Aug 182021
 
 August 18, 2021  Posted by at 9:05 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,


Salvador Dali Meditative rose 1958

 

Leaky Vaccines, Super-spreads, And Variant Acceleration (Gato Malo)
A Grim Warning From Israel: Vaccination Blunts, But Does Not Defeat Delta (SM)
Delta Spike P681R Mutation Enhances SARS-CoV-2 Fitness Over Alpha Variant (Bx)
Here’s Your (Dead) Canary (Denninger)
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Resigns Amid Skyrocketing COVID-19 Cases
The Authoritarian Takeover of Australia (Spiked)
Growing New Zealand Covid Cluster Linked To Sydney Delta Outbreak (G.)
Vaccine Mandate Protest Letter (Barnes Law)
One Of The Most Dangerous, Unpredictable Times In Modern History (BDW)
My Heart Is Broken by Biden’s Afghanistan Failure (Michael Flynn)
Biden’s Polling Takes Massive Hit Following Collapse Of Afghanistan (JTN)
Kamala Harris Is The Most Unpopular Vice President In 50 Years (DW)
Biden To Increase Food Stamp Benefits By 25%, Largest Hike In History (ZH)
US Gov’t Tells Americans In Afghanistan It ‘Can’t Guarantee’ Their Safety (DW)
Every American Stuck In Afghanistan To Receive A Mail-In Ballot (BBee)

 

 

DATA SHOWS COVID VARIANTS BEGAN AFTER VACCINATIONS STARTED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“..you keep its host alive with a vaccine, then it can transmit and spread in the world. So it’s got an evolutionary future, which it didn’t have before.”

Leaky Vaccines, Super-spreads, And Variant Acceleration (Gato Malo)

The rule of evolution is simple: make a copy of me and pass it on. Any species still around to notice is very, very good at this. That’s the test and it’s as simple as it is daunting. This evolutionary selector creates pressures and these pressures shape evolution. Useful traits are conserved, traits that work against replication and propagation are selected against. This creates a simple evolutionary gradient for viruses: become more contagious, spread further, infect more hosts. Many viruses and bacteria are incredibly good at this. The good news is that harming the host is maladaptive. It’s like burning down your own house and your car with it. You soon have nowhere to live and no way to move around easily. So the selection process drives viruses away from being deadly. Ebola is a fearsome virus, but poorly evolved. It kills too quickly and spreads too slowly. That’s why outbreaks are small, rare, and (relatively) easy to manage.


People who feel sick stay home, they stop mingling and carrying the virus to where others are. It’s a built in societal and species level trait to mitigate pandemic. But what if you could break that trait? What if you could prevent a carrier from realizing it was infected? Well, then you’d spread virus far more effectively, wouldn’t you? You could do a lot of damage and the natural brake on the spread, harm, and lethality of a viral evolutionary vector would be removed. You’d supercharge a pandemic. This is a long discussed and hypothesized problem with “leaky” vaccines. A leaky vaccine is one that lacks sterilizing immunity. It prevents severe infection and perhaps death, but it does not stop infection and colonization by virus. So, the vaccinated become a carrier but remain unaware of it. This is a massive accelerator of disease spread and possibly/probably of overall fatality rates. You can see discussion here: (from 2015)

This is another example of “science we tossed out the window this year” and is exactly the sort of thing the fda should have been laser focused on from day one. “But a chicken virus that represents one of the deadliest germs in history breaks from this conventional wisdom, thanks to an inadvertent effect from a vaccine. Chickens vaccinated against Marek’s disease rarely get sick. But the vaccine does not prevent them from spreading Marek’s to unvaccinated birds. “With the hottest strains, every unvaccinated bird dies within 10 days. There is no human virus that is that hot. Ebola, for example, doesn’t kill everything in 10 days. In fact, rather than stop fowl from spreading the virus, the vaccine allows the disease to spread faster and longer than it normally would, a new study finds. The scientists now believe that this vaccine has helped this chicken virus become uniquely virulent.”

Stop for a minute and absorb what this means. By turning the vaccinated into essentially perfect carriers of virus, it transformed them into a set of plague rats to infect the rest. A disease so deadly it would burn itself out rapidly becomes one capable of endemic spread so long at there are more vaccinated carriers around. ““Previously, a hot strain was so nasty, it wiped itself out. Now, you keep its host alive with a vaccine, then it can transmit and spread in the world,” Read said. “So it’s got an evolutionary future, which it didn’t have before.”

Read more …

Even Science Mag. joins in.

“There are so many breakthrough infections that they dominate and most of the hospitalized patients are actually vaccinated..”

A Grim Warning From Israel: Vaccination Blunts, But Does Not Defeat Delta (SM)

Israel is being closely watched now because it was one of the first countries out of the gate with vaccinations in December 2020 and quickly achieved a degree of population coverage that was the envy of other nations— for a time. The nation of 9.3 million also has a robust public health infrastructure and a population wholly enrolled in HMOs that track them closely, allowing it to produce high-quality, real-world data on how well vaccines are working.

Israel’s HMOs, led by CHS and Maccabi Healthcare Services (MHS), track demographics, comorbidities, and a trove of coronavirus metrics on infections, illnesses, and deaths. “We have rich individual-level data that allows us to provide real-world evidence in near–real time,” Balicer says. [..] Now, the effects of waning immunity may be beginning to show in Israelis vaccinated in early winter; a preprint published last month by scientists at MHS found that protection from COVID-19 infection during June and July dropped in proportion to the length of time since an individual was vaccinated. People vaccinated in January had a 2.26 times greater risk for a breakthrough infection than those vaccinated in April. (Potential confounders include the fact that the very oldest Israelis, with the weakest immune systems, were vaccinated first.)

At the same time, cases in the country, which were scarcely registering at the start of summer, have been doubling every week to 10 days since then, with the Delta variant responsible for most of them. They have now soared to their highest level since mid-February, with hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions beginning to follow. How much of the current surge is due to waning immunity versus the power of the Delta variant to spread like wildfire is uncertain. What is clear is that “breakthrough” cases are not the rare events the term implies. As of 15 August, 514 Israelis were hospitalized with severe or critical COVID-19, a 31% increase from just 4 days earlier. Of the 514, 59% were fully vaccinated. Of the vaccinated, 87% were 60 or older.

“There are so many breakthrough infections that they dominate and most of the hospitalized patients are actually vaccinated,” says Uri Shalit, a bioinformatician at the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) who has consulted on COVID-19 for the government. “One of the big stories from Israel [is]: ‘Vaccines work, but not well enough.’” “The most frightening thing to the government and the Ministry of Health is the burden on hospitals,” says Dror Mevorach, who cares for COVID-19 patients at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem and advises the government. At his hospital, he is lining up anesthesiologists and surgeons to spell his medical staff in case they become overwhelmed by a wave like January’s, when COVID-19 patients filled 200 beds. “The staff is exhausted,” he says, and he has restarted a weekly support group for them “to avoid some kind of PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] effect.”

Read more …

The picture is getting painfully clear.

Delta Spike P681R Mutation Enhances SARS-CoV-2 Fitness Over Alpha Variant (Bx)

SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant has rapidly replaced the Alpha variant around the world. The mechanism that drives this global replacement has not been defined. Here we report that Delta spike mutation P681R plays a key role in the Alpha-to-Delta variant replacement. In a replication competition assay, Delta SARS-CoV-2 efficiently outcompeted the Alpha variant in human lung epithelial cells and primary human airway tissues. Delta SARS-CoV-2 bearing the Alpha-spike glycoprotein replicated less efficiently than the wild-type Delta variant, suggesting the importance of Delta spike in enhancing viral replication. The Delta spike has accumulated mutation P681R located at a furin cleavage site that separates the spike 1 (S1) and S2 subunits.


Reverting the P681R mutation to wild-type P681 significantly reduced the replication of Delta variant, to a level lower than the Alpha variant. Mechanistically, the Delta P681R mutation enhanced the cleavage of the full-length spike to S1 and S2, leading to increased infection via cell surface entry. In contrast, the Alpha spike also has a mutation at the same amino acid (P681H), but the spike cleavage from purified Alpha virions was reduced compared to the Delta spike. Collectively, our results indicate P681R as a key mutation in enhancing Delta variant replication via increased S1/S2 cleavage. Spike mutations that potentially affect furin cleavage efficiency must be closely monitored for future variant surveillance.


Read more …

Saw the article Karl talks about, on an outlet called Wesh(?!). But “Not available in your region”.

Here’s Your (Dead) Canary (Denninger)

She said, up until two weeks ago, she was able to successfully treat every patient who contracted COVID-19. But, since then, she said seven fully vaccinated patients died from complications, such as pneumonia or stroke, caused by the virus. “They were all fully vaccinated, which was disturbing… For one, I got to the hospital, the initial report, he was doing well. 2 liters of oxygen, sitting up, good saturation rate, crashed in 72 hours and died,” Seemann said. This sort of ridiculous acceleration of disease progression is a screaming safety signal. It strongly implies, but does not prove, that the vaccine turned on the recipient and when later exposed made the progression of disease worse.

This was repeatedly demonstrated in animal testing with the original SARS virus when vaccine development was attempted. It was believed the cause of it was evaded by the current vaccines developed for Covid-19 but the only way to know for sure was to take years of testing to make certain that the ordinary mutational patterns that all viruses undergo did not result in such an outcome down the road. This is one of the many reasons it takes 10+ years to qualify a vaccine; you can’t un-take the shot, and if something like this happens and then you get infected you’re ****ed. She said the vaccine isn’t 100 percent effective and there is a 4 percent chance of failure, but she still recommends it.

She has no evidence to support that these patients had an actual failure to build an effective antibody response. None. Zero. Determining that would require a fairly significant amount of lab and pathology work, which simply can’t be done that fast. These people need to be autopsied and exactly what happened determined. It won’t be done because if it is, and it turns out that they had circulating titers of binding antibodies for Covid in their system then it will be scientifically-irrefutable evidence that there are millions of Americans walking around with ticking bombs in their veins and there is nothing that can be done about it. The reason you don’t short-time vaccine studies, ever, is that THE VIRUS ALWAYS BATS LAST.

Read more …

“..despite a seven-month state of emergency and a lockdown since June to tackle the crisis..”

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Resigns Amid Skyrocketing COVID-19 Cases

Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin resigned less than 18 months into his tenure Monday, becoming the country’s shortest-ruling leader after conceding that he lost majority support to govern. Science Minister Khairy Jamaluddin wrote on Instagram that “the Cabinet has tendered our resignation” to the king, shortly after Muhyiddin left the palace after meeting the monarch. Deputy Sports Minister Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal also thanked Muhyiddin for his service and leadership in a Facebook message. Muhyidddin’s departure will plunge the country into a fresh crisis amid a worsening COVID-19 pandemic. Political leaders have already begun to jostle for the top post, with his deputy Ismail Sabri rallying support to succeed Muhyiddin and keep the government intact.


His resignation comes on the back of mounting public anger over what was widely perceived as his government’s poor handling of the pandemic. Malaysia has one of the world’s highest infection rates and deaths per capita, with daily cases breaching 20,000 this month despite a seven-month state of emergency and a lockdown since June to tackle the crisis. Local media said the national police chief, the Election Commission chairman and the attorney-general were also summoned to the palace Monday before Muhyiddin arrived. Muhyiddin, who chaired a Cabinet meeting at his office earlier Monday, waved at reporters at the palace gate and left 40 minutes later.

Read more …

“Some of us thought: who the bloody hell is this sheila? Not only had I never heard of her, I hadn’t listened to anything anyone like her had said since I’d been kicked out of high school.”

The Authoritarian Takeover of Australia (Spiked)

People who once thought they’d won the lottery of life by being born in Australia now wake in fright every day to the sudden realisation that they are living in a 21st-century penal colony. The country they once loved has been replaced by something they barely recognise. The restrictions imposed in response to the pandemic are just the start of it. People have been confined to their houses, prevented from going to school or work, denied the freedom to cross state borders even to see a dying relative, and coerced to take a vaccine in order hopefully to regain the freedoms that were once their birthright. Worse, these restrictions are being imposed by authoritarians who have seemingly come from nowhere and now dominate all of Australia’s positions of power, from the government to big business.

These people are unlike any ruling elite Australia has ever known. There were, to be sure, harsh authoritarians in middle levels of power during the nation’s initial 19th-century incarnation as a penal colony, especially at Port Arthur and Norfolk Island. But they never actually ran Australia. [..] Australians have, like the original settlers, never felt the need to explain the ideas on which their nation was founded. They have simply believed their version of Enlightenment truths to be self-evident in the standard of living they enjoyed and the audacious disrespect they showed for other, older cultures. I grew up in a country where such confidence was ubiquitous. A lack of academic achievement was never an impediment as long as you worked hard. Obstacles that were insurmountable to people from other countries were mere challenges to us. And we approached it all with a fatalistic humour that seemed all our own.

New South Wales chief health officer Kerry Chant became world famous recently when a video of her went viral. In it, she said, in the patronising tone of a school matron: ‘It is human nature to engage in conversation with others, to be friendly. Unfortunately, this is not the time to do that. So even if you run into your nextdoor neighbour, in the shopping centre, at Coles, Woolworths or Aldi or any other grocery shop, don’t start up a conversation.’ Some of us thought: who the bloody hell is this sheila? Not only had I never heard of her, I hadn’t listened to anything anyone like her had said since I’d been kicked out of high school. My robust upbringing among ratbags and larrikins in the Australian suburbs had instilled in me an instinctive and entirely rational distrust of anyone who, like her, placed an undue significance on obedience above personal freedom and responsibility. My life has been, and continues to be, all the better for it.

New South Wales residents were surprised to learn they had been paying Chant’s wages since she joined the public service in 1991. Like many of her fellow neo-authoritarians, she had spent her entire career cloistered away from the freely enterprising general population, biding her time until the opportunity arose to exercise the powers none of us knew she had. Now she and her type are all around us, telling us what to do every minute of the day. She is emblematic of Australia’s new elite, from the cops who told me to ‘move on’ when I was enjoying the sunshine by myself at Bondi Beach recently, to prime minister Scott Morrison, who peppers his updates on the latest panicking policies with reminders that ‘we are all in this together’. No, we’re not.

Read more …

Weirdest thing is they stopped vaccinations. Don’t really believe in those, I guess?

But also, what is the idea here? That they can have zero cases? And then? Lock the door?

Growing New Zealand Covid Cluster Linked To Sydney Delta Outbreak (G.)

New Zealand’s coronavirus cluster has grown to 10, with genomic sequencing linking it to the Delta outbreak that began in Sydney, as the country woke up to day one of a snap lockdown stemming from just one case. The prime minister’s office confirmed three new cases on Wednesday evening. The Covid-19 response minister, Chris Hipkins, told broadcaster RNZ “we’re seeing more cases coming through, I don’t have details of those cases. But yes, I can confirm that we have further positive test results since the press conference today.” He expected more cases to emerge overnight. The country went into a snap level four lockdown – the highest level of restrictions – on Tuesday night, after detecting one case with no obvious links to the border.

New Zealand has not had a level four lockdown in more than a year, and the case is the country’s first instance of Delta transmission in the community. The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, warned on Wednesday that there would be more cases given the activity of those infected and that a link to the border had yet to be established, adding “there is more to be done to help piece together this puzzle”. “Our ability to narrow down that this is a case that is linked to New South Wales outbreak, gives us a lot of leads to chase down as quickly as we can,” she said. The seven community cases are all linked to the 58-year-old man who tested positive on Tuesday. One person is a fully vaccinated nurse at Auckland city hospital and another is a teacher at an Auckland high school.

[..] The vaccine rollout will also continue from Thursday morning, after momentarily being paused. The country’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout has faced scrutiny. As of Monday, 22.9% of the population had been fully vaccinated, with 40% having had at least one dose. The numbers are lower for fully vaccinated Maori (14%) and Pasifika (20%) populations, and New Zealand has the lowest vaccination rate in the OECD, according to the World Health Organization.

Read more …

Attorney f @barnes_law i has put together a warning letter for people to use (free of charge) when their employers force them into getting the jab.

Vaccine Mandate Protest Letter (Barnes Law)

No authorship claim or copyright asserted…this letter just came to me in a bottle, and I have no idea who might have penned it, nor can I possibly vouch for it, and what you fine folks do with it is entirely in your own hands, as the Gentlemen of the Bar remind me I can proffer no general legal advice in the matter, and must officially disclaim proffering any such advice here…edit and excise as you see fit, amend and append as you desire, and claim authorship or anonymity as may best befit you…as always, as you wish…

Dear Boss,

Compelling any employee to take any current Covid-19 vaccine violates federal and state law, and subjects the employer to substantial liability risk, including liability for any injury the employee may suffer from the vaccine. Many employers have reconsidered issuing such a mandate after more fruitful review with legal counsel, insurance providers, and public opinio n advisors of the desires of employees and the consuming public. Even the Kaiser Foundation warned of the legal risk in this respect. (https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/key-questions-about-covid-19-vaccine-mandates/)

Three key concerns: first, while the vaccine remains unapproved by the FDA and authorized only for emergency use, federal law forbids mandating it, in accordance with the Nuremberg Code of 1947; second, the Americans with Disabilities Act proscribes, punishes and penalizes employers who invasively inquire into their employees’ medical status and then treat those employees differently based on their medical status, as the many AIDS related cases of decades ago fully attest; and third, international law, Constitutional law, specific statutes and the common law of torts all forbid conditioning access to employment upon coerced, invasive medical examinations and treatment, unless the employer can fully provide objective, scientifically validated evidence of the threat from the employee and how no practicable alternative could possible suffice to mitigate such supposed public health threat and still perform the necessary essentials of employment.

At the outset, consider the “problem” being “solved” by vaccination mandates. The previously infected are better protected than the vaccinated, so why aren’t they exempted? Equally, the symptomatic can be self-isolated. Hence, requiring vaccinations only addresses one risk: dangerous or deadly transmission, by the asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic employee, in the employment setting. Yet even government official Mr. Fauci admits, as scientific studies affirm, asymptomatic transmission is exceedingly and “very rare.” Indeed, initial data suggests the vaccinated are just as, or even much more, likely to transmit the virus as the asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic. Hence, the vaccine solves nothing.

Read more …

Twitter thread. Bryan Dean Wright is a former CIA Ops. officer.

One Of The Most Dangerous, Unpredictable Times In Modern History (BDW)

Former US intelligence colleagues are angry and deeply worried at what has happened in Afghanistan. Here’s what I’m hearing, and why there’s nearly universal belief that America and the world are in for one of the most dangerous, unpredictable times in modern history. Afghanistan has shown the world — enemies & allies alike — that our military & intel assets are largely irrelevant because we can’t deploy them successfully. The blame lays at the feet of multiple Presidents. The Generals. The Spies. The Congress. America’s Elites are trash. China knows it. They will become emboldened, covertly & overtly. War over Taiwan and contested islands in the S. China Sea and E. China Sea is now more likely. Russia will consider similar covert & overt moves, focused on Crimea, & former Soviet satellites. The fear is that China & Russia will act in concert.

Why? America was whipped by a tiny rebel force and couldn’t even retreat properly. Meanwhile, the American people are angry, COVID weary, & divided. If there were ever a time to push American hegemony aside, this is it. If Cold War III grows hot, America will need to quickly build up & work with foreign counterparts. But who will trust America after Afghanistan? Who believes we have the leadership to use our military might well? Who will trust us when we say “We Will Stand With You”? Beyond China/Russia, others will take gambles too. Terror orgs like al-Qa’ida & ISIS are degraded but not dead. Their ideology is very much alive. Iran’s Hizballah — with terror cells throughout the US — may see an opening to create chaos too. Meanwhile, the disaster inside Afghanistan is only just beginning.

The Taliban will launch a terror campaign against American collaborators. The pictures will shock the conscience of the world, further degrading American moral authority. Biden & Co will struggle to respond. There’s also the nightmare of tactical weaponry now awash in Afghanistan, in the hands of the Taliban and — soon — on the global black market. These arms will fuel chaos around the world for decades. The Pentagon has no idea where this stuff is and no plans to destroy it. Finally, if Afghani refugees pour into the US, there are profound implications for security, culture, the economy, & politics. Are they properly vetted? Do they hold Western / tolerant values re: women, gays? Do they bring skills / education? Which party will they support?

The existential problem is that America needs good leadership to right its ship but there is none. Our federal bench is weak. Biden is a corrupt old man. Impeachment is a long shot; VP Harris is an unpopular paperweight. The Legislature is a feckless cabal of empty suits. Leadership could come from a state Governor, it’s true, but not soon enough. The above threats by China, Russia, & Co will metastasize well before the 2024 elections, and even a heroic new President will need years to clean things up. Again, our enemies and allies know this. Upshot: There is fear and outrage streaming through former intel officers over the Afghanistan debacle. America is rudderless. And the world now knows it. Grave dangers lie ahead, some predictable, others unimaginable. Keep your loved ones tight. Pray. And vote for change.

Read more …

The military comes to resent Biden, because he squandered all their efforts, and also to avoid being thrown under the bus.

My Heart Is Broken by Biden’s Afghanistan Failure (Michael Flynn)

My heart breaks as I see the Afghan people flood the Kabul airport in the hope of escaping the Taliban. President Biden’s assurances — supposedly based on what he was told by his intelligence community — that the Afghan Armed Forces were fully able to defeat the Taliban proved to be colossally wrong. Americans want to know whether President Biden and Defense Secretary Austin’s military-wide “stand-down” order to root out insufficiently woke “extremists” in the armed forces has caused our Defense Department to ignore what is unfolding in Afghanistan, as well as other real threats to our nation. After Afghanistan, I believe we can no longer rely on neocon senior military leaders, talking heads and politicians.

We have allowed military and civilian lawyers (read: rules of engagement restrictions) to become all-powerful, and many of our generals have been so indecisive and risk-averse that they are acting as little more than career-seeking politicians. We have been trained at participating in wars but untrained at winning wars since WWII. Afganistan is a tragic situation, much like the Kurds in Iraq, but at least President Trump drove up our respect internationally, which proves that being tough and smart is better than being tough and stupid. Today I don’t believe America is respected the way we were only a few short months ago. More countries visit China these days than come to the U.S., and China is prepped to recognize the Taliban once they declare the Islamic State — if only to embarrass us.

Seeing our defeat, my sense is Taiwan is having some incredibly uncomfortable internal discussions — as are a lot of U.S. allies in Europe. I also believe China is doing a lot of wargaming of costs and benefits with respect to future moves in the South China Sea and Europe. America is now in a fully engaged information war. Soon it may be worse. I pray our senior military leadership is intensely planning all options; the best plan offers the most options at the last possible moment. Trust me, our enemies are not waiting. They plan and they don’t care about stupid mask policies or fake insurrection show trials. Our enemies will be working on the next three vulnerabilities we haven’t even thought about. I believe Russia and China have a clear-eyed understanding of our corrupt political leadership that they and many other nations no longer respect or fear. America will come back soon, but it will come at a cost.

Read more …

46% approve? Of what?

Biden’s Polling Takes Massive Hit Following Collapse Of Afghanistan (JTN)

According to several new polls, President Biden is in trouble following the collapse of the Afghan government as U.S. and western troops withdrew from the troubled country after 20 years. A Rasmussen Reports poll illustrates the president’s approval index is currently 17 points down from where he started in January – the lowest it’s been since he took office. A total of 46% of Americans approve of Biden’s performance while 53% disapprove – also the highest that number has been. A new report from Convention of States Action in conjunction with the Trafalgar group shows that 69.3% of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of military operations – a supermajority of the population. Just 23.1% approve, and 7.5% have no opinion.


Even among Democrats, 48.2% disapprove, compared to just 39.8% who approve of Biden’s Afghan strategy. Among GOP voters a stunning majority at 88.8% disapprove, while just 7.1% of Biden’s actions. Numbers for political independents tilt closer to GOP figures, with a total of 74.8% disapproving of the handling of military operations, and 19.8% giving a nod of approval. Democrats in Congress are speaking out against the actions of the president, and though National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is set to brief the press corp today alongside Jen Psaki, none of Biden’s military leaders appeared alongside the Commander-in-Chief yesterday, as he deflected blame for the Afghan collapse during a brief speech.

Read more …

I had to look this up, but sure, maybe Spiro Agnew was at one point less popular than Kamala. Close call no doubt.

Kamala Harris Is The Most Unpopular Vice President In 50 Years (DW)

Vice President Kamala Harris has only been in office for six months, but she is already the most unpopular vice president since at least the 1970s, according to recent polls. The Los Angeles Times on Monday reported that as of July 27, “45% of registered voters had a favorable opinion of Harris and 48% had an unfavorable opinion — a net rating of -3 percentage points, according to a Times average.” The most recent YouGov tracking poll shows that Harris’ unfavorability rating has hit 49%, while her favorability rating sits at just 45%. Harris’ unpopularity is worse than former Vice President Mike Pence’s was six months into his tenure, according to The Telegraph.


The outlet reported that around this same time in 2017, Pence’s unfavorability rating sat at 41.9%, while his favorability rating was 42.1%. Pence may have been helped by a massive media focus on then-President Donald Trump and false accusations that he was a Russian agent who colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election. During the Biden administration, much more focus has been on Harris since she’s the first black female vice president. President Joe Biden, however, has put her in charge of some nearly impossible tasks, including handling the situation on the southern border. As the Times reported, Harris’ approval ratings started to decline after she was assigned the task, though Biden also received a small decline in job approval.

Read more …

Buying votes.

Biden To Increase Food Stamp Benefits By 25%, Largest Hike In History (ZH)

Having solved domestic problems like inflation and foreign problems like the complete and total collapse of Afghanistan in minutes after the U.S. withdrew from the country, President Biden is now focused on offering the largest long-term increase in food stamp benefits in the program’s history. The program adds “billions of dollars in costs” to the government, Bloomberg noted in a writeup this weekend. But, in Biden’s defense, what are dollars anymore, after all? Benefits are set to rise more than 25% from pre-pandemic levels for some 42 million people enrolled in the program. Average monthly benefits will rise $36 per person, from $121, according to the report.


Yet despite the rise, there are still “anti-hunger advocates” that believe it isn’t enough. The Agriculture Department is responsible for the hike in benefits – which can be done without congressional approval – but adjusting the estimated costs of food. The USDA makes a “shopping list” to determine benefits which, when updated, can adjust the amount of benefits issued to recipients. The basket of food items used for the list was started in 1961 and then updated in 1975. Its latest review was in 2006. Benefits were set to drop prior to the planned update as a result of a September 30 expiration of a 15% boost in pandemic relief. Even with the boost, the USDA budget for a family of four amounts to about $22 in food per day. As Bloomberg notes, food stamps used to be bipartisan common ground, but have since “evolved into a partisan flashpoint”. Biden’s plans stand at odds with how President Trump attempted to limit eligibility for the aid. Trump’s attempts were overturned by courts.

Read more …

Most popular president.

US Gov’t Tells Americans In Afghanistan It ‘Can’t Guarantee’ Their Safety (DW)

President Joe Biden’s administration told American citizens trapped in Afghanistan that the administration cannot guarantee their safety if they travel to the airport in Kabul to be evacuated. The news comes as thousands of American citizens remained trapped as Taliban terrorists have now taken control of the country. The Biden administration sent the following message to Americans trapped in Afghanistan: “To American Citizens, Thank you for registering your request to be evacuated from Afghanistan. The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan has confirmed that an undefined number of U.S. government provided flights will begin soon. Please make your way to Hamid Karzai International Airport at this time. PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT CANNOT GUARANTEE YOUR SECURITY AS YOU MAKE THIS TRIP.”

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“The Air Force will conduct a daring airdrop at night to deliver hundreds of pallets of paper ballots..”

Every American Stuck In Afghanistan To Receive A Mail-In Ballot (BBee)

Congress passed emergency legislation today to address the thousands of U.S. citizens still trapped in Afghanistan. The new legislation will mobilize the Air Force to drop much-needed absentee ballots for Americans eager to vote in the 2022 election. “Our heart goes out to the helpless Americans still stuck in Taliban-controlled Kabul,” said Senator Chuck Schumer. “We know they are eager to vote for us in the upcoming elections, and we will not rest until they receive the ballots they deserve. To our American friends overseas, help—in the form of easy-to-fill-out ballots—is on the way!” The Air Force will conduct a daring airdrop at night to deliver hundreds of pallets of paper ballots into the waiting hands of American citizens, eager to vote for their favorite Democrat politicians. To make things easy, Democrats have ensured all the ballots will be pre-marked for Democrats.

Read more …

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle August 18 2021

Viewing 40 posts - 41 through 80 (of 138 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #84371
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    “So…China port closed as embargo to attack the U.S. However, Long Beach claims they are backlogged and can’t unload. So China isn’t shipping anything but still Long Beach can’t keep up? Explain? Then last week, rails said they were also backlogged, so as a solution they would run fewer trains. Explain?”

    Lack of qualified personnel, just like the shortage of qualified lorry drivers.

    3 months ago

    Last week

    I can’t wait for Dr. D to either tell me how wrong I am for being right or right for being wrong.

    #84372
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    Charles Eisenstein, “anti-semite”

    Apparently, some folks did not appreciate having a mirror held up to their rancorous faces by his article “Mob morality and the unvaxxed”

    #84373
    absolute galore
    Participant

    From NYT:

    Actually, Wearing a Mask Can Help Your Child Learn

    179 Reasons Why You Probably Don’t Need to Panic About Inflation

    I’m sure the headlines are just clickbait and the articles make perfect sense…

    #84374
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    Why Losing Aged Parents to Covid Is Not All Bad: Nursing Homes Suck

    from either the Babylon Times or the New York Bee

    #84375
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    I am knuckling down to the final stretch of jigsaw puzzling a novel into coherent linear narrative. If anyone is interested in reading those parts of narrative assembled in what I hope is effective reading order, please contact me at pastmastergeneral@gmail.com. When oneself is the center of creative gravity, it’s a major brain-strain to see it from a reader’s point of view.

    I offer my Grandmother “Nanny” Ruth’s lemon pound cake recipe as attempted compensation. The other bonus is that this will lead me to post less, and some here might appreciate that.

    lantern

    #84376

    I have to agree. I forget if NZ is pushing shitty vakzines or not, but the way to get results from a lockdown is to lock down hard and FAST.

    Really, you just read it above and still already forgot again? Jeez.

    The NZ lockdown is idiotic because there is no long term plan. Zero covid is a plan for zero neurons. What will you do when you have zero but nobody else does? And your people have weakened immune systems because of the lockdown? I used the term one-dimensional thinking here a lot, and this is just more of the same.

    #84380
    John Day
    Participant
    #84383
    John Day
    Participant

    It won’t take the CJ Hopkins. Let’s see if it will take my essay that extends from that.

    There is soon to be an announcement that vaccination, full vaccination against COVID, will be mandatory for anybody working at our clinic, including vendors and contractors in the buildings. The people who are slowly moving this policy into position for official deployment are people I have worked with for years, and shared hugs and smiles with. It is bound to make everybody uncomfortable, most of all me. I have committed to dealing with it, to making a stand at this point in the dehumanization process, after 18 years of cumulative service at People’s Community Clinic.
    This is a stand which will lose me my job taking care of thousands of patients. I will lose contact with then=m, and they will lose contact with me. I will lose my social identity as their physician and as a member of the team at the clinic. This will dehumanize me, my patients, and will somewhat dehumanize the people making this decision as a group. They are all nice people, and we have all, always gotten along well and shared the vision of humanitarian care for our patients.
    During the COVID pandemic, I have been permitted (quietly) to treat patients with repurposed oral antivirals. It was appreciated that I gave away 600 bottles of vitamin-D pills last year at my own expense, to patients and staff. It is appreciated that I created and maintain a vegetable garden in the break patio, large by urban standards. I post updates and garden news to our inboxes a few times per season. People like the garden news and insights.
    I have put a major portion of my life, identity and all of my livelihood on what seems like an abstraction. I will lose all of that to stand with those who choose to resist mandatory medical injections with a new and secretive technology from Bill Gates and friends.
    I can take Social Security early retirement while it lasts. I’m probably healthy enough to last another 30 years, myself. I don’t think Social Security will last to 2030.
    I don’t see the future. It’s not formed by our free-wills yet, but I see what similar set-ups have wrought in the past.
    Our country is in early financial collapse. The global oligarchs have determined that a 90% culling of the herd is necessary.
    Blowing things up is the wrong tool for that job this time.
    I seek spiritual guidance daily.

    #84384
    John Day
    Participant

    Hopefully the AI will accept this other stuff. I’ve got to shave, shower and ride to work.
    https://www.johndayblog.com/2021/08/financial-regime-change.html

    Pepe Escobar on the Updated Great Game:
    In the end, there was no Battle for Kabul. Thousands of Taliban were already inside Kabul – once again the classic sleeper-cell playbook. The bulk of their forces remained in the outskirts. An official Taliban proclamation ordered them not to enter the city, which should be captured without a fight, to prevent civilian casualties.
    The Taliban did advance from the west, but “advancing,” in context, meant connecting to the sleeper cells in Kabul, which by then were fully active. Tactically, Kabul was encircled in an “anaconda” move, as defined by a Taliban commander: squeezed from north, south and west and, with the capture of Jalalabad, cut off from the east.
    At some point last week, high-level intel must have whispered to the Taliban command that the Americans would be coming to “evacuate.” It could have been Pakistan intelligence, even Turkish intelligence, with Erdogan playing his characteristic NATO double game.
    The American rescue cavalry not only came late, but was caught in a bind as they could not possibly bomb their own assets inside Kabul. The horrible timing was compounded when the Bagram military base – the NATO Valhalla in Afghanistan for nearly 20 years – was finally captured by the Taliban.
    That led the US and NATO to literally beg the Taliban to let them evacuate everything in sight from Kabul – by air, in haste, at the Taliban’s mercy. A geopolitical development that evokes suspension of disbelief…
    Taliban 2021 is an entirely different animal compared with Taliban 2001. Not only are they battle-hardened, they had plenty of time to perfect their diplomatic skills, which were recently more than visible in Doha and in high-level visits to Tehran, Moscow and Tianjin.
    They know very well that any connection with al-Qaeda remnants, ISIS/Daesh, ISIS-Khorasan and ETIM is counter-productive – as their Shanghai Cooperation Organization interlocutors made very clear.
    Internal unity, anyway, will be extremely hard to achieve. The Afghan tribal maze is a jigsaw puzzle, nearly impossible to crack. What the Taliban may realistically achieve is a loose confederation of tribes and ethnic groups under a Taliban emir, coupled with very careful management of social relations.

    The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan back with a bang

    Tom Luongo on the fall of Kabul. (I think elites like special dates to signal significance.)
    I can’t say I’m shedding any tears here except for all the losses on both sides. War is never righteous.
    So, while I’m happy to see this end I am also sad to also see this end for what it is, a planned act of geopolitical vandalism by the Biden Obama Administration to ensure a complete collapse of the U.S. political system.
    We are being liquidated by The Davos Crowd at the precise moment when their Great Reset is at its most vulnerable…
    Before Afghanistan was there a Dept. of Homeland Security? The Patriot Act? The Military Commissions Act? A Global War on Terror?

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/luongo-what-if-afghanistan-more-just-failed-war

    #84385
    John Day
    Participant

    On August 15, 1971 Richard Nixon announced on TV that he was temporarily closing the US Treasury Gold-Window, due to attacks by speculators.
    I remember that TV show. 50 years later, to the day, the Taliban retook the capital of Afghanistan. Monday, three days ago. Comparisons are inevitable.
    Throughout spring and early summer of 1971, the drains on the US gold reserves increased, drawing down those stocks of physical gold. The main reason was the outlays for the war in Vietnam. Trade had been pretty balanced before that, but a lot of dollars got spent in Vietnam, and found their way back to the US Treasury gold-window. It was the Vietnam War that drained US gold. Michael Hudson worked that out in 1966, working for David (I think) Rockefeller.
    It was unwelcome news. The Treasury rejected his reported analysis. He was right. France, the recent colonial master of Vietnam, had been converting $US to gold.
    A French destroyer came to pick up a few thousand tons of it in summer 1971, then on Thursday, August 12, 1971 the UK asked for so much physical gold that it was impossible. The US gave them a quarter of it, and closed the gold window the following Sunday night, August 15, 1971. Here is how that went down.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/british-requests-3-billion-us-treasury-gold-trigger-closed-gold-window

    #84386
    zerosum
    Participant

    ” … 90% culling of the herd “ will produce a lot of fertilizer

    #84387

    John Day, upstate, et al,

    Don’t worry, it’s not going to happen. It will get worse for sure, but in the end they can’t forbid people from buying food and water, and they can’t run hospitals without nurses, or stores with staff and customers, or economies without all of the above. The one and only reason the pressure increases is that there’s so much resistance against it. You’re not losing, they are.

    #84388
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    This virus, whatever its origin, is now endemic. It doesn’t seem AU and NZ, in locking down their islands for the past 18 months, are really going to solve much of anything because they will be exposed at some point. I suppose if we come up with an effective treatment for the disease their wait will have been of benefit? Although where AU is concerned, the loss to citizen rights may never be considered worth the wait.

    The vaccines clearly do not prevent infection or spread (so much for saving grandma). They are not the be all, end all that was touted. Not even close.

    The disease severity between individuals is … odd? One person, a slight cold. Another person, 10 days of misery (even if they have no co-morbidities). Other people, death (usually with significant co-morbidities but not always).

    Lockdowns are destructive and should never happen again. Ever. Sure, maybe cancel super large events where people would congregate, but lockdowns of everyone everywhere for an indeterminate period of time? Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

    Humans certainly have got to vie for the #1 position of the absolute dumbest species on this planet.

    #84389
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    Thank you, Raul, for the encouragement. It’s getting hard to keep the faith.

    #84390
    chooch
    Participant

    @johnday

    The “Treat your Own Covid” back in Feb. was huge with my family and friends. Thank you for your contributions. I will likely be in the same boat soon.

    #84391
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Well we can blame the psychos at the top until the cows come home to roost for all the good it will do us. When that doesn’t work maybe we could try howling at the moon or having a nice big global-civil-war that drapes corpses from one pole to the other.
    The reason those things (or any thing) won’t work is that it is not just the TOP that is at fault.
    What’s broken is the WHOLE (the entirety itself, the species) whose ingrained proclivities MADE the top, and then tolerated that top, and dutifully obeyed that top while the top and its sycophants methodically killed everyone lower than them on the totem pole.
    So what is this “something” that is such a serious flaw ? It doesn’t matter what the flaw is. What matters is that a flaw demonstrably exists. Just look around. SOMETHING (some inadequacy of one kind or another) has caused this mess. There’s the effect. Causes caused it.
    The fact that “the top” and its minions are also killing THEMSELVES in the process simply prooves the point that this is not just a problem of a few bad apples. It is some sort of systemic flaw, and we are living the undeniable consequences of it.
    For lack of specific knowledge on its nature one might be tempted to call the shortcoming something like “Too Stupid To Live” , but that doesn’t fit all of the facts because abstract intelligence ( ” IQ” ?) does not seem to have all that much to do with it. Plenty of very high IQ people exist on both sides of the debacle, and plenty of simple folk and other wild creatures remain more or less unconcerned altogether. They might be on to something.
    Personally, and to my way of thinking, “Too Unaware To See” far more accurately describes the problem , but that wording is clunky and lacks rythm and cadence.
    Operatively, it doesn’t finally matter what it is called. What matters is that nature is being absolutely merciless in weeding it out. The so-called “evolutionary forces” are just doing their logical thing. Out with the failure and in with the next try.
    In other words, if Homo Sapiens Sapiens is a failed experiment then this current and protracted act of collective suicide is just “evolutionary forces” forging a species better suited to holding its place at the top on this backwater dustmote on the edge of everywhere.
    I’m placing my bet on one that is considerably more AWARE of what it needs to be aware of to survive the long haul. I postulate a species capable of knowing that there is more to this shell game than atoms bouncing around energetically for no discernable purpose. Kipling was a good and observant rhymer, but he was flat ass wrong about at least one thing. Ours IS to question why.

    #84392
    Noirette
    Participant

    Report from the World Bank, re. Heroin – Afghanistan, 2004. (> links in a separate post)

    Quote:

    In this situation of anarchy and poverty, the cultivation of opium in Afghanistan spread very rapidly over the last ten years, and now occurs in all 34 provinces. Afghanistan has become the world’s leading source of opiates, supplying three quarters of the global market in 2003, reaching ten million abusers worldwide, of whom some 10,000 die each year from opiates produced in Afghanistan. Opium farm-gate income, which was only 3% of Afghanistan’s GDP as recently as 1990, in 2003 was one-seventh of total GDP.

    Most opium is now processed into heroin and morphine within Afghanistan, and the trafficking and trade accounted for an even greater proportion of the country’s GDP. All told, the opium economy comprised roughly one-third of total (drug-inclusive) national income in 2003. Born of desperation and opportunism, opium production has become the mainstay of the Afghan rural economy and dominates the nation’s exports. The drug trade, with substantial involvement of criminal elements from outside Afghanistan, has fed warlordism in an infernal exchange between drugs and guns, and has spawned a gigantic criminal activity that threatens the integrity and capacity of the state and may maintain shadowy links with terrorism.

    end quote, link.

    2003, UNdoc, Quote:

    Afghanistan’s drug economy can be dismantled if the Government, with the assistance of the international community, addresses the roots of the matter and not only its symptoms. This report exposes such roots, as a contribution to the common effort against illicit drugs. First, the report de-constructs the opium economy of Afghanistan into its main components: cultivation, production, finance, trade and consumption. Secondly, the report re-constructs the country’s development processes piece by piece, showing that it is essential: (i) to help poor farmers decide in favour of licit crops; (ii) to replace narco-usury with micro-lending; (iii) to provide jobs to women and to itinerant workers; (iv) to provide education to children, particularly girls; (v) to turn bazaars into modern commodity markets; and (vi) to neutralize warlords’ efforts to keep the evil trade alive.

    End quote, link.

    The UN proposed that the no. 1 cash Afgh crop could be ‘regulated’ and paid for, selling to Big Pharma (no link, can’t find the UN report), but see for ex.

    Feasability study, 2005, link.

    ——————————

    The MSM narrative is that the Taliban destroyed crops as they were against ‘drugs’ – that isn’t so, they did that because prices had sunk too low > production glut and whatever… (2001 – 2 about), nobody will abandon the no. 1. cash crop. Reducing supply worked, prices (street heroin, contrary to one quote above, afaik most of it is refined in Pakistan) rose, production went up and up, went on doing so, with profits remaining acceptable for ppl in the production – refinery – sellers chain.

    #84393
    Germ
    Participant

    Israel has among the world’s highest levels of vaccination for COVID-19, with 78% of those 12 and older fully vaccinated, the vast majority with the Pfizer vaccine. Yet the country is now logging one of the world’s highest infection rates, with nearly 650 new cases daily per million people. More than half are in fully vaccinated people, underscoring the extraordinary transmissibility of the Delta variant and stoking concerns that the benefits of vaccination ebb over time.”

    As of 15 August, 514 Israelis were hospitalized with severe or critical COVID-19, a 31% increase from just 4 days earlier. Of the 514, 59% were fully vaccinated. Of the vaccinated, 87% were 60 or older. “There are so many breakthrough infections that they dominate and most of the hospitalized patients are actually vaccinated,”

    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/08/grim-warning-israel-vaccination-blunts-does-not-defeat-delta

    Vaxx don’t work.

    #84394
    Noirette
    Participant
    #84395
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    @ absolute galore
    I never met a powdered milk that was “tasty,” only some that were “tolerable.” Have you considered shelf-stable milk? It is ultrapasteurized, sold in boxes. I find that it tastes just like the refrigerated stuff. I take the small containers when I go camping and refrigeration is iffy, so I won’t have large leftovers.

    I was talking with my kids last week about their preferred foods and what they would want available to eat should the grocery stores no longer be an option. My daughter said pizza. So I’ve decided to see about making mozzarella cheese out of powdered milk. I’ve successfully made mozzarella before, out of some surplus milk.

    “ If local authorities can’t get something jumpstarted within a month or so to keep people fed, that’s a scenario you can’t really plan for anyway”

    Au contraire, I planned for that years ago.
    1) Help feed the neighbors, organize locally with folks on the street.
    2) If all else fails, make wine. It should be a valuable commodity and the know how of how to make it is more valuable than the commodity itself.

    @ Dr D
    “ But you see, that never happened now. Only Europeans do bad things. You know, the ones that outlawed slavery and turned a page in the inalienable Rights of Man, then died by hundred thousands to make sure those ideas won as they finally attempted to live up to their own beliefs, or rather, aspirations”

    The way I see it, it seems most religions and philosophies (“-isms”), no matter the number of positive and uplifting ideas contained therein, if they grow large will at some point be used as a vehicle for human harm.

    In my own life, I left the Mormon faith. It failed me when it came to who I married and navigating that relationship. And then I realized that it was bunk from the get-go. But most of my family remains entrenched within it, they love their “good news” and religious communities, and it is a functional component of their lives.

    Perhaps this is why I have congregated with liberal-minded folk and yet not had the flaws that you correctly point out influence my views…I remember when these flaws came to my attention, and I rejected them as ridiculous. Humans generally struggle to hold two seemingly opposing points of view at once — there is a tendency to want to see something as “all good” or “all bad”…when reality doesn’t concern itself with these arbitrary labels. (I, too, have experienced this struggle, however, the past 20 years seem to have presented successive opportunities for me to become accustomed to a level of cognitive dissonance.)

    << “I hate what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.” Where did that go? Where is yon Left of yesterday that believed in defending minority groups’ right to exist AGAINST an overreaching government, wanting people to be left alone and chill, man?>>

    I’ve been wondering the same thing. Have been itching to meet with my liberally minded congregation since January so that I could engage in some “deep conversation” after the Sunday service and figure out how many of my peers there actually believe and go along with all of this bullsh*t and how many see through it, or can see it after a simple conversation points it out. I stopped watching the Sunday service online in January because the desire to actually communicate with these people was strong…and the substitute of a (well, at least it was live,) online service only served to stoke that desire….

    @ deflationista
    “ Spoiler Alert: You’re still looking at 85-95% efficacy against severe disease with Delta”

    Very difficult to measure without a challenge study. A challenge study would be unethical, so instead we estimate/guess based upon insufficient data.

    So I just continue to trust my natural immunity. My immune system has always served me very well, except for a few situations in which I was excessively stressed out. But that was all before the divorce and family court snag. Those are in the past, I’m much less stressed now, immune system handled Covid last year like a champ.

    #84396
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    d benton: “What’s broken is the WHOLE … whose ingrained proclivities MADE the top, and then tolerated that top, and dutifully obeyed that top while the top … killed everyone lower than them on the totem pole.”

    Can’t argue with that.

    #84397
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    “I have to agree. I forget if NZ is pushing shitty vakzines or not, but the way to get results from a lockdown is to lock down hard and FAST.”

    “Really, you just read it above and still already forgot again? Jeez. The NZ lockdown is idiotic because there is no long term plan.”

    I agree Raul, and I restate that “the way to get results from a lockdown is to lock down hard and FAST”… regardless of the followup plan to the initial lockup. A follows B follows C even if B fails to consider B+ or B- or C fails to consider C_+ or C+_ etc. etc. into the Land of a 1,000 Computer Models aka Hall of Mirrors (apparently I like special FX).

    That said, this was also said in that post from yesterday: Whatever the long term strategy should be, New Zealand has done pretty well with the pandemic so far. No-one has the answer but NZ has gotten this much more correct than most/all other countries.”

    I’ll add that the thing about long-term strategies is that they can take a long-time to manifest, especially if there is none today but one needs to be in place. Or, in the vernacular: vfee szhall szee

    Meanwhile, in other news, I agree with this: “The one and only reason the pressure increases is that there’s so much resistance against it. You’re not losing, they are.” Not that we won’t “lose” too insomuch as we’re liable to pay a heavy price for so long tolerating dismal governance. Yes, we meek sha;; inherit the earth, not the high and frighty.

    #84398
    ctbarnum
    Participant

    @Mister Roboto

    Excellent article from Eisenstein. I notice a lot of us unvaccinated are in flight mode over the ostracism, but sooner or later we might need to go into fight mode.

    #84399
    Germ
    Participant

    So, should the unvaccinated be afraid of the current “variants” that are out there, and the coming “variants”?

    Professor Christian Perronne says:
    “Exactly the reverse! Vaccinated people are at risk of the new variants. In transmission, it’s been proven now in several countries that vaccinated people should be put in quarantine and isolated from society. Unvaccinated people are not dangerous; vaccinated people are dangerous to others. That’s been proven in Israel now, where I’m in contact with many physicians. They’re having big problems in Israel now: severe cases in hospitals are among vaccinated people. And in the UK also, you had a larger vaccination programme and there are problems [there] also.”

    Professor Perronne is the former Chairman of the French Specialist Committee for Communicable Diseases, and the High Council on Public Health. He was also the Vice-President of the European Advisory Group to the World Health Organisation.

    He is Head of the Medical Department at Raymond Poincaré Hospital in Garches, France. He was the University’s Head of Department for Infectious and Tropical Diseases from 1994 onwards, but was fired from that position a few months ago for his public statements which have been contrary to some of the official government policy around Covid-19 and vaccinations.

    “Vaccinated people are at risk of the new variants … vaccinated people should be put in quarantine,” Professor Christian Perronne

    #84400
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    D Benton Smith:

    I love how you translate via stern empirical logic concepts that are usually only apprehensible via spiritual/mystical concepts. It’s like secularism that actually pays attention to the secular.

    #84401
    ctbarnum
    Participant
    #84402
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    In the interest of keeping our finger on the pulse of this unfolding situation, https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/142620.html?thread=17548316#cmt17548316 on JMG’s latest Covid open post. Here’s a quote from it:

    To put it bluntly, if you live in America you need to prepare for either domestic insurgency or civil war. Which one happens will depend on the timing of this vaccine fallout. The only way to avoid this that I can see is for the people in charge to get their heads on straight and stop creating totalitarism in the name of pseudo science… I think we all know that this is just about impossible by this point.

    #84403
    Germ
    Participant

    #84404
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    The variant narrative is being used to continue inflaming fear – to feed the propaganda machine. (What’s the latest? Lambda?)

    Example: Mississippi. Low vaccination rate, as was headline(!!) news of late. State’s population is about 3,000,000. Yes, cases have increased (difficult to tell what constitutes a case as the CDC has admitted PCR tests are useless). 7-day moving average is about 3,400 cases. 7-day moving average for deaths has also increased and is … 28.

    Construct tents in the parking garage to treat patients!!!

    This has all gotten so ridiculous. If people can’t see it at this point, they probably never will.

    #84405
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    Sorry, I screwed up using the link-posting dialogue box. The sentence after the comma was supposed to read, “here is an instructive comment on JMG’s latest Covid open post.”

    #84406
    those darned kids
    Participant

    I notice a lot of us unvaccinated are in flight mode over the ostracism, but sooner or later we might need to go into fight mode.

    ctbarnum: i actually worry that soon the not inoculated will have to go into rescue mode, especially those in medical, supply chain, fire and police.

    #84407
    ctbarnum
    Participant

    tdk: If the vaccinated begin dying in large numbers, I would say you’re correct. But in the interim, and at the beginning of a mass death stage, the vaccinated might be looking to seek “vengeance”. Thus, the ostracism will turn to violence. That violence won’t be aimed at those who pushed the vax on them.

    #84414
    those darned kids
    Participant

    ct: oh, i am quite aware of that. i hope we’ll skip that stage.

    ideally, i hope i (and many others) are completely wrong, and that the shots actually work, and that no long term side effects are found. i hate being wrong, but for the sake of so many around me, i will thank the stars, gods, and coltrane if i am.

    #84416
    LudwigVon
    Participant

    Arthur Koestler ‘s “Janus”.

    #84419
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    @absolute re: preparations

    I am not a prepper type. Far from it…go with the flow, mostly, passive-aggressive stubbornness otherwise. Here are some items I’ve purchased this month, mostly to test for what my wife and I can tolerate:

    8kg canned black beans – I don’t know how to properly cook beans yet, will buy dried and practice
    2.5kg brown rice – less carbos than white rice, better flavor, more satisfying
    1kg wild rice mix – boredom antidote
    4kg Tang drink mix – I KNOW I’ll drink this! Grew up on the stuff.
    #10 can freeze-dried snap peas
    #10 can freeze-dried strawberries

    I’ll be ordering more bit-by-bit. This is an effort to stock about 2 months’ supplies. The expectation is to hunker down for a month, and if things don’t improve or stabilize, we can do a 2-week bike/walking journey with the remaining. I also have several kinds of water filters, and apparatus for purification when those become clogged.

    RE: food, materials, etc

    Here’s a little list I made strictly from memory. I didn’t Google-cheat. It’s also not comprehensive, just a quick ‘see what’s close at hand’ kind of self-test. I set out to see if I could at least supplement my diet, have something tasty, and get some wood to make furniture, waterwheels, etc.

    I know where to acquire all the items on the list. Most are in LA county, within 1 hr drive (1/2 day bike, 1-2 days hike), some are 1000km north from me. Most of these I know by heart the uses, prep, effects, etc. Some I’d have to go back and review. This is only vegetable/mineral. I left out animal, since the attempts to end meat production in this country will quickly lead to extinction of all ungulates left on the continent. Didn’t want to give anybody pointers.

    This kind of exercise, I find, helps to instigate other ‘self-inventory’ actions. The unexamined life, blah blah blah…

    ———-GRAZING LIST————————–

    Edible/Medicinal/Theraputic

    Spearmint
    Miner’s lettuce
    Dandilion
    Water chesnut
    Yerba santa
    Fern
    Wild onion
    Blackberry
    Toyon
    Sage
    Juniper
    Poppy
    Acorn
    Pinyon
    Walnut
    California bay laurel
    Wheat grass
    Buckwheat
    Aanis
    Wild cucumber
    Willow
    Water birch
    Squawbush
    Fig
    Algae
    Kelp
    Nopales
    Red honeysuckle

    Chemically/Mechanically Useful

    Maple
    Black/White/Valley/Live oak
    Ponderosa/jeffrey pine
    Red fir
    Incense cedar
    Redwood
    Walnut
    Blackberry
    Creosote bush
    Cholla
    Yucca
    Joshua tree

    Useful Minerals/Geology

    Copper
    Gold
    Chert
    Obsidian
    Quartz (large crystal)
    Garnet (large crystal)
    Basalt
    Pumice
    Tungsten
    Borax
    Slate
    Limestone
    Salt
    Alkali
    Clay
    Chalk

    #84420
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    mister: “if you live in America you need to prepare for either domestic insurgency or civil war.”

    The majority of humans actually dislike violence, otherwise there would be lots of dead people laying around. I think the US is more apt to disintegrate (already is) and decentralize/relocate based on personal values as best possible. Not sure exactly what a civil war would look like these days – no state is all blue or all red. What “line” are the *civil warriors* holding? (No one who states that a civil war is coming ever mentions what that would look like).

    We need to stay calm and carry on as best possible. Fear is a future projection of something that hasn’t happened yet. Or something like that. 😉

    #84421
    ctbarnum
    Participant

    tdk:

    The best case scenario, regardless of whatever effect the shots have on people, is there is a large enough cohort of unvaccinated who are united enough to mitigate any violent action that could be unleashed by the mob or authorities. Right now, it appears the cohort is large enough (30%, with some estimates higher), but we’re not united on methods that counteract the propaganda, and in many case those who are on speaking terms are far apart in terms of geography.

    But I also think that as ADE becomes known and enough link it to the vax or boosters, that the “unvaccinated” category will increase over time due to unwillingness to accept the boosters. I’m seeing some signs of that in my personal life, as none of those I know who are vaccinated (2 doses) have even discussed taking a third. So, I could be wrong about all this and the narrative just falls apart on its own.

    #84422
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @madamski

    ref: ” . . . empirical logic concepts that are usually only apprehensible via spiritual/mystical . . .”

    I reckon that there are not two Universes ( a Material and a Spiritual ) , but just one. Kinda what the word Universe means.

    #84423
    upstateNYer
    Participant
    #84426
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    “Thus, the ostracism will turn to violence. That violence won’t be aimed at those who pushed the vax on them.”

    Mostly wussy violence except when they are in large numbers. 10 or less, hell, 20 or less, and a seriously determined lunatic can run them off with one finger twisted backwards. People who submit so blindly to the prevailing clique culture ain’t, to put it frankly, for shit.

    Cool kids wanting to vent some angry frustration on the retarded kid on the schooolground is motivation much too weak to stand up to a determined lunatic willing to demonstrate that s/he is seriously determined to FUCK UP anyone who messes with hir.

    Once the ADE stats become unambiguously vile, the ones who are far more likely to get ugly are the vakzine resistent. Whether that ugliness goes mob-nutso or simply enforces a new authority in its domain, comes dopwn to the caliber of lunatic* leading their charge.
    *cuz there’s one in every crowd

    As tdk pointed out, there will be a major mediation between all parties created by people getting very sick/dying.

    ^&*

    thomasjkenney: neato list, monsieur.

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