For discussion on topics unrelated to recent posts (i.e., pretty much anything NOT related to the US primaries and election).
For discussion on topics unrelated to recent posts (i.e., pretty much anything NOT related to the US primaries and election).
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bruce wilder
World – over 100,000
South Korea – 7,000+
Iran – 4,747
Italy – 4,636
The U.S. count is a joke, due to a completely botched test design and protocol.
The policy question is whether quarantines can be justified, are effective enough given the enormous costs.
And, the personal question is what should one do?
I live in L.A., and from early on I have just assumed the disease is spreading thru the city underdetected. Sunday is the L.A. marathon, normally a huge gathering.
I feel severely underinformed, despite paying attention.
450.org
I agree, bruce, the American reporting is a joke. Worldwide reporting is a joke, albeit some countries like South Korea are much more accurate and earnest than others like America. Take the numbers that are being given and times them by ten at least. No one can tell me COVID-19 isn’t running rampant in the cesspools that are India and Bangladesh, for example, let alone many parts of Africa.
Meanwhile, in other news, CEOs are retiring in droves, and no it’s not because they’re getting old, it’s because they know that peak cheating has been reached and all the low hanging cheating fruit has been gathered and they’ve decided to cash in their chips before the chips disintegrate as they are now. They know, and knew, a major recession was/is on the horizon and approaching rapidly so they cashed in and are cashing in or trying to cash in as the chips are now evaporating. Add COVID-19 to that already expected recession and you get a major depression if not worse. The CEOs and the shareholders, and increasingly in the last several decades they have become one and the same, are scrambling to find a safe place for their chips to maintain and/or increase their value. They’re so desperate at this point they’re moving their chips from equities to the America ten year treasury note resulting in an unprecedented record setting yield below 1%.
There is not going to be an election in November. There can’t be. Italy is collapsing as we speak. COVID-19 has become death, the destroyer of worlds and it’s as egalitarian as it gets. It doesn’t care whether you’re rich or poor, black brown white or yellow or male or female or otherwise, it’s coming for you, me, all and any of us — whatever it lands on it is and will claim.
https://therealnews.com/stories/why-boom-ceo-resignations-management
Oink! Oink!
Buzzard
As bad as “centrist” Dems are, as irritating as it is that Joe Biden is the apparent Dem nominee, I can’t see even the most craven Dem corporate sellout elected official leaving critical government agencies like the CDC and the NIH shorn of funding and expertise the way the Trump regime has. Never mind the conversion of these (and other) agencies to little more than propaganda outlets for the administration. I am certain that the US response to this pandemic under a Hillary administration would be vastly stronger than the shitshow we’re seeing now.
The country’s mobilization against international terrorism in the wake of 9/11 was swift and thorough, against a very sporadic and rare threat. This epidemic’s reach is far more far-reaching insidious than any al-Qaida attack will ever be. And our leadership acts like deer in the headlights.
I guess there is an upside to holding my nose and voting for Biden in November. If we make it there.
Jerry Brown
Yes Bruce I’m worried also. And I’m not very confident that our government is organized quite as well as it could be. To put it mildly.
Larster
I concur on the lack of info re COVID. In addition when you have the president saying that anyone who needs testing can get one which is the opposite of what one can hear on the news, you have to assume that a “shoot the messenger” order is in place within the administration. Anyone that has faced a crisis knows that the only way to be effective is to have all the relevant info on which to make a decision. Lord help us.
Did anyone in their wildest nightmares, think that the last two WH chiefs of staff would be tea party people?
S Brenann
As the deaths from this virus seem largely contained to people over fifty…
…and as many posts here have seemed to advocate the death of such people…I wonder…where’s the glee? Where’s the schadenfreude? Perhaps it is too early..eh?
For those who are older, for those do not wish to end their lives prematurely to the polite applause of their of their ennobled juniors, some simple advice is in order.
Get your Pneumococcal vaccine (23).
Most deaths are related to severe pneumococcal disease, not the virus itself. It’s cheap [at this time] and covered by most insurance…even the most miserly. So do it at this time it appears to be an older persons best defence.
S Brenann
“So do it at this time it appears to be an older persons best defence.”
Should read: ” So do it, at this time, it appears to be an older persons best defense.”
450.org
There needs to be a permanent worldwide ban on cruises and cruise ships. They are floating petri dishes that are rapidly and rampantly incubating and spreading COVID-19. Ban cruises and liquidate cruise companies and destroy all the cruise ships. And no, that’s not drastic, it’s common sense. It will go a hell of a lot further than getting the pneumococcal vaccine or washing your hands and avoid touching your face.
Willy
To what degree can Biden be influenced by progressives to try and go to saner policies? Or is he just gonna go on the View or Maddow and whine about how mean Bernie Bros are?
Zachary Smith
(The next few paragraphs probably constitute a rant. Consider yourself warned.)
This morning I woke with a wild hare of an idea related to the coming Coronavirus epidemic. Because modern US medical companies aim to maximize their income, they have cleverly arranged to keep patients like myself on a short leash for prescription medications, and they schedule doctor visits as often as Medicare and other insurance providers will allow. My “getting well” is a nice outcome, but Job 1 is maximizing the money flow in their direction. All this means I have to make periodic routine visits to waiting rooms which may have some very infectious people sitting in the same room.
It occurred to me that the doctors and nurses are the ones at greatest risk in the US – outside of nursing home residents. The frontline or entry-level medical professionals are at the greates risk, and some of them aren’t spring chickens. My own doctor visits are at fairly distant intervals, but the doctors and nurses must work there day in and day out! The Coronavirus appears to be minimally risky to the kids, and the danger increases dramatically with age. My own doctor is nearing retirement age, and few of his associates are youngsters. These are people who have every bit as much right to stay alive as anyone else.
And getting into a more ‘practical’ and ‘selfish’ issue, the general public really needs to try to ensure their safety because We Need Them! Aside from removing waiting room reading materials during the worst of the Flu season, the doctors, nurses, and receptionists I know about are getting approximately ZERO protection.
A few years ago I went to a walk-in clinic with an ear infection. It was the height of the flu season, so after sitting in a room with some other very sick people, I left with medication to heal my ear. I also took home the worst case of Flu I’ve ever had. The reception rooms and doctor cubicles as they’re currently set up are potential death traps for the medical people who work there full time.
* So now for some modest proposals for real medical professionals to consider. *
“Surgical Masks” are (in my opinion) generally darned near useless unless they are worn by people in an operating room attempting to minimize the chance of infecting wide open wounds – that’s the “surgery” part. I’d guess they’re also needed for being near cancer patients whose treatments have had their immune systems temporarily suppressed. But wouldn’t minimizing germy exhaled breath from Coronavirus patients also qualify as useful? Earlier today I dug out one of my “surgical masks” along with a bottle of 10% Povidone Iodine. With a measuring spoon I put a tablespoon of distilled water and another tablespoon of the Iodine in a pyrex pie pan. Then I laid the mask on the mixture. When it was finally saturated, I hung the mask up to air-dry.
I propose that every patient entering a “waiting room” be provided with a surgical mask on the outside of that waiting room. The mask could be right out of the box, or it could be pre-treated as was mine. Alternative: after putting it on the incoming patient an employee at the door might give the mask a quick spray with 70% (140 proof) isopropyl or ethanol. Again, everybody coming in would get a mask they’d wear during their visit and which they’d take home with them. Presumably the people who happened to have a respiratory infection would be at least somewhat limited in their ability to transfer it to other patients. Or to the doctor.
If the epidemic/pandemic got really bad, incoming patients might also have their outer clothing and shoes given a similar quick ‘fogging’ or light mist spraying of a safe disinfectant. Isopropyl, ethanol, lysol – whatever. If needed, he/she could be given a hand cover to wear during the visit.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PJ8WKML?tag=duckduckgo-d-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1
Heck, failing anything else, give them some cheap socks to wear over their hands. These could be retrieved when they leave and sterilized for reuse.
Inside the waiting room: why not have banks of shielded UV lights to help clean the air? Many people (myself included) have these UV lamps installed in their furnace air-handler system. (expensive bulb replacement, but isn’t my health worth something?) Why not keep the rooms rather warm and humid, the humidity being supplied with a safe de-germ fog – possibly ethanol again. (Didn’t early surgeons use perfume-bottle misters filled with carbolic acid for the ambient air?) I’m not a sanitation professional, but some genuine experts need to be consulted about these matters.
The Chinese are using “fogging” machines of various types during this crisis. Example:
https://thesilveredge.com/chinese-using-silver-fogger-machine-to-beat-coronavirus/
I’d propose the medical areas be suitably “fogged” after business hours every day during epidemics, and at more distant intervals during ordinary times.
Once again, my main goal is to keep the doctors and nurses both healthy and alive. Their being alive and healthy greatly improves MY chances of survival. The bean counters who run the business end of medical operations are NOT going to volunteer to do any of this. Like everything else in this country, it all comes down to maximizing Corporate Income at the expense of everybody else. (I’d expect those health-company accountants and other “executives” to start Working At Home in the near future – if they’re not doing so already.)
Ché Pasa
Look on the bright side. Since Hellary would have started WWIII and nearly did, we’re lucky to have Trump and his minions dealing badly with The Outbreak. Had Hellary won the 2016 election, we (mostly) wouldn’t be here to fret over the few and bad tests, the bogus numbers, the looming health care industry collapse, and the massive die off. We’d already be carbon vapor, no?
Whoo hoo!
Willy
Please revise my last comment.
“Or is he just gonna go on the View or Maddow and whine about how mean Bernie Bros are?”
should be
Or is he just gonna go on the View or Maddow and ramble incoherently about how mean Trumps Bros and Bernies deplorables are, before getting distracted by the studio lights and staring at them zombielike?
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. My grandpa had dementia.
S Brenann
Above I advocated for getting a Pneumococcal [23] vaccine.
I was immediately corrected by my better, [450], who instructed me that advocating for the banning of Cruise Ships [which I detest] is a far my practical thing than getting a Pneumococcal [23] vaccine.
Hmmm…yep, I stand corrected, listen to 450, spend you time fighting for the banning of Cruise Ships…yep that’s the ticket.
Forget about getting a getting a Pneumococcal [23] vaccine.
Forget that most deaths are related to severe pneumococcal disease, not the virus itself. Forget it’s cheap [at this time] and covered by most insurance. Forget that, at this time, it appears to be an older persons best defense.
And most of all, forget that in a months time the 23 stocks will be largely used up.
Just listen to 450 !
Just listen to 450 !
Just listen to 450 !
Just listen to 450 !
Just listen to 450 !
Just listen to 450 !
Just listen to 450 !
Just listen to 450 !
450.org
At least you didn’t call me dogshit, so thank you for that.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/coronavirus-resource-center
Oink! Oink!
different clue
About finding some genuine information on the Wuhan Coronavirus, guest commenter Walrus at Sic Semper Tyrannis, who lives in Australia ( which is in the downrange-from-China firing line for several reasons) has written a guest post about this coronavirus. Many of the comments in the discussion thread appear to be from genuine virologists and/or other biologically knowledgeable people. Here is the link.
https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2020/03/a-short-note-on-coronavirus-covid-19-by-walrus.html
different clue
@Buzzard,
You may be correct that a Clinton Administration would have had a better response to the current coronavirus outbreak. Certainly the Bill Clinton Administration turned FEMA from a discredited counter-effective agency under Elder Bush back into a credited able disaster management and even disaster pre-emptive pre-mitigation agency.
On the other hand, if a President Hillary had been able to cause a thermonuclear exchange between America and Russian, we would all have become part of an ionized radioactive gas-plasma cloud. Coronavirus would have never emerged as an issue.
Trump’s destruction at CDC and etc. is not uniquely Trumpian. It is standard Republican destructionism against government agency/bureau/departmental functionality and effectiveness. In that sense, President Trump is just a Trojan Horse full of normal typical Republicans. Like Pruitt at EPA for a while. Pruitt is a normal typical Republican bringing the normal typical Republican approach to governmance to the EPA. etc.
Which makes all the more unforgiveable the Catfood Democrat Establishment’s decision to engineer a landslide re-election victory of Nixon-versus-McGovern dimensions for President Trump over President Sloppy Dead Cabbage Walking or Hillary ” She’s Baaaaaaaack!”) Clinton or whatever dirty little cans of catfood they end up deciding to nominate for President and VP.
different clue
@Buzzard,
I have begun seeing hints here and there of the concept of Sanders movement and Tulsi movement people making their own separate and unrelated pushes to get Sanders’s name on all 50 state ballots as a no-party choice for President . . . . and separately to get Gabbards’s name on all 50 state ballots as a no-party choice for President.
different clue
@Willy,
Biden’s entire career has been devoted to the sinister underminement and prevention of progressive policies and the cynical destruction of certain progressive features which existed up until the time Biden was able to get them destroyed.
Biden’s bankruptcy deform law is an example of that. His clever writing-into-the-law of non-dischargeability in bankruptcy of student loan debt was one of his retrogressive achievements from before he began getting visibly senile.
So no . . . . a candidate Sloppy Dead Cabbage Walking will be immune to any progressive advice. he may well be skilled at faking the appearance of considering such advice. But it will be the same sort of plagiarise-Kinnock lie-about-law-school treachery and deceit he has always practiced and embraced.
450.org
Two thirds of Congress have potentially been exposed. Elections in November? I highly doubt it.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/06/coronavirus-aipac-tells-lawmakers-participants-two-attendees-have-covid-19/4979822002/
Benjamin
@Buzzard
“This epidemic’s reach is far more far-reaching insidious than any al-Qaida attack will ever be. And our leadership acts like deer in the headlights.”
We’re talking about a country that lets nearly 40,000 people die every year from traffic accidents in large part because it refuses to divorce itself from its obsession with the automobile and a hatred of public transport. And which allows 45,000+ deaths from lack of healthcare, ‘because markets’.
Anyway, fighting AQ is soooo 2001. Today it’s all about providing them with protection, whether in Syria or in Yemen.
different clue
@Buzzard,
It occurs to me that America’s response to the 9/11 attacks was never thorough or comprehensive.
The DC FedRegime actively proTECted al Qaeda’s Pakistani ISI and Saudi Arabian sponsors and protectors.
Where those two countries were concerned, the US gov response was total coverup and protection for the Kingdom of Saudi al Qaedarabia and the Islamic Republic of alPakaedastan. The same protection , sponsorship and coverup continues unto this very day.
Benjamin
@different clue
Oh, it’s so much worse than that. US strategy over the last twenty years has been to ally with the funders and ideological pushers of Sunni terrorism, and to provide cover for this support. Meanwhile we help them fight their Shia power rival, Iran, who we hilariously portray as the actual major supporter of Islamic terrorism.
Would that the ‘Axis of Evil’ speech had never been made, and we had instead taken up Soleimani and Iran’s offers of cooperation in Afghanistan to forge an alliance against the actual backers of Islamic terrorism.
I’m honestly not sure why we didn’t. Iran is a major supplier of oil as well. We chose to side with the Arab oil states that were attacking us, rather than the Persian oil state that wasn’t.
metamars
Fascinating and depressing documentary about calcium artery test to rather accurately predict heart attack risk, and the disgusting and successful efforts to suppress it, as inserting stents makes hospitals and doctors big money . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OKrg_IlZao
NASA has used this test since 2006. You can’t go into space unless you have a score of zero.
First heard about his via Ivor Cummins, who doesn’t hesitate to identify garbage medical ‘research’ as such. Cummins has a youtube channel. He also covers vitamin D in the following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3pK0dccQ38&list=WL&index=9&t=2842s
Vitamin D is more effective than flu vaccine, against influenza, according to https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/02/27/vitamin-d-better-than-flu-vaccine.aspx?fbclid=IwAR1GiDSEK0xxv3ct18Z2VFaVFSnCgU2WG5owkL-IA7UiJW8iObNgpEpBBZY
From his article:
“Scientific review confirms vitamin D optimization boosts immunity and cuts rates of cold and flu. Among people vitamin D blood levels below 10 ng/mL, taking a supplement cut risk of respiratory infection by 50 percent
To prevent influenza in one person, 40 people must receive the flu vaccine whereas one case of the flu can be prevented for every 33 people taking vitamin D. If you’re severely vitamin D deficient, vitamin D supplementation is 10 times more effective than the flu vaccine”
If you have dark skin, an live at temperate latitudes, it’s particularly important to supplement with D3 during winter months.
NRG
https://www.sciencemag.org/tags/coronavirus
People who do this for a living, and their observations. One of a few parts of “Science” that is freely available. Fwiw, for-profit journals publishing government-funded research behind paywalls/expensive subscriptions is utter nonsense, but is the system we all tacitly endorse.
Zachary Smith
People tempted to follow the advice of a person who makes his living by selling nostrums on the internet ought to investigate that person. What I found from my searches about Joseph Mercola left me extremely unimpressed.
*** Fake News: No Study Says Vitamin D Is More Effective Than Flu Vaccine ***
https://hoax-alert.leadstories.com/3470926-fake-news-study-vitamin-d-not-more-effective-than-flu-vaccine.html
*** Joseph Mercola, D.O. ***
http://www.skepdic.com/mercola.html
Zachary Smith
https://www.ianwelsh.net/open-thread-46/#comment-111066
Thanks for that link. Finding sound information isn’t at all easy these days.
Zachary Smith
https://www.ianwelsh.net/open-thread-46/#comment-111052
The site owner at Sic Semper Tyrannis tightly regulates that place. Posts he doesn’t like don’t get published. Comments he doesn’t like don’t show up. Anyhow, I’ll confess I’m totally unqualified to pass judgement on the origins of the Coronavirus.
What really matters is what conclusions the Chinese draw after their investigations are finished. Even at the beginning of this one I made a mental note about how China had been having a run of bad luck in the “biology” arena, and it turns out there were several incidents I hadn’t heard about.
*** In the past two years (during the trade war) China has suffered several pandemics:
February 15, 2018: H7N4 bird flu. Sickened at least 1,600 people in China and killed more than 600. Many chickens killed. China needs to purchase US poultry products.
June, 2018: H7N9 bird flu. Many chickens killed. China needs to purchase US poultry products.
August, 2018: outbreak of African swine flu. Same strain as Russia, from Georgia. Millions of pigs killed. China needs to purchase US pork products.
May 24, 2019: massive infestation of armyworms in 14 province-level regions in China, which destroy most food crops. Quickly spread to more than 8,500 hectares of China’s grain production. They produce astonishing numbers of eggs. China needs to purchase US agricultural products – corn, soybeans.
December, 2019: Coronavirus appearance puts China’s economy on hold.
January, 2020: China is hit by a “highly pathogenic” strain of bird flu in Hunan province. Many chickens died, many others killed. China needs to purchase US poultry products. ***
https://www.globalresearch.ca/china-coronavirus-shocking-update/5705196
A lot of articles have been published hooting at the idea the Coronavirus came from a laboratory for the simple reason it isn’t nearly “lethal” enough. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to these geniuses that creating chaos in China might be the real goal. If the Chinese conclude they’ve been attacked, we must expect a similarly “deniable” counterattack. Any such event might well make what we’ve seen so far with Corona to be a walk in the park – by comparison.
Ivory Bill Woodpecker
🙄
And it goes like this: 😛
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5yuCwmf2fk
Roy Batty
I’m admittedly no Jonathan Swift but I thought this crowd might get a chuckle out of this. I was bored.
Me: “I would like a cheeseburger please.”
DNC Waiter: “Sorry, all we have is a piece of dog shit. Is that for here or to go?”
Me: I don’t want to eat any more shit, I have been eating various types of animal shit for 40 years. It says here I can order a cheeseburger.”
DNC Waiter: “Well the management decided they didn’t want to kill any cattle. Most people think dog shit is just fine anyway and, quite frankly, most people think you’re rude for trying to get a cheeseburger.”
Me: “Look, 40 years ago we were told that giving more cattle to management would mean everyone could have cheeseburgers. We never got them. Then 12 years ago when management was playing with matches and burned down the ranch we gave them more cattle than ever and we’re still eating animal shit.”
DNC waiter: *shrugs* “Look buddy, people complain sometimes but they all eat the dog shit in the end, so why should management change anything?”
Me: “Yeah, they eat the dog shit because management keeps putting propagandists on TV who say cheeseburgers are poisonous. Fuck this and fuck you, I’m just going to not eat.”
DNC waiter: “If you don’t eat the dog shit then in November we will be stuck eating bear shit, and that’s a much bigger piece of shit. Management doesn’t care because they’re eating sirloin either way. Just eat the dog shit, maybe in 2024 you can get a cheeseburger.”
Me: “This is insulting. I’m not eating any more shit.”
DNC waiter: “Well that’s very immature and irresponsible of you.”
-November comes and goes-
Everyone but me: “I HATE THIS BEAR SHIT, THOSE PEOPLE WHO WANTED CHEESEBURGERS FUCKED EVERYTHING UP!!”
KT Chong
Someone who had attended CPAC — which Trump and Pence had also attended — has been tested positive for COVID 19:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/attendee-at-political-summit-featuring-trump-has-coronavirus/articleshow/74535274.cms
Z
I see that Lyin’ Liz was on SNL last night doing some scripted self-promotion. She’s “keeping in the fight”. That’s for certain. If the DNC can whip Sloppy Joe across the primary finish line … “Over there Sloppy Joe, don’t wander” …. to clinch the nomination, it won’t be long before she’ll be announced as his running mate. Then shortly afterwards they’ll take the bridle off of Sloppy Joe and leave him to aimlessly graze in a pasture somewhere.
Again, there’s no way they can run Sloppy Joe in the presidential election, they’re hiding him now and it will be much harder to protect him during a presidential campaign. Of course they can’t tell him the plans right now because they can’t trust him to compartmentalize the info in his head. He’d spill.
Lyin’ Liz began her sneak misogynist attacks on Bernie right when his campaign was setting its sights on Biden and beginning to attack him on SS and then Lyin’ Liz came riding to the rescue to throw Bernie’s Brigade off their aim. Coincidence? I think not.
She’ll lose against Trump probably, but she’ll be able to keep her pinky promises to all those politically engaged five year old girls, get a lot of positive media coverage (the media has always been in Liz’s corner just like they were in Hillary’s though of course both partly blame the media for their unpopularity), be a heroine to professional women, and write another book probably entitled “Staying in the Fight” a heartwarming tale of a speed junkie who lied her way into a Harvard law school professor position by claiming she was Indian and knee-capped a movement that may have led to universal healthcare in this f*cked up country. She’s a self-absorbed fake, but that’s part of the qualifications for a mainstream demozombie politician. How can you be real when your job is to deceive to U.S. public into thinking you are representing them while you sell them out to the same interests they know are their enemies?
Z
Z
Jesse Jackson is endorsing Bernie. I don’t know how much juice he has in the U.S. black community anymore, but it can’t hurt.
I’ve always liked Jesse Jackson. I know he’s not perfect, but he was the person I thought stayed truest to Martin Luther King’s vision.
Z
Stirling S Newberry
There are people who want to vote for someone who looks like them. For men, this is not a problem. The women, it is. Or should I say “in the United States.” We have had two women run for president in the last 2 cycles. One of them secured the nomination for the Democratic Party, and while she won the popular vote she fell afoul to the electoral college. An electoral college that was set for this precise situation: the aristocrats wanted to steal an election because the populace was not completely committed to its candidate. This is also the 2nd time this too has happened, and it is not a coincidence. The 2nd person dropped out because she could not be the candidate of the progressives in the Democratic party. One can feel the rage and shock and malaise of her campaign workers because it is clear that at least some of them were hoping to vote for someone like themselves. It will not surprise any of you that the man who is going to secure the nomination, and at this point I mean Biden, though this is not assured, is far less a presidential candidate than Warren is.
But let the common to the chase: other democracies have not had the same problem with nominating a female for the highest office, and many of them have indeed collected a woman. Now it maybe there is no problem that we just have not found the right woman at the right time, but this leaves aside the 2016 election which was stolen. Stolen in a completely vegan way, by wiping out large swaths of voters, and by making sure that a large number of voters did not see any reason to participate. The raw fact is that the United States wants a system where many of the voters do not participate because their demands would be a heavy strain on the federal government and the various states. The reason for this is because tax cuts and useless pieces of military hardware have a command on the dollars that the federal government takes.
There is another reason why women have not been represented by the best: it has to do with lying. Now all politicians lie, and this is not an insult but a quandary of what the 2 for a living. Politicians lie because the majority of the public does not want to hear about the unpleasant choices that have to remain. Sometimes those choices do not actually have to make, but the politician promised a large enough segment of the electorate that they would do it. I am thinking about putting a huge number of people in prison because of their race. But whatever the specific issue is, every politician needs to lie to his people. FDR lied about going to war with the axis. Lincoln lied about going to war with the Confederacy, pleading for a chance not to lie. But when the chips were down Lincoln to, lied. Of course, there are other lies that do not need to be told, and we as a people decided there were certain bounds that even the president of the United States cannot cross. This was the reason Nixon was going to be impeached if he had not resigned from the office.
Unfortunately, women in the United States of America must join a party and serve loyally. This meant that Hillary Clinton when given a choice between honoring agreements and bombing the hell out of some small desperate – she chose the latter. But a large part of her support came from the pacifist wing of her party. So she lost because of the people that she told, rather openly, did not matter. In 2004 she could have run and the pacifist wing was too small to matter, but in 2016, it was a different story. Warren also lies, and flagrantly, when she talked about her Native American heritage, she lied about her opponent when she intimated that he felt women could not win. This is a lie that again is out of bounds.
Does this mean that every woman will disqualify herself? No, because the election system that we have is corrupted, and part of the requirements for women is the must support the corrupt establishment. Both women candidates for the presidency ran afoul of the rules of engagement. In this case, Warren did not need to lie over the things that she chose to lie about. Ironically, she was pushed out because she was running for the truth-tellers nomination. That does not mean that the progressives are always truth-tellers, but it is a brand that they have est. for themselves. If they win, they will find out that dishonesty is part of the toolbox of governance, and will gradually lose whatever virginity they had. But that day is not now, and Warren did not half to lie. There are other things that she had to lie about, but she lied about things that were not important to the voters that she was attracting.
But this again is something that can be fixed, just as Obama took certain things about his voice and manner to the elected president. Knowing that the hurdles for a woman nominated to be President of the United States (a blotus for PotUS), a female candidate can avoid the pitfalls. Just as Bill Clinton avoided the pitfalls of his being elected president, even though he opened up new ones which now will test future candidates. LBJ and JFK were worse in the infidelity department then Bill Clinton was, the difference was that Bill Clinton lived in an age where it suddenly mattered.
The reason I am writing this, is because this issue is also a concern for the voters. We have in the Republican party a pretty that is willing to lie flagrantly. And hopes that they can have merely one 3rd in the Senate to absolve them. This means that of the many hurdles that we use in the way of a female candidate for president, he will have 2 be relaxed. This is a negotiation that must take place after the presidency has been resolved, and the results can be formed into bite-size pieces for the ordinary letter to understand. Progressives need to at least consider a woman for the presidency of the United States, without killing too many inroads to behaviors that we does not want to happen.
different clue
@Benjamin,
The DC FedRegime chose the Kingdom of Saudi Petrolia because Saudi Petrolia has way more oil than Iran, Saudi Petrolia was already deeply involved with big profit dollar-demoninated interest and crony groups, all America’s putative allies and clients in the Hydrocarbon Gulf loath and fear the Shia Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Republic of Iran, etc.
Still, sometimes the “singular personal change-maker of history” theory is supported. It looked as if parts of the FedGov were advancing towards working with Iran. And David Frum, the little-creep jerk from Canada who had wormed himself into the NeoCon movement in America, put the phrase ” Axis of Evil” into a speech for President Shrub to read. And Frum listed Iran on that “Axis of Evil” . So Frum all by himself offended Iran into cancelling cooperation.
About progressives owing it to somebody or something to “consider a woman” for President . . . we had a woman in this race ( technically still in it) who would have gained the favorable consideration of many progressives. But she was very well suppressed from any meaningful media exposure. For those readers who are too dumm to know who I mean, I mean Tulsi Gabbard.
If the huckster-pimps and gangster-racketeers of politically weaponized Womanism ( Goldman-Sachs Feminism) want me to “consider a woman”, they will have to give me a woman worthy of consideration.
They certainly won’t ever give me a woman like Tulsi Gabbard or AOC. If progressives want to be able to vote for a progressive woman, they will have to pick up a willing and eager weapon like Tulsi Gabbard or AOC to be our bright shining Tire Iron of Justice whom we swing into the grinning teeth of the Goldman-Sachs Femino-Clintonites.
And since this is an open thread, I will just mention Ian Welsh’s fingering of a certain particular co-commenter as being a hasbarist for the neo-Ottomaniac Erdogan. This person’s has been offering predictions about the course of the war in Syria for well over a year. This person’s predictions can be compared with the predictions coming from Colonel Lang’s blog Sic Semper Tyrannis ( which is listed in Ian Welsh’s blogroll). Just lately SST has printed a translated-from-French editorial about Erdogan’s long term goals and desires.
https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2020/03/erdogan-leads-a-panislamist-and-neo-ottoman-project-that-must-be-fought-urgently-le-figaro.html#more
KT Chong
Let me spell it out for y’all:
Blacks would never vote for a Jew to be the President, just as Blacks would never vote for a gay (Bootyjuggs) to be the President. That’s just how it is.
metamars
Mercola started selling products to support his website, not the other way around. Don’t quote me, but I think he was in for over $500,000 when he started selling products. He was one of the first medical types on the web, and his website is #1 at least in alternative health.
I was tempted not to look at your link on Mercola, at all. Alas, it’s a sort of typical debunking exercize – some truth, some lies (including lying by omission), but much more shallowness.
Not trusting the CDC with respect to vaccinations is highly rational:
https://prn.fm/richard-gale-and-gary-null-why-is-the-cdc-petrified-of-the-film-vaxxed/
“Prof. Hooker is also familiar with censorship and has personally encountered CDC vengeance. In 2014, he submitted a research paper based upon the CDC data provided by Thompson to the peer-reviewed journal Translational Neurodegeneration. Using the CDC’s own research, the paper shows a 350% increase of autism among African American boys who received the MMR vaccine according to the national vaccination schedule compared to boys who received it after 3 years of age. The journal approved it for publication but immediately confronted CDC demands for its removal. Hooker’s paper was suspended and never published due to fabricated claims of a conflict of interest.[14]”
I’m not going to go looking for further information on this particular travesty, but, as I recall (from a Gary Null show on the subject), when some parents heard the details of what the CDC had done, they wept.
Your link entitled “Fake News: No Study Says Vitamin D Is More Effective Than Flu Vaccine” is basically misleading garbage, even if it makes some points.
I will look at the top 2 criticisms (and assume the author started with his strongest points)
First, he complains that the quote of Dr. Ginde, regarding the study of which he is the lead author, is not found directly in the study. That much is true, but so what?
The paper refers to URTI’s, and while a URTI may typically be taken to be the “common cold”, it ain’t necessarily so. From Wikipedia article “Respiratory tract infection”, in the section “Upper respiratory tract infection”, we find:
Typical infections of the upper respiratory tract include tonsillitis, pharyngitis, laryngitis, sinusitis, otitis media, certain types of INFLUENZA, and the common cold.[1]
(emphasis mine)
So, the strongest point (presumably) of your debunker source amounts to a quibble, at best. There’s over 200 different viruses that can give you a URTI, and I doubt (though haven’t checked) that the Ginde study bothered nailing down exactly which ones each of their patients had.
Your debunker then goes onto
“This article next cited a 2017 meta-analysis (not a study) of 25 published studies into the protective benefits of vitamin D supplementation in relation to upper respiratory infections”
(first of all, let me say that a meta-analysis involving so many published studies IS a study, but I digress)
and later,
“The study, which was limited to four months and 334 children, suggested “vitamin D3 supplementation during the winter may reduce the incidence of influenza A”, it showed no benefits for Influenza B. ”
Well, as it turns out (I didn’t know this, previously), most influenza that results in URTI IS influenza A; not influenza B; or influenza C, for that matter. (I think the ratio is 3:1, but I’ve lost my reference.) Furthermore
“The symptoms of influenza A are usually more severe than those of influenza B. The most serious epidemics in history have been of influenza A; ” https://healthfully.com/influenza-b-signs-symptoms-3450816.html
So, what exactly is the debunker’s problem? Did he want Mercola to specifically mention influenza A in his title? Ah, but not all the data showing D is protective against flu differentiates influenza type. So, perhaps Mercola should have written an even longer title, along the lines of “sometimes influenza A, and sometimes influenza X”??
For example, there’s a rather stunning graph in “On the epidemiology of influenza” by Cannell, et. al., https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2279112/#B25 , which is preceeded by the verbiage,
In fact, Aloia and Li-Ng presented evidence of a dramatic vitamin D preventative effect from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) [25]. In a post-hoc analysis of the side effect questions of their original three-year RCT, they discovered 104 post-menopausal African American women given vitamin D were three times less likely to report cold and flu symptoms than 104 placebo controls. A low dose (800 IU/day) not only reduced reported incidence, it abolished the seasonality of reported colds and flu. A higher dose (2000 IU/day), given during the last year of their trial, virtually eradicated all reports of colds or flu. (Figure (Figure2)2) Recent discoveries about vitamin D’s mechanism of action in combating infections [26] led Science News to suggest that vitamin D is the “antibiotic vitamin” [27] due primarily to its robust effects on innate immunity.
I frankly think your debunker source is either a con artist, or a shill for the pharmaceutical industry.
If you want to know a lot of the nitty gritty of the unfolding story of Vit D (which is not actually a vitamin, BTW), I recommend the Ivor Cummins youtube I mentioned, above.
metamars
Speaking of the CDC, Chris Hayes mentions them somehow suppressing alternative coronavirus test kits, initially, in this rather damning summary of Trump’s leadership skills during a crisis:
Chris Hayes: Trump Is Trying To BS His Way Through The Coronavirus Outbreak
@ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow5bhEi6EdY
Sadly, I am not sure whose (hopefully early stage) dementia is worse, Trump’s or Biden’s.
Psychiatrist: Trump Needs Urgent MRI, Obvious Dementia Symptoms @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lnsDmclw-E
Both Trump and Biden (and Pelosi, for that matter) should avail themselves of the Bredesen protocol, which has been largely successful in treating Alzheimer’s.
metamars
MANY vaccine horror factoids @ https://governmentslaves.news/2020/03/10/six-of-10-vaccines-studied-increase-mortality/
But what may be most distressing, of all, is the strangulation of free speech regarding such horrors, on social media and Google:
“As discussed in several previous articles, Google and most major internet platforms are now actively censoring vaccine safety news, preventing the sharing of information that questions vaccine safety or highlights the dangers associated with routine immunizations. They’re even blocking first-hand testimony of vaccine harms.”