Floris van Schooten Still-Life with Glass, Cheese, Butter and Cake 1st half 17th century
Molnupiravir works only in Brazil.
Obesity kills 2.8 million people a year. Heart disease kills 17.9 million a year. Diabetes kills 1.5 million people a year. If the government actually cared about your health, they would have banned fast food, processed sugars, & refined oils a long time ago. But they didn’t.
“More than 30,000 [mutations] in a single gene of its spike protein. This is too many, and it means the virus has an unstable genome.”
• Omicron Could Spell End For Covid-19 Pandemic – Top Russian Scientist (RT)
A new mutant strain of Covid-19 that has sparked fears for vaccine resistance, caused flight cancellations, and sent the stock market plummeting could actually help bring the pandemic to an end, a Russian virologist has claimed. In an interview published on Monday in Moscow tabloid KP, Anatoly Altshtein, a virologist at the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, which pioneered Russia’s Sputnik V jab, said that there it is still not clear how deadly or infectious the new Omicron variant might be. According to him, even if it does spread faster than its predecessor, known as Delta, it could take months to become the predominant form of the virus.
Even if that happens, he said, it’s not clear that Omicron means higher death tolls than at present. “Right now there are reasons to think that the Omicron variant could be less pathogenic,” he went on, meaning less able to cause harmful infection.Explaining the science behind the hypothesis, Altshtein said that “we already see Omicron has many mutations, more than Delta. More than thirty-thousand in a single gene of its spike protein. This is too many, and it means the virus has an unstable genome. As a rule, this sort of infectious agent becomes less dangerous, because evolutionarily, an overwhelming number of mutations leads to a weakening of the virus’s ability to cause disease.”
According to the professor, if this rule holds true, then Omicron would be fatal in only a small fraction of cases, and would become like other common seasonal infections. He stressed that we still understand little about the new variant, discovered by South African scientists last week, and that it was best to be cautious while its characteristics are researched. Some nations, including Japan and Israel, have announced they are banning all foreign travelers. “We shouldn’t be afraid that the Omicron variant is spreading widely,” said Professor Altshtein, “but that it could turn out to be the most pathogenic variant, making infection worse.”
This is so important. But it still doesn’t supersede or invalidate state mandates.
Still, all mandate calls in the US are now de facto gone. Not in Europe, though, which doesn’t have this kind of court system.
• Federal Judge Blocks Vaccine Mandate For Health Care Workers Nationwide (Fox)
A federal judge in Louisiana issued a nationwide preliminary injunction Tuesday against President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers. Judge Terry A. Doughty in the U.S. District Court Western District of Louisiana ruled in favor of a request from Republican Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry to block an emergency regulation issued Nov. 4 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that required vaccines for nearly every full-time employee, part-time employee, volunteer, and contractor working at a wide range of healthcare facilities receiving Medicaid or Medicaid funding. Louisiana was joined in the lawsuit by attorneys general in 13 other states. Doughty argued in his ruling that the Biden administration does not have the constitutional authority to go around Congress by issuing such a mandate.
“If the executive branch is allowed to usurp the power of the legislative branch to make laws, two of the three powers conferred by our Constitution would be in the same hands,” he wrote. “If human nature and history teach anything, it is that civil liberties face grave risks when governments proclaim indefinite states of emergency. “During a pandemic such as this one, it is even more important to safeguard the separation of powers set forth in our Constitution to avoid erosion of our liberties,” he added. Noting that the case “will ultimately be decided by a higher court than this one,” Doughty wrote, “However, it is important to preserve the status quo in this case. The liberty interests of the unvaccinated requires nothing less.”
Landry praised the ruling, saying in a statement: “I applaud Judge Doughty for recognizing that Louisiana is likely to succeed on the merits and for delivering yet another victory for the medical freedom of Americans. While Joe Biden villainizes our healthcare heroes with his ‘jab or job’ edicts, I will continue to stand up to the President’s bully tactics and fight for liberty.”
“If the mandate can be invoked in the name of economy and efficiency in federal procurement, then such powers can be exploited by the president “to enact virtually any measure… under the guise of economy and efficiency..”
• Biden’s Vaccine Mandates Suffer Back-to-Back Blows (RT)
US President Joe Biden’s plans for mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations have been blocked by two federal judges. One order blocked the federal healthcare mandate nationwide, while another blocked it for contractors in three states.Federal Judge Terry Doughty in Louisiana issued a nationwide injunction against the mandate for employees and contractors of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Tuesday evening, saying Biden’s mandate violated the constitutional separation of powers. “If human nature and history teach anything, it is that civil liberties face grave risks when governments proclaim indefinite states of emergency,” Doughty wrote in his ruling. “During a pandemic such as this one, it is even more important to safeguard the separation of powers set forth in our Constitution to avoid erosion of our liberties.”
While the case will ultimately be decided in a higher court, “it is important to preserve the status quo in this case. The liberty interest of the unvaccinated requires nothing less,” the judge wrote. The case was brought by attorneys-general of Louisiana, Montana, Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia – all Republicans. Judge Doughty’s injunction applies to all states except 10, where it was already enjoined by another federal judge. US District Judge Matthew Schelp blocked the CMS mandate in Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nebraska, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota on Monday. Meanwhile, US District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove in the Eastern District of Kentucky blocked the attempt to mandate vaccinations for federal contractors in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
In his opinion, Van Tatenhove said the challenge was not “about whether vaccines are effective. They are.” However, the case brought by Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron asked if Biden can “use congressionally delegated authority to manage the federal procurement of goods and services to impose vaccines on the employees of federal contractors and subcontractors.” “In all likelihood, the answer to that question is no. “If the mandate can be invoked in the name of economy and efficiency in federal procurement, then such powers can be exploited by the president “to enact virtually any measure… under the guise of economy and efficiency,” wrote Van Tatenhove, granting the injunction. The Biden administration previously set a November 22 deadline for federal workers and January 4 for federal contractors to be vaccinated against Covid-19, with those who did not receive an exemption facing penalties or loss of jobs.
“..the option to sue for peace and make penance may well have a time limit beyond which your apology and offer of restitution will not be accepted.”
• Three Jabs And…. (Denninger)
The narrative is collapsing and so is the willingness to put up with the bull****. Notice the hospitals who have been forced to close ERs due to firing jab-refusing nurses? What happens when you have a heart attack and the ER is closed? The chorus of medical folks who have had enough with the lies is also becoming louder by the day and that which was previously unknown when it comes to the risk of these jabs has without exception come up on the wrong side of the ledger. We now have formal published medical studies showing durable harm from the jabs and the number of physicians and others speaking out on this is rising.
In addition both the 6th Circuit (which is hearing the OSHA mandate case and has not, thus far, dissolved the 5th Circuit’s stay) and now the CMS Mandate, which hit health care workers, has been hit with a preliminary injunction — which puts any medical center that fired people up to now for refusing in a very difficult spot with potential civil and, if discovery proves collusive action between medical centers then extortion is on the table which is a predicate to civil and criminal racketeering. If you think the Biden administration doesn’t at least suspect they’re ****ed at this point you’re dumber than you look. This, by the way, means those who “implemented” such things ahead of the government are utterly and completely ****ed. As in “you have a purdy house and it will soon be mine” level ****ed — or worse.
What’s even better is that by delaying the mandate dates to after the New Year Biden’s Administration has admitted that there is no “emergency.” You don’t let half the town burn to the ground by sitting on your ass for yet another month, right into the maw of cold and flu season, if there is an emergency with a respiratory virus. Never mind CMS, OSHA and all the other organs of government who sat on the issue for months. If you think the 6th Circuit won’t take note of all that — oh yes they will, and
there goes the government claims. And your employer’s, by the way. As I predicted I fully expect this pattern to continue and indeed accelerate as we go through the next few months and once it reaches critical mass there will be no stopping it. If you are and have been on the wrong side of this debate with regard to mandates and screaming as I have predicted for more than a year your time is about to expire and when it does all that will remain is whether you are ignored as lunatics for the rest of your life or whether the people decide that those 500,000 extra dead bodies that occurred solely due to your actions, along with all the mandated jab-related injuries, demand accountability and it will be you that sates said fury, like it or not. Choose wisely Karen as its quite clear you are going to lose; the option to sue for peace and make penance may well have a time limit beyond which your apology and offer of restitution will not be accepted. I for one look forward to that day for you deserve it.
“By 1905, smallpox vaccination had been in common use for almost a century, and populations, legislatures and courts had been essentially unanimous in accepting it as appropriate and effective..”
• Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates Fail the Jacobson Test (BI)
It is time to bring our legal thinking about Covid-19 vaccine mandates down to earth. At times of national emergency, government’s overriding goal must be to protect the population while removing the cause of the state of emergency. This means that certain laws, regulations, and policies may be temporarily suspended to accomplish these tasks. For example, if the army needs your car to transport soldiers to the front line, so be it. In particular, during the 1902 smallpox epidemic, the U.S. Supreme Court in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905) ruled that the State of Massachusetts could compel residents to obtain free vaccination or revaccination against the infection, or suffer a penalty of $5 (about $150 today) for noncompliance.
In authoring the majority opinion in Jacobson, Justice John Marshall Harlan argued (1) that individual liberty does not allow people to act regardless of harm that could be caused to others; (2) that the vaccination mandate was not shown to be arbitrary or oppressive; (3) that vaccination was reasonably required for public safety; and (4) that the defendant’s view that the smallpox vaccine was not safe or effective constituted a tiny minority medical opinion. By 1905, smallpox vaccination had been in common use for almost a century, and populations, legislatures and courts had been essentially unanimous in accepting it as appropriate and effective to prevent smallpox both in individuals and in outbreaks. In the Cleveland smallpox epidemic of 1902-4, there were 1,394 recorded cases and 252 deaths, a case fatality risk of 18%; thus a clear public safety rationale for preventing the infection.
The Court in Jacobson used a host of expressions to describe its four-part scrutiny of the Cambridge, Massachusetts vaccine mandate in that case. Among these expressions are: whether the requirement was “arbitrary and not justified by the necessity of the case”; whether the mandate went “far beyond what was reasonable required for the safety of public”; whether it was a ”reasonable regulation, as the safety of the general public may demand;” and whether it has a “real and substantial relation” to the public health. The Jacobson Court never said that it used a “rational basis” test; indeed, that lowest-level of judicial scrutiny was not then a term of art that courts used. And that test surely does not describe in substance what the Court in 1905 did.
Courts during the Covid-19 pandemic have nonetheless regularly applied “rational basis” review to vaccine mandates, citing Jacobson as authority for doing so! To cite just one of several possible examples, Judge Frank Easterbrook, writing for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in throwing out a lawsuit by Indiana University students against that institution’s vaccine mandate, said: “[g]iven Jacobson v. Massachusetts,… there can’t be a constitutional problem with vaccination against SARS-CoV-2.” The main reason for that conclusion was his claim that the Jacobson court used the weakest standard of judicial analysis of government action. Easterbrook invoked the “rational-basis standard used in Jacobson.” But the Jacobson Court carefully scrutinized the medico-scientific understanding of the smallpox epidemic and the vaccines then in use, much more so than has occurred in Covid-19 vaccine mandate litigation today.
€100 in monthly fines. Average pension is €730. To work, enter a store or sit outside a restaurant (forget inside), you need a €10 rapid test valid for 48 hrs.
If you’re over 60 and working, that’s €100 + 12x €10 every month. And they’re still going to fail.
• Greece Mandates Vaccines for Adults Over 60 (BA)
Today, Greece declared that all citizens over the age of 60 will be required to vaccinate themselves against COVID-19 to mitigate the spread of the disease following the emergence of the omicron variant. Hellenes over 60 who do not provide proof of vaccination by January 16th, 2022 will face monthly fines of 100 euros. Greece has already created a parallel society for the unvaccinated by barring them from indoor spaces including restaurants, gyms, and concert venues. With the average Greek pension being 730 euros, the fine represents a significant cost to a nation whose economy has floundered for the better part of 2 decades. 63% of Greece’s population of 11 million fully vaccinated and data shows that there are approximately 520,000 people in Greece over 60 who remain unvaccinated who would be subject to the punitive measure supported by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Though Greece’s January 16th deadline marks the earliest vaccine mandate that will take effect in Europe, it was not the first to be announced. Austria gained the distinction of legislating Europe’s first national vaccine mandate earlier this month. In the wake of implementing a nation-wide lockdown of its unvaccinated population, Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced that his government would require all adults in the nation to be vaccinated by February 1st, 2022. Like Greece, Austria will impose fines on its unvaccinated population. Unlike Greece, the fines imposed in Austria are untenable with failure to establish full vaccination status resulting in a fine of up to 7,200 euros according to initial drafts of the law. An initial fine of 3,600 euros would be levied against Austrians, with district administrative authorities reserving the right to double the fine to 7,200 euros.
Even those Austrians who are fully vaccinated will not be able to escape punishment. Schallenberg’s mandate includes compulsory booster shots with a fine of up to 1,500 euros for those failing to maintain their “fully vaccinated” status. What would an authoritarian political movement originating in Austria be without Germany following close behind? Despite the 2021 German elections marking a sea change in the nation’s political climate by marking the end of the Angela Merkel era, the change in leadership represents no change in the country’s tactics to fight COVID-19. Merkel’s successor, Olaf Sholz, has yet to officially take office but has nevertheless voiced his support of a national vaccine mandates. Sholz plans to put forward a plan which will require all Germans to be vaccinated against the virus by the end of February, 2022 along with requiring proof of vaccination to be confirmed by non-essential stores nationwide.
In France, a proposal for mandatory vaccines against COVID-19 was introduced by Bernard Jomier, Chair of the Social Affairs Commitee, in October. However, the proposal was rejected by the French senate following its first reading at a public session on October 13th. No new proposal has been introduced to the French parliament just yet. However, with neighboring Germany taking steps to mandate vaccinations, it may just be a matter of time before France rolls over and follows in Germany’s foot steps.
Is this a Big Pharma ad for an Omicron vaccine?
• Two Triple-Jabbed Israeli Doctors Test Positive For Omicron (JPost)
Two Israeli doctors, both from Sheba Medical Center, have been confirmed as infected with the Omicron variant, a spokesperson for the hospital confirmed. Both are cardiologists. One of the doctors, in his 50s, brought the variant into Israel on return from a medical conference in London. He tested negative when he boarded the airplane from the United Kingdom to Israel and on arrival, but a few days later began experiencing symptoms. Once he tested positive, his results were sequenced and he was confirmed positive for the variant on Tuesday.
Before entering isolation, the doctor had performed several catheterizations and attended at least two other large events. He was also in contact with the second cardiologist, in his 70s, who is now infected with the variant. Both doctors were fully vaccinated with three shots of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. To date, there are four confirmed cases of the variant in Israel, and more than 10 suspicious cases. The hospital spokesperson said that anyone the doctors were in contact with have been informed but there are no additional suspicious cases at the medical center at this time nor news of any related outbreaks.
“This narrative is devolving into a scaffolding so thin and fragile that all but the most dogmatic and determined can see right through it.”
• The Omicron Absurdities Continue (Gato Malo)
Cases in MA, CT, RI, NY are now rising rapidly as the warm fall comes to an end and winter begins. watch for them to follow the northern neighbors. This is NOT omicron. This is delta. The vaccines are already falling apart in terms of efficacy because mRNA vaccines against a spike protein were and remain a BAD idea. It’s a bad design and was never going to plausibly provide durable sterilizing immunity.Tthis leakiness has almost certainly made the virus itself worse. My take is that this omiron vaccine evasion is not new, it’s just an excuse to hide what was already happening. Unless omi is going to lead to worse outcomes than “double the risk of contracting covid” it’s hard to see what the fuss is about, and if that IS the claim, then it’s awfully hard to see why “take more vaxx” is the answer.
And yet the “solutions” are the same tired zero data talking points. Or even a literal doubling down on that nonsense. So, now we are to believe that because this variant is vaccine evading, the solution is to take twice as much of a vaccine already known to have the worst side effect profile of any vax ever approved for US use and that this variant has already evaded? Because that sounds like pouring more water on a lithium ion battery fire… “Let’s just swing WAY outside the already deeply questionable dose ranging?” Is there even any data on this? I mean, just how “one note” can a flute be? Is there literally any eventuality that would NOT result in US officialdom demanding more vaccine use? Is there literally any outcome on efficacy or side effects that would result in their recall from the market?
Many EU countries already pulled Moderna (and sometimes Pfizer as well) for anyone under 30. But the US wants to mandate them for 5 year old school kids (and already has in many places, including Puerto Rico). The UK is suddenly once more interested in vaccines made from whole virus. But the US is still all about mRNA. To describe these health officials as “floundering” is an insult to many fine paralichthys lethostigma. This narrative is devolving into a scaffolding so thin and fragile that all but the most dogmatic and determined can see right through it. Unfortunately, many of that most devoted and pot committed cultist crew work in media and government. Expect a big surge in oppression and hectoring therefrom.
But expect (and participate in) a bigger surge of pushback from the middle who have had it with these tinhat biotyrants and pseudoscientific patricians. This has jumped the shark on absurdity and is well into shrill, self aggrandizing posterior covering and emotional melt down. It all falls apart for them from here. They’re cornered. Do NOT let them out.
It’s not Pfizer, but a third party they hired. Still, why do we give credence to anything that’s not independent research?
• Fresh Doubts Over Data Integrity In Pfizer mRNA Trial (Demasi)
Leaked documents have cast fresh doubts over the integrity of data arising from Pfizer’s pivotal COVID-19 vaccine trial and suggest problems at Ventavia are ongoing. Earlier this month, whistle-blower Brook Jackson, raised serious concerns about ‘falsified data’ in Pfizer’s mRNA trial (Comirnaty) to The BMJ. The concerns were corroborated by two former Ventavia employees. Authorities were quick to allay public anxiety. Drug regulators in Australia (TGA) and the US (FDA) released statements assuring the public they had full confidence in the data. Further, the benefits of the Pfizer vaccine outweighed the risks. High profile researchers were sceptical. “It’s all this sort of vague kind of hand waving ….that The BMJ published it doesn’t make it any more true,” said vaccine expert Dr Paul Offit.
Ventavia, the Texas-based company at the centre of the controversy, released a statement claiming that, in respect of Ms Jackson, “no part of her job responsibilities concerned the clinical trials at issue.” Undeterred, Ms Jackson fired back. Ventavia and its spokesperson Lauren Foreman, were served with a cease-and-desist letter, by attorney Robert Barnes, acting on behalf of whistle-blower, Ms Jackson.Of Ventavia’s claims, the demand letter says: “This statement is false. This statement impugns the reputation of my client, Brook Jackson, and falsely implies she publicly misrepresented her work on the clinical trials.” Attorney Barnes is calling for Ventavia to immediately issue a public retraction and to “formally and publicly apologise” to Ms Jackson.
Her letter of offer for employment indicates Ms Jackson was hired as a “regional director” by Ventavia on 7 Sept 2020. She has almost two decades of experience in clinical trial co-ordination and management behind her. Her duties included overseeing the operations, recruitment, and quality assurance of trial sites belonging to Ventavia. [..] There were multiple examples of “laboratory processing logs” filled in by staff which contained glaring inconsistencies and anomalies in specimen handling. Ventavia appeared to be aware of the need to make improvements and Ms Jackson was recruited for the very purpose of improving their quality control.
I don’t understand why people working in stores or bars agree to check people’s vaccine status. That’s not your job.
• Large UK Supermarket Chains Refuse to Police “Divisive” Face Mask Mandates (SN)
Two large supermarket chains in the UK have refused to make their staff police mandatory face mask rules, with one boss asserting that the issue is too “divisive.” New face mask rules were imposed in England from today, meaning people who use public transport, enter shops and innumerable other venues have to wear a compulsory face covering. England dropped mandatory face mask rules back in July, but they remained in place in neighboring countries like Scotland, where official data shows infection rates remained the same or higher. According to Oxford Professor Jim Naismith, re-imposing face mask rules is “unlikely to have much of an impact” on the spread of the Omicron variant.
Wary of how contentious the issue has become, Iceland and Co-op, two large supermarket chains in the UK, have publicly said they will tell staff not to enforce such rules. Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland, said the company would instead be concentrating its efforts on the “long-term recovering of the high street.” “We fully support the reintroduction of compulsory face masks in shops, however, we won’t be asking our store colleagues to police it,” said Walker. Co-op’s Paul Gerrard went further, telling GMB, “”What we won’t do is we won’t refuse to serve people who aren’t wearing a mask and we won’t refuse entry to the shop to people who aren’t wearing a mask.”
“..mass propaganda and censorship, the orchestrated promotion of terror, the manipulation of science, the suppression of debate, the vilification of dissent and use of force to prevent protest.”
• Fauci As Darth Vader Of The COVID Wars (Escobar)
Robert F Kennedy Jr’s The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health should be front-page news in all the news media in the US. Instead, it has been met with the proverbial thundering silence. Critics seeking to have Kennedy dismissed as a kook trading on a famous name had scored a hit in February, when Instagram permanently deleted his account, allegedly for making false claims about coronavirus and vaccines. Nevertheless, the book, published only a few days ago, is already a certified pop hit on Amazon. RFK Jr., chairman of the board of and chief legal counsel for Children’s Health Defense, sets out to deconstruct a New Normal, encroaching upon all of us since early 2020. In my early 2021 book Raging Twenties I have termed this force techno-feudalism.
Kennedy describes it as “rising totalitarianism,” complete with “mass propaganda and censorship, the orchestrated promotion of terror, the manipulation of science, the suppression of debate, the vilification of dissent and use of force to prevent protest.” Focusing on Dr Anthony Fauci as the fulcrum of the biggest story of the 21st century allows RFK Jr to paint a complex canvas of planned militarization and, especially, monetization of medicine, a toxic process managed by Big Pharma, Big Tech and the military/intel complex – and dutifully promoted by mainstream media. By now everyone knows that the big winners have been Big Finance, Big Pharma, Big Tech and Big Data, with a special niche for Silicon Valley behemoths. Why Fauci?
RFK Jr. argues that for five decades, he has been essentially a Big Pharma agent, nurturing “a complex web of financial entanglements among pharmaceutical companies and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and its employees that has transformed NIAID into a seamless subsidiary of the pharmaceutical industry. Fauci unabashedly promotes his sweetheart relationship with Pharma as a ‘public-private partnership.’” Arguably the full contours of this very convoluted story have never before been examined along these lines, extensively documented and with a wealth of links. Fauci may not be a household name outside of the US and especially across the Global South. And yet it’s this global audience that should be particularly interested in his story.
RFK Jr accuses Fauci of having pursued nefarious strategies since the onset of Covid-19 – from falsifying science to suppressing and sabotaging competitive products that bring lower profit margins. Kennedy’s verdict is stark: “Tony Fauci does not do public health; he is a businessman, who has used his office to enrich his pharmaceutical partners and expand the reach of influence that has made him the most powerful – and despotic – doctor in human history.”
“Even when a single person manages to sell a policy to the bureaucratic machine, he cannot predict how it will be implemented and he will have no control over what actually happens.”
• There Isn’t One Plan, There Are Fifty Thousand (eugyp)
[..] American universities aren’t just eager sponsors of racial hysteria. They have also emerged as some of the most radical centres of Corona containment in the world. Their students endure all manner of unreasonable hygiene measures. Constant testing, quarantining, mask rules, enforced isolation, officially encouraged snitching, movement restrictions, vaccine mandates — all of this and more are routine for millions of students. Klaus Schwab is not making them do this. The culprit is a broad, distributed adherence to the dictates of containment ideology, probably driven in no small part by emotional and ideological exhaustion with the prior tyranny of Wokeness. Now that everybody agrees, the self-directed, self-radicalising elements are in place.
Administrators and committee chairs that are perceived not to be taking Corona seriously enough will be removed or sidelined in favour of more radical people who take things more seriously than you could possibly imagine. All of these schools now operate with a wealth of Corona Committees, peopled by all the most lunatic germophobic faculty. Like wokeness, containment is destructive to the institutions that embarce it. American universities in particular depend on attracting students with over-provisioned campuses and entertaining student-life programs. They are basically massive amusement parks for young adults. Sooner or later, people will begin to think twice about paying tens of thousands of dollars a year to live in a prison camp. The destruction will start at less selective schools and proceed upwards. How high it will go, nobody knows.
Also like Wokeness, containment is probably bad even for many of its truest believers and most committed enforcers, who now live lives of fear, desperation and isolation, and see now way out. It is very easy to confuse cause and effect when examining the emergence of ideological systems. People raised up as leaders and heroes of emerging movements are almost never its directors, but merely expressions of all the separate beliefs and aspirations of those involved. As I’ve said before, It is extremely difficult for any confined group of people, no matter how wealthy or powerful, to implement any kind of coherent agenda in heavily bureaucratised modern states. Policies can only be implemented via a bureaucratic machinery involving thousands and thousands of people, all of whom have different incentives and answer to different bosses. Even when a single person manages to sell a policy to the bureaucratic machine, he cannot predict how it will be implemented and he will have no control over what actually happens. The agency of any single person is illusory here.
NATO is of no use. Their threats are empty.
• Russia Set To Unveil New Hypersonic Weapons – Putin (RT)
Russia has developed hypersonic weapons with a maximum speed of Mach 9, President Vladimir Putin revealed on Tuesday at the “Russia Calling!” VTB Investment Forum. Speaking to gathered experts, Putin called the development of high-speed missiles as a “necessary” response to “Western actions.” “We have already successfully conducted tests, and from the beginning of the year we will have in service a sea-based hypersonic missile of Mach 9,” Putin said. Although he didn’t name the weapon, the president is most likely talking about Zircon, the world’s first hypersonic cruise missile capable of continuous aerodynamic flight while maneuvering in the atmosphere using the thrust of its own engine. Earlier this month, Putin revealed, following successful testing, the missiles would be supplied to the Navy from 2022.
“Now, it is especially important to develop and implement the technologies necessary to create new hypersonic weapons systems, high-powered lasers and robotic systems that will be able to effectively counter potential military threats, which means they will further strengthen the security of our country,” he said in televised remarks. This year the Zircon missile has been tested multiple times and has been fired from both frigates and submarines. It is designed to help Russia achieve superiority at sea and can hit enemy surface ships, such as frigates and aircraft carriers, as well as ground targets located within its range. Its high speed makes it difficult for it to be stopped by any anti-aircraft systems and it has a declared range of a thousand kilometers.
“The cost of electricity in Finland exceeded €400 per megawatt-hour..”
“The average price of Russian electricity was €57.98 per MWh.”
• Finnish Electricity Prices 5 Times Higher This Year (RT)
The cost of electricity in Finland exceeded €400 per megawatt-hour during peak consumption hours this week, according to data from the Nord Pool electricity exchange. The highest price was recorded on November 29, at €422 per MWh (including taxes). That’s about five times higher than a year ago. Finland is energy-dependent, with about 10% of its electricity supplied by Russia. Experts attribute the increased price to high energy costs in Central Europe, where a large amount of electricity is generated from natural gas, the price of which has increased significantly. They say electricity in Finland is likely to remain expensive until next summer, when the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant is expected to become operational. Natural gas costs have been rising for European consumers with the winter season approaching.
On Tuesday, the price of January futures on the TTF exchange in the Netherlands exceeded $1,170 per thousand cubic meters, or €100 per MWh in household terms. “According to our forecast, the price of electricity will remain high in winter but will start to decline in spring. It is likely that it will not be as high as it is today, but the overall level remains elevated,” a spokesman for Finnish electricity company Fingrid, Mikko Heikkila, told journalists. He added that “Finland is very dependent on imports. In winter we need energy from neighboring countries but if the electricity market and domestic electricity production work normally, then next winter there will be enough electricity.” According to Fingrid, the share of electricity imports from Russia amounted to 10% of consumption in Finland in the first nine months of 2021. The average price of Russian electricity was €57.98 per MWh. Russian energy company Inter RAO said last week that most of its electricity export volume goes to Finland (37%), the Baltic countries (23%), and China (18%).
Words Canada’s CBC network warns you about using.
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