Sep 162021
 


Pablo Picasso In “Le Lapin Agile” or harlequin with a glass 1905

 

The Spike Will Not Be Found In The Blood. It Travels “Incognito” (Chesnut)
Are Booster Shots Increasing Covid Spread And Covid Deaths? (Gato Malo)
CDC Now Lists Vaccinated Deaths as Unvaccinated (Mercola)
So You’d Like To NOT Have Society Collapse? (Denninger)
39% of Australians Unable To Perform Daily Activities After Vaccine (TE)
Mask Mandates And Vaccine Passports Are A Performance (Stuart Waiton)
91% Of China’s Youth Aged 12-17 Are Fully Vaccinated Against Covid (RT)
Are You Kidding Me, Pfizer, Volume 1 Gazillion (Berenson)
A Slog Vaxicide Special (Ward)
France Leads The Way In Holding Covid Incompetents To Account (RT)
33 Districts In Uttar Pradesh Are Now Covid-free (HT)
EU Red Tape Prevents Russia From Boosting Gas Supplies To Europe – Lavrov (RT)
US ‘Lost Focus’ In War On Terror – Oliver Stone (RT)
Durham Reportedly Seeking Indictment Against Clinton Campaign Lawyer (JTN)

 

 

Looking worse, fast. I’m starting to think you will need ivermectin -and/or HCQ- to fight off the vaccine. Preferably, don’t get vaccinated, but if you have been, get ivermectin. And whatever you do, stay away from booster shots.

“We are very certain about this, the vaccine is directly killing individuals”.

“The growing consensus among vaccination researchers is that exposure to 5-8 of these mRNA jabs over a relatively brief period of time will – dependent on the underlying health of the individual – result in death.”

 

 

McCullough NZ the vaccine is directly killing individuals

 

 

Thread by @Parsifaler (Walter Chesnut). Yikes.

The Spike Will Not Be Found In The Blood. It Travels “Incognito” (Chesnut)

The Autoimmune Mechanism. THE SPIKE WILL NOT BE FOUND IN THE BLOOD. IT IS TRAVELLING “INCOGNITO” INTRACELLULARLY. WE KNEW IT ENTERED CELLS VIA ENDOCYTOSIS IN 2008! Yesterday I observed that every cell the Spike Protein invades seems to cause the body to develop autoimmunity against it. I believe I have discovered the mechanism. It is a very brief and straightforward mechanism. Most likely many spikes do NOT stay on the cell surface, once they are expressed via spike protein therapied. The Spike is proven to be brought into the cell by Endocytosis. The spike protein is internalized into cells rapidly and is detected in cells within 5 mi, a hallmark of endocytosis. The amount of spike protein in cells continues to increase for up to 30 min. Thus, SARS-CoV-2 spike protein enters cells via endocytosis.

Once it is in the cell, its signaling damages mitochondria. The team then replicated this process in the lab, exposing healthy endothelial cells (which line arteries) to the spike protein. They showed that the spike protein damaged the cells by binding ACE2. This binding disrupted ACE2’s molecular signaling to mitochondria (organelles that generate energy for cells), causing the mitochondria to become damaged and fragmented. Once the mitochondria are damaged, this then activates the autoimmune response of the body. The accumulation of defective mitochondria led to overproduction of an inflammatory protein called type 1 interferon.

The findings suggest that failed quality control of mitochondria may cause Sjogren’s, lupus, and other autoimmune diseases through production of interferon. The Spike Protein then proceeds to travel from cell to cell via EXTRACELLULAR VESICLES. This means, of course, they will NOT BE FOUND IN THE BLOOD. We would not have been aware all this time. As the S1 unit has been found in monocytes 15 months post infection, it may be traveling intracellularly, executing a “Sherman’s March Through Georgia” on the mitochondria, resulting in multisystemic autoimmunity. Again, we have known the spike enters cells via endocytosis since 2008.

Read more …

“..we are seeing such a strong surge in deaths from a delta variant that looks to have a much lower CFR than prior variants..”

Are Booster Shots Increasing Covid Spread And Covid Deaths? (Gato Malo)

israel has been playing an interesting role as a bit of a canary in the coal mine. They have been pushing vaccines, vaccine passports, and now boosters harder than just about anyplace else on earth. They also make a good lab as they report solid (by covid standards) data and occupy only one regional climate zone so we do not need to adjust for heterogeneous seasonal surges within the aggregate (as we do in the US). And one thing is becoming very clear: whatever they are doing is not working and even their health ministers are having to admit this. This dip was (as i expected) driven by a drop in testing and reporting due to rosh hashanah (and will likely dip again late this week for yom kippur) but next week, we should be starting to get clearer data again.

With over 30% of the total population now having had a booster shot since the commencement of that program in earnest on august 1st, we should be able to get a sense of efficacy. I ran the series of booster uptake and plotted it vs deaths per day. What i saw looked like cause for concern and appears to validate calls from the departing FDA vaccine experts to get a good, hard look at this data before doing anything aggressive. Boosters began to rise and by the time they hit even 0.5%, deaths were starting to rise with them. the two move in near perfect lockstep. Clearly, correlation is not proof of causality, but this is an awful lot of signal to ignore out of hand especially given our strong reasons to presume causal linkage. (that said, the alignment with seasonal surge poses difficulties in separating signal source)


It’s further worrying that even with a 67% vaccination rate at the beginning of this rise and a significant portion of the population having already had exposure to covid and cohorts of the highest risk already having been depleted in past waves, that we are seeing such a strong surge in deaths from a delta variant that looks to have a much lower CFR than prior variants. (0.4% vs 1.1% per UK variants of concern data) It has barely attenuated at all (and it’s not clear we’ve reached highs. Consider the “false flat” from last year and how much later this surge was this year. We could be at the half way mark. This will bear watching.)

Read more …

“..if you have received a COVID injection, the CDC’s guidelines call for your PCR test to be run at a CT of 28 or less. If you are unvaccinated, your PCR test is to be run at a CT of 40..”

CDC Now Lists Vaccinated Deaths as Unvaccinated (Mercola)

According to the CDC,6 you’re not counted as fully vaccinated until a full 14 days have passed since your second injection in the case of Pfizer or Moderna, or 14 days after your first dose of Janssen. This is how the CDC defines a vaccine breakthrough case: “… a vaccine breakthrough infection is defined as the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA or antigen in a respiratory specimen collected from a person ≥14 days after they have completed all recommended doses of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-authorized COVID-19 vaccine.” In other words, if you’ve received one dose of Pfizer or Moderna and develop symptomatic COVID-19, get admitted to the hospital and/or die from COVID, you’re counted as an unvaccinated case. If you’ve received two doses and get ill within 14 days, you’re still counted as an unvaccinated case.

The problem with this is that over 80% of hospitalizations and deaths appear to be occurring among those who have received the jabs, but this reality is hidden by the way cases are defined and counted. A really clever and common strategy of the CDC during the pandemic has been to change the definitions and goalposts so it supports their nefarious narrative. For example, the CDC has quietly changed the definition of “vaccine,” apparently in an attempt to validate calling the COVID mRNA gene therapies vaccines. In an August 26, 2021, archived version7 of vaccine, the CDC defines it as a “product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease.”

But a few days later, a new definition appeared on the CDC’s website,8 which now says a vaccine is a “preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases.” The differences in the definitions are subtle but distinct: The first one defined a vaccine as something that will “produce immunity.” But, since the COVID-19 vaccines are not designed to stop infection but, rather, to only lessen the degree of infection, it becomes obvious that the new definition was created to cover the COVID vaccines. It’s not just the CDC’s definition of a breakthrough case that skews the data. Even more egregious and illogical is the fact that the CDC even has two different sets of testing guidelines — one for vaccinated patients and another for the unvaccinated.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the CDC has recommended a PCR test cycle threshold (CT) of 40.9 This flies in the face of scientific consensus, which has long been that a CT over 35 will produce 97% false positives, essentially rendering the test useless. In mid-May 2021, the CDC finally lowered its recommended CT count, but only for patients who have received one or more COVID shots. So, if you have received a COVID injection, the CDC’s guidelines call for your PCR test to be run at a CT of 28 or less. If you are unvaccinated, your PCR test is to be run at a CT of 40, which grossly overestimates the true prevalence of infection. The end result is that unvaccinated individuals who get tested are FAR more prone to get false positives, while those who have received the jab are more likely to get an accurate diagnosis of infection.

Read more …

“I give this right up into the Christmas season when Biden’s mandate allegedly will go into effect before it totally screws the economy.”

So You’d Like To NOT Have Society Collapse? (Denninger)

Go ahead Governors, let businesses mandate jabs and masks. Let Biden get away with his bull****. Don’t put in place E/Os and don’t call back the legislature into special session right here and now, today, and put a conclusive stop to all of it. I give this right up into the Christmas season when Biden’s mandate allegedly will go into effect before it totally screws the economy. With that, down goes the market, commercial real estate detonates (what happens when that Lowes closes due to lack of staff and so do another couple of nice big-box stores for the same reason down the street — everywhere at once!) and with it the debt markets.

There are already places where WalMarts are being forced to close to restock shelves as they’re so short of people and can’t hire more, having put in place employee mandates which enough prospective and current employees are responding to with “**** that!” that the only option remaining to them is to lock the doors and repurpose the few people they do have. This area is tourist-heavy and now, with schools allegedly back open, the traffic shifts — down a bit now, down more as we go into the winter. That local places still can’t manage to hire tells the tale — the people are tired of the abuse and, for the offered wage, they won’t apply or work. Give someone 18 months to figure out how to give you the finger and many will do exactly that.

On top of this you have all of those who complied with said mandates and now are out sick, many with the coof which, the company and the government assured us all would not happen if you just rolled up your sleeve. Of course they lied and still are, trying to claim it’s “rare” that people get materially ill after being vaccinated against Covid. That’s just the latest line of bull**** and, given the sick rate among those who have been jabbed it’s obvious if you pay a single bit of attention. Good luck Biden along with governors and local officials — you’re going to need it, and were I you in this market today I’d be rather careful if you’re not ok with a 201k — which is what you might have left of your 401k as we approach Christmas.

Read more …

It gets worse fast.

39% of Australians Unable To Perform Daily Activities After Vaccine (TE)

The National Centre for Immunisation and Research (NCIRS) in Australia are currently leading a collaboration with the Australia’s Government known as AusVaxSafety. The group has been conducting active vaccine surveillance of the Covid-19 vaccines in use in Australia to “ensure their ongoing safety”. Up to the 16th August 2021 over 1.4 million Austalians had partipated in the surveillance completing more than 2.4 million safety surveys, outlining their experience following the Covid-19 vaccination and the published results show the following –


Pfizer Vaccine – 1st DoseFollowing the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine 1,007,479 people responded to an SMS/email about their health in the three days after having the jab. The results show that 37.2% reported having an adverse reaction, with 374,832 reporting at least one adverse event. 0.5% of participants also reported seeing a doctor or attending hospital in the three days following vaccination due to an adverse reaction. This equates to 5,037 people. Whilst 6.7% of participants reported missing work, study or routine duties for a short period – meaning 67,501 people were left unable to perform daily activities following their first dose of the Pfizer mRNA Covid-19 injection.

Pfizer Vaccine – 2nd Dose Following the 2nd dose of the Pfizer vaccine 770,864 people responded to an SMS/email about their health in the three days after having the jab. The results show that 56.4% reported having an adverse reaction, a significant increase on the percentage of people who reported having an adverse reaction after having their first dose of the Pfizer jab. 1.3% of participants also reported seeing a doctor or attending hospital in the three days following vaccination due to an adverse reaction. This equates to 10,021 people – double the number of people who reported seeking medical attention after having the first dose despite there being 237,000 less particants in the 2nd dose survey. However, a huge 21.2% of participants were left unable to perform daily activities, that’s 163,423 people who reported missing work, study or routine duties.

Read more …

Dr Stuart Waiton is a senior lecturer in sociology and criminology at Abertay University. He is a columnist for the Glasgow Herald, author of three books, and is currently writing a book entitled The Criminalisation of Everything.

Mask Mandates And Vaccine Passports Are A Performance (Stuart Waiton)

The illiberal actions of Western nations over Covid are as much about a worrying shift in politics as it is about ‘the science’. Some very basic freedoms that we have traditionally enjoyed are in grave danger. In America, Joe Biden is putting pressure on workers to get the vaccine. Without proof that you do not have Covid, or evidence of vaccination, you will no longer be able to enter a workplace that has more than 100 staff. This policy will affect two-thirds of the workforce – around 100 million people. While many liberals in America have understandably reacted with outrage at changes to abortion regulations in places such as Texas, the idea of bodily autonomy as a basic human right, a right that should apply to vaccinations, barely gets a mention.

In France, vaccine passports have been introduced in cultural and leisure venues – cinemas and museums, as well as bars, restaurants, cafés, trains… Basically anywhere and everywhere you go in that country, you will be expected to show your papers. In England, thus far, vaccine passports have been ruled out. However, in Scotland, the governing Scottish National Party (SNP) have once again shown that it is always prepared to take authoritarian measures one step further than their English counterparts by introducing passports for major venues. Suggesting a puritanical dimension to this policy, not only are outdoor venues of 10,000 people and indoor venues of 500 being targeted, but all “sexual entertainment venues” will need evidence of vaccination.

Despite the fact that 84% of over-18s have had both jabs, the policy in Scotland is being introduced, in part, and arguably in large part, to put pressure on younger people to get a vaccination for a virus that has little or no effect on them.

Read more …

Again: Yikes!

91% Of China’s Youth Aged 12-17 Are Fully Vaccinated Against Covid (RT)

Just over 90% of students in China aged 12-17 have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, state media has revealed. Despite the high inoculation rate, the Ministry of Education has urged caution in schools over the virus.
On Wednesday, People’s Daily shared that the two-dose vaccination rate of teachers and students over 18 years old stands at 95%, slightly higher than the rate among younger pupils. Despite the wide vaccine coverage among China’s school children, the Ministry of Education has issued a notice imploring institutes and schools to make Covid prevention and control a top priority.

The statement came after China’s National Health Commission warned that coronavirus infections were circulating at a primary school in Putian, a city home to three million in East China’s Fujian Province. The region has recorded over 150 local cases in five days, prompting some cities in other parts of the country to impose travel warnings before major holidays. A number of cities in Fujian province, such as Quanzhou and Fuzhou, have decided to suspend primary schools and kindergartens, with others switching classes to online learning.

The Chinese government has manufactured and authorized two of its own Covid jabs. While the domestically produced vaccines have been given the green light for administration to children as young as three, authorities have yet to expand the inoculation campaign to the under-12s. Several regions across China started vaccinating its teenagers against Covid in July, including the capital Beijing. Figures from the National Health Commission showed that China has so far managed to administer close to 2.16 billion vaccine doses.

Read more …

“..it conducted a single “Phase 1” trial that covered 12 people over 65..”

Are You Kidding Me, Pfizer, Volume 1 Gazillion (Berenson)

The FDA just released its briefing book for Pfizer’s request for a third dose of Comirnaty (or is that BNT162b2? No matter! It’s approved either way, sorta). It is every bit the mess we all expected. Let’s go to the highlights: Pfizer basically hasn’t bothered to test the booster AT ALL in the people actually at risk – it conducted a single “Phase 1” trial that covered 12 people over 65. The main Phase 2/3 booster trial (beware efforts to cover multiple “phases” of drug research at once, you want it bad you get it bad) included no one over 55. No one. As in NONE. Which makes total sense – why test the booster in people who actually need it because they’re at high risk from the ro? Nothing good can come of that. So that’s our trial design. Now safety:

Of the 300 people who received the booster, one had a heart attack two months later. No worries, Pfizer concluded it wasn’t related. Yay! Five percent of recipients had enlarged lymph nodes. How about effectiveness? Well, we don’t have enough data – or any data, really – telling us how well the booster will work. But the FDA made Pfizer go back and review its data from the pivotal clinical trial from last year. Pfizer compared people who received the vaccine with those who received the placebo and THEN the vaccine (the best we can do at this point, since Pfizer blew up the trial by giving placebo subjects the vaccine, double-yay!) Pfizer concluded that your annual risk of getting Covid-19 IF YOU ARE VACCINATED is about 7 percent.

Further: “An additional analysis appears to indicate that incidence of COVID-19 generally increased in each group of study participants with increasing time post-Dose 2 at the start of the analysis period.” Oh. But don’t worry, Uncle Joe already told you you can get your booster on September 20. If it’s good enough for our fearless leader, it should be good enough for the FDA, amirite? SCIENCE!

Read more …

“The growing consensus among vaccination researchers is that exposure to 5-8 of these mRNA jabs over a relatively brief period of time will – dependent on the underlying health of the individual – result in death.”

A Slog Vaxicide Special (Ward)

One can observe categorically that medical researchers in Australia, India, France, the US, Germany and Japan are showing why the mRNA Covid “vaccines” tested by Oxford Recovery on dogs killed all the vaccinated animals. The detailed nature of deadly Cytokinic overreaction is closely allied to the study of how ‘autoantibodies’ develop. These little mothers are not always good news. Antibodies are produced by our B cells in two ways: (i) randomly, and (ii) in response to a foreign protein or substance within the body. Initially, one B cell produces one specific kind of antibody. In either case, the B cell is allowed to proliferate or is killed off through a process called clonal deletion. Normally, the immune system is able to recognise and ignore the body’s own healthy proteins, cells, and tissues.

But sometimes, the immune system ceases to recognise one or more of the body’s normal constituents as “self,” leading to production of pathological autoantibodies. When this happens, these psycho antibodies go into a frenzy of destruction. The more the body is exposed to mRNA formulations, the more certain death becomes. That certainty helps to explain the emerging narrative about “booster” shots of “vaccine”. This is Anthony Fauci of the US CDC from a live media interview five days ago: “You know, I think we are going to need boosters. And I think very likely, when we look back on this, the proper complete regimen for good full protection will almost certainly be three shots – the first two that we’ve spoken about and a late third boost several months later.”

For the already vaxxed, that would make five jabs in all….and no doubt, a new strain would miraculously appear to justify a 6th and 7th top-up. The growing consensus among vaccination researchers is that exposure to 5-8 of these mRNA jabs over a relatively brief period of time will – dependent on the underlying health of the individual – result in death. In a bid to head off awkward questions about the efficacy of such drugs, Fauci then resorted to the current default lie: “This is still an outbreak, a pandemic of the unvaccinated. And when you look at the percentage of cases, particularly those that wind up with severe consequences leading to hospitalization, it is overwhelmingly among the unvaccinated.”

Read more …

That would be Macron?!

France Leads The Way In Holding Covid Incompetents To Account (RT)

Former French Health Minister Agnès Buzyn faces a possible prison term and heavy fine for “endangering the life of others” in her mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, as France leads the way in making its leaders accountable. Despite the massive failures by governments and public health officials across the globe in dealing with the pandemic, it’s only the dead that really pay any sort of price. Most of the so-called experts simply move on, retire, or fade back into academia or big pharma where many of them came from. Not so in France, where the appetite for accountability has landed former Health Minister Agnès Buzyn in la merde,having just been indicted by the Court of Justice of the Republic – a special court established specifically to hold government ministers accountable for their actions – for “endangering the life of others” through mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has cost the French 115,000 lives. If found guilty, she faces a year in jail and a €15,000 fine.

Buzyn, a former doctor, did not have a good pandemic. She stood on the steps of the Elysee Palace in January last year and foolishly declared, “The risks of the coronavirus spreading to the population are low.” Ooops. But Buzyn is not the only French politician with their neck on the block. Her successor, Health Minister Olivier Véran, is also under investigation, along with former Prime Minister Edouard Phillippe. Surely, this is the sort of ministerial accountability that every democratic nation should be enforcing. Too often, incompetent, bungling, and plainly dishonest politicians escape sanction when they step aside, trying to present their resignation – or sacking – as some kind of noble gesture for which they should be congratulated, not imprisoned.

[..] But what about the rest of the Covid clowns around the world, with their misinformation, backtracking on guidance, exaggeration, underestimation, and sheer, cack-handed incompetence? Right up there is WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who, when meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, was full of praise for China’s containment of the coronavirus. The very least we could expect would be the WHO boss clearing his desk. In the US, Dr Anthony ‘Flip-flop’ Fauci faced his own messaging problems, having initially announced that the pandemic posed a “very, very low risk to the United States,” in January 2020. Since then, there have been more than 40 million reported covid cases in the US and around 652,000 deaths. I hope he likes golf, because Dr Fauci might soon have a lot more time to work on his handicap.

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Ivermectin.

33 Districts In Uttar Pradesh Are Now Covid-free (HT)

There are no active cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in 33 districts of Uttar Pradesh, the state government informed on Friday. About 67 districts have not reported a single new case of the viral infection in the last 24 hours, the government said, noting the steady improvement of the Covid-19 situation in the state. [..] Overall, the state has a total of 199 active cases, while the positivity rate came down to less than 0.01 per cent. The recovery rate, meanwhile, has improved to 98.7 per cent. As per the state’s health bulletin, Uttar Pradesh reported only 11 new Covid-19 cases and zero deaths in the last 24 hours. The fresh cases came out of 2.26 lakh samples that were tested in the last 24 hours.


As of Friday, the state government has conducted 7.42 crore tests, according to the data published by Uttar Pradesh’s health department. On the vaccination front, around 7 crore people in the state have received their first dose of the jab. The vaccination coverage in the state has exceeded 8.47 crores, out of which, 12 lakh people have been inoculated in the last 2 hours. Meanwhile, the overall nationwide tally climbed to 33,174,954 after recording 34,973 cases in the last 24 hours. This was around 19% lower than Thursday when the country had logged 43,263 fresh infections. The death toll stands at 442,009.

India home kit.

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As prices are soaring all over Europe, the EU keeps playing politics. My guess is Merkel will put a stop to that. She does’t want to leave her country in a state of huge unrest.

EU Red Tape Prevents Russia From Boosting Gas Supplies To Europe – Lavrov (RT)

Despite the completion of Nord Stream 2, Europe should not expect the Russian pipeline to start deliveries this year due to bureaucracy within the EU, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned on Wednesday. “Now the process of obtaining the necessary permits from the German regulator is underway. The process is not fast. The beginning of 2022 has been indicated,” Lavrov told the press. Experts say this could be the reason behind the current surge in gas prices, which have been smashing records for several days now. According to the press secretary of the German Federal Network Agency (BNetzA), Fita Wolf, Nord Stream 2’s certification may take several months, a prospect which practically forces market participants to raise prices.


To add to the problem, the pipeline’s main adversaries, Ukraine and the United States, have both vowed to complicate the certification procedure. According to Lavrov, there will be many roadblocks before certification is finally granted. “I have no doubt that attempts to attack this gas pipeline will continue,” the Russian foreign minister said. Gas prices in Europe have risen 20% since the start of trading on Wednesday. The price of October futures on the Dutch TTF exchange exceeded $964 per 1,000 cubic meters by 11am GMT, ICE data shows.

Read more …

There was ever any focus.

US ‘Lost Focus’ In War On Terror – Oliver Stone (RT)

On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, in a conversation with RT, award-winning director Oliver Stone condemned the US response as rooted in “exaggerated hype to go to war” and a misguided attempt at revenge-seeking. Stone condemned the bloody-minded drive for vengeance that characterized the US’ reaction to the attacks from the outset. “‘We’ve gotta get them for this’ – [but] we didn’t even know who ‘them’ were!” he exclaimed to Going Underground’s Afshin Rattansi on Wednesday, pointing out that it was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, rather than the better-known terrorist bogeyman Osama Bin Laden, who put together the entire plan “in his brain.”

“We lost focus in that moment – we were terrified, horrified, but we didn’t really look at what happened. We should have looked at why. A lot of [the government’s reasoning] was BS. A lot of it was exaggerated hype to go to war by the US and Israel,” Stone explained. Regarding US President Joe Biden’s controversial pullout from Afghanistan, Stone’s was a rare voice of support, insisting he “didn’t think it was a bad withdrawal at all” and that the sense of crisis was inflated by the media. “I appreciate a man who isn’t rushing to judgment like Bush was or Trump would be. A man who thinks about things and is deliberate … Most American presidents would fold – change their minds because of the polls,” which are “always tough on presidents.”

Stone observed that the reasons the terrorists gave for the 9/11 attacks were relatively simple: former president George H.W. Bush’s decision to station US troops on Saudi holy land and the US’ increasingly ‘one-sided’ support for Israel, despite international law. “We should have looked at why [the attacks occurred]. Bush said they envy our freedoms, but that was nonsense. They did it because of two reasons, as Osama stated very clearly,” Stone continued. “Instead of disengaging when the war was over in November, we sent in a huge amount of troops, didn’t understand the landscape, went out again and again on patrols, and, as we did in Vietnam, [the US Army] antagonized people by just being there.”

Read more …

Coming too close to Clinton?

Durham Reportedly Seeking Indictment Against Clinton Campaign Lawyer (JTN)

Special counsel John Durham reportedly is seeking a grand jury indictment against Michael Sussmann, a cybersecurity lawyer at a Democratic-allied law firm that represented Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. According to the New York Times, the charge is said to be related to an alleged false statement to the FBI about a client’s identity when Sussmann pushed now-debunked claims about secret communications between Russia’s Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. Durham “has told the Justice Department that he will ask a grand jury to indict a prominent cybersecurity lawyer on a charge of making a false statement to the FBI,” the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing “people familiar with the matter.”

Prior testimony and documents show Sussmann, who worked at Perkins Coie, delivered allegations about the Alfa server to then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in fall 2016. Baker has told invetsigators Sussman told him his approach was not on behalf of any client. But Sussmann told Congress he made the approach on behalf of a computer security client. The newspaper said Durham’s team has obtained records showing Sussmann billed work on the Alfa Bank matter to the Clinton campaign, the newspaper said. Sussmann’s lawyers, Sean M. Berkowitz and Michael S. Bosworth, acknowledged Wednesday that they expected him to be indicted, but denied wrongdoing.

“Mr. Sussmann has committed no crime,” they told the Times. “Any prosecution here would be baseless, unprecedented and an unwarranted deviation from the apolitical and principled way in which the Department of Justice is supposed to do its work. We are confident that if Mr. Sussmann is charged, he will prevail at trial and vindicate his good name. Durham has until the weekend to charge Sussmann because of a five-year statute of limitations, the newspaper said.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

McCullough Delta
https://twitter.com/i/status/1438056517001904130

 

 

 

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Sep 152021
 
 September 15, 2021  Posted by at 8:40 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  64 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh Café, le soir, Arles 1888

 

The Meaning of the FDA Resignations (Tucker)
Considerations In Boosting Covid-19 Vaccine Immune Responses (Lancet)
1 In 7 Vaccinated Americans Have Dumped Friends Over Covid-19 Jabs (RT)
Unvaccinated US Covid Patients Cost $5.7 Billion To Treat In Last 3 Months (F.)
Ordeal by Narrative (Kunstler)
Nearly Half Of ‘COVID Hospitalizations’ This Year Have Been Mild Or Asymptomatic (ZH)
Israel Health Ministry Chief Says Covid Spread Reaching Record Heights (ToI)
Israel Increases Hospital Staff to Fight COVID Surge (Haaretz)
Suspensions Put Strain On Greek Health System (K.)
France Health Worker Vaccine Mandate Comes Into Effect (G.)
Bring In Measures Soon Or Risk 7,000 Daily Covid Hospitalisations – Sage (G.)
Harrowing Account Of NSW ‘Hospital At Home’ Program (News.au)
White House: 75% Of Adults Have At Least One Covid-19 Vaccine Dose
Contaminated Pfizer Vaccines Reported In Several Japanese Cities (ZH)
Milley Secretly Called Chinese Officials Out Of Fear Trump Would ‘Attack’ (Fox)
CNN and WaPo Finger Milley as Leader of Military Coup Against Trump (CTH)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something’s afoot. Can’t imagine these two will be the only ones.

“This is a deep problem for actual scientists working within the bureaucracy because they know for sure that all of this is a pretense and that the government cannot win this war on the virus.”

The Meaning of the FDA Resignations (Tucker)

Now to the striking resignation of two top officials at the FDA who were in charge of vaccine safety and administration. It was the Director and Deputy Director of the Office of Vaccines Research, Marion Gruber and Phillip Kause. They gave no reason for their departure, which is scheduled for October and November. The case is fascinating because 1) people rarely resign cushy government jobs unless a higher-paying, higher-prestige job in the private sector awaits, or 2) they are being pushed out. It’s rare for anyone in a position like to to resign over a principled matter of science. When I first read that they were going, I figured something else was up. These days, extremely weird things are going on within the Biden administration.

Even though his approval ratings are sinking, the president has to pretend that he has all the answers, that the science behind his mandates and virus war is universally settled, that anyone who disagrees with him is really just a political enemy. He has gone so far as to denounce, demonize, and legally threaten red-state governors who disagree with him. This is a deep problem for actual scientists working within the bureaucracy because they know for sure that all of this is a pretense and that the government cannot win this war on the virus. They simply cannot preside over more false promises, especially when the whole of their professional training is about accessing the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. So what can they do? In this case, it appears they had to get away before they dropped a bombshell.

The bombshell is called “Considerations in boosting COVID-19 vaccine immune responses.” It appears in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet. The two top officials are among the authors. The article recommends against the Covid booster shot that the Biden administration, following Fauci’s advice, is suggesting as the key to making the vaccines work better and finally fulfill their promise. Fauci and company are pushing boosters because they know what is coming. Essentially we are going the way of Israel: most everyone is vaccinated but the virus itself is not being controlled. More and more among those hospitalized and dying are vaccinated. This same trend is coming to the US. The boosters are a means by which government can save face, or so many believe.

The trouble now is that the top scientists at the FDA disagree. Further, they think that the push for boosters is courting problems. They think the current regime of one or two shots is working as well as one can expect. Nothing is gained on net from a booster, they say. There just isn’t enough evidence to take the risk of another booster, and another and another. The authors knew this article was appearing. They knew that signing it under the FDA affiliation would lead to a push for their resignations. Life would get very difficult for both of them. They got ahead of the messaging and resigned before it came out. Very smart.

The signed article goes even further to warn of possible downsides. They point out that boosters might seem necessary because “variants expressing new antigens have evolved to the point at which immune responses to the original vaccine antigens no longer protect adequately against currently circulating viruses.” At the same time, there are possible side effects that could discredit all vaccines for a generation or more. “There could be risks,” they write, “if boosters are widely introduced too soon, or too frequently, especially with vaccines that can have immune-mediated side-effects (such as myocarditis, which is more common after the second dose of some mRNA vaccines, or Guillain-Barre syndrome, which has been associated with adenovirus-vectored COVID-19 vaccines.”)

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Here’s the article Jeffrey Tucker was talking about.

Among the authors are Marion Gruber and Philip Krause, director and deputy director of the Office of Vaccines Research and Review at FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), who just resigned.

Conclusion: boosters are not needed. But take a look at Gamma in that graph.

Question: why did they resign only after approving Pfizer?

Considerations In Boosting Covid-19 Vaccine Immune Responses (Lancet)

A new wave of COVID-19 cases caused by the highly transmissible delta variant is exacerbating the worldwide public health crisis, and has led to consideration of the potential need for, and optimal timing of, booster doses for vaccinated populations.1 Although the idea of further reducing the number of COVID-19 cases by enhancing immunity in vaccinated people is appealing, any decision to do so should be evidence-based and consider the benefits and risks for individuals and society. COVID-19 vaccines continue to be effective against severe disease, including that caused by the delta variant. Most of the observational studies on which this conclusion is based are, however, preliminary and difficult to interpret precisely due to potential confounding and selective reporting. Careful and public scrutiny of the evolving data will be needed to assure that decisions about boosting are informed by reliable science more than by politics.

Even if boosting were eventually shown to decrease the medium-term risk of serious disease, current vaccine supplies could save more lives if used in previously unvaccinated populations than if used as boosters in vaccinated populations. Boosting could be appropriate for some individuals in whom the primary vaccination, defined here as the original one-dose or two-dose series of each vaccine, might not have induced adequate protection—eg, recipients of vaccines with low efficacy or those who are immunocompromised2 (although people who did not respond robustly to the primary vaccination might also not respond well to a booster). It is not known whether such immunocompromised individuals would receive more benefit from an additional dose of the same vaccine or of a different vaccine that might complement the primary immune response.

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With friends like that ….

1 In 7 Vaccinated Americans Have Dumped Friends Over Covid-19 Jabs (RT)

Many Americans have been jettisoning friends from their lives during the Covid-19 pandemic, and for those who have chosen to get vaccinated, views on the jabs are often the relationship-breaker, a new poll has shown. The survey, conducted earlier this month by researcher OnePoll, showed that 16% of respondents have ended at least three friendships in the past year and a half. About 14% of vaccinated Americans said they have severed relationships with friends who chose not to get inoculated against the virus. In fact, vaccinated respondents were nearly four times as likely as those who don’t intend to get the jabs – 66% to 17% – to have ended friendships during the pandemic. The poll showed that 97% of vaccinated people consider their former friends to be “full-blown anti-vaxxers” and said they could never get them to understand the importance of getting the shots.

Covid-19 vaccination is one of the most divisive issues driving a wedge between Americans. The 14% who cited the jabs as the reason for ending friendships compared with 16% who blamed political differences and 15% whose former pal was dating an ex-mate. Other reasons included discovering their friends were liars (7%) and having a friend make up stories about them (12%).Hollywood has apparently blessed the idea of dumping friends who decline to get vaccinated. Actress Jennifer Aniston – ironically, a star of the television series ‘Friends’ – said last month in an InStyle magazine interview that she had ended relationships with people who refused to get jabbed or chose not to tell her their inoculation status. “It’s a real shame,” she said. “I’ve just lost a few people in my weekly routine.”

The level of vaccine vitriol has escalated in recent weeks. Radio host Howard Stern recently blasted “all the s**theads in our country who won’t get vaccinated” and said those who don’t get the jabs should be denied hospital beds if they get sick. “Stay home, die there with your Covid,” he said. OnePoll said 81% of Democrat survey respondents were fully vaccinated, compared with 64% of Republicans and 69% of independents. About 57% of Republicans and 41% of Democrats said society is “too critical” of unvaccinated Americans. Tolerance for vaccine autonomy is waning in America, as President Joe Biden last week ordered all businesses with 100 or more employees to force their workers to get the shots. “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us,” Biden said of unvaccinated Americans.

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Forbes moves into desperate propaganda.

“The vast majority of hospitalizations and nearly all deaths from Covid-19 are in unvaccinated people. The huge surge in demand for what few medicines are licensed to treat Covid-19 in the U.S. has triggered nationwide shortages and rationing of scarce supplies.”

Unvaccinated US Covid Patients Cost $5.7 Billion To Treat In Last 3 Months (F.)

Preventable costs associated with treating unvaccinated American Covid-19 patients amounted to at least $3.7 billion in August and $5.7 billion since June, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, as the disease rips through people who elected not to get free and highly effective vaccines. Around 187,000 Covid-19 hospitalizations could have been easily prevented by vaccination in August, research by Kaiser found, up from 68,000 in July and 32,000 in June. These preventable hospitalizations over the past three months cost the U.S. healthcare system around $5.7 billion, Kaiser estimates based on the average Covid-19 hospital bill of approximately $20,000.

The “ballpark figure is likely an understatement of the cost burden from preventable treatment of Covid-19 among unvaccinated adults,” according to the report, which noted significant variations in costs across the country, a “conservative” estimate of the proportion of Covid-19 patients who hadn’t been vaccinated and studies indicating a potentially much higher average cost than the $20,000 used (one cited put the figure at around $42,200). There are also “substantial” costs for outpatient Covid-19 treatment, the report said, though this was not factored into the analysis.

Due to laws preventing insurers from charging unvaccinated people higher premiums, the Kaiser report said the bill will fall on everyone as they will pay only “a small share of the cost” directly. This means a greater burden on the taxpayer and the risk of higher insurance premiums for businesses and workers, the report said. The costs of being unvaccinated are on the rise, however, with some employers charging higher insurance premiums to employees foregoing vaccination and others making it a condition of work. They are also facing elevated costs for healthcare as insurance companies walk back the waivers on out-of-pocket costs for Covid-19 hospital care introduced earlier in the pandemic.

The Covid-19 vaccines used in the U.S. are proven to be safe and highly effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death from Covid-19, including against the delta variant. They are also supposed to be free and have no out-of-pocket costs. Despite being readily available for months, some states still have very low vaccination rates and many have still not hit the target of partially vaccinating 70% of adults that President Joe Biden set for early July. While breakthrough infections are rare, they can and do happen, though vaccines slash the risks of long Covid, hospitalization and serious illness. The vast majority of hospitalizations and nearly all deaths from Covid-19 are in unvaccinated people. The huge surge in demand for what few medicines are licensed to treat Covid-19 in the U.S. has triggered nationwide shortages and rationing of scarce supplies.

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“..the distinguished American public servant will live out his last days in exile among the swooping fruit bats and grinning crocodiles, to the music of toucans screeching in the silk-floss trees (Chorisa speciosa).”

Ordeal by Narrative (Kunstler)

Has doctor Anthony Fauci booked passage to Paraguay yet? Like, on a smallish container barge registered in Cote D’Ivoire, conveying a six months backlog of cars stolen out of Essex County, New Jersey, for detailing and re-sale way up that lazy river to Asunción? The captain has a comfortable guest cabin, price negotiable, but better bring your own food. The US Intel Community will not find the good doctor down there because they will not bother looking for him. And so, the distinguished American public servant will live out his last days in exile among the swooping fruit bats and grinning crocodiles, to the music of toucans screeching in the silk-floss trees (Chorisa speciosa).

Anyway, that’s my fantasy du jour. Walt Disney had it right: America’s fate would be a descent into pure fantasy as the final product of our many twentieth century triumphs. It is increasingly difficult, for instance, to sort fact from fantasy in Dr. Fauci’s magnum opus: the Covid-19 pandemic, starting from the premise that it actually exists. There was some kind of rumpus in Wuhan, China, in January of 2020… folks dropping dead in their tracks on the sidewalks (captured on closed circuit TVs)… folks getting the doors to their apartments welded shut… and then what? Not much indication of further freak-outs inside China since back then. Perhaps the virus has been raging over there all the while, but a million here, a million there, do you really notice the attrition in a land of 1.4 billion? Or did they just switch off that groove on their narrative machine? The CCP can do that, I hear.

Back in the USA, where you’d have to subtract a billion and then-some in population, something was surely killing folks, though, overwhelmingly, most of those folks were already sick, and old, pretty much in the check-out zone. In 2020, the death of old and sick people was declared… impermissible! Death suddenly had no place in the exceptional order of things American. (Ask old Uncle Walt, who reportedly had his head and its gelatinous contents cryogenically frozen, in expectation of future re-animation via science magic! Still waiting for him to come back….)

Of course, the new medical rules-of-engagement circa 2020 included the denial of early treatment with known common anti-viral drugs for folks coming down with early symptoms of the mystery illness. So, while pretending to object to the implacable fact of death — a certainty of the human condition, according to science — we killed a whole bunch of people by withholding treatment. And concurrently, we rolled out the vaccines promising to “protect everybody” only to learn that it provided other, even more diabolical, routes to death.

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This is why I don’t believe the CDC has been undercounting Covid deaths.

Nearly Half Of ‘COVID Hospitalizations’ This Year Have Been Mild Or Asymptomatic (ZH)

A brand new study is calling into question how reliable and meaningful of a number of “patients hospitalized with Covid-19” in the U.S. is. Covid hospitalizations – the most common metric heard when discussing the seriousness of the pandemic – may not be nearly as meaningful of a number as many once thought. And don’t take it from us: The Atlantic published a stunning piece on Tuesday citing a new study that suggests “almost half of those hospitalized with COVID-19 have mild or asymptomatic cases”. The Atlantic had formerly called Covid hospitalizations “the most reliable pandemic number,” last winter. Now, after a nationwide study of hospitalization records was release, the publication is walking back its fervor on that statement.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School, Tufts Medical Center, and the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System took on the task of trying to figure out how serious Covid cases were in those hospitalized, and how many people counted as Covid hospitalizations were actually in the hospital for Covid, versus getting a Covid test after being admitted for something else. The study “analyzed the electronic records for nearly 50,000 COVID hospital admissions at the more than 100 VA hospitals across the country,” The Atlantic wrote. It “checked to see whether each patient required supplemental oxygen or had a blood oxygen level below 94 percent” in order to try and determine if cases met the NIH’s threshold for “severe COVID”.

What the study found was that from March 2020 to January 2021, 36% of Covid cases in the hospital were mild or asymptomatic. From January 2021 to June 2021, during the Delta variant’s spread, that number rose all the way to 48%. For vaccinated hospital patients, the number rose to a stunning 57%.

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Safe and effective.

Israel Health Ministry Chief Says Covid Spread Reaching Record Heights (ToI)

Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash said Tuesday that the current wave of coronavirus infections is surpassing anything seen in previous outbreaks and that he is disappointed that a recent downward trend appeared to be reversing. Ash’s remarks via video call to the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee came as Health Ministry figures showed that over 10,000 new COVID-19 cases were diagnosed the day before and that the positive test rate was climbing. Pointing out that there is an average of 8,000 new infections each day, with occasional peaks over 10,000, he said, “That is a record that did not exist in the previous waves,” including the massive third wave at the end of last year.


Ash expressed some pessimism, though he observed that, belying fears, there wasn’t a large spike in infections following last week’s Rosh Hashanah holiday — the Jewish New Year — or the opening of the school year at the beginning of the month. After bringing daily infections down to little more than a dozen a day in June, Israel has been battling to control a resurgence of COVID-19 in what has been its fourth wave of infections since the start of the global pandemic. “A week ago we were in a clear downward trend; in recent days we’ve been seeing that decline stop, and the virus reproduction number is [again] above 1,” Ash said of the so-called R number, which indicates how many people each virus carrier will infect. Values above 1 show that the outbreak is growing, below 1 that it is shrinking. “I hoped that we would see a clearer drop, but we are still not seeing it,” he said.

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The boosters work.

Israel Increases Hospital Staff to Fight COVID Surge (Haaretz)

Israel’s hospitals learned on Tuesday that they would receive funding to take on an additional 600 doctors and 1,500 nurses if the government’s forecasts are correct and the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients reaches 4,800 in the next month, with half of them being serious cases. But many health care leaders warned that the extra staff won’t have a profound impact anytime soon because it will take time for them to be trained in treating COVID-19 patients in the midst of a crisis. Their contribution will only be felt only weeks, if not months, after they are hired. Even if the new hires can get up to speed quickly, many doctors said the number of new staff that the government is offering isn’t enough to cope with the growing patient overload – and that is going to affect the quality of care.


Dr. Eytan Wirtheim, CEO of the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva and chairman of the Union of Hospital Directors, told an Israel Medical Association conference on Thursday that the staff additions were critical and that “it’s important that we begin today to fill all these jobs and shifts.” He said that in addition to the extra personnel, hospital chiefs had unsuccessfully sought an additional 300 beds for intensive care patients, 800 for internal medicine units and at least 300 for geriatric internal medicine wards. IMA Chairman Prof. Zion Hagai said the extra medical personnel would not help seriously ill patients in the current COVID-19 wave. “If anyone thinks that we have increased our capacity for new patients, the fact is we have changed nothing – we’ve just added beds without the ability to treat patients,” he told the conference. “What are they thinking? That they can just push a button and out comes a trained physician who can begin to work? Experienced nurses also need to be trained before they can enter coronavirus wards.”

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The PM bribes kids with 50 gigs of free data, to take a shot that won’t do them any good but can cause severe damage for the rest of their lives. Criminal.

Suspensions Put Strain On Greek Health System (K.)

The suspension of unvaccinated doctors and other health workers in effect since September 1, meant as a warning and as an incentive to get inoculated, have resulted in personnel shortages across the public health system. According to the Health Ministry, some 5,500 health workers and other personnel at public hospitals have been suspended, with another 1,000 told they can’t work at primary healthcare centers. The problems are more acute in places with few personnel to begin with, such as on several islands, according to the union of state hospital employees. On the island of Naxos, for example, both surgeons, one of two microbiologists, two out of five lab technicians, two out of seven cleaners and five out of 30 nurses have been suspended. On the smaller island of Amorgos, four out of eight employees are not going in to work.

Newly appointed Health Minister Thanos Plevris tried to put a good spin on the situation. “There are certainly some dysfunctions – I want to be upfront – but those are manageable,” he responded Tuesday to a parliamentary inquiry by SYRIZA MP Andreas Xanthos, health minister in the previous leftist-led government. “We consider that, as the days pass and personnel that get vaccinated resume their duties, and with the activation of three-month contracts [with private sector healthcare providers], even these dysfunctions will be eliminated,” he added. In fact, officials are worried enough that they are considering relaxing the terms of the suspension, allowing personnel who have taken one of the two required vaccine doses back to work. No final decisions have been made about this.

The problem with health workers points to a more general issue concerning the reluctance of people to get vaccinated. Despite all sorts of enticements, incentives and ceaseless messaging, just 56% of the population is fully vaccinated. This drops to 49% for people aged 18-24, who are increasingly getting sick from the Delta variant of the coronavirus. And at schools, which opened Monday and are feared to become new bases for the spread of the disease, less than one in four 12- to 17-year-olds are vaccinated. It remains to be seen whether Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ promise over the weekend of 50 gigabytes of free data for the smartphones of 15- to 17-year-olds will provide any kind of inducement.

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This is going to be fun to watch.

France Health Worker Vaccine Mandate Comes Into Effect (G.)

The French government faces a stand-off with tens of thousands of health workers and carers Wednesday over a new rule requiring them to receive a Covid-19 vaccine or face suspension without pay, AFP reports. Starting Wednesday, hospital staff, ambulance drivers, retirement home workers, private doctors, fire service members and people caring for the elderly or infirm in their homes – some 2.7 million people in total – must be able to prove they have had at least one shot of a vaccine. President Emmanuel Macron issued the ultimatum two months ago, but tens of thousands of carers remain unvaccinated.


One of France’s biggest public sector unions, the hardline CGT, has warned of a “health catastrophe” if the government suspends large numbers of health workers and bars private-sector doctors from practising. Defiant health workers have joined opponents of a new coronavirus “health pass” required for entry to restaurants, cafes and museums at weekly protests held across France in the past two months. On Tuesday, a few hundred people attended a union-led demonstration outside the health ministry in Paris.

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Where are the boosters?

Bring In Measures Soon Or Risk 7,000 Daily Covid Hospitalisations – Sage (G.)

Between 2,000 and 7,000 people a day could be hospitalised with Covid in England next month unless the government urgently implements a “basket of measures”, government scientific advisers have warned as Boris Johnson made clear he hopes to avoid fresh restrictions. The prime minister confirmed on Tuesday that Covid passports, the return of mandatory mask-wearing and advice to work from home would be kept in reserve as the government’s “plan B”, to be introduced if the NHS is at risk of being overwhelmed. But newly published modelling from experts on the Sage advisory committee warn the government not to wait too long, with cases, hospitalisations and deaths all higher than a year ago despite the success of the vaccination programme.

Speaking alongside Johnson at a Downing Street press conference, the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, also said experience of battling the virus showed “you have to go earlier than you think you want to, you have to go harder than you think you want to”. He said the UK was now at a “pivot point” where, if the situation worsens, it could do so rapidly. Modellers on the Sage committee expect cases to rise in the coming months after almost all restrictions were lifted this summer, documents show. Daily hospitalisations could plausibly peak at 7,000 in England next month, far surpassing the winter peak, which reached 4,500 UK-wide, according to the updated modelling. Currently about 1,000 people with Covid are being admitted to UK hospital wards each day.


But if enacted early enough, before a rise in cases becomes sustained, even light-touch measures could be sufficient to keep infections flat and prevent a damaging fresh wave of hospitalisations, the Sage documents say. “With the current levels of high prevalence combined with unknown behaviours, the burden on health and care settings could rise very quickly,” the scientists warn. They say “it could be a very difficult winter ahead” if acute Covid combines with other pressures such as long Covid, other infections like flu, or co-infection causes more serious illness. Even though 81% of UK adults are double-jabbed, nearly 6 million are unvaccinated and vulnerable to the highly-transmissible Delta variant now most Covid restrictions have been lifted.

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There’s a dark world down under. Good thing they banned IVM.

Harrowing Account Of NSW ‘Hospital At Home’ Program (News.au)

The wife of a Sydney man stricken with Covid-19 has given a harrowing account of how the “hospital at home” program is operating revealing her husband was told to remain at home even when he was coughing up blood. The family, who spoke to news.com.au on the condition of anonymity, have raised serious concerns over the “call centre” approach to caring for patients which often involves call centre operators, not doctors or nurses, running through checklists of symptoms with patients. Doctors have raised concerns about the “hospital in the home” Covid treatment system after more than 15 people died at home since August 1. NSW has been left with little choice other than to rely on the hospital at home program after the number of Covid infected patients ballooned and the number of people in hospital and ICU continues to rise.

There are currently over 14,000 people with “active” Covid infection in NSW and the vast majority are being left alone at home to battle the illness. In the case of the 37-year-old man whose family spoke to news.com.au, he was “fit and healthy” and had no underlying conditions. “He is incredibly fit and healthy, a rugby player, he’s very into his health and his diet and fitness and doesn’t have any pre-existing health issues,’’ his wife said. “My husband was diagnosed on September 2. He had really mild symptoms at that point. He received a text. He was told to isolate. And they told him to stay home. They said they would call him every day,’’ she said. “But he didn’t have a GP contacting him. We just had NSW Health Unit contact which was like a call centre. He never really saw a doctor at all. He did have one phone call with a doctor.”

In the first week, she said she was given a list of things that would require her husband’s case to be escalated or taken to hospital. The woman is trapped in Victoria where she was trying to help him over the phone. “If you’ve got freezing cold skin and you can’t warm up no matter what you do. If you’ve got shortness of breath, chest pain, infrequent urination, and if you’re coughing up blood. So those are the things. We felt in good hands at that point. Then, he started to deteriorate,’’ she said. A week ago on Sunday, he started “coughing up blood and having respiratory distress”. “We monitored that overnight and on September 6, we called NSW Health to tell them that he was presenting with one of those symptoms, requiring hospitalisation along with shortness of breath,’’ the man’s wife said.

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And that’s where the fun starts.

White House: 75% Of Adults Have At Least One Covid-19 Vaccine Dose

Three-fourths of U.S. adults have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, a White House official announced on Tuesday. White House COVID-19 Data Director Cyrus Shahpar marked the milestone in a tweet, saying the country “just hit” 75 percent of adults with at least one shot. He said that from Sunday through Tuesday, 1.51 million doses have been administered, with 681,000 newly vaccinated and 105,000 additional doses, while noting that there is “as usual, lower reporting over the holiday weekend,” referring to Labor Day. The U.S. reached the 75 percent threshold about a month after hitting 70 percent. Previously, President Biden had hoped to achieve the 70 percent mark by July 4.


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s online tracker, last updated Saturday, showed that 74.8 percent of U.S. adults received at least one dose and 64 percent were fully vaccinated. The rate of vaccinations has picked up in recent weeks as the highly transmissible delta variant spreads throughout the country, leading to increased case counts, hospitalizations and deaths. The U.S. administered more than 939,000 vaccine doses on Saturday after a steady rise since mid-July, when the pace was closer to 500,000 a day, according to Our World in Data. Still, only slightly more than half of the overall U.S. population is fully vaccinated: 53 percent are fully vaccinated and 62 percent have received at least one dose.

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Are the Japanese the only ones looking?

Contaminated Pfizer Vaccines Reported In Several Japanese Cities (ZH)

Several cities in Japan have reported ‘white-colored floating substances’ in Vials of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, according to Bloomberg. The vials came from lot FF5357, where white contaminants were first reported by Kamakura City in Kanagawa prefecture. On Tuesday, two more cities – neighboring Sagamihara and Sakai City in Osaka prefecture reported contaminated vials, however there were no reports of adverse reactions. In Sagamihara, white substances were reported at three different vaccination sites on Sept. 11, 12 and 14. The cities told Bloomberg that they will ask Pfizer for an analysis. Last month Moderna came under fire after black contaminants were found in multiple vials of their Covid-19 vaccine in Japan, causing the Japanese Ministry of Health to pull 1.6 million doses of the vaccine. According to NHK, “black substances” were found in syringes and a vial, while pink substances were spotted in a different syringe.

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“According to Pelosi, she spoke with Milley that day about “available precautions” to prevent Trump from engaging in military action.”

Milley Secretly Called Chinese Officials Out Of Fear Trump Would ‘Attack’ (Fox)

During the final months of former President Donald Trump’s term, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley made two phone calls to Chinese officials in fear that Trump would create conflict with the communist nation, a new book has claimed. In the book, authored by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa, it is alleged that Milley made two secret phone calls, both to his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army. The book alleges that the phone calls took place prior to the 2020 presidential election on Oct. 30, 2020, and two days after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, on Jan. 8, 2021.

According to the book, Milley contacted Li after he had reviewed intelligence that suggested Chinese officials believed the United States was planning an attack on China amid military exercises in the South China Sea. “General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be OK,” Milley told him during the first call, the book said. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.” The book, excerpted in the Washington Post, also stated that Milley told Li that he would warn him in advance should America decide to “attack.” “Gen. Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time,” Milley added, as reported by the book, “Peril,” which is set to be released next week. “It’s not going to be a surprise.”

The authors of the book also claim Milley contacted Li a second time to reassure him that the U.S. would not make any type of advances or attack China in any form, as Milley promised, “We are 100% steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.” Those phone calls, according to the book, were never mentioned to Trump, as Milley believed his mental state had declined following the election, something about which he shared his thoughts in a phone call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Jan. 8, the same day he called Li the second time. According to Pelosi, she spoke with Milley that day about “available precautions” to prevent Trump from engaging in military action.

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“They are using the opportunity of this book by Woodward and Costa to hit Milley, place the blame for Afghanistan in his lap, and make him the scapegoat so that Joe Biden and the other participants can avoid further scrutiny. ”

CNN and WaPo Finger Milley as Leader of Military Coup Against Trump (CTH)

Today CNN, via Bob Woodward and The Washingon Post, via Robert Costa collaborate on a designed hit against one of the key corrupt actors on Team Two, Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley. CTH previously said this was coming: “Look for Joint Chief’s Chairman Mark Milley to be the guy who gets canned to protect Joe Biden. Mark Milley knows this is likely.” The framework of the CNN article is that General Milley: …”called a secret meeting in his Pentagon office on January 8 to review the process for military action, including launching nuclear weapons. Speaking to senior military officials in charge of the National Military Command Center, the Pentagon’s war room, Milley instructed them not to take orders from anyone unless he was involved.

“No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I’m part of that procedure,” Milley told the officers, according to the book. He then went around the room, looked each officer in the eye, and asked them to verbally confirm they understood. “Got it?” Milley asked, according to the book. “Yes, sir.” ‘Milley considered it an oath,’ the authors write. The framework of the Washington Post article paints Milley as even more rogue. A power hungry operator of the industrial military complex, defying civilian oversight:

[…] In a pair of secret phone calls, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army, that the United States would not strike, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa. One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that unseated President Trump, and the other on Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the Capitol siege carried out by his supporters in a quest to cancel the vote. The first call was prompted by Milley’s review of intelligence suggesting the Chinese believed the United States was preparing to attack.

That belief, the authors write, was based on tensions over military exercises in the South China Sea, and deepened by Trump’s belligerent rhetoric toward China. “General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay,” Milley told him. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.” In the book’s account, Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, stressing the rapport they’d established through a backchannel. “General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.”

[..] You think CNN and the Washington Post only recently came to the understanding that General Mark Milley was a corrupt, politically motivated actor, working on behalf of the interests of the Deep State [4th Branch]? Of course not. They are using the opportunity of this book by Woodward and Costa to hit Milley, place the blame for Afghanistan in his lap, and make him the scapegoat so that Joe Biden and the other participants can avoid further scrutiny. Their play is transparent.

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Moth
https://twitter.com/i/status/1437850086743101441

 

 

 

 

 

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Jul 282021
 


Blu Mural Rome, 2015 (click for more)

 

CDC Warns Covid-19 May Be A Few Mutations Away From Evading Vaccines (NYP)
Higher COVID Rate Found In Some Counties With Higher Vaccination Rate (CBS)
Booster Vaccines Could Be Offered As Soon As September (NT)
“Zero COVID” Experts Put Grandkids At Risk (ZH)
Unvaccinated Diners Only: California Restaurant (RT)
America, A Nation Which Once Championed Free Speech (Sinclair)
The Price of Conscience – Daniel Hale Sentenced to 45 Months (Chris Hedges)
Biden DOJ Wants Identity Of NoVA Woman’s Employer Kept Secret (Patch)
The Insecurity Industry (Snowden)
Julian Assange Stripped Of Citizenship By Ecuador (G.)

 

 

Does this say that even if a drug will be found to treat COVID19 the contract cannot be voided?!

 

 

 

 

So why would anyone want to get vaccinated now? Why not wait? “You’ll make it worse!” Me? On my own?

CDC Warns Covid-19 May Be A Few Mutations Away From Evading Vaccines (NYP)

COVID-19 may be “just a few mutations” away from being able to evade vaccines, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky warned Tuesday. Walensky said the current vaccines are effective against severe cases of the coronavirus, including those caused by its known variants, but its continuing spread could allow the disease to mutate beyond the immunizations’ protection. “The largest concern that I think we in public health and sciences are worried about is that virus and potential mutations … [have] the potential to evade our vaccine in terms of how it protects us from severe disease and death,” Walensky said at a press briefing.

“Right now, fortunately, we are not there. These vaccines operate really well in protecting us from severe disease and death. But the big concern is the next area that might emerge, just a few mutations potentially away, could potentially evade our vaccines.” The agency chief said the possibility is even more reason for people to get vaccinated — so that the virus can finally be off at the pass before it mutates into something that requires another vaccine. The CDC on Tuesday issued new indoor mask guidelines designed to help slow the spread of the virus in places experiencing surges in cases.

“In areas with substantial and time transmission, CDC recommends fully vaccinated people wear masks in public, indoor settings to help prevent the spread of the Delta variant and protect others,” Walensky said, referring to the highly contagious strain that comprises an estimated 83 percent of new cases nationwide. Health officials have stressed that rising coronavirus case numbers in the US are being driven by unvaccinated Americans. Currently, people who are not vaccinated are responsible for around 99.5 percent of COVID-19 deaths and 97 percent of hospitalizations, officials said.

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CBS Sacramento. The ways the story is “massaged” is a sight to behold.

Higher COVID Rate Found In Some Counties With Higher Vaccination Rate (CBS)

State workers and health care employees will now be required to show proof of vaccine or get tested for COVID at least once a week. The governor announced the new guidance today and is urging private employers to “replicate the example.” This comes as the highly contagious Delta variant is now dominant in the state and COVID rates have skyrocketed in the month since California officially reopened, including breakthrough cases among vaccinated Californians. A new analysis finds several counties with above-average vaccination rates also have higher COVID case rates, while case rates are falling in counties with below-average vaccination rates.

Statewide data analyzed by the Bay Area News Group found five counties, Los Angeles, San Diego, Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco, have both a higher percentage of people who are fully vaccinated than the state average and a higher average daily case rate. Compare that to these five counties: Modoc, Glenn, Lassen, Del Norte, and San Benito, which have below-average vaccination rates and decreasing case rates. However, UCSF infectious disease expert Dr. Phillip Norris clarifies that the data doesn’t mean the vaccine is not working. He notes, first, the counties referenced with higher vaccination and case rates are more densely populated. “If there are a lot of people around you’re more likely to bump into one who has COVID,” Norris explained.

He, like other infectious disease experts, warns that vaccinated people may be unknowingly spreading the virus. Julie: A lot of people think if they’re vaccinated, they can’t transmit. Is that true? Phillip: So, originally we thought that might be true. But he says that’s no longer the case, thanks to the Delta variant. He points to preliminary data from China that indicates the viral load in the nose from the Delta variant may be 1,000 times higher than previous variants. “If that’s the case, even a little bit in somebody who’s vaccinated could be a lot,” he explains.

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Ireland. If I were me, I’d first want to know what’s in those booster shots. Different spike proteins perhaps?

Booster Vaccines Could Be Offered As Soon As September (NT)

A COVID-19 vaccine booster programme could get underway as soon as September, the Health Minister says. Stephen Donnelly says it will be done in conjunction with the flu vaccine, which is usually done in early autumn. It’s believed boosters will be offered first to people at high risk of illness or exposure to COVID-19 – in particular those who were vaccinated early in the rollout. Stephen Donnelly says we’re also likely to see “pop-up” vaccination centres in the coming weeks, to make it as “easy as possible” for young people to get vaccinated. He was speaking after NIAC and the Government gave the green light to extend vaccination to everyone aged 12-15. Around 70% of the adult population is now fully vaccinated against the virus, with nearly 85% having received at least their first dose.


Minister Donnelly told Newstalk Breakfast work is underway to figure out the best way to extend the vaccine programme in the coming weeks. He said: “My priority for some time has been children with underlying conditions. He said teenagers with underlying conditions may be able to book an appointment with their GP. However, it may ultimately be quicker to allow everyone in the age group to register at the same time for appointments in the mass vaccination centres. This weekend will also see the opening of the country’s first walk-in vaccination centres. Minister Donnelly said: “It’s this bank holiday weekend… it’s mRNA vaccines, so Pfizer or Moderna. Anyone over the age of 16… can just walk in.” He said it doesn’t matter if someone has already registered via the vaccine portal – they can still attend the new centre if they haven’t had their first dose yet.

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Zero covid is a thing of the past that hampers effective reactions.

“Zero COVID” Experts Put Grandkids At Risk (ZH)

The need to act on climate change is the fundamental moral imperative of our age, animated by the idea our sacrifices today will save the planet in the future. Yes, energy costs may be higher and some people will lose their jobs, but it’s worth it for the grandkids. Curiously, the grandkids haven’t been given much thought in our response to Covid-19. Our generation has foist extraordinary costs on future generations in a vain attempt to save lives from a disease that is lethal to a few. “The great majority of people … even in their 80s … will survive,” Britain’s chief scientific adviser Chris Whitty said in March last year, before collective psychosis took hold.

“Even in the most vulnerable, oldest groups, in a very stressed health service … the great majority of people who catch the virus – and not everyone will – survive it,” he told a parliamentary committee, having analysed the data from China and Italy. That was true then and it’s true now. Covid-19 was never an existential threat. After 18 months about four million people have died from or with Covid – most of advanced age apart for some tragic exceptions – in a world with a rapidly growing population of almost eight billion people. Sixty million people die every year. But we have behaved like it was, racking up trillions in extra debt and trashing norms of liberal democracy that might not quickly, if ever, return.

The idea that Sydney would be locked down in September 2021 or that American pediatricians would insist anyone over two years old wear a mask outside, to anyone living in February last year would have seemed ridiculous. Yet both, seemingly, are true. On this trend, silencing different scientific opinions or mandating individual tracking devices, all in the name of “saving lives”, may no longer be considered far-fetched. At the end of 2019 the federal budget papers forecast net debt of $361bn by June 2023. The latest budget papers forecast $835bn for the same period, rising to $980bn by mid-2025. Put another way, by 2030 the government’s gross debt burden is forecast to be more than 51 per cent of GDP, compared with 15 per cent forecast in 2019, according to the Intergenerational Report released last month.

By 2060, interest payments on federal debt will have doubled as a share of the economy, if interest rates start to return to more normal levels, it forecasts. A warmer planet won’t be the only burden we’re leaving for the grandkids. Future taxes will need to be higher, and expenditures on other goods and services lower, commensurately, than they otherwise would have been. We will have fewer resources to invest in cancer and dementia research, for example, much greater threats to welfare than Covid-19. “The Covid-19 pandemic and associated containment measures, however, have profoundly affected Australian society and the economy, and are likely to shape the future in ways that are not yet apparent,” the Intergenerational Report says. Who would have foreseen, for instance, a surge in babies being admitted to hospital in New Zealand for an “immunity debt” potentially caused by the government’s closed border policy?

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Of course not, or it would be no fun:

“An employee told the Los Angeles Times that the restaurant is not actually checking patrons’ vaccine status.”

Unvaccinated Diners Only: California Restaurant (RT)

A California restaurant has refused to back down after being bombarded with negative press and customer reviews for posting a sign demanding that all diners provide proof that they have not been vaccinated against Covid-19. With vaccination status increasingly becoming a prerequisite to participate in many ordinary activities, one Huntington Beach eatery has decided to take a slightly different approach to granting privileges based on personal medical decisions. On its storefront window, Basilico’s Pasta e Vino taped a sign reading: “PROOF OF BEING UNVACCINATED REQUIRED. We have zero tolerance for treasonous, anti-American stupidity. Thank you for pondering.”

The restaurant’s owner, Tony Roman, said that the unorthodox policy is designed to get people thinking as some Southern California businesses begin asking customers for proof of vaccination. “With the new and aggressive push for mandatory vax policies, we couldn’t resist, so we are sending a message of our own. Hopefully most are smart enough to read between the lines. Otherwise we will just sit back and have fun watching their heads explode over it,” Roman said in a statement to local media. An employee told the Los Angeles Times that the restaurant is not actually checking patrons’ vaccine status. The restaurant previously declared itself a mask-free zone and refused to shut its doors when eateries were ordered in March 2020 to curtail indoor dining as part of Covid restrictions.

Some appear to appreciate the intended message behind the odd measure. A vaccinated woman who cuts hair at a nearby barbershop told local media that she didn’t feel slighted by the no-vaxxed-allowed policy. “You got other places that want you vaccinated to come in. No different, right?” she noted to a local ABC affiliate. However, many others were furious over the move. The restaurant has been pelted with negative reviews on Yelp. One comment said that the provocative rule was a “slap in the face to all those who died from Covid-19.”

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Good idea, so-so rendition:

America, A Nation Which Once Championed Free Speech (Sinclair)

The elites of Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and Capitol Hill act as the true overlords of Western thought, guarding the borders of allowable speech. How on earth did we allow this to happen – and what can be done now? America has changed beyond recognition over the past few years, and performed a rather rapid about-face on the issue of free speech, a notion it once championed. The source of this is no longer merely the apparatus of Silicon Valley and its desire to control information flows (which it is meant to merely shepherd without bias). The same pressure has come from the superstate structure of America itself, particularly (and ironically) the politically ‘liberal’ faction, as well as from an overarching pressure from the consumer interests of Western-backed global finance.

There appears to be a mass consensus among American money-powers (and thereby state powers) to tightly control information, and to abandon utterly their so recently lauded values of free speech. The FBI in particular has seemingly transitioned into an institution of speech-referees and political oppressors, on guard primarily against America’s own citizens. Ironically, this has not halted America’s saber-rattling about political and informational oppressions from its geopolitical rivals in the east, which find themselves in the reverse role of shocked concern at the willingness of the American superstate to silence its political and moral enemies. Even to the extent of performing show trials.

[..] Facebook has led an initiative to officially create ‘snitches’ among its users, creating their own ‘social credit scheme’, along the lines of China’s. Again, in an act of unbridled obliviousness to the utter reversal of values they held as core only a few scant years ago, and while complaining out of the corner of their mouths about a Chinese variation of the same system. The nation which championed ‘free speech’ will now ban you from the public space and force you out of your job for the crime of ‘misgendering’. Among those who support the hard turn away from free speech, you will find devoted imbibers of neoliberal media, (CNN, MSNBC, BBC, NYT, etc). It is possibly here where you will find these attitudes are ‘created’ before being disseminated downstream among the elites of Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and Capitol Hill.

Once in consensus with the latest media buzzwords, these three may be considered part of a closed feedback loop. From there the true overlords of Western thought are those newly emerged sentinels who guard the borders of allowable speech. Today American citizens are tracked, monitored, and generally threatened more than ever before. Even my writing of this article, what would have been considered an innocuous expression of free political criticism only five or so years ago, might today be considered controversial to the new ‘American Stasi’. We in the West now live behind what we might call a new ‘iron curtain’ – and for those living behind this curtain, there is no longer any illusion of free speech, it is simply no longer talked about.

Read more …

Hale was caught because the Intercept got involved.

The Price of Conscience – Daniel Hale Sentenced to 45 Months (Chris Hedges)

Daniel Hale, a former intelligence analyst in the drone program for the Air Force who as a private contractor in 2013 leaked some 17 classified documents about drone strikes to the press, was sentenced Tuesday to 45 months in prison. The documents, published by The Intercept on October 15, 2015, exposed that between January 2012 and February 2013, U.S. special operations airstrikes killed more than 200 people. Of those, only 35 were the intended targets. For one five-month period of the operation, according to the documents, nearly 90 percent of the people killed in airstrikes were not the intended targets. The civilian dead, usually innocent bystanders, were routinely classified as “enemies killed in action.”

The Justice Department coerced Hale, who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2012, on March 31 to plead guilty to one count of violating the Espionage Act, a law passed in 1917 designed to prosecute those who passed on state secrets to a hostile power, not those who expose to the public government lies and crimes. Hale admitted as part of the plea deal to “retention and transmission of national security information” and leaking 11 classified documents to a journalist. If he had refused the plea deal, he could have spent 50 years in prison. The sentencing of Hale is one more potentially mortal blow to the freedom of the press. It follows in the wake of the prosecutions and imprisonment of other whistleblowers under the Espionage Act including Chelsea Manning, Jeffrey Sterling, Thomas Drake and John Kiriakou, who spent two-and-a-half years in prison for exposing the routine torture of suspects held in black sites.


Those charged under the act are treated as if they were spies. They are barred from explaining motivations and intent to the court. They cannot provide evidence to the court of the government lawlessness and war crimes they exposed. Prominent human rights organizations, such as the ACLU and PEN, along with mainstream publications, such as The New York Times and CNN, have largely remained silent about the prosecution of Hale. The group Stand with Daniel Hale has called on President Biden to pardon Hale and end the use of the Espionage Act to punish whistleblowers. It is also collecting donations for Hale’s legal fund. The bipartisan onslaught against the press — Barack Obama used the Espionage Act eight times against whistleblowers, more than all other previous administrations combined — by criminalizing those within the system who seek to inform the public is ominous for our democracy. It is effectively extinguishing all investigations into the inner workings of power.

Read more …

US woman kills someone on UK motorway, her fault, flees the country. US calls diplomatic immunity of sorts, no extradition. The US attorney who makes that case happens to be the same who tries hard to get Assange extradited the other way around.

Biden DOJ Wants Identity Of NoVA Woman’s Employer Kept Secret (Patch)

Radd Seiger, adviser and spokesperson for the Dunn family, said in a statement Monday that “as any parent might imagine, losing a child is the worst thing that can happen to you.” “But having to deal with the U.S. Government’s abuse and denial of justice as Harry’s family have had to since he died is unprecedented for us here in the U.K.,” he said. “Their conduct is and continues to be frankly unAmerican and against the core values of decency and compassion that we know most Americans hold dear to their hearts, including those who work for the intelligence agencies, many of whom have come forward to us privately to tell us how ashamed they are of their employer.”

Among the Justice Department officials who signed the motion for a protective order was Raj Parekh, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and an appointee of the Biden administration. In an ironic twist, Parekh supervises hundreds of Justice Department attorneys, including many who are seeking the extradition of foreign nationals to the United States. The most prominent case currently under Parekh’s direction is the U.S. government’s attempt to extradite WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, an Australian citizen, from the U.K. to the United States to face charges under the U.S. Espionage Act of 1917. David Davis, a Conservative member of the U.K. Parliament, wrote in an op-ed on Saturday that his government appears to have a one-sided relationship with the United States on the issue of extradition.

“[T]he UK is one of most amenable nations in the world to the surrender of its citizens to overseas courts — but we do not insist on corresponding arrangements with other governments,” Davis wrote in his July 24 column for the Daily Mail. [..] Sacoolas is scheduled to be deposed by the Dunn family’s lawyers on Aug. 24 as part of the lawsuit against her and her husband. Dunn’s parents were deposed in the civil proceeding in early July. At Sacoolas’s deposition, “she will be questioned regarding her activity as she drove from the base to the accident scene, and Plaintiffs are deeply concerned that the Government’s motion will needlessly thwart a legitimate inquiry on this and other relevant subjects,” the Dunn family lawyers wrote in their court filing on Monday. Seiger, the spokesperson for the Dunn family, said the July 23 motion filed by the Justice Department “is not an attempt to protect state secrets or national security.” “It is an attempt to keep Harry’s family from the truth and minimize what happened to him,” he said.

Read more …

“The first thing I do when I get a new phone is take it apart.”

The Insecurity Industry (Snowden)

The first thing I do when I get a new phone is take it apart. I don’t do this to satisfy a tinkerer’s urge, or out of political principle, but simply because it is unsafe to operate. Fixing the hardware, which is to say surgically removing the two or three tiny microphones hidden inside, is only the first step of an arduous process, and yet even after days of these DIY security improvements, my smartphone will remain the most dangerous item I possess. Prior to this week’s Pegasus Project, a global reporting effort by major newspapers to expose the fatal consequences of the NSO Group—the new private-sector face of an out-of-control Insecurity Industry—most smartphone manufacturers along with much of the world press collectively rolled their eyes at me whenever I publicly identified a fresh-out-of-the-box iPhone as a potentially lethal threat.

Despite years of reporting that implicated the NSO Group’s for-profit hacking of phones in the deaths and detentions of journalists and human rights defenders; despite years of reporting that smartphone operating systems were riddled with catastrophic security flaws (a circumstance aggravated by their code having been written in aging programming languages that have long been regarded as unsafe); and despite years of reporting that even when everything works as intended, the mobile ecosystem is a dystopian hellscape of end-user monitoring and outright end-user manipulation, it is still hard for many people to accept that something that feels good may not in fact be good. Over the last eight years I’ve often felt like someone trying to convince their one friend who refuses to grow up to quit smoking and cut back on the booze—meanwhile, the magazine ads still say “Nine of Ten Doctors Smoke iPhones!” and “Unsecured Mobile Browsing is Refreshing!”

In my infinite optimism, however, I can’t help but regard the arrival of the Pegasus Project as a turning-point—a well-researched, exhaustively-sourced, and frankly crazy-making story about a “winged” “Trojan Horse” infection named “Pegasus” that basically turns the phone in your pocket into an all-powerful tracking device that can be turned on or off, remotely, unbeknownst to you, the pocket’s owner.


The microphones inside my actual phone, prepped for surgery

Read more …

Officially stateless now? Nice. What says Australia?

Julian Assange Stripped Of Citizenship By Ecuador (G.)

Ecuador has revoked the citizenship of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks who is currently in a British prison. Ecuador’s justice system formally notified the Australian of the nullity of his naturalisation in a letter that came in response to a claim filed by the South American country’s foreign ministry. A naturalisation is reconsidered when it is granted based on the concealment of relevant facts, false documents or fraud. Ecuadorian authorities said Assange’s naturalisation letter had multiple inconsistencies, different signatures, the possible alteration of documents and unpaid fees, among other issues. Carlos Poveda, Assange’s lawyer, said the decision was made without due process and Assange was not allowed to appear in the case.


“On the date [Assange] was cited he was deprived of his liberty and with a health crisis inside the deprivation of liberty centre where he was being held,” Poveda said. Poveda said he will file appeals asking for an amplification and clarification of the decision. “More than the importance of nationality, it is a matter of respecting rights and following due process in withdrawing nationality.” Assange received Ecuadorian citizenship in January 2018 as part of a failed attempt by the government of then-President Lenín Moreno to turn him into a diplomat to get him out of its embassy in London. On Monday, the Pichincha court for contentious administrative matters revoked this decision. Ecuador’s foreign ministry said the court had “acted independently and followed due process in a case that took place during the previous government and that was raised by the same previous government”.

Read more …

 

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Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.
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