Mar 162021
 
 March 16, 2021  Posted by at 9:08 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,


Paul Gauguin A Day of No Gods 1894

 

Biden To Propose First Major Federal Tax Hike Since 1993 (DM)
This Is What You Voted For (Kunstler)
White House Set To Unveil Sweeping Vaccine-Confidence Campaign (STAT)
Is Biden Holding America Hostage Until ‘Independence’ Day? (Ron Paul)
Germany, France And Italy Suspend Oxford Covid Vaccine (G.)
UK Coronavirus Variant Significantly More Deadly Says New Study (F.)
Regular ‘Booster’ Shots Will Become Commonplace As New Variants Emerge (RT)
Cuba Working on a ‘People’s Vaccine’ (CP)
Facebook Will Add Labels To All Posts About Covid-19 Vaccines (F.)
Immigrant Teens To Be Housed At Dallas Convention Center (AP)
Beijing Orders Alibaba To Dump Media Assets (ZH)
The Stockton Experiment: How a Guaranteed Income Can Actually Solve Inequality

 

 

 

 

How an anonymous source becomes part of a impeachment trial.

 

 

“..a conundrum on how much of the bill should be paid for with tax hikes and what parts should be financed with even more federal borrowing..”

Biden To Propose First Major Federal Tax Hike Since 1993 (DM)

Joe Biden is planning to propose the first substantial federal tax hike since 1993 for Americans to help pay for his long-term economic program after he signed the largest stimulus package in U.S. history with a price tag of $1.9 trillion. Four people familiar with discussion told Bloomberg that Biden is expected to propose a series of tax increases, including repealing parts of Donald Trump’s 2017 tax law that resulted in most Americans seeing more in their paychecks, to help fund the latest proposal. Trump’s tax cuts led to most Americans receiving more take home pay and resulted in an average increase of $90 in tax returns from 2017 to 2018. With the former president’s income tax cuts, Americans immediately saw somewhere between a 0.4 per cent and 2.9 per cent increase in their paychecks after taxes.

Now the White House is preparing to roll out another sweeping plan to tackle infrastructure and the economic crisis, which some say could fall somewhere between the $2-$4 trillion mark. Biden plans to kick off his cross-country tour this week promoting and seeking to bolster enthusiasm for the coronavirus relief package, where the White House will also ensure he receives credit for benefits included in the bill. First lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and first gentlemen Doug Emhoff will also hit the road this week to promote the sweeping legislation. Next on the president’s docket is getting another pricey funding bill through Congress that addresses infrastructure, climate and education.

Republicans are more than likely to pounce on the plan, painting Democrats as the Party of higher taxes. The tax hike could also blow any chances of lawmakers reaching a bipartisan deal on infrastructure – something Democratic Senator Joe Manchin says is unacceptable and that he will likely block. With a narrow majority in the House and a 50-50 split in the Senate, Democrats must craft the proposal in a way that gains support from nearly every lawmaker in their caucus. White House officials are now facing a conundrum on how much of the bill should be paid for with tax hikes and what parts should be financed with even more federal borrowing.

Read more …

“Mr. Biden’s “honeymoon” period is about over.”

This Is What You Voted For (Kunstler)

Meanwhile, up in Minneapolis, where jury selection is underway in the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd, the City Council approved 13-to-0 a $27-million wrongful death civil settlement to Mr. Floyd’s family. Say, what…? The way it’s supposed to work is that a civil case for wrongful death follows the criminal trial — for how would you know what’s rightful or wrongful in a matter before the facts in the case have been adjudicated? Sounds like Hennepin County, MN, may not be the right venue for these proceedings.

Should Mr. Chauvin face a jury that will likely have heard news reports that the city council already decided the verdict, and in the most imprecise terms possible? “Mr. Floyd died because the weight of the entire Minneapolis Police Department was on his neck,” Floyd family Attorney Ben Crump said when the suit was filed. Systemic racism, you see. Following the George Floyd riots last year, the Minneapolis City Council announced its plan to defund the police. In February 2021, the council announced the release of $6.4-million to hire more police, following a dramatic uptick in crime. Such are the strange inconsistencies of life under the crypto-Jacobin revolution in America today.

Speaking of Joe Biden, alleged to be president, he was oddly absent altogether on the front page of Monday’s New York Times, leading the curious to wonder if last Tuesday night’s Coronavirus Action speech drained his dwindling mojo for the rest of the month. The curious might also seek to know why Mr. Biden’s “team” is still so wound up about eradicating Coronavirus, yet eager to let tens of thousands cross the border illegally from Mexico, many of them live vectors of the virus, who are then bussed all over the USA under the revived “catch-and-release” policy. Mr. Biden’s “honeymoon” period is about over. The country had not quite discovered just how leaderless it is. Will it come as a shock to find out? After all, isn’t this what you voted for?

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Snake oil salesmen?

White House Set To Unveil Sweeping Vaccine-Confidence Campaign (STAT)

The White House will soon unveil a wide-reaching public relations campaign aimed at boosting vaccine confidence and uptake across the U.S., Biden administration aides told STAT. This television, radio, and digital advertising blitz, set to kick off within weeks, will focus on Americans outright skeptical of vaccines’ safety or effectiveness as well as those who are potentially more willing to seek a Covid-19 immunization but don’t yet know where, when, or how. Specifically, the campaign will target three groups in which access, apathy, or outright skepticism may pose a barrier to vaccinations: young people, people of color, and conservatives, according to a Biden aide. Congress and the administration have set aside over $1.5 billion for the effort.

The effort highlights a looming and underappreciated public health challenge: Though millions of Americans are currently clamoring to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, in a few short months, or even weeks, the opposite may be true. Instead of scrambling to manufacture doses, the government may soon be scrambling to find arms willing to receive them. While the administration Covid response advisers organizing the effort are broadly optimistic, they and many public health experts fear that without winning buy-in from a critical, final slice of the population, the effort could fall short of its goal: effectively ending the country’s coronavirus crisis. “I’m worried about the 15% of Americans who say they will not take the vaccine,” said Sten Vermund, the dean of the Yale School of Public Health.

“And about 8% or 9% of Americans say, ‘I will take it if they make me, if my job forces me to.’ So that’s about 23% or 24%, and that’s flirting with the level we need to get to herd immunity.” The rollout fulfills one of Biden’s first promises in office. He pledged on Jan. 21 to kick off an “unprecedented vaccination public health campaign” aimed at convincing every American adult to seek a Covid-19 immunization.= As for the specific content, administration officials said they were mindful that appeals directly from President Biden or Anthony Fauci are not likely to sway vaccine-hesitant people. As a result, they are expected to recruit both celebrities and trusted local officials to advance the pro-vaccine message.

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“..politicians cannot bear the possibility that they might have to give up some of that power over us they have grabbed for themselves..”

Is Biden Holding America Hostage Until ‘Independence’ Day? (Ron Paul)

Last week President Biden addressed the nation on the first anniversary of the coronavirus being declared a “pandemic.” It was a disturbing speech, warning us that the “hopeful spring” will only emerge “from a dark winter” if all Americans “stick with the rules.” Whose rules? His rules. The message from the president was clear: he will only allow us to have some of our freedoms back if we do exactly as he tells us. It was the language of extortion, of a bank robber who demands you do what he says or face the consequences. It was not the language of someone we are told is the leader of the free world. In the speech Biden laid out a list of what was taken from us over the past year, “weddings, birthdays, graduations…family reunions, the Sunday night rituals.”

It was as if somehow the virus, instead of authoritarian government officials, prevented us from enjoying these normal human activities. Though we continue to see Covid disappear across the country with the end of the winter season, Biden was not about to let go of his perceived power to control our lives. He said, “if we do all this, if we do our part, if we do this together, by July the 4, there’s a good chance you, your families and friends, will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout or a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day. That doesn’t mean large events with lots of people together, but it does mean small groups will be able to get together.” Imagine our Founders hearing this speech. The US president might – just might – allow small family gatherings at home in four months if we follow all of his rules.

King George looked benevolent by comparison! As Rep. Thomas Massie Tweeted shortly after the speech, “If you’re waiting for permission from the chief executive to celebrate Independence Day with your family, you clearly don’t grasp the concept of Independence.” It seems like yesterday – it almost was – that Biden “asked” us to just wear the mask for 100 days. “Just 100 days to mask, not forever. 100 days,” he said. So from “just 100 days” to maybe you can have a small gathering by July 4th? Perhaps he just forgot his earlier speech? As usual, the goalposts keep being moved because politicians cannot bear the possibility that they might have to give up some of that power over us they have grabbed for themselves.

Fauci made the usual mainstream media rounds over the weekend and was asked by the fawning host when Americans might have permission to hold weddings again! So now Americans need Fauci’s permission to get married? What is happening to this country? The propaganda is so relentless that it seems most Americans don’t see how not normal this is! In saner times, Fauci would be laughed off the stage. Now, he’s treated as some sort of divine source of truth. Biden promised he was “using every power…as the president of the United States to put us on a war footing.” Of that I have no doubt. But Biden’s war is not against the virus. It’s against the US Constitution and liberty itself.

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The very same people who advocated we “listen to the science”, have now abandoned the science and advocate untested substances.

Germany, France And Italy Suspend Oxford Covid Vaccine (G.)

Germany, France and Italy have suspended the Oxford/AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine as the World Health Organization said it had seen no evidence the shot had caused incidents of blood clots and a low platelet count in some people who received it. The German health ministry said the country’s vaccine authority, the Paul Ehrlich Institute, “considers further investigation necessary after new reports of cerebral brain thrombosis in connection with vaccination in Germany and Europe”. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) should decide “whether and how the new findings will affect the approval of the vaccine”, the ministry said. The health minister, Jens Spahn, said seven cases of cerebral vein thrombosis had been reported.

While this was a “very low risk” compared with the 1.6 million jabs already given in the country, Spahn said, it would be above average if a link to the vaccine was confirmed. “The decision today is a purely precautionary measure,” he said. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said France would also stop administering the AstraZeneca shot pending an EMA assessment due on Tuesday, while the Italian medicines authority, Aifa, said it was temporarily halting inoculations as a “precautionary and temporary measure” before the EMA decision. The three countries join a growing number in Europe to have temporarily suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in recent days.

Denmark and Norway last week reported incidents of bleeding, blood clots and a low count of blood platelets in people who had received the AstraZeneca shot, prompting Ireland and the Netherlands to join them on Sunday in temporary suspensions. Karl Lauterbach, a professor of health economic and epidemiology at the University of Cologne and a German MP, criticised the decision. “Based on the data available, I consider this to be a mistake,” Lauterbach said. “Testing without suspension of vaccination would have been better because of the rarity of the complication. In the third wave, which is now picking up speed, the first vaccinations with the AstraZeneca vaccine would be lifesavers.”

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Scary, but why try to scare us?

UK Coronavirus Variant Significantly More Deadly Says New Study (F.)

The U.K. coronavirus variant known as B.1.1.7 is not only more transmissible, but also more deadly than other coronavirus variants, according to a new study. B.1.1.7 was first identified in the U.K. last fall and by December it was detected in several other countries including the U.S. The variant is known to be substantially more transmissible than other SARS-CoV2 coronavirus lineages and quickly took over as the dominant variant in the U.K., late last year, sparking off a damaging and deadly second wave. Scientists had suspected that B.1.1.7 might be more deadly, as well as more transmissible following a higher-than-expected number of deaths in the U.K. during the third wave this winter, which saw the U.K’s worst daily death total in January claim over 1,800 lives.

But, the new study published in the journal Nature, led by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine all but confirms that this correlation is genuine. The study looked at viral genetics data from almost 5,000 people in the U.K. who died from Covid-19, with two-thirds of those being confirmed to have the B.1.1.7 variant. It found that people who were infected with B.1.1.7 had a 55% higher risk of dying within 28 days of being tested positive for Covid-19. “England has suffered an enormous toll from B.1.1.7 in the last few months, with 42,000 COVID-19 deaths in January and February 2021 alone,” said Nick Davies, PhD, lead author from LSHTM’s Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases.

“In spite of substantial advances in COVID-19 treatment, we have already seen more deaths in 2021 than we did over the first eight months of the pandemic in 2020. Our work helps to explain why,” Davies added. The new work follows another study from the U.K. published last week, which showed that people who tested positive for B.1.1.7 in a community setting were also more likely to die within 28 days of a positive test than those with other variants.

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What a lovely prospect.

Regular ‘Booster’ Shots Will Become Commonplace As New Variants Emerge (RT)

The head of Britain’s Covid-19 genomics programme has warned that there will be a need for regular booster jabs to protect people against the virus as new potentially vaccine-busting variants emerge. “We have to appreciate that we were always going to have to have booster doses; immunity to coronavirus doesn’t last forever,” Sharon Peacock, UK Covid-19 Genomics (COG-UK) chief, told Reuters at the Wellcome Sanger Institute’s Cambridge campus on Monday. Peacock, whose COG-UK programme has sequenced half of the world’s mapped Covid-19 genomes, said she was confident new variants would emerge that would render the current vaccines ineffective.


“We already are tweaking the vaccines to deal with what the virus is doing in terms of evolution – so there are variants arising that have a combination of increased transmissibility and an ability to partially evade our immune response,” she said. The genomics chief said the “cat and mouse” battle with the virus will require international cooperation. COG-UK was set up a year ago by Peacock and the British government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, and has sequenced 346,713 genomes out of a total of 709,000 genomes mapped worldwide. To date, more than 24 million people in the UK have received at least their first vaccine dose; all vaccines being used have demonstrated considerable efficacy against the virus variants prevalent in Britain.

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“The life of just one person is worth more than the private property of the richest man.”

Cuba Working on a ‘People’s Vaccine’ (CP)

“The life of just one person is worth more than the private property of the richest man.” This is what’s written on the Calixto Garcia public hospital in Havana Cuba as a testament to the country’s commitment to free public healthcare, and to putting people before profit. I know this about Cuba because in March, at the onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic, I spent a week in the ICU at Calixto Garcia. I had been hit by a speeding ambulance, and Cuban doctors saved my life, operated on me twice, and nursed me to stability before putting me on a private medical evacuation flight back to the U.S. All of this, including the flight, was free of cost to me- covered by Cuba’s government-run insurance for foreign visitors.

From my hospital bed, as the global emergency around me escalated, I witnessed how the Cuban government swiftly mobilized resources to protect its citizens from Covid-19: at-home testing for anyone with symptoms, door to door preventative education in the most vulnerable neighborhoods, and coordinated isolation when necessary. While deaths soared toward 100,000 in the U.S., Cuba was able to get the average daily Covid-19 related deaths close to zero for most of May-August. Cuba’s humanist approach when it comes to health was not new to me. In 2013, I co-directed a documentary on a free hospital in northern Honduras. The doctors there, all from afro-indigenous Garifuna communities, had been trained in Cuba at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) for free.

Cuba created the ELAM in 1999 to train doctors from the poorest regions of countries around the world (including the U.S.), providing full scholarships of six years tuition, room, and board, with the hope that these doctors would return and provide accessible and preventative healthcare in their communities. The ELAM was born as a response to the devastation of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, and has trained tens of thousands of doctors from over 110 countries since then. Cuba is now poised to play an important role in global efforts to curb the pandemic. New variants in South Africa and Brazil, all with yet unknown implications for vaccine effectiveness, have shown us that any effort to achieve herd immunity is only as good as it is accessible equitably across the globe. Yet, as predicted, the global north is outpacing the global south dramatically in vaccination.

On February 3, Anthony Fauci said, in an event hosted by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) network, that developing COVID-19 vaccines “is not a race.” “We want everybody to get over the finish line,” he assured. Dr. Fauci mentioned the Russian and the Chinese vaccines and later suggested that the U.S. should help other countries strengthen their vaccine manufacturing capacity to promote more vaccinations globally. At no point did he mention Cuba. Thanks to an established publicly-funded biotechnology program, Cuba currently has four vaccine candidates. One of those vaccines, Soberana 02, started Phase 3 clinical trials in early March. Another candidate, Abdala, started Phase 2 trials in February. Both vaccines are being developed by public research institutions and are the most promising candidates in Latin America. The fact that Dr. Fauci failed to mention these candidates is disappointing.

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“No King in the History of the World has been the Ruler of Two Billion People, but Mark Zuckerberg is”

Facebook Will Add Labels To All Posts About Covid-19 Vaccines (F.)

Facebook will soon add labels to all posts about coronavirus vaccines that points people to its Covid-19 Information Center, the company said in a blog post on Monday as part of its plans to promote vaccination efforts on its platforms, amidst continued criticism from health experts and lawmakers for allowing misinformation about vaccines to spread on its platform. In a blog post, Facebook said it is already adding labels to posts that discuss the safety of the Covid vaccines, pointing people to credible information from the World Health Organization both on its main platform and Instagram. In the coming weeks, labels will be added to all posts generally about Covid-19 vaccines and the company also plans to add additional targeted labels about other specific Covid-19 vaccine subtopics..

Users who share a post about Covid-19 vaccines on Facebook or Instagram will see an additional popup with an informational label which the company says will offer people “context they need to make informed decisions about what to share.” Facebook has also rolled out its Covid-19 Information Center on Instagram for the first time on Monday, nearly a year after it appeared on the main platform. The company also disclosed that it has implemented several temporary measures to limit the spread of vaccine misinformation including reducing distribution of content from users who have violated the platform’s policies on COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation.

In addition to tackling misinformation Facebook has promised to share real-time aggregate trends on Covid-19 vaccinations, intent to get vaccinated and reasons for hesitancy with public officials. Facebook is also working with health authorities and governments to expand their chatbots on the messaging service WhatsApp to enable it to allow registration for vaccinations. Facebook also announced it is rolling out a tool in the U.S. that will help people identify nearby places where they can get a vaccine. The tool, which is part of Facebook’s Covid-19 Information Center will include details about hours of operation, contact info and links to make an appointment. Announcing some of the new measures in a Facebook post, the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote: “The data shows the vaccines are safe and they work. They’re our best hope for getting past this virus and getting back to normal life. I’m looking forward to getting mine, and I hope you are too.”

‘No King in the History of the World has been the Ruler of Two Billion People, but Mark Zuckerberg is’

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Growing numbers.

Immigrant Teens To Be Housed At Dallas Convention Center (AP)

The U.S. government plans to house up to 3,000 immigrant teenagers at a convention center in downtown Dallas as it struggles to find space for a surge of migrant children at the border who have strained the immigration system just two months into the Biden administration. American authorities encountered people crossing the border without legal status more than 100,000 times in February — a level higher than all but four months of Donald Trump’s presidency. The spike in traffic poses a challenge to President Joe Biden at a fraught moment with Congress, which is about to take up immigration legislation, and has required the help of the American Red Cross.

The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center will be used for up to 90 days beginning as early as this week, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press that was sent Monday to members of the Dallas City Council. Federal agencies will use the facility to house boys ages 15 to 17, according to the memo, which describes the soon-to-open site as a “decompression center.” The Health and Human Services Department is rushing to open facilities across the country to house immigrant children who are otherwise being held by the Border Patrol, which is generally supposed to detain children for no more than three days. The Border Patrol is holding children longer because there is next to no space in the HHS system, similar to the last major increase in migration two years ago.

A tent facility operated by the Border Patrol in Donna, some 500 miles (804 kilometers) south of Dallas, is holding more than 1,000 children and teenagers, some as young as 4. Lawyers who inspect immigrant detention facilities under a court settlement say they interviewed children who reported being held in packed conditions in the tent, with some sleeping on the floor and others not able to shower for five days. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Saturday directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help manage and care for children crossing the border. “I am incredibly proud of the agents of the Border Patrol, who have been working around the clock in difficult circumstances to take care of children temporarily in our care,” Mayorkas said in a statement. “Yet, as I have said many times, a Border Patrol facility is no place for a child.”

Read more …

Where’s Jack Ma these days?

Beijing Orders Alibaba To Dump Media Assets (ZH)

Beijing is reviving its crackdown on the country’s biggest tech firms, reminding the world that the CCP is still focused on neutralizing any and all threats to its control of the Chinese economy and its people. Even after amending China’s official ideology to include entrepreneurs among the protected classes represented by the CCP (in addition to workers, farmers and soldiers), Beijing, with President Xi at its center, has apparently decided that Chinese tech firms won’t follow the American model after all. Instead, their growth and competitive capabilities will be curtailed for the sake of stability at home.

After Tencent was censured and strict new requirements weren officailly imposed on Alibaba-owned Ant Group that will prevent the company from growing, the Wall Street Journal reports that next up on Beijing’s to-do list is to force Alibaba to dump its array of media outlets. Presumably, Beijing sees these outlets as an unwelcome competitor to Beijing’s own propaganda machine. Alibaba’s media portfolio includes ownership of the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s most widely read English-language newspaper, which has an audience far outside of Hong Kong. The paper often struggled with its coverage of the unrest in Hong Kong, occasionally adopting the language of the CCP (like referring to the demonstrators as “rioters”) while still managing to rankle Beijing with its detailed coverage of the demonstrations.

According to WSJ, the CCP has been “discussing” whether to force the divestitures since early this year. Chinese regulators have been “reviewing” a list of media assets owned by Hangzhou-based Alibaba, which earns most of its money via an online retail business. Officials were appalled at how expensive Alibaba’s media interests have become. Now, Beijing is asking Alibaba to devise a plan to “curtail” its media holdings. Now, just imagine if President Trump tried to force Amazon to sell the Washington Post.

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Botched UBI?

The Stockton Experiment: How a Guaranteed Income Can Actually Solve Inequality

An ongoing study conducted in Stockton, California, examines how the lives of low-income Americans can improve if they are simply given money—a modest, but reliable source of income with no strings attached. The Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED) randomly chose 125 participants from poverty-stricken residential areas and gave them $500 per month to simply use for whatever they wanted over the last two years. A majority of the participants were women (69 percent) and people of color (53 percent). Preliminary results from the first year are tantalizing for anyone interested in solutions to address rising inequality in the United States, especially as they manifest along racial and gender lines.

Within the first year, the study’s participants obtained jobs at twice the rate of the control group. At the beginning of the study, 28 percent of the participants had full-time employment, and after the first year, that number rose to 40 percent. Sukhi Samra, the director of SEED, explained to me in an interview that although Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate now running for mayor of New York City, helped popularize the idea of a universal basic income (UBI), the Stockton study of a “guaranteed basic income” (GBI) is subtly different from Yang’s proposal. “Where guaranteed income differs,” said Samra, “is that it’s usually targeted along income lines,” rather than given to everyone.

“It’s more often touted as a tool for equity, especially racial and gender equity,” she added. Samra said it was important to frame the idea of GBI within the “racial justice and social justice movements of the 1960s when you had Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the National Welfare Rights Organization and the Black Panthers all advocating for a guaranteed income as the simplest and most effective way to abolish poverty.” Indeed, Dr. King wrote in his last book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, that he was “convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective—the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.”

Read more …

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle March 16 2021

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 47 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #71225

    Paul Gauguin A Day of No Gods 1894   • Biden To Propose First Major Federal Tax Hike Since 1993 (DM) • This Is What You Voted For (Kunstler) • Wh
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle March 16 2021]

    #71226
    a kullervo
    Participant

    The Trickster
    is taking a stand:
    A global potlatch!
    Isn’t it grand!
    The faithless
    turning to salt;
    The salt into sand………

    Modern civilization was built upon a relentless – and harsh – critique of personal pain; such a pity we weren’t inspired to build one based on the critique of personal desires (“the pursuit of balance” instead of “the pursuit of happiness”, so to speak.)

    To the Unknown Founding Fathers.

    #71230
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Organic Food no Longer Exists?
    My sister said the above after our dive into organic oatmeal (thick rolled oats)

    I’ve been trying to source organic rolled oats online so my sister doesn’t have to send them to me from the U.S.
    It has been a bit more difficult than I anticipated and in my searching discovered some interesting information; not all of which was good news.

    As you may (or not) already know, a lot of oats are dried using glyphosate. I was floored by this shocker when I first read that; thus my insistence on Organic.
    Well, it got worse: Bob’s Red Mill organic thick rolled oats have traces of glyphosate and is being sued by a parent for false promises of quality.
    (my sister sends me Natural Grocers Organic thick rolled oats)
    Further searching revealed 100 brands of oat products all came up positive for glyphosate.
    There are organic oats that have tested free of glyphosate, but do not know which ones (forgot to save that info).
    Given the sad state of U.S. Agriculture and it’s high use of chemicals (herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides) the question becomes: Is Organic produce even possible within the U.S.?
    With spray applications and wind-drift, and sun exposed vaporizing; the answer can only be, probably no; or rarely, at best…
    …another brick in the wall…

    #71232
    sumac.carol
    Participant

    Ah Facebook – saving us from bad words. They just unpublished our farm facebook page because we live in a place called Bastard and that nasty word is in our farm name. Oh, and they said that due to covid they may not have time to review their decision.

    #71233

    Twitter yesterday suspended people who typed in “Memphis”. Which happens to be the first name of top Dutch soccer player Memphis Depay, who of course has tons of followers. Who then got (temp) suspended.

    Blocking in Memphis: Twitter Users Banned for Tweeting About Bluff City

    The ban hammer shows no mercy. And on Twitter, it can befall anyone who uses hate speech, spreads disinformation, or … types out Memphis? Yesterday, many Twitter users found their accounts restricted with a short term suspension because their tweets contained the word “Memphis.”

    The strange event came to many users’ attention early in the day when trying to use the platform to talk about Dutch professional soccer player Memphis Depay, who currently plays for the French Ligue 1 side Olympique Lyonnais [Lyon]. Even just an isolated mention of “Memphis” could land a suspension.

    #71228
    Basseterre Kitona
    Participant

    The Stockton Experiment is not Universal Basic Income because it is not Universal at all. They give it to poor people. In other words, it is just your run of the mill charity handout. Nothing new about that.

    Back to my vaccine ranting:

    Geert Vanden Bossche, a prominent vaccine designer, has come out strongly against mass vaccination for sars-cov-2:

    https://dryburgh.com/geert-vanden-bossche-mass-vaccination-danger/

    He is quite technical but basically there are a couple of major risks that are being ignored by the Evangelical Vaccine Fanatics everywhere these days:

    Firstly, over-vaccination can lead to a similar phenomenon to the over-use of anti-biotics where the pathogen mutates in reaction, i.e., we end up creating a super-virus that is much more infectious & deadly. Additionally he makes the point that these are prophylactic or preventative vaccines which would be fine in advance of future outbreaks however, using them extensively during an ongoing outbreak is dangerous as they can aid the virus in mutating more quickly.

    Secondly, on a more individual level, the immune systems of most people are strong enough to defeat sars-cov-2 but the vaccines use a technique that per charges a portion of the immune system and that risks over-riding other part of the immune system in future virus exposure. In other words, although improving resistance to sars-cov-2, it can make you more vulnerable to other things by tampering with you basic immune function. Sounds to me like it is similar to the unexpected consequences of the dengue vaccine disaster among children in the Philippines that I shared here recently:

    https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/05/03/719037789/botched-vaccine-launch-has-deadly-repercussions

    #71231
    Basseterre Kitona
    Participant

    This is important: a vaccine designer has come out to strong criticize mass vaccination against cars-cov-2:

    https://dryburgh.com/geert-vanden-bossche-mass-vaccination-danger/

    He has a number of critiques which basically say that that the risk is that using a preventative vaccine while an outbreak is ongoing risks creating a stronger pathogen—i.e., a super virus that is more infectious and more deadly—while undermining our natural immune systems ability to center it.

    On an individual level, there is also significant risk that taking the vaccine could lead to worse results once actually exposed to the real virus. Sounds a bit like the dengue vaccine disaster in the Philippines to me:

    https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/05/03/719037789/botched-vaccine-launch-has-deadly-repercussions

    #71234
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    That the virus seems so highly predisposed to evolve into more virulent variants is another thing that makes me strongly suspect that it was created in some sort of biological laboratory facility.

    #71235
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Well we found out why we have to put up with narcissistic psycho Meghan Markle now, deeply oppressed multi-millionaire princess who’s so bullied she got both Piers Morgan and Osbourne fired in about 6 minutes in two “free speech” nations for deigning to express imperfect opinions on her. …It’s a life so oppressed one can scarcely bear it. It’s a tough bag flying between resorts worldwide to lecture poor people on climate change. Probably already used more gasoline in 3 years than I will in the whole rest of my life.

    Yes, she will be running for President. THAT’S what this year-long ultra-super-dumb show has been about, and why I’ve had to see the royals’ stupid faces again. They’re literally arranging a reverse takeover of the U.S. back to British rule. I mean, we know: that’s what Steele/CIA/Assange/Russia was about, it’s long been run by a CIA/UK/Saudi/Israel merger, but really? This obvious?

    Reminds me of when I first saw The Simpsons with Lisa being President, you know, before HRC had ever done F-all. She had only just left the White House “dirt poor” to buy a mansion in Westchester (not joking) and become Senator of NY, a state she never lived in(not joking), because JFK just died (not joking).

    It HURT! …Because Rush Limbaugh had just finished saying they were up to pushing this totally-unqualified dreg, who personally oversaw the oppression of (Bill’s) women, that literally nobody liked, not even women. Aw, c’mon, I can’t have Rush be right! About this?

    And here we are with Markle. They finally someone more clueless and I would guess less liked than Hillary. …Both behind chief slave-catcher Harris tho’. And combing worldwide, they finally found someone less manly than Justin to be by her side.

    Now if I can just figure out why Dolly Parton is everywhere…

    “How an anonymous source becomes part of a impeachment trial.”

    Hey is this why we have a “Crime” BEFORE the Investigation/Trial? That’d be a switch. Right now we decide innocence and guilt by whether they’re pals, then investigate/prosecute until we find something. …Or don’t find something in this case. Doesn’t matter because that would be logic, reason, and morals. We don’t do that here. Here being #Oppositeland, where we sentence, THEN trial, THEN indict, THEN investigate, THEN see if there is any crime. Well, one thing’s for sure: it’s more like authoritarian Dictator-for-life China just like top NY Times reporters say we should be.

    ” Biden To Propose First Major Federal Tax Hike Since 1993 (DM)”

    ALL taxes are paid by the working people because only they produce anything. But if you want it put simpler: you pay taxes until you’re rich enough to afford a Senator. And since they’re so cheap everybody from mattress guy up could buy one. Probably Senator’s coke dealer can afford him.

    So: Taxes on the poor. Check! Stimulus of 91% of $1.4 Trillion for the rich. Check!

    “White House Set to Unveil Sweeping Vaccine-Confidence Campaign (STAT)”

    “This bank is perfectly sound! It’s not in any trouble or collapsing at all!!!” So…you need to say this, plan this, do this why? Because no one believes a word you say. Or like 51% of the nation that can read anyway. Fail. You lost.

    “Is Biden Holding America Hostage Until ‘Independence’ Day? (Ron Paul)”

    Of course not! He’s holding them hostage forever. Haven’t you heard both vaccines will fix everything AND there are dozens of new variants that will kill us all? Both and neither are true. Now why no one trust us?

    “Biden “asked” us to just wear the mask for 100 days.”

    Math? Goldfish? I remember “15 days to flatten the curve.” 2 x 100 x 15 days ago. Meanwhile, I said, “Until the sun burns out if you let them.” Who was right? Expert doctor, head of health organization, and top government official? Or an illiterate bridge troll?

    Yes, that’s how dumb they are. The dumbest guy online can out-think and out-predict them just in his spare time.

    “The U.K. coronavirus variant known as B.1.1.7 is not only more transmissible, but also more deadly”

    Well they’ve never been right so far, so I just assume they’re LLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNGGGG. Lying lying, lying, lying. Just like “death rate”, PCR test, Vaccine safety, and every other thing they’ve ever said in their stoopid lives. “Vioxx has been tested.” “Glyphosate is safe as water”. “Polar bears will be extinct by 2001.”

    “Regular ‘Booster’ Shots Will Become Commonplace as New Variants Emerge (RT)”

    Why would they? They’ve already removed the shots because of instant death, while they *might* keep you 0.54% safer. But buying scamware that doesn’t help you is indeed commonplace. It’s practically the whole economy.

    The life of just one person is worth more than the private property of the richest man.”

    “If we can save just one life” by not having lockdowns and doubling the suicide rate, or killing are we up to 100? 500? 5,000? Vaccine instant deaths? Or 79,000 diabetes deaths per year with literally zero attempt to mitigate it at all. Or 38,000 traffic deaths. WHY DO WE HAVE ROADS??? If we can save ONE life by removing them all and planting a rainforest and walking in a loincloth…

    “Facebook Will Add Labels to All Posts about Covid-19 Vaccines (F.)”

    Yes, but we assume it’s true if it has the label. We assume it’s false if it doesn’t.

    And if I buy a Coke, I’m not a Cola-serf, now am I? Get a grip. He’s MY serf. He’s MY B—-h. Now act like it. Put him over your knee, spank him, then chuck him out a window.

    “Immigrant Teens to Be Housed at Dallas Convention Center (AP)”

    700% overcapacity. Where is AOC?

    Whahmme

    Mrs. Pelosi, tear down this racist wall that doesn’t work!!!

    “The Stockton Experiment: How a Guaranteed Income Can Actually Solve Inequality”

    We already had this experiment, it was called the “Soviet Union.” And 300 other times that also totally, laughably failed, killing 300 million people.

    But we’re also running that experiment right now. I expect another 300M dead shortly.

    Look out for glyphosate, yes, the elevators may not be honest even if the farmers are (not a given). They’re huge. They don’t sweep out every last grain. But they can also test to PPB, so that if one batch runs through the TUBES of the other, it can be sensed. But is it RELEVANT? All these things matter. Why they do it at all, I have no practical idea. It seems the most illogical ever. Then we have the GMOs blowing in from the next field and being sued for their own contamination?

    As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said:

    “We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.”

    Yes, but only if the lie kills people. Otherwise, why bother?

    or:

    ‘One man who stopped lying could bring down a tyranny.’ — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

    #71236
    Dr. D
    Participant

    See if that pic will show separately:
    Whahmme

    #71237
    Dr. D
    Participant

    If AOC could sell just ONE Rolex watch and adopt just ONE child…clearly she wouldn’t. Because that would take work.

    #71241
    zerosum
    Participant

    Must Edit https to be able to post

    Trickle down – taxes – tariffs – shit – vaccines – misinformation – LIES
    Best lies are hidden among other truths by accepted and recognized “truth tellers”

    http://www.who.int/campaigns/connecting-the-world-to-combat-coronavirus/how-to-report-misinformation-online
    How to report misinformation online
    As the world responds to the COVID-19 pandemic, we face the challenge of an overabundance of information related to the virus. Some of this information may be false and potentially harmful.

    Inaccurate information spreads widely and at speed, making it more difficult for the public to identify verified facts and advice from trusted sources, such as their local health authority or WHO.

    However, everyone can help to stop the spread. If you see content online that you believe to be false or misleading, you can report it to the hosting social media platform.

    http://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/covid-19-vaccines
    As of 18 February 2021, at least seven different vaccines across three platforms have been rolled out in countries. Vulnerable populations in all countries are the highest priority for vaccination.

    At the same time, more than 200 additional vaccine candidates are in development, of which more than 60 are in clinical development.
    —–
    extranet.who.int/pqweb/sites/default/files/documents/Status_COVID_VAX_10March2021.pdf
    Status of COVID-19 Vaccines within WHO EUL/PQ evaluation process

    http://www.counterpunch.org/2021/03/15/cuba-working-on-a-peoples-vaccine-the-us-and-the-world-should-get-behind-it/
    MARCH 15, 2021
    Cuba Working on a ‘People’s Vaccine’: the US and the world should get behind it
    BY BETH GEGLIA
    Cuba currently has four vaccine candidates. Dr. Fauci failed to mention these candidates
    ——–
    http://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters
    Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public:
    Mythbusters
    FACT: Vitamin and mineral supplements cannot cure COVID-19
    Micronutrients, such as vitamins D and C and zinc, are critical for a well-functioning immune system and play a vital role in promoting health and nutritional well-being. There is currently no guidance on the use of micronutrient supplements as a treatment of COVID-19.

    MISSLEADING: FORGOT TO TELL IF A VACCINE OR ANYTHING ELSE CAN CURE COVID19?

    FACT: Studies show hydroxychloroquine does not have clinical benefits in treating COVID-19
    Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, a treatment for malaria, lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis, has been under study as a possible treatment for COVID-19. Current data shows that this drug does not reduce deaths among hospitalised COVID-19 patients, nor help people with moderate disease.* The use of hydoxychloroquine and chloroquine is accepted as generally safe for patients with malaria and autoimmune diseases, but its use where not indicated and without medical supervision can cause serious side effects and should be avoided.

    * More decisive research is needed to assess its value in patients with mild disease or as pre- or post-exposure prophylaxis in patients exposed to COVID-19.

    MISSLEADING: LYING BY OMMISSION

    #71246
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    Boo.

    #71248
    Dave Note
    Participant

    40 minute interview with Geert Vanden Bossche
    an internationally recognized vaccine developer having worked as the head of the Vaccine Development Office at the German Center for Infection Research.

    The plot thickens

    #71250

    So I went to a birthday party the other day (YES!) and I asked this guy if he liked working from home. He said that he did for the most part, except at the office he could leave his desk for seven minutes at a time, but at home if he was gone from the screen for more than two minutes the screen “asked” him: Where were you? Are you alright? Needless to say, this annoyed him.
    Now I was just watching a video where Snowden pointed out the various snoopster-apps (Snapps? tmtmtmtm) that do just that sort of thing- and more. (It’s been a while since I’ve had a paycheck job- so please pardon my ignorance.)
    BTW, there were an awful lot of people who were delighted to have gotten vaccinated. The bartender (23 years old?) had just gotten the J&J shot and she felt sooo privileged!
    One of the reasons I left my faith-of-origin was the smug/sad “I’m going to heaven and you aren’t” attitude. I get a similar feeling now when I see my vaccinated kith and kin. It’s mutual, of course- I feel bad for them, but they see me as someone who will soon succumb to the Virus. They shake their heads and accuse me of liking Trump!
    We are being set up in a new religion. There are those who “trust” and “believe” The Science, and there are those who understand that science is a method of seeking information. So the cookie of civilization crumbles…
    When the sociopathic leadership hooked up with medicine, sadism was added into the mix. Can auto-da-fe be far behind?

    Madamski: Hoo.

    #71251
    sumac.carol
    Participant

    V. Arnold,
    If there is any consolation, I have read in the local farming newspaper that some farmers are pulling away from the use of glyphosate as a desicant because of customer resistance in their international markets.

    #71252
    absolute galore
    Participant

    Even the Washington Post‘s mea culpa can’t stop with the editorializing: Trump “urged” the investigator,…”asserted” she would find…Can’t even make a major correction without putting a slant on it. How about here is the quote as we wrote it. Here is the quote as he said it. Is that too hard to do? I don’t need the WP to tell me what constitutes an urging or assertive tone of voice. It might seem picky, but not in the context of the paper’s f8&$-up..

    #71253

    Must Edit https to be able to post

    That sort of makes sense, safety. But then shouldn’t WP make that a default setting?

    #71254
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Stockton experiment

    What is the use of decrying government leaders twisting “science” to maintain power over citizens when we ignore the scientific method when we encounter ideas that happen to clash with our own cherished beliefs?

    There is a widely held belief that people are impoverished because they are lazy, indolent, stupid, inept, etc. This is a myth. I should know. I have been raising 3 kids on an income well under the federal poverty limit for nine years. My income is low because (1) I place motherhood as being more important than a “normal” income, (2) the children’s father obtained a job about 7 years ago that made it easy for him to hide the bulk of his income resulting in him paying minimal child support (currently $40/month), (3) the actions of the kids’ father (alcoholism, attempted suicide, etc.,) resulted in trauma to myself and the children…the kids have required more attention and I have had to cope with the aftermath. It has been very difficult raising children on such a low income. Oh, how much easier it is when money is plentiful! The last year has shown me what that is like as well — between pandemic stimulus checks and a flood in my home resulting in a payout from the homeowner’s insurance, my income has remained flat, but I’ve had more money to spend.

    Poverty is a systemic problem of individuals not having enough access to resources needed to sustain what is considered a basic lifestyle, which results in various types of deprivation. Thus, the Stockton Experiment shows what has played out in my own life in the past year — give impoverished folks more money, and they often then have the resources needed to better their situation. (What makes the Stockton experiment unique from typical “charity” or “anti-poverty” measures is that the money is given with no strings attached. It presumes that the recipients are capable to manage their own lives — most charitable and anti-poverty measures assume that those in poverty are incapable of managing their own resources, assuming that their poverty stems from this mismanagement.)

    #71255
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    I do, however, believe that UBI is unlikely to work in the long run without other structural adjustments to the current system. (Btw — such structural adjustments do not need to be imposed “top down.”). In the current system, giving UBI would likely over time result in higher “rent” payments across the board for basic resources, because of the power of the financial elites, wiping out the benefit of UBI.

    #71256
    sumac.carol
    Participant

    Happily my nasty-named farm just got reinstated on facebook. That was pretty quick.

    #71257
    Bill7
    Participant

    Rob Slane:

    “..In the last year, because of irrational and wholly disproportionate fears of a virus which is not deadly to around 99.8% of people, we have allowed these ancient freedoms and laws to be taken away by those who have seized the opportunity to increase their powers. Indeed, the Government and so-called opposition, far from trying to allay people’s fears, as one would hope from good and responsible leaders, deliberately ramped up an extraordinary campaign of fear and hysteria, the likes of which have never been seen before. Why? The late Tony Benn can help us here:

    “There are two ways in which people are controlled – firstly frighten people, then demoralise them.”

    Which is precisely what has happened. Through fear and hysteria, millions actually believed the authorities when they put forward the absurd suggestion that they could “Control the Virus.” In fact, what they then proceeded to do was “Control the People.” The idea that Lockdowns “Control the Virus” and reduce mortality has been shown by more than 30 studies to be a fallacy; whereas the truth that Lockdowns “Control the People” is blindingly obvious, and should be apparent to everyone after a year of often mad restrictions that have curtailed perfectly normal activities..”

    We Willingly Gave Up Liberty, Yet Are Shocked to Find Out We Are Less Free.

    It’s cool, though: the elites will be “allowing” us our [natural] civil liberties just as soon as they can.. /sarc

    #71259
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    . All web platforms are wonky these days. Biden’s tax pronouncement should provide good cover for awhile. Congress will bicker endlessly, providing distraction from the daily disintegration.

    $%^

    @ Dr. D

    ” ‘The U.K. coronavirus variant known as B.1.1.7 is not only more transmissible, but also more deadly’

    “Well they’ve never been right so far, so I just assume they’re LLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNGGGG. Lying lying, lying, lying. Just like “death rate”, PCR test, Vaccine safety, and every other thing they’ve ever said in their stoopid lives. “Vioxx has been tested.” “Glyphosate is safe as water”. “Polar bears will be extinct by 2001.”

    If Dr. Bossche is correct, they’re probably telling the truth. If his primary data and applied logic hold firm to deeper examination, I think we’re wise to amp up on our vit D etc., take extra good care of ourselves, and hug the moon when offered, because it appears that a genuine pandemic of seriously powerful covid variants is winding up for its tsunami phase.

    No one lies all the time just as no one, including dear Dr. D or my haggard old self, tells the truth all the time except maybe some autistics and perversely ambitious psychopaths. Dr. D’s favorite lie is to take the argument from authority logical fallacy and invert it: if it comes from authority, it’s a lie. This is as foolish in its way as believing everything MSNBC or FOX says. It clouds the mind. Data needs no more filter than correspondence with known data or proper experimentation, not reputation of source. Consider Trump: most honest man in D.C. on Monday, couldn’t speak an honest word on Tuesday. Newton was right about gravity and inertia, wrong about Hermetic Xtian alchemy. Einstein mistakenly thought NAZI Germany was a greater threat than the nascent state of Israel.

    #71260
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ my parents

    You made me grin. I think it cracked my jaw. 😉

    #71261
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ my parents said know:

    I shared your thoughts above with some people I know. Younguns. Maybe I got their attention?

    #71262
    zerosum
    Participant

    Minimize your covid problems.
    To help you decide what to do..
    Get additional info by reading TAE

    Vitamins D and C and zinc

    https://www.cnet.com/health/covid-when-to-get-tested-for-the-coronavirus-and-how-long-it-will-take-to-get-results/
    COVID: When to get tested for the coronavirus and how long it will take to get results

    1. Symptoms may take up to 14 days to appear after exposure.
    2. may require a doctor’s order and an appointment with a testing facility

    3. Once your results are available, your doctor will contact you to let you know if you’ve tested positive or negative for COVID-19. You may also receive a letter in the mail detailing your results.
    4. many patients may be able to get test results within 24 hours. But, depending on where the test is sent, it could take up to two weeks in some cases.
    5. Ask your doctor for the next steps.
    6. We also have some guidelines for taking care of yourself if you’re infected with the virus.
    The CDC says you can leave the house again once you’ve had no fever for at least 24 hours (without medicine), symptoms like coughing have improved and at least 10 days have passed since your symptoms first appeared, but you should seek guidance from your doctor on when it’s safe to leave the house.
    7. Here are recommendations for how to adjust if you suspect someone in your household has COVID-19,
    8. but is not sick enough for hospitalization.

    It’s important to note that many hospitals don’t want you to go to the emergency room or arrive for a COVID-19 test without a doctor’s order, or an advanced state of symptoms, like high fever over 102 degrees. In many places, the number of tests are limited and hospitals must follow protocols to limit the exposure of sick people to the rest of the hospital population.

    Mild cases of COVID-19 can be treated at home with rest, fluids and over-the-counter cold and fever-reducing medications, says Huang.

    Most people are able to treat their COVID-19 symptoms at home, but if you experience severe or sudden symptoms, including trouble breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, new confusion or altered mental status, inability to wake up or stay awake, weakness or bluish discoloration lips or face, seek immediate medical attention, Huang urges.

    If you do seek medical care, be aware of your treatment options and ask your doctor to thoroughly explain anything you don’t understand. According to Brian Foster, CEO of BioIncept, a pharmaceutical development company, common therapies for hospitalized COVID-19 patients include supplemental oxygen with high-flow oxygen, noninvasive ventilation or mechanical ventilation; dexamethasone (a glucocorticoid or steroid); and remdesivir (an antiviral agent).
    ——–
    Should you get vaccinated if you’ve had COVID-19?

    Most health experts recommend that people still get vaccinated even if they’ve already contracted COVID-19 in the past because “the protective neutralizing antibodies that your body produces because of infection do not last forever,” says Dr. Stephen Russell, M.D., Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Imanis Life Sciences.

    “Neutralizing antibody titers are typically lower in people who have recovered from a mild infection and higher in people who had a more severe infection, but either way, they fall after the infection is over.”

    If antibody levels have fallen to a very low level, there is risk of reinfection, Russell says. “A vaccine dose administered three months after you have recovered from COVID-19 will boost the protective antibody levels, resulting in a much longer period of protection from reinfection than would otherwise be the case.”

    #71270
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    How amusing. All we have to do is take really good care of ourselves and we’ll most of us be fine, covid-wise. But… how do we do that? We don’t know how to take care of ourselves. We’re too busy taking care of the Machine that feeds us.

    Here’s a wildly applicable bit of paleohistory:

    Primate Change

    #71271

    Bow down and kiss the feet of the benevolent elite-
    Doesn’t matter you might die- we are gonna let you fly!
    Kindly,
    The Airlines.

    #71272
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    V. Arnold: “100 brands of oat products all came up positive for glyphosate. There are organic oats that have tested free of glyphosate, but do not know which ones”

    Those lab results:
    https://cdn3.ewg.org/sites/default/files/u352/EWG_Glyphosate-2_Table_Full_C02.pdf

    The “365” brand of “old-fashioned rolled oats” had ND (none detected). There are other brands of organically-grown rolled oats, not tested here, which claim to be “Glysophate-Free” (such as Country Life Natural Foods).

    #71273
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    I fear that if I cold-turkeyed on chemicals like glysophate I’d get sick and die. I was raised on pesticides!

    #71276
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    I shall m uster majick and make this thing post this time:

    wango-tango alpha bravoe chaplin. Um…

    ahem

    Oogabooga!

    I have read numerous references here to Soviet workers and this expression: “We pretend to work; you pretend to pay us.”

    It has a predecessor in early Victorian capitalism:

    William Morris

    Summary quote: “To sum up, then, concerning the manner of work in civilized States, these States are composed of three classes – a class which does not even pretend to work, a class which pretends to works but which produces nothing, and a class which works, but is compelled by the other two classes to do work which is often unproductive.

    “Civilization therefore wastes its own resources, and will do so as long as the present system lasts. These are cold words with which to describe the tyranny under which we suffer; try then to consider what they mean.” WIlliam Morris, in the 1880s

    Marx mentioned this too, btw. There was much more to Marx’s wisdom (and folly) than the Communist thingie. He was one of modern capitalist industrialism’s most insightful critical analysts, but because his proposed answer has failed due to human nature, we have thrown out his wisdom concerning our own plight in our belief that We won, They lost, We’re right and That’s that.

    Morris served up a more fundamental and ultimately dire implications of capitalism-for-profit under petro-industrialism than Marx, however. I repeat Morris: “Civilization therefore wastes its own resources, and will do so as long as the present system lasts. These are cold words with which to describe the tyranny under which we suffer; try then to consider what they mean.”

    And here we are, cadets! We pretend to work, they pretend to pay us, and predominantly more-brown-than-not-skinned serfs do most of the heavy lifting for wages we’d deem unlivable. 120 years later.

    #71277
    WES
    Participant

    Something to keep in the back of your mind.

    When it comes to creating the required political narratives in the media, various branches of the US government use their preferred media outlets to help them shape their desired political narrative of the day. This pattern repeats itself over and over again!

    The State Department uses CNN.
    The FBI uses the New York Times.
    The CIA uses the Washington Post.

    So if you see anyone of these three outlets bringing out a new narrative, then you can easily trace back who is behind pushing the narrative!

    #71278
    WES
    Participant

    About polar bears going extinct in 2001!

    In many northern Canadian communities, it is illegal to lock your front door!

    Why? Because someone walking down the street may need to seek temporary shelter in your house if they are suddenly confronted by a polar bear!

    Many northern communities have erected electric fences around parts of their communities to keep polar bears at bay.

    So much for the shortage of polar bears!

    #71279
    WES
    Participant

    Madamski:

    Hell even the foolish Pilgrims tried communism the first year they arrived in America!
    The Pilgrims discovered almost too late that nobody was doing the work!
    The survivors then abandoned communism in a desperate effort to survive!

    If only Lenin had studied history!

    #71280
    WES
    Participant

    Madamski:

    When I was working in Sibera, whenever a machine was nearly built, three to five of us would all work together to commission the machine over the weekend. Naturally with no Russians around to help slow us down!

    Friday machine on construction site. Monday machine in mine working!

    Russians: “Where did the machine go?” It always seemed to amaze the Russians that this could possibly happen so quickly!

    But then we were highly motivated! “Do you want to get stuck here in Siberia for another winter?”

    #71281
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Doc Robinson
    The “365” brand of “old-fashioned rolled oats” had ND (none detected). There are other brands of organically-grown rolled oats, not tested here, which claim to be “Glysophate-Free” (such as Country Life Natural Foods).

    Thanks for the link; some of those numbers are downright bone chilling…

    @ sumac.carol
    Glad to hear the galoots gave you back your bastard… 😉

    #71282
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    @ Wes
    Naturally with no Russians around to help slow us down!

    Funny how things change, no?

    #71283
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ WES

    The strange and persistent right-wing myth that Thanksgiving celebrates the pilgrims’ triumph over socialism

    As for polar bears, it is their habitat that is disappearing, and thus will follow polar bears. The reason so many polar bears are bothering humans is because their habitat has been eviscerated by said monkey people.

    As for sensational announcements about extinction: sensationalism. Not to be confused with science.

    As for communism itself: it’s how humanity lived before the agricultural age. All forms of government since then have been some kind of -ism, and all of them are some kind of slavery. Communism works — on a small scale; human governance on a large scale never has except for brief periods that get written down as Golden Ages although they were merely more tolerable than usual.

    But people seem to confuse top-down mandates like Leninism with genuine neighborly cooperation, a form of communism.

    We toss these various -isms around like we even know what they are, when all we’ve really experienced is the local form of large-scale organized slavery via socioeconomic strata.

    America hasn’t experienced honest capitalism since the Whiskey Rebellion, and that capitalism was only for non-slaves, a valuable early American commodity. As for Russian communism: while as governance, it failed (like all governments do, some faster than others), as indoctrination it is the maoin reason Russia is still Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union (a slave state that bsold itself as “communism”). WHen the people had to govern themselves for awhile in the late 80s/early 90s, their communistic indoctrination kept them from totally abandoning duty. In America, as Orlov points out, our only ideal is $$$$. When the money fails, our society will fall hard, very hard, indeed.

    Democracy is a Greek legacy. Greece was a slave state. If only Jefferson had realized that… oh. He did.

    #71284
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    I’ve been wondering just how much sun, nets how much V-D3?
    This seems a pretty good source and does answer the question directly…

    It’s estimated that we get — or should get — more than 90 percent of our vitamin D from casual, daily sun exposure [source: Holick]. Let’s figure out what casual, daily sun exposure means. There are variables, which we’ll talk about, but some studies have found that between five and 30 minutes of sun exposure to your unprotected face, arms, legs or back between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. two to three times every week is enough for your body to produce all the D3 it needs [source: National Institutes of Health – Office of Dietary Supplements].

    https://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/food-nutrition/vitamin-supplements/how-much-vitamin-d-from-sun.htm

    Under picture-perfect conditions, the human body is able to produce as much as 10,000 IU to 20,000 IU of vitamin D3 in just 30 minutes [source: The George Mateljan Foundation]. Yet vitamin D deficiencies are rising among all age groups in the U.S. It’s estimated as many as half of all children, teens and young adults are vitamin D deficient, as are as many as 25 to 57 percent of American adults [source: Lee]. We don’t often encounter those perfect conditions for vitamin D production, so let’s look at some of the reasons we might not be making enough D3.

    #71285
    WES
    Participant

    Madamski:

    Unfortunately your link came up blocked! Maybe Facebook or Google or Twitter didn’t like what was in the article?

    My comment only covers the Pilgrims first year. They had too many of the wrong type who conviently died off rebalancing the group for future success.

    Not how Thanksgiving came about.

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