Jan 052021
 
 January 5, 2021  Posted by at 10:32 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


Camille Pissarro The Boulevard Montmartre at Night 1897

 

Julian Assange: Imminent Freedom (Craig Murray)
Mexican President Promises Asylum For Julian Assange (RT)
Nurse Dies Following Vaccination With Pfizer’s COVID19 Shot In Portugal (RT)
Cheap Hair Lice Drug May Cut Risk Of COVID19 Death By 80 Percent (NYP)
The Lab-Leak Hypothesis (Baker)
US May Cut Some Moderna Vaccine Doses In Half To Speed Rollout (R.)
Putin Pushes Plan To Roll Out COVID “Immunity Passports” In Russia (ZH)
Greek Orthodox Church To Defy Lockdown By Opening For Epiphany (G.)
Tourism Tumbles To 1990 Levels As Pandemic Halts Travel (ZH)
Giving Up the Ghost (Kunstler)

 

 

Yesterday’s refusal to extradite Julian Assange is great news, but no-one really knows what it means. Craig Murray was one of the few allowed inside the courtroom, and he’s optimistic Assange will be out on bail by tomorrow. Let’s cling to that for now.

 

 

 

 

“I should be very surprised if Julian is not released on Wednesday pending the appeal.”

Julian Assange: Imminent Freedom (Craig Murray)

It has been a long and tiring day, with the startlingly unexpected decision to block Julian’s extradition. The judgement is in fact very concerning, in that it accepted all of the prosecution’s case on the right of the US Government to prosecute publishers worldwide of US official secrets under the Espionage Act. The judge also stated specifically that the UK Extradition Act of 2003 deliberately permits extradition for political offences. These points need to be addressed. But for now we are all delighted at the ultimate decision that extradition should be blocked. The decision was based equally on two points; the appalling conditions in US supermax prisons, and the effect of those conditions on Julian specifically given his history of depression.

The media has concentrated on the mental health aspect, and given insufficient attention to the explicit condemnation of the inhumanity of the US prison system. I was the only person physically present in the public gallery inside the court, having been nominated by John Shiption to represent the family, aside from two court officials. I am quite sure that I again noted magistrate Baraitser have a catch in her throat when discussing the inhumane conditions in US supermax prisons, the lack of human contact, and specifically the fact that inmates are kept in total isolation in a small cage, and are permitted one hour exercise a day in total isolation in another small cage. I noted her show emotion the same way when discussing the al-Masri torture evidence during the trial, and she seemed similarly affected here.

Julian looked well and alert; he showed no emotion at the judgement, but entered into earnest discussion with his lawyers. The US government indicated they will probably appeal the verdict, and a bail hearing has been deferred until Wednesday to decide whether he will be released from Belmarsh pending the appeal – which court sources tell me is likely to be held in April in the High Court. I should be very surprised if Julian is not released on Wednesday pending the appeal. I shall now be staying here for that bail hearing.

Read more …

Could be for only 3 years.

Mexican President Promises Asylum For Julian Assange (RT)

Mexico’s president has offered asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, hours after a British judge refused to extradite Assange to the US to face espionage charges. “Assange is a journalist and deserves a chance, I am in favor of pardoning him,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters on Monday, saying “we’ll give him protection.” “Our tradition is protection,” Obrador added. [..] Were Assange to take Lopez Obrador up on his offer, he would likely have to weigh the president’s promise of protection against the fact that Obrador could be voted out of office in 2024, when his six-year term concludes.


Since taking office, Lopez Obrador has pursued an idiosyncratic foreign policy. On one hand, the left-wing president sheltered Bolivian President Evo Morales following a right-wing coup in 2019 and refused to follow the lead of the US and its allies in Latin America and recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president last year. On the other hand, Lopez Obrador has been largely supportive of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The Mexican leader tightened up security at his southern border when Trump railed against Central American migrant “caravans” entering the US via Mexico, and was repaid by Trump during negotiations with OPEC last year, when the US President intervened to help Mexico avoid cuts to oil production.

Read more …

One single death doesn’t have much meaning.

Nurse Dies Following Vaccination With Pfizer’s COVID19 Shot In Portugal (RT)

Health authorities in Portugal are investigating the sudden death of a pediatric surgery assistant in Porto, who was reportedly in “perfect health” when she received the Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus. Identified on Monday as Sonia Azevedo, 41, the mother of two worked as a surgical assistant at the Instituto Portugues de Oncologia (IPO), an oncology hospital in Porto. She was among the 538 healthcare workers at IPO who received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine last Wednesday. Azevedo had dinner with her family on New Year’s Eve, and was found dead in bed the following morning.


“I want to know what caused my daughter’s death” her father Abilio told the Portuguese tabloid Orreio da Manha. He described her as a “well and happy” person who “never drank alcohol, didn’t eat anything special or out of the ordinary.” Azevedo was so proud to be among the first to receive the vaccine, she changed her Facebook profile picture to reflect that. “Covid-19 vaccinated,” she wrote under a selfie with her face mask on. “We don’t know what happened. It all happened quickly and with no explanation,” Azevedo’s daughter Vania Figueiredo told the paper. “I didn’t notice anything different in my mother. She was fine. She just said that the area where she had been vaccinated hurt, but that’s normal…”

Read more …

Ivermectin goes mainstream. “But we have to do more testing”.

Cheap Hair Lice Drug May Cut Risk Of COVID19 Death By 80 Percent (NYP)

A simple treatment for COVID-19 could be cheaper than 20 bucks — and familiar to most grade school nurses. Head lice drug ivermectin is being explored as a potential treatment for the coronavirus following a promising new study that showed an 80% reduction in hospitalized COVID-19 patient deaths. Just 8 out of 573 patients who received ivermectin passed away, compared to the 44 individuals out of 510 who died after being given a placebo. An earlier study of the antiparasitic prescription drug, which costs between $17 and $43 for a course of treatment, according to GoodRx, revealed promising results in April — by removing all viral RNA within 48 hours of a single dose.

Liverpool University virologist Andrew Hill has called the new study “transformational” in the search for a coronavirus therapy. His findings, based on data from over 1,400 patients, were made public in a video posted to YouTube in which Hill discusses his results in a previously aired livestream. The research currently awaits peer review prior to publishing. “If we see these same trends observed consistently across more studies, then this really is going to be a transformational treatment,” said Hill. However, critics have called Hill’s study conclusion premature, urging further research before declaring ivermectin an effective treatment — citing other buzzed-about methods that ultimately failed to deliver, such as hydroxychloroquine and tocilizumab.

“All we have are observational studies and clinicians’ opinions,” said University of Sydney professor Andrew McLachlan, the Daily Mail reported. “Many of the current studies have low numbers of participants, weak study designs, and inconsistent (and relatively low) ivermectin dosing regimes, with ivermectin frequently given in combination with other drugs.”

Read more …

Long piece on all options.

The Lab-Leak Hypothesis (Baker)

What happened was fairly simple, I’ve come to believe. It was an accident. A virus spent some time in a laboratory, and eventually it got out. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, began its existence inside a bat, then it learned how to infect people in a claustrophobic mine shaft, and then it was made more infectious in one or more laboratories, perhaps as part of a scientist’s well-intentioned but risky effort to create a broad-spectrum vaccine. SARS-2 was not designed as a biological weapon. But it was, I think, designed. Many thoughtful people dismiss this notion, and they may be right. They sincerely believe that the coronavirus arose naturally, “zoonotically,” from animals, without having been previously studied, or hybridized, or sluiced through cell cultures, or otherwise worked on by trained professionals.

They hold that a bat, carrying a coronavirus, infected some other creature, perhaps a pangolin, and that the pangolin may have already been sick with a different coronavirus disease, and out of the conjunction and commingling of those two diseases within the pangolin, a new disease, highly infectious to humans, evolved. Or they hypothesize that two coronaviruses recombined in a bat, and this new virus spread to other bats, and then the bats infected a person directly — in a rural setting, perhaps — and that this person caused a simmering undetected outbreak of respiratory disease, which over a period of months or years evolved to become virulent and highly transmissible but was not noticed until it appeared in Wuhan.

There is no direct evidence for these zoonotic possibilities, just as there is no direct evidence for an experimental mishap — no written confession, no incriminating notebook, no official accident report. Certainty craves detail, and detail requires an investigation. It has been a full year, 80 million people have been infected, and, surprisingly, no public investigation has taken place. We still know very little about the origins of this disease. Nevertheless, I think it’s worth offering some historical context for our yearlong medical nightmare. We need to hear from the people who for years have contended that certain types of virus experimentation might lead to a disastrous pandemic like this one. And we need to stop hunting for new exotic diseases in the wild, shipping them back to laboratories, and hot-wiring their genomes to prove how dangerous to human life they might become.

Read more …

The drug itself is not experimental enough?!

US May Cut Some Moderna Vaccine Doses In Half To Speed Rollout (R.)

The U.S. government is considering giving some people half the dose of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in order to speed vaccinations, a federal official said on Sunday. Moncef Slaoui, head of Operation Warp Speed, the federal vaccine program, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that officials were in talks with Moderna and the Food and Drug Administration about the idea. Moderna’s vaccine requires two injections. “We know that for the Moderna vaccine, giving half of the dose to people between the ages of 18 and 55, two doses, half the dose, which means exactly achieving the objective of immunizing double the number of people with the doses we have,” Slaoui said. “We know it induces identical immune response” to the full dose, he added.


The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered 4,225,756 first doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday morning and distributed 13,071,925 doses. The U.S. has also approved a vaccine from Pfizer, which like Moderna’s requires two shots. Vaccinations have fallen far short of early targets, as officials had hoped to have 20 million people vaccinated by the end of the 2020. Slaoui said he was optimistic vaccinations would continue to accelerate. He rejected the suggestion that officials should prioritize giving more people a single shot, rather than holding back doses for the second shot, saying that cutting Moderna vaccine doses in half was “a more responsible approach that would be based on facts and data.” Slaoui said it would likely not be known until late spring whether vaccinated people can still spread the disease to others.

Read more …

Vaccination iron curtain?!

Putin Pushes Plan To Roll Out COVID “Immunity Passports” In Russia (ZH)

As Russian President Vladimir Putin ramps up his aggressive campaign to stamp out COVID-19 once and for all (as Russia races to vaccinate its most vulnerable citizens while striking deals to supply “Sputnik V” to developing markets the world), the embattled president has just raised the possibility of distributing ‘immunity passports’, an idea that has gained traction around the world since the dawn of the pandemic. According to an RT report, the Russian government is considering the development and distribution of documents verifying whether individuals have been vaccinated. China has already road-tested technology transmitting people’s COVID status via smartphone apps, and it’s widely suspected that Beijing will impose some version of immunity passports, if they haven’t already.

In a series of instructions to officials, published at the end of 2020, President Vladimir Putin ordered policymakers “to consider issuing certificates to people who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 infections using Russian vaccines…or the purpose of enabling citizens to travel across the borders of the Russian Federation and those of other countries.” Russia’s Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, has been charged with implementing the recommendations, and is set to report back on January 20. For once, Putin and American billionaire Bill Gates will be seeing eye to eye, as support for “immunity passports” grows not just among governments (even in “liberal democracies” like Canada), but the private sector as well. As RT reminds us, the IATA has voiced support for “immunity passports” as a strategy for hastening the revival of air travel.

The International Air Transport Association, which represents 290 airlines across the world, has supported the idea of vaccine passports, and is developing its own digital system to track who has been immunized against the virus. Passengers may be expected to present equivalent documents before being allowed to board planes in the future. Immunizations with the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, the first to be registered for the prevention of Covid-19 anywhere in the world, have been taking place in growing numbers in the capital and across the country. More than 70 centers in Moscow are now offering jabs, and at least 800,000 people have received their first dose.

Remember, once they arrived, people might soon find “Immunity Passports” will become a permanent facet of their lives: even after the COVID-19 pandemic ends, they could be used to offer evidence that a traveler has been vaccinated – not just for COVID-19, but for any other diseases, or even perhaps mutated forms of COVID-19. Critically, as we noted previously, if we are going to live in a world where vaccines are mandatory for travel, who is to say that every nation on Earth is going to acknowledge the validity of every other vaccine. The Mainstream Media makes it seem as though just getting any vaccine with some sort of paperwork to back it up should be good enough, but this is unlikely to be true.

Read more …

The church is powerful in Greece.

Greek Orthodox Church To Defy Lockdown By Opening For Epiphany (G.)

The Greek Orthodox church has announced it will defy government lockdown orders aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus and open places of worship to mark Epiphany this Wednesday. After an emergency session of the holy synod, its governing body, senior clerics said they would press ahead as planned and celebrate the baptism of Christ on 6 January. “The synod does not agree with the new government measures regarding the operation of places of worship and insists on what was originally agreed with the state,” the ecclesiastical body said in a statement. “It asks that the aforementioned decision be absolutely respected by the state without further ado taking into consideration … that all the foreseen hygiene measures were upheld by clerics in thousands of churches across Greece.”

The announcement, which flies in the face of new week-long restrictions on movement, is the most open act of defiance yet by the powerful institution. Before the holiday season Athens’ centre-right government had said it would relax curbs and permit all places of worship to conduct services, albeit with limited congregations, on Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and the Epiphany. But with the country’s health system under pressure after a surge in coronavirus cases, the administration rescinded the decision at the weekend saying restrictions eased over the festive period would be reimposed to facilitate the reopening of schools on 11 January. Greece has been in lockdown since 7 November.

How the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who kicked off the new year with a cabinet reshuffle earlier on Monday, will react to the decision remains to be seen. The sight of worshippers breaching restrictions that have caused consternation, not least in the retail sector, would fuel further controversy. Epidemiologists have called for even tougher curbs if a second wave of the pandemic is to be brought under control in a country that, while faring better than most, has recorded 140,099 coronavirus cases and 4,957 Covid-19 deaths to date.

Read more …

This bloated industry can do with some less.

Tourism Tumbles To 1990 Levels As Pandemic Halts Travel (ZH)

While few industries have been spared by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, even fewer have been hit as hard as the tourism sector. As 2020 drew to a close with severe limitations to travel still in place, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) expects international arrivals to have declined by 70 to 75 percent compared to the previous year. As Statista’s Felix Richter writes, that equates to a decline of around 1 billion international arrivals, bringing the industry back to 1990 levels.

Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the global tourism sector had seen almost uninterrupted growth for decades. Since 1980, the number of international arrivals skyrocketed from 277 million to nearly 1.5 billion in 2019. As Statista’s chart above shows, the two largest crises of the past decades, the SARS epidemic of 2003 and the global financial crisis of 2009, were minor bumps in the road compared to the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking ahead, most experts don’t expect a full recovery in 2021, which started off with many countries still battling the second wave of the pandemic. According to the UNWTO’s estimates, it will take the industry between 2.5 and 4 years to return to pre-pandemic levels of international tourist arrivals.

Read more …

“Persistent rumor has the president laying out a royal flush of deadly information about his antagonists, enough to make heads explode among the formerly cocksure and vaporize the narrative they’ve been running for four years.”

Giving Up the Ghost (Kunstler)

Things are shaking loose. Secrets are flying out of black boxes. Shots have been fired. The center is not holding because the center is no longer there, only a black hole where the center used to be, and, within it, the shriekings of lost souls. Will the United States go missing this week, or fight its way out of the chaos and darkness? Whatever occurs in this strange week of confrontation, Joe Biden will not be leading any part of it. Where has he been since Christmas? Back to hiding in the basement? Did the American people elect a ghost? Even if this storm blows over, could Joe Biden possibly claim any legitimacy in the Oval Office? And then what happens with the rest of the story — which is an epic economic convulsion sharper than the Great Depression — as time is unsuspended and the year 2021 actually unspools?

Only the bare outlines of this week’s fateful game are visible. Mr. Trump has not conceded the election. An action will play out in congress under rarely-used constitutional rules as to how the electoral college votes are awarded to whom. The rancor around this action is already epic. Few of the political players are beyond suspicion of dark deals and shifty allegiances. Persistent rumor has the president laying out a royal flush of deadly information about his antagonists, enough to make heads explode among the formerly cocksure and vaporize the narrative they’ve been running for four years. A whole lot of people are converging in the nation’s capital at midweek, maybe even the touted million. It is a moment, possibly, not unlike the Bastille in Paris, 1789. They will be clamoring right outside Congress as the electoral vote ceremony proceeds. If the battle is not joined in the chamber, it’s a little hard to believe the crowd will just heave a million sighs, trudge back to their cars, and drive quietly home.

Senator Ted Cruz has come up with a pretty sound plan: a ten-day emergency audit of the balloting with an electoral commission consisting of five Senators, five House Members, and five Supreme Court Justices — to consider and resolve the disputed returns. The proposal is based on the 1877 procedure for resolving the contested Hayes-Tilden election. “Once completed, individual states would evaluate the Commission’s findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed,” the proposal stated. Naturally, the Democratic Party’s news media handmaidens denounced it as “embarrassing” — which raises the question: who exactly will be embarrassed if the plan goes ahead?

Read more …

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle January 5 2021

Viewing 38 posts - 1 through 38 (of 38 total)
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  • #67724

    Camille Pissarro The Boulevard Montmartre at Night 1897   • Julian Assange: Imminent Freedom (Craig Murray) • Mexican President Promises Asylum F
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle January 5 2021]

    #67725
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Camille Pissarro The Boulevard Montmartre at Night 1897

    Wow, very beautifully done…
    Not at all familiar with this artist…
    …but could easily do with more of their work…

    Assange? We’ll see…

    #67726

    Camille Pissarro The Boulevard Montmartre at Night 1897

    Wow, very beautifully done…
    Not at all familiar with this artist…
    …but could easily do with more of their work…

    This is an absolute triumph I find. The one on Jan 3 is very fine too, but here you can see even more how Pissarro, who must have looked at van Goghs a lot, doesn’t make an attempt at figurative art anymore, only feeling. There are just blots of lights and shapes.

    #67727

    This is how abstract art started.

    #67728
    Basseterre Kitona
    Participant

    Tourism Tumbles To 1990 Levels As Pandemic Halts Travel

    It strikes me that the drop in travel has more to do with the multitude of arbitrary rules as various governments vainly attempt to stop a virus (as if governments even could stop a virus). As the virus is everywhere, it is not the reason that I haven’t traveled in the last year. Rather, the rules change so quickly & arbitrarily that I don’t want to deal with the consequences of being stuck abroad when a President gets spooked and decides to close everything over night.

    Additionally, commercial flights have already lost much of their romance particularly in the cramped economy seats. But now one is expected to bear the additional burdens of wearing a mask (which doesn’t stop the virus) and offering test results (which are wonky) as proof of…what exactly?

    I think the interpretation of Putin’s immunity passport might be backwards. If it leads to an new iron curtain then maybe he is trying to keep out the genetically modified freaks created by the western mRNA vaccines.

    But again, what is the point of the immunity passport itself? If the virus is everywhere in the world already and and even the pharmaceutical companies are hesitating to claim that their vaccines provide immunity, it is pointless beyond acknowledging that the recipient is willing to trust big pharm & mainstream media propaganda.

    #67729
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    This is an absolute triumph I find. The one on Jan 3 is very fine too, but here you can see even more how Pissarro, who must have looked at van Goghs a lot, doesn’t make an attempt at figurative art anymore, only feeling. There are just blots of lights and shapes.

    Yes, I went more by my feelings when looking at this work; rather than forming judgements and opinions…
    …it just felt grand, looking at it…
    …but then, that’s how I am with the arts in general…

    #67730
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    Re: Trump as a moral actor. I will clarify further, or try: Trump most likely thinks of himself as a good guy. A good guy who has been mIsunderstood, unfarily judged, singled out… we all do this in our own ways. We’re all prone to rationalize away our mistakes and flaws, sins and embarrassments.

    Someone like Trump can rationalize like a mood ring run by a Cray supercomputer. He does not see a villain in his mirror. The ego does not feed on ‘I am evil’; it feeds on ‘I am good’. Some rare extreme psychopathic exceptions surely exist, but those being are far too socially isoloated to run for president. Even Jeffrey Epstein is likely to have seen a misunderstood ‘superior being’ in his mirror. I have read apologetics for Epstein’s behavior by people who knew him: ‘the poor man suffered severe satyriasis’, etc. (He probably did but that’s no reason to pimp and rape children.)

    So I feel it is a mistake to place a ‘sordid filter’ over what we perceive as Trump’s moral lens. Trump is quite capable of doing the right thing for the right reason, and his ego surely needs him to do such things now and then. Just as it other times needs him to do the wrong thing for the wrong reasons.

    Assange has powerfully embarrassed people Trump despises. This seems likely to incline Trump favorably to him right there. Trump is highly unlikely to sacrifice himself (except in minor ways) to help someone, but if he can do the right thing for the publicly perceived right reason, while also satisfying personal selfish, often wrong reasons of his own, he would likely do so.

    Trump’s ego wants more than anything to be seen not as a crass banal evil actor, but as a righteous hero who proves himself right above all others. So, I see reason to be carefully optimistic that Trump will release Assange although I don’t invest in that hope, and frankly, I care far more for the millions of American citizens in prison for venal and political reasons rather than those of criminal justice, than I do for one man. Assange is indeed a hero, but so are many many others currently doing harsh sentences for crimes they did not commit and so forth.

    As for the cause of free journalism: like everything else, quality journalism will increasingly come from decentralized sources for local markets. I see no hope at all for national or international journalism. It is very powerful, and that which is very powerful is doomed to be either destroyed, or co-opted, by the prevailing wielders of power.

    If Assange is freed, it will likely lead to as many Seth Riches as Daniel Ellsbergs. Globalism is dying. Nationalism is dying. Our kids and grandkids will be the ones to see how small, local, decentralized governance and journalism will become. How small can it get? How low can we go?

    Limbo Rock

    #67731
    Mr. House
    Participant

    I wonder if the only using half a dose for the vaccine is due to adverse side effects? Its either that or they’re just cheap. Maybe both?

    #67732
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Ivermectin goes mainstream. “But we have to do more testing”

    This may hurt you, but the vaccine is totally on the level. Does not compute.

    #67733
    Mr. House
    Participant

    • US May Cut Some Moderna Vaccine Doses In Half To Speed Rollout (R.)

    This is why no one believes them anymore except the most devout. They’ve been doing this kinda crap since the beginning of covid. You can’t do this over and over and over and still have a shred of credibility.

    #67734
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    Regarding that hypnotic Pissarro (what a name, eh?):

    “First electric streetlight used arc lamps, namely “Yablochkov candle”. It was first used in 1878 in Paris. By 1881, some 4000 were in use, replacing gas lanterns on the poles. After the spreading of the arc lamps in the United States, by 1890 there were more than 130,000 arc lamps installed as streetlights.”

    That is indeed electric light we see.

    The dead, the gentle dead – who knows? –
    In tungsten filaments abide,
    And on my bedside table glows
    Another man’s departed bride.

    And maybe Shakespeare floods a whole
    Town with innumerable lights,
    And Shelley’s incandescent soul
    Lures the pale moths of starless nights.

    Streetlamps are numbered, and maybe
    Number nine-hundred-ninety-nine
    (So brightly beaming through a tree
    So green) is an old friend of mine.

    And when above the livid plain
    Forked lightning plays, therein may dwell
    The torments of a Tamerlane,
    The roar of tyrants torn in hell.

    Poem by “John Shade” in Vladimir Nabokov‘s novel Pale Fire (1962)

    #67735
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Queensland Cops Pay Home Visit to Author Who Bragged on Twitter About COVID-Violating Jog”

    Who was entirely outside, entirely alone, not near anyone. KillKillKill!!! Ego demands it! Say the police on the home visit, who endanger him, spread disease to a man who was isolated, and don’t wear masks.
    …Oh and while the rogue’s gallery of – um, everyone – does NOT obey ANY lockdown, and goes on vacation, eat at restaurants, and fly around the world.

    ‘Cause that’s Science! Logic! We follow the Science! By breaking quarantine to visit homes of people who met and interacted with no one.

    Clearly it’s time to proposing a law to:

    a) Arrest and remove any one,
    b) For any SUSPECTED contact with,
    c) ANY disease. That is, not Covid, not dangerous, anything they care to name,
    d) To be removed WITHOUT trial or ANY process,
    e) To be detained in ANY facility,
    f) By ANY person who wants to,
    g) For ANY length of time.

    Or maybe half the Science! We haven’t tested it, but you’re first! With the half dose we havent’ tested of the vaccine, that’s not a vaccine, that doesn’t prevent infection, that we haven’t tested!

    Now why you chirpin’? DO WHAT YOU’RE TOLD.

    “Boris Johnson Imposes New National Lockdown Across England: Live Updates”

    Because we follow the science who says:

    “Statistician: Lockdowns Don’t Work Because They Force People To Congregate In Fewer Places: “Lockdowns are merely forced gatherings.”

    And it’s totally safe, we’re saving lives as it directly causes this:

    “Man Wielding Bat Goes on GTA-Style Crime Spree in Lower Manhattan”

    Whose murder rate has risen 400%.

    Speaking of NY, Helping! Helping! We are your mommy and god and know what’s best for you. Cuomo says we must have vaccines. Okay then. So we’re going to arrest anyone who un-prioritizes the Duma’s Central Planning Committee vaccine rollout release. Er, okaaaay… So the hospitals then have to PROVE each person, PROVE the lists, and keep very accurate records of who’s getting it, or be arrested and taken to jail for Covid, while they RELEASE non-healthcare workers to be SAFE for COVID. Therefore, whole process slows down, slightest problem = no vaccine. Vaccines expire in the fridge. Ka-Ching!

    Okaaaay. So what then? Cuomo, who caused this problem by “Helping, “Flip Flops, Threatens To Fine Hospitals For Not Meeting COVID Vaccination Targets” Yes, the target and vaccination hehe just STOPPED from being met naturally with his iron-fisted intervention.

    …And this is above all of the health care workers who, not being idiots and understanding medicine and statistics, want to wait a little bit before getting it.

    Gee, have we reached fascism yet? What is fascism, totalitarianism? When everything is either illegal or compulsory. Here we are. Whole states are made prisons. They have already seceded from the United States as they are in total violation of the U.S., the Constitution, and Federal Law. You have no human rights, and no right to self-defense. And NY’s not the only one. What’s your right to be heard on court adjudication in Pennsylvania right now? Dismissed! It’s too early! Wait: It’s too late! Wait: It wouldn’t change anything, which we can tell before we read it! Wait: you too early, too late, too small person don’t have standing to be heard! Here, there, nor anywhere! As Comey said, “No reasonable person (who didn’t want to be killed in a fiery crash) would take the case.”

    Well, at least he can kill another 6,000 people with direct criminal actions and blame it on Covid. So that’s winning.

    So are we there yet? When is enough?

    #67736
    Noirette
    Participant

    When ppl say Judge Baraitser’s ruling was ‘unexpected’ or ‘surprising’ etc. they are signalling that they believed the protests, demos, and other actions in favor of Assange, would have no effect whatsoever. Odd. And the mood is most emphatically not “We Won” …

    /- My first thought on reading a short article on the judgement was, the refusal to allow extraditon is on humanitarian grounds only, and does not address the underlying issues, sticking with that for now.-/

    There was a minor surge in various quarters ‘for Assange’ in the recent past exemplified by the Guardian (I have no respect for that outlet, turncoats, really) publishing an anti-extradition piece:

    https://bit.ly/3oh01j5

    Baraitser is not an independent judge applying the law in the most conservative, strict, way possible. She is on a scale from: directly dependent on orders from the PTB >> to influenced by hints, nudges, “best to..” public opinion, hubby (if she has one), etc.

    Imho it was perceived in many quarters that allowing the extradition at this point was going a step too far as in making a mockery of ‘free speech’, ‘investigative journalism’, right to publish and so on. “Best to hold on for now” – though many darker motives, hidden plots, underground quarells, may exist.

    ——————————-

    Relations between Trump and Assange appear to be very convoluted.

    The Atlantic on corr. between D. Trump Junior and Wikileaks, 2017.

    https://bit.ly/3neGsGU

    Roger Stone also corresponded with Wikileaks. Computer weekly, 2020.

    https://bit.ly/3hNIE7c

    There is also the story of a possible Trump pardon of Assange if Julian would admit the ‘hacked’ DNC emails didn’t come from Russia. Market Watch, 2020

    https://on.mktw.net/3pRL7Qy

    Sorting all this out historically would make a fantastic book (involves Seth Rich etc. as well.) Me, idk.

    #67737
    zerosum
    Participant

    WOW! Mexico is better than USA
    the inhumane conditions in US supermax prisons,

    • Mexican President Promises Asylum For Julian Assange (RT)
    ———
    We are all judges and critics
    Head lice drug ivermectin is being explored as a potential treatment for the coronavirus following a promising new study that showed an 80% reduction in hospitalized COVID-19 patient deaths.
    However, critics have called Hill’s study conclusion premature, urging further research before declaring ivermectin an effective treatment — citing other buzzed-about methods that ultimately failed to deliver, such as hydroxychloroquine and tocilizumab.

    —–
    Its democracy. Live with it
    An action will play out in congress under rarely-used constitutional rules as to how the electoral college votes are awarded to whom.
    ——
    Maybe there is a bigger reason for the lack of people flying.
    1. Cost of flying going up pass the ability of the rifraf to pay.
    2. The rifraf must spend their discretionary income on expensive essentials.
    —-
    I was under the impression that most airlines leased their planes. Surprisingly, Westjet just sold 4 planes to Amazon. Hummm, …. WHY sell? WHY buy?

    #67738
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    In the video posted at his site, Craig Murray gives some clarifications about the Assange hearing, and the expected appeal by the US:

    “It’s important to say that at that appeal, the defense will be able to counter-appeal against those points where the judge found for the prosecution…. If the United States appeals, the defense will be able to appeal those points. If the United States doesn’t appeal, then the defense can’t appeal those points… I’ve always felt quite certain that he would win an appeal at the high court…”
    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/01/julian-assange-imminent-freedom/

    So it sounds like the only way the defense can address those concerns is if the US appeals the ruling. If the US decides to not appeal, would Judge Baraitser’s findings against Assange’s arguments (regarding political motivation, political offense, fair trial, and freedom of speech) be considered precedents which could assist with future prosecutions of journalists?

    #67739

    If the US decides to not appeal, would Judge Baraitser’s findings against Assange’s arguments (regarding political motivation, political offense, fair trial, and freedom of speech) be considered precedents which could assist with future prosecutions of journalists?

    Possible, but Baraitser doesn’t write the law(s). Her interpretation of specific arguments in one specific case doesn’t cast anything in gold. Major thing now is to get him out. It won’t be the end to anything other than his physical torture, but it would be a good first step.

    #67741
    Geppetto
    Participant

    Imagine if Dr. D. and Madamski could somehow ally the power in those two brains. Sigh.

    The larger question( for me anyway) looms; are we of free will or not? Is the DeBroglie-Bohm pilot wave …God? The urge to agency encoded way down that strand of DNA *placed* there? Or is the potential serendipity in the chaos just a lucky opportunity? So many questions……..

    Alas

    Shoes are piling up, gotta get some cobbling done today. Peeps are walking their little souls off around these parts apparently.

    “The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.” Pushkin.

    #67742
    Noirette
    Participant

    From the Intelligencer. The Lab Leak hypothesis, quoted in top post:

    <i>SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, began its existence inside a bat, then it learned how to infect people in a claustrophobic mine shaft, and then it was made more infectious in one or more laboratories, perhaps as part of a scientist’s well-intentioned but risky effort to create a broad-spectrum vaccine. ..</i>

    This story rests in part on a MA thesis, or take-up / reports of, about it.

    By Li Xu, 2013. Abstract, snippets:

    The analysis of 6 patients with severe pneumonia caused by an unknown virus sent to the Dpt. of (…) Emergency in (…) 2012. They were all workers at the same mine where bats and bat feces (..were prevalent..) The type of bat in the mine…was Rhinolophus Sinicus from which was extracted SARS-like-CoV when Scientists in China were looking for SARS pathogen.

    —3 patients died and 3 patients survived.–

    The thesis is trans into Eng. Incl. x rays of lungs, PCR tests, meds given, course of treament, etc.

    #67743
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    I know 4 people who have been vaccinated against Covid. 2 are middle-aged, two are in their 80s. I know the woman in her 80s best, and asked her about it. She had minor pain in the arm that received the injection the next day. I am curious how this will play out.

    The Pissarro piece reminds me of looking out a rain-spattered window…all the lines are in distinct, but I know what I’m looking at.

    #67744
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    “The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.” Pushkin

    Wow! The pandemic infecting the human ego described in one succinct sentence!

    Thanks, Geppetto.

    #67745
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Year later and here we are with the string of Covid related titles and stories so contradictory that bugles the mind..
    Roger is absolutely right, “power” want Assange to die before extradition to save the face.
    As a hook to my “democracy” post yesterday, aren’t we in the same cauldron assuming that it is just “his opinion”, opposite to an opinion that Assange is “a traitor” or at the best “he should have been smart enough not to touch a hornets nest”, or, let alone, view the court gesture as “extremely humane to him in this instance”? Is it safe to say that “power” counts, exactly, on that “democratic” opposing opinions and if majority it’s a lottery win for them. Without “that” they are powerless.
    I know that I am walking on thin ice here, but aren’t we aware that people with constant mind chatter hardly get anything done, thus society with such a brewing pot can not be united and prosper, except the elite, on the long run.

    #67746
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Craig Murray made an additional post today about the Assange verdict:

    Appealing a verdict that is such a good result for the United States does not necessarily make sense for the Justice Department. Edward Fitzgerald explained to me yesterday that, if the USA appeals the decision on the health and prison condition grounds, it becomes open to the defence to counter-appeal on all the other grounds, which would be very desirable indeed given the stark implications of Baraitser’s ruling for media freedom. I have always believed that Baraitser would rule as she did on the substantial points, but I have always also believed that those extreme security state arguments would never survive the scrutiny of better judges in a higher court. Unlike the health ruling, the dispute over Baraitser’s judgement on all the other points does come down to classic errors in law which can successfully be argued on appeal.

    If the USA does appeal the judgement, it is far more likely that not only will the health grounds be upheld, but also that Baraitser’s positions on extradition for political offences and freedom of the media will be overturned, than it is likely that the US will achieve extradition. They have fourteen days in which to lodge the appeal – now thirteen.

    An appeal result is in short likely to be humiliating for the USA. It would be much wiser for the US to let sleeping dogs lie. But pride and the wound to the US sense of omnipotence and exceptionalism may drive them to an appeal which, for the reasons given above, I would actually welcome provided Julian is out on bail. Which I expect he shall be shortly.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/01/the-assange-verdict-what-happens-now/

    #67747
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    Impressionism and illusion… Each of us with our lenses being melted, distorted, fogged, cracked. I pass people on my rides in the woods, and some are still in my universe, while others seem to have moved off.

    Impressionism and illusion:

    Háry János in long form and suite

    I have a CD with 3 different performances, first is Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition, second is Háry János, third is Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé. The suite is on the CD, but there’s a movie.

    I am likely to be derided for this, but I somewhat prefer the Emerson, Lake and Palmer rendition of Pictures.

    I’ll be watching the long Janos and the long Kijé this week…work load permitting.

    #67748
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ Dr. D

    Please. 40% not 400%.

    “Queensland Cops Pay Home Visit to Author Who Bragged on Twitter About COVID-Violating Jog”

    “Who was entirely outside, entirely alone, not near anyone. KillKillKill!!! Ego demands it! Say the police on the home visit, who endanger him, spread disease to a man who was isolated, and don’t wear masks.”

    The guy was dumb enough to post on Twitter that he broke a law that he apparently may or may not have broken but insisted on bragging about anyway. Dumb people deserve dumb cops. R. Buckminster Fuller once wrote, I think in a book called Critical Path, that people informed enough to know something is wrong, and concerned enough to be angry about it, should use their heads to find solutions, not as battering rams in street protests.

    %^&

    The early touting of hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic/therapy for covid was made more than a wee fringe theory because the trusted authorities, holographic mannequins like Dr. Fauci and the various acronyms he represents directly or by association, couldn’t tell their left from their right. I know we all know this. I say it to ease any feelings of folly we might feel for taking it seriously. It was all we had at the time, a time when the bodies were piling up in Wuhan.

    %^&

    Dr. D is swell. I hold his feet to the fire sometimes because he has considerable stature in these parts. The stature is deserved. So is the footsie flambeau.

    Many a Good Egg

    #67749
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ Thomasjkenney

    This adaptation of Lt. Kije is fun both for the music and for showing us a certain kind of self-indulgent egghead in public action:

    Midnight Sleighride

    The music itself sounds really good to my ears. Eddie Sauter, for my money, beat the star egghead jazz arranger of those days, Stan Kenton, by a smiling mile.

    #67750
    Huskynut
    Participant

    Re Assange, I enjoyed another bloggers take on the outcome today:

    “Once Baraitser decided to take what we can call the British cop-out – refusing to extradite based on the possibility of suicide and what amounts to judicial knowledge of the infamously incompetent/cruel American prison officials, who will do nothing to prevent it (previously used in the cases of alleged autists Gary McKinnon and Lauri Love) – that became the entire basis of her legal position. Her musings about the strength of the CIA arguments, including those about freedom of speech and journalism, are just musings, legally worth as much as if she had decided to give us her views on medieval Provençal literature. This is important – once she went down suicide road, all other issues became moot, unnecessary for her determination, and thus not capable of becoming any kind of precedent. I’m sure she was just trying to stay out of the Thames.”

    #67751
    WES
    Participant

    If as I expect, Biden becomes president on January 20th, the virus will soon become a non-news worthy topic.

    To help this become a reality, the CDC is planning to reduce the cycle counts of the PCR tests to less than 30 cycles for determing a “positive” result. This will greatly reduce the number of reported virus “cases”.

    PCR tests run for 30 cycles tend to give about 70% false “positive” results. PCR tests run at 37 cycles or higher tend to give 90% false “positive” results.

    Reducing PCR test cycles run to between 15 to 25 cycles should greatly reduce the number of reported virus “cases”.

    TAE will soon need to find new topics besides the virus!

    #67752
    WES
    Participant

    I find it interesting that the Greek church is now opposing the Greek state’s lockdown.

    It reminds me of other times in history when a church has opposed feudal kings. Often in those times there was nobody else around who could oppose a king and still survive the experience.

    My guess is the Greek state will simply let it pass.

    #67753
    WES
    Participant

    Travel may be down, but I seriously doubt it will stay down forever.

    People instinctively like to move from one place to another. The reasons are many.

    #67754
    WES
    Participant

    Tonight in Georgia’s senate runoff election, I expect the state to go blue.

    Just in case the voters of Georgia didn’t get the memo, I have rigged their Dominion voting machines to ensure a blue outcome, even if they all vote red!

    Tomorrow congress will vote to certify Biden as the next president.

    Just like abll legal avenues being closed by “No Standing” courts, political avenues have also been closed to appealing the fraudulent election by congress.

    Tomorrow’s House and Senate protests have been designed to fail from the start by the Uniparty.

    #67755
    WES
    Participant

    The British judge’s non-legal “cop out” ruling ranks right up there with US courts “No Standing” election fraud rulings! Judge Sulivan verses Flynn too!o

    #67756
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Finally scored 5,000 IU Vita D3; a friend in BKK got it for me.
    Just took the second one this morning.
    I’ve seen warnings about long term use of Vita D3 usage; I’d sure appreciated a comment from Dr. John regarding this…

    #67757
    Geppetto
    Participant

    @ madamski

    rub it

    hahahahhahahahha

    #67758
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    @ V. Arnold

    While we wait for Dr John’s comment, I’ll share what I found about Vitamin D intake levels for North America.

    For Vitamin D daily intake, the “UL” number indicates the amount above which there is a risk of adverse events.

    In 1997, the UL for Vitamin D was 2,000 IU/d for most age groups. In 2010/2011, the UL was reassessed, based on additional evidence. Intakes up to 10,000 IU/day have not been linked to hypercalcemia or acute toxicity, but there is some uncertainty about long-term chronic intake, so the UL was set at 4000 IU/day for ages 9 and older.

    Tolerable Upper Intake Levels

    For vitamin D, the ULs are now 4000 IU/d for ages 9 and older but are lower for infants and young children (Table 1​1). The 1997 ULs for vitamin D were 2000 IU/d for most age groups. The starting point for the current [2011] UL for vitamin D was 10,000 IU/d, because lower intakes have not been linked to hypercalcemia or acute toxicity. However, given that toxicity is not the appropriate basis for a UL that is intended to reflect long-term chronic intake and to be used for public health purposes, this value was corrected for uncertainty based on chronic disease outcomes and all-cause mortality, as well as emerging concerns about risks at serum 25OHD levels above 50 ng/ml (125 nmol/liter). Thus, the Committee followed an approach to maximize public health protection. The UL is not intended as a target intake; rather, the risk for harm begins to increase once intakes surpass this level.

    The 2011 Report on Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium and Vitamin D from the Institute of Medicine: What Clinicians Need to Know
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3046611/

    #67759
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    @ Doc Robinson

    Thanks, that clears up my confusion regarding dosage; 5,000 IU should not be a problem for me (my wife won’t take it)…
    We’re being pretty careful and our area has been mostly clear of any “known” cases so far. But, the Thai government screwed up and ended its stellar low case numbers. They may get the numbers down again; we’ll see…
    In the meantime caution prevails…
    Thanks again…

    #67760
    ₿oogaloo
    Participant

    TAE will soon need to find new topics besides the virus!

    Here are some topics for 2021:

    Great Reset I: The rise of Bitcoin and the end of the debt based monetary system
    Great Reset II: Billionaire globalist plans to cull the herd and enslave the masses
    Great Reset III: The rise of secessionist and decentralization movements
    Great Reset IV: The final move to quash dissent

    #67761
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    @madamski & Geppetto…thanks! Added to my list.

    #67790
    Noirette
    Participant

    WES posted: I find it interesting that the Greek church is now opposing the Greek state’s lockdown.

    Yes…. The Catholics have joined the PTB, see for ex. Excerpt:

    In the past, the Pope has also criticized people who refuse to wear masks or who protest against coronavirus restrictions, commenting that they move in “their own little world of interests.”

    https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/pope-flying-covid-intl-scli/index.html

    Ugo Bardi (member of the Club of Rome, Prof. in Italy), often has posts a bit exagerated It-style, argues COV19 has killed off the Christian Church. Heh.

    https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2020/12/another-victim-of-covid-collapse-of.html

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