08/22 - Saint Nessie's Birthday

Monster van Loch Ness

~~ Saint Nessie

Today we celebrate Saint Nessie's Day, a holiday only partly of my invention. The earliest report of a monster in the vicinity of Loch Ness comes from Saint Columba and is reported in writing by the writer Adomnán. Adomnan's tale has a lot of other embellishments, but, objectively, Nessie was clearly born of the mind and imagination of Saint Columba springing full grown from his head like Athena from the head of Zeus. As Athena was a god because birthed of a god so Nessie must be a saint because birthed of a saint. Lest somebody cry sacrilege, please be aware that minimal research will disclose that many religions and sects have saints and celebrate saints' days. There is seemingly no bar to declaring a person or other entity to be a saint and assigning them a day. In this case, the day is the anniversary of the day in 565 CE on which Saint Columba, ahem, first saw it/him/her.

This saves me from having to address the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief. Nobody really desires to hear me rant on that topic, I assure you. Throughout my life, now and then one or more missionaries, willfully and intentionally violating the law of some foreign state got punished for said transgressions, which caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth and howling about how horrible, evil and dastardly those states were to do so. This is notwithstanding the fact that throughout history religious devotees have hideously tortured, murdered, and enslaved vast numbers of heathens, pagans, atheists, free thinkers, scientists and other non-believers, including even those who were co-religionists who merely differed as to one or more details of dogma or ritual, witness the intentionally genocidal Albigensian Crusade. No, I don't want to go there.

bruno4

~~ Giordano Bruno, Martyr to Free Thought ~~

I should probably mention the Geneva Convention(s), for what it is worth. The First Geneva Convention was signed by 12 countries (not including the US) on this date in 1864, and the even the US eventually signed too. The convention tried to stipulate what could and could not be done to POWs and civilians in time of war and was to be enforced by the Red Cross. To paraphrase Stalin; How many divisions does the Red Cross have? None, and it shows. The perpetrators of such war crimes as Mai Lai and Abu Graib, for example, all combined, suffered a far lesser penalty than Julian Assange has so far for exposing some war crimes. Beside that, it appears that one can do anything one pleases to "unlawful enemy combatants" who are defined as anybody of any nationality that the US President decides to call an "unlawful enemy combatant". So, whatever.

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On this day in history:

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0565 -- St. Columba reported seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland.
1485 -- The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death of Richard III and the end of the House of Plantagenet
1639 -- Madras (now Chennai), India, was founded by the British East India Company

1642 -- Charles I called the English Parliament traitors. The English Civil War began
1791 -- The Haitian Slave Revolution started in Saint-Domingue.
1831 -- Nat Turner's slave rebellion started just after midnight in Southampton County, Virginia
1848 -- The United States annexed New Mexico.
1864 -- Twelve nations signed the First Geneva Convention.
1950 -- Althea Gibson became the first black competitor in international tennis.
1952 -- They permanently closed the penal colony on Devil's Island. Next up, Gitmo
1963 -- Joe Walker reached an altitude of 67.08 mi (354,200 feet) in an X-15
1966 -- The NFWA and AWOC merged to become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC)
1971 –- Jedgar Hoover and John Mitchell announce the arrest of 20 of the Camden 28.
1978 -- The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FLSN) occupied the national palace in Nicaragua.
1992 -- FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi killed Vicki Weaver at her home at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. No hostage was found or rescued.
1996 -- Bill Clinton signed The Clinton Welfare reform CUTS into law

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Some people who were born on this day:

If I don't drive around the park,
I'm pretty sure to make my mark.
If I'm in bed each night by ten,
I may get back my looks again,
If I abstain from fun and such,
I'll probably amount to much,
But I shall stay the way I am,
Because I do not give a damn.

~~ Dorothy Parker

1647 -- Denis Papin, physicist and mathematician, developed pressure cooking
1862 -- Claude Debussy, pianist and composer
1880 -- George Herriman, cartoonist
1893 -- Wilfred Kitching, 7th General of The Starvation Army, pregnant with celestial fire
1893 -- Dorothy Parker, poet, critic, author, wit, member of the Algonquin Roundtable, Hollywood Blacklistee
1902 -- Leni Riefenstahl, actress and director, NAZI propagandist
1908 -- Henri Cartier-Bresson, photographer and painter
1914 -- Jack Dunphy, dancer, author, playwright, Capote fancier
1915 -- David Dellinger, pacifist, activist, radical, 1/7th of Chicago 7.
1917 -- John Lee Hooker, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1918 -- Mary McGrory, journalist and author
1920 -- Ray Bradbury, author and screenwriter
1928 -- Karlheinz Stockhausen, composer and academic
1936 -- Chuck Brown, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer.
1936 -- Dale Hawkins, singer, songwriter and guitarist; swamp rocker
1945 -- Ron Dante, singer, songwriter and producer
1947 -- Donna Jean Godchaux, singer, songwriter
1948 -- David Marks, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1958 -- Vernon Reid, guitarist and songwriter
1959 -- Juan Croucier, singer, songwriter, bass player, and producer
1961 -- Roland Orzabal, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1961 -- Debbi Peterson, singer and drummer
1963 -- Tori Amos, singer, songwriter, pianist, and producer, activist
1967 -- Layne Staley, singer, songwriter
1972 -- Paul Doucette, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and drummer
1976 -- Bryn Davies, bassist, cellist, and pianist - look her up sometime

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Some people who died on this day:

When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught us how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.

~~ Jomo Kenyatta

1664 -- Maria Cunitz, astronomer and author
1965 -- Ellen Church, first female flight attendant
1967 -- Gregory Goodwin Pincus, co-created the birth-control pil
1978 -- Jomo Kenyatta, journalist and politician, founding father of Kenya, one of Kapenguria Six, alleged mau mau.
1979 -- James T. Farrell, novelist, short-story writer, and poet
1989 -- Huey P. Newton, activist, co-founded the Black Panther Party, brought gun control to California
2006 -- Bruce Gary, drummer and producer
2011 -- Jerry Leiber, songwriter, half of "Leiber & Stoller"

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

Why not Saint Nessie? Saint Columba birthed her on this date
International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief (International)

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Today's Tunes

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Wilfred Kitching

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Claude Debussy

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John Lee Hooker, Who deserves his own essay

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Karlheinz Stockhausen

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Chuck Brown

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Dale Hawkins

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Ron Dante, who was guilty of -

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Donna Jean Godchaux

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David Marks

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Roland Orzabal

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Debbi Peterson

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Tori Amos

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Layne Staley

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Paul Doucette

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Bryn Davies

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Bruce Gary

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Jerry Leiber

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OK, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?

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Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

Open Thread, Saint Nessie, Geneva Accord, Bosworth Field, Haiti, Nat Turner, UFWOC, Camden 28, Welfare Cuts, Dorothy Parker, John Lee Hooker, Ray Bradbury, Jomo Kenyatta, Huey Newton, Jerry Leiber

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Lookout's picture

that to deal with the human monsters common on Earth.

For some reason the US war OF terror excused us from following the Geneva Convention and start torturing prisoners, droning people all over the world, and all sorts of illegal actions. But hey we have demockrazy better than anyone else. USA, USA!

Whatcha gonna to say. At least we have natural bounty which we can currently enjoy.

Hope you all have a good one!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout

There is a room in Madrid's Prado dedicated to some of Goya's works. In it one will find Saturn Devouring His Son, horrible, grisly, and all that:
goya_saturn_devouring_his_son_1823_1_1823

but not far from it, his Second of May 1808 and Third of May 1808:

war,cruelty-(CC0)-Goya

fight,war,cruelty-(CC0)-Goya

This particular arrangement was not contrived on purpose, but, all the same ...

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

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enhydra lutris's picture

@humphrey @humphrey

humorous entertainment.

be well and have a good one

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4 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Tomorrow is Primary day in NYC. If anything interesting to the country occurs, I'll discuss it here.

For today, this short quote from William Kunstler caught my eye this morning:

"In plain English, we’re exiting the techno-industrial fiesta of the past 200-odd years and entering the uncharted territory of what-comes-next, and that is driving the immense anxiety of the age. Our business model for everything is broken, mostly because the fossil fuel situation has become so uncertain, and it is driving us nuts. Understand that and you will have enough mental equipment operating correctly to stay sane."

Nice if he is right. Staying sane would be lovely.

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NYCVG

enhydra lutris's picture

@NYCVG

I think it is beyond petro, that is almost a distraction, but all the same it is broadly true. Ruthless competition and social Darwinism is proving not to be such a great model for a society after all. We all need to carry set mousetraps in our pockets to punish the invisible hand when it tries to pick our pockets further.

be well and have a good one

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7 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Today Matt Gaetz and Don Jr. are having a rally in Pensacola. Not going. I can't afford to waste gas. The last rally Gaetz had, there were about 50 protesters. He's running against a retired Marine but I still think he's going to win. His family has a lot of influence in these parts. When he was younger, he must have been "arrested" or at least stopped for DUI a dozen times, but never went to court or jail over any of it. There is a different set of laws for the rich.

correct DUI

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Enchantress

a public appearance by Gaetz would be enough to dissuade me from attending. I must confess, however, that even as a child freak shows turned me off. (though I must confess that I might have gone to see Lydia the Tattooed Lady, were she real Wink )

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

usefewersyllables's picture

@enhydra lutris

pay to see Lydia- all you have to do is screw your courage to the sticking-place and go to a WalMart during hot weather. Dear Gawd, I didn't think that there was that much badly-done ink in the freakin' world...

That is a fashion trend by which I'm happy to have been left behind. Even all those years of rock&roll and no ink on this reporter. But hey- I met a guitarist this weekend who is another GHOF like me and is looking for a drummer. So I may just go buy a cheap used E-kit and get back to scratching the skins, since all my gear burned up. That'd be a hoot: classic rock played by people who are old enough to have been there for the first release...

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

enhydra lutris's picture

@usefewersyllables

Walmart lacks a Groucho class barker, which is/was, of course, at least half of Lydia's attraction. The Drum kit sounds like a worthy expenditure of time. I still have a guitar laying around, but seem to have misplaced my hands and fingers, alas.

be well and have a good one

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7 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-22/europe-gas-jumps-as-s...

German Power Prices Smash Record as Energy Panic Engulfs Europe.

Nord Stream pipe set for three-day maintenance from Aug. 31

Gas rises 21%, and French power and coal jump to records

European gas and power prices surged as panic over Russian supplies gripped markets and politicians warned citizens to brace for a tough winter ahead.

Benchmark gas rose as much as 21%, while German power surged to above 700 euros ($695) a megawatt-hour for the first time. Russia said it will stop its key Nord Stream gas pipeline for three days of repairs on Aug. 31, again raising concerns it won’t return after the work. Europe has been on tenterhooks about shipments through the link for weeks, with flows resuming only at very low levels after it was shut for works last month.

“The catastrophe is already there,” Thierry Bros, a professor in international energy at Sciences Po in Paris, said. “I think the major question is when EU leaders are going to wake up.”

In one of the most dire warnings yet, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Europe could face up to 10 difficult winters. It would put sustained stress on major economies and the impact could spread across the world, while pushing millions of households into energy poverty. Governments have already been forced into policy u-turns by bringing back power generated by nuclear and coal -- a fuel that until recently was relegated to the fringes because of it’s high carbon emissions.

The genius's from the US and NATO seemed to have missed the unintended consequences of their actions

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Lookout's picture

@humphrey

when it was the EU, et al that imposed the sanctions which are killing their economies. Not bit of self reflection.

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7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@humphrey

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

link

The U.S. forces sent 137 oil-laden tankers from oil fields in northeastern Syria to its bases in Iraq on Sunday, the latest shipment of stolen Syrian oil to be delivered to U.S. bases in Iraq, state news agency SANA reported.

The latest shipment was sent in two batches from oil fields in the northeastern province of Hasakah at dawn Sunday with the help of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said SANA.

With the latest shipment, the U.S. has taken a total of 535 tankers of stolen Syrian oil since Aug. 11.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@gjohnsit

on that aspect of US criminality in Syria. One might hope that the Iraqi's would stop those shipments at the border, but we'd probably go all shock and awe on them again.

be well and have a good one

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7 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@gjohnsit

https://thecradle.co/Article/news/14584

On 19 August, the Greek-flagged ship Maran Canopus departed from Yemen’s Al-Dhaba port in Hadhramaut province carrying nearly 2 million barrels of stolen crude oil on board.

Citing an official source, Saba News Agency reported that the Greek ship docked at the Al-Dhaba export port and loaded two million barrels of crude oil earlier this month.

The value of the stolen oil is estimated at $200 million, according to prices in international energy markets.

The ship is reportedly heading to the Chinese port of “Rizhao” to unload its cargo.

“The looting of the Yemeni crude oil is just a part of a series of robberies organized by the Saudi-led aggression and its mercenaries to the country’s revenues, as the state employees’ salaries are still suspended for more than six years,” a Yemeni official told Saba.

Two days earlier, the diesel ship Golden Eagleii was confiscated by the Saudi-led coalition forces while it was heading to Hodeidah’s port, despite having UN authorization to enter the port.

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/21/687785/Yemen-French-troops-gas-...

A former Yemeni foreign minister says French Foreign Legion, a military force comprising of foreign nationals, has arrived in the impoverished Arab country’s southern province of Shabwah to secure control of a gas facility there.

In a post on his Twitter account on Wednesday, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi said there are French “preparations being made to export gas from the Balhaf facility … in light of increased international gas prices,” in an attempt to reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian gas amid the global energy crisis exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine.

He also suggested that the French move "could be the reason for recent clashes in Shabwah," noting that the arrival of French forces to the area is meant to “provide protection for the facility.”

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enhydra lutris's picture

@humphrey

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6 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

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7 users have voted.

@humphrey Two synonymous concepts

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6 users have voted.

NYCVG

Way past due. Criminal charges would be in order IMO.

White House coronavirus czar resigns

In a statement released by the NIAID, Fauci said that he will leave his positions in December

https://www.rt.com/news/561325-fauci-resigns-/

Thanks for the OT EL!

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@QMS

Things like lying to the public, making money off of positions of authority and the like are
not considered crimes, but he didn't invent Teflon. This corrupt administrator should at
least be made accountable for some of the damages he orchestrated on our health.

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6 users have voted.

@QMS Not that whoever replaces him will be an improvement.

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NYCVG

@NYCVG

representing the pharmaceutical industry to *replace* him.
There are not term limits on any of these appointed scammers.
But is health of the citizens that is being ployed here.
I think we should have some say-so in the matter?

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enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS

be sell and have a good one

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3 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

snoopydawg's picture

@QMS

She notes that lots of scientists and doctors working in the health agencies have also quit and she wonders if they are doing it for nefarious reasons. Check out the comments too. People post great links.

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4 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

snoopydawg's picture

Here’s one short essay on how government has decided that it can rescind the constitution, posse comititas and the bill of rights.

2014 - US President Barack Obama signs Executive Order adding suspected but non-clinical/asymptomatic SARS [lab-modified, weaponized common cold] to the list of communicable diseases, the outbreak of which authorizes Secretary of Health and Human Services to suspend Americans’ civil liberties and US Constitution, and legally eviscerate Congress, state governments and American courts.

The author has other essays that covers much bigger lists of acts and executive orders that do the same. I didn’t see where the founders said that our inalienable rights could be rescinded in times of emergency, but even the great Abe Lincoln suspended habeas comitatus during the civil war. Other presidents have taken it upon themselves to do the same.

I remember when congress was debating the FISA bill to give Bush immunity for spying on us and the saying then was that secret meetings and secret courts don’t nullify the constitution, but when they suspend posse comitatus and have the military enforce the orders what can we do?

Posse Comitatus

The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law ( 18 U.S.C. § 1385, original at 20 Stat. 152) signed on June 18, 1878, by President Rutherford B. Hayes which limits the powers of the federal government in the use of federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States

The one above is short on links, but this one is more detailed with lots of links to the orders and acts. It’s a must eye opening read.

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3 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

enhydra lutris's picture

@snoopydawg

your choice of bunkum or hokum. Examples:

US Health and Human Services Department quietly — without Congressional debate or ratification, Presidential signature or court review — adopts major revisions to 42 CFR 70,

Regs aren't laws, they are not passed by Congress or signed by the President and are subject to court review only when challenged in, of all things, the courts.

2013 - Moderna obtains US patents for DNA sequence that was later found in SARS-CoV-2 spike protein after the outbreak started in 2019.

That, as written, is completely false and egregiously misleading as well.

Somebody pawed through a huge database looking for something and found a relatively short segment of dna in a Moderna patent that contained A Mirror Image of something in SARS-COV-2 On The Non-Coding Strand. Simply put 123456 is not the same as 654321 and it is a lie to imply otherwise. Beyond that, even if it was a real match and not reversed, it is meaningless, because 1) non-coding and 2)only a snippet.(331234567 and 321234567 are not the same even though they both include 1234567)

adding “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome” [new name given to lab-modified, weaponized common cold] to the list of communicable diseases, the outbreak of which authorizes Secretary of Health and Human Services to suspend Americans’ civil liberties and the US Constitution, and legally eviscerate Congress, state governments and American courts.

1) Where is the PROOF that SARS is lab modified weaponized common cold?
2) Needs to cite specific statutory language which

authorizes Secretary of Health and Human Services to suspend Americans’ civil liberties and the US Constitution, and legally eviscerate Congress, state governments and American courts.

that little bit of totally unsupported hyperbolic verbiage pops up more than once.

be well and have a good one

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3 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --