The Dose - 2-26-2022

Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 02/26/2022 - 5:19am

A few articles of interest.

CDC (Center for Disease Control) has updated COVID-19 Community Levels and added suggested precautions to take at individual- and household-level based on community rating.

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China is serious about its No COVID policy.

HK tightens Covid rules while world eases theirs

Hong Kong has further tightened its social-distancing rules, including using the “vaccine pass” system that requires all people in shopping malls and supermarkets to be vaccinated.

The changes were made on Thursday, at the same time the United Kingdom officially canceled all its Covid rules.
...
On February 8, the government decided to gradually shift towards the western countries’ “living with the coronavirus” strategy by launching a “vaccine pass” scheme to boost the vaccination rate.

It was then criticized by pro-Beijing academics and politicians for deviating from Beijing’s zero Covid policy. On February 16, Xi ordered Hong Kong to make epidemic control its top priority.

Since then, the Hong Kong government announced it requires all 7.5 million people in the city to undergo three rounds of mandatory Covid tests in March. It said the city planned to complete one million tests per day, but might have to send some samples to the mainland’s laboratories despite people’s concerns about a leak of their biological information.

With the mainland’s support, Hong Kong will build four temporary hospitals for Covid patients and expand the Penny’s Bay Quarantine Center.

Although medical experts said a citywide testing scheme would not be effective to finding those infected without lockdowns, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said there was no need to lock down the entire city.

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No conclusions, just something to watch for further information as time passes and more data collected and analyzed. Also important to note, autopsy findings do not correlate perfectly with a person exhibiting clinical signs of dementia.

Study finds brain changes similarly to Alzheimer’s following COVID-19 infection

Dr. Andrew Marx, an expert in cellular physiology and biophysics at Columbia University, and his colleagues studied the brains of 10 COVID-19 patients and found defects in proteins called Ryanodine receptors that control the transfer of calcium to cells in Alzheimer's disease. Defective Ryanodine receptors are linked to the accumulation of tau proteins into so-called neurofibrillary tangles. These tangles were present at high levels in the brains of COVID-19 patients, the research team reported in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

Other research teams found abnormal amyloid levels in the brains of COVID-19 patients, according to reports posted online prior to peer review in the preprint bioRxiv and on the site of The Lancet.
...
He made it clear that much more research needs to be conducted before definite conclusions can be published.

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South Korea hints at Covid exit in mid-March

South Korean Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum, who heads his government’s pandemic response, has suggested his Omicron-wracked nation will start its Covid-19 exit after mid-March.
...
Asked by foreign reporters in Seoul on Tuesday what pre-conditions must be met before South Korea can exit Covid, Kim said: “The first pre-condition has to be hospital capacity – the medical capacity to take care of the critically ill.”

While Kim would not be drawn on specifics – “I cannot say an exact number for now” – he indicated this condition was being met.

“We judge that we have sufficient capacity to take care of the critically ill,” he said. “But health authorities are beleaguered by the increasing cases.”

Though the country is inundated with a flood of Omicron cases, the medical dikes are holding. On Tuesday, South Korea registered 99,573 new infections, but only 480 were hospitalized with severe symptoms.

The caseloads for the last two days have been below the record highs hit last week, when daily infections were trending north of 100,000. It is too early at this stage, however, to know whether this is simply a blip or an actual downward trend.
...
Yet despite Kim’s hopes of a shift to normalization in March, South Koreans have heard talk of a Covid exit before.

In late October, the government announced a plan that would have seen a phased, three-month return to normality, with all restrictions being lifted by the end of January.

However, once the Omicron variant started its global spread, that plan was shelved at its earliest implementation stage.

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Comments

Submitted by ggersh on Sat, 02/26/2022 - 10:09am

We have a convoy!

https://live.childrenshealthdefense.org/convoy-update?utm_source=salsa&u...

And now we have this

https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2022/02/debt-rattle-february-26-2022/

—

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by Lookout on Sat, 02/26/2022 - 10:33am

There mixed news on the Canadian truckers...

Most, but not all, bank accounts have been reopened. So that's good news.

Here's an interesting piece on Chrystia Freeland's background
She's the one that froze accounts with apparent great delight...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs4I_cXbuNA]
40 sec

Matt has a piece about the power grab...
When Boring People Turn Dangerous: Canada's Insane Power Grab
The Canadian government's decision to freeze bank accounts in the trucker protests is a mad leap toward bureaucratic dystopia
... fellow former finance reporter Chrystia Freeland — someone I’ve known since we were both expat journalists in Russia in the nineties
...Years later, she is somehow Canada’s Finance Minister, and what another friend from our Russia days laughingly describes as “the Nurse Ratched of the New World Order.” At the end of last week, Minister Freeland explained that in expanding its Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) program, her government was “directing Canadian financial institutions to review their relationships with anyone involved in the illegal blockades.”

Ottawa Aftermath - Injunctions to Frozen Bank Accounts - Tom Marazzo Interview

—

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

Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 02/26/2022 - 11:34am

The same subjects keep appearing with various topics

@Lookout Methods to keep journalists on message, international relations, politics and financial punishments (i.e. sanctions).

from the article linked in original comment.

On Christmas Eve, 2018, New York Times writer Andrew Ross Sorkin published, “How Banks Unwittingly Finance Mass Shootings.”
...
By the way, this same Sorkin once suggested he wouldn’t stop at arresting Edward Snowden, but go after the reporter who broke his story, too. “I would arrest him and now I’d almost arrest Glenn Greenwald, the journalist… he wants to help him get to Ecuador,” he said, on CNBC’s Squawk Box. It’s amazing how selective one can be in one’s authoritarian leanings. After Goldman, Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein appeared to commit perjury in 2011 when he told the Senate, “We didn’t bet against our clients,” Sorkin rushed an apologia into print saying “Mr. Blankfein wasn’t lying,” failing to remind audiences that his Dealbook blog at the Times was sponsored by… Goldman, Sachs.

Sorkin’s Visa piece is suddenly relevant again, after fellow former finance reporter Chrystia Freeland — someone I’ve known since we were both expat journalists in Russia in the nineties — announced last week that her native Canada would be making Sorkin’s vision a reality. Freeland arouses strong feelings among old Russia hands. Before the Yeltsin era collapsed, she had consistent, remarkable access to gangster-oligarchs like Boris Berezovsky, who appeared in her Financial Times articles described as aw-shucks humans just doing their best to make sure “big capital” maintained its “necessary role” in Russia’s political life. “Berezovsky was one of several financiers who came together in a last-ditch attempt to keep the Communists out of the Kremlin” was typical Freeland fare in, say, 1998.
...
Years later, she is somehow Canada’s Finance Minister, and what another friend from our Russia days laughingly describes as “the Nurse Ratched of the New World Order.”

Freeland appears to have a bit of a history with Russia and Ukraine.

Canada brings in stronger sanctions after Russia strikes Ukraine Feb 24, 2022 CFJC Today

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Putin’s attack was a test of the post-Second World War order that Canada helped to build to restore peace to the world.

“It could be this is an extremely serious challenge to that order. And if Russia succeeds, then that order will be breached. And we can’t let that happen,” said Freeland, who is of Ukrainian descent and has been banned by Putin from travelling to Russia because she wrote critically about him in her pre-political career as a journalist.
...
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which represents 1.3 million Canadians of Ukrainian descent, echoed that call for Russia to be tossed from the banking system as part of “devastating” economic sanctions.

“Ukraine needs weapons with which to defend itself right now,” UCC executive director Ihor Michalchyshyn added in a statement. “Most importantly they need anti-air systems like stinger missiles and other air defence and naval defence systems.”

He also warned against Canada and its allies not taking a strong enough stance in its response to Russia, saying: “In the 1930s, the world was slow to recognize the danger that Adolf Hitler posed to our civilization. We cannot make that same mistake again with Putin.”

—

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by Lookout on Sat, 02/26/2022 - 12:51pm

What I find most ironic

@studentofearth

Is that Trudeau refused to talk with the trucker because they are Nazis, but he is funding a Nazi battalion in Ukraine.

The Azov battalion which is part of Ukraine’s National Guard under the helm of the Ministry of the Interior is supported by Canadian tax payers.

“Canadian officials who met with members of a Ukrainian battalion linked to neo-Nazis didn’t denounce the unit, but were instead concerned the media would expose details of the get-together, according to newly released documents.

The Canadians met with and were briefed by leaders from the Azov Battalion in June 2018. The officers and diplomats did not object to the meeting and instead allowed themselves to be photographed with battalion officials despite previous warnings that the unit saw itself as pro-Nazi. The Azov Battalion then used those photos for its online propaganda, pointing out the Canadian delegation expressed “hopes for further fruitful co-operation.”

https://marktaliano.net/whose-swastikas-justin-trudeau-supports-neo-nazi...

#2 Methods to keep journalists on message, international relations, politics and financial punishments (i.e. sanctions). from the article linked in original comment. On Christmas Eve, 2018, New York Times writer Andrew Ross Sorkin published, “How Banks Unwittingly Finance Mass Shootings.” ... By the way, this same Sorkin once suggested he wouldn’t stop at arresting Edward Snowden, but go after the reporter who broke his story, too. “I would arrest him and now I’d almost arrest Glenn Greenwald, the journalist… he wants to help him get to Ecuador,” he said, on CNBC’s Squawk Box. It’s amazing how selective one can be in one’s authoritarian leanings. After Goldman, Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein appeared to commit perjury in 2011 when he told the Senate, “We didn’t bet against our clients,” Sorkin rushed an apologia into print saying “Mr. Blankfein wasn’t lying,” failing to remind audiences that his Dealbook blog at the Times was sponsored by… Goldman, Sachs. Sorkin’s Visa piece is suddenly relevant again, after fellow former finance reporter Chrystia Freeland — someone I’ve known since we were both expat journalists in Russia in the nineties — announced last week that her native Canada would be making Sorkin’s vision a reality. Freeland arouses strong feelings among old Russia hands. Before the Yeltsin era collapsed, she had consistent, remarkable access to gangster-oligarchs like Boris Berezovsky, who appeared in her Financial Times articles described as aw-shucks humans just doing their best to make sure “big capital” maintained its “necessary role” in Russia’s political life. “Berezovsky was one of several financiers who came together in a last-ditch attempt to keep the Communists out of the Kremlin” was typical Freeland fare in, say, 1998. ... Years later, she is somehow Canada’s Finance Minister, and what another friend from our Russia days laughingly describes as “the Nurse Ratched of the New World Order.” Freeland appears to have a bit of a history with Russia and Ukraine. Canada brings in stronger sanctions after Russia strikes Ukraine Feb 24, 2022 CFJC Today Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Putin’s attack was a test of the post-Second World War order that Canada helped to build to restore peace to the world. “It could be this is an extremely serious challenge to that order. And if Russia succeeds, then that order will be breached. And we can’t let that happen,” said Freeland, who is of Ukrainian descent and has been banned by Putin from travelling to Russia because she wrote critically about him in her pre-political career as a journalist. ... The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which represents 1.3 million Canadians of Ukrainian descent, echoed that call for Russia to be tossed from the banking system as part of “devastating” economic sanctions. “Ukraine needs weapons with which to defend itself right now,” UCC executive director Ihor Michalchyshyn added in a statement. “Most importantly they need anti-air systems like stinger missiles and other air defence and naval defence systems.” He also warned against Canada and its allies not taking a strong enough stance in its response to Russia, saying: “In the 1930s, the world was slow to recognize the danger that Adolf Hitler posed to our civilization. We cannot make that same mistake again with Putin.”

—

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

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 02/26/2022 - 1:04pm

So is Israel

@Lookout

https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-arming-neo-nazis-ukraine/2...

As always it’s the fcking hypocrisy!

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

Submitted by Lookout on Sat, 02/26/2022 - 1:12pm

I wonder if...

@snoopydawg

John and Jane Q Public will grasp that we support the Nazis?

Israel is no surprise, but does top out the hypocrisy meter.

Edit to add:
They also armed Al Qaeda in Syria...as did the US

—

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

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 02/26/2022 - 1:48pm

Hell no

@Lookout

Americans are some of the most misinformed people in the world. I’m not blaming those who are too busy trying to survive in this country for not knowing everything, but if we here can find the truth besides what the media stenographers tells us it is then so can others. Look at the wreck list on orange state. Dumb fcks don’t even know that they are cheering for the neo Nazis to kick Russia’s buttocks. A few want a no fly zone over Ukraine and one ex military wants Biden to send the Air Force to take on Russia’s jets. And even worse ideas. I’m appalled by their knowledge.

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Submitted by Bisbonian on Sun, 02/27/2022 - 8:38pm

There's their Nazis, then there's our Nazis.

@Lookout

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Submitted by fire with fire on Sat, 02/26/2022 - 2:27pm

Little Justin Trudeau

bailed out of his Hoser version of Fascist oppression just as the war in Ukraine started, and the story did not make much of splash amid the breathless "reporting" from The Donbass or whever the fuck the shooting was taking place.

I was actually hoping that he would play that insane gambit out to its endgame -- which would have been terribly humiliating as the utter impracticality of bank account freezing was about to manifest itself. The targets of this braindead concept were individual bank accounts. Nobody so encumbered could pay their mortgage or rent, their utility bills, their credit card payments plus buying groceries. The actual "punishment" of this goofball version of fascism goes to the people the targets owe money to.

You can say that it would not be used on enough people to have much economic impact. Easy for you to say but you are not the one getting stiffed.

Russia gave Justin the cover he needed to get out from under his own stupidity. Unfortunately, the lesson he will learn is not to fuck around with passive aggressive oppression any more, and just have the cops shoot people who won't go home.

This drill is a night mare and it is getting worse and worse and worser. . . .

—

I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.