, wherever Myanmar migratory labor goes, i.e., everywhere in Southeast Asia.
‘I just want to cry’: Non-striking civil servants in a moral bind Frontier Myanmar
Monsoon and conflict compound Myanmar’s post-coup food crisis The New Humanitarian
Sarawak: China air force encroachment should not be allowed to recur New Straits Times
India
Indian Bar Association Serves Legal Notice Upon Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the Chief Scientist, WHO Trial Site News. Over Ivermectin.
In rural India, fear of testing and vaccines hampers Covid-19 fight Agence France Presse
India: Lioness dies from COVID in zoo Deutsche Welle
Syraqistan
Amid brutal case surge, Afghanistan hit by a vaccine delay AP
US Pours Gasoline on Afghan Conflict on Its Way Out Breakthrough
IDF Cyber-Intelligence Analyst, Tomer Eiges, Dies in Military Prison Family: “A Crime Took Place” Tikun Olam
The weird world of Chabad, an influential Hasidic sect that’s been taking America (and Israel) by storm Yasha Levine, Immigrants as a Weapon
UK/EU
Craig Murray’s Trial: What Happens Next Craig Murray
New Cold War
Layered Cake. What to Expect from the Putin-Biden Summit? Valdai Discussion Club
What Does a Successful Biden-Putin Summit Look Like? Not What You Think CEPA
‘Over confident’ U.S. risks going down same path as Soviet Union, warns Putin EuroNews
Elites Tremble as Peru Leftist Taps Anger Over Rising Inequality Bloomberg. Quite the headline.
Biden Administration
U.S. SEC ousts head of accounting watchdog, puts rest of board on notice Reuters
We might have AI-powered murder drones to worry about now, a U.N. report suggests Mic
Our Famously Free Press
Local News Coverage Is Declining — And That Could Be Bad For American Politics FiveThirtyEight
Gunz
Federal judge overturns California’s decades-old ban on assault weapons San Francisco Chronicle. The judge was confirmed in 2004 by 1 98-1-1 vote, one of which was Biden’s.
Black Injustice Tipping Point
From Black Wall Street to Black Capitalism Left Voice
Class Warfare
Joe Biden Is Not Protecting Workers From the Pandemic Jacobin
The Bottom 90% of Americans Are Borrowing From the Top 1% Bloomberg (HM). Original paper.
Here Is A List Of Weenies Who Work At The New York Times Defector
Internal Letter Circulates at Apple – and Leaks to The Verge – Pushing Back Against Returning to the Office Daring Fireball
Antidote du jour (via):
Bonus antidote, or anti-antidote:
Me and my missus got chased by this hippo in Livingstone this last weekend. Chased us for 200m
?: Brandon Reed.
— Lembani Travels (@LembaniTraveler) May 28, 2021
“But at my back I always hear. Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near…”
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
168 comments
Comments are closed.
re Assault weapon ban, from the 98-1-1 link, Sen Durbin read into the Congressional Record:
At the February 25, 2004 nomination hearing of Judge Benitez, ABA
officials made the following statements on the record:
Judge Benitez is “arrogant, pompous, condescending,
impatient, short-tempered, rude, insulting, bullying,
unnecessarily mean, and altogether lacking in people
skills…
I was wondering about the bit where he said ‘the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment…Good for both home and battle’ and wondered. The effective range of an AR-15 is between 400 to 600 meters. I don’t think homes are supposed to be that big and really, they look awkward for using in the confines of a regular house. And as for homeland defense equipment, well, maybe if he has fantasies of “Red Dawn.” Or BLM marching on elite suburbia. Or maybe he is secretly hoping that a zombie virus will infect the homeless and he gets to fight off the zombie hordes.
They are so nice someone wrote a song about it.
REv, a rack grade M4 style AR 15 is capable of consistently hitting a man sized target at 1,000 yards using good quality 5.56 ammo.
That’s a 14 inch barrel with a permanently attached 2″ flash hider to bring the barrel to the legal 16″ limit.
The .224 Valkyrie cartridge was designed for long range target shooting and hunting in the AR Platform, it is a true 1,000 yard cartridge in match grade AR’s.
Not up to Bolt quality accuracy, consistently achieving 5 shot groups of less than .25 inch at 100 yards is difficult.
The AR 15 is chambered in more than 45 cartridges from .17 rimfire to .50 Beowulf, suitable for everything from small pests at 300 yards to a Kodiak bear up close.
Oh I have no argument at the effectiveness of an AR-15 at range. But I do wonder about the confines of a house. And if you are going to use one in a home setting, that you have to know where any bullets go after they leave your muzzle so that afterwards your neighbours aren’t knocking on your door to return any spent bullets. That would require a high order of situational awareness to think about such things before firing.
Unfortunately it is exceedingly common that gun owners have no idea of where their weapons are pointing nor are many gun owners clear about the penetration capabilities of their preferred cartridge.
Go to any gun store, pawn shop, gun show, or range and watch to see if folks know where their weapons are pointed. It is scary out there.
Problem is people focus too much on the firearm and not the ammo. I have shotgun ammo that can easily go thru a wall. Key is choosing the suitable ammo for the activity.
Yeah, about those ‘responsible’ Chicago, Philly, other big blu smokin gun ‘owners’, you were saying …
Polecat, and Rev Kev, the AR-15 is designed to defend against those ‘responsible’ Chicago, Philly, other big blu smokin gun ‘owners’, in the streets, not in one’s house, should they decide to stop killing each other and head to the suburbs, as they have threatened to do.
Notable that the crone Feinstein, who has announced that she is going to run again, at which point she’ll be 92ish, is the only non-law enforcement person to ever be issued a concealed carry permit in the City and County of San Francisco.
Check out how their new progressive D.A. is fighting crime. See the 150% increase in shootings?
https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/New-program-in-S-F-would-help-remove-firearms-16226201.php
Well, Dan White DID plan to kill her.
For the sake of argument, many people live in rural areas, away from neighbors, often separated by miles. While not one of them, I used to do home visits with some who were armed due to fear of home invasion, which apparently did happen. As for me, I am thirty minutes from town, so when seconds count, help is minutes away.
I’ve read enough penetration studies to know that a 9MM handgun round will penetrate more sheetrock than most 5.56 loads.
It’s not just velocity that determines penetration, there are quite a few factors at work, gyroscopic stability among them.
As for idiots with guns, we’ll never have a shortage of those.
They drive their cars with the same degree of caution and good sense…
Don’t you need to take both a written test & driving test to prove competency along with a yearly registration fee, and also be insured in case of accidents, whether your fault or not as a licensed driver in all 50 states?
…compare that to the ease of gun ownership
Ouch! Good point. Maybe what is needed is a 28th Amendment –
‘…the right of the people to keep and drive Automobiles, shall not be infringed.’
First off, an assault weapon can be fully automatic. AR-15s and their like don’t have that option, so despite their appearance they are essentially semi-automatic rifles, of which there are many other variants that have been completely and uncontroversially legal for decades.
Secondly, while ARs are indeed less wieldy in a home environment than a handgun, they’re still pretty good for this purpose. In fact, this is the one way they do mimic actual assault rifles, which are designed to be short enough to handle easily in tight quarters. Moreover, they are far more intuitive to use than handguns, which require a lot of practice to learn to use effectively, and ARs generate very little recoil, another significant advantage for less-experienced as well as experienced users.
Effective range is a legit objection as it poses the problem of “over-penetration” in home defense. But given the advantages of an AR and the disadvantages of handguns used by inexperienced and probably under-trained users, ARs remain a good — and perhaps the best — choice for self-defense.
Finally, many more people are killed in knife attacks than are killed with rifles of any kind, and far, far more people are killed with handguns than with rifles. I have yet to hear a good argument for ignoring handguns to focus on rifles in the debate over gun fatalities.
Maybe what is really needed is a shotgun. You know, just like the ones you see in the movies-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6OBk9YBLQU (1:40 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhC8LpHPbRQ
Few rifles can be so elegantly decorated as well.
That would be another good choice. The problem is that it’s illegal to have a short-enough shotgun barrel to make them quite as handy as you’d like in a enclosed environment.
Maybe the best option is to forget guns and build a quickly accessed, bulletproof, internally lockable safe room or closet from which one can frantically call police.
If things get too chaotic, then the idea of ‘illegality’ may not carry much weight.
Exactly, lots of hacksaws out there.
Though well armed, we keep an aluminum ballbat under the bed. That’s about all the penetration you need. Ring their bell good and you don’t need to kill anyone.
Popular in Georgia is an AR15 pistol chambered in 300 Blackout with a suppressor as a house gun. Not something I am interested in but just about all the lawful AR enthusiasts around here have assembled one.
Rowlf, those Suppressed AR Pistols are not cheap, the tax stamp for the suppressor is $250,you’ll be into it at least $2K before you are done.
.
>>>assault weapon can be fully automatic.
Isn’t that usually something an assault rifle has? IIRC, the standard description of an assault rifle is rifle that can be able to select (change to) fire automatically and semi-automatically (and usually uses a cartridge that is “intermediate or between a handgun and full size rifle (i.e. hunting) cartridge.
Many full size rifles, usually hunting, as well as many handguns, fire just semi automatically just like the AR-15 (unlike the AR-16,). Neither use adjustable rate or select fire. So, just what is an “assault weapon?” It seems to be whatever the speaker or writer wants it to be. Look, it’s the horrible, terrible, argle bargle weapon!
If I knew what the heck the person or law (or court decision) was talking about, I would be able to know what to think, say on, or respond to all this. As it is, this reminds of the deliberate destruction of the definitions of words communism, socialism, leftism, liberalism, and even conservatism so that their meaning is of the moment. Today those words are tossed out in speech like verbal hand-grenades suitable for arguments, or just screaming matches, and not for discussion or debate.
This whole decision thing doesn’t mean anything and is just good for starting arguments and getting campaign contributions.
From observing the news media, bad people have assault weapons, favored protesters don’t have rifles no matter what you see them carrying, police use patrol rifles, and my favorite was NPR carefully pointing out that the military troops preparing for the January 6 parade of goofballs would be armed with M4 rifles.
Good points. The part of the ruling that interested me most was the judge’s reference to the fact that guns commonly available elsewhere were denied to Californians. The mishmash of gun laws across the country makes no sense. Rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights are understood to apply equally across the country — except for the right to keep and bear arms in the 2nd Amendment. The inconsistency makes zero sense.
Those who favor stricter gun control should start from square one and push for repeal or replacement of the 2nd Amendment. That would be an argument worthy of the subject.
Link is to law journal article using originalist / linguistic research to argue persuasively that Scalia got Heller wrong. The “right to bear arms” for the Founders and after always was in a militia context, and never separate and apart from that context. The combined anti-democratic forces of libertarianism and gunz lobby greed defy/deny the “common good”. Neoliberalism strikes again: “Make America safe for gunz” since the NRA coup in late 70’s.
https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6673&context=faculty_scholarship
I say call out the militia. “Bring all your gunz and shells, all of them. Report to the depot once a month for well ordering”.
I assume there are no laws to cover that (but logic dictates), as I have never read about them, but would be happy to have some pointers.
Pip pip!
You may want to research the Militia Acts that followed the ratification of the US Constitution and relate to how the 2nd Amendment was to be implemented.
(Yeah, Wikipedia, but a start.) This may give some background on US zaniness on firearms before Wayne LaPierre’s NRA fear marketing took over.
Don’t Forget The Guns · Cheryl Wheeler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bev-zyPgg9I
“altogether lacking in people skills”
You’d think after all the descriptors that came before, this would be superflous. But then I realized that having people skills is a job requirement where not having them is a disqualifier. All that other stuff? I have had plenty of work experience with people with those qualities, not a disqualifier, apparently.
Lab Leak: Is it really such a surprise that people would dismiss as false anything that Trump said? As I recall, he was, while in office, consistently economical with the truth.
Because Clinton, Bush and Obama were not “consistently economical with the truth”. I’m sure most of us here can come up with our greatest hits from that despicable trio. And Biden has a well documented problem with the truth. Meanwhile Trump also said the forbidden out loud on occasion, so they also weren’t alone in sometimes telling the truth. But in all cases the lies dominated.
While the lab leak story is the subject of this, it isn’t the exception, doubt is the norm. Vaccines, masks, end of Covid, refunds, ivermectin, Russia, Iraq, Syria, trade, and yes UFOs, a significant percent of the public doesn’t believe any official story. It has taken more than four years to get to this.
It seems it will take a lot longer for the science of Covid to overcome the politics that is being attached to it.
A study by UCSD Medical researchers estimated that “the median number of persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 in China (Hubei Province) was less than one until November 4, 2019. 2019.https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6540/412
Italian researchers investigated.. “the presence of SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD)–specific antibodies in blood samples of 959 asymptomatic individuals enrolled in a prospective lung cancer screening trial between September 2019 and March 2020 to track the date of onset, frequency, and temporal and geographic variations across the Italian regions. SARS-CoV-2 RBD-specific antibodies were detected in 111 of 959 (11.6%) individuals, starting from September 2019…“The first positive sample (IgM-positive) was recorded on September 3 in the Veneto region, followed by a case in Emilia Romagna (September 4), a case in Liguria (September 5), two cases in Lombardy (Milano Province; September 9), and one in Lazio (Roma; September 11)…”
They conclude…
“Our results indicate that SARS-CoV-2 circulated in Italy earlier than the first official COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in Lombardy, even long before the first official reports from the Chinese authorities, casting new light on the onset and spread of the COVID-19.”
pandemic.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0300891620974755
I think it will be years before science is allowed anything more than a subsidiary position in the decision making, why should it be anything more than a side show in the “storyline” pushed to the public. Politics and profits have dominated this. And our election quite obviously didn’t change that.
I do appreciate the link, I got the early Italy info but didn’t have the source.
The University of Barcelona have detected two markers of Covid-19 in a preserved sewage sample from March 12th 2019. Paper under peer review but they are confident in the research “https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-spain-science-idUSKBN23X2HQ”
Prezes who get “elected” these days (post Raygun) are now lying sacks of sh!t. They lie as required by their handlers.
Raygun lead the pack. A consummate liar and crook.
Didn’t Nixon precede Raygun? He was a demonstrated liar and crook.
Come to thinks of it, Truth is tough to find in the political arena.
Yes. “Tricky Dick”, Watergate etc. Of course he also proposed national health care and a guaranteed annual income, which puts him to the left of any U.S. president since…
Of course the Chinese were rude enough to point out that the reporter who came out with the ‘three sick staff’ at the Wuhan lab story was the same one who years ago pushed the story (in conjunction with Judith Miller) that Iraq was seeking nuclear technology around the world to build nukes with-
https://www.rt.com/news/525738-lab-leak-iraq-wmd-china/
The point I take is that they all hate him so much that the assumption became, “Not only is he lying about what he knows, what he says is a purposeful distortion of the truth that he knows because the President always knows more than we do. Therefore, if he says A, not-A must actually be the truth.”
I can’t tell which of the two links on this topic you are referring to. Please re-assure me that you read one or both, and that this comment is not simply lizard back-brained reflexive action, with zero to negative value-add. Thank you!
What is the DISC?
I am reproved. I think of Clinton, Bush, and Obama as Professional Liars, who know they are lying. Trump doesn’t care about the difference between truth and lie. But you are right: how they think, or don’t think, about what they’re saying is not relevant here.
But Trump wasn’t the “expert” here, fauci, who knew what his nih had done, was.
fauci hid behind Trump’s media and blob generated “reputation” to protect himself and his co-conspirators, while bald-faced lying to the american people..
People “dismissed” Trump because chickenshit fauci didn’t back him up, even though he knew Trump’s contention was the most likely explanation. This isn’t about Trump. It’s about the willingness of “trusted” members of the permanent bureaucracy to betray the american people to protect their positions, power, and income streams.
Same thing happened with the much “respected” military btw.
Not economic with truth, but very profligate with lies…making the truth portion look small by comparison.
What Pat said, and also there’s a difference between the BS Trump makes up directly, and what he repeats that other people said, with the lab leak hypothesis falling into the latter category.
It really has gotten to the point that if Trump said the sky were blue, the woke would try to refute it.
My theory is that most Trump fans don’t like Trump because they think he’s some kind of oracle, but precisely because he isn’t and his utterances make the liberal TDS sufferers’ heads explode. While I couldn’t go so for as to vote for the man, I do find that aspect absolutely hilarious.
The liberal warnings about bleach consumption bordered on the sublime,
I doubt the origin of the Corona pandemic virus will ever be known for certain. Instead of concern whether it came out of the lab in Wuhan or not, I believe efforts should focus on whether and where “gain of function” research is being done, who is paying for it, and what they expect to learn or hope to gain from that research. We can fuss about it, but only the Chinese can take care of Chinese problems — which leaves plenty going on in the US we should be concerned about and might be able to deal with. While looking into gain of function studies we might want to investigate some of the tweaking going on in various genetic modification experiments. The Big Money and the US Government have been and are playing with fire.
I also think we should review US public health policies, and the remarkable couplings between Big Pharma, the FDA, CDC, WHO, and the Medical Industrial Complex. A little more than a decade ago the US spent a lot of energy spinning in circles about the potential for a biological warfare attack by terrorists or some angry smaller nation. There were anthrax letters and there was the Sarin chemical attack in the Japanese subway. Reports and studies came out as Homeland security prepared the US, as we later succumbed to the dubious protections of the Patriot Act. I believe the only quick and effective response the US made to the Corona pandemic was the rapid appearance and unanimous adoption of the CARES Act — which had little to do with public health or responding to the Corona pandemic.
The tail of the Darkhorse interview with Dr. Kory, already discussed in several recent NC threads, suggested there will be hell to pay when the story of Ivermectin comes out — “Crime of the Century”. [I am not sure it will be allowed to come out in the US.] As the masks come off and crowds return to their old haunts — at least those old haunts that somehow remained in business — I predict there will be hell to pay if the Corona flu starts up again as the Corona virus spreads variants. [I suppose at least we might learn whether the vaccines work against the variants.] Added to the hell to pay already looming for the various ends of the rent and mortgage moratoriums, 2021 is promising to be a most interesting year.
That story is already coming out.
Case in point: A couple of weekends ago, I was chatting with a couple of neighbors. We were having a very civil discussion of the reasons why we are taking or passing on the COVID vaccine.
I mentioned the treatment whose name begins with “I” and the last two syllables rhyme with “pectin.”
Well, turns out that one neighbor already knows about it, and she already has her own supply. She also told me where she got it from.
I think Dr. Kory has something in mind a bit larger than word getting out about ivermectin. If a pandemic is spreading through the world decimating populations and leaving some survivors with long-term serious afflictions … while a safe, cheap, preventative and treatment is available for that pandemic … I believe there might be some anger against those who have blocked the publication and study of that promising treatment while allowing other less promising, less proven, and incidentally, highly profitable treatments, specially cleared passage through official approval channels. The Corona pandemic has exposed the incompetence of the US Government, but the issues whirling around ivermectin suggest there may be more sinister forces working in parallel with the incompetence. That will do little to bolster the sagging US hegemony.
Similarly, whoever in the US Government resurrected the Corona origin questions — largely I believe, to serve as a tool for China bashing — is making a colossal error. I suspect a lot of smelly skeletons will come out of many closets. The results will not help any desire to bolster US hegemony or shift attention away from other actions and inactions of the Biden administration. I doubt there is any smoking gun to be found pointing at China, or the US for that matter, but I believe there are many questions which I hope will be raised regarding “gain of function” research.
Yes, the lab leak issue is about the runaway train of bio-lab engineering virus with increased lethality and transmissibility for research and the money-grab grant system that supports it. According to the Vanity Fair article, the deadliest virus yet has been engineered using ferrets instead of humanized mice as in Wuhan.
There must be many hundreds of thousands of many animal species now industrial farmed for macabre unethical bio-lab experiments subjected to suffering and sacrifice.
Would love to see accountability especially given the devastation caused. But when was the last time a public official was criminally charged with lying to congress?
I’ve also become convinced of Ivermectin and have been pondering the same.
Then again, considering the following “crimes of the century” (just off the top of my head), and IMHO hell has barely received a downpayment since these stories have come out:
WMD: Invasion of Iraq
Patriot Act: warrantless wiretapping, FISA courts, …
War on Terror: Torture, Abu Ghraib, CIA extra rendition, …
Financial Crisis: securitization, ratings agencies, bank bailouts, etc
ISIS: armed by western Allies
OPCW: Douma, Novichok
Russiagate: delegitimising US president
Climate Change:
Point granted, but I am growing anxious that we are approaching a breaking point.
Could be thak a breaking point is nearing..
My fear is that what public trust in institutions is remaining will just plain break if this comes out. And you can’t squeeze the toothpaste back in the tube afterwards..
Although, see my previous comment.
You missed Guantanamo…
Yes, of course. I unfortunately missed plenty. But that’s the whole point. We are repeatedly deceived and yet there is no reckoning for those in power or leadership positions.
I agree.
Dr. Anthony Fauci and Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman are Imperial Staff Officers. They are reflections of the high caste Empire’s basic belief in the free movement of people, capital, goods and service. Profits above deplorable citizen lives!
I read at Automatic Earth that just released studies show artificial spike protein coded by the injected mRNA are detected in blood and accumulate in organs and tissues including the spleen, bone marrow, the liver, adrenal glands and in “quite high concentrations” in the ovaries. If true and it becomes public, I can’t see how the USA can make it through 2022 and another coronavirus variant lockdown intact.
Yikes! Those doods are fast!
Serious swimming talent to be sure. I’d be sweating bullets!
Hippos don’t actually swim. The video of the Hippos chasing the boat doesn’t give any indication of the depth of the water. Hippo’s do not swim (like an elephant, say); they propel themselves forward in the water by “running” along the bottom of the waterbody (lake, river, swamp) and generating forward force. (That is why the Hippo only intermittently breaches the water surface. It is thrusting itself upward after gaining momentum from striding along the bottom.)
If something that darn big can give chase I am inclined to research such a thing later, on dry land no less.
I can’t determine the difference from that video. Good to know such a fact, so thanks !
Given the water level with respect to the tree crowns, it looks like a flooded plain — the stationary animals in view earlier in the clip may be standing on a higher bit. My first thought was that the pursuing animal was swimming, but then it became apparent it was more likely running on the flooded ground and “jumping” up intermittently for breath.
I believe that something similar used to be (perhaps still is) taught in infantry training for crossing “deep but not too deep” streams under fire.
Re: Bonus antidote
I was blown away by how fast hippos can swim!
Then can run 20mph on land, but appear much faster in water. Wow!
I can now understand why they are the deadliest animal in Africa.
Weighing roughly 7,000 pounds, I was amazed at how they swim, reminding me more of a dolphin in technic.
A very large one! I had no idea.
I had to watch that video more than once.
The Lynx are absolutely adorable, of course.
The teeth are the deadly thing. It could have bitten a hole in that boat.
A hippopotamus has one of the strongest bite forces in the mammalian kingdom. The hippo boasts a force of 2000 psi in its bite. To better demonstrate this, a hippopotamus can cut a hefty 10-foot crocodile in half in one bite.
This enormous bite force can be attributed not only to the hippo’s incisive tusks but also to its powerful jaws. Better put, the hippo’s jaws rank among the top 5% most powerful jaws among all known herbivores in existence.
The hippo can open its mouth as much as 180 degrees. This means that in one bite, the hippo could crush a well-matured watermelon in a bite like it was some small grapes.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/hippo-teeth.jpg
Yes, I had no doubt about the teeth and jaws involved regarding inflicting death or destruction to anything it desired.
Your photo link really highlights that, however. Whoa! (2,000 psi)!
Thanks!!
Included in this week’s Useful Idiots podcast (30:42) is a video of a hippo “exploding” a watermelon to expose the interior color at a gender reveal party: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/new-useful-idiots-krystal-ball-and?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=twitter
Sports teams are often named after animals with fierce attributes.
Anybody know of any “hippo” teams? Kind of a cool name…The Hippos…
Interesting item about a guy who attempted to raise a hippo as pet.
https://twitter.com/StrangeFactoid/status/1400566461169500164/photo/1
“reminding me more of a dolphin” The closest relatives to the hippopotamidae are the cetaceans so that makes sense.
The hippos always remind me that a problem I have with lots of science fiction an fantasy imaginings of dangerous creatures is that they seldom seem to come up with anything like the hippo – it looks ungainly, awkward and even comical at first glance but is in reality a fast, fierce and potentially very dangerous animal.
https://mobile.twitter.com/StrangeFactoid/status/1400566461169500164
In 2005, a South African man, Marius Els, adopted a baby hippo after rescuing it from a river. 6 years later, after years of bonding between the two, the hippo dragged him into that same river and ate him.
Link includes a picture.
Hippos are, in general, herbivores. They attack and kill to protect territory and in anger, not for food.
The San Diego Zoo had (may still have) a bi-level pool with a window below. You could watch pygmy hippos zoom around underwater like cannonballs.
Re: Ivermectin
I got this interesting site when I searched for “Ivermectin”:
https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/ivermectin-why-potential-covid-treatment-isnt-recommended-use
It’s from a group called Gavi…….the “Vaccine Alliance”…………
From the About page:
No question they are compromised; I probably shouldn’t rely on ellipses to denote suspicion. My hackles rose at “Vaccine Alliance”, sounds like “Rebel Alliance” or something focus-grouped…
I had my privileges suspended twice from Twitter for
mentioning ivermectin. I got a two week suspension for asking Fauci directly about it as well other preventatives (povidine iodine nasal rinses, D, C, quercetin, zinc, etc.) Now, I am permitted to tweet about it but am shadowbanned so no one responds to my ivermectin posts.
Watch the end of the 4th video here for more
evidence of ivermectin news being suppressed;
https://covid19criticalcare.com/videos-and-press/flccc-weekly-update/
I just linked to this page and referenced the ivermectin links and Twitter did a minute of beachball spinning before (reluctantly) letting the tweet post. I’m guessing traffic to that tweet will be less than impressive.
Here again (I posted the link the other day), on his podcast “DarkHorse”, is Brett (Weinstein) and Heather discussing a possible health danger caused by the RNA vaccines. I don’t begin to know if the little hypothesis they present is credible or not, but at least it’s a fairly specific one and not obviously kooky, ie., no weird, vague mention of nano-chips or anything. They always sound quite well-reasoned to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU63lsHA0y0&list=PLjQ2gC-5yHEug8_VK8ve0oDSJLoIU4b93&index=10
Here also, is Bret and a guest, Pierre Kory discussing Ivermectin as regarding COV19. Their thesis seems to be that it’s at least as effective as the vaccines both prophylactically(sp?) and as treatment. Also that it has, unlike the vaccines, been proven safe. They posit a kind of conspiracy involving big business and the government in its suppression. I don’t know if they go to far with any of their suppositions, or not, just that I find all they say to be interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn_b4NRTB6k&list=PLjQ2gC-5yHEug8_VK8ve0oDSJLoIU4b93&index=3&t=1s
“Democratic lawmakers wanted to call on Biden to form presidential commission on January 6 but were told it wouldn’t happen”
It is an old political maxim not to hold an inquiry or a commission unless you know exactly what the answers are going to be. When you think about all the unanswered questions here like why did Capital Police stand aside and let that mob in, why did the DC metropolitan police not show up in force and why was the National Guard MIA here, I think that somebody pointed out to Biden the enormous political damage that may be caused by the Republicans going after just these three questions alone. They could cause enormous political chaos of all sorts here, with Trump sounding out to say that it was not his fault. Best let sleeping dogs bury their own dead.
Wow, Jonathan “I’m a Peeliever” Chait, who continued to tout the Steele Dossier and maximalist Russiagate collusion narrative long after they’d been discredited, warns liberals about coercive groupthink.
That’s either an example of world-class projection, or world-class chutzpah, or both.
Kettling…
pairs nicely with yesterdays “how to prune the unworthy from your social circle”
Yes, the horrors of self-reflection. No! Preserve your newly discovered
“peace of mind” ™ at all costs!
We can add world class elitist jackass to the list of alternative names for Chiat. He is just insufferable.
Also, the primary pusher of the Trump has been a Russian agent since ’87 CT
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/07/trump-putin-russia-collusion.html
You read past the first paragraph?
The one about the same discredited media doing “investigations” now, so we can all relax?
You’d be amazed how many goodthink Team D cultists still insist that Russiagate is proven and the dossier will be proven factual, Amy day now, any day.
At least the Q Cult never seized MSM headlines on a daily basis for a while there.
Blue Anon, in Aaron Mate’s coinage…
jeezus h. christ. On. What. Planet.
“In rural India, fear of testing and vaccines hampers Covid-19 fight”
Yeah, being a healthcare worker or even a doctor in India can suck. So this week another person died in hospital of coronavirus so the friends and relatives of the deceased proceed to bash the cr*p out of the treating doctor with brooms, whips and bedpans. Two dozen people have been arrested but this is not the first time I have heard this happening here-
https://www.rt.com/news/525715-india-mob-beating-doctor/
Re: the bonus antidote
Yikes. If I didn’t know better, I would swear this was impossible.
slowing down for a better shot could easily lead to a couple of darwin awards…
Escobar was on to something?
I guess anything can be a good ‘watchdog’.
Rev, it bothers me that there is no formal way to recognize the achievements of America’s most shameless and financially successful grifters.
We need an annual award.
Call it the “Billary”.
Design and materials should be appropriate.
“Billary” has too much of recency bias. I feel like a cartoony evangelical would be a better fit for the award name as the Clintons slither in a “dignified” set. It should be an obvious reminder of what they are. Certainly, they could join the inaugural class, but your idea seems like it should be about reminding that the winners are the same as the “I’m a sinner now send me money” gifts.
How about “The Carpetbagger”
There is something to be said in favor of recency. It won’t be long until “cries like Swaggart” will be met with blank expressions.
P.S. thank you Lambert for the shy reference. Yet another verse this STEM grad had to look up.
Carpetbaggers supported the Republican Reconstruction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpetbagger
And the Conquistadors were good Catholics.
What makes/made a “good Catholic?” Maybe not the same set of items as would describe a true follower of Jesus? So the Conquistadores were like our modern Robber Barons like Rockefeller who also claimed to be doing “God’s work?”
Humans display a lot of “normal variation…”
The totality of my experience with the church is Jesuit.
Catholicism is a really, really big tent — maybe the biggest. Certainly it contains the most variation …
ok yes complicated topic…
This makes them sound pretty neoliberal in that they showed up as opportunists and had a secondary role as promoting welfare, and all the while helping themselves nicely…
https://www.facinghistory.org/reconstruction-era/role-carpetbaggers
FTL…”But who are they? . . . Most of them have titles, not empty titles complaisantly bestowed in the piping times of peace, but titles worthily won by faithful and efficient service in the Federal armies, or plucked with strong right arm from war’s rugged front upon the field of battle . . . These men either went South with the Union armies and at the close of the war remained there; or went there soon after, in the latter part of 1865 or early in 1866, to make cotton. The high price of cotton in 1865 and 1866, and the facility with which cheap labor could be obtained, induced many enterprising northern men, especially the officers in the Federal armies in the South who had seen and become familiar with the country, to go or remain there to make cotton. Many purchased large plantations and paid large sums of money for them; others rented plantations, in some instances two or three, and embarked with characteristic energy in planting. This, it should be remembered, was before the civil-rights bill or the reconstruction acts, before the colored people had any part in political matters, and two years before they ever proposed to vote or claimed to have the right to vote at any election in the Southern States.
When the political contests of 1868 came on in which the colored people first took part in politics, as near all the native population in the large cotton-growing sections were opposed to negro suffrage and opposed to the republican party, they very naturally turned to these northern men for counsel and assistance in the performance of the new duties and exercise of their newly acquired political rights, and they as naturally gave them such counsel and became their leaders, and were intrusted with official power by them.”
That may even be a fairly mild view of carpetbaggers from a pre- and post-Civil War Congressman from Alabama.
We wouldn’t also have the word scalawags, though, if there weren’t white southerners including “men of prominence and rank outsiders, wartime unionists and advocates of secession…entrepreneurs…yeoman…artisans…immigrants…families who carried prewar debt…many with political experience…” who supported Republican reconstruction.
Eric Foner pp. 297-303
Nattering Know Nothing & Learned Nothing Certificate of Authenticity.
I think an annual frequency is not sufficient, at least twice per year. We could do a poll to see who wins.
Malignant Mediocrity of the Month.
Alliterative & catchy, I think. Perfect description of these Corrupt Credentialed Clowns. Only those who have jumped through the correct hoops are given (“earned” in their parlance) grifting opportunities to begin with.
Call it The Golden Jackass, or the “Jackie” for those in the know or wanting to signify such.
Uh, perhaps a “Billdo?”
A checklist of accomplishments for such an award would be good but remembering you never have to be right. Just that you agree with the current consensus (cough*Fauci*cough). What would be on it?
– An MSNBC/CNN contract
-A multi-million dollar book deal to make those bribes legal.
-Guest columns in the New York Times/Washington Post.
-Directorship of a Wall Street firm.
-A stint teaching your wisdom at a prestigious University.
-Consultant for an international company, even if you know nothing (Hello, Hunter?)
Not a complete list of course but those are some of the basics.
Find a picture of Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein together in the same photograph. Make a sculpture or something of it.
Call it The Epstein’s Friend Award.
From “global trends in clinical studies of ivermectin”
” It must be appreciated that they are truly striving to treat and prevent the onset of COVID-19 in patients, for non-profit motives.”
Yes, how refreshing! Cut them a break. I always wonder about the scepticism about “anecdotal” info, because whenever I went to the Doc up to about 10 years ago, they asked me a whole lot of questions, and came to conclusions based partly on their interpretation of my answers. Docs don’t do that so much any more, they just draw blood, take readings and pat my hand when I try to talk. Any docs out there want to comment on this?
Case in point: I was having dizzy spells. My excellent doc remembered that I had said that I don’t add salt to my food. After some taking of vitals, she said I should try adding a little salt to my diet, and that was it, problem solved. She’s now at the VA, and they are lucky to have her. I am sad for myself, however. I miss her.
That may be the same VA doc that told me that the tingling and numbness in my feet is probably due to alcohol and recommended that I stop drinking alcohol entirely. As a side note she said that I’m pre-diabetic. It’s weird laughing and crying at the same time.
As for the medical profession in general, I’ve also noted a lack of actual thought. The vast majority of my interfaces with doctors over the last 30 years could have been conducted with a smart phone app, or a high school graduate with a few weeks training. Yet they keep a choke-hold on everything medical and we’re brainwashed into going to them for everything and told that we should trust them.
If you can keep your sense of humor life is a laugh a minute.
Sorry, giving up alcohol is no fun. The liver is a resilient organ, however, as Eric Idle once mentioned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMfCTBkMgKY
Myanmar has all the makings of a catastrophe. A full blast of covid mixing in with a rapidly developing civil war and collapse of the state. It would be interesting to know what sort of discussion is going on behind the scenes in its neighbours, especially China, Thailand and India. I very much doubt they want a combination of Somalia and Afghanistan on their doorstep, but thats what its looking like. They may be faced with a choice of sealing off the borders or actively intervening. Neither look good.
Well, if different outside powers decide to intervene on behalf of different fighting sides and forces, they could turn Myanmar into another Yemen. Unless one super-dominant power can pick a side and support it so hard with so much totally overwhelming force that it could crush all other sides and establish complete control.
RE: “The Groupthink That Produced the Lab-Leak Failure Should Scare Liberals”
Related…
I think some deep thinking needs to be done around the “groupthink” (being diplomatic with that term here) that caused people to ignore billions of Asians masking up at the beginning of this Sars pandemic, when those countries had more recent experience dealing with Sars outbreaks.
Related back to the discussion the other day about worldview, ecological catastrophe and how we relate to Nature, here’s an extended discussion with Yuval Harari titled, “The Myths We Need to Survive,” Harari argues that myth (and “worldview” can be understood as a collection of myths believed and rituals practiced) is necessary to hold together societies beyond a few score of humans. He points to what he believes is a currently dominant myth, the Money Myth, as what upholds capitalism. He also states a couple of times that changing the myth changes the behavior, and that these changes in dominant myth can happen quite quickly. He cites Germany from 1850-2000 as an example when German culture was dominated by myths as divergent as the old monarchial myth, the Nazi myths, the Marxist myth and the Money myth.
Has he treated of the dominant Middle Eastern myths?
“What Does a Successful Biden-Putin Summit Look Like? Not What You Think”
‘There can be no accommodation unless and until Russian aggression ends and it returns to the rules-based order.’
And who decides the rules-based order? Why, Washington of course. I decided to look at the history of the author, Kurt Volker, as this article was just so much rubbish. Lets see – ex-CIA analyst, on the staff of Senator John McCain, appointed US Permanent Representative to NATO by George Bush, went out the revolving door to become an independent director at The Wall Street Fund Inc, later a senior advisor at a global consulting firm, then a Washington-based lobbying firm and investment bank, executive director of Arizona State University’s McCain Institute for International Leadership, appointed US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations by Trump, at the heart of Trump’s hassles with the Ukrainian “scandal”, married a journalist for Voice of America. Well I don’t know about you but that is my bingo card all filled out-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Volker
The worse possibility of the rubbish in this article is that it is the sort of thing that Biden uses as a briefing paper before he meets Putin.
Indeed, as has been pointed out by various sources, “rules-based order” is a clever propaganda term that sounds reassuringly like “international law”. To see through this term requires people to think about how international law is based on a UN-style international consensus, which is just so inconvenient for the US.
Whose rules? Whose order?
These are rhetorical questions, surely? The answer, always, is America’s …
Sorry, no. That’s wrong. The answer is NOT ” America’s” rules.
The answer is the IFTC’s rules. And what does I F T C stand for? It stands for
International Free Trade Conspiracy.
The International Free Trade Conspiracy. Can you say ” International Free Trade Conspiracy”? I knew you could.
The fact that the IFTC has a major base IN America does not mean that it IS America. It is actually a collaborative group of anti-national economic traitors infesting every major country on earth. Go ask the millions of mass-jobicide victims all over Mid America whether they think the “rules” are “America’s” rules. Actually, you don’t have to ask them. They already told you when they voted for Trump in 2016.
If you are one of my fellow Americans, I hope you come to see the difference and decide to work for a future in which America defects from the Rules Based System and creates its own Sovereign Economy Rules for Survival In One Country, the United States of Autarkamerica. We may have to round up and exterminate thousands or even millions of International Free Trade Conspiracy supporters within our own borders to be able to get to that happy future.
So what if we do? How many enemies of China did the Mao Communists have to exterminate within China to set China free?
RE:”California Continues to Record Dozens of Workplace Covid Outbreaks Every Day”
Labor Notes
As I read through the list of occupations and industries with the highest number of cases, I could almost smell each one.
I see many places of strong oders that one would think would already have strong ventilation and air circulation for health reasons.
But this is the kind of info that is more useful for an airborne virus than the race of someone who caught the virus. There should have ALWAYS been more laser focus on this type of information.
How Third-Party Auditors Make Oil Industry Fraud Possible – 06/04/2021 – Yves Smith
was an interesting read on co-dependants and the profiting they allow.
today this:
https://www.reuters.com/business/us-sec-ousts-head-accounting-watchdog-puts-rest-board-notice-2021-06-04/
Former SEC chair Jay Clayton overhauled the PCAOB in 2017, appointing five new members including Duhnke, after the board’s staff leaked confidential information to one of the audit firms it oversees.
Okay then. More Sanitizer please. (details would be good–if Reuters had them)
“Layered Cake. What to Expect from the Putin-Biden Summit?”
But will it go ahead? Visualize this. President Putin and his staff arrive in Switzerland to attend the Conference with Joe Biden. He is met by Swiss medical staff on the tarmac and asked if his team has been vaccinated. Putin says yes, of course they have. The Swiss staff then ask what vaccine. Putin replies that they all have used Sputnik V of course. Sorry, the Swiss tell him. Switzerland does not have that vaccine approved for their country. Putin and his staff re-board their flight for the trip back to Moscow-
https://www.thelocal.ch/20210531/explained-what-are-the-latest-quarantine-rules-for-arrivals-in-switzerland/
I tend to believe that the Russian delegate will have “diplomatic immunity”, pardon the pun, and will receive assurances in advance that they will be received. It has been reported that media corps, however, will not have the same privilege:
Now why would that be?
My tendency is to believe that the US/West is trying to get the Kremlin to cancel the meeting, then point a trembling finger at Russia and cry “See how undiplomatic are these Russians? We extend a hand in friendship to (killer!) Putin, and he slaps it away?” If this stunt with the media denial doesn’t do the trick, then maybe the backup plan is to “reveal” (read “accuse”) some dastardly antics by the Russians during Biden’s forthcoming Euro-tour, including an appearance at the NATO Summit scheduled for June 14. I could get more foily, but this will suffice for now.
“The Bottom 90% of Americans Are Borrowing From the Top 1%”
‘The savings of the rich are recycled into household and government debt.’
The savings? Do they mean the five or six trillion dollars given to them by Congress last year? Those savings?
Don’t worry about the rich though. The poor will pay back the ‘loan’ with interest. Lots and lots of Interest.
Dream on… My bet is there is no Bastille Day in the future of this country or any other place where the neoliberal plague is endemic…And after Bastille Day, what next? Last time it was the Restoration and the Little Corporal and the stage set for destructo-rentier-capitalism and hyper colonialism.
We don’t have it in us, us mopes who have been sorted by manufactured consent and a carrier solvent of Bernays Sauce (r) into our silos and tribes. No collective vision of what a better (for us, for the planet) political economy must look like. Barring that, it’s just contending power groups working toward the end game of the one to shoot the last lion…
And now the dike has had its first breach, the first truly AI autonomous killing of a human by a “drone.” And there’s this thing that so many smart people and learning machines and looters are working to bring about, with the usual sans souci about the impacts of technoflogia, the Advent of the Singularity, which us mopes ought to fear and go all Luddite against while it’s still possible, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity
But that ain’t gonna happen either, and Frank Herbert’s imagined Butlerian Jihad will not be allowed to occur. It’s like the sub-story in the “Terminator” and “Alien” franchises, corporate profits and dominion will squash any “humane” resistance to Progress…”
Relax, Human, Follow the Science
Yes, the savings they have taken from the collective of other people. It’s sort of an offshoot of the “carried interest” loophole. Too bad Biden still hasn’t fixed that as promised.
Paradigm Lost: Lessons For Long COVID-19 From A Changing Approach To Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Health Affairs
From the article:
“Kuhn’s is a theory of sporadic and imperfect progress characterized by pragmatic consensus and professional jockeying between rival schools of thought and practice. With health care practice, the medical hierarchies in some regions may be early adopters of new clinical strategies while others can persist with older treatments that are already well-established, profitable, and easy to deliver within existing systems.”
I have been fortunate in having health care coverage, and in living near near enough to Stanford so that I could receive treatment from researchers and a clinic that long ago rejected the dominant “it’s-all-in-your-head” paradigm regarding the nature and treatment of ME/CFS.
A few weeks ago, the tabloid VG reported on a Norwegian study that showed positive results using CBT with light and moderate CFS. The study made into the “prestigious” journal Frontiers in Psychiatry. I was skeptical, thinking – – wait a minute – CFS or Chronic Energy Deficit Syndrome as I conceptualize it, can be cured by talk? We’ll it turns out that the researchers had a conflict of interest:
https://melivet.com/2021/05/31/undisclosed-financial-conflict-of-interest-in-norwegian-me-research/
——-
Undisclosed financial conflict of interest in Norwegian ME research
A Norwegian psychologist and researcher has not reported that he also owns the health care center that diagnoses and treats the same group of patients he researches.
——-
Utah governor asks residents to join him in ‘weekend of prayer’ for rain [The Hill]
Sadly for Gov. Cox and his fellow believers, Gaia doesn’t need to appeal to a higher power: 10 day forecast for SLC
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/04/utah-governor-pray-for-rain-drought
Didn’t Texas overpray their hand during a drought, with resultant flooding on account of Sky Daddy getting mixed signals?
Was it Pat Robertson who claimed credit for a prayer-induced change of course of some hurricane in the last few years that veered a bit and hit outside his megachurch’s catchment area (and his properties in VA? So that neighboring states took the hit? https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2018/09/pat-robertson-celebrates-claims-he-prayed-hurricane-florence-away-from-virginia/ Note he did not pray to extinguish Hurricane Florence, just to “spare my properties…” Real Christian of him, that…
“Consider the source” relevance to the ” petitioning the Lord with prayer” is appropriate in the examples.
Examples of people having success in humbly, and with good intent, praying to Creator for rain are Hopi in AZ and other native peoples.
There’s nothing wrong with praying, its what dogma followers do when they have no other options, a hail mary that falls on deaf ears.
We’re in the opening innings of the drought though, and to waste a potential miracle early in the proceedings seems like something a politician would do.
Re Putin’s observations: Love his reference to “democratic rubber bullets” putting down protests in Europe. His insight on the US going the way of the Soviet Union also sort of hits home. If our various woke, idpol, race- and ethnic-divisions could be defined geographically as the various parts of the USSR were, he’d have a better point.
Speaking of geography, maybe all the dumped-on parts of the country long abandoned by the PMC and their masters should follow the example of Scotland in the UK. The key for Scottish separatists, however, is conjuring up their own currency to ensure they don’t remain enslaved to the pound or become ensnared in the euro. And that’s what we need as well: A currency separate from the dollar that can be invested only internally through a bank that’s ultimately answerable to people in flyover.
Count this as a blow against internal colonization, a subject on which thinking is more advanced in the UK as Scotland, Wales and now northern England contemplate separation from the London- and City-based imperialists.
I was reading that if Biden brings up the human rights of those Navalny protestors in Switzerland, that Putin plans on bringing up those same human rights with the January 6th protestors as well. *crickets*
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2021/06/04/does-the-nfl-represent-the-single-most-egregious-case-of-institutional-racism-in-the-21st-century-n394498
The NFL on Wednesday pledged to halt the use of “race-norming” — which assumed Black players started out with lower cognitive function — in the $1 billion settlement of brain injury claims and review past scores for any potential race bias.
The practice made it harder for Black retirees to show a deficit and qualify for an award. The standards were created in the 1990s in hopes of offering more appropriate treatment to dementia patients, but critics faulted the way they were used to determine payouts in the NFL concussion case.
…
As the segment explains, “race norming” has a legitimate use in health care, but the intent is to improve outcomes for patients. In this case, the NFL applied it in order to short black players from getting benefits they were not only entitled to receive, but desperately need to deal with the outcome of their employment in the NFL. And they were doing so on the explicit basis of the color of their skin, using an argument that at its core assumed that black people aren’t as smart as white people.
And this in a league where around 70% of its workers — but not its executives — are either black or biracial. It’s stunning.
====================================================
!!!
It is very difficult to fathom a major, highly profitable league putting such a practice in place. I don’t think this topic has been highlighted enough in the sports or national media.
Duplicitous almost seems to kind to describe this a$$holery.
The NFL and NCAA demonstrate that the Plantations never went away …
https://buchanan.org/blog/were-the-wars-wise-were-they-worth-it-149699
The second American war of this century was the invasion and occupation of Iraq, to strip its dictator, Saddam Hussein, of weapons of mass destruction with which he intended to attack the United States.
Begun in 2003, the war has lasted 18 years. No WMD were ever found. Most U.S. troops have come and gone. And today, the Baghdad regime rules at the sufferance of Shiite militia who look to Tehran for guidance and support.
Afghanistan and Iraq cost us 7,000 dead and 40,000 wounded.
Were they necessary wars? Were they wise? Were they worth it?
In the second decade of this century, we intervened in Syria to back the “good rebels” seeking to overthrow Bashar Assad and became the indispensable ally in Saudi Arabia’s murderous air war to stop the Houthi rebels from consolidating power in Yemen.
In both Syria and Yemen, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been wounded, killed, uprooted or driven into exile. Both countries are listed among the humanitarian catastrophes of the 21st century.
Having helped to inflict so much damage on those countries, did we succeed in our missions?
….
What makes these questions of importance, and not only to historians, is that the cry of the hawk may be heard again in the land.
We hear calls to confront Iran before the mullahs build an atom bomb, and to challenge Putin and arm Ukraine to retake Crimea and push Russia out of the Donbass. We hear talk of the American Navy contesting Beijing’s claims in the East and South China Seas, including to Taiwan.
=======================================
There is a country song called The Winner by Bobby Bare, and if that doesn’t explain why American thinks it should get in more fights, than I don’t know what does…
Yeah, fresno. I see what you mean-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRWlnv0_svU (5:26 mins)
U.S. SEC ousts head of accounting watchdog, puts rest of board on notice Reuters
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shih Tzu seeks new organization, it’s housebroken and good with numbers 1 & 2 in terms of accounting…
Large parts of the wilderness were hacked last night with ransom demands giving Mother Nature just 48 hours to act, or computer systems will start to fail in the forest for the trees with the potential for falling. The financial system has been compromised as well, with all credit card terminals out of order. Rivers & creeks are expected to run out of water within a day if the ransom isn’t paid.
Horrifying. No other word would suffice. Just horrifying.
They call this virus “Climate Change” and you better be ready.
RE: “From Black Wall Street to Black Capitalism” Left Voice
There is a good primer of doc called “Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre” that is out now.
They interview people that live there and show interviews with survivors so you get the sense of the human tragedy of it all and, while there are references to the “circulation of the Black dollar” and such in the program, the overall history of Oklahoma is touched upon.
One gets a sense of the larger story not told by the review of all the small, all-black towns around the state that sprung up post-slavery, during its days as a territory. This was often made possible by the plots of land given to the freed slaves of Indian tribes. I wouldn’t doubt there were all kinds of experiments in forming communities. The Freedmen(women) and Tribes dreaded the coming of statehood.
Just a note: The massacre did not start out as a defense of black elite protecting its businesses. It started out because of “fake news” from the now defunct Tulsa Tribune fanning the flames of an incident that even the police knew had been blown out of proportion. The people in the Greenwood community marched downtown in an act of solidarity to try prevent a lynching of one of the members of the coummunity.
“We might have AI-powered murder drones to worry about now, a U.N. report suggests” Mic
“You can safely assume that the machine is capable of committing war crimes all on its own though. The manufacturer of the Kargu-2, a company called STM, markets the drone by noting that it can be operated manually or autonomously and uses “machine learning” and “real-time image processing” to identify targets….”
What BS! “Capable of committing war crimes all on its own”.
The drones didn’t SELECT the targets or choose the country they were flying in. It didn’t load itself with weapons. And the drones would have to send reports back to someone, somewhere.
“Obviously the market doesn’t” and “who is right here” implies that the “Market”,which supported a 40 year career and suddenly doesn’t, is a useful or reliable guide to people’s livelihoods. The Market has changed dramatically over the course of my 7 decades here and has become extraordinarily narrowminded to the point of vicious cruelty in its pursuit of profits n power. Every study,report n statistic clearly shows the Market has been retooled(aka reagonomics) since 1981 to siphon everyone’s wealth into the pockets of the already wealthy who have become increasingly adverse to repaying any part of their growing wealth to the people n communities they sucked it from (aka taxes).
This isn’t even the “dog-eat-dog” world i started my 1st job in,its now a vampire-sucks-our-blood world while it shifts as much labor,investment n occasional tax payments to other parts of the world while”our” government aids n abets this. Therefore viewing the Market as anything less than a malignant tumor on the body of Americans is ,with all due respect, uncalled for.
The answer to your question is “what do u/we mean by Right?” Is it a moral n ethical Right or is it a vampirical Right? The fact is capitalism,if it ever existed,has been replaced by Profitism or as some say,Crapitalism.
For UK readers:
June 23rd is the last date to opt out from your NHS patient data being available for sale.
GP practices in England have been instructed to hand over their patients’ entire medical histories with just six weeks’ notice. Like many GPs, I’m very concerned about the implications this has for my patients. A growing number of us in London have taken taken the decision to pull the plug on the new data-sharing programme with NHS Digital and refuse to hand over patient records.
This data grab is unwarranted, unparalleled in its scale and implications and quite possibly unlawful. Yet NHS Digital, acting at the government’s request, has downplayed the significance of the move. There has been no public awareness campaign, so you’d be forgiven for not knowing that your consent is assumed, or that you have only until 23 June to opt out from having your GP data extracted.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/03/gp-nhs-digital-data-patients-records-england
How to opt out.
https://medconfidential.org/how-to-opt-out/
Wow. Just wow. That should be yanked to go into the next Links that. Wasn’t there a deal to hand over UK medical records to US Big Pharma corporations by Boris?
Still didn’t find people that were keeping any eye on the India outbreak. From Cali to Ohio to Texas…
But the info (above) about Ivermectin dosage is the sort of questions I got when I mentioned it was being studied and used to treat the virus.
Re: Ontology
https://www.essentiafoundation.org/learning/our-free-analytic-idealism-course-is-now-online/
Here is a free mini-course in Analytic Idealism presented by Bernardo Kastrup at the EssentiaFoundation.org. “Analytic” Idealism is news to me so I’m off to watch, please enjoy!
My comment on Ivermectin was caught in moderation a couple days ago.
The media & social media suppression of Ivermectin information is absurdly bad. Youtube pulled the video (now reinstated) of Dr Pierre Kory giving Congressional testimony. Bret Weinstein was very worried that his podcast would be pulled off Youtube. Youtube started blocking Ivermectin related stuff in January of 2020 – ODD. Twitter has also blocked and shadow-banned accounts (I know of 3) for discussing Ivermectin. I don’t use Facebook, do I don’t know if there are similar bans there.
The motive is pretty clear. Vaccines are super profitable. Ivermectin is off-patent and costs pennies. Under FDA rules, Emergency Use Authorization can’t be granted if there is an effective treatment. The ongoing Covid “pandemic” also allows for profound levels of social control.
Qui Bono?
anecdotal
The island resident who contracted auto immune disorder got diagnosed with a three letter thing that is according to his doc is associated with the vaccine…prescribed prednisone, doc said if that’s what it was prednisone should work and he said it was working, i’ll ask again what the three letters were…
“Next Tuesday, June 8, I am having a hip replacement. ”
sending good thoughts yves way….
I am not a “computer person”. I am just an old analog refugee in this new digital world. So I may be wrong when I think that the little chunk of text I am about to bring here might be of interest to computer persons and future-prediction thinkers. But I will bring it anyway. And here it is.
“June 2. The new Firefox update (89) does at least two things I hate. Here’s how to fix them.
When you try to search in the search box on the Firefox home page, it moves your search to the address bar. To keep it in the search box: 1) Type about:config into the address bar, and accept the danger. 2) In the search bar that comes up, type handoff. 3) Double-click “browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar” to false. “improvesearch”? “Awesomebar”? What is this bullshit?
The other thing is it massively pads my bookmarks. This can’t be fixed from about:config. You have to make a userChrome.css file. 1) Find your profile folder using these instructions. 2) Create a userChrome.css file using these instructions. 3) With a text editor (I recommend Notepad++), open your userChrome.css file and copy the code suggested here, but with fewer pixels. I’ve set all the numbers to 1, and I’m considering 0.
Taking a step back, this is all part of technological collapse. Things that could be simple are made increasingly complex, under the guise of “upgrades”, so that engineers can justify their jobs. This complexity makes the practical level of our world less accessible to ordinary users. Stuff that used to be out in the open, is put into black boxes that are hard to get your hands in.
Everything is getting slicker on the surface and more kafkaesque at the core, and we all feel more powerless, and justifiably anxious about things going wrong that we can’t fix. When enough things go wrong at once, whole subsystems fall to the highest technological level that people still understand, which might be quite low.”
And here is where I found it.
http://www.ranprieur.com/
If I ever have a house, its going to be a dumm house. And all my tools will be dumm tools. Analog dumm tools without any digital cooties infecting them.
( Except for computers themselves, of course. Those will be digital. And anything I can’t de-digitize but and also can’t or won’t live without will also have to be tolerated).
Actually, you can fix the padded bookmark thing and also that it doesn’t show where tabs end by going to about:config and setting everything called ‘browser.proton.blabla.enabled’ to false.
Whenever firefox suddenly turns horrible, which happens from time to time, I always go straight to reddit’s r/firefox and they usually have a thread or two on it with helpful advice. They say this works for now but it might not do forever.
Otherwise, I am a bit of a “computer person”, but I completely agree with you.
Apparently a “clean” UI means eliminating useful visual information. There are no tab seperators shown using the proton settings. The menu, tabs, and bookmark menu are all the same background color. Can’t stand the proton settings, and disabled them immediately. These new settings are not friendly to old eyes.
Apparently the most fulfilling task for many programmers is constantly changing UI. Its like if the steering and braking characteristics of your car were “updated” every month in some way you’ll discover next time you drive.
I remember skimming once many years ago a gook I think was called ” Digital Apartheid”. In very briefest, its thesis was that much of our computer world, programming etc. was invented by socially embittered nerds and geeks who found a way to get revenge on the society which abused them in junior and senior high school by designing an Iron FairyWeb of digital tripwires and minefields to put the rest of us through for decades and decades and decades.
The only way to escape the High Priests of Digital Oppression will be to re-analogify those parts of our life we can. Because the digital realm will only get worse and worse and worse by deliberate design on the part of people who hate us all based on the hard time they had in school. And are taking their revenge on us all.
‘drumlin woodchuckles
June 6, 2021 at 3:06 am’
I think that the word that you are looking for is resilience. I think to that eventually we are all going to have to adopt a lot of your ideas, by and by.
Thank you for the kind words. They are not all my ideas. Many of them are ideas I get from smarter people than me. And I let them float around in my mind, like the grinding ice floes in a fierce Arctic storm.