The Evening Blues - 9-14-21



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Little Richard

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features rock n roll pianist Little Richard. Enjoy!

Little Richard - Long Tall Sally

“Most people gaze neither into the past nor the future; they explore neither truth nor lies. They gaze at the television.”

-- Radiohead


News and Opinion

The proof is in: TV really does rot your brain

Until now, claims that television makes you stupid have only been backed up by anecdotal evidence. True, at a certain point it does seem that people who watch vast amounts of TV do become so intellectually impaired that they start involuntarily clapping along to theme tunes like imprisoned sea lions performing for fish, but that isn’t anything you could write a medical paper about.

Now, sadly, science has trundled along to back it up. According to Dr Ryan Dougherty, from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, the more television you watch in middle age, the lower your volume in grey matter. Examining the viewing habits of 599 American adults between 1990 and 2011, Dougherty found that those who watched an above average amount of television showed reduced volume in their frontal cortex and entorhinal cortex. Basically, your mum was right: TV really does rot your brain.

After Spending Trillions on War in Afghanistan, US Answers Call for Aid With Just $64 Million

International policymakers pledged about $1 billion in aid for Afghanistan Monday following a plea from United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres for immediate funding to protect Afghan children and other vulnerable people from starvation—but just 6% was pledged by the country which led Afghanistan into two decades of war before withdrawing all troops at the end of August.

The U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced the country would direct $64 million to Afghanistan to "provide lifesaving support directly to Afghans facing the compounding effects of insecurity, conflict, recurring natural disasters, and the Covid-19 pandemic."

Guterres had appealed to the international community for at least $606 million, warning that Afghans now "face perhaps their most perilous hour" after the 20-year U.S. occupation.

Since the Taliban took control of the country last month, the Afghan population of 38 million people has been cut off from aid projects run by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund payments, and U.S.-controlled assets in Afghanistan's central bank.

"Even before the dramatic events of the last weeks, Afghans were experiencing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world," said Guterres. "Today, one in three Afghans do not know where their next meal will come from. The poverty rate is spiraling—and basic public services are close to collapse. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes."

The loss of humanitarian funding—which nearly 10 million Afghan children depend on "just to survive," according to Henrietta Fore of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), who also spoke at the conference—comes as the country faces its second drought in three years. The World Food Program (WFP) estimated this month that 40% of crops this year have been lost, pushing the price of wheat up by 25%.

The WFP's stock of food aid for the country is expected to run out by the end of September, the New York Times reported recently.

Taliban takeover of Afghanistan will reshape Middle East, official warns

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan is a shattering earthquake that will shape the Middle East for many years, a senior Gulf official has said, warning that – despite the group’s promises of moderation – the militant group is “essentially the same” as last time it was in power. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official also said that the rapid and chaotic US withdrawal also raises serious questions for Gulf states about the value of US promises of security over the next 20 years.

“Afghanistan is an earthquake, a shattering, shattering earthquake, and this is going to stay with us for a very, very long time,” the official said on Monday. He added that the episode marked a complete break with the outdated Carter doctrine – a commitment that an oil-dependent US would use military force to defend its interests in the Gulf.

“Can we really depend on an American security umbrella for the next 20 years? I think this is very problematic right now – really very problematic.”

He suggested that 20 years of warfare, supposed to be “a battle against those who had hijacked Islam”, had left no legacy in Afghanistan, and predicted that the Taliban’s seizure of power would prompt concern among leaders in West Africa and the Sahel about the rise of a newly confident Islamic extremism. ...

Many Gulf states have already begun recalibrating their foreign policy to take into account declining US dependence on oil and the growing popular insularity of the US, but the official said he now expected that process to speed up, leading to realignments in alliances and a desire for some historical rivals to establish more pragmatic relations. The general aim will be to de-escalate tensions in the region, the official said.

Biden Caught Lying About Occupying Syria w/Aaron Maté

Putin: Western armies - 'illegal' presence in Syria undermining hopes for peace

Saudi deputy minister of defense signs military cooperation agreement between the kingdom and Russia

Saudi deputy minister of defense Khalid bin Salman said on Twitter on Tuesday that the kingdom and Russia signed an agreement aimed at developing areas of joint military cooperation between the two countries.

Up to Half of the $14 Trillion Spent by Pentagon Since 9/11 Has Gone to War Profiteers

Up to half of the estimated $14 trillion that the Pentagon has spent in the two decades since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan has gone to private military contractors, with corporate behemoths such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, and General Dynamics hoovering up much of the money.

That's according to a new paper (pdf) authored by William Hartung—director of the Arms and Security Program at the Center for International Policy—and released Monday by Brown University's Costs of War Project.

Published just days after the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and two weeks after the last U.S. military plane departed Afghanistan, the paper documents the extent to which the massive post-9/11 surge in Pentagon spending benefited weapon makers, logistics firms, private security contractors, and other corporate interests.

"The magnitude of Pentagon spending in the wake of the 9/11 attacks was remarkable," Hartung observes. "The increase in U.S. military spending between Fiscal Year 2002 and Fiscal Year 2003 was more than the entire military budget of any other country, including major powers like China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France."

According to Hartung's analysis, from "one-third to one-half" of the Pentagon's $14 trillion in spending since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan on October 2001 went to defense contractors, which spend heavily on government lobbying.

"A large portion of these contracts—one-quarter to one-third of all Pentagon contracts in recent years—have gone to just five major corporations: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman," Hartung writes. "The $75 billion in Pentagon contracts received by Lockheed Martin in fiscal year 2020 is well over one and one-half times the entire budget for the State Department and Agency for International Development for that year, which totaled $44 billion."

But those five corporate giants are far from the only companies that profited from the increase in U.S. Defense Department outlays following the Afghanistan invasion, which ultimately killed more than 46,000 Afghan civilians. Hartung notes that numerous other firms—including Erik Prince's since-rebranded Blackwater, the Dick Cheney-tied company Halliburton, and DynCorp—benefited handsomely from the Pentagon spending boom.

"Halliburton's Pentagon contracts grew more than tenfold from FY2002 to FY2006 on the strength of its contracts to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure and provide logistical support for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan," the new paper reads. "By 2009, over half of DynCorp's revenues were coming from the Iraq and Afghan wars."

Hartung argues that the Pentagon's growing reliance on private contractors to carry out U.S. foreign policy in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks "raises multiple questions of accountability, transparency, and effectiveness."

"This is problematic because privatizing key functions can reduce the U.S. military's control of activities that occur in war zones while increasing risks of waste, fraud, and abuse," he writes. "Additionally, that the waging of war is a source of profits can contradict the goal of having the U.S. lead with diplomacy in seeking to resolve conflicts."

Norway's Leftist Opposition on Track to Oust Conservative Government

After eight years of Conservative Party rule under Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Norway's leftist opposition parties on Monday were headed for a "landslide" win that would task Labor's Jonas Gahr Støre with forming a coalition government, according to preliminary results from the nation's parliamentary election.

The Associated Press reported that "with a projection based on a preliminary count of nearly 93% of the votes, the Labor Party and its two allies—the Socialist Left and the euroskeptic Center Party—would hold 100 seats in the 169-seat Stortinget assembly while the current government would get 68. One seat was still unsure."

The coalition parties need at least 85 of the 169 seats in the Norwegian parliament to secure a majority. Four parties on the right and five on the left are expected to win some seats. ...

Climate policy was one of the focal points in the oil-rich nation's new election. According to Reuters, Støre told reporters on Sunday after casting his ballot, "I believe that calling time on our oil and gas industry is the wrong industrial policy and the wrong climate policy."

In an earlier report, the news agency highlighted that "several small parties—the Socialist Left, the Liberals, the Greens, and the Reds—seek to halt oil and gas exploration, which brings in almost half the country's export revenues."

As Reuters detailed:

If Labor wins, it faces a… demand from the Socialist Left to stop drilling for new reserves. But Støre's own party is wary of the job losses that could follow, and its other likely partner, the Center Party, favors continued drilling.

The strongest anti-oil stance is taken by the Green Party, which wants to immediately halt exploration and to end all oil and gas output in Norway by 2035. Støre says he will reject the Greens' attempt at setting ultimatums.

In a Politico report last week that pointed out "Norway is the third-largest gas exporter in the world—after Russia and Qatar—and fossil fuels account for about half of its goods exports," the Green leader made clear why the party was in the fight, despite low polling numbers.

"We are here to make sure that nobody forgets the most important issue for this election," the Greens' Une Bastholm told Politico. "It should be climate change."

As expectations of the center-left victory grew on Monday, Lars-Henrik Paarup Michelsen, the director of the Norwegian Climate Foundation, told CNN that "we have three green parties in Norway—the Socialist Party, the Liberal Party, and the Green Party."

"The polls indicate that our next government will be led by the Labor Party. However, Labor will need the votes of at least one green party in order to get a majority in parliament," he added. "Everyone expects that climate policy will be tightened after the election."

Israeli spyware firm targeted Apple devices via iMessage, researchers say

Security researchers at Citizen Lab have discovered an exploit that they believe has been used by government clients of NSO Group, the Israeli spyware company, to silently hack into iPhones and other Apple devices since February 2021.

The discovery, which was made as the researchers were examining the mobile phone of a Saudi activist, was shared with Apple, which on Monday released a patch to fix the vulnerability.

Researchers said the speed with which Apple was seeking to fix the vulnerability to its operating system, which in effect has allowed the latest iPhones and operating systems to be vulnerable to attack by NSO Group’s government clients, underscored the “absolute seriousness” of their findings. ...

When it is successfully deployed against a target, NSO Group’s spyware, called Pegasus, can silently hack into a phone, collect a user’s personal and private information, intercept calls and messages, and even turn a mobile phone into a remote listening device.

Derek Thompson: New Report REVEALS Americans DYING At Record Rates, Why?

Amy Coney Barrett claims supreme court ‘not comprised of partisan hacks’

Claiming the supreme court “is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks”, Amy Coney Barrett told an audience at a Kentucky center named for the Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell that “judicial philosophies are not the same as political parties”.

Speaking alongside McConnell a little more than a week after she and four other conservatives on the court declined to block a Texas law which all but outlaws abortion in the state, the devout Catholic also insisted the panel does not judge cases based on personal beliefs. ...

McConnell, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported, praised Barrett for not trying to “legislate from the bench” and for being from “Middle America”. Barrett is from Indiana and, unlike the other eight justices, did not attend Harvard or Yale.

Barrett said: “My goal today is to convince you that this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks.” ...

The veteran TV newscaster Dan Rather said on Twitter: “We’re apparently playing the ‘Things you can’t make up’ game this morning. So Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett (speaking at a center named after Mitch McConnell, introduced by Senator McConnell) worries that the court is seen as ‘a bunch of partisan hacks’.”

‘Weird, patronizing behavior’: AOC lets rip at Manchin’s ‘young lady’ remark

The New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has fired back at the West Virginia senator Joe Manchin for referring to her as “that young lady”, in the latest escalation of a bitter intra-party spat over the size and scale of Democrats’ social spending bill. ...

In a Sunday appearance on CNN, Manchin ripped progressives for threatening to sink a bipartisan infrastructure bill if he refuses to support the spending package. Singling out Ocasio-Cortez, Manchin responded to her claim that he meets weekly with oil lobbyists.

“I keep my door open for everybody,” he said. “It’s totally false. And those types of superlatives, it’s just awful. Continue to divide, divide, divide.

“I don’t know that young lady that well. I really don’t. She’s just speculating and saying things.”

On Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez suggested Manchin was attempting to dismiss a fellow member of Congress as a “young lady” because he was beginning to feel the pressure. “In Washington, I usually know my questions of power are getting somewhere when the powerful stop referring to me as ‘Congresswoman’ and start referring to me as ‘young lady’ instead,” the 31-year-old wrote.

“Imagine if every time someone referred to someone as ‘young lady’ they were responded to by being addressed with their age and gender? They’d be pretty upset if one responded with ‘the old man’, right? Why this kind of weird, patronizing behavior is so accepted is beyond me!”



the horse race



Trump's IDIOTIC Move CRUSHES GOP Recall Hopes Against Newsom



the evening greens


Rain fell on Greenland’s ice sheet for the first time ever known. Alarms should ring

Last month, for the first time in recorded history, rain fell on the highest point of the Greenland ice sheet. It hardly made the news. But rain in a place historically defined by bitter cold portends a future that will alter coastlines around the world, and drown entire cities.

The Greenland ice sheet contains four times more ice than all of Earth’s other glaciers and ice fields combined, outside Antarctica. The largest island in the world, Greenland is more than 36,000 times the size of Manhattan, and ice covers most of it, in many places thousands of feet thick. As carbon dioxide and methane accumulate in our atmosphere, causing our planet to heat (the six warmest years on record have been the last six), the ice sheet disintegrates. Greenland lost more ice in the past decade than it did in the previous century. ...

If the people of Miami, Shanghai, Tokyo, Mumbai, Lagos, Bangkok and New York are not concerned, they should be. The great Greenland ice melt is a climate crisis sword of Damocles for all coastal, low-lying, densely populated areas. No other single factor will probably contribute more to sea level rise over the next few decades.

A consortium of climate scientists writing two years ago in Nature, a prestigious scientific journal, concluded that if Greenland continues to melt, in one bad-case scenario after another, tens of millions of people could be in danger of yearly flooding and displacement by 2030 – less than nine years from now.

And by the end of this century, when Antarctica, which contains vastly more ice than Greenland, also enters a phase of catastrophic melting, the number of annual flood-prone people could reach nearly half a billion. It’s more than farewell, Miami. It’s goodbye, Florida.

Fairy Creek: Indigenous-Led Blockade of Old-Growth Logging Now Canada’s Largest Civil Disobedience

'Failure of Climate Leadership': House Dems' Tax Plan Leaves Oil Subsidies in Place

Climate campaigners took House Democrats to task on Monday for releasing a tax plan that would keep in place billions of dollars in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, a decision that one advocacy group called an "egregious dereliction of duty" amid the worsening planetary crisis.

While the proposal (pdf) unveiled by the powerful House Ways and Means Committee would close one tax loophole for international oil and gas extraction, the advocacy group Friends of the Earth pointed out in a statement that the plan would leave untouched a number of domestic fossil fuel subsidies currently embedded in the U.S. tax code, including:

  • A subsidy enacted in 1916 (Sections 263(c) and 291) allowing many fossil fuel producers to deduct 100% of many costs associated with extraction;
  • A subsidy enacted in 1926 (Sections 611 through 613A and 291) that allows many producers to deduct 15% of gross income annually, which often results in a deduction greater than the value of actual assets; and
  • A tax credit for "carbon capture and sequestration" (Section 45Q), an unrealized, faulty technological process that is falsely characterized by the industry as a solution to toxic climate emissions.
  • "This is a failure of climate leadership that will not soon be forgotten," said Friends of the Earth president Erich Pica, who called on House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to immediately amend the proposal.

    Mitch Jones, policy director of Food & Water Watch, offered a similar assessment of House Democrats' plan, arguing that "we must be halting new oil and gas drilling and fracking, not encouraging decades more of it."

    "This abject failure to stand against polluting fossil fuels and stand up for a livable planet now leads to a firm demand to the Senate and the Biden administration: No handouts for fossil fuels can be allowed," said Jones. "Not one dollar will be tolerated."

    The House Ways and Means Committee's tax proposal is designed to help fund green energy investments, healthcare expansions, and other policy priorities that Democrats hope to include in their sprawling budget reconciliation package—a centerpiece of the party's and President Joe Biden's domestic agenda.

    In April, Biden released a tax proposal that called for the elimination of around $35 billion worth of fossil fuel subsidies over the next decade. The Treasury Department said in a report (pdf) outlining the president's plan that the "main impact" of the repeal of such subsidies "would be on oil and gas company profits"—which may help explain the fossil fuel industry's ongoing lobbying blitz in support of its preferential tax treatment.

    Washington to destroy third murder hornet nest in battle to save bees

    A third Asian giant hornet nest was discovered in Washington state, a day after entomologists discovered a second.

    The Washington state agriculture department tweeted on Saturday that it planned to eradicate the nest and would have more updates soon.

    Asian giant hornets are an invasive species also known as murder hornets because they prey on smaller insects. Their nests are difficult to locate, as they tend to be in forested areas. In the US, they pose a particular threat to native hornet species and to honeybees.


    Also of Interest

    Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

    Our Gods Have No Heads

    The Legacy of America’s Post-9/11 Turn to Torture

    Israel Unveils New Armed Robot Amid Outcry Over 'Death Machines'

    The Biggest Winner of the Afghanistan War

    Day of reckoning for the media handmaidens of war

    9/11 Launched the First of the Unaccountable Bailouts by the Fed to Wall Street

    Fewer Americans think government is doing a good job protecting rights: poll

    Boebert’s Anti-Climate Self-Enrichment Scheme

    Stonehenge project launched to repair deep lintel cracks

    Firm raises $15m to bring back woolly mammoth from extinction

    Democracy Now: “Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire”: Deepa Kumar on How Racism Fueled U.S. Wars Post-9/11

    Krystal Ball: Leaked Docs REVEAL Tech Giant's Elite Protection Scheme

    Breaking Points: Secret HUNTER BIDEN FBI Investigation REVEALED By Antony Blinken

    Jimmy Dore: Squad Ignores Real Eviction Protest On Capitol Hill

    Kim Iversen: Dem Establishment Co-Opted Anti-Establishment Populists And Progressives

    Rising: Dems Allowing Senate Parliamentarian To BULLDOZE Them, MASSIVE Immigration Reform In JEOPARDY

    Ryan Grim: Massive UK Study Finds SHOCKING Vaccine Result


    A Little Night Music

    Little Richard - Lucille

    Little Richard - Jenny Jenny

    Little Richard - Send Me Some Lovin'

    Little Richard - Ready Teddy

    Little Richard - Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On

    Little Richard - She's Got It

    Little Richard - He Got What He Wanted

    Little Richard - Didn't it Rain

    Little Richard - Money Is

    Little Richard - Money


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    Comments

    mimi's picture

    May be they gaze at the monitor's internet offerings, which makes their grey matter shrink.

    I am done. Can't gaze, can't read, can't think and can't talk.

    All the best to my heroes here.

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    joe shikspack's picture

    @mimi

    heh, i will anxiously await the results of studies about the effect of internet and computer use on the brain. Smile

    have a great evening!

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    7 users have voted.
    mimi's picture

    @joe shikspack
    reveal a lot of insight.

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    4 users have voted.
    Lookout's picture

    My favorite hornet story isn't about the sting (which ain't fun), but their nest. These were native hornets, though we do have the European yellow variety . Anyway it was back in the day and everyone was drinking plenty of beer...especially at the Friday night picking. So to make a short story long, the (tree) hornets started using the beer cartons to make their paper nest. Next thing you knew, they we're indeed true American hornets with their red, white, and blue nest. It was memorable all these years later. Quite artistic.

    The piece with Jimmy and Aaron talking Syria is great and makes transparent the facade of war.

    Hope you and yours are doing well. Thanks for the news and blues.

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

    joe shikspack's picture

    @Lookout

    everybody at chez shikspack is doing well, thanks. i hope that you haven't been deluged with rain from nick and are doing ok.

    we certainly have hornets and yellowjackets around here, a lot of them wind up swimming in ms shikspack's hummingbird feeders. fortunately most of the little buggers are so busy loading up on the stuff that ms. shikspack plants for pollinators that they don't seem to mind when i get near them and leave me alone.

    i thought that syria video that jimmy did with aaron mate was one of the best pieces that he's done recently.

    have a great evening!

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    lotlizard's picture

    @Lookout  
    Something something red, white, and blue something something racially insensitive.

    https://mynorthwest.com/3141211/rantz-high-school-cancels-9-11-tribute-s...

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    Pluto's Republic's picture

    ... in tonight's EB. [See below]

    After Spending Trillions on War in Afghanistan, US Answers Call for Aid With Just $64 Million

    United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres pleads to the international community for at least $606 million, warning that Afghans now "face perhaps their most perilous hour" after the 20-year U.S. occupation. But just just 6% of that was pledged by the US after withdrawing all troops at the end of August.

    The U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced the country would direct $64 million to Afghanistan to "provide lifesaving support directly to Afghans facing the compounding effects of insecurity, conflict, recurring natural disasters, and the Covid-19 pandemic."

    .

    :: THE UPSHOT ::

    China and Pakistan deliver aid to Afghanistan under good neighbourliness, while US steals $10 billion in "frozen" Afghan assets

    Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/west-ponders-aid-afghanistan-c...

    The World Food Program's (WFP) stock of food aid for Afghanistan — which nearly 10 million Afghan children depend on just to survive — is expected to run out by the end of September. And the US steals $10 billion from Afghanistan because ... human rights. This is pretty sick - even by US standards. Looks like another Madeline Albright Iraq-style genocide in the making. Not that China would allow such an atrocity to take place on its doorstep.

    ::

    Meanwhile, back at NED media (gasping at straws):

    uspropaganda.png
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    ____________________

    The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
    joe shikspack's picture

    @Pluto's Republic

    heh, you've got to give it to the u.s. government, they've learnt to cloak the most inhumane, awful actions in the garb of humanitarianism and human rights. treat your women right or we'll starve them for their own good.

    just amazing.

    have a great evening!

    up
    7 users have voted.

    Didn't It Rain!!! Great track by Little Richard. And, yes, it rained. In the past 30 days we got 16.57 inches in NYC. More expected tonight and tomorrow.

    The average 30 day rainfall for this time of year is 4.21"

    Saudi Arabia and Russia are holding Joint Military exercises, according to the Reuters snippet above. This after Israel and China announced Chinese port in Haifa, Israel.

    This info is not going to make it to the nightly news in a big way any time soon, is it? All I can say is that the earth is shifting beneath our feet as the band plays on. Titanic. AIDS. choose the calamity or metaphor

    Norway, OTOH, seems to be heading in a better direction. Happy to see this.

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    NYCVG

    @NYCVG
    send some of that rain out west.

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    8 users have voted.

    @gjohnsit to figure out how to do that.

    Should not be so difficult. We dig for oil beneath the frozen seas of the Arctic and way deep beneath the Gulf.

    Why not water pipelines?

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    NYCVG

    joe shikspack's picture

    @NYCVG

    heh, are you familiar with the cubit?

    if you can't build water pipelines, maybe an ark would be simpler and timely. Smile

    yep, there are some interesting new alliances forming out there in the world. it'll be interesting to see where this all winds up and how quickly it gets there.

    have a great evening!

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    Azazello's picture

    This just came up. It's worth a watch.
    EXPLOSIVE Truth About Vaccines & COVID w/Inventor Of mRNA Vaccine Technology, Robert Malone
    [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwPKnOhJRYg&t=334s width:500 height:300]

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    12 users have voted.

    We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
    The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

    CB's picture

    @Azazello
    their death rates despite higher vaccination rates versus poorer countries using prophylactics such as ivermectin.

    COVID Vacc-Death rate.png

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    enhydra lutris's picture

    @Azazello

    bona fides as "The Inventor of mRna Technology" here's one such: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/08/robert-malone-vaccin...

    sample extract:

    Whether Malone really came up with mRNA vaccines is a question probably best left to Swedish prize committees, but you could make a case for his involvement. When I called Malone at his 50-acre horse farm in Virginia, he directed me to a 6,000-word essay written by his wife, Jill, that lays out why he believes himself to be the primary discoverer. “This is a story about academic and commercial avarice,” it begins. The document’s tone is pointed, and at times lapses into all-caps fury. She frames her husband as a genius scientist who is “largely unknown by the scientific establishment because of abuses by individuals to secure their own place in the history books.”

    The abridged version is that when Malone was a graduate student in biology in the late 1980s at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, he injected genetic material—DNA and RNA—into the cells of mice in hopes of creating a new kind of vaccine. He was the first author on a 1989 paper demonstrating how RNA could be delivered into cells using lipids, which are basically tiny globules of fat, and a co-author on a 1990 Science paper showing that if you inject pure RNA or DNA into mouse muscle cells, it can lead to the transcription of new proteins. If the same approach worked for human cells, the latter paper said in its conclusion, this technology “may provide alternative approaches to vaccine development.”

    These two studies do indeed represent seminal work in the field of gene transfer, according to Rein Verbeke, a postdoctoral fellow at Ghent University, in Belgium, and the lead author of a 2019 history of mRNA-vaccine development. (Indeed, Malone’s studies are the first two references in Verbeke’s paper, out of 224 in total.) Verbeke told me he believes that Malone and his co-authors “sparked for the first time the hope that mRNA could have potential as a new drug class,” though he also notes that “the achievement of the mRNA vaccines of today is the accomplishment of a lot of collaborative efforts.”

    '''

    It goes on to note the work of a biochemist named Katalin Karikó, whom Malone allegedly hates with a passion and has allegedly quasi threatened for stealing his glory, who says:

    Karikó replied that she hadn’t told anyone that she is the inventor of mRNA vaccines and that “many many scientists” contributed to their success. “I have never claimed more than discovering a way to make RNA less inflammatory,” she wrote to him. She told me that Malone referred to himself in an email as her “mentor” and “coach,” though she says they’ve met in person only once, in 1997, when he invited her to give a talk. It’s Malone, according to Karikó, who has been overstating his accomplishments. There are “hundreds of scientists who contributed more to mRNA vaccines than he did.”

    just sayin'.

    be well and have a good one

    up
    8 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 --

    CB's picture

    @enhydra lutris
    which preceded Katalin Karikó's work with mRNA.

    Direct gene transfer into mouse muscle in vivo
    J A Wolff 1 , R W Malone, P Williams, W Chong, G Acsadi, A Jani, P L Felgner
    1990 Mar 23

    Abstract

    RNA and DNA expression vectors containing genes for chloramphenicol acetyltransferase, luciferase, and beta-galactosidase were separately injected into mouse skeletal muscle in vivo. Protein expression was readily detected in all cases, and no special delivery system was required for these effects. The extent of expression from both the RNA and DNA constructs was comparable to that obtained from fibroblasts transfected in vitro under optimal conditions. In situ cytochemical staining for beta-galactosidase activity was localized to muscle cells following injection of the beta-galactosidase DNA vector. After injection of the DNA luciferase expression vector, luciferase activity was present in the muscle for at least 2 months.

    Malone's discovery was actually the starting point for Katalin Karikó's work. She has even admitted as such. Her discoveries entailed figuring how to reliably get a fragile strand of mRNA into the cell without it getting destroyed by the body's immune system.

    This was a case of scientists "Standing on the shoulders of giants" which means "Using the understanding gained by major thinkers who have gone before in order to make intellectual progress".(Wiki)

    Point of interest: Pfizer used luciferase in order to test that their vaccine had actually entered the cell and was being translated by the ribosomes into an actual protein. Of course they didn't use the luciferase in the final product so you won't light up in the dark like a firefly when you get vaccinated.

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    Pluto's Republic's picture

    @enhydra lutris

    Just saying....

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    ____________________

    The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

    @Pluto's Republic
    https://t.co/7eQH3ehPWo">pic.twitter.com/7eQH3ehPWo— Alexandros Marinos (@alexandrosM) September 14, 2021

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    2 users have voted.

    Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
    - John Maynard Keynes

    joe shikspack's picture

    @Azazello

    thanks for the video, i'll check it out later when i have some time.

    have a great evening!

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    5 users have voted.

    they're totally right

    Eighty-three percent of people from all countries felt that individuals have broadly failed to care for the planet. Another 55 percent of these respondents also reported having less opportunity than their parents given the precarious climate situation. Thirty-nine percent reported they feel uncertain about having children, given the uncertainty of the environment and the added carbon footprint brought by having kids.

    Regarding state leadership, 65 percent of respondents felt that the government responses of these 10 countries have failed young people by not making abrupt changes to help mitigate climate change.

    The report specifically showcased a feeling of betrayal young people have toward their governments’ inaction on climate change issues that stand to upend human health and the environment.

    something to ponder

    A few days ago, I spoke to a senior official at the World Health Organization. I asked her if she knew how many people lived their lives on our planet without shoes.
    ...She was not sure about the number but presumed that at least a billion people must live without shoes.
    ...A billion people without shoes in the 21st century. Hundreds of millions of them children, many unable to get to school for lack of shoes. Yet the global footwear industry produces 24.3 billion pairs of shoes a year, namely three pairs of shoes for every person on the planet.
    ...Many of those who produce shoes in a country like India can neither afford to buy the shoes that they produce nor even the cheapest flipflops available in the market. There are more than enough shoes in the market, but there is not enough money in the hands of hundreds of millions of people to buy these shoes.
    ...
    Such demands form a part of the Chinese poverty alleviation program of the “three guarantees and two assurances” — guarantees of safe housing, health care, and education, and assurances of food and clothing.

    These are documented at length in our study on the eradication of absolute poverty in China, which looks at how the country lifted 850 million people out of poverty since the Chinese Revolution of 1949, accounting for 70 percent of the world’s total poverty reduction.

    The World Bank, unlike the Chinese government, moves into incoherent territory when it calls for reduction in corporate taxation as part of the framework for poverty alleviation!

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    10 users have voted.
    joe shikspack's picture

    @gjohnsit

    yep, if i was a younger person, i would not even think of having children now. unless there is a sudden, global revolution displacing all authority and replacing it with responsible, decent human beings there does not appear to be any hope of a happy future for children born today.

    all shortages of survival needs are manufactured by captialists in order to extort profits.

    shoes for industry, shoes for the dead! Smile

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    enhydra lutris's picture

    Great video with Aaron and Jimmy, which, sadly, won't get near enough eyeballs and traction.

    Interesting bit by Ryan Grim on Covid-19 and vaccines.

    More interestingly, in a way, is the fact that The boost comes in the form of $15m (£11m) raised by a company named Colossal, a bioscience and genetics company that wants to bring back the Wooly Mammoth. I wasn't there but the Wooly Mammoth was an ice age mammal, and it was reportedly crazy ass cold and icy back then. Not to question bioscience, but there is evidence that it is becoming radically less crazy ass cold and icy and is in fact getting warmer and warmer, not colder and colder. WAT, as they say.

    be well and have a good one

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    11 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 --

    joe shikspack's picture

    @enhydra lutris

    heh, perhaps they ought to be working on a less wooly mammoth. Smile

    have a great evening!

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    7 users have voted.
    ggersh's picture

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    10 users have voted.

    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

    joe shikspack's picture

    @ggersh

    heh, that video looks subversive. let us salute our dark corporate overlords. Smile

    have a great evening!

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    4 users have voted.
    Pluto's Republic's picture

    ...in the summer of 2019?

    China (and millions of petitioners globally) want the WHO to investigate Ft. Detrick next, in order to pinpoint the origins of Covid-19.

    ::

    Why do White Tail deer throughout the US, tested in 2019, carry Covid-19 antibodies?

    Are American deer the animal link to Covid-19?

    Now, for a Deep Look into the Coronavirus Lab at Chapel Hill, N.C.:

    ::

    It's time to perform our own investigation into the Origins of Covid-19 and put a STOP to the US attempt to start World War III by trying to destroy China.

    Watch these videos before they are deleted by Youtube. Bear witness to the evil afoot.

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    11 users have voted.

    ____________________

    The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
    Pricknick's picture

    @Pluto's Republic
    are the vector for human stupidity.
    What other animal in the continental united states, causes so many humans to spend such enormous amounts of money to kill?
    Every year in southern Michigan, I witness hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars spent per pound on the fearsome toothed buck. Currently we have a no baiting situation because of wasting disease. The hunters howl of the removal of a tool in which to hunt these ferocious animals.
    I have no issue with killing what you eat.
    I do have an issue with killing for what you wont eat. The horns.

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    Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

    Lookout's picture

    @Pricknick

    Who also used to be a deer hunter. He tells of sitting in his tree stand one morning when he remembered every car in his shop was a deer collision, and he realized I'm sitting here trying to kill my livelihood. Said he took down his stand and never went deer hunting again.

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

    enhydra lutris's picture

    @Pluto's Republic

    Are American deer the animal link to Covid-19?

    one can't even assess the claims that they are because they are behind a spamwall.

    we well and have a good one

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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 --

    Pluto's Republic's picture

    @enhydra lutris

    Well, how annoying.

    Try the USDA:

    Questions and Answers: Results of Study on SARS-CoV-2 in White-Tailed Deer

    And Nature:

    The coronavirus is rife in common US deer

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    4 users have voted.

    ____________________

    The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
    enhydra lutris's picture

    @Pluto's Republic

    We detected SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in only 1 of the 143
    samples collected before January 2020 (pre-COVID-19
    pandemic in people).

    They quickly acknowledge that this could have been a false positive, but it is out there, on the table, the open question of "but was it?". If it did not evolve in the deer, what was the vector? Even for those after the pandemic started, did infected hunters or other humans breathe on them but otherwise leave them alone? Not overly probable.

    Thanks for the links.

    be well and have a good one

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    5 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 --

    Pluto's Republic's picture

    The country which manufactures the most conspiracies and disinformation is now a victim of its own "success" - US now falls to last place in% vaccinated population within the G7 (overtaken by Japan).

    ::

    Perhaps if the US stopped gaslighting their people, everything they touch wouldn't turn to shit.

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    8 users have voted.

    ____________________

    The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
    joe shikspack's picture

    @Pluto's Republic

    not to worry, i'm sure that the pharma industry has already been paid handsomely for all of the doses to vaccinate everybody, so there's no loss to profits and geedee pee.

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    7 users have voted.
    lotlizard's picture

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    6 users have voted.
    Pluto's Republic's picture

    ...by og_m4, works well for vaxxers and non-vaxxers alike — and sets the author straight. [excerpted]

    Most of us here are smart enough to know that science works and vaccines work. We're not essential oil Karens.

    The problem is that Covid vaccines are too experimental and while they're better than nothing, they're not at the same level of perfection as, say, the polio vaccine. The polio vaccine eradicated polio. The Covid vaccines released so far haven't eradicated Covid and can't do it. That's the big difference and you people who keep chanting "vaccines are safe" keep insulting my intelligence by trying to gloss over that fact. We know from data that even at 100% adoption, the current batch of vaccines will not stop Covid. Double vaccinated people are still spreading, getting sick and dying from the virus in significant numbers.

    Then there are side effects. Sure, all vaccines and meds in general have side effects, but with these vaccines the side effects are not fully known, and there is a higher incidence of side effects as compared to the average vaccine or medicine.

    Then you have the whole booster shot mess due to the fast mutating nature of the virus. If I choose a vaccine right now, say, Pfizer, then I'm stuck with it for life. If a better vaccine comes out tomorrow, it's possible that I'd still have to be taking yearly booster shots of this beta version of a vaccine because who knows if the next gen is compatible with current gen. The effects of mixing vaccines are unstudied. What if the vaccine that was made using method A doesn't gel well with the one made using method B and causes complications?

    Then there are new variants beyond Delta and we don't even have a vaccine developed using Delta yet. The vaccines are obsolete already but we have to be hush hush about that to avoid the risk of some stupid people hearing this and doing something stupid.

    Everyone's got their own equation to balance here....

    [SNIP]

    I understand that you have good intentions behind making this post but it's still an insult to this community. You think none of us grown adults have seen this standard blurb about vaccines before?

    .

    Worth reading the entire comment:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/po9flg/some_things_you_mi...

    Thanks for posting it, @lotlizard

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    8 users have voted.

    ____________________

    The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
    Dawn's Meta's picture

    After six months, if a person doesn't have a booster, their QR, or COVID Passport will be registered as unvaccinated. I haven't seen by month how many or what percentage of fully vaccinated people are by month, but logistically it is going to be difficult.

    The EU passports have space for eight boosters.

    We still haven't gotten around to some high number of countries who don't have the money or infrastructure to handle sub Zero storage and distribution of mRNA. So it's spotty at best.

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    A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

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