Watch This Violinist Play To a Pair of Mesmerized Beluga Whales Daily Paws (David L)
Artist Turns Discarded Silverware and Scrap Metal Into Striking Animal Sculptures MyModernMet (David L)
Your Gut Fanny Pack The Worst Things for Sale. I can make a case for this, but it assumes Ugly American Tourist, which is a species not much in evidence given Covid. No one would dare try to steal from this.
Why bronze medalists are likely happier than those who win silver MPR News (Chuck L)
Update to Limits to Growth: Comparing the World3 Model with Empirical Data Gaya Herrington (Chuck L)
June Heatwave Was the ‘Most Extreme’ On Record For North America The Verge
Three Americans Create Enough Carbon Emissions To Kill One Person, Study Finds Guardian
Sediments from lake in Japan reveal stable climate led to origin of agriculture ScienceDaily (Anthony L)
Carbon neutrality “still allows for carbon emissions” says Google sustainability lead Dezeen. “Google continues to emit greenhouse gases despite claiming to be carbon neutral, Dezeen has learned.”
To curb urban flooding, China is building ‘sponge cities.’ Do they work? Christian Science Monitor
An Emerging Tickborne Disease Is Gaining Steam in New York Gizmodo (David L)
America’s most widely consumed oil causes genetic changes in the brain EurekaAlert (David L)
#COVID-19
Over half the deer in Michigan seem to have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 ars technica (Kevin W)
One study found that the association between income inequality and covid-19 cases and deaths varied over 2020 but was generally positive; higher inequality tends to lead to more suffering https://t.co/z7mBowRyPa
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) July 30, 2021
Science/Medicine
C.D.C. Internal Report Calls Delta Variant as Contagious as Chickenpox New York Times (David L)
This study found 39 breakthrough cases (85% alpha variant) in 1497 fully vaccinated healthcare workers. Most breakthrough cases were mild/asymptomatic, but 19% developed long COVID (>6 weeks); loss of smell, cough, fatigue, weakness, dyspnea, or myalgia.https://t.co/8lFQPicHxg
— Prof. Akiko Iwasaki (@VirusesImmunity) July 28, 2021
Here’s a White House Covid response guy disputing reporting from the New York Times that’s based on a CDC study.
With confusion like this, who needs disinformation? https://t.co/9ltWLguBdP
— Leighton Akira Woodhouse (@lwoodhouse) July 30, 2021
CDC says 74% of people infected in Massachusetts Covid outbreak were fully vaccinated https://t.co/5niXT5JvkI
— CNBC (@CNBC) July 30, 2021
Reinfections of COVID-19, UK Office of National Statistics
Those Virus Sequences That Were Suddenly Deleted? They’re Back New York Times (David L)
Unfortunately, the situation has developed into a major crisis, because the government of New South Wales (the state with the large outbreak) wanted to preserve “freedom” and resisted a lockdown.
That decision backfired badly.
Only a #ZeroCOVID strategy can deliver freedom.
— Dr Zoë Hyde (@DrZoeHyde) July 31, 2021
Asia
Japan records highest COVID-19 daily case number, a foreseeable disaster WSWS
UK/Europe
f*cking h*ll. Not again. This is like the bad TV re-run, hits UK first, then we get it for free. I don’t wanna be in this sh*tshow, let alone watch it again. https://t.co/cJIejcFEtg
— Dr. Faris Durmo Biber MD., BSc. (@Dr_FarrisD) July 29, 2021
Government covid case figures look wrong. 30% drop so quickly is odd. The Zoe App lead agrees. Sewage results show a massive increase. Young folk just aren’t getting tested.
UK’s coronavirus data ‘looks a bit fishy’ – as study suggests cases on the rise https://t.co/SX149iFlNZ pic.twitter.com/sBSjGnEqXv
— Dr Jilli (@JillBelch) July 29, 2021
NHS made secret pandemic plan to deny care to elderly Telegraph (Kevin W)
US
‘The war has changed’: CDC paper warns Delta variant is far more transmissible Guardian. What is wrong with these people?!?! How could they ignore what was happening in India (which had been pretty successful v. wild type Covid despite a lockdown that generated a mass internal migration), particularly since early data made clear Delta was >40% more transmissible? Was this white/advanced economy arrogance: “Oh, India is filthy and poor, what happens there is irrelevant to us,” when the variant was spreading in the UK and we didn’t impose travel restrictions on India until May 4 (announced 5 days in advance so people who could afford to book last minute airfare no doubt did)? And then the CDC also ignored the spread in the UK too?
CDC Scaled Back Hunt for Breakthrough Cases Just as the Delta Variant Grew Bloomberg
Walmart tells corporate staff, managers they must have Covid vaccine by October CNBC. Not hourly-paid store employees.
However…Walmart Responds to CDC Guidance, Updating Mask Policy and Urging Vaccinations for Associates. Walmart is allowing workers to be vaccinated on the clock, giving a cash bonus, AND up to 3 days off for adverse vaccine reactions.
U.S. approval of COVID-19 shots could boost vaccination numbers, Fauci says Reuters (Kevin W). Anyone who has been following this issue with more than superficially knows that approval in <3 years would involve cutting corners. The normal statistical FDA review alone takes a big team 6-9 months.
FDA, under pressure, plans ‘sprint’ to accelerate review of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for full approval STAT. And why doesn’t the liability waiver go away if/when this happens?
Finance/Economy
38% of Remote Workers Work From Bed Axios
Congress fails to extend federal eviction moratorium – which ends after July 31 – before going on recess Business Insider
With moratorium lifting, can US avoid avalanche of evictions? Christian Science Monitor
UK faces insecure job ‘crisis’ as government plans to pull pandemic safety net away openDemocracy
MONEY FEVER, LOSS OF TASTE, MORE SMELL — WHO EARNED SUPER PROFITS IN RUSSIA FROM THE CORONA VIRUS?John Helmer. Funny that we haven’t seen anything remotely this granular for the US.
China?
China: Imperialism or Semi-Periphery? Monthly Review (Anthony L)
Investors Lost Hundreds of Billions on China in July Wall Street Journal
US regulators launch crackdown on Chinese listings Financial Times
Brexit
Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland and the new command paper UK in a Changing Europe. guurst is starting to sound like resilc: “The EU should call Boris’ bluff and use Frontex to seal the Irish border…..”
Old Blighty
Conservatives at risk of losing seats in ‘blue wall’ heartlands, YouGov poll suggests Independent
Inside Boris Johnson’s money network Financial Times
New Cold War
Values for Money Wolfgang Streeck (Anthony L)
Stalin, Barbarossa and the Allies | Book review by Omer Bartov Times Literary Supplement (Anthony L)
Syraqistan
Israel accuses Iran over deadly oil tanker attack BBC
Iran, Saudi Arabia on the edge of rapprochement Asia Times (Kevin W)
Imperial Collapse Watch
“It Failed Miserably” – What If the US Lost a War and Nobody Noticed? Whiskey & Gunpowder (Chuck L)
America’s ‘Great Retreat’ is well underway Asia Times (Kevin W)
Biden
Biden administration resumes fast-track deportation flights Politico
Trump’s Tax Returns Can Be Released to Congress, DOJ Says Bloomberg
Ohio Democratic Primary Showcases Party’s Divide Over Israel Haaretz
As wildfires rage, a ‘protection gap’ threatens Californians Grist (David L)
Does Purdue Have a 203 N. LaSalle Problem? Adam Levitin, Credit Slips
Lumber Prices Are Finally Falling Popular Mechanics
A Tesla car mysteriously slows down mid-road for no good reason but one Live Mint (David L)
Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX ars technica (Kevin W)
Class Warfare
Six tips for success not as effective as ‘have wealthy parents’ Daily Mash
Amazon Delivery Companies Routinely Tell Drivers To Bypass Safety Inspections CNBC
Antidote du jour. I know it’s a snake but even snakes can be pretty. Tracie H:
Cool snake at the Orange County Zoo in Irvine, California. I *think* he’s a yellow diamondback rattlesnake, but wouldn’t swear to it. Anyone?
And a bonus (Chuck L):
I needed a fun happy video. You?
3 minutes – https://t.co/nTBRNEGudF
— Lana Dell #MMT #RealProgressives (@organicfanatic5) July 29, 2021
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
295 comments
Comments are closed.
Add this to Imperial Collapse Watch:
Second Attempt To Test The Air Force’s First Hypersonic Weapon Fails
The missile’s rocket booster failed to ignite after separating from the B-52 carrying it, but the Air Force says it still gained valuable test data.
They measured “g” for a few moments
On the other hand it worked great as a gravity bomb.
And as a revenue stream to our friends at Lockheed. Which is probably the primary objective, anyway.
Related to Imperial Collapse. I took my kids to the space and rocket center in Huntsville. It felt very 1980’s. Like it was cool in 1985, but has steadily fallen into disrepair. It all seems worn and old. This was especially discombobulating since Huntsville’s entire economy is based on defense contractoring. If the public relations crown jewel of the aerospace industry is allowed to look like this, they don’t care anymore. It’s smash and grab time, contractor style. No doubt they are making trash weapons systems.
What’s one more hole in the desert?
The reponse of the CDC and US authorities ha been so uniformly dishonest and incompetent that I am beginning to think it is due to malice rather than malign indifference.
We are flirting with societal collapse which is not a good thing for most investment portfolios…
Which deserves to be mentioned because widespread death and misery are clearly of no consequence.
The CDC’s performance is starting to make any cover up of a lab leak not look so bad. Or just that stupidity and shortsightedness is SOP for these organizations.
It’s difficult to overlook the fact that the CDC oversaw the final 35 years of the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the African American Male”. AFAIK, the organization has yet to issue a formal apology or even admit wrongdoing.
Winston Smith has also been busy recently, removing the more obvious references to the CDC on that particular Wikipedia page.
This is not an organization with a history of having a good moral compass.
To further the point, Naked Capitalism has over the years, repeatedly pointed out many, many instances or regulatory capture: FCC, FAA (737 Max), SEC, CalPers.
Why anyone would expect the CDC to be immune is beyond me.
“Everything is as bad as CalPERS” isn’t a mantra around here for nothing.
I’m more willing to believe this is the result of years and years of slashing budgets, political interference, general neglect and so on to these organizations combined with equal amounts of time of swamp brain infecting TPTB. Not letting anyone off the hook, but don’t think they could do better assuming they even wanted to.
The SEC is a victim of budget cutting at 4200 employees.
The CDC has 32,000. Hard to see them as resource starved.
One of our aides’ partner quit the CDC to drive taxis. He had some sort of low level admin job. Said he couldn’t take the infighting. If clerk-level staff feel they can’t keep their heads down and just do their jobs, the culture is Gawd awful.
If CDC is not resource-starved, then it must have been culture-poisoned and culture-polluted in some way, to turn all the resources auto-toxic like that.
There’s also the messaging that the vaccines are the solution all the way up and down the food chain. Every government just wants to declare mission accomplished and move on. The desperation is palpable. You can feel the rage against anyone not completely committed. You must believe in the vaccine. Makes one wonder what happens if this drags on through 2022. Certainly, the wealthy have done swimmingly, so why the rush?
Answered my own question. They fear widespread loss of legitimacy and public anger. Sane people are supposed to want this to be over and are supposed to believe the vaccines will do the job, so the only thing holding them back is those darn antivaxxers, tossing the hesitant among them. Sane people should be angry, and their anger is given a target. But again, they’ve misunderestimated the virus and spent more goodwill and trust. They know they have at most one more shot. Elites panic so easily.
I think you are right. Public/government employees are not the cream of students and tend to breed future employees. Firemen, policemen, teachers, healthcare people, prison guards etc love doing the least they can get away with while relying on their tax-paying private industry neighbors to fund their life-style. The Pandemic shows how foolish Americans are to rely on Big Government to protect us. It’s a joke on us.
I sincerely hope that comment was sarcasm. Firefighters, healthcare staff, teachers don’t usually volunteer for their vocation because their jobs are easy. Quite the opposite. They generally have a passion to serve, not to avoid work.
That’s a fairly broad grouping of professions under the bus. Those greedy teachers. Going to teach youngsters to read and such.
I generally ascribe the failings of the above orgs to the broader professionals who generally gather at our finest elite walled institutions instead. Birds of a feather and so forth. Repubs or Dem dogs, a pox on em all.
Firemen, policemen, teachers, healthcare people, prison guards etc love doing the least they can get away with while relying on their tax-paying private industry neighbors to fund their life-style
seriously, wtf
Wow, what an ugly, ignorant, and prejudiced PMC screed — equal to the worst remarks of Hillary Clinton *and* Donald Trump.
I can’t see at as ‘PMC’ – even if some members of that class think that, they would generally knkw to be circumspect enough not to say it. Moreover, I suspect many members of that class do not believe it. It seems to me a more generically conservative/libertarian point of view.
“PMC” has become what Chomsky calls a term of abuse, a poorly defined expression some on the left use to denigrate anything they dont like. Roughly the equivalent of “socialist” on the right or “white male” among the “woke”…
That’s the impression I’ve had for a while. A shame because when it’s particularised instead of generalised in that way, it does have some analytic utility, I think.
I’ve seen “PMC” defined as broadly as anyone with a 4 or more year college degree who gets a salary rather than an hourly wage. That seems to me to be way too big a net. It does make some sense as a term for (say) upper corporate managers and high-end professionals like doctors and lawyers, i.e. people for whom being fired is unlikely or not a catastrophe.
Back in January of 2016, John Michael Greer put up a post called “Donald Trump and the Politics of Resentment” in which he predicted that Donald Trump would win the Presidency by the end of the year which sounded absolutely outlandish at the time.
How he was able to do so was to talk about class in America and what we would call the PMC came in for special mention. I cannot recommend this article enough-
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2016-01-21/donald-trump-and-the-politics-of-resentment/
Maybe this is helpful:
On the Origins of the Professional-Managerial Class: An Interview with Barbara Ehrenreich
Belated thanks for the links.
I take John Michael Greer’s point (which of course is often repeated on NC) about the devastation of the “wage class” fueling the rise of Trump. I’m unclear by what process he thinks that devastation benefited the “salary class” (i.e. “PMC”). Disclosure: I have a bit of antipathy for Greer since I was banned from the Archdruid site for suggesting that he discuss his “we have enough technology” ideas with someone in a wheelchair. In hindsight maybe I should have made that argument with more nuance.
Still reading through the Ehrenreich article, and the original 1977 article linked from there. Her discussion of the “PMC” is a good deal more nuanced than what I’ve generally seen elsewhere. A lot to think over…
I dunno…
Have a person i know very well…a person who’s a 3rd grade teacher and who’s also a state Rep in the union. ..
Absolutely self- preservation directed.
No more than demanded contract- wise. Not your service-committed.
More your “I’m getting mine!” type.
Thinks everyone else is just underpaid.
While enjoying his well paid status.
I would look at this the other way round. One reason the US is in trouble is because it does not encourage enough of its brightest to go into public service. As a result it is badly served by its government. The private sector is not well placed to deal with a public health emergency. The lead must come from the state on these occasions.
The demonization and destruction of government (that serves the PUBLIC interest) IS the essence of neoliberalism. Everything privatized for profit- government exists only to subsidize the private sector (big business, the market, shareholders , etc.). Government is not allowed to compete with (”crowd out”) the for-profit private sector. No public healthcare system to fight the Rona; instead monetize the cure through a publicly subsidized Big Pharma vaccine program (to enrich the investor class and inflate GDP. And of course suppress wages to keep the lid on price inflation (but not asset inflation).
The demonization and destruction of government (that serves the PUBLIC interest) IS the essence of neoliberalism. Everything privatized for profit- government exists only to subsidize the private sector (big business, the market, shareholders , etc.). Government is not allowed to compete with (”crowd out”) the for-profit private sector. No public healthcare system to fight the Rona; instead monetize the cure through a publicly subsidized Big Pharma vaccine program (to enrich the investor class and inflate GDP. And of course suppress wages to keep the lid on price inflation (but not asset inflation).
“Doing the least they can get away”
Have you ever been in a work environment before? If so, this sounds like projection. Most teachers I’ve known work harder – and care more about the outcomes of their work – than the corporate people I’ve known. Maybe an Amazon factory worker works harder but they also have a 150% annual turnover rate and a dystopian Big Brother surveillance system tracking their every move.
A lot of black and brown people, some of whom are the cream of students, join public/government employment because they face so much discrimination in the private sector (even so today with all the civil rights laws in place). They don’t generally have the advantages of connections of family and friends who work in management that White Americans generally have in easing them through the door.
This is a bone-headed remark. The majority of white kids don’t have family connections in management — by definition! That would make the management class in the USA the vast majority of the population!
Really dug into what your masters are dishing out, huh? I’ll ignore the smears and hop to this bit of idol worship:
“tax-paying private industry neighbors to fund their life-style.”
Way to absorb the point of view of the oligarchs. Are you new to NC? Have you not seen the cornucopia of articles and comments detailing the fact that the wealthiest DON’T PAY ANY G@D D@MN3D taxes? It may even be it’s own category.
But you must have, I’ve seen you around before. Does your analysis include that information? Why not?
Poor old Wotan. Not a friend in the (NC commentariat) world.
Based on the commenter-name and the style of the writing, I think this comment was written in all transparent sincerity and without any satirical intent at all.
It is not so much Clintonian ( missing the passive-aggressive smarmy damning with faint praise) as rather more straight-up Reagan/Libertarian Republican. It sounds almost Orange County Birchoid in style and outlook. And the name “Wotan” is meant to signify that the writer is a brave transgressive member of the alt.right culture-resistance. Or at least wants to be taken that way.
The name Wotan is a german variant of the word Norse deity Odin I believe. As you say, likely an alt-right nom de plume. Normal people would just say ‘Odin’, or more likely not use a germanic paganism moniker at all.
I looked it up. It is indeed derived from Odin, but its specifically a character from Ring Des Nibelungen, the Richard Wagner musical drama, based on Odin, rather than being an actual name of Odin. Its related to a certain white supremacist neopaganism movement called Wotansvolk.
It doesn’t seem related to actual paganism, only neopaganism. Making the choice of its use over Odin rather suspect.
Well . . . that’s the smell I got when I put my nose close to the screen.
Troll: don’t feed
I wonder which investment portfolios will gain in the event of societal collapse…? Ill wind indeed that blows no man/woman good…
Looking at insider trading by Congresscritters and other Imperial insiders, it would seem that these monsters are longing and shorting for what’s bad news for the rest of us.
https://www.corbettreport.com/
https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/
I don’t believe the cdc is singularly in the business of protecting people from health threats. I believe their behavior illustrates them being forced to strike a balance between public health and the economy with public health potentially at opportune moments taking the backseat. I think the cdc decision to throw away the precautionary principle and to do away with non -pharmaceutical interventions couple months ago as delta was raging around the world was very much driven by short term economic considerations. How else were they gonna get people back vacationing, shopping, dining, spending money and selling their labor? I hope that little bump to the gdp was worth it. So naturally they have to pull the “the science changed” bs with this inevitable reversal.
A ” New Deal Revival Party” could run on things like restoring New Deal Era taxes and using the money for things like purging and burning all the Reagan-forward pro-disease moles and embeds out of the CDC and replacing them with pro-CDC-mission personnel.
I think it’s political. It seems impossible that during the vaccine trials, it was not known that vaccinated volunteers were frequently infected and also carried high viral loads. Surely this was very well known from the beginning. So why was it kept quiet? Perhaps no other alternatives. The vaccines do reduce the risk of death or hospitalization, so it may have been decided that– problems or not– vaccination had to proceed and the program needed to be surrounded by a rosy halo in order to get vaccination rates as high as possible. Similarly, as is noted above, surely it was quite obvious to officials that “the pandemic was not over” and that Delta was on the way. However, there are risks of political unrest and continued mental health issues if you tell people the truth. Maybe the idea was to let people get together and enjoy the 4th of July before the Delta variant hammer descended. I’m not condoning this. Just speculating.
Such back and forth whipsawing will lead to a level of social rage and hate that steady truth from the start would not have lead to.
“Japan records highest COVID-19 daily case number, a foreseeable disaster” WSWS
“The media and entertainment bosses, and the governments which back them, fully aware of the potential consequences, calculated these revenues to be worth the cost in human life and lifelong complications as hospitals overflow.”
Anybody who wants an end to this insanity should NOT go to any events.
At the very least, as a result of this simole form of protest, I bet a whole lot more truthful answers to questions are revealed.
For clarity:
And I’m not talking about the Olympic events in particular. I’m talking about not going to events in general….the ones near you.
Depending upon which poll you consider, somewhere between 80 to 83% of Japanese are against the Olympics during this pandemic and wanted the games canceled. But the ruling LDP just ignores this, as is their wont. The sports venues are largely empty.
Kitano Takeshi, the film director and well-known TV personality had some choice words On TV the other day:
re: ‘Bronze medalists happier’
Wherefore the puzzlement? Seems pretty straightforward to me: you win the bronze but you ‘lose’ the silver.
‘Zactly! Why the need for research? Totally obvious, especially in the team/match sports. I’ve often thought there should be 3 medal games with 6 teams playing instead of 4. 1 for gold. 1 for silver. 1 for bronze. Then all three medals are for winners.
I would think it is different for individuals – a runner or cyclist silver medalist ‘comes in second rather than ‘loses the match’.
Win the bronze and not be an also-ran, out of the money. When you look at the times in individual events and relays, the difference between the bronze medal and last place is usually or more than a few tenths of a second. even the least are superb athletes.
Another lockdown is going to do wild things to this country. But I doubt it will happen, at least not like March 2020. In my own state of PA, the governor’s ability to start a lockdown has been severely curtailed.
https://news.ballotpedia.org/2021/05/20/pennsylvania-voters-pass-constitutional-amendments-to-limit-governors-emergency-orders-without-legislative-support/
So it will take the PA legislature, which I doubt will want to do it.
Here in the south, I expect the lockdown effort to be fought tooth and nail. Time to mask up and mean it, once more with feeling!
Upstate portion of South Carolina. For clarity purposes.
The shitshow of an economy is fragile, it wouldn’t take a large percentage of people boycotting events, gatherings, etc to get people to understand…people over profits, ego, and narcissism.
And reasons may vary from being against vaccine passports to being for masks…
There won’t be any “truth” until it hits where it hurts.
This virus does not seem to be magically disappearing or mutating into harmlessness. If it is going to become endemic, maybe we ought to start learning how to live with it instead of fighting about it, hurling insults, and using it as a political football.
From what I have seen over the past twenty months, it is not so much a matter of learning how to live with the virus as a matter of learning how to die with it. I’m not having a go at you here. This phrase – “learning to live with the virus” – is one that I am beginning to despise as it is shorthand for not actually dealing with the virus but just letting it cut loose in a forlorn hope of developing a mythical herd immunity for it. Too many people want to go back to 2019 and do not want to properly deal with the pandemic by doing stuff like re-configuring the economy, re-designing buildings with ventilation in mind, stopping Big Pharma telling us what our cures should be, etc.
We have gone from the Age of Reason to the Age of Ostensible Reason.
It is at a minimum sociopathic to expect that the new normal should be to live alongside a virus which
a) is evolving to be progressively more virulent
b) has long term medical consequences, the severity of which is unknown.
Living with the virus means thinning out the economically unviable amongst our population; the obese, the immune-suppressed, the elderly.
I do not know what you would call this system of Government.
I suspect Fascist comes closest.
what did you have in mind?
Elimination
We’re still coming out of an econmic hit–another lockdown would reverse all the gains we’ve had, perhaps even dig us in a deeper.
Nobody who full understands the consequences–if your job or business cannot be done remotely and isn’t considered remote a lockdown means you lose your livilhood–is seriously considering a lockdown again, except as a last resort: i.e. things get as bad as they were in the spring of 2020.
I genuinely don’t understand the clamor for lockdowns that some people seem to have–almost as if they secretly want it to happen–do some people take a certain perverse glee in taking people’s livelhood’s away and possibly relegating them to homelessness?
Yes – it isn’t the tyrant at the top that brings the tyranny, it’s all the little tyrants that rejoice in what role they can play in demeaning and destroying whom they can.
And that’s also how people feel about being told to “come out and play” …don’t mind the bodies.
And I feel another creeping tyranny…pushing on a string, seeing just what number of dead is deemed acceptable. Then cranking that number up ever so slowly.
As in, “If you didn’t mind writing off _____, then surely you won’t mind writing off______.”
And people need to have accurate, truthful information to protect themselves. If there are things that can be done to mitigate the spread, f how the optics look for business or cost, they should be done.
Lockdowns are not creating homelessness as much as evictions, and the moratorium for them just expired.
The lockdowns crushed whole sectors of the economy.
The monetary/fiscal response has not been commensurate to the damage.
The lockdowns = deficient income = lack of rent/mortgage funds = The lockdowns are creating ( the conditions* for ) the homelessness.
Evictions are a latent manifestation of sociopolitical malfeasance, incompetence, and PMC disdain for the ( deplorable ) public -at best..
* the ( illegal/unconstitutional) moratoriums have only just ended and there are no greater masses wandering the hinterlands in search of shelter than otherwise would be in the USA just yet…
Louis, For me and mine, a lockdown is doable, though I’m in a fine position for that and realize many people aren’t. Life is a series of priorities and it seems to me that life and health are a higher priority than sickness, loss of employment, and possible death.
That being said, interesting take here in Britain from Dr. John Campbell pointing out that many young people (workers) in the UK are having to isolate due to Covid. This puts a strain on the workforce, needless to say. Short interview on DW with Dr. Campbell here. Start at 2:45, though it’s only 7 minutes long ……… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L5NKc5Wc04
I think people can easily live with less, the almost $23,000,000,000,000 economy (that’s a trillion, each of which is a thousand billion) maybe can’t…
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP
Man, things re looking great! too bad all that money goes to one small group of people.
That blip in ’08 might have even made the socialists at the top feel some small sense of anxiety…, but when they got a milkshake each hand they calmed down, the poor (maybe the wrong choice of words there, hm.)things… At the same time they figured out that crying gets you milkshakes, so there’s that…
Kansas legislators have already stripped the governor of the authority to lock down or impose mask mandates, although she’s challenging the move in court.
As for Delta, it seems the obvious journalistic thing to do at this point would be to dig into exactly why flights from India weren’t banned immediately as well as people who had been to India recently. Once, just once, I’d like to see authorities at any level get out ahead of events instead of being dragged along like a thrown rider with his foot trapped in a stirrup.
Pelham, “get ahead of the events”? Aint gonna happen. Governments, who are of course puppets of corporations, are forced to hesitate and take into consideration the effects on commerce – first. CDC, NIH, WHO, et all are beholden to corporations first, then the public. This is why the US’s CDC checked in with congress first (!!) before notifying the general public of recent stats on Delta’s power of illness. They ensure the bureaucrats can clear and adjust their investment portfolio before action is taken. Rude and blatant.
This is an example of why it’s important to connect with each other via NC authors and readers – stay ahead of the curve.
Nice analogy.
As many noted here, lockdowns were a one shot opportunity. There wasn’t going to be a second chance. Needless to say, it went about how many of use felt it would. It’s going to be interesting seeing what comes next. I don’t think blaming the unvaccinated is going to take us to the end of this.
I recall thinking that the vaccines better work because all the eggs were in that basket, and also because if they didn’t work, the PMC would be affected the most as they as a group are the truest believers, and thus most had a significant uptake…
I’d say the jury is still out, but this hits the idea of boosters credibility, and if as postulated in some places the mRNA gets harder to “digest” (more negative reactions) with more shots it will be bad.
I certainly am in no hurry to get a booster shot after reading the stats about actual vaccine efficacy (or lack thereof), not to mention the adverse reaction from my second Pfizer dose. Given the choice at this point, I prefer to stock up on veterinary grade Ivermectin and take my chances.
I’m feeling you man, I’m literally at the same place. I’ve got the Green Apple in the closet…
I’m with you here. I’m walking the walk, gaited no less, even if I’m no longer talking the talk.
Stay safe!
I may be wrong on several levels, but I think that the vaccines need to end, immediately.
Until there is international cooperation and planning to vaccinate everyone who can be vaccinated with a vaccine that is effective literally all at once, and to isolate those who cannot be vaccinated for a period of time, all we seem to be doing is building back better varients– and I think this is starting to bite us in the ass.
How am I wrong?
Seems to me that some variants showed up well before the vaccines arrived on the scene. Although it’s possible they may be somehow speeding up the process I don’t think we have any evidence that’s the case.
The reports so far say Delta was first DETECTED in February. Which means it was around before then and before the shots were widespread.
So how far behind will “the science” be by the time we get to Zeta?
I think you’re right. Small numbers of the world population vaccinated, high levels of spread among most unvaccinated then finding out the vaccines don’t stop infection or spread AND international air travel continuing seems like the perfect recipe for a mutation that completely undoes any progress we’ve made. And we don’t seem to have a plan B that I’m seeing..
blaming is just the start. Next bipartisan calls to eliminate all federal benefits for these antivaxxers
Sorry you have this wrong.
Lockdown or no lockdown will depend entirely on the state of hospitals.
It is not acceptable, anywhere, to have heart attack or stroke or car wreck victims wait on gurneys, untreated or barely treated for a day plus, because there are no free hospital or ICU beds. That was happening at the worst of the first wave.
If the hospitals become jammed, there will be lockdowns.
Locking down all other businesses on the predicate that such WILL result in an outbreak diminishing is support by what evidence or studies?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/us/covid-san-francisco-hospital-delta.html
Perhaps it is time to consider that Covid patients should be treated at specific quarantine sites with sequestered and heavily tested staff so as to keep infections from being spread FROM the health care workers TO the patients?
You could be right of course, but I think you are mistaken. What will happen when the hospitals have too many patients in the ICU? Lockdowns seem quite probable.
No one has yet explained how lockdowns actually solve inadequate medical facilities/staff//supplies.
This seems to be an urban managerial perspective..
I desire evidence for the oft repeated assertion that lockdowns somehow create medical facilities capacity.
Do you see the logical fallacy in your formulation of the “oft repeated assertion” there, Anon? I’m guessing you full well do.
Where I live in Oz we are in the middle of a three-day lockdown to stomp on this outbreak here but hard and people are cool with it. Today’s figures were 9 new infections but all from known contacts. NSW meanwhile, where this outbreak started, reported 239 new infections and the hospital ICU beds are starting to fill up simply because they viewed a lockdown as a last resort method. They are even demanding that the other States hand over their vaccine allotments but are only getting crickets as an answer. So the hospitals here only get low numbers and the medicos can give them full treatment but in NSW if it keeps up, it will look like something out of MASH.
Comprehensive lockdowns, implemented when community spread becomes apparent (hopefully immediately but not necessarily, as in the Victoria July 2020 example), and supplemented for example with equally comprehensive mask mandates with high public compliance, lead to a reduction in Covid cases. This is indisputable from real-world case studies. It has happened in numerous Australian jurisdictions several times. For more on this, see my post here.
It therefore follows straightforwardly that if caseload of Covid patients is reduced in hospitals, as a consequence of the measures described above, then ICU space and staff will be freed up to mitigate this phenomenon (as described by Yves):
(although I should add, I don’t believe Australian hospitals were ever quite as thinly stretched as those in the USA and elsewhere)
The last big lockdown lowered covid patient demand-per-unit-time down to what the existing hospital capacity could handle. They called it ‘Flattening the curve”. The ” lengthening the flattened curve” part of it was silent. Perhaps if they had said: Flatten the curve. Lengthen the curve. . . . more people would get and retain the concept unto this very moment.
Even you might have known better than to think that “lockdown” was supposed to magically increase hospital capacity, when what it was doing was lowering and slowering hospital demand.
When this first happened in 2020 my first thought was, my god, they cancelled public life. What now? Since then, what I’ve seen is disaster capitalism unbound. My reaction: get offline. Get off Facebook and Twitter, solidify local relationships, start thinking about how to turn virtual life into real life, but safely. That’s a hard nut to crack. Especially addiction to the NC commentariat.
NC comments addiction is real :(
Call NC comments part of your fun life. Make survival life analog and offline. And leave funlife online and digital.
People who have their analog survival life offline and air-gapped from every digital “on-line point of contact” there is, will have to endure the cold turkey withdrawal from the ended funlife online. But if they can survive the withdrawal, they will still be meatspace survival alive at the end of the withdrawal process.
At least the Tesla autopilot mistake doesn’t threaten to start a nuclear war.
The link in the comment above is to a Science Alert post entitled “9 Times The World Almost Had Nuclear War Without Us Knowing.” Four of the incidents listed occurred during the Cuban Missile Crisis, however they missed one: “The Okinawa missiles of October.”
I heard about that story when it came out a coupla years ago. One good officer present and we never ended up becoming ash in our younger years as a result. There is a very exclusive club that has never been formed. And membership of it requires only one qualification. That through your actions, that you stopped nuclear war breaking out leading to billions dead in a world-wide nuclear winter. Capt. William Bassett is definitely a member. And I can think of another American officer and two other Russian officers who also qualify. And none of the members of this club have ever met with one another to boot. How about that.
Or it didn’t happen anywhere close to as written in the story. However it makes good reading.
And one hopes there are more people with questions at moments like this in the future.
Yes, we can all sleep well in the knowledge that the Security State/Military have everything under control and will never start shooting nuclear weapons all over the place.
Gotta keep working the fear, uncertainty and doubt, though, every chance we get, to keep the rabble quiet…
Maybe you know what “actually” happened, or did not, from personal knowledge? Would be happy to hear the story. Especially if that knowledge covered all the incidents that have become visible so far.
That Tesla car mistook the moon for a yellow traffic light. If those tech-heads that designed that system had studied history, they might have anticipated this problem. When the first air-to-air missiles for aircraft were designed back in the 50s, one was designed to home in on the heat exhaust of an enemy plane through using infrared. The only problem was that in those first generation missiles, they would “see” the sun and home in on it instead any aircraft.
I want to imagine those missiles are still soaring toward the sun, believing the massive ball of fire in the distance to be their birth mother, and the journey to be their pilgrimage home.
There was an “urban myth” ,or maybe just a CT, that a reason that we are not now experiencing nuclear winter is that extraterrestrial intervention has also deterred this fate. The narrative was something along the lines that at a couple of U.S. bases that house silos of nukes were “shut down”. Don’t recall for how long. The guards at the sites reported that UFOs were overhead when systems just stopped working. When they reported this to superiors, they were told it did not happen, they were never to say anything about it to anyone or … The story included some interpretations of its “messaging ” for the extraterrestrial actions. One was that though there could be a Prime Directive to not interfere in a planet’s people’s, that is overrode when some people’s governance could lead to nuclear disaster that would not only destroy Earth, but radiation, etc. Would affect other entities in the cosmos. It was like the extraterrestrial beings were saying knock it off! If nothing else it’s a pretty good story.
Boy NC sends a chill down my spine at times. I literally just got done reading the works of Dr. David Jacobs, the world’s leading UFO abduction researcher. He claims to have interviewed around 2000 people under hypnosis who believe they have been abducted. He admits that anecdotal evidence gathered under hypnosis is weak but he says he has a ton of it. Think of that what you will but the story is a bit of a trip.
The plan is to interbreed with humans to form hybrids which will gradually push out pure stock humans. A “breeding population” of humans will be kept around to keep things fresh. The Insectaliens behind it all are an ancient, powerful but dying species and this is how they propagate. It was, according to a woman who claimed to have a direct telepathic conversation with one of the overlords, what was done to them at one time themselves by an even more powerful intelligence.
Incidentally, the “Grays” are human hybrids who trend more alien and the “Reptilians” are yet another race that got things started here on Earth before the big operation got going. Both of them are worker castes; apparently there is a division of labor at the interstellar level. Great.
Now this sounds pretty grim for the humans, at least in the short term, but then it occurred to me that perhaps this could be the best thing in the long run. We are quite possibly doomed at the rate we are going. All of sit around here documenting the individual and collective stupidity of the human ape. Perhaps it’s time for a new direction? The long view? It won’t be pretty but then that’s from our perspective. Maybe there is a longer term goal that is to our benefit. Nuking ourselves, eco-cide, or even a stray asteroid is not to our benefit, for sure.
I think we should just recognize that the planet’s brief but catastrophic experiment with multicellular life is drawing to a close. I, for one, welcome our new bacterial overlords.
Strategic Air Command also did a lot of readiness drills and security tests, so some UFO reports may have been drills. The Loring Air Force base UFO case rattled a lot of people at the time in neighboring bases. I can imagine a base commander telling people not to discuss a drill in case the infiltration was successful and showed security weaknesses.
On the other hand I can’t imagine why a UFO would bother messing with primates here on Monkey Planet. Extraterrestrial Cow Tipping? What does Earth offer to galactic travelers other than a bad example?
“On the other hand I can’t imagine why a UFO would bother messing with primates here on Monkey Planet. Extraterrestrial Cow Tipping? What does Earth offer to galactic travelers other than a bad example?”
So I call this the “Anthill thesis”, some scientist asked why would anyone bother stop here and study us, just as you would ignore a small anthill as you walked by. Well, people do study anthills, lots of people, and for good reasons. They can cause a lot of damage for one thing. And they are very interesting in their social structures, etc.
Dr. Jacobs would have a different response. He says questions of “Why?” or “From where?” are at best secondary, at least at this time. “Are they here?” is what we should be asking. But it doesn’t matter anyway if they are, we can’t do anything about it from all accounts. Some, but definitely not all of us, are considered breeding stock by the overlords. The fate of those whose genetics are not of interest, according to Dr. Jacobs, has never come up at all in his interviews. He finds that ominous.
However, I think there is a way to see this in a positive light. This is Dr. Jim Tucker from the UVA Division of Perceptual Studies talking about the evidence for reincarnation:
https://youtu.be/3l7bcb3aoGc
So according to him, reincarnated individuals usually pop up not very far from where they died. I’m assuming that means when pure humans die, they will be reincarnated as the human hybrids who will eventually become the majority it seems. So we will all get a chance to be an advanced, telepathic “hubrid” as Dr. Jacobs calls them. Maybe the overlords know this, they know individual, material lives are immaterial compared to the returning locus of consciousness that traverses time through the medium of those bodies.
Or not.
newcatty: There was an “urban myth” ,or maybe just a CT, that a reason that we are not now experiencing nuclear winter is that extraterrestrial intervention has also deterred this fate
CT (Cute theory): In fact, UFOs carry temponauts from Earth’s future.
[1] The physics of this is as plausible as ETs from other star-systems somehow making it across the dark light years to our own, since FTL is time travel (cf Einsteinian special relativity);
[2] Our descendants would at least have a rationale/investment in preventing nuclear war in their past, our present, thus obviating rowlf’s very valid objection, “why would a UFO bother messing with primates on Monkey Planet.”
Craig Murray has been jailed.
The damage done to the legitimacy of the Scottish Government by their treatment of Craig Murray is incalculable
The price will undoubtedly be high and paid by the weakest and most vulnerable first.
As usual.
More enforcers will be needed and after a while those enforcers will realize that without the Rule of Law there is only Force and the threat of Violence.
And they have the guns.
Saint Nick (Machiavelli) had a few things to say about this…
…and Alex Salmond
…and Mark Hirst
…and the Rangers administrators
The west is getting more and more like the old USSR every year. And I would count Julian Assange’s trial as a “show trial.” When I was younger, I heard an American comedian talking about the difference between living in the US and living under the communists. He said that in America when there is a knock at your door in the morning – it is the milkman.
Add to that our Ministry of Truth tech giants.
Speaking of show trials, in late 1930s Russia:
From Eastern Approaches by Fitzroy Maclean, recommended by someone at NC 4 years ago.
>>And the accused themselves? If they were innocent, why did they confess?
Maybe because if they didn’t confess, their families would all be arrested and sent off to the Gulag?
Torture and brain-rearrangement engineering.
In USA we threaten to send their kids into foster care and to arrest their loved ones to make them spend time in jail and fight whatever charges are thrown at them, unless you do as you’re asked.
I know it’s “common knowledge,” but the downwardly-mobile PMCers need to be aware of this– they’re new to our world and don’t know how things really work.
Let them find out on their own.
They made our bed. Let them lie in it with us.
Arthur Koestler wrote a whole novel, Darkness at Noon, to examine what might have been the reasons.
For what? I thought he was past that allegation ad that the charges had been dropped?
Craig was convicted of the crime of “jigsaw identification”, whatever that is.
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2021-07-30/craig-murrays-jailing-is-the-latest-move-in-the-battle-to-snuff-out-independent-journalism/
The snake looks like she’s getting ready to shed.
And that orphaned lamb video was worth watching as well. I found it really strange watching a video about only one sheep because you really only see them in the scores or even hundreds which means that they just become only numbers.
Unless there is a rattle on the tail, nix the rattlesnake id.
Looks like Craig Murray will soon be joining Assange as a guest of HM’s prison service. His final appeal to the UK Supreme Court has been denied and he’s been ordered to surrender to the authorities.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/07/going-dark/
“Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX” ars technica
What a greedy, dangerous thingy. This is a hubris that is going to lead to and/or reveal some epic tragedy and people keep sucking up to him.
Hoping SpaceX doesn’t use any of Tesla’s autonomous driving software code. [rimshot…]
I show myself out.
What “autonomous driving”?
Drop mic.
I’m out.
If you have any interest in WW2 or what followed, Bartov’s TLS review of some recent books is informative, as well as representing a warning against the current tendency towards contrarian interpretations about history for their own sake. Bartov is himself a distinguished historian of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front.
I’d just add a couple of points. First, the racially exterminatory nature of Barbarossa was overt from the start and never hidden. The whole of the area to the Urals was to be cleared of its native population, except for those who would be retained as slaves, and settled by ethnic Germans. Under General Plan East (which has been extensively studied) the Germans expected some 30-40 million people to perish accidentally or deliberately. The Wehrmacht was completely at home with this, as its published orders demonstrate, less because of the effect of Nazi ideology than because of the traditional fear and hatred of the Slavic hordes to the East, and the memories of Russian atrocities in 1914. (The idea of a struggle between races for survival leading to the extermination of the weaker was a commonplace intellectual trope of the time, and turns up everywhere in the literature of the first half of the last century.)
Second, the suggestion that Britain and France should declare war on the Soviet Union, rather than Germany, was quite widely held at the time, and is not as bizarre as it may sound. The Nazi-Soviet Pact made the two countries, in the eyes of many, effective allies, and it was noted that the Soviets were supplying the Nazis with a great many raw materials. So it was argued that an attack on the Soviet Union (believed to be bankrupt and starving and close to collapse anyway) would effectively knock Germany out of the war without the need for a land battle. There was, of course, a parallel view that the Soviet Union was the real enemy, and that, at the very least, the West should stand by and let the Nazis destroy the country. Not may people though, as Bartov suggests, really thought through the consequences of that.
All in all, as Bartov says, this is a rerun of the Cold War battle of the Historians, where the attempt was made to whitewash the Nazis by making tendentious arguments that Stalin Started It. It’s depressing to see such ideas coming back, and no doubt this is related too the fashionable anti-Russianism of the moment. But it’s also a useful more general warning: the next time you read about a contrarian new interpretation of some well-known historical event, based on newly discovered shocking secrets, well, you’ve been warned.
David, thanks for the heads up.
I did spend quite a bit of time and effort studying WW2, what led up to the rise of the Nazi Party and the aftermath.
You are, IMO, understating the support for both the Nazi ideology and Hitler in the USA.
It was widespread and a lot deeper than most are willing to acknowledge.
My late Grandmother Stone was a strong supporter of Hitler, the Party and Eugenics until the day she died, she was far from alone.
As I have mentioned before I was noticeably spastic as a child and that Grandmother told my parents, in my presence at the age of six, that I should be “Put down for my own good and for the good of the race”.
By the time I was in my teens that spasticity had diminished and I was able to pass as
“normal”, this was the 60’s and 70’s and I met quite a few overt full blown Nazi’s because I was gray eyed and blond.
And a fighter.
Being stoned on three occasions and attacked by two kids with knives by the time I was ten left me with an attitude.
Mom took the knives away ( One was a nice Barlow) which I still think was unfair.
And I didn’t get stoned a fourth time, it was five on one and the trip one of them took to the ER with a broken head got their attention.
Leave me alone or pay the price.
I will defend the right of Nazi’s to to exercise their first amendment rights to my last breath, however if they act on their beliefs I will be happy to tear off their heads and crap in the hole.
if I’m feeling kind.
What the Russians say is that they tried to pact with the British and French against Hitler and that only after these overtures were rejected did they pact with Hitler to deter the aggression that they always suspected was headed their way.
Of course that doesn’t in any sense make Stalin a good guy, but given the number of Nazi sympathizers in Britain’s upper class the Russians weren’t just paranoid to fear the Brits and Germans ganging up against them. In fact it’s what Hitler thought would happen as well.
Stalin seems to have feared that the British and Germans (and the French) would ally against him, just as he hoped that, if he stayed out of the war, the British, French and Germans would destroy each other. That was a major reason for not taking action earlier in 1941, for fear of provoking the Germans. The extent to which the British upper classes could be said to be “pro-Nazi” is a very difficult question, and I don’t think there’s any agreement about it. Remember that extreme Social-Darwinist views were very common at the time, and much of what Hitler was saying about the struggle to the death between races would have seemed conventional wisdom then.There were certainly some outright sympathisers, but more commonly there were people who believed that a choice had to be made between Communism and Fascism, since democracy was effectively dead, and the future had to belong to one or the other. Many intellectuals at the time chose Communism, and a much smaller number Fascism. But much of this has been edited out of history, and we remember people like George Orwell who resisted both temptations. However, if you did believe that, then it wasn’t hard for some people to conclude that allying with Hitler was justified, as the lesser of two evils, if it protected the West against Communism. The threat from the Soviet Union was primarily seen as ideological and political, not military: the Red Army was not taken seriously by Western governments.
If you read Nancy Mitford, the upper classes were at least not opposed to Hitler. Her mother and sister were both diehard Hitler fans. And she herself married an English Fascist, as did another sister, who became Mrs. Oswald Mosley. (Nancy’s husband changed sides and supported Loyalist Spain). Mitford’s father hated the Germans, because of World War 1, not Hitler, and this seems to have been Churchill’s attitude, at least initially. The most prominent British political scientist during the 1930s, Ernest Barker, compared Hitler to Oliver Cromwell in one of his books — harsh but probably salutary, in his judgement..
The fact is that most moderate Anglo-American centrists believed that the volatile and childlike populations of countries such as Italy and Germany were not yet “advanced” or “civilized” enough for parliamentary democracy and needed a strong hand. This was the conventional wisdom. The supposed atheism of the Bolsheviks was absolutely anathema, certainly up until the end of the 1950s. (It is curious how atheism has lately become more or less normalized. Thank God, I am tempted to say.
I’m not sure they needed such a ratonale since anti-communism was enough. For example it’s popular to portray Lindbergh as a secret Nazi and not so secret anti-semite but from his own later words it was communism he was worried about, not Jewish people.* And he certainly didn’t regard Germans as backward and instead praised their accomplishments.
Some of America’s aristocracy flirted with the Nazis and instead were opposed to Roosevelt. One could almost say WW2 itself was all about communism or the communist/fascist struggle. In the end the deaths of 25 million Russians saved Britain’s bacon. They should be more grateful.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh
Some of America’s aristocracy helped the Hitler Nazis gain power in Germany.
They also supported Germany in the early days of WWII as much as they could get away with.
I remember reading an account about how in preparing to invade Poland, the Germans could not stabilize the tetra-ethyl lead needed to mix into airplane fuel to make it suit their Luftwaffe needs enough to be able to invade. So they got an emergency shipment of tetra-ethyl lead from Standard Oil of New Jersey to be able to get their Luftwaffe into the air and into the fight and get Poland invaded on schedule.
I wonder why the present day German Academic Historian-Industrial University Complex doesn’t study more intently and intensely the American Aristocracy roots of Nazi Power in Germany.
Here is a little Rigorous Intuition article which points in a direction deserving of more study.
https://rigint.blogspot.com/2007/01/patterns-of-force.html
All true though “roots” is a bit strong. Henry Ford didn’t tell Hitler to be Hitler. I just read an article tracing his racial ideas, not to Jim Crow laws, but to the crazy and crackpot Eugenics movement that was supported by many self described “liberals” of the early 20th century. Maybe we can blame it all on Oliver Wendell Holmes.
In any case plenty of blame to go around.
I am going on memory now. Years ago I remember reading that Hitler read a translation of Henry Ford’s newspaper series “The International Jew” in the Dearborn Independent, and stated himself to be deeply inspired and informed by that series. So yes, Henry Ford did help Hitler become the Hitler he became, though Henry Ford didn’t reach across the sea and tell Hitler to do it.
I remember hearing a few random David Emory radio programs from the Spitfire List/ For The Record series. One of those Emory shows was about how several American businesses and rich people worked together to send thousands of pistols and rifles into Germany to get them into the hands of various Stahlhelm and Freikorps and other such groups, in order to destabilize Germany enough that the Nazi Party could do a successful smash and grab for power over the German political system.
So . . . . yes. The American OverClass roots of Nazi Power in Germany. Note that I did not say “American” roots. I said ” American OverClass” roots.
I wonder if/when the German historians as a group will start doing a painstaking forensic analysis of this aspect of American Elite OverClass Historical involvement in German Naziism. Maybe they will find that I exaggerate it in my own mind. If so, they can calm me down. But they will have to do the years of painstaking forensic historiographical work first.
And of course there was all the dealings with the German Reich and the Bush family. They were still trading with them even after war was declared with Germany and by right Prescott Bush should have been charged with treason-
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
And of course, IBM’s facilitation of the “Final Solution” through their German subsidiary.
Some of America’s aristocracy flirted with the Nazis
I always wondered how many upper class Americans got into planning positions in the US military in England. “Hmm, let’s not bomb that factory, my father has business interests with it. How about this other factory over here?”
How many scions went to protect the family’s financial interests?
Not just Nancy Mitford. The Manchester biography of Churchill makes this clear too.
The approach taken by the UK government during the Spanish Civil War is of interest here. Ostensibly neutral between the Fascists and the Republic, the UK worked discreetly to assist Franco by for example the Royal Navy passing intelligence on Republican ship movements to Franco’s ships. The UK did more tacitly to encourage the rise of Fascism in Europe in the 1930s than it would ever now be comfortable admitting.
“The Wehrmacht was completely at home with this, as its published orders demonstrate, less because of the effect of Nazi ideology than because of the traditional fear and hatred of the Slavic hordes to the East, and the memories of Russian atrocities in 1914.”
This is the same reason the allies entertained the idea of declaring war on the Soviet Union. How could anyone reasonably believe them to be a greater threat at the time when they had just come out of a brutal civil war? And Germany, once again, was running roughshod over everyone in Europe?
And since Russia is no longer the Soviet Union, I can’t help but believe the animosity being displayed by the USA today is the same “traditional fear and hatred of the Slavic hordes to the East, and the memories of Russian atrocities in 1914.”
Amendment here: I actually meant to say the USA’s animosity has more to do with 1917 & 1918 events that happened during the Russian Revolution.
Your analysis here is spot-on, Mikel. Like with Cuba in the 1950s, there were lots of American companies with investments in the Russian empire– particularly in oil and other natural resource extraction but also in manufacturing. All of this was expropriated and nationalized during the revolution.
One of the big investors in the Russian empire was Herbert Hoover. He was a mining consultant and financier who by 1914 was worth more than $100 million and had offices around the world, including Petrograd and interests in copper mines in a town called Kyshtym. He and others like him were sore to lose those investments.
Another country that can’t catch a break because they defied empire in the past (whatever their position or system now):
Haiti.
On the Russian side, maybe one might consider that the “Allies” waded into the mess of the Russian Revolution on the side of the White Russians. American forces were prominent in this actual invasion of the Russian homeland. https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-i/the-day-that-the-usa-invaded-russia-and-fought-with-the-red-army-x.html
But of course this was OUR very perfect Imperial forces just protecting Western Values against the Slavic hordes. No reason for the Russians of today to be concerned about NATO forces slouching up to the Russian border…
” ….. the racially exterminatory nature of Barbarossa was overt from the start and never hidden. The whole of the area to the Urals was to be cleared of its native population, except for those who would be retained as slaves, and settled by ethnic Germans.”
Rather like the US policy, articulated by Presidents George Washington and Andrew Jackson, among many many other political and military figures, of clearing the continent of the ‘savage’ Native inhabitants and making way for settlement by the ‘superior’ white europeans. What is wrong with people?
Some think Stone Age hunter/gather practices were incompatible with farming.
I think I just read right here at NC that recent studies noted that our forbears engaged in “all of the above.” Which would seem to make sense. “Clan of the Cave Bear” notwithstanding. Lots of interesting insights in this article, including the observation that shards of earthenware ceramics were the “non-degradable plastics of their day.” https://thecommonernews.com/what-did-ancients-eat/
Yes, the farmers do seem to have a criminal streak… Cain is supposed to be immortal and bear the mark….
That was certainly the view in Tasmania back in the day
The ‘Black Line’ in 1830 was an attempt to relocate the entire native population from the areas that could be farmed. Soldiers and armed citizens formed a line, and moved north through the area to be cleared.
The attempt resulted in the capture of one old man and one small boy.
Oh, the “savages” canard, again. Please, read some books on American, South American, and pre-Columbian history.
The Americas had hundreds of nations. The farming and herding practices of the Native American were often as advanced as anything that the Europeans and Americans did with those being hunter-gatherers often being a minority.
I don’t think they really intended to exterminate them. I think they lacked the imagination to think that the Europeans would eventually spread out over the entire continent. In their minds, perhaps influenced by Bishop Fénelon’s (1699) Telemachus, arguably the most popular and most foundational political book of the 18th c. (translated in 1776 by Tobias Smollett) and a favorite book of Jefferson’s, who owned many copies there were limitless space and resources — and room for both European settlers and Native inhabitants, or at least the settlers could tell themselves this comforting fairytale.
Certainly in my younger days, it was never dreamed of that all the wild animals and fish, such as cod and swordfish, were in danger of imminent extinction, not to mention birds, amphibians & insects. It seems hard to believe but true. Darwin had not been dreamed of during the Enlightenment period of the founding fathers, and even the very concept of extinction was unknown. The popularity of the concept of the “struggle for existence” came later, after 1855,and it peaked with scientific racism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
@Eclair
From Washington to Jackson to General Sherman:
“…we must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women and children.” (1867 letter from Sherman to President Grant)
Amazing that this blatant call to genocide is on the public record. For all the atrocities committed by the Nazis in Eastern Europe, they would at least attempt to couch them in euphemistic language.
I don’t know but Sherman’s letter to Grant may have been a reaction to the 1866 Fetterman Massacre, where the Lakota chief Red Cloud and allies led Captain Fetterman into an ambush and killed all 81 soldiers. According to Wikipedia: “At the time, it was the worst military disaster ever suffered by the US Army on the Great Plains.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetterman_Fight
Really, don’t know where to begin with a reply. Rationalizing calling for” vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination , men, women and children”. (Sherman, 1867).
So, Red Cloud and allies didn’t just surrender to the U.S. Army. How brazen! Who ( what) did they think they were and what did they think they were doing? Let’s see, soldiers from an invading force of men were set to take the Sioux and allies ‘ land, homes, and kill them to drive them away. Any reaction that calls for “clearing the continent” for superior (invading) Europeans is justified. Please don’t put the “reaction” in some rationalized context of “The time ” in America’s history. Exterminating a whole group of people is just that, as well as forcing them with might into “reservations”. Moral relativism doesn’t make what Europeans right in their shameless and narrcisstic hubris and cruelty. It’s interesting, as much as most current Americans would agree that slavery was horrible and had to be “ended” and that POC absolutely deserve to be equal in society; Native Americans are not included in the cries for justice and equality in societies. A renewal of Native pride ( not referring to self- aggrandizement on the whole) in their culture, languages and spirituality is happening. It seems to be that some are wanting to make their nations more autonomous and vibrant. Much more could be said.
@Petter
You’re right, but women and children too? I think there was more contained in Sherman’s letter than just anger at having 81 of his soldiers killed. It was a letter, after all. He presumably had time to reflect on what he was saying.
No, to me, it suggests a racial animus on his part. The Sioux were a large nation. No Sioux women and children, no Sioux offspring. I also have to believe that other tribes would have been in danger of the same treatment had they stood in Sherman’s or any other general’s way.
As it was in the one-sided “war”, the Indians were left with three choices:
1. “Resettlement” (there’s that infamous Nazi euphemism) to barren areas.
2. Death by starvation or exposure as the buffalo they relied on for food and clothing were deliberately massacred by soldiers and settlers alike.
3. Extermination.
That’s genocide.
Of course it’s genocide. The Fetterman Massacre occurred on December 21, 1866. What’s the date of Sherman’s letter? I don’t know but I hypothesized that Sherman’s letter was a reaction to Fetterman and Sherman’s reaction was – exterminate them. Genocide.
We ought all to re-read Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Last words of Kurtz’s screed. “Exterminate the brutes.”
What do you mean by the Russian atrocities of 1914? I think that they never managed to occupy any German land in WW1 and so never had a chance to commit atrocities against the Germans.
I believe that they did invade East Prussia in the First World War. Much of what is Poland now was German then.
Right, but only small parts of East Prussia were occupied, and very briefly. I never heard about atrocities committed there, hence the question.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_invasion_of_East_Prussia_(1914)
There’s another outbreak at the Sonoma County Jails, Delta Variant,
They had opened up visitation on a limited basis ( no physical contact, you sit in a cubicle with 3/4″ of bullet resistant glass between yourself and the prisoner) about 3 weeks ago.
Visitors were required to remain masked at all times, however there is very poor ventilation and conversations take place through a small grille.
Just out of curiosity, how do they know it’s the Delta variant? Have they done genetic sequencing?
I am very interested in the answer to that question as well.
As I understand PCR test does not provide an answer so how do they know it”s the “Delta” variant that’s spreading… Or is this just more speculation by the powers that be…
There have been reports of Delta + , Epsilon, and Gamma variants.
Yet, they are only talking about the shots “working” on Delta.
No mention of the other 3 when they write about the boosters.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2105282
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/sonoma-county-jail-sees-outbreak-of-covid-19/
I will point you to the above two articles about this very subject –
The top one is from the NEJM – they have been trumpeting California’s success rate in getting inmates vaccinated from very early on in the vaccination drive.
The second one is a local press report from the past few days.
The local press report does not really discuss how many of the current inmates involved in the outbreak are vaccinated. It does give details on how they have been quarantining the inmates as they come in – and how they have attempted a vaccine campaign among them – mainly from the J&J vaccine.
The NEJM seems to indicate as of MARCH 4 – ages ago – that roughly 50% of the inmates in California’s system had been vaccinated. I would suggest that number is probably much higher now, although I can find no current data. The NEJM was really heralding this story for about a month, it has gone silent lately.
There is no breakdown of vaccinated vs unvaccinated that I can find in the current Sonoma County outbreak. However, the pattern demonstrated is exactly what I have been seeing on the ground for weeks. Large clusters of positive patients, vaccinated or not, many of whom, vaccinated or not, are asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic. Those who do get symptoms, vaccinated or not, seem to largely get better much more quickly than what we were having before. The vaccinated status does not seem to be a magic bullet in this process- the unvaccinated get better just as quickly. My friends in the big city continue to tell me as of this AM – they are having large numbers of patients come in – severe flu like illness, but they are for the most part able to be discharged very soon. Saving the hospitals from being in a crash situation. There are also patients who are quite ill, and those patients, vaccinated or not, largely fall into the same familiar COVID risk factors – obese, diabetic, immunocompromised. There is a trend toward the unvaccinated having a bit worse outcomes in the group that gets very ill.
I am seeing the same pattern here – but much smaller numbers.
It appears the jail system in that county in California is having the same kind of experience.
What can be inferred by what we are seeing?
A) At least for now, we are not seeing near the illness levels as during previous waves. It is happening to some, but not nearly as common as before. One can say this is the vaccine, however, the pattern is holding up in the vast majority of unvaccinated as well. It may be that the Delta variant is just not making people as sick. It could be that enough people in the community have at least some remaining natural immunity that they are able to fight this off better than last year (It is an open question how long that immunity will last). It may be that we in medicine have gotten much better at taking care of people in the early stages. And lastly, it must be put on the table, the widespread use of ivermectin and Budesonide may be helping people be less sick. In my area, there is widespread use of veterinary Ivermectin going on in several counties – completely unsanctioned by organized medicine. And I mean widespread. I am not seeing the amount of illness I was from these communities if any at all that I was seeing last year around this time.
I am reporting observations and facts. I am not in any way advocating the use of veterinary Ivermectin. I absolutely prescribe the human version after I have discussed facts with rational human beings who are my patients.
I will however say this. I am a veteran of the AIDS pandemic, and in my lifetime as a physician there have been multiple very severe flu epidemics that filled hospitals just like what we are seeing with COVID. Killing large swaths of people. During those times, I never heard or saw a physician being shamed or censored for using any kinds of medicine to try to help people survive. Not once. Prednisone, cough syrup, steroid inhalers, all kinds of antibiotics – you name it – it was used. NOT ONCE did I see any shaming. Not one of these things had any kind of RCT to back them up. In fact the exact opposite is true.
There is a drug called TAMIFLU – it is FDA approved to treat the acute flu. The name brand is about 200 bucks the generic is about 50 bucks. An approved drug – that dating back almost 20 years multiple RCTs show IT DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to prevent severe illness or death – NOTHING. There is even strong evidence it does nothing for symptoms. And yet is handed out like M&Ms during flu seasons both mild and severe. I have been in multiple journal clubs in my life about this very subject. And it actually does have safety concerns. And yet – we have a drug – ivermectin – with virtually no safety concerns and actually quite a bit of positive signal – and we are turning our backs on it as a profession. Shaming and censoring. I have seen signal with my own eyes that it can help keep people out of the hospital. I have seen the marked decrease in illness from places where it is having widespread use.
Again, the physicians and patients of America deserve real answers. Doing real research trials – not trials like what are going on right now to purposely sabotage the drug – REAL TRIALS – would go a long way to restore the credibility of our federal officials which is now in tatters. The lies have become so thick now that I cannot even discuss what the officials say with my patients with a straight face. The patients – both Red and Blue – have LOL moments when certain topics are brought up. I have never felt so disconnected from the federal health officials – and it is not a good feeling. I have noticed that over the past 2 weeks, our local health departments in our area are ignoring much of what the CDC says – the insanity has gotten so bad.
We have much to do in our profession, in both salvaging what is left of our credibility – and the researchers have much work to do to tease out all these hypotheses. The next variant may not be so kind.
B). It remains crystal clear to me that the vaccines are really not doing a thing to slow the spread. Just way way too many breakthroughs are happening in all kinds of my own experience, my colleagues’ experience, and just numerous media reports.
There are many potential complications to the widespread use of non-sterilizing vaccines in an acute pandemic with a contagion that can mutate this well. There are vigorous debates in medicine right now about what this may mean in the future. I am certain we will be hearing more about these issues going forward. But my experience this week after all the data coming in about these vaccines and some cold water in the face, is that many physicians and researchers are beginning to look at things with a new eye. The CDC and FDA and Pfizer have now been shown to be just a little less than credible. We will see how this all goes.
One thing I did not mention. With regard to the virus still allowing spread. I know that our media is completely focused on the death and hospitalizations – but it is also equally important to remember about LONG COVID. I am already seeing this in many of these recently positive patients – vaccinated or not. Brain fog, depression, and headaches being the top 3 symptoms.
Not sure at all what to think about this going forward.
That is honestly my main concern for now with all of this. I’ve known a few people who have dealt with Lyme’s and other unknown lingering ailments that have hampered their lives. And hearing stories like the 36 year old personal trainer of a friend who months after her bout with Covid can barely make it up a flight of stairs now without being winded.
If that fit and healthy young woman can be so devastated by Long Covid then my slovenly old self would be wrecked.
Back in April-May of this year I was at the pulmonary rehab hospital LHL (my fourth time). Not to get into my tale of woe but among the patients were a group of Long Covid sufferers. The hospital did a study which I can’t find but I found this:
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Increasing need for Covid-19 rehabilitation
Rehabilitation is important for patients who 3-6 months after Covid-19 still struggle with late injuries. At LHL Hospital Gardermoen, an interdisciplinary team is ready.
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=no&u=https://www.lhl.no/korona/okende-behov-for-covid-19-rehablitering/&prev=search&pto=aue
— – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
And I found this:
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Norwegian study: More than half of young people with mild Covid-19 infections experienced Long Covid
https://sciencenorway.no/covid19/norwegian-study-more-than-half-of-young-people-with-mild-covid-19-infections-experienced-long-covid/1880560
Micro-clotting in capillaries does not appear on x-rays..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sIWb9GTbbE&t=539s
That’s terrifying to hear, and I’ve seen a few news stories lately that mention Long-COVID in passing as an outcome of infection for vaccinated people as well in some cases. The first instance of this I saw was in a NYTimes story about 2 months ago, mostly in passing, as it was not the focus of the story, but I’ve been deeply concerned ever since.
It’s disappointing that this might not be an isolated phenomenon and another reason why we need to adopt a defense-in-depth approach immediately to this pandemic.
What’s more chilling is those that have disproportionately borne the brunt of the pandemic are those least likely to be able to afford to seek treatment for Long-COVID. The multidisciplinary approach to treatment that seems to be growing in popularity can’t possibly be cheap.
And what of life insurance policies and disability policies in the future, I wonder? A big factor in mortality for the former is smoking/non-smoking. Will having had COVID be similar?
Stay safe!
Thank you for sharing your words of wisdom once more.
I’d love to have the time to collect all your comments from over the months and collect them in one place for posterity. A sort of snippet of the real history of this era defined by faulty narratives. One day, when the dust settles (if it settles), a truthful timeline would be useful for historians. :)
IM Doc, if you’re saving these comments for the purpose of writing a book, know that I will be ordering an autographed copy.
PS: Thank you for all that you do.
IM Doc, thank you for your continuing updates!
Early this morning I learned that my dad has had cold symptoms for a couple of days. I asked my mom if he had been tested for COVID, and she said no, because he doesn’t have a fever. (They are both early 70’s, vaccinated with Pfizer in Jan/Feb.) I told them both to get the test. The soonest appointment they could find is tomorrow (Sunday)—I don’t know whether that means a rationing of supply or a spike in demand for tests in central Minnesota. Neither is good.
Once again, with updates from IM Doc and various commenters here we learn so much. Kudos to all. Kathy, check this out. An article in The Sun regarding the symptoms of Delta as opposed to earlier variants. Fever has dropped down the list as an indicator of infection. The article, from about a month ago: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15266439/two-most-common-covid-symptoms-changed-delta/
I will however say this. I am a veteran of the AIDS pandemic, …
Bactrim. You understand. “And the band played on.” Thanks for your comments.
One thing I enjoy about reading IM Doc’s posts is that I always learn something, not only about the current epidemic or how medical professionals think and work, but about the society we’re living in now.
Whence this new practice of shaming? It’s happening not just with Ivermectin and the vaccine hesitant (which have some legitimate reasons to hesitate, even if we disagree with them), but in many other spheres of society as well. And very often now, shaming escalates into outright censorship.
How did we get here?
Wow. Dr Zoë Hyde and the girls at Honest Government Ads nails it again. This is much a briefing on the situation in Oz as a comedy skit – or do I repeat myself? Scotty from Marketing is doing what he always does – stuffs things up and blames other people for it. A bit like the UK’s Boris come to think of it. If the Governors of Florida or Texas or California ever want to take a holiday, I am sure that Scotty could go over and take over while they do so. And the citizens of any of those States would never even notice the difference.
Oh, you left out Arizona’s governor. Just saying…
And now apparently the Premier of Alberta …
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-albertas-risky-gamble-with-covid-19-delta-variant-is-politically/
Re: the Reuters and STAT articles on vaccine approval > full speed ahead but not a word in either article about the safety issue (unless I missed it). So, is safety assumed or confirmed or what? Where is the data? I think the assumption that approval will result in more people being willing to be vaccinated is questionable but approval will definitely legitimatize vaccine mandates by employers. So hesitant or not, take the vaccine or apply for unemployment, which, come to think of it, you might not even qualify for.
What’s the difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated?
About six months.
Six Months…that’s as bad as the joke about the difference between love and herpes.
Herpes is forever.
News from Peru:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/31/pedro-francke-relief-in-peru-as-moderate-is-made-finance-minister
Re Bezos and the Moon contract–so sad that he couldn’t bend NASA to his mighty will. Perhaps he could just buy it. It’s possible NASA decided he would be providing the same quality control on his moon rocket as he does on his delivery vans.
Of course Bezos can buy Congress. Will he still get all those billions tacked on to the latest appropriation by Washington state’s delegation?
Will he still get all those billions tacked on to the latest appropriation by Washington state’s delegation?
Isn’t that what they are there for? “I promise to protect and defend Amazon from all enemies foreign and domestic. So help me God.”
How long before even the fawning media have had enough of Jeff? Whatever one thinks of Musk, at least he’s an actual engineer, not a dilettante. I suspect this was NASA’s attitude as well.
Whatever one thinks of Musk, at least he’s an actual engineer, not a dilettante.
Hilarious. Musk is a drop-out and no engineer at all. Specifically, he’s a a drop-out from the masters physics program at Stanford — and on his second day there, FFS — and his bachelor’s was in economics and physics from U of Penn.
Musk lucked out by being a member of the Paypal mafia, like Peter Thiel — who’s a philosophy degree, incidentally, and at least has the redeeming virtue in person of being very shy (Thiel is nearly autistic) unlike Musk, who’s pure bs artist.
If you dig into what Musk says about his Mars colony and how his Starship/BFR gets fueled and gets there, for instance, it’s near-nonsense, taking no real account of the most fundamental fact of rocketry, the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, and the constraints arising from that for a Mars trip. Whether Musk is talking horse manure because he likes the hype or because he’s genuinely ignorant, I cannot say.
Jeff Bezos, on the other hand, is an engineer, to the extent that he got a BSE in electrical engineering and computer science, and in his early work career built out networks. Interestingly — and this is not to defend the man — Bezos has said he started university wanting to be a theoretical physicist and found out from a friend — who did become one — that he didn’t have the brains.
So: you’re wrong on all counts. Don’t believe the hype.
OK you got me there but in practical terms his accomplishments with Space X and even Tesla show a lot more engineering than anything coming our of “Drone delivery” Bezos. To be sure Musk hired some very smart people to do these things but they had to bounce it all off him. His father was an engineer so if it’s in the nature or the nurture there’s that.
Bezos got himself into space and made himself rich but many of his hardware ideas are not very good. The e-ink Kindle would be one example and I have two of them. Then there’s the Fire phone, his doorbell camera and other spybot devices. These are business promotional ideas and not the spawn of someone with an engineering mindset IMO.
Hey, don’t believe me, believe NASA.
The Mars stuff is of course silly and Musk as a person worse than silly by most accounts. But Space X is genuinely something.
Musk is an MBA. He’s not a scientist or an engineer.
Musk: BA Physics, BS Economics
Routinely scornful of MBAs.
BS in economics gets you the indoctrination. I agree the MBA isn’t much of a degree. Trade school + employment agency.
>BS in economics gives you the indoctrination.
I disagree. I suppose it depends on the school, but all sorts of things that econ majors are exposed to: monopolies, negative externalities, tragedy of the commons, prisoners dilemma, and on and on can be used to see how effed up the world is.
The problem is that the economists that get paraded in front of us by the media have been selected by the .1 percenters because they have been corrupted, either directly or indirectly.
“Investors Lost Hundreds of Billions on China in July”
Is it too late to recall the Senate and the House to pass a CARES Act 2.0 to make those investors whole again? It would only cost $400 billion.
They got briefed on the delta variant ala’ the bernanks meeting with the banksters in early march of ’09, something like “I’m buying your worthless securities at face value in two days, let’s just keep that on the down low until I tell everyone else in a three days, k?”
That bit of insider info (“Oh Crap! Delta! don’t effing tell anyone, except for maybe select lobbyists….)
can make up a lot of ground in a short (pardon the pun) period
Re: Dr Jilli twitter:
“Government covid case figures look wrong. 30% drop so quickly is odd. The Zoe App lead agrees. Sewage results show a massive increase. Young folk just aren’t getting tested..”
Sewage results show massive increase.
And nobody is talking about the bathrooms in the push to send people back to poorly ventilated places (windows that do not open or no windows) or even outdoor events.
Oppose the right-wing campaign against vaccination
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/07/29/pers-j29.html
Some food for thought brought to us by socialists, echos many sentiments that I’ve heard expressed in comments here.
“Right-wing” encompasses both dems and repubs, who differ only in terms of messaging– no person of integrity would belong to or support either party, neither of which serve our common interests.
The question is, how to bring them down?
Years ago, after a few cocktails with friends, pushing my bike while walking home with some of them through a gentrifying part of the city and passing a newly-built, high-priced (“exclusive”) condo complex surrounded by high walls and a tall, barred gate at the drive, we bitterly conversed about how all they needed was a moat in order to completely cut themselves from the neighborhood. I think my bicycle lock somehow got attached to the gates, in effect, double-locking them. All we needed was a “KEEP OUT!” sign facing inward and the picture would have been complete, but alas, we had neither cardboard or pen.
Just a reminder that walls and gates work both ways.
My Vaccines, Right or Left
And We Should Trust ‘The Science’ of the Pharma Industry?
F. William Engdahl
https://journal-neo.org/2021/07/29/and-we-should-trust-the-science-of-the-pharma-industry/
From that same article:
“Pfizer, one of the world’s largest vaccine makers by sales, was founded in 1849 in the USA. It also has one of the most criminal records of fraud, corruption, falsification and proven damage. A 2010 Canadian study noted, “Pfizer has been a “habitual offender,” persistently engaging in illegal and corrupt marketing practices, bribing physicians and suppressing adverse trial results.” That’s serious. Note that Pfizer has yet to make fully public details of its covid vaccine studies for external examination.”
AZ and JJ also have criminal records. So, we are encouraged/bribed/threatened/shamed/scapegoated to deal with criminal organizations by our leaders. And the ethical/moral/spiritual leaders such as we have are silent.
Please note also that many adverse events are reported and vanish never making it into the system as our own IM Doc has found for the events he has reported regarding his patients. The VAERS system is suspect in my book. I trust IM Doc’s reporting.
Ana in Sacramento
OPENVAERS keeps all the posts even if VAERS tries to hide them
The video with the orphan lamb is super adorable. That being said…
Agent Starling? You’re not really FBI? I’m in training. Jack Crawford sent a trainee to me?
Quickly I duck for appropriate cover!
“It Failed Miserably” – What If the US Lost a War and Nobody Noticed?
Maybe at heart the problem is this. At the turn of this century, it was a unipolar world and the US military had no peer or even no near-peer. But then it spent the past twenty years trying to conquor the Middle East and Afghanistan to boot as part of a neocon re-ordering of the world. Well that project for the new American century did not work out but here is the thing. For twenty years the US military had to configure themselves to fighting resistance forces but now they have to go back to fighting real wars. And now you have not only Russia come back from the dead but China is on a rapid rise. Worse still, warfare has changed. Remember last year’s Nagorno-Karabakh war? Can you imagine what would have happened if they had been American formations and not Armenian ones? And missiles have ended the dominance of those US carriers. They can still hit backwards countries but against countries like China, Russia or even Iran? Forget it. And as much as you have lots of reformist officers in the military, the natural instinct will be to give more money to the Pentagon so that they can give contracts to corporations like Raytheon to come up with some new technology to save the day.
On the bright side, a high-ranking general noticed and responded to the result of a war game. That is a little better than the response to the Millenium Challenge 2002 War Game.
I would like to believe that in an actual conflict the Chinese disable the US forces, perhaps clipping it of a couple of expensive in $$$$$ targets and tell the rest to surrender. Then send the entire contingent of the enlisted military personnel back to the US on Taiwan freighters originally carrying freight to the US. They could have ther freight unloaded and replaced with porta potties, racks of sacks, containers of fresh water, and US K-rations. The might keep the officers for re-education in Taiwan and send them back after demoralizing the officers and making clear just how remarkably stupid the US higher command had proven. Perhaps a few lessons from sites like the Unusual Whales website might help drive a few lessons home. The Chinese might also use the opportunity to clarify their intentions in the Pacific and elsewhere. Then they could send the officers back to the US on other freighter similarly re-outfitted for a slow return to the US.
A mortifying embarrassment to the US MIC and Government would be more useful than a killing a lot of US military personnel. It should avoid turning the skirmish into a nuclear war. Who knows? Perhaps such a skirmish over Taiwan could result in regime change and democracy building in the US.
If the US military isn’t embarrassed already – remember they spend a trillion dollars a year on “something” – then they never will be. Remember, these guys haven’t won a war since Hitler was alive.
I wonder how good they would be if we sent them two trillion a year?
Winning wars is like curing disease; not a viable business model.
we won Grenada.
On a serious note, the USSR did the bulk of the heavy lifting in WWII, the eastern front made Normandy and Iwo Jima look like a stroll through the the local county fair. While Japan was in its own quagmire on the Chinese mainland as MacArthur island hopped.
at the rate things are going, I doubt Russia will be cheering on the US if the doo-doo ever hits the fan in the South China Sea (or China will be helping if the US and Russia slug it out in eastern Ukraine/Black Sea)
I do not believe that either Russia or China or Iran for that matter wants war , but it is assumed that a military confrontation is coming. The Russians have studied the American way of war and produced weapons to counter it. China’s “ship killer” missiles are a similar answer. The USA acts like the guy with no tool but a hammer. Of course everything looks like a nail. Russo-phobia is nonsense. Blaming the Russians for everything but bad breath is puerile. We sent our industry to China in pursuit of short term profit. We allowed our chip industry to atrophy. We invented solar panels.Others built them. We overthrew the Iranian government in 1953 in the interest of what became BP. We supported the Shah as he became increasingly brutal. I cannot remember if we offered training to his secret police, the Savak. Now we are aggrieved that Iran is not thrilled with us. Might it not be a good idea to put aside the Imperial attitude and realize that the uni-polar world vanished sometime ago. Time to see the world as it is and not as our fantasies would have it. But it makes no difference what we or anyone else does, if we continue to ignore climate change.
Yes, we trained the Savak. And the equivalent in many other countries for that matter.
Ana in Sacramento
The Savak was trained by both the CIA and Israel’s Mossad. The irony is that after the ’79 revolution, the incoming government decided that they still needed their services and so those people were largely retained rather than ending up as a smear against a brick wall.
The war will be postponed due to a chip shortage, plus the planes won’t fly, the boats won’t float, and the army doesn’t have the right to repair its drones.
When more young people awaken and say they won’t play war anymore. One can dream. But…They would never reinstate a military draft, Right? As I brought up a few days ago: A news story reported that a U.S. Senate panel was created to discuss requiring women to register for the military draft. It’s “inclusive” of our population.
A draft assumes the need for a mass army on the scale of the World Wars. The senate is known for odd and whimsical notions.
Reinstatement of the draft indeed seems unlikely (tho we’ll have to check back after the next war(s) are launched), but young men are still required to register with the Selective Service at age 18. Moreover, failure to do so means they are ineligible for federal student aid. I.e., no federal loans for college.
Given the out-of-control costs of higher education, many young men from families without the means to send them to college opt for the GI bill.
…which helps the war machine to continue churning.
Any reinstatement of the draft will be a fiasco as so many people have had their health damaged by Coronavirus that they will be rejected as recruits – and not just those long-covid sufferers either. Already the military rejects any applicant who was sick enough to have been admitted to a hospital. This idea of bringing in women is probably just an attempt to widen the pool of possible recruits down the track because of this. The US military is starting to resemble the British Army of the Victorian era where it was said that the two greatest recruiters to it were Unemployment and Jack Frost.
How about the Cylons just use their kill all newer technology which isn’t theirs switch?
The DC FedRegime would take it nuclear immediately.
I disagree. I think the chance of America being a hyperpower (ie a unipolar world) disappeared when Russia was given the nuclear bomb by the Cambridge Five and their American counterparts like the Rosenbergs and Fuchs.
New Turley column about how twitter s censoring vaccine skeptics.
https://jonathanturley.org/2021/07/31/twitter-suspends-science-writer-after-he-posts-results-of-pfizer-clinical-test/
So far NC seems to be safe but PropOrNot part deux on the way?
Is there a parallel with the story of Al Capone’s final conviction, in that “Professional Wrongster” Alex Berenson was finally banned for posting the results of a Pfizer trial, and not for the litany of dangerous disinformation he has published since Covid-19 began.
No.
Given all the vaccine doubts around here lately shouldn’t you consider changing your tune? But just to be clear, you are all for censorship as long as they are “wrongsters”?
I’m not. Turley either.
In a public health emergency, i think people like him should be told to sit down and stfu instead of giving them a platform to spread dangerous lies. “shouting fire in a crowded theatre” and “the constitution is not a suicide pact” come to mind. I can’t understand how he still has an audience at all. It’s tragic he keeps getting brought up here.
As for the vaccine doubts around here. It’s a very sad state of affairs, i must say. I just hope no vulnerable people have been tricked into not getting the shot, and then died, as a result of the innumerate nonsense getting spread by some users of this board.
Is the vaccine perfect? No, but luckily the vast majority of breakthrough cases don’t result in severe illness.
Is the vaccine better than “going bareback” if you are in the at risk group? Yes, the data from a billion doses is in, and it is obviously much better!
Thank goodness that our most vulnerable have had the chance to get this protection, or we would be in a very much worse situation!
VAERS COVID Vaccine Data
https://www.openvaers.com/covid-data
Reports from the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System.
“Never in history have such high death totals been associated with any vaccine.” –Engdahl
VAERS does record events in the vaccinated. Headaches, fever, fatigue, pain, heart attacks, strokes, and deaths all do show up in VAERS. The problem in trying to interpret the data is that there is no control group. How many headaches, fever, fatigue, etc. occur in the unvaccinated? More important, Is there a significant difference in severe events (including death) between vaccinated and unvaccinated? At the very least, one would need that data to claim a cause and effect.
…and of course the CDC is collecting that data…oh wait…don’t measure what you don’t want to know.
Isn’t that a Trump idea? That if you don’t test for something, that you won’t find any problems?
I don’t know who’s idea it was, but if one were looking for plausible deniability it works pretty darn good
There may not be a control group as such. But every year about 50% of adults in US get a flu jab(vaccination). This cohort also tends to disproportionately include many most at risk of the flu, elderly etc.
There has never been this quantity or severity of adverse events reported.
The covid vaccinations are apparently orders of magnitude less safe than a standard flu vaccination.
I’m sure many of the doubters can be convinced when you give them the results of the 3 and 5 year long-term safety reviews for Pfizer and Moderna. You have those on hand to distribute, right?
If we’re going to vaccinate every single person on the planet, we might want to make sure there are no surprises. Therefore, a little skepticism is warranted at this stage. By all means, vaccinate the most vulnerable who would like the vaccination, but mandates are not appropriate yet and neither is attempting coerce compliance through emotional manipulation.
Sounds like you have not in fact been reading comments around here suggesting that the “data” is absent or has even been actively suppressed. But nice MSNBC talking points.
Of course you are perfectly entitled to hold your views and believe your sources as are we all –except, apparently, those who must STFU.
But it’s just possible that lives depend more on keeping an open mind than on depending on a constantly changing official narrative.
What does “keeping an open mind” entail? Agreeing with you? It is possible for people to evaluate the same information, and come to a different conclusion than you.
I think that Carolinian has a point. As an example, if you had listened to the CDC advice on mass over the past twenty months it was changed again and again. If you had kept an open mind and watched what they were doing in Asian countries, you may have come to the conclusion that masks were actually the way to go. But people were told to shut up about them and bizarrely the matter of masks got somehow tied up in the nebulous idea of liberty in the west. And I am not going to get on the subject of the-drug-that-must-not-be-named. :)
Didn’t I just say that? And that’s really all I’m saying. I’m not a doctor although we have someone around here lately who is.
You can’t “evaluate the information” unless you know what it is. Stfu works against this.
Yes. Indeed. certainly.
May I humbly suggest:
Your body your choice.
&
MY Body MY Choice.
Much vaccine criticism here has been automatic, of the variety that I suspect those disseminating it will not change their tune whatever evidence they are presented with.
Even more, and more thorough, vaccine criticism here has attained a much higher standard; it’s that which I pay attention to.
I think it is terrible that, per IM Doc’s dispatches, it’s been impossible to gain a proper understanding from clinical evidence about the true risk profile of the novel vaccines, which prevents patients from making a fully informed risk assessment. Various organisational entities, not least of which is the CDC, have worked to prevent this.
But I think it would be blithe or stubborn or tendentious to pretend at this point that the vaccinations haven’t also spared many lives and prevented serious and debilitating illness. That’s really good! If I’m mistaken about this, let me know.
that’s why I think, at this point, that the vaccines (as they stand – I hold out hope for superior vaccines) should be a part of a nation’s covid response, especially if the disease is running rampant throughout the population. It should not be the sole response, taken as part of an all or nothing formulation. I don’t even think it should be the primary response.
(as it happens, I have started to compile my news analysis and covid thoughts and opinions in a onenote doc for me to review for posterity/i-told-you-so purposes in 6-12 months time, so I can earnestly review my own analytic abilities in the future. some people might find such a project worthwhile.)
“But I think it would be blithe or stubborn or tendentious to pretend at this point that the vaccinations haven’t also spared many lives and prevented serious and debilitating illness. ”
This assertion is unproven.
Asking for PROOF does not make one blithe or stubborn or tendentious.
I am not pretending to know.
I just won’t be making irreversible medical decisions without verifiable evidence from a trustworthy source.
I’ll let you know when I find a trustworthy source; but, don’t hold your breath..
IF liability was not being waved I might think a bit differently.
IF the pharma companies were not suddenly reaping hundreds of billions of dollars I might think a bit differently..
nope, not tendentious at all
Nice snake! Looks to be an ‘Albino’ Western diamondback — Crotalus atrox. Very common species here in Tucson — almost stepped on one twice this spring while walking the dogs — and I actually look out for them!
They have a extensive range in the Western U.S., and are a large, tough, and durable species.
This is a genetic aberration, far more common in captivity than the wild, and not the color of the ‘normal’ ones.
Uh-oh! I live in central Tucson. Better be careful when I’m out walking around!
In Arizona, the biggest snakes live in the state legislature.
Far be it from me to disagree. And, BTW, one of my longtime friends *is* a member of the state house of representatives.
The stories she tells are truly appalling. I really don’t understand how she manages to stay sane.
Michael, boy are you correct. We have a double whammy in our part of AZ with Karen “Audit the Election” Fann as our state senator and Paul “I’m Just a Dentist” Gosar as our Fed house misrepresentative.
Ha! There are snakes and then there are snakes. In AZ state legislature there are garden snakes, bull snakes and there are venomous ones, like that Western Diamondback. Then there are also some toads and Gila Monsters. Gives new meaning to “it’s like a zoo”! Here’s a simple question” : Which legislators are benign and actually try to help constituents and which don’t? P.S. No offense to “real snakes”.
I only put this here…(printing press! ACK!)
because tom stone predicted the end of july, and here we are…
https://confoundedinterest.net/2021/07/30/inflation-heats-up-4-8-run-rate-as-buying-conditions-for-housing-drops-like-a-paralyzed-falcon/
Charts and some commentary re The Ohio State Uni and Michigan…
Second-generation Michigan alum here. And, even though Mom and Dad must be spinning in their graves right now, I’m going to say this:
Ohio State University has beaten Michigan so often because of one reason: OSU has a much better team. My beloved Michigan Wolverines don’t even come close.
MV needs to fire the coach. He was mess at the 9ers and he still mess at MV
I give the khaki slacks another two seasons, tops before the buyout happens. And after epic losing in Jacksonville, who might be available for a triumphant return to college?
Saban did not last in the NFL, I don’t think Meyer will either. UM can pay him and hope he lasts for 5 years.
Here is a ‘fun’ YouTube video on the Western diamondback — that might be of interest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU1BV7cWmNw
Also, anyone visiting Albuquerque, New Mexico should check out The Rattlesnake Museum in Old Town. Somehow they have managed to survive the Covid debacle, which has strangled so many small businesses. Keep supporting them with your visit and buy a mug or a t-shirt!
https://www.rattlesnakes.com/core.html
Randy, this video (and there are many) is of a Praying Mantis eating a snake. Tough customers both. The mantis is our school band’s mascot so I’ve looked up many articles on them. Fun and interesting. Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMMKiLpgZKw
Interesting though a bit morbid and sad. I’ve seen films of them hunting, catching and eating …. fish. Wild world.
” Sewage results show a massive increase.”
SMH!
don’t they know you’re not supposed to measure what you don’t want to know?
Silly Britons should have called the CDC…
Yeesh.
Just wondering, if the vaccines get approved is there any chance that the various immunity protections for the manufacturers and for employers can be eliminated?
Since they were supposedly because of the emergency and since they no longer would be classified as emergency approvals I think that is the least the public should expect.
Don’t get me wrong. I do NOT expect that or that it would even be discussed as I believe this is all about arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. As in if we can force everyone to get vaccinated everything will go back to normal…except for multiple booster shots and variants we don’t expect and breakthroughs…and…
i believe the vaccine manufacturers were granted full immunity. The price of all the risk taking for a company to develop a vaccine
Just curious, is there then no recourse if adverse effects, or does the Fed Gov soak up the liability? There seem to have deaths.
current recourse is housed in a different federal program than other vaccines:
Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP)
This was 3am. Outside Capitol. Rep. Cori Bush (orange sleeping bag). Rep. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (right), Rep. Ilhan Omar joined by 30 people, most who came here after seeing tweet from Rep. Cori Bush.
https://twitter.com/ChuckModi1/status/1421379885046587403
What the hell is this supposed to be?
This stunt would probably have done more good if they’d pulled it earlier in the week, say when adam kinzinger and adam schiff were vying for the “Best Blubberer of the Year Award” during those ever so riveting house 1/6 “hearings.”
And from the link: Congress fails to extend federal eviction moratorium – which ends after July 31 – before going on recess Business Insider:
Performative art is no substitute for being on time for class.
“…when adam kinzinger and adam schiff were vying for the “Best Blubberer of the Year Award” during those ever so riveting house 1/6 “hearings.”
Well now. Neither AOC nor Schiff have any shot at the gold in this one. Not when Reps. Gaetz and Taylor-Greene are having intensely theatrical hysterics outside the doors of a D.C. jail. in the face of their world-class performances in the Olympic Blubberer semi-finals Congressional Democrats, even the most shamelessly emotive, don’t stand a chance.
Even though it’s mostly performative it’s nice to see a few elected reps doing something to show they care.
Pelosi’s comment on the subject yesterday should have her banished to a nursing home and forgotten about: “Really, we only learned about this yesterday. Not really enough time to socialize it within our caucus to build… the consensus necessary.”
They only learned about it yesterday? A problem they created they only learned about yesterday? Senility is the only answer that doesn’t make her sound like a moron or a liar.
Because House Democratic leaders attempted to pass a moratorium extension using a procedure known as unanimous consent, a single Republican objection—in this case from Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.)—was enough to block the legislation. There was no full vote in the chamber, so centrist Democrats did not have to go on the record opposing an extension.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/31/bush-pressley-and-omar-sleep-outside-capitol-demand-extension-eviction-moratorium
Well played all……….
Kudos to the three who slept out. I guess we know now, who the real progressives are, and who are just posers ……
I’m not sure if Cori Bush is a real progressive. She was one of the few who turned up at the march for healthcare the other day but then told them that she did not support their principles.
From Twitter:
“Any tips for those of us about to be homeless?”
https://twitter.com/jamesithon/status/1421506392196882436?s=21
People actually providing useful info in the replies.
I guess she should have thought about that when she voted “Present” when it was her turn to vote for or against Speaker Pelosi,
She voted yes. If she had voted present it would have lowered the number Pelosi needed to win. If she had voted for someone else Pelosi would still have won by 1 vote. If one or two more people had done the same, Democrats would have lost the speakership to McCarthy, which would have been great fun for the “mocking horrible nationally prominent female Democrats and the very few trying to do better” comment genre, but wouldn’t have changed Congress for the better
Simply not true unless the dissenting Dems voted for McCarthy…
… And ther was no indication any Dem was willing to do that.
The requirement is a majority of the votes cast for someone by name. 2 Dems voted for a different Dem, 3 voted present, one was absent. I agree they wouldn’t have surrendered the speakership for the sake of a few additional people putting on a little performance.
Re: Covid correlated with inequality
I think I know the mechanism for this, drawing on the two US metros that were hit hardest in the first months of 2020, NYC and Boston:
Residential density.
Because of high-income NIMBYs, eight or more people sharing one bathroom and kitchen is not uncommon, especially among recent immigrants; three strangers in an apartment is typical among “middle-class” single people.
A lot of blame was placed on the trains and buses, but those emptied out very fast in mid-March and yet cases kept spiking through April.
Spread between apartments in a single building is plausible. But that would not account for the much higher rates among Latinos.
And they can’t wait to send people back to offices…sharing bathrooms and kitchens.
Has any company addressed bathroom ventilation? Toilet lids? Windows that open?
No, just the half-assed shots are mentioned.
Potential medical bills aren’t mentioned either.
A Plant That ‘Cannot Die’ Reveals Its Genetic Secrets
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/science/plant-leaves-welwitschia.html
Some of the larger plants are believed to be 3000 years old!
In the the desert no less!
To get an understanding about how remarkable it is to be able to survive in the Namib Desert, there is a BBC America show on tonight, Eden: Untamed Planet, with an episode about that Namib Desert:
https://www.memorabletv.com/episodes/eden-untamed-planet-namib-skeleton-coast-and-beyond-s1ep2-bbc-america-sat-31-jul-2021/
Thanks for the pointer.
As wildfires rage, a ‘protection gap’ threatens Californians Grist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just back from a boffo backpack trip to Iva Bell hot springs where we had rain for about an hour every day with one stanza ensconced in the King Tub where we watched lightning hitting from 7 to 10 miles away based on thunder. It’s the perfect combo, 105 degree water and cold raindrops hitting your head.
There are 3 lightning strike fires around Mineral King that happened a couple days ago and the NPS press release says no trails are closed and no infrastructure threatened. One of the locations is near Evelyn Lake, one of the finest fishing lakes in the Sierra as it has no inlet stream like most every other lake in the Sierra and is spring fed, meaning the lake doesn’t freeze over in the winter, which usually causes trout to have big heads and skinny bodies in the summer from practically starving when winter comes and freezes over the surface, limiting food possibilities.
The ghost of Gore–unpublished encounter from 2007.
Skimpy, but it’s Gore. Sample
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/07/31/a-conversation-with-gore-vidal-on-the-e-word/
https://www.rt.com/news/530770-mexico-hostage-vaccines-pharmaceutical-companies/
“…In remarks made earlier this week, the Mexican leader said his government was still waiting for the scientific community to demonstrate the benefits of vaccinating minors. Until conclusive evidence was provided, Mexico would refuse to purchase jabs for children, Obrador announced, adding that pharmaceutical firms seemed to be focused more on making profits than on ensuring medical necessity as they rake in record sales from Covid-19 vaccines.
He was similarly critical of plans by drugs companies to introduce third- or even fourth-dose booster shots, opining that the jabs could be “superfluous.”
Speaking on the same topic, Undersecretary for Health Hugo López-Gatell claimed there was “no scientific evidence” showing the jab was “essential” for minors, given the high rate of inoculation among the adult population, Excélsior, Mexico City’s second-oldest daily, reported…”
Coup in 5, 4, 3…
The aid flotilla to Cuba speeds up the coup countdown as well.
A few weeks ago there was a comment or news blurb that Mexico was using the Covid treatment we are not supposed to mention. I haven’t been able to find anything in english language searches using various search engines. Has anyone else run across results or news of Mexico’s Covid programs?
Tess Lawrie’s revised version of the ivermectin data analysis, minus the Elgazzar trial featured in the Graun’s Right Wing drug article & with new studies added resulting in a total of 60.
She also goes on the attack against the WHO, Merck etc.
https://ivmmeta.com/
Did Dr. Tess Lawrie ever get any response to her request that the vaccines be withdrawn after her study of the adverse events Yellow Card information or was her letter ignored?
https://freedomalliance.co.uk/2021/06/10/open-letter-from-dr-tess-lawrie-to-chief-exec-mhra-dr-raine-urgent-report-covid-19-vaccines-unsafe-for-use-in-humans/
I have no idea as I was not aware of it, but I imagine that she would have been ignored & thanks for the link. Pretty scary stuff of which I guess we might discover the truth of somewhere down the line, meanwhile I have just received a notification from the Daily Mail stating that all over 50’s will receive a Pfizer booster shot, which wont include myself or my vulnerable other who I have on FLCCC prophylaxis Ivermectin etc after I played the guinea pig for a month.
Probably just a coincidence but her neuropathy & general health has gradually improved since she started & when she had the 1st AZ, unlike quite a few people that we know including myself she was fine, which might back up the stuff I have read that Ivermectin & likely in her case the Vits helps with the side effects – she has her 2nd shot on Thursday this week.
Japans soaring cases: always helps to gain perspective
“Ct values are significantly lower for the first episode than for the second episode, indicating a lower viral load at the second infection between 26 April 2020 and 17 July 2021
The estimated rate for all reinfections including those with lower viral load was 12.8 per 100,000 participant days at risk (95% confidence interval: 11.0 to 14.7) over the entire at-risk period. The estimated rate for reinfections with a strong positive test (with Ct less than 30) was 3.1 per 100,000 participant days at risk (95% confidence interval: 2.3 to 4.2) over the entire at-risk period. This suggests that the number of reinfections is low overall, and reinfections with a high viral load (which are more likely to cause illness) are even lower.”
Some good news for those who had covid at least ST, MT
Re: FDA, under pressure, plans ‘sprint’ to accelerate review of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for full approval STAT. And why doesn’t the liability waiver go away if/when this happens?
Coming in late so this may have already been said. You can’t do a 3 month safety trial in 6 weeks, you can’t do a one yr safety trial in 3 months. Pls note that the gestation period of a human being is 9 months. This spike protein vaccine thingy *may* wind up in ovaries and bone marrow, *may* be cytotoxic, *may* cross the blood-brain barrier, this according to an obscure Japanese study. I don’t know whether this Bridle guy is right or wrong, I can’t access the study and I really don’t know enough to judge even if I could. But he’s not a nobody.
I’m (was) an accountant and I know that if you are doing an audit and find something weird, you don’t throw it out as an ‘outlier’, you expand your sample.
Here is another piece of evil covid-spreading depravity from another Republican in power. The evil depravity of CDC in lying about masks, about aerosol transmission, etc.; does not make this evil here any less depraved. Nor does Cuomo’s evil depravity in sending coronavid-infected old people back into dense-packed centers of super-infectability make this any less depraved. I suppose we will see what effect it has.
https://www.wfla.com/community/health/coronavirus/live-gov-desantis-holds-press-conference-in-cape-coral/
Man, it must be hot in Oregon. Motorists for the first time in their lives are having to fuel up their own cars and had to be taught how to do so in a video-
https://www.rt.com/usa/530812-oregon-pump-own-gas/
And here’s a piece of speculative hypotheoretical nonsense from Fauci. Why nonsense? Because the polion vaccine WAS a vaccine, whereas most of the so-called “vaccines” for coronavid are not “vaccines” at all. They are mRNA neo-vaccinoids.
If we had tried “preventing” polio with non-sterlizing mRNA neo-vaccinoids, we would also still have polio.
How’s that for speculating?
Anyway, here is the link.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/17/us/fauci-polio-coronavirus-false-information/index.html
If Fauci had been in charge back in the 50s, America would still be learning to live with the polio IMHO.
Fauci’s reputation deserves an agonizing re-appraisal based upon a fine-grained forensic analysis of every decision and action of his career.
Of particular interest as a foreshadowing of his current treachery would be his years of desparate bitter-ender cornered-rat obstruction against studying possible drugs for AIDS treatment. It is almost as if he wanted to keep AIDS alive long enough to “give vaccines a chance”. That timespan of his career deserves special scrutiny. Any ACT UP survivors still alive from that time should be consulted as intensively as possible on ” the meaning of Fauci”.
every decision and action of his career
And his stock holdings.
Mount Rainier has a lot less snow than normal because of the heat dome in June:
The mountain is out: Mount Rainier shows rocky face after record-breaking heat, snow melt
https://www.seattlepi.com/weather/article/mount-rainier-snow-melt-off-heat-wave-16340241.php
The problem is that Mount Rainier is really sort of a big dirt mountain, not so much rock. So when the snow fields get melted, then things turn to mud, and well, lots of bad things can start happening.
At this point, I don’t know just how far you need to have your head up your a$$ to say that climate change is not here, and we need to do something about it, starting yesterday.
It’s forgotten history by now, but somewhere back in the 2000’s the DoD actually had climate change listed as the number one cause of world turmoil. That’s somewhat ironic given that the US DoD is the single largest organizational user of fossil fuels in the world, but still accurate.
How can you have a country whose organization that is dedicated to protecting the country say that climate change is a number one threat to world stability, and yet have all aspects of dealing and/or fixing climate change REMOVED from the major infrastructure bill about to pass for preparing for our country’s future?
I would say this is like shooting yourself in the foot, but it’s much more like shoving the wrong end of both barrels of a double barreled shotgun up where the sun don’t shine and blasting away. Dysfunctional elites in action, or what?
The northwest might not be the refuge preppers dream about. The soil is great in the valleys, the mountains and islands are rocks.
This is just very interesting and was a research serendipity…
https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/2054/2019/11/The-History-of-San-Juan-County-Agriculture-with-an-appendix-of-excerpts-from-the-Annual-Narrative-Reports-filed-by-the-County-Agents-1978.pdf
The problem is . . . . is that it is not the hydro Pacificans who are invested in a Fake FUD campaign about man made global warming. It is the petro TexOklahomans and so forth. And also the bitumino West Virginians and Wyomingans and so forth.
Since the Fossil Power owns the Federal Government for the forseeable future, the Fossil Power will ensure that every Federal Solution is Fossil based. That means that the No-Fossil zones and zoneloads of people will either pursue their own Separate Survival against the Fossil Power. Or they will fail to do so. That is the choice which the No More Fossil zones have.
The next set of questions involve how to do that. But as long as the necessity of doing that is avoided and un-admitted-to, for just that long no Separate Survival will be attempted, and no survival at all will be the result.
So the Blue Zonians have a choice to make. Separate and apart from the Fossil Carbonians.
Here is a very nice plant picture called “perfect guttation fringe around a burnet plant”.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureIsFuckingLit/comments/ovech4/perfect_guttation_fringe_around_a_burnet_plant/
wow. it’s like physics, horticulture, evolutionary biology, climate science, chemistry, algebra and more in one picture.
I have noticed something over at the Ian Welsh blog. Ian Welsh has created a Preparing For Hard Times blogpost title which he re-hoists to the top of the homescreen every Saturday. I gather the theory is that people with applied survival information of one sort or another will go to that growing thread and add a comment about something they know on any aspect of survival and hard times. Also, some people add book titles or links to websites or other information resources. The thread keeps slowly growing. It is a “one place” where people might come to read and see if they find anything useful on the subject there.
I wonder if we could do a version of that over here. What is the one category title which seems most logical to place and find survival/subsistence/preperation information where others can know the one place to come find it? I offer the suggestion that the “permaculture” category is the one most logical and most easily remembered category. If others agree, and if our hosts don’t mind or end up minding, perhaps people could bring eco-bio interesting information/links/sources to the comments section of permaculture posts. And if everyone agreed on a “best post-and-thread” to add such comments to, then finding and placing such comments would be even easier.
So I have decided that the very most recent post and its thread might be the very most logical and easiest place to make and/or find such comments. If others agree, then hi-info/ hi-valu comments may start building up on the very most recent threads in the “permaculture” category. And every time an even-more-newer post gets added to the “permaculture category collection”, then such comments can start building on that newest thread. And always going to the very next newer newest post’s thread as each very next newer newest such post and its thread appears.
So people coming there to search for what has been added can always know to always start at the “top” and work their way “down”.
i have demonstrated what I mean by copy-pasting the link to the New Soil Science Paradigm article to the end of the thread on the very most recent ( as of right now) permaculture category collection article.
So people can find it there and see what they think of that concept.