vaccine mandates Archives - The Automatic Earth

Mounting data suggest that older people are at higher risk of severe disease from a breakthrough infection of COVID-19—and scientists say that should come as no surprise. After all, older age brackets have been disproportionately at risk throughout the pandemic, and that continues to be true even once someone is fully vaccinated. Concerns about breakthrough infections bubbled up again this week when news broke on October 18 that former Secretary of State Colin Powell had died after contracting COVID-19. Powell was 84, but his cause of death was more complex: The former statesman suffered from multiple myeloma, a cancer of white blood cells. People with this form of cancer tend not to respond well to vaccines.

But in addition to the immunocompromised, health officials are seeing worrying evidence that older age groups continue to be at higher risk from the pandemic. According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people over 65 account for 67 percent of hospitalizations and 85 percent of deaths from breakthrough cases. And recent media reports citing data from Seattle, Washington, and the United Kingdom show that older vaccinated people face similar—and, in some cases, greater—risks of severe disease than unvaccinated children. “The huge risk factor is age,” says William Petri, an immunologist at the University of Virginia. That’s why the U.S. prioritized vaccinating older people and those in long-term care facilities when it first rolled out the vaccines, he explains.

“If you’re under 45, your chances of dying are almost nonexistent, and then it increases exponentially.” [..] Experts say they still don’t have an adequate explanation for why older people were more susceptible to COVID-19 even before vaccines were available. “It’s just one of the great mysteries of the virus,” says Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona. Scientists who study aging say it likely has to do with some of the hallmarks of getting older. For example, the human body normally clears away cells that have become damaged due to disease, injury, or stress. But as the body ages, this process becomes less efficient, and it starts to accumulate so-called senescent cells, which are damaged but won’t die. These cells secrete chemicals that damage neighboring healthy cells and trigger inflammation. Senescent cells thus weaken the body and make it harder to fight off infections.

Ryan Cole.

• Even Doctors In Red States Are Punished For Saving People From Covid (Blaze)

You are not allowed to treat COVID outpatient. It’s not about any one drug. You will be punished if you dare treat patients with anything that works. What began as 15 days to flatten the hospital curve has grown into a ban on all treatment outside the hospital to ensure everyone sick with moderate disease lands in the ER. No, they will not prosecute a doctor, they will just threaten to pull his license, which is why doctors won’t even prescribe azithromycin or prednisone, much less ivermectin and other proven antiinflammatories. What if you are part of the 1% of doctors who actually save lives — who run toward the fire rather than away from it? Instead of getting a medal of honor, these national heroes are now losing their licenses.

Idaho is not California. In fact, many Californians are fleeing to Idaho to escape the progressive persecution of the once Golden State. Yet now, with their investigation of Dr. Ryan Cole, the Idaho Medical Board wants to ensure that no doctor will ever treat you for this virus. If you contract this virus, there is probably nobody in the world you’d want access to more than Dr. Cole. A Mayo Clinic-trained anatomic and clinical pathologist who is licensed in 12 states, Cole knows the mechanisms of pathogens and various medicines as well as you know the streets of your neighborhood. He has lived the COVID pandemic in his Idaho lab since last March, diagnosing over 100,000 cases, and has given up much of his regular work to treat patients on his own time and own dime for months. His record is remarkable, and I have many friends and listeners of my podcast who are alive today because of his brilliance and kindness.

So there will be a ceremony in the Oval Office next week to present Dr. Cole with a medal for treating people in a pandemic while others let their patients die, right? At least the Idaho governor, Brad Little, will offer him some state reward? Nope. Instead, they are threatening to yank his license. Steven Kohtz, MD, president of the Idaho Medical Association’s board of trustees, and Susie Keller, CEO of the association, wrote a letter to the state’s board of medicine on Oct. 7, lamenting that “he has treated patients ‘from Florida to California'” with ivermectin. The horror! He should have let them die and not treated them at all, like Kohtz and his colleagues have done since last March.

In the letter, they claim Cole’s statements have killed people. “Many of those statements have advocated that people not be treated appropriately and undoubtedly have led to and will continue to lead to poor health outcomes as people are encouraged not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or obtain appropriate treatment for it when such treatment could improve their health.” Well, how could treating pulmonary symptoms with steroids and antiinflammatories be worse than not treating them at all? This is the ultimate exercise in projection. They assuage their own guilt of letting patients die by preventing others from treating people in the critical early days of the virus.

ADE

Antibody-dependent enhancement pic.twitter.com/rrWhlM8xvv

— Wittgenstein (@Kukicat7) October 19, 2021

Oops.. There’s a reason your medical data are private.

• ‘Terrible Mistake’ Could Send Execs To Jail Over Vaccine Certificates (AFR)

Collecting COVID-19 vaccination certificates from customers or employees poses a serious legal and cyber security risk to businesses that exposes them to lawsuits, hefty fines and even executive jail sentences if the data isn’t handled properly, experts warn. The risk is so grave that businesses that have already stored images of government-issued vaccination certificates from employees or customers are advised to scour their email or human resource systems and delete the images, or at the very least remove a sensitive piece of information prominent on the certificate that exposes businesses to a “world of data security pain”, one expert says. As part of state and federal requirements for emerging out of the pandemic lockdown, businesses are asked to check whether customers and employees are vaccinated before allowing them to enter their premises.

Businesses storing information about whether someone has been vaccinated are therefore storing health information, quite possibly for the first time, exposing them to the Privacy Act, which requires they take “reasonable steps” to secure that information, said Anna Johnston, a former NSW deputy privacy commissioner who runs her own data privacy consultancy, Salinger Privacy. Worse than that, the federal government certificates contain a unique identifier, known as the Individual Health Identifier (IHI), that is covered by its own law, with much stricter data security requirements and with punishments that could include jail if that one piece of data is mishandled, Ms Johnston told The Australian Financial Review.

Together with the Tax File Number, the IHI is the most sensitive piece of data used by government, she said. It uniquely identifies Australians for healthcare purposes, far more so than a Medicare number, which can be shared by family members. It’s so sensitive that, when it was brought in 2010, it came with its own privacy legislation, the Healthcare Identifiers Act. “Including the IHI on the vaccination certificate, which is a document we’re supposed to be showing to our gyms, hairdressers and restaurants, as well as to our employers and customers, was a terrible mistake by the federal government,” she said. “It’s a bad data-security problem that the government has created.

“I really feel for small businesses in particular. They don’t have an in-house compliance officer telling them what to do. They don’t have an information security officer telling them how to secure these records. They probably don’t have the foggiest clue that there are special rules for the use and disclosure of the IHI that, if they breach those rules, expose them to both a civil penalty and a criminal penalty. “You face up to two years imprisonment for use or disclosure of the IHI for any purposes outside of supporting healthcare. And now that number is on a PDF that is being emailed around willy nilly.”

Australia’s vaccination certificate has a piece of data experts warn shouldn’t be there.

Kimberley Strassel: “Here we go. Some of us wondered how long it would take for the liberal/media establishment to argue that we needed to keep pandemic measures going forever–even for things that we previously lived with, like the flu. It didn’t take long..”

• We Accidentally Solved the Flu. Now What? (Atl.)

Perhaps the oddest consolation prize of America’s crushing, protracted battle with the coronavirus is the knowledge that flu season, as we’ve long known it, does not have to exist. It’s easy to think of the flu as an immutable fact of winter life, more inconvenience than calamity. But each year, on average, it sickens roughly 30 million Americans and kills more than 30,000 (though the numbers vary widely season to season). The elderly, the poor, and people of color are all overrepresented among the casualties. By some estimates, the disease’s annual economic cost amounts to nearly $90 billion. We accept this, when we think about it at all, as the way things are.

Except that this past year, things were different: During the 2020–21 flu season, the United States recorded only about 2,000 cases, 17,000 times fewer than the 35 million it recorded the season before. That season, the flu killed 199 children; this past season, as far as we know, it killed one. “We’ve looked for flu in communities and doctors’ offices and hospitals, and we’ve gotten almost zero,” says Emily Martin, a University of Michigan epidemiologist who’s part of the CDC’s flu-monitoring network. The same was true of other seasonal respiratory viruses last winter, says Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist at George Mason University in Virginia, though some have since rebounded. RSV, parainfluenza, rhinovirus, adenovirus—for a while, they all but vanished.

For this, perversely, we can thank the pandemic. The coronavirus itself may have played some role—infection could produce a general immune response that would also confer protection against the flu—but most of the epidemiologists I spoke with instead emphasized the importance of the behavioral changes adopted to slow the spread of the coronavirus: masking, distancing, remote learning, working from home, limiting indoor social gatherings. Despite the inconsistency with which America deployed them, these measures helped tamp down the spread of the virus, but they completely crushed influenza, a less transmissible foe to which the population has considerable preexisting immunity. We set out to flatten the curve, and we ended up stamping out the flu.

This was one of the few blessings in an otherwise abysmal winter, in which COVID cases and deaths surged to their highest levels ever in the U.S. At least we didn’t face the dreaded “twindemic.” But our triumph over the flu also poses a dilemma, as much ethical as epidemiological. We’ve demonstrated conclusively that saving nearly everyone who dies of the flu is within our power. To do nothing now—to return to the roughly 30,000-deaths-a-year status quo without even trying to save some of those lives—would seem irresponsible. So what do we do? Which measures do we maintain and which do we let go?

You mean there was ever any justification?

• Study Destroys Justification for Vaccine Mandates (Siri)

Civil and individual rights are only meaningful if they continue to protect individuals during difficult situations. It is why the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of neo-Nazis to march through Jewish neighborhoods. It is why it upheld the right to burn the American flag. Protecting these rights when it is difficult protects us all. It assures that government will not erode these civil and individual rights, including during a pandemic. The CDC and State Health Department scientists just released a study that again reflects the dangers of making civil and individual rights contingent on a medical procedure. This study, titled Shedding of Infectious SARS-CoV-2 Despite Vaccination, reviewed swab specimens from 36 counties in Wisconsin from the end of June to the end of July 2021. They then checked the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in each swab.

What did they find? High viral load in “158 of 232 unvaccinated (68%…) and 156 of 225 fully vaccinated (69%…) symptomatic individuals.” Meaning there was effectively no difference between the symptomatic vaccinated and unvaccinated in terms of who was carrying, and therefore spreading, the virus. But the study does not end there. It also found high viral loads in “7 of 24 unvaccinated (29%…) and 9 of 11 fully vaccinated asymptomatic individuals (82%…).” Meaning, among asymptomatic individuals, the vaccinated had a higher percentage with a high viral load. As I explained in an interview with Shannon Bream, this reflects that the unvaccinated that catch the virus are more likely to be at home in bed with symptoms, while the vaccinated that catch the virus are more likely to have no symptoms and hence continue their daily routine unknowingly spreading the virus.

These findings are depicted in the following chart. Note that the lower the “N1 Ct value” the higher the viral load (and that a team at Oxford concluded that an N1 Ct value over 24 should not be taken to indicate the presence of any actual virus):

Make In-N-Out your destination.

“We refuse to become the vaccination police for any government..”

• SF’s Only In-N-Out Refuses to Enforce the City’s Vaccination Mandate (SFE)

The only San Francisco location of wildly popular California-based fast food chain In-N-Out Burger was temporarily shut down and remains closed for indoor dining after the SF Department of Public Health found the restaurant was not properly enforcing the city’s vaccination mandate for indoor dining, KRON4 reported first. The city shut down the restaurant at 333 Jefferson Street on Thursday, October 14, after learning staff weren’t checking diners’ proof of vaccination or preventing customers without proof of vaccination from entering. The restaurant has since resumed takeout and outdoor dining, but the company seems to be digging its heels on the vaccination mandate.

In a statement provided to Eater SF, In-N-Out Chief Legal & Business Officer Arnie Wensinger says the company believes requiring its staff to enforce a vaccination mandate constitutes government “overreach” and is refusing to do so. “We fiercely disagree with any government dictate that forces a private company to discriminate against customers who choose to patronize their business,” Wensinger’s statement reads. “This is clear governmental overreach and is intrusive, improper, and offensive.” In an email to Eater SF the San Francisco Department of Public Health says it’s been trying to get In-N-Out to adhere to the city’s vaccination order for weeks.

The city’s Joint Information Center Outreach Team first visited the restaurant on September 24 after receiving a complaint to the 311 non-emergency service line. Inspectors from the Environmental Health division who followed up on October 6, found the restaurant was still in violation of the health order and issued a Notice to Comply. The department finally issued a Notice of Closure on October 14, at which point the restaurant was “instructed to cease all operations on site immediately because of the threat it poses to public health,” according to the Department of Public Health. The owner of the property, Anchorage Holdings LP, which is based in Addison, Texas, was also issued a Notice of Violation.

The company says it has “properly and clearly posted signage to communicate local vaccination requirements.” But In-N-Out also admits employees were not checking customers’ vaccinations cards and IDs, nor were they preventing customers who are not able to prove they’ve been vaccinated from entering the restaurant, which the health department told the company that staff must do. “As a Company, In-N-Out Burger strongly believes in the highest form of customer service and to us that means serving all Customers who visit us and making all Customers feel welcome,” the statement continues. “We refuse to become the vaccination police for any government. It is unreasonable, invasive, and unsafe to force our restaurant Associates to segregate Customers into those who may be served and those who may not, whether based on the documentation they carry, or any other reason.”

“It will be interesting to see if, and how quickly, a parallel economy with a vaccination option workforce, will take root.”

• 9 In 10 Large Employers Worry About Losing Employees Over Vaccine Mandate (CTH)

In an unusual twist to the strength of the multinationals, many large corporations are worried they will lose critical employees to smaller organizations with less than 100 employees who do not have to enforce the national worker vaccine mandate. By itself the 100 worker rule, in combination with the exemptions being provided by the federal government for some politically connected union organizations, would seem to undercut the premise of the “national health emergency.” If the COVID pandemic is such a national threat, why would any groups be excluded from the mandate? However, until the Dept of Labor rule is officially registered, court cases to hear such arguments are not possible. A recent survey by The Society for Human Resource Management, as shared by The Hill, indicates that 9 out of 10 large employers are concerned about losing significant amounts of workers due to the federal mandate:

The Hill – […] “The survey reveals uneasiness among employers over the impending workplace rule, which will require employers with 100 or more employees to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations or frequent testing. They’re most concerned about losing workers amid an extremely tight labor market. Another two-thirds of employers surveyed said that they cannot afford to pay for weekly COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated workers. […] Others are worried that they could lose unvaccinated workers to rival firms with fewer than 100 employees or to independent contracting companies that aren’t subject to the rule.”

It will be interesting to see if, and how quickly, a parallel economy with a vaccination option workforce, will take root.

Well, not really.

• Southwest Drops Plan To Put Unvaccinated Staff On Unpaid Leave (CNBC)

Southwest Airlines has scrapped a plan to put unvaccinated employees who have applied for but haven’t received a religious or medical exemption on unpaid leave as of a federal deadline in December. Southwest Airlines and American Airlines are among the carriers that are federal contractors and subject to a Biden administration requirement that their employees are vaccinated against Covid-19 by Dec. 8 unless they are exempt for medical or religious reasons. Rules for federal contractors are stricter than those expected from the Biden administration for large companies, which will allow for regular Covid testing as an alternative to a vaccination.

Executives at both carriers in recent days have tried to reassure employees about job security under the mandate, urging them to apply for exemptions if they can’t get vaccinated for a medical reason or for a sincerely held religious belief. The airlines are expected to face more questions about the mandate when they report quarterly results Thursday morning. Pilots’ labor unions have sought to block the mandates or sought alternatives such as regular testing. Southwest’s senior vice president of operations and hospitality, Steve Goldberg, and Julie Weber, vice president and chief people officer, wrote to staff on Friday that if employees’ requests for an exemption haven’t been approved by Dec. 8, they could continue to work while following mask and distancing guidelines until the request has been reviewed.

The company is giving employees until Nov. 24 to finish their vaccinations or apply for an exemption. It will continue paying them while the company reviews their requests and said it will allow those who are rejected to continue working “as we coordinate with them on meeting the requirements (vaccine or valid accommodation).” “This is a change from what was previously communicated. Initially, we communicated that these Employees would be put on unpaid leave and that is no longer the case,” they wrote in the note, which was reviewed by CNBC. Southwest confirmed the policy change, which comes just weeks before the deadline.

“..if none of the unvaccinated workers were to cave in to the government’s demands — some will, of course, we just don’t know how many — the number of people without work in Italy would increase by well over 150% — in the space of just one week!”

• Things Are Getting Messy In Draghi’s Italy (NC)

As of last Friday all residents of Italy need a covid passport, or Green Pass, to access not only public spaces but also public and private workplaces. The pass proves that they have either been vaccinated against Covid-19, have recovered from the disease in the past six months or have recently tested negative. And now they need it to make a living, to feed their families. The “no jab, no job” rule applies to workers of all kinds, including the self employed, domestic staff and even people working remotely. If you’d still rather not get vaccinated, you have the option of showing proof of a negative test every two days. That can cost anywhere between €15 and €50 each time — far beyond the means of most low-paid workers. If you still refuse to get vaccinated or present proof of negative tests, you face unpaid suspension as well as a fine of up to €1,500. Public sector workers have five days to present the green pass before being suspended. Private sector workers without a green pass face suspension from the first day.

Here’s more from Politico: “By law, all workers must be able to show a so-called Green Pass, proving they are vaccinated against COVID-19 or have tested negative in the past 48 hours. Roughly 81 percent of Italians over 12 are fully vaccinated. While polls suggest the majority of Italians are in favor of vaccine passes (just as the majority of people in all countries are in favour of vaccine passes, according to polls), there are still 3.8 million unvaccinated workers, many in strategic sectors and public services such as ports, trucking, health care and law enforcement, who will be unable to work.”

This is by any measure a massive cull of workers. Three point eight million is more than 5% of Italy’s entire population and over 16% of the country’s officially employed workforce (22.7 million). The total number of people currently unemployed in Italy is 2.3 million. In other words, if none of the unvaccinated workers were to cave in to the government’s demands — some will, of course, we just don’t know how many — the number of people without work in Italy would increase by well over 150% — in the space of just one week! And as the Politico article mentions, many of these workers are in strategic sectors and public services.

This is all happening as Europe — and the world at large — faces the worst supply chain crisis in decades as well as acute energy and labor shortages. The move also risks giving a huge boost to Italy’s already quite large informal economy. Given as much, this is a huge, high-stakes bluff on the part of Draghi’s technocratic government, which was formed eighth months ago. If it pays off, the vast majority of Italy’s vaccine holdouts will fall into line and go back to work, and other governments across Europe will follow suit with similar mandates. If it doesn’t, Italy’s economy could be plunged into chaos.

Laptoppers.

• The Frightened Class (Harrington)

They’re all around us, especially those of us who live in relatively prosperous metropolitan neighborhoods in the US or Western Europe. Despite being—at least in material terms—among the most fortunate people who have ever walked the earth, they are very scared. And they want you to be very frightened too. Indeed, many of them see your refusal to be as frightened as they are about life’s inevitable risks as a grave problem which entitles them and their often powerful and influential fellow travelers to recur to all manner of authoritarian practices to insure that you adhere to their increasingly neurotic view of reality.

This tendency has been in full bloom lately as the people who have sat safely behind their laptops during the last 20 months have harangued and threatened those who have been out on job sites and meatpacking plants mixing freely with others and the virus, to internalize their own obsessions. And when these supposedly ignorant others—whose storehouse of empirical evidence about the dangers of the virus easily outstrips that of the laptoppers—refuse to buckle to the demand to be scared, they are met with all sorts of opprobrium. Viewed in historical terms, it’s an odd phenomenon.

For most of recorded time prosperity and education have been the gateway to a life of relative freedom from worry. But now, the people who most enjoy these benefits are, it seems, wracked with anxiety and, in the not infrequent way of many people suffering that plague, and hellbent on sharing their misery with others. The point here is not to belittle the very real costs of anxiety in the lives of many people, nor to dismiss it as a real public health concern. Rather, it is to ask how and why it is proliferating so rapidly among those who, at least on the surface, have less reason than the vast majority of their fellow human beings to suffer from it.

“.. the inspector general’s public report states that McCabe lied to investigators on four occasions, three of them while under oath. His firing followed the standards consistently applied to all other FBI agents.”

• Andrew McCabe’s Settlement With The DOJ Is A Signal To John Durham (Brock)

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was un-fired when the Department of Justice (DOJ) — now firmly under a Democratic administration — agreed to settle with McCabe by fully restoring his FBI pension and removing all records from his FBI personnel file that indicate he was fired for cause. It wasn’t really a settlement. McCabe sued the government, and the DOJ said, “Okay, we’ll give you what you want.” The agreement does not change the findings of DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz that McCabe lied under oath to investigators on three occasions; it simply eliminates all consequences for doing so. Oh, and it also forks over half a million dollars of taxpayer money to cover McCabe’s attorney’s fees. That’ll teach him a lesson for lying after raising his right hand three times and swearing not to.

DOJ’s magnanimity comes as special prosecutor John Durham has begun noose-tightening indictments in his probe of individuals involved in creating and furthering the discredited “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation. The DOJ cannot prevent Durham from pursuing indictments of any former FBI executives, including McCabe, should the evidence lead to that. However, if he does, McCabe’s stunning absolution by a DOJ now controlled by the Democrats strongly indicates that a presidential pardon is likely in play for anyone who so vigorously investigated Republicans without an adequate basis to do so. In other words, it looks like these former FBI executives now have an “insurance policy” — to borrow an infamous phrase from former FBI special agent Peter Strzok.

McCabe’s re-polishing also has the secondary salutary effect of perpetuating the longstanding Washington tradition of pushing blame as far down the hierarchy stack as possible, in order to leave unsullied the elite command staff who set the tone and lead the charge. [..] McCabe was hurriedly fired on the one-yard line just short of retirement eligibility, which affected his access to a full FBI pension. His beef with that action has some merit as inordinately punitive. Restoration of his retirement benefits is not something that most FBI agents are going to begrudge him, given his otherwise long career in the FBI. However, the inspector general’s public report states that McCabe lied to investigators on four occasions, three of them while under oath. His firing followed the standards consistently applied to all other FBI agents.

“Committee Chairman Adam Schiff assured that public that “this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin.”

• Joe Biden and the Disappearing Elephant (Turley)

How Houdini made his 10,000 pound elephant Jennie disappear every night in New York’s Hippodrome remains a matter of some debate. There are no good pictures of his famous cabinet and Houdini later threatened to sue those claiming “disappearing elephants.” What is clear is that the sheer size and the audacity of the act (like that of the Bidens) contributed to the trick. The fact is that Jennie never left the large cabinet, people just didn’t see it. The Bidens achieved the same effect. They made a full-sized scandal disappear with the help of media and members who did not want the public to see it. Twitter banned postings about the laptop until after Biden was elected. The media dismissed the story as a conspiracy theory with some mocking the “New York Post and everyone else who got suckered into the ridiculous Hunter Biden Laptop story. Take a bow.”

Committee Chairman Adam Schiff assured that public that “this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin.” Some 50 former intelligence officials, including Obama’s CIA directors John Brennan and Leon Panetta, also insisted the laptop story was likely the work of Russian intelligence. The laptop is, of course, now recognized as genuine even by some of the early deniers. Hunter remains under criminal investigation for possible tax and money laundering violations. But the greatest “reveal” is the person referred to as “the Big Guy” and “Celtic” in these emails: President Biden.

Recently released emails reference payments to President Biden from son’s accounts and indicate the possible commingling of funds. Even more embarrassing, the shared account may have been used to pay a Russian prostitute named “Yanna.” In one text, a former secret service agent warns Hunter (who was holed up with a prostitute in an expensive hotel) “Come on H this is linked to Celtic’s account.” The question is whether prosecutors will continue to act like they do not see the elephant.

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Debt Rattle September 2 2021

Sep 022021

September 2, 2021 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:40 am Finance Tagged with: Biden, Big Tech, horse dewormer, ivermectin, Joe Rogan, spike protein, vaccine mandates 86 Responses »

Henri Matisse Laurette in a green robe 1916

• Covid-19 Spike Protein Binds To And Changes Cells In The Heart (BHF)

• Resurgence of SARS-CoV-2 in a Highly Vaccinated Health System Workforce (NEJM)

• How Many Fully Vaccinated Mass. Residents Have Tested Positive for COVID (NBC)

• Covid-19 Vaccines Killed More People In 8 Months Than Covid-19 In 18 Months (DE)

• Sydney Covid Patient In Hospital After Overdosing On Ivermectin (G.)

• Joe Rogan Has Covid – And His Treatment Will Make Health Experts Feel Ill (G.)

• Washington Nationals VP To Resign Over Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate (Hill)

• 5,895 Unvaccinated Health Workers Suspended in Greece (GR)

• Chicago Gets Schooled On Vaccine Mandates (Gato Malo)

• German Companies Cannot Ask About Employees’ Covid Vaccination Status (RT)

• Covid Policy Skeptic Sues Big Tech, Feds For Censoring Social Media Posts (JTN)

• Biden Manufactured Weeks-long False Narrative On Afghanistan (JTN)

• 6 in 10 Say US Has ‘Seriously Gone Off On The Wrong Track’ (Hill)

Criminals.

British Heart Foundation. Oddly, not one word about the vaccine-induced spike proteins. But the dangers are glaringly obvious.

And putting stuff into your blood that makes this happen is simply a very bad idea. We should stop it.

• Covid-19 Spike Protein Binds To And Changes Cells In The Heart (BHF)

The spike protein found on the surface of Covid-19 virus cells causes changes to cells in the small blood vessels of the heart, according to research we funded presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress. Researchers from the University of Bristol have found that the spike protein binds to cells called pericytes which line the small vessels of the heart. This binding triggers a cascade of changes which disrupt normal cell function, and lead to the release of chemicals that cause inflammation. This happened even when the protein was no-longer attached to the virus. There is some previous evidence to suggest that the spike protein can remain in the blood stream after the virus has gone and travel far from the site of infection.

In this study, researchers only studied pericytes from the small blood vessels within the heart. However, pericytes are found within small blood vessels all over the body, including in the brain and central nervous system. This latest finding may start to help explain the effect of the virus on organs away from the site of the Covid-19 infection. Researchers took small vessel cells from the heart and exposed them to the spike protein. They found that the spike protein alone was enough to disrupt normal cell function, and lead to the release of chemicals that cause inflammation. They then blocked the CD147 receptor and found that this prevented the spike protein from causing some of the changes to the cells. However, the inflammation continued.

Now the researchers hope to find out if a drug blocking CD147 in humans can help to protect people from some of the complications arising from Covid-19. Professor James Leiper, our Associate Medical Director, said: “Covid-19 has presented an unprecedented challenge for the cardiovascular research community. There is still a lot that is unknown relating to how the virus can impact our health in the long term, but this research brings us one step closer to better understanding how Covid-19 affects the heart and circulatory system and may ultimately lead to new ways to protect the heart.

Number of fully vaccinated went from 16,426 to 16,492 from June-July. Hardly moved at all.

But the percentage of cases in fully vaccinated workers jumped from 33.3% to 75.2%. Riddle me that.

Vaccine effectiveness plummeted from 94.3% to 65.5%. In one month. No idea how that is possible when vaccination numbers almost stood still.

• Resurgence of SARS-CoV-2 in a Highly Vaccinated Health System Workforce (NEJM)

In December 2020, the University of California San Diego Health (UCSDH) workforce experienced a dramatic increase in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections. Vaccination with mRNA vaccines began in mid-December 2020; by March, 76% of the workforce had been fully vaccinated, and by July, the percentage had risen to 83%. Infections had decreased dramatically by early February 2021.1 Between March and June, fewer than 30 health care workers tested positive each month. However, coincident with the end of California’s mask mandate on June 15 and the rapid dominance of the B.1.617.2 (delta) variant that first emerged in mid-April and accounted for over 95% of UCSDH isolates by the end of July (Figure 1), infections increased rapidly, including cases among fully vaccinated persons. Institutional review board approval was obtained for use of administrative data on vaccinations and case-investigation data to examine mRNA SARS CoV-2 vaccine effectiveness.

UCSDH has a low threshold for SARS-CoV-2 testing, which is triggered by the presence of at least one symptom during daily screening or by an identified exposure, regardless of vaccination status. From March 1 to July 31, 2021, a total of 227 UCSDH health care workers tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by reverse-transcriptase–quantitative polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-qPCR) assay of nasal swabs; 130 of the 227 workers (57.3%) were fully vaccinated. Symptoms were present in 109 of the 130 fully vaccinated workers (83.8%) and in 80 of the 90 unvaccinated workers (88.9%). (The remaining 7 workers were only partially vaccinated.) No deaths were reported in either group; one unvaccinated person was hospitalized for SARS-CoV-2–related symptoms.

Vaccine effectiveness was calculated for each month from March through July; the case definition was a positive PCR test and one or more symptoms among persons with no previous Covid-19 infection (see the Supplementary Appendix). Vaccine effectiveness exceeded 90% from March through June but fell to 65.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 48.9 to 76.9) in July.

Compare:

“..The breakthrough cases represent just a small percentage — about 0.43% — of the more than 4.5 million people who have been vaccinated..”

and:

“Breakthrough infections again accounted for about 40% of all cases reported in Massachusetts last week..”

• How Many Fully Vaccinated Mass. Residents Have Tested Positive for COVID (NBC)

Nearly 20,000 fully vaccinated Massachusetts residents have now tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 130 of them have died, according to the latest state data on breakthrough cases published Tuesday. The Department of Public Health has tracked a cumulative 19,443 confirmed COVID-19 infections among those fully vaccinated in the state to date and a total of 144 deaths. The breakthrough cases represent just a small percentage — about 0.43% — of the more than 4.5 million people who have been vaccinated and the deaths an even smaller percentage — just 0.003%. In the last week alone, 3,074 new breakthrough cases — infections in people who have been vaccinated — have been reported.

Health officials said 651 of the new breakthrough cases resulted in hospitalization, or about 0.01% of all fully vaccinated individuals. Breakthrough infections again accounted for about 40% of all cases reported in Massachusetts last week. The number of new breakthrough cases announced each Tuesday has climbed each week since DPH announced the initial batch of 7,737 breakthrough infections on July 31. Dr. Philip Landrigan, director of the Global Public Health Program at Boston College, told The Boston Globe last month that the rise in breakthrough cases “reflects the fact that the delta variant is loose in the population, and it reflects the fact that there’s a lot of virus circulating around.”

Experts also told the Globe the increase in breakthrough cases is attributable to diminishing immunity from the COVID-19 vaccines, emphasizing the need for booster shots in the coming months. Tuesday’s report pushed the state’s cumulative confirmed COVID-19 caseload to 709,599 since the start of the pandemic and its death toll to 17,874.

I like my predictions coming true within a few hours, but this feels like cheating. It appears to compare apples (UK) and oranges (Scotland).

• Covid-19 Vaccines Killed More People In 8 Months Than Covid-19 In 18 Months (DE)

There can no longer be any doubt that the Covid-19 injections are more deadly than the alleged Covid-19 virus itself thanks to a raft of official Public Health and Government data available, confirming more people have died due to the Covid-19 vaccine in 8 months than people who have died of Covid-19 in 18 months. NHS data for England shows that since March 2020 up to the 12th August 2021 a total of 3,743 people have allegedly died of Covid-19 who had no other pre-existing conditions which include dementia, chronic kidney disease, chronic pulmonary disease, chronic neurological disease, and heart disease.

Whilst official data provided by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) shows that just 704 people have died of Covid-19 in the whole of Scotland who had no other pre-existing conditions between March 2020 and July 31st 2021.

However, data released by Public Health Scotland shows that between the 8th December 2020 and 11th June 2021 a total of 5,522 people died within 28 days of having a Covid-19 injection with 1,827 deaths being due to the Pfizer jab, 3,643 deaths being due to the AstraZeneca jab, and 2 deaths being due to the Moderna jab.

This means that in just 6 months nearly 8 times as many people died within 28 days of having a Covid-19 vaccine than people who died of Covid-19 (704 deaths) in 18 months in Scotland. Whilst 1.5 times as many people died within 28 days of having a Covid-19 vaccine in Scotland than the number of people who have died of Covid-19 (3,743 deaths) in 18 months in England. Even when adding the number of people who have died of Covid-19 in both England and Scotland together; which comes to 4,447 deaths in 18 months, there have still been 1,075 more deaths within 28 days of having a Covid-19 vaccine in Scotland. Public Health England have so far refused to publish the number of deaths within 28 days of a having a Covid-19 vaccine in England, claiming they do not hold the data despite their counterparts in Scotland being able to provide it.

But based on the number of deaths seen in Scotland and adjusting to the population for England we estimate that the number could have been as high as 57,470 in England by the 11th June 2021. There are of course those that will argue that using the number of deaths within 28 days of having a Covid-19 vaccine does not mean the person died due to the Covid-19 vaccine. They are of course correct, but these will be the same people that believe a death that has occurred within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test is definitely a Covid-19 death. Which is why we’d like to point these people to the data provided by the MHRA Yellow Card scheme, which shows more people have died due to the Covid-19 vaccines in 8 months than the number of people who have died of Covid-19 in the whole of Scotland in 18 months.

As of the 11th August there have been 293,779 adverse reactions and 501 deaths reported to the MHRA against the Pfizer mRNA injection. As well as 813,622 adverse reactions and 1,053 deaths reported to the MHRA against the AstraZeneca viral vector injection. The Moderna mRNA injection meanwhile has caused at least 41,274 adverse reactions and 14 deaths as of the 11th August 2021. This vaccine has also mainly been administered to younger adults who are least at risk of suffering debilitating disease if infected with Covid-19. Around 1.4 million people have received the Moderna jab which means at least 1 in every 33 people have suffered and adverse reaction and at least 1 in every 100,000 people have sadly died.

The overall number of deaths due to all three jabs now stands at 1,596 when including the 28 deaths that have been reported where the brand of vaccine was not specified. Therefore 892 more people have died due to the Covid-19 vaccine in the UK in 8 months than people who have died of Covid-19 in Scotland in 18 months. But it’s also important to remember that the MHRA have stated just 10% of serious adverse reactions are reported to the MHRA Yellow Card scheme.

The Guardian continues its ~~Orange Man~~ Horse Dewormer Bad campaign, and thinks the headline will do the trick. The worst the article itself can do is: “The patient didn’t get severe toxicity from taking the ivermectin cocktail, “but it didn’t help their Covid either”..

• Sydney Covid Patient In Hospital After Overdosing On Ivermectin (G.)

A Covid-positive person in Sydney was admitted to Westmead hospital suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea after overdosing on ivermectin and other drugs ordered online. Westmead hospital’s toxicologist, Naren Gunja, said the case was part of a growing trend the hospital was seeing of people taking unproven online cures for Covid. The patient didn’t get severe toxicity from taking the ivermectin cocktail, “but it didn’t help their Covid either”, he said. “There’s no evidence to support the use of ivermectin to treat Covid-19. Don’t look for magic cures online, and don’t rely on what’s being peddled on the internet, because none of them work.” The New South Wales chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said on Thursday that people should only take health advice from a healthcare practitioner before taking medication.

“It is important to seek the best health advice. Our doctors in Australia are across the literature in terms of what drugs and therapies are useful in Covid,” she said. “Please listen to them.” Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medication, is only approved for use in Australia for medical issues such as river blindness, scabies and roundworm infections. The growing trend as an unauthorised Covid drug stems in part from its promotion among rightwing politicians and media outlets in the United States, which has flowed into the same groups in Australia. The Therapeutic Goods Administration on Monday said there had been a shortage of Stromectol 3mg ivermectin tablets in August, and said there had been a tenfold increase in detections of people seeking to import the drug.

More Guardian comedy. Joe Rogan got better in a day, and one of the things he took is ivermectin. But that’s bad!

• Joe Rogan Has Covid – And His Treatment Will Make Health Experts Feel Ill (G.)

Joe Rogan, the host of Spotify’s most popular podcast, has contracted Covid, he announced on Wednesday. He says he is feeling better – but his health update undoubtedly made health experts instantly sick. On Instagram, the podcaster, who professes not to be “an authority on health” but has discouraged young people from getting the coronavirus vaccine, said that he had “immediately thrown the kitchen sink” at his infection. Among the many medications he used, he said, was ivermectin, a drug used to deworm horses. Rogan, described by the New York Times as “one of the most consumed media products on the planet”, has legions of devoted followers.

Some episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience have boasted tens of millions of downloads, and his recommendations for everything from supplements to shaving supplies can be a godsend for companies. That’s why his apparent endorsement of a medicine totally unproven as an effective treatment for Covid-19 is concerning. Though ivermectin can be prescribed to target parasitic infections in humans, the US Food and Drug Administration has not approved the drug for use against the coronavirus. In large doses, the FDA warns, it can be dangerous, with side effects including “nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hypotension (low blood pressure), allergic reactions (itching and hives), dizziness, ataxia (problems with balance), seizures, coma and even death”.

But after an Australian study last year that found ivermectin could kill Covid in a lab, chatter about the drug has exploded online. Politicians and rightwing talkshow hosts have promoted it – even as the very researchers behind the study warn against it. In the US, prescriptions for the drug have soared from 3,600 weekly before the pandemic to more than 88,000 in a week last month, per CDC data. At the same time, poison control centers have seen calls related to ivermectin explode, reaching five times their usual rate in July, the Washington Post reported. Rogan’s announcement is not his first widely criticized tango with ivermectin. The 22 June episode of his podcast features an interview with Dr Pierre Kory, who testified to US senators in December about ivermectin and called it a “miracle drug”.

Joe Rogan

BREAKING: Healthy Joe Rogan tested positive for Covid & is about to make authoritarians big mad with his quick recovery regimen pic.twitter.com/2hzLxIBRjy

— An0maly (@LegendaryEnergy) September 1, 2021

Mass delusion.

• Washington Nationals VP To Resign Over Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate (Hill)

Washington Nationals Vice President Bob Boone will resign over the team’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to multiple reports Wednesday. Boone informed the team that he will resign instead of complying with the mandate, which applies to all non-uniformed employees, sources told ESPN and The Washington Post. Boone, who was a star catcher for decades before becoming a manager and executive, served with the Nationals since 2005, and is currently vice president and senior adviser to general manager Mike Rizzo. He is the father of former professional baseball players Bret Boone and Aaron Boone, who now manages the New York Yankees. The Nationals’ vaccine mandate went into effect Aug. 12, according to ESPN.

It was one of the first teams to require staff to be vaccinated. Non-playing full-time employees, such as coaches, executives and staff, had until Aug. 26 to provide proof of their first vaccination or apply for an exemption. According to the Post, which first reported Boone’s resignation, employees who have not complied are on unpaid administrative leave. They now have until Sept. 15 to comply or have their contracts terminated. Boone told the newspaper that he and team are “unfortunately” parting ways. But Boone is not the only shakeup for the team. According to the Post, the Nationals also told eight scouts that their contracts will not be renewed next season, two because of unwillingness to comply with the mandate.

All for a vaccine that doesn’t work, and worse.

Wow, they want to hire scabs: “In order to cover any loss of staff, the Greek Health Ministry has proposed hiring healthcare workers on three-month contracts.”

Don’t think that will fly.

• 5,895 Unvaccinated Health Workers Suspended in Greece (GR)

5,895 unvaccinated health workers have been suspended or are in the process of being suspended from working in Greece. The suspensions follow a new law that mandates vaccines among healthcare workers, under penalty of suspension from their workplace. The Suspension Commission of the Council of State, Greece’s top administrative court, rejected applications that were submitted by healthcare workers attempting to block the law mandating employees in the national healthcare system be vaccinated against COVID-19. The Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Employees (POEDIN) has submitted an appeal to completely annul the law. The appeal will be reviewed by the court’s plenary on October 8th.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis decided in July that all healthcare workers, including doctors and nurses, who work in public and private hospitals and health clinics would be required to get their shot by the first of September. The law had already set in on August 16th for those working in elder care facilities. Starting today, healthcare workers who remain unvaccinated against Covid-19 will be put on unpaid leave in Greece. Any healthcare workers — including doctors, nurses, paramedics, and administrative support staff in private or public hospitals, clinics, and care facilities — who refuse to be vaccinated will lose their social security during their unpaid leave if Parliament approves the motion.

The suspension without pay will last until the person receives the vaccine or “as long as the pandemic lasts,” according to a statement from the Ministry. In order to cover any loss of staff, the Greek Health Ministry has proposed hiring healthcare workers on three-month contracts.

Shot. Chaser.

• Chicago Gets Schooled On Vaccine Mandates (Gato Malo)

here’s a fun story from jalopnik:

“About 2,100 students, including 990 in special education, were given no more than two days’ notice that their bus route no longer existed. District officials said they received word Friday from the private companies with which they contract for bus services that 73 drivers had resigned because they refused to abide by CPS’ vaccine mandate, which requires all employees and contractors to get shots by Oct. 15. The requirement was announced more than two weeks ago.” The claim of “only 73 drivers resigned” is a bit misleading. this makes it sound low. it’s not. it’s nearly 10% of drivers. and they are now 500 drivers short.

“Only 73 drivers are believed to have resigned over vaccine requirements, but the district had recently adjusted routes to account for an existing shortage of drivers. The district now has 770 drivers which is still 500 drivers short.” These are 100% own goals. Drivers were already tight because, as in so many industries, hiring is impossible despite vast un and under-employment. the reserve price of labor has been blown into the stratosphere by high jobless benefits baked into covid response. They then exacerbated this further by (quite literally) decimating their ranks by demanding vaccination. Even the good kitten saw this coming.

Every parent of every kid that was affected by this should be livid. This is an epic fail of government policy. This is what happens when you break markets and predicate outcomes on ideology and performative solutions lacking in sound basis. Get this stopped and rolled back now. You do not want to wait until this hits the hospitals.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the EU:

• German Companies Cannot Ask About Employees’ Covid Vaccination Status (RT)

Germany’s labor minister has said companies will not have the right to ask staff to reveal their Covid vaccination status, though “pragmatic solutions” may be required for sectors deemed a higher risk for transmitting the virus. Speaking to broadcaster ARD on Wednesday, German Labor Minister Hubertus Heil shared that there will be no general right for employers to access information that discloses staff members’ Covid vaccination status. “We must act according to the rule of law. Acting under the rule of law means that an employer is not entitled to information about health data…[and] is also not allowed to look at the medical records of an employee, because this is very personal data,” the minister said.

Heil added, however, that he is “in favor of finding pragmatic solutions” for workplaces that are at a greater risk of transmitting Covid, namely prisons, hospitals, and care homes. This could mean requiring employees to show that they have either recovered from coronavirus, been vaccinated, or have tested negatively. The labor minister’s remarks coincide with Germany’s cabinet ruling on the same day that companies must allow their staff to take time off work to get their coronavirus jabs. German bosses have recently been applying pressure on the government to grant them the power to ask workers whether they are inoculated or not.

Thilo Brodtmann, the head of the German Engineering Federation, said on Tuesday that “employees must do everything they can to reduce the risk of infection to zero,” and “this includes at least an obligation to provide this information.” Neighboring France has been riddled with weeks of protests against a government decree that will require workers from certain sectors – such as firefighters, medical workers, caregivers, and certain soldiers – to get vaccinated by September 15 or risk penalties.

Brave, but …

• Covid Policy Skeptic Sues Big Tech, Feds For Censoring Social Media Posts (JTN)

An influential COVID policy skeptic followed through on his threat to sue Facebook for suspending his account this summer based on a graphic he posted: “Masking Children is Impractical and Not Backed by Research or Real World Data.” Identified in a recent MIT paper as one of a handful of “anchors” for the anti-mask network on Twitter, Justin Hart also named Twitter, President Biden, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as defendants in the lawsuit. “When the federal government admits to conspiring with social media companies to censor messages with which it disagrees, as it has in this case, both the government and the private companies are guilty of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination,” it says.

Five days after Facebook suspended Hart’s account, which he also used for business, Twitter suspended his account for commenting on a CDC report that 70% of infected people were wearing masks, according to the suit. “We know that masks don’t protect you … but at some point you have to wonder if they are PART of the problem,” he wrote. Murthy and White House press secretary Jen Psaki publicly disclosed “within days” of the two removals that the feds were pressuring social media to remove “misinformation super-spreaders” and that White House “senior staff” were directly contacting the companies.

The suit cites Murthy’s 22-page advisory asking technology platforms to monitor and stop distribution of views such as Hart’s, through algorithm changes, increased staffing of content moderation teams, imposing “clear consequences” for violators and amplifying “trusted messengers and subject matter experts.” In addition to the First Amendment claim for “state action” against Hart’s posts, the suit claims HHS and OMB are violating the Freedom of Information Act by missing their statutory deadline to provide him requested records relevant to the suit.

“And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”

• Biden Manufactured Weeks-long False Narrative On Afghanistan (JTN)

The long saga of the Russia collusion scandal — during which law enforcement, media, political operatives and intelligence assets manufactured a two-year illusion of a Trump-Russia conspiracy that did not exist — raised questions about a new era of political warfare in which false realities could be foisted upon the American public. The bungled, bloody U.S. exit from Afghanistan now has some fearing the Biden administration practiced deception by omission and commission to create a two-month false narrative that misled Congress and the American public by making the situation in and around Kabul look better than it was.

Two powerful pieces of evidence emerged this week that strongly suggest the Afghan exit wasn’t just a case of incompetence but rather an intentional effort to use PR lipstick to disguise a Biden plan that was secretly willing to accept chaos and stranded Americans as a possible outcome to avoid further military casualties during the exit. On Wednesday, Reuters published a leaked transcript of a call that quoted Biden asking the soon-to-flee Afghan president Ashraf Ghani to offer a narrative to change the “perception” of the Taliban’s rapid advance in Afghanistan, “whether it is true or not.” “I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” Biden is quoted as telling the Afghan president. “And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”

The White House did not dispute the account of the July 23 call, even though it suggested that an American president asked a foreign leader to assist in creating a potentially fake story. Earlier this week, Biden administration officials also conceded the president granted himself a waiver to avoid providing Congress this summer a legally required report on the dangers of withdrawing from Afghanistan, leaving lawmakers mostly in the dark about a situation in which U.S. confidence in the Afghan government and military rapidly deteriorated.

One act of commission, another of omission that clearly created false expectations and impressions and empowered the president’s top aides — from Jen Psaki at the White House to John Kirby at the Pentagon — to make pronouncements like: • Every American who wants to come home will be able to do so before Aug. 31. • Every Afghan loyalist in danger could be evacuated. • The Afghan army could hold Kabul for months after the U.S. departed. In the end, none of those pronouncements were true, and the plan failed. Scores of Americans, thousands of Afghan loyalists and $85 billion in prized U.S. military hardware were left behind, Kabul fell to the Taliban before Americas’s departure, and 13 U.S. troops were killed in the single bloodiest American tragedy of the Afghan war in a decade.

Trump

NEW!

President Donald J. Trump: "A heartbreaking loss for the United States and it's great Military. We must have hostages released and our Military equipment returned, NOW!" pic.twitter.com/VIZcrz213a

— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) September 1, 2021

And that’s with a rose-colored press.

• 6 in 10 Say US Has ‘Seriously Gone Off On The Wrong Track’ (Hill)

About 6 in 10 U.S. voters believe that the country has gone “pretty seriously” off “the wrong track” as President Biden faces a wave of criticism over his handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to a new Politico-Morning Consult poll released Wednesday. The study, conducted from Saturday to Monday, found that 61 percent of respondents believe the country is on the wrong track, compared to just 39 percent who say the country is “going in the right direction.” The survey also found a record-low overall approval rating for Biden at 47 percent, with 49 percent saying they disapproved of the president’s job performance overall.

When it comes to Biden’s policy on Afghanistan, 61 percent of respondents said they either “somewhat disapprove” or “strongly disapprove” of the president’s performance, with 30 percent saying they either strongly or somewhat approved of how he addressed the situation. The poll, which included responses ahead of Biden’s announcement Monday that the U.S. had completed its military withdrawal from Afghanistan, found that an overwhelming 72 percent did not think the troop removal was going well, with just 22 percent saying it was going “very” or “somewhat well.”

Despite the criticism on Biden’s job performance overall, survey respondents were more likely to have a favorable view of the president’s decision to remove all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. According to the poll, 50 percent of American voters either strongly or somewhat supported Biden’s decision, with 41 percent indicating some level of opposition to the move. Biden has faced mounting bipartisan criticism over his withdrawal from Afghanistan, especially as anywhere from 100 to 200 American citizens remain in the country following weeks of the U.S. military’s operations to evacuate thousands of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies.

Gerald Celente is s big fan of TAE.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1431968996480409601

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Debt Rattle July 13 2021

Jul 132021

July 13, 2021 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:27 am Finance Tagged with: Big Tech, bitcoin, Cuba, Fauci, Trump, vaccinated, vaccine mandates 80 Responses »

Vincent van Gogh View of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer 1888

• Australia’s COVID Outbreak Worsens Despite Economy-Crippling Lockdowns (ZH)

• Fauci Calls For ‘More Vaccine Mandates At The Local Level’ (ZH)

• ‘You’ve Got To Go One-On-One’: Fauci (F.)

• What If…. (Denninger)

• Infections Decline in the Unvaccinated as They Surge in the Vaccinated (LDS)

• A Bodyguard of Lies (Kunstler)

• Cuba’s Internet Cutoff: A Go-to Tactic To Suppress Dissent (AP)

• White House Urges Cities To Use Covid Funds To Help Combat Violent Crime (JTN)

• Just 5% Of All Bitcoins In Circulation Have Traded In The Past Year (ZH)

• Trump: Why I’m Suing Big Tech (ZH)

• Trump: Big Tech Is ‘Getting The Biggest Subsidy Ever (JTN)

• ‘I Got Impeached Twice, I Became Worse’: Trump (RT)

It’s nice that you don’t have to sew the vaccine proof on your coat

Mercola Zelenko

Dr.Vladimir Zelenko – scary if true… pic.twitter.com/5BOQ1IcLDV

— Husserl (@husserl80) July 12, 2021

Fleming nucleotides

Dr. Richard Fleming – scary if true… pic.twitter.com/eZ4exHtIRZ

— Husserl (@husserl80) July 12, 2021

And literally no-one says perhaps the lockdowns don’t work?!

• Australia’s COVID Outbreak Worsens Despite Economy-Crippling Lockdowns (ZH)

By some inexplicable phenomenon, Sydney’s COVID outbreak has continued to worsen (albeit by margins that most cities would consider negligible) despite the lockdown measures that have been in place for nearly three weeks at this point. Now, the prospect for another lockdown extension looms as Australia’s largest city and the surrounding state – New South Wales, Australia’s largest by population – reports 112 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, almost all of which were linked to Sydney. However, there was a silver lining: the number of newly infected out in the community declined to 34 from 45. But fears about the delta variant, which has been driving the spread, might lead to even more draconian measures.

State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said it was this last figure that would, in the coming days, determine whether Sydney’s lockdown, due to end on Friday, would be extended. “That’s the number we need to get as close to zero as possible,” Berejiklian said during her daily televised briefing. “It is really up to us. The health expert advice will be based on what those numbers look like. I can’t be clearer than that.” Sydney is bracing for a longer and stricter lockdown after continued increases in COVID-19 cases, while the New South Wales Premier stated things are going to get worse before they get better. The outbreak has prompted the Australia-Singapore travel bubble to be delayed until at least the end of the year, according to Australian press reports, despite the fact that nearly all of the new cases reported on Monday involved family members or friends of previously diagnosed patients.

Meanwhile, a new report from Deloitte showed that consumer movement-related activity in the city’s central business district has plunged by nearly 90% in the two weeks since the Sydney lockdown started compared to its levels from two years ago. Even in Melbourne, where restrictions were just lifted, movement remained off 80% from the levels a year ago. The drop in activity is placing small businesses and restaurants in a difficult position. The iconic Melbourne rooftop bar Madame Brussels announced Monday that it would become the latest victim of the pandemic when it closes its doors next week after 15 years. “The city’s just not coming back,” co-owner Paula Scholes said.

Power hungry totalitarian creep.

• Fauci Calls For ‘More Vaccine Mandates At The Local Level’ (ZH)

The nation’s highest-paid employee in the US government, Anthony Fauci, has gone full-throttle on vaccines – this time with a Sunday appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” where he pushed for vaccine mandates at the local level, and slammed a guest speaker at CPAC (Alex Berenson) for applauding young people for researching vaccine side-effects. Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases Director appeared on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday to give his opinion on vaccine mandates. He agrees with the White House and President Biden himself, saying vaccination mandates should be the next step. “I have been of this opinion, and I remain of that opinion, that I do believe at the local level, Jake, there should be more mandates,” Fauci told host Jake Tapper. “There really should be.”

For fear of more people dying, Fauci strongly supports mandates. “We’re talking about life and death situation. We have lost 600,000 Americans already, and we’re still losing more people,” Fauci said. “There have been 4 million deaths worldwide. This is serious business. So I am in favor of that.” Meanwhile, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, author Alex Berenson called out the vaccination efforts as a scam. “The government was hoping that they could sort of sucker 90% of the population into getting vaccinated,” Berenson said. “And it isn’t happening.” People in the audience cheered when they heard that. On the other hand, Fauci called the reaction “horrifying.”

As a result, the NIAID director says the solution to vaccine hesitancy is official approval from the Food and Drug Administration. “One of the things that will happen, and I think the hesitancy at the local level of doing mandates is because the vaccines have not been officially fully approved,” Fauci said. “But people need to understand that the amount of data right now that shows a high degree of effectiveness and a high degree of safety is more than we’ve ever seen with the emergency use authorization, so these vaccines are as good as officially approved with all the I’s dotted and T’s crossed. It hasn’t been done yet because the FDA has to do certain things. But it’s as good as done. So people should really understand that. But they are waiting now until you get an official approval before. And I think when you do see the official approval, you’ll see a lot more mandates.”

Just over half have gotten at least one shot. That’s very far from Biden’s ideal. And rates decline fast.

• ‘You’ve Got To Go One-On-One’: Fauci (F.)

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday defended the Biden administration’s door-to-door vaccine effort as some Republican governors push back on it, stressing targeted, one-on-one outreach would be key to lowering the number of unvaccinated Americans. Speaking to CBS This Morning, Fauci said the U.S. vaccination effort was in the beginning focused on “large efforts like auditoriums or sports arenas filled with people getting vaccinated” but now needed to become more targeted. “You’ve got to go one on one” to reach the “core, lesser group” of unvaccinated Americans, Fauci said. Last week, President Joe Biden announced his administration will begin sending volunteers door-to-door to urge Americans to get immunized, along with other initiatives.

The announcement came after the U.S. fell just short of Biden’s goal of partially or fully vaccinating at least 70% of adults by July 4. Health experts have expressed concern that Biden is not doing enough to convince more Americans to get the shot as vaccination rates remain low and the more infectious Delta variant begins to spread in the U.S. “Now we need to go to community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, and oftentimes, door to door — literally knocking on doors — to get help to the remaining people protected from the virus,” Biden said in a speech on Tuesday. [..] 55.5%. That’s the percentage of Americans who have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. About half of unvaccinated Americans—46%—said they would “definitely not” ever get the vaccine in a recent AP/NORC poll. Just 7% said they “definitely will” get a shot.

“The problem is that if you let your doctor talk you into doing it his way for long enough the damage will be irreversible..”

• What If…. (Denninger)

Why do you think you get told to go ahead and eat the carbs — chase it with drugs if you’re Type II diabetic? The zero cost option is to stop eating the carbs. If you do it early enough then there’s a good chance your body will heal and the damage will not only stop, it will be reversed. No, this doesn’t mean you can go back to eating the pizzas with wild abandon, but it does mean you’ll never need a single blood-sugar related drug, nor will your toes and fingers drop off and your kidneys will likely not fail. The problem is that if you let your doctor talk you into doing it his way for long enough the damage will be irreversible and then you’re beholden to ever-more expensive drugs and, ultimately, likely surgeries and even dialysis. If you walk that path you may or may not expire from something else first but you certainly will spend a hell of a lot of money on the journey with virtually all of it being unnecessary.

What makes you think that’s not what they just did under cover of a respiratory pandemic that was destined to burn itself out like every other respiratory viral pandemic for which we have good records spanning more than 100 years, and in fact which had done so in the United States and was on the wane before the first shot went into the first arm? What if your life and that of your children are now a service, courtesy of Moderna and Pfizer at whatever cost they wish to impose on you now and into the indefinite future with the price of quitting being a much-higher risk of death, and what if that is in fact exactly what pharma, the medical industry, Trump and Biden all had in mind originally and still do? Think I’m wrong? Have a look at the 2018 MTS and what happened to Medicare payments.

This fiscal ended in September of 2018, the second year of Trump’s Presidency. Prescription drug spend was down from 95 billion to $82 billion, a decrease of close to 15%. Hospital spend was nearly flat – up right at 1%. Do you think Pharma and hospital administrators liked that? The next year drug spend was up 3.6% and then ending in September of 2020 it was up 5.3%. Hospitalization? That posted a 26% increase year ending September 2020 with hospitals being paid $39,000 per person by Medicare to shove a tube down your throat and kill you instead of being paid to give you drugs early with them only getting paid when you didn’t get intubated and die. In other words health care as a service which in fact paid more to kill Seniors was good for a 26% increase in what the federal government spent despite killing a half-million people with the vast majority of them being Senior Citizens on Medicare.

We didn’t pay for performance we paid for a subscription even though what it bought sucked and in fact killed your Grandmother. Do you think that’s stopped? Well then you better look at the current MTS which says that while hospitalization spend is down (gee, all the old people who could be easily killed seem to already be dead and we ran out of suckers we could exploit by sticking a toe tag on them) when it comes to prescription drugs the current year spend via said subscription model scam is up 12.4% over last year thus far on a comparable-period basis! Don’t you think we should have proved that wasn’t the model being intended for these shots to be forced on EVERYONE before we started letting people get stabbed when the data before us, on October 15st of 2020, was that indeed that was exactly the model the health care system had run for the previous fiscal year into the maw of the pandemic and got paid to deliberately not treat people early which both led to their death and got them paid a record amount, an utterly obscene additional EIGHTY TWO BILLION DOLLARS above the previous year’s expense?

You better hope that’s not what they tricked you into because if it is you’re screwed at least economically and may be ****ed out of your life. I remind you that the MTS proves that is exactly what they did to Seniors when it came to medical care just during the first six months of the pandemic to the tune of $82 BILLION which was in fact paid out as a reward for generating 500,000 CORPSES. But you still won’t make them stop — will you?

Not the most convincing graph but the trend is clear.

• Infections Decline in the Unvaccinated as They Surge in the Vaccinated (LDS)

I reported last week on the striking fact that, according to data from the ZOE Covid Symptom study, new symptomatic daily infections appeared to be plateauing in the unvaccinated while they were surging in the vaccinated. The trend has continued since then, with infections now entering decline in the unvaccinated while those in the vaccinated (with at least one dose) continue to surge (see graph). Around 67% of the population has received at least one vaccine dose, so the fact that there are still more infections in the smaller unvaccinated group means no conclusion can be drawn from the current figures about the vaccines not being effective.

Also, while more people are being vaccinated all the time, that steady trend is nowhere near large enough to account for the sharp changes in infection incidence we see here. With infections in the unvaccinated already peaking and falling, despite the Delta variant, this drives a coach and horses through arguments for the supposed importance of vaccinating children and hesitant young people – including through inducements like vaccine passports for pubs, clubs and restaurants, now being mooted for the autumn. Why the vaccinated are having their Delta surge later than the unvaccinated is an interesting question. Is it because the vaccines make them more resistant to infection? Does the age difference help explain it? Or is it something else?

Whatever the explanation, the important point is that without any new restrictions or a big new vaccine push, infections in the unvaccinated are already falling. In the current climate of pushes to extend restrictions, delay ‘Freedom Day’, and vaccinate everyone whether they want it or not, this is hugely significant. It means all those arguments to continue restrictions and pile on the pressure for vaccination because of the Delta variant are complete nonsense. That new daily infections are still rising in the population as a whole is now because they are rising among the vaccinated, not the unvaccinated. They will likely peak soon in the vaccinated, too, just as they already have in Scotland.

“..we live in a time when reality is exceptionally slippery..”

• A Bodyguard of Lies (Kunstler)

A bunch of readers sent me a video on the Odysee platform that seems to have lit up the Internet over the weekend, a conversation between the international lawyer Reiner Fuellmich and a character named David Martin, PhD, CEO of M-Cam, a company that researches and advises on intellectual property and patents, especially in medicine. Dr. Martin is “a fellow” at the University of Virginia School of Business Administration and formerly an assistant professor at UVa’s School of Medicine. Mr. Fuellmich is a German national who claims to be bringing a case to the world court to prosecute various parties for hoaxing the world over the coronavirus we call Covid-19.

Mr. Fuellmich’s claim is based on the allegation that the world has been played by “a PCR test pandemic,” not by a novel coronavirus, saying that the PCR test is entirely unreliable, but was used to generate millions of “cases.” Dr. Martin claims that scores of patents were filed as far back as 2008 on features found in Covid 19 — the spike protein, the polybasic cleavage site, and the ace-2 receptor binding domain — by people doing “bioweapons” research at the University of North Carolina (e.g., Dr. Ralph Baric) as well as the US Military’s DARPA, the Wuhan, China, virology lab, and Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), much of it intermediated by Peter Daszak of the EcoHealth Alliance, and allegedly involving a criminal conspiracy with several pharmaceutical companies to make a lot of money off an engineered global health emergency. He claims further that the mRNA vaccines are “medical devices” designed to induce illness.

This complex story has its charms (Fuellmich & Martin are very good talkers) and has undergone serial debunkings by some of the usual debunkers, themselves not necessarily reliable organs of debunkery, such as The Washington Post. Dr. Martin appears to be associated with the “Plandemic” crowd and with some marginal crypto-religious groups inveighing against Jewish conspiracies and freemasonry — two big red flags for me.

But we live in a time when reality is exceptionally slippery and there are parts of the story that are now accepted as real in the emergent consensual reality of what actually happened. For instance: that Dr. Anthony Fauci funded gain-of-function research using Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance as a conduit. And the numerous patent records do exist within the stated time-line. The scientific and legal facts around all this are abstruse, and most college-educated (and beyond) Americans might have trouble processing the story.

Suppressing dissent is what the US does at home, better than anyone.

• Cuba’s Internet Cutoff: A Go-to Tactic To Suppress Dissent (AP)

Cubans facing the country’s worst economic crisis in decades took to the streets over the weekend. In turn, authorities blocked social media sites in an apparent effort to stop the flow of information into, out of and within the beleaguered nation. Restricting internet access has become a tried-and-true method of stifling dissent by authoritarian regimes around the world, alongside government-supported disinformation campaigns and propaganda. On the extreme side, regimes like China and North Korea exert tight control over what regular citizens can access online. Elsewhere, service blockages are more limited, often cutting off common social platforms around elections and times of mass protests.

There was no formal organizer of Sunday’s protests; people found out about the rallying points over social media, mostly on Twitter and Facebook, the platforms most used by Cubans. The thousands of Cubans who took to the streets — protesters and pro-government activists alike — wielded smartphones to capture images and send them to relatives and friends or post them online. On Monday, Cuban authorities were blocking Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, said Alp Toker, director of Netblocks, a London-based internet monitoring firm. “This does seem to be a response to social media-fueled protest,” he said. Twitter did not appear to be blocked, though Toker noted Cuba could cut it off if it wants to.

While the recent easing of access by Cuban authorities to the internet has increased social media activity, Toker said, the level of censorship has also risen. Not only does the cutoff block out external voices, he said, it also squelches “the internal voice of the population who have wanted to speak out.” Internet access in Cuba has been expensive and relatively rare until recently. The country was “basically offline” until 2008, then gradually entered a digital revolution, said Ted Henken, a Latin America expert at Baruch College, City University of New York. The biggest change, he noted, came in December 2018 when Cubans got access to mobile internet for the first time via data plans purchased from the state telecom monopoly. These days, more than half of all Cubans have internet access, Henken said.

The Covid problem must be waning then?!

• White House Urges Cities To Use Covid Funds To Help Combat Violent Crime (JTN)

The White House sent a memo to state and local officials Monday, urging them to use some of the COVD-19 relief funds to help combat the rise of violent crime. The memo outlines how states should use the funds provided by President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package to reduce crime, such as supporting law enforcement, investing in community-based violence interventions, and enforcing gun laws. “The core of the President’s plan is a partnership with cities and states, equipping local leaders with historic levels of federal funding and a range of tools to address the multifaceted challenge of gun violence,” the memo said, according to The Hill.

The memo also notes that Biden requested $300 million in funding for the COPS program, a program made by the Department of Justice for community-centered policing, and an additional $750 million for federal law enforcement agencies. Biden is expected to meet with Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams – who is also the Democrat nominee for New York City mayor – as well as with other mayors across the country.

50% of value gone, but nobody sells.

• Just 5% Of All Bitcoins In Circulation Have Traded In The Past Year (ZH)

In JPMorgan’s latest weekly bitcoin hit piece (because for some “inexplicable” reason, JPMorgan executive have instructed most of the bank’s strategists, including those covering equity and rates, to slam the cryptocurrency on a weekly if not daily basis while the bank quietly builds out its own proprietary crypto fund, almost as if it is desperate to scare its clients into selling), the bank makes an interesting argument: bitcoin is not liquid enough to be successfully implemented as a legal tender in El Salvador.

We won’t speak to the validity of JPM’s argument – we will soon find out first hand whether or not El Salvador made a mistake in adopting bitcoin as legal tender – although it certainly is simple enough: “daily payment activity in El Salvador would represent ~4% of recent on-chain transaction volume and more than 1% of the total value of tokens which have been transferred between wallets in the past year,” the report said, with the illiquidity and nature of the volume “potentially a significant limitation on its potential as a medium of exchange.”

Perhaps, then again in its brief history bitcoin has certainly demonstrated that it is remarkably scalable and viable even without a central bank propping it up every time there is even a modest risk-flaring hiccup, which is much more than we could ever say about the global stock market or currencies such as Europe’s “whatever it takes” euro. Of course, JPMorgan – a bank that directly benefited form more than one multibilion bailout – will be the last to admit just how much sustainable the cryptocurrency has become, which is why we will ignore the bank’s latest round of propaganda, but will point out an interesting fact unearthed by JPMorgan: it goes straight to the heart of the recurring argument why bitcoin is so volatile.

The reason, as JPM has discovered, is that bitcoin’s float may be as little as 5%, if not less. Discussing the daily trading volumes of bitcoin, JPM notes that a large fraction of Bitcoin are locked up in illiquid entities (liquidity sinks), “with more than 90% not changing hands in more than a year” while roughly 80% – and rising – are held by wallets with light turnover. This means that a paltry 5-10% of all bitcoin in circulation has traded in the past year. Another way of putting it: an asset with a $600 billion market cap has a float of just $30 billion. Which is remarkable as it means that no whales sold bitcoin when it hit its all time high of $65,000. And if they didn’t sell then, they certainly won’t sell now when it’s half that price.

Would be nice if it goes somewhere.

• Trump: Why I’m Suing Big Tech (ZH)

Following last week’s announcement that President Trump was filing a class-action lawsuit suing the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Google over allegations of illegal censorship, Trump has published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal where he lays out his legal team’s argument: Big Tech has colluded with government to censor the free speech of the American people, Trump said. Since social media has become “as central to free speech as town meeting halls, newspapers and television networks were in prior generations.” Despite the fact that the internet is “the new public square”, Big Tech has become increasingly “brazen and shameless in censoring and discriminating against ideas, information and people on social media – banning users, deplatforming organizations, and aggressively blocking the free flow of information on which our democracy depends.”

“No longer are Big Tech giants simply removing specific threats of violence. They are manipulating and controlling the political debate itself.” Trump also cited Big Tech’s decision to bar him from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. “Perhaps most egregious, in the weeks after the election, Big Tech blocked the social-media accounts of the sitting president. If they can do it to me, they can do it to you—and believe me, they are.” While Chinese and Iranian propagandists are allowed to operate with impunity, social media platforms have attacked a Michigan schoolteacher for sharing an article questioning whether mandatory masks are suitable for young children in schools. A Florida couple that lost their 21-year-old son in a fatal car accident caused by a 2x-deported illegal immigrant was censored by Facebook when they posted about border security and immigration enforcement, Trump said.

These regular people will appear as plaintiffs alongside Trump and his America First Policy Institute, which is co-sponsoring the litigation. Worst of all, when Democrats in Congress demand that big tech CEOs “fact check” what they insist are “false” stories, Trump says that these “disinformation” labels are supplied by partisan fact-checkers loyal to the Democratic Party. This is tantamount to “suppression of speech that those in power do not like.” “Through these lawsuits, I intend to restore free speech for all Americans—Democrats, Republicans and independents. I will never stop fighting to defend the constitutional rights and sacred liberties of the American people.” Finally, Trump cited the Trusted News Initiative, a program whereby Twitter, Facebook and Google all take orders from the CDC about which information to combat.

“It’s a Democrat machine; it should be a campaign contribution.”

• Trump: Big Tech Is ‘Getting The Biggest Subsidy Ever (JTN)

Former President Donald Trump discussed his class-action lawsuit against Big Tech censorship on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” saying he believes it will be “very successful.” Trump said the lawsuit will “wind its way through the courts, I think it’s gonna be very successful … It’s been very well received, very popular, a lot of legal scholars are saying it’s about time.” The lawsuit was filed against the CEO’s of Google, Facebook, and Twitter, alleging that censorship is a violation of the First Amendment and applies to private companies because they are working for government officials. Section 230 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act allows websites to remove obscene content. Trump is arguing that this immunity is like a government subsidy.

“They’re getting the biggest subsidy that any company has ever gotten from a government,” Trump explained. “They’re immune from so many different things, but they’re not immune from this lawsuit because what they’ve done is such a violation of the Constitution. A violation like we’ve never seen before.” “They work with the Democrats,” he added. “It’s a Democrat machine; it should be a campaign contribution.” Because YouTube, Facebook, and Google suspended his accounts on their platforms, Trump said that it “hurts his ability to support fellow conservatives by campaigning for Republicans running in 2022. He also said it hurts his ability to lay the groundwork for a possible 2024 presidential bid,” Fox News reported.

I admit: I like to see him back.

• ‘I Got Impeached Twice, I Became Worse’: Trump (RT)

In a speech to fans in Texas, Donald Trump repeated claims of election fraud and tirades against “cancel culture.” He also uttered one phrase his opponents would likely agree with, saying he “became worse” after being impeached. Trump took the stage in Dallas, Texas on Sunday night to close out the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a yearly or twice-yearly gathering of politicians, activists and celebrities from the American right. The CPAC crowd is as friendly to Trump as crowds get, and the former president served them up his signature partisan jokes, rants and one-liners. He railed against President Joe Biden and the Democrats, whom he accused of “rigging” the 2020 election against him. The audience agreed, breaking into chants of “Trump won!”

He thundered against immigration, accusing Biden of turning the US/Mexico border into “the single greatest disaster in American history” and lambasted “big tech’s attack on free speech,” days after suing the social media platforms that banned him in January. All of these complaints and grievances are standard Trump fare, but the receptive crowd at CPAC gave him the opportunity to try out some new material. Turning on his former attorney general, Trump claimed that Bill Barr “became a different man” after House Democrats “viciously stated that they wanted to impeach him” last year. “I didn’t become different,” Trump quipped. “I got impeached twice. I became worse.” His opponents would likely agree with that statement, but “worse” to his supporters clearly meant “better,” as they broke out into applause and cheers.

Trump’s headline appearance, and the warm reception he received, served as a reminder that although he is out of power and absent from social media, he still sets the Republican Party’s agenda. His former vice president, Mike Pence, who voted to certify Biden’s electoral victory, did not appear at the event and was booed and heckled at a conservative conference in Florida several weeks ago. CPAC is considered an opportunity for potential Republican presidential candidates to audition in front of the conservative base, and Trump – who has dropped several hints recently at another run for the White House in 2024 – seemed to acknowledge this. “The Democrats want me out… and here I am. I could have a nice, beautiful life and here I am on a Sunday in Texas,” he said, to which the crowd chanted “Four more years! Four more years!”

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