Doc Robinson

 
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  • in reply to: Debt Rattle December 6 2024 #176191
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    What It’s Like to Captain a Tanker on Fire After a Houthi Attack

    820-foot freighter had just been struck off the coast of Yemen in waters where Houthi attacks were — and remain — commonplace. There was now a hole of about 5 square meters in the tanker’s deck and a fire was roaring.

    https://gcaptain.com/what-its-like-to-captain-a-tanker-on-fire-after-a-houthi-attack/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle December 6 2024 #176184
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    How Often People Go To The Doctor, By Country
    What the Phuck is wrong with South Koreans???

    16 annual visits for South Korea.
    Why is the UK not listed? Another source says the number for the UK was 25 ( in 2018-2019)

    All types of consultations with all staff in a practice more than doubled, rising from an annual average of 11 per person in 2000–01 to 25 in 2018–19

    https://blogs.bmj.com/bmjopen/2021/12/21/frequent-attenders-comprise-4-in-every-10-family-doctor-consultations-in-england/

    The UK number seems to be an apples-to-apples comparison with South Korea and the other countries on the OECD chart, since that data included “the number of contacts with physicians, both generalists and specialists”, according to the OECD source.

    This indicator presents data on the number of consultations patients have with doctors in a given year. Consultations with doctors can take place in doctors’ offices or clinics, in hospital outpatient departments or, in some cases, in patients’ own homes. Consultations with doctors refer to the number of contacts with physicians, both generalists and specialists.

    https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/doctors-consultations.html

    in reply to: Debt Rattle December 4 2024 #175998
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    • EU Reports Dramatic Fall In Birth Rate (RT)

    Iran has a different approach, a “youth population law” to boost the country’s birth rate. The country’s total fertility rate is expected to reach 2.5 in the next 5 years.

    TEHRAN – Enacting the youth population law has stabilized the total fertility rate, slightly increasing the general fertility index over the past two years.

    After experiencing seven years of decline by about 20 percent, the fertility rate is now stabilized at around 1.6, IRNA reported.

    Despite offering incentives to encourage childbearing in line with youth population law, the desired growth in the youth population has not been accomplished yet.

    “Since the implementation of the law, the number of births among mothers aged 20 to 24 has notably increased,” the official added.

    In November 2023, an official with the Ministry of Health said that the total fertility rate should reach 2.5 from 1.6 before the closure of the demographic window in the next five years.

    “The country is on the threshold of aging; to tackle this crisis, we must promote childbearing and youth population,” IRNA quoted Saber Jabbari as saying.

    https://tehrantimes.com/news/507022/Youth-population-law-stabilizes-total-fertility-rate

    in reply to: Debt Rattle December 3 2024 #175881
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    President of South Korea declares martial law, because the opposition party has control of the legislature and plans to impeach some government officials, according to Reuters.
    South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis.
    Yoon cited a motion by the country’s opposition Democratic Party, which has a majority in parliament, this week to impeach some of the country’s top prosecutors and its rejection of a government budget proposal.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korea-president-yoon-declares-martial-law-2024-12-03/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle December 1 2024 #175754
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    News from Yemen today.

    Yemeni forces declared on Sunday evening the execution of a “qualitative and joint” military operation targeting an American destroyer and three US army supply ships in support of Gaza and “in response to the American British aggression on our country.”

    Brigadier General Yahya Saree clarified in a statement that “the targeted US army supply ships are the Stena Impeccable, Maersk Saratoga, and Liberty Grace.”

    He stated that the operation was carried out “with 16 ballistic and winged missiles and a drone in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden,” confirming that the hits were “accurate and direct.”

    https://alkhabaralyemeni.net/2024/12/01/282821/

    I looked up the Stena Impeccable and a press release says it was one of the Stena tanker ships “reflagged as U.S. registered vessels with U.S. crews”, “to meet national defense and other security requirements”, “in support of the nation’s defense forces.”
    https://www.crowley.com/news-and-media/press-releases/three-crowley-managed-tankers-awarded-roles-in-defense-fleet-with-stena-bulk/

    An online search for the Maersk Saratoga revealed that it’s a container ship, and
    Maersk Saratoga is part of Maersk Line, Limited (MLL), the Danish company’s US subsidiary, which carries significant amounts of cargo for the Department of Defense

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 29 2024 #175631
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    The latest from Craig Murray who is in Lebanon.

    Israel bombed in Lebanon yesterday and today, they opened fire on farmers, on a funeral, snipers shot at journalists. They are advancing into towns they were repelled from in the fighting. They are tearing up olive trees. Not a single person has fired back. The moment somebody does, the USA and its allies will call “ceasefire violation”. I feel heartsick

    https://xcancel.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1862586112486907938#m

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 29 2024 #175630
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Microwave directed-energy weapons?
    Gaza Ministry of Health: Israeli weapons “evaporate bodies” in the northern Gaza Strip

    The director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Munir al-Barsh, said on Friday that the Israeli occupation army is using weapons “whose nature is unknown” in the northern Gaza Strip that lead to the evaporation of bodies.</blockquote
    https://alkhabaralyemeni.net/2024/11/29/282602/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 27 2024 #175550
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Craig Murray’s latest from Lebanon.

    Sometimes evil is the only word to describe Israel’s actions here in Lebanon

    Israel killed 15 first responders who had set up their emergency centre in this ancient church – which the Israelis then bombed.

    https://xcancel.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1862241849043251460#m

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 27 2024 #175440
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    “According to Biden, the truce is intended to be permanent.”

    According to Craig Murray, who is currently in Lebanon, the truce is “a smoke and mirrors trick by the USA and Israel”, similar to the Minsk Agreements.

    Please listen to this carefully. The Lebanese ceasefire agreement is a smoke and mirrors trick by the USA and Israel. They have no intention of keeping it; comparable to the Minsk Agreements.

    There is still an Israeli drone over my head in central Beirut, which is a good indication of how Israel view their rights under this lopsided “ceasefire agreement”.

    https://xcancel.com/CraigMurrayOrg
    https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1861494794234613760/pu/vid/avc1/1280×720/0cdmJxRvWjxIyD_s.mp4?tag=12

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 23 2024 #175157
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Craig Murray posted this from Lebanon today.

    I was awoken by the most incredible explosion, I think around 4am. Our entire apartment shook. Nobody yet knows how many are killed, first estimate I am hearing is about 90 dead and hundreds injured. Desperate rescue attempts ongoing.
    No warning. An entirely civilian block.

    Lebanon has zero air defences. There is no operational need for Israel to bomb at 4am.
    The only reason they bomb in the middle of the night is to maximise civilian casualties and especially to kill as many children as possible, who would mostly be outside in waking hours.

    https://xcancel.com/CraigMurrayOrg

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 20 2024 #174914
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Craig Murray reports from Lebanon.

    Over 3,500 Lebanese have been killed, the majority of them women and children. The bombs that killed them were not only made in the USA, they were supplied by the USA for the purpose. As were the aircraft that dropped them.

    The Americans are arrogant enough to send Amos Hochstein, born in the terrorist state to Israeli parents and himself a former member of the IDF, as their “peace envoy”.

    And it says everything about America’s real interest in the region that Hochstein’s official position in the Biden Administration is actually Energy Security Adviser.

    As I explained in my last article, Israel’s intensified bombing campaign is designed to terrify Lebanon into signing a peace deal that is actually a surrender. It guarantees Israeli armed forces access at will into Southern Lebanon, and military overflight of the entire country.

    The access to Southern Lebanon in the latest draft has been supposedly toned down and phrased as “in pursuit of Israel’s right of self-defence”.

    As the entire world has seen this last year and more that “Israel’s right to self-defence” is interpreted by both Israel and the United States as the right to commit genocide, Lebanon would be utterly mad to sign this document.

    Similarly Lebanon is supposed to be reassured by insertion of the USA as the “guarantor” of the agreement.

    You read that right; the county which is currently funding and supplying the genocidal bombing of Lebanon is going to be the guarantor of its safety.

    If you have not by now seen through the Biden administration’s pretence of “trying to restrain” Israel, whilst providing ever greater funding and weapons for the genocide, then you are such a fool that I cannot help you.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/11/the-effects-of-israeli-barbarity/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 15 2024 #174503
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Chinese news source reports “To avoid the Houthis missiles, the American destroyers resorted to hiding within the Chinese escort fleet, with satellite images showing that the American ships were sailing closely behind the Chinese fleet.

    Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree revealed on the evening of the 12th that they used ballistic missiles and drones to carry out an eight-hour attack on the American aircraft carrier ‘Lincoln’ and two of its destroyers, rendering the American ships unable to find refuge. …

    The American aircraft carrier “Lincoln” and its accompanying ships entered the Gulf of Aden on November 11 and were immediately targeted by ballistic missiles launched from Ansar Allah base 650 kilometers away. To avoid the Houthis missiles, the American destroyers resorted to hiding within the Chinese escort fleet, with satellite images showing that the American ships were sailing closely behind the Chinese fleet.” …

    According to reports, on November 12, the Houthi group stated that it used long-range cruise missiles, drones, anti-ship missiles, and anti-ship ballistic missiles in their precise attack on the aircraft carrier group “Lincoln,” which includes the aircraft carrier “Lincoln” and the destroyers “USS Tokdale” and “Spruance.”

    US civilian satellite images on November 12 showed that the two American destroyers “USS Tokdale” and “Spruance” resorted to hiding within the escort group of the Chinese navy to avoid Houthi attacks, as the American aircraft carrier fleet closely followed the Chinese navy fleet. …

    This time, the armed Houthi forces’ attack on the aircraft carrier “Lincoln” in the Arabian Sea and two American destroyers in the Red Sea continued for a full 8 hours, and it is still unknown whether they hit the aircraft carrier, as the United States typically tends not to disclose damages.

    https://alkhabaralyemeni.net/2024/11/16/281002/

    The US claims that the two destroyers were not damaged, and the Pentagon’s press secretary “was not aware of any attacks against the aircraft carrier.”

    The Houthis launched at least eight one-way uncrewed aerial systems, five anti-ship ballistic missiles and three anti-ship cruise missiles at USS Spruance (DDG-111) and USS Stockdale (DDG-106), which engaged all the projectiles, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters on Tuesday. U.S. Central Command has not yet issued a statement.

    There were no injuries or damage to the two destroyers. … Ryder said was not aware of any attacks against the aircraft carrier.

    USNI News’ Fleet Tracker, published Tuesday, has Abe in the Gulf of Aden.

    Spruance and Stockdale had previously operated as independent destroyers in the Red Sea as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian. As of Monday, the pair were attached to the Lincoln strike group.

    https://news.usni.org/2024/11/12/houthis-attack-two-u-s-destroyers-leaving-the-red-sea-pentagon-says

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 14 2024 #174404
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Craig Murray went to Lebanon to do “real reporting” for a couple months, and he doesn’t mince words about Israel.

    Killing 40 or even 70 entirely innocent people is of no concern to Israel in eliminating a target. Nor do they care in the least how many of them are children. Non-Jewish life simply has zero intrinsic value in their eyes.

    To come into a city which is under active bombardment, where dozens of people are killed every single day, is not entirely a comfortable feeling. Particularly when journalists are deliberately and systematically assassinated by Israel and, not to put too fine a point on it, the Israelis are not particularly keen on me.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/11/two-weeks-in-beirut/

    In an earlier article with the title The Israeli Terrorist State, Craig Murray wrote

    For me it is now axiomatic that there is no two state solution and that apartheid Israel must be completely dismantled as an entity. I believe that more and more people around the entire globe believe that now. And if we have to dismantle our own political and media classes to get there, so be it.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/07/the-israeli-terrorist-state/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 10 2024 #174029
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Thanks, Mister Roboto and Rototillerman.

    Mainstream media is now reporting that Trump’s 2024 votes are higher than his 2020 votes, which seems plausible with all the fired-up support Donald seemed to be getting as Kamala’s opponent.

    President-elect Trump’s 2024 vote totals have officially surpassed his total vote count from 2020, according to numbers from The Associated Press.

    Trump’s popular vote total, 74,372,005 votes and counting, surpasses his 2020 total of 74,223,975 despite certain states like California and Arizona still tabulating votes.

    According to the AP, Maryland, Oregon, Arizona, Utah, Alaska and California have still not finished counting votes. California specifically had only counted 63% of its votes as of 5 p.m. ET, according to The Associated Press.

    It is unclear when these states will finish their counts. Approximately 5 million votes or so remain to be counted.

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/president-elect-trumps-2024-popular-vote-count-officially-surpasses-2020-election-numbers

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 10 2024 #173979
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    I’m wondering why Trump had less votes counted in 2024, compared to 2020?

    Less supporters for Trump in 2024?

    Trumps popularity went down, or what?

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 9 2024 #173891
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Germany’s navy doesn’t want its warships to be in a situation where they might be fired upon.

    The decision by German warships to avoid the Red Sea so they don’t come in range of Houthi rebels is a sign of the alarming decline of Western sea power.

    the German navy followed it up by announcing that both ships would divert around the Cape of Good Hope on their way home, to avoid the threat of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

    https://cepa.org/article/is-western-sea-power-adrift/

    Meanwhile, the Houthi rebels are accused of running a protection racket and extorting money from shipping lines.

    Houthi rebels are extorting as much as $2 billion a year from shipping lines in exchange for not attacking their vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, according to a new study.

    The unreleased study based on research by a panel of Yemen experts for the United Nations Security Council found that the Houthis were pulling in $180 million per month in the “tolling” protection racket, one published report said, though the panel could not independently verify that number.

    https://www.freightwaves.com/news/reports-claim-houthis-make-red-sea-vessel-attacks-a-2b-business

    I wonder if there’s now a push to further villainize the Houthis as a way to justify escalating the conflict.
    Will Yemen become the site of the next proxy war, to avoid waging war directly with Iran?

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 8 2024 #173800
    Doc Robinson
    Participant


    Ted Rall’s commentary includes “Democrats and Republicans are both happy to ignore the Palestinians killed by U.S.-supplied Israeli bombs.”

    https://rall.com/comic/better-than-me

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 7 2024 #173677
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Most people agree that the hit-to-kill phenomenon stems at least in part from perverse laws on victim compensation. In China the compensation for killing a victim in a traffic accident is relatively small—amounts typically range from $30,000 to $50,000—and once payment is made, the matter is over. By contrast, paying for lifetime care for a disabled survivor can run into the millions. The Chinese press recently described how one disabled man received about $400,000 for the first 23 years of his care. Drivers who decide to hit-and-kill do so because killing is far more economical. Indeed, Zhao Xiao Cheng—the man caught on a security camera video driving over a grandmother five times—ended up paying only about $70,000 in compensation.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 7 2024 #173676
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Dr. D “You can’t get drunk, drive home, clip a pedestrian, and think “Well, I’ll just kill him so he doesn’t sue me now” OBVIOUSLY.”

    Not so obvious a concept in China, reportedly.
    Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit.”

    It seems like a crazy urban legend: In China, drivers who have injured pedestrians will sometimes then try to kill them. And yet not only is it true, it’s fairly common; security cameras have regularly captured drivers driving back and forth on top of victims to make sure that they are dead. The Chinese language even has an adage for the phenomenon: “It is better to hit to kill than to hit and injure.”

    This 2008 television report features security camera footage of a dusty white Passat reversing at high speed and smashing into a 64-year-old grandmother. The Passat’s back wheels bounce up over her head and body. The driver, Zhao Xiao Cheng, stops the car for a moment then hits the gas, causing his front wheels to roll over the woman. Then Zhao shifts into drive, wheels grinding the woman into the pavement. Zhao is not done. Twice more he shifts back and forth between drive and reverse, each time thudding over the grandmother’s body. He then speeds away from her corpse.

    Incredibly, Zhao was found not guilty of intentional homicide. Accepting Zhao’s claim that he thought he was driving over a trash bag, the court of Taizhou in Zhejiang province sentenced him to just three years in prison for “negligence.” Zhao’s case was unusual only in that it was caught on video. As the television anchor noted, “You can see online an endless stream of stories talking about cases similar to this one.”

    “Double-hit cases” have been around for decades.

    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/09/why-drivers-in-china-intentionally-kill-the-pedestrians-they-hit-chinas-laws-have-encouraged-the-hit-to-kill-phenomenon.html

    in reply to: How America Became Unburdened By What Has Been #173545
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    @ John Day,

    A family resemblance to John Quincy Adams?

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 4 2024 #173385
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Published today by the New York Post.

    So now we know.

    Imane Khelif, the controversial Algerian boxer who won gold at the Paris Olympics fighting against women, IS a biological man.

    Some of us will be less surprised by this bombshell revelation, in a leaked medical report to French media, than others. …

    A shocking medical report about Khelif, drafted in 2023 between hospitals in France and Algeria, was leaked to a French journalist and confirms the boxer has a disorder of sexual development, which means he has male chromosomes and some male sexual organs, including internal testicles and a “micropenis” — but no female uterus.

    The report concluded that Khelif is impacted by something called 5-alpha reductase deficiency, a disorder only found in biological males.

    This disorder becomes obvious at puberty, when the person experiences unusual male-like muscle and hair growth, and has no breast tissue development or menstruation.

    To be fair to Khelif, many males born with 5-alpha may incorrectly believe they are female into adulthood unless they are properly tested. In other words, he may genuinely have thought he was a woman for much of his life.

    https://nypost.com/2024/11/04/opinion/the-iocs-shameful-worship-at-the-altar-of-trans-virtue-signaling-will-get-women-killed/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle November 2 2024 #173205
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    The US is withdrawing its aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln from the Red Sea area, along with the 3 destroyers in its strike group, and sending them home, leaving no aircraft carrier in the Middle East.

    AP News reported,


    According to U.S. officials, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and the three Navy destroyers in its strike group are scheduled to leave the Middle East by mid-month and return to their home port in San Diego.

    When it departs, there will be no aircraft carrier in the Middle East for a period of time, officials said. U.S. They declined to say how long that gap would last.

    The AP News article title Pentagon bolsters the US presence in the Middle East with bombers, fighter aircraft and warships puts some spin on the situation, but the article admits,

    Ryder did not provide the specific number of aircraft and ships that will move into the region. The shifts are likely to result in an overall decrease in the total number of U.S. troops in the Middle East, largely because an aircraft carrier contains as many as 5,000 sailors.

    The Yemeni side of the story has this speculation,

    In a surprising move, the US has announced its decision to withdraw its second aircraft carrier that has been stationed in the Gulf for months … So, what was the reason for withdrawing the American battleship?

    In terms of timing, it appears that the U.S. Department of Defense understood the latest message from the Al-Houthi, which was included in its weekly address on the developments in the region on Thursday evening, as an indication of targeting the aircraft carrier that is likely temporarily stationed near Socotra Island between the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. The Al-Houthi confirmed that the area remained the scene of Yemeni operations last week, in an apparent hint at targeting the American carrier.

    https://alkhabaralyemeni.net/2024/11/03/279424/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 30 2024 #172997
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    News from a Yemen source, deep diving drone submarine/torpedos now being deployed by Yemen to counter American nuclear submarines in the Red Sea.

    With the success of the Yemeni forces in asserting control over the shipping lane in the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea amid criticism of the absence of American forces, the latter dispatched nuclear submarines to the Red Sea and occasionally launch missiles towards several Yemeni cities before diving back underwater and then moving between the sea and the Gulf and reaching the ocean to avoid detection.

    Today, after weeks of these submarines entering the operational theater, Yemen is deploying a weapon to resist them, which the Yemeni forces have named “Al-Qari’a,” which has deep diving capabilities and the ability to infiltrate among the latest radar systems, and most importantly, its destructive power, which may sink submarines regardless of their ability to withstand explosions.

    https://alkhabaralyemeni.net/2024/10/31/279101/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 27 2024 #172736
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Mention of the protracted battles of WWI reminded me of Joe Sacco’s book “The Great War” which is a folded up 24-foot long panorama drawing of “The First Day of the Battle of the Somme”, July 1, 1916.

    The Battle of the Somme continued for 4 months, and per Wikipedia “More than three million men fought in the battle, of whom more than one million were either wounded or killed, making it one of the deadliest battles in all of human history.”

    Sacco’s black-and-white depiction of one of the deadliest and most infamous battles of the First World War is overwhelming and wondrous, much vaster than you can take in at one glance. It moves from left to right, chronologically, but also travels from behind the lines to the front-line fighting, then back to the rear again. He focuses on thousands of British troops, beginning with a general strolling the grounds of a mansion. A convoy of horse-drawn supply wagons trots forward. Soldiers queue up for chow. Troops march to the front. Howitzers blast at the Germans. A maze of trenches overflows with infantry. …

    “My first thought was, ‘I don’t want to draw another war scene.’” He adds, “I decided to depict the first day of the Battle of the Somme because that is the point where the common man could have no more illusions about the nature of modern warfare.”…

    The Germans suffered some 8,000 casualties [that day] while, Historian Adam Hochschild writes in the pamphlet’s introduction, “some 21,000 British soldiers [were] killed or fatally wounded on the day of greatest bloodshed in the history of their country’s military, before or since.”

    https://www.wbur.org/news/2013/11/11/joe-sacco-great-war

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 26 2024 #172591
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    “What about the Ekathimerini Soup Kitchen being charged with 600,000 Euros “embezzlement” in 3 years?”

    A one-month old article, translated online, says that much of the indictment has been dropped, including the charges of fraud.

    My name has been “tainted” and I am ashamed not because I did something but for the people who do not know me.

    I have letters of “apology” in my hands from the people who came out and accused me.

    …Nikos Alexandris…reported all the latest in the legal part of Mr. Polychronopoulos’ case.
    “We are awaiting the call from the competent investigator so that any charges can be filed,” said Mr. Alexandris, while as he stated, half of the indictment against his client has been dropped, including the charges of fraud. What the lawyer wanted to emphasize is: “What is being heard for the first time is that while at the beginning the investigation was for exorbitant amounts, now there is not even half left. Little by little it seems that this man was channeling the money that was flowing into the accounts to the purposes he said.”

    “I have in my hands letters of “apology” from the people who came forward and accused. They are even offering to come and testify that they were influenced by the climate of those days. “They certainly take back what they said,” revealed Mr. Alexandris…

    https://www.irafina.gr/o-allos-anthropos-kostas-polychronopoulos-spaei-ti-siopi-tou-katarrakothika-os-anthropos/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 25 2024 #172478
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Joe Sacco’s graphic commentary The War on Gaza can be viewed online:
    https://www.tcj.com/topic/the-war-on-gaza/

    The installments are being published as a book with the title War on Gaza.

    Joe Sacco is well known as an unflinching chronicler of the injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people (Palestine, 1993; Footnotes in Gaza, 2010). He continues this mission with War on Gaza, a series of graphic commentaries on Israel’s rampage that began more than a year ago and continues relentlessly today.

    Published in installments on The Comics Journal’s website, War on Gaza is a series of comics and single-panel illustrations that lay bare the naked immorality of the “war” itself and its dire and tragic consequences. Employing his trademark combination of honesty, compassion, and dark humor, Sacco’s War on Gaza is an uncompromising critique of Israel’s genocide and the complicity of President Joe Biden and the United States.

    https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/war-on-gaza

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 24 2024 #172382
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Was wondering if something happened to Biden, Harris, and Mike Johnson, who would then become president? Wikipedia sez it would be Patty Murray.

    Followed by Blinken, Yellen, Austin, and then Garland.

    1. Kamala Harris
    2. Mike Johnson
    3 Patty Murray
    4 Antony Blinken
    5 Janet Yellen
    6 Lloyd Austin
    7 Merrick Garland

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

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 24 2024 #172381
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    oxymoron: “spiritual war”

    “perception of separation” = true? unreal?

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 23 2024 #172331
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    “How the media mess with your heads to try and get you to sympathise with the Israeli monsters.”

    An older article (2006) from the same author Jonathan Cook makes history’s rhymes sound repetitious:
    “And what would they say if I claimed that this war is not really about Lebanon, or even Hizbullah, but part of a wider US and Israeli campaign to isolate and preemptively attack Iran?”

    How would Homeland Security judge me if I stepped off a plane in the US tomorrow and told officials not only that I am appalled by the humanitarian crises in Lebanon and Gaza but also that I do not believe the war on terror should be directed against either the Lebanese or the Palestinians? How would they respond if, further, I described as nonsense the idea that Hizbullah or the political leaders of Hamas are “terrorists”?

    I have my reasons, good ones I think, but would anyone take them seriously? What would the officials make of my argument that, before Israel’s war on Lebanon, no one could point to a single terrorist incident Hizbullah had been responsible for in at least a decade? Would the authorities appreciate my comment that a terrorist organization that doesn’t do terrorism is a chimera, a figment of the President’s imagination?

    Equally, what would they make of my belief that Hizbullah does not want to wipe Israel off the map? Would they find me convincing if I told them that Israel, not Hizbullah, is the aggressor in the conflict: that following Israel’s supposed withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000, Lebanon experienced barely a day of peace from the terrifying sonic booms of Israeli war planes violating the country’s airspace?

    Would they understand as I explained that Hizbullah had acted with restraint for those six years, stockpiling its weapons for the day it knew was coming when Israel would no longer be satisfied with overflights and its appetite for conquest and subjugation would return? Would the officials doubt their own assumptions as I told them that during this war Hizbullah’s rockets have been a response to Israeli provocations, that they are fired in return for Israel’s devastating and indiscriminate bombardment of Lebanon?

    And what would they say if I claimed that this war is not really about Lebanon, or even Hizbullah, but part of a wider US and Israeli campaign to isolate and preemptively attack Iran?

    https://www.dissidentvoice.org/Aug06/Cook14.htm

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 18 2024 #171854
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Craig Murray makes an “extremely important” point about the “methods of fascism” being used by the “panicked Zionist ‘elites’ who run western states [and] are lashing out in fear at their opponents.”

    In 1985, the [UK’s] Terrorism Act 2000 was still 15 years away. There was no such thing as a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act. Under today’s legislation, every single one of those [thousands of] people writing in support of the African National Congress or out campaigning for the release of Nelson Mandela would have been liable for arrest under Section 12 1 (a) of the Terrorism Act.

    That is the danger of allowing the state to dictate whom you must consider a terrorist and punishing those who disagree with the state.

    In 1985 the official position of the British state was that the ANC were terrorists and apartheid South Africa were the good guys.

    In 2024 the official position of the British state is that Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorists and apartheid Israel are the good guys.

    The state can be wrong.

    … The difference forty years later is that the state is now persecuting British citizens and locking them up for daring to say that the state can be wrong. The ANC example explains why it is essential we do not give way to this pressure. …

    The Terrorism Act, abused by the Israel lobby to make it illegal to support Israel’s opponents, is fundamentally bad legislation. It literally provides for up to 14 years in jail if you “express an opinion” in favour of a proscribed organisation.

    40 years ago it would have been used against the large majority of the population who “expressed an opinion” in favour of the ANC, officially viewed as a terrorist organisation. …

    Panicked Zionist “elites” who run western states are lashing out in fear at their opponents. As their popular support evaporates in the face of clear evidence of appalling Israeli atrocities, they are resorting to the methods of fascism.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/10/who-are-the-terrorists/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 17 2024 #171780
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Since nobody mentioned these musings on time:

    “Talking about the significance of the passage of time, right, the significance of the passage of time, so when you think about it, there is great significance to the passage of time.”

    “We have the ability to see what can be, unburdened by what has been.”

    “It is time for us to do what we have been doing and that time is every day.”

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2022/03/31/10-thought-provoking-quotes-from-kamala-harris-n2605316

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 17 2024 #171739
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    After being unused for any combat missions during the past 7+ years, B-2 stealth bombers were flown from the US to bomb the Houthis in Yemen, according to Bloomberg yesterday. Trying to impress Iran?

    Despite numerous strikes on the Houthis, the allies have been unable to halt its attacks. In a June assessment, American intelligence officials said Houthi assaults on commercial vessels in the Red Sea led to a 90% decline in container shipping through the area between December and February. …

    The B-2s flew to their targets from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. It marked the first time since January 2017 that the wing-shaped stealth bomber has flown a combat mission. Back then, two B-2s flew a 30-hour round-trip mission to bomb an Islamic State training camp in Libya.

    Each B-2 is capable of carrying as much as 20 tons of bombs, including 80 500-pound GPS-guided munitions.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-17/us-bombers-strike-houthi-weapons-storage-sites-in-yemen

    That article also said

    The B-2 is the only US aircraft equipped to use the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a bomb that the airforce says is specifically designed to destroy “adversaries’ weapons of mass destruction located in well protected facilities.”

    Wikipedia says the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) weighs 30,000 pounds, is GPS-guided (what about GPS jamming?), and “it lacks a void-sensing fuze and will therefore detonate only after it has come to a stop, even if it has passed the target area.”

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 17 2024 #171727
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Today’s art selection (Ivan Kramskoy Christ in the desert 1920) reminds me of this painting (Stańczyk, by Jan Matejko, 1862) which could represent Zelensky and his situation:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sta%C5%84czyk_(painting)

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 15 2024 #171599
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Re “Skipping COVID Booster Could Reduce Your IQ”: Vax Propaganda Thrives At LA Times”

    From the article linked by John Day:

    This is absolutely hilarious, the paper cited says the exact OPPOSITE of what the LA Times Op ed says, vaccination is instead associated with a DROP in IQ similar to what they say about having Covid.

    That paper and statistics do say a drop in IQ is related to having covid and worse with duration (long covid), but the Op ed assumes being vaccinated lowers you chances of getting covid which it doesn’t, then jumps to the conclusion that getting boosted will prevent you from getting covid lowering IQ where the statistics on being vaccinated once or boosted versus not vaccinated in the paper say opposite, vaccination is associated with a drop in IQ similar to catching the virus. The Op ed authors must have been boosted.

    Another study published this year looked at 558,017 individuals (age 65+) to see if the vaxxed were more prone to getting either Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) within 3 months post-vaxx.

    The results showed that the mRNA vaxx group exhibited a significantly higher incidence of Alzheimer’s and Mild Cognitive impairment, compared to the unvaxxed group.

    Results: Findings showed an increased incidence of MCI and AD in vaccinated individuals, particularly those receiving mRNA vaccines, within three months post-vaccination. The mRNA vaccine group exhibited a significantly higher incidence of AD (Odds Ratio [OR]: 1.225; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.025-1.464; p = 0.026) and MCI (OR: 2.377; CI: 1.845-3.064; p < 0.001) compared to the unvaccinated group.

    A potential association between COVID-19 vaccination and development of alzheimer’s disease
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38806183/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 15 2024 #171590
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    phoenixvoice — ” I think that now would be a good time for Jews who want no part in genocide or machinations to speak up”

    In today’s news —
    200+ Jewish-Led Protesters Arrested at NY Stock Exchange Say ‘Stop Arming Israel’
    https://scheerpost.com/2024/10/15/200-jewish-led-protesters-arrested-at-ny-stock-exchange-say-stop-arming-israel/

    Earlier in 2024 —

    Some earlier protests by Jewish Anti-Zionists —

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 1 2024 #170224
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Reported to be today’s statement from the political office of the Houthis

    …the Iranian missile attacks forced millions of Zionists to flee to shelters, serving as a real deterrent to the entity… the military operation sent a clear and powerful message to the American enemy, the main partner in all the crimes and massacres committed by the Zionist enemy over the past year… Yemen will remain actively engaged in the support battle until the aggression against Palestine and Lebanon ceases… The statement also noted the political office’s blessing of the Palestinian suicide operation in occupied “Jaffa” this evening…

    https://alkhabaralyemeni.net/2024/10/02/275825/

    in reply to: Authentic Pheidippides Run #169913
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    A video of the same race from a few years ago
    https://youtu.be/3Q4qL5cTtak

    in reply to: Debt Rattle September 26 2024 #169819
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    A potential way to get Flu Vaxx credentials without getting an injection? “Self-administer” the recently-approved nasal spray at home, after getting it shipped to a home address.

    “In health breakthrough, FDA approves first nasal spray flu vaccine for at-home use”

    The FDA approved FluMist for people ages 2 to 49, and recommends that those under age 18 get the product administered by a caregiver. Adults can self-administer the spray. Efficacy is comparable to that of conventional flu shots.

    Prior to the newly approved at-home use, FluMist had been given in health care settings, mostly to children in pediatricians’ offices because many children have a fear of needles. Estimates show that as many as 2 in 3 children and 1 in 4 adults have a strong fear of needles, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    AstraZeneca said it will create a website where people seeking FluMist can fill out a questionnaire and have their information reviewed by a pharmacist prior to receiving a shipment at home. FluMist costs about $35 to $45 per dose, according to GoodRx, which compares drug prices at different pharmacies.

    https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/flumist-flu-vaccine-fda-home-usage-19780502.php

    in reply to: Debt Rattle September 26 2024 #169806
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    But I’m definitely not qualified to give legal advice, nor medical advice.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle September 26 2024 #169805
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    re: Mandatory Flu Shots

    Even during the covid vaxx craze, the EEOC (.gov) said employers should merely encourage flu shots instead of requiring flu shots, for non-healthcare jobs.

    The HR department might be trying to get away with mandating shots to non-employees before official employment, a legal grey area?

    HR gets in the way of managers trying to fill positions. If you want the job, I say screw HR, try to start working while putting off getting the shots, then fight it if necessary once you’re a valuable employee.

    With all that said, mandatory vaccination policies are still largely controversial, particularly for employers not in the healthcare industry. Indeed, EEOC guidance recommends that, in general, “ADA-covered employers should consider simply encouraging employees to get the influenza vaccine rather than requiring them to take it.

    Similarly, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an employee who objects to receiving a vaccine based on a sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance also may be exempt from a mandatory vaccination requirement. It is important to note that courts have broadly interpreted “religion” in the context of required vaccination policies. For example, at least one federal court has concluded that veganism qualifies as a sincerely-held religious belief exempting a vegan employee from being required to receive a flu vaccine because receiving a vaccine, which was produced from chicken eggs, would be against the employee’s vegan beliefs.

    Upon receiving a request to be relieved of a vaccination requirement as an accommodation, whether due to disability or religious-related reasons, an employer must engage in an interactive process with the objecting employee to determine if it can provide the employee with a reasonable accommodation that does not pose an undue hardship for the employer.

    A Guide for Employers Considering A Mandatory Flu Vaccination Policy (US)
    https://www.employmentlawworldview.com/a-guide-for-employers-considering-a-mandatory-flu-vaccination-policy-us/

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