Jan 062021
 
 January 6, 2021  Posted by at 10:18 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,


Georgia O’Keeffe Street of New York II 1926

 

The Assange Verdict: What Happens Now (Craig Murray)
Will Biden DOJ Pursue Assange Extradition? Outgoing Prosecutor Isn’t Sure (NRP)
2 People Die In Norway Nursing Home Days After Receiving Pfizer Vaccine (RT)
Rate Of Adverse Reactions To COVID Vaccines 50x Higher Than Flu Shot (ZH)
Peru Clashes With Pfizer Over Legal Immunity For Vaccine Side Effects (RT)
Wuhan Coronavirus Infections 10 Times Higher Than Reported (NI)
Australia Says China Should Allow In WHO Covid Investigators (G.)
China Arrests US Lawyer During “Massive Crackdown” In Hong Kong (ZH)
The US Has Lost More Than 110,000 Restaurants (Snyder)
Biden To Tap More Obama Vets To Fill Key National Security Roles
Biden Taps Architect of 2014 Ukraine Coup for State Department (Antiwar)
Catastrophe Is All Around Us (AIER)
More Than 1.5 Billion Face Masks Will Pollute Oceans This Year (NYP)
US Doctor Forgives $650,000 In Medical Bills For Cancer Patients (BBC)

 

 

If Julian Assange’s bail is denied today, that will be a huge disappointment for many people. Craig Murray doesn’t think it will be denied, because the US appeal risks opening can of worms for them.

 

 

Big day for Assange, big day also for Trump?!

 

 

Tulsi Kamala

 

 

Murray remains very optimistic.

The Assange Verdict: What Happens Now (Craig Murray)

I am not sure that at this stage the High Court would accept a new guarantee from the USA that Assange would not be kept in isolation or in a Supermax prison; that would be contrary to the affidavit from Assistant Secretary of State Kromberg and thus would probably be ruled to amount to new evidence. Not to mention that Baraitser heard other evidence that such assurances had been received in the case of Abu Hamza, but had been broken. Hamza is not only kept in total isolation, but as a man with no hands he is deprived of prosthetics that would enable him to brush his teeth, and he has no means of cutting his nails nor assistance to do so, and cannot effectively wipe himself in the toilet. Not only is it hard to see the point of law on which the USA could launch an appeal, it is far from plain that they have a motive to do so.

Baraitser agreed with all the substantive points of argument put forward by the US government. She stated that there was no bar on extradition from the UK for political offences; she agreed that publication of national security material did constitute an offence in the USA under the Espionage Act and would do so in the UK under the Official Secrets Act, with no public interest defence in either jurisdiction; she agreed that encouraging a source to leak classified information is a crime; she agreed Wikileaks’ publications had put lives at risk. On all of these points she dismissed virtually without comment all the defence arguments and evidence. As a US Justice Department spokesman said yesterday: “While we are extremely disappointed in the court’s ultimate decision, we are gratified that the United States prevailed on every point of law raised.

In particular, the court rejected all of Mr Assange’s arguments regarding political motivation, political offence, fair trial, and freedom of speech. We will continue to seek Mr Assange’s extradition to the United States.” That is a fair categorisation of what happened. 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.

Read more …

Not sure the DOJ has much say in this.

Will Biden DOJ Pursue Assange Extradition? Outgoing Prosecutor Isn’t Sure (NRP)

The federal prosecutor seeking to try WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Espionage Act charges said he’s uncertain about whether the administration of President-elect Joe Biden would continue the extradition effort. Zachary Terwilliger, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, pointed out that the Assange case had already consumed years of work by line prosecutors and other officials. A judge in the United Kingdom dealt American prosecutors a blow Monday by rejecting their efforts to transfer Assange to the United States, citing his mental health troubles. The Justice Department pledged that it would appeal — a process that could drag on for months, if not longer. That means the issue of how to handle Assange, accused in one of the largest compromises of classified information in history, will be one of many questions for the new leadership team at the Justice Department.


“It will be very interesting to see what happens with this case,” Terwilliger said. “There’ll be some decisions to be made. Some of this does come down to resources and where you’re going to focus your energies.” For its part, the Biden transition didn’t comment directly on what position it would take in the Assange matter. But a spokesperson pointed out that Biden has called for an independent Justice Department in his administration. Terwilliger spoke to NPR on one of his final days in government service. Later this month, he’s set to join the law firm Vinson & Elkins. Terwilliger, 39, will beef up the firm’s white collar crime practice, after spending his entire career –a dozen years — on the other side of the courtroom as a career prosecutor and political appointee at the Justice Department.

Read more …

These reports keep coming in.

2 People Die In Norway Nursing Home Days After Receiving Pfizer Vaccine (RT)

The Norwegian Medicines Agency has announced that two nursing home residents passed away days after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, and that an investigation has been launched into the deaths. “We have to assess whether the vaccine is the cause of death, or if it is a coincidence that it happened soon after vaccination,” Medical Director Steiner Madsen said in a statement about the deaths. He also noted that, because people of advanced age are receiving the vaccine first, it is entirely possible the deaths could be coincidental. Around 400 people die every week in Norwegian nursing homes.


The agency, along with the National Institute of Public Health, are looking into the deaths. Reported side effects from the vaccine have been minor and temporary, although there have been reports of allergic reactions in the US and UK among people who had a history of such. Numerous government officials have received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, including US Vice President Mike Pence. Vaccinations with the drug began in Norway on December 27.

Read more …

That’s a lot.

Rate Of Adverse Reactions To COVID Vaccines 50x Higher Than Flu Shot (ZH)

With reports this morning of another otherwise-healthy patient dying suddenly after receiving her first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, many skeptics in both Europe and the US still have serious reservations about the jabs, even as big pharma and their allies in the US and British governments insist that they are 100% safe. Everyone claiming otherwise is not only wrongheaded, but acting in a deliberately malicious manner. This is why commentary like a video posted by DoubleLine’s Jeffrey Gundlach where he questions the sky-high efficacy numbers published after the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech trials has elicited such vehement repudiation.

However, as new questions about efficacy and timing arise, independent journalist Alex Berenson, one of the most prominent skeptics of lockdowns and masks in the US, noted in a twitter thread earlier on Tuesday that the percentage of patients experiencing severe or potentially life-threatening reactions to the COVID-19 vaccines could be much higher than the data collected by the CDC are letting on. The CDC’s VAERS reporting system was set up to track vaccine-related injury, Most patients can expect to experience some kind of adverse reaction, but for the vast majority of patients, symptoms will be relatively mild and clear up within a couple of days.

But amid a rush of reports about patient deaths, Berenson points out that the number of patients seeing serious complications per the number of doses distributed is roughly 50x higher than the rate of ‘adverse’ reactions caused by the flu vaccine. Berenson also speculated that this number might be even higher due to possible delays in updating the CDC’s data sets. This would seemingly confirm rates of adverse reactions seen during clinical trials. What’s more, clinical trials, generally speaking, tend to “UNDERSTATE” unpleasant or unwanted side effects, while they “OVERSTATE” the drug’s efficacy.

Read more …

“it is quite clear that they are not responsible for any side effects. If you become an alligator, it’s your problem.”

Peru Clashes With Pfizer Over Legal Immunity For Vaccine Side Effects (RT)

Peru has reached an impasse with Pfizer as it negotiates a deal for a Covid-19 vaccine, the country’s health minister said, citing a conflict over legal immunity for the pharma firm that could undermine Peru’s sovereignty. While officials have remained in “constant contact” with Pfizer since the summer, the talks ran into trouble last month amid “controversy” over some clauses of the agreement, including those linked to pricing and delivery, as well as legal immunities for the pharmaceutical giant in the case its inoculation leads to death or injury, health minister Pilar Mazzetti told lawmakers on Tuesday. “With Pfizer there are some details where there is no agreement,” Mazzetti said, adding “This has to do with prices and the delivery schedule” as well as “the waiving of important elements such as … jurisdictional immunity.”

“It is true that one needs the vaccine but it is also true that there are aspects related to aspects of our sovereignty that the country has to protect … it has to do with risk for future generations.” The health chief noted that since most aspects of the negotiations are protected under a confidentiality agreement, she could not offer further detail on the ongoing row, but assured that the talks continue. “We hope that the controversy will be resolved so we will be able to determine when the vaccine will arrive,” she went on. Though the country announced a final deal with Pfizer for nearly 10 million vaccine doses in late November, Mazzetti said the process stalled after some clauses in the agreement required “more in-depth analysis” to determine whether they are compatible with Peruvian law.

The Latin American nation is not the first to voice concerns about legal liability waivers in their talks with the pharma firm, with Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro observing last month that “it is quite clear that they are not responsible for any side effects. If you become an alligator, it’s your problem.” Officials in Argentina have raised similar worries. As the liability concerns become a major obstacle for some nations, the World Bank said on Tuesday that it is working with over 100 countries to address the issue, whether through local legislative efforts or other processes. The World Bank Group’s president, David Malpass, also noted that the agency aims to distribute $160 billion in resources by June to help developing countries obtain immunizations and fight the pandemic.

Read more …

Surprised?

Wuhan Coronavirus Infections 10 Times Higher Than Reported (NI)

Roughly half a million residents of Wuhan—the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic is believed to have originated—may have been infected with the virus, a figure that is about ten times higher than what was initially reported. The study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed more than thirty-four thousand people in April, and it eventually discovered that 4.4 percent of those tested were found to be carrying the antibodies for the coronavirus. The presence of antibodies means that individuals, at one point in time, had been carriers of the virus. As of Sunday, Wuhan, which has a population of 11 million, had reported a total of 50,354 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission.


The Chinese CDC noted that the study was conducted a month after China “contained the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic.” The study also indicated that the infection rate in Wuhan was significantly higher than in other major cities and provinces. For example, it revealed that only 0.44 percent of Hubei residents were found to be carrying the antibodies. “Exactly how much we have missed we don’t exactly know, but this gives us an idea that we have missed quite a bit,” Ian Mackay, an associated professor at the University of Queensland in Australia, told the South China Morning Post. Song Fujian, of Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia in Britain, told the paper that “given the chaotic situation and limited testing capability during the early phase of the epidemic in Wuhan,” the serological survey results might be “more accurate than the reported number of confirmed cases.”

Read more …

It’s only been a year.

Australia Says China Should Allow In WHO Covid Investigators (G.)

The Australian government has called on China to allow a visit by World Health Organization experts investigating how the coronavirus pandemic started, insisting the country should grant them visas “without delay”. Canberra raised its concerns on Wednesday over reports that Chinese authorities had blocked the arrival of a WHO team investigating the early cases of Covid-19 in Wuhan. With China arguing the team’s visas had not yet been approved, even as some members of the group were on their way to the country, the development has heightened fears among Australian politicians about whether the WHO mission will be able to uncover answers needed to better prepare the world for the next pandemic.


The Australian foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, said she hoped “that the necessary permissions for the WHO team’s travel to China can be issued without delay”. Speaking after months of rocky relations between the two countries, partly triggered by Australia’s calls for such an investigation, Payne said Australia had “consistently sought transparency in relation to the origins of, and responses to the coronavirus, as have other countries”. “The WHO-convened scientific study is an important part of this work and we look forward to the findings from the international field mission to China,” she said. “During this global pandemic that has affected all countries, international cooperation and partnerships will maximise our ability to respond, and to equip us for the next pandemic.”

Read more …

53 arrests reported. Including activists’ lawyers.

China Arrests US Lawyer During “Massive Crackdown” In Hong Kong (ZH)

Update 11:00pm ET: In what would be a shocking development, Bloomberg reports that during its “massive crackdown” purging countless local activists and politicians, the Hong Kong police – i.e. China – has arrested American Lawyer, John Clancey, using as a pretext the National Security Law, which everyone warned China would use as strawman to crack down on Hong Kong citizens and activists. Well, it now appears that the emboldened Beijing – which is delighted by the ascent of pro-China pushover Joe Biden to the White House – is also using that law to arrest American citizens.

H.K. ARRESTS AMERICAN LAWYER JOHN CLANCEY, COLLEAGUE SAYS
CLANCEY ARRESTED UNDER NATIONAL SECURITY LAW: COLLEAGUE

In response, Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State Anthony Blinken sent out a harshly worded tweet, warning China that the “Biden-Harris administration will stand with the people of Hong Kong and against Beijing’s crackdown on democracy.” We eagerly await to see just what the Blinken Biden administration will do, besides tweeting angrily in China’s general direction, to secure release of an American citizen unjustly arrested by Chinese proxies in Hong Kong.

Earlier: “Massive Crackdown”: Hong Kong Police Arrest Dozens Of Politicians & Activists 2021 is less than a week old and already Beijing is ramping up its efforts to suppress what’s left of the pro-democracy opposition in Hong Kong. Right now, China hawks are preoccupied right now by a number of issues: the disappearance of Jack Ma (note: CNBC claims the Alibaba founder is just “laying low”), Beijing’s refusal to allow international investigators inside the Wuhan Institue of Virology and, finally, the CCP’s abusive treatment of China’s Uyghur Muslim minority. Now, less than two months after the last 19 members of the HK LegCo’s pro-democracy opposition quit en masse over Beijing’s demands that they swear a loyalty oath to uphold the new national security law and the supremacy of the CCP, Hong Kong police have rounded up dozens of pro-democracy activists.

Read more …

“..more than 500,000 restaurants of every business type — franchise, chain and independent — are in an economic free fall.”

The US Has Lost More Than 110,000 Restaurants (Snyder)

The restaurant industry is in the midst of a complete and total meltdown that is unlike anything that we have ever seen before. If you ask Google how many restaurants there are in the United States, it will tell you that there are 660,755, although that number is a few years old. But for the purposes of this article, that is a good enough estimate. Americans love to eat out, and restaurant workers are some of the hardest working people in the entire country. So it is incredibly sad to see more restaurants constantly going under. In some cases, restaurants that have served their communities for decades are deciding to permanently close their doors. For example, over the weekend Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse in New York City announced that it had finally reached the end of the road…

[..] Unfortunately, Sammy’s is far from alone. In fact, in a recent article that he penned for Fox Business, Adam Piper lamented the fact that more than 100,000 U.S. restaurants have gone out of business during this pandemic… “State and local governments have wielded the coronavirus pandemic as license to steal freedom and opportunity in pursuit of unprecedented omnipotence. Unreasonable, unnecessary and hypocritical actions have forced over 100,000 restaurants to close and endanger countless others.” And according to Bloomberg, the true number of dead restaurants is now over 110,000… “More than 110,000 restaurants have closed permanently or long-term across the country as the industry grapples with the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Just think about that. More than one out of every six restaurants in the U.S. is already gone, and the National Restaurant Association is warning that there will be more carnage in the months ahead because the industry is in “an economic free fall”… “The restaurant industry simply cannot wait for relief any longer,” Sean Kennedy, executive vice president of public affairs at the association, said in a letter to Congress. “What these findings make clear is that more than 500,000 restaurants of every business type — franchise, chain and independent — are in an economic free fall.” This is what an economic depression looks like. With tens of thousands of restaurants sitting empty, and with tens of thousands of others not paying rent, the stage has been set for a commercial real estate disaster of unprecedented scope and size.

Of course there are millions of square feet of office space and retail space that are not being productive right now as well. In a recent article, Lee Adler referred to this looming commercial real estate nightmare as “a monster in the room”… “I think that if there’s anything that illustrates the head in the sand problem of the banks, it’s this. Commercial real estate (CRE) finance. There’s a monster in the room. All that empty space. No longer income producing.” For now, big financial institutions are doing their best to hide their coming losses, but according to Adler for certain sectors the losses will simply be unavoidable… “Multifamily will take a haircut but will survive. My guess is that industrial, while overpriced and overvalued, will produce enough income to get by. Office and retail? Kiss it goodbye. It’s done. Over. Kaput.”

Read more …

Victoria Nuland is the worst America has to offer.

Biden To Tap More Obama Vets To Fill Key National Security Roles

President-elect Joe Biden and his transition team have begun to fill out top positions on the incoming National Security Council and at the State Department, with key roles like deputy national security adviser and deputy secretary of State going to veterans of the Obama administration. At the State Department, longtime diplomat Wendy Sherman will be nominated to serve as Secretary of State-designee Tony Blinken’s deputy, according to two people close to the transition. Sherman previously served as under secretary of State for political affairs in the Obama administration and was a lead negotiator for the Iran deal. Sherman is currently a senior counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group, the same firm where Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Biden’s pick to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also worked as a senior counselor.

Another veteran diplomat, Victoria Nuland, will be nominated for the role of under secretary of State for political affairs, one of the people said. Nuland also previously served in the Obama administration, as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs. Nuland and Sherman, who entered academia and the think tank world after leaving the Obama administration, have been outspoken critics of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy — particularly his appeasement of Russian President Vladimir Putin. On the National Security Council, former State Department official Jon Finer will be named deputy national security adviser, the people said, reporting up to incoming national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Finer, a former journalist, joined the Obama White House as a fellow in 2009 and served in various roles throughout Obama’s tenure, including as a foreign policy speechwriter for Biden and a senior adviser to then-deputy national security adviser Blinken. Finer had been working in political risk and public policy at the private equity firm Warburg Pincus, which was co-founded by Blinken’s father, since leaving government in 2017. The key NSC role of senior director for European Affairs will go to Amanda Sloat, a Brookings Institution fellow who served as deputy assistant secretary for Southern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean affairs at the State Department in the Obama administration.

Read more …

And Nuland’s co-conspirator Geoffrey Pyatt is now US ambassador here in Greece.

Biden Taps Architect of 2014 Ukraine Coup for State Department (Antiwar)

According to a report from Politico, Joe Biden’s transition team is expected to nominate Victoria Nuland to be the under secretary of state for political affairs for the incoming administration’s State Department. Nuland, who is married to neoconservative Robert Kagan, is known for her role in orchestrating the 2014 coup in Ukraine while she was the assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasian affairs in the Obama administration. A recording of a phone call between Nuland and then-US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt was leaked and released on YouTube on February 4th, 2014. In the call, Nuland and Pyatt discussed who should replace the government of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who was forced to step down on February 22nd, 2014.

The US-backed coup sparked the war in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region and led to the Russian annexation of Crimea. Both regions have a majority ethnic-Russian population who rejected the nationalist, anti-Russian post-coup government that even had neo-Nazis in its midst. In a 2020 column for Foreign Affairs titled, “Pinning Down Putin,” Nuland said Russian President Vladimir Putin “seized” on the 2014 coup and other “democratic struggles” to “fuel the perception at home of Russian interests under siege by external enemies.” She also cited the war in the Donbas and annexation of Crimea as examples of Russian aggression, as most in Washington do.

Currently, Nuland is a fellow at the Brookings Institution and works for the Albright Stonebridge Group. She is also a board member of the National Endowment for Democracy, a US-taxpayer funded nonprofit that funds “pro-democracy” movements across the world.

Read more …

“..the entire litany of brutality to which we’ve been subjected for nearly a year, all summed up in the word lockdown. Dr. Henderson warned against it all…”

Catastrophe Is All Around Us (AIER)

As a naturally optimistic person, it vexes me that the word catastrophe has echoed in my mind since early March 2020. It’s the word the great smallpox eradicator Donald Henderson used in his 2006 prediction of the consequences of lockdown, a word that wasn’t around then. His masterful article addressed the idea of travel restrictions, forced human separation, business and school closings, mask mandates, limits on public gatherings, quarantines, and the entire litany of brutality to which we’ve been subjected for nearly a year, all summed up in the word lockdown. Dr. Henderson warned against it all. This is not how you deal with disease, he said; at a minimum society needs to function so that medical professionals can do their work.

Diseases are managed one person at a time, not with grand central plans. That was the old wisdom in any case. Under the influence of vainglorious modelers, ideological resetters, and politicians hoping to make names for themselves, most of the world tried the lockdown experiment anyway. Here we are nearly a year since I wrote my first article warning that governments presumed themselves to possess the quarantine power. They could use it if they wanted to. I didn’t expect they would. I wrote this piece as a “for your information” public service just to let people know how terrible governments could be.

I had no idea that quarantines would be only the beginning. At this point we know what we did not know then. They are capable – by they I mean even governments in presumably civilized countries with functioning democracies – of the unthinkable, and they are capable of persisting in the unthinkable for an appalling amount of time. Now the lockdowns are our life in the US, unless you are lucky enough to live in Florida, Georgia, South Dakota, South Carolina, and perhaps a few other places. Here in these outposts of what we used to call civilization, life seems normal. Our readers in these states don’t even think about the virus much, and they read my articles and find them overwrought, like I’m describing life on another planet.

Read more …

Externalities.

More Than 1.5 Billion Face Masks Will Pollute Oceans This Year (NYP)

More than 1.5 billion disposable face masks will wind up in the world’s oceans this year — polluting the water with tons of plastic and endangering marine wildlife, according to a Hong Kong-based environmental group. A report by OceansAsia cites a global market research report that estimates 52 billion masks were made this year to meet the demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It also says that a “conservative” calculation means at least 3 percent of them will be washed out to sea. “Single-use face masks are made from a variety of meltblown plastics and are difficult to recycle due to both composition and risk of contamination and infection,” the report says.


“These masks enter our oceans when they are littered or otherwise improperly discarded, when waste management systems are inadequate or non-existent, or when these systems become overwhelmed due to increased volumes of waste.” With each mask weighing three to four grams, the situation could lead to 6,800-plus tons of plastic pollution that “will take as long as 450 years to break down,” according to the report. In addition to the harmful effects of micro-plastic and nano-plastic particles, elastic ear loops pose a “possible entanglement risk for wildlife,” the report says. The report cites several examples of marine animals killed by masks, including a “dead bloated pufferfish” found tangled in the loops of a disposable blue mask by volunteers cleaning a Miami beach in August.

Read more …

And sometimes you look up from whatever it is you’re doing and suddenly you see life.

US Doctor Forgives $650,000 In Medical Bills For Cancer Patients (BBC)

A US oncologist has wiped out nearly $650,000 worth of debts for 200 cancer patients after realising that many of them were struggling to pay. Dr Omar Atiq closed his cancer treatment centre in Arkansas last year after nearly 30 years in business. He worked with a debt collection firm to gather outstanding payments, but then realised many families had been hit hard financially by the pandemic. Over Christmas, he wrote to patients telling them any debts would be erased. “Over time I realised that there are people who just are unable to pay,” Dr Atiq told ABC’s Good Morning America. “So my wife and I, as a family, we thought about it and looked at forgiving all the debt. We saw that we could do it and then just went ahead and did it.” Dr Atiq, who is originally from Pakistan, founded the Arkansas Cancer Clinic in Pine Bluff in 1991, providing treatments including chemotherapy, radiation therapy and CAT scans.


He is now a professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock. “We thought there was not a better time to do this than during a pandemic that has decimated homes, people’s lives and businesses and all sorts of stuff,” Dr Atiq said, quoted by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He said the outstanding bills from about 200 patients totalled nearly $650,000 (£480,000). In his Christmas greeting card to patients, he wrote: “The Arkansas Cancer Clinic was proud to serve you as a patient. Although various health insurances pay most of the bills for majority of patients, even the deductibles and co-pays can be burdensome. Unfortunately, that is the way our health care system currently works. The clinic has decided to forego all balances owed to the clinic by its patients. Happy Holidays.”

Read more …

 

 

We try to run the Automatic Earth on donations. Since ad revenue has collapsed, you are now not just a reader, but an integral part of the process that builds this site.

Click at the top of the sidebars for Paypal and Patreon donations. Thank you for your support.

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in 2021. Click at the top of the sidebars to donate with Paypal and Patreon.

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle January 6 2021

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 71 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #67767

    Georgia O’Keeffe Street of New York II 1926   • The Assange Verdict: What Happens Now (Craig Murray) • Will Biden DOJ Pursue Assange Extradition?
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle January 6 2021]

    #67768
    Basseterre Kitona
    Participant

    Kamala Harris is an absolute tyrant in the making. Terrifying to think that Biden was a Trojan horse for that. Unbelievable that some people still think Trump is worse.

    Not surprised that side affects of the new vaccines are 50x worse. Remember the mRNA is new technology. Big Pharma has been trying to get it to market for 20+ years but consistently failed because of too many bad reactions. They’ve used the overhyped hysteria of sars-cov-2 to pull another Trojan horse con job and foist a shit technology on us serfs.

    And Peru is absolutely correct to resist the corporate immunity. Frankly, there is no way that Big Pharma should have immunity for their poisons and sick experiments anywhere in the world. It is embarrassing that only 3rd World nations still seem to understand this.

    #67770
    John Day
    Participant

    Today’s the big day. I’m praying for America to be able to reise and stand from her induced coma. God Bless America, the America who was shot with the knock-out dart in November 1963.

    From 2 days ago, this: Docs urge early outpatient treatment for COVID-19

    Docs urge early outpatient treatment for COVID-19


    Drs McCullough and Risch are the principals of this listserv I got added to last week. I’m trying to be useful.

    #67771

    From 2 days ago, this: Docs urge early outpatient treatment for COVID-19

    Seen first at TAE 😉

    #67772

    District Judge Vanessa Baraitser has rejected #Assange’s bail application and has decided he will remain as a remand prisoner until the conclusion of the appeal proceedings.

    #67773
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    Hmmm… is it correct to assume that the name The Automatic Earth comes from Paul Simon’s lyrics in The Boy in the Bubble?

    #67774
    John Day
    Participant

    @madamski, “The Automatic Earth” moniker has only ever occurred in “The Boy In The Bubble” and the name of this blog, as far as I can tell.
    I assumed, when I first saw the blog, spring 2008, that the name came from the song. All my allusions to the song in this blog, over the years have passed without contrary comment.
    Here is something different for saving COVID ravaged lungs, from the listserv. (By the way, I am directing the attention of the group to this blog, and yes, I intended “@ The Automatic Earth” to be my reference, when I said “2 days ago”. That same story did appear on the listserv, but in French.)

    Miami Beach doctor recovering from COVID-19 after taking new drug


    It looked like Elgozy may need a lung transplant. At one point, he was scheduled to undergo a double lung transplant.
    That’s when his doctor thought of RLF-100 (aviptadil), a game-changing drug. A doctor who is leading the trial at Johns Hopkins University is seeing promising results.
    “With the drug, we saw a 70% or greater survival,” said NeuroRX CEO Dr. Jonathan Javitt, “but in these patients who have no alternative, who have very little to look forward to, we believe the experience that was seen in Houston and seen now around the country.”

    #67775
    John Day
    Participant

    More on Aviptadil:
    https://european-biotechnology.com/up-to-date/latest-news/news/drug-set-to-rescue-covid-19-patients-at-icus.html
    Initial data from an US expanded access (EA) use of RLF-100™ (aviptadil) in 90 ICU patients with critical COVID-19 and severe comorbidities point to a 72% survival 28 days after initial treatment.

    #67776
    John Day
    Participant

    Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide (VIP), the active ingredient in aviptadil been shown in more than 100 peer-reviewed studies to have potent anti-inflammatory/anti-cytokine activity in animal models of respiratory distress, acute lung injury, and inflammation. Most importantly, 70% of the VIP in the body is bound to a rare cell in the lung, the alveolar type 2 cell, that is critical to transmission of oxygen to the body. VIP has a 20-year history of safe use in humans in multiple human trials for sarcoidosis, pulmonary fibrosis, asthma/allergy, and pulmonary hypertension.

    #67777
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Denying Assange’s bail is another travesty of justice.

    Judge Baraitser: US has already lodged its appeal
    https://twitter.com/SMaurizi/status/1346779670470152192

    #67778
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    “Aviptadil (INN) is an analog of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) for the treatment of erectile dysfunction.[1] ”

    These are the days of miracles and wonders.

    #67779
    Polder Dweller
    Participant

    District Judge Vanessa Baraitser has rejected #Assange’s bail application and has decided he will remain as a remand prisoner until the conclusion of the appeal proceedings.

    I’m mortified.

    In theory at least, in specific circumstances (e.g. where the impartiality of a judge is claimed), a case can be referred to the highest court in the land, namely the House of Lords. That might be a way forward although I’ve no idea how that’s done and maybe it doesn’t apply to an Australian citizen.

    #67780
    zerosum
    Participant

    The Chinese authorities’ efforts against the coronavirus were 10 x more successful than reported
    (truth) No other countries, not even the USA, could have done as good a job.

    • Wuhan Coronavirus Infections 10 Times Higher Than Reported (NI)
    At the start of the pandemic in January, Wuhan was under a full lockdown and cut off from any outside resources for nearly three months. During this time, world leaders and health officials began questioning when exactly Wuhan and the rest of China knew about this particular disease, often described as a pneumonia-like respiratory illness.
    ——
    disaster or/and opportunity
    With tens of thousands of restaurants sitting empty, and with tens of thousands of others not paying rent, the stage has been set for a commercial real estate disaster of unprecedented scope and size.

    Of course there are millions of square feet of office space and retail space that are not being productive right now as well.
    ———–
    Old broom will make the last 4 years disappear
    Biden will return to the past …. hehehehe

    • Biden To Tap More Obama Vets To Fill Key National Security Roles
    • Biden Taps Architect of 2014 Ukraine Coup for State Department (Antiwar)
    ——-
    Two birds with one drug (Cough, cough)

    This might be the breakthrough coronavirus cure we’ve been waiting for
    By Chris Smith @chris_writes
    August 3rd, 2020
    A potential coronavirus cure that can reduce recovery time and prevent COVID-19 complications is now in Phase 2/3 testing.
    The drug is called RLF-100 or aviptadil, and it also received emergency use authorization in the US for the treatment of critically ill COVID-19 patients.
    RLF-100 has already saved the lives of multiple patients experiencing severe COVID-19 complications, but the companies are yet to publish the scientific data that would show its efficacy and safety.

    Erectile dysfunction drug aviptadil may also treat Covid-19, experts believe
    Aviptadil has been fast-tracked into clinical trials in the US since June
    Early results show patients have come off ventilators in three to four days
    The drug is a synthetic form of a natural peptide in the body called VIP
    It’s shown to prevent inflammation and stop replication of the virus in lung cells
    By VANESSA CHALMERS HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 09:10 EST, 6 August 2020

    ———-

    #67781

    Assange was denied bail because he’s a flight risk? How on earth does that make sense?

    #67782

    Medicine is magical and magical is art

    The Boy in the Bubble has strong lyrics, not something I really like Paul Simon for. But this one does. Sometimes wish we’d picked a shorter name 13 years ago, but what can you do?

    #67783
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Vaccination numbers are low in North Carolina, so the governor called in the National Guard to get more “needles into arms.” Could this be practice for when vaccinations are mandatory?

    Most N.C. Nursing Home Workers Are Refusing COVID Vaccine
    “North Carolina’s top public health official said Tuesday that most nursing home workers are refusing to take coronavirus vaccines being offered in a state that has now become one of the slowest in the nation to get doses into peoples’ arms.
    https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/north-carolina/articles/2021-01-05/cooper-calls-in-national-guard-to-pick-up-vaccine-rollout

    “The N.C. National Guard has started to form six-member “immunization strike teams” that will travel the state to work at COVID-19 vaccine sites “to help North Carolina get needles into arms,” Brig. Gen. Jeff Copeland said Tuesday…

    The National Guard teams are expected to work at least into April, working down the list of groups as they become eligible, Copeland said.

    Copeland said the teams will work in urban areas with large medical facilities as well as in underserved rural areas…

    Teams will consist of two combat medics and four administrative support members, Copeland said, with the medics administering the shots and the support staff entering patient information into computers and managing logistics.

    NC governor activates National Guard to help with COVID vaccine distribution
    https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article248285010.html

    #67784
    John Day
    Participant

    The real Boy In The Bubble (not John Travolta) was bubbled for having essentially no immune system at birth. He was bubbled under the auspices of my med school, UT Houston, which had quite an immunology department and studied AIDS very intently (Houston social scene facilitated that). I was there from 1982-1986, critical early years. I never went and saw the boy in the bubble. He died after a bone marrow transplant failed to give him an immune system.
    https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/remembering-boy-bubble

    #67785
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Georgia Senate seats seem to be leaning democrat. Could be an interesting year.

    #67786
    John Day
    Participant

    So the British Tabloids (you saw it at TAE) discovered ivermectin for COVID day before yesterday?
    “Got lice and worms but not COVID?” style.
    Why?
    Maybe this new viral strain with modified spike protein which the vaccines don’t target properly?
    Wait! … They are saying to double down on vaccines PRONTO, because they don’t work against this one? Where could a rationale like THAT possibly arise? (Thanks again to c19D list)
    https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/05/south-africa-covid-variant-appears-to-obviate-antibody-drugs-dr-scott-gottlieb-says.html
    “Right now that strain does appear to be prevalent in South America and Brazil, the two parts of the world, right now, that are in their summer, but also experiencing a very dense epidemic, and that’s concerning.
    The South African variant is also known as 501.V2, and in mid-December officials reported that 501.V2 had been largely replacing other strains of the coronavirus as early as November.

    #67787

    Teams will consist of two combat medics and four administrative support members, Copeland said, with the medics administering the shots and the support staff entering patient information into computers and managing logistics.

    You need 4 administrators for 1 flu shot. Boy, do I like the sound of that…

    “Combat medics”. Boy oh boy.

    #67788
    John Day
    Participant

    Albert Einstein College of Medicine virologist Kartik Chandran tells The Scientist in an email that it would also be useful to investigate cell-mediated immunity, which is a response driven by T cells and may be less sensitive to mutations in the spike protein than the neutralizing antibody response is.

    Like the UK variant, scientists suspect that 501.V2 is more infectious than other strains of SARS-CoV-2 are, as it has rapidly become dominant in the country’s coastal areas. Lessells says he expects the variant will quickly become dominant in Johannesburg, the country’s largest city, and the surrounding provinces.

    South Africa is currently experiencing a resurgence of the virus with new cases and deaths rising rapidly, surpassing what the country experienced in its first surge in late July.
    https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/south-african-sars-cov-2-variant-alarms-scientists-68317

    #67789
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Over a decade ago I stumbled on late Joe Bageant’s essay starting with (I am paraphrasing): “Does any fair minded person thinks that Clinton, Kissinger, (and few others) are normal people?”. I could not help thinking that actually
    half of the country thinks that Clinton is, and that good part has no an idea who the Kissinger was.
    Tulsi’s one-two punch, allegedly, knocked Kamala out of primaries but that video is like rain soaked and wrinkled sign
    held by the desperate sane person that mass that blindly supports Biden-Harris team does not want see. Clapping hands and laughter when Biden insults and challenges constituent for push up contest and all other instances video recorded?
    Not sure if proles prostrating themselves in voter fraud activities are aware that she, first, would throw them under the bus if, God forbid, heavy hand of law start doing it’s job.

    Not a particular fan of senora O’keeffe but this one is “not bad”.

    #67791
    John Day
    Participant

    Blog is up “VIP News”
    https://www.johndayblog.com/2021/01/vip-news.html

    Rural Peru had very good results with ivermectin.
    Peru Slams Pfizer Over Legal Immunity For COVID Vaccine Side Effects
    “One indeed needs the vaccine, but it is also true that there are aspects related to aspects of our sovereignty that the country has to protect … it has to do with risk for future generations,” she said.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/peru-slams-pfizer-over-legal-immunity-covid-vaccine-side-effects

    Tuesday January 12 free webinar about treating COVID with ivermectin, by Professor/investigator Hector Carvallo MD
    ​https://theeconomicstandard.com/docs-urge-early-outpatient-treatment-for-covid-19/

    Physicians/facilities providing early outpatient treatment for COVID:

    Physicians/Facilities Offering Early Treatment

    New York’s new law setting up detention centers to lock up suspected Covid-19 cases heralds a Kafkaesque nightmare​ Helen Buyniski​
    https://www.rt.com/op-ed/511599-new-york-indefinite-detention-covid/

    #67792
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    January 6, 2021 . Supposed to be a real big day. Will it be ?

    If Team Trump feeds its supporters nothing but another nothing burger on the much hyped January 6 Wild Times Rally in DC , then I think a lot of them are going to puke him out. At the very least there must be the release of heretofore hush-hush information about the so-called Black Hats. Deeds must be exposed, names must be spoken, the fucking details must be detailed.
    If that doesn’t happen, after four years of promises to drain the swamp, and at a crucial moment when the eyes of the world are laser focused on that singular event in Washington . . . then that’s that. Between now and the day when the Trump Presidency constitutionally ends (Jan 20) there is no better time to present his case to the world and capture public opinion. No better venue for staging an end-run around media censorship, and delivering the truth directly to the people of the world (and America in particular) about how the cheaters are cheating them, and who the cheaters really are (by name).
    Can we the people fix this mess with that information ? Maybe, maybe not. But one things is certain : that without that information (and/or with a Black Hat controlled White House, Senate and House of Representatives) the people of the United States are headed straight into a bloody civil war, which can only or ever spill round the world.

    #67793
    Geppetto
    Participant

    Back on the 4th @ D Benton Smith made a post that ran under the radar. I’ll quote a piece:

    “So-called “messenger” RNA takes a bit of genetic code and places it in the cell’s DNA so that every time that cell replicates itself the “newly revised” DNA is replicated right along with it. Like, forever. Or at least until that line of cells dies out completely . As in “end of the line”. A typical vaccine delivers a few billion of those little makers in one go. Allowing an average of 7 days between human cell divisions, and just thumb-nail the arithmetic for how long it takes for the recipient to be a whole new and improved version of themselves, the version with permanently modified DNA throughout their organism..”

    Nobody refuted or pushed back against this so I did a little google surf riff and ran across this from 2011:

    “The dependence of viral RNA replication on co-opted host factors”

    Now, one would have to have spent a good portion of one’s life to know all the acronyms used and their context in the grand scheme of all things that are biological. I do not pretend to understand but a tiny portion of this paper. But I did come away with a profound feeling (again and forever!) for how immense and complex this thing we call life is. And as I have oft said, we are just dancing around up here on the surface.

    Raul used the word ” Externalities” this morning…..yeah no kidding!

    #67794
    Geppetto
    Participant

    oops did not get the hot link:

    https://www.nature.com/articles/nrmicro2692#Abs1

    #67795
    Geppetto
    Participant

    @D Benton Smith

    And yes, 10-4 on what you said above

    #67796
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ kultsommer

    Electoral politics being a team sport, and such being entirely about winning (at virtually any cost), our ability to blind ourselves to the sins of ‘our guys’, if it means that we ‘win’, means that everyone loses in the end.

    We tell ourselves that they’re only cheating in order to win by going along to get along, and that once they obtain sufficient leverage, they’ll right the wrongs.

    When that doesn’t happen, we hide behind whatever resistance the losing team is still able to provide. ‘He wanted to but Congress wouldn’t let him’, etc. I’m sure we all know this. I just have a compulsion to articulate things. Sort of my own mental flea circus.

    ^&*

    @ Raul

    Paul Simon always tries to keep his lyrics light, not in terms of superficial topics but in avoiding ‘pontifics’ or anything coming across as too preachy. You see this in The Boy in the Bubble lyrics. He doesn’t point moral fingers but he aptly describes things that give reason to make us cry like babies and question the morality of our culture.

    Your man, Dylan, after his early preachy years, was able to do the same thing lyrically but still swing the bat with heavy gravitas.

    Dylan on a topic:

    Father of Night

    Simon on same topic:

    The Afterlife

    Leonard Cohen, with limited musicality but profound verbal insight, produced less material than Dylan and Simon, but when he truly nailed something, he outshone either of them. I let Anthony sing it here rather than Cohen because Anthony does for this Cohen song something like what Hendrix did with Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower::

    If It Be Your Will

    #67797
    Mr. House
    Participant

    https://news.yahoo.com/james-comey-donald-trump-not-060020070.html

    So it was all theater from the getgo as usual. Lots of harsh words in the spotlight and then much back slapping after the curtain falls.

    #67798
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Come the lightning and the thunder / You’re the one who’ll suffer” — Paul Simon

    “It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder / how I keep from going under.” – Grandmaster Flash

    “Such a blunder makes me wonder why why I even bring the thunder” — Hamilton

    “There must be some kind of way outta here
    Said the joker to the thief
    There’s too much confusion
    I can’t get no relief

    Well, uh, outside in the cold distance
    A wildcat did growl
    Two riders were approaching
    And the wind began to howl…” _Bob Dylan

    #67799
    Geppetto
    Participant

    Victory waits him who has everything in order — luck people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck.
    — Roald Amundsen

    BTW a fantastic book if you have not read it. For me a study in methodologies. One ‘lindy’ and one not. Hint: seal meat and fur on the inside…….eskimo stuff yah know.

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/549488.The_Last_Place_on_Earth

    #67800

    DC is “on lock down”. Chambers have been evacuated.

    #67801

    A photo of a protestor sitting in the big chair in the senate was just shown on cspan. Greta says it was taken “moments ago”.
    6 jan 2021 2 pm cat

    #67802

    Central Standard Time. autocorrect won’t let me write cst without insistence.

    Cops everywhere. People milling all about.
    The Senate may convene in another location. (n. lesniewski cq roll call.)

    #67803

    Having what looks like real serious problems with my MacBook. This may take a few days. Where will a find a new one in lockdown Athens?

    #67804

    “protestor”

    #67805

    CSPAN just showed a photo from inside the House where folks have guns drawn. As a constant CSPAN watcher- I don’t know what camera that was. (It’s a “thing” with cspanners.)

    #67806

    “Someone has been shot”…
    Meanwhile the market is up 450 as I type…

    #67807

    “1100 national guard will be deployed [Virginia?].
    Homeland security will send in people to quell the violence”
    (paraphrased Greta of cspan. )

    They have shown no outside violence, but there are “Trump people” who are standing off with cops on the steps of the Capitol.
    I find it hard to believe a “protestor” could enter the Senate chambers without being allowed in.
    Just saying.
    I don’t recall signing up for this high school production.
    I was in a crowd crush once- I recall the terror of being carried by the masses with absolutely no control. And now they are all headed over a cliff. I want out.
    I thought 2020 was bad…

    #67808
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    James Comey

    Either he is overcome by the Holy Spirit of Deception and Virtue-Signaling, or he’s getting a blow job. Maybe both?

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 71 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.