Apr 032021
 
 April 3, 2021  Posted by at 9:25 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,


Joan Miro Dancer 1925

 

Sunlight Renders Coronavirus Inactive 8 Times Faster Than Predicted (RT)
COVID-19 Will be Like a “Fond Caress” in Comparison to Next Pandemic (SN)
AstraZeneca Vaccine Suspended Again in Netherlands After Death (NTD)
DeSantis Bans Vaccine Passports To Prevent Having Two Classes Of Citizens (RT)
Opposition Grows Against UK Vaccine Passports (R.)
Every Customer Must Sign In As Pubs Face Triple Whammy Of New Covid Rules (M.)
Care Home Residents In England To Be Allowed Two Visitors From 12 April (G.)
CDC Walks Back Director’s Comments on Vaccines Preventing Infection (DB)
Trump Rule Would Allow Ulimited Vaccine Price Hikes (Fang)
Paradigm Failure (Kunstler)
Biden Again Misrepresents Georgia Election Law, Supports State Boycott (Turley)
NPR Issues Stunning Mea Culpa On Hunter Biden Laptop (NYP)
Hunter Biden Admits Laptop Could ‘Certainly’ Belong To Him (NYP)
The Pending Collapse of the ‘Rules-based International Order’ (Ritter)
Russia Warns NATO Against Sending Any Troops To Ukraine (ZH)

 

 

 

 

Spring forward.

Sunlight Renders Coronavirus Inactive 8 Times Faster Than Predicted (RT)

Researchers have found that the coronavirus is inactivated by sunlight as much as eight times faster in experiments than predicted by current theoretical modelling, providing a glimmer of hope in turning the tide on the pandemic. UC Santa Barbara assistant professor of mechanical engineering Paolo Luzzatto-Fegiz conducted an analysis of 2020 studies exploring the effects of different forms of UV radiation on the SARS-CoV-2 and found a significant discrepancy. As with all electromagnetic radiation, UV falls on a spectrum, with longer-wave UVA reacting differently with parts of DNA and RNA than other mid-range UVB waves contained in sunlight, which kill microbes and cause sunburn in humans. Short-wave UVC radiation has previously been shown to deactivate viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, which is responsible for Covid-19, but this section of the UV spectrum is deflected away by the Earth’s ozone layer.

A July 2020 experimental study tested the power of UV light on SARS-CoV-2, contained in simulated saliva, and found the virus was inactivated in under 20 minutes. However, a theory published a month later suggested sunlight could achieve the same effect, which didn’t quite add up. This second study concluded that SARS-CoV-2 was three times more sensitive to UV radiation in sunlight than the influenza A virus. The vast majority of coronavirus particles were rendered inactive within 30 minutes of exposure to midday summer sunlight, whereas the virus could survive for days under winter sunlight. “The experimentally observed inactivation in simulated saliva is over eight times faster than would have been expected from the theory,” Luzzatto-Feigiz and his team said. “So, scientists don’t yet know what’s going on.”

The team suspects that, as the UVC doesn’t reach the Earth, instead of directly attacking the RNA, the long-wave UVA in sunlight interacts with molecules in the virus’ environment, such as saliva, which speeds up the inactivation, in a process witnessed previously in wastewater treatment. The findings suggest UVA emitters could be added to equipment such as air filtration systems to provide a cheap and energy-efficient means of reducing the spread of viral particles. Masks and social distancing would more than likely still be required, but such UV-based interventions could be of some benefit as nations struggle with recurring waves of the pandemic despite vaccination efforts.

Read more …

Sounds like a thousand other such warnings.

COVID-19 Will be Like a “Fond Caress” in Comparison to Next Pandemic (SN)

A Swedish professor of infectious diseases says COVID-19 will feel like a “fond caress” in comparison to the next global pandemic. Professor Björn Olsen from Uppsala University warns that there’s another “imminent” pandemic on the way that will totally dwarf the millions of dead caused by coronavirus. “Then the corona pandemic will be like a fond caress in comparison,” Olsen told national broadcaster SVT. Olsen says that the next pandemic will be triggered by a new flu virus against which humanity has no protection.


“A flu is incredibly contagious. If it is a new flu where there is no herd immunity at all, it will be able to spread faster through all different age groups,” said the professor. Olsen urged people to switch to eating locally sourced meat in order to reduce human exposure to food markets, which represent a “gigantic public health problem.” “If we try to eat more locally produced, the points of contact for new pandemics will decrease,” said Olsen. The professor also warned that rapid urbanisation in African countries and the destruction of habitats such as rainforests was crowding humans and animals together, making new viral outbreaks more likely.

Read more …

They have now stopped using it for everybody. And at some point they will try to bring it back.

AstraZeneca Vaccine Suspended Again in Netherlands After Death (NTD)

The Netherlands temporarily suspended AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for a second time for people under the age of 60 after a woman who had received the jab died and four other women experienced serious complications, according to a report. The announcement to pause the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company’s vaccine was made in a government statement on Friday, which said that due to “a new report” on side effects, health officials decided not to vaccinate people under the age of 60 in the coming days. The woman’s death was reported by the Netherlands Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb—a research center that tracks the risks associated with the use of medicines. “These are women between 25 and 65 years old. Three patients had extensive pulmonary embolisms. One died and one also had a brain hemorrhage,” Lareb said.


Health officials said a link between the vaccine and the side effects has not yet been established but is being investigated. The complications arose about 7 to 10 days after the people received the vaccine. It is the first time someone died in the Netherlands after getting the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was previously suspended temporarily in multiple countries in the European Union over blood clot concerns, including in the Netherlands. Last month, the Netherlands’s Health Ministry halted the administration of AstraZeneca for more than two weeks after serious side effects arose in a small number of people. Germany on Tuesday became the latest European country to also stop injecting people with the AstraZeneca vaccine under the age of 60 amid fresh concerns over unusual blood clots reported in a number of those who received the shots. France, meanwhile, also said in mid-March it decided to limit the vaccine to people for those aged 55 and older.

Read more …

GOP candidate 2024.

DeSantis Bans Vaccine Passports To Prevent Having Two Classes Of Citizens (RT)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has banned Covid-19 vaccine passports in his state, signing an executive order and calling on lawmakers to protect citizens permanently. Conservatives reacted by backing him for president in 2024. The order, which the Republican governor signed on Friday, notes that Covid-19 vaccines are not required by law, and individual inoculation records are private health information. Requiring vaccine passports to access goods, services or activities would infringe individual freedom and invade privacy, DeSantis added in the order.

“Requiring so-called Covid-19 vaccine passports for taking part in everyday life – such as attending a sporting event, patronizing a restaurant or going to a movie theater – would create two classes of citizens based on vaccination,” DeSantis wrote. He said the order protects “the fundamental rights and privacies of Floridians and the free flow of commerce.” No business or government entity is allowed under the order to require people in Florida to provide documentation of their vaccination status. State agencies will enforce the order, including compliance as a condition of state licensing and other authorization needed to do business, and companies that violate the ban won’t be eligible for grants or state contracts. “The Legislature is working on making permanent these projections for Floridians, and I look forward to signing them into law,” DeSantis said.

The order comes amid a global debate over the ethics of forcing people to take vaccines to be able to live as full-fledged citizens and restore freedoms that arguably weren’t legally infringed in the first place. For instance, South Korea’s prime minister said on Thursday that only those who get Covid-19 jabs will be allowed to return to their “daily lives.” The Biden administration so far has sidestepped the issue, coming down on the side of a two-tiered society but seeking to achieve it through the private sector – without government mandates. DeSantis is short-circuiting that effort, at least in one major state, and conservatives such as US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) have called on other Republican-led states to follow suit.

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Of course.

Opposition Grows Against UK Vaccine Passports (R.)

More than 70 British lawmakers have signalled their opposition to the introduction of so-called vaccine passports that the government is considering bringing in to help to open the economy as it starts lifting COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. The government is reviewing the idea of asking people to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination to access crowded spaces such as pubs or sports events, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson having already said that a certificate is likely to be needed for international travel. The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Saturday that trials of COVID passports would begin within weeks during pilots at major sports events and possibly a music awards ceremony in the next two months to assess their impact.

On Friday Johnson said that a combination of immunity factors – if people have had the disease, a vaccination or had a COVID-19 test – would give businesses confidence. “So those three things working together will, I think, be useful for us as we as we go forward,” Johnson said. But there has been mounting concern from some in his own Conservative Party, as well as opposition lawmakers and civil rights groups, about the prospect of vaccine certificates. “We oppose the divisive and discriminatory use of COVID status certification to deny individuals access to general services, businesses or jobs,” said a statement signed by a group of more than 70 lawmakers from across the political spectrum.

Under the government’s planned “roadmap” out of the pandemic, pubs will be allowed to serve people outdoors later this month, with a further easing of restrictions in mid-May before all measures are lifted near the end of June. Johnson suggested last month that some pubs might require customers to produce vaccine certificates. Culture minister Oliver Dowden, meanwhile, has said that such certificates could help get more people into theatres. No decision has yet been made and Johnson has instructed senior minister Michael Gove to review the possible role of certificates, saying there are deep and complex ethical issues to explore. Gove is due to report back shortly.

Read more …

“”I don’t understand why I have to do this in a restaurant or pub, but I don’t need to do this in a supermarket..”

Every Customer Must Sign In As Pubs Face Triple Whammy Of New Covid Rules (M.)

Pub bosses are warning that a “triple whammy” of new Covid rules could be a further blow to landlords after months of closures. Every customer aged over 16 will be forced to sign in – rather than just one member of a big group as was the case last year. It is also unclear whether payment at the bar will be permitted. From April 12, pubs will be outdoors-only, and in rural areas particularly, poor broadband could make paying for drinks difficult if customers are not allowed inside. And hospitality bodies are also troubled by reports that the Government will introduce vaccine passports from June 21, requiring punters to have either been jabbed or provide proof of a negative test. UK Hospitality (UKH), the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) and the British Institute of Innkeepers (BII) branded the measures as “impractical burdens”.

In a joint statement, the pub representatives said: “Government has promised the country that we will be reopening but we are now being told that this will be with our hands tied behind our backs. “It now seems the hospitality industry could be burdened with vaccine passports, over-complicated test and trace rules and an inability not able to take payments indoors at reopening – a triple whammy for hard-pressed publicans who have been forcibly closed for months. “Pubs will already be trading at a loss when they reopen with all the existing restrictions and Covid-secure measures in place. “Adding further disproportionate and discriminatory measures threatens the very survival of thousands of businesses. “It’s unfair to single out our sector again with these added impractical burdens that will have economic consequences and risk our recovery.”

Carl Ford, an accountant based in Tamworth, told the BBC he was frustrated and confused by the rules. “I feel like it’s almost like going back to school where I have to sign in and out,” he said. “I don’t understand why I have to do this in a restaurant or pub, but I don’t need to do this in a supermarket where you have a free for all. People don’t have to sign in and they can pick up fruit with their hands.” Pubs will open beer gardens from April 12 with punters allowed indoors on May 17. A full reopening with no social distancing could be on the cards from June 21 when the Government hopes to have done away with all Covid rules.

Read more …

Do we still recognize how insane it is that a goverment “allows” us to see people? Or are we too far gone for that?

Care Home Residents In England To Be Allowed Two Visitors From 12 April (G.)

Care home residents in England will be allowed to receive two regular visitors from Monday 12 April, as Covid restrictions are eased further, Boris Johnson is to announce. Strict Department of Health guidance has severely curtailed the contact residents have had with their loved ones during the pandemic. Only one named visitor is currently permitted. Under guidance to be published next week, two people will be allowed to visit regularly, as long as they have a negative Covid test result. They will have to wear protective equipment, but will be allowed to hold their loved one’s hand. Babies and children under the age of two will be excluded from the limit, so that elderly residents can meet new grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

The prime minister said: “Reuniting family and friends has been a priority each time restrictions have eased, and the next step will be no different. “I’m particularly pleased to allow residents to have more visitors, including grandchildren, given the isolation and concern felt by so many this past year.” A damning report from the cross-party public accounts committee of MPs in February highlighted dire shortages of PPE for care staff, and the fact that 25,000 people were discharged back into residential homes from hospitals in the first wave, some without being tested for the virus. The government is guaranteeing it will continue to provide free personal protective equipment to care homes until March next year. Almost 94% of care home residents have received at least the first dose of a vaccine, as have almost 78% of care staff.

The government is considering plans to make the jab compulsory for staff, with an announcement expected in the coming days. Unions have warned against such a move, saying it could be discriminatory, urging employers to focus instead on encouraging their staff to be vaccinated. [..] Fiona Carragher, the director of research and influencing at the Alzheimer’s Society, welcomed the change in the visiting rules. “Visits are vital to care home residents with dementia, who have been isolated from their loved ones, without the essential care and support their families so often provide, and as a result experienced a devastating increase in their dementia symptoms over the past year,” she said. “We’ve come a long way since the first lockdown, and soon we hope to see the benefits from people with dementia being reunited with their loved ones.”

Read more …

No protection.

CDC Walks Back Director’s Comments on Vaccines Preventing Infection (DB)

After pushback from scientists, the CDC has walked back a statement by its director and stressed that “the evidence isn’t clear whether [vaccinated people] can spread the virus to others.” Earlier this week, Dr. Rochelle Walensky said that data “suggests that vaccinated people do not carry the virus, don’t get sick.” Many observers took that as confirmation that a jab grants full protection from transmission and infection. In a statement the next day to The New York Times, the CDC said: “It’s possible that some people who are fully vaccinated could get Covid-19.”


Dr. Paul Duprex, a vaccine expert at the University of Pittsburgh, agreed. “We’re stopping symptoms, we’re keeping people out of hospitals. But we’re not making them completely resistant to an infection,” he said. While the vaccine’s efficacy in preventing infection is very high, John Moore, a virologist based in New York, told the Times: “Vaccinated people should not be throwing away their masks at this point… This pandemic is not over.”

Read more …

More good news.

Trump Rule Would Allow Ulimited Vaccine Price Hikes (Fang)

Pfizer, Moderna, and other coronavirus vaccine makers have said repeatedly that they intend to hike prices on vaccines as early as this year, as the potential need for additional booster shots and future demand could lead to an unprecedented financial windfall. One estimate projects that if Pfizer raised the price of its coronavirus vaccine from $19.50 to $175 per dose, as one Pfizer executive recently suggested, and if every adult American were to take it, the cost would be $44.7 billion — nearly 10 percent of all U.S. drug spending. But the federal government, which funded crucial biomedical research to develop the patented messenger RNA technology behind the leading Covid-19 vaccines, is on the verge of eliminating a legal mechanism to control the prices of key medical products, including vaccines.

Next week, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, will wrap up a comment period to modify the rules governing the Bayh-Dole Act, a law that regulates the transfer of federally funded inventions into commercial property. Under the current interpretation of the law, the government may “march in” and suspend the use of patents developed via government-funded inventions if it determines that the products are excessively priced. [..] IN THE TWILIGHT weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, his administration released a NIST rule designed to undercut the Bayh-Dole Act and weaken the government’s authority to march in and seize control of a patent when drugmakers fail to make medicine “available to the public on reasonable terms.”

That phrase has long been the law’s most contentious provision. It invokes a term of art that multiple federal courts have ruled relates to pricing and market-related decisions. The legislative history of the Bayh-Dole Act includes arguments that clearly state pricing considerations as a factor in determining “reasonable terms.” The proposed rule, however, tightens the law’s definition to remove price as a factor — a change long demanded by industry. Joe Biden was vocal during the presidential campaign about his commitments to roll back his predecessor’s most egregious industry-serving regulations and to bring down drug prices, but his administration has so far been mum about the Bayh-Dole Act rulemaking.

Read more …

“..there will also be even less hallucinated capital (“money”) to loan out to this shrinking pool of borrowers”

Paradigm Failure (Kunstler)

First, the whole mass motoring racket is falling apart more on its financial model than on whether the cars move by gasoline or electricity. Americans are used to buying cars on installment loans, and, with the middle-class withering away, there are ever-fewer credit-worthy borrowers for those loans (for ever more expensive cars). Soon, as the debt markets groan and wobble under the weight of massive new debt, there will also be even less hallucinated capital (“money”) to loan out to this shrinking pool of borrowers. Second, the decrepit US electric grid can’t handle the charging needs of such a gigantic electric car fleet (and fixing the grid alone would be a trillion-dollar project).

Third, the manufacturing of electric cars depends on scarce rare mineral resources that are not readily available in the US, but controlled by foreign nations. Fourth, car-making utterly depends on far-flung international supply lines for parts and electronics in a time when the integrated global economy is cracking up under the strain of desperate competition for dwindling resources and the ill-will generated by that. There are yet more kinks in the electric car scheme but those are enough. Of course, this whole initiative is in the service of preserving a set of living arrangements that is going obsolete, namely, suburbia. The previous investment represented by all the housing subdivisions, commercial highway strips, malls, office parks, and super-highways pretty much drove the American economy since the Second World War.

It’s understandable that we would be desperate to keep it all running, and fix the pieces that are falling apart, because it’s where we put most of our national wealth. It’s the whole American Dream in one nifty package. And, it sure seemed like a good idea at the time, in such a big country, with so much cheap land, and all that oil. But now things have changed and reality is sending us clear signals that we have to live differently. The effort to oppose reality is apt to be ruinous for us.

Read more …

“What is astonishing is that the media itself has fueled this false narrative and it is being used as a key claim in boycotting the state.”

Biden Again Misrepresents Georgia Election Law, Supports State Boycott (Turley)

We recently discussed the false statement made repeatedly by President Joe Biden about the Georgia election law, which Biden has called “Jim Crow on steroids.” Biden falsely claims that the law closes polling places earlier, a claim that even the Washington Post decried as false. Biden has not only repeated his earlier false claim but added a new one in supporting a boycott of the state of Georgia by Major League Baseball. It is a common false claim made about denying water under the law to people standing in line to vote. What is astonishing is that the media itself has fueled this false narrative and it is being used as a key claim in boycotting the state. During an interview on ESPN, Biden again declared the law as “Jim Crow on steroids” and added:

“I think that today’s professional athletes are acting incredibly responsibly. I would strongly support them doing that. People look to them, they’re leaders. Look at what’s happened with the NBA as well. Look at what’s happened across the board. The people who’ve been victimized the most are the people who are the leaders in these various sports and it’s just not right. Imagine passing a law saying you cannot provide water or food for someone standing in line to vote, can’t do that? C’mon! Or you’re going to close a polling place at 5 o’clock when working people just get off? This is all about keeping working folks and ordinary folks that I grew up with from being able to vote.”

Indeed, it is hard to “imagine” because it is not true and the White House knows that it is not true. If a president is going to accuse a state of passing a Jim Crow law (let alone supporting a boycott), there is an expectation of a modicum of accuracy and fairness. Otherwise, it degrades not just the movement for voting rights but the Office of the Presidency itself. I will not repeat the clearly false claim about closing polling places early. As the Washington Post noted (and repeated after this latest interview), “the net effect [of the Georgia law] is … to expand the opportunities to vote for most Georgians, not limit them.” The use of the provision to suggest a reduction in voting hours was a knowing misrepresentation by those seeking to justify the federalization of election laws in Congress.

Despite being called out on the false statement, President Biden continues to repeat it. The water claim is equally disingenuous and false. The law does not prevent people from giving water to those standing in line. The law allows “self-service water from an unattended receptacle” for voters waiting in line. It also allows anyone to give water or food to any voters outside of limited area around the polling place.

Read more …

Hunter’s come out of hiding to promote his memoir “Beautiful Things”. You can’t make that up.

NPR Issues Stunning Mea Culpa On Hunter Biden Laptop (NYP)

National Public Radio has corrected an online article that falsely asserted that documents from first son Hunter Biden’s laptop had been “discredited by U.S. intelligence.” A book review of Hunter Biden’s memoir “Beautiful Things” initially dismissed the documents first reported in October by The Post. “The laptop story was discredited by US intelligence and independent investigations by news organizations,” the book review by Ron Elving, senior editor of the publicly funded media organization, initially claimed. The correction on the Thursday article now says, “A previous version of this story said US intelligence had discredited the laptop story. US intelligence officials have not made a statement to that effect.”

Although some Democrats claimed that the laptop may have been “Russian disinformation,” President Biden’s campaign, the White House and Hunter Biden have not denied the laptop belonged to Hunter. In a new interview set to air in full Sunday on CBS, Hunter Biden admits that the laptop “certainly” could be his. In October, The Post reported that documents from the laptop appeared to implicate Joe Biden in his son’s business relationships in China and Ukraine. Hunter Biden later confirmed that he’s under federal investigation for possible tax fraud. A Delaware computer repairman, who has since publicly identified himself, says Hunter Biden never came to pick up his laptop after dropping it off. He provided paperwork to The Post indicating there was an abandonment clause that granted him rights to abandoned equipment.

[..] Among the laptop’s contents, a 2017 email chain involving Hunter Biden and associates brokering a proposed business deal with a Chinese energy company described a 10 percent set-aside for the “big guy.” Former Hunter Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski publicly identified Joe Biden as the “big guy.” As of February, the first son still owned 10 percent of an investment fund controlled by Chinese state-owned entities. The fund was formed 12 days after Hunter Biden joined his father aboard Air Force Two for a December 2013 trip to Beijing.

Read more …

“It could be that I was hacked, it could be that it was Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me..”

Hunter Biden Admits Laptop Could ‘Certainly’ Belong To Him (NYP)

Hunter Biden has finally ‘fessed up that the laptop at the center of The Post’s explosive exposé last year “certainly” could belong to him, he revealed in an interview Friday. In a sitdown with CBS’s “Sunday Morning,” President Biden’s embattled son was pointedly asked “yes or no” if the MacBook Pro that was dropped off at a Delaware computer repair shop in April 2019 was in fact his. “I really don’t know what the answer is, that’s the truthful answer,” Hunter Biden said in an excerpt of the interview released on Friday, before adding, “I have no idea.” But asked whether it could have belonged to him, he replied, “Certainly.”

“Certainly, there could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me. It could be that I was hacked, it could be that it was Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me,” he continued. Hunter Biden made the rare media appearance while promoting his new memoir, “Beautiful Things,” out April 6 from Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. In the final months of the heated 2020 presidential race, The Post revealed a trove of emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop that raised questions about his then-candidate father’s ties to his son’s foreign business ventures, including Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company linked to corruption.

The emails revealed that the younger Biden introduced a top Burisma executive to his father, then vice president, less than a year before the elder Biden admittedly pressured Ukrainian officials into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company. The never-before-revealed meeting is mentioned in a message of appreciation that Vadym Pozharskyi, a Burisma board adviser, sent Hunter on April 17, 2015. [..]In addition to his Ukrainian connections, other emails on the computer showed Hunter discussing potential business deals with China’s largest private energy company. One deal seemed to spark considerable interest with the younger Biden, who called it “interesting for me and my family.”

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Blinken.

The Pending Collapse of the ‘Rules-based International Order’ (Ritter)

It seems a week cannot go by without US Secretary of State Antony Blinken bringing up the specter of the ‘rules-based international order’ as an excuse for meddling in the affairs of another state or region. The most recent crisis revolves around allegations that China has dispatched a fleet of more than 200 ships, part of a so-called ‘maritime militia’, into waters of the South China Sea claimed by the Philippines. China says that these vessels are simply fishing boats seeking shelter from a storm. The Philippines has responded by dispatching military ships and aircraft to investigate. Enter Antony Blinken, stage right: “The United States stands with our ally, the Philippines, in the face of the PRC’s maritime militia amassing at Whitsun Reef,” Blinken tweeted. “We will always stand by our allies and stand up for the rules-based international order.”

Blinken’s message came a mere 18 hours after he tweeted about his meeting in Brussels with NATO. “Our alliances were created to defend shared values,” he wrote. “Renewing our commitment requires reaffirming those values and the foundation of international relations we vow to protect: a free and open rules-based order.” What this actually means, of course, is that the order is rules-based so long as it is the nation called America that sets these rules and is accepted as the world’s undisputed leader. Blinken’s fervent embrace of the ‘rules-based international order’ puts action behind the words set forth in the recently published ‘Interim National Security Strategy Guidance’, a White House document which outlines President Joe Biden’s vision “for how America will engage with the world.”

While the specific term ‘rules-based international order’ does not appear in the body of the document, the precepts it represents are spelled out in considerable detail, and conform with the five pillars of the “liberal international order” as set forth by the noted international relations scholars, Daniel Duedney and G. John Ikenberry, in their ground-breaking essay, ‘The nature and sources of liberal international order’, published by the Review of International Studies in 1999. The origins of this “liberal international order” can be traced back to the end of the Second World War and the onset of a Cold War between Western liberal democracies, helmed by the United States, and the communist bloc nations, led by the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.

The purpose of this order was simple – to maintain a balance of power between the US-led liberal democracies and their communist adversaries, and to maintain and sustain US hegemony over its liberal democratic allies. This was accomplished through five basic policy ‘pillars’: Security co-binding; the embrace of US hegemony; self-limitation on the part of US allies; the politicization of global economic institutions for the gain of liberal democracies; and Western “civil identity.”

Read more …

The line in the sand.

Russia Warns NATO Against Sending Any Troops To Ukraine (ZH)

The Kremlin’s latest statements out Friday amid the potential new Ukraine crisis which has seen a serious flare-up in fighting in the Donbass region, along with what appears to be far bigger-than-usual troop movements on Russia’s side of the border, has raised the stakes further. Russia has vowed it will take “extra measures to ensure its own security” should it observe any deployment of NATO troops inside Ukraine, the Kremlin statement said Friday according to Reuters. It firmly warned against any potential looming NATO troop movements following Brussels voicing concern the day prior over the widespread reports and videos purporting to show a significant Russian build-up of forces along Ukraine’s eastern border. Reuters reports Russia’s Friday statement and “warning” as follows:


Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that the situation at the contact line in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatist forces was quite frightening and that multiple “provocations” were taking place there. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Taran, and “condemned recent escalations of Russian aggressive and provocative actions in eastern Ukraine,” the Pentagon said. “Our rhetoric [over Donbass] is absolutely constructive,” Peskov said in response to journalists’ questions. “We do not indulge in wishful thinking. Regrettably, the realities along the engagement line are rather frightening. Provocations by the Ukrainian armed forces do take place. They are not casual. There have been many of them.”

Read more …

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle April 3 2021

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 40 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #72358

    Joan Miro Dancer 1925   • Sunlight Renders Coronavirus Inactive 8 Times Faster Than Predicted (RT) • COVID-19 Will be Like a “Fond Caress” in Com
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle April 3 2021]

    #72359
    Germ
    Participant

    “Safe and Effective” – Haha, pull the other one!

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/03/australian-covid-vaccine-astrazeneca-experts-urgently-meet-after-blood-clot-case-in-melbourne

    “Boris Johnson says two fully vaccinated people CANNOT meet indoors because vaccines ‘are not giving 100% protection’ ” https://twitter.com/i/status/1377908875224092675

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/02/covid-further-rare-blood-clot-cases-found-in-oxford-astrazeneca-recipients

    “The Netherlands has halted use of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine for people under 60 following the death of a woman who had received a shot.”
    https://tinyurl.com/d2vs689b

    #72360
    Polder Dweller
    Participant

    Whenever someone talks about the “rules-based order” I think “here we have a major purveyor of male bovine excrement.”

    If such rules exist, let’s see ‘em.

    #72361

    91 comments in yesterday’s thread. That may well be a record. How does one read all that? I don’t.

    #72362
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    The latest graph of excess mortality in Israel, before the data was removed from the Euromomo site:

    More than a month after Israel’s vaccination program began, the excess mortality in the country reached a higher level than any other time on the graph (shown here going back to 2015):

    Before the data disappeared this week, the excess had surpassed the “substantial increase” threshold above the normal range.

    Graphs are from this article:

    Israel: Mortalität unter Geimpften über 65 steigt neuerlich an – Update: Israel aus Euromomo verschwunden

    #72363
    oldandtired
    Participant

    91 comments in yesterday’s thread. That may well be a record. How does one read all that? I don’t

    You must be right over the target(s)?

    Can we call all of these book deals what they really are? Payola? Money-laundering? Or am I just jealous that all of these fascinating people just happen to have political influence?

    #72364
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Note: the graphs shown in the comment above pertain to the 65+ age group.

    #72365

    “The KGB…”
    AhHah! So it WAS the Russians! /s
    The response to this “least deadly pandemic in 2000 years” (Klaus Schwab) has been a viciously cruel experiment in terror.
    Biden’s lies seem so much more consequential than Trump’s.
    So will the Braves get to play with the other boys? Will they be sanctioned, too?

    Maybe we need to start finding Presidents with no close family ties. Hunter’s travails are just beginning, I think. I hope.

    91 comments…
    Yes, it was a remarkable day on the automatic earth.

    #72366

    From doctors4covidethics “link”, yesterday:

    “1. You concede that the “vaccines”, which are more accurately described as investigational gene-based agents, enter the bloodstream but you can obviously provide no quantitative data. In the absence of the latter, any scientific assessment you purport to have undertaken lacks foundation.
    2. Your statement that non-clinical studies do not indicate any detectable uptake of the vaccines into endothelial cells lacks credibility. We demand to see the scientific evidence. If not available, it must be assumed that endothelial cells are targeted.
    3. Auto-attack could not have been excluded in animals unless they had been immunologically primed beforehand. We demand evidence that such experiments had been performed. Similar experiments have been undertaken before with previous, unsuccessful candidate vaccines, and fatal, antibody-dependent enhancement of disease was observed.
    4. We requested scientific evidence, not a vague description of what was purportedly seen in non-valid animal experiments. Your cursory mention of laboratory findings in humans is cynical. In view of the plausible connection between production of spike protein and the emergence of thromboembolic serious adverse events (SAEs), we demand to see the results of D-dimer determinations. As you are aware, D-dimer is a very good test as an aid to diagnose thrombosis.”

    #72367
    zerosum
    Participant

    Famous Quote of 2021
    “It could be …..” – Hunter

    —-

    With the web, everyone has an Encyclopedias

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia

    Encyclopedias have existed for around 2,000 years and have evolved considerably during that time as regards to language (written in a major international or a vernacular language), size (few or many volumes), intent (presentation of a global or a limited range of knowledge), cultural perspective (authoritative, ideological, didactic, utilitarian), authorship (qualifications, style), readership (education level, background, interests, capabilities), and the technologies available for their production and distribution (hand-written manuscripts, small or large print runs, Internet). As a valued source of reliable information compiled by experts, printed versions found a prominent place in libraries, schools and other educational institutions.

    The appearance of digital and open-source versions in the 21st century, such as Wikipedia, has vastly expanded the accessibility, authorship, readership, and variety of encyclopedia entries.

    Lets look

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_immunity

    Social immunity (also termed collective immunity) describes the additional level of disease protection arising in social groups from collective disease defences, performed either jointly or towards one another. These collective defences complement the individual immunity of all group members and constitute an extra layer of protection at the group level, combining behavioural, physiological and organisational adaptations. These defences can be employed either prophylactically or on demand.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity

    Herd immunity (also called herd effect, community immunity, or population immunity) is a form of indirect protection from infectious disease that can occur with some diseases when a sufficient percentage of a population has become immune to an infection, whether through vaccination or previous infections, thereby reducing the likelihood of infection for individuals who lack immunity.
    Individuals can become immune by recovering from an earlier infection or through vaccination.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_immune_system

    The adaptive immune system, also referred as the acquired immune system, is a subsystem of the immune system that is composed of specialized, systemic cells and processes that eliminate pathogens or prevent their growth. The acquired immune system is one of the two main immunity strategies found in vertebrates (the other being the innate immune system).
    Like the innate system, the adaptive immune system includes both humoral immunity components and cell-mediated immunity components and destroys invading pathogens. Unlike the innate immune system, which is pre-programmed to react to common broad categories of pathogen, the adaptive immune system is highly specific to each particular pathogen the body has encountered.

    #72368

    I watch cspan, local news, and Bloomberg. I can’t recall a single mention of any negative news about the experimental “vaccines”, let alone that people have been dropping dead from them.

    #72372
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    “DeSantis Bans Vaccine Passports To Prevent Having Two Classes Of Citizens (RT)”
    “Opposition Grows Against UK Vaccine Passports (R.)”

    See what happens when you try to implement plans of total social control too quickly and outright clumsily? People smell a rat and start to push back. Why are they in such a hurry for total domination anyway? Is it because the financial system is about to implode and they want it to be a controlled demolition which leaves their wealth and position intact? Or is it that without complete control of western populations they won’t be able to compete economically or militarily with China?

    Either way they could learn something from Drax’s invisible man technique: by mastering the art of moving so slowly that your victim is never alerted to the danger.

    #72375
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    Wanted to add a nice image of Drax doing his invisible man thing, but could not get it to post no matter what I tried. Maybe I should have paid closer attention to all those posts earlier when the problem first started to occur. Seems like everyone else has already figured out the solution already.

    #72376
    Germ
    Participant

    @ my parents said know – “I watch cspan, local news, and Bloomberg. I can’t recall a single mention of any negative news about the experimental “vaccines”, let alone that people have been dropping dead from them.”

    That must be one of the funniest comments I’ve read on TAE! Thank you for the laugh.

    Here you go:

    Latest Pfizer Vaccine UK Adverse Reaction print (283 Deaths):
    https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/975808/COVID-19_mRNA_Pfizer-BioNTech_Vaccine_Analysis_Print.pdf

    Latest AstraZeneca UK Adverse Reaction print (421 Deaths)
    https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/975786/COVID-19_AstraZeneca_Vaccine_Analysis_Print.pdf

    And these are only the deaths that have been attributed to the vaccines. There have been many more deaths where “no connection” to the vaccine is attributed.

    Haha, sure – pull the other one.

    Now, get back to your TV.

    #72377
    absolute galore
    Participant

    Thank you to everyone who replied to my comment yesterday. (I’m replying here because yesterday’s comments went to 3 pages.)

    I’ve got a request in for Ivermectin quotes. I see they come in tablets of 3, 6, 12 or 18mg each. Any thoughts? My plan is to order from Kachhela Medex as specifically recommended, and probably one other company. I will look for companies that accept Paypal. What is the cost of a reasonable supply for 1 person? I will probably get enough to have on hand for 3-4 if the price is right for that quantity, just in case. Does it come with an expiration date?

    When the lockdown stuff first started a year ago, I volunteered to deliver for the local Natural Food Mart, which was not allowing customers in the store, but allowed them to pick up curbside. I figured I would be delivering mostly to older folks, but was shocked to find many were people much younger than me who were afraid to leave the house.

    Although Trump was certainly lacking in charm and decorum, I do recall him saying, after dealing with the virus personally, don’t be fearful, don’t let it control your life. This to me is a presidential thing to say. As opposed to the director of the CDC blubbering about her feelings of impending doom.

    So, not terrified of the virus, but as I said, I would prefer not to deal with lingering issues. That also seems like it is a slim prospect, and would also be mitigated by Ivermectin if/when needed. My main beef against the vaccinations is how they are presented as de facto the only solution, that we need to roll up our sleeves, get in line, and receive the “jab” (what a stupid bit of slang, irritates the hell out of me.) It’s also hilarious that many people who would not touch a genetically modified tomato with a ten-foot pole are so eager to get a shot of mRNA. The idea that it is suddenly okay to ask your employees about their medical history, that you need to carry a card proclaiming it. That it will create two classes. Which in itself is ridiculous. Even supposing the vaccine prevents transmission, if I go in to a restaurant, those who want to feel “protected” from Covid are already vaccinated, so what difference does it make? Monumental idiocy. Anyway, thanks again to our host and TAE readers.

    #72378

    absolute galore

    Take 12 mg tablets, they’re good for about everyone, normal weight etc., once a week after taking 1 every first two days. They don’t cost anything in India, so they will insist you order a minimum of some 200 tablets. That’s 4 people for a whole year. Get more and hand them out! Think I paid $20 for 200 tablets, and $60 for postage.

    Postage will be the biggest part of the cost no matter what. As for the company, depends where you are. As I said, I’m a fan of Shayam Solutions, because they went the extra mile and then some to get it to me in Athens. But it’s different if you’re stateside. Still, give them some business. They deserve it.

    #72379
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    absolute galore: I ordered from Kachhela. When you put in your online request you will receive emails from multiple suppliers and can pick Kachhela at that point and place the order. I paid through paypal with no problem. My order was for 10 boxes of 20 tablets each (I’m thinking that was the minimum order but I might be misremembering). I have enough for the entire neighborhood and have already given some away. It cost like $30 for the med, plus $35 shipping (international). Dirt cheap. Kachhela was responsive, shipped as promised, provided a tracking number.

    As far as tablet mg size to order … John Day provides details on dosing based on body weigh: “for every 5 kg, or 11 pounds of body weight, a person takes 1 mg of ivermectin.” The tablets are scored and you can break in half if needed .. or you could order the small 3 mg size and take a bunch of them.

    #72380
    zerosum
    Participant

    @ Germ
    Since I got the Pfizer vaccine, I checked out the report.
    1. I must be abnormal.
    2. I did not get any of the 66 pages of “reactions”
    3. Everyone, in that report, must be
    A. A hypochondriac (is someone who lives with the fear that they have a serious, but undiagnosed medical condition, even though diagnostic tests show there is nothing wrong with them. Hypochondriacs experience extreme anxiety from the bodily responses most people take for granted.)
    B. Very poor health to begin with

    https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/975808/COVID-19_mRNA_Pfizer-BioNTech_Vaccine_Analysis_Print.pdf

    Case Series Drug Analysis Print
    Name: COVID-19 mRNA Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine analysis print
    Report Run Date: 28-Mar-2021 Data Lock Date: 21-Mar-2021 19:00:03
    Earliest Reaction Date: 03-Apr-1990

    (last page – 66) TOTAL FATAL OUTCOME REPORTS 283

    #72381
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    “I’ve got a request in for Ivermectin quotes. I see they come in tablets of 3, 6, 12 or 18mg each. Any thoughts?”

    AG, I ordered the 6mg tablets, as their smaller size makes it easier to fine-tune dosage according to one’s weight. Most people are capable (and willing) to cut a tablet in half if needed, but might balk if it requires more than that. This seemed like a good balance to me. On the other hand, if one gets 3mg tablets, it might be difficult to convince a 250lb person that they need to swallow 8 tablets to get the correct dosage. “Why so many? Are you sure about that?”

    #72382
    island raider
    Participant

    Dr Naomi Wolf discussing vaccine passports:

    #72383
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    @ Absolute Galore

    Re: yesterday’s request for opinions regarding your situation & Covid vaccines.
    I’d like to answer in regards to custody issue.

    I have 3 teens. I have legitimate reason to believe that their father will press the vaccine issue once they are sixteen. (Two are nearly 15 now.). They have no health issues that would exacerbate a Covid infection. My preference is that they not be vaccinated — there is no need. We have no data on long-term effects from the vaccines.

    My sister shared the following with me a few days ago:
    https://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/covid-19-restoring-public-trust-during-global-health-crisis

    “ …the Moderna/NIH clinical trial does not end until October 27, 2022, and the Pfizer/BioNTech clinical trial does not end until January 31, 2023, the experimental COVID biologics (vaccines) are considered to be under investigation for safety and efficacy until the trials conclude.”

    You would need to consult with a family law attorney, but I think that it would be considered reasonable for a parent of a child who is at no measurable risk from Covid to decline the vaccine for the child based on the fact that the original clinical trials to accomplish FDA approval have not, in fact, been completed.

    The longer the vaccine can be delayed for people who are at no risk from Covid, the more time is available for any long-term effects to be well-known.

    #72384
    Noirette
    Participant

    The French are very mistrustful of Big-Pharma and of the Gvmt. as far as medical matters are concerned. There have been so many scandals over the decades, most ppl can remember some, and quite some no. of ppl have been directly affected.

    I wondered how the present Cov-vaxxes compared.

    Some scandals I remembered, others I had to look up. (Some minor ones are left out.) Summary.

    1950 – 1997. Distilbène, a synthetic hormone, is prescribed to pregnant women to prevent miscarriages. It turns out girls born to the mums that took it had HUGE risks of cancer in the F reproductive system, and their babies had a HUGE risk of serious malformations. The grandchildren – first case was 2011, the court admitted the relationship — are now being paid damages…slowly (don’t count on the MSM..) Horrific.

    1978. 36 babies die from talc powder made by Morhange. (Was laced with hexachlorophene.) Baby-killers stick in the memory, even if small no, it made a big splash, so included.

    1985. Cyclosporine is touted as a miracle cure for AIDS by 3 docs who experiment on patients without following any of the rules, protocols, including patient consent, etc. Media, Gvmt. proclaim “original and wonderful” (or whatever) cure. All the patients die. Luckily there were at most 5-10. This one is important, because it had an enormous impact on the reputation of the Med. community, the whole story was crazed hype. (Imho the docs and others really believed, so the rules were thrown out by everyone.)

    1985 bis. The worst: the Contaminated Blood scandal. A circular early on advised to not accept blood donations from homosexuals and drug addicts. This circular was ignored, and other mistakes were made. Contaminated blood was distributed until 1985. Hundreds, or in the thousands, were contaminated with AIDS. Hemophiliacs were hard hit, 1,350 infected, about 1,000 died of AIDS. For this prison sentences were ordered, but they didn’t amount to much, top guys got off, remand, release to probation, for maybe 3-4, etc.

    1983-85. Growth hormone. 1,698 children receive ‘growth hormone’ contamined with a prion (> Creutzfelt-Jacob disease), 120 die. Court cases continue till 2016. Nobody goes to prison.

    Late 90s – 2009. Mediator, a drug made by Servier was first for diabetes, and then used as an appetite suppressant. 2,000 ppl or more died. Servier paid a fine.

    Begins 2015. Dépakine, an anti-epileptic made by Sanofi, turns out that between about 2,000 and 4,000 babies born to women treated with this drug were malformed, and about 16,000 to 30,000 children had, have, neuro-developmental problems… (rise in autism?)

    (Other, more industrial: PIP, Poly Implant Prothèse, silicone breast implants that were filled with ‘junk’ and didn’t follow the directives. About 40K women in France were affected: their breasts were ‘recalled’ by the manufacturer, like a mixer that might give electric shocks! so they have to get rid of them..)

    The Covid vaxxes have all the characteristics of the scandals outlined above simultaneously.

    Not following directives (of Gvmt med. bodies, of drug cos., such as –not for pregnant women or children– and then… well… why not? .. go for it…!

    No conjectures, considerations, or prudence re. possible long-term effects (see third generation in one ex. above).

    Hype of ‘believing in a cure’ that will ‘get us out of this horrible situation’, it somehow has to be, so damn the rules! See AIDS miracle drug.

    Another aspect is: the deciders don’t feel they are or will be affected…they won’t catch AIDS, they don’t have children who are hemophiliacs, are stunted, etc. Today, won’t catch Covid or if so will be treated with top class drugs, no problems…

    The profit motive is a great driver in many cases – but not only, or always, see above, hope, ignorance, laziness, and ahdehrence to top-down instigated group-think, are clear components.

    #72385
    zerosum
    Participant

    Numbers can be used to tell lies
    P. 16
    Death and sudden death
    Clinical death 1
    Death 104
    Sudden death 16

    p. 23
    Coronavirus infections Deaths
    Asymptomatic COVID-19 0
    COVID-19 28
    COVID-19 pneumonia 6
    Coronavirus infection 0
    Severe acute respiratory syndrome 0
    Suspected COVID-19 1

    #72386
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    Noirette: and thalidomide (1950s to early 60s). Prescribed for morning sickness and resulted in stillborn babies, death soon after birth, and severe malformations in the babies that lived. One of my best friends in elementary school was a thalidomide baby (I didn’t know it at the time, of course). One can only imagine the heartache of a mother who took a med to keep from vomiting and wound up killing or maiming her own baby. Why we trust pharma at all is a more interesting question.

    Madamski nailed it when she said “We’re clever but deranged monkeys who look in the mirrors we’ve made and see gods.”

    Hubris

    #72387
    Noirette
    Participant

    Yes, upstateNYer, thalidomide, right to point to it, was a bit earlier than my time-line, horrific.

    See BBC for a NEW, 2018, missing limbs scandal in France.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46043564

    And thalidomide was approved for use in France and Belgium much later, for the treament of rare cancers, link is in F. Idk what the result was.

    https://www.rtbf.be/info/societe/detail_france-retour-tres-encadre-de-la-thalidomide-sur-le-marche-du-medicament?id=5375913

    #72388
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    “…why we trust pharma at all…”

    Because *often* pharma saves us. It is difficult to know when to trust, when not to trust. I once had a fire ant bite my knee — not a big deal, working in my garden this happens hundreds of times a year. But *this* bite became horribly infected with MRSA and I ended up in the emergency room when the pain was so bad I could hardly walk. It had to be surgically cleaned out, and I was put on IV antibiotics for a couple of days. Now, I’m fine with a nasty scar and a numb patch of skin on my knee. Appendicitis used to be often deadly. My daughter’s appendix ruptured before the appendectomy…five days of IV antibiotics, and she went home with quite a tale to tell her classmates. In both cases, I was confident that the hospital would be able to clean up a medical mess that without such intervention might have been fatal.

    Sometimes the reason we shouldn’t trust is because of the profit motive. And experimental treatments should always be met with a degree of skepticism. But having complete lack of trust in pharma/medical establishment is also foolhardy.

    #72389
    Noirette
    Participant

    In case there is some confusion, thalidomide was never approved for use in France (nor in the USA btw), so, officially there never were any effects in France.

    #72390
    Germ
    Participant

    I bought 100’s of 3 mg and 12mg Ivermectin tabs from Kachhela too.

    Dealt with the proprietor directly – Anil Gangwani – kmpl1015@gmail.com

    Paid using my Revolut card.

    I recommend also buying some Azithromycin tabs. and while you’re at it buy yourself a couple of Budesonide Inhalers. The tabs are pennies a piece and the inhalers were about $5 each,

    They shipped directly here to the UK. Came withing about two weeks to my door.

    The dose for IVM is 0.2 mg per kg of body weight. 12 mg is about right for most folks.
    The pharmacology of IVM has shown it to be safe at many multiples of that.
    But IVM is contraindicated with alcohol – so don’t drink for 48hrs before or after taking it.

    #72391
    cloudhidden
    Participant

    Raul: you mentioned Shayam
    ” I’m a fan of Shayam Solutions, because they went the extra mile and then some to get it to me in Athens. But it’s different if you’re stateside. Still, give them some business. They deserve it.”
    Can you provide a link? I seem to be unable to find them on DuckDuck.
    Thank you.
    And thanks to all the commenters in recent days……much additional information from many of you.

    #72392
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    phoenixvoice, conventional medicine can be exceptional in acute and traumatic conditions. If I get hit by a car I’m not about to trying self-healing with home remedies. However, conventional medicine falls flat with the majority of chronic conditions since most modern pharmaceuticals are designed to hide symptoms, not cure the cause of those symptoms.

    Medical care includes the use of pharma, but it is not by itself pharma, so you’ve dragged this conversation a bit into the weeds in equating the two, and also by deciding to define pharma as the “pharma/medical establishment.”

    However, to continue along those lines, early discovery of antibiotics is the classic example of the benefits gained through “pharma” (are motivations of early drug research efforts and the modern pharma industry even in the same ball park?). We can also toss anesthesia and pain relievers in since they made a serious positive impact on medicine.

    But much of what pharma rolls out to the masses these days isn’t all that innovative and isn’t all that beneficial. I’ve listened to enough TV ads (US direct drug advertisements) to see that the potential “side effects” of many new drugs are worse than the condition they’re treating. As you say, “Sometimes the reason we shouldn’t trust is because of the profit motive.” I’d be interested to hear what other motives are driving the new drugs pharma launches? Or the old drugs with patents expiring where pharma makes a minor change and magically the patent is new and shiny, and the drug gets launched yet again?

    I am friends with a quite intelligent licensed pharmacist. The stories she tells are disturbing. Of note is the fact her two children (now grown) received only a few rounds of antibiotics in their entire childhood and only when absolutely necessary. No other drugs.

    #72393
    WES
    Participant

    Michael Reid:

    I posted a Newfie story late April 2nd for you and anybody else looking for a good chuckle!
    Third last comment on page 3 – comment # 89.

    Do you live off the grid? Or are solar panels just a backup system?

    V. Arnold gets the credit for comment # 91 TAE’s record breaker!

    my parents said know:

    I am jealous of your boat launching timeline! I have to wait at least another month to launch an expedition to the island cottage!

    #72394
    sumac.carol
    Participant

    If we are going to hail big pharma for antibiotics, then we should not forget that these products are one-trick ponies, well on their way to being ineffective due to the fact that they typically have one mode of action, allowing microbes to easily find a workaround. The overuse of these antibiotics (especially in the raising of conventional non-organic meat) provides ample opportunities for microbes to evolve around the antibiotics.
    Natural pattern destroyers, like garlic and oil of wild mountain oregano, have multiple mechanisms of action, such that it is just about impossible for microbes to evolve around them.
    Bid pharma is no match for mother nature.

    #72395
    WES
    Participant

    It looks like if you are a Facebook user, your data has been hacked and released on the internet.
    This data leak includes everything about you that facebook had on you.
    Name, email, phone, address, age, etc. – “everything” including your Facebook rating/classification!
    It is possible this hack was done for US domestic political reasons.
    So far I have seen no msm coverage of this massive 600+ million leak.

    #72396
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    Big pharma has been in trouble for a long time. Around ten years ago, an aging Boomer college chum of an aging Boomer friend of mine explained to him, at a class reunion, that his high-paying gig running production at a brand-name pharma production facility in Costa Rica had become a joke. He couldn’t honestly claim to vouch for quality control. It was a shitshow. Lord knows what crap is in the drugs people have scrips for these days.

    Carcinogens Have Infiltrated the Generic Drug Supply in the U.S.

    In 1793 France, Louis the 16th thought he was in charge of his kingdom, too.

    I’ll be my tiresome repetitious self and say that when a large system is collapsing due to virtually universal corruption, the details of collapse all point in the same direction and resemble some kind of grand plot.

    There are Fearless Leaders like Soros who see themselves as planet saviors/dominators, but the world is filled with delusional people. Soros is hardly alone in that regard. For most of them, be they peons or high-tier professional and civil servants and army officers, the delusion is this: they know what they’re doing, are good at it, and what they’re doing is appropriate to the problems and opportunities they address. They don’t act according to some Great Plan nearly so much as they act according to the just-cited delusion, a delusion so strong it can incorporate the obvious fact that they’re just greasing each other’s palms (funny expression).

    It makes them look like they’re on the same page… but the American Pshysciatric Association’s list of mental disorders — DSM-% — has many many pages and they’re on most of them. It’s like an orgy: everybody looks like they’re following the same plan when they’re all just doing what they feel like. Everybody has a good time but everyone ends up getting screwed.

    #72397
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ Raul

    “91 comments in yesterday’s thread. That may well be a record. How does one read all that? I don’t.”

    That’s why we pay you to read all those articles to pick some goodies: so we can talk about them. 🙂 It’s a high-falutin salon like those hothead coffee shops of the Enlightenment era. Nice music, too:

    Full Control of his Idiom

    #72398
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ WES

    I worked and partied hard yesterday. I should probably have stopped commenting at a certain point. I remember the story of your grandma’s wood stove I think. I plan to go back and look at the comments at some point. Seems like there were comments that I had read but could not find and comments that I was pretty sure I tried to post but could not find. Not worried. Living life

    I live totally off grid. Access in summer by boat and access in winter by snowmobile or walking.

    The solar system is pretty awesome. I designed it, purchased it, installed it, troubleshot it and now I am maintaining it.

    When full sun is on the arrays, solar provides 6000 watts. The inverter/charger provides 240 volt service at 20 amps allowing me to run two 20 amp 120 volt circuits throughout the house.

    The battery bank can service our loads mainly refrigeration, lighting and entertainment for probably 5 days of darkness. We had a very dark late fall and early spring and it became an emergency to get a reliable generator and fuel so that lost of power did not result in the loss of all our frozen food. We have a brand new generator now. I could have salted all the meat but that would not be my preference. I am hoping to implement a smokehouse this year

    I think we could be friends

    #72399
    absolute galore
    Participant

    The major threat to health in the world is modern medicine.” Ivan Illich, Medical Nemesis, 1974.

    His full take may not be for everyone, but much of it is spot on. He also talks about the “health care” system in Tools for Conviviality.


    @phoenixvoice
    wrote: *this* bite became horribly infected with MRSA and I ended up in the emergency room when the pain was so bad I could hardly walk. It had to be surgically cleaned out, and I was put on IV antibiotics for a couple of days.

    That is an ironic example, as MRSA is a result of the overuse of antibiotics. Originally a “hospital” disease, it has entered the community as well.

    Yes, modern medicine can be almost miraculous at times. I have been the beneficiary, having had two fully detached retinas put back in place over the past 5 years. Throughout most of history I would be fully blind by now. (On the other hand, I’ve had some questionable dentistry. My friend put it well when he opined that dentists were like chiropractors.)

    But whether you look at it through Illich’s “two watersheds” or Tainter’s collapse of complex systems, or the law of diminishing returns, the health care system, like education, transportation, finance, manufacturing, and the military, is FUBAR..

    #72400
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    Thanx for the Ilich share.

    #72401

    WES- this is the earliest the boat went in. Today we enjoyed big doses of natural vitamin D- the way nature intended. It was lovely.

    #72402
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Ilargi:
    Do we still recognize how insane it is that a goverment “allows” us to see people? Or are we too far gone for that?

    I don’t know, but, as your KGB entry above reminds us, our governments know how to brain-wash us.
    Just looking at the media everyday it’s obvious they’re actively trying…and, to a large extent, it appears they’re succeeding.
    I often remind here about fear being a thief and not letting it steal from you. For myself it is a constant battle given the daily onslaught by the MSM.
    Staying present (being here now) is not something achievable by some rote memory process…it’s a constant awareness state and damned hard work for most of us I’d guess…
    As an old house painter once told me (C. 1967): “Don’t let the bastards get you…”

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